The National Dream: The Great Railway (1970)

I know, I know...I've been laser-focused on the Champions Let's Read for a while, but I just remembered that this blog is about other things, too. A long time ago, I read a book by Canadian historian and author Pierre Berton on Vimy, the great Canadian triumph of World War One. It was a fantastic book, and I couldn't put it down. Berton was a great writer, and wrote a lot of books on Canadian history. I've collected quite a few, and I'm slowly making my way through them in the order that they were published. I'm not a fan of his social attitudes, but there's no denying his acumen for writing about Canada's past. This was not the first book on Canadian history he wrote, but it was the first time he set out to write a popular, narrative history.

The National Dream covers the period from 1871 to 1881 when the Trans-Canada Railroad was just that: A dream. It was the grand ambition of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first Prime Minister. He had a vision of uniting British Columbia to Eastern Canada through a transcontinental railroad. He saw this as an absolute necessity to prevent America from expanding into the uncharted northwest, where Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Yukon are today. It was no secret that America had a policy of Manifest Destiny and considered the entire continent to be their birthright. MacDonald believed that without a railroad and a string of settlements across the prairies and all the way to BC, Canada would not long survive as an independent nation, but would eventually be absorbed into the United States.

The problem was that Canada was still a very young country; Confederation was only four years old, and the country consisted of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, a tiny part of Manitoba (which was made a province in 1870), and the Pacific colony of British Columbia, which was admitted as a province in 1871. One of the conditions for BC's addition to Confederation was the building of a railroad connecting the new province to the East. And there simply wasn't enough money available to make the railroad happen. The Americans had completed their transcontinental railroad in 1869, linking the prosperous East with the Wild West and California at an estimated cost of $60 million dollars, equal to about $1.2 billion today., with a track that was just under 1,800 miles long. Canada wasn't anywhere close to being able to afford a track that would be even longer, stretching from Toronto to Vancouver, just over 2,000 miles.

The issue of the railway was the dominant one in Canadian politics throughout the decade of the 1870s. The Pacific Scandal brought down MacDonald's government in 1873, leading to the first Liberal government in Canadian history under Alexander MacKenzie. The first actual work on the railroad was begun in 1875, but very little was accomplished, and MacDonald was swept back into power in 1878. Determined to make the railroad a reality, he sought financing in London and even in America. Finally, by early 1881, all the pieces seemed to be in place, and construction began in earnest in BC, in Winnipeg, and in Ontario.

The biggest challenges for the railroad were finding the best and quickest route through the Rocky Mountains, and figuring out how to build a railroad through the forbidding terrain of the Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario. Many surveyors traversed the Rockies seeking navigable passes through which a railway could be safely built. Chief among them was Walter Moberly, who was the first white man to see vast reaches of the Canadian Rockies. Moberly's surveying suggested that the best route through the Rockies would be through a northern route and Eagle Pass. This would have brought the railroad through what is now Edmonton, and land speculators had a field day staking claims and selling them to would-be settlers.

Sandford Fleming, the government's chosen Chief Engineer on the project, preferred a different pass through the Selkirk Mountains, the Yellowhead Pass. However, politics got in the way (don't they always?), and Fleming was dismissed in 1880 by Sir Charles Tupper, a member of MacDonald's cabinet and a future Prime Minister himself.

By the time the 1880s rolled around, the railway was still a pipe dream; an entire decade had been wasted with bureaucracy, financing difficulties, and personality conflicts among the surveyors, all of whom insisted that they had the best route mapped out. In the end, though, the railway would take a different route from all of them, and Canada would be forever changed. By 1881, the government finally had the people they needed lined up and ready to make the Canadian Pacific Railway a reality. But that, my friends, is a tale told in the next book.

Obviously, my brief summary isn't going to do justice to Berton's work. His meticulous research and narrative style made this book and its sequel (The Last Spike, 1971) Canadian best-sellers and inspired an eight-part TV miniseries in 1974 that was the highest-rated dramatic programming in CBC history. The entire series is available on YouTube for free, so it's worth checking out if you don't feel like sitting down and reading (but the book is better).

Anyway, that's my digression into one of my favorite topics, history. I'll be adding a review of The Last Spike soon, which tells the dramatic tale of how the CPR actually got built in record time. Until then, may all your dreams come true.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 43)

Okay, we're continuing with some notes on running Champions games. Normals are pretty much all non-superpowered people. And they have a tendency to get caught in the middle of super-battles. Normals are quite fragile in comparison to supers, so players have to be careful when they are between the heroes and the villains. Of course, the villains might be totally fine with normals being on the battlefield; it gives them lots of targets or hostages. It's up to the GM how to handle this; do they all flee from the area, or do they mill about with their cell phones to take all the video they can?

Unbalanced characters can be a problem in Champions. Since players can create their characters any way they want to, it's entirely possible that you have a player whose character is basically a glass cannon: Awesome firepower, virtually no defenses. This can be an issue for some players, since they are trying to create balanced characters, and the unbalanced one can take all the spotlight due to their 20D6 Energy Blast that takes out pretty much every villain in one shot. Remember, all the players are there to have fun, not just one of them.

