Balok

Muerte is, in fact, muerto. The details can be found in Feuermacher's entry under the Eurostar section of Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks.

Votes in *national elections* are based on criteria such as "which political party I belong to", "who looks the best", and "which candidate my friend Bill likes". The simple fact is, there are folks voting who understand games, and folks voting who don't. That's the drawback of an open voting system. But since there's a level playing field -- the folks over at RPG.NET can also organize a campaign to get people to vote for their favorites -- it's hardly cheating. Perhaps if they selected grapes from a different part of the vineyard, their whine wouldn't be so sour.

"SuperZarney! And is HE irate! I'd better zap him with my red laser before he cracks a pun!" >ZAP< "You missed me! Gee, for a Communist, you're not much of ..." If you can fill in the ..., you've either a good sense of punmanship, or you've got the First Edition of V&V.

It would certainly be within Galactus' capabilities to destroy all of Mechanon's backup facilities along with the original, and considering the goal, he probably would. Although I don't recall Galactus ever punishing a herald with death in the comics. But even if Mechanon's head was destroyed, even if by an 8d6 RKA, he could come back. Worse, he'd come back able to resist an 8d6 RKA!

Caliogstro was an alchemist if memory serves. CABALIST, THE: A sorcerer whose magic is based on symbology. He has some limitations, such as "target must see the symbols to be affected", and so forth. Presumably, he has a "real name", but even when captured, authorities have never been able to learn what it is. One theory holds that they do learn it, but as a name is usually a written thing, he is able to somehow "unwrite" that knowledge somehow once he manages to get free. EYE OF HELL: Quasi demonic "punisher of evil"; he's basically an original Ghost Rider clone. His name comes from what I always thought was GR's best power: the ability to make an evildoer see the weight of his crimes (the so-called "penance stare"). I originally tried variations on HELLSEYE for this one, but was never satisfied with the way that rolled off my tongue. I'm not a huge fan of EYE OF HELL, either, but others may be. GEISTHOUND: Inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story (in part), Geisthound has the ability to transform himself in a spectral dog -- he has some ghost powers and some dog powers. Geist, as you may know, is German for ghost. One might as easily use Ghosthound, but that was just a little too prosaic. HEPHAESTUS: Greek god of fire and metalworking. I use this as the name of an underworld armorer a la Marvel's "The Tinkerer". WONDERBRINGER: Loosely inspired by Twain's "The Corruption of Hadleyville", and King's "Needful Things". Wonderbringer sounds innocuous when he first appears. His goal is to magnify little hatreds until people are opening attacking and killing each other. Then he moves on and starts it up again.

The Gaming Report site (http://www.gamingreport.com) has started a new feature -- top 10 lists. I'm posting this notice because the first such list is "Top 10 Favorite Superhero RPGs". Folks might want to hope over there and vote for Champions -- especially apropos in the middle of the Origin Awards write-in campaign currently being organized, as Champions is one of the products HERO has asked us to support. I believe it can't hurt to put the Champions name in front of gamers, and this seems one way to accomplish that. When you get to the site, look to the right hand gutter, second item down for the voting link.

I would go out of my way *not* to provide a background for the Monster. Think of it: the characters check their scientific sources, their mystical sources -- and they draw a blank. What could be more terrifying? And that's the purpose I see for the Monster -- he's the embodiment of horror, and as such, it shouldn't be possible for mere mortals to explain him. Oh, sure, there's a reason, someone (something?) somewhere knows. But the characters never will. A reminder that no matter how good they think they are, there will be things they don't understand.

