Koshka

Re: Viperia: Less Pow Than Champions??

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman Falcon's father died when she was 16, leaving her the sole heiress to the Blake millions. By the time she was 17, she was throughly sick of men vowing eternal faithfulness to her bank account (no, really, they're in love with her ). It's not impossible that she would marry, but she'd have to be darn sure the gentleman in question genuinely cared for her. He would almost have to be another hero, as well, because only a hero would be willing to let her continue her adventuring.

Re: WWYCD: Toy Recall! Making a few quick period-appropriate adjustments here ... Falcon would use her detective abilities to trace the main control center for the robot killer toys. There has to be one, given tech limits of the period, and once it's found stopping the toys from going lethal would be a matter of getting her teammates to help smash the place up and capture everyone. She would have warned the police just in case, so there's probably a recall notice in the morning paper. In the morning paper for the 26th, there's a story about an unknown philanthropist offering replacement toys to any child who got a killer toy by accident. (She's Filthy Rich and would consider that a good use of her money.) She's luckier than some of the modern-era heroes on the thread in that shipping takes longer in 1938 -- unless the rewritten-for-golden-age BH started this plan last summer, the killer toys can't be that spread out. (And the 10 cases of toys in a warehouse waiting for the next delivery truck can be gone through at leisure, after the ones that made it to homes are dealt with.)

Re: The Incredibles Writeups Finally saw the movie Sunday, so I can read these threads now . Nice writeups, my only real comment is that I would have called Mr Incredible's extra STR either Limited Conscious Control or No Conscious Control. He seems to have a bit of a problem controlling his super-strength when he's ticked off (see the fingerprints in the car roof), and of course when he thinks his family is dead and goes Enraged ....

Re: Miniatures and mapping Yep, I think he gets his plastic sheets at the craft store (we've got both Michaels and Hobby Lobby in town). He normally draws the characters in Hero Machine, copies them into a paint or photo program to adjust the size, and prints straight onto the plastic. I'd have to ask him what size he prints to get a shrunk 1 inch tall mini, but I think he can get 9 minis per sheet of plastic.

Re: Miniatures and mapping Chessex megamat with 1" hexes. For generic thugs/agents, I usually use glass nuggets -- one of my other hobbies is stained glass. (Sidetrack: buying them through a stained glass supplier is much cheaper than getting the official CCG "counters" at the game store.) For PCs, one of my friends likes to make shrinky-dink plastic figures. For major NPCs, it depends on what I've got. I have some of the Hero cardboard figures (I need to go through the hard drive and see if I'm up to date on them), but I've also used cardstock counters.

Re: The "Whoops" Thread

Re: The "Whoops" Thread I've got one player whose character is a reporter in Secret ID. He spent a grand total of 14 points on skills and perks. He did not buy PS: Reporter ("that's my everyman skill!"), Conversation, any Contacts, or anything else that would help Cat actually work as a reporter. At least he remembered to buy a Press Pass ....

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ... I should have checked out this thread before I made my Christmas list . Some recently read (or reread) nonfiction books: Operation Sea Lion by Egbert Kieser. An interesting look at the proposed invasion of Great Britain from a German perspective. Deception In War by Jon Latimer. Skips around a bit, but a nice overview of deception tricks. The Wannsee Conference And The Final Solution: A Reconsideration by Mark Roseman. We'll never know exactly what happened short of borrowing the TARDIS and planting bugs all through 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, and the author admits this. OK, so he didn't mention the TARDIS. But it's still an excellent examination of the conference and the path the Nazis took to the Final Solution. Era Of Excess: A Social History Of The Prohibition Movement by Andrew Sinclair. Out of print, and if you're checking the library the hardcover edition was titled Prohibition: The Era Of Excess. A good but dated survey of the prohibition movement in America, probably not a book to start with though. If you're new to the topic, you might want to look at John Kobler's Ardent Spirits.

Re: Dark Galactic Champions The Ship Who Searched is only average IMHO, but has some nice bits on artifact smuggling you could probably use -- and it's both paperback and several years old, so getting it cheap at the used book store is likely. The suggestion that one group might be smuggling drugs disguised as pieces of ceramics from an archaological dig is a wonderful fit for a DC game.

