Theron

Re: 6E Mess

It's not a question of want. It's a question of physical transformation. If you are a DEX 10 guy who turns into a Dex 23 guy, you don't get to transform until Dex 10. Only in Alternate ID is meant to be a limitation in and out of combat. I only let people who have a "Physical Transformation" power have it in the first place. You can't abort to change into Hero ID, because it requires an entire phase to get it to work. So if on Dex 11, the character gets caught in a 3d6 Killing Explosion (Huge in my game, but reasonable), chances are, he's bleeding to death on the ground. He's not in his hero ID, he's just bleeding to death on the ground. That's why it's a limitation. This limitation can kill a PC dead in less time than you can say "Jack Robinson." The argument that this is a zero point limitation would only apply if the limitation itself was also worth a zero and was a power manifestation, as mentioned earlier. Then you could abort to turn it on instantly. But once you take the power limitation, you can't anymore.

 

Often, villains do attack places where the heroes are in Secret ID. Sometimes, they even have destructive actions that occur before the PC's get to go or do anything. It's "The Advantage of Being Evil." How many scenes have you seen in movies and comics where the first thing that happens is Spidey's Danger sense goes off, or the characters are talking in a perfectly ordinary restaurant, and someone throws a bus through the window? Now, if the character has OIAID, he's going to probably take some damage from the bus with no defenses whatsoever. We'll call it "A lot." If he's even conscious after the bus has landed, he can fight the villain. More than likely, however, he won't be. That's what the limitation is meant to represent, because you can't abort to OIAID.

 

That's why this limitation can still be -1/4 even if you can instantly transform, because not everyone is aware that the bus is coming. Now, if the player with OIAID bought Danger Sense that worked all the time, I would definitely say "For you, this limitation is a zero, because you almost always know when the attack is going to happen, and that reduces the value to less than the 1/4 limit." 360 Degree Spatial Awareness would probably also do this too, unless it stopped at the window of the restaurant, in which case it would probably be a little too late to notice the bus at the moment it shatters the glass.

 

The issue with OIAID is twofold. One, Steve always receives lots of complaints about people who abuse OIAID, so when he got a chance, he changed the limitation to make it work a little differently. Two, the limitation doesn't always do what it should in terms of representing things, and makes people go for Multiform no matter how much their power should be an alternate identity of some kind.

Man.

I mean, it's your game, YMMV, and you can run it how you like, but I'm so glad you're not my GM.

Re: Black and White

I just grabbed the sample for my Kindle. I'll try to squeeze it in between new Malazan books, of which I have several.

Re: 6E Mess

Recognizing that your game is your game and what works for you isn't going to be what works for me, the problem with making it a Limitation is that it becomes very hard and fast. To my way of thinking, Limitations cannot be overcome through roleplay, whereas Disads can. So, unless the kid's school has power dampeners installed, I can't see that as a valid Limitation on the power. A Social Disad, certainly, and one that would likely net more points for the character than a -1/4 Limitation.

YMMV, ONVISOH, etc.

Re: 6E Mess

I hate to go back to this..ut let me say to this..No.

 

YOur teen shouldnt get a limitation, because being in school doesn't prevent him from access to his power..unless the school is equipped with power nullifiers. The social/roleplaying consequnces may make the character reluctant to manifest their powers, but their ability to use the power isn't affected. Thats why we have disadvantages and limitations.

Quoted for truth. That's a textbook example of a Disad.

Re: Public Domain Super Heroes

Amazing Man recently turned up in the pages of Marvel's "Immortal Iron Fist" as John Aman, one of the champions of the Seven Immortal Cities of Heaven. Of course, they don't actually SAY he's Amazing Man, but it's pretty obvious.

Also, for those interested in public domain Golden Age heroes, Ken Hite's Adventures Into Darkness makes use of quite a few. He takes the characters and spins for them a fictional publishing history under the helm of none other than H. P. Lovecraft. It's pretty crazy stuff.

Re: The Resurrection of Dr Ruby!

I believe you are correct' date=' and I'm old enough to have actually played it /before/ Champions came out ...[/quote']

 

Same here. We used the random mutation tables from Gamma World to make up superpowers.

Re: Online RPG character generator from Champions online?

On the other hand' date=' I've never played CoH or CoV, and probably never will. But I would have paid good money for a good character designer.[/quote']

 

Yeah, but the MMO business model is all about subscriptions. They want your money on a monthly basis, not a one time drop in the bucket (from their perspective).

Re: "Superpowers" novel

Devil's Cape was quite good. On the other hand, I very sincerely DON'T recommend Captain Freedom by Gabriel X. Robillard. Mr. Robillard is a web humorist who writes for McSweeney's and Comedy Central. Captain Freedom, subtitled "A Superhero's Quest For Truth, Justice, And The Celebrity He So Richly Deserves" is his first novel.

Despite a glowing cover blurb by Christopher Moore, this is not a very good novel. Nor is it a very good work of humor or satire. The plot, such as it is (the memoir of a superhero forced into retirement by his corporate comic book masters) is weak. The main character is an unlikeable d-bag, which I suppose is actually the point of the book, but it makes large swaths of it a very painful read. The best bits are those which are more or less pure throwaway, like a reference to Washington DC's Beltway being an actual magical zone that prevents the truth from passing through it. Or Clandestine, a tiny country nestled between Syria and Jordan, where wealthy people with a need to lay low tend to dwell. But most of it is the sort of superficial cheap shots that pass for satire in the "Mad TV" stripe, rather than something more cutting, like "South Park" or the "Daily Show."

In fact, the whole thing reads a bit like an SNL skit that got pitched with one sentence and runs five minutes after it stopped being funny.

