jtelson

Re: Haymaker out of combat Just to make sure I understand both sides of this Side 1: No out of combat haymakering Provides something for nothing Dramatically inappropriate Empasizes the systems inherent (+1/4) issues at the lower end of the power scale Side 2: Haymaker whenever you want Not being able to do so is inconsistant with similar abilities both free and purchased Can be Dramatically appropriate Can lead to all kinds of silly situations (Quick get the guards attention I need to knock down this wall) After going through 4 pages of this I have to say that none of my players would ever consider trying to haymaker a cell door or wall unless it was appropriate for them to. I'm pretty sure no 10 strength egoist/mage/gadgeteer in any campaign I've ever run has ever even mentioned the completely character inappropriate act of pushing and haymakering to break out of a cell/smash a machine or whatever and this only really seems like a problem if your players are likely act out of character for a fleeting tactical advantage. I'd probably allow it just to see where they were going with it.

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors? The last time I ran a Hall of Mirrors bit (probably about a decade and a half ago). Everyone began with a base 10 phases to find a real target, -1 phase for each point you made your PER roll by, +1 phase for each point you failed by. As long as you kept in sight of another person you could exchange fire, as soon as either broke LOS the counter started again from 5 (+- PER roll).

Re: adventure ideas? An abduction scenario isn't about controlling the protagonists it's about controlling the setting and removing easy avenues of resolution. I'm curious, because as a player I've never been annoyed by having focuses, powers or options temporarily removed and as a GM I've never recieved any negetive feedback for doing so, would the majority of Champions players out there really be bothered by the occasional abduction/power removal/amnesia type scenario?

Re: Best Mystic comic/character ever? Constantine, definitely Constantine.

Re: adventure ideas? Oddly, I was going to suggest having the PC's 'wake up' captured as it is very much a part of the genre. I've had it happen to my characters and never once felt screwed over. It can, for the right group, make for a challenging and enjoyable evening. Where are we? Who's doing this? What resources do we have available? How do we make these villians wish they'd never been born (or if they are more clear minded that we'd never been born). The game's not about the points, it's about the, well - the Game. As with almost any adventure, foreshadowing and lead-up can be key. My suggesstion would be to scatter a few alien abduction stories through a few weeks of adventures (Weekly World News article "ALIEN ABDUCTIONS ON THE RISE", crazy guy ranting about having been grabbed outside of the Socialite's favorite coffee place, that kind of thing). If the characters have the time and inclination to investigate give them the opportunity to find more people who are willing to talk about their experiences (This may provide clues once they themselves are abducted). If this is mixed in with normal peril and other randomn weirdness it shouldn't distract too much from normal play. Then when they wake up in the cell it won't come as a total surprise and they may even have some valuable info (The paperboy said he got into a strange hallway by ...). The "aliens" can be anything world appropriate - I would probably go for normal spacemen, testing Earth's defenses, learning from the city'e people who it's protectors are and bringing them aboard to study.

Re: Heist Hero What's really difficult about this genre is the 'reveal'. In all of your examples, the audience is misdirected. The character's actual plan is revealed only at the end of the film and only when it seems like the job has gone horribly wrong. In a group role-playing situation this effect is almost impossible to simulate.

Re: block use An AoE HtH attack is a bit of an oddity (Does the hero have personal immunity?) but I would say that you can't normally block an AoE attack (The description says that you cannot dodge or deflect but must dive for cover). That being said, this is where an idea about the special effect might be helpful. If it's a giant hand that slaps a 7 hex area repeatedly, it shouldn't be blockable, if it's a super speed effect, maybe each target can block for himself only.

Re: Dense, but not grounded If you go with a flight, only in contact with the ground, option, maybe clinging, only to negate knockback, to deal with that issue.

Re: Dense, but not grounded The 1" flight solution would severely restrict your movement while grown. Maybe a trackless step variant (Gliding, only in contact with the ground) equal to your run speed.

Re: block use

Setup: Modern government supers team in a training scenario. Group broken up into two teams. Practicing Capture techniques - minimal force - scenario ends when someone ends up in the 'cage'. Character: Goldbrick - Brick type has been around since WWII. Almost legendaryily lazy, in that game world responsible for the phrase goldbricking. The scenario starts Goldbrick grabs his closest team member, throws him into the cage, slaps his hands together and says 'Right, that's lunch' After the group recovered and the Team leader finished shouting the scenario was restarted with the caveat other team member.

Spidey's web shooters only really run out of juice when it's appropriate for the story- I fought 60 thugs this week guess I better reload since I've got the time (No real game effect) or Doc Oc is sending wave after wave of flunky in order to run me out of web fluid (Plot driven game effect) It seems more like a John Woo reload situation than actual charges.

Chimp Shack Monkey House

I think I would consider it an OAF. One of the examples of obviousness is a magic ring that glows when it is used. Naturally the inobvious examples include a blaster built into a glove so it really is just a judgment call. Just as a general rules call if it's obvious when you use it it's obvious otherwise not so much.

While there are things that you can do to take the edge off combat times - ultimately hero combat is still time consuming. Any system with this level of complexity and wargame like feel will be. Almost all combat delays come from character and GM decision making - this is true in any game - I had to sit through a torturously long combat session in d20 last night because the Gamemaster took more than 10 times longer than the players combined to act. I've seen it in Hero, in d20 even in Vampire where the combat system is designed to be quick and brutal. Maybe play a few sample combats - it helps familiarize everyone with the system and lets you see where you get bogged down. You might even consider taking notes and times for the last few samples so that you can look back and see what caused the slowdowns.

The problem with trying to simulate that genre is that you will almost always fall short. In those style movies there are really two cons going on - the one in the plot and the one versus the audience. They generally run along the line of here's the plan - here's the characters running through the plan - here's what goes wrong with the plan - oh wait that was the real plan - gotcha. In order to simulate the genre you need the GM to provide the players with a huge amount of information and for the players to be willing to put in the hours and hours of work planning the job. I suppose you could have multiple GM's - one sets up the plot and the situation and one(s) who work with the players in setting up the sting. That might create the gotcha effect for a GM and some of the players.

There is an Apes of Rath card in Magic and an Apes of Wrath Card in Shadowfist.

This is perfect. I wish I'd though of it. As to the time altering effects (Bullet time) I wouldn't go with speed, You can never really act fast enough to simulate the effect and high speeds tend to slow down combat. I'd go with something like. +5 Levels w DCV - Costs End and 2d6 RKA AOE Radius - Selective - 0 Range - Variable Special Effect (Guns or MA) - Maybe slap Autofire on it depending on the exact effect you're looking after - Poof you're hard to hit - you take out the Mooks in your general area and you can still damage the big bad.

You would only need invisible to sight if you did not want an obvious visual effect to your desolid. In other words you would still look normal when you were invulnerable. Invisible to touch on the power means that when people touch you while desolid they will feel you there and not simply pass through you.

There was a character like this in one of the campaign I played in. A lot of damage reduction and power defence. Anything that effected him was tranferred amongst all of him.

Sat by the side of the river long enough...

I always did it as teleport - must be able to physically reach the end point.

That is an incredible article. Sad but the stuff the entire horror campaigns are made of.

Thank you - That was the next to last thing I needed.

Players envisioning highly trained fighters could do things like +1 Speed only to negate armor penalties to simulate a high level of training. Since everyone would be aware of the penalties from to start - It's not going to catch anyone off guard.