Kzinbane

The real clincher is that I prefer to remain off the most wanted list (or any wanted list). Personally I don't care if the super fools think I'm responsible for consorting with known terrorists (the nuclear babe), guilty of animal cruelty (so far I have only tested the life to gold power on plants and a dog - golden retriever - and birds (gold finches of course). I now have two idiots the heroes had watching my establishment though that are happy to volunteer (with a bit of mind control help). So far I have not seen anything here I have not thought of myself - except the "use a sumo wrestler" idea (LOL, great idea!). I'd have to re-negotiate with the demon to see if he'd make diamonds. He's not too happy as it is making Gold, but he does get his sacrifice. Note - most demons are not happy at all unless you just let them go on the Mortal plane then they cheer up quite a bit. He may be convinced to make Pleutonium though once I tell him what trouble it could be put to (bwah ha ha) - that's what nuke babe wants anyway. Killing them may be the best bet - just covering it up is the trouble! I have the WMD (Women of mass destruction) Anthrax, Saren and Megaton (Ann, Sara and Megan) - and Void at my call (well, and of course I could do it all alone but why make it anything near fair?). Oh decisions, decisions. What is a super villain to do. I have 'til full moon Sunday (game day) to decide...

Hello. My name is Demonicus and I have a bit of a problem with some local super heroes. I am hoping this discussion board can provide me some advice. Here is the situation. In my world one can’t do a permanent transform except under very unusual circumstances. Even then it’s difficult and takes time and an unusual mix of powers. Anyway to make it short I know how to do it now, and can only do it under a full moon and in a place open to the sky AND with the assistance of a nuclear powered villain I’ve teamed up with. Basically I build a containment circle, call up a demon who’s name I know – sacrifice my victim to the demon and the victim is changed to solid gold – stabilized by the nuke lady. The heroes know about the who (me) what (changing living things to gold) when (full moon) and why (GOLD!!!). They know something of the where (open sky) too. One hero is a mage and by using various sorts of detects can almost certainly track the summoning and transformation ritual. What do I do? Kill heroes – let them come and wipe them out? More would come next full moon and I’d have a hornet’s nest stirred up as far as law enforcement. Capture heroes? Then what? Decoy them? Hmmm, been thinking about this one. Skip this full moon? Possible, but that bitc.. I mean nice nuclear powered lady insists on being paid. I could possibly find other means to pay her and let the heroes chase around all full moon day for nothing. I am not currently wanted by any law enforcement but the heroes know what I’m up to – heh heh, they can’t prove a thing though. There are many, many more things I can do beyond what I have mentioned. I know one of the heroes reads this forum but that’s fine, I want him to know I am aware of his plans to try to stop me. So please come up with some good ideas. Let the foolish hero read the responses and worry about which (if any) I choose. Fool, if he’d just join me I’d make him very rich… Demonicus… channeled by Kzinbane

I don't think I would worry too much about the exact statistics of the planet buster UNLESS it was somthing I was going to be using frequently - and it had strengths and weaknesses, etc. For example if the target had no magnetic field the thing wouldn't work or some other disadvantages. As for the planet buster doing anything to a star that's a totally other story. Remember Earth is so small compared to the sun that it would look like just another sunspot. And the sun is a pretty small star. Top that off with the fact that stars work differently than planets and you could in theory have a weapon that destroys stars but does nothing to planets! More likely the planet weapon - such as Star Wars' death star would have no noticeable effect on star

Hank McCoy. It's very hard to NOT copy a super hero or villain. Other than by coming up with something really out there, almost any super you make will be similar if not a copy of some comic type. Some fun things to do though is to make visual changes - much like the very intelligent brick. Make a skinny 5 foot tall girl a 100 ton hefting brick. Make the big muscle man an energy blaster. The werewolf could be a pacifist. One other thing I have done, is to use local legends - in my case from the native American tribes in the area. Their legends talk of mountain spirits, water spirits, thunderbirds and other things that "could" turn out to be supers of one type or another.

Bwah ha ha Let's see, what could be done with a blood sample from a mutant or otherwise? Well first off I'd see about what has already been discussed - what powers and weankesses might the supers have? Depending on my ability to tweak things I may give some merc's powers aimed perticularly at the heroes weaknesses. In other words I might design counterparts for them. I know this has been done in comics many times, the answer is to simply switch "dancing partners". It's still a good one though. The best I could think of is to design a virus that infects just specific people, but can use others as carriers. I could then innoculate my villains with it and if the supers get in their way they will likely be infected. Beyond that - what the virus does is up to you. Remove, change powers? Cause them to itch everywhere? Make them laugh hystercially whenever they think about fighting crime? Make them dissolve? Lots and lots of ideas... heh, they wake up the day after fighting the villains and all male heroes are female, and vice versa. oh the chaos.

