Finally!

The package I was waiting for arrived. Over on my other blog, 25 Years Ago..., I'm doing a 25th anniversary retrospective review of the 3rd edition D&D game. I finally got the September purchase order in, so I'm working on the review of the 3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide.

The nice thing about this is that I got a 1st printing DMG. It is a sweet deal, although it means errata is necessary to keep it updated. Still, I can't complain. There were some other things in the package as well, which I'll discuss in later posts on that blog.

I was supposed to get this package two days ago, but FedEx is a pain. They told me they 'tried' to delivery the package on Monday, but they didn't bother letting me know where the package actually was, so I spent two days hunting for it. Talk about frustration.

Ah, well. What's done is done, and it's nice to finally have it.

Some horrible news from south of the border as Charlie Kirk was assassinated at an open-air forum at a Utah university campus. Prayers go out to his family, who were there when it happened and were with him when he died in the hospital. It's insane to think about how far political discourse has deteriorated in the 21st century. I'm worried that this will touch off a wave of political violence, possibly escalating into a full-blown civil war. After all, wars have started with less provocation than an assassination.

I avoid talking about politics on this blog because I get enough of that on different websites, and I wanted to keep this clear from all of that. But something like this makes my blood boil, and I can't stay silent. I'm not going to turn this blog into the Huffington Post or Rebel News, though. I just hope people can start thinking before they act before we see even more violence and death. We are supposed to be civilized, people. We need to act like it.

And now, back to baking...

So Many Chickens...

This picture is just a sample of the chickens we raised this year. We have layers, but these are Cornish Cross, the tastiest meat birds around. We ordered 200 birds this spring; attrition has taken that number down more than I would like, but we're still going to have nearly 150 birds processed.

'Processed'. Such a sterile, sanitized word for how a chicken goes from what you see above to the freezer. But I'm not going to go into detail on this. Suffice to say...well, the chickens consider me both their guardian angel who feeds them, and their serial killer who has dwindled their numbers down to a mere handful left in the coop.

And this year, we had people ask us to process their chickens for them...for money. Yes, I was paid to kill chickens this year. You know what that makes me, right? Yep; I'm a chicken assassin.

The surprising thing about the chickens you see is that I didn't expect to see any of them up off the ground; Cornish Cross are both stupid and heavy, and I've never seen one get off the ground at all. They'll run at me flapping their wings like they're trying to take off whenever they see the food bucket in my hand, but actually flying? Not a chance. But here we are, Cornish Cross jumping up and roosting like they are real chickens. It warms my heart.

The nice thing about these chickens is that they don't take a long time to grow; none of these ones are more than 15 weeks old before they meet Mr. Freezer. And even that is longer than I would prefer. But they eat. And eat. A lot of food. I was going through a full 40-kg bag a day for a while, trying to keep all these birds fed. So despite their short lifespan, they end up cost as much as another breed, Rustic Rangers, would cost despite the Rangers taking twice as long to grow out to the proper size.

Raising our own food is a big deal; we know what these birds are eating, so we know what we are eating, too. With my health issues this year, my diet is important. I don't want to screw my health any further than it already was, so I'm watching my intake much more than I used to. And raising and growing our own food is a big part of that. I'm looking forward to getting back to gardening next spring.

So, if you live out in the country, support your local chicken farmer, especially if he's got meat birds you might want to try. If all you're used to eating is store-bought chicken, I guarantee you will taste the difference. And you won't look back.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 16)

More powers today, and we start with Entangle. This is where you either immobilize an opponent or create a barrier. I would have thought that would be Force Wall, but here we are. This is a ranged power. Assuming you hit with your attack roll, you roll 1D6 per 5 points in the power (minimum cost 10). Read the BODY damage as if it were a normal attack; the total BODY is how strong the Entangle is. So if you have a 5D6 Entangle, and you rolled a 6, 1, 2, 6, 3...the total BODY would be 6 (2 for the 6, 0 for a 1, 1 for the rest). To break out of an Entangle, you need to do at least that much damage through some method of attack. If you're Entangled, you can't move. You can also create a "wall" with this power using the Area of Effect Power Advantage. Examples of Entangles include webbing, ice bonds, and turning the ground to mud. It's a ranged power (pts. x 5 in inches), and costs END to use.

