Stephen Mann

Re: What was you most powerful Attack vs. Supervillian???

A con game many years ago featured a WWII team of international heroes. One of which was an American semi-brick using a metal bat to enhance his baseball theme. We were fighting a bunch of renegade Russian metas who were annoying the hell out of us.

After much effort, a couple of us maneuvered the enemy speedster to the edge of a cliff and positioned him so that the semi-brick with the metal bat could Push a Haymaker with his BATTER-UP!! attack. Of course, the brick missed his attack and nearly spun himself off the cliff with the force of his whiff.

So, we ran around corralling the speedster again, and positioned him for the Pushed Haymaker. With a successful attack, we informed the GM of the 20+d6 of damage that was done. The GM gleefully reminded us of the speedster's rapid recovery from Stunned ability. We gleefully reminded him of the high cliff and invited him to roll the falling damage.

The poor low-PD speedster ended up with something close to 40d6 total damage from the attack and fall (our estimation). Much to our disappointment, the GM didn't actually roll the extra damage, and merely admitted that the speedster was out cold for a long time, and broken and bleeding even if/when he woke up.

Re: The Ultimate Mystic: Good, Bad, or what?

I was hoping for more emphasis on creating Super Mages rather than generic Mages. I'm a fan of the old Mystic Masters supplement, and was hoping of more of the same.

Re: Interesting Universe

The SuperGuy Universe is/was a shared-world writing group for superhero stories. I originally found and read through it about 10 years ago.

Re: Psychic Wars

Pegasus by Anne Macaffrey.

Re: Favorite Pulp Character

Well, lessee:

I had several early Shadow books, dozens of Doc Savage books, one Avenger, one Phantom, one Spider, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Re: Classification Systems for Superhumans

One thing I really like about this method is its scientific basis. You forgot the top level, though:

 

Omigawd!

Nah, the top level is: Don't Point That At My Planet!

Re: John Henry based brick

Well, if you recall what made John Henry famous, perhaps making him somewhat of a Luddite might not be off track. If your character is a modern character based on JH, then perhaps what allows him to fully tap into the myth force is his resistance to the mindless worship of high tech in modern society.

Re: A very Scary Teen Villian

Thats generally where I was going with scotts powers when I started designing him.

I'm a big fan of the novel.

Well, I figured that, but just in case....

Yeah, I really like the book too. My only frustration with it was that Roger wasn't a gamer, and so didn't make the most intelligent use of his powers.

Re: Goofy Villains

I only used them in one campaign, but my money's on C.L.O.W.N. because .... well, just because. Outside of the Ultimates, they were the only villain group I could stream-of-consciousness wing it without being out of character.

Re: A very Scary Teen Villian

If you haven't read it already, I highly reccomend to you a book by Aaron Allston called "Galatea in 2-D". It's about an artist who discovers powers very similar (though more extensive) to Scott's.

On his web page, Aaron lists the following Hero power constructs that simulate his hero's abilities:

Extra-Dimensional Movement

For pulling people/things out of paintings or pushing them in, and for traveling between paintings

Interdimensional, Usable Against Others, Invisible Power Effects

High mass multiplier (example 11 people and 1 car)

Area Effect (group of 11 people and a car)

User must be near painting, victim can be within line of sight (clearly visible)

Limit on number of character points that can be pulled into Real World at any one time

Concentration 0 DCV

Clairsentience

Sight, Interdimensional (looking from the Real World into the painting dimensions and vice versa)

Limited distance (line of sight from painting POV)

Concentration ½ DCV

Summon + Mind Control + Mind Link

For creating generic slaves (faceless ninja, etc)

Concentration 0 DCV

Followers

Free-willed creations

Re: Telios Long term plan

Well' date=' twenty years is typically the span of one generation, so the first thing that comes to my mind is the breeding of a new "master race" who will take over the world upon their maturity.[/quote']

 

Well, perhaps not conquest. How about a race of ultimate survivalists? Their genetic code compresses evolution down from generations to days or weeks. Anything that effects an individual for more than a few days causes the body to begin to adapt to the conditions. Lack of food, make the digestive system more efficient. Extremes of temperature, adjust body fat content (etc).