Some scenarios will be one-off adventures, one-and-done that are quickly forgotten. Others will be part of a long-running campaign. Campaigns are more like the comic book series in which there are many adventures, but there are consequences that carry over into future issues. Again, it's up to the GM to decide how games will be run; some campaigns will be extremely serial, with one overarching plot that carries the entire story. These are fine, but better as mini-series within a campaign rather than expecting the one plot to carry a long-term campaign. Still, as the game progresses, the heroes will meet NPCs, form relationships, gain long-term enemies...just like the comics. And that is a good thing.

Okay, so how do characters improve? This is where experience points come in. Every adventure, the characters will gain one or more experience points. Why so few? After all, other games collect XPs by the hundreds or thousands. Why does Champions have such low XP numbers?

Because, True Believers, in Champions, every experience point is an brand-new power point that you can use to buy more powers, characteristics and skills. You can increase your Energy Blast or Strength, buy a new Omni-Gun, or learn martial arts as your character gains experience. The question, then, is how many experience points to give out? Well, there's a helpful list of situations that can earn (or even reduce) XP for a session. Tougher opposition gains more points; longer adventures will tend to earn more points as well. Playing in character within your character concept is worth additional XP, while playing outside of it can actually reduce your reward. For example, if Spider-Man spends a session brooding and fighting like he's Wolverine or the Punisher, that would be out of character (unless he was really pissed off). Likewise, Batman bouncing around the battlefield dropping quips and pantsing mooks would definitely be out of character. If you're going to be Batman, be Batman.

A final note about XP: Each character earns their own XP in an adventure; it's not a party pool divided evenly. So, some characters may gain more than others depending on how they played.

Alright, the next part of the book is our example scenario featuring the characters we were introduced to earlier during character creation: Crusader, Starburst, and Ogre. It covers nearly three pages, so I'm going to give that its own separate entry next time. And so, once again we say farewell, until we meet again.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 42)

We are continuing with villain motivations today. There are four more here to go along with the four from last page. First up, we have Seeking Power. This is a lesser version of Conquering the World; the villain is power hungry, and is trying to control a nation, other villains, even a city. But they aren't world-beater villains.

Then there's the villains who are just having fun. This can be as innocuous as Bat-Mite's antics trying to get Batman to look good, or as deadly as the Joker's version of 'fun'. Or, it could be villains just getting thrills from beating up heroes, or stealing things, or causing property damage. This covers a wide range of things.

Some villains are treating this as a game, Matching Wits with the heroes. The Riddler, of course, is a classic version of this archetype. So is the Wizard from the Frightful Four, seeking to match wits with Reed Richards. These guys are usually not quite as deadly as the more serious villains, although they certainly don't have to be easy-going, either. The Riddler, after all, has amassed a bit of a body count of his own.

Finally, there's the catch-all motivation of 'Accomplishing a Goal'. This can be literally anything that isn't covered by the other motivations. Maybe the villain is trying to build a spaceship to return to his home planet, or seeking to recover something stolen by another villain (or even, unwittingly, a hero). This one covers a lot of ground.

There's a recommendation to borrow liberally from comics as well as pulp magazines, science fiction, detective stories, etc. Super-hero adventures can be as small as a mystery requiring problem-solving and clue-finding, or as big as stopping Darkseid from conquering Earth and subjugating every living soul on the planet. Each adventure is up to you to figure out.

Alright, now we get classic "bits" from comics, things that appear so often that they are basically superhero clichés. Things like deathtraps, where the villain captures the hero, but instead of killing him on the spot he cackles with glee about how impotent the hero is to stop his plans, monologuing about his greatness and placing the hero in an impossible-to-escape deathtrap to finish him off. Of course, the hero escapes and the villain gets some insight into his powers and skills. Deathtraps can be as simple as throwing the hero out of an airplane (assuming he can't fly or glide), sealing the room and filling it with water (this won't work very well on Aquaman), or recreating the Star Wars garbage chute scene where the walls are closing in. These are just a few examples; deathtraps are limited only by the villain's (and your) imagination.

Then there's threatening the innocent. Villains do this all the time; grab a hostage and use them as a shield or to warn off the hero long enough for the villain to escape. This can also involve more dramatic gestures, like toppling a building or throwing a car at a crowd of people. All of these things are sure to get the heroes to react in a way that let's the villain gain some advantage.

Some villains will play possum, pretending to be stunned or knocked out in hopes that the hero will be distracted by another villain or rescue situation. This can also be used to draw a hero in for a sneak attack. Whatever works; there are no rules for the villains.

Ah, soliloquies, or monologues. Yes, all villains are basically required to do this at some point. But they aren't the only ones; Spider-Man is notorious for his constant chatter during fights. Wisecracks, epic speeches (Hi, Thor!) and the like are just as important as the villain's step-by-step explanation of his evil Master Plan. Use them wisely.

Exclamations are a subset of soliloquies; this is just catch phrases uttered by heroes and villains to show how serious the situation is, or to express surprise at a sudden change. 'Great Caesar's ghost!' is an example from Superman lore; He-Man has 'By the Power of Greyskull!' to keep him warm, and of course, Captain America's legendary 'Avengers Assemble!' battle cry. All of these are examples of exclamations that characters can use to give themselves a bit of an identifying mark.

