bcholmes

Re: Favorite Adventures

Originally posted by GrooveD70

I just converted MnM's "Time of Crisis" to Champs and I think its going to be pretty fun. I know there have probably been posts asking this but, game system aside, what is your favorite Superhero "module"?

Most of my superhero RPGing was done with V&V. I liked Crisis at Crusader Citadel a lot. (All around good introductory adventure).

I also liked Force and Death Duel with the Destroyers and The Dawn of DNA.

Re: Re: Americans on the team

Originally posted by Siberian Tiger

Since Canada is part of the Commonwealth, there could be an exchange agreement with a British, Australian or Indian superteam (only Commonwealth nations to have superteams as per Champions Universe if I recollect correctly).

In our campaign, one of the PCs (Captain Sorted) is a member of the British super-soldier program on long-term loan to Canada to help them get the latest version of the Northern Guard up and running.

The Canadian government has started to suspect that Captain Sorted is... uh... not the British Army's favourite member of the super-soldier program.

Originally posted by lemming

The first picture didn't show off her super powers quite as well. I'd actually find her more attractive with much smaller breasts. They're a bit overboard.

Bigger than her head.

Originally posted by Hermit

Perhaps it was just a victim of political jockeying.

Dunno about why they disbanded, but it's interesting that the second and third teams were formed in the same years that we had a change of government. Chretien came to power in '93, and Mulroney came to power in '84.

Originally posted by Hermit

For that matter, perhaps it was disbanded for the best reason of all.... it's up to a GM and his players to assemble the next generation of them.

Heh. That's the premise of my campaign.

Gunfight at the Oka Corral

Originally posted by Zed-F

(see the Oka crisis for a modern example.) Could make for some good background bits.

*nod* That'd be an interesting piece of backstory to put into a character's history.

I remember when Alpha Flight essentially said that Northstar had belonged to the FLQ. That was an interesting backstory item.

Originally posted by Tom McCarthy

Ottawa is a natural centre for a federally funded team. It's the national capital and within quick commute range of Montreal, Quebec City, and most of southern Ontario. For drawbacks, the city's only about 1 million people and light on the potential story hooks from homeless people, drug wars, street crime, etc. The feel of the city is that a hero team would congregate there because it is the capital, but I don't think you can cram a team full of super-origins into Ottawa.

In my campaign, the members of COMET (from Champions Universe) have a common origin. They've salvaged alien technology from a UFO in the Ottawa river. Before they were a super-team, they worked for Carleton University (COMET = Carleton Office of Metahuman and Extraterrestial Technology). They're much more a "Challengers of the Unknown"-ish team of adventurers than a bunch of costumed heroes.

Re: Thanks L.L.

Originally posted by Hermit

Cool, I actually was thinking of a American Indian character who was NOT mystical in nature as being on this hypothetical team

"American" Indian?

Re: In the shadow of the City of the Future- Windsor's heroes

Originally posted by Hermit

Across from Millennium City is the “relatively peaceful†Canadian city of Windsor. It’s that relative term that has me thinking. Given that MC has more super action than many cities twice its size, Windsor must get at least a little fall out.

Plus you've got all those chemical plants just a bit north in Sarnia... it's practically an origin story waiting to happen.

Some thoughts:

- The child of one of the Avro Arrow designers finally perfects the flight armour that dad was working on back in the 50s and 60s.

- Canada has, I believe, the largest population of Chinese outside of China -- I'm thinking a were-Dragon character might an interesting member

- The Red Ensign -- daughter of the WWII flag-suited hero. Sure, our flag has changed since WWII, but people still fondly remember the original Red Ensign.

Re: How do I summon

Originally posted by JmOz

A pizza oven?

(Someone has to say it)

Just use the standard "Summon S-1798" and write in 'pizza' where it says 'machine gun'

Re: Best/favorite Champions product

Originally posted by Dominique

OK people, I've been gone for a while and figured I'd jump back in with something fun. What do you think is the best Champions poduct and why?

