Epiphanis

I am thinking of using the following as rules for new PC creation in my campaign. Please opine regarding them: too strict, not strict enough, etc. 1. Characters have 400 Total Points to work with, which includes 75 points of Matching Complications. 2. One complication must be the 20 Point “Code versus Killing.” 3. Purchases are limited as follows. a. Any number of Attack Powers may be purchased, but any individual Attack Power (not Power Framework) is subject to a limitation of a maximum of 60 Active Points (APs). Note that with HTH and HKA powers, APs invested in STR are counted together with those of the power towards this maximum. [Limited: reduce to maximum 40 AP/Attack Power.] b. SPD is subject to a maximum value of 9. [Limited: reduce to maximum value of 5] c. Defense Powers: This category includes all Powers ending in “Defense” as well as Damage Reduction, Damage Negation, Invisibility and Desolidification. Total Character Points spent on such is limited to 40 Character Points. [Limited: reduce to maximum 30 Character Points] 4. With respect to the limitations set forth for the three categories in #3 above, the player may ignore one of the three at the cost of accepting the limited version given in brackets for the other two.

Have the current members of Ameriforce One (Stonewall, Proteus, Mercuria, Visionary, and Gryffon) ever been officially statted out in a publication? I'm thinking of using them as NPCs.

Re: CU Character Study: Vanguard [ATTACH]37571[/ATTACH] Because I'm silly, here is a fanpic I made of Vanguard. [ATTACH=CONFIG]37571[/ATTACH]

Re: Champions Villains Volume 3: Solo Villains PDF In Store I'm digesting it now. Its nice, but so far I haven't noticed big story changes from 5th Ed. Some more background was provided on Captain Chronos and Lady Blue's costume was changed.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See? More information on the Galaxars and Nebula & Vibron's home civilization.

Re: CU Character Study: Vanguard Vanguard is illustrated in battle with Destroyer on p. 19 of Book of the Destroyer and in undead form crawling out of his grave while being raised by Takofanes on p. 155 of the 6th Ed version of Champions Universe. The latter is an apparent continuity glitch, since Book of the Destroyer states his body had burned to ash on reentry of Earth's atmosphere after his death in space, but several of the Blood Moon super-zombies' bodies had purportedly been completely destroyed in the Battle of Detroit.

Re: CU Character Study: Vanguard You know, it never occurred to me that Vanguard looks like Vegas-era Elvis, but he does.

Why not start at the top? I am much in agreement with the way Vanguard was presented in 5th/6th Edition. He is very clearly the "Superman" of the CU; and it was inevitable that such a character be created as the Superman archetype is the cornerstone of all superheroic stories. But the presentation of Vanguard is clever; the "Superman" did exist, but he is already dead. This serves two good purposes. First, PCs don't have to feel perennially overshadowed by one dominant personality; he was the best, but alas he's gone now, leaving it to the PCs to step up. Second, the manner of his death builds wonderful cred for the greatest of the CU's villains, Doctor Destroyer. Doctor Doom never really killed Mr. Fantastic and Lex Luthor never wins a decisive victory over Superman. Doctor Destroyer, though he might once have been merely "Vanguard's archvillain," actually succeeded in truly and finally beating his nemesis. Vanguard was the greatest superhero yet known... and Doctor Destroyer took him out, along with more than a dozen lesser luminaries. That is badass. I also love the depiction of Vanguard. He is very clearly a superhero, but you can see at a glance that he is yesterday's superhero, not today's. The unfashionable sideburns and plunging V-neck on his tights scream "Disco Age Relic." File in the same drawer with the Beyonder's Jerri curls and Saturday Night Fever jumpsuit, Luke Cage's original yellow pirate shirt, or Dazzler's roller skates. Not only is Vanguard dead... he's hopelessly outdated. New blood is needed! Finally, kudos to Cryptic for coming up with the Blood Moon event. Vanguard, the greatest superhero of all time, is not just background filler to flesh out the CU's backstory now. He's been resurrected as a supervillain's undead bitch. Now, the PCs can not only shoot for the spot he left vacant, they may actually have to face him in combat! Thats a great plot hook, with a terrific setup: not only is Superman not around to save your butt, he's been turned into a zombie and is gunning for your brainzzzz!

Re: super (slight) hero online game. GM/players wanted! I plan to start an online game sometime about the start of the new year, but thats still a way away. Really, why don't you just GM your own game? With a post like this--going into specifics about a game the poster is willing to define but not run-- I usually assume the poster is an individual who just wants to have his cake and eat it too, hogging all the fun parts of campaign creation while delegating the actual drudgework to someone dumb enough to let him. But I've reviewed your Final Fantasy adaptation work, which gives me a higher opinion of you. You've got specific, workable ideas for campaigns, an understanding of the game mechanics, and a demonstrated ability to actually do the work. If you were willing to be the GM, that makes you a valuable commodity. Limiting yourself to a mere participant, however, you become less desirable than a player who comes at the material with an open mind and less specific desires--very, very few GMs want run a game someone else defines.

Re: Dr. Macabre? Similar. It is a magical artifact that permits access to certain dimensions and has the power to alter this dimension's reality to a certain extent. It is also theorized to have an intelligence of its own.

Re: Dark Piper's Dilemma Starblaze wasn't making a Johnny Quest reference, it was a reference to O. Henry's story "The Ransom of Red Chief."

Re: Online Champions games... anyone seen/played them? I'm not binding myself to any specifics regarding the prospective campaign yet; I'm not ready to recruit players nor am I soliciting feedback regarding it. At this point, I'm just responding to the original poster's inquiry.

