Agent X

I hope the Iron Man movie is wondrous but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I've always thought Tony Stark was a character in need of one of those legendary collaborative teams to get on the title.

I just don't think he's ever been written close to his potential.

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

OK< brief explanation of the difference between Robotech and Macross.

 

In robotech, Protoculture is technological. But in macross, the Protculture were the ancestors of both the humans and the Zentradi. The difference is that Zentradi are cloned as warriors and grown to gigantic size and humans are, well humans.

 

And humans being humans has a disturbing effect on Zentradi. The first time Zentradi saw humans kissing they were so shocked that it caused physical damage.

 

Later on, though, some Zentradi discovered they were quite fond of "culture" and defected from their militaristic lifestyle en masse. This was reflected in things like thediscovery of Lin Minmei's music and meeting a situation like that aboard the macross where men and women work together on a daily basis (among the Zentradi the sexes are segregated). Gradually the Zentradi discovered "culture" for themselves, which they naturally associated with sex.

 

This contamination had dire consequences for the main Zentradi force and for the Earth itself....

That's not too far from "R" word. Whether the Zentradi like it or not they had a culture before they discovered Earthlings.

Psych Lim: Fascinated by Terran Culture. Common Strong

Psych Lim: Internal Conflict with Fascination. Common Strong

Originally posted by Dynamo

There's already a bunch of non-English names in the list. For now, I plan to leave them integrated, but feel free to add as many as you like. When I do the next roundup, I'll count and reconsider.

 

What's Worldmaker?

Jack Butler of the Global Guardians PBEM. I shadowed their discussions for awhile. Since their PBEM is based on UN Teams I'm sure they would love all the foreign language names they can get.

Originally posted by JmOz

Don't worry so much about the effects, work on the patheon.

 

For instance there my be a being named Ossal, the golden one, she whose words are true

 

Okay, well you can now have the Bounds of ossal, a golden aura that stops people from moving (an entangle), the Golden blasts of Ossal (a EB), and the wings of Ossal (Flight with a golden F/X)

 

Also track down a copy of Mystic Masters... a lot of legwork done there

You're right. I was just hoping somebody may have already done some of that.

I think Mystic Masters has about 8 or 9 multipower sets. I am hoping to get a few score over the next year or so.

These are my Nazi villains.

Warning: My German is based on an internet translator so the grammar, and usage for that matter, could be totally off. Blame the internet not me.

World War II Enemies

Deutscher Adler (German Eagle)

Eisen Krieger (Iron Warrior)

Grauer Geist von Rache (Grey Spirit of Vengeance) My favorite!

Gepanzerter Meister (Armored Champion)

Herrverkollkommnung (Mister Perfect)

Naziritter (Nazi Knight)

Oberst Deutschland (Colonel Germany)

Seewolf and the Wolfsatz (Sea Wolf and the Wolf Pack)

Stahlfury (Steel Fury)

Starker Mann (Strong Man)

Sonnelichtstrahl (Sunbeam)

Ubermann (Over Man)

Zarathustra

Dynamo, perhaps we should (you should) add a foreign language category? I have a bunch of German supervillains with German names and their English translations. Then we could do Japanese, French, etc.

I bet Worldmaker would love that kind of resource.

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire

To some extent its like martial arts. Most martial arts moves are pretty bland when you write them down in terms of straight HERO mechanics. The key is to come up with cool names.

 

The trick is to come up with a great visual and then work backwards to what the effect actually is. Does the magicain hold the Cerulian Swords of Samanthyr or are they floating swords that fly around on their own? HKA versus RKA.

 

Oh yes, and don't forget to go overboard on the flashy psychadelic spell effects to go along with the powers. In the end, most of Doctor Strange's spells were pretty basic in the effects but they looked really cool and had really cool names to go along with them.

Yep, I'm just lazy and anal - a bad combination. I would like a list of effects for my campaign so that pc & npc mystics draw from the same background to add color & depth to the campaign.

Re: Protoculture

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

The effect of "culture" on the Zentradi is quite ... interesting ... in Macross.

 

Obviously it's a major psych lim, as they are simulatenously attracted and repelled by it. But how should that work in game terms when writing up a Zentradi character?

Role play it. Seems to complicated to be written up in game terms for any practical effect - at least it does to me. It's been a while since I watched any "R" word but if superdigital forehead MacDuff is anything like it - it is not worth the effort (to write up the psych lim)

Incidentally, you can add Agent X to the list.

Originally posted by Dynamo

Glad you like it. I'm still willing to maintain the list, including periodic roundups, if people want to start throwing in more name ideas.

They better do so or else.

Originally posted by Jhamin

Not if you live in the land of Oz. Those red slippers are pretty styling in some circles.

I'm sorry. My first response to the character was that it was a characature of the Blue Falcon.

Then I realized I was supposed to take that costume seriously.

Then I realized they were using him as one of their Icons.

