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Project Sunburst


Boll Weevil

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Howdy folks. I was wondering if anyone here had actually run the events of Project Sunburst in your games? I think I have used every single CU character from that origin and even added some of my own but have never actually ran the scenario.

 

I have to a point. I had Sunburst eventually bring to a hero group the proof needed to condemn those involved in the original military Sunburst project. Those involved in the project are now long since gone. It's been awhile since I did those episodes.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Trying to create radiation-resistant soldiers by exposing them to a controlled nuclear detonation (or something close). It created... Sunburst, Ray, Wyvern, and (indirectly) Armadillo. I might have missed someone, though.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this thread Mike. Yes, I have used a version of them quite a bit in my campaigns. There membership was changed a bit as Ray was dropped and a version of Ripper (now called The Bomb) and a member I made up called Ground Zero got added. I also remade both Sunburst and Radium, but the basic powers and history were close to the original. They were used as the most feared US terrorist group in my world. I left it vague as to how much of their story was true and how much was crazy conspiracy stuff. Unfortunately, none of my gaming groups ever really investigated much about their background. With the 2 new members they were pretty devastating, even more than I had originally planned.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Trying to create radiation-resistant soldiers by exposing them to a controlled nuclear detonation (or something close). It created... Sunburst' date=' Ray, Wyvern, and (indirectly) Armadillo. I might have missed someone, though.[/quote']

 

In the old books, it was Sunburst, Ray and Radium. Later they connected Ripper to the project as well. I am not sure about Wyvern, though.

 

[Edit] Oh yeah, Armadilo was a subject of Project Sunburst as well, but only had a change in his brainwaves or something]

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

In the old books' date=' it was Sunburst, Ray and Radium. Later they connected Ripper to the project as well. I am not sure about Wyvern, though.[/quote']

 

I might have confused Wyvern with Ray. I know in 4th Edition, Armadillo was one of the subjects, and the radiation altered his brain allowing him to sync with the Armadillo armor interface.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

In the old books, it was Sunburst, Ray and Radium. Later they connected Ripper to the project as well. I am not sure about Wyvern, though.

 

[Edit] Oh yeah, Armadilo was a subject of Project Sunburst as well, but only had a change in his brainwaves or something]

I thought Ripper got his Strength from implants?

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

In Fourth Edition, Sunburst, Radium, Ray, Armadillo, and Gigaton were all survivors of Project Sunburst. All but Ray are back for Fifth Edition. Armadillo's brain-change that let him pilot the armor is carried over from 4E. Ripper was never a subject of the Project; in Classic Enemies one of the scientists involved with PS also developed Ripper's cybernetics. That detail didn't carry forward to 5E.

 

Fifth Edition has added three other survivors of PS who assist Sunburst, all with much more obvious energy-based powers: Helios, Nuke, and Phaze. All four are in Villains, Vandals, And Vermin.

 

In my own use of Project Sunburst, I never ran the actual nuclear test. I did give Randal Gordon (officially the pilot of the Armadillo armor) the more-powerful Dreadnought armor (from Classic Enemies) instead. The Dreadnought's nuclear power source slowly poisons whoever wears it, but I decreed that Project Sunburst gave Randal Gordon immunity to radiation.

 

BTW while 4E Project Sunburst was a failed test of protective suits that would allow soldiers to survive the radiation from nuclear weapons, the 5E Project was a deliberate attempt to induce superpowers in unprotected "volunteer" soldiers.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

You might also consider Major Star, of the US government hero team Executive Sanction (Fourth Edition sourcebook Allies), as a survivor of Project Sunburst, although not directly. He found that the protective suits used in the test were made to inferior standards, and to prove it wore one of the properly-fashioned suits and exposed himself to a nuclear explosion. He survived, and also gained super powers.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

I thought Ripper got his Strength from implants?

 

Yes, he does. When he first appeared in Stronghold, he was a former Green Beret who got captured by the Viet Cong who did all kinds of experiments on him and left him for dead. He managed to make his way back to South Vietnam and was then transferred back to the US. He was dying from radiation he had received so they offered him a chance for survival through Project Omnicron. In 4th, they said the scientist who was behind Project Omnicron had been the only surviving scientist from Project Sunburst and was trying to create soldiers who could survive another Project Sunburst. I am not sure if 5th edition makes any such claims about Ripper as I don't know what book his is in. (I don't have a lot of 5th ed books)

And if I remember correctly, in the original stuff there were 10 survivors of Project Sunburst with 6 still being in a coma.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

If anyone is interested, here is the current line up of Project Sunburst from 5th edition:

 

SUNBURST

HELIOS (Versatile energy projector)

NUKE (Super strong and durable, emits radiation)

PHAZE (Control density, become heavy and desolidified)

Armadillo

Gigaton

and Radium.

