Chuckg

Re: The Authority RPG ????
 
"Sterilize the moon"?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 

Okay, it was a rather complicated situation, but I'll try to explain as briefly and as simply as possible.
 
The team of which Dr. Anomaly is a member encountered a person who was a time traveler who said he was "stuck" -- he couldn't get a "lock" on his "home" time anymore, and he feared that meant his future no longer existed; he said he'd consulted many experts on time travel but none of them could help. The team member who encountered him suggested that he trying talking to Dr. Anomaly who, as a scientist and a mage, might be able to bring to bear abilities (or combinations of abilities) that other experts couldn't, and what did it hurt to try?
 
In the investigation and discussion with "Mark" (the time traveler) that followed, we discovered that as far as the universe was concerned, he simply didn't exist...no instrument could detect him, magic (and magical beings) couldn't interact with him or see him, even though he could physically interact with his surroundings, the laws of physics and magic, when applied from outside himself, didn't "stick." He was a powerful psionic, and we figured out that he didn't exist, not really...and the only reason he seemed to exist was that his own incredible force of will could make the universe interact with him, if he forced the issue, but outside forces couldn't.
 
It was eventually determined that the reason he couldn't get a "lock" on his home time was that he wasn't from this universe, or any alternate timeline or parallel universe...but from the universe that would come into being after our own eventually ceased to exist, many tens of billions of years hence. The reason our universe didn't "acknowledge" is presence was because at a very fundamental level, he didn't match up with the fundamental constants, etc. that had stabilized in the first few microseconds after our Big Bang. What was worse, though, was that a bit more thinking, theorizing, etc. led to the realization that he was, in essence, a man-sized bubble of quantum state zero...no quantum signature at all. This is an inherently unstable state, and if something happened to destabilize him...the collapse of the "bubble" that he represented could tear a very large hole in this universe. It was decided we needed to "weave him in" to this universe, and quick, before something happened to destabilize him.
 
We decided to do this by using nanobots to "swap in" matter of our universe in place of the 'matter' making up his body...carbon atom for carbon atom, oxygen atom for oxygen atom, etc. Theoretically, when we were finished, he would exist because he'd be made up of "stuff" from this universe, and the danger would be averted. This was all complicated by the fact that he was a very advanced, genetically-engineered person, with his own live-in colony of nanobots (for wound repair, etc.), much more advanced than those to which we had access, that tests showed would combat (and easily destroy) the "invading" nanobots we needed to use.
 
Eventually we came up with a way to do it, and started the process of replacement. In so doing, however, that made the possibility of him becoming destabilized a lot greater...which led to our universe, at least in the immediate vicinity, starting to have a "quantum fizz" in the timeline, as the future...or even the existence of a future, miliseconds ahead of the current moment...became very uncertain. The main way this manifested, at least as far as the characters were concered, as a sort of burning/itching in our heads as reality was starting to come apart. Dr. Anomaly, probably because of his INT of 40, was hit especially hard by this and was having a difficult time holding his concentration on the procedure.
 
The last major hurdle came when the matter in all of "Mark's" body except his head had been successfully swapped for "local" atoms; the problem there was that "Mark", as a very powerful psion, still had his self-conception rooted in where he did (will? would?) come from, and that was preventing us from being able to swap out the atoms that made up his head/brain.
 
One of our team, Scarab, is a multiformer themed on the Egyptian pantheon, and changed to its Anubis form, because among other things the Anubis form is a mentalist, and was going to try and pry "Mark's" psionic focus into the here-and-now. Despite the urgent need to try and scratch the itch inside his head, Dr. Anomaly realized that given the power of "Mark's" mind, that was almost certain to fail...but there was a sure-fire way to grab "Mark's" attention, and really focus it on the here-and-now, and make him want to be here, in this universe, and not in a place that didn't yet exist. Dr. Anomaly yelled "No, not Anubis! We need Hathor, and now!"
 
(Hathor has been short-hand described, in a Stargate episode, as the Egyptian equivalent of the Goddess of Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Scarab's Hathor form, among other things, has a 30 PRE, 30 COM...with +30 PRE, Only vs. Men, and +30 COM, only vs. Men. )
 
Anubis immediately changed, manifested as Hathor, in all her glory...and completely sans clothing of any sort. It grabbed "Mark's" attention, alright, focused him well-nigh instantly on the here-and-now, and in the next few seconds the replacement process was able to be completed successfully.
 
