steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer) (07/10/84)
References:
[Foxbat Must Die!]
Since I have been thanked (blamed) for helping to create
many of the ideas in Champions 3, I have decided to go back
to George Mac Donald with a number of corrections to the text.
You see, many sections of the new booklet are derivations from
rules stemming from my own campaign. But some have been mutated
to the point that even I have a hard time recognizing them now.
This wouldn't bother me so much, except that by reading the
book, I have noticed several rather blatant holes in the new
rules which are not in mine. I have been spending a few days
trying to find them all, but I am sure that I'll miss something.
The idea is, of course, to see if I can get a better (clearer,
less redundant, less buggy, less restrictive) set of rules if
(when) Champions 3 gets rewritten.
If YOU have any peeves about Champions 3 (or 2 or 1 for that
matter), I would welcome your comments. I will be talking with
George this coming Friday (July 13) -- maybe a bad day for it --
so if you want any pet peeves brought up soon, you should respond
quickly.
BUGS/PROBLEMS ALREADY KNOWN IN CHAMPIONS 3
OVERALL
Overall Image: Poor to Ok. Looks rushed. (WAS rushed for Origins 84)
Layout: Very Poor.+ Art has little relationship to text.
+ Consistant redundancies in text.
+ Printing quality lacking (specks/ghost letters)
Art: Poor. + Not enough imagination to the drawings.
+ Certainly not comic-book quality.
+ Too much of it.
(exceptions to this is the Foxbat story line which was Good)
Essays: Very Good.+ Evil That Lurks In The Hearts: A+
+ Mystery Powers & Disads: A- (no mention of the
fact that you shouldn't curse a player with an
unwanted mystery power/disad).
Campaign Planning: Ok, I guess. Looks somewhat unnecessary to me.
Record Sheets: Poor to Ok. Forms look too bureaucratic.
Char. Generator: Good. About the best you could do with such
a silly idea. Doesn't seem needed.
Char. Disads: Very Good.
Danger Room: Ok. + Incomplete in areas. There's a chart missing.
Go to page 58, and find the Initial Item Types
table. To the right fill in this:
3 - 8 Weapons
9 -10 Robots
11-12 Traps
13-18 Wall
This is the Replacement Item Type chart.
+ Betting Hero Points sounds silly to me. What
does a hero have in his back pocket? A chit
saying "One Hero Point"??
OLD POWERS (Pg 22)
Absorbtion: Ok. + Can make Absorbtion a cost worthy power,
(but) too many "options". Any character with
absorbtion should be portable between games
in a consistant manner.
+ A typo. Optional Rule #2 should read:
"If the power is Absorbed into BODY, STUN,
or END, the points only drain away if the
BODY, STUN, or END is *MORE* than the characters
normal maximum value." (It currently reads *less*).
Flash: Poor. + An unneeded rehash of Flash rules. (If the
player does not read it the first time, why
assume that he will read it the second?)
+ Does not allow Overall Levels // Combat Levels
to be added to OCV/DCV of second flash. (This
leads to "DEX inflation", since Combat Levels
are too expensive to begin with).
+ Too long an explaination. Wordy.
Limited MP: Poor. + A reasonable rule on the face of it.
+ Problem with charge limitations in MP though:
40 Multi (60 active) / +1/2 Lim Mult.
+4 u 6 12d6 EB / 8 charges +1/2
+4 u 6 4d6 RKA / 8 charges +1/2
=48
While a straight 4d6/ 16 charges costs 60.
Multiple Powers: Very Poor.
+ Should be a disadvantage to tie non-related
powers together; everything but attacks.
+ Should specifically disallow tying attacks which
reside in seprate slots of an Elemental Control.
Clips: Good + Very good idea.
+ Charges are much to cheap already.
Continuing Charges: Very Good.
Partially Limited Power: Ok.
+ Isn't this obvious??
+ Examples are too long.
OLD CHARACTEER DISADVANTAGES (Pg 26)
Berzerk: Very Good Good clarification and addition.
Hunting: Very Good Too long an explanation though.
Unusual Looks (expanded): Good
+ Should allow a different name for each subset.
+ Should allow more than one disad (5 points
Bad Smell, and 10 points Bad Publicity).
Vulnerabilities: Very Good
NEW POWERS (Pg 27)
Detect: Very Good (too expensive?)
Duplication: Poor + Too verbose and redundant.
+ Little or no specific options that should
be allowed on Duplication:
Stun/Body/etc Averaged Immediately: +1/4 disad.
Recombine takes maximum instead of average: +1/4 adv.
Duplication to different form (summoning): +1/4 adv.
Show how to buy a Psychic link.
+ Power advantages should be listed in one
(small) chart, instead of being spread around.
Damage Reduction: Very Good. Comment should be less verbose.
Healing: Very Poor+ Already inherent in Regeneration / Recovery
that is Usable On Others.
