Bunyip

Re: Does your character blog? Thank you for the idea; the thought had never occurred to me, but I can see it having uses... The Crown Agents as a team would certainly have a Net presence, if only because of HM Government's drive to get all departments Web-enabled ASAP. (The team is a joint Home Office / Defence project.) Of the current members, probably only Bluebird has the personality and the tech nous to do a blog (and possibly also something for her late father's team, the British Lyons). Whether she would be allowed to do so, I fear, would depend on how the Powers That Be interpret the Official Secrets Act...

Re: WWYCD? #105: SuperWeapons & Tactics the Movie

Re: Good places to have battles...and stuff Twickenham rugby stadium - the fight took place just prior to the start of a World Cup game. (This was a few years ago; there was a nice touch at the end when England players Paul Ackford and Wade Dooley - both serving police officers at the time - placed the captured felons under arrest.)

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea The thought occurred to me - a long while back, and eventually I'll finish writing the story that came out of it - that 'Barbara' Wayne wouldn't have taken on the mantle of the Bat anyway... Consider: If I recall right, it's held as Batman canon now that, on the night that the 8-year-old Bruce Wayne saw his parents killed, the Waynes had been to see 'The Mask of Zorro'. Would an 8-year-old 'Barbara' want to see a movie like that? No... she badgered her folks into taking her to see 'Pokemon: the Movie' or some tosh like that - next week, maybe, or at another movie house... ...and 'Barbara' grew up to be just the kind of idle, ditzy social butterfly that Bruce just pretends to be. Which just means that something else must have provided that impetus...

Re: Foriegn Captain America's Well, I have to bite at this one - and recalled a past real EU 'Superpower Summit'... UK: London Pryde (my own flagsuit type) Rep. Ireland: Pouka (liberally swiped from GURPS IST) Italy: Romulus and Remus (not great, I agree, but their powers - and weaknesses - were pivotal to the story) Germany: Jedermann ('Everyman', a kind of psychic chameleon) France: Liberte (telepath, Resistance heroine and the grande dame of European metaherodom) Netherlands: Black Tulip (superspy) Spain: Conquistador (powered armour) Denmark: Thumbelina (size reduction) Belgium: Atomium (transmuter like Element Lad of the LSH; after that godawful statue in Brussels) Portugal: the Navigator (teleporter / psychometric powers; after Prince Henry of Portugal) Greece: Heraklitea (brick type - descendant and inheritor of Herakles) I'd like to have used the White Eagle (Poland) but I could never come up with a good enough excuse...

Re: What would your character do? #77? Depends on the nature of the offences - and even then the Crown Agents as a group would be looking for the frame. (Silvershadow maybe not - but then she's seen some of her old teammates from Red October come gunning for her.) London Pryde's past career as a serving soldier may not allow space for conventional 'four-colour' crimes (if I can use that term here). However, allegations of offences carried out during combat - the Yugoslav civil war and UN involvement therein come to mind here - could hold enough water to at least warrant investigation if the evidence is compellingly faked; and there are people in Tony's past who have reasons to do that...

Re: Crisis of Infinite Foxbats The thought that comes to my mind is Mecha-Foxbat - can you imagine a ping-pong ball gun the size of a semi trailer that fires balls the size of Volkswagens?

Re: Crime and Punishment On the idea of 'reprogramming' a villain's mind so that he goes forth and sins no more, I am reminded of this being done in Marvel's 'Squadron Supreme' miniseries back in the '80s (?) Done for the best of reasons, but wide open to abuse, and indeed so abused by the Squadron... with some pretty nasty consequences for everyone, 'good' and 'bad' guys alike...

Re: Historical Champions ... and to follow from that, I vaguely remember a rather brief description that transposed the Justice League of America to renaissance Italy. Among others, a character called Il Maestro (alias Carlo di Chiente) and a Batman-analogue in Rome who was a member of the College of Cardinals during the daylight hours...

Re: Code Name LOGIC: The Olympiad Saga- Ideas Needed Somewhere in the backstory of my own campaign was a character called Hoplite (after the 'grunt' troops of the classical Greek period). He was essentially a Hellenic amalgam of Batman and Captain America (and foster-father to the brick character Heraklitea, but I digress...) As far as a campaign around the Olympics goes, there are already concerns in the real world that the Athens games are a prime terrorist target. You may want to run with that ball...

Re: Character Help: name for female powerd-armor Muslim heroine A character motivated to uphold justice ought to have a name to match. If your character wants to indicate her religious affiliations (and I agree that it shouldn't be an essential in the great melting pot that is the US of A) then surely it should be Sharia, after the Islamic code of justice?

