BoloOfEarth

Depends on the villain(s). Also depends on the realism level of the campaign. Some ideas include: Theft. Best done with cash, precious metals or stones, or other fairly easily-cashed, not-so-traceable stuff. Blackmail/Protection rackets. Get info on somebody rich, or convince a company that "bad things" will happen if they don't fork over some Franklins. Legitimate Twisted Slightly. Like stealing cutting edge tech, then marketing your own high-tech stuff. Or running a company and causing various "accidents" to hinder competitors. Identity Theft. A shapeshifter or disguise master might take a multimillionaire's place long enough to funnel off some cash to Swiss accounts. Counterfeiting. Not just cash, this could include artificial diamonds, magically-created (but short-lived) gold, etc. Just a few ideas. I'd have more if I knew about the characters involved.

I haven't gotten my copy of the new VIPER book yet. (My two local FLGS's seem to run out every time I show up.) Does the VIPER railgun hurl locomotives at the heroes? "Get ready, spandex-boy. You're gettin' Amtrakked!"

"Working on" implies the cloning process hasn't taken place yet, meaning the would-be clone is just genetic stuff in test tubes. I'd have no problem blasting that. If it's progressed to the point where it's a fetus or a baby, I'd strongly suspect Malachite was setting me up to trash my rep (like planning to film me killing the clone, then release the footage to every news agency on the planet) or something equally sneaky. Therefore, I'd steal the clone and raise it as my son.

This was my favorite part. It reminded me of a game I ran where I took the heroes' powers away, then had them rescue a teammate's family kidnapped by ARGENT. I had them list all the equipment they carried on their raid and later on one player, being chased up a circular staircase, pointed out where he had listed "bag of marbles" and said, "I dump them down the stairs behind me." As to what I would do? Well, I only get to GM nowadays, so I would fudge all of my opponents' attack rolls to miss, then bring in UNTIL, PRIMUS, and every hero group I've ever written to kick some villain butt. The main character I ever played had electrical powers, so I'd probably teleport around the battlefield, trying to keep myself behind any one of my foes for extra cover, and zap the robot duplicates hoping the power surge will cause them to go berserk. Barring that, I'd blind teleport out of there, then run like heck for help.

Acroyear II, How has the player reacted to this turn of events? True remorse, or just "oops!"? How realistic do you play? And, if you put the hero in jail, how is the player going to react? Not to metagame, but, well, this is a game after all. If the player is truly remorseful (if the game runs really late, I've seen players do some truly loopy, out-of-character stuff), I'd find a way to salvage things. Even so, the player is going to have to meet you half-way and he's going to have to pay for what he did. Just not necessarily with jail time. I'd avoid the trite "it was all a dream" thing, but maybe there's something else you can set up. I've never read through or played in Demons Rule, but perhaps events to that point are precursors to a demonic invasion. This allows the hero to somehow get a pardon. Or the demons interfere and make sure the hero doesn't go to prison. They influence the lawyers, judge, and jury to get the hero off on a technicality but everybody knows he's guilty, making him a social pariah. The demons are trying to turn the hero over to their side by turning society, and maybe his teammates, against him. Anyway, just some things to think about.

As I said, "expect the player to ... argue that such knockback is the same as knocking the target into a wall, not the same as knocking a standing target down into the ground." I didn't say that's what the rule says. Just what the player is likely to say. If you read the text, it says that the character is "knocked prone in his hex. In addition, the character takes 1d6 damage for every 2" of Knockback rolled." Sounds like it's talking about a character standing on the ground, not one flying above the ground. Realistically, how is knocking an airborne target down into the ground 2" below any different from knocking the same target into a wall 2" away? Because that's the argument the gamemaster is likely to hear.

