Haven Walkur

Re: Role-Playing Exercise #1 Dr. Judith Harvey is a brilliant 38-year-old neurosurgeon and well-known enfant terrible of the medical community, who works for the major medical complex Rochester/Mayo/Tebrun. She's thin, fierce and bad-tempered, with unruly blonde hair and narrow gray eyes, and she's taking a leave of absence from the Complex to think over her options...because she's afraid she's losing her mind.

Re: Daily Art Findings Thank-you for tracking these pics down and sharing them, Eosin. Much appreciated. I hope you'll continue with the posts.

Re: Government Bureau of Superheroics! ATTACHMENT 1 MEMBERSHIP ROSTER FOR VINDICATORS MPAR AS OF 6/7/98 Membership #: 10 Base: Floor 96 & 97, Empire State Building, New York, NY 10101-9697 Current Status: ACTIVE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Temperance “Rance” James McKenzie -- Warlock Date of Birth: December 25, 1661 Place of Birth: Township of Boston, Colony of Massachusetts Nationality: American Citizenship: U.S. Marjorie Blakeney -- Lady Kelvin Date of Birth: November 11, 1832 Place of Birth: Nottingham, England, U.K. Nationality: British Citizenship: dual (British / U.S.) Michaelmas Fabian Carnegie -- White Lion Date of Birth: April 17, 1931 Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. Nationality: American Citizenship: U.S. Samantha Clark, Maj. U.S.M.C. (Rsv.) -- Clockwork Date of Birth: July 4, 1951 Place of Birth: Gen. George C. Marshall Military Base, Grünestadt, West Germany Nationality: American Citizenship: dual (U.S. / German) Nradh Vkenzdl / Jane Doe -- Everway Date of Birth: approx. AD 1760 / February 10, 1989 Place of Birth: Vtelr, Hrokhr / Brooklyn Borough Morgue, New York, New York, U.S.A. Nationality (Race): Hrokhrin Citizenship: U.S. Uhren Rgovhk / John Doe -- Hourpath Date of Birth: approx. AD 1770 / February 10, 1989 Place of Birth: Uvehk, Hrokhr / Brooklyn Borough Morgue, New York, New York, U.S.A. Nationality (Race): Hrokhrin Citizenship: U.S. Colin Blakeney -- Fahrenheit Date of Birth: September 22, 1971 Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Nationality: American Citizenship: dual (U.S. / British) Jackson “Jackie” Robert Duke -- Blaze Date of Birth: March 29, 1972 Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. Nationality: American Citizenship: U.S. Sable Allangarde -- Kittyhawk (MIA) Date of Birth: May 2, 1973 Place of Birth: Blackwillow Holding, Darkhaven Nationality (Race): Eterneii Citizenship: U.S. Seiglinda “Linda” Janssen -- Valkyrie Date of Birth: January 9, 1980 Place of Birth: St. Paul, Minneapolis, U.S.A. Nationality: American Citizenship: U.S.