The "I'm glad my brain is itching" repeated phrase came from Dr. Anomaly, who unfortunately happened to be looking at Anubis when he called for Hathor, which meant he was looking at the all-too-naked Hathor who manifested a moment later. Now, Dr. Anomaly has nothing against good-looking women, even naked ones. The problem here is that Hathor is an aspect of a team-mate of his, he has no desire for any kind of "complications", and seeing Hathor that way, very deliberately exerting her influence-on-men to the fullest extent (on emergancy overload, you might say), gave him all kinds of thoughts that, for his own peace of mind and team harmony, he shouldn't be having, and desperately did not want to have, regardless of what his body's reaction said!
 
So, to try and drive that image out of his head, instead of fighting the terrible itching inside his skull, Dr. Anomaly focused on it, embraced it, tried to use it (unsuccessfully) to scour the image of Hathor from his mind, and was repeating the "I'm glad my brain is itching" almost like a mantra to help him focus on the itch rather than on Hathor.
 
A few seconds later, when the process was completed, the horrible itch went away as the "quantum fizz" in the timeline died down, as there was no longer a chance of a quantum collapse...and Hathor mercifully manifested some clothing and "turned down the wattage" on her PRE & COM.
 
So there you have it. I'm sorry it was that long, but that really is the shortest I felt I could give the context and have it make sense. (Then again, I never have been very good at condensing things when I write.)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
I was running my Zombie Apocalypse game, with several long-time friends.
 
The three PC's and one NPC are on the top of a sporting goods store that they and their survivor group has been holed up in for a couple of days, as they prep to leave L.A.
 
The three PC's are Jordan, a gorgeous LAPD "kiddie cop" (think of Eliza Dushku in the LAPD uniform. Now youre on track), Eric, a recently-graduated high-school athletic star who was about to turn pro before the world ended (looks like Tom Welling), and Gabriel, a six foot ten EMT ambulance driver (who looks like Abraham Benrubi). The NPC with them is most often referred to as "Conspiracy Man", and goes only by the name of Ed. Despite a few comments about the "alien overlords" and the "flouride mind-control policy", they nevertheless gave Ed a rifle, as they had just raided a pawn shop, and his oddly useful skill-set was instrumental in their success. (They suspect he is ex military, and has seen too much).
 
The group has recently discovered that there are a few more survivors trapped on the fourht floor of a building about a block away from their own hideout. The people trapped in the office building have smashed out a window and hung a sign out of it written on a drape that says "Help Us".
 
As the characters are deciding what to do next, the sounds of gunfire erupt from a rooftop a few buildings away. The characters look around, and realize that it is coming from four gang-banger types who are taking shots at the "Help Us" sign, and the people behind it. (These are people with the same mentality as those who were shooting at police, ambulances, and fire fighters during the L.A.riots).
 
Jordan, the cop, is the first to spot the perps. She aims her rifle at them. The others follow suit. I tell them that one is shooting, another has a rifle also, and there are two others with pistols besides. They look like they are in their early twenties, of mixed ethnicity, and are wearing loose clothes with alot of sports team endorsements. Jordan makes a Perception roll and recognizes them as wearing local gang colors.
 
Ed: Firing order?
 
Jordan: Im taking down the shooter.
 
Ed: Ill take the other one who has a rifle.
 
Eric and Gabriel's Players both indicate they are also going to fire. I ask them to pick targets. And then...
 
Gabriel's Player: Ill shoot whichever one has the most underwear showing.
 
 
 
 
After we all finally stopped laughing, Garbiel then proceeded to randomly hit the unlucky s.o.b. in Location 13. For near-max damag,e and maximum Stun.
 
I guess Gabriel -really- didnt want to see that guys underwear!
 
(Edit: If this post accidentally offends anyone out there who habitually "busts a sag"... TOUGH! Pull your gorram pants up!)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Something just made my brain click onto this exchange from a con game a few months back.
 
As we go into the final battle, the Master Villain is revealed to be... my character's Evil Twin Brother! Naturally, we square off. As we close to HtH range:
 
Brother: "Dad always thought you were better than me!"
Me: "Dad was right!"
 
