Playtest Questions

[The Tweaker]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

And I thought Resilence rolls were a bad idea!

You really made me laugh, man!!! Get a funny point (or whatever)!

[drohem]

Atgxtg is racking up the cookies today!

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Fear of the Duck

SKILL ROLLS
Because of the Low is Good nature of the system surely it makes sense under Opposed Skills (P.168) for the lowest rather then the Highest Roll to succeed. I.E. In the example the Sentry's Sense Roll of 35 should, to be consistent, beat the Character’s Hide Roll of 47 as it is a better success - this just doesn't make sense.

You're referring to one of the optional methods of adjudicating opposed skill rolls, and are apparently ignoring the text immediately before the example you quote:

Using this method, generally the higher a character’s skill at an attempted action, the greater the chance he or she will defeat less skilled (but still successful) opponents. This is a departure from the standard “roll low” paradigm, but allows for quick reading of results.

If you find that optional system non-intuitive, utilize one of the other two suggested (also optional) methods.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Fear of the Duck

EXPERIENCE
We didn't really get a chance to play this through, however as far as we can see if you run a game using all the different Powers the following occurs:

If a GM chooses to run a game using all the different powers, as is explicitly recommended against at several points in the text, experience is likely the least of the problems that will ensue.

Page one of the Powers chapter contains the following text:

This chapter differs somewhat from previous chapters in that it consists of five relatively different systems, rather than a core set of rules and optional systems. Some of these systems are not immediately compatible with one another, while others are easily used side-by-side.

Later, in the section on players using multiple power types, it states:

Having a character use multiple power types can potentially be an unbalancing feature in a game, and the gamemaster should have the final say as to whether your character can begin with more than one power type.

However, you do raise a good point that the text doesn't warn GMs as much as it should about headaches arising from using multiple power types. In my own playtests, I never had any problems adjudicating on the fly if different power types came into conflict, but I should make it explicit to GMs that the potential fuzzy areas are not always worth the reward.

[Atgxtg]

"Rocketed to the planet Earth from another dimension, the infant Chaugnar Faugn last of his hind, was raised by an elderly couple in Arkham, Massachusetts. Because of Earth yellow sun and lighter gravity, Chtugnar discovered he had abilities far beyond those of mortal men. This combined with the congeniality birth defect that led to his exile from his homeworld, led to his becoming to the attention of Merlin the magician, who taught the Great Old One magic and sorcery, neither of which were able to prevent him from be bitten by a radioactive duck that had overdosed on LSD, expanding Chaugnar's mental powers...."

If you work at it hard enough, you can break anything.

[badcat]

I think YOU are on LSD today...

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by badcat

I think YOU are on LSD today...

You're too kind for him, but as an old Champions player, I've seen worse.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[badcat]

Atgxtg is an old friend, from the MRQ forum. We were sort of a very vocal minority there. He is on a roll today, isn't he?

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by badcat

He is on a roll today, isn't he?

It must be those poppy seeds.

Or the rain, that will do it too.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Yup, exactly. The problem with such systems is that the numbers they give are in gamespeak and conversion into and out of real world measurements isn't as easy. Someone going 60miles/100kph knows how long it will take to get to a town 30miles/50km away. Put that into game terms and you got to look at the tables.

Well, to be honest, I don't find looking at a table that painful. You're correct that they don't map unit per unit, but often there's a quite literal conversion.

Pretty much most of the superhero RPGs use an non linear progression of some sort. Even RPG/BRP uses it for SIZ

Its virtually a necessity for manageable numbers when working in the scales involved in superhero games.