A few more of mine: CORPSICLE: After a heart attack, a rich man was cryogenically preserved -- ironically, this activated his metagene, restoring him to a semblance of life. Problem is, he needs the life and warmth of living beings to maintain that existence... Named by a newspaper wag, as he now either won't or can't speak. FIRE THIS TIME, THE: South American rebel doused with gasoline and set afire by a death squad -- who did not die. Instead, he gained what he calls his "inner fire" (charisma and presence) that allows him to captivate and control people. He's more effective than ever. MACABRE: A death themed villain whose strange powers seem different each time he's encountered. MEDUSA MACHINE: A large, roughly spherical robot of uncertain pedigree (at least, no one is admitting to it). It's covered with instrument and weapon tipped tentacles. It does not speak, and was given its name by a hero who saw its shadow first. PRETTY POISON: Female killer who as a master of chemistry, especially poison chemistry, and forensics, and uses this knowledge to kill and taunt detective characters. She's nuttier than the Planters Factory. PSILENCE: Mentalist who can, among other things, cause his victim to experience total sensory deprivation for extended periods. This attack usually leaves lingering side effects. TICKTOCK: Time obsessed villain whose ability to glimpse the immediate future makes him tactically very dangerous. VICTORIAN, THE: Never speaks, always appears dressed in Victorian period costume (top hat, tails, walking stick, etc.), which he wields effectively in combat. Strangely, he's never lost either stick or hat, and his clothes never seem to be damaged. Strong, fast, tough, and determined. Has fought both heros and villains. Has some (so far) infallible way of escaping at the conclusion of the battle. Another one named by journalists. I realize you don't need the descriptions -- I provide them to perhaps give you a little help evaluating the name for "worthiness" in the same context it was used.

Heroman is easily dealt with! Just kidnap his twin brother, Daarren Watts, and he won't come anywhere near you. Why, I used this very scheme last week, and I'd have gotten away with it if someone in my very own headquarters hadn't blasted me unconscious. I need to hire more loyal henchmen.

The problem you will experience is that V&V is not a point balanced system. You may have some luck converting *from* Champions, as you say, but converting back *to* Champions (should you decide you wish to do this) will be difficult. Our group recently converted from Traveller to GURPS Traveller (our chief complaint with the former being that characters had little or no incentive to succeed, since there are few rewards built into the system -- e.g. stats don't increase, skills don't increase, etc.) If you're interested in opinions, I'll see if I can remember where I stored my copy of V&V, dig it out, and post some.

Guess I should have hung a smiley on that second paragraph. It was meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek.

For this purpose, perhaps import the concept of 'Quirks' from another game system. Basically, the player spends no points on the relevant skill. The quirk "exceptionally bad " would be worth (-1), would need to be bought off if they ever changed their mind, and would basically permit the GM to fail their attempts in various ways. Possibly for comic effect. A related, low point psychological limitation might center around the character's delusion that they are actually *good* at the skill in question. This, of course, could be abused, so the GM would need to check the character carefully. Personally, I wouldn't allow a character to do this more than once, and the psychological limitation would be worth at most 5 points.

In a short lived campaign where characters were all overtly magical, they were called the Arcane. A campaign idea I've toyed around with would refer to them as Talents, or collectively as the Talented. The term was coined by a journalist who was being facetious: all of the talented are immensely powerful (the weakest based on 500 points or so), relative to normals. Again, no gadgeteers; you either have the Talent, internally, or you do not, and you cannot compete as if you do.

Total life support is described on FRED 128, just above the Luck Table. It's everything *except* longevity. Poor Doc D. Guess he'll need to spend a character point on some research. I mean, how hard could it be for a guy with a 35 INT? That's (counts on fingers) 32 times as smart as Joe Average!

Based on what I've seen around me... I think everyone would be nervous around metas. I think certain small groups would make a very big noise about it, for various reasons (political and religious top the list). The government would certainly be very interested, likely fanning the flames of public distrust, and then responding to the "perceived need" by cracking down hard on such individuals. Some groups would hire investigators to "out" secret identities -- and what's a hero to do? Kill that individual? Imagine the controversy over a meta who can cure -- or kill -- with a touch. The tremendous demand for his or her services. The number of people who would gladly kill to possess exclusive access to such a power. I think things would become dystopic rather quickly; we're probably better off such people exist *only* in the pages of comics, and in our imaginations.

Sluggy Freelance It's not for everyone, and occasionally, it gets really weird. But I find it fun.

