Supreme Serpent

Every now and then we get requests like "I want to use T.U.N.A. for an agency name - what can it stand for?" In super games there's lots of alphabet soup acronym organizations, killer robots, battlesuits and the like. So let's make a central list! Make as many entries as you like for the same words, since could be used for many different things. Good guy groups, bad guy groups, robots, power armor systems, super vehicles, whatever - if you can come up with a good acronym, put it down. Below are some to get you started, but certainly don't restrict yourself to this list. If you put down something already established, please note the source, like "UNCLE - United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (TV show)" Now get to W.O.R.K.! alpha anaconda Anvil Apollo AQUARIUS Ares ARIES armor asgard Athena Atlas bastion beta blood brain bulwark CANCER CAPRICORN carnage castle Chaos chimera citadel cobra COMMANDO control corruption cosmos crime Crimson CRISIS dagger death DOOM DRAGON Eagle EMPIRE evil falcon fear fortress gamma GATE GEMINI GIANT HADES HALO Hammer HARM HATE Hawk HERMES hoplite hydra IRON JACKAL justice KATANA knight lancer LEO LIBRA Lion LOCUST loki mace magic MANTA Mars mega night OGRE olympus omega Order PAIN paladin PEACE PISCES planet PLUTO power primus RAGE RHINO ROME SAGITTARIUS SATURN SCORPIO SCORPION SHAMAN SHARK shield SKULL SNAKE sparta spartan SPIDER star STEEL STORM sword TARANTULA TAURUS terror thor Tiger TIME TROLL ultra uncle until viper VIRGO war warlock WINTER witch Wolf ZODIAC

Re: Help with a name If he were a Brit with an interest in seafaring, I'd suggest Jack Tar. Maybe something like Symbiote or Organism?

Re: What were the best Superhero comics of the 90's? Off topic, janitor could actually be a good superhero job. If not monitored and have super-speed could support yourself pretty easily and still have plenty of time for heroing. Besides, someone needs to keep stuff clean! And if you can get a gig at something like Lexcorp...keys to everything, get to poke around, see the secret documents in the trash...

Re: The Abomination (Marvel) Not in the Bunnyverse! Snag! (though he'll probably need to be toned down a bit...)

Re: There's always one OT: If this is an accurate statment...I'd rather hang out with the powergamer.

Re: Opinions: A 'Hero' Stealing Their Gear.....???? I don't particularly like it, never really have. I've run across several 'secretly a thief' supers characters over time and that aspect of them never appealed to me much. If the character got their stuff taking it from a bad guy instead of from some innocent party, not a problem IMO. This particular character: 1) I think once the background of the items is known (stolen from museum) the other heroes would have a hard time associating with her. If they're also wanted or she's in a solo game, not as big of a deal. 2) Unless this is an important aspect of the character, easy to change. A) The packages were sent to her directly by parties unknown. or Evil elf-thing came after another piece in the museum, she somehow defeated it, elf went away but stuff stayed. Felt affinity, using bad guy's gear.

Re: Double The Hero Excitement! HEROClix! License agreements! HERO 5th ed, REALLY revised! Sidekick, expanded b/c Steve just couldn't stand how small it was! CLOWN 5th ed! Dogs and cats sleeping together! Mass hysteria!

Re: Double The Hero Excitement! Sixth Edition's going to be open source? Wow!

Re: Lowish-powered Supervillains There should be a number of threads around about villain campaigns, might be good reading. Couple of ways to get things rolling: 1) Make sure they have similar motivations - "get rich" "save mutants from evil humans" "get a complete set of Pokemon cards", what have you. Have them come up with the schemes to achieve those ends. 2) Have an established leader/mastermind agreed on by the players. With input from the other players, that character sets the agenda/mission. 3) Have them work for an NPC patron/organization. VIPER Force Gamma gets sent to San Francisco to assist with Operation Flashlight. As with most anything in gaming, communication is key. If you have a bunch of similar-motivated villains, they'll get along OK. If the standards/motivations are widely divergent, you'll have problems. Don't team up Lady Blue with the Monster and expect it to go well. I'd also talk over with the players to get an understood standard of success. For example, when I play/run villain games I *expect* the villains to ultimately lose. Sure, they'll have short term success and *almost* take over the world, etc. but in the end they'll be beaten. Others might not want that same level of inevitablity. edit: prior thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57365&highlight=%22supervillain+campaign%22

Re: Interceptor Get Missile Reflection and make up some kind of adder or advantage called "Yes I can!" that lets you deflect/reflect the sort of stuff you want to. Make your reflection roll, then target the hex you want it to go off in. The SFX is that it 'really' gets intercepted along the way. Something like: "Yes I can!" - Deflection/Reflection can target AE/Explosion attacks normally immune based on SFX. +20 Interceptor - reflected attacks must be reflected along original attack path. -1 limit on the Reflection part of MD.