Re: Government Bureau of Superheroics! [Yes, I was a lawyer once. And yes, I can still do the Bureaucratics Dance. Since we seem to be talking about fictional U.S. Govt. Depts of Metanormal Affairs and related agencies, I thought I'd post these bits and pieces here. The following are archival documents (ostensibly) from the MPAR Regulatory Commission, describing my alternate-world metanormal team, The Vindicators, in the most convincing bureaucrat-ese I could manage. The Vindicators' world is much like our own...but with metanormals.] MPAR Archival Document Subject: The Vindicators Date: June 7, 1998 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Vindicators are a registered Metanormal Public Aid Resource (MPAR Federal Registry #824779), licensed under the Special Abilities clause of the National Resources Act of 1980. A Certificate of Need (C.O.N.# 33-182-10.23.93) for operations in the New York City area, with provisional federal jurisdiction, was granted in October of 1993. The Vindicators currently receive federal funding in the amount of 82% of reported operating costs and application for continuation of tax-exempt status was approved for fiscal year 1998. The most recent MPAR Regulatory Commission three-year review, conducted 4/6/98, gave the team a performance rating of 1 (excellent) and a public perception rating of 2 (above average); the Commission therefore confirmed the MPAR status of The Vindicators for the three-year period ending April 6, 2001. The Commission also renewed the C.O.N. for the city of New York, for a term of five years to end October 23, 2003. The Vindicators MPAR currently occupies the 96th and 97th floors of the Empire State Building, New York City, where they maintain an MPAR Regulatory Commission-approved complex which includes laboratories, conference rooms, computer and library facilities, communications/command center, living quarters, infirmary and gymnasium. The Vindicators also maintain low-profile Third-Force (Magical) manifestations in several areas on the 97th floor. Certain team members do not reside on-premises (SEE ATTACHMENTS), but all team members are available during regular working hours and on call at all other times. The team HQ is manned 24 hours a day, either in person or monitored via remote. Samantha Clark (Clockwork) is MPAR Team Leader of record; Alternate of record is Michaelmas Carnegie (White Lion) (SEE ATTACHMENTS). As required by the National Resources Act, all members of The Vindicators MPAR are U.S. citizens, with ratings of acceptable or better on the Department of Justice Tri-Indices Adjustment Evaluation (Legal, Health-Related and Social). In the interest of complete compliance with the Act, special dispensations have been arranged for Temperance McKenzie (Warlock), Jane Doe (Everway) and John Doe (Hourpath) (SEE ATTACHMENTS). All team members possess state-level power of intervention, as defined by the Law Enforcement Code of the State of New York [N.Y. Code §§11-32 (rvsd.1981)] and limited federal-level power of intervention based on the Supreme Court decisions in U.S. v. Warhammer, 449 U.S. 510 (1981), U.S. v. Morality and the Mothers of Invention, 560 U.S. 63 (1983) and U.S. v. Lex Talonis, 714 U.S. 301 (1984). In addition, team members Jane Doe (Everway) and John Doe (Hourpath) are licensed as special federal marshals, with right of co-operation from other federal investigatory agencies. The status of The Vindicators MPAR as of 6/7/98 is: ACTIVE

Re: Haiku Hero Avatar removed not mine but another's work Words draw no icon

Re: Campaign idea! Oh, Markdoc, that's a wonderful conceit for a campaign! The concept is imaginative and very creative, but manages to be self-contained and logical...you made the answer to the 'why' question (why were these Immortals robbed of their memories?) inherent to the game. I love the idea of drawing the character inspiration from the Tarot, too; that was inspired, even though the players didn't know that's what they were doing. That's the mark of good players, that they were willing to trust you as GM to guide them fairly through the game. <heartfelt yearning>How I wish I could have been in on that game! (You've got Rep coming as soon as the Board permits.)

Re: "Neat" Pictures Ugh! You were right, Trencher; that thang is too d*mn cute to see the light of day -- ever!