Re: Online Champions games... anyone seen/played them? As discussed in another ongoing thread, earlier this year I GMed a Maptool/Skype Champions 6th Ed game that only lasted for a few months before my computer self-destructed. Having replaced the equipment, I intend to start another, hopefully more enduring, at the end of the year and have been working on tools and entering maps and data in preparation for the same.

Re: Online VOIP game (Interest Check) I'll be recruiting for a new Champions 6th Skype/Maptool game in either December or January. I'm not going to deal with it now, however, as I have no intention of starting until I feel prepared.

Re: Champions Villians Book I pdf now available in hero online store I was surprised to learn Kinematik/Momentum was from Lancer's parallel universe. Now I'm thinking that a sourcebook of universes parallel to Champions Earth could make a decent supplement in 6th Ed--Lancer's world, the Cahokian's world, Left-Handed Earth, and the Multifarian Earth fleshed out a bit, with maybe a short adventure along the lines of "Reality Storm II" would make a dandy book.

Re: Online VOIP game (Interest Check) MapTool has a developer's board for sharing campaign frameworks, and this site's "other software" board serves a similar function; my work is based on Nolgoroth's campaign 6E framework published therein. It is difficult to transfer macros between frameworks, however, as even miniscule differences in campaign properties will often make them unusable without rewriting and adaptation.

Re: Online VOIP game (Interest Check)

Re: Online VOIP game (Interest Check) I GMed the prior game that Kytanos is talking about, The Exemplars. I had to pull the plug on its first run due to technical problems rather than scheduling ones; the motherboard on the computer I was using to host the game went bad, and took its RAM chips with it in a puff of smoke and burning plastic when it finally overloaded. I've since replaced the hardware. I still intend to GM an online Champions game, but I am still "in development" regarding it; before assaying the task I need to do a bunch of macro programming to facilitate the Hero System's complex moving parts. When I am satisfied that I have enough preprepared resources in place to address the game flexibly while finding a balance between free form and bogging down in the rules I'll start recruiting again. I project that won't be until December at the earliest, after I get married and come back from my honeymoon. In the interim, if somebody wants to GM an online Champions game of their own I would definitely be interested in trying it out as a player, though most of November I will be unavailable due to said marriage and honeymoon.

Re: Help name my Hero Group How about "Delta V"? See, its a word play on a physics term (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v), but it could also refer to the Mississippi Delta and the roman numeral "V", since there are five of you.

Re: My dream. Your campaign flavor. Antique blue police boxes for traveling through time?

The supercriminal Medusa has undergone several variant iterations in Champions Universe lore, but the most recent one has confused me. In an earlier edition, she was an old crone. By the time of 5th Ed., she was made younger but given crazy-long dark hair. When Champions Online came out, Cryptic gave her a makeover. In the game itself it appears that Medusa is bald but that her head is enveloped in a corona of what appears to be transparent energy tendrils tinted the magenta color that appears to be their default color for "psionic energy." In Cryptic's out-of-game illustrations of her, her 'hair' appears similar but appears more solid and physical, but still defies gravity and seems to writhe in the air (perhaps being real hair but reacting psychokinetically to her mental energy?) On the cover of the upcoming PnP Villains book her hair appears perfectly normal other than the freaky magenta color, which in my opinion makes her look too indistinct from the similarly made-over Mind Slayer. So far none of the text clarifies this. I have decided that the bald Medusa with "psychokinetic energy hair" is my favorite interpretation and will use it in my campaign, but I'd like to know if Hero Games has a canonical statement regarding her hair. While on the subject, I'll throw out some more cosmetic discrepancies I'm curious about: Is 6th Ed HG Menton still the 5th Ed handsome suave dude or the Cryptic-version fashion disaster with the massive wrinkled bald brain-lobes? I see his sister Mentalla looks the same as her hot 5th Ed self. Why did 6th Ed "Champions Universe" text still describe Mayte Sanchez as having brown hair when the illustration used for her used the Cryptic redesign's silver tresses? What's up with Istvatha V'han's varying appearance? If we get to vote, I like the white-haired quasi-elfin appearance with the cheek dots from 5th more than the black-haired dotless chick with the ugly gold headdress that she apparently ripped off Mechanon's earblades to make.

Re: Succeeding The Blood Since the Progenitors, creators of the Empyreans, coexisted with early humanity, a seperate bloodline of augmented humans might have been a side-project of theirs.

Re: Succeeding The Blood Whether or not Elder Worms are inherently qliphothic in nature, they are still pretty disgusting and monstrous. I'm disinclined to view human-Worm miscegenation as likely to result in anything non-monstrous, even leaving the Elder Worm ties to Edom out of the equation. One thing I'm not clear on is whether Worm DNA is present in all humans, or merely some. Are there "untainted" humans who might be immune to the Slug's Transform?

Re: Succeeding The Blood I think the Elder Worm idea would be an excellent plot device for a crisis involving normal people spontaneously becoming super powered monsters as qlipothic energies increase in the world, perhaps as a side effect of the activities of the Slug, DEMON, the Crowns of Krim, Shadow Destroyer and other qlipoth-related evils. Maybe the absence of an Archmage allowed qlipothic miasma to build up, causing an increasing number of these atavistic transformations. That said, I don't think the Worm would be a good device for non-monstrous heroes.Maybe if you want something more akin to Marvel's Inhumans than The Blood, this wouldbe a good device. But, frankly, I think too many plot points in the Champions Universe already lead to the Kings of Edom and it doesn't need more; a touch of Lovecraftian horror here and there is fun but too much of it detracts from the Superheroicness of the setting. So I guess I'm saying I like the Empyrean idea better.

Re: CHAMPIONS VILLAINS Sneak Peek #1: The Triptych Cover! Gravitar is once again classified as a master villain. Does she actually have a minion organization under her? My conception of her is that she finds managing inferiors tedious and is more a do-it-herself bully than a leader of others.