Brandi

Irving would be CGI, by either Weta, ILM, or maybe even Pixar. I'm not sure on the voice, but it wouldn't have to be a famous actor necessarily if a good animation voice actor would fill the bill.

The next Pixar film, The Incredibles, is also about a family of supers.

Originally posted by zornwil

Hmmm. Mad cow disease. As in mad raging MUTATED VICIOUS COWS!

Something like this maybe? (From a friend's Heroes Unlimited campaign)

Actually, this could become a real soul-searching matter for Irving.

Literally.

I mean, he's an animated statue, so he's definitely not at all human and he's been pondering his metaphysical nature on and off since his awakening.

Originally posted by Hermit

You could gather your team in Bagsend

Actually, Peter Jackson bought Bag End and set it up at his place.

I think this makes THREE undone challenges now:

1) Electricity-based hero who can travel through wires and such;

2) Undead who is not typical zombie or vampire;

[i keep thinking I have an idea for this one and then other things distract me from writing it up. ]

3) Popeye.

It might be too close to the Spiderman movie, but Willem Dafoe would make a remarkably unpleasant-looking Joker.

Given the touches of sexual ambiguity and showmanship the Joker seems to have in TDKR, David Bowie would be an interesting choice.

Originally posted by lemming

Hmm. McDonalds is the biggest purchaser of cow eyeballs.

No, they are NOT.

Disclaimer: I don't particularly like McDonald's; I just hate dorky ULs.

Originally posted by Hunter1

According to the comic I read, it stated that most normal humans only use 5% of their brain capacity. I do not know the science behind it, but it makes sense that most normals only use a fraction of their brain power.

There is no science behind it, because it's simply not true, althought people like Paris Hilton might make you wonder.

Dunno how your supers are organized or funded, but a lawsuit-- or rather, *several of them*-- might be a real barrel of laughs.

Look at all the flak Rockstar Games is taking for Grand Theft Auto...

Irving would probably jump back and brace himself rather than attack the computer. After realizing what happened, he'd call on the team gadgeter.

"Flash? I think we need to upgrade our pop-up blockers..."

"Sure thing Irving. And then I have a *very special* program I have to write," as Flash starts designing a customized virus...

A villain with Absorption might be fun, especially if he can't be overloaded (ie, the guy can't keep blasting him in the hopes of making him explode).

Originally posted by Monolith

Well, to run a "by-the-book" D&D game you must buy the DM's Guide: $29.95, the Player's Guide: $29.95, and Forgotten Realms: $39.95. So there you have $100.00 tied up.

Huh-- see, I would've assumed you'd be running Greyhawk (the mother of all D&D worlds), and therefore would skip the FR book in favor of the Monster Manual. Still, only cuts your initial outlay by $10...

Originally posted by Mephron

I'll admit it: That joke I DIDN'T get. Can you explain it to me?

Gwynplaine is the titular character of Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs, a man whose face has been surgically altered into an unpleasant, permanent grin. Conrad Veidt's apprearance in the silent film adaptation supposedly inspired Bob Kane's Joker design:

Actually, if it's got carbon compounds in it, it's organic, hippies who don't want pesticides in their food/clothing crops notwithstanding.

PVC, to give an example, is CHClCH₂. See the carbons? It's organic!

[Why yes, my husband majored in Chemistry in college, why do you ask?]

Originally posted by Mephron

This is what I love about the current DC-based cartoons. There's little things that make the long-time readers crack up with the little references.

Funny how that works-- I'm not really all that hipped on DC comics so I missed that completely, but "Gwynplaine Entertainment" made me grin wryly.

That was a completely different version of the gang; as far as I know the version in the comics was always like the one in Batman Beyond-- the family + robot burglary crew. I'm not sure quite how the Joker would entice that group to work for him, whereas the mutant kids seemed to feel they owe him something. Either that or maybe the writers thought if the 'standard' Royal Flush gang was in the future setting of Batman Beyond, the current ones could be someone else entirely.

Curiously, they were all voiced by the Teen Titans voice actors.

Even more curiously, this version of the gang (as I do Google searches to confirm that the Batman Beyond version was like the original comic book team) resembles a version of the Gang done for the 1985 Superfriends/Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode, right down to being recruited by the Joker! See

http://quicksitebuilder.cnet.com/rob_63/willsultimatesuperfriendsepisodeguide/id19.html

In Irving's case, one of his colleagues has sensitivity to the entire EM spectrum, so unless the concealment is *really* unusual they should be able to track it down.

Irving himself, for all his size and capability of breaking things, is really too sweet-tempered to do the intimidation thing well, and his Psychology skills aren't really there to have him try to break the hold the master villain has on the henchbeing.

I got introduced to Champions relatively late-- around 1994! I had some experience with GURPS so the idea of a skill-based system wasn't foreign to me; all the same, my first character idea-- a vocal mimic who might have a small suite of sonic powers with the help of something like a bullhorn-- seemed like such a nightmare to construct that I considered giving up on the whole stupid game altogether.

In fact, I did end up creating Ye Old Brick... but Irving's turned out to be much more interesting than his powers would indicate.

[ironically, the mimic character I was thinking of would be *much* easier to construct under FREd, now that Shape Shift can be described as affecting only certain Sense Groups...]

Originally posted by Badger

Lord knows what would happen if a cat gained intelligence and super powers.

Brief hijack: would anyone here enjoy seeing a set of supers my husband came up with a while back-- the San Onofre Cats?

[They grew out of this story-- and for the record, when I asked the power plant about the cats a couple years after the event, I was told they were happy, healthy, and placed in adoptive homes.]

Shadow-- you never said in this thread but have you looked at the Luck Powers in the USPDB (the actual book version)?

Well, here's the idea I was thinking of: a man who died... but came back. However, it's as if his soul is no longer as strongly tied to his body as it used to be-- he can project it from his body very easily (no preparation, as compared to the Astral Projection outlined in the FREd sidebar), but it's tiring and requires concentration (so we'd have Costs Fatigue and Requires Concentration Throughout as Limitations).

However, I did run across this part of the FAQ:

"Q: If a character buys Duplication that Costs Endurance to maintain, what happens if he runs out of END, or becomes Stunned or Knocked Out?

A: In that situation, the Duplicates collapse and cannot revive until they rejoin the original character and are re-created. The original character would have to oversee the rejoining process, since the Duplicates cannot go to him and rejoin by themselves."

Now see, this wouldn't fit what I'm thinking of, unless Ranged Recombination can be used to overcome this.

Anyway, the 'ghost self' would have the same stats and powers but also Inherent Desolidification and Life Support.

The tricky thing is: if I have a power that both the living and the soul character can use, must I buy the Affects Real World modifier for both characters?

The power I was thinking of was, admittedly, a nasty one: like Wild Cards' Demise, this man can, in either form, force a person to experience the horrors of his death by making and maintaining eye contact-- probably something like Drain Body, BOECV, Eye Contact throughout. It might also have an interesting side effect like draining PRE from the hero (recalling one's death is terrifying!).

If I can hash this out I'd really like to put it on the Character Posting Game thread.

[looks at the comments about clunky power armor]

Anyone else remember 4th edition's Juggernaut? Or The Maine?

Hm. I suppose "Visible" could be used to represent the ghostly form projected...

And if so, what happens when they stop being activated?

It came to mind when I was imagining someone projecting a mental energy self in a little different way than the Astral Body write up in the FREd sidebar. I was thinking limititations Nonpersistent and Requires Concentration Throughout and then wondered if that's legal, or even practical...