A systematic problem

[Toptomcat]

Now that my character has been approved and I've started looking for something to get into, I've noticed something of an issue here that has the potential to make things here grind to a screeching halt.

Put simply: there are almost exactly twice as many heroes as there are villians. This leads inevitably to a resource problem; either every villian will be getting double-teamed every time they show up to do something neferious, or half of all the heroes will sitting out at an given time.

Possible solutions include advertising specifically for players who are into playing villians, someone putting up a number of NPC villians and organizations and hoping the refs are up to running them, closing non-villian recruitment periodically, partially or wholly lifting the duplicate-character restriction for players so long as they're creating villians...

Thoughts?

[Toptomcat]

Now that my character has been approved and I've started looking for something to get into, I've noticed something of an issue here that has the potential to make things here grind to a screeching halt.

Put simply: there are almost exactly twice as many heroes as there are villians. This leads inevitably to a resource problem; either every villian will be getting double-teamed every time they show up to do something neferious, or half of all the heroes will sitting out at an given time.

Possible solutions include advertising specifically for players who are into playing villians, someone putting up a number of NPC villians and organizations and hoping the refs are up to running them, closing non-villian recruitment periodically, partially or wholly lifting the duplicate-character restriction for players so long as they're creating villians...

Thoughts?

[Toptomcat]

Now that my character has been approved and I've started looking for something to get into, I've noticed something of an issue here that has the potential to make things here grind to a screeching halt.

Put simply: there are almost exactly twice as many heroes as there are villians. This leads inevitably to a resource problem; either every villian will be getting double-teamed every time they show up to do something neferious, or half of all the heroes will sitting out at an given time.

Possible solutions include advertising specifically for players who are into playing villians, someone putting up a number of NPC villians and organizations and hoping the refs are up to running them, closing non-villian recruitment periodically, partially or wholly lifting the duplicate-character restriction for players so long as they're creating villians...

Thoughts?

[cosmicarus]

I personally would be happy to play the villain to any number of scenarios. Perhaps we could have a bank of generic villains (perhaps even using the ones found in the Freedom City Sourcebook) that we can draw from when there is a shortage of PC villains. If a PC hero wants to play, but there are no baddies to fight, another forum user could withdraw one of these villains from the bank and play the cad, as it were. The thing that sets them apart from their player controlled counterparts, is that these villains are reactive and not able to advance in any way.

[cosmicarus]

I personally would be happy to play the villain to any number of scenarios. Perhaps we could have a bank of generic villains (perhaps even using the ones found in the Freedom City Sourcebook) that we can draw from when there is a shortage of PC villains. If a PC hero wants to play, but there are no baddies to fight, another forum user could withdraw one of these villains from the bank and play the cad, as it were. The thing that sets them apart from their player controlled counterparts, is that these villains are reactive and not able to advance in any way.

[cosmicarus]

I personally would be happy to play the villain to any number of scenarios. Perhaps we could have a bank of generic villains (perhaps even using the ones found in the Freedom City Sourcebook) that we can draw from when there is a shortage of PC villains. If a PC hero wants to play, but there are no baddies to fight, another forum user could withdraw one of these villains from the bank and play the cad, as it were. The thing that sets them apart from their player controlled counterparts, is that these villains are reactive and not able to advance in any way.

[Heridfel]

That's why I made my PL 10 slot a villain. Once I get a better feel for what he wants (and how he can go about it), I'll start up some schemes with the referees that the heroes can try to thwart. Emphasis on the "try". :P

[Heridfel]

That's why I made my PL 10 slot a villain. Once I get a better feel for what he wants (and how he can go about it), I'll start up some schemes with the referees that the heroes can try to thwart. Emphasis on the "try". :P

[Heridfel]

That's why I made my PL 10 slot a villain. Once I get a better feel for what he wants (and how he can go about it), I'll start up some schemes with the referees that the heroes can try to thwart. Emphasis on the "try". :P

[Endless Flight]

My solution: Give it a few more weeks.

[Endless Flight]

My solution: Give it a few more weeks.

[Endless Flight]

My solution: Give it a few more weeks.

[Veiled Malice]

Well, if the current trend does continue, then yes, there might be a problem. I see no reason why it would change. Most people do want to play the hero, after all.

One solution has already been forwarded: use generic villains from the Freedom City, Crooks!, or other settings, like the new Paragons books. This is, at best, a stop gap. The makers of those books purposely made the villains less powerful than their equivilent PL player-made hero. Plus, that puts more pressure on the GMs, as they'll need to play them. (Maybe they'll delegate to players that want to help out, I don't know.)