Okay, so that's some of the common 'bits' you can use to spice up the adventure. Next, there's the problem of getting the characters involved in the scenario. This is especially important for the first scenario, where it's entirely possible the heroes don't know each other at all, and maybe haven't ever met before. This can be as simple as superhero coincidence magic, where several heroes will just happen across the scene of a crime at the same time, or perhaps the characters are contacted and made to work together to solve a particular problem on behalf of the token Rich Guy. There are tons of ways to get them together; just don't use the 'mysterious stranger at an inn' routine. That's a whole different game.

Now we get some general notes on playing, or how to conduct the game. Since Champions characters can be rather complex (especially in later editions), it's recommended that players only play a single hero at a time. This not only gives them more screen time in the game, since they are only sharing the spotlight with one other character per player, but it also gives more time to develop that character's personality and history as they are the player's sole focus for the duration of the game.

Unlike Traveller, this game doesn't recommend a lot of players. Even a single character can get into all sorts of trouble on his own, so beginning GMs shouldn't run too many players. They don't give a target number, but considering the typical size of a superhero team is about six people, that would seem to be a reasonable number of players, as well.

It's also recommended that the GM take copious notes to keep track of the small details. Consistency isn't always going to be perfect, but it's something to consider keeping track of. Furthermore, those little details can end up being quite important later on. Besides, you know the players are going to be taking down notes on every odd thing they encounter, so give them something to play with. Plus, it's possible that in a future supplement, someone will produce a running record of their game sessions so people can marvel at a well-run superhero campaign.

Finally, on this page at least, we have a discussion of background information. If miniatures are available, they are recommended. If not, it's on the GM to describe not only the scenario, but also the scenery in case fighting happens. After all, it doesn't do anyone any favors if the brick hero doesn't know about the park bench just sitting there, waiting to be used as a club on a bad guy's head. So, give them some property to destroy.

And that's it for this page. Next time, we'll learn about experience points and how they work, and get our first example of game play. Can't wait!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 41)

Today, we will finish up with the weapons and the last part of combat: Property damage. Then, we'll go straight into building scenarios for Champions games. Ready? Let's go!

So, we have weapons advantages to look at first. There are three of them, so we'll go one at a time. First, Weapon has a large number of uses. This is basically a Charges advantage rather than a limitation, since it has more than 15 charges and thus will be more efficient than a power that normally uses Endurance Pips. If the weapon has between 15 and 25 charges, it's a +¼ advantage; up to 50 is a +½ advantage, and up to 100 is a +¾ advantage.

Autofire: This is firing multiple shots at once. Each shot is hitting the same target; you can't split them up at this point. Your attack gets a +4 to OCV, and the range modifier is halved. If you make the attack roll, you hit the target once. For every 2 points below the target number you roll, you hit an additional time. For example, after all modifiers the target is a 9 or less. If you roll a 6, you hit the target once for beating 9, and once more for beating 7 (two less than 9). You then roll two separate damage attacks; they are not combined. Autofire uses 10 shots, and is a +¼ advantage.

The third weapon advantage is Selective Fire. This means you can either shoot single shots or Autofire with the same weapon. This is a +½ advantage.

Now, your weapons are not limited to these advantages; they can also use the normal Power Advantages from earlier in the book. For example, grenades have the Explosive advantage. A 'mind-blast gun' built by a super-scientist might have Based on Ego Combat Value, or a microwave gun uses the No Normal Defense advantage. Likewise, limitations such as Limited Uses (Charges) and Focus are very, very common for weapons.

Alright, now we get to the brick's favorite pastime: breaking things. Things are always being broken in superhero comics. Cars, buildings, lampposts, construction sites, nuclear power plants...everything is a target at some point. So, every object has a Body Pip score to show how much damage they can take before breaking. Their Body Pip score also counts as their Defense score, in case someone is hiding behind it. If an object takes twice its Body score, it's gone. Vaporized, destroyed, whatever; it's not there anymore. For example, Nightshade blasts a brick wall, which has 8 BODY. He rolls his damage and scores 9 BODY points. The wall now has a hole in it, but it's still standing.

We then get a list of examples of things that can be broken in the game, such as reinforced concrete, automobiles, light poles, fire hydrants, bank vaults, tanks, airplanes, helicopters, and more. Some of them can have higher BODY scores if they are extra-thick or heavy; some of them (machinery) are generally rendered nonfunctional if they take half their BODY. For example, an airplane is given a BODY score of 10; if it takes 5 BODY, it's not flying anymore. It's still physically intact, but its guts are scrambled and will need to be repaired.

And that's it for the combat section. Yay! Now, on to the scenario building section.

First of all, the scenario you are creating needs a theme. This can be as simple as 'beat up the bad guys', or stopping their goals, such as robbing a bank or conquering the world. Or, the characters could be working against nature (trying to prevent a flood, or minimizing the damage from an earthquake, etc.). A great way to find a theme is to use a character's Disadvantages, such as Hunteds and DNPCs.

