Jump to content

Epiphanis

HERO Member
  • Posts

    496
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Posts posted by Epiphanis

  1. Years ago, on the summer solstice Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons dallied with King Theseus of Athens under the influence of the faerie queen Titania. As compensation for her entertainment, Titania granted the resulting daughter, Princess Diana, abilities beyond those of mortal women. Titania's jealous husband, the dwarf like King Oberon, granted magical powers to Scott Freeman, a liberated serf, who became known as the Master of Miracles. Oberon and Titania wage proxy battles of one - upsmanship through their respective champions.

  2. Fearing for his son's safety, King Henry entrusts the infant to be secretly raised by his most loyal retainer, the Earl of Kent. Unaware of his true heritage, the boy Hal falls in with a bad crowd of bandits and prostitutes, including the dissolute Sir Perry Whitestaff, formerly the king's herald who fell to disgrace. When Hal learns of his true heritage with his father's death, he must put aside his delinquent ways to lead the nation. The revelation of this previously unknown heir thwarts the ambition of the bald Lord Lancaster, who swears enmity against him.

  3. Perhaps the king was murdered by Yorick, the albino court jester who dyed his hair green, at the behest of Sir Oswald. Prince Bruce's confidant Pennyworth witnessed the ghost with him. Sir Oswald enlists the aid of Prince Bruce's school friends, Bullock and Montoya, to convince him to settle down; things do not end well for them. The Chancellor at Wayne Castle is Lord Gordonius, whose daughter Lady Barbara had a crush on Prince Bruce; when he rebuffed her she attempted to drown herself; she failed but was left crippled. Her brother, Sir Jason the Odd, is incensed and seeks revenge on Prince Bruce. Faraday, newly crowned King of Norway, is visiting Gotham with his army.

  4. Noodling an adventure for the Champions U which thrusts the PCs twenty years into the future, in 2040..

     

    Invictus became a hero in the Gadroon Invasion of 2016 and has been made President For Life of the United States. America lives in fear of infiltration by Lemurians Shapeshifters, and runs McCarthyesque witch hunts of paranoia. The Lamplighters is head of the secret police, the backbone of which are former members of P.S.I.

     

    AmeriForce One has been replaced by national team The Praetorians, which is "led" by the All-American, now in his sixties and a cyborg; unknown to the public much of his brain has been replaced by computer hardware programmed by the regime. Other members include the young techno-Mage known as Acolyte, the son of Defender and Witchcraft; Glorygirl, a patriotic brick/martial artist; and Shotput (previously Marble Man of Ravenswood Academy).

     

    Most American superheroes have been forced into government service (often after extensive "reeducation"), have gone into hiding, or fled to Canada. The elderly hero Thundrax serves as a liaison for the Canadian government to these expatriate heroes, who have been given political asylum. US-Canadian tensions are at an all time high. Gravitar now rules an autonomous city-state, Gravitas, in the center of the Fallen Sun region previously occupied by the Gadroon; the territory was the price she negotiated with the Canadian government to counteract the Gadroon's granitic technology and drive the aliens out. Gravitas still abounds with extraterrestrial life forms transplanted by the Gadroon. Gravitar doesn't appear to have aged a day.

     

    Doctor Destroyer has been missing for a decade, the European Union is now a centralized confederation ruled by Fiacho, and ARGENT has become the world's leading mega corporation.

     

    Any suggestions for where heroes and villains will be a quarter-century from the CU's present day in this quasi-dystopian alternate future?

  5. When first encountered, Cyrax was a tyrant ruling an advanced interplanetary system in the Zero Zone, the miniature dimension Myriad had been exploring.

       Cyrax was a member of the Guruni race, part of “The Alliance,” an odd, technologically advanced civilization organized primarily as a trade federation.  Although the Alliance was a composite organization of several species, the warlike Guruni had gained dominance and had instituted a policy of negotiating trade deals at gunpoint, threatening their “partners” with their super-weapon, The Worldbreaker.

       Cyrax personally was generally acknowledged to be the Guruni ideal: immensely powerful and completely ruthless.  Thus he had risen to power among the Guruni and the Alliance by virtue of his perceived strength.  After the Exonauts defeated him and destroyed the Worldbreaker, his loss of face resulted in his being deposed.  His current whereabouts are unknown.

     

  6. Next up is the Black Tide, the once and (to hear him tell it) future conqueror of Atlantis.

     

       A rare hybrid, Black Tide is the son of the now-deceased Atlantean tyrant Dargon the Usurper and the Lemurian noblewoman Tethys.  He belongs to neither society in truth, but appears to have been conceived and raised as a living instrument of revenge against Atlantis, which he has temporarily conquered and almost destroyed. 

      Most of what is known about Black Tide comes from his captured mother, Tethys, and if he has any agenda apart from hers it remains unknown.

