Azimer the Mad

So… In my game, my players were fighting Empress Vhan, of a Billion Dimensions, from CKC. They were called by a friendly alien race to protect their newfound world from the Empress’ colonization. The Empress grants them 30 hours to either convince the aliens to accept a bloodless transfer of power, or prepare to fight her champions. We have one player that always bucks the authority of the leader, and the group. He usually screws things over for himself, because he has an eye for the ladies (and is married with kids), and a habit for taking elaborate revenge that turns minor enemies into deadly threats. Lately, players believe he’s been deliberately trying to avoid combat because he’s there for role-play alone, and feel like he’s less help than he could be. He’s also a very good friend and has been in the game for 3 years, since the beginning. Thought I should mention that. So, when they land, PCs 1-4 attempt to help the aliens try to resist the Empire in a support so the PCs can draw fire. Problem PC splits off from the group, and travels the world convincing races to join the Empire. Now, it has been well-and-truly nailed into the heads of everyone in the group that giving the Empress a foothold in our dimension would lead to the conquering of Earth and the Solar System. Problem Player’s stated goal IS THIS, since he is pissed in character at the U.S. government and believes that Empress conquering the Earth would be a good thing. He joins the PCs for the combat when his persuasion fails. They win (barely). However, now that he’s heading back to Earth, he’s trying surreptitiously out-of-character to convince players not to mention this to the team’s financial backer. The team is a JLA/Avengers level team, with the appropriate level of standards, and he “doesn’t want to deal with†any repercussions for trying to betray humanity. Someone’s going to tell, and I can’t see any reason in character not to boot his (already been on probation and kicked off) ass off the team for deliberately betraying the Earth. Thus, I may have to ask him Saturday to retire his character, as there is no way the some of the PCs or many NPCs would cooperate with him. I’d ask him to make a new character, and he’d get pissed and leave. Covering it up would seem completely incongruous for me in character, and I don’t think I could run the game. However, OOC, players are getting pissed with him and considering him grating (in this and other games), and sometimes he argues with the team leader just because he considers the player whiny. What the Heck do I do?

Wrong Forum, sorry

I honestly think that Supes isn;t mind-controlled. Cap thought the the JLA were bigtime fascists who had it too easy. He changed his opinion looking at Jason Todd's costume. I believe that Clark's on edge because the Marvel Universe represents his worst nightmare: A world where, for all their powers, the heroes don't make much of a difference. To deal with his own self-esteem problems using the Avengers as a manifestation of failiure. Remember, at heart he's still a Kansas farmboy who wonders often if he does enough. By beating the Avengers, he's subconsciously proving to himself that he's a better hero, and that he won't let his world get that bad. The fact that the Avengers have Thor sends the point home, because Thor is amazingly powerful, and the MU is STILL so screwed up. The "LIves matter!" comment seems to add credence to the idea that he's truly terrified by his perception of the Marvel Universe as a dark and possible reflection of his home. Also, if Supes is mind-controlled, there's going to be another Hawkeye-Squadron Supreme comment. We can only hope he doesn;t have the justification.

I try to run a Grant Morriosn-JLA style game on an Avengers power level. What that means is that, while Silver Age events happen, the environment and the characters react with modern sensibilities. FOr example, Grond may be a sympathetic character, but when he threw a bus down a sloped Bay City street last session, the characters saw blood stains of the windows. My characters mostly react as people who don't WANT to kill, but everyone considers the option. For example, the 18-year old electic blaster plays a high personal Code Vs. Killing (though I'm not sure she ever wrote it down), and has an NND no Range Brain Fry Killing attack. She's only used it twice, against Dark Seraph and the villain who killed her fiance (Soundawave from Villains Unlimited). Most of the rest of the time she's fine with stun blasts or Aikido. That's most of my players in a nutshell. When they fight "bank robbers," as that level of evil has been called, they never use killing attacks. Even against most murderers they prefer to have them stand trial. Against the real mass-murderers, two out of the four usually don't hold back. The mentalist player is the most prone to kill. He is infuriated by villains who target hiis family (public ID< house of super-teens), and villains who never "wise up." That generally means "commit crime, Psion beats you hard, serve time, go back to crime." In return. after watching him agonize over the possibility of Arkham Asylum-level security, I made sure that Stronghold wasn't the escape-prone revolving door it could be. I knew if he faced the same villain ever four issues, and they kept hurting innocents, he'd kill them. He's toned down his killing after realizing he was spooking his family, but amongst the villains he has a reputation for lethal force. This makes the villains respect him, and thus makes him kill less, so it works out. A handful of lower-level have quit villains have just quit villany, and that went a long way to assuading his fears. The only reason he let Fiacho live was so that Danar could undergo depowering surgery and stand trial in the Hague. It was a favor to the other PCs. He did his best to Durok after Durok killed a girl the same age as his daughters on live TV. I had mo problem with that in character motivation, as it was realistic. Psion's player has told me that, if he was in the DCU, he would snap the Joker's neck without thinking. He was ecstatic when one villain was actually executed. Thus, I don;t have my villains act like true psychopaths unless A) They can escape or return easily, like Mechanon, or I expect the players to use lethal force, and plan on that drama, like Soundwave. I'm running Day of the Destroyer now, and probably runnig through Battlegrounds, because some of the players have said there have been too many psychopaths lately. I honestly think that many players attitudes against killing is dependant on what usually happens to the villains after the fight. GMs should carefully think about the prisson escape and rehabilitaion levels of the campaigns, becaue, of course, the longer a GM keeps his villains alive, the longer the game lasts.

