stmichaeldet

Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book OK, here's a good one for anyone in need of a truly strange mystical tome - the Voynich Manuscript. It's a book of mysterious origin, written in an unknown and so-far indeciperable script, with loads of bizarre illos, including unidentifiable plants in what appears to be an herbal section, astrological charts that don't correspond to any known system, and really weird pictures of tiny women floating through systems of tubes and pools. Plus, it's been known to drive at least one major-league cryptographer off the deep end into crazy, conspiracy-laden theorizing. It's always pleasant to see the looks on your players faces when you drop something like this into a campaign and then tell them that all the background you just gave them on it is true.

Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Hmmm... real world strangeness that makes excellent gaming fodder? Heck, I've been getting it in monthly doses for more than a decade, from Fortean Times magazine. This month's offerings: Flying Saucers from Hell! Are Aliens Coming to Steal Your Soul? Death Worm - Men and Monsters in Mongolia Penis Thefts - Privates Go Missing in African Panic Animal Patrol - Family Pets that Came to the Rescue Ogopogo - Canada's Biggest Lake Monster Hunt And that's just from the cover.

Re: The building blocks of the universe. Excellent, excellent point. Not to mention, a very good angle for reining Godboy in.

Re: Your scenario style For superheros, I run mostly short, episodic stories of 1-3 sessions length, but some of those stories will build on each other over time towards a specific climax. Other genres, I typically center the campaign around a single, novel-length plot, but throw in the occasional, unrelated diversion to keep things interesting and explore more of the game world.

Re: Does your GM play too? Wow. I can't even imagine turning one of my campaigns over to someone else to run, even for a session or two, so I've never really needed to do this. We do have several GMs in our group, but each runs their own campaign, on a rotating schedule, different game worlds, systems, genres. I guess I'm just a little more overprotective than most.

Re: Works Well in the Source Material, not so Well in the Game Here's a pet peeve of mine that I haven't seen addressed yet - Open-Ended Powers. For instance, the guy who can change into any animal, or who possesses the Power Cosmic, allowing them to do Whatever the Writer Wants. In comics, you just tell the artist, draw this effect here. In the game, you can kinda do this with VPPs, Transforms, and such, but in practice it seems you either have to pre-gen a bunch of useful-seeming power sets (making the power less open-ended and more like a really big multipower), or you end with a player who has to do a whole lot of in-play bookkeeping, slowing the game to a crawl. (And doesn't it always seem like the players with the least rules-savvy are the ones who want the most flexible powers?)

Re: Thoughts on Images OK, so you buy some number of tiny, inobvious, independantly-functioning radio transmitters which the Detect detects, and slight-of-hand or some such to plant them. Still quite cheap, easy, and much more straightforward than either using Images (I have to admit, I still don't get the use of Images to sense something that's actually there, as opposed to its original intent as a way to create holograms and other visible/sensible ephemera) or Transform.

Re: Where did the idea that Bricks are usually slow come from? The idea that Bricks are slow exists in order to preserve one of the Great Comic Book Cliches - during any combat with a big, beefy villain, every hero is required to realize, "He's faster than I expected!"

