Koshka

I was thinking about doing a team of villains for my golden age game with a pirate theme. The heroes are in a coastal area, so it fits. So far, I've got:

Corsair (team leader)

Cutlass (either a weaponsmaster or a martial artist/fencing)

Pieces Of Eight (duplicator)

I'm having trouble deciding what Corsair's powers/skills should be. At first I thought about updating Privateer from 4th edition GAC. Unfortunately, I've got three female characters in a five-hero team, and Privateer's psych lims are going to be a bit too limiting -- especially since one of the females is one of the bricks.

Most of Pieces of Eight's points will be going into the Duplication, but what else should he be able to do? Just some minor combat skills and an obscene Teamwork roll, or is there something more creative out there waiting to be thought of?

Also, any other ideas for villains who would fit in this team?

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Perhaps some simple rules for recoil of firearms could help simulate this ?

I think STR Minimums for firearms already cover this to some extent. :: since Dark Champs was already on my computer desk, flips to those weapon charts :: The Thompson M-1928 has a STR Min of 14, but only weighs about 5 kilos. No way it takes a 14 STR to carry the thing ... but controlling it in use, that's different.

Re: I Give Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall, Scifi Toughguy, this isn't too bad. It needs some tweaking, but it's a perfectly good "first character ever" -- heck of a lot better than mine was . (In my defense, I should point out that no one in the group had ever played Champions before, and that included the person helping me write my character.) I have a house rule of 3 XP for a decent character background, and yours would qualify.

Most of the stuff I would ask you (as a new player in my game) about has already been covered, but:

10 Psycho Limit: no addictive substances (alcohol, tabacco, drugs) (common, strong)

needs some clarification. Does the character hate addictive substances and refuse to take/use them? That might only be an uncommon -- the only time I can see it really coming into play is if the character needs medical help, and since lots of painkillers can be addictive....

Re: Pulp Film Recommendations

Not much travel, but for crimefighting the two Green Hornet serials are good sources.

(I'd also recommend the radio shows. I've got a bunch in mp3 format if anyone's interested.)

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

I'm not sure which section it would fit best in, but some examples for the players on how different the economy was would probably help. The bit in Justice Inc. on converting modern currency to pulp currency (divide by 10) was handy, but didn't give a solid feel for what the cost of living was. For instance, my grandparents got engaged during the Depression -- Grandpa had just gotten a raise at his job, and he and Grandma decided if they watched their budget, they could afford to start a life together. His raise was to $18 a week.

One more vote for a section on racism/sexism and how to deal with them. Though some of the pulp heroes were open-minded -- I recall The Shadow always speaking in Chinese to one of his Chinatown contacts out of courtesy, even though the person in question spoke fluent English.

Of course, the main thing I want in my copy of Pulp Hero is an autograph -- don't sell out at GenCon till I get to the booth .

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

"I made my Persuasion roll ... by negative one."

Re: House Rules?

If two characters have the same DEX and are going on the same phase, I use their SPD as a tie-breaker. If they're same DEX and SPD, then I worry about rolling off. (Unless both are PCs, in which case I tell them to settle it themselves.)

Re: GM Question: Mystery Reputation Disad

Sorry about that, it looks like I didn't explain it very well.

The Rep is already taking the 5 point penalty for being among a limited group. My question is, within that limited group (the Mystic World), how nasty would this reputation be?

Re: GM Question: Mystery Reputation Disad

I think it depends on how relevant the mystic world is in your campaign.

If you mean "how often the Mystic World will come into play", well, it won't be a constant element, but with a mystic in the group it'll be showing up.

Re: Pulp Hero Cometh

Speaking of the Shadow' date=' some public libraries have pretty good collections of old radio programs. It'd be worth a look to see if you can find some from the Shadow (especially the Orson Wells era). [/quote']

 

If you have a CD burner for your computer, there's a couple groups that trade old radio programs. The one I'm part of is OTRDAYS, over at Yahoo Groups -- you've got to be willing to burn copies of the discs for other people, but when you can get 100 CD-Rs for 19.99 it's not that much of a monetary outlay.

 

But resist the urge to send for your complementary ton of Blue Coal (Pennsylvania's Finest Anthracite!).

 

You mean I can't get a set of Goodrich Safety Silvertowns With The Lifesaver Tread for my car?!?!

Since none of my players hang out here, I don't need to spoiler this.

In my Golden Age game, the party mystic has a 5 point Mystery Disadvantage. I was planning to use it for a Mystery Reputation: "You know, she and her family are connected to the Sylvestri Clan". (If you don't have Arcane Adversaries, the Sylvestris are a family of devil-worshippers.) I can even justify Madame Mystique not knowing about this until now -- she isn't really hooked into the Mystic World.

