Haerandir

Re: Rock Tour Champions?

Re: Ultimate Mystic Review Fair enough. I'm not going to criticize you for your religious beliefs. I will dispute your conclusions, however. If the Ultimate Mystic didn't include any 'treatment', however cursory, of the Judeo/Christian/Muslim God, that would be an issue for me. Not for religious reasons, but for reasons of failure to provide a thorough discussion of the material. Not, perhaps, as much an issue as the presence of such a treatment would be for you, but it would affect my purchasing decision, and if I had to choose between a 'God-less' UMY and a product I felt was more complete and, frankly, more honest in its treatment of the subject, UMY would lose out. I don't think it unlikely that, if DoJ had chosen to publish an edition of UMY that mentioned other religions, but specifically avoided any references to matters Biblical, we'd have a few people in here commenting on that. Might even cost DoJ a sale or two. Maybe with one version they'd lose more Christians, with another they'd lose more pagans, with a third they'd lose more agnostics. Who can say? I certainly don't think DoJ has the resources or the mandate to attempt a rigorously scientific study on the subject. Ultimately, I think the right call is the all-inclusive approach, especially in UMY, a book which is meant to be a broad overview of a subject which is itself extremely broad. And, all else aside, MitchellS is right. I'll accept that your intent was to be helpful by providing feedback to the company. But, said feedback is really only valid if it's based on actual informed opinions, rather than a kneejerk reaction to a single clause, not even an entire sentence, in a brief fan review on a web site. A review that doesn't even name the religious system you claim to be treated offensively in the book you haven't even skimmed, much less read. Nobody here cares whether you're Christian, Buddhist or a self-proclaimed Druidic Jedi Ninja. We do care if you form inaccurate beliefs about the game we all play, because, if you're expressing those beliefs here, you're likely to express them elsewhere, and ultimately we'll have to put up with people who've never even heard of you telling us, "I won't play Champions because I heard on the Internet that they're Anti-Christian." Or whatever. It's hard enough getting new folks to play with me because of the dreaded "math-heavy" stigma. Or, worse, you actually might succeed in your attempt to influence DoJ's publishing decisions based on such a shaky examination of the book in question.

Re: ICE Era hero stuff sloppy? Do you have a first edition copy of Werewolf: The Apocalpyse? If you do, go through it and check out all the missing page references (the infamous Page XX bug mentioned by bblackmoor). That's a pretty egregious printing error, even in the extremely dicey history of RPG publishing. The rest of the early WW line was pretty sketchy in the editing department, but that particular error has probably given them a worse reputation than they actually deserve.

Re: If Champions didn't exist... Good Guys Finish Last, out of Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer #3 (I think). Sadly, my copy of that magazine disappeared about 10 years ago, and I haven't been able to get my hands on a new copy of it. So, I'd be forced to fall back on my backup choice, the old reliable: Marvel Super Heroes (TSR second edition).

Re: Schmucks?

Re: Schmucks?

Re: Marvel & DC Vs I've played a few times with borrowed cards. It's a fun game. I know a bunch of the designers and playtesters IRL, and they're all current- and former- Magic: the Gathering pros, so the game is very much in that vein. It's a fast-paced head-to-head game with decent replay value and some intriguing mechanical innovations that make for strategic depth which isn't immediately obvious (at least, it wasn't to me, until I saw some serious players going at it). I'm a little concerned about power-creep in the expansions, but that's almost unavoidable in the CCG market. As for the flavor-aspect of the game, it's actually pretty good. The primary focus is on the characters, their powers and the interactions between them, which strikes me as an appropriate treatment of the genre. There are multiple versions of most characters in the game, which makes it possible to use your favorite characters in multiple decks, or even to build a deck around a single character (though the emphasis is on groups of characters).

Re: Schmucks? Something that I always think of, but no one ever seems to mention: 350 pointers don't HAVE to all be as weedy as the published Champions. You can have a wide, wide, wide range of offensive, defensive and tactical potential within a given point value. I've played (recently, even) in a Champions game where my 350-pt character was capable of slinging 21d6 EB's, before Pushing and Haymakering. Technically, he was at about 370 from xp, but still. It makes a lot more sense to compare Active Point/Damage Class caps (if any), than raw point totals. Even if you impose such limits (which obviously wasn't the case in my example above), any efficiently-built PC team can easily outperform any published 350-pt. group. Again, this is a design feature, to keep the NPC's from overshadowing the PC's. UNITY is probably the best example of this philosophy. Going back to 'in-game-world' propositions, consider this: Mega-villains don't like each other any more than heroes like them. If you need a rationale for why any given villain hasn't taken over, and you're not satisfied by "heroic numbers, heroic teamwork, possible powerful PC's and currently undefined NPC heroes", assume that Dr. D is monitoring Eurostar, Gravitar, the Warlord, et al, and quietly works behind the scenes to foil their plans. He simply doesn't care if the Champions get all the credit. In fact, so much the better... It'll give them a false sense of hope when he springs his latest Master Plan for World Conquest ! (plan initiated) Hey! Who'da thunk Teleios would stab him in the back? That tailored hyper-flu virus really did a number on him just as the Champions invaded his lair... (plan fails) That was my assumption, as well.

Re: Gryphon and Lady Crow? Since you ask, the word you want is 'retinue'. Also, depending on the outcome of SoB, Black Paladin might not be available for them to follow around. Depends on the players and the GM. I can see them being recruited by a Morbane if they're left on their own. They can always go back to working for BP when he escapes from whatever fate befalls him.

Re: My Player Betrayed Humanity. Now What? It wasn't my intention to suggest that it wasn't. But when I see " one player that always bucks the authority of the leader, and the group"; "players believe he’s been deliberately trying to avoid combat ... and feel like he’s less help than he could be"; "he’s trying surreptitiously out-of-character to convince players not to mention this to the team’s financial backer... [because he] 'doesn’t want to deal with' any repercussions"; "players are getting pissed with him and considering him grating (in this and other games), and sometimes he argues with the team leader just because he considers the player whiny"; and so on, my "Not A Real Good Friend"-dar goes off. The key terms being 'out-of-character' and 'other players' as opposed to 'in-character' and 'other characters'. Maybe you and Starlord wouldn't, but I would. Assuming, of course, that I was an avid Monopoly player who participated in a weekly Monopoly group with my close friends, and the issue related to out-of-game concerns, and not just some tripe about "Player A never builds Hotels because he prefers green plastic structures to red ones". I will concede that if all of that was true, I'd be a candidate for commitment to a mental institution, but the principle remains the same, whether you're playing Monopoly, Champions or Tiddlywinks. Or doing something else entirely. If one member of a social group puts his own concerns ahead of everyone else's, with detrimental effects, it's not inappropriate to suggest that the good of the group outweighs the good of the individual. To excuse antisocial behavior because the particular activity happens to be 'unimportant' is foolish. He's not just disrupting the activity, he's being unpleasant (at least) to his friends, and yours. Of course you don't just slam the door on him, but no one has suggested that. Every post on this thread advised, "Talk to him, see if you can find out what the problem is and address it." Only if that turns out to be impossible, because either he or the rest of the party is unable or unwilling to come to an accomodation, should you kick him out. If an honest attempt to resolve the situation costs you his friendship, I question whether you ever really had it in the first place. If it was just a question of a disagreement over the proper way to role-play his character, I wouldn't dream of suggesting that he was abusing anyone's friendship. That doesn't seem to be the case here, and usually isn't in these threads. For someone who apparently finds my 'abuse of friendship' position over the top, it amuses me that I find your solution horrifyingly draconian. You don't even consider the possibility that he might be unaware of the problem he's creating, or that it might be a simple case of miscommunication. It might be that the problem stems from some perceived unfairness or failing on the part of the GM or the other players. If so, his response to the situation is clearly sub-optimal, but chanting a mantra of 'Other players are not having fun' until he submits to the zeitgeist or gets frustrated and goes away isn't going to solve anything, either. And is quite likely to cost you at least one friendship, too.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni?