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman As my best friend Leah said once, "Gaming is erotic." She's female, I'm female and I agree with her whole-heartedly. So is it any wonder that gamers often are, or become, interested in the sexual lives of their characters? Further, I find that superhero roleplaying has an especially erotic quality, even as compared to other genres. [Erotic quality X 2] + PC = Player speculations[PC(sex life)] What that means for me and my gaming group -- who are also my closest friends; yeah, I know, isn't that incestuous? -- varies with whether we're in-game or out. Out of game, we often just chat about our characters and compare notes on development, or write lots of pretty-damn-good fiction about the characters, some of which is sexually explicit. In-game, when an NPC's involved, we've sometimes broken off the roleplaying with a comment like, "and what you think happens at this point happens". Sometimes we narrate the interaction, third-person, especially if it involves another PC or a major NPC. Rarely do we actually roleplay much of the interaction; at some point, there's usually a shift to narration or summary in third-person. Of course, we've all known each other -- players and GM -- for at least 10 years and can generally avoid outraging one-another. But sometimes something extraordinary comes up. After tangling with Eros (the Olympian version) in our Champions game, all three of our PCs fell passionately in love with one another. In that game, there were three PCs, two male and one female -- I was playing the female PC, and my friend Leah and her RL husband played the males. THAT little situation was handled with a lot more roleplaying than usual; the inital half was roleplayed, and the latter half jointly narrated by the three of us and the GM. And throughout, the GM had questions and comments. And it was a significant interaction because our PCs were still heroes before, during and after Eros' control was broken...and we had to find a way for them to continue being teammates after what had happened. Sex can be a very significant event in the life of a PC or hero team. I find it fascinating and worth exploring...but that's in my home game, with my best friends. I don't demand or display PC sex in other games unless encouraged to do so.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Do it, Trencher, do it! An' ye be a man, be not afeared to play this game to its conclusion -- and display before us the Cuteness Which Is Not Named! (I'd join you in posting cute pics, but I can't find a good facial close-up of a vampire bat.)

Re: A Game Of Questions Is this entertainment?

Re: A Game Of Questions When will our pizza get here?

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman My current Champions character is in what's become a solo campaign. If there were other players involved still, I don't think I'd be comfortable usurping the GM's attention to this degree. But there aren't, so.... Gamma Girl -- Haven Walkur -- never expected sex to be anything she'd have to "worry" about. From birth, she's had a form-fitting and damn-near impervious forcefield. She doesn't eat, doesn't excrete, doesn't get touched. Ever. But now she's time-lost in the 30th Century, and she's joined the Legion of Superheroes...some of whom have the power to touch her through her forcefield. Most member worlds of the United Planets regard 14 as the age of majority. At 17, Gamma Girl's an adult by UP standards, but her response to being touched for the first time in her life is a bit -- uncontrolled. Not really adult at all. As a result, she's ended up having sex with a number of Legionnaires and is afraid she's out of control; the desire to be touched is like an addiction now, and every touch, no matter how innocuous, is erotic. And none of the Legionnaires, with their easy-going 30th Century acceptance of sex as a natural urge, can understand why she's so concerned. Gamma Girl's had splendid rough 'n' ready sex with Timberwolf, a Legionnaire whose raw strength was enough to get through her forcefield. She had a passionate one-time exchange with Chameleon Boy, who was able to make his body partially immaterial and pass through her forcefield (mimicking the power of Phantom Girl, another Legionnaire). Gamma Girl's in an actual relationship with Matter-Eater Lad, whose ability to consume any form of matter or energy allows him to "eat" through her forcefield and touch her, but only with his mouth (and those Bismollian teeth!). Phantom Girl has offered to use her power on M-E Lad to "phase" him through Gamma Girl's shields; of course, Phantom Girl sees nothing wrong with the idea of her joining the other two in bed to accomplish this! And neither does M-E Lad. And, of course, there has been the obligatory villain: while undercover, Gamma Girl ended up having to "sleep" with Nemesis Kid, a Legion traitor, to maintain her cover. His power is, as the name suggests, to develop whatever power he needs to overcome whatever power is being used against him. In this case, it was Gamma Girl's forcefield. Poor Haven, with all this sexual openness, in a culture that regards sex as just another bodily need, no more intimate or embarrassing than, say, eating, and considers sexual jealousy a minor personal aberration...she can't even find a way to explain the problems she's having adjusting. She's 17, but she turned 17 in 1979 -- not 2979! So perhaps it was inevitable that she'd fall for another Legion member with "archaic" views and morals...even though his are old-fashioned even from Gamma Girl's point of view. Yeah, she's deeply in love with Superboy -- and he doesn't return her feelings. And with typical Clark Kent good intentions, his efforts to be kind to her just end up ripping her up a little more inside.

