Kestrel

Re: Fins and Ray-Guns For movies, start with the classics, like Forbidden Planet. Awesome movie. There was also the Commando Cody series, which is a precursor to The Rocketeer. It had a bit of Flash Gordon rocketry thrown in with jet packs. For books, there are the old EE. Doc Smith Lensman books. Aaaaand... all of a sudden my brain has locked up. Will think of more later. Probably at 3am when I jerk out of a sound sleep and say "Oh yeah! THAT'S what I was trying to remember!"

Re: Building a Motorcycle Mecha! Ever see an anime called Megazone 23? One of the coolest transforming vehicles I've seen was in that one. I even built the darn thing in Champions. It was called a Garland. Here's a link to a toy of it to give you some idea: http://www.japanesetoylink.com/Yamato/Sci-Fi/images/YAM-MGZ001img2.jpg

Re: Steampunk - Source Material Try the Castle Falkenstein game. A mix of magic and steam punk. There's also the manga, Steam Detectives. There's also the anime series, Keishin Corps.

Re: 350 point jedi? If it's done right, any character can work. As ghost angel says, the dwarf is pretty entertaining so far. (I'm playing Iron Angel, the "paladin".) Years ago, I played a dragon from an ancient age and he was a lot of fun. He became associated with the local super team (the PC's) and was given a salary to be a part of the subsidized team. (He called it tribute.) He thought San Francisco was his domain, since it was the territory he protected. He liked watching MTV and became a big fan of punk rock, because he thought the rockers were descended from the warrior bards of his age. Vercetorix: "They are great warriors who know no fear! Look at how they ritually scar themselves! That is true dedication!" As for Jedi; all it takes is one spatial anomaly and a crashed ship to strand one. Of course nobody is going to actually believe he IS one, but that wouldn't make him any less of one. IF the character is played right and built right. Bystander: "What're you waving your hand around like that? You think you're some kinda Jedi?" Jedi: "Well, actually... yes." Bystander: "Yeah right. Seek help, pal."

Re: Steampunk Star Wars (Needs Better Name) Hmm... well, here's a few names off the top of my head. Avalon Ascendant Iron and Blood Games of Empire Clockwork Empire Machinery of Conquest Gears of Conquest

Re: Mental Entangles If you really want to have some fun, make a compound power with a mental entangle and an EGO drain together. Even if they break out the first time, the second time they'll have a harder time of it. I used that one with a shadow demon/dominatrix NPC, as part of her Whips and Chains MP. But yes, mental entangles are great for holding down people who build characters and neglect to buy up their EGO, either because they don't have the points, or because it just doesn't fit the concept. Although I had a brick who started buying mental defense, as well as his EGO with xp, since he kept getting mind controlled all the time. I figured that eventually he'd learn to resist. Took me forever to get the gm to agree to it.

Re: Your "2009" Pet Gaming Project I have a few things I'm working on. Moons of Tortuga: A cross between Spelljammer and Treasure Planet, with a little Pirates of the Caribbean thrown in. Archangel Academy: A setting for Teen Hero that I ran on Hero Central for a while. I'm thinking seriously of publishing it as an actual supplement. I've recently been playing with the idea of starting an online game with uplifted animals as the PC's, or a post apocalypse game based on Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales.

Re: This Power Armor suit [shas'o R'myrs] My usual guideline is size. If something is relatively form-fitting, I call it powered armor and build it as OIF or OIHID. If it's something a person climbs into, I call it a mech and build it as a vehicle. Even though vehicles look like a good deal, they certainly have their drawbacks. Especially if you have the person take disads/lims that signify needed maintenance. If you've ever seen the comic Appleseed, the main character had a massive armored exoskeleton called a landmate. After every combat, she had to have it checked out and repaired. Most of the time she told the mechanic to just fix what was absolutely necessary, because she had to pay for her own parts and repairs. There was a disad in some mech game or whatever called "Hangar Queen". It signified a vehicle that had to have a high degree of maintenance and spent more time in the garage than in combat. Also, vehicles have other problems. Such as your hero has to get out of them sooner or later. And when he does, he better have something to protect his pretty pink hide. Or be someplace safe, where it doesn't matter. Judging by what I see of the pic, I'd say it could go either way, depending on size. Personally, considering the way the vehicle rules work, I'd go with the less complicated option of building it as a powersuit.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread Nice pic! Mr. Miracle was one of my all-time favorites. I think I had almost the whole series at one point. I even built a gadgeteer in Champions with the name Mr. Miracle. He was a stage magician/escape artist who decided it was more of a challenge and thrill to fight crime.

