McManus

Hardcastle and McCormick?

McMillian and Wife?

First Elite Regiment: Alpha Legion

Furry, Evil, Reallly Angry Loons?   They were named by a sarcastic blogger and kept the name after slaughtering the blogger and his entire graduating class.

Force, Extraction , Retaliation, and  Assassination League

Combine the three - Furry Elite Retaliate Against Losers

Furry, Evil, Reallly Angry Loons?   They were named by a sarcastic blogger and kept the name after slaughtering the blogger and his entire graduating class.

I was wondering what interesting things people could imagine someone with TK with fine manipulation at an atomic, molecular, or cellular level might be able to do. Given that they also had senses at that level as well.

And how would you build those effects in Hero?

• Telekinesis (1 STR), Fine Manipulation, Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1) (23 Active Points)
• Microscopic Vision (x100,000) with Normal Sight (15 Active Points)

One option is the whole Transforms – one element to another.

What else? Let's get creative.

TFM

Heroic cyborg:   Metal Case

 

Heroic mentalist: Mental Grace

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary is chewing it over

Or Hardcase and Headcase?

AAR in Army speak is After Action Review/Report. It looks like it fits here.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities Well, first you ask yourself if you're treating everyone the same way you'd want to be treated.

If i find myself judging people based on appearance/race/gender/age/style of dress/facial hair/number of tattoos or peircings/etc (something i try not ot do, but it occasionally happens) I force myself to assume that they are a physics doctoral student (instead of a biker for instance). It does change the way I think about them and I find myself treating them differently as well.

I imaginge everyone prejudges sometimes. Being aware of it and take steps to avoid it is the best I can do so far.

In many ways this can be a campaign tone setting issue.  How powerful do you want the PCs to feel? If they are to be JLA/Avenger level heroes then they should be able to easily one-shot individual and even groups of thugs. If you want a more street-level tone, then street thugs need to be at least some danger/challenge to the heroes.

I usually want the heroes to feel powerful so I make my thugs more of a speed bump/tripwire than a real combat.

Agents/Soldiers are likely to do more damage and have better tactics, but I don’t see them as being all that much harder to put down. Minor villains have both more offence and more defense, but are still more of a quantity rather than quality issue.  Peer villains and above are the real challenges in combat.

Normals can still be greatly challenging out of combat.

Just the way I usually play.

Re: Long Time Heroes get any Beta chances?

But not post-padding...Foxbat has got a special mad-on for post-padders over there now.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Looks tasty, although it seems to be lacking something...maybe a little dish of Mayo to dip it in?

 

Seriously, though, I think one of those concoctions would be plenty.

Hollandaise Sauce...Scotch Eggs Benedict....MMMMMMMMM

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Hey all...

Forgive me for asking...My Search-fu is weak apparently.

Do I recall some time ago someone did a cardboard hero set from Storn's wonderful character art. If so, and if it is legal and approved and all, I would love to get a copy. I am looking for good minis and Storn's art is some of the best out there.

Any help?

Re: Biggest Brains in DC

So …

List of Top Intellects (as defined by depth and breadth of knowledge, number of fields of expertise, creativity/inventiveness across several fields, and just plain know-it-all-ness)

1) Batman…because he’s the Batman

2) Lex Luthor … only the smartest could give Superman and the JLA a run for their money

3) Mr. Terrific …going with canon

4) Ultra-Humanite

5) Grodd

6) Dr. Silvania

7) Calculator and Oracle ???

8) ???

9) ???

10) ???

Lots of folks mentioned seem to be geniuses but confined to one or two fields: The Calculator and Oracle might well belong in the supergenius/polymath group, or they might just be really good at research/information retrieval and management. Will Magnus, T.O. Morrow, and Prof. Ivo are robotics geniuses but not necessarily other fields. Ted Knight and Ray Palmer are physicists. Steel and Gizmo are engineer/gadgeteers. Dr. Fate and Jason Blood are occultists. Dr. Mid-nite is a physician. Rex Taylor and Barry Allen were chemists. I am not sure where Riddler and Joker should go. Both are certainly intelligent but are they super geniuses?

I am leaving Braniac, the New Gods, and the Guardians out as aliens. Specter and Phantom Stranger are out as mystic beings. Captain Marvel I do not know what to do with. He (and Wonder Woman when her origin included the powers of the gods…not sure it still does) should be super smart, but they seldom if ever show it.

So who else makes the list?

Re: Evil Schemes for the Average Megalomaniac

What happens when megalomaniacs clash? What if Khan, Anthrax, and the Angler all want the same McGuffin...with the heroes...and the world...caught in the middle.

I am putting together a JLU Chronicles game for my sons. As I was researching the characters I came across the claim that Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt) was the "third smartest man in the world". Immediately I started wondering who the first two were.

I have often seen lists of the strongest or best martial artist in the DCU. I am curious who people would put in the top 5 or 10 smartest, and in what order.

So ... Who are the biggest brains in DC?

Re: Luke Cage

I always saw Cage as an example of a High DEF med-low STR brick. The closest thing to a CoH Tanker in comics. His toughness was his main power and his strength was almost a side effect. But that my just have been my take on the guy.

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

"You wake up naked and bound..."

It has worked for me in the past.

Start the game in the middle of an adventure where the PCs have been captured by a big bad guy. You can have them give the background on what they were doing before they were captured in a way that implies that the enemy knows a lot about them and their weaknesses. They have to work together to get out and then bad guy gets away. They now have a history and a common enemy. They may not even know why the enemy is after them.

It is also one of the only ways I have ever gotten away with capturing all my PC's something that GM likes for the storytelling potential but players hate.