Re: Your Character's Greatest Fear? Robyn Hood suffered one nervous breakdown at the Atlanta Olympics and the fear of it happening again is always there for her. She's also in denial about being a metahuman ('I built these skills every day of my life') as she sees her archery skills as being the touchstone that drew her back to the world... London Pryde wouldn't admit to fear as such, but he has been so inculcated with the long Pryde family tradition of military service that a serious failure in the field - and the sense of disgrace to the family name that would go with it - would probably flatten him... Greenmantle's only real physical weakness is asphyxiation or some similar attack, so gas bombs and the like weird him out. He also has unresolved feelings of guilt over the crippling of his fiancee (a deliberate 'warning') even if she has told him she supported his stand...

The Crown Agents were set up specifically as a government team, and keeping their IDs secret from each other was never going to be on the agenda. (Although Robyn Hood's ID went public when her ex-husband spilled the beans in a British tabloid, and MC Sonik's ID is more-or-less an open secret on his old turf in south London.) I did use Thunder and Lightning from Classic Enemies - playing out the court-ordered term of service in their CE origin - and the rest of the Agents kept their IDs secret from those two, just in case. (I ended that differently; the couple agreed to come on board after their parole was up.)

I can recall a mystic version of the super-soldier project being done in the 2000AD strip Zenith - there are a few people on these boards who should remember it. The German researchers were being manipulated (offstage, as it were) by a race called the Lloigor - essentially the 'Great Old Ones' of H.P. Lovecraft's works - to produce the likes of 'Masterman', humanoid vessels strong enough to contain their inhuman essences. It took maybe fifty years to work to its fullest, but when you're practically immortal you can afford to take a long view...

A few ideas that occurred to me - GURPS Mixed Doubles did a pair similar to the core concept here, I think - a fairly standard brick-type with a disembodied 'spirit' partner who was 'housed' within the brick (the spirit was, IIRC, called Hitchhiker). That premise sounded not too different from the WW2 DC character Captain Triumph, whose strength was enhanced by the ghost of his twin brother. Which nicely leads to Romulus and Remus, who came out of an EU heroes setting I've used; probably the strongest heroes in the milieu when in close proximity, but sickened and (potentially) died when separated. Just to stir the pot, they weren't twins or even related - just two guys who got powers in the same accident and, even worse, who hate each other's guts...

There are close enough analogies between the two groups if you look for them. If I recall correctly from an article I read at the time, it was just such similarities in worldview that attracted Sir Ian McKellen to the role of Magneto in the X-Men movie; all they want is a world that will accept them and their 'abnormalities' without demur...

A brief sketch of my own UK government team, the Crown Agents (no stats, alas, but the detail may help)... London Pryde - the Hon. Anthony Pryde, not quite heir to the Earldom of Semmermere (Tony's brother was lost in SE Asia and neither Tony nor his grandfather want to declare him dead). Long-time SAS service, skills out to *here* - I read him as the Clansman (per earlier posts) crossed with John Steed... Robyn Hood - Melody Main was an Olympic-class archer who had a mental breakdown at the 1996 Atlanta games; brought herself out of it through archery disciplines (all through waking hours at the height of the fever) and became preternaturally accurate - think Green Arrow in his Zen period... If Pryde is the brain of the Crown Agents, Melody's the heart. Greenmantle - journalist Jim Munro broke open a major Glasgow drugs ring and vengeance was not slow in coming for him; but the bomb under his car triggered his metagene and gave him something close to invulnerability against physical damage. Talented amateur boxer, tenacious investigator - think of a fallible Batman and it's not far off... MC Sonik - Everton Lycett could have gone bad on south London streets; but his metapower of absorbing ambient sound and turning it into shockwaves gave him a way out. Did good by stealth in Peckham and Brixton before he was picked up by the Agents. Cocky and opinionated, but there's a good guy under all that bluster. Can be weakened, though - even killed - by total silence... Silvershadow - ex-Red October (Soviet-era metateam), Marta Revinskaya was almost killed by a former teammate; soured on the new Russia, she came to Britain to join the Agents, with whom she'd worked occasionally before. Can turn invisible or intangible - but not both at once... Mini - lab technician Kate Walcott was doused in supposedly toxic chemicals during a raid on the lab where she worked; the stuff got in through open wounds and shrunk her to 10 inches while leaving her weight unchanged. Very dense body tissues make her extremely hard to damage; she's also a decent and improving gymnast. Bluebird - daughter of the 70s hero Blue Streak, Susan Hellthwaite's speed powers are innate (unlike her dad's, which were chemically induced). Inspired by Blue Streak's heroic death when his former team came out of retirement to aid the Agents, she works with the Agents to get a handle on her new abilities. Low-powered at present (can just outrun a sports car at the moment) but getting faster... Nos (Welsh for 'night') - the cloud that walks like a man; 'David Wiiliams' is actually a sentient cloud (colony-creature) that projects intense cold and darkness in its normal form. 'Williams' was given a human identity because its own, more malevolent personality had been erased by the crash of its scoutship - or at least that's what everyone thought...

