Dr. MID-Nite

Re: Buffing-Up Kodiak

I'd boost his STR to 55...or at least 50. That should give him a reasonable offense. the rest is just fluff....in my opinion.

Rob

Re: Favorite Master Villain

Menton and Gravitar are at the top of my list. I've always been a big fan of mentalists and Gravitar just has an intriguing power set. That area effect TK she has is NASTY!

Rob

Re: Transform ideas/advice please....

If you don't put limitations on the power, it's cheaper to go with a VPP.

 

3d6 major transform to anything (+1) 90 pts, costs 9 End per pop

 

45 VPP

26 Control Cost Cosmic (+2) Transforms only (-1.5)

 

Total cost 71, 4 End per pop, and you can use minor/cosmetic transforms, or put advantages on the transform at the cost of fewer dice.

 

Yeah, it's a loophole in the rules that VPPs get the +1 to anything advantage for free for Transform, Change Environment, and Summon.

Well....Quantum's Transform is in a Multipower...so in his particular case...it's cheaper the way he has it currently.

Rob

Re: Transform ideas/advice please....

Personally speaking, as a GM, as you described the SFX, here's what I'd think I'd prefer in-bounds and what I would not:

 

OK list:

Magneto - transform to metal - transform back to Magneto

Freddy the newspaper boy - transform to paper - transform back to Freddy

Jonas the Wonder Dog - transform to a toilet (just to be different) - transform back to being a dog (the same dog)

 

NOT OK list:

Magneto - transform to metal - transform to a copy of Jonas the Wonder Dog

Magneto - transform to metal - transform to lobotomized version of Magneto

 

That sort of thing, make sense? I think it's what you stated anyway but I wasn't sure that was clearly defined.

Ah...gotcha. Thanks. Quantum most certainly CAN'T do anything on the second list. Too complex. He's new to his powers and isn't even entirely sure how they work...so he usually does simple tricks/feats. He'd be too afraid of killing someone to try transforming them into some other lifeform...even if he had the inclination to do so....which he doesn't...as a general rule. It's much easier for him to visualize turning a person into stone and the like.

Rob

Re: Transform ideas/advice please....

Those sound like good guidelines. I'm a bit iffy about affecting gas and liquid' date=' but I guess that's part of the standard Transform (unlike TK, which needs an Adder). Doesn't sound unbalancing, though it still is potentially. You could still use it to bypass any lock, door or wall (and clean up afterward to cover your tracks) as well as completely rearange nearly any environment given time (and probably not much time). Theoretically, you could arm yourself and allies with any number of weapons prior to combat (though I would say this requires a seperate Power).[/quote']

 

 

Hmmm....I'd say making complex items(like guns) would be too difficult. Now...he might be able to create a blunt item....like a club maybe, but nothing too complicated...as the character just doesn't know how everything is put together to be honest. Luckily, I'm normally a GM and this character is being run by me(a chance to finally be a hero) so...I'm more likely to restrain myself with this power...mostly use it for flavor...occasionallly something useful(turning prison bars to glass and the like). Using it to make myself wealthy and other such "munchkiny" things just isn't my style. He has plenty of other powers(Flight, FF, EB, TK, Entangle)...so it's not like there is incentive to use this ability constantly...but it would be nice to use once in a while. The GM is new...and I'm trying to help break him into the wonderful world of running a Hero game.

 

Rob

Re: Transform ideas/advice please....

I think this is okay' date=' given lifeforms have been excluded, or at least lifeform->lifeform. What about lifeform->non-lifeform->different lifeform, though? I'd say you can't allow that to be consistent with the SFX. I think these SFX are well-defined enough and have enough limitations.[/quote']

 

Hmmm....not quite sure what you mean by this. Do you have an example?

 

 

Rob

Re: Transform ideas/advice please....

Anything to anything is pretty absolute. The only hard restrictions I can see would be based on how many dice he had and whether or not is was bought normal, partial or non-cumulative.