 

The ones in bold work under the command of Sunburst, but Armadillo does work for him as a mercenary from time to time.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Yes, he does. When he first appeared in Stronghold, he was a former Green Beret who got captured by the Viet Cong who did all kinds of experiments on him and left him for dead. He managed to make his way back to South Vietnam and was then transferred back to the US. He was dying from radiation he had received so they offered him a chance for survival through Project Omnicron. In 4th, they said the scientist who was behind Project Omnicron had been the only surviving scientist from Project Sunburst and was trying to create soldiers who could survive another Project Sunburst. I am not sure if 5th edition makes any such claims about Ripper as I don't know what book his is in. (I don't have a lot of 5th ed books)

And if I remember correctly, in the original stuff there were 10 survivors of Project Sunburst with 6 still being in a coma.

 

Was anybody else involved in Project Omicron? As I recall, Ripper is one of the strongest published characters, so I'd be surprised if someone wasn't trying to replicate his strength.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Was anybody else involved in Project Omicron? As I recall' date=' Ripper is one of the strongest published characters, so I'd be surprised if someone wasn't trying to replicate his strength.[/quote']

 

 

The project seems to be thought of as a failure since the only person to go through it went crazy and destroyed parts of Baltimore (4th ed I think). It is suggested that the scientist moved on to try again, but I never saw anything pop up about him anywhere else. In my campaign he did indeed continue to work, but now it was trying to find ways to stop Project Sunburst since they wanted him and anyone connected to the project dead.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Oh and I have no idea what Ripper looks like in 5th since I don't have the book he is in, but when he was first printed he had a 50 Str and +50 Str with 3 charges on it. In 4th they dropped the added Str by 20 and gave him an extra charge. So what is his listed Str in 5th?

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Ripper is in the Viper book, with a 70 STR base and a +30 STR 4 charges lasting 1 turn. Seems that the original modification came from Dr. Philip Moreau (a medical researcher working for Viper), with further modifications ("Omicron Technology") from Viper Labs. He's part of Viper's Dragon Branch.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

The project seems to be thought of as a failure since the only person to go through it went crazy and destroyed parts of Baltimore (4th ed I think). It is suggested that the scientist moved on to try again' date=' but I never saw anything pop up about him anywhere else. In my campaign he did indeed continue to work, but now it was trying to find ways to stop Project Sunburst since they wanted him and anyone connected to the project dead.[/quote']

 

In a recent Fifth Edition campaign I reintroduced a background character from earlier editions of Champions, master cyberneticist Dr. Samuel Levy. (The official 5E CU has several super-geneticists, but I felt the cybernetic side lacked similar representation. And you have to love a guy with pet cyborg panthers. ;) ) In my setting Levy initially worked for VIPER, and was responsible for developing Ripper's Omicron technology, as well as upgrading Halfjack.

 

Levy faked his own death with the aid of ARGENT to escape from VIPER, and became an independent contractor to ARGENT and others looking for "improvements," under his code-name from Adventurers Club #3, Hexmaster (which I defined as a contraction of "Humanity EXalted"). His most notable project for ARGENT was the construction of Interface. Hexmaster's rationale is the development of a true fusion of biology with technology to raise mankind to a new level of perfection; although that's mostly self-justification for playing God.

 

In my campaign Hexmaster's creations included cyborg ravens and sharks, as well as the MAD ("Modular Application Drone," inspired by the similarly-named androids in AC 3), human cyborgs which can be configured with various power devices, programmed with downloadable memories and skills, and disguised to impersonate other people. I was thinking of developing Hexmaster and his followers for Digital Hero before it was cancelled.

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Re: Project Sunburst

 

Gargantua in Conquerors' date=' Killers, And Crooks[/i'] has STR 100 when he's at full Growth (about 200' tall).

 

Rashindar (CW) tops out at 110; Landsman (CotN) at 120. They're both growing bricks (well, Rashindar is a mystic, but never mind), and Landsman is also restricted by terrain/soil type.

They also have rather low defences for their Str, but that's another issue, and Rashindar has a magic VPP to fix problems like that.

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