Is Defender the new Seeker?

[RexMundi]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing more stats. I always like having books of write ups laying around for my newbies to dig through. Comes in handy and helps them visualize what not to do.....like, make Powered Armor PC's with mostly open faced helms and exposed neck and collar areas.....heh.

 

~Rex

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Yeah I wouldn't mind seeing more stats. I always like having books of write ups laying around for my newbies to dig through. Comes in handy and helps them visualize what not to do.....like, make Powered Armor PC's with mostly open faced helms and exposed neck and collar areas.....heh.

 

~Rex

 

[DusterBoy]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

And just to one more once, as Count Basie would say, to me, 6E Defender is an example of how not to do it.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Robert Caliburn now that he’s Archmage.

Wait, so a guy who’s basically the Crimson Avenger somehow took the Mystic World’s championship title? I wouldn't have thought that expert marksmanship would be the defining qualification for that role...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Well, it happened on Champions Online, so you could try taking it up with Cryptic Studios if you like. Still, as the Vibora Bay sourcebook pointed out, Caliburn had more of the known qualifications for the role than appeared at first glance.

[Ninja-Bear]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

It's mostly because, Out of all the people on the cover of the BBB, Seeker would certainly not be the Last One Standing against Doctor Destroyer, heh. Also, he was the first person to Seriously be printed up in a supplement, where he just breaks a Rule.....if I recall....Martial Art Stances were not supposed to be allowed for a Multi Power, and then right after the page that says that, Poof there you get another Seeker Write Up, where he's flaunting his Connections by having a Multipower the previous pages told you you couldn't have.

 

Aside from that, he was a Gimp. Not a horrible Character, but compared to all the other CU martial Artists, he was a Gimp.

 

~Rex

 

Well if I recall though the BBB was printed around the ninja craze. So as for Dr. D to killing Seeker, remeber only a ninja can kill a ninja! And as to stances you're alittle off. The original Ninja Hero said no multipowers, but when Steve wrote the UMA, he allowed it. Seeker and Green Dragon both got them in Watchers of the Dragon book. P.s., I never liked the stances-dex rolls for only a plus one,usually dex or ocv, was a waist of time in my opinion.

 

Now that I remeber it, some people hated his origin as "unrealistic" . Whatever.

[Darren Watts]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

The actual answer to all this, of course, is that like Seeker (and, frankly, Nighthawk) before him, Defender is just fun to draw. So if you're picking a hero to be shown getting clobbered by a bad guy in a description (and the art specs for a book are more likely to specify the villain in the shot than the hero), you pick the guy you feel like drawing that day. (Plus, specifically in Defender's case, we have several free shots of him generated by Cryptic themselves.) dw

[RexMundi]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

True, but that being said, one could also draw said character, not getting pancaked.

 

~Rex....or being set up to be a fine pile of carbon soot after getting pancaked, heh.....

[Checkmate]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

remeber only a ninja can kill a ninja!

Oh, no you didn't!

 

Now that I remeber it, some people hated his origin as "unrealistic" . Whatever.

The problem my group had with wasn't so much the unrealist aspect, it was that he was supposedly taught to be a Ninja, but didn't seem to have any Ninja training. He used a Katana, not a Ninjato, instead of a Black Gi-type outfit to blend into shadows he wore white pants and no shirt, and instead of being steathy and using Ninja tactics, he was a show-off

 

 

The actual answer to all this' date=' of course, is that like Seeker (and, frankly, Nighthawk) before him, Defender is just fun to draw. So if you're picking a hero to be shown getting clobbered by a bad guy in a description (and the art specs for a book are more likely to specify the villain in the shot than the hero), you pick the guy you feel like drawing that day. (Plus, specifically in Defender's case, we have several free shots of him generated by Cryptic themselves.) dw[/quote']

That takes all the fun out of guess, let's just ignore this

[RexMundi]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

I don't think I could have stomached Seeker at all if he actually dressed to his Origin, instead of as a pastiche of Martial Arts types characters dressed down to minimalize.....but then what the hey, I didn't mind Franco Nero as a Ninja back in the true ninja heyday.....HOWEVER, the ninja bit does explain him being able to stand up to Dr. Destroyer on the BBB cover. After all, Last Ninja Standing in the room......