       Black Tide always wears his mask.  The Lemurian-Atlantean hybrid is resourceful and demonstrates a remarkable facility with advanced technology, something almost unique among Atlanteans, although commonplace with Lemurians.  He was allied with the outlaw technology group the Arsenal and its mysterious leader, Eclipse, until his plans ceased being of use to them.  How much, if any, of his advanced technology was of his own devising, and how much was the Arsenal’s, remains unknown at this time.

     

  7. Darren Watts, former president of Hero Games, has been working on material for the eventual Silver Age Champions sourcebook in his weekly Champions campaign.  I'm a player in that campaign, and as Darren is very much a GM who likes to lay long-term groundwork, I try to keep note of developments in the campaign, and have been illustrating the villains he has introduced.  Here are some samples.

     

    This first one is the Amalgam, a killer robot from space who can scan superhumans and replicate their abilities.

     

     

  8. In game terms, Champions archetypes don't really correspond to classes, its more a question of builds. You generally need:

     

    A build that is highly resistant to physical damage that is effective at close combat;

    A build that is versatile, usually with a large VPP, to exploit various weaknesses;

    A build that is prioritized for ranged physical/energy attacks;

    A build that makes unusual attacks (defended by mental defense, power defense, or no defense);

    A support build that can heal, buff, and/or debuff.

     

    Usually this comes out to (Brick or Martial Artist) + ( Gadgeteer or Mystic) + (Energy Projector or ranged Weaponmaster) + (Mentalist or Mystic) + ( Gadgeteer, Mystic, or Mentalist).

  9. Doctor Destroyer still works as a villain for me. Canonically, his genetic abnormality prevents his rejuvenation, but tech and therapy slows his deterioration to a crawl, allowing him to feasibly be active for decades more while he seeks a more permanent solution. His roots may lie in Nazi Germany, but its somewhat ironic and clearly he isn't steeped in Nazi regalia like the Red Skull is. Anyway, Nazis may not be as immediate a menace as they once were, but their evil has gained a kind of legendary status now that so few of the original gangsta Nazis are around. Like pirates and ninjas, being relegated to history has given them a cachet that the originals didn't have in reality. In Darren Watts' Golden Age playtest, a young pre-Destroyer Zerstoiten made a cameo. As WWII was winding down, the Allied heroes were sent to shut down a Nazi research center. They broke in, expecting a fight, only to find youngish Albert happily working on an experiment surrounded by twoscore or so of his Nazi handlers and coworkers, all dead. Zerstoiten rather blasély explained he had enough of their nonsense now that their usefulness was ending, and immediately offered his services and assistance to the Allies (and specifically the non-Communist allies), insinuating he had information that could be useful in ending the war and gaining an edge over Russia. Not exactly canon as Steve Long wrote it, but close and it worked. (We also killed Necrull and incinerated his body during the playtest, with no explanation as to how he could have returned for the 21st Century as is canon.) The impression was that Zerstoiten was so evil he actually made his Nazi coworkers look sympathetic in comparison.

  10. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n44829[/ATTACH]

     

    From an early age Stephanie Heath displayed a severely blunted emotional affect. She was diagnosed with alexithymia -- a disorder in which the afflicted was divorced from her own emotions. The emotionless little girl had trouble socializing in her rural Iowa hometown and, as she aged, she became increasingly absorbed in the world of computers and the internet. A virtual shut-in, Stephanie found she preferred communicating over social media, and gradually this preference came to dominate even her face-to-face conversations. In spoken conversation, Stephanie came to adopt a disconcerting tic -- while wearing a poker face and speaking in a dull monotone, she would verbally articulate emotional expressions like "Smiley Face" and "Wink." Although she herself did not feel these emotions, the same neurological quirk that inflicted the alexithymia on her also activated a psionic ability to control the emotions of others. Heath discovered that by speaking or writing descriptions of expressions, she could make others feel their associated emotions, even though she herself remained detached from those feelings.

     

     

    Lacking empathy for others, Stephanie quickly decided to become a supervillain. Donning a gray bodystocking with a strapped-on harness that held an LCD screen over her left breast, Stephainie adopted the name "Emoticon." As she blandly describes expressions for feelings she wants others to feel, the computerized screen draws out appropriate expressions to assist her.

  11. Emoticon

    [TABLE]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]Val [/TD]

    [TD]Char [/TD]

    [TD]Cost[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]10 [/TD]

    [TD]STR[/TD]

    [TD]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]18 [/TD]

    [TD]DEX[/TD]

    [TD]16[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]18 [/TD]

    [TD]CON[/TD]

    [TD]8[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]10 [/TD]

    [TD]BODY[/TD]

    [TD]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]25 [/TD]

    [TD]INT[/TD]

    [TD]15[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]25 [/TD]

    [TD]EGO[/TD]

    [TD]15[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]20 [/TD]

    [TD]PRE[/TD]

    [TD]10[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]8/16 [/TD]

    [TD]PD[/TD]

    [TD]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]8/16 [/TD]

    [TD]ED[/TD]

    [TD]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]5 [/TD]

    [TD]SPD[/TD]

    [TD]30[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]15 [/TD]

    [TD]REC[/TD]

    [TD]11[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]75 [/TD]

