Chuckg

Well, there's also the problem of how Buffyvamps are so relatively weak that any 350-point superhero could rip through them faster than a Slayer on crack, thus kinda blowing the series premise about how special Slayers are supposed to be...

> 1) Drug dealers have lots of cash cant go to police to report > stolen goods > a) Steal from him > Impersonate him and steal his laundered money Without even trying... a) Have your bank freeze the account and confiscate the money when the DEA because they followed the money trail from a known drug dealer's account to yours. If you tried to withdraw it... *shudder*. Do you know what happens when you try to suck more than $10,000 in cash out of a bank at once? See above, and add the IRS to the mix. c) The above are the merciful options. Having Mechassassin, Lazer, Steel Commando, Shamrock, and Hazard show up saying "The cartels were *really* pissed about that last one, so they told us that if we can kill you, we can split whatever you stole". (Add other mercenary supervillains if the above aren't enough.) d) Same as above, only it turns out that the drug dealer was a VIPER front, and instead of various super-mercs you're getting Oculon, Armstrong, and a hand-picked crew from Dragon Branch. (While it is true that crooks can't go to the cops when ripped off, they have their own ways of getting their own back.) > 2) Heist 100 million in gems from a diamond repository in > New York fence as you need cash. [snip] Have your fence rat you in to PRIMUS in return for a slap on the wrist and a 10% settlement from the diamond repository's insurance company.

I saw Firewing knock himself out the other week... He'd challenged our party's flying brick (Horus-Re) to a one-on-one, and managed to get our guy down to about 10 STUN... ... and then Horus-Re managed to successfully close and grapple. Firewing's own STUN meter rapidly started heading to zero, and Firewing was in a STR 100 full nelson, so he couldn't bring his primary attacks to bear. After trying and failing to break free, Firewing decided to take a gamble -- and started using his 12d6 Explosive EB at no range, getting both him *and* Horus-Re inside the blast radius. Firewing's gamble was that Horus-Re would drop first. As it happened, they both were Knocked Out in the same Phase. So they called it a draw, and scheduled the rematch for next month.

All MegaScale movement is noncombat movement by definition. You cannot take MegaScale with the 'No Noncombat' limitation.

40 STR of Telekinesis costs 60 Active Points -- i.e., 6 END. So she's only paying END on the +40 TK, not the whole thing. The 60 STR TK is still 0 END.

Starguard -- zap the guy with Rapid Fire from her 8d6 NND until he fell over. Failing that... well, she's got an 80-point Cosmic Power Pool. Even with the Novice Hero psych lim, she's still got quite a few options. Dr. Pain -- if the villain doesn't know he's there, he's got a chance... not much of a chance, but a chance... to sneak up behind him and put him in a STR 70 pin, followed by a Choke Hold. Outside of that... well, 350-point bricks never did do ninja missions very well. Baron von Darien -- 750-point elder vampires, OTOH, do ninja missions *VERY* well. If this nimnul even *SEES* the Baron before he gets hammered unconscious, he'll be luckier than the gods can dream of. (Yes, even if it's daylight and the guy's standing outside. The Baron has a protective artifact that lets him temporarily endure sunlight... and for that matter, at only 1d6 BODY per Phase, he can actually survive for a Turn or so *without* the protection, if he doesn't mind a little continual searing agony.) As for defusing the bomb... Starguard -- again, the Power Cosmic. Dr. Pain -- pray to God somebody else on the train has Demolitions 18-. Failing that, throw the damn thing about half a mile into the bay. Baron von Darien -- has the technical skills of an artichoke. Then again... *Vampiric mind control* "You want to turn this thing off." "I want to turn this thing off." (Yes, even if the guy's got an obnoxious EGO and totally committed Psych Lims. The Baron has a 6d6 Mind Control x4 Cumulative slot... barring actual Mental Defense on the target, he can get *ANYBODY* to go the EGO +30 level if you just give him enough Phases.)

> You don't get it. How *can* I get it if you don't tell us? I didn't see the word 'Malvan' anywhere in the description of the bad guys.

What I want to know is how all of you guys are keeping Firewing from butting in... either by demanding to be one of the champions or (more likely) showing up to pick his own fights with the nominees.

