Starlord

The first 3 books in the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg. An absolutely enthralling tale of a group of college gamers dragged into the fantasy world their 'characters' play in, acquiring the skills, talents, and physical characteristics of their characters and maintaining their normal intellect. Quite good.

About 6 weeks or so ago, I was glancing at my profile and noticed my posts/day and overall post count for the 11 months since the new site began. This subsequently led to a bit of somewhat disturbing contemplation about how much time I actually spend on this site. Needless to say, I spent a couple weeks away from here, and have subsequently weaned myself down to one (sometimes two) days a week. Probably only a couple hours at best. At the same time, concentrating solely on converting 'site time' to 'family time'. This change has gone splendidly and I'm quite happy with it.

Why is it that when you tell a man there are 400 billion stars he will believe you, but when you tell him there's wet paint he has to touch it?

Re: Re: The Millenium Watch don't get much into statting characters anymore, just like to create images/backgrounds/personalities. Getting the writing bug back again though, looking to start writing some HERO-based short stories, based off these characters or some like them.

thank you, sir

I'm thinking an ominous time for the Champions to be destroyed is on their initial discovery that Dr. D was never really dead. The city has to mourn again, while Silverback is on a mission. These heroes now have to make a name for themselves, while living in the shadow of the Champion's deaths. Everyone please feel free to use the pics as you will, just felt like sharing. However, if you feel like providing more background or personality suggestions for them, I'd appreciate it. I don't have much as of yet.

Finally, the last member. The team arrives just as the local DEMONhame has summoned a terrible creature through a gate they've created to the plane of shadows, however, someone unexpected arrives through the gate as well. Lord Stephen Warwick, his line was thought to have long died out in the 17th century, it seems he's only been on hiatus on this other plane, his magical abilities augmented and warped by centuries in Shadow: Lord Stephen "The ShadowMage" Warwick

When investigating an ARGENT warehouse, the Watch meets up with Demetrius Tyler, the teen-nanotechnological-and-mechanical-supergenius-parapalegic AKA DYNAMO

and... MINDSTAR

Within a short span of time, the team is receiving requests for membership. The most promising requests come from the mutant twins, Erica and Phillip Star. ICESTAR

The fledgling team's next investigation leads them to a secret hideout previously used by Dr. Destroyer. It seems the Dr. was hatching a plan to mine unique energy sources he discovered emanating from the inner core of the planet Jupiter. The team finds this next fellow, a being genetically engineered to survive on Jupiter. JOVIAN

On their first investigation together, Artemis and the Dr. discover the secret vault from Project: Sunburst hidden under the city. The evil generals attempt to destroy their comatose subjects, and only one survives. Mr. Nuclear Fission himself (played by me): SUNBURST

Was bored last week and started thinking of scenarios where all of the Champions were killed, leaving a superteam void in Millenium City. Being close friends with the team, Dr. Silverback actively recruits a new team and begins funding it. I took a previously created character that some have seen on here to help the good doctor. She (and the Dr.) will be far more experienced than the others. Here she is: ARTEMIS

I now have new favorite food: the breakfast pizza. Cheese, scrambled eggs, and bacon...on a pizza. cool

-It does not look exactly like a duck bill (obviously). However, it does very much resemble that of a long-billed bird (ala A DUCK!). Also, factor in this is supposed to be a (somewhat) dark, intimidating, intense character. He comes out looking like a goob. I think it is telling that so many see this. -I very much agree with the others who've suggested that all it needs is shortened by about half and he suddenly looks cool. I quite agree that the pic of him in VIPER holding up the fellow is a great pic of him. -Batman's sharp points don't seem to stand out as much as Nighthawk's duck bill, for one. Not to mention they look better for whatever reason. -I think the Gatchaman look is goofy also, though not as much as Nighthawk.

What is the link to the actual MM/HERO conversions/conversion chart? Can someone provide that, please? Lord Liaden probably has it, he keeps all those links memorized, doesn't he?

*Starlord pops into thread* "The Living Target"?? Is this a debate about how Superman is portrayed in the JLA cartoon series? *Starlord leaves*

Agreed. I was consciously trying to make a different point though. If you're saying that the authors left all those characters capped at 30, because they didn't need to make them any higher, then I really disagree with their philosophy. I don't agree that villains should be built that way. True, but it's still possible to build many of those characters with higher DEX, just take away some skill levels. Spider-Man, for example, while skilled, clearly operates more on instinct and natural agility, than fighting skill. Also, piggybacking on what I said earlier, it does seem that some of the 'standards' might have been poorly thought out. Why do so many characteristics have to be set at 30, when clearly each characteristic has a different level of effect on the game depending on how high they are. Obviously, they don't all even out. STR and DEX, for example. It's quite common to have a 50 STR, but not 50 DEX. It's almost like '30' was thrown out there to make them all conform and fit nicely at the same number. I'm quite comfortable with 30 STR being 'peak human', but I definitely think DEX and BODY could be changed. Perhaps peak human for DEX could be 25 and BODY could be 20. As I said, looking over so many official 5E characters, the general design philosophy doesn't seem to fit it own standards.

Yes, 5th Ed. It breaks down all characteristics, including Running, Leaping and Swimming, into 7 different categories: Weak Challenged Average Skilled Competent Legendary Superhuman I don't want to give the exact breakdowns cuz that's probably copying too much official material. They are the set guidelines for the official Champions Universe. Obviously, in your own universe you can do what you want.

Ah, I found it. It's also in CU, pg 28.

Champions genre book, pg 58. I believe it might be somewhere else as well, though.

DEX is also poorly utilized. Does any official character have a DEX over 30? No one in the CU has superhuman DEX? By straight comparison, wouldn't that make Spider-Man have like a 50 DEX or something? It does sometimes seem as though the 'standards chart' wasn't followed very well by Champions authors.

Jarvis has many great moments. Another favorite story he's in also might be my favorite Hercules story, as well as one of my all-time favorite comic stories itself. It involved Herc meeting up with a young boy who is a rabid Thor fan. In true Herc fashion he proceeds to spin an unbelievably exagerrated tale involving him completely trashing Thor, driving the boy almost to tears. Jarvis finally steps in and points out the boy's distress. Herc completely reverses the tale, going on to describe Thor's (again) fantastically exagerrated comeback and defeat of Herc. Making the boy positively giddy. If I remember correctly, there is sort of a 'bonding' moment at the end between Jarvis and Herc, where Jarvis is very respectful of how Herc went against his normal nature just to please one boy.

I'd empower her with a crush on someone OTHER than Defender. All the females seem to be falling over Defender, it's kinda ridiculous. A crush on Nighthawk or Ironclad seems more interesting.

I always thought that was his avatar, and that THIS was the real Tyrannon: