Marcus

Okay, situation is as follows.

Midnight can sit in one place and 'scan' all the shadows within a certain range. As long as it could be seen from the shadows, within the range of this power, she can see it. The character in question is mostly mortal (mutant, not goddess-of-night style) and is thus limited to vaguely realistic processing capability (no omniscience).

Currently, im knocking around buying it as 360 on vision, scads of extra range on hearing and sight, with a massive increase in 'speed of perception' to the sight, and a limitation to restrict it to percieving from shadows. All of the above as a sense, and Indirect of course. This simulates a power that continual 'flips' through all the potential perception points visually, at an incredibly high speed, but without full comprehension and retention, until/unless something noteworthy causes her to stop and focus on that area. Once she focuses on that area, if its within her silly scads of telescopic, she can see and hear out of the shadows there as if she was there.

Problem-It sounds ALOT like clairsentience, but some of the basic nature of clairsentience (the fact that your casting your vision to a specific place that you have to know about before hand, etc) makes Clairsentience 'feel' unsuitable. Im sure with the right arry of advantages on Clairsentience you could get the same effect, but Clairsentience always seemed to me more a power-you-bought or a spell you cast, rather than an innate ability (which this is meant to be)

I personally kinda like the first version, for (among other reasons) the fact that doing it with Clairsentience would bring a character to their knees in total points spent. Then again, near-omnicognizance for some large range in all directions perhaps should be mind-crushingly expensive.

Anyway, thoughts from the assembled?

Hmm... See, I might allow a limitation on the active points in the pool as a 'limitation' taken on the control cost (amout at discretion of GM), but in your above example.. which would YOU rather have on your PC?

60-Base VPP Points

30-Control

30- Some Other Power

Or

60-Base VPP Poitns

30-Control

30 More VPP Points (cant add to the first 60)

Seems to me the second description is in every imagineable way better than the first (which is why you always pay full cost, period, end of sentence, for the base points in a VPP, and then pay quite possibly through the nose for the 'Control' that lets you juggle them.

Then again, ive done and allowed some pretty obscene things in my games, and if it works for yours, go with it. I just see it as better than about anything else you could do with your points, so would reccomend instead

90 Base VPP Points

36-45 Point Control, -1/4 No More than 60AP in a power

Note that if it was an 18DC game, and the guy using the pool had no other way to generate offensive crunch, I might well let the 60AP cap on the pool be -1/2. Just me.

And for the last (at least of the four ive got so far..)

Note.... all comments, criticisms, and concerns are very welcome. Im recreating, and half creating-from-whole-cloth... the old team. This only gets us up through four members. Im knocking around concepts for the remaining two... thinking about 'Wraith'... a young french girl who died about three centuries ago... possibly 'One-Shot'... Sniper Rifle, Skill Levels, Find Weakness... weve all been there... Im giving some thoughts to what this villian team needs, and any input from the audience is GREATLY appreciated on that topic.

Anyway, last-but-not-least

Lan Ho, aka Haiku (Yes, the creator realizes that a Chinese village girl taking the name of a Japanese Poetry Form for her super hero name seems a bit odd. The Ninja Clan that trained her was Japanese. ~G~)

Lan Ho

Player: NPC

Total Character Cost: 609

Disadvantage Points: 409

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

APPEARANCE

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Height: 5' 4"

Weight: 109 lbs

Description:

As Lan Ho... a small, somewhat attractive woman of chinese origin. Nothing about her screams great beauty, or even something out of the ordinary... but for the gentle smile and dancing light in her eyes, a light that has been present less and less, of late.

BACKGROUND

Born in a small fishing villiage in Northern China, you were only a child when the Clan saw your potential and took you away to train. So many interesting things to learn. The taskmasters and mistresses were harsh, but fair, and their praise and approbation was the only thing you lived for for the longest time... until, not long after you became a woman, you realized you could do more than just be a ninja. Your skin could bend and flow under your will, changing your shape into the perfect imitation of any man, woman, or child ever born. They would be so proud....

However, the clan had no place for Mutants. Despite being the long-term home of the cast out, of the lowest of the low, even the Ninja would not accept that one of their own was, in fact, a monster. So they cast you out, threatening to kill you if you ever came back.

It was a year before you found your way back to Grandmothers. The nearly-blind, feeble old woman did not recognize the child you had been, and you took the opportunity to avoid telling her what became of yourself, and of your disgrace. Shaping yourself into a new woman, you took on a rented room with Grandmother, surreptitiously overpaying her and helping her mend nets, as well as your own work about the house.

