Ghost who Walks

Re: Non-standard mythologies A bunch of good ideas here. I agree that some of the mythologies can be very confusing...overlaping of powers, and characters that are way to powerful to be believeable. Sometimes I think this is cultural inflation, an attempt by moderns to make their gods more powerful than everyone elses. The Celtic gods seem especially prone to this. In general, when adapting a god, look at the legend, rather than the description. The Greek gods in the Illiad/Odyssey are very different than they are usually portrayed in Marvel. Another ways to do gods, especially the Native American, Indian, and Chinese ones is with the avatar concept. Basicly, a god is an immortal spirit, that can possess people. Often this is though a mystical ceremony or by possession of an object. This has several advantages, in it allows lower powered gods. It also allows you to pick and choose which gods you want to have this happen to. The powers may manifest all the time, or sometimes. At times, the god may take control over the host body...effectively giving blackout periods.

Re: Non-standard mythologies This idea becomes especially interesting when you remember how certain cities had specific gods as their patron. Athens is the obvious one, but there are many others.

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. Hmm, I owuld do a couple of things differently. It all depends on how often you want these guys to take over bodies. If they do it every scenario, its a power. If they stay in the same bodies for mulitiple sessions, I wouldn't bother buying it. For the skills/knowledge, I would just buy it as a knowledge skill: ~Past bodies life, (int roll) Specific knowledge I would put in a VPP, skills only, only changeable with bodies. You could also do it with a couple levels of cramming, limitation, only skills body possessed. This would simulate getting/learning information, but it would take awhile. If they are really, really, alien (and they sound like it), you could buy invisibility to mental powers...

Re: Non-standard mythologies Just a quick note, I often take mythologies and horribly mutate them. Under the theory that oral history and legends do not equal true history. Examples from my campaign: ~Babylonian Pantheon were founded by a dragon. Dragon was sent to Earth to create and protect human civilization. ~Greek Pantheon was founded by Kronos/Saturn, who was a PC time traveller. This opens up the whole paradox situation. Give Hercules a spaceship, so he can chase after Minos and the Zodiac. ~Odin was a cyborg, abducted 20,000 years ago by aliens. He keeps one eye always covered, as the aliens put a camera in it... ~Titans (greek Mythology) factor in big. They are basicly immortal guardians of the earth, trained by aliens to act something like the Peace Corps. They are master manipulators, behind many historical events. ~Egyptian pantheon is my players favorite. Combine Egyptian Pantheon with old Thundercats cartoon. Mix in blender, spew out result. Surprisingly very workable, for players to encounter when time-travelling or flashbacks. Not very workable in modern day... This strategy works well if you have players raised on D&D mythology.

Re: Campaign Help needed Possible reasons for all the powers: #1: Alien ship crashlanded on the moon, and is attempting to communicate with the planet. So bizarre is the alien ship, its transmissions are causing the powers to develop. The Ship hopes that humans wil leventually return to the moon, and help fix itself. #2: Everyone being gifted with powers is actually a reincarnated norse warrior, with little memory of their past lives. The final days are approaching, when the Norse gods shall lead the chosen warriors of days past into the final battle. The fun way to run this, is to determine the reality behind the myths. You can either take it straight out of mythology, or make the Norse gods aliens, timetravellers, cyborgs, or AI computers. And what is the serpent that will devower the world... Explaining stuff: ~Mutants: Mutations caused by some external force, best way to handle it, IMHO ~Cyborgs: based upon nresearch of governments/corporations. Best linked to aliens, possibly ones captured/imprisoned. ~Aliens: The crashed alien is an old staple. Other types not often encountered include: The art collector, searching for the latest sensation on a primitive planet. Also, the prospector can be fun. Earht has some valuable mineral, that is very valuable off earth. Aliens have been coming and doing illegal mining for centuries, this alien is either one of them, or the guy sent to arrest them. This has the advantage of combining aliens with western plots.

Re: Non-standard mythologies I pretty much use them all, they form a lot of background history, IMC. They are basicly the predessessors to the modern generaton of Heroes. Good pantheons that aren't often used include the Babylonian and Persian. I especially like the Persian ones, becasue its evil/demon aspect has a lot of depth. Babylonian pantheon and Indian mythology is very superheroic-style. Hanuman is very usable. Good site for ideas. http://www.pantheon.org

Re: Social Limitation: Legacy I kind of like the idea, its very genre. Think of all those heroes who have had the same name as some previous hero. And how they had to live up to the pevious hero's rep. Villains also. The Flash (Wally) springs to mind as a good example. I don't think it would be a pysch lim, because its how other characters see you. If it bothers the caharacter a bunch, then he gets a psych lim.