That's a hard question because I like so many of the products in different ways that aren't really comparable.

At the moment, I think Champions Universe is the most evocative thing supplement. It gives me lots of ideas for stories -- especially the "filler" pieces. It has piqued my interest in Vibora Bay, and I've used the back-story of Canada's Northern Guard as the basis for my campaign.

So I guess that's my favourite.

Having said that, I can't imagine not having Conquerors, Killers and Crooks or UNTIL Super-Powers Database. Those two books are hugely helpful.

I also use a lot of characters from Champions of the North (which feels comfortably Canadian to me).

About the process..

I'm curious: how long does it take for a commission to gel in your head? Do you doodle a couple of ideas first? Or do you just visualize it in its final form?

Originally posted by Storn

Here was a fun private commission. Two versions of the same character, one from the 70s and one from the 80s.

I just love some of the little touches you put into the 70s version: the fringe on the belt pouches. And that belt. Eeek! I think I had a belt like that once.

Very nice.

Re: What would you do if YOU could travel in time?

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

People always think of these super-dramatic things that they or their characters would do if they had access to time travel. Which leads me to ask what sounds like a personal question -- if you had access to time travel technology, what would YOU do with it?

On November 22nd, 1963, I'd be watching the grassy knoll very very carefully.

Re: Favorite Champions Villain(s)

Originally posted by Dominique

New to the site, but an old time Champions player ( I still have my well worn copy of the 1st edition). Just taking a poll to see who's your favorite Villain(s) are.

I'm rilly rilly fond of Captain Chronos.

I'm also keenly interested in figuring out how to use Sludge and Leviathan.

Re: Re: Errr... Huh?

Originally posted by Darren Watts

So, where is that 10-15% hiding out? Cause sales so far are pointing at numbers well short of that. Let's hear from some of the people who *wanted* PDF material. Or did we mis-estimate how many of you there really are out there? dw

Hmmm...

I don't know your business, or its metrics, but this is what jumped into my head. When dead-tree products arrive at my local game store, they usually have a number of copies in stock. Those copies may get sold weeks or months after they arrive.

The question I wonder is: are you figuring 10-15% based on numbers that went out to distributors, or actual sales? Or are you comparing to your own online store.

(These questions may be considered rhetorical; I'm just tossing out the thoughts in case they aid in understanding the comparisons).

Re: Pop Culture Villains

Originally posted by CrosshairCollie

The topic/question: Have any of you ever used any of the variety of real-life pop-culture icons against your PCs?

I used the Presleybots out of one of the Gold Rush Games modules, once. Gave them to Foxbat (he held a downtown shopping mall hostage and demanded that Graceland be moved to Toronto for its own safety).

Originally posted by Sketchpad

I have it ... and I think it's the only story that I've ever liked from Morrison

Wow. My mileage varies.

I thought Earth-2 wasn't up to par for Morrison. But, in my mind, nothing beats his run on Animal Man.

Originally posted by Le Schtroumpf

Hell, bring in Shooter to do the book. Wouldn't mind seeing him run a comic company again either.

Shooter's run on the Avengers... especially around the whole "Trial of Henry Pym"... is probably one of my favourite periods of that book.

Originally posted by Storn

Y'know, that is a good point. I do not have FH yet, so all I know of the art is the art that I have done.

<nod> I just went and scanned through the book again this morning, and there is a bit more diversity than I first noticed. Erik has a few images that play with middle-eastern styles, for example.

I did try and present a mage, who is black, as urbane, slender and dynamic... trying to twist away from some of the cliches. He appears on teh cover and in one interior.

Yeah, he's a good character. Black mages are pretty darn rare.

Keep bringing the subject up. I PROMISE I will listen. I definitely needed the reminder. So thank you.

For what it's worth, I really liked your analysis of the way you think (including the blinders when they exist) as you approach an art assignment.

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth

I mean, if two of the five things you dislike most are art cleavage and the bibliography, that must mean the book is doing something right.

Oh, definitely. The pros outweigh the cons by orders of magnitude. It's a great book!

