Monday, September 15, 2025

Let's Read Champions 1st edition (pg 19)

Alright, this page has a grand total of two entries, both of which take up a full column. The first is Mind Scanning, which allows a character to search an area with his mind in order to find a particular mind. To use it, you have to define how big an area you are searching (no limit, apparently), then make an ECV attack roll which is modified by the number of people in the area. There's a full chart that shows what the modifier is based on the area's population. For example, if you're in a bar (about 16 people), your ECV roll is at -4. If it's a small city (250,000 people), the roll is at -18. The whole world (4 billion people when this was written 45 years ago) would be -33 to find someone; I would probably leave it at that modifier even though the population has pretty much doubled since then. A -33 penalty to a roll is sufficient, I think.

So, how do you scan an area with any hope of success? You pay 3 points for a +1 to the attack roll. There's no range modifier, of course. If your modified target roll is less than 3, the area is too big and you'll have to narrow your search until you need a 3 to succeed. Assuming you do succeed, you roll 1D6 for every 5 points in the power (not counting the attack roll bonus costs), subtract the target's Ego Defense if they have it, and the resulting amount is compared to the target's EGO. If you get at least their EGO score, you know roughly where they are. Double their ego means you can pinpoint their location. Tripling the EGO score means you can use your other mental powers, if any, on the target no matter how far they may be with a normal attack roll (and no range modifiers). END costs only apply to maintaining your target lock after it is established. The minimum cost is 10 points for a 2D6 scan; attack roll bonuses don't count toward the minimum.

Big writeup for that power, isn't it? Well, now it's time to go crazy with the Multipower. Multipowers are basically a grouping of powers that run off the same point reserve. Sort of like the Elemental Control, except that in the case of the EC, all the powers could be used at their full potential at the same time. In a Multipower, you have a common pool of points to draw from, but using a power means those points aren't available for any of the other powers in the Multipower pool. There's an example involving a flying energy projector (who we will now call 'Blaster') with a 50-point Multipower with three slots: Flight, Energy Blast, and Force Field. Every phase, the player can decide to shift points from one power to the others if he so chooses; in his first phase, Blaster has his Force Field at 10 PD/10 ED for a total of 20 points, and is flying at a speed of 15" for a total of 30 points. That leaves no points for his Energy Blast in this phase. In his next phase, Blaster takes 20 points from his Flight and 10 from his Force Field and puts them into his Energy Blast, for a 6D6 blast while his Force Field is reduced to 5 PD/5 ED and his Flight to 5".

A Multipower point reserve can be divided however the character wants, as long as the total points don't exceed the reserve amount.

Multipower slots cost 1 point for every 5 points that can be put into the slot; a slot that can take the whole 50 points (so Blaster has a 10D6 Energy Blast, for example) costs 10 points. If a slot has a lower maximum (Blaster can't push his Flying speed beyond 15", for example), then the cost is proportionate to the maximum points available (in this case, 6 points since 15" of Flight costs 30 points, which is divided by 5 to make 6).

However, sometimes a slot will be 'fixed', also called an 'ultra'. This means that when the power is used, it is used to its full power every time. So, if Blaster has his Energy Blast in an ultra slot, then he always has to assign all 50 points to it every time he wants to use it, even if he doesn't want to use it at full power. An ultra slot costs 1 point for every 10 points of the reserve that it uses (so the full 10D6 EB in an ultra slot would cost 5 points instead of 10). The ultra slot doesn't have to be the full amount of the reserve; Blaster might make his Flight ultra slot limited to 30 points used, meaning it would cost 3 points for the slot.

You can apply Power Limitations to Multipowers, either to the whole thing or to just a particular slot. If it's applied to the whole Multipower, it means the overall cost for both the reserve and the slots is reduced; if it applies to a single slot, it means the active points are increased. Um, what? This is completely different from the way Multipower works in later editions. The example is given of a powered armor character who puts a Charges limitation on his Force Field. The multipower has a 30-point reserve, but the Charges limitation on the Force Field (which gives a +1 bonus multiplier to his costs) means that the slot can be up to 60 points instead of 30. That makes a very powerful Force Field, although it will only be usable a certain number of times per day.

To figure the cost of the Multipower, you add up the reserve points (modified by any Advantages or Limitations that are applied) and the cost of each slot, regular or ultra. Note that the minimum reserve is 10 points.

We're on to the next page now, but I'll finish up the Multipower writeup just because there are lots of powers on the next page. You can't put skills or characteristics in the Multipower unless the GM gives you permission. I would say that some characteristics, such as STR, should be allowable in a Multipower. I wouldn't put COM in a Multipower, though; that seems pointless to me. But I'm sure someone tried to do it at some point.

And that's Multipowers. Next time we've got no fewer than eight powers to review; we're getting close to the end, I think. This is a heck of a lot easier than the 5th edition read-through would be, that's for sure; that book would require eight pages for just a single power in some cases. Yikes.

No comments:

Post a Comment