Re: What's in a Name? Suppression Joscelin Etien d'Envers was the seventh son of a seventh son in a huge and ancient family that marked such things closely. As the name suggests, the Famile d'Envers had long been in the service of dark forces, forging pacts with creatures demonic, diabolic and utterly evil. ("Envers" is a corruption of the French words "Enfers", meaning "Hell".) The Famile d'Envers were black magicians of the darkest stripe, gleefully tracing their ancestry from the Demoness Melusine of Lusignan in 1174...a forebear they proudly shared with numerous European monarchs and nobles. An old family, an evil family, a powerful and wealthy family, the d'Envers worked their spells and forced their will upon a defenceless and unknowing world in the 21st Century as they had in the 12th. What the d'Envers wanted, they got; what others had, the d'Envers allowed. This state of affairs might have persisted indefinitely for the Famile d'Envers, but for the Prophecy.... Every d'Envers knew it: When the seventh son of a seventh son is born blind and deaf to the magic that is his due, then shall the Famile d'Envers be struck down in silence and stillness, mute and dumb they from that day and no sound making save the weeping of their wretched ghosts to trouble the nights when the moon is new. Joscelin -- he prefered "Jozz" -- grew up unaware that he was the prophecied seventh son. But his parents, the warlock Alberic d'Envers and Isabella d'Envers, the Black Madonna of her generation, knew very well what their son's destiny held. When Joscelin -- his parents refused to call him Jozz -- reached his 21st birthday, his parents would preside over a Grand Sabbat, which would climax with the sacrifice of Joscelin to Adramelech (a fallen angel once of the order of Thrones, now demonic king of fire and prince of hypocrites) and Bernael (a fallen angel once a prince of the order of Virtues, second-created after Lucifer, now demon lord of arrogance, pride and deceit), the patron demons of the Famile d'Envers. In fact, Jozz grew up rich, spoiled and clueless, with no inkling of what his family (or the Famile) were up to in the shadows of the Chateau de Lusignan that was his home. But oddly enough, Jozz was neither vicious nor cruel -- as his siblings were -- and dismissed the things his brothers and sisters did with the unthinking exasperation of the youngest child in a large family. When his siblings got too annoying -- "Ssh!" Jozz would tell them sharply, putting his forefinger to his lips, and shush they would. Every time. And they'd think it was their own idea. After all, everybody knew that worthless chubby Jozz didn't have any magic.... Yes, Jozz was a little overweight; he was also a little aimless, a little selfish and a lot spoiled -- but not evil. The family's darkness had no claim on him...perhaps because he was the seventh son of a seventh son, or perhaps just because he was, at base, a decent person. Three nights before Jozz's 21st birthday and the Grand Sabbat, Jozz was kidnaped and immured in the dungeons of the Chateau, a terrible prison he'd never believed existed. There he was tortured physically and mentally in preparation for the sacrifice...and on the third night, the torturers were his immediate family; mother and father, brothers and sisters. When they started on him again, Jozz seemed to lose his reason, and was babbling like a madman when he was taken to the Black Altar for sacrifice. Like the Catholic rite the Black Mass perverts, the rituals take some time...time enough for a wounded and outraged (but nowhere near insane) young man to work free of his carelessly tied bonds. And though no student of religion -- of any sort -- Jozz's unguessed-at perceptiveness came to the fore, prompted by threat, shock, pain and outrage, and informed him that this crazy party was building up to something. So Jozz waited, lying bleeding on the cold stone of the Black Altar. The entire Famile d'Envers, multiple generations of evil, were gathered for the ceremony that would re-affirm their ancient loyalty to their patron Dukes of Hell...and not incidentally, grant the Famile the full measure of their Dukes' favor. A seventh son of a seventh son; Prophecy or no, that was a princely sacrifice! Jozz almost waited too long. At the climax of the ritual, when his mother Isabella swept down upon him with a wickedly glittering blade, screaming and chanting in a strange and horrid language, Jozz almost didn't get his hand up in time. But he managed it. Finger to lips, he looked up at his mother in her robes of the Black Madonna, and..."Ssh!" he said. And in that instant, the ceremony failed. The spells broke, the Chateau shook and the demonic Dukes recoiled as if burned. Now, for the Famile d'Envers, there was quite literally going to be hell to pay for that moment of silence! And Jozz ran. Paris, London, New York...and there he settled. Jozz, as the heir to his (all mysteriously deceased) Family's wealth is now a very rich young man. But he's not just rich in money these days; he's rich spiritually too. For now Jozz has a profession, a direction, a cause. In his simple Puritan-inspired costume of black and white, Jozz finds ways of tracking dark mages and dark magic and infiltrating himself into the secret rituals of evil -- only to stand up at the climax, raise a finger to his lips and say, "Ssh!" Now Jozz d'Envers is "Suppression", heroic exorcist and foe of dark magic with a debt to pay and forty pounds to work off! And his quote...you've surely guessed it already. "Ssh!" And now let's try...Teddy Edward

