Rules2

= WARNING: OBSOLETE. Use the Revised Rules Files instead =

Contents of file: balance.rules
These files are DRAFT files containing proposed house rules for change to 5th edition

& balance & hr balance & balance introduction [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] The following individual topics contribute to your overall character balance rating:

DC - Maximum damage or other offensive effect. CV - Average chance to hit and be hit in combat. SPD - Your character’s Speed characteristic. DEF - Calculated average effectiveness of defenses.

Other factors that can contribute to overall balance include:

CHA   - General level of Characteristics. Powers - Other powers. (Besides offensive powers) Skills - Skill and Skill levels. (Besides CV)

The following Balance topics can be viewed:

Active Points     CHA                   Characteristics Cha Maximums      Combat Values         CV  Damage             DC                    DEF Defense           Exceeding Caps        Guide Introduction      Powers                Skills Special           SPD                   Speed Table

Type RULES BALANCE to view topic file

& balance dc & balance damage [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Your character’s DC is calculated as the AP/5 or number of D6 in the character’s most powerful attack, using whichever is the highest figure.

You need not normally include additional damage due to combat manoeuvres like Haymaker, Move Through, Move By, or Pushing, unless the character is designed to use those manoeuvres as their regular attack. (for example, Speedsters often depend on Move Through or Move By for their damage)

You should include the additional damage from Martial Arts manoeuvres like Offensive Strike and Martial Arts Damage Classes, etc. For powers to which STR contributes (like HTH attack and HKA) add the AP of your applicable STR.

If you have a group of attack powers that can be fired together in one Phase, add up their AP/5 and D6 when calculating your DC rating.

& balance cv & balance combat values [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Your character’s CV rating is the average of their DCV and their OCV (or ECV if the largest attack is a Mental power).

Add relevant combat skill levels (CSL) to your DCV and your OCV/ECV before calculating the average value. If a CSL can be used for either DCV or OCV add it to OCV. When a CSL provides only a very limited bonus (for example a DCV CSL only against grabs) do not include it.

Include the Martial Arts manoeuvre modifiers for your most powerful attack if your character uses Martial Arts. (This should be the manoeuvre that determined your DC rating)

Include DCV and OCV modifiers due to powers such as Growth and Shrinking, etc.

If your character can attack while undetectable by normal sight, using Darkness or Invisibility, etc, has one or more Area of Effect attacks, or can affect opponents by such powers as Change Environment, etc, your character’s CV level will be assessed on a case-by-case basis by the Approval reviewers. As a basic rule of thumb assume AT LEAST a +1 to your CV figure.

& balance spd & balance speed [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Your SPD rating is simply your character's SPD.

When one or two characters have SPDs significantly higher than the other characters in a scene, it is ESPECIALLY important that they be able to respond quickly when their action phase rolls around...

Otherwise everyone is sitting around waiting for those characters to act and combat scenes become exceptionally frustrating for other players. Before creating a high SPD character please give some thought to how you are going to handle this situation courteously.

& balance def & balance defense & defenses & hr defenses [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Your character’s DEF is calculated as follows: average your total PD and ED. It does not matter if this is resistant or hardened. Only the PD and ED totals count. Include PD and ED from powers such as Growth and Density Increase.

If your character has taken damage reduction (DR) then add half the AP of the normal DR at that level to your PD or ED, depending on the type of DR, before calculating the average.

Damage Reduction applied to your character's own special effect (SFX), such as a fire based hero with Damage Reduction only against fire, doesn't add to your DEF rating AS LONG AS it only counts against a minority of attacks.

If your character has taken Mental Defense (MD) add a quarter, rounding down, of your total MD to the PD and ED average.

Continued in RULES BALANCE DEF 2

& balance def 2 [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Special defenses such as Flash Defense, Power Defense, Lack of Weakness, Force Walls, etc, do not count towards a character’s DEF rating.

Example: Iron Boy has a 8pd/6ed in characteristics, 5pd/5ed Armor, a 10pd Force Field, 25% normal PD damage reduction and 50% resistant ED damage reduction, and a Mental Defense of 10.