 

Now, the question isn't "can Telios make this work?" Of course he can, but what will this race look like after a generation? How will members in different climate zones relate to each other? What of the effects on international society?

 

Imagine the proud patriarch of a (black) African family, and the son living in Norway who's as pale as the rest of his neighbors!

 

How about the difficulty in raising money for famine relief if the starving people can adjust their digestive systems to require less food (and consume cellulose on the side)?

Re: First Contact

The Puppeteers have arrived on Earth. Well, one anyway. And it's obviously insane, or it wouldn't be here.

 

http://www.larryniven.org/puppeteer/puppeteers_in_indiana.htm

Very cool.

Re: Anybody ever play Fantasy Superheroes?

I've run a couple instances of a super-fantasy world. I've posted to these forums about it, too (though searching doesn't find it).

Basically, the world had magic and divine powers. PCs were built as 75+75 normals, plus 50 for extra skills or powers. Mages were normal spellcasters, Talented were magical mutants, and Godlings were superhuman because of their divine ancestry.

The Talented were the odball group, since these magical mutants could be spellcasters or Godlings too. Mage spells and Talented abilities could be surpressed by a dispel magic spell, while Godling abilities couldn't be.

Various PCs and NPCs included:

The human soldier who could make his spearpoint armor piercing and hot enough to burst into flame. He was very fast, agile and deadly.

The elven Godling thief with laser and light powers.

The human Godling ranger with enhanced senses.

The human Talented warlord with minor brick and fire powers.

The human Godling telekinetic sniper.

The Justice League as a mix of power types native to a desert city where they protected the city from desert bandit raids. Sir Clark of Kent was a paladin who was also a secret member of a Godling supremacy group. His treachery during an attack on that group killed alot of mages and minor Talented fighting for the good guys.

The X-Men as religious rebels (led by Balor of the Evil Eye) in a theocracy where Godlings were persecuted since their powers didn't come from God's Gift of Magic. The metal-bodied brick of the group, Mace, was the father of an NPC who also was trained as a martial artist and ranger.

The truth of the setting included the idea that the Godlings were descendants of an American superhero team stranded here many generations ago. Their powers can't be surpressed by magic because they aren't magical in origin. The heroes were worshipped as Living Gods, and form the most popular pagan pantheon in the North.

Magic in the world is somewhat radioactive in effect, so that a mage who constantly uses the same spell effect may develop the ability to use that spell effect without spellcasting. This ability may be inherited by subsequent generations as a Talent.

Re: Anybody ever play Fantasy Superheroes?

I ran a GURPS Primal Order game once. I let the players take any existing GURPS character (except no psionics and no supers) they'd ever played or wanted to invent and turned them into Godlings' date=' and then dumped them into Yrth.[/quote']

 

What did you do to them to convert them to Godlings?

One more thought for the book

So far, we've been focusing on teen heroes. What about the training academy for teen villains? There's one for teens who know they want to be villains, the one for kids captured by Viper/PSI/etc who are forced/brainwashed to be villains, or the multi-generational metahuman street gang.

If you use the professional sports metaphor, who are the scouts who watch metahuman juvie court for their respective organizations (on either side of the law)? Who are the independent villains who gather orphan mutants into their own gang?

Re: Spider-man of Many Nations

I especially enjoyed the fantastic four who followed the classic trope of fighting invading giant monsters in that version they where all except reed telekinetic based powers increased by a power core so they where able to form 60 foot high forms of invisible TK power' date=' flame and rubble respectively.[/quote']

 

I don't know if you're aware of this, but that particular story was a FF mix with Neon Genesis Evangelion, with the FF/Agatha/Alicia playing the parts of Shinji/Asuka/Rei/Maya/Misato/Gendo.

Re: Magical Reality and Society's Reactions...

Speaking as one interested bystander, I'd like to see whatever the final version of this magic system/world looks like.

Re: Weird Coincidences

In my life, I've had two instances of precognition; both happened in my early teens.

1) Two weeks before Nixon resigned, I dreamt of a local newspaper folded in such a way that I could only see the headline: "NIXON RESIGNS". Two weeks later, that was the headline our local paper used.