Re: My Player Betrayed Humanity. Now What? I say, yes. Because the real issue is not 'whether we're playing a silly game correctly', but 'is this guy really acting like a good friend?' RDUNeil and some others have touched on this, but I'll say it right out: a player who behaves disruptively in an rpg is abusing your friendship. Bear in mind, the other players are (or should be) your friends, too. So, essentially, it's a situation where one of your friends is behaving abusively towards your other friends, and you. Even if an rpg isn't as important as, say, a marriage or a workplace, it needs to be addressed. Having said that, I don't know any of the players involved, so I can't reliably diagnose the source of the problem. Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe the player honestly believes he's just 'role-playing his character', and won't be especially put out if you force him to retire his character. Maybe he has a legitimate complaint about the player of the team leader (or thinks he does). Certainly, the best thing to do is to talk to him about it. Find out if he's aware of how his actions are perceived by the other players and you. He might think things are going just fine, and would be horrified to learn that everyone else is angry. Or, maybe he will just believe that it confirms the 'rightness' of his behavior, at which point, you've got to cut your losses and kick him out of the group. If it costs you his friendship outside of the game, maybe that's really a sign that he wasn't much of a friend in the first place. He only has to make that decision for himself. You, as the GM and putative leader of the play group, have to take the welfare of all the group members into account. The worst thing you can do is keep an unhappy or disruptive player in your group. It generally won't make him happier, and the end result is that everyone ends up angry and you risk losing all of those friendships.

Re: Sorcerous Family/Association on City of Heroes

Re: Sorcerous Family/Association on City of Heroes Well, I've got no direct experience with either combo, but 2 of my RL friends are playing Fire/Fire and Ice/Ice blasters, and what you've suggested is certainly true of the primary sets (Fire is better at large groups of minions, Ice is better at small numbers of stronger mobs). For instance, Fearfrost (the Ice/Ice blaster) routinely solos oj Consiglieres, who slaughter Empyrean (my Energy/Energy guy) and Flamejack (the Fire/Fire model). On the other hand, Flamejack thinks nothing of soloing a large mob of oj minions, which Fearfrost is more frightened of than the lieutenants and bosses. One combo that I've considered is Ice/Energy. I'd like to see how much effect Boost Power has on Ice's slows and holds.

Re: Sorcerous Family/Association on City of Heroes Well, I've been playing Morrigan, but she's gotta split time with my main (Empyrean on Pinnacle), so she's only level 7 so far. Plus, it looks like I might be the only member of the 'family' who currently resides in the Eastern time zone, so I'm not often on when all you western types are... I'll keep an eye out for Vargo, though, and maybe I'll see more of you folks this weekend.

Re: Sorcerous Family/Association on City of Heroes Looks like a good moment to revive one of my old beta characters, Morrigan LeFey. I just took her through the tutorial, I'll keep an eye out for other family members. As for a supergroup name, how about House LeFey?

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That!

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That!

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That! Frankly, I've never had a case where a seemingly-terrible character concept didn't turn out to be at least kind of cool once it was in play. Though that's largely because the *really* bad concepts were generally vetoed by the GM. Some that I have seen: Thrag the Invincible: Sorta like Space Cowboy, above, but he was an alien anthropomorphic wildebeest who modeled his 'Earth disguise' on old gangster movies. Wore a pinstripe suit, fedora and sunglasses, carried a mock Tommy gun with his ion-blaster hidden in the barrel, was convinced that no one could see through his 'clever disguise'. Turned out to be a lot of fun, and was highly effective. Battle Bear: A hyper-intelligent circus bear who built himself a battlesuit. Since he couldn't talk, the suit's AI would translate his thoughts for him, but the AI would only refer to him in the third person, and generally sounded either bored or exasperated. It would also translate inappropriate thoughts with a certain glee. Dental Assassin: This one didn't get very far before being shouted down. At this point, I don't remember if the character was a dental hygienist who was an assassin, or someone who assassinated dentists. Either way, he had a mouthful of cybernetic killing devices. These aren't mine, but the Champ-l mailing list came up with a list of bad character concepts, it can be found at Mike Surbrook's page. I thought I remembered it containing the tale of the Invincible Hammer-Wheel, but this blog was the only place I could find it.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... We had something similar happen in our SW game back in 1993... Only it was more of a 'You killed your sister, after she surrendered, turned off her lightsaber and called off her troops... Give me your character sheet.'

