"V"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... More from my Amber campaign, following on from the last session. "How's Uncle Blaine?" "Not good. They're going to burn him at the stake tomorrow." "My God, that's dreadful!" "I know, he'll be furious."

Re: Trying to figure out a good villain name Ronald Red-Noseferatu. (only kidding)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my Amber campaign: "I'm going to be out in Shadow for a while. Uncle Blaine has been thrown into jail and I want to visit him." "Those poor jailers." "Exactly. Plus his truck has been arrested on suspicion of witchcraft." (stunned silence) "Call us when you get back."

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares "Where can I get the dvds" - Otaku McPerv, 2004

Re: Fighting Techniques of the Middle Ages: anyone read this? The book is definitely going on my wishlist. I will add a slight *gloat* here on a related topic - I live in Leeds, England, and a few years ago the Royal Armouries museum was relocated to my home city. Basically it's a museum of warfare, weapons, armour etc from around the world from the most primitive items up to current state of the art equipment. One of the best features is the regular (ie several times a day) displays of fighting techniques from a variety of eras performed by experts who actually know what techniques were actually used. Seeing just how quickly a skilled wielder could use a two handed sword, plus just how good the thing was for defense was a real eye opener. Plus in summer the re-enacted jousts in full armour in the tiltyard are a real spectacle. If any Herophiles plan to visit Leeds for any reason at any time it is really worth a visit.

Re: How to kill characters? Have them wake up as unpowered lunatics in a dreadful Victorian asylum and come to the conclusion that their lives as superheroes were just a glorious shared delusion, now cured by judicious applications of caustic enemas and cold water dowsings. Turn them out into the stinking streets of nineteenth century London and have them play through life as beggars and outcasts until they beg for a change of campaign.

Re: Iron Age NPC help requested Hijack is a sleazeball mentalist whose existence is not even rumoured at. Physically he is unremarkable, looking like the 'before' pictures in most social makeover programs and he has a poor self image and lacks confidence in any social interaction. His powers developed during adolescence and gave him the opportunity to experience the highs and lows of social situations vicariously. He needs to touch his targets - skin to skin contact, but even the lightest brush of a fingertip will do. At that point he can attempt to possess them mentally. His own body collapses into inert drooling stupor and he finds himself "inside" his target's body, experiencing everything they experience and able to control their actions as though they were his own. The victim is still aware of what is happening though their memories will be dissociated and vague as though remembering a previous night of heavy drinking or recreational drug use. He spent years using his powers to control and dominate the beautiful and admired people that he envied (hated with a passion to be more precise!) and only recently realised that he could make a career out of it. He now works alongside some of the richest, most predatory paparazzi in the world taking a hefty commission for assisting them in setting up the most sensational photographs of the world's biggest celebrities.

Re: Iron Age NPC help requested He is a supersoldier from the future who has been sent back in time to combat the vanguard of a race of shapechanging alien invaders who infiltrated the earth during the period in which the campaign is set. His powers are straightforward Brick-Lite/Martial Artist (similar to Captain America) and since he arrived in the modern era naked he does not rely on any foci that he could not have picked up in the modern era. He has no contact with his superiors in the future (about 50 years hence, fighting a guerrilla war against the ruling caste of warrior-aliens who have subjugated humanity) except very occasionally when they manage to 'beam' a message back to him by overriding the signal on a TV or radio, for a few brief seconds during which they give him insight into appropriate targets, imminent threats and so on. He doesn't discuss his origins with anyone from the modern world - even if they aren't shapechanging aliens themselves they may let something slip. And most people, on hearing his story, would assume he was delusional anyway. And of course, this being an Iron Age setting, he is. How he actually picked up his enhanced abilities is up to the GM of course but his whole backstory is either fictional and created by someone else to manipulate him (viz: Marvelman) or a delusion of his own devising.

Re: Iron Age NPC help requested And, realising that my previous post doesn't actually answer your request... How about a Mentalist character who is basically a one-trick pony. He has some minor mental abilities (surface mind reading etc) but his only really powerful attack is a very effective mental blast that can devastate the victim's psyche, probably permanently. Associated side effects are that he gets bleed-through of the memories of everyone he has ever used this power on and the cacophany in his head is kept at bay only by serious applications of anti-psychotic medications. He is on the books of some organisation or other that sees him as a real tactical asset (his big power is really impressive!) and see his inevitable collapse into incoherent dysfunction as an acceptable loss. He may see it differently of course, especially when some of the leaking memories from certain victims suggest to him that he is perhaps not being used against the evil monsters he was told were his targets. Or perhaps those nice innocent memories are being planted there by a rival psychic. Or perhaps they're his authentic memories and what he thinks is his real past actually belongs to one of his victims. You get the idea.