Re: Island of Dr. Destroyer as a one off? OK, here's the first draft of Jade Tiger, the martial artist for this group. Before anyone brings it up: yes, I know he doesn't have Martial Dodge. A regular dodge will put this guy over the CV cap. I also wrote him without skill levels because I've seen newer players have trouble keeping track of them. I've still got some work to do on his background/personality, so bring out your feedback . Jade Tiger Player: Val** Char*** Cost 15** STR 5 29** DEX 57 21** CON 22 16** BODY 12 13** INT 3 15** EGO 10 15** PRE 5 12** COM 1 * 8/18** PD 5 8/16** ED 4 6** SPD 21 7** REC 0 42** END 0 35** STUN 0 *9"**RUN04"**SWIM06"**LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 145 Cost** Power END 6** Fast: Running +3" (9" total)* 1 3** Agile: Leaping +3" (6" forward, 3" upward)* 1 2** Good Swimmer: Swimming +2" (4" total)* 1 18** Armored Costume: Armor (10 PD/8 ED); OIF (-1/2)* 0 16** Tiger Strike: HA +9d6; Increased Endurance Cost (x3 END; -1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4)* 12 5** Guarded Defenses: Lack Of Weakness (-5) for Normal Defense* 0 5** Guarded Defenses: Lack Of Weakness (-5) for Resistant Defenses* 0 10** I Do Not Choose To Be Seen: Invisibility to Sight Group ; Requires A Stealth Roll (-1/2), Only When Not Attacking (-1/2)* 2 7** Radio Earpiece: Radio Perception/Transmission (Radio Group); IAF (-1/2)* 0 9** Perceptive: +3 PER with all Sense Groups* 0 4** Mask Lenses: Sight Group Flash Defense (5 points); IIF (-1/4)* 0 Powers Cost: 85 Cost** Martial Arts Maneuver ** Ninjutsu* 4** 1) Atemi Punch: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, 3 1/2d6 NND* 4** 2) Block: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort* 5** 3) Kick: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 10d6 Strike* 4** 4) Knife Hand: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +0 DCV, HKA 2d6* 4** 5) Punch: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, 8d6 Strike* 4** 6) Reversal: var Phase, -1 OCV, -2 DCV, 45 STR to Escape; Grab Two Limbs* 5** 7) Takeaway: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab Weapon, 40 STR to take weapon away* 3** 8) Throw: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +1 DCV, 6d6 +v/5, Target Falls* 12** 9) +3 Damage Classes* Martial Arts Cost: 45 Cost** Skill 3** Acrobatics 15-* 5** Analyze: Style 13-* 5** Analyze: Combat Technique 13-* 3** Breakfall 15-* 3** Climbing 15-* 3** Computer Programming 12-* 3** Concealment 12-* 3** Deduction 12-* 3** Disguise 12-* 2** KS: Ninjutsu 11-* 0** Language: English (native)* 2** Language: Ninja Codes And Symbols (fluent "conversation")* 4** Language: Japanese (idiomatic)* 3** Lockpicking 15-* 2** Navigation (Land) 12-* 3** Paramedics 12-* 3** Power: Martial Arts Tricks 15-* 5** Security Systems 13-* 3** Shadowing 12-* 3** Sleight Of Hand 15-* 3** Stealth 15-* 2** Survival (Temperate/Subtropical) 12-* 3** Teamwork 15-* 2** WF: Common Martial Arts Melee Weapons* Skills Cost: 71 Cost** Perk 1** Fringe Benefit: Passport* Perks Cost: 1 Cost** Talent 3** Lightsleep* Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 350 Val** Disadvantages 20** DNPC: parents 8- (Normal; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID; Group DNPC: x2 DNPCs)* 10** Floating DNPC: current girlfriend 8- (Normal)* 10** Distinctive Features: Style (Not Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Large Group)* 15** Hunted: Green Dragon 11- (As Pow, Beat To A Pulp To Show Who's The Best)* 15** Hunted: The Kagemura Clan 8- (Mo Pow, Capture/Kill)* 20** Hunted: VIPER 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Capture/Kill)* 