Dr. Confoundo

Re: World at War: Ragnarok!

Re: World at War: Ragnarok! Unbeknownst to everyone, Loki is pulling all of the strings. When he was released by the Nazi researchers, he was happy to grant their wishes of power; but a gift from Loki is always one to be wary of. He gave matching powers to some Allies soldiers, always disguising himself as Odin when handing out those powers, in order to set up a cosmic version of 'Let's you and him fight!' Now, with two superteams at his beck and call, he can get back to what he really wants to do: start Ragnarok. He's going to need both teams to get the process started, so he needs to play them off each other, misleading or commanding them to do whatever he needs to get done. *** This is where you can help me: I suck at subterfuge. I need to convince the PCs to do things that they shouldn't be doing, in order for Loki's plan to play out right. It can be as simple as: "Gather this artifact, and bring it to this certain place in order to foil a Nazi ritual", not knowing that the ritual will only start when the artifact gets there. Does anyone have any plot ideas for me?

Previously, in the World at War!: Hitler's minions, I described my current Golden Age campaign, and got some great help designing some bada$$ Nazi Supervillians. A quick recap to get people back up to speed on what is going on: Why only four Allied supers? I've only got four PCs. A couple other runes have popped up, and they work as support staff for the team, having mostly non-combat powers. So the PCs received their powers from Odin, who told them that he needed champions in a grand chess game against the forces of Loki and the Runekriegers he created for the Nazis. They've been introduced to most of the bad-guys, gotten a hang of their own powers and abilities, took codenames and gained costumes, been formed into their own unit of the U.S. Army, and are just about to save the lives of King George VI and Princess Elizabeth from the giant Zerstörboter ("Destructo-Bot") created by Doktor Zahnrad ("Doctor Gear"), as it rampages across London and plows into Buckingham Palace. This will be their debut as public superheros, and will move the campaign into it's second phase, which will last a few episodes. So that's the set-up for the group, and where they are now. But there's a secret that they don't know, and it will turn everything on it's head when (or if) they find out: Odin knows nothing about them, and couldn't give them superpowers, even if he wanted to. All of their powers come from Loki.

Re: Star Hero Minis?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I rewatched two good movies: A Mighty Wind, one of Christopher Guest's improvised movies about a folk singing reunion; and one of my all time favorite movies, Big Trouble in Little China. Unfortunately for the second movie, the commentary track was pretty missable - John Carpenter and Kurt Russell shooting the breeze about random things, very few of which involved the movie at all. I wasn't expecting a deep discussion about the artistic relevance of the movie, but I would have preferred they actually talk *about* the film. Still one of the best movies ever, just not the commentary track.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I just saw Elf, and it was really good. Very heartwarming, and a bunch of cute nods to those old Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Will Ferrell can be annoying (not as bad a Jim Carey), but he managed to keep this one toned down enough.