They were a few very good years, until the next Government Project came along... a mine was to go in upriver of the little village, and you were educated enough to know what THAT would mean. Even as you considered trying out the talents the assassins had taught you, and shuddered at the futility of your efforts against an entire government, a darkly handsome, well-dressed gentleman came to town and made you the most perfect offer.

PERSONALITY

Haiku doesnt, at the end of it all, enjoy being what she is. She chose her 'operational' name for a reason, and a lifetime spent tending the nets, composing gentle poetry, and watching the water go by would be ideal. However, Loar has not only offered you a chance to practice and excel at those same talents that the Clan disgraced you for, and at the end of it all an Honourable deal is an Honourable deal. He somehow turned the eyes of the government away from your grandmothers villiage, and for so long as he wants you, you are his.

QUOTE

Water for snowflakes

vanishing now forever-

what ripples from you?

POWERS/TACTICS

Other than her ability to shift form, and some innate resistance, Hai-ku is more an exuisitely trained normal than a superpowered death machine. As such, her primary usage is in point-strikes, or infiltration. A 'Superhuman Interest' story by Lori Anderson, coupled with a romantic conquest on some superhero's part, would very effectively give Loar a walking tour of the superteam's base, as well as a quick working knowledge of their capabilities. For long-term purposes, an enemy in their camp is also devestating. That said, she is more than talented enough to tie up or take out most opposing martial artists, and with the vulnerability of any team that has taken her into their midst, she could easily serve to take out a key party member at just the right time...

Oh, heck, while im here, how about...

Mikhal Vandaleur, also known as Fallen..

Mikhail Vandaleur

Player: NPC

Total Character Cost: 672

Disadvantage Points: 472

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

APPEARANCE

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Black

Height: 6' 4"

Weight: 210 lbs

Description:

A perfect angel in appearance, with glossy black eyes and hair, and huge, lustrous glowing wings of sheeting black energy. In public he wears a simple black loincloth at Loar's insistance, but no matter what his sartorial state he never appears 'unclothed'.

BACKGROUND

Child of Anais Vandaleur, father unknown. Raised to be Mothers special weapon in her war against her clan founder, you had magic and power drilled into you from the day you were born. It wasnt a childhood, and you werent a child. You were simply a will-less, soul-less delivery system for a magical assault on Adrian, Patriarch of the Clan. There was no time to be human.

And even less so after the attack failed. Mighty magics that could have shattered steel skittered across the mans skin, grounding out into nothingness. With a contemptous sneer and a wave of his hand, he stripped you of even the barest rudiments of sorcerous power and sent you back to your mother, crying as only a lost fifteen year old can.

Mother was furious. The punishment was unspeakable, and the final, mighty ritual designed to break down the barriers Adrian had set and turn you back into her tool was heart-rippingly painful. You felt the magic try to pour into you, burning your skin and killing you, even as her sorcery held you together. Something had to give, and finally it was the dimensional skein under you.

Your eyes opened in a horrible blackend wasteland of acid and lava, spitting and sputtering. You had changed as well, been ironically enough transformed into what your mother had wanted most... a magekilling monster. And a strange, tigerish-faced creature was leaning over you, saying the mystic words that started to pull you back together.

Youve followed him ever since.

PERSONALITY

Not very much, just yet. Mikhail never really had a chance to develop humanity, though by all means Loar is trying. The parental role is alien to the Demon, but under his guidance some shred of natural, innocent curiosity is starting to show through. There is no conflict as-yet between that innocence and the predator that your mother's last spell made you... like Blake's Tygre, you were ultimately crafted by the same hand that made the lamb, and are as blameless.

QUOTE

~curious, childlike voice~ I dont think Ive met anyone as interesting as you before. I hope I dont have to kill you.

POWERS/TACTICS

The ability to summon darkness, coupled with his innated martial prowess and the ability to extend his 'wings' leading edge to strike targets as he flys freely about the battlefield, makes Mikhail deadly to any 'grounded' characters. The entagle and Ego-entagles are perfect setups for teammates or his own haymakered fly-bys, though he will most often 'set up' his opponents with minor mind controls or illusions. He himself does not as-yet make full useage of his powers, but Loar has been encouraging him in that, as well.

CAMPAIGN_USE

Mikhail's wings should be the beat of doom for any sorceror or mentalist in the party. Against everyone else hes merely dangerous, against them he is utterly lethal. In the long run he will likely break away from, or be set free by, Loar to seek his own destiny... but only when Loar truely belives the man-child is ready. In the meantime he is absolutely and utterly devoted to the only father figure he has every known, and would gladly sacrifice his life to protect the demon's.

-Edit... GEH... how did Life Support get on there TWICE! Bleah.