I have been interested in building a host of magical powers with the style of a Dr. Strange magical mileu. I would love any work anybody else has done on this. For example, spells or multipower frameworks of related spells with names like the "Cerulean Swords of Sarmanthyr." I haven't even figured out what that spell looks like yet. I think this would add a great deal of flavor to the game so how about it? Anybody come up with their own Ditkoesque Spells?

Originally posted by Jhamin

I'm not sure Ironclad would look at all imposing in the real world.

 

And as comic book type hoods almost never translate well into real life, Nighthawk will look pretty foolish in the flesh.

And he doesn't look foolish already?

We don't really worry about "action" on levels. You use them in a phase as they come up and you use them once (each level) per phase in our games. Whatever you used them for are where they are "at" until your next phase.

When you brought up Rapunzel I thought of the name Rapunzel; a flashback to a Golden Book, a cartoon picture of a tower, a prince, and a redhead with long hair; Drew Barrymore (tangent); Fractured Fairy Tales from the Bullwinkle Show; and another tangent - Rumpelstilskin. That pretty much happened within a second or two and took some time to "remember" as I wrote. Hope that helped.

As for, thinking about "nothing" when someone is reading your mind - that is only going to work if they are reading surface thoughts.

Writing all your thoughts down seems to me to be pretty much impossible. I would just go with the high points.

I would love to play those plot intensive games again. I'm just too busy with my career and being a Family Man anymore. What I love about High Fantasy and Superheroes is that the plots are grand and simple and easy to concoct while still being entertaining.

Originally posted by Markdoc

As already mentioned, the only real challenge for high level magic users is other high level magic users, whether they be gods, demons, ancient dragons or other wrinkly old guys.

 

The real point for this post is to suggest some useful source material. Jack Vance's Rhialto the Magnificent is a series of short stories detailing the treacheries and affairs of a group of Ultramages.

 

Kings and kingdoms are largely irrelevant to these guys.

 

By the same author, the Lyonesse series also has a group of ultramages - in their case they are forbidden to interfere in mundane affairs by the toughest mage around and a few of his buddies, who promise to duff over any mages they catch messing with the mundane world (which doesn't actually stop any of them, of course).

 

If you are going to run a game at this power level, you need to offer the players challenges other than kill-the-monster, loot-the-place. Perhaps organising kingdoms or setting up new religions, or...

 

cheers, Mark

I think you are on the right track. I loved the Green Pearl. Still, what you are describing is a very complicated job for a GM. This would require extremely intricate stories so - lift them from old fantasy novels. I'm not sure how many contemporary fantasy novels are "deep" enough for such artful thievery but many older fantasy novels are replete with mysteries that need to be solved that lead to quandaries about what to do. The Foundation Series would be a fascinating plot to adapt to a Fantasy Setting of UltraMages.

I'd like to see some substantive matter concerning playing "mythological level" Fantasy Hero. Playing the "gods" and demigods could be a lot of fun.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Newpaper For Writers Block

Originally posted by MisterVimes

I used the "Eve was a Space Alien" in current events in 1983... My teacher hated me.

That is so wrong. I am definitely going to have to tell my students that they can't do that for their current events assignment before one of the 'urchins' thinks of it. So far, no one has thrown the Weekly World News, National Enquirer, or People magazine into the mix, but it is only a matter of time.

Originally posted by Ben Seeman

Just because you give up hexes doesn't mean you give up measurement. You could always bust out a ruler or measuring tape to get your range modifiers and AoE's correct. I would love to play a Champions game without having hexes limiting your movement.

I very much prefer this method to hexes. For one thing, it makes absolute range sense a little more enforceable.

Originally posted by Aroooo

If you're looking for actual cardboard character graphics and such, here are some good web sites:

 

Cumberland Games, aka Sparks:

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/sparks.htm

These are Mac/Win font sets. High quality.

 

The Heromachine (great site):

http://www.heromachine.com/

Online or downloadable character 'painter'

 

Steve Jackson Games Cardboard Heroes:

http://www.sjgames.com/heroes/

 

As for printing, heavy ink jet card stock works. Or, you can print on regular paper, and spray mount to foam core board for a thicker cardboard hero.

 

Aroooo

Thanks.

Re: Good stuff...

Originally posted by Delthrien

I've also used Illustrator to generate hex grids for pbem games. Saved as a GIF, they're easy enought to edit and update... And they're low in calories, too!

 

attached is a sample...

 

Charlie

I love you too.

Now what am I supposed to do. I'm so torn.

Re: 1" hex battle grid pdf file

Originally posted by ultrium

I have been playing with illustrator lately. here is a 1' hex grid pdf file. you can print it out and make your own battle mat.

 

http://64.123.171.226/1inchhexes.pdf

Don't take this the wrong way... but I love you.

Originally posted by Edsel

Yeah it's rough. I don't usually post that often and it took me quite a while to get beyond incompent, right now I'm just trying to find anything I can offer an opinion on so I can make it up to skilled. It just doesn't feel right to use Dredd as an avatar and not be rated as at least skilled.

Heh! Gives me a chance to compete with you old-timers.

Cool!