Re: The cranky thread Thanks to Alice and L. Marcus and other well-wishers who shall remain nameless. Like flowers in a hospital room, your sympathetic notes and encouragement do actually brighten things up, and I appreciate them. I was just venting on the thread...so receiving sympathetic responses was a definite bonus (and believe it or not, unexpected). Depending on how Infusion #3 affects me, I may be absent from the HERO Board for a while, starting tomorrow. No, I won't be avoiding all of you, just busy being sicky-yuck blah.

Re: The cranky thread Cranky Rant (you've been warned) I'm cranky because I have to go into to the hospital tomorrow and have an IV infusion of Novantrone, a chemotherapy drug which may have some beneficial effects in slowing the progression of Multiple Sclerosis, but definitely will make me sick and groggy for about the next week. I'm cranky because the most honest of my neurologists admit they have no idea what causes MS, how or if it will progress in my case and which of the possible treatments will actually help me. They also admit to having no idea why the treatments that do work, work. The less honest doctors just double-talk and fabricate out of whole cloth; anything to avoid admitting ignorance. I'm cranky because I have MS, my best friend has MS, and nobody has any idea where it's going to go from here. Will one or both of us be blind, crippled, imbecilic, incontinent or f*cking DEAD a year from now? I'm cranky because I'm being treated for depression and have no idea what I'm supposed to be trying to do to recover. How can I "try something" when I'm crippled by a fear of failure that makes it hard to even leave the m*therf*cking house? How am I supposed to choose "something" to try, when the horror of making the "wrong choice" blocks me before I can even review my options? Being less than perfect is not a capital crime -- and yet somehow it is, for me. And if I want to avoid doing something poorly -- avoid a less than perfect performance -- then it's safer not to do anything at all. And I'm cranky because I can't live this way any more, but I'm frightened and confused about trying to change. I'm cranky because I've signed up for a health/fitness club and I've only been there once in the last fortnight. I've had good reasons every time, but the upshot is still that I haven't been going. I'm cranky becaue I lie to myself, I make up excuses that convince other people -- but I always know I'm lying. And tonight, I'm especially cranky because a close friend has better things to do than talk to me. And actually he does, as a matter of fact, and that's part of the problem. I'm cranky because I know I'm a fraud. Though I've wished to be dead many times, and even though I have hesitation marks on my wrist, I never really intended to kill myself. I just wanted some way, any way, out of an intolerable situation. And I'm cranky because my "intolerable situation" involves what other people would see as blessings; a loving, supportive husband, comfortable affluence, the leisure to do whatever I want, intelligence, education and a gift for creative writing. Whatever I want. Hah! I have no idea what I want. And so I'm a bit cranky tonight.

