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Group-centric CharGen


Jedaii

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3 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

You are right.  But typically that is not a Champions thing unless the GM specifically says it is.

Which I won't. If a player decides to limit their hero's usage of powers, that's their decision. Now, there are limitations inherent to using powers within a Multipower and if you get confused just ask. 

Like GURPS Supers, the grunt-work is in Champions' CharGen, but also like GURPS, the actual gameplay is as simple as "3d6 roll under" for almost everything. I remember first buying M&M 2nd edition and thinking it was too fiddly BUT after I got Ultimate Power and cracked the code on creating unique powers, the whole system fell into sharp focus. 

Same with Champions. Just get a strong concept of what your superhero can do and we'll craft them as a group 😉

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Heh.  I have the two giant pdf book thing, and each entry for each power is like two pages, it seems.  So, yeah, intimidating, but I'll probably get the hang of it.

I think it is also frustrating, as I can't find sample characters online very easily.  So it is hard to get an idea of what I should do, where to start.

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image.jpeg.5a0221b28e35854745722efbf1c9f32d.jpegif you have this book, you're in good shape.  It will give you prebuilt powers and all you have to do is change the special effect (I don't want Frost Breath, I want Poison Breath).

I always thought they did this wrong.  I always thought the powers should be built as a cost per d6 instead of the predetermined dice.  But like Jedaii said, its a great book to help figure out how powers are built as it details each of the power modifiers (positive and negative) with a description of what the power 'does', which sometimes help when figuring out the different power modifiers.

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Oh man, I ran HERO 4e for everything back in the day. Champions, Fantasy Hero, a Warhammer 40K campaign... Such a versatile system.

My recollection is that most of the crunch is in character creation. Play was easier than, say, Pathfinder. But I also had some house rules that made Speed more manageable.

The campaign setting looks fully developed to say the least! That's a lot of text to mine for ideas.

 

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Champions plays more smoothly than GURPS (especially if we are essentially taking the SPD action system out in favor of some form of group initiative, as Speed based actions are the hardest part to teach).  There are some penalties for range to consider, but other than that things are usually straight forward in combat.  The attacker adds up his OCV bonuses and compares them to the opponents DCV, the base chance to hit if your stats are even is 11 or less on 3d6, moving up or down from there based on the difference in CV values (i.e. if the attacker has a 12 OCV vs the defender's 10 DCV, then the attacker would have a 2 better chance to hit, so they would need a 13 or less on 3d6).  The math is simple compared to GURPS.

Actions in combat are essential divided into half actions, you can half move (i.e. move up to half your listed move distance) and attack in a standard turn.  There are also martial maneuvers that can complicate things in melee combat, some of them require a full action instead of a half action, and others are defenses that require you to 'abort' or skip your next action to get bonuses to CV and/or have a chance to block or counter an attack.  Some powers work that way too (or can be built so that they do).

Overall, being a veteran of both GURPS and HERO, HERO is easier to get the hang of and much easier on the gameplay math.  The feels of the systems are also opposite, as GURPS is geared to be a simulationist system (or one that tries to take real world circumstances, like physics, into account), where as HERO is highly cinematic (taking the 'have fun and don't think too hard' approach).  For superheroes, I think HERO is the better fit.

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I had a friend like that (the guy that taught me the system) he had some interesting characters.  A guy who had a Teleport, usable against others, damage shield, limited to teleporting anyone who touched him straight up into the air 60", a guy named Orbit who had a 1d6 killing attack punch with double Knockback on it like 5 times.  He barely had to hit someone to send them flying.  Besides the creative ideas, I never came up with a power idea that he couldn't figure out how to make work within the rules.  I'm nowhere near his level of competency with the system.

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On 3/29/2023 at 1:46 AM, PlotDevice said:

@Jedaii How much is magic/the supernatural a reality in this world?  (I did notice Dracula, and references to a couple of magical heroes/villains, but want to check if that's a direction you'd prefer us not to go in).

The supernatural is part of this setting. 

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18 hours ago, karsusthemad said:

"Orbit"? Sounds sort of like they made Saitama from One Punch Man to me. 🤣

Possibly.  How long ago was One Punch Man created?  Orbit was back in the mid 80s.  I loved OPM, but no doubt it is a lot older than when I saw the dubbed, and likely reworked, Anime a few years ago.

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Hi, i really hope someone will help me with my character, just because im clearly aware of what i want to get in the end, buut i may have issues with rules just because im total newb. My character concept is fairly simple, yet im curious about how far weak hero like him will manage to go.

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2 hours ago, Moturnach said:

Hi, i really hope someone will help me with my character, just because im clearly aware of what i want to get in the end, buut i may have issues with rules just because im total newb. My character concept is fairly simple, yet im curious about how far weak hero like him will manage to go.

No worries, mate.  Get your background approved and you'll get the help.  I've been itching to use my  Hero Designer for 6e 🙂

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