red_eagle123

Re: Creating a prophecy Since the prophecy deals with only one artifact, and as described the artifact is a skull and spine item, a chalice really doesn’t apply. But that’s not a bad idea for an artifact to be found. I may still be able to use that (As I have yet to introduce Pestilence) Me Likee. But I’m gonna modify it slightly, see below. That is a good idea, I may even combine that with the Chalice artifact for Pestilence. But I decided to go with a name for the artifact of Death. Well, every reference I’ve ever seen hasn’t referred to it as England until very recently (recently in a historical context of course). As for Gaul, Gaul was the name of the people occupying France and the British Isles before Rome appeared. Celtic Gaul are normally associated with the Irish. The more generic Gaul term is generally associated with the France region, so I chose to go with that. Lastly, these are Elves making this prediction, they will use whatever term they darn well please, those silly Fae never abide by Mortal rules.

Re: Creating a prophecy The last two stanzas are the hardest. Because they'll both will take place (or have taken place) in the context of the game, it's harder to use historical reference points. Also since the In-Game time is roughly 2001, I can't use the most modern reference points. In my game, I'm also not referencing 9/11, for personal reasons. My players haven't asked about it, and I've never mentioned it, even in background material. So let's look at the first part, the creation of Death. In the New World, the scion of Rosmerta shall be gifted, The Deathbringer will return, a weapon of Death it shall become Rosmerta is the ancient ancestor of the PC in question. In this case the PC got her powers after coming into contact with some ancient jewelry Rosmerta used to wear. She thinks it's the jewelry giving her the powers, but the powers are actually innate. I refer to the artifact becoming a weapon of Death because it literally becomes El Muerte's scythe. From the mouth of the skull, a red energy scythe appears. El Muerte then stuck the spine on the end of a staff, making a huge honking scythe weapon. I got the inspiration for this from one of the Reaper Miniatures, specifically their avatar of Death mini. See Reaper Fig here What I need to do to make this wordier is reference how the PC's managed to disrupt El Muerte's plot to return fully to life, which required him to sacrifice those that betrayed him. Perhaps something like: In the New World, the scion of Rosmerta shall be gifted, The Deathbringer will return, When the blood of the betrayers is not yet spilled, a weapon of Death shall it become Not bad, could use a little bit of work. But not as much work as this last part. El Muerte will gather together the other three to form the Four Horsemen. Death shall summon the three before, And the three shall become as unto one The two the PC's have already met are Belatu Cadros, the Celtic God of War and Destruction. Two of his items (an axe and shield) will transform a mortal host into Belatu Cadros himself, who after so many years is quite mad. Plus he has a personal mad-on for the PC's for other reasons. The other is Tawiskaron, a Mohawk diety that was quite evil. He had a bow that, like Belatu Cadros above, takes over a mortal host. The Axe, the Shield, the Bow and the Skull/Spine artifact were all found by the archealogist PC at roughly the same time. So they're already tied together some how. I have yet to work out the specifics for Plague, in terms of how his powers manifest. But I have worked out what exactly his powers are. The Axe, Shield and Bow are currently in PRIMUS hands, after the PC's defeated Belatu Cadros and Tawiskaron they handed the weapons over. El Muerte was recently defeated as well and the artifact handed over to PRIMUS. So right now all the items could be in the same location. I have a new PC that will be joining the game, and I've decided to break from my current storyline a bit by having the New PC come to the other PC's for help because Muerte, War and Famine have all broken out, possibly through some fault of the new PC. That'll create a instant bond (Knowing my players) that should get the new PC/Player into the game and group quickly. So I better finish up this prophecy... maybe I can reference the new PC in the last stanza.

Re: Creating a prophecy Now for the Famine prophecy. I'm a little happier with this one than the previous War Stanza. Again I had to do a bit of research. I found out that in Ireland, the Irish Potato Famine was called 'An Gorta Mór '. So I've definately got to use that. And since I know Ireland didn't always rely on potatoes as their food crop, that should probably be mentioned too. And lastly, thanks to my many years playing Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG, I know that the ancient name for Ireland is Hibernia. So now I have a baseline to start working on. In the land of Hibernia, a new stock the Celts rely, into this the Deathbringer returns, An Gorta Mór will follow, the land of Hibernia the Celts shall flee Technically it was the Celtic Gauls that lived in Ireland way back when, but since I used the word Gaul in the first stanza, I didn't want to confuse the issue. Once again I will have to go back and retouch this stanza, make it a bit wordier if I can. I chose to use the word 'stock' instead of another word because stock is such a generic word. Is it a food, a marketable item, an export of some sort? Again the idea is to keep things vague until someone looks back on the event, curse that 20/20 hindsight.

