City of Pen and Paper

Here and there on the boards over the years I’ve noticed suggestions of having City of Heroes go over to a Pen and Paper Roleplaying game.

While I love the idea of getting together with a group of friends (if I had any) to play my favorite video game in AD&D style; I can’t help thinking there may be more than a few bumps in that road…

• “For the last time, Carl… this isn’t Dungeons and Dragons.. you CAN’T run a multi-class… so give up your dreams of a Tank Mage and roll your character!”

• “Yes, I KNOW you have Super Speed… I KNOW it doesn’t make any sense… Super Speed is a travel power… it will NOT give you an initiative bonus!”

• “No, I am NOT going to make the glowie sound when you get close to the crate you’re searching for…”

• “Carl... for the last time… you can make your character an elf… half-elf… freaking changeling! You STILL can’t run a multi-class!”

• “Oookay… so you’re attacking with a sniper attack two slotted with Accuracies… you have a to hit buff from your Targeting Device… and the defender buffed your to hit while the controller debuffed your opponent’s defense… umm… oh for Pete’s sake… anyone got a f***ing calculator?!”

• “Paul, seriously dude… I know your ticked off about what I did to your car… but you agreed as GameMaster you wouldn’t bring personal issues into the game! How do I figure you’re doing that? Gee, I dunno… The twelve Sappers in this 5th level spawn all wearing ‘Let’s Kill Dave’ tee shirts may have been a clue!”

• “Alright, now that we’ve FINALLY finished creating our characters let me go over the ground rules… First rule.. anyone who Rezzes Carl’s character will get a session-long accuracy, damage and defense debuff…”

• “Yes Bill… it’s fine if you use your action figure to represent your character on the map… No Bill.. I’m not going to generic you for using Wolverine…”

• “We play by the rules in the book Carl… No, this version of the rules is NOT pre-ED”

• “Okay, I still love City of Villains on the computer and all.. but I have to admit there is a strangely satisfying feeling in robbing a bank and actually having a monetary amount of how much loot my villain got away with…”

• “Stan, for the last time… this isn’t like other roleplaying games you’ve played before.. the inspirations, enhancements and such that you ‘find’ aren’t physical… they aren’t actual objects… so PLEASE stop searching every danged crate in the warehouse for loot… oh… and stop checking for traps too!”

• “Alright!! Fess up! Who told Carl they would power-level his character?! Whoever did it had better tell me right now… this hammer ain’t gettin’ any lighter!”

• “Yes, I understand that we have to be lenient with the non-combat applications of powers that in-game are for battle only… but I’m still not sure that means I should allow your Controller to use his Total Domination power to force the President of the United States to sing ‘I Like Big Butts’ in front of Congress…”

• “Yes, you no longer have to take a train to get to different zones of the city… well… sure… I guess you could have a sports car with your hero logo on it… sure… you can have a motorcycle the same way… a Pony? What would you want…? Oh fine… you can have a pony… Tom… Stop hugging me.”

• “Allow me to explain the first difference between playing the game on our computers at our own homes and playing it around this table together… Every time you run around a room screaming ‘I am scrapper hear me roar’ and aggroing every spawn in the place… I’m going to smack you in the back of the head… like I’ve been wanting to do for the last 3 years we’ve been playing together… if you’re lucky the next mob will drop ibuprofen instead of inspirations.”

• “Okay… little bit of exposition time folks… smoke ‘em if you got ‘em… ahem… ‘The crowd gathered around the grave grows silent as Statesman raises his eyes to the heavens and begins the epitaph. ‘We are gathered here to honor a fallen comrade. He never once shirked his duty even in the face of greatest adversity. He surely would have earned his cape, had he made it past fifth level of security clearance. We shall never understand the strange force that teleported his team’s Empath to Detroit the very instant he fell in battle. Nor shall we likely ever find the thief who stole all the party’s wakie inspirations and the third of any matching color they had. It is truly tragic that cruel fate chose that day for the annual Kings Row Hospital Green Program to shut down all power to the teleportation system in an effort to save energy. I’d like to think that the hero we all knew as CarlPwns69 is in a better place now.’ Yadda, yadda, yadda… and he’s dead and buried. Now… the rest of the team was about to enter… what’s that Carl? >SIGHS< No… No you can’t re-roll your next character as a multi-class.”

Being and old school D&D player I can attest to the veracity of this list.


Sadly I think it might have understated things a bit.

Get the HERO System Rulebook and the Champions background (pen and paper, not the online travesty). Would solve all those problems in a heartbeat. Well, once everyone has read through a few hundred pages of rules anyhow.

Welcome to 'It's The Mind'. Today we're discussing the extraordinary phenomenon of Deja Vu.

Welcome to 'It's the Mind'. Today we're discussing the extraordinary phenomenon of Deja Vu.

I see what you did there.....

Can I ask, who is Carl?

i did cleared, removed, deleted, every bit of me in game, i want a no further access to here, so, tell me what u dont waznt to hr=ear, i say it, u repport me, ty, its over.

Read the OP. Steelclaw is a genius.

Yeah... I'm gonna say that with all the limitations and stupid crap imposed on this game due to its MMO format and real time nature, it would make a terrible PnP RPG.

Champions would simply be a thousand times better.

Sadly, I never could get into the PnP Champions. In general I like point based systems but there were just too many ways to min/max the Champions system. There has to be a fair balance between player creativity and ease of play. I never felt that PnP Champions really hit that balance. It was bulky and unwieldy and, the few times we tried to play it, we spent hours disputing rules interpretations.

Not to mention a GM that delighted in "interpreting" the rules in his favor most of the time.


Ah, well, thats all in the past now. Please resume whatever direction this thread was heading in. No more Maudlin past from the frog.

Gender is overrated. As long as you're on top anyhow.

Did the CoH table top game ever get released?

http://www.cityofheroesrpg.com/

As the GM of a currently running game in the Big Eyes Small Mouth system, I can support this list wholesale.

This idea gets insane when you account for MMs getting a PnP translation.

"As a Robotics mastermind who's supposed to have made all of his own robots, can I give mine ACTUAL HANDS so they can have utility and help me carry some of the money I rob out of the bank?"

"Does this mean I can't make my Thugs say stupid things anymore?"

"What do you mean my own Mercs shot me to death for using Time Bomb on them too many times?!"

"Okay, if you wanna roll up another zombies MM and break out into Thriller in the middle of a bank job and get shot to death, that's your decision..."

"NO you STILL can't have a clown MM!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.