Re: First Adventure Module need revision Not sure if you need both DEMON and Takofanes. Sould probably make it work with just one. As a classic villain bit, you could always have the heroes find the mansion becasue the villains lead them right to it. It all depends what kind of flunky gets sent to retrieve the orb. Sombies attract attention, for example. If their is a rivalry between Taky and DEMON, perhaps DEMON warns the characters...then tries to doublecross them later. One idea I had for Takofanes had to do with why he does the things he does. It occurred to me that maybe what he really seeks his knowledge, as well as power. Remember, this guy knows almost nothing about the modern world, supposedly. What if he is trying to correct the problem? Perhaps he collects the souls/spirits of important people, or knowledgable people, then questions them for information. Not sure how, or if you would do this game wise...but maybe you don't really need to. Provides a reason for him to go after the orb thingee, and provides a motivation to a character who needs one.

Re: Teams that Want to Change the World If they are going to b low-power, corporate sponsorship is about right. A higher level team might be sponsored by the World Trade Association. That allows the team memers to be international, increasing usability. So far as groups that want to change the world... Imagine a high level psionic who is able to psionicly teach people things. They travel to third world nations, and educate the population, psionicly. Problems would aris if she teached the people things the government objects to, the whol question of mind control, and even western nations that don't really want to see third world populations asking questions. VIPER would also become involved, of course.

Re: What happened to seeker?? Tired of being beaten up every week, and all his enemies knowing were to find his normal ass, Seeker sells out to Hollywood. Assuming the name 'Max Power', he plays the character 'Seeker' on the Champions TV show. As an actor, he is known for his rather bulging biceps and poorly delivered dialogue. His character is greatly disliked by the superhero community, who resent his portrayal of the long vanished superhero. Max Power doesn't care however, because he is rich, rich, rich, and owns a major kangaroo ranch in New Mexico. On the Show ~Seeker learns martial arts by watching thousands of hours of 1980's martials arts and ninja movies. He is actually an agent for the elder worms. ~Defender's armor is powered by a power source his father stole from the Roswell crash ~Quantum is an alien supersoldier, hiding out on Earth from the 'Alien Legion' she deserted. ~Solitaire was transported from the middle ages by arcane sorcery. She constantly is using her powers and abilities in various get rich quick schemes. She never pays taxes, and always speeds. ~Obsidian: Is an alien prince from another planet, sent to Earth as a child in an experimental spaceship. He was raised in a mom and pop grocery store in Harlem. ~Jaguar: Descended from generations of lycanthropes, who worship the moon. Jaguar was sent by his family (a moajor columbian drug cartel), to infiltrate the champions, get security clearance from the government, and steal the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo mission. The Lycanthropes believe them sacred, and taking them a desecration. Champions: Live Action!, does moderately well in the ratings market, and has a cliffhanger ending every fourth episode in an attempt to boost ratings.

Re: Star Trek-type shields? Not sure if I would go ablative. I would put a special limitation on it, saying that for every body that gets past the FF, causes the FF to drop by one. Then buy an Aid, to restore the fF to orginal strength, depednent on a skill roll. As a side not, the original trek seemed to have ed only FF, in the New stuff they became pd and ed.