Re: Creating a prophecy For the second Stanza I reference the 30 year war. As I'd previously mentioned I had to pick a war that happened pre-20th century that people would likely know about. Also, due to timing, I had to find one that took place somewhere between the 1500's and the 1700's. I finally settled on the 30 year war, though I'm not totally sold on it. Doing a little research for the 30 year war, Wikipedia shows that the war started when Bohemians started revolting, and it turned into a war between religions. So using those bits of information I cobbled together my first draft of the War Prophecy: When the revolt of Bohemians occur, a mortal the Deathbringer shall find anew, A war of thirty shall be waged, religion the blame given, Deathbringer the cause. Now this is only the first draft, and what I notice is that it's not as wordy as the first stanza. So I need to work on that to get it to match the feel of the first one. I'll have to get back to that, I still have five more stanzas to pound out. (Luckily the game isn't scheduled to take place until July 23, lots of scheduling conflicts this summer).

Re: Creating a prophecy The first stanza or whatever is the one I'm most happy about, for various reasons. During the War of the Hundred, when the lands of Gaul and Albion do war, the Bringer of Death shall sweep out of the west, inflicting upon mortals a Plague most Black that shall spare neither king nor commoner First the reference to the war itself. My use of the words 'War of the Hundred', I hoped to make a phrase that looking at it prior to the Hundred Years war (When the Black Plague hit), nobody would know what that meant. Hundred nations? Hundred Killed? Hundred participants? I specifically left the reference to mortals in because it shows the prophecy was created by someone other than humans, in this case the Fae. The phrase 'Plague most Black' is another descriptive phrase I enjoy. Again it's a phrase that when looked back on is quite obvious what it refers to (Black Plague), but if someone were to try and predict what it meant, they'd be hard-pressed to do so. The reference to Gaul and Albion I left in there because I wanted to obscure when the War of the Hundred took place. In this case I'm referring to France (Gaul) and Britain (Albion) warring. Since the Fae are so danged old, I felt they'd be more likely to use names for countries they're more familiar with. Again, I'm not happy with the artifact name. Guess I'll have to work on that some.

For an upcoming game, I'm working on a prophecy that will be presented to one of the PC's. However I'm having a hard time coming up with decent wording for such a thing. I don't know why, I'm just not happy with the wording. I thought for fun I'd post my thought processes on the boards as I work through the prophecy, see what others think. For one, I really dislike the name of the artifact I'm using, it seems far too cheesy for me. I'd like something with a bit more pizzazz. The problem is, I can't find any words to snazz up what is essentially a skull & spine fused together. The background of the prophecy (as will be presented to the PC), is that it was made over 700 years ago, by a member of the Fae (Hence references to mortals and using old names for kingdoms). In the prophecy, it foretells the coming of an artifact that will instigate or otherwise be responsible for five events. One War, One Plague, One Famine, Creation of Death and the combination of the four into the Horsemen. The War is the 30 years War. I wanted to pick a war that most people would have at least heard of, but didn't take place in the 20th century (Since this artifact was found by an archealogist, I wanted it to have been buried for awhile). The Famine is the Irish Potato Famine. This one was fairly straight forward, and definately the most easily recognizable famine pre-20th century. The Plague was another easy one, the Black Plague, aka the Bubonic Plague of the 14th century. The creation of Death ties into Takofanes partially ressurecting Professor Muerte. Muerte tries to return fully to life and is stopped. He attempted to use the artifact to kill the two members of Eurostar who betrayed him. With that unsuccessful, he's going ot use the artifact as part of his scythe, and has taken to calling himself simply 'El Muerte'. Hence, Creation of Death, the artifact itself becoming a Weapon of Death. The last event has yet to happen. El Muerte is going to gather three others and form the horsemen of the apocalypse (Or Four Horsemen, or something else equally dramatic, I haven't decided on the exact terminology to be used). The PC's have already met War and Famine, they have yet to meet plague. My intention is to print out the prophecy, and have a friend do some calligraphy work to make it look like an old scroll, then another friend start scribbling notes on the parchement as if trying to figure out the prophecy through the years (So use different ink colors/styles, fade some of the text out, etc). The hope is that since the first four events have already taken place, this gives the player the sense of foreboding and impending doom that the fifth one is upon them.

