sobran

Re: Dr. Destroyer or Mechanon? I'm pretty sure he created Battletoads in an effort to prove how inferior organics are.

The campaign I have been haltingly playing with my son started as a Teen Champions campaign. However, given his age (11), I think this was actually a poor choice. Teen Champions deals with a lot of coming of age issues that he isn't quite mature enough to grasp just yet. It seems likely that we will return to this in a couple years, but set it aside for now. I've started to realize from examining much of the fiction that he enjoys and is age-appropriate (The Last Airbender, Dragon Ball Z, ect) that a world-spanning plot that ignores some of the finer interpersonal issues might be better suited to him. The older, pre-90s comic books are serving as some of the inspiration for what I am sketching out in my head now. Less gritty, more bold heroics. With that in mind, I have purchased both The Book of the Destroyer and The Book of the Machine. I think having one solid master villain to set his sights on, no matter how out of his league, will be a nice goal for him and fit a lot of the fiction I'm looking to emulate. I bought both. However, in your opinion, which of these two villains would be better suited to be the focus of such a campaign? I worry about Dr. Destroyer's nazi roots, as that might be a little dark. Truth be told, I'm fairly unfamiliar with both of these villains. From the plot wheels I have turning in my head, people will die. Sad happenings aren't out of the question. It is just that some of it will be sanitized for his maturity level. Which villain do you think is better suited to be the focus of a campaign and why? What factors, beyond the need to sanitize it that I described above, might make one of them a better villain than the other? Does one or the other lend itself better to a variety of plot hooks and adventure types?

Re: AoE attack damage inside the backpack I could see this going either way, depending on SFX. Personally, I would require that a spell have the Indirect advantage to affect objects through a material the spell itself doesn't effect, the same way I wouldn't let a Fireball spell harm enemies on the other side of a wall unless it broke through it.

Re: "Ice Skating" Hmm. This makes sense and saves me having to buy two separate powers--one for the movement and another for using at range as an Attack Action. I don't know why I had planned on designing this as two powers in the first place, when I would require Trigger either way.

Re: A Focus that is sometimes obvious Hey, I hadn't thought of looking at it that way! Rep incoming. On the Shapeshift front, I was simply modeling the characters on the Alpha Room team in the 5th Edition Team Champions. This is the first time I have used the Hero System for the Champions genre, to be honest, a fact I find a little ironic. It does make sense that if /everyone/ is assumed to have this ability, it is silly for everyone to pay for it. I guess it would only make sense in a game where some people could change instantly, others had to find a telephone booth, and still others didn't bother keeping a Secret ID.

Re: "Ice Skating" Hmm. That's a good question actually. Logically, I would say yes, but likely with a skill roll. And they would be limited to areas that had already been covered in the ice. I'm going to say that UOO would be unnecessary though. In reality, this would just be someone having an appropriate power or equipment (actual ice skates) or making a really good skill roll and using the SFX of the power. I don't think others could possibly get enough use out of it to warrant the advantage.

Re: "Ice Skating"

Re: "Ice Skating" I realize that you're trying to be helpful and I may not have been entirely clear. Change Environment will be used to create Ice Sheets with a tangible effect: that is, people can slip and fall if they don't make a DEX or Breakfall roll, or have the appropriate Environmental Movement ability. It will function nearly identically to the example given on 6E1, pg 176, in the upper right hand corner. I didn't have my books in front of me when I made the OP, as I was posting from my cellphone while at work. Now that you have had your questions answered, do you have any insight on my original question?

I need a power that allows a character to quickly move (Running), while leaving behind a sheet of ice as part of the SFX. Essentially Iceman's Ice Slide, minus the flight. So far I've got: Running +12, OIAID (might change to Flight, only in contact with ground, so it can be used to cross water) Change Environment, Constant, Persistent, Zero END, Linked: Running Here's me question: I assume this would be AoE: any area. Would the fact that this area is limited to where the character runs/skates warrant a limitation on top of the Linked limitation? If so, at what value would you place this limitation?

Re: A Focus that is sometimes obvious

A character has a crystal embedded in his chest that is the source of his power. For six hours per day, he can turn into his heroic identity, represented by a single Fuel Charge. All superhuman abilities are OIAID, implied to be when the first Shape Shift ability is active. The crystal which enables this transformation is normally hidden under clothing, but is obvious in the heroic identity, and can be removed with a little time, provided the character is restrained or unconscious. Should this Focus be valued at the IIF or OIF level, in your opinion?

