Supreme Serpent

Re: A weird alien boarding vessel Tunnelling? Oh, forgot to mention - the "Lamprey" is a great name for that.

Re: What's your comfort range? (More Questions than question) While we're on the topic, I think it could be a good thing for GMs if they have the time to prepare to provide some example characters at the proposed point level for players to go over. Make up some villains or NPC heroes, scrub the disads, names and SFX out and use them as examples of 'balanced' characters. Players would be able to see how the example characters compare to each other, and also would be able to see how their character in progress compares to the examples. You could even get really lucky and some players would want to use your pre-packaged builds.

Re: What's your comfort range? (More Questions than question) Varies by game and by GM. Often set by GM, or by GM in consultation with players. One point I try to press and have been gradually getting my group to accept is that points and power level don't have to go up together. Mostly try to look at characters as a whole. Again, varies by campaign/GM, sometimes strong guidelines, sometimes softer - ie brick generally has higher defenses, martial artists higher dexes, etc. Often go up over the course of the campaign, but not everything goes up equally (DCs usually go up faster than Dex for example). More often based on the player and the character. Some players we'd be comfortable having X power or construct, others not so much. Not fair perhaps, but keeps the game going easier. Mixed. Mostly home grown, some 'classics'. Depends on the GM partly. One GM tends to favor bricks/characters with good defenses and STUN (villains WILL hit) so that type of build tends to come out more in their games. I've done some experimenting, may do more in the future. Loosen the leash a bit more, let people vary disadvantage totals, change Limitations to Disadvantages, and/or do high point/low power type games, or something else. May try the 'contribution-based points' idea again.

Re: Need a resource idea Peat and bog iron.

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central The current universe is still growing (Alpha Flight and New Mutants games potentially in the works sometime, maybe others) and sometimes replacement characters are needed for the existing ones. Plus, HC is an open playground. Even if it might not be an 'official' "Bunnyverse" campaign, there's nothing stopping someone from opening up an unrelated campaign with a similar pretense. Or even a DC: The Next Generation series of campaigns...

Re: Name Help: Daemonic Hero Wolftrap Warden

Re: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Bunnyverse Thanks Doc. I think I was getting Crusher's and Journeyman's backstory mixed up a bit.

Re: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Bunnyverse Hey DocSamson - what was the status of Absorbing Man and Titania? I thought that they had retired & AM at least had passed away, which is when the power passed on to Crusher.

Re: [interest in an online game?] Avengers: Generation 3 Especially if it's a fee for just wanting to join.

Re: Steampunk/Victorian fantasy setting questions Snipped and bold added. Couple of points - it's not that they would have limited access to iron and steel, just that it wouldn't get used as much for some applications/by some people. If the gadgets are being made for use by non-fey, it sounds like there's lots of non-fey running around. If so, especially if the fey are still a minority, why not have the bulk of the army still use iron-based weapons except where superior alternatives are available? Let your regiment of humans use their iron/steel rifles, swords, and cannons, and have your fey magician unit attached to them use enchanted brass, etc. gear. Issue duplicate sets of medical instruments to medical staff (assuming that you don't just use magical healers) and train them in dealing with fey 'iron wounds' as well. Plus, if iron has inherent anti-magical properties, I'd want my non-magical troops lugging a lot of it around anyways! Much easier countermeasure to enemy magic than trying to enchant/ward everything.

Re: Concept help: Zombie Lord Perhaps a coroner/medical examiner who finally snaps after seeing one too many homicide victims grace their table. Delves into the dark arts, starts raising murder victims and uses the zombie horde (well, gang, maybe not horde sized yet) to attack those the coroner deems responsible for the deaths. Of course, they may not always be right and may have some very twisted logic. As time goes on the 'recruit' pool widens to those with any kind of violent death, suicides, 'avoidable' deaths from illness, etc. and the target pool for the zombie attacks widens as well. Perhaps they even keep their job for a while and are able to cover up the cause of death for the first few victims. Fudge things to "dog attack" or something similar to throw authorities/heroes off the trail for a while.

Re: "You Homo sapiens and your guns!" Any particular reason it just affects guns, be they matchlocks, revolvers, or plasma pistols? Why doesn't it also affect watches, automobiles, lightsabers and sidewinder missiles?

Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character I don't get direct inspiration to build a character based on a song, but sometimes a title or lyric will become a character's name. A couple examples: For my drug-based villain group, the Cartel, an egoist named "Dr. Feelgood". When thinking of names for a weather-controlling mastervillain and his organization, the (at the time, newly released) song and album "Stormfront" was a natural fit for both.

