Steve Long

Re: Villains Volume III release date? When we have a specific date, trust me, we'll let you know. No one's more frustrated with the delays than we are, but some things are simply beyond our control.

Re: Megascale Senses See 6E1 215.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? I think we've had enough discussion of Money for the time being. If y'all would like to keep discussing these issues, please start a separate thread. Thanx!

Re: Question on Mutant Madness - Radiation Sickness That's just an error on my part. It should be Drain CON 4d6, costing 40 points. Thanx!

Re: VPP Control Cost As stated on 6E1 409, the Pool cost dictates the total Real Points' worth of powers that can be created with a VPP at any one time. The Control Cost dictates the upper limit on the Active Point cost of any one of those abilities. Neither affects or restricts the other (as shown by the example with a 60 Pool + 90 Control Cost VPP), though by definition if the Control Cost exceeds the Pool then any power with the maximum Active Points is going to have to have Limitations to reduce its cost so that it fits within the Pool. My answer only applies to the 6E rules; I don't answer questions about the 5E rules anymore, generally.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! Just to follow up on what LL said -- yes, there are some mighty powerful villains in there. There pretty much have to be; we are, after all, talking about adventure on a cosmic scale! However, the majority of the characters written up are perfectly appropriate as standard opponents for standard-level play. This includes the various super-gladiators written up in the Moon and Malva chapters, Revenger and his Lunar Amazons, the Selenites, various alien super"humans," Mordace, and so on. But for those times when you need super-mondo-uber-level cosmic power, you can throw a Galaxar, Astron the living asteroid belt, Xarriel, or the like at your PCs. And there are plenty of other such foes hinted at in comments here and there. I could easily fill a villains book just with various villains mentioned in the book but not written up.

Re: Sense Modifiers 1.a-b. See 6E2 9 and APG 95. That’s about all I intend to say on the subject; beyond that you should use your common sense and dramatic sense if these issues come up during game play. 1.c. Aside from the brief note on APG 95, I’m not going to define the term “tracking” any more than I already do in the rulebook. This is another case where you should apply common and dramatic sense if necessary. 2. No. 3. They are in no way, shape, or form identical. Here again, the rulebook says all I intend to say in terms of defining how they work; beyond that you should use common and dramatic sense. 4. No. 5. None. 6. Here again, the rulebook says all I intend to say in terms of defining how Spatial Awareness works; I don’t see any need to provide a rules definition for the term “object.” Beyond what the book says, you should use common and dramatic sense.

Re: Leaping Up Welcome to Hero! We hope you enjoy it as much as all of us do. The general rule for movement, discussed on 6E2 25, is that characters require 2m of movement to move 1m upward (against gravity) -- in other words, upward movement is at half the rate of forward movement. So, a character with Leaping 4m can leap 2m straight up; one with Leaping 6m leaps 3m straight up. There's some more information on Leaping on 6E2 28 as well.

Re: Making an Attack Action a Normal Half Phase Action Whether a given power or ability is unbalanced is up to the GM. What makes sense for one campaign might grossly unbalance another.

Re: Costs Endurance only to Activate and Power Duration See 6E1 374.

Re: Simulate Death I'm sorry, I don't answer game design/philosophy questions.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! Hermit -- our hope is to get the PDF out next week, though it really depends on how long it takes me to review, correct, and index. The final is just shy of 300 pages long, and for a setting book that means a lot of indexing (he said with a shudder).

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! John -- I'll check with Fred on that. He'll probably have to strip away most/all of the text to make a good wallpaper though.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! Yes, special thanx to LL for pitching in and helping with a double-check on continuity.

As I work hard to finalize Champions Beyond, I thought y'all might enjoy a sneak peek: the awesome cover, by Sam Kennedy! It depicts StarGuard and some of the Champions battling the Hzeel in space near Earth. Enjoy!

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf? As soon as we have specific information on a release date we'll let you know, both through the weekly Friday news updates and posts on the Company Questions board.

Re: Sleep deprivation/being waked just after starting to sleep. There are no specific rules for sleep deprivation or similar conditions, though you could probably adapt the Long-Term Endurance rules to model that situation if necessary. If I think of anything worth saying perhaps I'll toss some info into APG2; otherwise I'll leave it up to interested GMs to handle the situation as they see fit.

Re: Concerning Size Templates Sure. Let's take Huge for example: Area Of Effect (1m Radius; +¼) for up to 60 STR, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½). The +¼ Advantage is applied to 60 STR. (60 x (1 + ¼)) is 75. Subtract the initial 60 and you get a base cost of 15 points for the naked Advantage. You apply a +½ Advantage to 15 points (15 x (1 + ½)) and you get the final cost of 22 points indicated in the Template. Hope that helps!

Re: Martial Arts and Aid Typically what happens is the GM says, “That’s against the rules, you can’t do it.” See 6E1 135.

Re: Alternate Combat Value No -- but the rules aren't the final authority on such things. The GM is, and he might not take too kindly to that sort of thing.

Re: Duplication, Multiform and Time Limit If a character has Time Limit on Duplication, Multiform, or Shape Shift, when the defined time period ends the power stops working. Typically this means that all Duplicates instantly recombine with the character, or that he reverts to his true shape, but there are two caveats to keep in mind. The first is special effects; for some types of Duplication it might make more sense for the Duplicates to simply “drop dead,” for example. Second, this effect cannot be used to benefit the character in any significant way, such as providing him with the Ranged Recombination (+½) Advantage for free; it’s up to the GM to adjudicate the situation as seems best for his campaign.

Re: PSLs and Multiple Attacks No, as specifically stated on 6E1 84 for OCV, and thus by implication for DCV as well.

Re: Martial Disarm and Weapons No. Martial Disarm uses the character's STR; if he's wielding a weapon at the time that has no additional effect (unless some additional effect is bought as an ability for the weapon, of course).

Re: Penalty Skill Level (Breaking the System) This seems to be a request for discussion/advice, so I've moved it to the Discussion board.

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