Next up is Extra Limb. This can be an extra arm, leg, or a prehensile tail (Nightcrawler is the first example that comes to mind). You can use it just as well as any other limb with your normal STR and DEX. However, you don't get any extra attacks because of it. It costs 10 points for each extra limb, and while the power itself doesn't cost END, using the limb's STR does.

FTL Travel is a fun one, allowing your flying character to travel faster than the speed of light in space (so not in an atmosphere, making it a really niche power). For 10 points, you have the base power; every 5 points additional doubles that speed. What speed is it? Well, first you calculate your sustained Flight, which is how many inches you can fly in a full turn (we'll get to that power at the end of this page) and use your Recovery in END as a multiplier. This isn't explained very well in the rules, so let me try to suss it out. I checked the next three editions, and the description in 2e and 3e is basically the same as 1e. 4e changes the power entirely. So, let's see if I can get this from 1e. From the Flight power, the END cost is 1/5" of flight. There's lots of math here, so bear with me.

Okay, I think I got this figured. Your sustained flight speed is based on your REC. If you have a SPD of 5, Flight of 15", and REC of 10, your maximum speed in a turn is 75". However, that would cost you 15 END per turn. With your REC of 10, you can only sustain your flight at a speed of 50" (10" of flight x SPD 5), because your END would be 10/turn (2 END/phase). Therefore, your maximum sustained flight speed is 50". And...that's how many light years you can travel IN A DAY with this power. Holy crap...50 LY in a single day? That's Star Trek: Voyager speed. And you can double that for a mere 5 points more. This is seriously overpowered. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, it's only for flying outside of an atmosphere. So it's not going to get much use in a typical game, and very few characters will ever even need to buy it.

Alright, let's move along. Next up is Flash. No, not the speedster. This is a blinding flash, with 1D6 per 10 points. Like Entangle, you calculate the BODY damage on a successful attack roll, and every character within a 1" radius per 10 points is blinded for 1 phase for every point of BODY. It's interesting that the duration is based on the target's SPD, not the attacker's; some targets will recover faster than others. There's no actual damage done with this power, just the blindness. Blinded characters have a CV of 0 unless they have Enhanced Senses that can target. If you have advance warning of the Flash, you can cover your eyes or otherwise prepare for it, meaning you're still blinding while you're protecting yourself, but otherwise the Flash doesn't affect you at all. You can't Flash someone in Darkness, either. This is a ranged attack, and uses END.

The counter to Flash is, of course, Flash Defense. At a minimum cost of 5 points, you have 5 or more points of defense against Flash attacks. No END to use it, of course; it's a passive defense.

Finally, we have Flight. I touched on this in the FTL description. Flight is a minimum of 10 points, which gives you 5" of Flight; 2 pts. gives you an additional inch. END is 1/5", as previously mentioned. The details on how to handle movement in flight are covered later on in the Movement section.

And that's it for this page. We're just motoring along, aren't we? And we've got quite a few powers already covered. You can see that building a high-powered character will be very expensive; most characters built with these rules will be on the line of the 80s X-Men or the Teen Titans; you're not building Thor or Wonder Woman with just 100 points. I have seen someone build Superman with 250 points, but it's the Action Comics #1 version, not the Christopher Reeve fly-around-the-earth-and-reverse-time version.

Next up...more powers, surprise, surprise. We've had lots of attacks over the past couple of pages, now it's time to get some defenses.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 15)

And the hits just keep on coming. More specifically, the Energy Blasts keep on coming, because that's the next power we're looking at.

