Ghost who Walks

Re: Campaign length Twelve years, same world. Rebooted once, where a new team was created on the East Coast. Working on the second reboot right now, where the same characters will be moved forward 10 years in the campaign.

Re: A little name help. Random Name ideas: ~Candleabra ~Candleman ~Mister Steel (Does he actually need a secret identity?) ~Altar Boy (stuck on the candle theme, I know) ~Loner ~Wanderer Agree of the Damage Reduction idea. Another fun poswer might be a form of retrocognition, only to speak with nearby dead bodies...

Re: Defending America, Apple Pie and Mom! (Help needed with campaign idea) The players are all high school students who patrioticly defend the country when needed, flying aircraft developed and built by an eccentric mechanic! Powers were caused when they ate hamburgers at the local diner...hamburger that came from Roswell, New Mexico! The team leader's father gives them missions, sent to him over his Ham radio by Senator McCarthy! See an episode of Happy Guys for more inspiration.

Re: Hitler in a jar Ripped off from the Star Trek episode where they swiped Spock's brain... Hitler gets abducted by aliens, who want him to defend their war against an alien invader. Hitler's brain is doing a great job defending the planet, controlling a vast automated weapons system. Hitler is hooked up to to the super-computer, you see, and also broadcasts "victory reports" (shameless propaganda) ehenever he destroys something. My players loved this one. They could either indulge their urge to kill Hitler and help destroy an entire race, or do nothing. They surprised me, and worked to end the reason for the alien invasion, then persuaded the aliens to turn over Hitler's brain for trial on Earth. Hitler hired Johnny Cochrane as his lawyer, whose defense was that Hitler's brain was not in control of his body when the crimes were committed...and was thus innocent.

Re: HELP: Of Thor and Loki No problem, I didn't think it was very compatible with the structure you were doing. Its been developed over the last 10 years, and is mostly based around ideas and concepts that worked with different players. I posted it mostly for the sake of completeness, os that anyone doing searches in the future could find it. The godly campaign plots I have been giving my players actually do tie together, in the form of a Ragnarok/Armageddon like event that is coming in the future. Most ar involved in trying to stop it. Another thought to keep in mind when doing godly types is to give them a purpose. In mythology, most gods/saints/avatars are very goal orientated, there to perform a specific function of purpose. It usually wasn't there to serve worshippers...thats something that comes out of modern religion and fantasy literature. Anyway, good luck!

Re: Need ideas for a medical/doctor type hero. Radio: To call the Ambulance Various Life suports/protections, to go into burning buildings and stuff

Re: HELP: Of Thor and Loki *Bump* Because several of my players are interested in mythology, I made up my own versions of the pantheons and gods. This was primarily to give them a sense of mystery. IMC, magic is a form of misunderstood science and technology. IMC: ~The Greek gods were started by a PC time traveller and a ancient, immortal metahuman. Their high point was the Roman Empire, they have mostly had secret identities since the rise of christianity. ~Norse gods are all bricks, every one. Odin is a human who was abducted by aliens milenia ago, and made into a cyborg (the whole one-eyed and wisdom thing. Ragnarok still hasn't come, but the signs point to it happening soon. ~Persian gods made alliances with powerful extradimensional alien forces, recieving power in return for servitude. ~Indian gods: India has a Stargate like device in it, which various aliens have come through and been worshipped as gods. Mixed in, are a number of spell casters and metahumans ~Aztec gods: Descendents of a group of aliens, fallen into barbarism. Most were killed by other gods or christian types. ~Babylonian gods: A alien peacekeeper/Peace Corps type formed a grouping of superpowered people to battle an invading alien army 8,000 years ago. ~Egyptian Gods: Secretly based upon the Thundercats cartoon, a group of aliens and locals banding together to fight "evil". The key to a godly character is to have something to ground them in the "real world". Give them a job, parents, a history. If psionics exist, they can provide a method for "worshippers" to give a god power, otherwise it may be a protection like system. Most of the gods went underground in my campaign because the time traveller who started the Greek pantheon warned them to do so (he has been shaping history for his own purposes). They have appeared many times in history, using aliases. Most of those who wouldn't were jailed in extradimensional prisons, where they occasionally escape. The Sorceror Supreme type is the chief jailor of those prisons, sanctioned by the remaining gods. Christianity/Judaism/Islam remain mysteries as they do in real life. Specifically, Thor and Loki were handled as: ~Thor: A brick who has been punched one to many times, Thor was frozen in ice for the past 1700 years (like Captain America). Reappearing in the modern world, he promptly took over another planet, married the queen, built himself a harem, and now plans to raid nearby worlds. A super brick with a hammer, with a personality out of a Rocky movie. ~Loki: Fell unconcious when his by chemical weapons during WWI, and only recently reawoke. Has set himself up on Wall Street as a strockbroker and is quickly gaining financial influence. Spreads rumors about the atrocities Thor does on his planet. The ultimate manipulator, caused major problems for the norse gods in the past, mostly because of his lack of LS: extreme cold. Very friendly with surviving gods of other Pantheons, who generally dislike his somewhat barbaric relatives.

