Supreme Serpent

Streetwise might come in handy. Bribery, Bureaucratics, Persuasion. KS: Plot leads KS: Dramatically Appropriate Trivia AK: Hideouts/safehouses PS: Fake Own Death

I like Blue's "Psi-lancers", or Psylencers or something like that. Or a group that identifies itself by its mottoes/goals: E nlightenment C ontainment V igilance

I don't have people come over complete with original names and such, except sometimes as part of the past background that PC's won't interact with (ie golden age/silver age heroes that are now dead/retired). I do rip off like hell though. Powers/basic conceptions are most common, sometimes tweaked origins and personalities. But it's a mish-mash - you won't see a rocky brick that acts like Ben Grimm who got his powers from a cosmic-ray rocket-ride. Might see a rocky brick that acts like Colossus who got his powers from a freak lab accident.

Re: Help with a disad Since you're including all these other limits on them that aren't being imposed upon supers/mutants/etc why not combine w/NCM and make NCM 25 points? Or roll NCM and these others into one 25pt disad "Normal Human"?

One "Omni-Man" character who can do a little of everything, has a little of every defense in a group won't be a problem. Would even be kind of cool to have. When the group is full of them, and the people they face are the same, it could easily get boring. If built on the same points as the other characters, Omni-Man HAS a weakness built in - by spending points to cover all his bases, he loses out in the power department. Sure, his defenses are hardened, but they're only 18, when Wonder Dude's are 30. And unless you spend LOTS of points on the fancy defenses, you can still be affected, just not as severely. 8pts mental defense helps against, but won't stop, that 6d6 ego attack, etc. As far as min-maxing, using limitations and such - only really works to create uber-characters when GM's don't USE the limitations. Focus guy should have it taken away/neutralized sometimes. Mr. DWIIMF should fight Magneto from time-to-time. 14-Activation man should be forced to use the GM's dice .

Pretty much all of my characters would be happy. Some would spend the time they used to use to fight crime to do good in other ways - volunteering, etc. Superspeedster can do a number on some Habitat for Humanity projects! Scientist types would spend more time in lab curing diseases, improving the lot of mankind and let the blasters and battlesuits stay in the museum. Thrillseeker types would turn to some other outlet - exploring, superextreme sports, some other kind of serious challenge. Might be a few semi-paranoid types that would work laying the groundwork/preparing for the sham to end, crime to return, aliens to invade suddenly peaceful world, etc.

Protective of Innocents, CVK, Overconfidence are all pretty common. Basically all variations of "heroic" and "crazy enough to be a superhero" . Protective of X (children, teammates, etc.) In superheroic characters I am very unlikely to put in phobias - just seems against the grain. In a more comedic-themed campaign I likely would (Like Meteor Man in the movie being able to fly but afraid of heights, so he cruised around 3 feet from the ground...). Well, I sometimes will put in fears of X happening - "being blinded", "losing mental powers", etc but nothing like "Arachnophobia", etc. Wisecracker comes up in various forms as it's often hard for me as a player to resist my own smart-ass impulses, so it may as well be on the sheet. What can I say, Spider-Man is my heroic idol. Curious, or for scientists, Scientific Curiosity. Partly as GM helper - way to get into plots, get into trouble that is usually somewhat safer than Unluck.

From a comic-based standpoint and GM-ing standpoint, I like everyone to have at least one relatively easy off-switch. Exceptions being master villains and folks whose main schtick is being invulnerable. As a GM, I like having that option, and thinks it opens more dramatic possibilities. As a player who has GM'd, I like giving my GM's that option. High DCV guy should have middle-low defenses. Super PD guy should likely have much lower ED. Super PD/ED guy shouldn't have lots of LS/common NND defenses. Guy with all that shouldn't be mentalist proof. Vulnerabilities and Susc are good things. Etc. There should be interesting ways to handle people by avoiding their strengths and attacking their weaknesses, instead of always playing day-long fights where the leak-through damage may or may not exceed the guy's post-seg 12 recovery, and you're desperate to get the super move-through or haymaker so you might stun the guy, if you roll really well and combine successfully. That being said, when you have those sorts of setups, it makes it even more fun when you get into situations that play to your strengths - EnergyMan fighting a bunch of poor sap agents with laser blasters, or straight up slugfest like Thing/Hulk, or Colossus/Juggernaught, etc.

By far the best comment I've heard on this story is from a friend of mine: "Well, of course he drug it to shore to kill it! You don't take on a shark in it's natural element -- that would be reckless!"

Don't use them except in very rare instances (ie hit vampire in heart, etc). As a side note since you mentioned surprise attacks, I've started trying surprise as 2xStun AFTER defenses, to allow surprise attacks but not make it as overwhelming. I don't care how surprised Hulk is by the guy with the lead pipe - he still shouldn't feel it.

Glad we could help, Thunder. Just wanted to point out that, though I love the idea and have planned to use it myself in an upcoming game, Tom McCarthy also mentioned the idea earlier in the thread - I just elaborated on why I think this would work well. Easy to miss as its sandwiched inbetween a lot of other good ideas he had!