Re: Why horses? I would think the (comparative) ease of raising, training and maintaining horses compared to Wyverns, etc. is the main thing. I can certainly see specialized beasts used for specialized purposes, but as a general mount for thousands, would likely be difficult to find good substitutes for horses (unless the fantasy world has mounts that are basically repacked horses, like tame lizards that eat grain, etc.). Sure, you can get ahold of the odd wyvern or greater tharquan, but can you get enough to fully outfit a couple regiments? And if so can you really maintain 1000 wyverns in the field? Just like Elephants were used when available, fantasy creatures in limited amounts could be as well. Flying mounts are excellent for scouting and raiding. A powerful terror like a dragon can be an army in itself. Controlled burrowing creatures would be excellent for taking fortified positions. Etc.

Re: Champions Universe: The Unresolved Questions/Plots That's a pretty cool idea.

Re: Champions Universe: The Unresolved Questions/Plots What's CLOWN up to?

Re: Frog-Man (Honor Guard Version) Boing! Two things - One, why are some things OIF and others OIHID? Is it that he can do the leaping stuff with just the spring boots or something? Second, maybe I keep overlooking it...but I think he could really benefit from a Leaping skill.

Re: Order of the Stick

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's? Lots of good stuff. Only thing I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned is G.I.Joe. For a toy-based comic, very well done IMO. (as were Micronauts and Rom)

Re: What were the best Superhero comics of the 90's? Add another vote on to early New Warriors. Though it started in 89, one of my favorite books in the early 90s was The Shadow Strikes! by Gerard Jones & Eduardo Barreto. Also my winner for probably two of the most gorgeous comic covers ever. http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=73458229322%201 and http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=73458229322%2026

Re: What were the best Superhero comics of the 90's? Astro City Kurt Busiek's runs on Thunderbolts and Avengers 1997->

Re: Why should I care? I'll also note that I've been on the other extreme - the 'plot hook' that makes NO sense for the character involved. In this instance, my 15yr old female character in her secret ID was approached by two middle-aged male strangers and asked to put on a blindfold and be taken by said men to an undisclosed location without notifying anyone else. Ummm...sorry. I knew it was the lead in for the adventure, my player knew that...but I just couldn't stretch dramatic license enough for me to go through with it. It would have made about as much sense as Captain America accepting a bribe to betray his country. So I sat that adventure out and watched the other characters run through the (ultimately frustrating) adventure. Afterwards the GM apologized and the whole thing was effectively retconned out.

Re: Why should I care? Yes. But. One, they should have been aware of the type of campaign they were getting into. Two, I would hope they have specific character elements that would lead them to get involved - background, disads, etc. They've already agreed on what type of game they're going to be playing - what that collective experience is going to be like. For them to deliberately go against that, they're the ones breaking the 'social contract' and wasting the other people's time. Now, if the GM did not make it clear what type of game it was going to be/the group did not have a discussion about that up front, and the GM approved characters that clearly don't have heroic motivations/inclinations, yes the GM shoulders some of the responsibility for the situation. If you approve "Rankor the Irritable" who has disads like "Berzerk when hears sneezing" "Hates authority" and "Greedy", don't expect him to be played as a paragon of virtue. If you let Lobo into your Justice League game, he's still Lobo.

Re: Why should I care? There are rewards beyond gold pieces. Player 1: I don't know. I mean If I am not gaining anything from doing something about it I am start walking the other way. GM: OK. You walk the other way. In the distance you can still see the glow of the fire. Great guy, I can tell why your friend likes you so much. Player 2: Well I start running towards the fire and take flight into the air. GM: Great. You transform into Heroman and soon spot that the new Double Aces hotel/casino is in flames. People are streaming out below, some are dangling from windows. In the distance you start to hear sirens, but there's no way they're going to get there in time. Player 3: I don't think I should get involved, since I am a reformed demon I don't see why I should go. GM: But only reformed so far, eh? OK, you sit around and listen to the screams of desperate souls. Player 1 and Player 3, now could be a good time to go get a drink or something if you want. Player 2's going to be involved with the story, so I'm going to focus on him, the rescues and the combat for awhile. Shouldn't take too terribly long though, since only one player involved. Later.... GM: Heroman saves the day! The crowd starts a 'He-ro-MAN He-ro-MAN' chant as he's getting interviewed by the lovely reporter from News 3. Heroman gets 3XP. Player 2: Woot! Awesome. Great fight - battling it out in the burning hotel was fantastic. Hey, after the cameras stop I'll see if the reporter would like a date... Player 1 and Player 3: XP? What about us? GM: Sorry, no XP for getting pizza or sitting around on porch steps humming. *********************************************************. The GM's time and attention and experience are very precious things. Make it clear that they are both given in much greater amounts to those who act heroically and in genre. The players should understand that they're not playing Sims HERO, they're playing CHAMPIONS.