Universe creation My take on creating a universe for gaming is to start locally then move outward. What supers are they likely to encounter often? If the group is going to be like the JLA and heads anywhere on the planet (and beyond) then obviously more work needs to be done. If they are instead city based, then figure out who the supers are in the home town first, and flesh them out pretty well at least as far as an idea on what powers they have, maybe what motivations, and relationship with authorities. In "my" town (Porltand) for example I have a Vampire hero (don't ask), and a very mysterious mage lady. Portland's not too big, didn't figure there would be too many residant heroes. I have one more that gets around the west coast - he's either a powerful nut case who thinks he's an angel, or he really is one. No one knows for sure. Outside of Portland I have hero/villains conceptionally built - meaning I know who/what they are but have not "built" them as such (payed for powers, disads, etc). The further you go from Portland the less I have down. For example if my team gets a wild hair up their behinds and wants to fly to Moscow I'd have to come up with something from scratch. If instead though they want to go somewhere far more likely - Seattle or Vancouver BC - I "know" who is there and what they can do. I'd have to take a while to put them on paper in Herodesigner (get it if you don't have it) but that's all.

here are some Here are a few I have used as villains in past games, I won't go through what their powers are 'cause one of the pairs at least is in my current game Null and Void, Cut and Run, The Lady and the Tiger, Hammer and Nail. My favorite which I just remembered and MUST bring back again is Death and Taxes.

My opinion All the groups except perhaps the SFPD you mention are at least in this reality (post 9/11) working together MUCH better than they ever did previously. As a GM running a campaign out of Portland I find that keeping the contacts limted is easier. My universe is quasi-champions with a bit o' Marvel built in and I chose to use Primus as my government super watch group much like Marvel has SHIELD. My group has a Primus agent and an FBI agent assigned as the contact for each organization. The PD also has a contact/working relationship. As GM though it's literally your reality - you are "God". You can make the various govt. agencies suspicious of one another and competitive or whatever you like! I just like to minimize my NPC's to make my GMing easier. Also the heroes dont' have to spend time calling or reporting to each contact person, they can just let one or two know then get back to investigation and/or battle

From the Villain standpoint As I mentioned "my" villains - well some of them at least learn as they go. In particular the organizational ones - such as Viper or my local west coast mob group or the Chinese Tong learn as they go. Debriefing is an obvious thing to happen after an agent or super working for the groups encounters one or more of the local super types. What were their tactics, how did they work together (did they work together), what powers did they use, etc. Over time that and the addition of occasional TV footage of a big battle and most organize villains will have a good idea on how to deal better with the super group. Information is a commodity too - it's not far from likely that one person who knows a lot about the local supers could sell information to other interested parties. So Spellbinder has a teleport that gets him out of an entangle. This will be a big help for him the first time it's used, maybe more if "word" doesn't get out that entangles are not useful on him. Since I am a super villain at heart (just waiting to gain powers somewhat impatiently) I know what I would do (if I HAD the darn powers that never seem to get here) in many a game situation. The escape entangle t'port would be a minor eyebrow raiser and then - well ok, then let's try something else. No big deal. Everyone is having fun (I ask them for feedback frequently) and so am I. That IS the name of the game.

The problem we have had is that the more players the more trouble getting together regularly. With 4 it has been pretty regular at a once a week Sunday session. 3 heroes seems like not enough in some ways, but then again the campaign city (Portland) has only about a million people in the metro area - maybe 3 is about right. Back when I used to GM champions though... (1984 - boy am I dating myself) I was used to 6 heroes - twice the current number. I almost found that easier as I didn't have to worry about killing them all off as much! one or more would always come up with some power that would save the day. With my current 3 and knowing my super villains as I do... I worry.

The problem with these discussions - though they are fun to wrangle with - is that even in one character's own comic their powers do not stay constant from issue to issue due to writers changing and what have you. Superman is a perfect example - back prior to the crisis he could push planets around. I have not read Supes for a while, but I get the impression that his powers are heading back "up" again. Hulk is a good Marvel example. He originally was just plain invulnerable to damage then the writers decided to make him a really, really fast healer too (or instead depending on how you look at it). Hulk back in his "hulk smash" days was theoretically limited in strengh only by a limitation on how mad he could get. The thing that made him angriest was finding someone who thinks he's tough as Hulk. Sooo Superman Vs Hulk in a puch session "should" end with Hulk eventually getting so mad he is stronger than Superman - then it's a matter of who can take punishment longer. Of course supes has other abilities to use - note I just mention strength fighting - no flying, heat vision, etc. My take on this however is that if the two worlds were merged then things would take time to come to a head. If there is time then I don't see many DC people able to match the abilities of Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom. Heaven help DC if those two work together and have a bit of time to study their opponents before they act. I admit to not being as up to date on DC but Luthor seems very out-classed by Doom or Richards. If Doom had a mad-on for Superman I would not give supes much time to get his affairs in order...