 

Of course, there are those inherent restrictions that he'd me logially limited to physical alterations only. Nothing that enters into the realm of enery, spirit or mental. He could turn a man into a frog, but the frog would still have all the skills, mental ability and personality of the man.

The Transform is bought normally....with just that one advantage. It's more of a noncombat power....due to high END cost. His powers are heavily based on Quantum Mechanics(at least in a peudoscience way).....so I think he probobably coulc manipulate energy as well, but I have other powers that handle that aspect well enough. This transmutation power is designed to mostly affect matter. That said....I just want to be able to use the power without the GM throwing a fit.(I'm not sure if he's aware of the potential abuse for this.) My opinion is he could do these things:

1)Transmute elements: Oxygen to Hydrogen and so on.

2) Alter the physical substance of matter: Solid to Liquid...or gas..vice versa.

3) Change dangerous materials into less dangerous ones: Motor oil into soda pop for example.

4) Alter the physical nature of nature of organic life. A tree into cardboard for example...or a human into stone.

What he can't do:

1) Affect anything with magical properties...as they defy conventional science.

2) Create life from nothingness. He doesn't have the knowledge necessary.

3)Alter one lifeform into another lifeform. Again, he lacks the knowledge and fine control.

Now, given those guidelines....as a GM is there certain things you'd say...get over it....I'm not letting you do that. Keep in mind that I plan to heavily police the power myself, but I want to avoid doing something unbalancing inadvertantly.

Rob

I have a character for a new campaign who has a Transform that is bought at the +1 level(anything to anything). The character is named Quantum and have powers that revolve around manipulating matter and energy. My question is for all the GMs out there. What would you allow someone to do with the above powers...and what wouldn't you let them do...given the special effects? I'm looking to maintain game balance.

Rob

I have a character for a new campaign who has a Transform that is bought at the +1 level(anything to anything). The character is named Quantum and have powers that revolve around manipulating matter and energy. My question is for all the GMs out there. What would you allow someone to do with the above powers...and what wouldn't you let them do...given the special effects?

Rob

Re: What comic group supergroup is your group equivalent to?

Either in power or tone (particularly interested in the latter), what comic book supergroup does your team (whether one you GM for or you play in) seem equivalent to?

 

I think the Justice Squad would do well against many of the 70s Defenders incarnations. unless Dr. Strange had time to prepare. Lemme see - the original X-Men (the young people blue-and-yellow costumes) they could beat fairly easily I would think. The Avengers and JLA they'd lose to, presumably, though with enough time to prepare and in an ambush I'm sure the Justice Squad could beat almost any superteam. Hmmm, I would bet they're roughly equal to the mid-late 80s X-Men assuming that Phoenix, at least the uber-powerful version, isn't there. I'm not well-read on super stuff after the 70s so it's hard to say. Oh, I know, our Justice Squad is probably roughly equivalent to the traditional Fantastic Four, as shown in the early-mid 70s! Yeah, I think that would be a good match-up. I can see the JS beating many of the same foes, with something as big as Galactus requiring the assistance of an NPC as was required for the F4.

My player group, The Crusaders, most closely resembles The Defenders, mainly cause they act more like individuals who hang out together rather than a tight knit team.

Rob

Can the variable advantages...advantage....at say the +1 level(giving you your choice of +1/2 advantages) be used to give said power the variable special effects advantage?

Rob

Re: What is the average attack and defense in your super’s campaign?

In Crusadeverse,

average attack: 12d6

average defense: 20PD/ED

average SPD: 5

A fair amount of variance exists in the groups. The higher DEX characters basically have lower overall defenses(though even the lowest defense character has missle reflection). The low SPD character does much more damage(15-19d6), but obviously has fewer chances to do so. Only one character in my campaign has a CVK, though killing is not encouraged in my campaign.

Rob

Re: GMs: PC Scrutiny & Acceptance

As a slight aside, I feel that too much emphasis is placed in the GM providing a good game FOR the players.

 

Gaming is a cooperative endeavor. It is ALSO the responsibility to the Players to entertain and provide a good game for the GM.