2) I dreamt of another folded newspaper with the headline: "HEARST FOUND". Two weeks later, Patty Hearts was found and arrested, and that was the headline our local newspaper used.

Re: Converting Fuzion to Hero

Actually' date=' that would be 'Life Support: Immune to Aging", and "Only vs Radiation" would be -2 at best (as it does not count the useless rPD; you've double dipped there by accident).[/quote']

 

Right, gotcha.

 

Oh' date=' and for the Armour? It should be noted that in Fuzion, it does not stack with PD/ED. So their defenses won't be QUITE that high.[/quote']

 

What would you suggest? There are no sample charactes given, so I'm assuming average people (before the extra Characteristics).

 

Oh' date=' and the extra Characteristics? _100_ active points extra.[/quote']

 

Yowza.

 

Thanks.

Re: Converting Fuzion to Hero

Thanks for the reply. So, just to make sure I do this right:

Radiation Res: Life Supp, Safe Env: Radiation 1

30 KD Armor, only vs. radiation attacks (-4) 11

Disease/Poison Res: Life Supp, Imm: Diseases, Poison 1

Longevity: Life Supp, Imm: aging 1

Regeneration: Rec/day 1

20 KD Armor 10

20 CP in Stats 20

Would convert to:

Cost Powers

23 Life Support (Immunity All terrestrial diseases and biowarfare agents; Immunity All terrestrial poisons and chemical warfare agents; Longevity 200 Years; Safe in High Radiation)

9 Armor (0 PD/30 ED) (45 Active Points); Only vs Radiation attacks (-4)

16 Regeneration 8 BODY, BODY Equal to REC (80 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Day, -4)

60 Armor (20 PD/20 ED)

20 Extra character points for Characteristics (20 Active Points)

I've found an interesting Fuzion page (http://quasisemi.com/symb/), that I'm interesting in swiping some ideas from. I've looked around for conversion hints, and haven't found many. So, I've got a few questions:

I understand that multiplying Fuzion stats and powers by 5 gives the Hero equivalent. Since one part of character creation for this game was to give certain PCs 20 CPs for extra stats, that's 100 CPs to add to the Hero stats?

Some characters have several KDs worth of armor, which is armor damage classes. So, a PC with 7 KD would have 35 damage classes of armor?

Re: Eurostar, CKC, and then some.

In the minority ? No quite a few of us are in the Istvatha V'han is useless club. Michael Surbook who logs on as Susano has a better version as does Enforcer and a pic to go with her in the Storn art section.

Where's Susano's version? Is it on his site or in a forum thread?

Re: The IST World

International Super Teams, the UN-sponsored superteams. Usually at least one team posted in each UN member country's capital city (with any others posted to other big cities).

Assume a character has both flight and TK. He levitates a heavy object and then begins flying, carrying the heavy object with him. Does the heavy object slow him down at all? Or does the heavy object travel at the same speed?

Found this on the Net a looooong time ago

Here's the powers I came up with for the tarot controller. The side effects are the tarot cards being reversed, for half the opposite effect.

30 Tarot MP (requires a skill roll, half side effects)

3u Fool (Suppress 4d INT + EGO)

3u Magician (6d Ego Blast)

3u Priestess (9d Aid any one power/stat below starting value)

3u Empress (12d Telepathy)

3u Emperor (12d Mind Control)

3u Hierophant (Precognition/Retrocognition)

3u Lovers (Shapeshift to any humanoid 0 END, shrinking/growth)

3u Chariot (Extra-Dim Movement to any dimension; 15" Teleport)

3u Strength (12d Aid STR)

3u Hermit (Full Invisibility)

3u Fortune (3d Aid or Drain largest power)

3u Justice (Reflection +10)

3u Hanged Man (Desolid, mental included)

3u Death (4d RKA)

3u Temperance (50% Damage Reduction resistant)

3u Devil (12d Illusions)

3u Tower (AE 6d Telepathy, for communication only)

3u Star (6d Flash)

3u Moon (25" Flight, x8 noncombat)

3u Sun (10d Fire EB + Create Light 2 hexes)

3u Judgement (6d Mind Scan +15, locate only)

3u World (Density Inc, +40 STR, 0 END)