We've played two sessions of the Beta playtest rules. I currently have three players. Only one has any extensive experience with Hero System. I've GMed Champions and Hero System, so I have a lot of math chops for the power design. We've had an initial character development by email, a face to face session of finalizing development, and two face-to-face play sessions.

My other Gauntlet game! Unlike the Cosmic Zap session, running Champions of any stripe in a convention setting is no picnic for prep. But the hardest part is not the character construction ... it's the fact that the players will not have the necessary buy-in and sense of "let's do this" per interesting item or opportunity that's inherent to each character. The net effect is that the GM/preparer must be constantly pointing out to them what they can do.

I’ve been resisting the obvious suggestion about defining the superhero group, “set everything ahead of time,” for very good reasons. Most of the trouble that’s cropped up in playtest so far is not due to failing to do that, but directly traceable to introducing a new hero, whose definitions and problems tend to bulk up disproportionately. Introducing a hero even as a limited-only guest throws everything a curve.