Chuckg

Agreed -- you have to pick the right character. Right now, my flying energy blaster Starguard is as innocent as your Z'lf... even more so, as she's just started her hero career. But the game she's in has a "JLA" style tone, so she fits in just fine as the team's resident Year One Kitty Pryde-equivalent. If I were going to a game with a darker tone, I'd be running another character -- such as my Baron von Darien, an elder vampire and very pragmatic anti-hero with a sense of noblesse oblige.

Re: Vincent Dimitrios My own way of phrasing that would be "... in everything -- no matter whether it was actually there or not." I mean, jeez, I can't see Doctor Strange falling for what Jarth pulled.

On second thought, it's just occurred to me that Vincent Dimitrios was as naive as it got.

"Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks" already provides Destroyer with a very nice superpowered bodyguard, chief goon, and field commander -- Gigaton. (Who is the 5e adaptation of the original Gigaton from the classic "Day Of the Destroyer" module, which had him in the same role.)

Hmmm... if he deliberately chose to execute an unconscious foe, that's Murder *One*. Note re: the 'goes free' scenario -- we'd need somebody with legal expertise to advise us, but it *might* be possible to prosecute simultaneously for murder *and* "lesser included offenses". So even if he beats the 'premeditated' rap as suggested above, he'd still be on the hook for something. But then again, there's what the law says, and what the game needs. If the game needs a player's character to go away to Stronghold for 25 to life, then you're the DM -- just say that the DA prosecuted, the jury upheld, and have him sent there.

Well, if you're using the default Champions U, there's always PRIMUS to fill your superhero-arresting needs... all the way up to the Golden Avenger, should the case require it.

They might go so far as to argue that the death of the teenaged boy was a result of 'depraved indifference' rather than mere negligence, at which point it becomes Murder Two. Basically, whether or not the DA goes for the manslaughter charge or the full-court press depends on three things, two in-game and one out-of-game: a) whether or not the DA is sympathetic or antagonistic towards "capes" whether or not the DA think he can get the jury to convict for Murder Two c) whether the DM wants to go easy on the player or drop the People's Elbow on the player's nuts -- i.e., exactly /how strong/ a message the DM wants to send re: "This is not, repeat *NOT*, what heroes do."

Re: 5e Mentalla -- unlike 4e Mentalla, she's not the gentle one of Eurostar any longer. "Psych Lim: Disdainful Of Mortals, Considers Other People's Minds Her Playthings" (Common, Strong) She's also one of Fiacho's best friends, and loves his philosophy.

Good Idea: Taking 'Novice Hero' as a disad for role-playing purposes. Bad Idea: When you're the team leader. Worse Idea: And you're taking it at the 'total commitment' level.

Re: Firewing OTOH, Firewing *is* capable of kicking the Death Dragon's butt, provided that he gets a little more Mental Defense... which Dr. Yin Wu is capable of providing. And the whole objective of the Tournament *is* to find the warrior who can defeat the Death Dragon. It's only been martial artists because for several millennia, that's all that were available to show up. Hmmm... possible plot seed about the ramifications of the first Tournament of the Dragon to be held in the modern superhero age... or even the explanation for why the Tournament seems no longer to be held by the days of the Terran Empire?

Well, there's two ways to go here: A) As I recall, there is a rule in 5e "Ninja Hero" that says that Naked Power Advantages applied to Martial Maneuvers count for purposes of determining campaign Active Point limits exactly as an equivalent # of DCs in Energy Blast with the same advantage would have. I.e. -- 10 DCs of martial arts damage with a +1/2 Naked Power Advantage is a 75 Active Point attack for purposes of judging whether or not it's within campaign limits, which means no dice. Or, there's option B... Remind your player that you are the DM, and it's your campaign. If you says that such-and-such a power is down-checked, it's down-checked, period. If he wants to argue, point him at the part in the Big Black Book that says that the DM is the final authority. If he still wants to argue, tell 'em it's your way or the highway. If he wants to *reason* with you, OTOH, then remind him that none of the players campaign are being allowed to do Double KB with 10d6 worth of Ndamage, so he shouldn't be able to either.