 

~Rex

[dmjalund]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

OK Defender is the New Seeker, but we still need 3 Chasers, 2 Beaters and a Keeper

[GestaltBennie]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

This was a rewrite of Seeker's background that I did on the forums about five years ago, which kept most of the core of the character while jettisoning some of the things that I thought were dated and inconsistent. Add a bit of combat Luck to his sheet and he's good to go:

 

----

His name was Don Morgan and he was Melbourne's own best boy, a cocky, athletic Australian who was one of the superstars of Aussie rules football. Handsome, rugged, and flamboyant, his meteoric rise to fame and wealth had come in his late teens, before he was ready to handle it. He had everything: the house, the women, the friends, the bank account, the fame, and (after a few years of sowing his wild oats), a beautiful wife and a handsome baby boy whom he always figured would grow up to be a dead ringer for his old man. Everything.

 

Then a series of misfortunes struck, and they struck him hard. His father died of cancer. His high school best mate, an accountant whom he trusted more than anyone else in the world, embezzled most of his fortune. His house burnt to the ground. His club traded away many of their best players, and Don was blamed for their subsequent decline. The press made unfounded allegations about an affair. Finally - worst of all - Don's wife and child were killed in a fluke car accident.

 

All within the span of six months. Don, the golden boy's golden boy, discovered that his Midas touch now turned everything to ashes. He experienced a nervous breakdown and spent a month in a mental hospital. The therapists did their best to help him put the pieces of his life back together, but they concluded that he was too much of a perfectionist. He was used to everything being perfect. He couldn't cope with less than perfection.

 

Don ignored their conclusions. The problem wasn't that life wasn't perfect, it was that life was a cruel, incomprehensible joke.

 

After leaving the sanitarium, Don found himself unable to return to his old life as an athlete. Perhaps he could have gotten a menial job and survived in the working world, but that didn't appeal to him either. For a man like Don, even after being battered to the point of becoming a near automaton, the everyday world was not for him.

 

Don left Australia to wander Southeast Asia, doing odd jobs to survive. First he worked as a sailor, then bought his own boat and hired out as a smuggler. Don didn't much care what happened to him. In Singapore, he made the wrong enemy, and it nearly cost him his life. A gang of Malaysian thugs were sent to kill him. However, one of the people that Don had worked for was Lin Woo, a displaced Shaolin monk. Something in Don's spirit had impressed the monk, and when he heard through the grapevine about Don's imminent demise, he decided to intervene, and he jumped into the fray and defended him from the killers.

 

"Why?" Don asked the monk after the fight. "Why waste your time on me?"

 

"Show me one man who is so perfect that he does not waste a few hours of his life," the monk answered. "And I believe the appropriate response is 'you're welcome'."

 

The monk felt that it was his duty to mend Don's spirit as well as his body. Lin took Don in as his pupil, and did his best to teach Don Morgan the ways of the Shaolin. Despite his initial resistance, Don slowly grew to like the man, and over time he finally accepted him wholeheartedly as his mentor.

 

Some say that a Westerner cannot master the ways of the shaolin. Lin always believed that belief was arrogant hogwash. Don became the living rebuttal of that argument. Don was strong, he was fast, he was tough, and as his training disciplined him, he became more determined.

 

After two years of intense training and travel, Lin Woo and Don Morgan finally sealed their friendship with an evening of confession. Lin spoke of a forbidden love with the sister of the master of the Green Dragon order that forced him to flee from China. Don related the death of his wife and son, and his subsequent breakdown. He asked his mentor to explain why the tragedy had happened, why had his family had been taken away, and "what good is life if life can be so bloody short and uncertain?"

 

"I don't know," Lin Woo answered. "No one knows the answer to that question. However, the difference between those who are alive and those who are walking dead is that the living seeks the solutions to life's most challenging mysteries, the hard questions.

 

At that moment. Don Morgan vowed that he would no longer be counted among the ranks of the walking dead. He would be a Seeker.

 

Having mastered his mentor's shaolin style of martial arts, Don wandered the globe, searching for his answer. Believing that he would best find it in martial philosophy, he studied many other forms of martial arts, from Japanese karate to West African sub-styles of capoeira to Icelandic glika. He also studied history, philosophy, fine arts, religion: Don was a driven man. However, study did not bring Don any closer to his answer.

 

Two years after leaving the monk's care, Don landed in North America for the first time, Under the skyskrapers of Manhattan, Don became a bystander in a fight between the Justice Squadron and Mechanon. For the other bystanders, the fight between these modern day gods was a nightmare, but for Don, it was an epiphany. Surely, in a world of superheroes, the mysteries of life and death would best be explored by participating in the conflict between superhumans, would they not? The meaning of life might be a mystery beyond the ability of humans to grasp... but what about superhumans?

 

He had to become one of them.

 

With his typical flamboyance (like many jocks, Don had always been somewhat lacking in modesty), Don put on a bandana and some karate pants, and called himself "The Seeker". He fought petty criminals and a few martial arts supervillains. He learned about the importance of dodging gunfire. And he discovered that helping those in need felt *very* good; it was a better feeling than anything he'd ever known, except for the love of his family. He could have kicked himself for not becoming a hero sooner.

