Insaniac99
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Posts posted by Insaniac99
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Originally posted by Gary
Let's take a simple example. Suppose the hero team consists of Superman and Robin. You as GM create villains who are equal matches for them. Let's call your villains Braniac and Penguin for the sake of argument and let's have them match up vs the heroes.
There are 6 possibilities:
1 and 2) Either the heroes win at about the same time or the villains win at about the same time. No problem.
3) Superman beats Braniac first. He then helps out and clobbers Penguin in 1 phase. Robin feels useless.
4) Braniac beats Superman first. Braniac then clobbers Robin in 1 phase. Robin feels useless.
5) Robin beats Penguin first. Robin tries to help out vs Braniac, but quickly realizes that his best attack barely does any damage (Braniac has the defenses to go toe to toe with Superman after all). Robin feels useless.
6) Penguin beats Robin first. Penguin tries to help out vs Superman, but can't dent his defenses. Robin feels useless as he realizes that keeping Penguin occupied didn't help his side at all.
this is where you bring in the Cinematic gameplay, you fudge a few rolls once in a while, and, the heros won't win the batles all the time, additionally, the high powered characters genneraly have alot more stun than the other players, so unless something really lucky happens, they will be up longer.
another problem you seem to be having is that you are only thinking in directly damaging terms so lets go over your points:
1 and 2: no problem like you said, but they shouldn't be likely to happen if they really are that much more powerful.
3: again not that likely to happen, but what you do is either bring in another guy (a villian is watching them and joins up the combat) OR pengiun uses his otehr stuff, like a poisen gas, superman, being suprised takes a breath and is sent into coughs even though no permanant damage is done and robin keeps working on penguin since he is smart enough to know his enemy's ploys and has his gas mask on.
4: Robin whips out a gas grenade (he will get another action before brainiac can do anything) and hides himself and superman, he then helps superman and they retreat untill supes is better, robin feels useful because he saved Superman's life, even if the villians got away.
5: robin decides not to use directly damaging attacks against Brainiac, and instead uses his flash or smoke grenades to blind Brainiac, which allows Superman a opening to whomp on Brainiac, superman then thanks robin for istracting him.
6: penguin uses his special tricks like sleeping gas and stuff, that robin (because f his knowledge of his enemies) can defend against, like a gas mask against the sleeping gas. superman, unprepared for this, is cought unawares and robin realises that keeping penguin occupied worked well even if he was defeated.
remember that batman/superman cartoon movie? two totally differant power levels, but joker takes out superman like he is nothing because he is SO differant from what superman ran into that he didn't expect anything like him and batman saves his butt. that is a good example, because that is how you would run a campaign of diferant powerlevels., it just requires out of the box thinking, and a little more work.
there are lots more ways that the situations could be handled, but i just typed this up really wuickly, I'm sure the other's can add more if they want.
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he reminds me of "wishbone" though i don't know where i got that name from, it just popped into my head when i looked at him, except i KNOW it is TV related...
and i think to look more like wishbone, he needs a spot on only one eye...
that said: Starlord's Avatar all the way.
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Originally posted by Kristopher
Still, you could use a certain limit of active points as a "red flag" to help you spot problems. Not a hard cap, just something to help you out.
No?
agreed, in my campaign, I said, "as a general rule start with an active point limit of X, but if you want a power, and it goes over, ask me and i might allow it"
then again, most of my players have a nova attack, it will kill or almost kill anyone, but the characters are completely wiped by useing it, and my players rarely use them.
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Originally posted by Gary
The trouble with severe character imbalance is what it forces the GM to do. If he scales the villains to the weaker heroes, the stronger heroes will crush them. It he scales the villains to the stronger ones, the weaker ones get knocked out or killed in the first 2 phases.
sorry, i disagree, that is partly due to lazy GMing, i am running a campaign where there are people with 100-200 point in defferance some times more, sometimes less. and you jsut need to have villians of differant power levels like in the comics, the big guys duke it out, while the little guys go off and play, i mean in my game, i have lots of agenst that ANYONE can jsut pummel, and then supers of varying power levels, the weakest of them all, gets to feel useful because they can easily take out the agents, and the agents, if left alone, can realy hurt the supers and then the combat thugs usually aren't as good out of combat, so you let that detective shine for a bit, and stuff. you just have to do a little more work, and get the players to realise when they have to pair off to their own dude.
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agreed D-man, I myself try to come up with fun concepts but at the same time, whenever i look at a character sheet, I can just sense potential and eak out a few more points and tighten that nut a tiny bit more, but then in games I role play (though for me, it take a little bit for me to REALLY get in character) and don't care about shining in battle.
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Originally posted by TheEmerged
It makes perfect sense from the point of view that the ability to have the movement power you want, when you want it, is the reason VPP's are more expense. If your opinion is different -- you're welcome to it.
So yes, I'd require the changeling character that wanted that level of diversity to buy a VPP.