My advice: not without preparing yourself. I ran a game with a player whose character had a similar construct. True, the main attack only does 10d6, and the average knockback is about 13". However, a player creating this probably has visions of smashing the target into nearby walls, or other characters, on a regular basis to maximize that knockback damage. Does the character also have flight? If so, expect the player to try knocking airborne targets down into the ground, then argue that such knockback is the same as knocking the target into a wall, not the same as knocking a standing target down into the ground. (And since aerial targets have 1d6 less subtracted from knockback, now we're talking about 16-17" knockdown.) Just issuing a fair warning. I could be wrong.

I ran a game with a PC (Jade) who had Find Weakness, and it did have moments where it was unbalancing. His wasn't a range thing, it was an "All Attacks" thing with a slightly higher-than-average SPD, combined with a "not paying enough attention" thing on my part at times. (For instance, IMO Find Weakness shouldn't do diddly for AOE or Explosions, but I didn't catch on to that quick enough.) Really, Lack of Weakness is a very cheap defense (5 points is enough to kill that 13- roll), though perhaps harder to justify in character conception. However, as word gets around about KnightShade's uncanny ability to find weaknesses, it's not unreasonable a gadgeteer physicist might develop something to mess with his ability, and perhaps sell it to interested parties. Yes, in my game a slightly higher number of villains began getting Lack of Weakness (my favorite was the one whose LOW had Invisible Power Effects on it, something fairly justifiable for the above physicist). But overall, it wasn't too bad. As I said, at moments it was unbalancing, but other times it wasn't.

I have two female players and three (until last week, was four) male players, and I GM (I'm male). All players have played characters of the same gender (though not all human). Romances in my campaigns happen somewhat randomly, and all between PCs and NPCs. We had a great romance between one male PC and Snafu, an NPC villainess subconsciously based off Marvel's Black Cat, that ended when Snafu discovered she was causing progressively worse (and potentially fatal) bad luck for the PC. The same male player had a character who had a romance with Howler that eventually ended with their marriage (and of course, a major-league superbattle in the church). We also had a female PC who hooked up with a male PRIMUS agent (NPC), this in a campaign where the heroes altenately derided or detested PRIMUS. The PRIMUS agent eventually became a superhero when he was forced out of PRIMUS; a PC stole a villain's armored battlesuit and modified it enough to disguise it's origin. I have a bit of difficulty playing female NPCs in PC romances, though for some reason I can play flirtatious, sometimes slutty NPC supervillains well enough to entertain the players.

Telekinetic Field Disabler Are you tired of superheroes using telekinetic powers to stop you from triggering your latest device, or grabbing you to foil your escape? Are your agents' shots just bouncing off some psionic's telekinetic shield? Well, worry no more! This prototype device from the geniuses at Atlanta nest's R&D will stop them in their tracks! Multiple settings allow you to disrupt telekinetic defenses, disperse telekinetic grabs, and deflect telekinetic punches. Just imagine the look on that hero's face when his telekinetic flight cuts off a hundred meters over the city! Atlanta R&D not responsible for device failure due to power fluctuations, collateral damage, or improper maintenance. TFD is a prototype device, not a production model. Users may experience side effects such as dizziness, nausea, or lack of bowel control.

Actually, my friend John is the one who came up with the idea of vbay. I'll pass on your thanks. I really liked all the ideas here. I've been trying to infuse a little more character into the faceless minions of supervillains and like the Radar O'Reilly-type character idea. We can always count on Hermit to come up with great ones. I never thought about the super-vehicle angle, but that would be an interesting plot device. Dr. Anomaly, I like your idea of the catalog, though I don't have enough time to do something like that. The closest I've come is some in-depth info on some of the player characters that they've discovered in the hands of thugs and in a villain base. It's kinda disconcerting to have some street tough know exactly what your top running speed is... Thanks again, everyone, for the great input and feedback.