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital? How about on a planet surface, where the hook would nbe the planet itself. A world destroyed by some global calamity or interstellar war. The spaceport is either studying the ruins, or acting as base for thousands of treasure hunters, poking around in the remains of a dead civilization. Looters can be played as very unsavory people. You can even have the Ackalians be the ones who destroyed the previous civilization I can think of around a dozen scenarios to have in such a place, ranging from finding cryogenicly frozen survivors to searching for the ocation of the Ultimate Weapon.

Re: Psychic Wars So far as how the society reacts, something like the old marvel comic DP:7 would be ideal. The theme would be normal-guy-gets-powers. Most characters would be built around a single power, easy to do if you disable power frameworks. If set a couple decades in the future, the government/corporation/authorities might use robots to hunt for psionics...ones that would be mostly invulnerable to mental powers. That gets you the man vs. machine component. I remember reading a newspaper article about 10 years ago where the (US) military was sending peopel to these new age places to experience Out-of-body experiences. A drug which causes psionic powers, as long as you take it could be interesting. I'll try to recommend some different stuff: ~The movie, Anna to the Infinite power: Interesting concept movie, deals with clones seperated at birth who are very aware of each other...and inclined towards the life they once had. Shows how a small group can perform a secret science project, over years. While the acting can be a bit off at times, something about this movie always intrigued me. ~Books: Deathstalker series, Simon Green: Had an interesting idea that if you wanted to create an anti-psionic device, you needed to cut up a psionics brain, put it in a box, and run electrical current to it. Hooray! You've just invented Mental Defense!

Re: Romantic Villians Some ideas I've used (that haven't already been said, better) 1) Those created or forced to be villains work best, or who are miss understood. The Hulk is an excellent example of this. 2) The ex-boyfriend, or former childhood firend, who is now secretly a villain. The romance will occur in their secret idea...villains can have them to! 3) The person with similar powers, or invulnerability to the characters powers. A fire projector might be drawn to Firewing, for example. 4) The foreign villain, who a rogue and outlaw in his own land, is not considered one here. 5) mythology can be a good source for some, recreate a historical or godly character and have them strut around. The fun part with them is playing up their outdated notions of romance. Agree on Shamrock...imbued with the mystical power of Ireland, he is often called to defend his people, wherever they may be. The Irish have settled in many lands, and there will always be a Shamrock to protect them... Note: You don't want to know about the mystical defender of scotland...the english never should have given them back that stone.