Last game, the party hacked off a Scarlet Moon ovate turned supervillain, so it's a good time to start bringing that disad into play. This of course means I need to finalize the writeup . I already know it'll be a Limited Group reputation (the Mystic World), but would it count as Extreme?

Re: Here on Earth-2: your evil counterpart!

Hmm, this would probably work as a story arc in my golden age game ....

Dark Falcon: well, her family would still be rich, but in Evil World they got their money by being crimelords. Dark Diana did not kill her father, no matter what the rumors say, because this is after all a parallel Golden Age world. (If it were Iron Age, you bet she did.) However, his murder left her in a bind -- other crimelords weren't willing to accept a female running a crime family, but you think Dark Diana was going to turn over power to someone else and sit at home like a good little girl? Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Her dilemma was solved when she found a hero rifling through her father's filing cabinets. She ambushed Peregrine (the hero), knocked him out, and dragged him down to those cells in the basement she wasn't supposed to know about. Peregrine was a bit stubborn (no change here from our world ), but she managed to get a lot of information about his super-technology out of him before his fifth attempt at a breakout got him blown away by one of the guards. She then devised a costume of her own (copying Peregrine's to make it look like he had helped her, thus smearing his reputation) and started taking over crime as Dark Falcon.

Our world's Peregrine was basically a pulp vigilante with a few gadgets. Evil World's Peregrine would have been a four-color super-inventor, so Dark Falcon has a few more goodies than Falcon, most notably a prototype jetpack that lets her fly. This will make the Obligatory Fight Scene tricky, because Falcon won't be able to get at Dark Falcon if Dark Falcon has any sort of tactical sense whatsoever. Of course, all it takes is one aerial Move-By when Falcon has a held action for a martial throw . It would be a tough fight, but not enough of one to make Falcon toss her CvK. (Dark Falcon doesn't have one, but is still bound by Golden Age rules.)

Re: "Ya better talk Oculon, or you'll get the spike!" (A Super law question)

The problem with cold-sleep is that there is no sense of punishment and no sense of rehabilitation. A criminal is supposed to suffer from their incarceration so as to not want to commit the crime again.

Point ... but even if we can't duplicate Demolition Man's "programming" during cold-sleep, the person will have a lot of trouble functioning in society with 20 year out of date skills. Case in point: last year (I think, might have been two years ago) a guy broke out of prison north of here, and was re-arrested here in Omaha. While he was on the run, he tried to refill his escape vehicle at a convenience store/gas station, and couldn't figure out how to use a "pay at pump" setup -- they weren't around when he went in the slammer.

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

So' date=' any plot ideas that could fit well with this villain team? No bank robberies or conquering scenarios, please.[/quote']

 

What about simply destroying the banks? Federal Reserve would be ideal if you've got one handy, but any really large bank would do in a pinch. Currency in general is an artificial government construct that assigns value to otherwise worthless paper -- at least that's how they'd probably see it.

 

If they leave the money blowing in the breeze of their departure, it would emphasize that they're not your ordinary crooks.

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

Yesterday we had a one-shot adventure as part of a friend's birthday party, and the GM ran the classic "you're all fighting your evil duplicates" adventure. This resulted in a certain amount of "tell your teammates about your Vulnerabilities over the secure commlink" -- I think my character started it by telling everyone about her x1 1/2 STUN from Physical Killing Attacks. (It worked, though -- the team mentalist nailed Evil Nova with a mental illusion of being sliced with a katana and took her out with one shot. Of course, this means if he decides to run a "half the party becomes evil" scenario anyone who spoke up is now officially hosed ....) At one point, the team mystic was going to help the brick deal with her evil duplicate, since the two of them weren't getting anywhere trading punches. Magus wasn't sure how well his Ego Attack would do, so he called out "Titania! How weak-willed are you?"

------

A couple days ago was my biweekly Golden Age game. I was in the Villainy Amok playtest, so I borrowed one of Scott's variants on a bank robbery scenario and had the sorcerous villain Summon the money out of the vault. Mixed in with the usual "we're nickel and diming them down" comments was one made after I moved some cops to surround some of the cash: "Money! We have you surrounded! Lay yourself down!"

(Consider this a teaser for the book )

Re: Spaceport: Planetary Surface or Orbital?

If I were building this place, I'd put it in orbit. Planetary bases have the problem of the users having to fight gravity every time they take off, orbital bases don't incur that extra fuel cost.

However, you could always use a low-gravity world or moon. It's a good compromise between ease of use for the intended users and space available for PCs to get into trouble.

The villain for Thursday's game will be calling up some allies for the fight scene with his Staff of Summoning. The allies are defined as automatons, so the Summon power has the Slavishly Loyal upgrade. The staff itself is defined as an OAF.