I wanted a flashy title. Let me start with explaining some stuff. I've been running my own campaign owrld for over 10 years now, and am pretty happy with it. So are my players. I really like the stuff coming out for HERO right now, yet I often have trouble integrating it into my campaign. Right now my players are at the 700 point level. But thats 700 points with loads of skills and contacts, not all powers. Some of these characters have been around since they were 250 pts. Searching for challenges, I've had more and more of my scenarios be "Galactic Champions" style. Stopping alien invasions, overthrowing planetary warlords, colonizing other planets... What I could use help with is any ideas the Halls of Herodom have about integrating the published material, with my campaign. This can be a high level plot you have an idea for, or your favorite villain redone on a ton of points. Have a high level character your GM will never let you play? Post below. Here's a rough description of my meta-plot, for those interested. Only some of the players know its full extent, but it influences a lot of things in the background. Its probably more influenced by Science Fiction than comics. Back History ~a million years ago, uber-tech aliens visit the Earth and take genetic material from the human race. They use this to create a race of psionic warriors to protect themselves (note: the psionic warriors look like homo erectus...) ~Wanting to make sure no one else finds out where their new guards came from, the uber-tech aliens sig a mutual protection pact twith the inhabitants of the second planet in the solare system (Venus, a race of Saurians). Earth, and its primitives, become an alien protectorate. ~300-100K years ago. Another race of aliens (intergalactic capitalists) from another dimension decide to invade this one. Massive war results, and the dimensional portals are sealed. Ubertech aliens vanish, taking their Dyson Sphere with them. their Psionic warrior race settle several worlds, and forget their origins. ~50K Interdimensional aliens invade again, this time by sponsoring another race with advanced technology/information. This race becomes the source for the myths about "demons." The destoy Venus and its guardians, and conquer the Earth. They begin numerous gene-engineering projects to produce "pets" from the human populace. They also trade with the evil capitalists from another dimension, who they are massively in debt to. ~25K years ago: A young member of a race of timetravellers, known as Al, (with the ability to timetravel) becomes disturbed by the injustice in the universe, in particular on Earth and the other worlds in the "Demon Empire". He aquires several thousand human children, trains them and gives them superpowers, and unleashes them against the demons. They become the source of the legendary Titans, and mount a millenia long guerilla war. ~20K years ago: Rivals of the interdimensional aliens, jealous of their monopoly on this dimensions trade, form a coalition of this demensions alien races and mount a campaign against the "Demon Empire". Just as they are about to proclaim victory, Al (the time traveller), appears with a court order from their home dimension ordereing them to desist (long story, but interdimensional invasions were illegal where they came from). Al does this without approval of his race, who reluctantly agree (they are like the Marvel Watchers, with time travel). Earth and the other worlds of the Demon Empire are allowed to fend for themselves, while the court case goes on. ~Present: The former allies of the alien coalition which freed the Earth are becoming active again. They are making moves against worlds near Earth, and aliens on those worlds are abducting Earth's metas to go and fight them. (damn crop circles). In general Earth blunders along, not knowing at all its history, or the ongoing legal battle (in another dimension). Only a few people know, and most of them are regardes as crazy. Some of the Titans of 20K years ago are still around (to give the campaign a really old guard) ~The Future: the trial is thought to be coming to an end, and it doesn't look good for the Blue-white marble. Can humanity clean up its act, and prove that they deserve to continue to exist? Or will they go down as just another vanished race. Note1: As you might guess, the theme of my campaign is mostly philospohical, entire episodes revolve around "what it means to be human." And "do we have a right to exist" Over all, I like it as a theme, because often non-humans are more noble than humans. (Humanity has a millenia old reputation among other species for...cannibalism. They are regarded as the interstellar equivalent of Haiti) Note2: Also, most of this history was only revealed through time travel, as players became aware of the back story. It allows me to use supplaments from virtually any game system, which I like. Note3: The fun part about the campaign is that no matter how powerful the heroes and villains are, there is a higher authority which is judging them. It takes the "save the world" theme to an extreme height, I suppose Note4: Remember that "Demon Empire"? Seems they were just experimenting with time travel...and one of their scientists travelled to our time. A couple of the players have finally learned that she is Dr. Destroyer. Note5: One of the goals of the characters is to try to find a way to gather allies, for the court judgement is expected to go against them. The allies are many, most of them are other worlds or really powerful immortal beings. Some of them use magic, and have taught it to Humans in the past (usually to their regret)

Re: color pic of Ripper? With purple skin and green pants, Ripper would be perfect.

Re: The 4400 Its an interesting show, I would dump the agent guys though. Don't add much to the story, IMHO. As a Champions campaign idea, it would be pretty interesting. The big question is, were the people taken to give them powers, or because they already had them? Its interesting that like the Dead Zone, they are showing this on USA. Last I heard the same company owned both USA and the SciFi channel. For non flash photos from the show, check out: http://www.conchitacampbell.com/

Re: Base Maps Question and Request I have some plans for a superhero base I am working on, will try to post them once finished. Should be in a week or two.

