What system would you use for a Pen and Paper CoH?

Close but not quite right. There was a split of the IP there for a bit. There is "Champions: Hero System" and there is "Champions: Fuzion System"

The big difference was the use of plug ins, and a mechanic called "Rule of X" that was a very good attempt at balance. In the end it just made the game more complicated.

Here is the Wiki link that explains it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzion

I am not sure that it really caught on with other groups, but our GM at the time helped write it. So, we used it.

If you are old then so am I! All of that brought back some of the best memories of my childhood. I got the 1989 Hard Back book for my 14th B-day, we had all been using my cousin's book for over a year and his was in a binder.

IMO the best supplement ever made for Hero system was "Ultimate Martial Artist" that was such a great book, and had more detail than my Real World "Martial Arts Encyclopedia"

I hope all these fond memories means this is going to be a good day.

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Huh.

I actually liked the White Wolf system. It was one of my favourites. It was logical to me and I liked how a character with sufficient skill could kill someone with, say, a knife. I never liked D+D's rules that allowed a high-level character to be stabbed 50 or 60 times and still be in perfect fighting condition until the last single hit point, which would finally kill them.

I have been reading DC Adventures, which is based on M+M and I kind of like it, but the lack of Hit Points seems a bit odd to me. The States will take some getting used to. Also, while I can see a decent game in there, it is not very well-presented and I find myself flipping back and forth through the book trying to piece everything together.

I played Champions RPG when it was still mail order, way back when it was first introduced in 1981! Sad, really. It's still a great game today.

Why is it a weird twist? Because Cryptic purchased the entirety of the Hero System. They own it. Cryptic also owns a (not as successful as CoH) competitor MMO based on that Role Playing Game. Hence the weird twist.

There are feats and optional rules in 3rd and 4th ed that fix this. D20 modern also has wounded rules where the more you are hurt, the more you suck. Just like every system though it is roll modifications.

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

Yep it's pretty much the granddaddy of all the superhero based PnP systems.

I'm actually aware of Cryptic's historical involvement in CoH, CO and the HERO system. That's precisely why I think that using the HERO system to implement a PnP version of CoH is not only NOT a "weird twist" but is actually the most appropriate gaming system possible. The roots of CoH can be directly traced back to the Champions/HERO system PnP games. Champions Online was in effect Cryptic's SECOND attempt to adapt the PnP game to the MMO setting (CoH was its first attempt).

Frankly anyone trying to use a non-HERO based PnP system seems like a "weird twist" to me.

My friends and I play nWoD (with supernatural variants) fairly regularly for exactly this reason. Its got a much more realistic feeling than most PnPs, where you're actually afraid for your life in a bad situation unlike most D&D encounters, but superheroes are kinda supposed to go twenty rounds and come up swinging. The problem with its combat is that it just doesn't adapt that well to that kind of prolonged fighting unless you start borrowing rules from their other games, like Exalted, which takes the simple elegance of the system and throws it right out the window, then pours gasoline on it and drops a pack of lit matches afterwards.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Haha ... well, I agree.

But it's ... ironic perhaps? ... that CoH would use the very same system for their hypothetical RPG that their direct (not really threatening) competitor also uses for their real-life RPG. Guess that's what I'm trying to say.

Is that a weird twist? My brain is telling me it is, but my brain also tells me that the 80s were the best decade ever.

Back when we used to play Champions regularly, I reached the point where I could calculate the most commonly used fraction in my head - and I am hardly a math whiz. Fun with math indeed!

But despite nostalgia I wouldn't advocate using Hero these days. In trying to have a crunchy answer for all occasions the rules have become too massive. The learning curve is just too steep for new players.

In the last few years, I've become enamored of the FATE system and its narrative focus. So I would advocate using Strange FATE, the FATE variant created for The Kerberos Club (FATE Edition).

Yes, if you as a GM or if your players don't like crunch, you should probably stay way from Hero and GURPS. (Although once you get used to it, it does become second nature.)

I've had my players sometimes complain that even D&D (Or Pathfinder.) 3.5 is too crunchy.

Basically this is the problem you and your players are going to have to decide for yourselves. Do you want the huge flexibility but high crunch that GURPS or Hero offer you? Or do you want something with less flexibility but less mental overhead? I don't know, I guess the other extreme is something like Amber Diceless? Tough question.

I suppose if Paragon Studios was really going to branch into something like this (Which they probably won't given the slow downward spiral the table-top RPG game market seems to be in these days.) they'd probably make their own system or go with a smaller, newer PnP RPG company using some less well known system (To the irritation of grognards like me.).

Ah, yes, "Rolemaster" is the correct title. My stupid brain got left and right mixed up for a moment.

I found it to be pretty generic, for the most part. And they reused the art between books so much that we began calling it stock footage.

You must not have gotten on that train as early as I did. I remember when 1s cancelled out successes, which often meant that rolling more dice (read: being more skilled) just meant that you could fail harder. I tend to dislike dice pool systems as a general rule anyway, but that was one of the worst offenders.

Savage Worlds is nice and simple and fun.

For a simple supers game though I recommend BASH.

I would be interested in hearing your methodology for statting out CoH enemies, especially in how you got their 'target PL'. I always tended to give them whatever powers they showed in-game with a max rank vaguely around the type of campaign they'd be in at their CoH level.

If you've got more character sheets for things I'd enjoy seeing them as well either here or in a PM.

