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Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character


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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

I've built this guy repeatedly, using different mechanics, for different games. I don't have the character sheets any more (and I'll be very pleased if someone else can do a good build), but I still have the inspiration of The Hardest Part:

 

Twenty five tons of hardened steel rolls on no ordinary wheels. Inside the armored car ride two big armed guards; in a bulletproof vest, shatterproof glass.

 

Overdrive, we're gonna pass!

 

Twenty five tons of hardened steel rolls on no ordinary wheels.

 

The hardest part of the armored guard big: man of steel behind the steering wheel.

 

Nitro and acetylene open la machine. No short heist, no overnight: big money take ya to Brazil.

 

Bulletproof vest, shatterproof glass. Overdrive, we're gonna pass! Time bomb, greasy mob, count down, hurry up, come on!

 

The hardest part of the armored guard: big man of steel behind the steering wheel.

 

In a wire mesh cage with a twelve gauge. Radio, we're coming fast! Oh need to feel some hardened steel, deliver the big money deal.

 

Of the armored guard, here's what I heard: I'll tell you that he will, no matter what you feel.

 

The hardest part of the armored guard: big man of steel behind the steering wheel!

 

Twenty five tons of hardened steel deliver the big money deal...

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

I put together notes on a Beatles villain group once, but never actually got around to building them:

 

Nowhere Man - Invisibility, Desolid, and Teleport

Day Tripper - Speedster

Mean Mister Mustard - NND gas attacks

Maxwell - Silver-hammer-wielding martial artist

Yellow Submarine - Underwater powers

Norwegian Wood - Flame powers (So, I lit a fire....)

 

I'm sure I had others, but I can't remember them a the moment.

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

It was in either Ninja High School or Gold Digger, but I remember this villain named Spelvis. He was an Elvis impersonator who gained magical powers. If I was more familiar with Elvis songs, I wanted to make him into a villain. As it stands I can only think of a Transform attack called, "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog".

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

It was in either Ninja High School or Gold Digger, but I remember this villain named Spelvis. He was an Elvis impersonator who gained magical powers. If I was more familiar with Elvis songs, I wanted to make him into a villain. As it stands I can only think of a Transform attack called, "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog".

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

To the best of my knowledge, I've never done this. Making me think of what I could do, though. One of my best friends growing up, the one who introduced me to Champions, in fact, had a long-running character named Night Ranger in honor of the band.

 

VtR

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

Yeah, that would be the "Chris Crocker" referenced here:

 

3 Reputation: The greatest singer ever! (A small to medium sized group) 11-, +3/+3d6

Notes: Young girls, idiots without musical taste, Chris Crocker

 

It's . . . beyond sad. He got some minor celebrity status out of it for a while, got interviewed on some TV show I think. He's . . . sad.

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

Mmm... well, I know I've done a few characters inspired by songs before. :D (Inspired by Del Shannon's "Keep Searchin'" and to a lesser extent by the Poets of the Fall's "Someone Special")

 

In my case, it's less common for me to get powers and the like out of a song (though exceptions exist, as with Stan Bush's "The Touch" and a few other songs from the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack) than it is for me to get background elements or, more commonly, elements for future story scenes with a character. For example, Mac up there had a scene in his future taken from the aforementioned "Something Special":

 

Well she's here to write her name

On my skin with kisses in the rain,

Hold my head and ease my pain

Oh the world's gone insane....

 

That would've been after a long, arduous scuffle with Shadow Army forces. At any rate, on to more material....

 

Like I said, the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack (the *real* one, not the one for the more recent disaster) has several goodies on it - "The Touch" is perfect, especially for a streetwise brick with more defenses than common sense, and "Dare" works fairly well for a hero in general. "Nothing's Gonna Stand in our Way" is a similiarly great song for heroic mood in general.

 

"Instruments of Destruction" and "Hunger" are both *great* villain songs, and deserve props (I like "Instruments" particularly well for a visionary, nihilistic villain-team leader... and intend him as the nemesis for my "The Touch" inspired hero).

 

"Wanted, Dead or Alive" has already been mentioned, but I thought I'd do it again... especially since it gives me an excuse to show off him again! ;)

 

Going a bit further abroad, Inkubus & Sukubus' "Preacher Man" can work well for a *much* more Iron Age flavored villain who'll piss off some players (consider yourselves warned).

 

Sticking with obscure bands a bit longer, we visit some of the Euro/Scandinavian rock I listen to sometimes. "Vanilla Ninja" doesn't have too many songs I'd use for superhero inspiration, but "Black Symphony" has some incredible imagery for the proper adventure.