Re: Daleks?? I confess, one of the reasons I used Daleks when I wanted a cyborg enemy, is the huge amount of pictures available for them. For those wondering what the hell we are talking about. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/grahamwalters/dalek_fr.htm Stats for Daleks in V & V http://www.paratime.ca/v_and_v/standarddalek.html bunch of pics http://freespace.virgin.net/steve.redfearn/gallery.html More pics, including an alternate way for daleks to "fly" http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mimrie/dalek/dalekgal.htm Same site as above, different section for the very lazy http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mimrie/dalek/offsitegallery.htm heh, my favorite. http://www.vorbis.demon.co.uk/dalek-kitties-big.jpg Also, for the record, Terry Nation did not creat the Daleks, he just worte stories about them. The Daleks were actually built by an unknown set designer for the BBC.

Re: Daleks?? Daleks can be a lot of fun. I introoduced them in my Champions campaign as the cybernetic explorers of another race, who couldn't leave their home planet. They are always polite and peaceful, and can't understand why British attack them every time they try to conduct anthropological studies in the UK. My daleks, obviously, are a bit different. I worte them up as cyborgs with job specialties, (Scientist, Military Officer, etc), supported by a small army of robotic workers/drones/helpers. As I did it: ~They actually saw using 360' radar, the "eye scope" was just a telescope/magnifier ~I gave them weapons, but I used sonics (that way they could justify buying personal immunity). in the series, Daleks out of the shell was mostly a plot device, IMHO. Going up stairs and such is just laziness, and humanities best defense. Never liked the flying dalek, they should have limitations. The reason is simple...the Dalek is not necessarily supposed to be the ultimate machine, able to do everything humans can. It is supposed to be a machine that allows the mutant to survive and subjugate others. Its primarily a life support vehicle.

Re: New Guy Name Symbiosis Chrysalis New Guy Astral Man Man with no Name The Incubator (say it with a German accent)

Re: Help with a Name For some reason, this name jumped into my head. "Die Helfende Hand" (The Helping Hand) Don't ask me why. Everyone would just call him "Hand" of course". Which would really piss him off, since in his secret identity, he is named Hans...

Re: I Need a Plot, and Fast! Invasion of the Uber-Rats... A VIPER experiment has gone wrong, and their rodent specimen has escaped. Inbued with a vast amount of powers (Superstrength, teleportation, laser eyes), the rat is hunted by VIPER (who want to figure out what they did to give the rat powers, PRIMUS (The silver avengers want laser eyes and teleportation), the Sewere Workers (rat escaped into the land beneath the Earth). Depending on whether the Rat has had time to breed...An emergency could be announced, martial law declared, National Guard on the streets... The Heroes of course will be asked to help search, as well as coordinate the dozens of visiting heroes who want to collect the 10 million dollar reward someone is offering. Combat would be somewhat downplayed in this idea (unless the search teams see each other), emphasis on roleplaying. Combat is the hardest part for new players to get a hold of, usually. (depends on the player)

Re: Interesting Character Introductions

Re: My campaign! Sounds like you have a good campaign going. My first campaign was around your point level, and went on for several years. They played low powered characters, usually built around a single power. Tactics and teamwork became very important. I think your defenses are about pretty max, for your power level. 20 is pretty high for 8d6 attacks, IMHO. Of course this will change with experiene, since attacks will probably be bought up. One strategy I used was to introduce a couple of NPC heroes to the teams, generally to fill in weak spots or to provide them with some kind of superpowered transport. It also gave me mouthpieces, for when the players were about to really screw up (shich at that power level, can be deadly) Some of the Dark Champions stuff could be very useful to you, as it provides a lot of ideas on how to make real world stuff dangerous to superheroes. Not familiar with the MnM time line, but I'll give it a shot. 1. Shamrock gets sent on a secret mission by the Pope. Being a good Catholic boy, Shamrock naturally responds, taking along his posse. Since the Catholic Church is everywhere, this gives you the option of changing settings for a bit if the players get bored. 2. Onslaught: Starts having "blackouts" where he can't remember what happened. Meanwhile, someone is going around killing people with powers similar to his. Is he responsible, is it the amulet, or is another person with powers drawn from Aztec warriors? 3. Shatterbolt: Discovers other people in comas in a nearby hospital, all with powers like his. Who is keeping them from awakening, and why? The Aliens? The government? The Disney Corporation? 4. Mystery Man: Not sure what power level you are using, but PSI from the Champions books is right at your power level. They would be easy to work into a telekinetics origin (he could be an ex-member, have amnesia, or be the result of an experiment they did) 5. Crusher Bogart (the cyborg): Angry about being defeated by the group, he plots his revenge against them...cyborg style. Those who have known identities will find thei cars and milboxes wrecked. Those with Secret Identities will see nasty things spraypainted on the sides of buildings by hired street kids. And when they finally track down Crusher Bogart, he has his friend videotaping any fight...so he can sue them for assault. 6. Angela the Waitress : No killing attacks you say? Thinking that Angela has knowledge about the team, the baddies kidnap her and subject her to an experimental truth drug (purchased on the black market by a random rogue nation). The powers activate her latent powers...the power to exhibit a crushing force at no range. WIth these powers she becomes the new superhero...the Compactor!

