Page 9 is the last page covering characteristics. Specifically, it covers Strength and how it works in the game with regards to lifting, jumping and throwing. There is a Strength Chart that runs from -20 to 100 STR, in increments of 5 points. It's very useful to see what that Strength score actually means in the game. The lifting capacity goes up very quickly; as mentioned earlier, 5 points of STR doubles your lifting capacity. So, a STR of 10 means you can lift another human (100 kg), but that's about all you can do with them; you can't toss them or long jump with them on your back. At 15 STR, you can lift twice that amount, or 100 kg. 20 STR is 200 kg, and the example of a motorcycle is given. At 45 STR, you can lift an F-15 over your head (jet fighter). The chart tops out at 100 STR, which means you can life a 25 kiloton battle cruiser. That will impress the ladies.
The Chart also gives damage done for punching, or the additional amount of damage done by hand-to-hand (not ranged) killing attacks. The normal damage is 1d6 per 5 points of STR, so a 50 STR brick does 10d6 points of damage when he punches someone. A 20 STR character with a sword does an additional 1d6 points of killing damage on top of what the weapon itself does. That can get pretty nasty at higher strengths. Finally, there's the jumping distance (broad jump, not high jump). It's 1" per 5 points of STR, so a 70 STR character can broad jump 14", or 28 meters. Hulk can do that in his sleep.
While the chart only extends to 100 STR, you can go further using the different formulas for lifting, damage, jumping, and killing damage. The lifting formula is the only complicated one, where your lifting capacity is 25 kg x 2(STR/5). So divide your Strength score by 5, double that result, and multiply it by 25 to figure out how many kg you can lift. I would presume there is no rounding here, so a STR of 12 would mean the calculation is 25 kg x 2(12/5), or 25 x 2(2.4), or 25 x 4.8, which works out to 120 kg. A STR of 18 would be 25 x 2(18/5), or 25 x 2(3.6), or 25 x 7.2, which is 180 kg. And...that formula doesn't fit with the numbers on the Strength Chart.
And now I see why the typesetting looks the way it does. I initially thought it was a printing error, but no, the (STR/5) is actually...an exponent. That's right, we're doing serious MATH here, people. Let's try that again. So, a STR of 12 would be 25 kg x 2^(12/5), or 25 x 2^2.4, which works out to 132 kg. 18 STR is 25 x 2^3.6, or 303 kg. Okay, those numbers make more sense. And no, I did not work those numbers out in my head; calculators are still your friend.
As far as I know, this is the most complicated math in the entire system, and I've played it through 5th edition.
Damage is 1d6 per 5 STR points; Jumping is 1" per 5 STR points; and killing damage is +1d6 per 20 points. That will be modified in later editions, but for now it's an easy calculation that makes up for the exponential lifting capacity formula.
Next up is Throwing Distance, so again a Strength thing. Some objects are balanced for throwing; some are not. Balanced objects can be thrown much further (five times as far) than unbalanced objects. To figure out how far you can throw something, simply figure the minimum strength needed to lift the object (the examples in the Strength Chart will be helpful here) and subtract that from your STR score. Once you have that number, consult the Throwing Distance chart to figure out just how far you can throw it.
Now, this does lead to a slight issue that has been known about for a long, long time in the Champions system: the baby quarterback. Babies have an effective STR of 0. The example object for -20 STR on the Strength Chart is a football. Subtracting -20 from 0 gives a result of 20. Looking at the Throwing Distance Chart, that means a baby can pick up a football (balanced object) and chuck it 40", or 80 meters. That's 87 yards to you Americans. Heck, that baby can toss a shotput (-10 STR) half the distance he can throw the football. So needless to say, there's a wee bit of an issue with the Strength calculations, but we'll leave those alone for now.
The basic calculation for throwing distance is simple enough; 2" per point of Strength for a balanced object (anything from a ball to a girder to a manhole cover), and 2" for every 5 points of STR differential for unbalanced objects (like a car or a grumpy supervillain). If you're throwing the object straight up, the distance is halved.
And now we have a brief section on rounding numbers, which is very handy in a game that uses fractions and stuff. The rounding rules are simple enough; round to the nearest whole number. So a CON of 22 means your ED = 22/5 = 4.4, which rounds down to 4. For a 23 CON, the calculation becomes 23/5 = 4.6, which rounds to 5. So for two power points, you gain an additional point of Energy Defense, which isn't a terrible deal. The one exception to rounding is, as mentioned before, the SPD figured characteristic, which never rounds up; fractions are always retained.
Lastly on this page, there is a note about the eight character sheets in the center of the book that can be photocopied by players (permission is explicitly given). Ah, the good old days before you just printed off the page from a PDF. We had it so rough back then...
And that does it for page 9 of 1st Edition Champions. Next up...skills!
No comments:
Post a Comment