Dare I suggest - Grebe Lantern (the Duck Without Fear)? Anaso (who mimicks the powers of every other duck you can come up with)? Sailor Loon (if you're heading for Japan)? and shouldn't Howard be in there somewhere? (Anaso is, if I remember right, the Esperanto for 'duck'; maybe you could use it for your Fiacho knockoff. Actually, in Esperanto that should be 'Fiachulo' (very bad person ) but that's just me being pedantic.)

Rob-in-the-Hood - an archaeologist working on a dig dating back to pre-Norman conquest times finds an odd hooded cloak. Clothing from this period should be fragile if not rotted away completely, but this garment looks like it was made yesterday... The hood belonged to Merlin (of Arthurian fame), and allows Rob to channel the master magician to some degree. Bluebird - actually Victor 'Blue' Bird (naturally he's red-haired); a private investigator working in London's eastern districts and evidently a classic weirdness magnet as well. Vic gets help (some of the time) from a collection of East End street kids who collectively call themselves the London Pryde (with the Y in the spelling because it looks kewl like that).

I actually went with this one... Greenmantle's fiancee, Jenny McColl - thrown from a second floor window and paralysed from the waist down as 'reprisal' for Jim Munro's drugs expose - commandeered an experimental power-armour suit when GM and the rest of the team were in serious difficulty. She took to the whole thing like the proverbial duck to water and was brought onto the team as Claymore; she even remained with the Crown Agents after GM broke the engagement and quit the team (and she's even still friends with Silvershadow, who was the other corner of the triangle). Of my other players: MC Sonik's sister is a low-level meta and is already being watched by the Solution (my version of Project: Genocide). Occasional supporting character Alleycat - currently a normal teenaged girl with a nice line in acrobatic gymnastics and a few gizmos - already *knows* she's going to become some kind of felinoid at some point (an early use of time paradox in my campaign) and is quietly freaking out over it...

London Pryde became the founder of a superheroic tradition (I'd already established that his grandfather used the name as an alias while working with SOE). Tony Pryde's grandson continues the line today as London Pryde III, while the original, now the Earl of Semmermere, is a leading figure in the House of Lords and a senior adviser to HM Government on metahuman affairs. Robyn Hood, by contrast, does not exist - I'm not sure that competitive archery for women was an Olympic sport before WW2, so that cuts out a parallel to RH's breakdown at the Atlanta games. However, she is the daughter of a stage actress; Melody Main went into films herself. She graduated from small ingenue roles to become one of Britain's most respected acting talents and became a Dame in 1990. MC Sonik and Mini are both of Afro-Caribbean origin; Mini would probably never have had the lab accident which shrunk her, and instead Kate Walcott became a leading light in the post-war independence arguments in her native Barbados. Everton Lycett, born in Jamaica (the parents of the regular version came to Britain in the 1970s) on the other hand went to the bad - and with his metapowers became a serious player in the Kingston underworld... Greenmantle, given a similar (but not identical) origin, fits nicely as the 'homefront hero' in Glasgow; later reporter Jim Munro would have become a war correspondent. His journalistic career flourished after the war and he later edited the Glasgow Herald and authored four novels set in Glasgow's backstreets. The Greenmantle uniform has long since been put in mothballs - but there's a young fellow out there who's revived the name after all these years, and Jim's too much the newshound not to be interested... Silvershadow, transplanted to wartime, was a loyal - if at times too openly sceptical - metasoldier for Mother Russia in the first version of Red October. She survived the chaos surrounding the fall of Stalin, and later defected to the West in a dispute over the Soviet Union's actions in Hungary in 1956. Settling in Britain, she worked with the British Lyons in the 60s and 70s before retiring to a small village in Cornwall. She has never married. Bluebird (already a legacy character) inherited her powers from the WW1 hero Blue Streak. Susan Hellthwaite fought largely on the homefront during WW2 due to her age (and her location in remote Cumbria) but led the British Lyons in its first, 1950s, incarnation before retiring from active superheroics in 1967. Her son, Blue Streak II, is now one of Britain's more prominent metas.