 

When the villains began to take notice of him, Don realized that it'd probably be a good idea if he joined forces with a capable team of heroes. After a chance encounter (accidentally slugging each other in a bar fight) with James Harmon, Seeker was inducted into the fledgeling Champions superhero team, where the Seeker soon became a valuable and respected member (although the media quickly shaved off the "The" from his name. Lazy bastards).

 

Don still seeks the answer to his question, he's still learning new fighting styles, and he's still training mind and body to endure trials yet to come - he's determined that no tragedy will ever break his spirit again. In the meantime he fights crime (including the star pupil of his mentor's old order, the modern Green Dragon) and helps those who need a champion. It's a bloody wonderful life.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

excelent

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Yes, very good. I'd rep if I hadn't already done so recently.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

i have repped him for it don't worry

[Ninja-Bear]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

The problem my group had with wasn't so much the unrealist aspect, it was that he was supposedly taught to be a Ninja, but didn't seem to have any Ninja training. He used a Katana, not a Ninjato, instead of a Black Gi-type outfit to blend into shadows he wore white pants and no shirt, and instead of being steathy and using Ninja tactics, he was a show-off

 

I agree with this. Have you seen though the picture with two Seekers? One is the traditional Seeker and the other is him dressed more like a Dark Champions character. (Still not a traditional Seeker). I have come to accept the original as flambouyant because of genre. I mean Batman is sometimes depicted as a ninja (or at least ninjaesque) and he doesn't seem to garner as much flak. Though that could be because I have ran across the right boards.

[assault]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Of course we all know that ninjas always run around in ninja suits so that everyone knows they're ninja. After all, why be a stealthy secretive spy/assassin type if nobody knows it?

[DusterBoy]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

That's a terrific origin for Seeker, GestaltBennie.

 

(I tagged you with the reptonfa, BTW)

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

All this talk about C:TNM made me curious. I bought a used copy on E-bay. It is actually kind of interesting, though I could do without the 1990s character designs. I knew there was a reason I hated that early Image stuff.

 

Anyway, I actually thought that Seeker's origin there was interesting, though a little too convoluted for me. Be one thing or the other. Either of the two origins are enough for a full character.

 

Now, Behemoth was a cool character. I wonder why he hasn't been brought forward.

[dmjalund]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Now' date=' Behemoth was a cool character. I wonder why he hasn't been brought forward.[/quote']not to be condused with Bee Moth

[ATTACH=CONFIG]37146[/ATTACH]

[csyphrett]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

DOJ probably doesn't own Behemoth since that was a joint venture with RTalosian

CES

[RexMundi]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

DOJ probably doesn't own Behemoth since that was a joint venture with RTalosian

CES

 

Don't think that matters. Behemoth was an interesting take on a brick. Maybe one of the fine DOJ folks could clear it up for us. While not a fan of the Iron Age design of the characters, I liked the Grifter/Wolverine look of Seeker in the CTNM stuff, and well, that Defender, was a cool set up as well.

 

~Rex

[Checkmate]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

All this talk about C:TNM made me curious. I bought a used copy on E-bay. It is actually kind of interesting, though I could do without the 1990s character designs. I knew there was a reason I hated that early Image stuff.

 

Anyway, I actually thought that Seeker's origin there was interesting, though a little too convoluted for me. Be one thing or the other. Either of the two origins are enough for a full character.

 

Now, Behemoth was a cool character. I wonder why he hasn't been brought forward.

I've always said overall C:TNM was my favorite Champs setting. I think it gets a lot of flak because of the Fuzion system and the art style (which I didn't really mind that much).

 

I like all the characters, but agree that Seeker was way too convoluted, and one of those elements could have been cut out, but Behemoth my favorite tank of all the Champions teams, that Defender is just awesome.

[Checkmate]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

Of course we all know that ninjas always run around in ninja suits so that everyone knows they're ninja. After all' date=' why be a stealthy secretive spy/assassin type if nobody knows it? [/quote']

Actually they do that because if anyone finds out they're Ninja they have to kill themselves.. Come on man, didn't you read TSR's Oriental Adventures?

[assault]

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

 

I have to say that Seeker's costume could use a serious redesign. The Shirtless Bob look doesn't make a great deal of sense.

 

The C:TNM version isn't really an improvement - it just adds a rather odd mask and a couple of straps which, quite frankly, look like some kind of bondage gear.

 

What he shouldn't do, however, is look like a Kabuki stagehand.