Orion

Re: Your "2012" Pet Gaming Projects

My gaming projects for 2102, in order of personal importance:

1. Finish off the writeup for my current Harn campaign. About 90% done with writing at this point. After that, try to find some free art on the web to include, and finish off the future timeline chart.

2. Finish my Galloway's Grenadiers storyline for Battletech. 10,879 words so far, and about 7,500 to go. More a history of the unit and battle synopsis than anything else - not a short story or novel. Once I have all the details worked out, I hope to try writing a short story. Unfortunately, plot is my strong point, not script. Conversation is the worst.

3. Start the writeup for a second Harn campaign. Whereas the first is highly detailed in a small area of one kingdom, the second will be wide-ranging, and cover major events in three kingdoms. Most of it will be from the view of a bishop or earl, not a knight or peasant.

4. Start writing a comprehensive historic overview of my super hero storyline. I know all these events that have happened or that I want to have happen. Not so clear on the exact order though....

Re: EPIC Champions--unofficial material, what should I write about?

It could be good to discuss the difference in character building between "realistic" and "comic booky" (for lack of better terms) campaigns and character building methods. This isn't just an epic campaign concern, but depending on the type of characters used, may be more necessary than with low-powered campaigns.

As an example, my world strictly forbids gadgeteers as main characters, and they are extremely rare as villains. There are no Green Arrows and Batmans, because the first time they fight a mook, they get shot, which gets them dead. There are invulnerable detectives, but normal detectives are on the police force, not running around in costumes. Having Olympic-level physical characteristics get you nowhere. Detectives with Olympic-level physique still die when they get shot, which would happen regularly. So, in this style campaign epic characters by default need powers, or at least powered armor to survive. Power levels can still differ greatly among the characters, but they have to survive being punched by bricks, hit by energy beams, and shot with assault rifles.

In a more typical comic book story, Green Arrow can go up against Darkseid, fer example, and live, because he never, ever gets hit seriously by anything - that's Superman's job for that story. He's in every major battle, but the villains totally ignore him and concentrate on those that can take the hit. Living Laser will ignore Daredevil to go after Wolverine, etc. Or, the more powerful the opponent, the better the wimpy hero's defenses are. He can beat up a couple mooks, barely. But he can also beat up a couple demons from hell, alien invaders, super soldiers, and several low-powered supers at a time.

In the first case, armor is always armor - it resists damage. In the second, armor is often the sfx of the power "writer's or GMs favor". In the first, high CV or dodge is always used, and always noticed. In the second case, it is also always used, but it is never noticed. Green Arrow can't dodge bullets - that's the Flash's job - but he has the same DCV to model not getting targeted. It's not that the villains can't hit the hero, it's that they rarely even try to do so, even if it would be the obvious thing to do. With a good GM and group, this can simply be handled by the GM never making big attacks against the low-defense heroes. Most players can't handle the uncertainty, or dislike that another takes no damage while they are beat up, so using builds that mimic comic writers inherent dislike of hurting the low-defense heroes is often the only way to go.

Anyway, if an epic campaign is to be done, one of the first things that needs decided is the "realism" level and if meta-gaming concerns can influence builds.

Re: Bronze Age Champions

Dancing Queen' date=' Mamma Mia, Super Trouper, and their leader Fernando. [/quote']

 

The Girl with the Golden Hair - either a Starfire or Crystal knockoff

Nina the Ballerina - high dexterity gymnast type

Boomerang

 

They are Under Attack, while trying to save Chiquitita from The Visitors.

Re: Power suit material and weapons

Talk to the GM about the tech level available in the campaign. It may be that the type of power armor you want isn't possible. In mine, for example, Turtle armor is about the best that can be gotten, and it adds an extra 18" and 200 pounds to the character. Super inventors like Reed Richards and Tony Stark don't exist in this world.

Re: Adult Entertainment

Lobo would do it, but he has a humanoid wolf form with the requisite hair, so no one really cares. Electrode would like the idea, but she would be too worried about public perception and her social standing once they figured out it was her. Silhouette would if the price is high enough, as she went to nudist beaches before she became famous and the press started hounding her. There are already a couple topless and nude shots of her floating around the various celebrity websites as it is. Bombshell would do it in her private ID - she's an exhibitionist and owns several alternative clothing stores - but would never do it in her hero ID. Most of the rest I have no idea, as sex and romance play a very small role in my stories, but I'm leaning towards thinking none would be willing.