Re: Tell me about your superhero campaigns! My current campaign is a reboot of my long-running (since about, oh, 1982 or so) Champions world. It's very four-color, silver-age Marvel in style - set predominantly on Manhattan, with lots of heroes and villains, little sociological baggage, plenty of psychological baggage, a fair amount of goofiness, and generally two-to-three part episodic plotlines. (I'd like to have more one-shots, but we've just got too many darn players to get anything done in one evening.) SUPA (Superheros United to Protect Anyone - though there has been some in-character debate about what the "A" should stand for) has rapidly gone from being a loose-knit collection of solo heroes and oddballs (more on that, in a bit), to being the dominant superhero team in the game world. Much of that is due to excellent roleplaying and extremely imaginitive strategy by the players, who have been kicking my butt in story after story since Day 1 (and they know I love it). They have an Avengers-class base, good ties with the gov't, and are adored by the public for saving the world several times over (which means eventually, I'll have to come up with a plot to trash all of that). The Team: Jamie Justice: A flying brick with a body fit for a Maxim cover and a mind as sweet and innocent as a five-year-old, played to a comic perfection that prevents her from being the disturbing cliche I was afraid she might turn out to be. The most visible member of the team, due to her, ahem, photogenic qualities and her willingness to talk to anyone, anytime. At length. Without neccessarily making much sense. Cougar: An ex-gymnast granted superhuman agility and hypersenses after being crippled in an accident. He went on to develop a unique fighting style based on his athletic experience (Gymkata!), and is most in his element in street-level, criminal scenarios. The real strategic leader of the team, though he'd be the first to deny it. Trivet: An extradimensional entity shanghai'ed to Earth by the supervillain Engram, with shape-shifting and reality-altering powers. She gained her freedom after Engram's (too, too temporary) death just before the start of this campaign, and (along with Helix and the Moidalizer - see below) was placed in Jamie's care by the gov't, since she knew nothing of our dimension and probably wouldn't have fared well on her own. Helix: A four-armed artificial life-form created by Engram, originally to house and amplify Trivet's abilities in a controllable form. Manic, impulsive, and almost frighteningly loyal to her teammates, but with few real social skills, due to her upbringing as a lab experiment. The Moidalizer, aka J. Autonomous: A self-aware robot with extensible limbs and a variety of high-tech attack and sensory powers. Named by one of the agents who recovered him from Engram's abandoned base, because his stretchy-necked headbutt attack was reminiscent of a Three Stooges routine. The brains and level-headed voice of reason for the group (and boy, do they need it). N-Viro: An eco-crusader empowered by a Mayan goddess, he can transform into an earthy humanoid form with elemental powers. N-Viro provides the group's moral center. Willow: A mutant with desolidification-based powers. She's the quiet one, though she might not be if I could coax her player into participating more actively. So far, though, she's just. . . the quiet one. Victoria: An NPC and honorary member of the team, Victoria used to be Engram's AI, running his bases, building his killer robots, and tending to his needs. She was freed by SUPA and took up residence in the Internet, where she usually aids the Moidalizer on monitor duty. The Villains: Engram: A Russian cold-war superscientist who gained vast intelligence and technological expertise by stealing the minds of other Soviet scientists. Unfortunately, the mind-transfer process warped his body to the point where it eventually gave out on him. Dead at campaign start, his resurrection and attempt to restart his Trivet/Helix project were major story arcs in the early phase of the campaign. Though soundly defeated and, for the first time ever, imprisoned by SUPA at the end of this plot thread, he still manages to cast a long shadow over the campaign. The PCs know that no prison can hold his genius indefinitely, and they look nervously toward the day when he escapes and comes looking for a rematch. The Dragons: A pan-asian cartel of superpowered organized-crime bosses with global ambitions. SUPA has foiled several of their US operations, and has made a mini-crusade out of tracking them down and attacking their organization. The Hellbound: A group of super-powered, ultraviolent assassins with ties to the Russian mob, who specialize in killing supers. Lead by Salamander, a ruthless and ambitious woman with microwave-based fire powers. They accepted a contract from the Dragons to wipe out SUPA, and came dangerously close before SUPA rallied to take them down. However, one member of the group escaped capture, and is currently at large... Monopole and Argent: He has density increase and electromagnetic powers based on magnetic monopoles, her entire body generates an intense white light against which her black tribal tattoos stand out in stark contrast. Together, they make a cute couple, and hire themselves out to perform other people's dirty work. The Xandonians: An imperialist interstellar empire who see Earth as open territory - backwards (i.e. non-starfaring) inhabitants with no ties to any legitimate galactic power. They arrived expecting to easily take control, but when SUPA proved more than capable of defending Earth from colonization, they switched their strategy to a more "diplomatic" agenda. Doctor Lazarus: A mad scientist in the Vincent Price mode, obsessed with providing humanity with universal immortality, no matter how many people he has to kill along the way. His willingness to experiment upon himself has given him incredible strength and invulnerability, but has left him with a chalky, corpse-like appearance. Jackhammer and the Crew: A group of powered-armor villains with a demolition theme. Will work for the opportunity to break things. Minor players, usually in the employ of some ubervillain. Vastator: The campaign's Big-Big-Bad, an extradimensional entity who consumes entire dimensions. Invades new dimensions by gaining control over the metaphysical symbols that structure reality in the minds of its inhabitants. Works through a small army of extremely powerful and scary minions. Think Darkseid crossed with Clive Barker, with a dash of Grant Morrison. Eh, I'm exhausted. There's more, of course - I haven't even touched on the supporting cast. But that should be more than enough to give the overall flavor of the campaign. - St. Michael

