Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!parsec!ctvax!uokvax!rigney From: rigney@uokvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: Let's see some superheroes - (nf) Message-ID: <4376@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 8-Dec-83 04:50:41 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4376 Posted: Thu Dec 8 04:50:41 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 10-Dec-83 02:39:29 EST Lines: 54 #R:ihuxw:-60600:uokvax:2400019:000:2615 uokvax!rigney Dec 6 12:51:00 1983 If you've been successfully running Champions for a year, I'm not sure my advice can help, but I'll give it anyway. Details provided on request. I've run Champions for 2.5 years, and currently have 3-5 players with 70 characters between them, 100 more from printed sources, 120 from other campaigns, 200 of my own design, and about 100 more on the drawing board, in varying stages of completion. I'm a comics fan, but my players aren't. 1) The most important thing is to read comics, and learn from them. A world of Superheroes has more differences than just the presence of people with superhuman powers; for example, coincidence and irony play a larger role. If your players read comics too; even better. Even if they don't (mine don't), they should have that spirit. 2) Get the characters involved, make them care. Make the players care, too. This is true in all RPGs, but especially in SHRPGs, because motivation is so important. If the players don't care whether innocent bystanders get wasted or not, a lot of flavor is lost. This doesn't mean you can't run heroes that don't care about civilian casualties, but it's generally more fun for the players to (willingly) operate under the constraints of The Heroic Code. All this applies even more so to DNPCs. A DNPC should never be taken for the points, and you should use every trick you can to tie the Hero more strongly to his DNPC (For those unfamiliar with Champions, DNPC is a Dependent Non- player character, some acquaintaince or friend of the hero that gets involved, such as Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, or Lois Lane). Especially fun is a competent DNPC with overconfidence, that keeps overextending their abilities. I've seen players groan in horror as their character's Beloved sandbags the Villian from behind just before he zaps the hero. Of course, the Villian isn't hurt by the puny attack, just distracted and annoyed, which hardly bodes well for the Beloved. 3) Make the normals vulnerable. In Champions, you can do this by reducing the BODY of normals (and most agents) from 10 to 5. This gives heroes much less margin for error in their attacks, and usually results in their having to pull attacks severely, often enough to not be able to take the agent out on the first shot. Also, it makes bystanders much more fragile, nearly insuring their death from straying blasts, falling rubble, etc., if the hero doesn't intervene. It also allows pistols to have a chance of killing with a single shot.