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions So we had the second session of the game last night, which as planned was the origin episode. Previously, starting the campaign a couple days after D-Day, the PCs (two US army grunts, a medic, and an attached British sapper) were sent on a quick mission into a wooded area to track down info about some downed US flyboys. The local French Resistance supporters gave them general info on where to head, but they also warned the PCs that the woods were said to be haunted. The PCs tracked some Germans into the woods, rescued a pilot, and eventually got themselves into a big fire-fight with a squad of Germans and a strange man in a white greatcoat, who could apparently turn himself into mist. (Anyone who has access to Pinnacle's d20 game Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine will recognize the introductory scenario, except the horror/magic has been replaced with superpowers [although the PCs don't know that yet]). But last night was when the PCs were brought into the contest between Loki and Odin. After the previous adventure, one of the PCs (a scientific doubter of magic) was unable to explain the strange sights they encountered, and explained it to his commaning officers as probable exposure to a hallucination-inducing gas being tested by the Nazis. The next day, a British intelligence agent named Oswald Rowan came asking the PCs about this report of potential gas usage, and enlisted them into a mission to investigate reports of a lab in a chateau being occupied by a local German high-commander. Disguising themselves as German soldiers, the team made their way across enemy lines in a stolen German truck, eventually finding and entering the chateau. After some sneaking around, a huge fire-fight erupted in a war-room that the Nazis had established in the cellar of the chateau. The team made quick work of their opponents, located the secret chemical laboratory, and were making their way out of the cellar toting two large cannisters of the hallucinogenic gas when one of the Germans who they had left for dead stood up and raked them with machine gun fire, killing the British intelligence officer and rupturing one of the gas cannisters. The gas knocked the PCs out, and one by one, they awoke to find themselves trudging through a fog-enshrouded forest, weaponless and alone. They topple down a muddy incline, landing in lake-water. The fog parts, and they notice ahead of them, on an island in the lake, a cloaked man beckoning them forward, his large-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes. "A contest has begun, a wager has been made. I didn't start it, but now that I have been drawn in, I need champions. Will you be my champion?" He handed the PCs a number of strips of birch-bark, upon which had been inscribed various runes, and they were advised to choose one. After choosing one randomly (or not, see below*), he wished them luck, and the vision vanished... ...And they awoke to find themselves back in the chateau's cellar, being awakened by a squad of British paratroopers who had taken control over the chateau. The paratroopers were told that the PCs were down in the cellar by man matching the description of the British intelligence officer, who had now disappeared. The commander of the British squad, a Lieutenant Rowan, told them, "He said that he had to return the intelligence he had gathered, but he did want me to give you these." Out from his pocket he pulled a number of strips of birch-bark, inscribed with strange germanic runes... *** So now the PCs will be developing powers to fight their Nazi counterparts. The ones they drew were: The sniper drew the Elhaz rune, which stands for Protection/Guard. I'm considering giving him a suite of Absorption based powers, similar to the Wild Cards character Snotman aka the Reflector. The ex-criminal drew the Jera rune, which stands for Plant. My early ideas are to give him Swamp Thing-esque abilities, but with a price: the more often he changes into his brick-like wooden form, the plant-like more qualities his body retains in his human form... eventually, he may not have a human form to revert to. The medic drew the Dagaz rune, which stands for Light/Darkness. He wanted a more think-y character, so my first thought is to give him less in the way of lasers and light blasts, but more Green Lantern abilities: able to generate constructs and shapes of coherent-light, along with flight and force fields. *Finally, the British character is the son of an archaeologist and has Eidetic Memory; his combination of skills and background gave him basic knowledge of what the runes stood for. He passed up the runes for Strength, Earth, and Control, and instead chose Pertho, which stands for Illusion/Mystery. He will probably be gaining a set of mind-based Illusion powers, along with psionic invisibility, and the ability to cloud others minds. Any cool ideas on what other powers to give the PCs?

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions Very cool! Thanks for the link!

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions I like that twist on it. I knew he was going to be a 'Captain Nazi' type, but I didn't know what else to do with him. Oooo... Tulpas. Very cool idea, and directly ties in with what the Ahnenerbe were researching. A nice twist on Green Lantern powers. Thanks.

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions Not a bad idea. Especially since Loki would see the humor inherent in giving away the powers of Thor.

I am putting together a WW2 campaign for my group, and I thought some of you good people might have some cool ideas for me. The setting: With the United States' entrance into the European theatre in World War 2, Hitler and the top Nazi mystics of the Ahnenerbe needed a new source of power to insure their victory over the Allied armies. Luckily for them, one of their investigative teams found something during the time that the Germans occupied Norway - a cup whose translated runes would eventually lead them to the cavern where Loki lay bound until Ragnarok. Rescuing the weakened Loki from his eternal torment, the Ahnenerbe team returned the god to Berlin, where Hitler and Loki struck a bargain: the god would use his magics to create 12 mystical runestones, which would bestow great powers upon a chosen handful of Germany's finest soldiers. Thus, the Nazi's first superhumans were created. Unbeknownst to Hitler, Loki knew that he couldn't utilize all of the runes, for they were rightly Odin's, as he had hung for nine days on the Yggdrasil tree to learn them. Odin will take the remaining 12 runes and give them to the Allies, creating a countering group of superheroes (and, of course, the PCs). *** I've determined what a few of the Nazi Runekriegers will be, but I still have a few left. The ones I've detailed so far are: Kommandant Nebel (Commander Mist) Wunjo - Air: Able to transform his body into various mists and gases, this SS officer acts as an intelligence gatherer. Schallwelle (Soundwave) Ansuz - Sound/Signals: This Luftwaffe pilot gained control over sonics, giving him the ability to fly and project force fields, as well as increased strength. He often uses his powers to disable Allied bombers and jets. Fenris Fehu - Animal: A former Jäger officer, the bestial Fenris now can transform himself into a huge white wolf. He also has limited mental control over wolves. Der Komet (The Comet) Ehwaz - Move/Travel: A former Olympic runner (beaten by Jesse Owens in 1936), this Wehrmacht soldier now has incredible speed, able to travel from Berlin to the warfront in record time. Doktor Zahnrad (Dr. Gear) Tiwaz - Knowledge/Naming: One of the few non-military members of the Runekriegers, this engineer/scientist has created a suit of battle armor that greatly increases his strength and fighting ability. In addition, his increased intellect allows him to create and control a wide variety of robotic attack vehicles. That leaves me with the following runes. Anyone want to help me? Raidho - Necromancy/Soul Kenaz - Fire Nauthiz - Mind Manaz - Body/Man/Human Sowilo - Create Ingwaz - Healing/Fertility Hagalaz - Break/Weaken/Harm