After which, he crit'ed me across the room, and I spent the next couple turns digging myself out of the wall
 
 
bigdamnhero
"When someone asks if you're a God, you say Yes!"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 

 
Whoa, deja vu. About three weeks ago in an Aberrant game I'm in, I did the same thing -- my character reached over and cold-cocked another party member right in the middle of a conversation. Our characters still aren't speaking to each other, and it almost destroyed teamwork at a critical juncture. Also, it's not normally my guy's style.
 
And yet, at the time, given where everybody's head was at that moment, it just seemed to make perfect sense even though I *knew*, before I even did it, that the fallout for this would be falling out for months.
 
(add) Oh, and there's a quote attached to it as well. Doing from memory...
 

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
A D&D game I was in several years ago...
 
OK, between a combo of a DM who used inappropriately high-CR monsters, a player who thought that 'Lawful Good' meant 'Lawful Stupid' and yet for reasons known only to himself picked the paladin anyway, and a supporting cast who faithfully RP'ed their alignments even when all common sense was telling them it was time to run away, most of the party died.
 
We were a level 7-8 party. Basic sequence of events was this:
 
* Paladin opens door, sees lich, and rather than close the door and get the eff out of dodge -- seeing as how a lich is *well* above our ability to survive -- he screams and charges. See above re: 'had a point to prove about how LG supposedly means LS'.
 
* LG cleric of the dwarven war god goes 'You idiot!'... and goes in anyway, as both alignment and honor code are compelling him to back up his comrade-in-arms.
 
* LG cleric of the same deity that the paladin worships (my character)... well, I'm stuck. Not only are alignment and ethos absolutely not letting me abandon my comrades to their deaths, but Sir Brain-Dead and I are in the same church hierarchy. So, resigning myself to gruesome death, I go in.
 
* CG half-orc fighter -- sees that his buddies are in trouble, charges in to go help them out. Entirely in character. (Especially given his Int 8).
 
* N mage -- stays in partial cover at the doorway arch, snipes with spells.
 
OK, I just went down the initiative order for round one. Then the lich took its action... and proceeded to obliterate all five characters I just named, with some type of area-effect negative energy damaging spell that I don't even know the name of. I mean, we're talking "straight from full HP to below -10 in one shot". Only the paladin successfully saved, but even half damage was enough to atomize him, as we were already down some HP from an earlier encounter.
 
However, while the area of effect covered the entire room and the doorway, it did /not/ cover the hall outside... so two of our party were still alive.
 
Those two party members were a N thief/mage, and a CN thief.
 
And I swear to God, feet sticking up, that as soon as the lich blew us all into ash, the two players in question turned to each other at the table and said, without missing a beat:
 
"Race you back to camp."

Re: WWYCD: The Invasion Is On...
 
Heh. Adamant's reaction makes me think about that 'Invasion!' parody Marvel did in Uncanny X-Men back around 'Fall of the Mutants'.
 
--------
Scene: Alien archivist is sitting in the file room of the Horde Invasion Fleet, which specializes in picking fights with soft targets.
 
(paraphrased from memory)
 
Archivist -- 'OK, computer, give me all references on 'Earth', yadda yadda.'
 
Computer -- 'Working. Earth, third planet of the Sol system. Tech level -- incapable of interstellar or interplanetary travel, general scale two with limited anomalies.'
 
Archivist *yawning* -- 'So, the usual pushover?'
 
Computer -- 'Negative. Anomaly: planet records an extremely high number of enhanced-power beings.'
 
Archivist (looks up) -- '... what?'
 
Computer -- 'Note: Planet is on record as successfully repelling multiple incursion attempts from the Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar, Badoon, Brood, Rigellians, and other major spacefaring powers.'
 
Archivist (spit-takes) -- "What?"
 
Computer -- 'Warning! Planet Earth is the only world known to successfully resist the World-Devourer, Galactus."
 
Archivist (jaw drops to the floor) -- "WHAT?!?!?"
 
Computer -- 'Warning! Planet Earth is the adoptive homeworld of the Phoenix."
 
Archivist (running around in a screaming panic) -- "OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"
--------
 
Sadly, the archivist was killed by the Horde commander for daring to approach his throne without proper respect for protocols, so the warning was never passed on, the Horde invaded anyway, and got their butts kicked by four X-Men who were out on a pub crawl, plus some random passing Aussies.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
A D&D game I was in several years ago...
 