We now get a list of possible motivations for the villains; some will apply to certain characters, others will not. It depends on the type of villain. Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor have much different motivations than the Joker or the Rhino.

Conquering the World is a classic for megalomaniacal epic villains; generally, it involves complex plans of blackmail to force governments to bow to the villain's invincible might. Perhaps the villain is threatening nuclear destruction, or preparing to unleash a plague, or simply becoming powerful enough to defeat anyone who stands against them.

But, as a wise old butler once said, some men just want to watch the world burn. These guys aren't interesting in taking over the world; they want to destroy it. Galactus is a classic example; he's just hungry, and Earth is on the menu. Or an ocean-based villain seeks to flood the surface world and end human civilization. Some plots can parallel the ones from the previous motivation; the difference, of course, is that the villain isn't trying to blackmail anyone; he's actually going to do the big terrible thing.

Revenge is a classic; the villain wants to get back at the guy who threw him in jail the last time they fought. Or, the villain feels that the hero somehow wronged him; maybe he failed to save the person's loved one, and thus he became an embittered villain. These are best developed in play; a villain's first appearance shouldn't involve revenge unless it's part of his origin story.

The last one on this page is one of the simplest: The bad guy wants to get rich. Whether it's just getting money for the sake of having it, wanting to really upgrade his lifestyle, or he's trying to finance a more grandiose scheme that will allow him to conquer or destroy the world, money is a necessary component of his plot. This can range from a simple bank robbery to stealing the value of the world's financial markets.

And that's it for this page. There are more motivations on the next page, but we'll get to them next time. Until then, up, up, and away!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 40)

Alright, we're continuing on with weapons and, eventually, armor. First of all, we get descriptions of some of the special weapons on the table from the previous page. The Manpack SAM is a heatseeker; if the target is generating large heat blooms, there's no range modifier. However, if there's no heat, there's no missile lock, and it won't fire. Velocity is...400" per segment. Well, that's fast. I mean, ridiculously fast. Stupidly fast. That's a Flight speed of 4800" per turn, which with a SPD of 6 means you bought 800" of flight. That's 1600 points. Nobody is flying that fast in combat, period. Sure, with lots of non-combat multiples you could get there, but damn, that's ridiculous.

Next is the Heavy SAM, which is radar-guided, so it will only target metallic or large targets, and again there's no range modifier. And it's 550" per segment, even faster than the Manpack SAM. The Antitank Missile is flying at a paltry 100" per segment, which is still 1200" per turn, or 200" of Flight at SPD 6. I'm not sure they really thought the whole 'cost of flight speed' thing through for these weapons. Because it's simply not possible to buy those types of speeds for characters without putting massive limitations on the power.

The Shotgun has a special attack; anyone hit by a shotgun blast takes three separate 1D6 Killing Attacks, each applied against his resistant PD. So, if he's got 8 points of resistant defense, a shotgun isn't going to hurt at all.

So, that's the weapons. Next are the Sights. These are just accuracy-aiders for the various weapons, and three are listed here: A Telescopic Sight, which gives a +1 to OCV and a +3 to the overall range modifiers, and costs 4 points; a Laser Computing Sight, which is +2 OCV and +6 Range, costing 8 points; and a Starlight Scope costing 4 points which offers no bonuses but cancels out the night-time penalties. All sights take an extra phase to use, though, so it's not something to do when you're in the middle of a fight.

Alright, that covers ranged weapons. Next up are the melee weapons. Like the ranged weapons, these are given a more general range instead of specific weapons. There are four listed here: Knife (+½D6 HKA, 5 pts), Sword (+1½D6 HKA, 12 pts), Nightstick (+1D6 normal damage, 2 pts) and Club (+2D6 normal damage, 5 pts). The knife and sword only do their listed damage unless the character has an existing Killing Attack outside of them that he can add their damage to.

It's a short section; next up are the Explosives. These are basically Energy Blasts or Ranged Killing Attacks that have the Explosive power advantage, meaning they do damage to everything within a certain radius, with distance reducing the damage proportionally. We get six explosive devices (Frag grenade, concussion grenade, dynamite stick, 4 dynamite sticks, mortar round, and howitzer round) plus a bonus: Gas Tank. Yep, there are rules here for blowing up a gas tank. That's always fun.

Armor. Not the power, although that is what you would use to buy these devices. These are the sort of stuff cops or SWAT teams might be wearing. All of them are fully resistant, of course. Bulletproof vests give a +6 to PD and ED, Flak vests +8, and Flak suits +8 with a better chance of working. The first two have Activation rolls of 11 or less; the suit has 14 or less, since it covers more area. Again, there are point costs given in case players want their own characters to have this equipment.

And that will do it for this page; there's a quick tease at the bottom of what to expect on the next page, which is: Weapon Advantages. See you then.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 39)

Hey, faithful readers! If you've made it this far, you must really like old-school RPGs, because this Champions read-through has dominated the blog for the past little while. There are other things to talk about, of course, but for now I'm sticking with this. And so are you, so kudos.