 

And then we've got the Poets of the Fall again... I have yet to hear a single album of theirs that didn't have at least one killer theme song for the right super, at least if taken in parts (and taken in parts works better... lot of love songs with powerful imagery in places. Great for superhero love themes though....) I'll just list titles, and say that it behooves the reader to check 'em out (besides - if you like rock, I think you'll appreciate this particular example of Finnish rock...) You can find music videos and performances on YouTube, if you don't wanna fork out the money to import their albums:

 

From Signs of Life: Lift, Don't Mess with Me, Seek You Out (needs a *very* particular type of hero, but it works), Someone Special (mentioned above), Illusion and Dream.

 

From Carnival of Rust: Fire, Carnival of Rust, Gravity, and the best of the bunch for superhero/action hero toned songs - Locking Up the Sun. Can't say enough about this one, even though the video for it is... well, trippy is, perhaps, a little mild.

 

Getting back to more domestic flavors, I'm toying with a villain based on Billy Joel's "The Stranger" who has some potential, particularly with a high psych-lim group.

 

Generally, I tend to think in mental images and scenes for these sort of things, so my advice for using musical scores for heroes it to close your eyes and see what *you* would want the music video for the song to look like - preferably, the anime music video (yes, shameless self-promotion is my friend), since it doesn't feature the band playing so much. If you've got an action piece, you've probably got potential, so play with it a bit and see if you can find a *particular* character for a given song. If you're not good at picturing these vids, go ahead and take a look on YouTube or (better still) on AMV.org to find a few samples. You'll have to give it a couple weeks, or a donation, before you can start the Local downloads on AMV.org, but there's some good stuff on there, especially if you find a song with good potential - ones that have good superhero potential generally drip with AMV potential, so folks use them a lot.

 

"Kryptonite" and "Run Away" are both good for imagery, I've found. "Sunshine Superman" isn't much for character inspiration, but it's a fun piece to mention here, so I'll do it. :P "Waiting for a Hero" has already been mentioned, but it's worth mentioning again. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a popular one from the 80's, though I have less to do with that one than Adam sometimes does.

 

The Protomen's eponymous album simply rocks for some of this, especially "The Will of One" and "The Stand (Man or Machine)".

 

Superchick's "Hero (Red Pill Remix)" might as well be written for a rather gritty high-school based Teen Heroes campaign, as a reminder to the heroes that there's more than superpowered problems they can work on.

 

And, focusing more strongly on the tragic heroes I love so much, I've got one character in the wings who has a scene inspired by Green Day's "When September Ends" that's pretty much his entire raison d'etre; it's a good piece for any character who's got dark times ahead of him. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" doesn't work as well, I've found, but it has potential if played around with I suppose. And for some types of tragic character, Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" might as well have had their name put on it.

 

The Eagles... for those of you who like gunslingers/loner characters, you owe it to yourselves to listen to the Desperado Trilogy, as I call it ("Doolin' Dalton"/"Desperado"/"Doolin' Dalton/Desperado Reprise"), from the Desperado album (and don't *just* listen to "Desperado", the others have potential). New York Minute has a tone to it that fits the loners too, and one of these days I still want to base a villain's base and MO off of the Hotel California. The lesser-known "Outlaw Man" is a rare Eagles piece that practically draws the character for you, power/disad tips and all.

 

Queen has already been mentioned... "Princes of the Universe", "Another one Bites the Dust", and I can't *believe* that nobody's mentioned "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions"!

 

And, sometimes, you'll just trip across a song that feels like it *needs* to work... I'm still working on the writeup for Le Petit Bohem, inspired by "Bohemian Rhapsody", but one of these days....

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Ms. Speares, sixteen year old pregnent sister. For those with kids, you might've seen on a show on Nik, Zoey 101.

 

Any ways, back on subject. I've been working on a demonic rock band called Demonbait. Death Metal naturally. The lead singer is Incubus, and then there's Distortion on lead guitar, Riff on base guitar, and Chowder (a four armed demon), on drums. They're on the "Feast of Souls" world tour, coming to a town near you.

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

Ok, every time that I see this thread, I get tempted to build a duo a female energy projector (fire) and a locomotive (brick + movement powers) called Proud Mary and Big Wheel.

 

Too groan worthy?

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

Oddly enough my latest Goddess, Thrud was actually inspired in part the song Lightning, by Hello.

 

Lightning! She's like Lightning!

And the flash from her eyes is frighting

Lightning! She's exciting!

And the flash from her eyes, always frightens me...

 

 

Didn't want her to be a Thor copy though.

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Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character

 

Tiny Teddy. He's hyperactive drug smuggler addicted to cocaine, gambling and betrayal who slips a "friend" a mickey, straps explosives to him and sends him into their bosses mansion to kill the boss after Teddy loses the shipment.

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