Re: Need ideas for a revised CU timeline Two of those sound like "Natural Disasters" to me. Some stuff from my own campaign. ~Meteor Crater: Obviously an alien/extraterrestrial event. A spaceship full of alien criminals jetissons its power plant and crashes Centuries later the criminals awaken from stasis, and found the Anasazi empire. Ancient native american supowerheores gather and defeat them, committing them to stasis once more. Awoken again in the 1930's, they help America make an atmoic bomb, land on the moon, and invent velcro. An attempt by intergalactic police authorities to arrest the criminals leads to the roswell crash and the deaths of several intergalactic police officers. ~Krakatoa Eruption: Concerned about the growing level of magic and technology in the world, a powerful sorcereress of the time decides to create a sanctum seperate from this world. The attempt to move an insignificant island to another dimension suceeds, but causes massive damage to the region. Filled with remorse, the corceress vows to use her powers to help the "people" of Asia, and helps Mao come to power in China. ~Crop Circles: Aliex Race D has been invaded by Alien Race G. Race D has come to Earth to abduct humans with power to fight in the war to liberate their planet, and have so since the end of world war II. While some volunteered to help the aliens for reasons of their own, others were forced. Race D has also performed various experiments on humans, to learn why they have powers, creating several superpowered people. Upon learning of the source of the creatures that plague their war effort, Race G decides to punish the Earth, threatening the heroes stuff. the crop circles are caused by their flying saucers doing pickups, naturally.

Re: World In Crisis..Idea help please One thing I usually do when starting a campaign is spend a session running pregames. Since I didn't see anyone mention it, thought I would. Basicly, you just have the players play through their characters at the major turnng points in their lives. Where they went to schol, how they got into the career they chose, how they got powers, etc. You take notes during it, but its pretty freeform. It allows players to develop their characters a bit, by giving them a history. It also allows explanations for wierd skill and abilities players like to put on their sheets... For the GM, the benefit is that it helps flush out your world a bit...the player help develop some of the recent history.

Re: Need ideas for a revised CU timeline I like using historical people, and implying that they have been involved in various events... An example is when I had Theodore Roosevelt and Nikola Tesla build a giant cannon and shoot down a flying saucer in 1908. It crashed in Siberia, with predictable results. You may consider looking at various lists of natural/manmade disasters, and figure out how you can use them.

Re: Super Day Jobs Do it in a way, that gets you a scenario out of it. ~Resucue an immigration officer from a burning building... ~Have the government help her, in return for a favor... ~She gets all the documents she needs, courtesy of the US Postal Service. The only promblem, there is no return address... As a side note, having the superpowered immigrant can be a lot of fun RP wise, it allows you a bunch of oppertunities.

Re: Aging Campaigns A lot of this has actually been done by my players. My players have gotten so interested in their characters lives, that I enocurage them to look for pictures online of their workplace, coworkers, house, car, stuff like that. Some players enjoy more that you expect, and you should see the look on their face when the get in an auto accident... The pictures are usually placed on an Excel sheet, where they are really easy to manipulate, and printed out. They are kept in a three ring binder. Well, my campaign has been going for 10 years now, the original 200 point characters have become very powerful. One thing that I have done, is do some scenarios where players meet future or alternate versions of themselves. This can be a lot of fun, as it gives the player a window into their possible future. It also allows you to suggets possible directions for characters, without it looking liking you are forcing them anywhere. One way to deal with a lot of experience, is to have some time pass in the game world. Send all the characters off to superhero training camp for three months, they come back with new skills/powers. Lastly, consider coordinated attacks. Can two (or more) characters combine their powers, creating a more powerful attack? Make the power, split the cost between them. You can also require the players sarifice some of their experience, that goes into a pool for that character. When it gets big enough, something happens and they get a new power/ability. Have a few superhero "social events" ~The heroes are about to get government funding (of some level), and need to recruit some new member(s) so satisfy a requirement. The new members have to compete against each other, and the PC's get to have the fun of performing background checks. ~The heroes are invited to a superhero wedding, where they meet various other heroes. No supervillain attacks, but they get to have the fun of being accepted by a larger community. ~A hero kills an NPC, thorough accident. Now he/she must deal with supporting the victims family. ~Look into family backgrounds for characters, and consider developing them in someway. Relationships exist in many levels, and not all family members are DNPCs. ~You can always have a team meeting... http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11977 ~Or got to therapy... http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12541 Good thread, btw.