Energy Blast is exactly that: A blast of energy. What kind of energy? That's up to you. Heat vision, telekinetic strike, eldritch blast...they're all Energy Blasts. The difference is the Special Effect. We're told to see the section on Special Effects for an explanation of how to use Special Effects in the game. Unfortunately, they skipped that part; it's not actually in this book. I've checked, and it does appear in the 2nd edition, but it's not here. Oops.

Energy Blast (or EB for short) is a ranged attack that does normal damage, like a punch. At the player's option, it can do STUN damage only (no BODY). The default defense against it is Energy Defense, although the special effect might change that to Physical Defense (such as a telekinetic strike or an iceball). The damage is 1D6 per 5 points in the power, with a minimum cost of 10 points (2D6). The maximum range is 5 inches per point, and the range modifier is -1 for every 3" of distance to the target. For example, the Human Lighter buys an Energy Blast and defines it as a heatwave blast that does 8D6 damage. The cost is 40 points, the defense is ED, and the range is 200", which equals 400 meters. That's a long way. Of course, you're going to be at a -66 or so on your attack roll at that range, so good luck with it. And you'll pay END for this power as well.

Next up, we have Enhanced Senses. This is a whole suite of powers that give the character the ability to sense things outside of normal human sensory capability. If you buy multiple senses, you pay full price for the two most expensive ones, the next two at 1/2 cost, and any others at 1/4 cost. None of these cost END to use. If you buy the same sense more than once, those additional buys do not count as separate buys for the purpose of cost reduction.

The first batch of these are all about seeing things. First up is Enhanced Vision. This is a straightforward +1 to your range modifier for sight perception rolls at a cost of 3 points; you can buy this multiple times.

Infrared Vision is next, allowing the character to see heat patterns for 5 points. You can see outlines at night, but not details.

Ultraviolet Vision is an improvement over IR Vision, and costs 10 points. It allows you to see as well at night as during the day, so you take no penalties to sight perception rolls at night.

Telescopic Vision costs 15 points, and makes things appear 10 times closer. This can be bought more than once; each additional buy improves your telescopic vision by a factor of 10 (so buying it twice means everything can be seen at 100x closer). That means that heatwave blast would be a lot more accurate, of course.

Microscopic Vision is the opposite of Telescopic vision, allowing you to view things at close range at 10x magnification. As with Telescopic Vision, you can buy this more than once. Each purchase costs 10 points.

X-Ray Vision lets you make normal sight perception checks through walls and other solid objects, although it doesn't work through lead, high energy fields, or really dense substances. It costs 20 points.

N-Ray Vision is X-Ray Vision on steroids; unless the GM says otherwise, you can see through anything at all. This costs 30 points.

360-Degree Vision (appears later on the list) means you can see in any direction all at once, so you can make a sight Perception check against any point around you. This one costs 20 points.

And that covers the vision enhancements. Next on the list is the Hearing improvements. Enhanced Hearing is exactly the same as Enhanced Sight, except for hearing.

Ultrasonic Hearing lets you hear very high and very low frequency sound, allowing you to pick up Active Sonar emissions. This costs 10 points.

Parabolic Hearing is the audio equivalent of Telescopic Vision with the same cost, except that the distance is divided by 5 per purchase.

Active Sonar lets you find objects with a successful Hearing Perception roll. You can detect them as easily as if you can see them. However, you can be picked up by Ultrasonic Hearing. This costs 20 points.

Passive Sonar is like Active Sonar, except you're not emitting any sounds, and you're paying 25 points.

The remaining sense enhancers are more specialized. Discriminatory Smell means you can identify smells. More specifically, at least in later editions, it makes your sense of smell as acute as your vision or hearing, so you can smell the difference between people. Wolverine does this all the time. This costs 5 points.

Tracking is by scent; make a smell Perception roll to track a target. 15 points to buy it.