My players were joking around last week, talking about VIPER, and one of them said something about vbay. (Wierd Al's ebay song was playing at the time.) That got me thinking, "maybe that's not such a bad idea..." With all sorts of new weapons and equipment coming out all the time, what does VIPER do with the old stuff? Auctioning stuff off could be an interesting idea, and provide some fun adventure plots. Never having bid or bought anything on ebay, my big question is how this would work. (I'm assuming VIPER would have to do some convoluted stuff to avoid putting themselves at risk, so it wouldn't be exactly like ebay.) How could they safely (in a comic-book world) receive payments? Or ship goods without getting them traced back? I'm not looking for what would work in the real world, just what would be plausible in a game world. Also, any plot ideas that strike your fancy would be appreciated.

In my world, I added a second super-prison (after I purchased Palladium's Gramercy Island book) on the East Coast. Basically, a massive supervillain attack on the Riker's Island prison pretty much destroyed it, so the Feds rebuilt it as a kind of Stronghold II, but with cell blocks for normal (or semi-normal) prisoners too. This takes care of the "outside of his armor, he's normal" villains. As far as normal protocols are concerned, my players are so paranoid that they typically hand-deliver any truly dangerous individuals (sometimes stripped bare and a few tattoed as "Lifetime Members" of the hero team's fan club). So I never thought about what normal protocols would be. Logically, it seems silly to keep villains' foci near where they are incarcerated. Game-wise, though, it allows the GM more fun plot hooks, greater chance for escape of recurring villains, etc.

I'm sure people are going to shout, "You can't do that!" but here goes anyway. With infrequently used or relatively minor stuff, I've allowed players in my Champions game to pay for group things as equipment in some cases. Specifically, this applied to a Utility Belt (no, not in a Multipower) that all team members had. It included such things as a small parabolic microphone, mini-binoculars, disposable handcuffs, simple criminology equipment (something like +1 to Criminology), a mini camera, and stuff like that. The total cost, plus 15 points for 8 copies, was split among the six players, even if they didn't need or couldn't use all of the stuff. (It came out to 10 points each.) This way, the exact effects are quantified and powers are paid for, but it doesn't cost the players an excessive amount of points for things they only use once in a while and have relatively little effect on goings-on.

I think I'll draw up the ultimate master supervillain, Real Physics Man. With a wave of his hand, he makes superhero physics go bye-bye.

I've bought it and have read pretty much all of it. Here's my thoughts: I would have liked all new characters, though I understand that they wanted to make CKC characters more useful. This isn't really applicable to Just Joe, though. I also would have loved tabletop-scale hex maps, but in several cases this would have been incredibly difficult. Scenes and maps include a large in-city park, a shopping mall, an amusement park, an office building construction site, and a warehouse with a hidden villain base underneath. Most are well-described, including key employees (with friendships or petty grudges) and descriptions down to which bathrooms have diaper changing stations in them. As to DEF/BODY, there are sidebars or tables listing DEF and BODY of objects found in most locations. While they don't include everything, they cover enough common things. I seem to recall somebody had some excellent maps of a pizza parlor, a mad scientist lab, and other locations. I don't know the link, but I'm sure some helpful soul will post it once I post this response. Hope this helps, Joe.

I think that's part of why people are looking at breaking down COM. Some things influence people more than others. One woman may like a guy's bulging biceps, while another likes some other guy's easy manner and approachability. An otherwise gorgeous woman might not appeal to me at all because her voice grates on my nerves. IMO, it's not a need for a rule change, or even a rule clarification. Just a "here's a good idea if you're interested in using it." That said, your point about other cultures (especially alien cultures) is very valid. Heck, in the middle ages, overweight was popularly considered sexy, because it meant a woman was healthy. Nowadays, it's the exact opposite. I agree. We have a player in my game who always gave her characters a 26 COM. (We won't even delve into the psychology of that.) That's 8 points -- the cost of an "All Combat" level, no small thing. In her latest character, we talked her into having only a 20 COM, and that took some doing. Obviously, COM is something that's important to her, and so I make sure it comes into play throughout the game. I'm thinking of having her look through the COM breakdown originally posted and "break down" her COM. I also have an all female villain group, the Femmes Fatale, who all range from "attractive" to "oh, my God!" and I'm thinking of breaking their COM scores down, to help flesh them out (no pun intended). It's not like it will have a major effect on most game play, but since one of my players has a womanizing male character, it could be important.