Re: Tactics and a young gamer Hmm. I hadn't really considered the fact that a typical Brick character is going to be losing and gaining STUN just as often as they gain and lose END. If using one, it isn't much of a stretch to use both. I particularly like Bloodstone's suggestion of using colored tokens denoting different values for tracking END. I think this might be the way to go, actually. We've been playing Gamma World recently, so he has gotten used to having cards that come and go, representing various abilities. To respond to some of the suggestions about character generation, I tried many of these already actually. I do appreciate the suggestions. Don't get me wrong. It just seems that every approach results in him wanting to cram three or four types together or being completely unable to settle on a firm decision. This may still be the case. I am hoping that presenting him with three or four clearly defined choices will enable him to settle on something. If not, I may just go with swapping out who he plays on the fly, as Ockham's Spoon and Martin2 suggested. In fact, that is sounding increasingly attractive. Instead of having him pick one, he'll just play each in turn until he hopefully settles on one he thinks is "most awesome." Also of note from Spoon's post: good advice on the OCV front. My son HATES when he whiffs on some really important uber ability in Gamma World. Thanks for the advice folks!

Re: Tactics and a young gamer Mayhaps you're right. A simple set of powers, all with zero end cost, might be the best way to go initially...

So I am gearing up to run a Teen Champions campaign for my son, who is 11. This presents a number of challenges. For one, this will be a one on one campaign, at least at the beginning. I may run secondary characters as his teammates, only a couple of which may be involved in any given scenario. However, I don't want his character to be overshadowed. In addition, it is difficult enough keeping track of paperwork and roleplaying the villains and random passerby without also tracking the other members of a Teen Supergroup. So it seems likely I will be making excuses to put him on his own or with only one other person who may help point him in the right direction in case he gets completely lost or flustered. Advice on any of the above issues would be appreciated, as a sort of aside, but isn't actually the point of this thread. The first attempt to create a character was semi-disastrous, so I came up with an alternate plan. I am creating a number of character 'templates' essentially, groups of basic powers with a basic origin story, which he can then apply to the skillset of his choice. The idea is to give him choices without overloading him with the infinite possibilities the Hero System allows. As I was creating one of these, an interesting dilemma presented itself. One template I was working on was a character that acquired powers through an alien device he found that allowed him to channel the power of black holes. This gives him Density Increase, a graviton Blast, teleportation, and a darkness power. The template is designed to be primarily a melee brick, with the Blast having an Increased Endurance limitation that he may buy off later. The teleportation and the ability to justify the purchase of an Entangle ability later should give the template some versatility. Here's the dilemma: I came up with the idea of a PBAoE darkness effect (Darkness with No Range). However, this gives the template what is essentially Invisibility against opponents that do not possess alternate senses or sufficiently large AoE attacks. This, when paired with his brick defenses, could be unbalancing. I have considered two solutions: the first is that this character may have an END-heavy theme. No use of Reduced END on the Density Increase, Increased END on the Blast, and perhaps Increased END on the Darkness Effect. He would have to carefully manage his Endurance to avoid burning out in a long fight. To me this seems reasonable. However, I have been GM'ing for years. This kind of paperwork is second nature. Anyone else play with kids? How much, in your experience, would this get in his way of having fun and telling a cool story? The other solution I considered was a simple Lockout Limitation that he can't buy off. That is, the Darkness ability can only be used by locking out the use of some or most of his Resistant Defenses. This would create a tactical situation in which he would have to consider whether he needs Defenses or (effectively) DCV more during a given fight or Turn. Too cheesy? Related to this, if I went the Lockout route, I may want to ditch the END heavy theme altogether, which I had been considering from the beginning. If you would recommend not tracking END heavily, what alternatives would you suggest to keep with this theme? Time Limit on some abilities? An interlocking system of Lockouts? Simply throwing everything in a Multipower and explaining the AP limit?

Re: Multiform Rebar, I think I know where your dissonance is coming from. I was three pages into this thread before I caught it. There is some confusion, due to the way the book is worded, as to what "most expensive form" means. From a character concept point of view, the little girl and the bear are both forms. This isn't entirely the case, mechanically. Okay, that didn't make sense. I will illustrate with a somewhat more traditional use of Multiform. Let's say I create a character named Nature Man. Nature Man is in a 200 point campaign and is built in 200 points. He has a few powers in his True Form--that of Nature Man. He can talk to animals, he has an Energy Blast bought as a pistol or some nonsense, and so on. Finally he has purchased Multi-Form. Nature Man can assume the following forms, in addition to that of Nature Man: * A Sparrow built on 20 points * A Raptor built on 180 points * A Giant Snake built on 125 points When figuring the cost of Multi-Form, it is costed based on the most expensive form--that of the Raptor. Note that Nature Man is built on 200 points, but it is not what is being referenced. Nature Man is not one of the Multi-Form's "forms", though conceptually, it is. Nature Man has the Multi-Form power, which allows him to turn into these three animals. He does not have to pay points for his own 200 points, nor does it figure into the cost of Multi-Form in any other way. The rule, to my understanding, has nothing to do with which form must purchase Multi-Form, but instead how you figure the cost for all of the Alternate Forms. EDIT: To clarify, I believe it is the fact that the concept you outlined had only one form that confused the issue for you. The rules almost assume that you have more than one form when talking about costing, which muddles the issue. EDIT2: Oops. I should have finished reading the thread. Disregard my presumptuous and pointless post.

