Peregrine

Re: I remember when you could stop a train

For grim realism:

Realistically, I would calculate the strength of the speeding object and apply that to the blocking object. If the blocking object isn't knocked back, the train would derail. If the 1/2 damage back to the train does knockback, the train would derail. If the object is knocked back and the train doesn't take any knockback, the train continues, the object flies back equal to the knockback. If the object only drops to the ground, the train basically runs him over and each of the following cars do move-by damage in much the same way.

 

Realistically, blocking a train is stupid.

This ain't GURPS...

Re: Succeeding The Blood

There is a second mystic family in Arcane Adversaries - the Sylvestri clan. They are a much tighter family, with a higher proportion of black magic users.

Re: In Progress From Blackwyrm Games: Mythic America

I think Jason said something about the Undead Prince of Pop....

That's Mick Jagger...

Re: Succeeding The Blood

If the idea is going to be done let's have one of the top characters be Mum for a change. A lot of the time it is patriarchal. So this time to make it different' date=' let's have Mum as the in charge or calling some of the shots. And it is a good way of bringing the rest in. Dad might think you are old enough to stand on your own but if someone threatens one of Mummy's 'little babies', she'll call a council of war with the others after dealing with the fool who upset her children to begin with.[/quote']

 

After all these years, that kind of gender role reversal has itself become cliched.

Re: Succeeding The Blood

There's plenty of potential for superhuman Amazons in the CU' date=' but Steve's thread probably isn't the place to discuss them. [/quote']

 

Yes; it was a tangential tangent.

Re: Succeeding The Blood

Another idea, tangential to the Imperions - it has occurred to me that the CU doesn't have an analogue to DC Comics' Amazons (which concept has been, um, "borrowed" by some indie publishers). I had considered an origin for such an analogue with ties to both Atlantis and the Empyreans, though the "all or nothing" inheritance of mixed-Empyrean children makes that challenging.

Re: The 10 Most Disgusting Alien Civilizations

I'd buy the Vong at the #1 spot, though more for how the Star Wars setting was horribly abused in that segment of the EU than anything about the race itself.

Re: Replacing Destroyer with Teleios

As to why he chose such a slow method of killing off Zerstoiten -- well, INT 35 Zerstoiten was more intelligent than even Spregen back then (although Spregen has since used the intervening decades to genetically augment his brains to past even Destroyer's level, in addition to making himself unaging and etc.), and it wasn't the time and place to pick a fight at the time, especially since he couldn't be sure who'd win. So, that plus inventing longevity meant Spregen simply chose to take a very slow and steady approach to killing Zerstoiten off. In addition, the emergence of superhumanity meant that the world was entering an era of change where no prior precedents would or could apply, and Spregen wanted a couple of decades to see what new pattern the world would settle into before trying to conquer it; you shouldn't fight on uncertain ground, after all.

 

Besides, Albert made such interesting toys...

And thus speaks my partner in that plotting... Hi, Chuck!

Re: Replacing Destroyer with Teleios

I've had an idea to do this myself.

Comparing with the 6e CU, DD did in fact die at Detroit. He was dying already and decided to commit the superpowered equivalent of "suicide by cop", though in his own mind he was choosing to A. die by his own hand, for only Destroyer can choose the hour of Destroyer's death and B. taking as many of his enemies with him as possible, to deny them the pleasure of a world without Destroyer. And Shadow Destroyer either doesn't exist, or hasn't and never will find his way to my campaign world (since Luther Black "left and never came back", there was no trail for SD to follow).

Thus the way is left open for Teleios to step in - all of his decades of waiting for that fool Zerstoiten to finally die have paid off. You see, Teleios is the name currently used by a contemporary of DD, one Gerhardt Spregen (sp?) [from 4e Dark Champions; Justice Not Law, IIRC]. You see, Spregen successfully formulated a longevity serum during WWII, but shared a subtly altered version of the formula with Zerstoiten that *prevented* any such treatments from being effective while taking the real serum himself.

Re: Replacing Destroyer with Teleios

Expand Teleios' science skills to have the breadth of Destroyer's. Be prepared to have your breath taken away when you see his skill levels, though, since DD has INT 35 and Teleios has INT 50.

Re: Blowing Up Prootwaddles, or Character Self-Destruction

"I'll kill him! I'll kill the Prootwaddle!"

Re: Doctor Destroyer Pissed...

What? Who TPd the space station? FOXXXXBAAAATTTTTT!!!!!!

Re: Flower Warfare

Far out!

Re: Supers and SF characters from 70s TV.

The picture is wildly biased towards U.S. shows

And I for one have no problem with that whatsoever.

Re: Battlefield control a viable concept in Champions?

The concept takes teamwork to a level beyond the Teamwork skill - from the characters to the players. This is to be Highly Encouraged.

Re: Help with Vigilante Project

Are you using Dark Champions: The Animated Series as a reference? This really sounds like something DC: TAS calls "Hudson City Powers".

Another couple of characters that come to my mind:

The Question (Vic Sage, not Renee Montoya)

Daredevil

Re: Does this Power Work: Mental Wound that Never Heals

Is this for a PC or an NPC?

If the former, would you want something like this inflicted on your PC by another character (PC or NPC)?