Re: Can Characters get to powerful for some Genres/Settings?

Sounds like a great time for the nations of the periphery to attack a divided empire, at war with itself. And a smart Emperor might send his most powerful and resourceful elf/wizards and their companions to convince the nations not to interfere.

Sounds like a challenge to me.

Re: What would happen if Los Angeles County vanished?

It would be interesting to see that buildings or installations in the area have basements or silos extending more than 100 feet below sea level. What sort of weapons, treasures, or mysteries might be left to be covered by the waves. And who might delve deep to find them?

Re: Can Characters get to powerful for some Genres/Settings?

You mention the Empire. What are the PC's roles in imperial politics? What is the relation of the Empire with other nations? Might there be a Ravening Horde of Barbarians threatening the Empire and all that the PCs have built?

Great armies and powerful rulers can threaten and challenge even the most experienced PCs. And if they cannot, then there are always the Gods, both light and dark, to chastise them for their hubris, or for the PCs to challenge for the very throne of heaven.

Re: Cryptic Answers MMO Questions

Not sure about the death penalty stuff, but that is way overshadowing the greatness of SKILLS in the game.

Re: Who's Who on the Champions Online forums?

I am HeroJoe, my new Main in CoH...I took it before I saw HeroSteve. But as the new sig says..."We are ALL heroes here!"

Re: Alec Dragonborne

For a real experiment the mage needs a control. Perhaps Alec has a twin Petyr that was raised very by the Gentle Brethren to be a peace-loving Warder of Good. To match the test Petyr was given the task of warding a beautiful, mysterious young woman that seduces him with subtle offerings. It turns out that she was a succubus sent by the Archmage to corrupt him, just as Alec was corrupted by the nymph.

This gives Alec an unknown brother to be an ally, an enemy or a rival. And it fits with the parallel experiment idea.

Re: Breadth instead of depth

One of the main reasons why the Fantastic Four works so well is that it has a nice set of distinct personalities/roles: Smart Guy, Strong Guy, Young Hothead, and, umm, the Girl. (The latter, of course, was a historical artifact, and current female characters aren't so stereotyped).

 

Other teams don't have such clear distinctions, and still manage to work well, so I suppose it's not compulsory.

 

Getting this kind of idea to work in a PC group might take a bit of effort and planning. A good group should be comfortable with it, hopefully.

I think it is pretty easy to illustrate each of the skill sets and personality types form comics. and i do think that most of the classic teams can be broken down the same way, though perhaps not quite as easily as the FF.

Avengers -

Cap America - Leader, Veteran, Military and transport skills

Vision - Stranger in a Strange Land, Cybernetic skills

Scarlet Witch - Emo Chick, Gypsy and occult skills

Thor - Godlike ego/Better than all of thou, Combat, mythical, and historical skills

Iron Man - Rich Playboy Drunkard, Engineering and Business Skills

YellowJacket - Sad Sack, Life And Physical Sciences

Wasp - Socialiate, social and political skills

Clairmont X-Men -

Cyclops - Leader, Veteran, cold fish - leadership and tactical skills

Storm - Nature child, Hidden Past- Thief and Nature skills

Colossus - Steadfast/Artistic, art and farming skills

THunderbird - Grumpy Hot head/Chip on the shoulder, outdoors skills

Banshee - Veteran/Steadfast/Everyone's favorite uncle - Spy and folklore skills

Wolverine - Hothead/loner - combat skills

NightCrawler - Romantic Swashbuckler/Emo Outcast - Circus and religion skills

SunSpot - hothead/Better than all - Mysterious oriental...too cool for school

It is not perfect. But it gets people thinking about roles as well as rolls.

Re: Breadth instead of depth

True...but it also makes the first few adventures more difficult to make interesting/challenging. If players are always pulling a new skill, power, or perk out of their ...hat.

But if you plan for this and design the first few adventures to reflect the sorts of misisons and themes the characters will be dealing with in the main game, that could work out.

You just have ot be aware of what is going to happen.

Re: People with Powers

well' date=' if you don't need to eat or drink, do you really need to work? [/quote']

 

I was looking at much large levels of societal disruption. Think of Sudan, Chad, Iraq, Afghanistan, etcetera. What would happen when people couldn’t starve and machetes and AKs could not hurt them? How many unpopular governments would fall in a matter of weeks? Especially if the looming alien threat did not become known for several weeks after the event.

 

 

Sadly' date=' I think one of the first things governments would work on is more powerful firearms, in order to maintain public order. OTOH, fatalities due to drive-by shootings would go waaaay down. But there'd be more than a few gangs being led by Deltas(which I'm assuming is pretty close to a 175-250 point super level). [/quote']

 

Actually the gangs would be in lots of trouble as drugs become useless (no more effect and no more addiction) and as people cannot be harmed by their weapons. And while the gangs might get their share of Deltas and Gammas (haven’t worked out exact Hero point level equivalents) so would the cops, neighborhood watches, shopkeepers, and the little old ladies from Pasadena.

 

 

Would there be something of a gestalt/Maslovian tilt to the superpowers? If a beautiful actress got superpowers would she tend to become more beautiful and maybe develop some kind of megacharisma? If a boxer got superpowers would they "brick out?"

 

I have not quite decided. I can see it going both ways The boxer becomes a better fighter or he gets the ability to transform any matter to silk. The juxtaposition could be funny.

 

One of the reasons I did not pursue the storyline is that I could not wrap my head around all the changes to human society if (most of) the first level or two of Maslov was done away with.

 

Eventually the large common threat would transform society as well. But what would the first month after the event be like?