Kzinbane

Dog related super? Hmmm. Yeah when you think about it using cats is cool - Ocelot, Tiger, Puma, etc. Dogs... Wolf (cool) Coyote (been done) Jackal, Dingo? heh. The cat's certainly win on this one. One could use PittBull or Mastif or something as a character name and not be laughed at too much I would think. Beware the amazing Dachshund! Ze French Poodle woman shall snap you up.... Stick with cats.

Just off the top of my head... Lizards and crocks and the like - Komodo Dragon, Gila Monster (one of two poinsonous lizards). A quick look online can find other types of crocks (Cayman, Gahrial - the latter a type from India). Names are often trickier than the powers - trying to find something not overdone - and using a more unusual one can make an international character making an opening for an interesting background. Names aren't all either. Watch the discovery channel a bit or snoop on web pages. Look at spiders for example - there's one called the trap door spider. A super villain or hero based on this may have a dimensional gate power and tunneling - nothing like the "classic" Spider-man powers! In fact about the only things they'd have in common are web (for lining burrows and wrapping prey in the trap door type) and venom (which Spider-man doesn't mimic with a power anyway). The internet is wide open. Pick an animal - even a pig or something laughable and you can probably make a decent villain. The amazine Aardvark! The heroes are so busy laughing they are caught short as he rips them open with lethal aardvark claws then digs away...

Cyberntic link I should have been more clear. Yes the link would be cybernetic - the operator would have some sort of direct "nerve" connection to the remote suit or robot. Hmmm joystick. If the suit/robot were operated by remote - via old fashioned video feed or virtual reality and the user were not directly connected via cyperwear no mind blast would get through. There is an idea.

Mind blasts, mental illusions, etc are limited pretty much by line of sight. This sight as far as targetting. Now here's one I was thinking of... What if you have a robotic character or armored suit character that is operated via radio link or other means by remote control? In other words there is no one actually inside? Case in point - Iron man has in the past been able to operate by remote control, Tony stark running him from somewehre else. Would a mind blast on the armor or remotely operated rebotic character work - meaning hit the person operating the suit or robotic body? The clincher is - you need LOS to the charater for mind powers. LOS does not say to the actual character itself (meaning you can see eyes, skin or other part of the actual person/creature). If this were the case a simple skin tight suit and opaque sun glasses would stop mental power attacks. Since you are attacking the charater though - in LOS it seems to indicate to me that the mind running that character would be hit whether it was inside or 200 miles away on a remote link. I have a character in my game who has a multi-power slot that can include a mental attack. For obvious reasons (most bad guys have low ECV and LOS - no "to hit" rules) he's using it frequently. I'm trying to think of ways to "stir things up" without doing the obvious - just giving all the opposition mental defenses.

I'd say get FRED at least. The Expansions on Fred are good too, but you can use much of the earlier material (meaning 4th edition) for character ideas, scenarios for GMing, etc. The old Dark Champions book for example works fine still - you'd have to modify characters a bit to conform with FRED but the basics of the old book itself are valid. Sigh. I know about the book space issue not to mention costs adding! HERO needs a subscription service to all manuals - with a nice discount or something!

One coud try another spin... It was not too terribly infrequent back in the late 40s and into the 50's (in fact I think the last one came out on his own in the early 60's) for a Japanese soldier to be hiding on one of the previously invaded islands. That last one was in the Phillipines, and still thought the war was going on. What if one (or more) managed to come across some sort of device or alien craft or whatever that grants them super powers? Look around today and the Nazi evil endures still - 60 years after the war! There is no Japanese counterpart in existance - not even close, and there has not been for a long time. Hey, why not any Italian Golden age Vilains - Italy was in WW2 also!

Excellent I thought so. The confusion is in the names I guess. Instead of saying "Hero spacers toolkit" the title is Star Hero which (to me) implies some differences as does the "Fantasy" designator as compared to standard "Hero" or Champions. Anyhow glad for the answers. I thinks me Super Heroes are going to encounter some nanobots soon... Bwah ha ha ha!

I suspect this has been hashed over long ago, but in a bit of looking about I have not seen it covered. Do the champions (Super) Hero, Fantasy and Star hero systems all work interchangeably? In other words if I were to use the Fantasy Grimore and Star Hero tool kit could I port things directly into Champions without issue with needing to re-figure disadvantage costs, powers costs, etc?

