Lord Liaden

I greatly enjoyed both stories, but haven't really made up my mind about a winner yet. But I do want to offer particular kudos to Darren Watts for his writing in this match. His depiction of Mechanon displayed that monster's capabilities and attitudes in marvelous detail, but as a natural outgrowth of story-based events rather than forced exposition. As SuperPheemy mentioned, Jesse Scoble's tale was also consistent with Mechanon's characterization, but Darren's was more textured. Nice work, Mr. Watts.

Re: Reality break: Liquidmetal LOL! Ironic indeed, but in a luxury-based consumer economy, not terribly surprising. As I mentioned earlier, science is closing fast on science fiction. On a slightly different note: since Prometheus brought up supernaturally derived substances, I thought I might mention this one which I came up with for a fantasy campaign. Any universe which includes magic or really advanced tech could probably justify something like this. Adamant. This material was mentioned in classical mythology and later works which drew from it, such as those of Milton. It was supposed to be virtually unbreakable; the sickle used as a weapon by the Titan Cronus was made from it, for example. Modern scholars often hold that what the Greeks called adamant was really diamond, but I decided to take that idea one step further. Certain supernatural entities, such as the god Hephaestus and the svartalfar or dwarves of Norse legend, know how to create magical forges which can melt diamonds to the consistency of molten glass. In this state it can be molded and shaped into various useful forms, far larger than naturally occuring diamonds, which regain diamond's wonted hardness after it cools. Weapons and tools fashioned of adamant are usually folded many times like fine steel, to eliminate the cleavage patterns which can make natural diamonds brittle.

Very good, Supreme. Dean Shomshak used the Tree of Life and the Four Worlds as one of the bases for his detailed cosmology in The Ultimate Supermage. (An excellent read if you have any interest in super-magic games.) Judging by several references in the Hero Universe meta-setting and in Champions Universe, Steve Long has adopted this cosmology almost wholly. In this form, "the Qliphothic World" embraces ancient dimensions that have decayed to a form inimical to normal life, inhabited by horrific and malevolent entities in the "Lovecraftian" vein.

To quote from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: "Pragmatism? Is that the best you can do?" (You're right, of course, but how else can we show off our erudition?)

I had completely forgotten about the description of that substance in USM. I guess you might consider that an "official" Champions Universe material - and I love the name "qliphothium". You're right that its properties could be spectacular. Of course, since it's normally produced as the byproduct of feeding by the claynull, one of the most dangerous forms of anti-life from the qliphothic planes, gathering significant amounts of it would be a challenge. Speaking of official materials, let us not forget that the CU version of Atlantis is the unique source for the legendary material orichalcum. From CU p. 88: "Reddish-orange in color and similar to copper in consistency, orichalcum holds the 'charge' of enchantments with great facility, which makes magical devices created with orichalcum powerful and easy to craft." It's also "light and malleable, but exceedingly strong when alloyed with steel." (p. 90) The 4E Atlantis sourcebook describes orichalcum in similar terms (much of the contents of that fine sourcebook is very similar to the 5E Atlantis, and could easily be adapted). In addition to holding enchantments, orichalcum can enhance the effectiveness of spells. The metal is also able to absorb radiation and render radioactive objects inert.

If you'd be interested in expanding the possibilities in Middle Eastern themes to something later than Pharaonic Egypt, here are a few suggestions from past campaigns of mine: The Hashishin, descendants of the ancient Islamic sect which wielded considerable political power through threats of violence (the source of the English word "assassin") until apparently destroyed by the Mongols. In my campaign the Hashishin merely went underground. In the modern age with its revival of Islamic fundamentalism, the Hashishin have begun to work more openly, combining ancient mystical stealth disciplines with a modern version of the eating of hashish for fanatical courage and strength which was the basis of their name; they now consume a synthetic drug which can actually enhance some physical abilities to superhuman levels. If the PC advertises his connection to the pagan Egyptian gods, the Hashishin would likely consider this extreme heresy worthy of punishment. Iblis, in Arab folklore the ruler of the djinn, sometimes reputed to be a fallen angel. Suleiman (King Solomon) was said to have bound djinn who rebelled against the will of Allah in bottles, urns and other such vessels. In my campaign Iblis was accidentally released and set out to destroy the institutions of the One God under whatever name in revenge for his imprisonment. If your PC gained his powers through acquiring ancient artifacts or disturbing an ancient treasure or tomb, he might have accidentally released Iblis. He could see it as his responsibility to capture Iblis, or perhaps the great djinn might know that the hero holds the key to imprisoning him again and want to eliminate that possibility. Obelisk, a giant automaton fashioned for Pharaoh by the legendary Greek artificer Daedalus, like the famous Talos which he crafted for Minos of Crete. Obelisk's activation in the modern world could be under circumstances similar to Iblis above. I mostly used this character as the basis of an old fashioned giant monster rampage.