Alright, we continue with details on falling damage. Specifically, a table that shows how fast and how far you fall, broken down by segments. Did you know that in twelve seconds, you can fall 285", or 570 meters? That's half a kilometer. That will hurt. Velocity maxes out at 30" per segment, so the most damage you'll take from falling is only 30D6. No wonder they call it terminal velocity; a fall that hard is pretty much guaranteed to kill any normal person.

Oh, there's an interesting rule. If a character is conscious, he may subtract his Superleap inches from the number of dice of damage done. So if the Hulk is falling, and he's got 20" of Superleap, terminal velocity on him will only be 10D6, which isn't even going to stub his toe. You can also slow your falling velocity if you can grab or fall through something. Grabbing something subtracts its BODY pips from the velocity; if the velocity exceeds the object's BODY, it snaps. You still have the lower velocity, though.

And now, we come to the weapons. The weapons table is basically just ranged guns of various types. Not specifics; you won't find stats for a Glock or a .44 Magnum, but there are stats for a 'pistol', 'rifle', 'autocannon', and 'tank gun'. There are light, medium and heavy variants for several of these as well. What's interesting is that the damage listings comes in two parts: Killing damage and Normal damage. This is so you can take a weapon as an Energy Blast, for example, which does normal damage rather than killing damage. Super-agent blasters, for example. They're high-tech plasma rifles, but they work the same as a normal rifle, just doing normal instead of killing damage. The choice has to be defined when the weapon is bought with points. Note that 'STUN only' is also an option.

The table also gives the range mods for each weapon; some of them are very, very accurate. Instead of the normal -1 per 3" rule we have seen, the more powerful guns have range mods of -1 per 6" for a machine gun, -1 per 16" for a heavy autocannon, and -1 per 24" for a very heavy tank gun. Autocannons and tank guns have to be mounted on vehicles or in static mounts; the range mod includes the 'braced' modifier already, so you can't take it again.

The table gives the cost of the weapon to buy it as a power as well. There are three costs given for the portable weapons, listed as 6/11/13, for example. The lowest point total is for a weapon that fires one shot per phase; the second is for weapons that only shoot on Autofire mode, and the third is for weapons that can do both.

Finally, there are some special weapons at the bottom, including a shotgun and surface-to-air missiles. these all just do killing damage; they don't mess around. The heavy SAM actually does killing explosion damage, which is just nasty.

I know, it's another short page. But it's done, and there's nothing I can do about it. Next time we'll get more details on some of the special weapons, as well as rules for sights, melee weapons, and explosives. Blowing stuff up is always fun in comic books, isn't it?

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 38)

Welcome back, and we're still talking about movement. We get a note that if a character has skill levels that can be applied to his Flight power, he can use those levels to lower his Turn Mode by one inch for each Skill Level applied. We also get a visual example of how Turn Mode works, which is helpful.

If you're climbing in the air, it takes 2" of Flight to gain 1" of altitude. You can dive 1" per every 1" of Flight for free, but you have to use your Turn Mode to pull out, so be careful not to get too close to the ground or you will definitely get a boo-boo. Oh, and your STR is limited while you're flying; you can only use as much STR as you have inches of flying speed. This doesn't affect your punching damage, but it does affect how much you can carry or move while flying.

If you're out of combat, you can magnify your Flight speed for that phase. This is called 'noncombat movement', and it's calculated by your points in Flight divided by 5 and multiplied by your inches of Flight per phase. Let's see if I have this right. If you have 20 points in Flight, that's 10". Divide the points in Flight by 5 and you get 4 (20/5), multiplied by your inches of Flight is 10, so your noncombat movement would be 40" per phase. Well, that's not too shabby. And it doesn't cost you extra END, either.

Gliding is reliant on atmosphere for moving around; it uses the same Turn Mode and dive rate as Flight, although climbing is much better when there are either thermals or good winds. Leaping is 1" per 5 points of STR, unless you buy additional. A straight-up leap is 1" per 10 points of STR, and a leap is a full move action. Unlike the Hulk, you can't change direction in mid-leap, either. Finally, there's Teleport. You can't use it as a way out of taking falling damage; if you are falling at, say, 30" of velocity and you try to teleport away, you're still going to be falling at 30" after the teleport.

Now, there's an optional rule here for 'segmented movement', which basically means you're moving even on phases you don't have available to you through the fact that you're actually moving, not starting and stopping over and over again. This can apply to vehicle movement, or falling, or other situations where your SPD isn't really a factor (so, basically out of combat only). There's a handy table that shows not only the inches per segment, but also the equivalent in KPH and MPH. All you need is 10" per segment to get to 40 MPH. With a SPD of 6 and a Flight or Running speed of 30", you would actually be moving as fast as a car on the freeway. Isn't that lovely? There are also some brief formulas to calculate your speed for numbers that aren't on the chart.

Last but not least, we have rules on falling objects. Everything falls at the same rate, subject to having movement powers such as Flight or Gliding that can mitigate those circumstances. If it's falling, it uses segmented movement for additional realism. Every segment, the object's speed increases by 5" until the maximum of 30" is reached by segment 6. Bear in mind that a falling object takes damage when it hits, but we'll get to that on th enext page. Objects that have greater density (every doubling of mass over 100 kg) will increase the maximum velocity by +1" per segment.