Clarification Whoa! No, I'm not talking about freezing the entire river from top to bottom. The situation is that there is a water based villain that is attacking armored cars and the like on the bridges over the river (there are several). One thought is to freeze the river below and above the villain so he cannot get into the water and get away. All that would be needed is to freeze a dam or block covering the river from bank to bank and you'd have an ice barrier. Of course upstream you'd fairly quickly get water flowing over the ice as the river continued, but given it's a slow stream I'd say you'd have at least a minute or two (many phases). I like the energy blast idea - body = hexes of ice. It would take a couple turns for a character to freeze the river all the way across and deep that way - as it should be. Transform seems the other alternative - water to ice. Either way you are talking a LOT of water. Anyhow I suspect one of characters on the team I am GMing will want to try this trick with his magic VPP. Yeah, he is likely to read this too (heh heh) but at least now knows how I'm likely to judge the attempt! I don't see that he has enough power to freeze a chunk of river from top to bottom in one turn. he may be able to freeze the top of the river over a wide area. I think I will use the body idea suggested above. Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out how one would freeze a river. SItuation - Portland OR, Willamette river runs through town. It is about 70 hexes wide x about 15 hexes deep in the middle. If one wanted to be able to freeze a big chunk of that what is the consensus on how it would be done, and how much power is needed? You'd likely need a wall of ice at least a hex thick to hold back the water behind it if making an ice dam. Otherwise you are creating an area of ice in the water large enough to reach from bank to bank and block the river. Any suggestions on the best way to do the above and what levels (how many dice) would be needed are appreciated! Sorry if this is dealt with in FAQ. I skimmed through them and did not see this issue.

Speaking of shake ups - Marvel's Age of Apocolypse several years ago was quite a hit and something that could be done "to" an established super group that has been playing in the same universe for a long time. POOF! Some of their long standing villains are now on the side of Good (Dr. Destroyer just saved us?!?!!?) and some good friends are now bad (Until is the ultimate bad guy group). You could even make changes in NPC's or have new ones (in THIS universe your character is married and you have 2.5 kids). Obviously you have to guage how things are taken by the players. If you mix things up too much and they're not having fun it's time to switch back to your regular scheduled universe.

Doom's force field is something he rarely uses and even then only for a very limited time. As such I'd say that even if it'll stop an A-bomb it probably is VERY high in END or has limited charges or something else. If I remember right I have seen him stand and laugh as the thing hay-maker hit him, but the thing is always off again very soon. As said above - Doom is the ultimate bad guy in Marvel. He's designed to out-do anyone else - leader, Mandarin, Ultron - and even be a big threat to such ultra entities as Galactus or Thanos due to what he could whip up in his work shop. Doom is Doom, all others are secondary to him. (I think that is a direct quote from the guy)

The main thing Doom's armor is for is protecting him. He's never really designed it for such mutli-purpose ala Iron man's armor. In the instance he fought Iron man to a stand still some years ago that was after Doom had had opportunity to tweak it knowing what he was going to be encountering. Doom's armor + force field are mainly designed so he can surive and escape, the blasters and what have you being defensive. Doom doesn't typically bother with fighting if he can help it, and when he does he juices things up with his VPP gadgets based on what he's going up against (and he rarely doesn't know). That's the good thing about being a super villain. You are pro-active, the super heroes having to react to you after you've made the opening move. If you're behind enough defenses (Doom bots or whatever) you have time to prepare for the heroes accordingly, and usually only trickery or using Doom's disadvantages can really let the heroes prevail. Can you tell I'm a Dr. Doom fan? Heh heh.

Galactus Vs Dr. Destroyer? Hmm, let's see. If Galactus was almost dead from not having munched a planet in recent times he might actually say ouch when destroyer hit him with everything he had. As I recall every single hero (or almost) in the Marvel universe "hit" Galactus at a very low level and it took some serious work + a spell from Dr. Strange that made Galactus face all the beings he'd killed. Galactus then went down after a hit from Thing. Galactus would probably not even pay attention to Dr. Destroyer - probably ignore him completely. I was amused when Ultron attacked Galactus at one point. Galactus just sucked the energy out of Ultron and ate it. Burp. Doom on the other hand would find a way to take down Galactus just like Richards typically does. Speaking of Ultron... His counterpart here in Champions land Mechanon is much more a copy than Destroyer is a copy of Doom. The earlier suggestion that Destroyer is more of a Red Skull + Doom hybrid seems about right. I did recall one other "power" Doom had in his armor at one point. He had miniaturized boulders he could spray out and re-size to normal. This was from an old FF mag, I don't think he's used that trick for 25 years but it was a fun one...

My take in "my" universe... I have told the players that they may well encounter characters that have the same names and MAYBE the same powers as those in comics. In other words it's quite possible that some mutant or whatever has spider powers and decided to call himself Spider-man and is swinging around New York. He may even use the same costume as the comic book version. What this lets me do is run the group up against (or along side) an established Marvel or DC character, but also keep my creative license to have their powers different, and other changes as I see fit. This also keeps them from potentially knowing their secret identities, weaknesses and such in a pinch... So if I were gaming Doom it would not necessarily be "THE" Dr. Doom right out of Marvel. Call it an alternate reality Doom if you want, but you'll derail the complaints that Doom wouldn't do this, or do that which may arise. Heck when it comes right down to it the writers in comics don't even follow their own continuity. If you are the GM you are by default the writer.

