CarlSagan

Uh. Never Mind.

Since we are on the subject, how do you post those really neat images below your signature line?

I LIKE Randolph Bundt! A GM of mine ran an NPC who wasn't too different in concept (although not QUITE as silly!) This guy (whose name escapes me at the moment) had only one power - an uncontrolled, always on, area effect (with a greatly expanded area of effect) Presence Transfer! He was absolutely unremarkable when he was alone, but if you dropped him into the middle of a football stadium, his presence would shoot to 3,000+! He became a billionaire by spinning some cosmic line of mystic bullsh**, ala Deepak Chopra. The most hardened skeptic would leave his seminars a true believer! (He was really, really funny.)

The Justice of Jamie Oh, Hell: the stilletto heels could be a 4d6 HKA, Usable Only With Move-Through! Alternatively, she could take them off in battle and throw them like batarangs!

NO! STAY!! You Fool! Don't you know that normals who reside in the NTH Dimension will gain super-powers?!? (I personally am holding out until I gain the power to transform myself into Brittany Spears.)

BUMP! I hereby second the proposal of the honorable gentleman from St. Louis. (Honestly, I just thought this thread was too wacky to let it die. I personally believe that all computer-generated errors should be propogated into eternity.)

I feel your pain. All I can say is that we all know the good help applications (and the helpful manuals) and we remember how we felt about those. Likewise, we all remember the bad help files and how those made us feel. I know I will get a lot of flame for saying this, but probably the best overall product documentation is done by Microsoft. Hey, maybe Microsoft is run by aliens! Getting back to the topic at hand, I like that idea that the aliens wanted Ralph to lose the manual to keep him humble. Who were some of the other supporting characters? Ralph had a girlfriend, too, didn't he? I was a teenager when the show was on, and all I can remember is that she was pretty hot.

The coolest name I ever saw in Champions was Photon Echo. (I didn't come up with it, more's the pity, my GM did.) She was a villian who absorbed your attack and channeled it into a 12d6 Flash.

I just had another thought. Isn't it just SOOOO Eighties that the suit was difficult to operate and that you were screwed without the instruction manual? You know what that is? That is poor customer service. That's what that is. I mean, the suit really should have an intuitive user interface, and it should have online, context-sensitive help available. (Maybe it could have a 'demo-mode' like Jackie Chan's suit in The Tuxedo.) The instruction manual should have been provided in PDF format, and anyway, the aliens should have checked back in with our hero after a few months to see how he was getting along. For that matter, how about a toll-free customer service number, a web site or even just an FAQ sheet? This is obviously an expensive piece of hardware, so the manufacturer should really be willing to go the extra mile to make sure that the end user is getting everything out of it that they can. What about an extended maintenance agreement or periodic service checks? What about periodic updates or patches for the control software? Finally, if you've got a piece of combat hardware like this which is difficult and non-intuitive to use, with many, many functions, the end user is liable to get killed in actual combat while he is trying to decide what to do. If a company provided a product like this today, with that kind of support, they would be out of business (or bought out) within a year. These aliens might be very sophisticated technologically, but they obviously did not understand business. You know, now that I think about it, our hero might have been equally screwed even if he'd managed to hang on to the manual. I mean, think back to the Eighties and what instruction manuals were like back then. An instruction manual was an afterthought - something the developer would throw together once he got the software to work - if he had time. And do you remember those manuals for Japanese products? Boy, could you tell that the writer was not a native English-speaker. At least those guys were human, though! Imagine trying to wade through an alien instruction manual! I think if I were running this character today, I would probably spend most of my time bitching about the suit. (Still and all I think it would be a great role-playing opportunity.)

Man, I really liked that show! (I think the theme song was even topped the Pop charts for a while.) I have never played this character, but I have always thought that it would be great role-playing. The character, obviously, is not that powerful, and at the start at least, his powers were pretty erratic, but it has a lot of humour potential. (I guess I wouldn't recommend him for a Dark Champions campaign.) And how about that Agent of his?! What a character! He always cracked me up - he was so, so over the top! He'd make a GREAT sidekick! Just my opinion. I will really be amazed if it turns out that no one has run this guy at some point or another.

I guess my personal best in this category was "Force Wall Boy". (He could generate force walls - DUH!) I had this brilliant idea of layered defenses, and - of course - I had to take it to an extreme. In addition to force walls, he had missile deflection, force fields PLUS personal armor with various levels of activation rolls. (He was really paranoid about getting hurt.) His one moment of glory came in his very first adventure when the arch-villian blasted away at him with his most devastating attack (a really nasty autofire RKA as I recall) AND the arch-villian's platoon of agents blasted away at him with their machine guns. Force Wall Boy just stood there and took it. Not a single point of stun got through. (The GM broke his pencil in frustration.) Of course, Force Wall Boy's most devastating attack would, at most, mildly inconvenience an agent. His only hope was to wait for the other side to run out of ammo.

How about the SUICIDE SQUAD (one of my favorite comics). It certainly fits in this instance, because that is just what these guys did. Alternatively, you could call him RESURRECTION FORCE, as he is his teammates, reborn. PHOENIX would be good for the Flying Energy Projector, since that also has overtones of resurrection. THE HIGHLANDER would be good for the fighter. His primary weapon could be a huge Claymore. HERMES could be the runner. In Greek mythology, Hermes guided the dead on their journey to the underworld. He was the only immortal who could enter and leave Hades freely. I can't think of a good name for the brick or the shape-shifter right now. I was trying to think of something associated with death, defeating death, defying death (perhaps unsuccessfully) or resurrection. Perhaps something with a mythological tone. Leonidas might work for the brick. (Leonidas was the Spartan commander at Thermopylae. When the Greek army had been outflanked by a much larger Persian force, he and 300 of his companions held the passes against the entire Persian army while the rest of the Greek army made good its escape. A very heroic and death defying figure. Could also work for the fighter.) As an aside, your character's secrect ID could be "Audie Murphy". (Audie Murphy was a real-life hero, and the most decorated soldier in U.S. history. His story is told in the book - and movie - To Hell and Back) Hope this helps.