infected Once a character is infected then that means that whatever the defense was (life support, etc) has already failed to stop the "bug". The CON roll seems like it could be used to either slow or stop the effects of a disease. Some diseases though are nasty. I would imagine you could build ebola for example as a disease that reduces CON even as you are hoping to use that CON to fight the disease! If you fail the roll (and it would probably be CON+ some number of dice at that for Ebola) you loose 1 point of CON and some number of points of body. Each time frame (ebola - probably once every 2 hours) you roll again. Shudder. I never thought of making a diseases and poisons list with effects based on the real thing. AIDS would be another one that would reduce CON - assuming CON to be the immune system. HERO's book of diseases... yep, I can see a market for THAT soon!

Just curious as to how many players most Champions games have in them. Mine has 4 total (I am GM currently, 3 heroes). How big is YOUR group of supers?

UG! I can't believe I forgot this one: Popeye and Spinich! I think it works on anyone though - I can't remember for sure if Bluto ever ate it or Olive. I seem to remember a termite or ant accidently eating some at one point and causing some serious problems.

The mix My group is only 4 people right now, one (me) GM. Given the fairly low numbers I thougt (and still do) that having one (the mage) with a VPP that can do lots of things would be a good idea. the other two are fairly standard - one an armored semi-brick (has several suits he can switch around to as needed) the third is a guy that throws things to the effect of making pretty powerful EB's and such. I currently don't see things being too out of balance - and I am slowly introducing them to "my" villains and style of GMing so that they don't all get killed right off or something otherwise unpleasant. Last game for example was the first I pulled a sniper on them. Lure them somewhere then have a sniper several blocks away take a shot out of the blue on them. Next time I bet they look around a bit for snipers... So far so good. Next game may be a bit of a clincher... we shall see. Bwah ha ha ha.

JLA animated is on every weekday evening now for an hour around here. Been watching it and got thinking - ya know, I think just about all if not many of the characters could almost be built at or not too far over 350 points! I mean even Superman gets knocked around badly (though his main power seems to be can't be hurt = damage reduction perhaps). GL's ring only really protects when he see's the attack, a simple rock or something coming at him unknown (or shrapnel from an explosion) can knock him out. Flash, Wonder woman, Batman... all are lower powered copies of their comic versions - Martian Manhunter too for that matter. So has anyone given a shot at putting the JLA AS Superman down on HERO paper? Others?

Here is a place where my physics knowledge really gets in the way of my GMing. One of the players in the current game is HotShot - his main attack power is to use objects and turn them into PD energy blasts (think Bulls Eye from dare devil - sort-of). One effect he likes is bouncing an attack. How does - for example captain America's shield, or Cyclops' eye beam "know" not to damage the first, second and however many objects it hits, but DO damage the villain or other target? If Hotshot tosses his ball bearing at a wall in order to hit someone standing behind him why doesn't the wall end up taking most of the energy from the blast? Yes, yes I know, this is a comic book game so I have been letting him go so far with that (last game though made him pay a dice for the ricochet). This continues to bug me though. Does it bug anyone else? Am I being too logical in this instance and should let it go? Am I missing a rule or something that limits bouncing attacks (other than DCV/OCV)?

Not dead but Well he's not dead but has changed a lot so... Bane (Batman) used a power serum pumped in to up his strength greatly. That's the only other one I can think of

Absorption and armor - only against electricity attack/damage or a damage reduction vs electricity added to an absorption may work. A lot depends on how you visualize it to work. Things get complicated at times.. if it's 110 US household power maybe he has to be within a few feet to charge up. If he happens to be fighting outside near the 440v (or higher) power lines perhaps he's less limited. If he's fighting right at a power station... well, you get the picture. Stretching to produce the effect of an arc of power is a nice effect. For more fun you could add a damage shield to the stretch so that anyone in the way gets shocked. Don't forget a few points in limitations potentially to reflect the brown out or black out he may cause a neighborhood while he's fighting and absorbing power from the grid! heh, also... too much and he'll cause the grid breakers to flip and there goes his power source...