I played in a GenCon game where Cell Phone was a 1-point Perk. However, that was also during the BBB days, pre-Fifth. I would allow common normal tech as no-point-cost, but might require some sort of financial requirement (not Poor or Destitute, for instance). However, rare or cutting-edge tech should cost something. So a normal cell phone wouldn't cost points in my game, but a photo-phone would. And since I doubt those can be purchased as disposables for cash, you do have potential Secret ID problems.

As Graviton said, it depends on what you're planning to run. Since you said "new GM," I suspect you want to get set up to run a campaign from scratch. In that case, I'd suggest CKC and Millennium City. You can get Champions Universe later for history and world background if the heroes are curious sorts or travel outside the campaign city a lot. If I can make another suggestion, you might also consider a year's subscription to Digital Hero (I believe it's ten issues for $30). Past issues had a rather unusual VIPER nest, a series of articles on Meriquai Falls (another game city), a villain group, three Champions adventures (one requires CKC, the others have characters included), plus numerous solo characters (villains and heroes), rules variations, and advice for both players and GMs.

Where Are We Again? Start with the standard scientist/supervillain creating a device to transport his goons / teammates to and from crime scenes. (It helps if that supervillain already has teleportation.) The heroes trace energy transmissions or tag along to find their way to the base. During the battle royale at the base, stray shots hit the teleport device, damaging and activating it. Everybody and everything in the room is transported elsewhere. Exactly where is up to the GM, though samples are: dimension where the heroes are villains, world where the Nazis or Communists took over, or (the one I ran) an alternate dimension where pro-mutants created a virus to kill non-mutants. This works best if the heroes have to work with the villain to repair the device and return home. If going with the virus, having one of the bad guy's goons contract the virus adds some fun quandries, too. Scene Possibility: The heroes leave the building after the teleport accident and find one of themselves, either as a villain, a Nazi agent, or a body in the street. Challenges: Ready For Prime Time Tag! Log Off

Re: To END or Not to END. It seems to me the answer is simple. Have END use, and assign an experienced player to help each newbie. (This might also encourage some team-ups during battles, generate some tactics between the pairs, etc.) This won't work if a newbie has some deep secret he wants to keep from the other players, but otherwise it works well all the way around (including helping with calculating CV and other game-type stuff).

Pardon me, but exactly what are these "mature responsible players" you're talking about? Are we talking about some alternate universe here?

Stormhaven Stormhaven, by Michael Stackpole, has writeups for a mansion, island, security, and characters which are decidedly modern (at least, for 1983). However, the front cover, with an autogyro on the cover and Cthulu-esque stormcloud over the mansion, does seem very Pulp-ish. IMO it wouldn't be that hard to change the mansion into a 1930s pulp setting. Scratch the underground lab entirely and pare down one or two elements in the actual basement level, and you're set. Some background stuff (Prohibition-era history) could be used for plot seeds, and most characters could be modified to fit a pulp game without horrendous effort.

I asked something similar a while back (sorry, can't find the thread), regarding somebody with a malleable body who can "hold" things inside himself. The consensus was similar to what Hugh Neilson said. "Extra Limbs" combined with 0-END Persistent STR, Grab Only. Since I was talking about "holding" small things, we didn't get into the whole Blocks Sight thing, but Darkness, 1-hex Accurate, No Range seems as good as any other construct. Then again, you could just say that the "Extra Limbs" of his stomach block sight as well as a Grab over the eyes. The Entangle is simpler, so you could go with that and call it a taste issue. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

Re: Fight SMARTER, not harder! I agree. I was a player in a game where I was the lowest-powered, slowest character in the game. Heck, my character got taken out by an agent (Malvan trooper) of Firewing. In one shot. Despite this, my character saved every other character in the game at least once, mostly because I was considered the lowest threat. As the slowest, I also had plenty of time to watch what was going on and figure out what the bad guys were *really* up to.