Re: Transfor: Limitation into Disadvantage Let's try some examples. Wonder Man's powers are mostly innate. His flight however is obtained through a rocket belt. Severity: very minor +0. It's only one power, though a commonly used one (main movement source) Frequency: unlikely +0. While they could be interfered with/destroyed, it doesn't happen that much, and the rockets are small targets. If he's captured, they're easy to take away though. Timeframe: instant +5. Without the belt, he drops like a rock immediately. Convenience: easy +0. The belt is fairly easy to conceal and if lost is ready to go again soon after it is recovered. Total: 5pts. Batman has loads of gadgets in his utility belt. He's a tough customer without them, but the gadgets are a significant part of his character and are used frequently. Severity: significant/major +10. He can still whup the Batmobile's weight in thugs without them, but without his swing lines, smoke pellets, surveilance gear and the like you notice a pretty significant crimp in his style. Frequency: unlikely +0. Hard to take his stuff away while he's up and about, but easy enough if he's captured. Also if he can't reach the belt he can't use the gadgets. Timeframe: instant +0. No utility belt, no bat shark repellent. Convenience: easy +0. While some specific limited-use gadgets like bat-gliders could be awkward, the utility belt itself is pretty easy to hide/carry/use. Total: 10pts. Hawkeye has a bow and lots of trick arrows that provide almost all of his available punch. Without them he's a skilled normal that would have a very hard time against all but the weakest Avengers foe. Severity: critical +15. While he has good stats and lots of skills, he's simply outclassed without his arrows given his environment. Frequency: likely +5. Easily taken away if beaten, needs significant freedom of motion to use properly, if entangled or grabbed pretty much out of luck. Timeframe: instant +5. No residual arrow-powers. Convenience: inconvenient +5. Multiple parts to make the system work - if bow damaged arrows much less effective, sometimes arrows can get scattered around, etc. Total: 30pts. The Human Torch's flame can be put out in a variety of ways - dousing in water, sucking the air out of the area, etc. Severity: most/critical +15. He's a good driver and mechanic without his flame. Maybe Terrax wants to race? Frequency: likely +5. Most people know how to put fires out. Prepared or improvised extinguishing plans likely. Timeframe: instant +5. Covered in the flame-proof foam, the fire goes out instantly. Convenience: easy +0. Knock the foam off, get out of the water, etc. and Flame on! again. Total: 25pts.

Re: Transfor: Limitation into Disadvantage Arise, yet again. I'd been toying with this again lately, and built some test characters. Some would normally have various foci, some OIHID, some built straight up, etc. I ended up making them at 350pts and feel they're pretty balanced against each other overall as built. Foci, OIHID not included on their builds but other limits like charges if appropriate were. The battlesuit guy would have saved 46 points if OIF was allowed. The guy with the superweapon but that is still pretty tough without it would have saved 29 points if OAF was allowed. The OIHID lady would have saved 33 pts if OIHID was allowed. The two inate powers people would save nada. While actually lower than I expected going in, still pretty significant chunks of change. And since I feel the builds were pretty balanced without the 'source of power' limitations, I'm feeling even better about changing them to disads instead. At the moment I'm dividing current Limitations into two general categories. First - source of power - "Is it available for use?" - things like Focus and OIHID, only works underwater will fall here and be turned into Disadvantages instead. Second - restrictions of power - "Will it work when you try to use it?" - things like Activation, Charges and only vs. robots fall here and remain Limitations. Going from a basis of what we've talked about so far, especially Shir's chart, I'm currently working with the modifiers below for the "source of power" Disads. Of course all the levels are subjective and should be worked out between the player and GM. Severity: How much of the character's powers/abilities are affected? How significant would the loss be to the character? Few/very minor: +0 Some/minor: +5 Significant/major: +10 Most/critical: +15 Frequency: How likely is the character to be denied the powers once they are in play? Special effects that lead to more obvious counters increase the likelihood, as do obvious and/or accessible foci. Very unlikely: -5 Unlikely: +0 Likely: +5 Timeframe: Once the conditions are met, how quickly does the power loss occur? Instant: +5 Short term: +0 Long term: -5 Convenience: How easy are the powers to start/restart? Easy: +0 Inconvenient: +5 Very inconvenient: +10 Don't want this post to get too long, will try some examples in following post.

Re: Captain America II (Reborn) Should be 'soles', not 'souls'. I like the uses of the vibranium. Given all the vibranium he's carrying around, some hearing flash defense wouldn't be out of the question. I wouldn't make the falling def require a breakfall roll - with distance penalties wouldn't come into play unless it wasn't needed anyways. I'd just require him to be awake and able to twist to a feet-first landing - maybe require an acrobatics roll (that wouldn't have distance penalties) or make it restrainable (to indicate if doesn't have freedom of movement can't get into position).

Re: Old races, new tricks. For the background of a fantasy world a long time ago, I had the ancient Halflings be a good bit more militant and aggressive, having dominated the local continent (the "Ling Empire" ) - back in the day few could stand against their combo of superior scouting, manueverability through rough terrain and devestating missile fire. Once in power, they gradually became much more sedentary and decadent, relying more and more on auxiliaries until the Empire ultimately crumbled, carved up by various human, demihuman and humanoid warlords. Some trace of the old fire remains, but most are content to be rural farmers and the like, still holding on to the desire for the finer things in life but letting go of the drive for dominance.