Wow! Well now, I did not expect my "simple" question to open such a proverbial can of worms! We were laughing a bit about this spell yesterday during the game. They way it's written up is that if he gets in the team jet and straps in he'll port out at once. Could be bad if the thing were about to crash... Anyhow I think I'm OK with it generally, and will have the spell work as directed Vs any physical entangles such as ropes, hand cuffs, blobs of capture foam and probably even somewhat more exotic things like energy webs or magical crimson bands. If I do end up with someone that can entangle using some other form - say based on gravity or something then things will be tricky. Theoretically gravity restrains him right now and he's not porting around trying to escape the Earth's embrace (Gravity is a harsh mistress, after all). In the end entangle is only a small part of what can happen. Yes he escapes them easily (I might add suspiciously easily) and yes it does strike me as dagerously close to the "save lots of points on limitation, spend a few on avoiding limitation" arguements I have seen. "my" villains are not generally stupid though. If it doesn't work they'll come up with something else. There are so many things one can do with the system that the entangle issue in the end is fairly minor. I had a fairly un-super type with a very nice rifle and special bullets knock out the mage yesterday in one shot (much to his annoyance) - so what if an entangle won't work? My villains live static lives outside of the game and learn and advance over time. Many of them rush to watch news footage of the heroes when they can, to get ideas on figthing style, what powers they exhibit, etc. Heck I have one that (give away to spellbinder) has made a point to interview most bad guys the supers have taken down. He's learned a LOT and aught to be interesting when and if he encounters them... So Spellbinder/CapedCrusader... Entangle port will work most of the time. When things get dicey (no pun intended) such as with a gravity grab or something weird we'll figure something out. A dice roll for it to work or something. After that #$*@#* roll needing a 1 on 1d6 to keep mental lock on the bad guy yesterday you can obviously rely on luck!

One thing I am sure to do is to have my villains learn as they go along. For example in my game yesterday Viper learned a bit about the mind scan abilities of one of the PC's. You can bet they're going to be working on a way to couteract it or otherwise deal with it. SO next time Viper is used, they're a bit more capable. When he does some new trick - assuming viper agents get away to tell any tales - they'll have yet another up-dated file on the super. The other thing I do when a "new" super group pops in and establishes itself is to have the villains (smart ones anyway) work to get the supers to show off. My last "issue" of the game was just that - a fake bomb in a public area lured the supers to the spot where they were attacked by some mercs. Whoever was behind this had cam's, audio, potentially other sensors set up to monitor the entire thing. This person (players read here so I have to be a bit criptic) or these people now know quite a bit about the hero group. For sure one good way to piss of your group is to have a villain group that knows all their weaknesses right off the bat. Later in the game howerver, with good reason for this to happen... they're not as liable to get pissed as to say oh S*** - which to me is exactly what I want!

Mages Well I wanted to allow him to be a mage - which kind of means VPP invent anything he can think of. I figured this would be too much so limited him to having only so many spells available at any given time (slots we call them). He usually has an EB, an entanble, a mental blast and defenses in them but can change them around given time. He recently made a cloak of flight so he doesn't need to keep a flight spell in a slot for example. Magic is tricky though in "my" universe. I think magic effects should more fallow dictionary terms than Hero terms so "entangle" by default means somethign other than say - what a high gravity environment would do. In my mind if you use "entangle" as defined and used in HERO/Champions it's a bit too open ended. Yes, it may stop you from moving just like duct tape, but it's VERY different. By Game day Sunday he'll no doubt read this thread so we'll be able to hash it out long before a villain nails him with one (probably - even I am not absolutely sure what is going to happen from game to game...). As usual, I appreciate the responses and suggestions!

I can't really consider that he's abusing the gestures limitation as he's only got so many slots for spells and he's using one up with his entangle escape auto-port. I need to see exactly how it's written down I guess (no doubt he'll soon read this post and be happy to show me the write up on the spell). I have thoght of a few "fun" ways to deal with it. My villains don't know about it yet (yes I know, I am them but I don't tell them everything I know). Once they find out then they can use some intersting counter effects.

Well Hmmm! I see fairly good reaons both for and against using HL in a super's type game. I think I will default back to one of my favorite sayings - if it works, don't F*** with it. Alternatively if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If the guy (good bullseye type) runs into an ultra-brick and is having lots of problems I may let him try for a head shot or otherwise give him a chance to do extra damage otherwise it's really not been an issue. It just struck me that it may be fun to add for effect and game flavor. I'll use it sparingly - otherwise attacks that hit will be considered to hit center of mass. One thing I always consider in gaming - if the good guys can do it so can the bad guys. I'm sure the players don't want someone to entangle the groups brick and blow his brains out with a called shot through an eye hole!

I have in my game a mage that uses incantations and gestures to cast spells. He has (wisely) built himself a triggered spell that will teleport him a short distance if he is entangled. Here's the clincher. By book terms entangle can be used to cover a huge number of situations all the way from webbing around you to a strength drain, force bubble - whatever - entangle is the effect regardless, you are restricted in movement. What do other GM's think about this? Are all entangles the same and a trigger to port when entangled should always work regardless of the actual device or power doing the entangling? I like to think I am a pretty fair GM. There are times though where I feel it prudent to see what others think given the same situation...