Re: PA Hero -- Best all around ammunition Here's something else to think of; This question came up in real life when I was in the Army. We all sat around a gaming table one night, while we debated what we would do if a "downfall of civilization" scenario actually happened. A few things were decided: 1. Get the heck out of the city. Not only are food sources going to be limited, but there is going to be a LOT of competition for them. 2. Find someplace fairly isolated if you can. Most people will try to congregate to the population centers in the hope of finding food, ammunition, supplies or people willing to lend a hand. 3. Choose weapons that are good for more than just blowing big holes in people. The idea of surviving is to stay alive. Not engage in numerous gun battles. 4. Don't fort up someplace obvious. As has been proven throughout history, any stronghold can be taken. Keep a low profile, do not attract attention and do not put all your eggs in one basket. We decided that the best ammo to use for hunting would be the good old .22 caliber long rifle. It's good for bringing down most game of a size you will encounter. i.e. squirrels, pidgeons, rabbits and such. You can carry a LOT of it. It makes a fairly low sound when fired. No pesky rolling boom or loud crack when you shoot, which might attract unwanted attention. For actual defense, buying a .357 pistol was considered a good idea, because you can use .38 ammo as well as .357. Rifles were either 5.56/.223, or 30/06. Granted, this is your classic zombie nightmare setting, but I just thought I'd throw this in for the heck of it.

Re: What's the point? They're gonna escape anyways As the English philosopher, Edmund Burke said; "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." The heroes are out there to protect those who would fall prey to the human predators, make the world a safer place to live, and minimize the impact these crazed villains have on the world.

When good plans go bad. During a convention game, I was playing a shapeshifter called Proteus. The team's mission was to investigate possible wrong-doing on a space station. While they're on the station, Proteus seduces one of the research scientists and sleeps with her. While she's asleep, he sneaks into her closet and disguises himself as one of her blouses. The next day the scientist puts on the "blouse" and goes to work at the high-security facility on board. Meanwhile the rest of the team have found out there's a villain group who's built a particle beam to be used as a terror weapon, inside the facility. They decide to storm it at about the same time my character arrives. The team is fighting against the bad guys and not having an easy time of it. Proteus thinks he can enlist the girl's help and get her to work the control panel to shut down the defenses. So he starts whispering to her. Needless to say, the poor woman is a bit freaked out by the battle already, so having a disembodied voice talking to her is really pushing things. So Proteus tries to convince the woman who he really is. Proteus: "Remember that guy you went home with last night?" Scientist: "Yes. What does that have to do with anything?" Proteus: "I have a confession to make; I'm not just another all-cotton fabric." *Gives scientist a light squeeze by contracting around her.* Scientist: *Let's out a blood-curdling scream and promptly faints.* Proteus: "Okay. That didn't work as planned."

Re: PA Hero -- Best all around ammunition 9mm ammo is also quite common. Even replacing the .45 ACP round as the dominant small arms round in the U.S. (Blah! Didn't see the entry for 9mm ammo up there. Too early in the morning here! Sorry. ) Shotgun shells can only be reloaded a limited number of times, due to the stress on the materials. That also goes for most brass shells. Iirc, the recommended number of reloads is around 3-5. After that, you risk having the casing split, causing blowback and possibly jamming or destroying your weapon.

Re: PA Hero:How long would plumbing work? There was an interesting show on the History Channel a little while back. They still show re-runs now and again. Aftermath: Population Zero. It talks about what would happen if all the people suddenly disappeared. Even though a P-A world wouldn't have a sudden loss of all people, this could make a good benchmark for figuring out just what services exist and for how long. Here is the wiki for the timeline that I found. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=15954278

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" Having a Public ID means your hero is well-known. People know his favorite foods. What his favorite color is. They also have an idea what his weaknesses are. Who he dates. If he's married. Where he works. (If he has an actual job.) Secret ID means your hero takes great pains to have people NOT find out all this great stuff. Which means when the sh*t hits the fan, he can't just tear his clothes off/transform/go leaping into the sky, without seriously risking being found out. If your hero takes the middle road, it means that he is probably an up-and-comer, or someone who just does things in his own quiet way. He doesn't take any special measures to conceal what he does, but he doesn't flaunt it, either. However, if your hero plans on fighting crime, sooner or later he's going to start ticking people off. These people are going to want to know who this guy is. And they're going to start looking for him. Without taking any special precautions, sooner or later they're going to find him and express their displeasure. So, you can either take the points right off the bat for either sort of ID, or you can let things evolve and end up having to decide how to deal with people knowing who your hero is, along with where he lives, works, plays and who is important in his life. Most gm's are willing to work with players to shift disad points around as the character becomes more defined. Maybe he had a phobia about snakes, but now realizes that there's no snake in existence who can pierce his armored hide. At the same time he realizes he needs to do something about those pesky ninja leaping out of the fridge when he's trying to sneak a little snack at 3 a.m. So the gm decides to allow the player to shift points around to get a nice Secret ID along with some way to assume a new identity. Or he ends up with a Public ID and STILL has to deal with the ninja infestation problem.