Several villains would pose nude for magazines and websites in a heartbeat for the money and/or publicity.

Re: Help with a VPP

I always handle these things different than most of you, mainly because I don't want to bother figuring points all the time. Works out the same in the end though. Have a list, general or specific, of the items he can carry. Decide how many of these can be carried at any one time based on strength, stealth requirements, etc. Then just let the player reconfigure on the fly as needed. Don't worry about a VPP and keeping the points the same all time. Sometimes the character is 400 points, sometimes he's 425, just because he picks up a different weapon load. Limit the effectiveness of the character, and therefore the power balance within the party, by what equipment is available to him, not by the points or power framework.

Re: Who the Heck are These?!? Questions about some of the Old SuperHeroes

I always assumed the gal on the cover of Enemies was Howler. Don't know why, just did.

Re: Do random power SFX games work?

Never tried this as a GM, and never will. As a player, I would refuse to play unless it was a one-time, one-session thing. Designing the normal character first, playing it, and then later getting powers is a great idea, but I would only do this if I were allowed to choose and design all the powers. I'll happily work with the GM on the order and manner I discover the powers, but if I don't design it, then it's just an NPC I'm playing to help the GM move the storyline along. On second thought, I think its more like going to a convention and getting a pre-made character handed to you in a game. At a convention, or at a pick-up game, I'll go along with playing a character someone else made up. But for an ongoing campaign, I have to make all the decisions. I despise random characters. If the character is going to be random, then I will refuse to do the slightest bit of work in designing one. If I have no say in the character, the GM is going to have to do all the work for me. When I show up, the GM can hand me the sheet and tell me how I'm supposed to play it.

As a middle ground, you may want to consider allowing the players to choose the archetype. They know they'll end up with a brick, mentalist, EB, etc., but the EB doesn't know whether it'll be fire or electricity based. Maybe allow them to also chose one power that must be included, but as a GM you decide whether that's one of the initial powers or later discovered ones.

Re: Religion in Science-Fiction?

Why? Speaking as a Christian' date=' I fail to understand how the existence of alien races elsewhere in the universe conflicts, in any way, with my religion. Yes, I believe there are other races out there. Yes, I believe God created them as well as us. Yes, I believe they are also created in His image. Does that mean they physically resemble us? Not necessarily. I belive being in God's image means we are thinking, feeling, loving, cerebral, emotional beings. I do not understand, and never have understood, this theory in science fiction, that first contact with an alien race would cause such devastating problems for religion. Can someone explain this to me?[/quote']

 

I personally know Christians that would strongly disagree with you. Among other things they have told me, they believe there were never dinosours, because they weren't mentioned in their Bible. Likewise, because aliens and other worlds were never mentioned, they cannot exist. If they do exist, or if any evidence is found indicating they once existed, it can only be because Satan put them there to mess with us. It was once believed that the universe revolved around the earth, and some still cannot accept that the universe and the meaning of life does not revolve around humans and their personal belief system.

 

Say we do meet aliens. If they do have a very similar set of beliefs to Christians, it means something wasn't revealed in the Bible, and some cannot handle this. Did the aliens have a Jesus figure as well? Who had the better Jesus? Did he teach the exactly same lessons to both? If not, do we have to accept each others teachings? If they do not have a Christian religion, why not? Has God chosen to deny heaven to them? Do we have to go "save" all them now, or are they not worthy of the honor? What if all the aliens seem to be Hindu, or Jewish? If they have anything similar to one of our religions, I think this would greatly help that religion, and greatly hurt the rest.

 

What if the aliens are technologically, mentally, or philosophically advanced of us? The universe and all in it was supposedly made for Christians, so why are we not in charge? Christians have been able to lord it over the natives of several continents for some time. They tend to have a superiority complex, and feel the need to bring civilization and learning to the "less advantaged". If it turns out we are one of the less advantaged in the universe, that will seriously upset the thinking of many people. How could our god do this to us? Some will immediately accept the alien's religion on the grounds they are more advanced, and thus know a better way.