> China Two options: a) They take this team seriously. In that case, they sends somebody picked for major, major political reliability, as well as the ability to be useful enough to be a linchpin of the team and maintain Chinese pride. Probably Gossamer Storm from "Watchers of the Dragon" They don't take this team seriously... at which point they pick somebody who is of only moderate usefulness to them, looks cute enough on camera so that China doesn't get too much bad press, is reasonably loyal, and doesn't know enough to do any damage to them even if she defected the first day. Probably Luan, also from "Watchers of the Dragon". > France Beats me. > Russai Federation Is Ivan (from the New Guard) still in-continuity? > United Kingdom Dunno. > United States of America PRIMUS wins the coin toss -- Hand-picks a senior Silver Avenger and sends him over. Department of Defense wins the coin toss -- they send Victory. (Champions Universe)

The friend of mine who plays Horus-Re asked me to pencil this one in... "Horus-Re would be damn confused at meeting 'an old friend from his youth', because the only other entity currently walking the planet who was around during his youth is Takofanes the Undying." Not to mention that if VIPER ever captured him, he'd be in a huge vault... spread-eagled and restrained with Questionite chains large enough to serve as anchor chains for Imperial Star Destroyers, bathed in the continuous radiation of two dozen separate, indepedently-wired, redundantly-powered and fully-hardened STR Drain and SPD Drain devices, and surrounded at all times by a shift of two dozen Golden Serpent agents armed with everything short of nuclear weapons. With Viperia standing by on five-minute call. (When you're an immortal champion of the ancient Turakian/Valdorian sun god, the campaign world's equivalent of Superman, and have been occupying Nama's personal shit list since at least the Fall of Atlantis, you do *not* get locked in an ordinary cell and have your meal runs done by a single Basic Combat Agent. AAMOF, when you have Total Life Support, you don't even get meal runs.)

Starguard -- seeing as she's currently amnesiac, and can't remember who or what the hell she is, the guard would first have to *tell* me that he was an old school friend. At which point, of course, she's going to beg him for at least the two-minute lecture on who she is, where she's from, who and where her family is, why is this guy stuck in VIPER, is there anything she can do to help, etc etc. She'd need a lot of persuading not to just take the guy *with* her. Especially since there is no way that VIPER would believe that she ever overpowered a trained VIPER agent *without* her powers, much less found a way out of her cell without being given the guy. (Starguard is 18 years old, has absolutely no superhero or martial arts training as of yet, and bereft of her Power Cosmic has STR 10.) (*) Starguard is also a 750-point character with an 80-point Cosmic Power Pool.. and a Susceptibility that allows you to take her powers away just by putting her in any cell screened vs. cosmic energy. However, her cosmic powers /return/ with similar speed as soon as she's back outside the containment field... and at that point, good luck keeping her confined without calling out Dragon Branch or a small army. Dr. Pain -- takes the guy up on the offer, and says that he owes him a big one. And given that sans superpowers Dr. Pain is *still* six-feet-eight and 300+ pounds of former pro wrestling champion, in this case the old school buddy will have *NO* problem explaining how he ended up unconscious... Baron von Darien -- couldn't possibly be in such a scenario, seeing as how he's long since outlived pretty much every mortal friend he's ever had... and those few of his *non*-mortal friends aren't in VIPER. Edit -- not to mention that anybody who captures him would be well advised to keep him in a vault, not a cell... a mystically warded vault. If they want to *KEEP* him there, that is...

A clear indication of 'not mortal'? Well in *that* case, I knock on the door, and inform him politely that: Option A -- he politely explains what he is and what he thinks he's doing Option B -- I make him. (With homage to The Rock.)

Well, since you mentioned "Storm Watch", I can point out that the now-defunct STORMWATCH title from Wildstorm has a lot of material you can mine. Most of it would needed to be 'brightened up' a bit from the Wildstorm Universe's *extremely* grey-area Iron Age tone, natch... unless you want extremely grey, at which point have at it.

Several points... a) Yes, he 'could be' a precog. He 'could be' Doctor Destroyer's secret identity. He 'could be' anything, if the DM doesn't feel honor-bound to actually confine himself to things that are actually consistent with the description that he gave the player when the player cared enough to check things out before rushing in. From your description, there was nothing revealed in that fight that an ordinary VIPER Melee combat Specialist or other 250-point martial artist couldn't have done, considering the quality of opposition. There were no signs of metapowers being used, because you didn't mention them. Please also note that by this point in the proceedings, my character has made an Analyze Style roll -- and he's got a damn good Analyze Style roll -- on the unknown, so he has quite a fair idea of what this guy's got going on. If anything showed up that indicated such a dire threat, he'd have passed forewarning on. re: the police scanner... again, you're not giving the character credit for having enough INT to tie his shoes. As per your scenario I obviously had a good enough view of the interior of his apartment to see even where he stashes the guns, you think I wouldn't have noticed a police scanner? (Incidentally, the Baron's PER rolls are all at 20-) Point of DM'ing performance -- it tends to annoy players when you suddenly pull out things from nowhere that they were in a fair position to see, and by all rights should have seen, but mysteriously did not see. (Not to mention the fact that since when will the responding warrant service team need to broadcast in clear about anything?) c) re: "over the phone" -- obviously, if I am encountering enough recalcitrance to require using vampiric hypnosis to reinforce it, Baron von Darien isn't using the phone... it's not as if the police station is a private residence, the Baron can mist into there whenever I feel the need. Again -- if the Baron sends cops to this guy's apartment, he will send them *EXPECTING* to meet a Frank Castle-class vigilante with 300 guns in the closet, so all of the cop scenarios about two guys going to answer a routine call and running into an entire posse full of Steven Seagal movie villains with Uzis are not going to apply here, k?