Alright, another page in the books. On the next page we will finish up the falling rules, and then we'll get into...weapons. Yep, machine guns and antitank missiles are coming right up. Don't you dare miss it!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 37)

We are rolling right along; there are only twenty pages left to go. Let's continue our review of Perception rolls. As I mentioned last time, a PER roll is a normal roll of 3D6 where the goal is to roll 9 + INT/5 or less. So, an average person with an INT of 10 would need an 11 or less. Enhanced Senses can affect this roll; for example, Wolverine would have Enhanced Senses for his sense of smell. Range modifiers apply to PER rolls just as they do to attack rolls: -1 to the roll per 3" of distance between the character and whatever they are attempting to perceive. At night, PER rolls related to sight get a -1 per 1" of distance unless the character has Enhanced Senses that allow them to see clearly at night, such as UV Vision. As a rule of thumb, the combat modifiers can be applied to PER rolls as well (for example, seeing a very small target would take a penalty to the roll due to the target's size).

The next paragraph discusses how different types of PER rolls can be adjudicated; Hearing PER rolls won't be as accurate for targeting someone as a Sight PER roll. And the last sentence says that Sight PER rolls at night are at a base of -3. This directly contradicts the previous paragraph's note that it's -1 per 1" of distance. I would ignore that final sentence and stick to the range modifier version myself.

Don't overdo PER rolls; some things are just plain obvious. However, PER rolls do have a use in combat; if you're in a fight with Megaman and his henchman Ratfink is sneaking up behind you, a PER roll might help you avoid a sneak attack from the dastardly villain. However, don't use PER rolls too often; it will slow down the game.

Okay, now we move to Characteristic rolls. These are just the same as PER rolls; you roll 3D6 and the target number is 9 + the characteristic's value divided by 5. So, a STR roll (you're trying to lift a bus, for example) would be targeting 9 + STR/5. If your STR is 40, then the roll would be 9 + 40/5, or 9 + 8, or 17 or less. A DEX roll with a DEX of 20 would be 9 + 20/5, or 13 or less.

There are a few examples given of how Characteristic rolls might be used. Are you falling out of a building and trying to grab a ledge to save yourself? Make a DEX roll to break your fall. Are you trying to make some sort of scientific breakthrough? Make an INT roll. Are you trying to stay stoic under torture? Make an EGO roll. There are other possibilities as well, although I have a hard time seeing where you might need to make a Comeliness roll. As with PER rolls, don't overdo them, and use common sense. If the Thing is trying to lift a bag of cement, he doesn't need to make a roll to do it.

Now we get into Movement. The very first sentence says, 'Champions is best played on a floor or tabletop.' What floor would that be? Tabletop is definitely preferred; I'm not crawling around on the floor, not at my age. Regardless, putting a map of the setting and counters or minis on it will make visualizing the combat much, much easier. Especially with superhero combat, which can have wide ranges as characters zip around the battlefield. It's not absolutely required, but it's definitely and highly recommended.

The types of movement mentioned here are running, swimming, flying, gliding, leaping, and teleporting. That pretty much covers all the basic superhero modes of movement. There's also tunneling, but that's got its own rules from the power description earlier in the book.

In general, everyone has a base movement distance depending on how they are trying to move. Everyone has 6" of running and 2" of swimming, unless they have a Physical Limitation that restricts them from doing either of those. Everyone has leaping, as well, based on their STR score. In a phase, a character can do a partial move or a full move as they choose. A full move is any distance greater than 1/2 your movement distance; for the basic 6" running, that means if you move 4", that's a full move action and you can't do anything else until your next phase unless you are doing a Move By or a Move Through combat action.

If you move 1/2 or less of your full distance, that's a partial move and you can still make an attack or some other kind of action in the phase. Most actions are listed as taking a '1/2 move' to do, including many of the combat maneuvers. The only ones that take up more than a 1/2 move are Haymaker, Kick, Move Through, and Move By. All movement costs END at a rate of 1 END per 5" of movement. Noncombat movement (we'll get to that) doesn't cost additional END.

Alright, so we start with the most basic: Ground Movement. This is your Running speed. As mentioned earlier, you start with a base of 6" per phase. If you start and end your phase out of combat, you can actually double that speed. If you enter or come out of combat in a phase, you can't use noncombat movement. To add Running speed costs 2 points per 1" of additional movement, so bumping your base running speed to 10" would cost you 8 points. Running can be pushed like a power at up to 5 extra inches of speed at an END cost of 2 points per additional inch.

Swimming is basically the same as running, except obviously you're in water, and your base speed is 2" per phase unless you buy enhanced swimming speed. In all other ways, swimming uses the same rules as running.