 

To atheists like myself, and those that believe all religions are but incomplete pieces of the truth, aliens will not upset our views on religion. But for many, it will, because they cannot handle the questions it will raise.

Re: Religion and Faith

I think it all comes down to the setting. For example, in many Harn campaigns, magic is hidden, miracles are very rare, and peasants might live their entire life and never see a bonafide use of real magic or godly action. In these settings, faith is just as important as in the real world. In many other settings, the gods do act in a visible way, they will manifest to humanity, and it can be pretty clear when they tell you to do something. In these settings, I think faith is of far less importance.

Re: Creepy Pics.

Although I've never had a venomous snake as a pet, I have had numerous non-venomous ones. And I know several people that have or still do keep venomous snakes in their house or office - we wildlife biologists tend to be crazy that way. After a while, you just get used to them and don't think too much about it.

Re: Superheroes to Keep, Superheroes to Lose

No homages, parodies, or write-ups from me. Never have, never will. Never saw the point, truthfully. I find my homebrew world to be far more interesting than any official comic book company universe, and the characters even more so. I don't have a problem playing in someone else's game that is strongly based on a comic universe, but would never GM one myself.

Re: Creepy Pics.

Is it worse that there's a cobra in the toilet or poop on the floor?

 

(Because if I find a cobra in my toilet you can bet there's poop on my floor.)

It's just a snake, and not even a very large one at that. Grab a stick, get him out, pin his head to the floor, and then cut it off with a pocket knife. Or just shoot it with 12g from 5' away - either works.

Seriously though, I've twice pulled rat snakes out of the toilet. No big deal, although the wife has a very different opinion on the matter. I'd be more upset with roaches or mice in the house than a snake.

Re: EPIC Champions--unofficial material, what should I write about?

Things to include:

1. How to handle epic power levels in more mundane adventures, yet still make them fun. Yes, we need to fight Galactus next week, but that Viper base needs to be taken out today.

2. Campaigns that concentrate on the role playing aspect, and not the power aspect. Maybe I can beat up Superman, but concentrate on romance and politics instead. That is, the campaign is about people with powers, not about using the powers. Stopping the museum heist means just showing up in time - no dice are rolled at all. Now you have to figure out why the heist occurred.

3. If you have powers at all, they are epic level. No street-level powers - everyone is god-like in ability. This alone makes a huge change in campaign style.

4. A good chart (may already exist) that details the damage done by many common things, and the damage needed to destroy other things. What exactly does a 6d6 killing attack do to people and vehicles, and what strength does it take to crush a car into a steel basketball? How fast do you need to fly to go all the way through a Neptonian cruiser? Talk about the defense needed to shrug off tank cannons and starship lasers, and do so without resorting to complicated builds.

5. What separates a god from an epic-level power, or is there even a difference? Some want to play Thor and Odin, and call them gods, whereas I define gods as GM constructs with very basic descriptions and no more. If it has a list of powers or points, it cannot be a true deity in one of my games. Can the characters act like gods, or be a major servant of a god or universal power?

Much of this is based on campaign styles. What one may consider epic, another may not. I've played more 700+ point characters than 300 pointers, yet the 700+ were characterized as being at X-Men levels, and below the Avengers. Not really that epic, and there were many villains on that same level. At a base level, I'd say to qualify as an epic character, they should no longer need to worry about mooks and agents. Any man-portable weapon bounces off. Endurance is not a factor - they can fight as long as bad guys keep coming. They worry about more than a single city.

Epic fits better with the no points style of gaming, imho. Just bring a character. If there is no point limit, it reduces a lot of the power gaming and off-the-wall builds from the start. If you only get a couple points, they all matter. If you get as many points as it takes to build the character, they suddenly aren't important. However, the description of the character and what they can do becomes much more important.

Re: The "Essay"(ESSE/UEH) Project(Warning: mature/controversial content contained her

The idea of an alien race that promotes incest as a standard practice seems counter-intuitive. Doesn't collapsing the family tree lead to some nasty genetic traits emerging?

If the bad traits are pretty much already weeded out of the population, then all is good. If genetic engineering is at a high level, then it may not matter, because either all can be fixed later, or it's actually a chromosome donation, and only the good ones get picked.