Re: Batman acknowledging that Captain America was the marginally better hand-to-hand fighter... ... well, yes. I'm just pointing out that it ain't all about the hand-to-hand fight, even if both parties are at hand-to-hand range.

Starguard -- again, no *possible* way is this happening to Belldandy Jr., short of some *really* impressive Mind Control. Provided such Mind Control was used, prepare for a freak-out of almost catatonic proportions, poor kid. Dr. Pain -- "Goddammit, not *again*!" "You get drunk and sleep with supervillainesses often?" "Well, I get drunk often at least." Baron von Darien -- (thought balloon) 'You know, one of these centuries, I'm actually going to sleep with somebody who *is* on my side. I don't think I've seduced anyone that I *wasn't* operating covertly against since my wife died... in 1042 A.D."

> Though I could see Cap throwing his shield and "missing" > Batman and *oops* clobbering Flash. Unless Wally's having a bad day I can't, because assuming that the Flash isn't making the rookie speedster's mistake of repeatedly following a set route, predicting Flash's course that far in advance takes a precog, not a marksman. OTOH, the *oops* clobbering somebody else is a valid tactic... at least, if there was anybody else on the JLA besides Batman who was either: a) hittable with the shield, or somebody whom hitting with the shield would do any good. Given that six members of the JLA can soak at *least* artillery fire with their bare skin/force field (even Aquaman pretty much ignores small arms and STR 50 punches now), and the seventh has speed-based DCV I Don't Even Want To Think About it...

[snip] > Cap isn't a 'clever' fighter??? Cap is less clever than Batman. This is no shame... pretty much everybody short of intellects like Victor von Doom is less clever than Batman, especially inside one of Batman's specialities. > For example, Bats couldn't be prepared for Caps to > seemingly throw his shield away, meanwhile its bouncing off > 5 walls, and streaking for his back. That's not 'dirty' > or 'unfair', just clever. Actually, Batman *can* quite logically be prepared for that... the concept of the "pretend to miss but actually boomerang around and hit 'em in the back when they're not expecting it" shot is something that Batman has not only repeatedly seen before(*), but repeatedly *used* before. If a fighter of Cap's obvious skill level makes that apparently senseless a miss, one of the *first* things that should come to his mind is "that damn thing's gonna rebound and try to bite me in the butt". As for their relative benefits in team leadership -- Captain America, no contest. Nightwing might make Cap work for it(**), Batman wouldn't. Bruce's role on a team is optimized as 'guy who figures out what strategy needs to be executed and then hands it over to the team leader for execution", not as "guy who actually leads the team himself". (*) From Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke, Captain Boomerang, and God alone knows how many others... (**) The Avengers, for many years, have been composed of mostly professionals who take direction well, and even those prima donnas who don't still respect *Cap* too much to give him any trouble, even if they give other Avengers chairmen trouble. Nightwing, OTOH, has been leading the Titans -- which, in all of that team's incarnations, has been unfavorably compared to herding kittens. Kittens with ADHD. On crack.

> I tend to give cap the benefit of the doubt on all this. The > guy has fought plenty of dirty fighters, as has nearly every > superhero. Yes, but... > It's just part of the daily fight against crime. ... it is not part of the daily grind to go up against dirty fighters *who are as skilled and creative at it as Batman*. I mean, you can play chess every day of your life vs. people who actually are fairly good, but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to be whipping Gary Kasparov's ass any time soon, does it? Bruce is pretty much the king of, errr, "creatively and unexpectedly manipulating situational advantage", I believe is the proper euphemism for it. Although, yes, provided that the utility belt is available, by all means haul it out first. Whatever gets it done the fastest, definitely. (Sorry if I sound a little strident on this, but you have no idea of how many Captain America fanboys I've run into who have honestly tried to claim that the Mighty Shield would make Cap immune to flashbangs, sonic grenades, smoke, gas, being ninja'ed up on...)

