Post originally by William A. Peterson at 2004-09-04 10:58:26
Converted from Phorums BB System

Buzz wrote:
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<i>Given the number of important comics characters who have "Missile Deflection", or a variant thereof, I really wonder how they arrived at the decision to exclude it from 'Sidekick'!</i>

"Missile Deflection, like some of the other powers left out of Sidekick, are "!" powers, i.e., the ones marked in 5e as potentialy unbalancing and/or more complicated."

Yes, and it is that call that I find to be utterly bizarre! It certainly isn't the most complicated power, no more so than some of those that were included, and I don't see it as being unbablnced. If you do, then we must agree to disagree.

"The point of Sidekick is to be an introductory version of HERO that eases people into the system. Any reduction of HERO to a subset was going to necessitate leaving something out."

And I can think of a lot of things that were included that I would have left out, instead! I fully agree with the goal of Sidekick, it's the execution that I find wanting...

"They chose to leave out some powers that might overwhelm newbies."

Do you honestly feel that Missile Deflection would 'overwhelm' anyone capable of playing Champions at all? I don't...
I was a 'newbie' back when First Edition came out, and I had no problem with the power, then!

"I also think claiming that Missile Deflection is so prevalent in the supers genre is an incredible overstatement,"

Try reading my statement again, please...
I was talking about 'important characters' (such as Wonder Woman and Captain America), and not trying to imply that it was 'every' character!

"not to mention that Sidekick is *not exclusively a supers RPG*."

Yes. Pathetic, isn't it? Hero has strayed so far from it's roots that, even in a game called 'Sidekick', it has to be all things to all people, and can't concentrate on just one subject...
I really don't understand what they're doing, anymore...

"It also ignores the fact that, e.g., simply buying Armor and having "deflects missiles" as the special effect will suffice for a Sidekick-based game."

If I agreed with that statement, I wouldn't be complaining...
In fact, the two sets of mechanics are entirely different, and someone used to doing it the 'Sidekick' way is going to be greatly confused when they see it done the Hero Systems way...
And for no discernible reason!
Other than Mr. Long's oft peculiar judgements of what is, and whatisn't, Game Balanced, that is...

<SNIP>

"I also don't see the point in continually griping about Sidekick in this manner, seeing as, for $9.95, you're getting a ridiculously complete RPG that, adjusting for inflation, costs about 30% of what the first few editions of Champions did."

What? You MUST be joking! I paid $9.95 for original Champions! Now, it wasn't as ridiculous in it's completeness as Sidekick is, but I don't like paying for games that have become ridiculous! They've added too much that doesn't belong, and subtracted too much that does...
Hence the complaint!

"If it were $29.95, you'd have reason to gripe. Fortunately, it's not. If anything, it probably one of the best buys in gaming right now."

That much, I'm not really complaining about. It is a very good value, and I waited for a long time for the product to come out...
But some of the Editorial decisions made greatly restrict the utility of the book as a teaching tool, or as a simplified replacement for 5th Edition...
If I still have to have another edition of Champions to play the game, then what good is it?