20** Psychological Limitation: Code Versus Killing (Common, Total)* 10** Psychological Limitation: Plays Up The "Ninja Mystique" (Common, Moderate)* 15** Psychological Limitation: Protective Of Innocents (Common, Strong)* 15** Social Limitation: Secret Identity (Kenneth Mashida) (Frequently, Major)* Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 Background: In the early 20th century, a young boy of the Kagemura ninja clan learned that his clan served a lord too dark to be named. In fear and loathing, he slipped away from the training compound, left a message revealing the compound's location with the local governor, and stowed away on a ship bound for America. Almost a hundred years later, the Kagemura clan had not forgotten the boy's actions, and had finally traced him. While he was long dead, he had married, and some of his descendants were still alive. The clan sent a team to kidnap one of those descendants, a high school student named Kenneth Mashida. They grabbed Kenneth on his way home from a computer club meeting, rushed him to the docks, and loaded the unconscious boy on a clan-owned tramp freighter bound for one of the smaller islands in the Japanese chain. Their plan was to turn Kenneth to the ways of the Kagemura ninja and their lord the Night Dragon, then send him to kill all the other descendants of the traitor, Kenneth's grandfather. Kenneth couldn't understand what was going on at first -- he knew his parents weren't wealthy enough to pay a ransom. By the time he had arrived at the clan's newest training facility, though, he had realized that despite how strange it sounded, these people really believed he was a ninja by birth. Over the next 18 months of intense training, Kenneth proved to have a talent for the martial arts (though "learn or die" is a strong incentive by itself). He even began to develop some of the more mystical ninja abilities. However, his trainers were never able to convert him to the service of the Night Dragon. Despite their efforts, Kenneth's mind and soul remained free. Kenneth had been given the name Jade Tiger when his training started, an allusion to his birthdate in Japanese astrology. When he first learned to focus his ki to deliver a powerful blow, his teachers promptly dubbed that maneuver his "Tiger Strike". They failed to realize just how powerful the maneuver could be, though, since they didn't understand just how strong Kenneth's will was. That night, Kenneth employed his Tiger Strike to overpower the guards and escape the compound. He managed to get to the main island, but his pursuers were close behind him. Fortunately for Kenneth, a Japanese superhero noticed the ensuing fight, and dove in to rescue him. After he made it back to the United States, Kenneth did a lot of thinking. He knew the Kagemura clan wouldn't give up. He'd also been impressed with the Japanese super who'd rescued him. He finally decided that the only way he could keep his family safe was to become a superhero himself. If he used his Kagemura name as his superheroic code name, it would attract enough attention from any Kagemura agents that they wouldn't have time to go after his family. Appearance: Kenneth Mashida stands 5'7" tall, and weighs 194 pounds (all muscle, though he doesn't look that heavy). His hair and eyes are both black, and he has the typical Oriental skin tone. Kenneth favors dressy casual clothes. In his secret identity, he often wears neatly pressed jeans and polo shirts. In his heroic identity, Jade Tiger wears the traditional ninja nightsuit, but in jade green instead of black.