-Edit... Life Support fixed on attached file.

Krista

Okay, here is Krista. Some initial notes..

1.) Shes probably the most straight foward and simplest soul in the team. Not quite as much depth as the rest of the squad, though that may grow as my PCs interact with her. Besides, everyone doesnt HAVE to be a hideously-complicated backstory coupled with a hideously complicated set of powers and frameworks. Right? Right??

2.) Yes, no 'Motorcycle' Vehicle. She doesnt own a Supertech bike, and doesnt ride her Harley in combat (though its a thought!). Its a part of her personality and her back story, not a combat ability.

3.) 'Babe' (as in Babe Ruth) is called 'Mud' (all respect to Primus 'My Name is Mud') in my campaign, but I figure that reference may be a WEE bit too out there for most readers. If its Mud sometimes and Babe others in the writeup, blame the hour. The hour is late, and I am tired.

Thus, without further adeiu...

Krista

Player: NPC

Total Character Cost: 570

Disadvantage Points: 370

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

APPEARANCE

Hair Color: Blue

Eye Color: Blond

Height: 6' 6"

Weight: 260 lbs

Description:

Massively tall, massively muscular female, complete with leather jacket and well-maintained Harley Davidson.

If it werent for her sheer size, dress, and the slightly demented gleam in her eye, Krista would be the ideal 'girl next door' type... clean and wholesome until she opens her mouth.

BACKGROUND

Dont know who Daddy was, but Mommy was a biker. Ever since you were a kid, thats all you wanted to do... ride, and ride, and ride away from the two-bit town Mommy settled down in after she had you. Ride away from the dead-end jobs, the dead-end life in a mined-out shell of a company town.

The Hells Angels were a godsend. Your size and strength got you a place off the pillion and a bike of your own pretty quick. Dealing drugs was easy. Strong-arming the other gangs was easy... too easy.

Then one night the cops cornered you and yours in one of the drug labs. Easy as cake to handle them... even you didnt realize how strong you were until, in a sudden fit of temper, you threw one of the heavy tables through a local cop car.

And then the good times ended. The 'Angels chapter you were with, your only home for the last eight years, had no use for a 'Damn Mutie' around. They ran you off, and the local police didnt sound like a better option. You cut a broad and bloody swath of destruction from the back of your bike through everything that stood in your way, but before too long there was no point in it... until this guy met you in a bar, beat you at arm-wrestling, and showed you a family that would accept you.

PERSONALITY

Krista is, at heart, a simple soul. She wants to break things. She wants to go fast. She wants to satisfy every fleeting urge and impulse, without thought, remorse, or penalty. She's not stupid, she just doesnt bother to think. Under it all, however, is the little girl who never grew up, and never had to. And like any little girl lost, all she wants is a parent figure, and a family. Loar has given her both.

QUOTE

~beats Babe on the ground a few times, and spits~ Lets Play Ball.

POWERS/TACTICS

Hit things. Hit them very hard. Krista is unusually quick for a brick, and uses this advantage to set up fellow brick opponents. Babe can be used to remove opponents from the fight, inflict massive damage in knock-back, or at its worst, to set up the former for the latter by knocking non-flying opponents straight up in the air, setting them up for a haymaker of over-the-bleachers proportions.

CAMPAIGN_USE

The Professionals Dedicated 'Brick' and Brickkiller, Krista is via her personality and psych lims, one of the routes crafty players might use to 'get at' the group. She is neither completely dedicated to Loar, nor irredemable in her own right.. the small child part of her would in some ways really like to stop hurting people, and perhaps even pursue a career in opera (the secret passion that she will admit to noone)

First, Mr. Coyote-

Your right, he should have all kinds of LS. Holy oversight, batman!

As for the claws... I coudn't tell you, in my head he just doesnt have them. Whats on the end of his fingers are blunt and spade-like, not claw like. The 'tiger' effect is more in terms of physical build than the claws or, for that matter, teeth (which once again, he probably SHOULD have... but has never used in combat. Hmm. Conundrum)

Ill attach here a Full LS version of Loar, and the next post will have.. probably Krista, though shes still polishing.

It would seem your basic Extradimensional, plus either scads of Telescopic or (for those who dont want granularity with their powers) some megascale, on a Detect Magic, Discriminatory, Analyze ought to do the trick nicely...

Ive recently been retooling an old, old supervillian team from an old game for use in a new one... 'The Professionals'... mercenary supervillians of outcast origins. The name says it all.. they are cold, cool, slick, efficient, and well-organized. Not an iota more flashy than called for by the contract, not a bit more violent than necessary, but willing to do almost anything for the money.