Re: VPP active point costs I get what you're saying here and to a degree, I even agree. (Hey, that rhymed!) However, Bigbywolfe has it right: the level of flexibility you have is mind-boggling. It is true that you lose some raw power under 5th Edition. /However/, you might ask your GM if they intend to use a healthy mix of villains with Vulnerabilities or Susceptibilities. If this is the case, your character will be incredibly useful against those with such weaknesses, provided your character has some idea who they might face and when. Against villains without specific weaknesses or against those villains that you were unprepared for, you will be less effective. It is worth noting that you could go with a smaller VPP for purely utilitarian purposes ("I brought my grappling hook today!") and an attack power or two outside of any framework with Variable Advantage, so you could switch out your attacks on the fly, but this would still take a hit to your maximum power under the AP Cap. Viewed that way, perhaps the power loss on a VPP isn't so unreasonable.

Re: There are three things I can never remember. They are...um...there are FOUR thin Most awesome reference ever made. On the actual topic at hand... I agree that I wouldn't necessarily require the limitations at all. If nothing else, this would require two rolls for every single skill use, which would quickly bog down the game. Unless I'm misunderstanding? On the subject of martial arts, if you do stick with the RSR, maybe he could just make one roll at the beginning of combat. If he doesn't make it, he doesn't remember, but can try again until he makes the roll. Once he makes it, he can fight without penalty for the rest of the scene. This would be dramatically appropriate, but wouldn't slow things down nearly as much.

I just thought that I would point out that Cryptic started a referral program for Champions Online. To that end, if anyone wants to give the game a try beyond the tutorial, feel free to post here. The tutorial doesn't give a very good idea of what the game proper is like, especially given that it lacks travel powers. As a disclaimer, I do get something for a referral, so I am not being totally selfless. That said, I would still post this here if I didn't, because this game is getting more awesome all the time. Also, I wouldn't mind having a few more people on my in-game friends list! So. If you want a trial key, let me know your email address via PM and I'll fire one off! Others with keys to give away, feel free to post in here as well. I feel no shame plugging Champions Online.

Re: CO: Control Issues

Re: Mentor Wanted I agree with everything that Haerandir said. I have two things to add: 1) The melee revamp should be out very shortly. It is currently up on the Test Server and is being gone over by playtesters with a fine toothed comb. I'm hearing mostly positive things so far, though some of the Martial Arts users are up in arms about the loss of Momentum (a mechanic that allowed a Martial Artist to attack nearly non-stop if they used the right combos). It is going to take a few versions to get the bugs worked out, but the Melee revamp should hit Live within a couple of weeks I would imagine. 2) You can change how your Energy Builder functions in the Options menu. This was a must for me, as it confused me to all hell. If you go into Options and then into Controls (not Keybinds), the very last option at the bottom will let you change it. I set mine to Maintain. With this setting, holding down the 1 key will continuously fire the Energy Builder, but it will stop as soon as you release the 1 key. This works well for the Xbox Controller, but the default setting may work better with the keyboard. I haven't used the keyboard much, so I'm not sure. This is worth noting though, because you can change a LOT of settings in there, such as how Tab Targeting behaves (target nearest enemy or target the enemy closest to the center of the screen?)

Re: CO: Control Issues It sounds like you might be hitting the "R" key accidentally. If you hit Enter, then you will enter the chat thing and can begin typing a chat message. If it somehow didn't register or you forget and just start typing, you can accidentally do some interesting things. The "R" key is, by default, bound to "Autorun". It will make you begin running straight forward (or flying if you are currently flying) until you hit it again. I think you can also hit "S" (back) to stop as well, but I'm not sure on that one. If this is indeed what you are doing, you might go into the keybinds and REMOVE the autorun command. That way you may spin your camera around but you won't go barreling off into a group of mobs if you forget to hit Enter before chatting.

Re: Why doesn't 6e use hexes as a unit of measurement? I think this is a misnomer. The Hero System is more than simply the Champions IP. I would not purchase it if that is all it were, to be honest. YMMV. My point is, I seriously doubt the MMO is why they changed it. That makes no sense. The more likely explanation is that using hexes makes a few things simpler (scatter tables for missed attacks, turn rates, ect) and complicates quite a few things. I hate drawing buildings on a hex grid. It bugs me. Not a big deal, but neither is losing hexes. I have always converted it to freeform drawing anyway. There are hexless battlemats. In my case, I just use a piece of plexiglass and dry erase markers.

Re: In Through Page, Out The Screen SECURITY! Who let him in here?

Re: Heat absorption Is it possible to put cumulative on Change Environment? I don't have my books in front of me. If so, a low value Change Environment linked to Aid either REC or END directly (as others have suggested) would be pretty sweet. Does Inferno already have Absorbtion for heat-based attacks? If not, that might be something to look at later. EDIT: But I do have HD. Looks like Cumulative isn't legal for Change Environment because it doesn't apply versus a character's defenses. Ah well.

Re: In Through Page, Out The Screen I believe so. Barring GM Fiat of course. But nothing beats GM Fiat. It's a broken power.