I think we will just have to agree to disagree, the movement multipower, IMO, is not cheese, and represents someone who can't to it all at once (whether because of special effects or lack of practise) and is a perfect way to represent lots of things, a PA who has skate thrusters, one slot would be running (the thrusters just speed him along on his skates), the other a reduced end jump (he leaps and the thruster helps carry him farther) and the the other slot would be flight (the thruster work at full power to keep he aloft at whatever speed) and this type of thing makes no sense to be a VPP, and seems pointless to be 3 sepperate powers that lock each otehr out, since that is exactly what a Multipower with Ultra slots does, lock out other powers while you use one.
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to TheEmerged:
so, a changling type character, who can eitehr form a spring, or a kit, or whatever else, needs to buy them sepperately with the lockout disadvantage?! that makes no sense whatsoever!!
to everyone else:
Movement Multipowers are 100% OK with me, currently i can't think of a reason NOT to allow them.
the sense multipower, i can see reasons to either allow or disallow it, and considering the concept, I would deffinately allow it.
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Originally posted by J4y
To me, it seemed weird to have the world all ga-ga after Superman following Legacy, but hey, there's only so much continuity allowed in episodic animated tv, I guess.
There were some grateingly bad problems with the episode. The hairpin turn in Superman's popularity was one of them. The doctor refusing to save Supergirl's life was another, even if she had been guilty of anything which in fact was the reverse, she had fought against the invasion, it was dumb he'd let her die. Superman leaving Darkseid alive puts him firmly in the short bus, WTF was he even doing invading Apokolipse in the first place if all he does is listen to Darkseid threaten to slaughter more humans then leave? *boggle* I feel like Earth is a Quicky Mart and Superman is Apu saying "glad we could satisfy your invading and slaughtering needs. Thank you, come again!"
I think this shows how strong his CVK is, he may despise Darkseid and all that but when it is beaten to a pulp the closest he can do is throwing Darkseid to he masses, which he assumes that they would overthrow him, and he just couldn't imagine them helping Darkseid, it was totally unthinkable to superman. also he beat up darkseid as a way of saying "stay the F--- away from earth or I'll do this to you again" again he can't go out and say it but that is what i think he meant. also while he lost a lot of devoted people, alot of people spoke up for him, that seacaptain (can never remember his name) still trusts supes, and there have got to be more, so while the attitude of the people in the pilot, while a little exteme, isn't totally unrealistic, this could be a while after that last episode of supes, and he could have regained at least some of the trust he lost.
as for the popularity turn in Legacy, well, what would you do, if knowing your Idol, the American Icon in fact, tried VERY HARD to take over the world, he showed no emotion about those he killed, they were ants to him and he acted like it, then he threatens Emil Hamilton and all in all, I honestly can't say, living in the "real" world not a veiwer of everything and never having actually been saved or come in contact with Supes, save for what i saw on TV and in the Paper, that I would completely trust Supes either. and that is even without taking into acount those that lost loved ones to his hands.
and Supergirl, being related to supes of course recieves some of that so while a docter swears the hypocratical oath to help whoever he can, personal biases can easily get in the way and those that blur Supergirl and Supes in as one might come down hard on him with things like "why'd you save her, she's nothign but a monster" where as if he didn't do anything then the few who blame her death on him he could say "i couldn't do anything for her"
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can't believe i missed out on this for so long, i like this one especiallly, though that may change as i continue to make progress towards being up to date: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp04052002.html
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oh and dance, he was a good dancer too.
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Originally posted by Snarf
That's great but you forgot about his mad singing skills. o/` aint nothin but a hound dog o/`...
nope, that was a record, he couldn't sign, but he sure as heck could play!
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Originally posted by J4y
Batman being driven by fear? I just can't see that being a major element in his personality.
He isn't DRIVEN by fear, he is driven by the need to avenge his parents, his fear is that he would become that which he hates most, which means he fears becoming a killer, so eliminate that fear and you get the guy out for revenge who doesn't care if he kills as long as he gets his revenge.
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best first post. Ever.
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that is a pretty good start, now what all would we add to it? it needs shapeshift, only for hiding extra arms, attennna, and spine like thing on the back...
yeah that writeup should ned only a minimal adjustment...
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great first post bwdemon!
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as in Lilo and Stitch?
If so could you post it? if not i think we should be able to write him up with all the examples in the Movie we should be able to get him, for example, he holds back a tanker trunk going what i can guess to be 60 miles per hour, is just barely knocked out from a concetrated blast from a space ships rocket engines and the subsequent long fall to the ground...
and those are just a few examples i am SURE we can write him up, so who's up for it?
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PCMCIA People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
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Originally posted by Trebuchet
I have a very "seat of my pants" GMing style; I use minimal notes and maps but prefer to wing it for the most part. My players are too good to ever figure just what they're going to do, so trying to prepare for every contingency is pointless. Fortunately I've got a lot of GMing experience and can think on my feet; I've been running Champions games on and off for over 20 years. And I never forget that role-playing is best considered interactive fiction. I don't run superhero video games or dungeons.