Maybe we of the villainous bent can collaborate on this. There has to be a solution rather than press-ganging new players into unwanted roles.

[Veiled Malice]

Well, if the current trend does continue, then yes, there might be a problem. I see no reason why it would change. Most people do want to play the hero, after all.

One solution has already been forwarded: use generic villains from the Freedom City, Crooks!, or other settings, like the new Paragons books. This is, at best, a stop gap. The makers of those books purposely made the villains less powerful than their equivilent PL player-made hero. Plus, that puts more pressure on the GMs, as they'll need to play them. (Maybe they'll delegate to players that want to help out, I don't know.)

Maybe we of the villainous bent can collaborate on this. There has to be a solution rather than press-ganging new players into unwanted roles.

[Veiled Malice]

Well, if the current trend does continue, then yes, there might be a problem. I see no reason why it would change. Most people do want to play the hero, after all.

One solution has already been forwarded: use generic villains from the Freedom City, Crooks!, or other settings, like the new Paragons books. This is, at best, a stop gap. The makers of those books purposely made the villains less powerful than their equivilent PL player-made hero. Plus, that puts more pressure on the GMs, as they'll need to play them. (Maybe they'll delegate to players that want to help out, I don't know.)

Maybe we of the villainous bent can collaborate on this. There has to be a solution rather than press-ganging new players into unwanted roles.

[Toptomcat]

Perhaps we could go the other way round- incentives. Offer a Power Point bonus, or even a Power Level boost, to those who are willing to play villians.

Or even institute another tier of character Power Level, for villians intended to take on groups of heroes.

[Toptomcat]

Perhaps we could go the other way round- incentives. Offer a Power Point bonus, or even a Power Level boost, to those who are willing to play villians.

Or even institute another tier of character Power Level, for villians intended to take on groups of heroes.

[Toptomcat]

Perhaps we could go the other way round- incentives. Offer a Power Point bonus, or even a Power Level boost, to those who are willing to play villians.

Or even institute another tier of character Power Level, for villians intended to take on groups of heroes.

[Veiled Malice]

Dunno if the refs will go for that, but it is certainly an idea.

Of course I, being the first villain approved, should get the full benefit of this proposition... (Yeah, right)

[Veiled Malice]

Dunno if the refs will go for that, but it is certainly an idea.

Of course I, being the first villain approved, should get the full benefit of this proposition... (Yeah, right)

[Veiled Malice]

Dunno if the refs will go for that, but it is certainly an idea.

Of course I, being the first villain approved, should get the full benefit of this proposition... (Yeah, right)

[MarkK]

Honestly that just seems a matter of refs ocassionally using npc villains to do stuff with, who seem built just fine as far as things go.

Beyond that, I think practice works differently than theory. For instance, there's a fellow burning up Southside, and for a few rounds now, my character's been the only one in his threat range around to try and oppose the guy (the other people there are pl 6, fellah's pl 10).

Not everyone are always going to be playing their characters. I'd wait and see how things work out before pursuing solutions that might themselves just cause more problems (handing out higher power levels, etc.)

[MarkK]

Honestly that just seems a matter of refs ocassionally using npc villains to do stuff with, who seem built just fine as far as things go.

Beyond that, I think practice works differently than theory. For instance, there's a fellow burning up Southside, and for a few rounds now, my character's been the only one in his threat range around to try and oppose the guy (the other people there are pl 6, fellah's pl 10).

Not everyone are always going to be playing their characters. I'd wait and see how things work out before pursuing solutions that might themselves just cause more problems (handing out higher power levels, etc.)

[MarkK]

Honestly that just seems a matter of refs ocassionally using npc villains to do stuff with, who seem built just fine as far as things go.

Beyond that, I think practice works differently than theory. For instance, there's a fellow burning up Southside, and for a few rounds now, my character's been the only one in his threat range around to try and oppose the guy (the other people there are pl 6, fellah's pl 10).

Not everyone are always going to be playing their characters. I'd wait and see how things work out before pursuing solutions that might themselves just cause more problems (handing out higher power levels, etc.)

[Veiled Malice]

There is something to perhaps allowing players to choose PL 8/120 pp characters. I'm not exactly sure why EF didn't spring for that, as a PL 8 character would be far more useful in a fight against a PL 10 character. As it stands, all poor Amazon and Kevin can do is help out people and try not to get likewise fried. Good role playing opportunities, but fairly unsatisfing in the long run.