proditor

Thank ya kindly. I had a lot of fun coming up with that BG.

So...I was stumped for ideas while trying to come up with a character for a new campaign. I was just told "Oh, you're the brick" and that was about it. Now I'm ALWAYS the brick. I've already milked Thor (Warhammer), Captain Marvel (Titan), Rage (Rumble)...heh, I just realized even my names weren't all that original...anyway...I was stuck for a concept and was leafing through the Champs book for ideas before hitting the USPD. And it hit me....Checklist Hero! I could rip off Ultra Boy! (Massively down-powered of course) Thus was born Omni-Man. He has no flight, and much better defenses than just relying on his MP. STR is lower, it's 30 base and 70 when he powers up. Anyway, here is my basic concept for the BG. Vandaar Kohl glanced around the museum with a slight sneer. "Go work for the league...the pay will be good...make something of yourself already..." Sure, the paycheck was regular, but even in the 32nd century it was hard to admit that your job in working for the League of Teenage Super Heroes was basically one best described as "Maintenance and general cleanliness". Less glamorously, a janitor. Even here in their much vaunted museum, Vandaar's only contact with the mighty heroes was to dust off their statues. At times he almost hated them. Well, most of them. Mind Maven was always nice to him, and unlike what his buddy Kanjar said, she obviously didn't read his mind or she'd have already slapped him several times. Vandaar dusted and dusted. Same job, different day. Hmmm...was it getting lighter in here? Vandaar came to slowly, shapes and images around him just didn't seem to want to come into focus. Slowly though, he was able to fix his eyes on one spot. He could see the big "LTSH" logo on the wall. It looked a little funny though, and in a few moments he realized that it was backwards. Before he could ponder this further, a gentle voice grabbed his attention. "Vandaar? Are you all right Vandaar?" He glanced over and took in the form of Mind Maven seated at his side. "Um...Hi. Yeah, just a little tired." His eyes continued to wander across her distractedly and then he suddenly blushed and buried his head. "Why are you naked?" The gentle tone changed abruptly. "Why am I WHAT?!?" Vandaar started to answer but then realized he could see the electrical conduits in the floor. "Oh this isn't good." The soothing voice returned. "Ah, your powers. You had an accident Vandaar. You were hit with hard light while you were cleaning the statues. It seems to have imbued you with a host of our powers." "It what?" emerged slightly muffled form the bed. "You have a reasonable copy of most of our powers Vandaar. You can employ the Psychic Blade as I do, you can channel a significant amount of the might that Kor-el utilizes. You can pass through objects like Phase Lad and shift from the visible spectrum like Light Lady. Really, we're not sure which powers you don't have at this point. Brainy Yak has determined that you have only one true limitation. You can only use one set of powers at a time." "Really? I have powers now?" Vandaar's head poked back out, a small smile starting to grow on his lips. "Does that mean I could join the League?" A soft sad smile was his only answer. "I am afraid not. You know that each new member must be able to do something that no other member can do. You just replicate what we can do already. And...well there is something else." Vandaar tried to not let his crushing disappointment show, but it was so difficult. His dreams crushed, he nodded. "Okay, what else...AM I GOING TO DIE?!?!?" He shot bolt upright out of the bed and started to grow exponentially. "No! Calm down Vandaar, you are not going to die!" As he shifted back to a more normal size, Mind Maven continued. "The White Wiccan has sensed that you are part of something important. Something crucially important. You must go back in time to the forgotten age. To the first time of heroes. Once there, only your actions will ensure that our future even takes place." Vandaar sat there a moment. Confusion warred with disappointment. Then a growing understanding of his role displaced everything else. He nodded. "Okay, what do I have to do?" Over the next few weeks he was schooled in 21st century mannerisms, sayings and attitudes. He was taught a skill, that of a "Graphic designer" and readied for his trip. It was a sad farewell as he stepped through the time portal, but he had a job to do and a future that depended on him. Once in the 21st, he had to blend in and make his future a reality. 2003: Teleios rose slowly, shocked and dismayed that he had again nodded off while working. This was only the most recent of these events as well. He calculated that he had lost over 2 weeks of time in dribs and drabs over the last 2 years. 2 weeks...and nothing to show for them. 2004: Michael VanderKohl looked around his new apartment from the comfort of his bed. Sure, it was a primitive timeline, but since his arrival a year ago, he had made a name for himself as Omni-Man. He'd been fortunate enough to even hold on to a real job, following the hand written instructions that the League had given him. He didn't remember who wrote the note, but the distinctive bold handwriting had comforted him greatly with it's carefully laid out plan in those early days.... Notes: So, in a nutshell, Omni-Man thinks he is from the future, but is actually an accidental clone of Telios' make. He has awesome powers and is very very firmly convinced that he is in fact from the 32nd century. Captain Chronos has been trying to talk to him, but something about the good Captain upsets Michael, so he steers well clear of him and his "delusions".

