Nuclear Fridge

Timemaster, all the way from Adventurer's Club, but with a little less crazy-wearing-pants-on-his-head. He's from a fractured dystopian future... and he's come back to the Age of Superhumans to fix things. I'm sure you can see this set-up has massive ****-up written all over it, but that's why I'm nominating him. He's a warning: do not mess about with time travel, kids!

You'd need some aerial traffic as well... flying vehicles a la Fifth Element or Blade Runner. "If they don't chase you after the first mile, they won't chase you..." Sound of sirens. "Or is it two miles?"

So, I'm about to start GM'ing a new sequence of games, and that means excavating all my old superhero books. I've been skimming a lot of villains, old and new, from a range of different publishers... and I noticed something that keeps cropping up. Crazy, gadget-using villains with a Sonics motif. Le Sone (or Ultrasonique) of Eurostar. Vibron of 3rd Edition's Classic Enemies. Howler, with her paranoia and superstitious hang-ups. Drill-Bit from GURPS Supers' <i>School of Hard Knocks</i>. A few others I can mention. It's as if messing around with directed-sound weaponry rots away their minds bit by bit until they snap. Which gives me ideas... Say there's a subtle kind of 'radiation poisoning' effect involved with sonics tech, with repeated exposure causing cumulative damage to the user's nervous system. Given enough time, <i>anyone</i> will go off the deep end. Which doesn't bode well for a hero using sonics tech, does it? Adapting the 'Sonic Squeezeplay' from <i>Villainy Amok</i>, a blanket sonic-bombardment device covering a city could have far reaching effects beyond the Blackmail Of The Week Plot... I'd be interested in what other people have to say about this - what sort of sound-based villains and schemes have you faced? How have you made a Sonics villain more interesting than just a walking Energy Blast?

Putting my foot in my mouth, making myself look stupid in front of others... Maybe that's more of a Disadvantage than an actual power...

I'm leaning towards OIHID... but given the amount of cybernetic controls built into the machine, I may assign him Vulnerability to Electrical Attacks. And I'll probably crib the grenade-launcher multipower from CKC's Ankylosaur for the weapons system. If he wants a laser or blaster, he's going to have to carry a rifle.

I've dug out my old copy of GURPS Mixed Doubles, and I want to use Dr. Centaur as a comrade-in-crime for Beamline and Brainchild. Where I'm stuck is how to build the character without giving myself a headache... Dr. Centaur (Dr. George Bratsis) was an engineering designer whose younger, more computer-savvy colleagues were starting to eclipse him. Desperate to hang onto his job, he started stealing designs and plans from rival research firms, and passed them off as his own work. Sooner or later it would go wrong, and it did. In a shoot-out with a pair of patrol cops, the machine he was stealing exploded and left him seriously wounded - so seriously that he lost his legs. He resumed his criminal actions as a way to salve his ego and to gain 'revenge' on the system. Directing his hired thugs via cellphone and camera, he had them steal a prototype 'walking tank' intended to give a soldier great mobility over broken ground that current military vehicles cannot handle. Dr. Bratsis modified it to allow him to operate it and keep both hands free. So... I'm tempted to go the OIHID route, and treat the 'horse-robot' frame much the same as a large suit of powered armour. When he's wearing the thing, Dr. Centaur is big, heavy, and awkward - he weighs over a ton, he can't fit through some doorways, and he can overload a freight elevator. On the other hand, the exo-frame is tough, stable, and gives him good ground speed (and has a few pop-out concealed guns). The other route is to give him a multiform - in one form, he's in the walking tank, in the other he's in a wheelchair, with the expected issues that entails. I'm really not sure which route to go with, and I'd really like some input on this...

I want to build an energy-mirror character, with the expected Energy Blast (Variable Special Effect), who imitates whatever energy type has just been used on him - fire, sonics, lightning, whatever. Pretty much as is given in the USPD. I'm wondering about some of the "secondary" powers and skills to give him. 1. Knockback Resistance. Only versus Energy... would this be a -1/2 or a -1/4 Limitation? 2. Knowledge Skill - 'Blaster' Superhumans. A narrower version of the generic KS: The Superhuman World. 3. Optional Damage Shield, dependent on just how much power has been fired at him recently. He can't rely on this - it's 'energy bleed' that leaks back out - and he can't really control it, either. It's almost like an annoying side-effect of his power. Any ideas or suggestions are very welcome!

Thanks! I was leaning towards this as the better solution, but it's always good to get an outside perspective.

Make the second "T" Tactical. You don't need to go the Iron Man 2 movie route of dubbing it "a high-tech prosthesis"...

I’m looking at updating a couple of the characters from “Mind Games”, written by Scott Heine, to 5th Edition levels. One I’d really like to use is Floater, but I’m having trouble with the limitations on the powers… For those who don’t have that book, Floater is an alien criminal exile that crashed to Earth and was found by PSI. It’s basically a levitating brain-like creature that has telekinetic flight and manipulation powers – it has no useful physical appendages. Where my problem lies is in the Mind Control and Telepathy powers Floater uses. The background says that Floater is still not very familiar with human minds and how to access them, so these powers have an Activation Roll. Now, “Mind Games” was 4th Edition, so it predates the “Class of Minds” enhancement for mental powers. I’m looking at it like this: Floater’s mental powers are geared towards “Alien” minds… so if I add in +10 points for “Human” minds, should I keep this separate from the actual power on the record sheet, and attach the Activation Roll to it? Or should I give Floater some OECV levels that have an “Aliens only” or “Not on Humans” modifier? Any thoughts or hints would be very much appreciated!

Strike Force is the one Champions book I have always considered indispensible. The advice Mr. Allston provided on how to be an engaging GM has stuck with me...

This is a "classic bit" that doesn't translate at all well, in my experience. Right up there next to having one of the heroes turn out to have been a secret traitor/alien shapechanger/duplicate robot from Day #1. Comic-book writers can get away with it because they don't have to contend with the potential fallout from their players at the game table. Tasha's suggestion of using an NPC hero(ine) is a better idea, especially if said NPC has helped the players out a few times before, say by dealing with the heavily-armed VIPER 5-team that's packing custom-made weapons geared specifically to hurt the players' heroes. When the NPC hero starts trying to cave in Captain Fantabulous' head, it's not so likely to result in a yelling match and bad feelings...

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill This is known, in some areas, as committing "suicide by Judge". In that, if you're foolish enough to open fire on the likes of Dredd, you really ought not to be surprised at what he does next...

Re: The Serpent's Crown Another lump of Plotdevicium, hammered into a portable-sized object... Someone must be manufacturing these things to order!

Re: The Twelve (If you can think of a better name go forit) And they can always split forces -- some of them fight off the heroes, while the others break into the bank vault/jewel store/research lab. When the heroes start whining 'that's not fair', you can then say, 'they're villains! they don't do "fair"!'