While you and i have the same GMing style i find that if in a complete hurrying it is always nice to just scann the books for adventures i can do and I'll take only the basic idea (basically converting it into a buncha different plot seeds)
speaking of which, i hafta say, i enjoy the plot seeds, unfortunately i am only really interested in about 10-20% (pure estimation, not hing more) of the plots seeds, don't know why but i just am...
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ok, one thing that strikes me as funny is the varying effect for Absorb, i mean look at the math alone:
with sixty points you can get:
12d6 absorbtion VS PD
6d6 absorbtion with varying effect so you can spend a zero phase to switch to PD or ED, but he can't absorb both at the same time and you have a max limit of 36 points
6d6 absorbtion VS PD AND 6d6 absorbtion VS ED this system has teh advantage that you can absorb both at the same time and you get twice as many points to absorb making it MUCH better than the 6d6 absorbtion with varying effect.
so, why even buy varying effect, i mean you might as well go the route of buying both absorbtions then having both have a limitation of something like "can only use onne absorb per turn" or buy a multipower for those two Absorbtions, either way you get better than the version made with Varying effect, and you can keep the special effect...
so why ever even buy it with the varying effect?
and yeah, I guess I'm a munchkin or a power gamer or something, but in al fairness the advantage isn't worth +1...
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Originally posted by Klytus
Thing is, if you are the GM, you are unencumbered by point costs. I don't like this mechanic, though. This is more a representation of INVULNERABLE as opposed to unkillable. Besides of which, Desolidification doesn't do squat vs mental attacks, so an Ego Attack which does BODY damage would kill this dude nicely.
MY take on Unkillable... Massive amounts of BODY, plus even more massive ammounts of BODY with the Lim: Only to Calculate the point of death. So You have an uber-villian with 50 BODY, but he needs to be reduced to -200 BODY to be slain. Add in scads of REC and Immortality Regeneration, and you have a foe who can be defeated, yet not (easily) killed.
yeah i said i could do Unkillible with low points, but then went on to describe how i woudl do undamagable which of course is totally differant
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Originally posted by Cyberknight
Rechan, I feel your pain. There is one quick and dirty (and unsporting) solution to the Area Effect, Continuous Attack mentalist, though.
Competent Normal (Sniper Specialist) w/2.5D6 RKA, Extended Range, No range Mods (OAF Winchester .308 w/bipod and scope).
Heavy handed? Yes. OTOH, so is a continuous mental attack
nah you don't even need to do that, the city just happens to develop Psi detectors and little helmets that provide Mental defense, and then impose laws, and guess waht, the "hero" is now a villain on the run or in the courts. this can serve as a warning and then punishment if they continue it...
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well, I GM almost totally on whim and with very little or no planning what so ever, for example i might say the PCs will get captured and have to bust their way out. but i never figuer how they are gonna be captured till last minute and for a better example i adjusted grond in my campaign, he is litterally a unstopbable force, the longest he has has been knocked out was an hour and that took a TON of tranqualizer (enough that, if put inot the city water suply, would KO everyone who drank the water) and the PCs generally have to calm him down some how, and he has the mind of a child anyway...
but i regularly throw my PCs into situations i don't know how they are going to get out of, and just let them give me ideas for how to get out of them....
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Originally posted by Gary
Since "unkillable" is a plot device, then you need to deal with it using another plot device. I would bet the farm that your GM has some sort of plot device setup to deal with the King, and it's up to you to investigate. Find out its history, known previous appearances, etc.
actually i think i could make the unkillable without a plot device, it just costs more and more points... there is even undamagable with doesn't cost all that many points at all.. two desolidfications, both linked and both only to protect form damage, then you buy one affected only by frost and cold and the otehr by fire and heat, then by total Life Support, and now you are totally Invincible, then buy movement powers and you got yourself a way to get out of things...
Number Crunching Vs Roleplaying
in Champions
Posted
I'm not gonna quibble because i don't read that many comics, and only really watch the TV shows.
the point is, you need to use your brain and get the players to use their brains, and not be thinking in terms of "my club will only break if i hit him with it, I'm useless" and instead think "well, i can't hurt brainiac, so how can I help Superman"
you do need players who are in this for fun, but I haven't had many problems at all
so, you are telling me, that if after a huge run where the players are learning that {Insert Master Villian Everyone Should Be Afraid Of} is involved and face them in the big smackdown, you are telling me that you would let some lucky shot by a member to take {IMVESBAO} out in one hit? if you are you are only hurting the fun for their players, make {IMVESBAO} all the suddenhave a few more defenses, a bit more stun, or some damage reduction, or have some goons rush in to occupy the PC's time while {IMVESBAO} recovers and is back in the fight.
it may be the differance in my playstyle that creates this differance of opinion, I go in with at best a plot seed amount of information, and then let the players run with it taking everything in stride, then when they want the battle i jsut think up something that sounds OK to get them there, then i run a very cinematic type game, if you should be able to do it, you can even if you don't have it exactly in your character write up. I only gave my players a AP limit, and even that wasn't rigid, that was just a suggestion and i let quite a few powers that go over that, i just trust my players with this responsibility. it is a bit extra work for their battles, but it is worth it.