Re: Green Lantern

Re: Computer Assisted Power Supression Unit? I think one of the reasons he did dump the idea is because I was trying to pin him down on what powers he would or wouldn't be able to affect. He was seeing that he wouldn't be able to affect everyone, and decided against it. As for the 24DC attacks, luckily for me I gave him an Active Point Cap to think about.

Re: Computer Assisted Power Supression Unit? Of course, as is par for the course for this particular player, he has now decided that he doesn't want any of these Special Effects oriented Draining powers, and will instead buy a Speed Drain and an Entangle instead. My head hurts.

Re: Computer Assisted Power Supression Unit? In response to Jhamin: 1) Those were my feelings as well, but I may be a little more lenient regarding Altered characters. Take the traditional Marvel characters, for example: without that category, I wouldn't be able to affect Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Daredevil's senses, etc. I'll have to think on it more. 2) For some reason, I totally missed that part of the Variable Effect thing. I guess I wasn't paying attention or something. Thanks for pointing out something that should have been completely obvious to me. 3) Would Variable Special Effects be allowed on Supress to enable the power to affect anything? The FAQ implies that it would not. Thanks for your input!

Re: Computer Assisted Power Supression Unit? Oh, I know he's bad news... See the first paragraph of my post. Well, he's not *bad* news, per se... He's just kind of frustrating news. Vaguely annoying news, perhaps. How about 'news thats not really that bad, but I like him as a person, so I'm willing to do a little bit of extra work'.

In response to the very cool write-ups of recognizable comic book character equipment in the book Gadgets and Gear, in addition to the fact that I have a whole set of Marvel HeroClix that I've been wanting to use, I ran an adventure two sessions ago with recognizable supervillians (with their names and costumes changed slightly) who had been summoned from a set of action figures by the mischevious son of the god Loki. However, something happened that I wasn't planning, and now I'd like to open it up to you. ********* You are Nathan Oswald, founder and CEO of Oswald Industries. Unknown to most, however, is the fact that you are also The Blue Boggart, supervillian extraordinaire. You and the other members of the Spiteful Six (Mudman, Triceritops, Drogan the Tracker, The Buzzard, and Professor Squid) were in battle with your collective arch-nemesis, The Stupefying Arachni-Kid. About to unmask the meddlesome insect (who you are convinced is that miserable worm, Parker Porter), you and the rest of Spiteful Six were dazzled by a blinding light, and a sickening wrenching sensation. When your equilibrium returned, you found yourselves in a new location; what appeared to be an out-door mall of some sort, with hundreds of confused spectators staring at you under a shining summer sun, instead of the blustery New York evening you had seen a few seconds before. And what was worse, Arachni-Kid had vanished! But the poster on that advertising kiosk has a huge color picture of your foe, advertising some sort of stunt show? Following the posters, and passing the enormous sign that welcomed you to Universal Studios (whatever *that* may be), you and the Six made your way to where your arch-foe was hiding, and soon vengeance would be yours. ************ Something is incredibly wrong here! Not only did Arachni-Kid put up no sort of fight when you and Professor Squid captured him, when you finally unmasked him, expecting Parker Porter, you instead found an unknown man, naming himself Charlie and claiming to be a stuntman. Then, when those meddling heroes showed up (as they always do), you didn't recognize a single one of them. A couple might have been members of that West Coast Rectifiers offshoot, and another looked kind of like The Penalyzer, except without that stupid white skull on the front of his costume. Of course, they could just be new on the scene... you've got better things to do that study up on every new cape that comes along. Then they started talking to you like you were a fictional character, telling you to get back into a comic book they were carrying... obviously they weren't just new, they were idiots as well. But what finally threw you for a loop was what happened to Drogan The Tracker. After trading blows with one of the heroes, a punch from the big one finally put him down, knocking him into a wall. But the next minute when you glanced back, he had disappeared, and what looked like a broken toy replica of him lay in his place. The same thing happened to The Buzzard next, and then to Professor Squid: instead of lying there, blissfully unconscious after a beat-down by the capes, their bodies twisted and shrank, becoming toy action figures of them, seemingly down to the last detail. Before the same could happen to you, and while the heroes were trying to subdue Mudman, you made your escape. Riding your glider away from the scene (though what seemed like some sort of amusement park?), you made your way into the wide valley of homes and stores below. Where are you, and what is going on? ************ So the situation is this: The Blue Boggart (Marvel's Green Goblin) is loose, by himself, in Los Angeles. He is trapped in a world that thinks he is a comic-book character, with no way back home. What would he do next?