Total PD is 8 + 5 + 10 + (10/2) = 28 <<25% DR cost is 10ap>> Total ED is 6 + 5 + (20/2) = 21 <<50% DR cost is 20ap>> Average of PD and ED is (28 + 21) / 2 = 24 <> Add 1/4 of Mental Defense 24 + (10/4) = 26 <> So Iron Boy has an 'High' level DEF figure of 26

Approval reviewers may also take into account unusually high values of STUN and CON characteristics when considering your character’s DEF rating calculation. What is viewed as unusual depends on the character concept. A Brick character with 60+ STUN isn’t unusual. A Martial Artist character with 60+ STUN is. When this is done it will be on a case-by-case basis.

& balance cha & balance characteristics & balance maximum characteristics & balance cha maximums & balance characteristic maximums & balance cha caps & cha maximums & hr cha maximums [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Starting characters cannot exceed the following CHA maximums:

STR:   62 	PD:     50* DEX:   36 	ED:     50* CON:   40   	SPD:     8 BODY:  40   	REC:    30 INT:   40   	END:   100 EGO:   40 	STUN:  100 PRE:   40 COM:   40


 * The maximum combined PD and ED must be 70 or less.

Most characteristics are also effectively capped by the balance rules. (See RULES BALANCE TABLE)

If you buy advantages on a CHA then the AP caps for powers will apply to the adjusted CHA cost. (See RULES BALANCE POWERS) Otherwise AP caps do not apply to characteristics.

Also see RULES BALANCE EXCEEDING CAPS

& balance active points & balance powers & balance ap caps & balance ap maximums & hr active points [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] The active point (AP) cap for all offensive combat powers is 62pts. This will allow a 12D6 attack, a 10D6 attack with 1/4 advantage, or a 8D6 attack with a 1/2 advantage.

With defensive powers such as Armor and Force Field, etc, no AP cap applies. Total defense is limited by the balance rules however. See the table in RULES BALANCE TABLE.

There is no specific AP cap on non-combat powers, but if the AP of a power is over 75pts the Approval reviewers will check to see if the power risks unbalancing the game. This may result in an extended time to complete the approval process.

Whenever a power's affect is added to by something else, the cap applies to the total AP cost of everything that adds together. For example, the AP cap for HKA applies to (HKA+STR) if you can add STR to it.

You can exceed the starting cap for characteristics and powers by one active point for every 10xp you've earned, providing it is consistent with your character concept. Characteristics and powers that are under the starting maximum can be increased by spending XP at anytime, with due attention to keeping overall balance unchanged.

& balance skills [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] There are no caps on skill rolls. You can buy a skill at 20- or whatever you wish. However any skill bought up three or more levels aove your base characteristic roll ought to be explained in your character’s background.

A roll of 18 will always fail no matter what your skill level. However, a skill level of 20- lets you succeed on roll of 17 even at with a -3 penalty.

Combat skill levels are included in the calculation of CV for your character’s balance requirements.

You must spend 15pts or more on non-combat skills. These can include useful adventuring skills such as Stealth or Security Systems, however a minimum of 5pts must be spent on background skills. Perhaps you can take a professional skill (PS) in an occupational skill and also a KS in some kind of hobby skill?

& balance table [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Categories Balance Table:

Categories      DC         CV       DEF      SPD Weak            -6         -4       -15       -3 Low            7-8        5-6     16-20        4 Medium        9-10        7-8     21-25        5 High         11-12       9-10     26-30        6 Ultra *      13-14      11-12     31-35      7-8

Mega         15-16      13-14     36-40     9-10 Extreme      17-20      15-16     41-45    11-12

group (CV/SPD) or of the Might group (DC/DEF) you must have at most a Medium and a Low in the categories of the opposing group.
 * To take an Ultra level in one or more of the categories of the Agility

The Mega and Extreme levels can only be taken in PowerUps using experience points gained in play. Talk to Admin about these levels when your character has 100+ experience points.