Flight is the next most-common means of movement for superheroes. Flight can be pushed just like any other END-using power, at a cost of 2 END per additional inch of flight speed, up to a total of 5 additional inches and 10 END. However, flying has something called a Turn Mode. This defines how often you can make a 60° turn in the air. Your character's Turn Mode is defined by your total flight distance divided by five. So when you are flying, you can make your first turn at any time in your flight path. However, once you do that first 60° turn, you can't turn any further until you have traveled a number of inches equal to your Turn Mode. So, if Starburst's flight distance for the phase is 15", his Turn Mode is 3". Starburst can start his flight phase traveling 8", then turns; he can't turn again until he has traveled an additional 3". There's a rule where you can only make a maximum of five evenly-spaced turns during a phase, and that takes us to the end of the page. What that means, though, is you can't do a full 360° turn in a single phase in the air. You can do it on the ground; ground and swimming movement have no Turn Mode.

Well, that was exciting. Another page done, and we're going to continue with movement next time. Until then, same Bat-time, same Bat-blog.

Wouldn't that be funny to see Batman writing a crimefighting blog?

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 36)

Alright, this is a short page today since the top half of the page is just artwork; if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was Foxbat (Champions fans, you know who I'm talking about). Anyway, that leaves only about half the page for the text, so this shouldn't take long.

We start with an example of Pushing a power, in this case Strength. There's a wall falling on a helpless old lady, and the unnamed hero has a STR of 40. Pushing his STR to the max will give him a STR of 50 for a brief period, hopefully enough to allow the old lady to get out of the way. The END cost for this is 8 for his normal STR of 40, plus 10 for the maximum pushing, for a total of 18 END. Worth it for the old lady, I think.

There's also a note that you can't push a power that doesn't cost END. Well, that makes sense. I can't think of any of those powers that would need to be pushed. Maybe Armor, but the rules say no.

Okay, now we get away from the physical stuff and into the psychological stuff. No, not mental combat. This is all about Presence Attacks. Let's face it, superheroes and villains make an impression. Picking up an F-150 and throwing it down the street makes an impression, too. Sometimes heroes and villains will use this impressive attribute to shake people up or make them 'ooh' and 'aah', or maybe just collapse in fear. In Champions, this is known as a Presence Attack.

Basically, a Presence Attack is an attack that requires no attack roll; everyone who witnesses the Presence Attack is affected. For every 5 points of PRE the character has, 1D6 is rolled. A surprise Presence Attack gives an additional +1D6, as does doing something violent (F-150 tossing, for example). If other unusual circumstances warrant, the GM can give additional bonuses. Total up the dice and compare it to the PRE of everyone in the vicinity. It can be assumed that normal people have a PRE of 10 to save time.

If the total of the PRE Attack is equal to or greater than the target's PRE score, the target is impressed, and hesitates long enough for the character to act ahead of them in that phase. The rules here aren't clear on whether or not a PRE Attack is actually a full phase action, although that would make sense to me. I don't remember if that was clarified in later editions, although I think it's safe to assume it was.

If the roll is at least double the target's PRE score, the target is very impressed and will hesitate for 1/2 a move; the character making the PRE Attack gets to move ahead of them in that phase.

If the roll is at least triple the target's PRE score, the target is awed and will hesitate for a full phase, being at 1/2 CV for that entire phase.

And if the roll is at least four times the target's PRE score, the target is cowed, may surrender, faint, or run away; the GM makes that call. Again, a PRE attack affects everyone in the area, not just one target. So a violent PRE Attack is a great way for a villain to get people running and screaming, the better to distract the hero.

If you try to do a second PRE attack against the same targets, it's not going to be as effective; each successive PRE attack takes a cumulative -1D6 to the roll. I guess people do get used to just about anything, don't they?

Lastly, we have Perception Rolls. These have been mentioned before, of course. But here we learn that a PER roll is for noticing things that aren't all that obvious (very useful for detectives), or to notice something going on while you are in combat. PER Rolls are always determined as 9 plus INT/5. So the average person (INT 10) will have a PER roll of 11 or less. Reed Richards, with an INT of at least 30, is going to have a minimum PER roll of 15 or less. Considering how obtuse Reed can be, that doesn't ring quite true. Nevertheless, that's where we stand. Of course, PER rolls can be improved by Enhanced Senses.

And that's it for this page. As I said, it's a short one thanks to the artwork. The next page has no art, so there will be more to talk about. Until then, may your Spider-Sense always tingle.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 35)

Alright, we are continuing our journey through the combat rules. There is one other damage effect that needs to be dealt with: Knockback. As mentioned on the previous page, Knockback is simply the result of being punched or blasted so hard that you go flying backward. It's a common staple of comic book battles, so of course it needs to be incorporated into these rules.

To calculate Knockback, simply roll 2D6. Subtract the result from the BODY damage done by the attack. Not the damage that got through, but the damage that was rolled. If the result is negative, there's no Knockback. If the roll is equal to the BODY damage, the target is knocked down. A positive result gives the number of inches the target is knocked back (remember, one inch equals two meters in Champions). So, Nightshade hits Blockhead with his Energy Blast and rolls 31 STUN and 9 BODY. Blockhead will shrug off most of that damage, but Nightshade then gets to roll for Knockback. Rolling 2D6, he gets a roll of 5. Subtracting 5 from 9 gives a Knockback of 4", or 8 meters.

