BlackCobra

Hmmm, actually, having reviewed the BBC Who site, I don't think you have the episode right. I have, in fact, forgotten which episode it was from, but I can still clearly see the scene it occured in (which was really the answer I was looking for anyway). And in checking the episode you suggest, it appears not to be the correct one. (Sorry to go completely off-topic, but someone answered my .sig!)

Woohoo! Someone finally noticed. Now, for extra credit -- what did that phrase do? (And what website did you yank it from?)

free palm books This site: http://www.memoware.com/ has a whole bunch of free downloadable Palm-format books -- including a bunch of Shadow serials. If you have spare time to read while waiting for progress bars to finish (like I do at work), you can whip out your Palm and read up on the Shadows latest (ok, to me) adventures. Very Pulpy.

Oh, pshaw! If they can sit through an hour of pantomime conversation with a cat familiar who only knows the word "meow", they can probably go for Silent Movie Placard scenes. On the other hand (paw?), it probably wouldn't be something we'd want to do for 4 hours. But interesting thought!

Well, I'm not sure if you'll be able to find it (out of print for a while) but I think the closest thing to what you're looking for is Sprawl Sites (Shadowrun 7103) by Boy Peterson and John Faughnan. It's a compilation of city locations, rather than a map of a whole sprawl, but it's the closest thing I've ever found that isn't really campaign-specific (e.g. Shadowrun Seattle Sourcebook). It has a whole slew of things like banks, different sized stores, sample apartments, hotel rooms, and on. It's not as chock-full as I would have liked, since about half is encounters and NPCs, but it's useful. Hope that helps.

I think you guys are talking two different kinds of things here -- sports-supers and actual superhero teams. One's job is largely entertainment (play games) and the other is largely protective (stop supervillains/crime). If, as MfH's original premise goes, super powers show up regularly on campus (see his post for reasons) and you can expect a certain level of supervillains to show up, you need a protective team. One that's probably at least lead by a full-time professional, if not entirely staffed by professionals (Campus Super-Safety, anyone?). I can see these teams having student members, particularly at the smaller colleges, but at the bigger Universities, I would imagine they're all staffed by professional supers. If you had a super-hero level game that a superhero team could compete in (super-football, super-soccer, I don't know), then you have the direct parallel with regular sports teams. We just need a sport that seems appropriate (and safe) to the genre and the use of super-powers. This could be really a fun concept, especially with the possibility of the super-sports-team occaisionally helping out the Campus Safety team. Anyone have a super-sports idea?

I'd agree with this structure, since I think it more accurately reflects the nicely generic nature of these disads. Social disadvantages are ones that are entirely based on how other people, in general, treat you. Or will treat you. From FReD, page 221: "This Disadvantage means the character's ability to interact with other people is somehow limited, restricted, more difficult than usual, or dangerous to him." Based on that, you have to view these as externally imposed limitations, not internally as psychological limits would be. For instance, if the character has "Obeys Orders" the Psyche limit, it means he will (generally) always follow orders. If, on the other hand, he is "Subject to Orders" the Social limit, than he's part of some group (the military) that expects him to follow them. He doesn't have to, but then there'll be consequences. Much like if the Social limit was "Secret". Doesn't do much sitting there, but once someone learns it -- watch out! I think Worldmaker is also using Social to do things we used to (in 4th) used Distinctive Features for, like "Constant Prankster". Using Social limit for that is probably more appropriate in 5th.

MIT, RPI, Virginia Tech, CalTech and the like would all rule the Inventors and probably have a number of team members just using nice suits/inventions produced by the current team or previous team's work. Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools would have extremely well-funded teams with a great mix of supers -- probably with a tendency towards the mystics and psychics. Chicago U and other strong anthropology & archaeology programs would have the strong advantage in the mystics, although some small schools with odd locations or backgrounds might have suprisingly strong teams in that area (Arkham anyone?). Small liberal arts schools would probably take a very low-key approach to superhero teams, particularly ones without a history of strong sports teams. But they would end up with the strangest mix of supers -- strong on the mysics and psychics, but with the odd inventor thrown in. That's just off the top of my head -- I'm sure others will chime in with more.