Of course, theres more to it than that, as should show in the description of the leader type. If anyone likes him, or the concept, Ill post the rest of them. For now, heres Loar, himself.

Loar

Player: NPC

Total Character Cost: 920

Disadvantage Points: 420

Base Points: 500

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

APPEARANCE

Hair Color: Tiger-Striped

Eye Color: Red

Height: 14' 1"

Weight: 980 lbs

Description:

Approximately 14 feet of Centauroid Tiger-Demon, with the middle limbs serving double duty as either hands or feet. The body is covered with heavy orange and black striped fur, not unlike a tiger but more vivid in color. The face is slightly more anthropomorphic than the feline origin, with a higher forehead. Massive eagles wings sprout from behind the shoulders, with smooth flight muscles flowing around the forelimbs and to a massive chest. Not fast, but smoothly and dangerously graceful.

BACKGROUND

One of the first to answer the Call, you lead the vast armies of might that gathered to oppose the One, before time began.

Despite all your skill, you lost.

Finding a place for yourself amongst the fallen, you served long, well, and honourably to the Lord of your Plane. You trained and drilled the Fallen into the mightiest assemblage of martial prowess ever to shake the pillars of Hell, and when your Lord cast you and your army like a die at a gaming table you lead them into battle against the One whom all had followed into the Fall.

All the might was for naught, all the training meant nothing. You were not meant to win, not even by your lord... simply a pawn on the chessboard of Hell.

You were defeated once again.

Cast out from your realm, your own pocket dimension shattered, the most vast majority of your power stripped, you were forced to flee before the very Hounds and Warriors that you had once called, finally finding yourself gasping, turning at bay on a small, blue-green ball in the night, one of those so-pitiful worlds that those above you seemed to think so important.

There are worse places to turn and fight and die... or, if they let you breath long enough... there are worse places, it appears, to gather strength, to gather followers, to become strong once more, and to lead an army back to where you came. To reclaim what is yours.

PERSONALITY

Revenge. Power. Revenge. These are the single, total, all consuming goals that are all that fills the mind of what was once among the brightest lights beside the Throne.

Nonetheless, some shreds of what you were remain. You are the connsumate general, one of the greatest military minds in history, mortal or immortal. You show the troops what they need to see, tell them what they need to hear. You value them for their skills, honour them for their efforts, reward them for their successes, and amazingly enough have been known to weep for your Angels when they fall.

Something about these Earthlings, these so-pathetic lumps of mortal clay that you find yourself forced to call soilders, is nonetheless entrancing. They are simply so much freer, so more full of possiblitiy than anything you knew in either of your previous existances. Sometimes in the blackest parts of your soul, you wonder perhaps if a triumphant victory over those who drove you out is worth the lives of those you have worked so hard to nurture.

Sometimes... but not that often.

QUOTE

~deep, catlike growl, almost infrasonic~ Leave, or Die.

~thoughtful~ Ahh. Impressive. I've not seen that tactic attempted since... it matters not. It failed then, too.

POWERS/TACTICS

Loar's sorcery adds the lethal bit of flexibility to what would otherwise simply be a terribly resilient, terribly dangerous opponent. He is physically slow, but brilliant, efficient, and careful. Tending to lead from in front and serving to concentrate the enemies assault upon himself.. he knows he can repel most assaults, at least for a time, and this allows his faster and in some ways more-dangerous teammates to mop up about and behind him. A few carefully pre-selected spells can add whatever capabilities he needs and lacks for a given conflict, and his own phenomenal strength, when coupled with his extra limbs, allow him to grapple and crush multiple opponents at the same time, or else set them up for truely devestating Haymaker style attacks.

CAMPAIGN_USE

The deadly cold, horrifyingly efficient leader of the most dangerously professional Supervillian team to come down the pike in a long, long, long time. Loar and his Professionals can serve as benchmarks for the PCs, as well as long running semi-respected opponents. Their simply here to do a job, and do it very well. Amoral as they may be, that professional ethos can be attractive, at least to players used to dealing with cackling, world-destroying megalomaniacs. For the introspective, an interesting long-term relationship could bring about some redemption issues either with individuals on the team (which Loar would most likely allow to go with suprising good grace, and then replace with others of similar competence) or for the truely morally ambitious, for Loar himself. Outcast or not, Lord of Darkness or not, Loar was once at the side of Good, and his time on the mortal plain has set the first stirrings of things long forgotten in him. If he could be turned (and his people would follow him to Good at least as quickly as they would to the gates of Hell) then the Characters could congratulate themselves on a deed far more heroic than simply knocking out and locking up the Supervillian of the Week.