Re: How would you use Takofanes? Well in my defense, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Not long before I ran that adventure I realized my little party was slowly meeting all the major power players in the Champs Universe, but never actually fighting them. This was just another way to continue the theme... They saved Dr. Destroyer's life in 1930's Germany (Before he was Dr. Destroyer) They saved members of Eurostar from Muerte's hands They fought Zodiac, only to have reality re-ordered and that fight no longer took place in the new reality They got sucked into Takofanes' plot to examine the psyche of those superhero things....

Re: How would you use Takofanes? I too have only used him once. He was the catalyst for a new supervillain team I'm forming. In order to better understand the mind of a superhero, he partially resurrected Professor Muerte, Told Muerte how to return fully to life by using the blood of the betrayer and pointed Muerte towards Scorpia and Fuermacher. Then he let the heroes know exactly what Muerte was doing. Would the heroes rescue known criminals from dying, or would they let Muerte finish his spell to return him fully to life. Muerte was foiled, and now has a severe mad on for the PC's. He's going to group up with two body-possessing god artifacts (Who can be easily be molded into the roles of War and Famine) then form the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In a 'teach them how to play' game with the players using Sapphire and Defender vs. Harpy and Bulldozer: 'It's fun to pick on the handicapped'

Re: x3 Now see, I have to disagree. I saw the movie yesterday and, while I don't think it sucked as bad as the Hulk, wasn't the greatest movie. It was merely passable to me. The multi-layered plot felt way too scattered for me. And what was the purpose of having Jean there at the end anyhow? Her little freakout session didn't do anything towards the main plot, other than to show how bad@$$ she was with her powers and how bad@$$ Wolvie is with those claws and that healing of his. IMO they could have cut the Jean story, or at least changed it so there were two threats going on at the same time, instead of Jean standing around staring till everyone else is defeated, battles over, yay! Oh wait, Jean has to do something now. As for other bits, they did do a good with Kitty, and with Iceman. I would hav e liked to have seen more of Piotr. I'm also not fond of how they killed off a bunch of the cast. As someone else pointed out, why they took Kitty and and Iceman into the deathzone and left behind a bunch of the other students doesn't make much sense. But then those are the only ones (outside of Siryn) we saw with any real powers so.... As I said, overall it was okay. I'd give it 3 to 3 1/2 stars out of 5

Re: Champs and players with no comic book background When I started my current champions game back right after 5th Ed. first came out, 2 out of the 6 players had never read comics, never seen a comic book movie or otherwise been exposed to super-heroes as a medium. 2 Of the other players had been exposed through media (Namely seeing movies, such as Mystery Men or Batman) but never read the comics. Of the remaining two, I'm not sure how deep his comic knowledge was but he'd played Champions back in 4th and possibly 3rd editions, and the last one is as voracious a comic reader as I am (He and I frequently discuss the state of comics) It took awhile to get the two complete newbies up to speed, but now they'r pretty well versed in the basic tropes of comic books and their heroes and villain stories.

Re: A couple questions for GMs I don't require a background from my players, though it definately helps me out in writing stories tailored to the character. In my current game I had 4 newcomers to Role Playing, so I got verbal rough backgrounds from them, and have since tailored them further, often adding in surprises or connections to other PC's they never thought of. I like to have some freedom to do this if I can, so a fully fleshed out background starting from birth to current activites, with an accompanying timeline and account of all important events (I've been a player in games where this happened in College) is too limiting in my opinion. As others have said, Psychological Limitations will come into play naturally, as will some social and physical limitations. Vulnerabilities and Hunteds I have yet to write a game around. In fact, there is one hunted some of the players have that I haven't used yet, at least not directly. They've been referenced off-screen, and indirectly. But I've never brought them out to face the PC's directly.

Re: Another *fresh* look at some of our faves. It looks like it's Songbird to me, of the Thunderbolts. Which is odd, considering Songbird is a Marvel character and all the others are DC characters.

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign? Foxbat has become a regular feature in my game. To the point that my just mentioning Foxbat makes half of them do facepalms accompanied with groans of mock-pain. At the moment, Foxbat is running around calling himself Kitsune Dragon, as an homage to one of the PC's who nearly killed him. He's playing the part of the hero, but the players are all dead certain that's not going to last. They're right of course, but I'm just waiting for the right moment to spring the 'Heel Change' on them. Foxbat has appeared 4 times now. By comparison, other published characters/teams that have appeared in my campaign include: Mechanon (2 appearances, no other references, no other plans ATM) Eurostar (1 Appearance, numerous references, no other plans ATM) Dr. Muerte (1 appearance, more appearances coming soon) Zodiac (1 appearance, no other references, possibly another scheduled appearance soon) San Francisco Protectors (1 appearance, numerous references, no other plans) NY Champions (1 appearance) Dr. Destroyer (1 appearance, numerous references made, another appearance scheduled) Viper (2 appearances, numerous references, no other plans ATM)

