Another question chaps, from the examples in the starter guide it seems that movement is very abstract, but every now and then an ability refrences movement in some detailed way.
So my question is in action scenes is movement pretty abstract? characters get to where they need to be, maybe using Overcome actions to do so if needed?
but as their are movement powers such as Flight, and some abilities mention is movement more crunchy?
It's "theater of the mind". :-) There's definitely no crunch or measurement, but it's not completely abstract. For example, the GM could have some action going on in a street between two intersections while something else is happening inside an adjacent building on the third floor, for some reason. Someone with flight or teleportation could travel between the situations, but it's all one scene. Similarly, something could break out while the group is split up, a block or two away from each other, on a street. Technically, it's two different areas, although both are within view of each other. Again, someone with movement abilities could travel from one to the other.
We had a situation in a recent game where we opened a door into a large chamber. Short version: We had to get to the other side of it to get to the exit before something bad happened, but there were challenges between the two points. The teleporter just bypassed the challenges by moving everyone to the other side of the room so they were by the exit. (This was more involved, but I'm simplifying to give you an idea of what's possible.)
Echoing what Rabit said that movement is abstract and the GM should use is primarily as a narrative tool.
The only issue that I ran into while running the starter kit is that some abilities say "attack all nearby targets" or "attack multiple targets". In most cases, the GM should force the player to pick a small pack that are grouped together, especially if there are multiple locations. I (wrongly) allowed this player to attack everything in the Scene, and when it got to the next player, there was only one baddie left. This is frowned upon and the rules say that the GM should allow for an epic attack, but not to decimate the entire scene.
Like with anything in RPGs, there are exceptions to the above, but what I'm learning is that all players should be able to do something "epic", and that means potentially disallowing other players from doing something, even if the rules say it should be allowed. (Disclaimer, I'm new to GMing; this might be obvious to veteran GMs). This is talked about in the core rulebook on pages 168-169
Thank you guys, so not a game to run with minatures then? lol. In all seriousness I much prefer theatre of the mind, especially in supers games. I played and ran Champions for years and although its a great game, it does force the players to think like a tactical wargame rather than on a pure heroic level. This game seems all about the big heroics of a comic book.
Correct, this game does not presume the use of miniatures or anything like the grid that, say, D&D uses. Most RPGs I've played over the years were theater of the mind like this, but we also often got at least some utility out of diagramming out a scene on a tabletop (just with dice or something) to help clarify positioning when necessary, but it rarely if ever had mechanical stuff tied to it.
It seems that there is still a benefit to having movement powers, however -- a character with d6 Flight or d6 Teleportation still has a huge mobility advantage over a character who has to hoof it, unless the GM is totally ignoring that aspect, I'd say.
The benefit of 3d movement only applies if the GM can actually handle a 3D scene,. There are some who just can't think in 3D.