Continued in RULES BALANCE TABLE 2

& balance table 2 [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] An overall balance rating of one High and three Mediums or the equivalent is normally acceptable. To raise one category a level you must lower another category by a level to compensate. For example, to get High in two categories you must have at least one Low.

If, for example, you have a 50 AP Force Field and a 50 AP Energy Blast in a 50 AP Multi-Power, you don't necessarily have a balance rating with DEF and DC both high. Instead you have two balance ratings: one with DEF high, and one with DC high. That's because you can't have both high at the same time. In these cases each rating is evaluated independently and none of them can exceed the limits above.

Most categories have a range of values at each level. If you take the top value in several ranges that may be considered as equivalent to taking a higher level in one of those categories when we review your character for Approval. The Weak level is not considered to be a range for this purpose.

You can bring up your overall Balance rating by bumping up one category by one level for every 50xp you've earned.

& balance guide [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] While your character does not have to be one of the following archetypes, below is a table to serve as a guide for you to look at.

The "classic" archetypes would be:


 * Archetype  | Damage    | CV       | Speed    | Defense  |


 * Brick      | High      | Med      | Weak     | High     |
 * Power Armor | Med      | Med      | Med      | High     |
 * Blaster    | High      | Med      | Med      | Med      |
 * Martial A. | Med       | High     | High     | Low      |
 * Mentalist  | High      | Med      | Med      | Med      |
 * Speedster  | Low       | High     | Ultra    | Weak     |
 * Mage       | High      | Med      | Low      | High     |

The basic rule of thumb is that you can't have more than two categories above Medium. If you have two Highs, then you must have at least one Low. If your character’s CV is higher than Medium then either Defense or Damage must be set to Low to compensate. This is for game balance.

When Approval reviewers look at these four categories they should see at maximum the equivalent of one High and three Mediums. Lower combinations are normally also acceptable.

& balance special [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] You may have noticed that the AP Cap for powers means that there is no way to achieve Ultra level in the DC category with a starting character. This is intentional.

Approval reviewers have been instructed to reject any characters who have the following combinations of powers:

Invisibility with higher than Medium Damage. Invisibility with Mental Attacks. Desolidification with Affects Real World attacks.

If your character has Invisibility and High damage but cannot be invisible and attack at the same time that should be fine. The same holds for Invisibility and Mental attacks. Having Desolidification and any damaging attack that can be used to affect others while desolid (the Affects Real World advantage) will not be allowed.

The reason for this rule is that these power combinations can lead to inbalance in the game. So please consider these things before applying.

Continued in RULES BALANCE SPECIAL 2

& balance special 2 [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] Here are some other unbalancing things that will be carefully reviewed and probably rejected.

If you must include them in your character concept for some reason, take care to limit their unbalancing effect somehow, and expect your application to be delayed while we talk about whether to make an exception in your case.

or DEF, or those of your allies, above their initial ratings.
 * Adjustment powers that can potentially increase your DAM, CV, SPD

targetting senses that work through walls coupled with indirect attacks, or invisibility coupled with ranged invisible- effect attacks,   and many many others.
 * Power combinations that allow you to attack with impunity. For example,


 * More than one NND attack with different defenses.


 * More than one special defense. (excludes Mental Defense)

well in a Mush based game. We may allow them in very exceptional cases but don't count on it.
 * BOECV Entangle, STUN suppress, BODY suppress. We find these don't work

& balance exceeding caps [ Champions MUSH 2.0: RULES ] You can exceed the starting cap for characteristics and powers by one active point for every 10xp you've earned, providing it is consistent with your character concept. Characteristics and powers that are under the starting maximum can be increased by spending XP at anytime, with due attention to keeping overall balance unchanged.

You can also improve your overall Balance rating by bumping up one category by one level for every 50xp you've earned. (This is entirely independent of exceeding AP caps.)

Characters with lower characteristics and powers can usually be balanced out with a good set of skills. The background and character concept must be sound and well explained. Having a good concept and BG will work in your favor during Approval.