G-Force! There was a very interesting science fiction story that explored the limits of human endurance to prolonged high acceleration. In the story a plague broke out on a colony on Pluto. A cure had been found on Earth, but unless it could be transported to Pluto within one week, it would be too late: everyone would die. Normally, the trip would take a month at a constant acceleration of one G. So, they sent a ship with two of their best pilots. They accelerated at four G's the entire way. (I don't recall, but I think that they made the trip in four days.) The story went on and on about the torment they endured. One pilot died en route. At the end of the story, the surviving pilot was presented a plaque with the name of every soul on Pluto - people he had saved. He was then committed to an insane asylum. He had suffered irreparable brain damage and had the mind of a six year old. It was a good story. Even though it was fiction, I thought that it might give you a baseline for prolonged exposure. Hope this helps.

Examples, please!

I ran across this scenario in another thread, and I thought it was wacky enough to rate its own thread. Here is the scenario, gentle posters. Your GM has, for whatever reason, selected YOU to receive a random Hunted by Romantic Stalker - 20 pts. disadvantage. Your stalker turns out to be none other than the one, the ONLY (thank God) FOXBAT! (Note: Female characters only.) (Supplemental Note: Human Female characters only.) (Postscript to Supplemental Note: Living, Human Female characters only.) Now, I know a lot of you would simply blast this loser into atoms if he ever came near you, and others would simply arrange for him to take yet another trip to Alcatraz (or wherever). The question today, though, is different. This is a role-playing opportunity. So, you don't kill him, and you don't get him to violate the conditions of his parole (again). Just for the sake of argument you don't do these things. What would you do? How would you play it? Let's try to come up with some really, really interesting ideas out there!

Hmmm. Perhaps only ONE of his copies/forms changed genders. If so, then what would the others do?

The Foxbat Me? I'd date Foxbat. I mean, yeah, he's a loser, but remember, it's role-playing! It's also an opportunity for you to torment the GM.

Interesting Hell, I'd just go with it and see how the other half lives for a while. Should make for an interesting adventure!

Cheesecake Who says the outfit doesn't match her personality? Maybe she wears something revealing because she WANTS to go beserk when men react. (I'm sure you could work that into a Psych Lim somehow.)

Inigo Montoya I liked Montoya. Not only did he have a sense of humor, he must have had a pretty goodly number of points in Regeneration!

Death Adders I really like the Suicide Squad analogy. (Suicide Squad was one of my favorite series!) I have a slightly different take on it, though. These guys are like the Special Forces, Vietnam era. They are the best of the best. They get sent on the toughest missions. They have a high casualty rate, and anyone who is in the Death Adders and survived more than five missions - well, not only can he kick some serious a**, he has probably got a serious attitude as well. The attitude probably goes something like this: "Hey, our team went up against Grond for one whole minute, and lived! Why, exactly, do I need to spit shine my boots? So what if I look like a criminal, not a super-soldier? When the chips are down, the Death Adders get the job done!" (Modern era Special Forces guys are very much spit and polish soldiers - in addition to being very, very tough.)

Righteousness vs. Self-Righteousness I have observed in real life that the self-righteous assurance of one's own holiness can sometimes give one the freedom to do some truly nasty things. After, one can always rationalize that it is in a good cause. Quote on Lenin's statue in Red Square (1920): Workers of the world - Unite! Quote on Lenin's statue in Red Square (1990): Workers of the world - Forgive Me.

Choosing a successor I like FreakBoy's idea, too. It gives you some roleplaying opportunities. The old hero knows that the end is approaching, and he is searching the city for a worthy successor. There would be interviews, and perhaps also tests. You could have a player write up a "Normal" or "Competent Normal" version of himself. He could then play the "Normal" for the first session, as he is being tested to see if he is truly worthy. Then the super powers could be bestowed upon him. Nice idea, FreakBoy.

Dr. Confoundo We were just talking about this "remote control" power in another thread where we were discussing the "Robo-Babe" from Terminator 3. If you just want him to be able to remotely maneuver the hoversled, you could buy it as Telekinesis. Presumably with the limitations OIF (-1/2) {Gauntlet}, and Works only on Hoversled (-2) If, on the other hand, you want the hoversled to be able to act independently, without continual guidance (as in Terminator 3) you would buy it as Summons, because you are "summoning" a sentient being into an inanimate object. In this instance you will need to write up the Hoversled, so you know how many points it is worth. The write up on the Summons power would be something along the lines of the following: Animate Hoversled Summon a single Hoversled worth 100 points; Slavishly Devoted (+1); May only be used to animate previously designated Hoversled (-2) Base Points: 20 Active Points: 40 Real Points: 13

Interesting Idea Hmmm. It sounds a little bit like Strikeforce Moritori. In that world, a scientist had come up with a treatment to give ordinary people super powers. There was a catch, however. The powers did not manifest right away, but the treatment would kill you within 12 months. Even if your powers never manifested, you would still die within 12 months. Earth was being invaded by an unstoppable alien horde, so the government recruited young and idealistic people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the world. The whole tone of the series was very, very tragic and very much epic heroic. It was a very well done series. (I don't remember who drew it, but the artwork was great, too.) I am not sure what style of campaign you are after, but your description reminded me (in some ways) of Strikeforce Moritori.