Now, the 2D6 roll can be modified under certain circumstances. If the target is flying, you only roll 1D6 for Knockback, meaning they're far more likely to be knocked back in the air. If the target is underwater, add 1D6 to the roll. If it's a Killing Attack, add 1D6 to the roll. And if it is a Martial Arts maneuver, add 1D6 to the roll. So, if Wolverine slashes Sub-Mariner in the water, the Knockback roll will actually be 4D6, making it very unlikely that Subby will be moving at all.

Knockback can actually do damage; a character who gets knocked back into a wall or other solid upright object takes 1D6 normal damage per inch of Knockback. So, in the example above, if Nightshade's shadow blast knocks Blockhead back into a concrete wall, then Blockhead is going to take another 4D6 of normal damage. If Blockhead gets knocked back into another character, then both characters will take 4D6 damage. And Nightshade will score additional Cool points for that maneuver, assuming that Blockhead is knocked back into another villain.

No, there are no Cool points in Champions. But there should be.

However, the damage rolled for Knockback is also dependent on what the target is knocked into. If the structure has a low BODY score (we'll get to that part later), the maximum damage the Knockback victim can take is 1D6 per BODY score. If the character is knocked back more inches than the wall has BODY, then he goes through the wall and keeps on going. His Knockback distance is reduced by 1" per BODY point of the wrecked obstruction. So, if Nightshade knocks Blockhead back 11" (that's a hell of a BODY roll for him, but it is possible), and Blockhead goes through a wall with 6 BODY, he will take 6D6 damage from going through the wall, and his total Knockback is reduced to 5". If the target isn't knocked into anything and just hits the ground, he takes 1D6 per 2" of Knockback.

The Acrobatics skill can save a character from taking Knockback damage. If Crusader makes an Acrobatics roll when Ogre punches him, assuming he's conscious after getting hit, he will roll with the punch and take no damage from the ground. However, Acrobatics won't help him if he gets punched into a wall.

Flight can also reduce Knockback if the character announces that he's using some or all of his Flight inches to resist being knocked back. In that case, each inch of Flight used for resisting reduces Knockback taken by 1". Also, heavier targets (such as those under Growth or Density Increase powers) will take less Knockback (the exact amount is in the power descriptions; otherwise, it's 1" of reduction per 2x human mass of the target. So a robot that weighs 800 kg will take 3" less of Knockback due to its mass.

Got all that? Good. That covers hurting people. Next, we'll talk about how to heal. Or at least, recover from the damage that was taken. During a battle, the combatants are going to lose STUN and END (and possibly BODY as well). These are finite resources; run out of them and problems occur. Fortunately, all characters come equipped with a Recovery (REC) characteristic to help alleviate or delay those problems.

First of all, at the end of every turn (after Segment 12 is complete), everyone automatically gets a Recovery unless they are at -21 or lower STUN. For everyone else, after Segment 12 they get to add their REC score to both their STUN and END, up to their maximum scores. For example, Nightshade has a STUN of 25, an END of 50, and a REC of 10. While fighting Blockhead, he's used up 24 END and taken 9 STUN in damage. At the end of the turn, he automatically adds 10 to his END, bringing it to 36, and gets all of his STUN back, resetting it to 25. The additional STUN recovery point is wasted.

Characters can also take a breather during a fight, using one of their phases as a Recovery phase. They can't do anything else, including expending any END, and in return they get to recover STUN and END just like a normal post-Segment 12 recovery. However, during this phase their CV is 0. If a character is holding his breath for whatever reason (gas, underwater, etc.) he can't take a recovery at all, not even post-Segment 12. In fact, holding your breath costs you at least 1 END per phase. If you run out of END, then you lose 1 STUN per phase. And if you run out of STUN, you lose 1 BODY per phase until you die.

Speaking of BODY, REC also helps with that; divide your REC by 10, and that's how many BODY pips you recover per day. So, getting stabbed isn't going to be healed in just a few minutes, unless of course you have Regeneration.

Alright, now we talk about Endurance. We've already discussed it pretty thoroughly, so this is just a couple of paragraphs clarifying what we have already learned. First of all, you pay 1 END for every 5 points of power (or STR) that you use in a phase. If a power isn't used at full capacity, you don't pay the full END cost; you only pay for the amount you actually use. So, a 40-point power would cost 8 END to use at full capacity. I will note that this did get changed in a later edition (I want to say 3rd, but it might have been 4th) to 1 END per 10 points, which made a huge difference in END expenditures. Note that there are some powers that cost no END, as do all skills.

If you run out of END but need to keep fighting, you drain STUN as END. For every 2 END you are trying to use, you take 1D6 STUN damage. There's no defense against this, and you can knock yourself out by overexerting yourself.

Lastly, characters can Push their powers beyond their normal limits. This isn't easy, and it's exhausting; you can push your power up to 10 additional points (so Nightshade's shadow blast, normally 8D6, can be pushed to 10D6 if he really needs to). Each additional point costs 1 END to use, so it's not something to be done on the regular. Save Pushing for emergencies and boss fights.

And that's it for this page. We'll continue next time with additional combat rolls that might come up on occasion. Until then, my friends.