Re: For all of you who like cartoon network It's the mother of all cross-overs! Thanks for linking to it, Nightbringer! Mmm, Dexter grows up a little and he's gorgeous -- and Samauri Jack always was gorgeous. And even Coop from Megas XLR is tolerable in this series. Wow, this comic was a massive undertaking and I'm very impressed.

Re: Players And the Strange things they do. In any case, the so-called "brown note" is a myth, and one that was inventively disproved on a recent episode of Myth Busters. BUSTED

Re: who's missing from this team Freakboy6117, I liked your concept for Holltwr, but...um...no offense intended, but did you mean to make her sound like a reduced-power female version of Doctor Who? (Not that playing a reduced-power female version of Doctor Who is necessarily a bad thing. In our sort-of Star Hero game, I have a renegade Time Lord character who calls herself "the Valeyard" -- and she's fantastic fun to play!)

Re: A Presidential candidate has MS Multiple sclerosis is a neurological syndrome with wildly varying effects. Literally, every person's experience of MS is different...and the neurologists still don't know what causes it, what it will do or how to cure it. The neurologists don't even know why some of the anti-MS treatments work, just that they do. Some things to bear in mind for your "Jed Bartlet" character where MS is concerned: in someone who has MS, prolonged exposure to heat and humidity make an attack (referred to as a 'seizure') more likely; fatigue is the most common MS symptom, a fatigue that does not respond to stimulants or "uppers"; men appear to get MS half as often as women do and twice as severely -- the syndrome progresses faster in men. (But on the other hand, my husband's male thesis advisor has MS, had one seizure that left him with a slight, permanent limp, and has not had any further trouble in the last 25 years.) I have remitting-recurring multiple sclerosis, and it doesn't affect me much on a day-to-day basis. I was diagnosed in 1998, during a seizure that left me staggering and my field of vision narrowed to a "letterbox". I was hospitalized for a week, receiving massive IV doses of steroids, and then released. I've never had another seizure that bad. When the MS flares up, I get visual 'fogging' and some weakness on the left side of my body -- always the left. I become intensely fatigued and have problems with concentration and recall. But that said, I only have identifiable flare-ups once or twice a year, if that often. These are treated with outpatient steroid infusions, or low-dose infusions of Novantrone, a chemotherapy drug used in cases of breast cancer (go figure) that somehow helps reduce the frequency and severity of MS seizures. After diagnosis, I started a regimen of Copaxone, a daily subcutaneous injection...not that big a deal, though keeping the vials cool while travelling was a pain sometimes. And every so often, I have an unaccountable allergic-style reaction to the drug. My neurologists assured me that it wasn't doing me any actual damage, but with the flushing, gasping, racing heart and severe muscular pains, it felt as if I were having a heart attack for 30-45 minutes! Copaxone is one of the big three anti-MS drugs approved by the FDA in 1995. The other two are Avonex and Beta-serone, both of which are immune-suppressants, and both are needed less often than Copaxone (one is every three days, the other every week), but require an intramuscular injection. OUCH! Your Jed Barlet will probably be using one of the three A-B-C drugs for this condition. He may receive periodic low-dose IV infusions of Novantrone as an outpatient. He may be taking anti-fatigue medications, with limited success; MS fatigue is neurologically different from normal tiredness, sleepiness or even exhaustion, and is difficult to treat with medication. He may also be taking anti-depressants, as MS can cause a depressive syndrome which is neurologically different from clinical and situational depression. But from my experience with MS, Jed's daily life may not be affected much overall. Jed may tire more easily and when tired, take longer to recover (but I was still capable of walking ten miles with my mother the other day). Again, everyone's different. He'll probably find the heat more uncomfortable than he did, and his night vision may become unreliable (I no longer drive at night). He may have problems with MS depression, and probably will have MS fatigue...but there's no reason he can't carry on with even a high-stress professional life, as long as he's aware of his symptoms and seeks treatment when an MS flare-up occurs. After all, the MS "experts" are only guessing based on a patient's past symptomology. The sad truth is, nobody -- neurologist, pathologist or patient -- really knows what will happen with MS or when it will happen. Much like FDR having had polio, the MS can be an non-issue if Mr. Jed Bartlet is determined that it will be a non-issue.