I'm totally hooked. Can't wait for more installments!

Green Seeker Dragon! The skilled and awesome mistress of the Martial Arts, defeater of the Death Dragon, refounder of Yengtao Temple and daughter of some shirtless aussie guy and Lin Chow, Green Dragon's sister. Edit: Although after arriving, she changes her name to something less anime sounding and more superheroic, Seeking Dragon.

I just got sucked into their message boards and in my zeal found out that my favorite guy was cut before making the "pre-final" 12. *Le sigh*

Heh. Yes that is indeed true. Loved the show, loved the Jeff Dee/Jack Herman homage in my namesake. And yes, I used him a lot in V&V.

That page is a dream come true...I am in Nerdvana...

Any time I hear Animal motifs, I think surprising of TORG. We had a Nile Empire LOONEY hero who wanted to basically be Batman. He was a core earther who flipped so he was a little grittier. However, he was kinda...dense. So after the flip, he's sitting in his mansion thinking about how criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot, and a beam of moonlight strikes the open dictionary on his reading lectern. It illuminates the following: Wombat: (Not in moonlight) stocky burrowing Australian marsupials of the family Vombatidae, resembling (not in moonlight) bear and feeding (Not in moonlight). Actual text: (Wombat: Any of several stocky burrowing Australian marsupials of the family Vombatidae, somewhat resembling a small bear and feeding mainly on grass, leaves, and roots.) There was a picture too. From what he could read and see, he figured a Wombat was a ferocious creature, about 12' tall. Thus was born... The Dark Wombat!!! Subsequently someone actually got him a real Wombat and after that he was heard to continually mutter "It looked a lot bigger in the picture..."

RE: Simulate Death. Oh, that's pretty cool then.

Possibly Oratory? I seem to remember a lot more speeches back in the day. And it seemed that almost any Hero could just wow the crowd by opening their mouths. Additionally, the Psych disad: Must analyze opponents most recent attack out loud. "Great Scott! Sinestro has turned the entire water supply for Montreal into Kool Aid!" (Common, Strong) A little quirky, but I just forced my way through "Crisis on Multiple Earths" and I'm still shell shocked.

I'm not sure I get why they'd have Simulate Death?

RE: Thor. I'm not going to be overly impressed that after having the character around for 40 odd years, they finally realized that someone might take offence to him calling himself a god... Also...Hey Marvel, nice job of sidestepping the guys who are FAR more likely to come after him long before the catholics get involved. Falwell, Robertson, etc. etc. And yes, he is heroic. But please remember that we ridicule a lot of our zanier celebrities, and none of them claims that they are an actual diety. Look at Angelina Jolie. Yes, by her own admission she is "A little crazy". She also won an accolade from the UN for her ourseas work. Most people in the US could care less about that and just remember the wacky hot chick with the big lips who might have been doing bad things with her brother. Now, remind me again how a populace that reactionary is gonna be fine with what they think is a guy with literal delusions of godhood?

I understand the idea that the Avengers and the FF get some slack, but honestly...where is the religious right? Not the politicos, the Avengers have worked for and with them. No need to shoot your own foot so to speak. I mean the Moral Majority, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell? This kook with the hammer claims he is a god. If according to them we're subject to earthquakes and floods due to our lax morals and acceptance of things like Homosexuality, shouldn't the fringe religious groups be trying to get Thor burned at the stake?