Re: Archetype vs. Role

Re: Archetype vs. Role I think that in a true RPG environment, you don't "need" any particular archetype/roles. Preponderance in one area can offset 'weaknesses' in others, and the GM and players can manuever the game so that it works out. Plus, the imbalance/weakness can make for some fun stories/tactical situations. The 'balanced group' is only really needed for pre-packaged type adventures. If you have a group full of bricks, they need to find ways to keep fights up close and avoid wide-open combat vs. ranged-specialist opponents. A group full of sneaky characters needs to be sneaky. Etc. Have fun with the characters you want to play (and the GM will accept) and adjust the game accordingly.

Re: Comic Book powers that don't work as well in gaming Lots of information-based things don't work as well in a gaming setting. Can be gotten around, but much easier to deal with as a writer. Precognition/Prophecy - easier for a writer who has complete control to handle than a GM. Certainly have to make visions more vague, talk about "one of many possible futures", etc. Telepathy - what mystery? Plain old fashioned detective work and other research. Characters are much more immersed into the setting than players can possibly be. Can be hard to find a balance between players being spoon-fed solutions vs. stumbling around in the dark.

Re: Confessions of an Online GM Since this was linked to from a more recent thread, thought I'd add a few more thoughts on running fights/pacing. As a GM, I institute a time limit for posting the action of the next in line - depends on the posting rate of the game of course. I use 3 days as a guideline. If the next person in line to act doesn't post within that timeframe, they're assumed to be holding their action. The player can of course drop in anytime and use that held action, or if appropriate the GM may do a defensive action on their behalf. Speaking of defensive actions - the way posting and the dieroller work, it seems to work out smoother to let people 'abort' to defensive actions even after seeing the to hit rolls, etc. It's a bit gamey and peels some of the uncertainty away, but makes things go much smoother and faster IMO. And of course it works for the villains too.

Re: Billionaire backer Aside from salaries you could also have the heroes get a cut of any reward money for captured criminals. Have the benefactor be able to directly or indirectly through a company collect on the rewards. Can either keep to help fun the team, parcel out to the supers as bonuses, or a combination of the two. One way for secret ID heroes to get reward $ indirectly without having to go through lots of hassles. Tax reporting is another issue...

Re: Language? Yes, I like having different human languages floating about. And if X race has been largely separated from another part for a good while, they would likely have different languages or at least strong dialects as well. Dwarves from opposite sides of the world shouldn't be able to automatically converse flawlessly just because they're both short and have beards. For my current fantasy game I came up with the basic history and geography and the current languages flowed from that.

Re: Best SuperHero Fights ever I have a fondness for a lot of the Marvel big brick fights like - Hulk vs. Thor, Hulk vs. Thing. Shockwaving streets, spinning the other person so fast they drill into the ground, etc. Good times. I have a fondness for the fight in the issue that really got me into supers comics, Uncanny X-Men #178 - second part of the BoEM ambush of the X-Men. That and the first part in the prior issue were pretty cool. Lots of those already mentioned are great. I also enjoy the solo hero vs. team of bad guys fights a lot - Spider-Man vs. Sinister Six, etc. The hero gradually takes on the villains one-on-one, tricks them into taking each other out, etc. Fun stuff.

Re: Billionaire backer There's also the benefit of good PR. While the main motivation may be altruism or something else, you can take advantage of the goodwill the hero team generates. Can be simple good "adding to the value of the brand"/increased trust for you/your company, can be shadier ("Gee Agent Jones, should we really investigate Mr. Luthor's business dealings? I'm sure it's really on the up and up, after all, he funds the Justice League!"). With enough marketing and product tie-ins, you could even turn a profit on the deal, or at least defray a lot of the costs.

Re: Hey, what's in those ruins? Hmm, maybe something will consider the city to be essentially one big tomb/graveyard and be upset when people come to disturb the dead... Both good thoughts. I had planned on an ancient evil being interred below, some sort of Magi-like group could be good. Another reason for keeping the city "undiscovered" for so long. Neat stuff. Maybe some magical springs are the source of some of the critters lurking about.

Re: Krim? Krim is actually his middle name. His given first name is Clarence.

Re: Looking for a Greek God Picture I believe what you want is in the Storn art thread, post #831.

Re: Giant Brick Tricks A thought I had was to give all giant-type characters Damage Reduction that doesn't work against attacks from other giant-type characters. Give a game-mechanic reason to have the titans clash without too much outside interference.