Radio Hearing means you can hear normal AM, FM, and even Police band signals for 3 points. High-Range Radio Hearing gives you a much wider range of perception on the radio frequencies. You can look for a specific frequency with a normal INT roll (9 +INT/5), and you can also spot Radar. This costs 10 points.

Finally, Radar Sense lets you spot things with a base Perception roll, with a range modifier of -1/10". Like Infravision, you don't get details, just an outline. You can increase the range modifier, doubling it for an additional 5 points. The base cost is 20 points.

So, there are your enhanced sensory capabilities. I think they covered pretty much everything that needs to be covered. And that's it for this page, too. We're still motoring along, so let's see what the next page brings.

Let's Read Champions 1e (page 14)

Sorry for the delay; let's get back to it. We're continuing with powers, and specifically we're continuing with Density Increase. Here on page 14 we get the actual benefits of the power. For 10 points, you get +5 to STR and CON, +3 resistant PD and ED, +1 BODY, -1" of Knockback, and double your mass. Your increased characteristics don't affect your figured characteristics though, and you can't use the additional Strength for jumping further; you're just using that Strength to keep yourself upright. Using this power does require END.

Next, we have the opposite of Density Increase: Desolidification. Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) and the Martian Manhunter both have this power, which allows the character to walk through walls and ignore attacks. The advantage is that you are immune to all physical, energy, and mental attacks, as well as drains and transfers. And you can move through a wall or other solid object that has a BODY equal to or less than 1 Body Pip for every 5 points of this power you have. However, you can't affect the physical world in any way, and you can't attack anyone. The only exception to this is if two Desolid characters face off, in which case they can attack each other. This power does cost END to use.

Following that, we have Ego Attack. This is your brain-blast power, and most mentalists will have it as their primary attack power. It completely ignores their normal defenses and goes straight for the mind. It uses the ECV (Ego Combat Value) which is 1/3 of your EGO score (an EGO of 15 = ECV 5). The only defense against this power is Ego Defense (the next one on the list). Ego Attacks do not do BODY or Knockback, and don't work on inanimate objects (which don't have minds). You have to be able to see the target, and distance doesn't give you any range modifiers. Again, this one costs END to use.

Ego Defense does that: Provides you with defenses against mental attacks (not only Ego Attack, but also Telepathy, Mind Control, etc.). You get a base power of INT/5, and any points you spend on this (minimum 5) add an equal number of points to your Ego Defense. No END cost to this one as it's a passive defense. Note that you only get the INT/5 points if you buy this power; no one has Ego Defense without it.

Okay, this next one is not really a power; later on it would be classified as a 'power framework', but for now it's listed among the powers. And this is the Elemental Control. Basically, this lets you buy three powers at a reduced cost. These powers must, however, be thematically linked. How it works is you pay for a 'reserve' number of points (on a 1-to-1 basis), and then you get three powers that all run at half the reserve power (so a 60-pt. Elemental Control would have three 30-pt. powers). You can add additional powers if you want, at a cost of 1/5 the points in the reserve. The base cost, though, is effectively twice the cost of one of the powers

This is a bit complicated, and different from how they work in later editions. So here's an example. You might have an Elemental Control with weather powers: Fog (Darkness), Whirlwinds (Energy Blast with a wider area of effect), and Wind Riding (Flight). If you put 60 points in the reserve, then all three of these would work at the 30-pt. level (and you can use them all at the same time). So the Fog would have a radius of 6", for example. If you decide to add a Lightning Bolt (RKA) to the EC, it would cost an additional 12 points (60/5).

This is a cost-effective way to give your character some thematic elements; other examples in the writeup include Telekinetic Powers, Ice Powers, and Ego Powers. But you're only limited by your imagination and the GM's willingness to let you get away with threadbare connections between your powers. You could have a Radiation EC, or a Fire EC, or whatever you can come up with and justify to the GM.

And that wraps up another page of this rulebook. We're getting into some interesting powers now, but the next page only has two...one of which is actually 18 powers in one.