Ilari

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "Some call it athelas; some kingsfoil; but I just call it pot," said Aragorn, puffing contentedly on his pipe. "Got any lembas wafers?"

Re: Villain tactics and GM dirty tricks Thanks, folks. Your responses have been very helpful. Of course, I realized that I'm really not going to have too much of a problem challenging my PCs. The opposition in most books (CCC, Evil Unleashed, etc) is geared towards "standard" Superhero games: 350 points and up. I'm starting my game with 250. I have the feeling most villains from CCC would wipe the floor with my team. So far 2 out of 5 characters have been created -- a brick and a mentalist -- and I ran the numbers on them for Combat Efficiency Rating (see Digital Hero #3). Assuming I've done my math right, the mentalist's a 40 and the brick is around a 55. That's... not a lot.

The question is simple. Each of the standard archetypes (Brick, Martial Artist, etc) has certain strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it stands to reason that each archetype would have certain other archetypes it has trouble dealing with in combat. For example, Bricks often have trouble with Martial Artists, or so I've gathered. I'm a new Champions GM, so I would very much like to know if there are any other pairings like that. What do I throw at my players to challenge them, combat-wise?

I'm planning a campaign. I've got most of the specifics down, but what I am trying to figure out is how to start the game. "You all met by accident and decided to fight crime together", while more or less a comic book trope, is also the superhero equivalent of the old man in a tavern. I don't want to do that. So what I'd like to do is outline what I know of the campaign so far, and invite you all to chime in: if you were running this game, how would you start it? Genre: Low-powered, "street level" superheroes. I'm specifically restricting PD and ED to where a guy with a gun is a credible threat: a dozen guys with guns is a major one. Setting: Hudson City, albeit one where superhumanity exists. (For some reason, none of the really flashy supervillains have ever targeted it with a plot. What's the reason? Ah, that would be telling.) Age: somewhere between Bronze and Iron. All heroes are required to have a 10-point CVK, but nothing more than that. Known PC concepts: a disgraced former psychologist with mental powers, an astrophysicist who can turn himself into a mini-black hole, a former MARS agent who resigned from the force after an accidental shooting and only then found out she's got superpowers, and a complete unknown. (None of these are set in stone: players are still creating characters, so I can influence character creation a little bit if need be.) Known villains: I know almost for certain DEMON and VIPER are going to pop up, because two of the players are considering using them as Hunteds. I am also considering using PRIMUS as a villain; put them under the aegis of Homeland Security, have one of the Patriot acts give some real teeth to the Metahuman registration act on the books, and Bob's your uncle. (Yeah, I know, it's been done to death in the Marvel Universe "Civil War" event, but, well, I don't read Marvel comics, so it's all new to me. ) Then there's the wealth of villains in the Hudson City book. I'm not going to be short on enemies any time soon. Known allies: There's only one I thought of. Irene Dubois/The Velvet Phantom will occasionally anonymously drop them bits of information gleaned from The Raven's tarot deck. I'm aiming for a somewhat gritty "good guys on the edge of the law, if not over it" feel, so I don't particularly want to use the "you're a superteam sponsored by someone" shtick, either, but I will if I have to. So..... ideas? Thoughts? Comments? Thrown fish?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... 7th Sea: Sydney LaVachet, once a pudgy scholar, realizes that after 3 months on the run he's no longer pudgy. Sydney: "My toes! I can see my toes!" Ailean: "Ah yes, the adventurer's diet. Lose 30 pounds a month, half of it shaved off by rapiers." Same game. Juan Francisco Soldano de Aldana, a Castillian noble, is sent back in time and put in command of a bunch of kilt-wearing Highlanders. To his horror, he discovers he is also in a kilt. Juan: "Charge! Those men have pants and I'm going to GET ME SOME!" Same character, explaining the finer points of Castillian cuisine: Juan: "Turtles are slow and lumpy. Tortillas are flat, and don't move unless you throw them." Shadowrun: Slug, a Troll Street samurai, and Delphi, a combat mage, show up for a meet, and are asked to check their weapons. Slug proceeds to turn over the arsenal she usually totes: sniper rifle, assault rifle, grenades, knives, partridge in pear tree, the whole deal. The weapons-check guy's eyes grow larger and larger. She's finally done. Delphi steps up to the counter, slides his Savalette Guardian across and says, deadpan "I'm her bodyguard." Same game. Conversation in the middle of a plot that has spanned 5 scenarios and 3 real-time months. DJ (Rigger) "I've forgotten - Why are we rescuing Laughing Water?" Logos (Decker): "She knows where Yemaya's Earring is." DJ "And We're getting that because ?" Delphi: "To give to the Houngan (Voodoo Priestess) in return for help" DJ: "And we need her help for ?" Slug: "So we can go after Samedi (The *Villain*)" DJ: [Pauses about 10 seconds] "I sure hope this guy *appreciates* just how much we *hate* him." (at which point me-the-GM made a silent note to create simpler plots)... Dark Champions The characters just finished a tense negotiation in which a minor thug rolled over on his employer. One of the characters stayed in the car, monitoring the situation via a parabolic mike. The rest of the team is walking back to the car, when the listener hears the sound of a phone being dialed and the thug reporting to someone "They're on their way, sir." The team realizes they've been double-crossed, and tries to decide whether they're going to go through with the plan anyway, at which point one of them produces the following pearl: Turntable: "Let's go! We have the advantage -- we know we're walking into a trap!" Dead silence around the table for about 5 seconds, and then Turntable's player groans "I don't believe I just said that..."