 

Player centric games are an insult to GMs because we are slaving to help provide an environment for the characters to interact with. As a GM for 20 years on and off Nothing makes me want to pack by bags and leave quicker than bunch of players sitting down and saying "What do we do now?"

 

You have a character...Play him! What would he or she BE DOING right NOW?

 

Hawksmoor

-Soapbox retracted

I couldn't agree with you more. My current group is a lot like this(though I'm trying to work with them to break this habit). It can be very frustrating at times.

Rob

Re: Character Building Issues Midgame

I generally allow adjustments to characters even well into the campaign. I have to approve everything anyway....so nothing I hate is ever going to go through.

Rob

Re: Dean Shomshak's The Mystic World (& Arcnae Adversaries)

You're spot-on about Maze and Tesseract. Maze has been replaced with an equally nifty character named Gyre who's a technomancer.

 

You'd lose your bet otherwise, though. The only one I really liked in the group was Golem (how can you resist a villain who can make good potato salad, I ask you?). I really didn't even want the group back at all, but Dean argued passionately for them -- and since I generally think it's a good idea to pay attention to a creative person when I'm paying him specifically to exercise that creativity, I let him keep them. I had him replace a couple of the characters that I really didn't like (and which he agreed didn't really fit so well), and of course he's reworked the others as necessary, but you'll see several familiar faces.

Interesting to see the different opinions. As a whole, I like the concept of The Devil's Advocates, but thought there should have been more personality clashes than were apparent from the description. Plus, some of the members just didn't seem to fit as you mentioned before. Golem. for example was portrayed as mostly incompetent, which made me think he wouldn't have his focused based powers for very long(as he be killed and the power objects taken by a more clever, unscrupulous individual). His writeup was also all over the place....which didn't encourage me to like him. Maze was a bit too sympathetic. Granny Hex's power set didn't seem useful given her probable(noncombat) plot role. Vilsimbra had 100 points locked up in a varible power pool that can only be used for Images. That and she was boring. Brother Bone was interesting, but I tightened his concept so that his Multipower had one slot to represent each of the 10 biblical plagues. As a group, I like the general idea of their goals, but didn't see these individuals as the best to accomplish it. I mainly used them as encounters on a mystic quest for my PC group...so if....when...I bring them back...I'd probably revise their writeups yet again. But then agian, that's what I love about hero...nothing is "etched in stone".

Rob

Re: Galactic Champions Word

Sorry' date=' my remark probably was a bit misleading. What I was referring to was options to make supers more effective against inanimate objects and vehicles, up to and including starships. This is for people who want to play the genre convention of very powerful heroes who can cause massive destruction or take on the mightiest war machines, without having to give them astronomical Character Points.[/quote']

 

Ah...okay. That certainly seems fair....and in genre...and yeah it'd be nice to have less than 4 digits in the point total...occasionally....when building high level guys.

 

Rob

Re: Galactic Champions Word

I actually think the "difficulty in killing anyone" is a design feature that correctly models the Genre.

 

For realism (in killing) go to a three stat health level game like WEGS Star Wars.

 

Hawksmoor

Well....my point being that they ARE hard to kill...implying combat capability....so I was questioning the need to make them more combat capable.

Rob

Re: Dean Shomshak's The Mystic World (& Arcnae Adversaries)

Indeed, he will -- I specifically requested that he do so. Obviously a lot of the ones in COTN aren't actually mystic, and so weren't appropriate, but there were lots of good ones to choose from. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following: the Devil's Advocates (well, most of them -- I had him replace some of them); Black Fang; Hell Rider; Lamplighter; Vulshoth (and other Kings of Edom, etc.). There are probably others that just aren't springing to mind. And of course a lot of the Multiverse stuff and other baddies appeared, in earlier, less detailed, and (slightly) less cool forms, in USM or the USMB.

 

But there's a goodly bunch of all-new stuff, too. Overall, the two books are a helluva piece of work and just plain fun to read -- not to mention stuffed full of character and campaign ideas, and Shomshakian clever turns of phrase that make you go, "Hmmm...."