Re: Wwycd: Doom!!!! Gamma Girl: She hears the would-be world-conqueror out without comment. Her only response is to narrow her eyes a little and shake her head as she watches the video footage. Then she turns and looks Dr. Destroyer directly in the eye, and says, very seriously, "We're in. Can't speak for all of the Legion, but some of the team'll be available." She grins quickly. "The Subs, too; they're fast-thinking and versatile. Let me hit Mission Monitor; I'll put the buzz out." And over her shoulder as she turns away, Gamma Girl says, "You're coming with us, right? We'll need you too." Yes, she unhesitatingly turns her back on the villain. This nightmare situation is bigger than the enmity between Dr. Destroyer and the Legion of Superheroes, and they both know it. Attacking her would be stupid, something Destroyer is not. And besides, Gamma Girl can see what it's costing Destroyer to ask for help...he's not doing this lightly. Assuming Destroyer answers in the affirmative -- yes, he's coming with them -- Gamma Girl uses the comm circuit in her Legion flight ring to raise whoever's on Mission Monitor duty back at Legion HQ. "This is Gamma Girl. Yeah, hi, Gim. Hit the recall, we've got major nasties popping up on Earth and we're gonna need the whole gang, whoever's reachable. Grab the Subs too. Yeah, I'll book back to HQ and brief everyone -- and I'm bringing an ally. Gamma Girl out." She turns to Destroyer and hold out a hand. "Come on, ally, and hold on tight." She suppresses a grin. "We're gonna do a little rebound off Earth's polymer shield."

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea HeroPink!, thank-you for your interest, but I think the U.S./Canadian war premise is too involved to make a good What Would Your Character Do? question. The situation requires too much set-up; most readers wouldn't be that interested.

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea This is Superheroic, not Pulp, but it DOES involve a U.S./Canadian war and could easily be converted. As a background for a Champions PC, my GM and I created a near future where the U.S. and Canada had been at war since an incident in 2016 where U.S. troops opened fire on fleeing U.S. citizens trying to escape into Canada, and Canadian border troops intervened. Why were U.S. citizens trying to flee? President James Milton Fisher of the America First! party was elected president of the U.S. in 2012, in what would turn out to be the last free American election. He promptly closed the nation's borders and instituted his Fortess America policy, ending foreign trade, cutting off all foreign aid and calling due all international debt, repatriating all non-citizens and interning (or later executing) "undesirables": unregistered metanormals, political dissidents, Catholics, Jews and anyone else whose loyalty "first and foremost" to the U.S. was not above reproach. In 2014, a state of emergency was declared in response to activites by dissidents calling themselves the "Landlords of the Free". Martial law was imposed. It was an open secret that said dissidents had been metanormal heroes and (minor) villains prior to 2012. Two years of sporadic guerrilla incidents and increasingly severe governmental responses followed, with many metanormals attempting to flee the country and the government's sporadic attempts to exterminate unregistered metanormals and non-humans in America. In 2016, these tensions culminated in the border incident between the U.S. and Canada. When Canadian border troops witnessed American refugees (listed as by the U.S. as 'documented undesirables') being gunned down on the U.S./Canadian border by U.S. troops., Canadian forces transgressed the international border and mounted a rescue. This humanitarian but reckless intervention led to the U.S. declaring war on Canada, and the beginning of the North American Continental Conflict. The U.S. blockaded Canada by air and sea, drastically reducing Canada's ability to import food and materièls. The endless border wars between the two nations resulted in many of the U.S. "border states" changing hands several times; the breadbasket states of Idaho, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin -- and industrial Michigan -- were particularly hotly contested. As the Continental Conflict wore on, Canada experienced critical shortages of food and manufactured goods. Their "Open Door - No Questions Asked" immigration policy where refugees from the U.S. -- and non-refugee fighters and metanormals -- were concerned brought Canada an influx of defenders, mostly of conventional metanormal types, from around the world. Other defenders, both metanormal and supernatural, were found closer to home. As an example of the latter, when a Québecois werewolf from La Verendrye volunteered his 'special talents' for the war effort, the Canadian government arranged for him to infect volunteers with lycanthropy, thus creating a small Ranger unit/pack that was the terror of U.S. soldiers patrolling the disputed border. Aristocratic Montréal vampire Claudette Montrose also volunteered her efforts, though attempts to have her 'convert' others were not successful. Other unusual but effective Canadian military 'personnel' included two Wendigos, seventeen First Nations shamans and numerous witches, ghosts and fae. Non-native metanormals and supernatural beings fighting on the side of the Canadians included both typical and bizarre examples of their types, from non-native energy projectors, bricks, martial artists, mages and gadgeteers to entities like Norwegian Roland, the fabled "headless Thompson Gunner" of song...who fought in return for resupply of his ammunition. Canada mounted an eclectic and heroic defense, but by 2020, they were fighting a losing battle against the superior numbers and resources of the United States. The threat of famine was greater with each passing month, and U.S. planes slipping across the disastrously-wide border took a mounting toll of irreplacable Canadian manufacturing and infrastructure. But the Canadians hung on, hungry but committed, fighting and praying for something to change.... *****************Insert player characters here******************