For Chaos Nation's power, I'd suggest buying all his defenses and other abilities on charges -- very difficult to recover charges, that basically require him to use his people-absorbing power to get the charges back. And count me in with the folks using an RKA to absorb the people -- no way back is no way back. If you want the possibility to get them back in your version, either say it's a side-effect of the RKA that they can come back at some point (unless "used") or use a Major Transform. Wacky power.

You want stupid? I GOT stupid! Bear in mind: 1. This was my first self-built Champions character. 2. It was not the first or last stupid thing he did. (Let's just say it was probably a good thing Regeneration was changed to Turn-based recoveries.) BlackCobra, a cheesy not-really knock-off of Spiderman, wants to sneak into the penthouse apartment of some guy (can't remember why, turned out to be another player's place). He's originally a jewel thief, so going up and knocking on the door won't work. He can't scale buildings, and the apartment is on the 25th floor. Ok, so he goes to the top of a nearby building, planning on leaping across. It's too far for him to leap, off by a few hexes. So I tell the GM "Ok, here's what I'll do: Cobra will run, leap as far as he can, hook his swing line on the roof the other building and loop around, dropping on the roof." Well, guess what? I missed with the swing line the first time (25 floor drop -- ouch!). This was just the first in a long line of mishaps that the character only lived through because regeneration:2 was enough to recover from nearly any not-fatal drop. This was the first character in our gaming group to invoke the terminal volicity rules!

Actually, it was the case in a galactic defense (Cosmic-level power) super team that every character but one on the team were the ideal support characters. One was a galactic-level teleporter to get the team there, one the people person, one the tech person, etc. But those characters were all a little light in the combat. One character wasn't (see the Invulnerability discussion thread for specifics). As a team, we were (could be) really gross. The support team did everything it needed to do to get the Gross Guy up next to the bad guys and then he took them out. (I guess he was the Brick) And when we had scenarios without him, we really really missed him. We had to actually think!

Then obviously you have not seen Mythos (a Gary Gygax special that came out about 6-8 years ago). Every single thing in that game had an abbreviation and each was completely arcane. So arcane, in fact, that I can't recall any of them --- but trust me, they sucked.

My critical success house rule was pretty simple. Whatever the 3 was rolled for resulted in a spectacular success. If it was an attack, the target went down, straight to GM's option. If it was a skill roll, they got complete information for knoweldge skills, or essentially a free presence attack for more active skills. On the flip side, I also used critical failures. An 18 would break equipment, disable a power for a week or knock out a team member. It helped balance things out a little. Now, take that with a grain of salt, because I figured out what would happen on the fly appropriate for each situation. In some cases, the big bad villain wouldn't go down on a 3 -- but be really inconvenienced (like a piece of gadgetry blowing up). Although it might seem like it has the potential to break scenarios, it generally worked out really well.

Re: Wind in Trees Well, you know my memory. I definitely remember that you kicked butt --- I just didn't remember how much and whom. Maybe you can post a copy of the character, so everyone can bask in the glow of Aid?

Um, the unbelievably bad art? Hang on, let me grab it off the shelf and remember more. The layout wasn't great. The character write-ups (in GURPS Supers terms) are at best debatable. (I don't remember why, exactly, but I read the books 15 years ago and the details are a mite hazy.) And for a Steve Jackson / GURPS book, the content was not up to standard. Heck, I still buy GURPS books -- they're fantastic resources. But this one just didn't pack any where near the usual punch. That's why.

It has lots of interesting new rules for space-specific things. Suggestions on how to do interstellar communication, ship's engines, alien races, gadgets and all that good stuff. It really makes me want to run a sci-fi campaign again. And it's really thick. Much thicker and more chock-full than I was expecting.