Re: Theme music I've never done much with background music. Some of my early gaming was done with partially hearing-impaired people, and background music would have interfered with hearing the GM. However, dinner normally precedes my golden age game. One night, I arrived to find my 4 CD set "Swing Tanzen Verboten!" had just come in (I'd combined an order with the person hosting the game so we could save on postage). We put one of the disks in, and had nice European swing music with dinner to set the mood.

Re: Favorite Pulp Character There's lots of pulp characters I've heard about but never read; budget, you know . I've got several of the earlier Eclipse Airboys, even did a Valkyrie costume for a convention once. (And it came out pretty good, if I say so myself, even though I don't have nearly the chest development that the cover artist gave Valkyrie -- who knew silicone implants were around during WWII? ) Personally I thought the 1994 Shadow was a nice blend of the pulp and radio versions, both of which I liked (though to me Orson Wells was the radio Shadow, I couldn't really get into the later actors). I also really like The Green Hornet -- I know he's not technically pulp because he wasn't in a print format, but they're still good stories.

Re: Island of Dr. Destroyer as a one off? Just to clarify -- by "swinging" power projector do you mean someone who's primary movement power is Swinging? I've got some ideas for these two, let me stick FREd and a notebook in my bookbag and take them to work with me. Official Disclaimer: I work at a dry cleaners, and we're coming up on one of our busy seasons. If I get loads of people hauling half their closets in with them (or worse, loads of people who didn't bother to read the "do not dry clean" tag when they bought that party dress), I probably won't be posting anything till Sunday.

Re: WWYCD?: The Shakedown. If Falcon's in a neighborhood like this, it's because she's in hero ID. She won't stand by and let Air Raider kill the pawnbroker, but to be honest she's tried the old "scare the truth (and the urine) out of the guy" stunt herself a few times. (And the vigilante who trained her was really good at it.) Unless AR has some sort of reputation that makes her think he's really gonna pull that trigger, she would be more likely to immobilize Mr. Slinky -- a bolo if there's room in here to throw it, otherwise a throwing disk or martial arts -- and say something on the lines of "Perhaps this gentleman would be more willing to help you, Air Raider". If AR tells her what's going on, she'll offer to help find his girlfriend before he finishes. She met Peregrine, the abovementioned vigilante, in the first place because a gang kidnapped her. Falcon was lucky in that her ransom value would have gone down if she'd been injured or (trying to think of a good 1930's-style euphemism) "touched" by her kidnappers; she won't count on another woman in that situation being as lucky. Fortunately she's currently in a four-color world, so AR's girlfriend will be OK until the rescue party arrives.

Re: WWYCD?: The PRIMUS Auction Falcon predates both PRIMUS and VIPER (OK, the Unholy Order is around in her time ...) . Assuming we can pull another time travel stunt to get her there, she would be fascinated by the computers. Fortunately for the time stream, there's been enough changes in prices between 1938 and 2004 that she would be outbid easily -- she's rich, but bidding a whole $200 for a laptop?

Re: Making Money Since she wants a low profile, I'd suggest she get a job at an electronics repair shop. Her metasenses probably include something that would make diagnosing problems much easier/faster, and precise TK means never burning your fingers with the soldering iron . The one year she has till she hits legal majority should be enough time for her to get a reputation as an incredibly skilled technician, at which point she could either open her own shop or go freelance for higher fees.

Re: WWYCD? Quantum Leap moment I don't run Nova often (I think tomorrow will be her third game session -- she's someone I play when and if I can hook up with that group), but since I had her sheet out to update her to 5th edition let's see .... On the one hand, she's German. On the other, she has serious issues with the Fourth Reich* down in South America. Since we're assuming that characters figure out pretty quick just what they're in the middle of, she won't have a problem with opposing the Third Reich. Her problems would be 1) not knowing how to handle a rifle, 2) having a CvK, and from the sound of it 3) not having her flame powers. She's used to being able to vaporize bullets coming at her, not ducking them -- if her powers didn't come along for the ride I don't think much of her survival chances. If she survives the landings, either because she has her powers or because the corporal behind her shoved her out of the way of the machine gun fire, she's a physicist. It's not the best specialty for figuring out temporal anomalies, but throw Deduction into the mix and "get accidentally separated from the unit, sir" long enough for some positive modifiers and she might be able to figure out how to get back. ----- *it's a somewhat strange homebrew world