Everybody loves Foxbat. One of the few villains I get requests for. I love Mechanon. I wanted to make him cooler then Ultron, and I decided that the typical robot voice bores me. So, after watching an SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skit, I gave him the voice and mannerisms of Sean Connery. Until you've seen a smart-mouthed Mechanon with a scottish accent crack-wise during a killing spree, you haven't lived. Actor wise, Jeremy Irons also works as a great Fiacho. GRAB, Bulldozer, and Oculon are also mood lighners. But I can't wait to see them meet the NEW Oculon. Heh heh he.

In my campaign, one of the PCs married Cateran, since they had known each other since the 17th Century. They adopted a teenage version of Hummingbird, among others, and she's incredibly happy because raising a house of super-powered teenage girls is like running a bandit gang without worrying about the King's gallows. She did have a period of sneaking out to underground knife fights for excitement. She's currently expecting. GRAB hasn;t really "reformed," per se, but they (with Gremlin from Champions: New Millenium Alliances replacing Hummingbird) always aggravate and bemuse said player by coming over to the house for poker night. The house rule is, the supervillains can come over as long as no crimes happen and the kids don;t emulate them. One of the players helped reform Sensor from and old Hero Magazine. She just fixed his out of wack sensory powers. He and Three other ex-villains, including Onslaught and the Aggressor from Palladium's Villain's Unlimited, are running a hero'es for hire business. Mechanon-17 reformed. Mechanon-1 beat the snot out of him for it, but the players stepped in. Nebula's been a personal project of Cateran's hubby ever since her hands were taken of by the Duress Gauntlets self-destruction-upon-removal mechanism. After cybernetics hands installation, he's giving her counselling. Everybody likes Foxbat. They use careful force with him, because in a world full of psychopaths and killers, he's a break. One of my players is trying to SCARE Bulldozer straight. Hilarity ensues. Anyone remember Tungarak fromm Champions New Millenium: Bay City? I laughed SO hard when I saw him as a Viper supervillain in the new Viper book. In my game, he's a Champion. Like a big, rocky version of Justice from the Avengers. A bunch of my anti-heroes and Magneto-types pulled an Authority and started "fixing" Africa. Mechanon-17 helped. They were lucky they survived the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Rwanda. Mopst of them are still in hiding. I think that's about it for the published supervillains. There's two or three more originals. My players like reformation storylines. They say it makes them feel like they've made a difference.

Well, the Omega Effect is done as the "Nega Beam" in the Until Superpowers Database (and is built on more points than Bolivia). After that hurdle, it should be easy statwork. For Galactic Champions, I'm hoping it will be influenced by one of my favorite genre representations. I loved Post-Zero Hour Legion, but Grant Morrison's D.C. 1 Million had some amazing ideas in it for the 853rd Century Justice League.

Another good child brick was Gully from Battle Chasers, a cute little blong 8-year-old in pigtails with magic gloves that gave her hulk-like strength. Brilliant visuals. You could always go the Japanese route of having powerful bricks and mystics be clumsy schoolgirls who keep apologizing for the property damage.

14. The Laughing Madman-Cosmic Trickster/Murderous Clown- The Joker, to a lesser extent Carnage, Pennywise, IRL John Wayne Gacy, many action movie villains. Definately an archetype. There haven't been many comics-wise because the Joker so perfectly represents the archetype, in my opinion.

I have a PC in my game who has multiple personalities. Literally, there are two entities who share space and exist one at a time, like FIrestorm or Marvel's Captain Marvel. One is a werebear, the other is an animated teddy bear with the IQ of Einstein. Since he is now the Bear Totem, he gained a third shaman form. With other playing commenting on the interaction on personalities, imagine a wise shaman bear-man shrugging his shoulders, saying, "Yes, I suppose I am, in fact, Yoko Onno."

Hey everybody. Been lurking for awhile, but just signed up since everyone here seems cool to talk to. 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!) I'm especially puzzled by what to do with one PC's children. SHe's, paradoxily, 18 years old and team leader. She's recently admitted to having a robot child on live TV. RObot as in silvery android in 16 looking body with emotional maturity level between 6-12 made from her and her boyfriend's brain patterns. I'm wondering how the media and nation would handle this. Aside from that, I'm just interested in how anyone else handles caped kids.