Capt Aardvark

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) Since Kristopher is still alive (Hi!) I'd just like to add, for all my former players, Thank You! Great ideas, great fun... just wish we could have had uniformly involved gamers. Idea: People who want to post once every two weeks could be paired with each other while people (like us) who enjoy a more active campaign could be cruising along with posts every other day or so. If y'all ever decide to start your own campaigns, look me up. I'm not too persnickety, even as a GM, as long as powers and traits are there to support a good story. I wonder if I could convince Kurt Busiek to allow an Astro City campaign... oooh...

Re: Healing I have no idea what abler minds will suggest, but the thought of applying Healing to inanimate objects pleases me no end, and I now have to incorporate it somehow, somewhere. Maybe I'll tell my player with the Super-heightened, area effect, discriminatory sense of touch... he's just the guy to figure out all the ramifications! Gut reaction: I don't see any major reason to ditch Healing and just make it a modifier to Aid... one repairs, one boosts, that seems different enough. I could be persuaded, though. Thanks for the interesting idea!

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) This has been a fascinating thread, and I thank everyone for their thoughtful responses. I never imagined it would get so many! And now, a very long post commences... My comments, 2 years later: 1) I was frustrated when I composed the original post. Some of you could tell! And, though sarcastic indeed, and prone to exaggerate a bit to make a point, I had what I thought were valid comments. All were true and based on my early experience with the GGU, but I still apologize for any offense taken. I thank the people who felt my comments honestly given (whether or not they agreed with them). No "trolling" was intended. 2) I got to play a bit. I was accepted to one campaign, but changes to my character took the essence out of his powers, and I lost heart, and so dropped out. I was accepted to a different campaign, but that one died a quick death due to other players failing to post (and I suspect the GM losing interest because of that). I made it into yet another campaign, picking up an abandoned hero (an excellent way to skip the audit process, nice work if you can get it!), and this one was great. Then players kept dropping by the wayside, and the GM, you guessed it, bagged the campaign. At this point, tantalized by moments of extreme fun, like a lab rat that sometimes gets a treat if it just keeps slapping away at the little lever, I decided to take a more active role. 3) I got to GM a bit. I volunteered to run an 'empty' campaign. I had the freedom to do what I would with my little corner of the GGU, thanks to that fella I complained about a couple years ago. I found out that Jack is a feisty fellow, but also fair, creative and a pretty sharp hand as a player. I also was a HUGE fan of his frequent recipe posts! Anyway, I got to do that nifty thing, a post for players. Great fun, and a difficult choice when so many innovative character ideas are competing for your attention. 4) I found out, "It ain't that easy." With only a few official auditors, it really does take a while to get people approved. We skirted the issue with a pre-game disclaimer, saying that anything that didn't make it through audit would be retroactively fixed (very comic-book), but then starting play pre-audit. I recommend this for all GMs... start playing immediately, and fix the math later (subject to Worldmaker approval, natcherly). 5) The campaign began. We even had a crossover with another GGU campaign! It was nifty. 6) Then one of the starting characters failed to respond. At all. I couldn't get the player to participate, no matter how gently and diplomatically I encouraged him. Despite bringing to mind the question, "Then why did you sign up?", I managed to incorporate that hero's inactivity into the storyline... it was an evil clone! The real hero was still on the way, and could burst in at the last minute and help save the day! But he just wouldn't respond. We spent a lot of time trying to get things going, and in retrospect I wouldn't have wasted everyone else's time in that manner. We would have moved on and got to the adventure. 7) My campaign folded, too. Pretty soon only a couple players were actively posting, and I don't blame them. The pace was painfully slow. If I were to do it again, I'd have posting guidelines, something like An Actual New Turn Every Week, Where Something Happens. I'd also confer more with experienced pbem gms to figure out how to streamline combat. 8) At this point, I gave up. I couldn't see how to get around the features of pbems and keep it fun like a tabletop Champions session. My theory: instead of offering a hero writeup as your 'application' to enter a campaign, you might engage in a two-three week post-a-thon where only the most diligent and persistent get in. Even someone with bad typing would be welcome if they were interested enough to post regularly. 9) It was about this time that I started playing City of Heroes a lot. That sucked up all my game time, you bet it did. I'm better now, a bit. (twitches his mouse hand, convulsively presses movement keys...) 10) I wish Jack and all GGU players and GMs nothing but success and fun. I wish that my temperment were such that I could still be a participant in this well-thought-out world. Thanks, Jack and everyone, for a great game and some damn fine work. Play on! Patrick Provant, formerly GM of GG5-LA, formerly Gryphon of the Venture Institute, and now Capt. Aardvark, Freedom Server, City of Heroes and DM of a good ol D&D campaign again after many long years.

After fooling with these people for about 9 months, neither of the two campaigns that I had been accepted into have actually started. Months, literally MONTHS of character audits, lots of house rules that change how most of us design characters and play Champions, and a Master of Ceremonies with a very irritable nature have finally convinced me that I should quietly back away and pretend I don't know about them. How it works: you see what campaigns have openings, submit a character history and write-up (specifics vary), see if you're chosen, and then sit and wait. Eventually they get around to auditing your character, at which point they remove your favorite powers, charge you extra for others due to 'house rules', inform you that you have a different hair color or birthday or DNPC or something, and then remind you to shave off the 38 points they tacked on due to decreasing your OAF to an OIF or something. It's possible that once you get into an active game, it's fun outweighs all the inconveniences. I wouldn't know. Apparently there's a year-long waiting period before you find out. Doesn't SAY there is one.... Also, if you are new and accidentally violate some obscure board rule or guideline, you will be publicly humiliated by the boss. Thank goodness it wasn't me; I just watched it happen time after time to others. Wanna see some astonishing flames? Tune in. That being said, they have some fantastic databases of unusual character limitations and psychological disadvantages of great use for players and GMs. Many are things I hadn't heard of or thought of in 20 years of playing Champions, and was just plain tickled about. I just felt that a review was in order, since HERO lists them as a link. Do with it what you will… I'd be very interested in input from GG players who have survived all of this, but not from the Uber-GM. I've heard enough from him.

I agree with Mr. Negative. (Hmm, that's a fun sentence.) Using the skill and maneuvers of 'Martial Arts' can be done a zillion different ways, depending on who's using them and how. Sometimes a few CSLs are all you need to show that your hero is a master of combat, and sometimes you need all the fancy maneuvers. In my campaigns, if you only learn about combat, you aren't a true (capital letter) Martial Artist, though. You gotta learn the philosophy, the history, the discipline like an actual martial artist. Take a few Knowledge Skills in esoteric stuff the GM can't possibly work into an adventure, and then dare him (or her) to do it! 'Waste' a point or two on Weapon Familiarities with special martial weapons. Buy up your Ego or Presence a point or two to show your willpower and confidence! Then you will be a true seeker, a true Jedi, a true artist. The thing I don't care for in my campaigns (pet peeve department) is when the PCs buy books that I (the GM) don't have yet, discover new and exciting martial moves, and then incorporate them into their characters. I suppose I could be a meany and say "Nothing out of non-GM books", but I'm just too blamed nice. So now the villains are getting 'Shoved', etc., but can't do it back! Apparently the solution is to buy all the books, but there are a lot of books these days, and I'm one of those gamers with a family. Maybe soon.