Re: The Authority:What the heck? I'm with Rene on this one. I'm more interested in whether or not the story's any good than in whether the protagonist adheres to a particular code of conduct or has kewl powerz. To me, 'a good story' is one featuring a compelling protagonist who behaves in at least a superficially logical manner as he progresses through a coherent plot in an internally consistent setting. Ideally, the author will manage to convey some message or explore a theme (without resorting to the +12 Hammer of Obviousness) in the process, but I'm willing to settle for good ol' escapist entertainment, too. I thought 'Watchmen' met these criteria. So did 'The Dark Knight Returns'. They weren't Silver Age, by any stretch of the imagination. The 'Change or Die' storyline in Stormwatch (which was, of course, pretty much a dry run for the Authority) was a fine story. I quite enjoyed it. I've got the first TPB of the Ultimates, I love it. Other modern comics that don't fit the 'Silver Age' vein that I think are great include 'Top 10', 'Powers' and '100 Bullets'. Frankly, I own far more 'Iron Age' (or whatever post-Iron Age period we're in now) comics than I do 'Silver Age', simply by virtue of when I started reading them (I really didn't read comics much when I was a kid). By the same token, I'm a big fan of Astro City, which is often considered 'retro-Silver Age'. Sometimes I think I'm aiming too high, but on the other hand, there's a bunch of titles on that list.

Re: The Authority:What the heck? You can't crash Wayne Manor into your opponent's otherwise-impregnable lair on the other side of the planet, thereby destroying him, his legions of cloned super-soldiers, and tens of thousands of innocent people, either. With, I'll point out, no appreciable damage to the wainscoting. Nor can you stuff the Earth's entire population into the Batcave, and it won't survive the destruction of the planet, even if you did. Heck, you can't even use the Batcave to hand-wave away the otherwise monumental problem of massive Third World refugee populations. I'll grant you that it's possible to get to other planets and universes through some people's bases, so I'll call that a wash.

Re: The Case for Doctor Destroyer My case for Dr. Destroyer is that he's our last line of defense against extraterrestrial/extradimensional conquest and other megalomaniacs. But he can do that in prison as well as roaming free, and is less likely to kill people I like there. And don't get me started on Adrian Veight/Ozymandias. Give me Destroyer any day. I prefer a villain whose schemes actually have a chance of achieving his stated goals. There's a chance you can reason with him.

Re: The Authority:What the heck? Let's see, Chuckg and Metaphysician have covered most of the bases, I'll just amplify a few things... 1) Jack Hawksmoor is known to have used a city as a battlesuit to fight another city. I know I've told the story on these boards somewhere before. However, that was a one-shot plot device in a not-necessarily-canon special miniseries event, and can probably safely be ignored. 2) The Carrier, in addition to being 25 miles wide, is also (IIRC) 35 miles long and 50 miles high. Or vice versa. It's also got a permanent population (refugees, mostly) up into the hundreds of thousands, last I checked. And, you know, it can travel to other dimensions. The Authority has used it to evacuate every man, woman and child on Earth to other dimensions at least once. That's a sweet ride! 3) Jenny Sparks' actual powers involved electricty manipulation on a grand scale. She could teleport through power lines, zap just about anything she didn't like, create energy constructs hundreds of feet high, fry entire armadas' worth of computers and communications gear, that sort of thing. After her death, she has become sort of an auxiliary member/plot device in the form of Jenny Quantum, the infant Spirit of the 21st century, whose powers are safely undefined but conveniently massive and versatile. 4) The Engineer can also create duplicates of herself, (I've seen up to 16, I think, possibly she can handle more now).

Re: Reconciling Manga & Batman Well, as I said before, the only way you're gonna keep one from overshadowing the other is to either loosen your definition of 'pure martial arts' to include things you currently consider unrealistic (or inappropriate), or you're going to have to tighten your (gameworld) definition of Chi powers, which will probably lead you to redefine psychic powers, magic powers, mutant powers, alien powers, radiation accident powers, cybernetic powers, etc... So that each 'category' of power that you allow in your game has unique advantages, disadvantages and flavor. That way lies madness. I can't, in good conscience, recommend it unless you want to make the interplay between power types an important feature of your game world background. Since you're talking about a established game world with an experienced group of players and characters, it's probably a little late in the game to completely redefine the universe's "power physics". Might be something to consider if you ever decide to reboot, though. In the here and now, though, my belief is that you can't have your cake and eat it, too. You can't tightly control certain character concepts and allow carte blanche with others, and expect the results to be equivalent. I'd like to be able to tell you otherwise, but I've been thinking about it for 4 days now, and the best I can come up with is "Limit Martial Arts less, limit everything else more, or tell your players to expect pure Martial Artists to be less powerful than other characters".