Ah, cool. Sappers are only dangerous because of the things around them, not themselves. My players have a tendency to overcompensate, so I learned to watch out for it (a good example - I have one player who made a contagious, continuous, AoE Confuse and didn't realize this meant that, should he have used it on one enemy, he could infect the whole city with what amounts to incurable insanity; the same guy sometimes forgets that instead of buying a power that he only intends to use once in a while, it's better to just buy luck and Extra Effort into the power rather than buying it). Hero points should be coming fast and furious in villain fights, at least one every couple of rounds.

Just a basic Nullify and a linked Fatigue (limited to 1 step only) would seriously do the trick, or Drain (Powers) (this is what I like about M&M, there's usually like ten ways to do something). With Slow Fade, it could keep them down for a brief period, but heroes need to be able to extra effort out of it (which mimics inspirations), and Fatigue is so damn easy to get out of my players usually don't even notice it. That Drain (all traits) power, as it stands, slaps a -10 to everything. Skills, saving throws, ability scores, powers, and feats. It turns off feats. If a hero has a 10 Con, failing that save kills them instantly.

They look awesome for just being thrown together the way you describe. I couldn't do it, certainly not quickly. I have this tendency to spend a week or more drumming up NPCs the characters might try to punch, and even then I end up gettin' 'em wrong anyway (...or picking the wrong NPCs to stat. My players are always so much more likely to bargain than punch than I figure they are. I have to force them into combats.).

Man, I wish CoH could do some of the things tabletops can accomplish. Sounds awesome, actually! I do really like it, and I really love it! That's why I nitpick...


Anyway! Here's mine (also super rough!):

Summer Evening

Power Level: 10; Power Points Spent: 150/150

STR: +0 (10), DEX: +2 (14), CON: +1 (12), INT: +5 (20), WIS: +2 (14), CHA: -1 (8)

Tough: +1/+10, Fort: +3, Ref: +7, Will: +15

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+10), Climb 5 (+5), Computers 1 (+6), Craft (chemical) 15 (+20), Craft (structural) 5 (+10), Disable Device 4 (+9), Investigate 5 (+10), Knowledge (earth sciences) 8 (+13), Knowledge (life sciences) 15 (+20), Knowledge (physical sciences) 5 (+10), Language 1 (+1), Notice 10 (+12), Perform (singing) 6 (+5)

Feats: Attack Specialization 3 (Construction Tools (Array 20)), Attractive 2 (+8), Dodge Focus 5, Inventor, Power Attack, Windracer

Powers:
Construction Tools (Array 20) (default power: snare)
. . Carrion Creepers (Summon 5) (Array; Duration (continuous), Horde; Progression, # Minions 3 (10 minions), Sacrifice)
. . Flytrap (Summon 10) (Array; Duration (continuous), Fanatical, Heroic; Action (full))
. . Mental Blast 10 (Array; DC 25)
. . Radiant Aura (Healing 10) (Array; DC 20; Burst Area (50 ft. radius - General), Selective Attack)
. . Radiation Infection (Drain 10) (Array; drains: single trait - toughness, DC 20; Burst Area (50 ft. radius - Targeted), Range (ranged), Selective Attack)
. . Roots (Snare 10) (Default; DC 20; Burst Area (50 ft. radius - General), Constricting)
. . Seeds of Confusion (Mind Control 10) (Array; DC 20; Cone Area (100 ft. cone - Targeted); One Command (Attack allies!), Range 2 (touch); Slow Fade (1 minute))
Hive Biosuit (Device 2) (Hard to lose)
. . Immunity 1 (suffocation: Drowning)
. . Protection 9 (+9 Toughness)
Telepathy 4 (DC 14, Adds: Communication 4, Mind Reading 4; Limited (Other Hivers Only))
. . Communication 4 (sense type: mental)
. . Mind Reading 4 (DC 14)
. . The Overhive Remembers (Variable 1) (Alternate; acquire: any one of (type) - skills, limited to: knowledge skills)

Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +4, Grapple: +4)

Attacks: Mental Blast 10 (DC Will 25), Mind Reading 4 (DC Will 14), Radiation Infection (Drain 10), +10 (DC Fort/Staged 20), Roots (Snare 10) (DC Ref/Staged 20), Seeds of Confusion (Mind Control 10), +10 (DC Will 20), Telepathy 4 (DC Will 14), Unarmed Attack, +4 (DC 15)

Defense: +10 (Flat-footed: +3), Knockback: -5

Initiative: +2

Languages: English, Hiver

Totals: Abilities 18 + Skills 22 (88 ranks) + Feats 13 + Powers 59 + Combat 18 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 150

No, I started playing the same day the game was released. I had every single book they made up until the NWoD. I got rid of most of them when I moved a few months ago, but kept the core rules.

I will admit, the Botch rules did kind of... suck.

If you look closely at Mutants and Mastermind it becomes clear that is basically a d20 version of the hero/champions system. M&M would be my current choice for a superhero PnP game - I have been playing champions since I was in junior high school (what, 1980ish?) and I love it to pieces - but M&M streamlines it a lot, simplifies character creation considerably and takes the old, segment based combat system which could get really ugly and uses a much more simplified d20 style combat system.

It might be possible that the latest version of the hero system cleaned up the combat system - but I remember having to count out each segment of combat to allow for multiple characters at different speeds taking forever, where a M&M game I ran for my regular dungeons and dragons group went fairly smoothly, allowing for the fact that 1/2 my players wanted to created totally unreasonable characters (like the untouchable, unattackable ghost who could still attack in return :-).

So then my idea to implement CoH with the Star Fleet Battles ruleset would be considered unconventional, I guess.

Okay, it's been five hours. Am I in close enough range to use Brawl yet?

I'd go with dead lands, because not enough pen and paper RPGs use a deck of cards.

Are you right handed? Because I'm in the left forward arc, diverting power to neutrino bolt.