Thank you, Steve. That was very informative. I've actually updated The Devil's Advocates for use in my own campaign as well, so I'll be interested in what Dean has done to update them. For my part, I had to improve their characteristics, which were generally too weak for my game. I also removed/ replaced members. Maze, for example, basically has the same powers as Tesseract, so he was redundant. The others stayed, but for the official version....hmmm...if I were a betting man....I'd say Golem and the dark elf chick both got cut.....possibly Appolyon as well. The rest seemed cool enough to remain...with modifications.

Rob

Re: Galactic Champions Word

I'll just essentially repeat what I've already posted elsewhere: GC is a solidly- and entertainingly-written book' date=' full of great ideas and memorable characters. For anyone who's complained about the lack of "cosmic" scale superheroics in published [i']Champions[/i] products, this book goes a long way toward filling that gap. The optional rules for increasing the combat capability of super beings should be welcomed by those who feel their standard-level four color superheroes aren't tough enough (myself included). The extension of the Champions Universe into the future is logical and coherent, with several interesting twists.

Good to hear the book is good, but what's this about improving the combat capability of heroes? They seem plenty tough already. I suggest the difficulty of killing anyone in the game system as but one example. I'm mainly interested in seeing the take on the genre(though I doubt my group is mature enough to handle the incresed power levels).

Rob

Re: Dean Shomshak's The Mystic World (& Arcnae Adversaries)

Arcane Adversaries should be very interesting. I wonder if Dean will update some of his bad guys from Horror Enemies. That would be great(and save me the work).

Rob

Re: Value of this limitation?

Hmmmm...perhaps I wasn't clear. The armor is just going to be a standard combat uniform bought through an OIF. I just don't wasnt it to stack with the flying force field(as it'd be grossly unfair). In conception, the character I have in mind is not unlike Marvel's Cannonball character, but older, German, and with a military background.

Rob

I want to create a character who flies and has a linked force field. He only has the force field while he's flying(hovering, whatever). I also want to give him a little armor for the times he isn't flying, but I don't want it to stack with the force field defense. I was thinking that this would be a -1/2 limitation on the armor? Thoughts?

Rob

Re: Superassassins?

I've considered The Flatliners. The group normally only has the five members together at one time. Auto-Gunner is a lone wolf type and rarely associates with the others. He's also the most likely to get caught.

Rob

Re: Superassassins?

I'm sorry to hear that. It's a simple document file, so I can't think of what the problem is.

 

Let me try attaching it as a .zip file - see if that works. If you can't get that to open either, you could try downloading Steve Perrin's original attachment. It's on post #58 of this thread.

Thanks. That seemed to do it. I do have a Bogeymane/Freddy Kruger type already in the campaign, but this made an intersting read anyways. On the other hand, a mentalist would make the group's work much easier I suppose.

Rob

Re: Superassassins?

There are always the supernatural killers' date=' such as vampires and lycanthropes. Stalker from 4E [i']Champions[/i] is one good example of the former, and you can find a powerful werewolf in Classic Organizations: Loup Garou.

 

A long-range sharpshooter, equipped with effective anti-supers weapons, is probably the safest way to take on superbeings. You could probably adapt Sniper from 4E Champions Universe, or Thunderbird from Conquerors, Killers and Crooks for that purpose. Any powerful martial artist who can kill with his bare hands (like Jade Phoenix from Millennium City) would also fit.

 

For something a little different, here's an unpublished supervillain of VOICE, posted here to the boards by VOICE creator Steve Perrin - a mentalist who kills people via their dreams:

I think Auto-Gunner fills the "blast them from long range" guy, though he's so unstable he'll likely try to off the heroes on his own.(Hence my logic behind him being a "reserve" member.

Unfortunately, I don't have 4th edition CU or Classic Organizations. I don't remember the Sniper character to be honest. Loupe Garoux I remember....part of Red Doom if I recall.

Now...Jade Phoenix is a possibility.....as my campaign takes place in Millennium City(as all the players and myself live there). My only fear is that he might be too fragile. I'll have to take a look at him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get that Dreamer file to open. I'll assume he was pretty cool.