I think perhaps one of the most fun stories to do with these guys would be to have them face the alternate earth versions of themselves. Good for several reasons. 1) Just plain fun. 2) Lets the newer players see alternate uses of their own powers. "Hey, that's something I didn't think of! Cool!" 3) Shows everyone the dangers of abusive power writeups. "You mean they're going to be using the ego attack does body transdimensional on US?!?!? Dang Bob, why did you write that up?" 4) By having to find ways to bring "themselves" down, they can also think of ways to cover/compensate for their own weaknesses.

I recently did something similar for a kinetic-control character, "Rebound". Given how you're defining it as super acrobatics, I'd go for the KB resistance with limit approach - that way, not only you but what you hit would take the reduced level of damage - allowing you to "bounce" off of the wall, etc. With damage reduction, you'd burst through the brick wall, but be fine yourself. Doesn't feel right for martial arts/acrobatic-guy.

Thanksgiving - giant parade balloons (Snoopy, Garfield, etc) get turned into twisted monsters by mystical villain. Could YOUR hero flame blast a 40' tall "Annie"? Well, since it's been crushing cars, I guess so. Find some stuffed dolls/toys to use as props, and let loose! Halloween - group of villains and their thugs all dress up in various costumes and go on crime spree. Heroes (hopefully) have to hold back until they can identify the supers - is it the nurse? The cowboy? The pirate? Christmas - Power-armored rascist calling himself the KKK (Kristmas Kill Kommando or somesuch) attacks various minority churches, etc while blaring out "White Christmas" from his suit's loudspeakers. Hannukah - villain plans eight nights of robberies as "presents" to themselves.

I'd suggest keeping an eye out on ebay, and the used sections of places like Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Some places have automatic notification searches in place, so that when X item shows up, it emails you.

We see a fair number of folks go down burning STUN for END from time to time, and normal move through/missed move through issues. My favorite though: player of another character in a game I was in can't reach agent in half move - so decides to do a move through - but doesn't want to seriously injure agent, so...pulls BODY on the attack. High roll on the -2D6 for KB, no KB results, POW!

Re: Grond (PRIMUS agents burst in.) "OK, heroes, where's Grond? We got a report he's here." "He's not in the stove." "Oh, he's in the stove, eh?" "If he were in the stove, would I turn the gas on, like this?" "Hmmm...you might, hero, you might." "If my pal Grond were in there, would I throw a match in, like this?" (BOOOOOM) "OK, hero, you've convinced me. Come on boys, let's go." (PRIMUS agents leave) (GROND, not fond of fire, goes on rampage) NOTE: Works best if one of your heroes has rabbit powers.

There was a villain in New Warriors , part of the Psionex group, who could do things like that. Don't remember his name, though I'm sure someone here will shortly. As far as books go, if you have a used bookstore nearby, esp. if it is a university town, go cruise their stacks - should be something close enough to use.

You could work it that way, I suppose. I'd rather just go the straight Mind Control route. This egoist could also be providing the rope to hang themselves this way...OK, gets hero to neg EGO, tells them to attack hero X. Hero Y is on to the scheme, tells him "Attack whoever gave you your last command!" and neg EGO hero goes and pastes the egoist.

He could be: 1) an Italian opponent of the regime. Remember those guys who hung Mussolini? 2) Italian descent in an allied country (eg US) trying to show that "not all Italians are Fascists!" Besides, unless he's really obvious about being Italian, most people would take the name as just that - heck, sounds like a laundry detergent! 3) After Italy surrendered, they switched sides in 1943 - maybe their supers who weren't hardcore Fascists did too.

For established comics character writeups, there are a ton of 4th ed writeups floating around the net. Try here to start with. The Great Net Book of Real Heroes

Costume-making machine. Large, walk-in closets. More than one way in/out. More than one way up/down levels. Sensory Deprivation tank. Craft room. Pottery wheel, easel/paints, etc. "The Vault of 8- Activation Foci" - lots of "failed" inventions - useful stuff in the right situations, just very unreliable and not stuff you'd want to take with you every mission. But sometimes...you may want to go in and look for that SubHarmonic Flameproof Force-Bubble. Premade costume closet. For easy infiltration. Set of VIPER uniforms for the team, gorilla costume, ninja suits, etc. Large aquarium with fish no one recognizes, that maintains itself & feeds the fish on its own. Video monitors that are not labeled and show rooms no one recognizes, that apparently aren't in the base...

I think that its generally harder to see it happen once they're already established as a hero, barring major plot devices like insanity, "opposite alignment" thingamabobs, and so forth. Pretty much anyone could work well with some origin changes - they're a different person at the point they get their powers, different circumstances lead them to create the power armor, etc. Change the basic nature/nurture input, get a different output.

Re: Re: Still more money-makers Well, he's not Irish-American, but I'm sure Shamrock wouldn't mind a little extra cash. As far as the whole attack rival companies thing goes, may want to hit a few of his own things to avoid suspicion. Of course, stage it so that there are no significant losses. Steal prototype that wasn't really working anyways, steal money from safes (which can be used to further fund the attacks on enemies, etc.). and so on.

Crime spree away from the major cities. "OK, next on the list - Springfield, Nebraska. Population: 30,000. Superhero population: zero. Nearest PRIMUS Base: 600 miles. Banks in town: 15. It's payday boys, lets get some cash flow."