Actually, the Reds are the only one you'd have to pay points for, I think. Buy "Reds" as 3d6 Aid to SPD (and possibly to nonresistant PD and ED as well, to represent 'feels no pain'), with a Side Effect (Enraged at X-) and a Vulnerability (fades immediately if "white" is taken.) "Blues" are purely a special effect. Edit -- BTW, I remember the very painful time when I took a PC Silver Avenger up against People's Commando (4e "Red Doom"), who was loosely based on Nuke. I closed in, figuring that in close combat I'd have the edge, because I had a STR advantage and a SPD advantage. (Plus, 4e Silver Avengers aren't exactly overequipped with ranged attacks powerful enough to put a guy like People's Commando down.) And then People's Commando popped *his* "Aid to SPD" pill, and there went my Speed advantage... and wham, between that and a couple of lousy die rolls, I got my head handed to me. I eventually had to pick up a nearby car and use it as both an improvised melee weapon (because I was needing Area Of Effect just to hit the SOB at all) and as cover to hide behind (because that modified AK was really starting to hurt).

> I'm trivializing it because it doesn't make sense. Batman is a > relatively unknown entity to Cap, he'd expect just about > anything. Simply using sneaky tricks from his utility belt is > not 'unfair', he is merely using the weapons at his disposal. > Cap would be ready for that Cap would be ready for something he doesn't know about? 'Staying alert for anything' is not the same thing as 'Knowing about everything that's going to come at you'. To use Champions rulespeak, while Batman obviously wouldn't get the x2 STUN multiplier for an out of combat surprise, because Cap is obviously expecting attack, he *would* still be eligible for a Surprise Move bonus. And as narrowly matched as they already are, that's just the edge he needs. [snip] > Anyway, you had Bats himself admitting Cap is the better > one-on-one fighter. ... by a very narrow margin, as both of them acknowledged that it would take forever to wear Batman down. Incidentally, seeing as how Captain America has superhuman endurance -- he metabolism generates virtually zero fatigue poisons -- while Batman *does* fatigue eventually, admitting that Cap could eventually wear Batman down isn't actually conceding anything about a superior level of *skill* for Cap. It's merely conceding that he has a borderline-metahuman physical attribute that even Batman's fanatical level of physical training could not hope to match. Two guys. Both 99+% evenly matched in OCV, DCV, PD, ED, and Damage Classes. One of them has 0 END for STR and Running and a 15+ REC, and the other one doesn't. If the fight can be dragged out for long enough, who's going to win? And by what superior "skill"?

Re: Reds, Whites, and Blues... "Reds" are some type of amphetamine... Nuke takes them right before he goes into battle, and the "rush kicks in like a rocket blast". Plus, Daredevil noted that Nuke's heartbeat was going way too fast, "probably amphetamines". "Whites" are what Nuke takes immediately after combat -- most likely, they're a barbiturate, the direct counterpart to the "Reds", so he can 'come down' after one of his tactical rampages and get back in the chopper and go home. "Blues" are what they feed him to keep him relatively docile back in the barracks for long periods of time between missions... most likely some type of Prozac.

Unless this guy's a precog, exactly how does he know the cops are coming? I damn sure didn't tell him! (And if he could spot an elder vampire in mist form following him home at night, he makes Batman look like a wuss.) And what 'meatgrinder' will they walk into? Even granting that this guy is the combat equivalent of (edit) Frank Castle, he's still dealing with his door suddenly imploding and large guys with tactical body armor, incapacitator grenades, tangle guns, blasters and stunners introducing themselves unexpectedly... and all of his guns are in the closet. He *might* possibly be able to jump out the window and get away, but he's not going to be single-handedly wiping out the side. I phoned in a tip about a probable metahuman/TPO with 300 guns in the closet. The cops *know* what they're going up against, and about the mugger, and all of it. If this doesn't get a "no-knock" warrant service with the MARs unit, what will? (Not to mention that thanks to vampiric hypnosis, the cop I drop the tip on will *really believe* me.)

Who the hell said that Cap 'would fall to the ground weeping'? You're deliberately trivializing the opposing POV so you don't have to look at it. As even Nomad has managed to prove, Cap is *not* immune to a swift blindside kick to the nuts, or the tactical equivalent of same. And while the Red Skull might not be honorable, he's also not very cunning. (He *tries* to be, but eesh...) And far too often, the Skull defaults merely to matching his bare fists vs Cap's bare fist anyway... pride is a bugger, ain't it? It's not unexpected that Cap can see the Skull's not really very sophisticated attempts to unfairly manipulate situational advantage coming and counter them. Batman, OTOH, is an entirely different level of opponent when it comes to deviousness.

*cue Serpent-General Cliffe, walking into the lab -- soaking wet* (screaming at the top of his lungs) -- "That's IT! Somebody DIES!!!"