Similar to the Skill Points question above...

Could a very highly trained Woodchuck buy, let us say, Offensive, Defensive, and Martial Chucking, to be used based on the type of wood (Pine, Oak, Treant) encountered?

Perhaps 'Chucking' could be generalized into the Woodchuck Martial Art...

Just finished a building project for a mid-range Methusalah thats been a background Ally/Nemesis/? NPC in a local VtM game.

About 3000 points.

Both versions seem fairly faithful to the source material. The second page goes a bit more into all the buying necessary to 'Make one a Vampire', IE all those neat things that the typical Cainite player takes for granted.

Its a valid point that a serious elder, in either system, would be built on more points, and far less efficiently, than a high-end Dr. Destroyer. The one time I did it, it was an NPC, there was a fair amout of handwaving and VPPing, and I tend to just convert existing WoD Cainites to Champions rather than ground-upping them in Champions. One of my basic 'concepts' is..

John Q Normal-3 CV Champions, 3 Dice-Pools to-hit in WoD (assuming 1 point of brawl... which ought to be Everyman in WoD, if you wrestled with your brother)

Ergo...

Make sure final OCV=Dice Pool after buying up dex to match. Buy levels with appropriate abilitys to match.

John Q Normal-2 DCs Champions, 2 Dice Punch WoD.

Ergo, Dice of Damage in WoD= Damage Classes. Potences 'autodamage' feature would be handled by building it as +5 Str, with +5 more STR only to do damage.

If your cainite has a 6 Dice Pool for, say, Telepathy... 6 Dice, 6 DCs, 30 Points of Telepathy. Move along...

etc. Just my off-the-top-of-my-head Ideas.

I assume the meaning of +10 Overall Levels was..

10 Point, Overall Levels, Some Unknown Quantity.

If it was...

10x 10 Point Overall Levels Usable by Others.... I want that Precog in my party. I want that precog in every party. Just buy some defenses, stand there, and make everyone around you so hiedously competent that the opposition runs in terror.

Okay, like so many things in champions, its more fun to talk about than it would be in a game. Tunneling, Usuable Against Others, Megascale, Leaves No Tunnel Behind is like that.

If your thinking about Astrals, I rember a very pricey but very well-built Astral Form in the old 4th Ed Mystic Masters book (my copy, sadly, having been lost to the winds of time some years ago).

Even though the game was still a 'normal' super game, after that book made the rounds, it took on a certain Magic feel. As a J. Random Sidenote, Mystic Masters is PERHAPS my favorite of the various side books weve seen over the years.

Okay, guys, some of the interrelationships between Adjustment Powers, Frameworks, Et. Al., is starting to make my head hurt. Input, please?

Let us assume that the Relocator has a largish transfer versus ALL fire based powers (say 3d6), all at the same time, and all points transferred go to his Strength.

Relocator tags Mr. Firebrand (posessed of Flight, Force Field, and Energy Blast, all based on Fire). Relocator gets an 11, and Mr. Firebrand looses 11 points each off his Flight, Force Field, and Energy Blast.

By my read of it (points is points) Mr. Relocator gains 33 points of Strength. Correct?

Attendant question-

Let us assume as above, but Mr. Firebrand bought the above Flight, Force Field, and Energy Blast in a single Elemental Control. Due to the interlinked nature of the current EC, does Mr. Firebrand...

1.) Loose 11 points off each power in the EC, including the EC slot itself, and give only 11 points to Relocator?

2.) Loose 11 points off each power in the EC, including the EC base itself, and give 33 points to Relocator? Or is it 44?

3.) Loose 33 points off each power in the EC (due to the interlinked nature of ECs) and give 11 points to Relocator?

4.) Loose 33 points off each power in the EC and give 33 points to Relocator?

And Finally-

As Frameworks are 'tied together' defensively, weakening them (that is to say that by my understanding a drain against ANYTHING in the EC is a drain against EVERYTHING in the EC).. does the converse apply? Does Aiding the 'baseline' EC increase the size of the powers in the EC? Or do you have to aid the powers individually? Or would the careful points-cruncher aid his friends EC some, and then aid the powers in it, in effect 'recalculating' the EC as he went?

Well, though weve never formalized it and designed our characters 'without point caps', the approach in our play group was always 'Figure out how you see the character, then get one of the Points Accounting Guru's to shoehorn it elegantly into the points available'. Its a mature group of players, and lets be honest.. some superhero concepts are just EXPENSIVE, even before you get to the kind of games you can have that integrate different stages in character maturation.

Weve had nothing but good expereinces. My advice to you... YOU know if your group can handle it. Trust your players.