OK, between a combo of a DM who used inappropriately high-CR monsters, a player who thought that 'Lawful Good' meant 'Lawful Stupid' and yet for reasons known only to himself picked the paladin anyway, and a supporting cast who faithfully RP'ed their alignments even when all common sense was telling them it was time to run away, most of the party died.
 
We were a level 7-8 party. Basic sequence of events was this:
 
* Paladin opens door, sees lich, and rather than close the door and get the eff out of dodge -- seeing as how a lich is *well* above our ability to survive -- he screams and charges. See above re: 'had a point to prove about how LG supposedly means LS'.
 
* LG cleric of the dwarven war god goes 'You idiot!'... and goes in anyway, as both alignment and honor code are compelling him to back up his comrade-in-arms.
 
* LG cleric of the same deity that the paladin worships (my character)... well, I'm stuck. Not only are alignment and ethos absolutely not letting me abandon my comrades to their deaths, but Sir Brain-Dead and I are in the same church hierarchy. So, resigning myself to gruesome death, I go in.
 
* CG half-orc fighter -- sees that his buddies are in trouble, charges in to go help them out. Entirely in character. (Especially given his Int 8).
 
* N mage -- stays in partial cover at the doorway arch, snipes with spells.
 
OK, I just went down the initiative order for round one. Then the lich took its action... and proceeded to obliterate all five characters I just named, with some type of area-effect negative energy damaging spell that I don't even know the name of. I mean, we're talking "straight from full HP to below -10 in one shot". Only the paladin successfully saved, but even half damage was enough to atomize him, as we were already down some HP from an earlier encounter.
 
However, while the area of effect covered the entire room and the doorway, it did /not/ cover the hall outside... so two of our party were still alive.
 
Those two party members were a N thief/mage, and a CN thief.
 
And I swear to God, feet sticking up, that as soon as the lich blew us all into ash, the two players in question turned to each other at the table and said, without missing a beat:
 
"Race you back to camp."

Re: The cranky thread
 
I have simultaneously gone on a diet to lose weight while having to cut my caffeine intake back from [insert truly ludicrous # here] of Diet Cokes a day down to 1-2.
 
This diet, and caffeine reduction, will not be temporary.
 
... major-league caffeine withdrawal on top of new diet. Yeah, that qualifies.

Re: The New Circle
 
> A) In case I didn't make myself clear, you've BOTH been doing the
> damage.
 
In case *I* don't make myself clear, somebody needs to tell Killer Shrike that he was out of line and make him understand it, and it obviously can't be me.
 
You want to treat the symptom? Blame everyone. Eventually, everyone will shut up, and then sometime in the future somebody else -- maybe be, maybe somebody I know, maybe some new guy totally -- will disagree with something else that Killer Shrike writes, and he will tell them to shut up, he's not interested, and they'll post again anyway, and then wham, KS will go ballistic again about how 'attacked' he is and how justified he is in flaming the entire thread into a cinder.
 
And why? Because he thinks he's got a *RIGHT* to do that. Because nobody here -- except me, and apparently, I don't count -- ever tells him otherwise!
 
Why should Killer Shrike /ever/ change his behavior? You people already support him in this.
 
You want to treat the *cause*? Explain to Killer Shrike that he really doesn't have the power to redefine 'attack' as 'any criticism that I don't want to hear'.
 
> It makes it hard to follow a thread when there's long post after long
> post about how much you two don't like each other. Guess what, we get
> the point, no need to explain it further. Seriously, doesn't it tell you
> anything that people are starting to treat you two like a fucking
> sideshow?
 
Instead of stepping in about 100 posts ago to ask Killer Shrike to lighten up? Oh yeah, it tells me something.

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

 
You appear to be utterly missing the point, then. I like cars. What I am pointing out is that you can't use logic to argue how society will react to a threat, because people aren't logical. People are intrinsically irrational. Personally, I think it's genetic.
 
(Incidentally, there has recently been some research which may support my opinion, which just makes me sad. I would rather be wrong.)
 
As for my "trip", I do not dignify ad hominem arguments by countering them. Ad hominem arguments have no value or substance whatsoever.