Yeah, my universe is fairly similar. There is still the social remnant of the patriotic heroes of the 40's and WW2. People still remember Major Victory, Minuteman, G.R.U.N.T. and Stonewall for instance. That engendered the idea that "Yeah, some of those wrong thinkin' types work for the ratzis, but we got our own heroes right here!" Couple that with the heroes who emerged in the 60's to stop the first "true" super-criminals", and yes some folk distrust people with powers, but really no more than they get nervous around a cop or an FBI agent.

Yeah, considering what Jean looks like, I REALLY doubt my first thought would be "Ewww, a dirty mutant."...

I'm still reading through the whole thing, but CU and you (ChuckG) touch upon my one main and enduring problem with mutant racism. Okay, Johnny looks like a frog and has gills. No offensive powers at all. He gets discriminated against as a mutant and a potential threat to society... Meanwhile, we have this guy with long blond hair, swinging a hammer that totals buildings and who says he is a god, but that's okay... Um...no. If we're really afraid of the power, it should apply unnilaterally to anyone in the union suit. Some have such a history (Read as Captain America) that they overcome this without even worrying about it. But Marvel has stated that the general public believes that Thor only thinks he's a god and do not believe in his divinity. That being the case, why hasn't anyone locked him up? Where is the religious right? I'd be a lot more afriad of guy who delusionally thinks he's a god and causes billions worth of property damage when he swings his "Magic Hammer". Kudos to CU (And in part DC who usually has the norms hate anyone in a costume when the pendulum swings) as opposed to trying to make an arbitrary seperation that in most cases cannot even be defined. I mean, Jean Grey was a model for a while... Rant off, back to reading.

Don't change his costume yet. I just spent an hour sculpting the beak/hood out of epoxy putty.

Way back when I first started playing CHampions, my friend had a speedster named "Slammer". His schtick was that he had one of those Force fields that got stronger when he ran faster, so he literally just slammed into things to take them out. He was a raging alcoholic and had some other vulnerabilities and a bunch of hunteds. But the best was his DNPC. Grandma. An incompetant that showed up on a 14-. She was wheelchair ridden and had no idea that the "nice young man" pushing her around was actually the local nest leader, suppervillain, what have you. My friend became so enamored with Grandma, that instead of buying down her frequency as he got XP, he pumped it all into her effectiveness and told the GM to just go wild with it. Next time Grandma showed up, she was in a completely powered wheel chair with a quad-rack of 30 call MG's and side mounted surface to air missiles...

I'd sort of forgotten about this. I am looking forward to it a lot, and though some of the initial enthusiasm may have waned, the announcement that it is still a go helps to keeps the coals burning.

Would there be a market? Of course. The fact that Superfigs is still in business shows us that. BUT. Champs may be the oldest and maongst the most popular, but you're still talking about the equivalent of a serious niche market. Now inside that market, you also have folk that use none of the iconic characters at all. That's a percentage that seems to be a decently sized one as well. So...making up numbers here to cover folks using Hero to run Marvel or DC, their own worlds or what have you... Let's say that 75% actually use the iconics. This in a niche game in a niche market. Most of them prefer to use cardboard figs and will have to do some level of converting to make PC's and new NPC's regardless. In the end, I htink you are looking at a pretty limited market. I could be completely wrong of course, but Champs specific minis have always just done "okay" marketwise. Heck, are any of the companies that made them even still in business? Not that this was their downfall or anything, just saying is all.

Oooo, I like Lockheed, that's a good one. I have to back Robin, though I also agree that I like Grayson better as the 'wing than in the hot pants. So qualifying it, my vote goes specifically to Tim Drake.

Ya know, that reminds me, I started preliminary converting work on Ironclad and Nighthawk. Hopefully I'll have something to show off in a little bit.

I'm totally with StormRaven. I rarely get the "Oh no! Not him!!!" for my villains, but if I say the word "VIPER", everyone starts sweating buckets. I guess that using that NCI and making them a psuedo rip off of COBRA (but competant mind you) actually worked all those years ago.

Plop this on the table the next time you say "Okay, Phase 12, you see this..." http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77395

For no reason other than sheer joy, I can now announce that thanks to a massive sale of old Battletech minis, I have Viper, UNTIL and Champions Battlegrounds en route!! Booyah!