+ Complicated book keeping of "wounds", instead
of a universal (perhaps more expensive) cure
which works all the time.
+ Does not allow for Healing of Powers which
have been drained or destroyed. (Not a wide
enough range of effect).
+ Healing power is entirely different in mechanics,
than its logical opposite: Power Drain. Healing
should be like a "Power Un-Drain".
+ Too verbose and redundant.
Knockback Resistance: Good. BUT A PRIME EXAMPLE OF REDUNDANCY.
Mental Paralysis: Poor.
+ Already inherent in Ego Based Entangle (old
beef I've had with George on this one).
+ No mention of how Ego Defense is used against
the power. (My rules state that it is used
both to reduce the active points of the attack,
and as a bonus to the EGO for breaking out).
+ Berzerk & Psych Lim crocks should not help
you get out of a Mental Paralysis: ("Berserk
14/14 When Mentally Paralysed") problem.
+ Ego Attack should be the only Ego Power you
can't use to break out of a Mental Paralysis.
Use Telephathy, Mind Control, Mental Illusions
instead (it's more "realistic").
+ Example is redundant.
Multiform: Very Good Both terse and clear. An ideal rules addition.
Neutralize: Good + A bit too cheap when compared with Power Drain
of powers, since Power Drain is Neutralize with
the Cumulative Effects (see Pg 33 bottom left)
advantage. Cumulative Effects: +1/2.
+ Encourages huge attacks (oh well).
+ Comment at end totally unneccessary.
Piercing: Poor + Why buy it? Cost/benifit analysis shows that
Piercer (from the example) will knock out his
target more quickly just buy buying extra dice.
+ Armor Piercing is just as cheap, and more
effective. An AP works equally well vs
resistant defenses, as it does non-resistant.
It does more Stun at the higher levels too.
+ Piercing departs from the Power Advantage/Power
Disadvantage metaphor. If I buy Affects
Desolidified on my attack, do I have to buy
it on the Piercing points too?
+ The active points of an attack can be hidden
spread throughout a character sheet, buy not
listing this power with the attack.
Power Destruction: Poor to Ok
+ Too expensive, if the character gets all those
crocked ways of getting the characteristics back.
+ The character should roll the dice, subtract
the Power Defense, and then divide by the
cost multiple to figure the effect. Otherwise
destroying DEX is too hard, and destroying
END is too cheap.
+ Regeneration should only heal body, not
everything in the world. You should have to
buy Power (attack) Works Vs Special Effect
to get Regen to heal everything.
+ Comment unnecessary and untrue. I would much
rather be hit by a 2d6 DEX destruction, than
a 12d6 / No Range / RKA.
Shape Shift: Poor + Most of it is simply a rehashing of the Instant
Change, Growth, and Shrinking rules. (Only the
15 point ability is actually new).
+ Should have just been added to Instant Change.
Transformation Attack: Good
+ Can be interpreted to replace Healing.
+ Can be interpreted to replace Instant Change
Usable On Others.
+ Can be used as Multiform usable on others.
+ Not clear what happens when Transforming a
Victim who has already taken BODY. Where
does the countdown begin? If the Body has
been Destroyed, does the negitive body not
count either?
+ Is not clear if you can heal cumulative Body
points taken that has not yet transformed
the character. I would assume so...
Variable Power Pool: Very Good. Needs to be more terse though.
NEW POWER ADVANTAGES
Area Effect Cone: Very Good (terse and clear even)
Area Effect (One Hex): Very Good (" " ").
Attack Against Limited Defense: Ok.
+ Forgot to mention Hardened Defenses.
+ AVLD vs Ego Defense is silly when you have
the Ego Based (+1) advantage hanging around.
Attack With Increased Knockback: Poor
+ Becomes silly at the high power levels;
a 16d6 AWIK knocks back a character back
less far than a normal EB bought with
the same number of points (20d6).
+ Dosen't get rid of the "punch a moth to the
moon" problem. In fact it endorses it.
+ I'll buy a Multiple Power Attack TK instead,
for considerably less points.
Attack w/No Range Mod: Very Good
Attack against Special Effect: Ok.
+ Should be "Power Works Over A Special Effect",
since I should be able to have Regeneration
with this advantage, Power Healing, and a
few other powers that you won't see until
Champions 4.
+ Forgot to include the No Normal Use +1/2 disad
on this power. (You can still use the power
normally with this advantage, unless you buy
it with No Normal Use) Otherwise, it appears
to others to be too expensive.
+ All Powers is a bit too expensive. The cost
should be dropped by 3/4 its current advantage
points (x3/4:x1 1/4:x1 1/2).
Continuous Attacks: Ok to Good.
+ Controllable Continuous Attack could have been
factored out into an Uncontrollable Continuous
Attack with the Concentration disadvantage.