Re: Midas -- well, the classic DM solution to that is to bait-and-switch. Have Midas turn out to be utterly innocent... just being possessed by a demonic spirit, or kidnapped halfway through the campaign and secretly locked in the basement while Masquerade was busy having fun at his (and the city's) expense, or Midas being utterly ignorant of what was really going on while his loyal chief of staff actually was the local VIPER Nest Leader, or somesuch.

Starguard -- "Luna's Boat Song" from Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS1 Version)

True, he can assume that the Terran Empire has made new strides in automation... ... however, the crew figure of 800 that I listed is what's given as the canon figure ("Spacer's Toolkit") for a Terran Empire superdreadnought. So if he wants to know what the crew size for one of those is, it's 800. As a comparision, a _Nimitz_-class aircraft carrier today -- which is much smaller than an _Apocalypse_-class Terran Empire SD -- has a complement of approximately 3000 crew for the ship's company and 1800-2400 more in the air wing, so we can see that the automation improvements you refer to are already in extensive use.

According to the "Spacer's Toolkit", a Terran Empire _Apocalypse_-class super-dreadnaught has a crew of approximately 800. From my own Navy experience, ships are broken up into "departments", which are then further sub-divided into "divisions". Example -- On board my old ship (which had a crew of about 200), Engineering Department consistent of 'M Division' (the machinist's mates, who operated and maintained all parts of the engine except the boiler', 'B Division' (the boiler techs), 'A Division' (who did maintenance for all auxiliary equipment on the ship, such as air conditioning, fire pumps, water mains, etc.), and 'H division' (the hull techs, welders, and damage control guys). On board a starship, of course, the divisions would be different to reflect the different technology -- Engineering Department would probably be subdivided into divisions like Main Drive, Damage Control, Life Support/Environmental, Auxiliary, etc. Likwise, there would be an Operations Department, subdivided into Sensors (including both the techs who maintain and repair the systems and the guys in CIC who watch the scopes), Communications, Weapons, etc. Different space navies would do it different ways. For example, David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series uses ships that divide up into Engineering, Tactical, Astrogation, Deck, and Flight Operations (small craft / fighters) departments. But the general organization of departments (run by senior officers) and divisions (run by junior officers or very senior enlisted) remains. It also customary to have one big, old, crusty, 30-year-lifer seniormost enlisted man walking around whom all non-commissioned personal regard with fear and awe, and to whose advice officers listen with respect even though they outrank him, and to whom even the captain turns towards for advice and information as to what's going on 'below decks', so to speak -- the Command Master Chief. *g* (You ever seen "We Were Soldiers"? You remember Sergeant-Major Plumley? Well, the Navy's got him too.)

One of the best posts I ever saw on the SJGames Pyramid boards was a guy who did a 'seven gods' pantheon... ... based on the JLA's "Big Seven". (Obviously he changed the names, but as I can't remember all of the names of the deities he used, I'll just put in the names) Superman (Rao) -- The "sun god" figure, patron of valor, righteous war, justice Batman (unknown) -- Vigilance, law, and vengeance (and yes, that's an odd mix, but so's he) Wonder Woman (unknown) -- Truth, mercy, honor Martian Manhunter (unknown) -- Knowledge, secrets, wisdom Green Lantern (The Green Wizard) -- magic, energy Flash (Swift Allen) -- Speed, travel, the messenger of the gods Aquaman (Orin) -- God of the seas, weather, etc. The real hoot was the evil deity pantheon based on Lex Luthor, the Joker, Circe, Sinestro, Black Manta, and I forget the other two. (wishes he could find that old post)