Re: WWYCD? Quantum Leap moment Well, Falcon's game is currently in October 1938, so we're talking a "3" on the old Deduction roll to figure anything out here. For her, World War II is the future. Sticking a rifle into the hands of someone with 20 points of CvK isn't all that great, either. She (and presumably Sarge Reynolds) carries grenades, but hers are filled with knockout gas -- hopefully she'll look at Reynolds' instead of automatically tossing one at the Germans. OTOH, she was trained by a pulp-era vigilante and is pretty good at hand-to-hand combat. If she doesn't lose her head (one way or the other ) in the initial landing, I foresee lots of "sneak up and take out the machine gun nest" action while she tries to figure out what's going on and how to get back. Special note -- she's probably heard some stories about what the Nazis are really up to in her "home time", but this has the chance of letting her know the full story early. If she remembers her 1944 adventures after getting back, there's no way she would stay quiet about the death camps.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... D&D game, opened up with the wedding of the sister of one of our PCs. The reception was organized by two NPCs described as "clerics of the god of parties", and the DM is going through the list of what's going on, "jugglers, dancers, swordswallowers ..." "Oh, Cirque de Soleil came for the wedding."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Sorry, Hugh, the board won't let me rep you right now. I'll try later.

Re: UNTIL vs. PRIMUS? I'll probably be posting a correction once I get home and can doublecheck my copies of UNTIL and CU -- I've been house- and cat-sitting for friends, but they get home this weekend. However, IIRC, the US has the largest superhuman crime problem in the CU. For most of UNTIL's existance, they couldn't get involved in the US. Based on these facts, it seems likely to me that UNTIL before US funding could still have been a viable organization, because they had a much lower workload. Once the US signed the Tribunal Treaty and let UNTIL into the country, presumably there was a clause in there somewhere about having to provide funding. (If not, the treaty drafters were idiots .)

Re: Monty Haul DnD vets: need your help for NPC villain team ...wearing the skimpiest chain mail bikini you can find artwork for (at least one Dragon magazine had cover art by Boris Vallejo ) and boots with minimum 4 inch spike heels. How about dwarves, drow, half-ogres, or whatever who look and act just like humans but have a big sign on them identifying their race?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I'm running the Martian invasion (10-30-1938) in a golden age game currently. Last night, one of the characters managed to figure out the basics of running a Martian war tripod and took it into action against two other tripods. My GM-PC was acting as copilot/gunner, two other PCs jumped out to face the tripods directly. At one point, my character was going to fire the heat ray at another tripod but rolled an 18. I decided that this wasn't the character with the Analyze Technology skill, so she could easily have hit the wrong button -- and random roll said Falcon set off the poisonous black smoke by mistake. (Fortunately, the heroes outside made their PER rolls to hold their breaths.) One player quipped "I guess that tripod didn't go in for its 6000 light year oil change."

Re: Holy Susceptibilities: God and Champions Good questions. So far it hasn't come up, but what I would probably do: 1) Allow with justification -- "So why would your gadgeteer take damage from going into a church?" It doesn't fit for many concepts, but if it fits (and the character as a whole fits in the game) I'd allow it. 2) If I'm allowing the disad, I've pretty much got to allow something to set it off . I would, however, expect a character with such powers to act like someone channeling divine power. (Yes, I know Catholic belief holds* that the sins of the priest don't affect his ability to perform the sacraments, but I'm not Catholic.) 3) Why would someone be able to turn a dial on a VIPER blaster and get divine energy out the business end? If I were using a villain who took extra damage from holy/divine attacks, it would probably be a scenario meant to highlight the party mystic/incarnate angel/some other background that would already have the ability to score the extra damage. If no one on the team can take advantage of that disad, then either they should be able to take the villain without the bonus damage or I shouldn't be using him as a major player. 4) Well, yes, if the disad never comes into play you are giving the character free points. On the other hand, if you're using Black Paladin and the Crowns of Krim on a regular basis, you've probably got someone on the team who can hit them with holy attacks, or at least has a contact who's willing to bless their weapons. To use Superman as an example, as of the last time I checked lots of people know kryptonite will slam-dunk him. However, do all of those people have pounds of the stuff tucked in their safety deposit boxes? Do all of those people know the exact wavelength of the radiation it puts out? Knowing his weakness doesn't automatically grant the ability to take advantage of his weakness. Similarly, if the heroes are going after BP, they might know what holy attacks will do to him, but that doesn't mean they should automatically get the ability to take advantage of that weakness. ----- *or did, as of the middle ages pre-Reformation.