    [TD]END[/TD]

    [TD]11[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]40 [/TD]

    [TD]STUN[/TD]

    [TD]10[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [TD] [/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]32m [/TD]

    [TD]RUN[/TD]

    [TD]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]4m [/TD]

    [TD]SWIM[/TD]

    [TD]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]4m [/TD]

    [TD]LEAP[/TD]

    [TD]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [/TABLE]

    Characteristics Cost: 230

    [TABLE]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]Cost [/TD]

    [TD]Power[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]END[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]60 [/TD]

    [TD]Multipower, 60-point reserve[/TD]

    [TD=align: right] [/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]4f [/TD]

    [TD]1) Emotion Control: Mind Control 12d6 (Human class of minds) (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about a third of its effectiveness (Only to inflict emotional states; -1/2)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]4f [/TD]

    [TD]2) Crippling Depression: Entangle 2 1/2d6, 2 PD/2 ED, Alternate Combat Value (uses OMCV against DMCV; +1/4), Works Against EGO, Not STR (+1/4), Custom Modifier (Takes no damage from physical attacks; +3/4) (56 Active Points); Mental Defense Adds To EGO (-1/2)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]4f [/TD]

    [TD]3) Inspiration: Aid PRE or EGO 5d6, Characteristics (One emotion-related characteristic at a time; +1/2), Ranged (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Only to Aid Others (-1/2)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]6f [/TD]

    [TD]4) Riotous Emotion: Mental Blast 6d6 (60 Active Points)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]6[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]20 [/TD]

    [TD]Running +20m (32m total)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]2[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]18 [/TD]

    [TD]Mind Scan 9d6 (Human class of minds) (45 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Target sought must currently be able to see or hear communication from Emoticon; -1 1/2)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]4[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]24 [/TD]

    [TD]Armored Costume: Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]14 [/TD]

    [TD]Mental Defense (14 points total)[/TD]

    [TD=align: right]0[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [/TABLE]

    Powers Cost: 154

    [TABLE]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]Cost [/TD]

    [TD]Skill[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]3 [/TD]

    [TD]Deduction 14-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]3 [/TD]

    [TD]Interrogation 13-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]3 [/TD]

    [TD]Persuasion 13-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]3 [/TD]

    [TD]Breakfall 13-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]3 [/TD]

    [TD]Computer Programming 14-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]2 [/TD]

    [TD]PS 11-[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [/TABLE]

    Skills Cost: 17

    Total Character Cost: 401

    [TABLE]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]Val [/TD]

    [TD]Disadvantages[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]15 [/TD]

    [TD]Distinctive Features: Emotionless expression and inflection (Not Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]5 [/TD]

    [TD]Social Complication: Emotionless Infrequently, Minor[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]20 [/TD]

    [TD]Susceptibility: Successful Presence Attacks and other emotion effects 1d6 damage per Phase (Common)[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]10 [/TD]

    [TD]Hunted: PRIMUS Frequently (Less Pow; NCI; Limited Geographical Area; Harshly Punish)[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]15 [/TD]

    [TD]Hunted: PSI Infrequently (As Pow; NCI; Harshly Punish)[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=align: right]10 [/TD]

    [TD]Hunted: Sentinels Infrequently (As Pow; Harshly Punish)[/TD]

    [/TR]

    [/TABLE]

    Disadvantage Points: 75

    Base Points: 400

    Experience Required: 1

    Total Experience Available: 0

    Experience Unspent: 0

     

  12. When you place the Endurance limitation "Costs END each Phase" on a normally 0 END defense power, is it true that the END must be paid on each of the user's phases, but not on segments that he doesn't have a phase, even though he/she retains the benefit on those segments? If so, doesn't this make the limitation disproportionately burdensome upon high SPD characters vs. low SPD ones?

     

    In a related question, if a defensive power requires an activation roll each phase/use, if I read the rules correctly on a defense power a single roll applies to activate the power until the user's next phase, no matter how many segments or individual attacks it is effective against are in between those phases. Is this correct?

  13. As much as I love pinup girl superheroines, you really don't have much concept here. She's a big, Nordic brick. That's all. Think of a concept, think of a name, and the rest follows.

     

    So, you could go with "Red Valkyrie" and deck her out in Viking armor.

     

    Or maybe play up her competition aspirations and go with the name of her last competition. Like, she won the "Ms. Olympia" contest right before developing powers, and she's been called by that title ever since... Maybe dress her up in a Classical Greek tunic-toga.

     

    Or you could call her "Coppertop" and dress her up in metallic red lamee...

     

    The problem is that you don't yet have a real idea of who she's supposed to be, even in a cartoony one-dimensional way. You seem to be thinking nothing but "buff redhead."

  14. I like this product, clocking in as a cheap micro supplement. Unfortunately, it lacked artwork for its three characters, so I am supplying my own unofficial, unsolicited versions thereof:

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]n44564[/ATTACH]

    Johnny Hercules

     

     

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]n44565[/ATTACH]

     

    Typhon

     

     

×
×
  • Create New...