Re: How do I build this power? Okay. (Bear with me, I'm a clueless newbie.) The +3 with all combat and OAF I understand. The second line, however, is confusing me. Are you suggesting she buy every single WF out there as a skill? That's what I'm hoping to avoid...

One of my players came up with the following power: When touching any weapon, the character immediately acquires the knowledge of how to use it. (The knowledge goes away once the weapon is released, not that this really matters.) Assuming she wants an OCV of +3 with the weapon, just for ease of calculations -- how do I build this power? The only idea that comes to mind is to define a "Weapon Expert" power: 3 +5 Combat Skill levels with the appropriate type of combat, and a Weapon Familiarity with the particular weapon. Then give her character a VPP with the limitation "Only Weapon Expert-class powers". Technically this violates the "no skills in VPPs" rule. Can anyone think of a better and/or more elegant way to do this?

Re: Starting a new game Well, aside from "super-skills" like "Can Take a Punch" and "Looks Worse than it is" (and things of that nature) the only armor available would be body armor, which by Dark Champions rules is bought with Resource points. That's Resistant Defence, right? Also, another complete newbie question: I wonder if I am reading the DCV modifiers right (table on page 373). Let's say someone has a DCV of 12. If he is attacked from behind (DCV 1/2) his DCV drops to 6: 12*1/2 = 6. If he is Intoxicated (DCV -2) his DCV drops to 10: 12 - 2 = 10. By that logic, if he is Knocked Out (DCV -0) his DCV should remain at 12: 12 - 0 = 12.... which is clearly not right. So if DCV -0 should read as "Defender's DCV becomes 0"... what should DCV -1 read as?

Re: Starting a new game First of all, thanks to everyone who's responded so far. I purchased HDv3, and it's a wonderful program (although it keeps running out of memory when I try to load advanced characters like the Harbinger of Justice from the Dark Champions pack.) I'm looking at 75 points, plus up to 75 more from Disadvantages. Normal characteristic maxima. For reference, the "feel" I am going for is very similar to Alan Moore's "Watchmen" or Frank Miller's "Sin City". What I've actually done is told my players "Don't worry about points, advantages, disadvantages, all game mechanic stuff. Just describe the character you want to me, and that'll give me a starting point for character design." So far 2 of the four players responded. One wants to play a character similar to Marv from "Sin City": I told him that'd fit very well. I'd be happier if he toned down the 'casual killer' aspect, but I can work it either way. The second one came up with a psychiatrist who was herself diagnosed as schitzophrenic because she could see things and hear voices; she was put away into a mental asylum, from which she promptly escaped. I'm kicking around a couple of ideas for how best to represent that, but first I need to figure out exactly what it was she can see/hear. (The character idea came about in the course of a discussion about Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere'. I've always been fascinated by the idea of a second, invisible world laying right alongside the visible one. I'd love to work it into the campaign, but I don't want to make it the primary focus.) Third player will probably want to play something sniperish and ex-military. (Note to self: suggest to him Lee Child's Jack Reacher as a possible starting point for a character.) Fourth player is a completely unknown quantity at this point. Our gaming group runs on what we call the "Three-Session Rule". Any time we're starting a new game, or starting an old game with a different GM, there's a three session period where players can freely adjust their characters. After three sessions, you can talk to the GM: I'm usually nice about things like that.

Re: Starting a new game Genre/setting would be Dark Champions, set in Hudson City. (I'm sticking as close to published material as I can for now, until I get a better sense of the system.) I'm aiming for a mostly vigilante sort of campaign, with a bit of Monster Hunter thrown in occasionally. Supernatural powers are very limited: this is what I told my players in email about the subject.

Hey folks. I'm going to be starting a game for my group within the next few months, and I am seriously looking at using Hero as a system... mostly because the genre I want to set the game in is Dark Champions almost to the 'T'. There are two problems with this plan, however. First of all, I've just read the Hero book: I haven't ever had the opportunity to play. So the learning curve for me as GM is going to be very steep. The second problem is that character creation seems to require a lot of math. I don't have a problem with that, but two of my players will. So, my question is twofold. First of all, how much math does *playing* Hero require? If we help the two math-shy players create their characters, would they be able to handle the actual play a bit easier? And secondly... would you have any advice for a first-time GM who's going into GMing Hero absolutely cold? Aside from "don't do that"?