Actually, we have a Superman-analogue (STR 100, 40 PD/40 ED Resistant, 30" Flight, 5" MegaScale Flight) and a Green Lantern-analogue (10 PD/ED Resistant Hardened, 20 PD/ED Force Field 0 END, 25" Flight 0 END, and an 80-point Cosmic Power Pool with 0 END and LOS)... ... but no, they're not 100% as buff as the originals. The Superman-analogue *IS* the big gun of the team, durn sure -- he can take a hit from a Space Nuke and actually walk away, even if he's limping like hell. But he has virtually no senses beyond the normal and only Mach 12 flight, even though he has truly awesome STR, defenses, and Presence attacks. (Storyline... he's the champion/avatar of the ancient Valdorian sun god, set in eternal opposition to the Serpent, and awoken after a long period of hibernation to face the challenges of the modern age. In times past, he did the Nuada of the Silver Hand thing... sleep between crises, awaken to deal with them. Hence a consistent but not full-time presence on his part all down through ancient history) The GL-analogue has 'Novice Hero' and virtually no skills... she's a teenager who just had the Power Cosmic(*) dumped upon her via one hell of a really involved and long set of circumstances... As far as the rest of the team -- we've got a spatial manipulator/teleporter with a Multipower like Tesseract's, a DEX 35 SPD 7 martial artist who's also an MCPD MARS team member and equipped with some MARS gear and an experimental jetpack (Public ID -- like Teknique and the FBI, he's a superhero officially on the payroll), and a mentalist. (*) Actually not the Power Cosmic, but she doesn't know that yet... in-game. Out-of-game I bloody well know exactly what's really going on, seeing as how I'm the one who wrote my character's origin story.

*looks at character sheet* Great googly moogly, I've spent the whole damn weekend point-hacking for 750-point characters (very high-end game)(*) that ain't half as broken as that bad boy. A 1200 Active Point power? I don't care *what* limitations are on it, that's just "Ow, ow, my [bleeping] brain, ow." territory. (*) Basic premise of the game -- 'You are the world's mightiest superteam. You're the JLA-equivalent of this universe. You are the official Big Guns. When anybody needs a bail-out, your phone rings. When you need a bail-out, the planet's in trouble. Have fun."

I must admit that your possible alternate take on Witchcraft made me actually feel some interest in the character for the first time in... oh, forever.

Ah. True, the Revered Elder is pretty much the antithesis of naive. As to Witchcraft... well, depends on what she's 'naive' /about/. Naive about the occult, and about the awful and evil things that some people can do with it? Obviously not. Just growing up in the same house with Talisman, much less her parents, kinda precludes that. Naive about the *rest* of the world? Quite possible. She could, for example, believe that nothing in the 'mundane' world could possibly be as evil and bad and nasty and selfish and rotten as the horrible things she's seen in the Mystic World... which is, of course, a completely mistaken belief.

> I think she's killed in the past, and her code against killing is > basically a "Never Again". The woman has KS: Demonology > for crying outloud. Why are we assuming she's a pollyanna? If I remember correctly, The Revered Elder had KS: Demonology as well. It's not necessarily an "evil" skill. Your theory *is* plausible, it's just this particular leap of assumption I question.

Isn't that just rehashing the 'Dark Willow' subplot from Buffy?

Cateran is obviously redemption bait, but Black Paladin? That guy's only a few percent less evil than /Dark Seraph/. I consider that entire sidebar by Witchcraft to be one of two things: a) a little attempt at upping the pathos, as in 'look at this waste of potential -- it's already wasted, too late to recover it, but look at the waste' proof positive that Witchcraft is a ditz. Kudos to whoever said Lancer looked redeemable. AAMOF, I once tried to gen up a PC -- a minor psionic and commando type -- who was one of her fellow Resistance members, caught in the same dimensional warp but knocked forward in time a year or so (so she was already a member of PSI by the time he got here). His role? To hook up with the heros and then find out his old friend had fallen in with the villains. Idea wasn't approved, but hey, I tried.

Well, actually, I posted my opinion of Stellar -- throw the book at 'im -- several posts ago, but it seems to have been entirely ignored in the rush.

> Anyone who's fought against Eurostar, at the very least. You > need an expert witness to testify to the tampering (or lack > of same). An expert witness needs to be objective, and that > means no one who's directly involved in matters under trial, > or who has any form of grudge against the villains. Which is all three examples I listed. Congrats, your clients are going to the slammer. And that's presuming they were actually taken alive in the first place. Given Eurostar's tendency to resist arrest with overwhelming lethal force, that ain't likely if the capture was left up to police or military agents. We are talking about people who have 'razed entire city blocks' on their resumes, after all.