And it can lead to bad genetic traits, although the great majority of the really bad ones lead to the fetus aborting very early in development.

Re: The "Essay"(ESSE/UEH) Project(Warning: mature/controversial content contained her

2. Moderately Repressive, Limited Sexual Content in media(Maxim magazine level), sex can be recreational but some practices are still considered "deviant", adultery and abortion are technically crimes but seldom enforced, one can marry freely but marriage outside one's class or race is frowned upon(SSM is probably still illegal). Prostitution illegal.

3. Slightly Repressive, Mild Sexual Content in media with restricted distribution(Playboy), recreational sex and some premarital sex okay and wider range of techniques and practices accepted, adultery is disapproved and abortion is restricted, marriage outside class/race still frowned upon but not unheard of. Prostitution illegal but other sex work may not be(e.g. Stripping)

4. Indifferent, Strong Sexual Content in media with restricted distribution(Penthouse) and limited with wider distribution(Maxim), recreational sex okay, premarital sex okay, homosexuality is tolerated, adultery is tolerated but generally disapproved, abortion is mildly restricted, marriage is fairly open(SSM may be legal). Prostitution may not be universally illegal. (e.g. United States, today)

Just as a note, I'd say that the U.S. is much closer to a slightly repressive social morality level overall, with wide areas at the moderately repressive level. When you start discussing differences between certain age, religion, and urban/rural groups, this is even clearer. There's even a bit of slightly to moderate permissive in the younger crowd, but I can't see them ever been more than a fringe element in our society, unfortunately.

Re: Somebody needs to write this villain up now!

When some people think Silver Age, they think of heroic, upstanding actions, good always winning, and no one ever getting really hurt. Me, I think of silliness like this, which would have insulted my intelligence as an 8-year-old. It's stuff like this that makes me prefer a Dark Champions attitude in my games.

Re: Unbalanced Heroes

When I first found this forum, I went back and read a lot of dead threads. I badly wanted to resurrect many of them, and did for just a couple. For the most part I didn't, just because I suspected comments like the above would be forthcoming. Just because it was once discussed in the past doesn't mean it cannot be discussed again, or that a newbie won't have something valuable to say.

Re: 80's Champions

More 80s stuff:

Legwarmers

Blue eye shadow

Cyndi Lauper

Disco was very uncool

Rock power ballads (Styx, REO Speedwagon)

Hair/makeup bands on MTV (Poison, Ratt, etc)

Men's hair combed back over the ears - we called them wings or feathered hair, but I'm sure the style had other names

In rural areas it was still common to carry rifles and shotguns in the back window of your pickup

In the early 80s interest rates on home loans was 15-20%, depending where you lived

Re: Heroes for pay

A 1st year associate at a large law firm makes 160' date='000 a year, with a chance for a bonus of up to 40,000 dollars. A starting doctor, post-residency, will make 100,000 to 250,000, depending on specialty. A United States Congressperson makes 168,000 a year plus an awesome array of perks and benefits. Investment bankers do quite well for themselves, of course. With whom are you comparing those salaries and concluding they're overpaid?[/quote']

 

Most factory workers, at least in this area. Grocery store employees. Mall store managers. Etc. Being a policemen or fireman does not take any more education than what I've just mentioned. While many might have a college education, it isn't needed for the job. It takes a certain type of personality to do the jobs, but not education. I know I'm in the minority, but I do not see police and fire fighters being that special, and think getting an average salary for the area should be enough.

 

As for the lawyers, doctors, and such you mention, I think they are in the grossly overpaid category, but that's a topic for another thread.

Re: Heroes for pay

So have you applied' date=' if the criteria are so low and the pay so excessive?[/quote']

 

No need - I make a good living working for the state government. I've been doing it long enough that dropping out of the state retirement system would require a much better job than any of these offer. For that matter, I'd only consider a job teaching children if the only other option was living under a bridge, and I'd really have to think about it for a while first.

Re: Heroes for pay

Oh really? Care to back that statement with some facts? I can tell you in the small city I live in (around 56' date='255 according to google) that the Fire Fighters makes exactly $0 an hour, averaging out to an annual salary of $0. Now I don't know how much you get paid for what you do, but $0 seems pretty low.[/quote']

 

Seems to me you are talking about volunteers, whereas matthewcelis was talking about paid employees.