Why Aid needed to cost more Ok, just so we're clear about why Aid went up in cost, I will trot out one of my favorite example stories. For years, my gaming group had largely ignored Aid as a power. We all thought it was kind of useless. (And this was in 4th Ed, when it was cheaper.) So I'm starting up a new campaign (based on the IST setting from Steve Jackson Games) and one of my players makes this gnarled old man monk-type who's super-power is loosely the ability to emulate other super powers. He was built with a variety of aids to a wide variety of powers and stats. Seemed pretty harmless. (Really, it did!) Fast forward to a danger room scenario. I don't recall the specifics, but basically half the group is supposed to rescue a dummy from underwater, while the rest of the group stops them. There was about 2 Turns worth of prep time (maybe less). The old monk-guy took out half the group by himself. After that example (some thought fluke), a later scenario involved the whole group trying to stop (capture) the old monk-guy. He handed them their ass. All with just a few small aid powers and a very small amount of prep time. Oh, and his trusty +4d6 HA staff. His original name was Wind-in-Trees, but after that (and forever) he was known as Whack-with-Stick. Proving the adage that the most dangerous character in any martial arts movie is always the old guy with the stick.

Nigh invulnerability Well, ok, I don't know how beaten to death this topic is, but really, if you have high enough Damage Reduction AND enough armor (the key), you pretty much ARE invulnerable. (Or as near enough as makes no never-mind.) I have seen this in action. A character had 50/50 hardened armor and 75% damage reduction (physical and energy). He regularly ignored attacks that any other team members had problems with. This doesn't mean he was completely invulnerable --- but it took a really Cosmic level effect to shake him. Now -- admittedly this was a 500-pt space campaign; essentially a Justic League level campaign. But if this were designed to simulate invulnerability to a particular type of thing (e.g. fire), the limitations would make it much more reasonable. Remember, Superman required really massive attacks to hit him before he even noticed the damage. (Not including the one from the animated television series, who apparently doesn't get any sun at all.) Personally, I'm resistant to introducing new powers to Hero, for the very reasons mentioned elsewhere. Does that help the discussion at all?

Speaking of the Blackhawks, did anyone catch the animated Justice League series when they time-traveled back to WWII and were rescued by the Blackhawks? There they were strictly awesome aviators. As for superhero ideas in other countries -- don't forget literary heroes: Three Musketeers (France) the Scarlet Pimpernel (Britain) Beowulf (Denmark, Scandavia) I could go on and on -- if I could remember more. And of course, don't forget mythology.

I would just make it a straight Change Environment that has sight penalties, with explosion. That way the sight penalties lessen the farther from the center you get.

FTL down memory lane Wow, thanks for bringing back the fun memories. Let's see -- started in college with Villains & Vigilantes -- moved on when it became apparent that you could casually fall off a cliff by underestimating movement and have grenades dropped at your feet and be unable to react in any way. Played Champions II, then III. Built my first character -- very poorly (my login name is my first character, yes, I admit it). Wondered why everything hurt so much (regeneration was WONDERFUL when it worked every recovery). Played in many campaigns -- some reaching nearly into modern times (that would be ... 15 years later). Also squeezed in some Danger International, a little Justice Inc, and then lots of Fantasy Hero (D&D's for wimps!). Managed to get a little playtest credit under my belt -- although I can't remember the name of the book. ***Here's a pop quiz for the Oldies: what book, with a set of Champions adventures in it, had the murder mystery set in Stronghold? (Hey, Tim!) I helped playtest it, advised the author, have two copies on my shelf, and I still can't remember the name. You know you're getting old, when.... Then, more fantasy campaigns using BBB and the old Fantasy Hero. Some super-heroes on the side. And gosh -- we're up to 5th Ed! Sigh -- now I just have to get our group to start playing Hero again, once we finish the 10 campaigns we have floating around.

Bestiary I have to say that the Hero Bestiary to me feels like I bought the equivalent of the Monster Manual, the Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio (3rd ed coming, ack!). And Bestiary still has more monsters, because of the templates, which I think fall into that category of genius inhabited by all those ideas that seem so obvious after you hear them but that you never would have thought of on your own. I bought Champions, Star Hero and Bestiary, and yes, Bestiary is definitely the most-used one of the three (and I'm not even running Hero right now!). Definitely looking forward to the UNTIL Database, now that I know what it does. Perfect supplement for helping the newbie players get up and running quickly. (Ok, quick-er.)