alt-London Pryde - just as tough, astute and battle-hardened as the original, but a sadistic martinet who makes Lucius Malfoy look like Mr Sunshine and leads the alt-Crown Agents largely by fear and humiliation. At least for now (see below)... alt-Robyn Hood - never recovered from mental breakdown as the other RH did. Cripplingly low self-esteem, almost slavishly devoted to alt-Pryde (heaven knows why) - and also not nearly as good an archer as her 'good' counterpart... alt-Greenmantle - where the other GM exposed a Glasgow drug baron in the press, alt-GM muscled in on the operation - and later fell victim to the same car bomb that triggered his metapowers. Alt-GM then beat the daylights out of the druglord. Glasgow got too hot for him, but alt-Pryde offered him a way out. Alt-GM is biding his time before taking on Pryde... alt-Silvershadow - formerly a mistress of assassination for the then Soviet team Red October, she defected to Britain some years before her 'good' counterpart. Holds almost everyone in contempt; and probably still has links to the KGB's successors in post-Communist Russia... alt-MC Sonik ('Masterblaster') - went open with his metapowers from the outset and made himself a reputation in south London as a man you don't cross. Joined the alt-Agents in search of plunder, beer, ganja and women (not necessarily in that order). Several casual liaisons to his name, currently dallying with... alt-Bluebird - daughter of the equally notorious 70s villain Blue Streak, she used her newly-developed speed and agility in a promising burglary career before an encounter with the alt-Agents convinced her that she was thinking too small-time. She thoroughly hates alt-Pryde but acknowledges that his tutelage is making her a lot more to be reckoned with... alt-Mini - completely soured on the world as the result of the accident that permanently shrunk her to ten inches high. Takes a delight in destruction for its own sake and can get into some surprisingly inaccessible places to do it...

Gentlemen (and ladies, if present), you never fail to rise to an occasion... and some response from me would be imperative. How these characters relate to the Canberra government, I'm none too sure. The Crown Agents were very much a 'government' team and I deliberately tried to play on English tropes; whether Australia needs such a group is more a question. To ground the question in something like reality (and I apologise if I trample on anyone's toes, but I've only been here four months); it may have been set up by the current Liberal/Coalition government in the wake of 9/11 as a discussion/research project (say, Project: Eureka), and kicked into high gear after the attack on Bali. The project may have decent support on the government side but could be a prime target for abandonment under a Labor administration (my gut feeling is that Crean would have left it but Latham will junk it) Personalities - again, only vague thoughts. Thylacine may have started as an eco-warrior type working against logging interests in Tasmania; as such, he may be a reluctant member, wondering if he has sold out somewhere along the line. Eternity almost certainly didn't acquire his powers willingly and may be borderline psychotic (maybe more like the Doctor from the Authority). The Bomber I could see as the 'Joe Average' character - maybe not quite an 'ocker' (if there are any left) but not a million miles away... Southern Cross, as described, is excellent and I defer to Karma. I had thought he would have the five stars on his uniform which would double as shuriken, but maybe I am better leaving it as a team name (Project: Eureka would maybe give some people the wrong idea). I loved Walkabout and Kookaburra - thank you, Karma - and I liked Dreamtime, although the name suggested more Walkabout's time/space warping powers. I may have this badly wrong somewhere, but I'm sure I'd read that the indigenous Australians viewed time and space as in some way aspects of the same thing - it suggested something like the 'Road' stories of (I think) Roger Zelazny. All of this (even the Incredible Wombat-Man, which sounds too funny not to make use fo somewhere) is a joy and I thank you all for your kind thoughts. As it is December 31 as I type, may I wish all of you a Happy New Year and good HEROing in 2004!

Who said they never come back? Since last I posted on these boards I have left England and am now living in Sydney. I used to HERO with a UK team, the Crown Agents, but have now been thinking of Australian equivalents and trying to get something that doesn't reek of cheddar... I'll set down my own ideas and throw it open to the field? Southern Cross (either a team name or a flag-suit Captain America type) Bunyip (well, I like it...) Thylacine, the Tasmanian Tiger (he's the best he is south of the equator at what he does...) Black Swan (state bird of WA - saw her as a mystic/brick (Wonder Woman?) The Bomber (explosive powers; and of course a fan of Essendon AFL) Top Ender (growth powers, from Northern Territory - NOT native mystic; that's done to death) Eternity (possibly Dr Fate or Spectre type - after the word some fellow scrawled all over Sydney for years) Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen - I throw the floor open...

Re: Pop Culture Villains Yes, in similar vein - a child's pet terrapins, used to house minor hellions by her demonologist father. He named them Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and Stubbs..