Re: Champions Diceless Role-playing He doesn't figure...he's a llama!

Diceless roleplaying games can be an astonishingly rich and satisfying experience for both players and GMs. Probably the best-known commercial diceless game is Amber Diceless Role-playing*, based on the writings of Roger Zelazny. I've never played a game that equalled our old Amber games for excitement and narrative sweep -- and Dr. Anomaly was at the pinnacle of his performance as an Amber GM. SO what I'm wondering is: 1) Could Champions be converted to a diceless RPG modeled on the Amber system, AND 2) how would you do it? What would the basic Attributes be, how many would you use and how would you deal with superpowers in terms of Powers? *If you'd like more info on the Amber diceless system, please PM me

Re: WWYCD: Will you forgive me? Gamma Girl "Vandal Savage...you want me to forgive you? You're out of your mind." Gamma Girl shook her head, a fierce snap that made her hair fly...glossy blue-black hair just like her father's, and her father's famous ancestor's. "Being immortal hasn't saved your sanity, Savage. "You hunted my father down and killed him with your bare hands...but first you put a hunting knife in my mother's back. She lived just long enough to see the point come out through her chest." Gamma Girl's eyes had once been as dark a brown as her mother's but now they were pale hazel, burned light and transparent by the fire of a maverick sun. They weren't kind eyes. Just now they were fierce. "She got you first though, didn't she, Savage? Before you stabbed her? She'd just broken your neck, but you got better, just like you always do, and you killed her. Did you even know her name? It was Llornu. Llornu Durgo Walkur. Duo Damsel. "She was retired, Savage. She retired from the Legion of Superheroes to marry my father...and Kal-L Walkur wasn't ever even in the Legion, they rejected him because the only power he inherited from the original Kal-L was invulnerability -- and you got around that pretty easily. "They were both heroes and I never even knew them. You killed them, you son of a b*tch, killed them both so Superman's bloodline would end and you'd get the power of the Mystic Lantern. You did it for...power. "But you missed a descendant, Savage, you kept missing me and now it's too late; you're going to die and not even the Mystic Lantern can save you. You're going to die for real, this last time; you're going to die forever...and you're going to die unforgiven. "There's nothing you can do in the time you've got left to make amends for what you've spent your immortal life doing. You couldn't make up for what you've done even if you had another immortal lifetime to spend doing it. You killed my parents. No, I won't forgive you. Go to hell, Savage...and I hope it hurts."