Whoa! Very interesting workup there, Mr. Shrike. With a little more elaboration and some polish, you might have the makings of a Digital Hero article here.

It's neat to see how closely real-life science is snapping at the heels of science-fiction these days. But with something like Demron, I can't help fearing that a real-life Project: Sunburst might be in the offing.

Dynamo's suggestion for "biofiber" earlier on this thread is one of the best super-costume ideas I've seen: living fabric that mimics the cellular structure of its wearer, including natural powers. Makes more sense than "unstable molecules"; biofiber may be unrealistic, but at least it's logical. OTOH, one thing I really liked about the old Power Man and Power Man and Iron Fist series was that Luke Cage's costume did get shredded regularly - he had a professional costumer make up multiples of his shirts and pants at a time. (One brief scene in one issue showed Cage followed into the costumer's by a somewhat-obscured "Dr. Banner" who was picking up his purple pants.)

Much appreciated Hot spit on a griddle! I got me some diggin' to do! It's great that this legacy won't be lost to some DoS scumbag. Many thanks, Ben, for all your hard work, and please pass the same on to Dan.

Instead of "super substances", how about "miracle materials": http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2589

What you're describing is similar to how Desolid functioned before the 4th Edition rules - not in how damage was calculated, but in how much material you could pass through. Desolid as of 3E Champions allowed you to move through 1 BODY of matter per phase for every 5 points in the Power. I suppose you could extend that model to the ability to avoid damage; maybe buy Desolid that protects from damage separately, 1D6 protected against for every 5 points. That would allow for limited Invulnerability without the ability to move through objects, or vice versa. I'd have to think about the implications of that one, especially as far as defensive potential and cost. Personally, I'm satisfied with the current model for Desolid; the old model added extra bookkeeping, and I like the "all or nothing" nature of the Power as it is now. I don't have any great conceptual concerns as far as Limited Desolid being used for invulnerabilities, either. FREd already suggests that if the Power is just being used to represent invulnerability to a particular type of attack, the GM can choose to waive the requirement that the character with that ability buy Affects Physical World; to me that provides enough justification to say that Affects Desolid attacks don't have any special damaging ability for the character, either, given that the character can already be damaged normally by so many other things. After all, how often is a character Invulnerable to fire going to run into an opponent with a fire based attack that Affects Desolid? OTOH, fire that Affects Desolid is clearly a special kind of fire.

Hmm... I think I could use a bit more info before I could offer useful suggestions: 1) Are the abilities bestowed by the artifact fully Focussed in it, so that the artifact's possessor retains them even if separated from it? Or are all abilities lost as soon as the possessor loses the artifact? 2) Can anyone who picks up the artifact gain its powers, or can only one wielder use them at a time (i.e. Personal or Universal Focus)? 3) At what rate are the further abilities of the artifact gained? Does it have to be wielded for hours, days, months? And do those abilities fade if the wielder is separated from the artifact for an equal period?

If there was ever any doubt... Da Munchkin King is in da house!

Devil and Angel. Matthew Wayne was the son of a highly successful defense attorney. Curious and mischevious, his widower father often teased Matt with having "the devil" in him. When Matt was a young boy, his father accepted a client accusing a large company of dumping toxic waste into a residential water supply. One night his father got a tip that clandestine dumping would occur and slipped out of the house to obtain the proof that would clinch his case. Curious Matt hid in his father's car to tag along. The elder Wayne was discovered and murdered by thugs in the company's employ, who dumped the body in a tank of waste to dispose of it. Matt attempted to pull his father's body out of the tank, but exposure to the mix of chemicals blinded the boy. With no other living relatives, his father's client Alfred Nelson adopted Matt. The courts eventually ruled in favor of the company, and Matt's testimony about his father's murder was discounted since he could no longer identify the killers. Matt discovered that although they had robbed him of his sight, the chemicals had vastly enhanced his other senses. He began to obsessively train himself in crime-fighting techniques, and later pursued a career as an attorney like his father. He adopted a frightening costumed identity based on his father's nickname for him: "Devil". In one early case, Devil attempted to rescue an ambassador and her teen-aged daughter from political assassins. He succeeded in saving the girl, Selina Natchios, but her mother was killed. Falling in love with her, Matt Wayne helped Selina bring her mother's killers to justice, later training her to be his partner in crime-fighting, under the identity of "Angel". (BTW although I didn't use the amalgamated names, I did run Devil and Angel as NPCs in a Dark Champions campaign.)

