Thoughtful Thursday #8

A long time ago, my friend Mark (@TheCorvi) got Champions. This was a game that let you play a superhero. If you haven't played it, it is a neat system that gives you total creative control over your hero. There is no list of superpowers (like super breath or web slinging), instead you bought the effect the power has in the game. For instance Web slinging would need to be purchased twice, once for the movement power and once for the restraining power. We played Champions twice. the first time we played for over a month. well, sort of, we made characters until the GM got sick of our shenanigans. John was better at math then me and was competitive. each week we would go off and make a character, then we'd get back together and see what kind of superheroes we came up with. Inevitably, John's character would far outpace everyone else's. The first time, I had some minor powers and a big attack that did 8d6. It was powerful enough to take me out, so I was happy. Until John explained that his character could do 12d6. Needless to say, I didn't want to be his sidekick. So, we went back to the drawing board. An on it went, until the GM caught one of us in a math error. Then we started a new campaign. The GM verified everyone's character build and once the errors were fixed, no rebuilds were allowed. So,  we got to play this time. I played the prince of elementals. He had an attack and defense that represented each of the classic Greek elements. At the time, rounds in Champions had 10 phases and movement was broken into phases so that players could react mid-movement. I had just recently played Car Wars and Starfleet Battles, this mechanic really threw me out of the superhero genre. But the real deal breaker was when we defeated the mercenaries with M-16 assault rifles the GM told me I could not pick up and use one. I have avoided this and other games like it since then.