Re: Iron Age NPC help requested Out of interest, have you read Grant Morrison's "Zenith"? A very similar starting point in that following supersoldier research by the UK in World War 2 a small number of the 'next generation' of supers were born. The German supersoldiers were genetically perfect bodies used as hosts by Lovecraftian nasties... Most of the British supers turned 'counter culture' in the 60s and refused to work for the establishment with some vanishing and others losing their powers (ostensibly, in fact they just hid them). Some interesting takes on the supers genre, not least that the main character was primarily a rock star with no interest in "fighting crime" ("You want me to get my head kicked in? I'm not a boxer!") he just happened to be a ridiculously strong flying brick with powers that varied according to his biorhythms. Other supers in the early run including a powerful mentalist now carving out a niche for himself among Mrs Thatcher's cabinet ("so-and-so is being particularly difficult Peter, perhaps you could have a word..."), an alcoholic welsh pyrokinetic and someone who was not only the usual flying brick but could also control electrical impulses in nearby wiring. A later run used lots of much older UK comic characters who were the supers from a parallel world including characters from kids' "funny pages" (eg "Billy Whizz" a speedster character who appears in Zenith as "Jimmy Quick" whose first appearance has him running himself to a burned out charred wreck to deliver a message of doom).

Re: Favorite All Time Hero/Villian/Group I think my favourite villian would be the WWII German superhuman "Die Rechtschreibung Nazi".

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Ocean's Twelve Angry Young Men in Black Rain Mandingo

Re: "Neat" Pictures The F'thagn Plan Diet presumably.

Re: Champions 1st edition picture request

Re: Best and most Pointless superbattle of all time I remember Ozymandias referring to this in Watchmen when he was recalling meeting The Comedian: the implication being that this was a common way for the various costumed adventurers to establish their pecking order. Seems more plausible than the Marvel way. The quote is from memory by the way so if it's not spot-on I apologise.

Re: Character monologues Jack-a-Dandy's Resignation I am told that many people awaken to a few seconds worth of confusion or mental cloudiness that is rapidly replaced by the recollection of whatever bad news is currently preoccupying them. Not so Jack-a-Dandy. No, for one reason or another I have always accelerated from sleep to full alertness with no intervening period of psychological transition. It can be disorienting, especially if one has been dreaming of an enjoyable evening a few months ago with a menage of the most exquisite runners-up from that dreadful television Idol programme. Apparently it is quite popular with the great unwashed. Television that is. I have no idea what the Idol programme is about, but I do know it produces the most self absorbed narcissists this side of... well, me I suppose. It had been a splendid evening, and no wonder it still echoed in my dreams. That look of delightful surprise as I impart a new trick or two never fails to thrill. But still, this is no time for trivial fond records, no indeed. Today is a notable day in Jack-a-Dandy's life and career here. I dress with care, and with even more care admire the splendid fellow looking out of my cheval mirror at me as I do so. I allow myself the vanity of tutting disapprovingly at the growing number of pale star shaped bullet scars - I cannot help but feel that the miscreants responsible should be considered philistines not felons, for damaging such a sublime work of art. Father Oscar was wrong you know: The only thing worse than being talked about is being attacked by gun toting Americans. Breeches, silk shirt, waistcoat, tailcoat, fob watch in place, and that ridiculous domino mask. And now I can face the world. I have already written out my letter of resignation, perfectly proper and professional, setting out the reason for my growing disenchantment with my life as one of the Bastions of this fair city. No sense in becoming improperly emotional about the matter, no need at all to complain that the blood on my hands is growing thicker by the day and that each news report reveals how inept a job we are doing at protecting the helpless. No. A simple clear letter of resignation and then Jack-a-Dandy will fade quietly away into the background of some discreet little club somewhere. Perhaps I shall finish that novel, or learn to paint. On the other hand I may decide to betray my former comrades to a dreadful fate at my own hands. I really haven't decided yet. Though between you and me, the choice of ink for my resignation letter - an alchemical compound that will bleed through even Paladin's much vaunted invulnerability and strip the flesh from his bones - may suggest that I have made my mind up after all. Ah, the breakfast bell.

Re: Steampunk Rayguns Beautiful stuff - love the flavour pics

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares The Sorceror's Apprentice: Teen Wizards compete for a place at Hogwarts. Once a week the poorest performer is told "You're fireballed."

Re: A problem with Annie Oakley "Annie are you Oakley (are you Oakley, Annie?)" - character discovers that her real father was in fact not a humble Quaker but famous Frontiersman Kit Carson (who died when she was 8). She encounters an old enemy of Carson's who is happy to pass the hatred on to his offspring - sets up potential enemy for her for the campaign. Convoluted idea I know, but I just liked the title.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares My twist on that one would be inspired by Phantom of the Opera - rig the winner & make sure he spent a few hours in make-up getting the prosthetics applied before the debagging. Heck I should be a TV Exec, my ideas are so much better than the real ones (Mind you, the real ones don't leave people emotionally scarred and litigious, so best not)

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "What the hell do you expect me to do with seventy two virgins? And all men?"

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Driving Miss Daisy Does Dallas

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares When the recent storm of reality shows hit UK TV I did come up with the idea of staging a reality show where only about 2 or 3 of the dozen contestants are actually real members of the public and the other contestants are all actors in on the secret... Take them off to some island somewhere, give them the usual rules & so on... but then start having 'other contestants' vanish. And crew members. And have a radio blackout... Meanwhile film secretly as the genuine members of the public react to what appears to be a horror film scenario being done for real. Then another part of my brain started screaming "LAWSUITS LAWSUITS" and I shelved the idea. Still think it would be good fun though.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares The Princess Bride of Frankenstein "We belong dead" "As you wish"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Can we stop referring even obliquely to the Queen's furbelow please. In England that is still grounds for a public beating by the city bailiff. (and by the way that is not a derail, it is a quote that crops up in my gaming sessions at least every few years)