+ No mention of the fact that the attacker must
state BEFORE HE FIRES, how much End he is
putting into the Uncontrolable Continuous attack.
+ No mention of the fact that the victim can
stop the attack by moving out of range, out
of sight, going desolid, attacking the focus,
etc. This attack does not go on forever.
+ A referee could get caught letting in a twid
with a 1d6 Cumulative Transformation Attack
with this advantage. (yeach!)
Damage Shield: Poor to Ok
+ Not a wide enough range of application.
+ Too expensive (when you consider the END cost).
+ No mention of what you do with attacks that
are ALREADY No Range.
+ Is only a subset of Passive Attack.
Entangle Advantages: Very Good
Entangle Area: Poor
+ Allows you to "kill the world" with an
exponential area of effect: 1d6 RKA /Area
Effect / Extended Area (16 times). This
covers almost the whole world.
+ Extended Area should work on an increasing
multiple: 1st level multiplies area x2,
2nd level multiplies x3, 3rd x4, etc.
Extended Range: Very Good
Missile Deflection Against Others: Poor to Ok.
+ Already covered in the original rules as
Missile Deflection Usable On Others / At Range
+ Too long. No need for example. Why waste
space for a rehash, when new powers did not
have enough room to be printed?
Penetration Attack: Very Poor
+ Is simply a Multiple Powers with an Attack
Against Limited Defenses added. A 7d6 EB
with Penetration does 7 STUN minimum. It
could just as easily be bought as a 5d6 EB +
2d6 EB / AALD: Hardened Defenses.
+ From this anylisis, we find that the power
is overpriced. Since the 5d6 + 2d6 AALD
costs only 50 points, and the 7d6 Penetration
currently costs 61. It should be at most a
+1/2 advantage.
+ Comment not needed. Text too long.
Teleportation Against Others: Ok to Good
+ Could have been written up as the more wide
ranging Application of Useable Against Others
(not Useable BY Others).
+ Usable At Range could have been factored out.
+ Using a character's own power to resist this
kind of attack is an excellent idea.
NEW POWER LIMITATIONS
Activation Time: Good
+ Included a refrence to Concentration, even
though it didn't make it into Champions 3.
Animate Object: Ok, I suppose...
+ This implies you can animate a high DEF, low
BODY object (like a diamond) with the same
ease that you can on a low DEF, high BODY
object (like a twig). No chance of shattering
either.... is this really only TK??
+ Implies that normal TK can be used in a
similar manner, only less powerful effects.
Is a character with TK really supposed too
be able to "Animate" a window pane to twist
it into different shapes without breakage??
Burnout: Poor + Good idea (its mine), but the bonus (or
lack thereof) makes it laughable.
+ Activation 14- and 11- has the same bonus
of a power with Burnout????? 1 Charge (0
END cost) is a +2, but an 8- Burnout (full
END cost) is a +1 1/2???? Ye gads! How silly!
+ Burnout and Activation should not be allowed
on the same power, since this is redundant.
Ego Power Based on CON: Very Good
Entangle Disadvantages: Ok
+ Entangle With No Defense is a +1???? How silly!
A 4/4 entangle hit by two consecutive 4 BODY
attacks would be entirely uneffected. But a
0/8 entangle would be gone. Same price huh??
Try a +2 disad bonus instead.
Single Target Flash: Ok
+ This used to be "Beam", and included any power
which was usually multi directional, but now only
single directional. Flight with no turn power,
Armor from the front (a shield), Danger Sense
from one direction only, etc. How things
get reduced in power and scope....
COMBAT
Leaping and Throwing Times: Very Good
Recovering Limited Uses: I allow the character to get the power
back more quickly, only if he takes reduced
levels on his charges.
Negative Characteristics: Ok.
+ I don't like the huge breakpoint effect:
A character at 0 is perfectly OK, but if he
drops by 1 he suddenly has to make a bunch
of impossible rolls.
+ Neg STR. I don't like the loss of ground
movement, since flight is too cheap already.
All this does is encourage more buying of flight.
+ Neg CON. Same bitch as top comment.
+ Neg DEX. Same bitch as top comment.
+ Neg INT. Ok I can believe it.
+ Neg COM. Can I drain myself to gain extra
Presence Attack?? That's what it says...
+ Neg PRE. Same bitch as top comment.
+ Neg EGO: WHAT?????? To hell with Mind
Control, get me EGO drain!! This is
too much. How about he simply will do nothing?
Shockwaves: Poor + Bricks are already too powerful in Champions
as it is. This maneuver (no matter how apropos)
should NOT be simply added to the game.
+ This power is simply be the special effect
of a Slipperiness attack (Champions 4 again),
which the brick should have to buy seprately.
================
Well thats it. If you have anything else to add, please send
me mail. I don't have the time to do this, but that hasn't
stopped me before...
Steven Maurer
sun!qubix!steven
decvax!decwrl!qubix!steven