Burnout

Re: Goofy Villains My goofiest villain is actually the party's greatest nemesis. Boo, the Miniature Giant Space Hamster from Baldur's Gate fame. I introduced him in a D&D 3E game as a psionic familiar who mentally dominated the mage that created him. One of the PC's was the mage's apprentice, so Boo would always have the mage order the PC to brush Boo, or clean up his poop, or take him on field trips... Oh my wife HATED it. He ended up trying to take over the kingdom with mind controlling leeches. When we started playing Champions, I made him a supervillain. He was a science experiment gone wrong, and he ended up mind controlling the scientist that made him. He then created an army of super intelligent apes to take over the city. My wife took great joy in grabbing Boo, and then squishing him inbetween her brick's hands, collapsing his forcefield and knocking him out. I had to remind her she was a hero and wouldn't smush the cutesy little sleeping hamster. She hated that, too.

Re: Re: A bushel of Angels Well just because you are an atheist doesn't mean you don't have a soul. It just depends on how you look at it.

A bushel of Angels There was a player some years ago that had an Angel type character. Probably the single coolest power she had was Extra Dimensional Movement- Heaven. Even better, she could take multiple people there, including the party's athiest.

Muties In a campaign quite some time ago, our intrepid group of heroes were investigating a possible corporate front for GENOCIDE. So 3 of our characters, a cyborg, a martial artist and a magic-wielding character, decide to check it out by posing as investors. Well we all go in there, pass through a metal detector, and just a few steps from the elevator are greeted by a well dressed man (we'll call him Bob). Well Bob gives us a very warm welcome and says that at the moment the corporate office we were there to visit was having it's mid morning break. The entire office. Not even one of us blinked an eye, we just said "Oh well that's too bad". He then offered to buy us breakfast, pardoned himself to the bathroom, and mysteriously disappeared. We were all sitting around wondering what had happened to him, when the GM just couldn't contain his laughter anymore. You see, I had forgotten that my cyborg was a mutant- he had regeneration powers which is why he survived the operation to put cybernetic implants in him. The metal detector? A mutant detector. Mid-morning break? Just when does an entire floor of an office building go on a mid-morning break? To be fair, none of us worked in an office environment so we thought it could happen. LOL, man were we ever stupid.

It's a good question When I saw the new 350pt starting level, I have to admit I was a little taken back. In 4th edition you could have a pretty decent character for 250pts, so I've been wondering why there is a shift for an extra 100pts now. I'm going to start a campaign very soon and I have been trying to decide if the starting point for characters will be 250 or 350. I've made some test characters and I find that 350pt characters are pretty darn tough, while 250 point characters are definitely fledgling heroes. One of my players has already said he wants to start at the 350pt limit, which doesnt surprise me one bit since he is remaking a character he played about 10 years ago who was, to put it mildly, uber. I guess what I'm asking is, what power level have your groups been happy starting at? I'm contemplating starting people at 275 or 300 since they will be just a smidge tougher than the fledgling hero.

ROFLMAO!!!

I tried searching the forums for an answer to this, and after about 30 posts that really didn't address this particular question, I thought I'd pose it. How would you handle a character that had a transforming mecha, robot/jet? I have a character that spent the points for a vehicle that could multiform into a robot, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to go. Thoughts, ideas?

OMG! You said s-e-x!!! Oh yeah. I'm mature.

LOL, I think I could learn something from you then. My group used to have characters with just one, maybe two limitations on powers. I showed up and showed them how a 250pt monster could be built. Our games were never the same after that. Frankly, I like characters that are intellegently built, not just figuring out how to skim as many points as possible. Kudo's to you!

Dear god, -5 to everything? There's a lesson to be learned here- when you get a call from your card on the wall, always meet for the first time somewhere that isn't the gaming table. I've avoided many a moron using this method. Sometimes personalities don't click, sometimes they're 12 (no offense to you mature 12 year olds on the board), sometimes they're mildly (or not so mildly) retarded. Besides, its fun to pretend that you don't see the guy who is wearing the "I Loved European Enemies All Night Long" T-Shirt.

I know the feeling Take a look at my handle and you know I've been down this road before. I have EXACTLY the same problem zen_hydra. I have been GMing a D&D group for the past 4 years and I relished making story plots, interesting NPCs and Locales. About a month ago we started up a new campaign, and my heart just wasn't in it. I wanted out, BAD. What people are saying is 100% correct. Take a step back and don't plan. Make the bad guys, come up with a location and then have fun. The thing I forgot, first and foremost, is that players want to have FUN. I got so wrapped up in my own stories that the fun-factor was no longer important to me. So to take a break, I am going to (hopefully) be GMing a Champions adventure in the near future. It will be a campy romp in a Freedom Force inspired world. Oh the days of Bad Guys being bad and the Good Guys being good! However as a side note, players can also be a contributing factor to GM Burnout. I have one player who pouts because his stats get drained (wuss) and another who has all the creative thinking of a turnip. Still another that insists on using 21st century speech in a high-fantasy world. I'm sorry, but the Red Wizard doesn't know what a "Dude" is, let alone a "Phat Ride".

Well lets see, a friend of mine took Does Not Affect Figured Characteristics on Speed once... Another one put his End Reserve in a Multipower- there wasn't a hard set rule against it in 4th edition, but I couldn't really see how he could justify that. 500pts of endurance for 3 points in an ultra slot. Nuh Uh. Then in my Cyberpunk campaign (which had elements of magic in it, ala Shadowrun) I said that the damage cap for a character would be 60pts. So then the first session this guy shows me his character who has a 4d6 HKA sword and 30 strength giving him a 6d6 HKA. He didn't see the problem. Then there was this one guy who had a set of magical robes that gave him wind powers. We all wondered how he could be so powerful- turns out he took Independent on EVERYTHING. In our game we ruled that Independent allowed enemies to use your items while Foci just meant that only you could use that particular item. He took it just a little too far. He was supposed to be this big magic wielding character, yet the only magic he wielded was a summoning spell to bring his robes to him (Instant Change). Of course, there was a time when I remade my sonic-wielding character almost every session because I felt I could never get him quite right. The GM never minded me doing it, but it was pretty funny that my character sported completely different powers each time. I got a lot of flack for that one (which I rightly deserved). Oh, then there was this other time when I pointed out to the group that you had to make your autofire roll by every 2pts to successfully hit your target successively. They had been playing for 5 years that you got to hit the target by every 1pt you make your roll by, and they all said "We think we know how to play the game, smart ass". I whipped out the Rulebook, flipped to autofire and said "But you never actually read anything about it, did you?". Good times, good times.

So I scoured these forums as best I could trying to find all the posts that listed sites that had free cardboard heroes, but I'm thinking there must be more out there. So, anyone out there have some suggestions as to where to get more cardboard heroes? Below are the pages I've been to already- http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/sparks.htm http://www.sysabend.org/champions/spoo/CardboardHeroes.html http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/Gaming_stuff/OAT/cardboard_mooks.htm http://www.sysabend.org/champions/mirrors/serena/index.html http://www.greenronin.com/mutants_masterminds/files/mnm_counters.pdf I'm definitely looking for superhero-type cardboard heroes, not fantasy. Your help is mandatory, and greatly appreciated.