Re: Super crime scene reconstructionist... I'm afraid it's worse than you think. Two hours is eight steps down the time chart (p. 233); at -2 per step (p. 94), the modifier is -16! I don't know, because I've never playtested it, but you might take a version of Reduced By Time that's a -1/4 limitation in exchange for a -1 per time step. That's still fairly brutal, as you noted. Based on "Vague and Unclear", I'd say "Unable to see faces" might be a -1/4 limitation at best. The problem is that you don't NEED to see faces to make a positive ID for some techniques, like fingerprints. So we're edging close to "A limitation that doesn't cause problems isn't a limitation!" (p. 179). In a game I ran, you'd have to make a clear case explaining the reasons you felt not being able to see the faces of the perps was a clear disadvantage. One thing to consider is "Extra Time". As defined, your character can pick up his facts "at a glance" (i.e. in his phase). But it normally takes time to piece together the situation from gathered clues. See p. 186 for the "Extra Time" limitation rules. HTH

A few more... Possibly you already know the following, but in case you don't: The proper spelling of the world for "slaughterhouse" is 'Abattoir'. This would affect 0006 - Abatoir. The proper spelling of the (Anglicized) version of the Hebrew word for 'destruction' is 'Abaddon'. This would affect 0007 - Abbadon. Digging through some more old characters, I came across a couple more: Agni (Vedic god of Fire) ARMOR (Automatic Remote Mobile Ordnance Resource) [1] Cerberus (three-headed, vaguely canine/human hybrid) Dark Druid (evil plant/animal powers) Dark Page (evil wizard) Death's Head (skull-masked assassin) [2] Doctor Darkmind (evil mentalist/psychiatrist) Elemental Tyrant, The (uses the four ancient elements) Grey Man, The (agent for extradimensional monster) Spindevil (spinning speedster) Wrack (strong, tough, induces pain at range) [1] ARMOR is used by the government to capture rogue superheroes, but is strangely never available to deal with supervillains It fills the same niche as Marvel's Mandroids but is largely self-guided with remote overrides. Unknown to the government, even as it builds more, ARMOR has gained a limited self-awareness. [2] WARNING: I created Death's Head many years ago as a skull-masked killer with minor fear powers and a wide range of skills. Since then, I have discovered that there was a "Death's Head" unit of the German SS. If you feel that inclusion of this name might offend anyone, by all means leave it out.

Within the Dark Champions milieu, I.C.E. is the International Consortium for Execution, a loose association of assassins, noteworthy for the fact that its members refer work to each other according to the geographic location of the target and the requirements of the hit. The founders went to a great deal of trouble to staff it with only the creme de la creme of assassins. As a result, it commands a fearsome reputation and high prices.

Wow! Many of mine made it. You've got Ripper in there twice. Damn, that quick I forgot what numbers, but they might be 3929 and 3930. Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about "The Surreal McCoy"? Thanks for going to the trouble of compiling these lists.

Maybe this isn't the right place for this question. Kindly move it if that's the case. I notice that INT and EGO start at 10, and can be bought to other levels. But PER starts based on size, and COM starts at zero. Both of these can also be bought. I don't understand why INT and EGO start at 10. I don't see any vehicles that have them in the examples (am I not looking hard enough?), nor do I see them routinely sold back to zero. So here, I guess, is the question: Vehicles don't have these characteristics unless the game master decides they should, but if he does, they come in at 10 for free. If he decides they shouldn't, you can't get points for selling them back. Is that correct?

Dynamo, are you planning to do anything else with this thread? Just curious...

A few more... A few more: Anhyde (destroys water) [*] Animaster (composite of animal powers) Balefire (evil mentalist) Chef Death (it's a loooooong story) [*] Dreamassassin (kills via dreams) Hooded Hangman, The (noose wielding killer) Infernus (half-demon sorcerer) Inverse (turns metahuman powers against owner) Mister Moray (teeth, claws, swims well, fast) Obliviax (steals minds and uses them) Phantasm (ghostly fear powers) Pinball Wizard, The (armored suit / pinball powers) Ripper (Jack the Ripper's heir apparent) Schism (separates things into their components) Surreal McCoy, The (mentalist, illusionist) Tarpit (made of gooey tar) Waxman, The (animates wax figures) Wizard of Odds, The (manipulates probability) [*] courtesy of a friend...

"Will you be killing any policemen on your way out of the bank?"

I would consider 0004 "8 ball" and 1421 "Eight Ball" to be the same name. You may not, but in case you do, there it is...