One of my players is one of those guys who some GMs dread: though he has only played the game for a few sessions, he has proceeded to take apart every mechanic in the rulebook, looking for ways to tweak and cut points. (FYI, he does this for every game we play; D&D, City of Heroes, Frag!, whatever... so it comes as no big surprise that he'd do it in the game that is the king of the rules loophole. He's just one of those guys who likes to math out everything.) I've had quite a rough time trying to hash out his character with him, because every time he gives me a version, I need to make a dozen changes to make it workable, then he changes his view of the character, and we start all over again. So now we come to Version 8.0: [some background to get started: Born in an dystopic future where Superhumans have become fascist warlords lording their powers over the unpowered masses, his character was sent back to the past (our present) to stop the future from coming true. When he arrived, armed with future tech, martial training, and a wrist computer for info, he decided that his best bet was to become what he hated in order to get to the problem - he became a Superhuman.] What the player has decided on for this version is a Computer Assisted Power Supression Unit - able to analyze and suppress the powers of any Superhuman he chooses, be the powers Magical, Mutation, High-tech, whatever. So what we are looking at (and I am doing this without my book, so forgive the math) is a two-fold mechanic: Analyzing and Supression (or Drain, we haven't decided which) Analyze: His computer has a whole suite of Analyze skills, from a basic Analyze Superpowers, to more precise Analayze Magic, Mutation, Technology, (basically all of the possible origins). Asuming he has never encountered a villian (and has no info on them), his first action will be to Analyze Superpowers, allowing him to narrow down which subtype powers the villian (for example, Mutation); then he will use his secondary Analyze skills to determine the extent and ability of his specific power set (for example, a Mutant psionicist). Supression (or Drain): Now that he knows which origin and power set the target has, he can move to mechanic two... a multipower of Adjustment powers to reduce (or eliminate) the powers, one by one. For example (and without worrying about active/real points or DCs), one slot in the multipower might be a 5d6 Drain vs. Magical Powers, another a similar Drain vs. Mutant Powers, and so on. All would be able to affect any single power of that specific Special Effect, one at a time. This brings me to my questions: 1) Would you GMs allow this? It's a lot of work, but due to active point caps, he really won't be able to do too much power adjustment, especially after having to spend two turns fine tuning his Supression Unit (letting the computer make two Analyze rolls back to back). 2) I know that it's a +2 Advantage to allow Adjustment Powers to affect all powers of a given Special Effect, but what about any single power of a given SFX? He could Adjust the mutant's Flight one turn, and his EB the next, but not all at once (even if the mutant bought it in an 'EC: Mutant Powers'). What kind of Limitation would you use? 3) How many different slots would he need in his Adjustment multipower to enable him to cover all of the supers he meets? Anybody with natural powers (like Martial Artists or Detectives) should be largely immune to his Adjustments, as would any Aliens. What is left? Magic, Mutation, Technological... Would he also need Radiation powers, and Fire/Heat, Cold, etc? Thanks for any input!

Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend To elaborate on this, with random rolls your character could find himself inflicted with Mental Illnesses like psychopathic disorder, multiple personality syndrome, and homosexuality. (IIRC, there's also an author's note detailing how his religious beliefs on homosexuality influenced the charts). I found this part offensive, but the rest of the book was pretty entertaining, so I can overlook it.

Re: Gadgets and Gear That's something that I missed as well. Although I don't think it was required, I thought it was such a great touch in the previous book, and it was a missed opportunity to do something similar (perhaps Brainstorm or Dr. Silverback's product reviews or something). Again, not a complaint, per se. Just a missed opportunity.

Re: Gadgets and Gear While I found quite a few things to like about this book (for example, my next adventure will feature analogs of Spiderman's rogues gallery, mainly because it describes things like Doctor Octopus' tentacles, Green Goblin's flyer and pumpkin bombs, and Rhino's horns), one thing really bothered me: There are a number of items that are duplicated, some numerous times. Do we need to see 7 (or so) different versions of a standard blaster pistol, or can we have one listing with a number of different options? Do we really need to have Rocketskates, among others, listed twice (one in the battlesuit section, and one in the movement section)? I liked it, but I think that it suffered from these duplicate gadgets.