If the heroes don't try to grab the staff away from the villain, I'll be amazed. However, what happens to the automatons when that happens? Do they go away, do they become slavishly loyal to whoever grabbed the staff (gonna be a short fight if that's the case), or does it just mean the villain can't call up replacements?

Also, one of my PCs is a brick who's a little too happy with the amount of damage he can cause, what happens to the summoned automatons if he breaks the staff?

Re: Resource Points

Resource Points are from the new Dark Champions. In a nutshell, they're a pool of points that the character can "spend" on weapons, armor, and other action hero goodies that aren't necessarily going to be permanent possessions.

If no one beats me to a more detailed description, I'll post one after I get home from work -- I need to head out, and no internet access there.

Re: Pulp Hero Cometh

I just double-checked at Amazon, and both the 1940 serial "The Green Hornet" and the 1941 serial "The Green Hornet Strikes Again!" are still available on VHS. I have both; they're a little late for the true pulp era, and there's some scenes (especially on the first serial) where you can tell the tape was not made from a mint-condition original, but they would still be good references.

(Oh, and if anyone else has them -- is that a genuine licence plate on the Black Beauty, or just a licence plate holder? I can't picture Britt driving down to the Department of Motor Vehicles to license his alter-ego's car ....)

Re: How do I make this a golden age character?

One question -- does the sister die, or did ReeKee patch her up as well?

I agree with Doc Democracy, the character sounds good as is. I might have Sis survive (or not get shot in the first place), unless you want some Batman edge to the character.

Re: 2006 Schedule Blurbs

Please tell me that GAC is going to be serious this time and not tongue-in-cheek as in the first two versions.

Ditto!

And now, for my rundown of the list:

Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers: Depends on whether I'm in a FH game by then.

The Ultimate Mentalist: Let me take a look at it. If it's as well done as the rest of the 5th edition Ultimate books, probably yes.

Stronghold: Not immediately useful (at least in my current campaign), but I'll probably get it anyway for the same reason GestaltBennie gave .

Golden Age Champions: Yes.

Psychic Wars: Another one I'd need to take a look at first, but on the other hand it's Allen ....

The Celtic Bestiary: Could be useful in more genres than fantasy, so probably yes.

Thrilling Places: Yes.

Tuala Morn: Yes, even if I'm not in a FH game -- I like to read settings.

Pulp Resource Guide: Yes.

The Ultimate Skill: Yes.

Villains, Vandals, And Vermin: Yes.

Horror Hero: Depends on the author. (I saw Ken Hite's name mentioned in the survey thread. If it's him, two copies .)

Danger Zones: Considering how several of the people in my gaming groups play, you'd think I could get them to play Dark Champions. But no, they're too busy complaining about the lethality in DC in between doing full STR, full speed move-throughs on normals. I'd like to get it, but if money's tight I may wait on it until I get a game going.

Champions Universe Update: Probably yes.

The Underworld Sourcebook: Probably yes, this is something that I could use even if I don't have a DC game running.

Re: Why that costume

Falcon's costume is very functional (except for her cape -- insert Edna Mode imitation here ). Armored jumpsuit, cowl that covers all but the lower part of her face, boots and gloves. I was going for a detective/gadgeteer, and this gives me lots of places for her to put her toys.

In character, Falcon was originally trained by a pulp vigilante. After Peregrine went and got himself killed by not waiting for backup, she couldn't decide whether she was more angry at the gangsters or at Peregrine for being an idiot ... so while she tried to decide, she appropriated one of his spare outfits and hunted down the gangsters. She's good enough at sewing to take the outfit in, but not quite good enough to restyle it. Since Peregrine had an avian theme (hence the name), she was pretty much stuck with one herself.

Re: A costume challenge

I'd go with baggy and functional for a "realistic" costume for this character and for a more comic book like, have to wear something bordeline functional but tight and flattering, like a jumpsuit or dancer's leotard. And be highly embarrased by it.

And if she goes with the leotard, the neckline will go no lower than her collarbone. I don't know if this style is still being made, but a shirt I wore to death in college was basically a leotard with long sleeves and a turtleneck collar.

Got a heads-up on this from a historic costume list I'm on:

The Harvard University Library Open Collections Program currently has digitized versions of several catalogs from the late 1800s-early 1900s on the web. It's at

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/trade.html .

It looks like the main one that would be useful for a pulp game is a November 1926 catalog, but the gaslight to WWI crew will find lots of material here.

Re: Sticky Goo from The Incredibles

Mind you I suppose entangle as defined in Hero would not do the job: you'd bust out of and destroy it with casual strength as it hit you.

Not necessarily -- Syndrome built those goo guns to capture anyone who got in without authorization. Since he hadn't killed (or thought he'd killed) Mr. Incredible when the guns were installed, they should have been built to capture him. Maybe buying the entangle with extra DEF?