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

 
I haven't finished reading this thread, but I felt the need to respond here. It reminded me of an idea that I had before, but hadn't really done anything with (it's not really appropriate for the kind of games I like to run--i.e., Silver to Bronze Age).
 
There's a secret government organization (it has to be completely secret, by its very nature), whose job is to protect superhumans. They keep the teleporting housewife under tight surveillance, to make sure that stuff like this doesn't happen. She doesn't know that her house is bugged, and people follow her around all day. (Admittedly, this model breaks down a little once you start getting very large numbers of superhumans, because you'd need an unbelievably large "secret" organization.) The purpose of these guys is to keep everything calm. The teleporting housewife is pretty low-profile, so you might just have one guy whose job it is to watch her and her surroundings.
 
But people like Superman, well, they have a whole team devoted to protecting their loved ones (you don't really have to worry about his physical safety). So when some evil supervillain, or evil organization decides to murder Lois Lane, some agent "accidentally" slams into her car while she's on her way home. "Oops. I'm sorry about that, ma'am. I spilled my coffee and jerked the wheel. Let's exchange insurance. Oh wait, I can't seem to find it. I know its here somewhere. Well, I'm sorry that you're going to be late..." After all, the absolute LAST thing you want to happen is for Superman to find his blushing bride in pieces. You just don't know what he'll do.
 
They might protect secret IDs, too, though this is kind of dark. That villain who saw Spider-Man's face? Well, when Spidey knocked him out, maybe the villain accidentally got hurt a little worse than Spidey knew. "Why, it appears that he's had an aneurism. I didn't think the blow was that bad, at first."
 
If you really want to go dark with it, you can even get creepier. Maybe the agency employs a few mid-level telepaths. "Psychological analysis reveals that Clark wants a homemaker instead of a career woman? Well, what Clark wants, Clark gets..."
 
--
 
In a less developed supers world (i.e., one without pre-existing secret agencies), they might just show up like the secret service.
 
"Hello Mrs. Anderson. My name is Agent Smith. This is my partner, Agent Smith. No relation. We're here because the United States Government has discovered you have a... unique ability. Now, we don't want you to worry. We understand your desire to lead a normal life, and your desire for your own privacy. We just wanted to make contact with you. Your neighbor, Mr. Smith..." (looks out window)
Mr. Smith: "Hi!"
Agent Smith: "... he works for us. There are thousands of Americans with abilities just like yours. We're here just in case. If anyone attempts to harm you or your family, we'll be ready. If you have any questions, Mr. Smith next door will be happy to answer them."
Mrs. Anderson: "But what about my privacy?"
"... No one will watch you inside your home or monitor your phone calls. Think of Mr. Smith as a policeman who lives next door. He's always available if you need him, but will not intrude upon you unless there is some emergency. Have a good evening, Mrs. Anderson."

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 

 
You obviously haven't figured out that there's no such thing in an online discussion...
 
I'm reading and posting here because I like the superheroic genre.
 
I also happen to think the that superheroic genre can rise above the kind of silliness that includes modern, elite, highly-trained special-forces troops attacking the supervillain's base in a human-wave attack, screaming and firing their M-16s from the hip, as the villain's thugs gun them down from cover. Scenes like that are insulting to the intelligence of the reader and only serve to degrade the genre and the medium of superheroic comics, or in this case superheroic RPG.

Re: Jane's Superhumans
 
Well, this is assuming that the military totally ignores standard comic book genre conventions and actually fights like down-home dirty sonsofbitches, as opposed to doing it GI Joe style like they usually do in Marvel and DC.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
In today's "New Sentinels" game session, Horus-Re discovered that Starguard's power was apparently torn from the body of a murdered angel, and invested in her against her will, as an unintended consequence of some mad satanic ritual.
 
He took the angel's body up to the edge of space, and said these words, into the vacuum, to mark its passing.
 

 
Folks, I have just seen a PC tell off God Himself to his face, in utmost sincerity.
 
Awesome.
 
(And no, Horus-Re is nowhere near as powerful as the Presence. He's only about as powerful as Superman or Black Adam.
 
And yet, because he is who he is, the Champion of the Unconquered Sun, the only child of the ancient Turakian deity of truth and justice and honor... he will take this stand, no matter the odds against him.)
 
 
 
(note -- minor corrections have been made in the above quote for punctuation and capitalization)