I think I just gained an insight into Japanese culture. I would say that for this special effect, "Only with extra limb" and "Gestures" aren't quite the appropriate Limitations. I'd go with Restrainable instead, since these abilities are clearly generated by a particular body part, which should be immobilizable with a successful Grab. (And that's all I want to say about that.) Images for the drumming sounds about right, if it has no other effect than the creation of sound. Similarly, if the umbrella and kimono "configuration" have no function other than the mundane (e.g. no insulating properties for the kimono), then I agree with Killer Shrike that the Instant Change Transform would be appropriate. What would be the possibility of other Powers for this effect, like Entangle vs one target at a time, or perhaps Darkness requiring the tanuki to throw his scrotum over the victim's head? (I am really glad I didn't have to say that out loud.) You could combine the effects into a sense-blocking Entangle if desired.

Nah, Mechanon is actually an early prototype of Metallus. (And I'm still waiting for that time-travel crossover story guest starring Space Ghost!)

I've always wondered whether and how much the Harbinger was changed for his writeup in Dark Champions; earned experience or not, I find it hard to imagine him working with any group of PCs as written, even other vigilantes. Harbinger's view of what constitutes a crime, and appropriate punishment, is so extremely black-and-white that I doubt he would be able to cooperate with anyone who wasn't an attitudinal clone of him. He just might have gotten along with the Protectors after their exposure to the Skull Pendant, though. FWIW, I used the Harbinger of Justice in one campaign I ran, essentially as a "villainous" opponent for the PCs. I decided that he was the Marksman (NPC hero mentioned in various old Champs books and in the Champions comic-book) after alteration by that same Skull Pendant.

That sounds like a lot of fun, CC! Nice way to keep the old team alive. If you really want to put the fear of Seeker in your 350-pt. PCs, see if you can find the original edition of Champions Universe for 4E. That gave "experienced" versions of the Champions at around 400 pts. each with attacks of up to 15 DC.

From time to time, I review Steve Goodman's tips in the old Champions II supplement, "The Goodman School of Cost Effectiveness.";) Here's a summary of some of that sage advice: "3 and 8 are very cost-effective numbers". Certain Characteristics do very well if their total ends with these numbers. DEX and INT have already been mentioned, but there are two figured Characteristics based on CON/5, so those numbers for CON give beneficial roundoffs for ED and REC; "END Users Anonymous". A level of Reduced Endurance is most efficient when the Power it's applied to uses an odd number of END, so that you get the benefit of the round down; "Levels--The Great Equalizer". Inexpensive way to conpensate for low DEX or long range. If your character has a lot of different Powers and Skills, Overall Levels are a great investment; "The Joy of DEX". Elaborates on the point above. High DEX is most efficient if that's your main defense or if you want a high SPD, although high SPD also makes END use more of a concern. For many characters whose SPD is not that high, levels are cheaper and often more flexible; "Run for your Life". Any inches of Movement that you have should end in an odd number, to take advantage of the roundoff for your half move. That extra inch can make the difference whether you reach an opponent to hit him or not; "Constitution Builds Strong Bodies Five Ways". If your character has bought up two or more of ED, REC, END or STUN, consider buying up CON instead. Goodman suggests buying your CON to the point where at least one of those four Figured Char. is at the value you want.

The background for that version of Dr. Destroyer was almost identical to that given in the current Hero Universe meta-setting for Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer, so Steve Long must have liked the concept, even if he didn't want Dr. Destroyer to be that entity. In the New Millennium setting, the Destroyer awakened during WW II. His magical powers having waned over the millennia, he began augmenting them through studying technology. On the one hand, a supervillain who was once a god takes Destroyer farther from the "Dr. Doom clone" image that turns some people off from Zerstoiten; on the other, giving him a magical dimension actually makes him more like Doom in breadth of capability. I just find combining both origins into one makes for a more interesting character and a more credible arch-villain of the CU, while really not invalidating very much from the current continuity. As always, YMMV.