 

 

http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee-salaries/austin/titles/firefighter/3749/?page=16

 

Austin, TX - median firefighter salary is $62k. From local newspaper reports, I get the idea pay is slightly higher here than in the other large Texas cities, but not overwhelmingly so. During the last round of union negotiations, one of the big issues was that the firefighters get a bonus/increase/something over standard firefighter pay to offset the cost of living in Austin. Of course, many don't actually live in Austin, but still get that increase.

 

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/police/recruiting/benefits.htm

Austin TX - police salary can be $60k or so after 1 year on the job. There are numerous reports of police (and I'm talking sergeants and patrolmen, not the police chief) of make in the $125k and above range. Some of this is overtime, but some is just due to high wages after a few years.

 

http://archive.austinisd.org/inside/docs/hr_salary_11_12.pdf

Austin TX - teacher salary. Looks like you can start at about $42k. I think that is for the partial year, but may be wrong.

 

Two of these jobs have potential danger, but the actual percentage injured is quite low. Two also have to put up with a lot of grief from everyone looking over their shoulder. Still, in my opinion they are overpaid, especially considering the low education requirements for the jobs. These three jobs aren't being paid so well because of the danger or grief or value to society - they are paid that much because they have unions that basically blackmail the city government.

Re: The Last Word

Sweden has a 35 hour work week. And five weeks paid vacation. Plus' date=' as a physician there's the comp for all the on-call time.[/quote']

 

Never quite understood why the long vacations are seen as such a great thing myself. An employer says an employee is worth X per hour of work. If he has to pay for long vacations, that means he needs to reduce the hourly wage for the rest of the year to come out the same. I'd rather be paid a little better per hour and have less vacation time.

Re: What is Happening with Dark Champions?

I think part of the problem is that Dark Champions means different things to different people. To many, it means agents and private eyes and few or no super powers. To me, it is all about the tone, and has zero to do with the power level.

My main campaign world has the standard superhero power level. Most villains and about 50% of the heroes wear a regular uniform or costume. They are as likely to fight supervillains as aliens, robots, or agents. So, the Champions forum seems the right place to hang out. On the other hand, the world is a dark place - closer to Shadowrun than Superman. Bad guys are winning, and the government isn't helping much. I enforce a tighter coupling with reality and physics than is the norm- no invulnerability to model being a writer's favorite or valuable trademark. People are expected to die on a regular basis. Code vs killing is discouraged, not expected. It's not about being a "hero", but living in a world where super powers exist. Based on this, Dark Champions is a better fit.

I'd love to see more support, books, etc, but I'm afraid all I'd get is yet another rules book, mostly concentrating on running SHIELD, Daredevil, and Jackie Chan. An Action Hero book would be great. But I'm more interested in a campaign sourcebook that shows how to play superheroes in something other than a golden or silver age manner. Forget the rules (heresy, I know), I want ideas/advice/new settings/etc. And when this is done, do the same for the opposite end of the spectrum - Zena, Hercules, and He-Man.

Re: Do you run Sandbox style? and how?

Most players I've met, and every one that I ever GM'd, wanted to be railroaded. They knew how to dungeon-crawl, and couldn't really envision any other way to play. They don't want to think - just be shown the direction to walk to find the monsters.

My preference is a modified sandbox. I create a lot of background details and events that will happen regardless. These get passed on to the players as tv newscasts, newspaper articles, or the town crier calling out the news on market day. If the players choose to get involved, I go with that. Some of these events will be tailored to specific characters and/or players. For example, a rival might be robbing a bank, or I might toss in some time travel if a player has mentioned that in the recent past. Doing one thing may prevent them from doing others. I do not guarantee that all events are of equal priority or power level - the disturbance is probably ogres, but could also be kobolds or an ancient dragon that will kill most or all of the party if they don't run away at full speed.

At the start of the campaign I request that each player give me several ideas/events/etc that they'd like to see - I believe I got the idea from this forum. I also require a detailed history and personality writeup for each character, so that gives me a pretty good idea where to go with possible storylines.