Re: This Will Probably Get Me Banned, But...

Originally posted by Tempuswolf

A fun group to GM because though they all lived for the ego gratification of the stage, they all had different motivations for being there and to some degree all of them had secret agendas. Running a group of supervillains not bent on world domination but on, among other things, destroying boy bands for aesthetic reasons, is more fun than should be allowed this side of paradise. They were such a great foil to my PCs. I know some of you might think this is a corny concept but there is a verisimilitude that their rather mundane goals have that grand evil archvillain's bombastic super-schemes lack.

Oh, I'm with you on that. I just picked up a second-hand copy of that module, and I'm really looking forward to running the adventure. Boomer and Screech seem a little too pop for a band that's otherwise very punk/industrial, but all in all this is an innovative group.

As I write this I am thinking about bringing these guys into 5th Ed ...

Cool. I, for one, would love to hear about your conversions.

Originally posted by Nato

I'm extremely excited to get a copy of this book myself, and look forward to hearing what people think about it while I await mine.

First reaction: it's a tome!

Five things I like:

1. Excellent and varied assortment of art. Some really nice pieces: the winged woman on page 44, your magical texts piece on page 226, Storn's dragon rider on page 229, Hogwarts SG-1 on page 235, and the poppet-weilding vampire on page 255. I also really like the black chapter start pages.

2. An all-around excellent collection of things to think about, presented in clear language. Steve, I know you get a lot of general "great job!" compliments, but man, you write well.

3. The magic section rocks!

4. I perceive a bit of a shift in recent Hero products (the UNTIL Superpowers Database definitely set a new level) to emphasizing the effects more than the "rules write-up". I see that in the spells write-ups (and magic-using characters as well)

5. The brief (but happy-making) urban fantasy discussion!

There are also a host of things that I continue to be thrilled about, but which I always forget to mention because they're in every book: the index (oh, god, the index!), the consistent elements of the cover designs (including the "Hero System Fifth Edition" logo which changes colour to match the cover art), the sidebars. The general high level of editing quality.

Five things I'm less satisfied with:

1. Is this the whitest Hero product to date? (Yeah, I know there's something about the genre that makes people think about old Europe. I guess I thought the artists would be hungry to try out distinctive looks in the fantasy genre).

2. As a follow-on to point one, I would have really liked to see a magic style that was notably different than "european" systems. Sure, Vodou got a brief mention. But I wish there was something in there as evocative as, say, Nyambe mask-magic.

3. I wish each of the fantasy races were pictured. I know that this is a genre book, rather than a settings book, but I fear that the settings books will skim over races, given how many pages are in Fantasy Hero. And I like to see what the races look like.

4. The cleavage brigade

5. I'm starting to think that having a bibliography in a book like Fantasy Hero doesn't really provide any value for me. I think I would get more value out of a bibliography if it talked about some Really Interesting Ideas that appear in the books listed. But if it's just "this book is excellent", I'd rather have a few pages of sample maps.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Like Mechanon (Mechanical + on), Ultron (Ultra + on), and Celine Dion (Die + On).

Gak. *gurk*

Okay. Now I have hiccups.

Originally posted by Crisis Energy blaster--here's a conundrum. Cyclops is often seen as the prototypical energy blaster, but powers wise i think he's definitely atypical. I would love to see more energy blasters whose only power is an energy blast. No flight, no force fields, no energy manipulation, just the blast.

Oooo. That reminds me of Tempest from the second ('70s) Doom Patrol. That's all he could do. Really massive EB. Didn't like to use it.

Re: Superhero Children

Originally posted by Azimer the Mad

I'm having trouble with a phenomenon that usually doesn't pop up in the comics much. My group of 4 PCs have all gained children, whether through natural processes, adopting, or building them. There aren't many mainstream comics aside from the FF that have prominent kid characters, and I don't read any books that have multiple teenagers per family (one PC has 5!)

One of my favourite stories on that topic is the "First Family" storyline from Astro City.

BCing you