If the latter, do you plan to inflict this on the PCs in your game? Do you make a habit of permanently injuring/crippling the PCs, and how do your players feel about that?

In short, what story role is this intended to play and whose fun might it also damage?

Re: Battle of the Bands (6e)

The aforementioned almanac was the Hero System Almanac 2, for 4th Edition. Still, the differences between editions isn't that great. The biggest difficulty would lie in finding a copy in the first place. (Or talking me out of mine...)

Re: What's different about YOUR Champions Unvierse?

Yeah, I think a dead Doctor Destroyer does remove certain plots, but introduces a whole lot more. It's a minor change, really, but results in a very different world. I'm eager to see how this ends up in play. How did it work out for you?

 

Hm... how did PRIMUS change in the ebook? that's really the only source for them I have. What information was around before that?

 

The idea of Earth's Starfleet is good, too. With all the alien tech around, it makes sense that someone would start that. ^_-

Unfortunately, this is a world in potentia - I haven't had the opportunity to run it.

Without spoiling anything in the eBook, suffice to say that the PRIME Team and their whole backstory was brand-new in the eBook, as was the ethnicity and sociopolitical characteristics of the key person "behind" Cyberline. Plus, the tone of PRIMUS in prior publications (primarily the PRIMUS and DEMON book, reprinted in Classic Organizations) was exaggerated, while the organization was transformed from "law enforcement in peacetime and military in wartime" ala the U.S. Coast Guard (prior to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, at least) into a permanently civilian law enforcement agency ala the FBI.

And I actually had UNTIL's technological jump-start into becoming Starfleet coming out of a combination of Project Shiva's anti-Destroyer tech and actual Destroyertech captured after Dr. D's death.

Re: What's different about YOUR Champions Unvierse?

I have added an ahistorical city, Trinity City, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers (real world Cairo, IL), and moved the Battle of Detroit to that location. Thus, instead of Millennium City, I have Trinity Island. I also have ex cathedra declared Dr. Destroyer to be most really, and sincerely, permanently dead. The Battle of Trinity City was his refusal to go gently into that good night. His "successor" as the Great Worldbeating Master Villain is an origin-revised Teleios (hint: 4th Edition Dark Champions' Gerheardt Spregen)

There are other changes, such as using the 4th Edition CU timelines for UNTIL and PRIMUS (with substantial changes in the events surrounding the former, and ignoring the Iron Age-ification of the latter from the eponymous eBook, etc.), and shuffling things around a bit inside of VIPER. (Speaking of which... Krait lied, but he wasn't entirely wrong...).

Oh, yeah. Luther Black never came back. No DEMON.

Eurostar is the official superteam of the EU. (No, I didn't say superhero team.)

More on UNTIL - in the aftermath of the V'Hanian Invasion, UNTIL reorganized, transferring Arctic operations to the Wilderness Division and space operations to the previous Oceanic/Arctic Division, the latter of which was separated out into the Oceanic and Aerospace Corps (OAC), which is moving full-speed ahead into becoming Earth's Starfleet.

Re: STAR HERO Reading List

Niven and Pournelle did The Mote in God's Eye, which is an essential classic. Also their "Footfall" is one of the best "Alien Invasion" novels in SF.

Individually Pournells's "Co-dominion" stories are classics; and Niven's "Known Universe" (where the Kzinti come from, indeed the first Kzinti story is classic) helped create several of the SF tropes we take for granted.

 

I'd also add Niven and Pournelle's Oath of Fealty. While entirely Earthbound, and with not a lot of "future tech" to be seen, it is an outstanding sociological study of possible future social changes that might be seen in near-future enclosed societies (i.e. space colonies, sublight non-sleeper interstellar colonies, etc.)

Re: Domino costume

That would also explain why female super heroes wear the costumes they do...to draw the eyes away from the face to their other...ahem attributes.

This has been well-known for a long, long time...

Re: "Crowning Moment of Cool?"

Heck' date=' that's exactly why most of my characters have a couple of pages of background material. These are things I want you, the GM, to incorporate into the game so that my character is more fully a part of your world![/quote']

 

Bingo.

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

It's understandable why he'd think the system is bland. The books don't do much for setting design, although they do a lot for specific examples. There is a thread currently active that takes the guidelines for DCs and damage as dogma. The text in the books don't distinguish enough the guidelines part or how to make your own. Hero seems to be written more for it's fans rather than attracting new ones.

Not to mention starting point totals as equal dogma.

Re: "Crowning Moment of Cool?"

I'm working on a new Star Hero campaign. One thing that came up in some private messages with members here is the concept of "Crowning Moment of Cool."

 

For example, in Star Wars (the original movies), one Crowning Moment of Cool would be when Luke was fighting Darth Vader, and refused to fight, and then Vader mentioned Luke's sister, and Luke lost it and started laying it down on Vader.

 

Followed by another Crowning Moment, when the Emperor tells Luke to kill Vader, and he throws his lightsaber away...

 

What are some CMOC's in other sci-fi movies/shows? I think taking these and working backwards will also help plan a campaign.

Ask your players. Seriously. Enlist them in campaign planning and they will enjoy the game more. (Exceptions exists, but this generally holds true.)