Re: Urban Fantasy sources

I'll toss Kim Harrison's "Rachel Morgan" books into the ring if no-one else has. I like what I've read so far' date=' but IMO they're not as good as Jim Butcher.[/quote']

 

I've twice tried to get through the first chapter of the first book and failed miserably. Do they get any better?

Re: Champions Universe questions

Never heard of it, and I've been through every incarnation of the CU, even back in its implicit days.

Re: A Dark Golden Age game

Let us also not forget that it was the Golden Age that gave us a scene wherein the Red Torpedo piloted his sub into the Crimson Cave of Queen Klytorra.

I am not making this up.

Re: A Dark Golden Age game

As noted, the Golden Age actually was pretty dark. There was no Comics Code Authority, and there wouldn't be until the 1950s. The heroes were closer to their pulp roots, and comics were certainly considered adult entertainment by many who created them. Personally, I recommend reading a lot of James Ellroy, particularly his "LA Quartet" and Black Dahlia. He's great at pulling back the the covers from our perceptions of a "more wholesome" time to reveal the seediness underneath.

Come to think of it, a grim supers game set in the late 40s would make an interesting exercise. The heroes could be war vets, back on the home front and trying to escape from or live up to the propaganda hype generated when they were fighting the Axis. The nice thing about that is that you don't have to deal directly with the War; it's just that big nebulous bad thing in everyone's past, but it avoids the whole, "Oh great, Nazis. Again." problem.

Re: 6E Superhero Adventure

Be sure and say hello while you're there' date=' Theron.[/quote']

 

I don't know, man. I am the wind. I'm a game-buying ninja, and I don't socialize!

 

(Of course I'll say hello.)

Re: 6E Superhero Adventure

/me adds to list of things to buy at Gen Con.

Re: Heromachine and similar applications

And here's one just for the Gun Bunnies. It's probably more appropriate for the Dark Champions crowd, but this thread is a handy clearinghouse.

Pimp My Gun

Re: Mutants and Masterminds: Why did you stay/come back?

Did you just use the terms "predictability" and "di©e pool" in conjunction? I have found dice pools to be extremely counterintuitive' date=' personally. Maybe it's because my experience with dice pools has been with systems that poorly implemented open-ended die rolls with their dice pools.[/quote']

 

If you're using an open-ended pool, this is indeed the case. However, the current incarnation of Shadowrun uses a very stable and predictable dice pool (the only time it gets wonky is if you spend "Edge" dice, which are a limited resource and intended to make things unpredictable). As much as I hate to say nice things about the Storyteller System, the version used in Exalted is also quite predictable. The Ubiquity System (used in Hollow Earth Expedition is so predictable, it's entirely possible to GM it fairly without rolling a die.

Re: Confedrate Comics

Really? REALLY? This was unnecessary and uncalled for. And a terrible excuse too.

I disagree. The original post smacks of flamebait pretending to be edgy.

Re: Confedrate Comics

sorry everyone the topic hit home

Understandable.

Re: Mutants and Masterminds: Why did you stay/come back?

For me, it came down to the familiarity my players had with the Hero System. I ran a short-lived M&M game and had a bad experience with it due to a lethal combination of system unfamiliarity and genre unfamiliarity (only one of six players knew M&M, about half knew Champions, the rest knew neither, and about half the players weren't particularly into comics). My wife (my most dedicated player) hated the wide range of possible outcomes due to the d20 roll. She liked the dependability of the 3d6 bell curve, even if it is wonky on the extreme ends.

When I launched my most recent supers game, I had a group consisting of about half old players and half new, and the Hero System was the only game we all had in common (apart from HeroClix). Also, I intended to run things as much from pre-published materials as possible, and I own a LOT of Champions stuff (pretty much everything published for it since Second Edition). So, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

I still admire M&M and would like to do more with it, but I doubt that's likely with my current group and I'm generally OK with it.

Re: Champion's Universe or your own

Not by a long shot... Been playing champions since 84 or so. Been collecting comics since the mid 70s or such.

You're younger than me. That's all that counts.

Re: Champion's Universe or your own

I rather enjoyed the artwork in the books.

Yeah, but you're one of them there young whippersnappers the setting was specifically marketed to.

Re: Champion's Universe or your own

I actually like the Champions New Millennium Universe more than the core 5th ed CU

I maintain that, without the crappy Image-style artwork, CNM is possibly the best commercially published setting that didn't come from an established comic universe. Certainly the best one published for Champions, IMO.

- always liked The GUARD better than UNTIL/PRIMUS/SAT/Whatever TB

Re: My Tank is Fight! by Zack Parsons

According to the author, the title is actually from a song by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (one of the greatest geek bands in existence, BTW). It really doesn't have anything to do with the subject matter except in a most tenuous way.

Re: Champion's Universe or your own

Mine (currently on hiatus) is a weird mish-mash. The base of operations is Bay City from the old CNM books. But there was no Proprietor War, and pretty much all of the older established heroes are simply names I made up, since I'm intentionally running the game without a lot of history. What little history I have produced has largely linked the current city to George MacDonald's old Guardians campaign, and the Marksman is the current team's patron.

Most of my bad guys are straight out of CKC and VVV, with a bit of VIPER thrown in for flavor. But I pretty much scrap any back story on them that doesn't suit my needs.

In theory, there is a Millenium City, where the Champions hang out, but I've never touched on Dr. Destroyer obliterating Detroit. It's just assumed that Millenium City is Detroit's "superhero name," like Bay City is San Francisco's.

Re: Mind Control EGO+10 and EGO+20 Examples

+10 from my most recent game:

"Clearly, I am a greater danger to you than [Other Hero]. You should attack me, hand to hand."

(The character issuing the command was Desolid at the time. It kept the attacker busy while the other hero took him down.)