Re: Sins of the Flesh - a campaign conundrum (Help Needed) Thank you for the responses so far, I like them so far so I'm hoping it doesn't sound like I'm shooting ideas down, just wanting to point out (From my thinking) possible holes or flaws that the player will try to use to unravel the whole situation. This was one of my lines of thoughts. Specifically the victim somehow wound up in hell and Talcior, the only being known to have the ability to travel there, is called to the stand to prove the person sent there wasn't the real victim, but a doppleganger or something. However that leads to two problems in my mind: Since Talcior's ability is simply opening a gate to hell, what's to prove that the person stepping through the portal is really the victim (Real or Doppleganger?). Given that this is a court case, if there were a way to prove the victim in Hell really was the victim, the use of his power would have to be something that could be done while Talcior is on the stand. Still, as you said Zeropoint, it raises some possibilities. An interesting suggestion. Definately has merits. However I would wonder why this witness wasn't available at the beginning of the trial and is thus a surprise witness. I suppose if it got worked a little bit that the presence of Talcior on the crime scene wasn't made public knowledge somehow and was only revealed at the last minute... His character is the one that's guilty - he did it, and his friends are covering for him to protect his secret ID.

One of my players is having a birthday coming up real soon. Due to Real Life, he's been unable to play for awhile, and likely will continue to be unable to play for a while after his party. However, at his party, he has agreed to let me run a game of Champions, since he's missing the usual gang. Now, I decided right quickly that the game at his party has to center around his character, but at the same time can't have any lingering campaign effects (at least till the player returns to full time action). Hence, a stand-alone. I got inspired by an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically the episode 'Future Imperfect' (synopsis here: Future Imperfect). To that end, I came up with a scenario where the character will wake up and find himself in some odd scenarios. What he won't realize at first is that each of these scenarios are designed as tests. Tests of what? Well, the character in question is a demon, Talcior, with a human alter ego of the Lawyer Victor Blair. Because he's a demon, certain factions are hesitant to believe his willingness or ability to be a 'hero' as he claims. I've come up with three scenarios, with ways to blend them together. Each tests the character in different ways. The problem I'm having is the final tidbit for the second scenario. In this scenario Victor awakens to find himself as a member of a three judge panel, helping to preside over a court trial. Currently on the stand is a mentalist, who seems to be trying to affect Judge Victor. Order will be restored in the court, with the Head Judge making it clear that the mentalist was trying to influence the decision of the judges and therefore his testimony is dismissed from the case. The trial will continue onward. Through testimony and other bits, the following will be revealed: Most of Victor's former teammates are on trial for murder The trial against the former teammates (The Protectors) is going exceedingly well, to the point that the Protectors are sure to lose and be executed The defense has decided to call a last minute surprise witness that is sure to exonerate the defendants This surprise witness is Talcior. The test here is, will Victor give up his secret ID in order to save his friends? Obviously the point here is that the world doesn't know Talcior and Victor are one in the same. The player usually plays this up in the games (when he was actively playing). The problem I'm having is coming up with a scenario where Victor's testimony somehow exonerates beyond a shadow of a doubt the Protectors. Ideally, it should be something that only Talcior can know or prove. In my mind I'm trying to set the situation up much like the recent 'Sacrifice' storyline in Superman, where Wonder Woman is seen by everyone killing Max Lord (Of course nobody saw what lead up to the murder). Since Talcior and Victor don't necessarily share the same skills/talents, I would prefer for the last minute rescue come directly from Talcior himself, which further hamstrings me. Talcior is a basic pseudo-brick, a demon with wings, claws and life support. The only outstanding ability he has is that he can teleport to Hell and back (Extra Dimensional Travel). I've been crunching on this for a few days now, and my brain is starting to get worn out. So I am asking, pleading even for some help. There are many skilled idea-makers out there, any advice on how to clear this up? P.S. I realize there are other problems here, most notably that Victor will obviously try to keep his Secret ID, such as by excusing himself from the bench to use the restroom and while 'away' appear as Talcior. I have plans for heading such tactics off (I, as GM, will act as the senior most judge and will halt preceedings until all the judges are present, etc etc). I also realize that normally a judge with clear connections to the defendants would cause a mistrial, I'm ignoring that little bit. The purpose is to force the decision on the character: Save his Secret ID, or save his friends.