Given the far more explicit "snake" connection to VIPER in the new CU, I'd be very suprised if King Cobra does not play a prominent role in the reboot of that organization. I'm actually enjoying having multiple versions of characters from the different Champions editions to play with - mixing and matching different elements for the version in my CU can add to their richness. For ex, the Dr. Destroyer I last used in my campaign was a combination of the German/Nazi Dr. Doom clone from 4E Champs, and the Atlantean Destroyer from the New Millennium setting: in his rage and pain when his ship was torpedoed, Albert Zerstoiten's spirit aroused that of the Destroyer trapped beneath the Atlantic Ocean, who possessed and merged with Zerstoiten. The multi-year disappearance of Dr. Destroyer in the official CU works perfectly for me with my composite version - I figure that Destroyer was "pulling a Sauron", constituting a new form while he absorbed the life forces of the 60,000 people killed when Detroit was levelled, which also provides a justification for his enhanced power upon his return.

In the old, unenlightened days pre-FREd , what's now called the Power Skill was pretty much relegated to RSR Limitations, but I'm looking forward to a couple of players in my new campaign who have taken it for their character's powers - the challenge to their and my creativity should prove interesting. In the particular cases you raise, for (1) I'd prefer that the player have bought some type of Cantrip spell for this sort of thing. A small Cosmetic or Minor Transform with lots of options would cover most of the things that a Cantrip can do, with maybe variable Change Environment and Images to fill in the rest. Very few spells would be needed, none of them expensive. For (2), I wouldn't let the wizard add new Advantages to his spell to increase its usual damaging ability, but I might let him use its sfx in an unusual way. Let's say the wizard wants to try using the flaring light from his Firebolt to blind the dragon long enough to escape. If he made his Power Skill roll and successfully targetted the dragon's head, I'd allow him to roll as if the bolt was a Flash of the same Active Points, in addition to its normal damage. As for (3), I wouldn't allow a TK effect if the character has nothing close to that in his repetoire; but if he has any kind of spell which does Knockback, I'd allow him to make a Power Skill roll to try to knock the key off the wall and toward the cell (at a penalty, of course).

Color would be nice, and I can understand why that would make a difference to some people. For me it's not that important, and with my budget and the cost of RPG books today, I wouldn't appreciate paying an extra $10 or more per book just to get color. Companies like Green Ronin and Guardians of Order have put out flashy color core books for M&M and SAS, but I've noticed that they also print cheaper black-and-white editions. I get the impression that the color books are to get attention and draw people in (which seems to have had that effect on CPaladino). Perhaps those companies have decided that they can afford to reduce their profit margin on these books in order to arouse initial interest in the buying public. GR and GoO were both established publishers when their supers games came out, while DoJ/ Hero Games is essentially a startup company despite having purchased an existing property; DoJ probably has to be more careful about their initial capital expenditure. OTOH, I'd like to point out the large number of quality books that the new Hero Games has put out over the past year. Both M&M and SAS have been out longer than 5E Champions, and have two or three books in their line, not counting "special editions" of previously-published books. In less than a year, Hero has put out four major books just for Champions, not to mention the cross-genre books like the two Ultimates, the Bestiary and Ninja HERO, which have lots of stuff usable for a supers game. I'm not sure whether the greater expense of color would have impaired the company's ability to maintain that publishing schedule, but I do know that I'm very satisfied with the way things are going.

Okay, the idea of a cadre of Monsters is definitely disturbing. Particularly if the campaign is centered around super-sorcerors; spell casters tend to be less effective against stand-up super brawlers. And if they're actually the muscle for the Ravager of Men, I don't like the heroes' chances. (Which is why they have to be heroes, I guess.) Actually, this isn't a bad idea for using the Monster with other origins. The PCs finally destroy the creature, only to have it turn up again - how it's "returned from the dead" would be a mystery the heroes would probably be eager to solve. The payoff when they have to confront multiple Monsters would be priceless... but by that point the PCs had better be very powerful, or else have discovered some weakness of the Monster(s) that they can use against them.