Re: You don't really GET a choice... Well, IMC, some of authorities were reluctant to put superpowered people in prison. Stronghold existed, (I put it on Alcatraz), but it was federal. There were also a lot of escape attempts. So, every year the team would have tryouts. During which new capes would try and join the team. They would range from the high powered to the low, and if you added certain people to your team, you got a grant from the government! (the Black, female, Jewish Lesbian, for example) It was actually a lot of fun to do, and the local prison would always bus over some metas who had been locked up, and were on good behavior. Here are some of the ones who got accepted: 1) The South Korean water controller who escaped to the USA to get off her governments military team. She got a job protecting fishing boats off of California, and got jailed for using her waterpowers against a Greenpeace ship. 2) The ex-Olympic skiier, who went through a process with her boyfriend to get powers. When her boyfriend was arrested for robbery, she refused to testify against him so theey locked her up also. 3) The metahuman guy who fought in WWII, was assigned by the FBI in 1946 to infiltrate some group called VIPER, was arrested and disowned by the government, and sentanced to 50 years of solitary confinement. Got 10 years off for being a model prisoner, in solitary confinement. Had a whole plotline where he was battling the kids of the politiicans who had arranged to have him locked up, for knowing too much. (The other way to bring in Captain America) 4) Das Wall, from European Enemies. Was arrested by the group in a battle with Eurostar. Played as a blackmailed socialist Captain America type, with superstrength. All the above were NPCs. The funny thing was the same time the prison bus was unlaoding, one of the new PC superheroes walked in, and got inline behind the criminals. For years afterwards, the other players claimed he had come in with the criminals. I also once had a player who was possessed by the spirit of an imprisoned god, whenever he took BODY. A bit like the Hulk in concept, with magic powers. The US government had a military team in my campaign called "Strike Force". During the 90s, they stuck a bunch of suprvillains on it, renaming them privates. Got sent on all kinds of crazy missions.

Re: The Avengers in the CU I seem to remember in the Ultraforce comic, they had the Black Knight show up and lead the team. The concept of how they did it was interesting. They pulled the dimensional transportation thing, and the Black Knight got recruited to run herd on a bunch of "superheroes". The fun part about it was the heroes were a lot more "realistic" than the Marvel universe, while the Black Knight was still the Black Knight. You could try something like this...have Tony Stark get blasted to another dimension when he drops Thor's hammer on his foot. Without Stark industries, he quickly needs money to survive in the Champions Universe. He sells the plans to the Shield Helo carrier to a defense contractor, which turns out to be a front for VIPER. A few months later, Tony has used the money to build a massive device to take him home, and VIPER is ready to take over Newfoundland with its fleet of Helocarriers. Feeling a trifle remorseful, Tony vows to create a new Avengers team.

Re: Inspiration for a new campaign Haven't read the X-Men in years, something I'm happy to say. There are so many elements to the X-Men "theme", you may want to be a bit more specific. Assuming you have Champions Universe, I would set the campaign in the past. Find an event in the timeline that appeals to you, and flush it out, either here or yourself. Players new to the Hero system won't be familiar with it, and it will. Assuming the players like the Hero system, when your gaming group gets back together, they may decide to keep it. In which case, ou move the campaign to the present, and make their old characters NPC mentor types. With the characters they have, I would suggest wither well balenced solo villains that they have to cooperate to defeat, or groups of agents/normals. If you don't like the past setting idea, there is always the old VOICE-style scenario. An NPC Hero team is ambushed and killed/hospitalized by a villain team, reasons unkonwn. The surviving NPC heroes recruit the new-hero players to bolster their numbers, so they can get revenge against the villains, and find out why they did it.