Re: Idea: Foxbat's Justice Association The Excremental Behlgor the Unintelligible (Sonic Screamer that's too so powerful he knocked out his teeth and tongue) The Smoulderer (Can't quite generate enough heat to ignite into flames) Go-Rilla (A Speedster Gorilla) Ghost Talker (Native American whose powers are that he can talk to ghosts)

Re: Idea: Foxbat's Justice Association Okay, stop reading my game recaps. And the team of incompetents are the Redeemed now (Yes, they once went by The Rejected and were misunderstood villains but we try to look past that). In my game, Foxbat pulled off a couple capers, driving the team crazy, but it wasn't till the caper where he re-wrote Mechanon's programming and used him to show off how great of a villain he, Foxbat, truly was. Of course in the ensuing scuffle Foxbat got hit in the back and darn near killed. Not too long ago he made a VERY public spectacle proclaiming his turning over a new leaf, all thanks to the insights provided by his defeat at the hand of Foxbat's new favorite hero He moved into their old city of Milwaukee and gathered together a bunch of incompetent villains, The Rejected, and reformed them into his sidekick heroes.

Re: Dr. Destroyer monologue I just sent him a copy of the Monologue. I needed a copy of it myself, so it was good that he asked for it.

Re: All-New Iron Age Zoo Crew? I haven't read the actual issue, but my understanding is that they Iron Age'd the Zoo Crew by having Alley Cat Abra kill Little Cheese. Why I do not know. A new member called American Eagle helped Captain Carrot over come his problems and reform the Zoo Crew.

I'm working on building my own version of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and I just came up with a great idea for Plague. The problem comes in how to build the power I came up with. Here's the idea: Anyone Plague touches gets infected. Once infected, the victim will go on a mindless rampage, attacking anyone nearby who is not already infected. Anyone they touch is likewise infected. While infected, the victim has heightened strength & defenses. If the victim is restrained, and completely unable to move for 2 of their phases, the plague burns itself out of the victim. I can figure most of it out, the part that I'm stuck on is the 'spreading from victim to victim' portion. Since it's a super-villain I'm not too worried about cost. Also since I will be using this against NPC's and PC's, I'd like to give the PC's a slim chance to resist it (However repeated exposures reduce that chance to resist), but any NPC's are automatically infected (I thought about making it based on Ego rolls, but my Players didn't really buy up their Ego's at all). Last thing, just for fun, I decided that anyone who's infected turns a beet red color, to easily distinguish who's infected and who's not. So, I turn to the assembled herodom, is it possible to construct a power like this, and if so, how would you educated Hero scholars build it? P.S. Yes, I got the idea from the Return of Optimus Prime cartoon plague, so sue me for not being original

Re: For all the miniature loonies like me, my massive trading list... Psssst, Hey Proditor, remember me? Just curious, don't you like, owe me some Heroclix?

Re: Flash (DC character, not the power) Jay Garrick can only run fast, that's it. Barry Allen added abilities, such as creating tornado's from his arms, vibrating through walls, etc. Wally gained the ability to add or decrease speed from others for a limited time. Wally can siphon off speed from others to add it to his own. Those are the major power differences between the three.

Re: Original Supervillain Groups -- Get Creative! The PC's were all pulled together because they all answered an open audition call for heroes to serve as representatives for a company (Read: Corporate Superhero Stooges). The first villian team they ran into? People who answered the call but weren't picked. They banded together under the title of 'The Rejected', and have made a few reappearances. Members include: Spiderkin - Half Spider body, able to control all manner of insects Smoulderer - Not quite able to burst into flames... Axehand - Psychopathic teenager who replaced his hands with cyber-axes Behlgor the Unintelligible - Able to generate power sonic screams, so powerful he's blown his own tongue and teeth away Excremental - A walking pile of sewage Stone - Giant rock body, mind of a tiny pebble Slick - Had a backpack assembly that let him shoot out streams of oil

Re: New Global Guardians PBEM Campaign Looking For Players Re-posted from the Mailing List on behalf of the GM, and for any players who aren't on the chat list who submitted: I slept on it an extra night, just to make sure. What follows is the team I think will provide the most interesting group dynamics and storylines for the GG4. With so many great submissions, there were characters I really liked that I just could not fit in. Good luck in the next campaign, and thank you for submitting. Without further ado, will the players for the following heroes please subscribe to the GG4 mailing list? guardians4-subscribe@globalguardians.com Amy Amazing, played by Donald Stone Barrier, played by Zen Fairborn Elementalist, played by Miq Millman Mr. Slink, played by Thomas Lundin Slave, played by Jack Butler Spectrum, played by Mark Ayen Twilight, played by Kristopher Gruner