Doom2 If Doom and Destroyer were to pop into a wrestle mania cage and only the one left living gets out things would be dicey for Dr. Doom. He might think his way out of the problem, trick destroyer or something though and prevail or escape. In any case which Dr. Doom we are talking about here needs to be decided. The original (40 years ago almost in the first FF books) wasn't too powerful, though as always was smart. The later incarnations (say back when he met the X-men in the 80's and fought Iron man) his armor is much more advanced, he's a master scientist + has more gadgests in the armor. 10 years ago (maybe less, maybe more - I am lousy at timing things) he decided to update his sorcery skills and with Dr. Strange went to Hell to fight Mephesto. He used his armor to copy the gestures for spells (neat trick) and did pretty darn good. The last we saw of him he traded his technology for sorcery by dealing with some demons. He kicked the FF's butt 6 ways from Sunday in short order but as usual didn't kill them all outright and with Dr. Stranges help Richards defeated him by tricking Doom into breaking his deal with the Demons which demanded that they get credit for anything Doom does magically. They dragged him to somewhere nasty and that's that. Doom has the ability too, to exchange bodies once he gains eye contact, a trick he's only pulled a few times but could be useful. I think it takes a while and only works on "weak minded fools" (real ones - in Doom's view everyone fits into that catagory). Doom's overconfidence and arrogance are usually his un-doing. If he gets annoyed enough he'll come join a "party" himself rather than letting his robots do the work.

Doom Doom personally is not on par with Dr. Destroyer. Dr. Destroyer however would likely not survive a "hunted by Doom" for very long. Doom's real advantage is that he is very intelligent and can invent about anything he puts his mind to. Unless your team caught Doom by surprise he'd likely be ready with weapons or devices that are matched to known disadvantages (and he would likley know the disads, of be able to find them). Also remember that before you even get to Doom you have dozens of robots to fight through. Finally when you DO meet Doom it may just be a Doom robot! Dooms powers - energy blast at least, jet pack for flight (built into it) and strengh probably at 40 or so. I'd give the armor a fairly high VPP so he can put different things in it. One thing he rarely uses but is reported to have is a force field capable of withstanding an atomic blast! Mainly though the fact that he can build virtually anything is where he rules. If he weren't so arrogant and took advice or features from others (such as Stark's Iron man armor) he would be nearly unstoppable. I think he'd be an excellent supreme bad guy for a team to encounter. By the time they actually met him he'd know a lot about them and have gadgets in his armor designed to *$#&*! with them. Finally the added fun of having the team cellebrating their victory over Doom and then the armor mask pops off to reveal it's just a Doombot. Hmm. Now that I have the Hero2 software I should put together a character sheet on Doom. I think I have read virtually every comic he's been in (I read a LOT of comics) and have a very good idea of his powers... yeah... something to do tonight... I can have my group meet him (Spellbinder, you should not be reading the forums!)

Agree to a point I agree to a point Avatar, however just 'cause our brick can lift 100 tons and can fly should not mean he/she/it can fly WHILE lifting 100 tons and carry it along! By default playing champions you have to forget certain things - like, oh.. the laws of physics for example - still adding a bit of realism back in ("you can lift the battleship but it's going to take you a minute to get the balance point right and find a good spot") doesn't hurt. Ok, now that you have the battleship lifted you want to fly at your full speed? Nope.

One of my favorites One feat of strength I really enjoyed from I can't recall what book (Avengers I think). A tunnel leading to New York is collapsing, Thor is standing on a semi truck and holding the tunnel up. Um, well... wonder what the semi was hauling, blocks of adamantium? Obviously Champions and the whole super-hero genre must forget physics to some degree in order to work. I have previously tended to deal with things like lifting cars or large objects by making it take a bit of extra time. If you try to lift a car and toss it in one motion for example you may end up just ripping the bumper off. As for the flying I wish I had a physics degree. I mean if you have 1500 lbs of thrust you should be able to lift 15000 lbs I would think, and accellerate very slowly. it SEEMS like one could figure a speed rating into thrust and then by default into lifting ability. Superman with 150,000 tons of thrus then could lift a battleship and carry it while flying. Of course it would actually collapse around his arms and back as he's too small a point of contact for the structure to withstand... but that's another issue.

Most comics don't seem to worry about it. Iron man in Marvel for example lifts a truck and has no problem flying with it. Two silly boot jets that get him going at 200 MPH will not have enough thrust to lift 20 tons (or whatever)! I want a bit more realism than that. Just 'cause I can lift a 100 tons should not mean that I can automatically fly with it. I DID do a search so hopefully I am not asking a question already dealt with many times, but how does encomberance affect flight? How much thrust does it take to lift 50 tons for example, if that were applied to a 200lb flying character how fast would he be able to go? It seems that flying speed should corrispond to lifting ability... Anyhow ideas along these lines or rules is appreciated!