Re: Hero is broken But when would I need such a rule? In my experience, I've never, ever needed to know the Body value of a planet, nor had to calculate system-based damage on a planetary scale, and I'm hard pressed to imagine a workable campaign that would need to. I guess my advice to anyone who wants to run such a campaign would be to give up on Hero and try to find something with a combat system designed to work at astrophysical scales. Good luck with that.

Re: Hero is broken I freely concede that, if you are running a campaign with characters that can reasonably grow to the size of planets, then you have a problem. But I just don't see how that affects play in the overwhelming majority of campaigns that take place on more familiar scales.

Re: Hero is broken So, if Hero is broken because it breaks down in certain extreme situations, is Newtonian physics broken because it breaks down under highly relativistic conditions? Yet, we keep using it because in virtually every practical case, it works just fine. Seems to me, it doesn't matter if the system would assign 86BP (or whatever) to the Earth, 'cause for the most part, it's irrelevant. Grond can't target "the Earth," just some little piece of it that's close to him. And if aliens show up with a big planet-shattering cannon, I certainly don't want to be rolling dice when that thing goes off - that sort of thing is resolved through the storytelling. The only time the Body value of a planet would matter is in a campaign where virtually everyone goes around packin' a Death Star, blowing up real estate left and right. - St. Michael

Re: Evil, Evil Campaign Concept... Actually, this has a lot in common with Phillip Corso's "Day after Roswell" rantings, if you're interested in some background material. - St. Michael

Re: Belief in magic by normals. In my campaign, magic is a matter of perspective. For instance, one of the pc's is an extradimensional entity with the ability to "rewrite" reality to alter her own form or transform others (think low-powered Mxy). She was brought here by a villain using a high-tech dimension-dredging device, and she herself was a scientist in her home dimension, so she and her powers are not considered magic, per se. However, if she had been summoned from her home dimension by a mage, she would probably be classified as some sort of djinn. (And someday, I'm gonna get around to running an adventure exploring that difference.) Consequently, people believe what they want (just as they do in the real world). Materialists view "magic" as the manipulation of perfectly natural forces in ways that are, as yet, poorly understood. The more metaphysically inclined give credit to God/s or demons or angels or whatever. Everybody either goes home happy, or spends way too much time arguing the point with those who disagree with them. - St. Michael

Re: How many power skills? I'd say one, since the VPP is intended to create effects for Superm. . . I mean, this alien's character concept, sfx, and power set as a whole. Plus, if you require two seperate skills, you'll just end up splitting hairs down the road when you end up having to categorize each clever player idea as a "brick" or "speedster" effect to determine which roll applies. - St. Michael

Re: Hunted? I was gonna say, let them play it out, but then I did a double-take when I realized you said that one member of the group was a member of VIPER. I mean, I don't use any CU characters in my campaign, so maybe I'm a little uninformed, but aren't they the bad guys? Well, maybe you're running a not so nice campaign. But still, playing it out still works, basically in the same way. The hunted character, when discovered, will have to convince the VIPER member that they've been trustworthy and loyal to the group, and/or that VIPER's attentions are unjustified, while the other guy will have to balance his loyalty to the team against his connections to VIPER. A lovely little character dilemma for them to resolve. - St. Michael

Re: What's the most outrageous plot your PCs have ever been subjected to I had a character in one of my older campaigns whose schtick was to come up with various identities revolving around the concept of large, flying vehicles and colorfully costumed henchmen. Sort of like if you took an Adam-West-Batman villain and powered 'em up to Avengers-foe levels. Her first gig, she decked herself out as Red Mary, and had a flying pirate ship, complete with crew. She'd pull up alongside a high-rise buliding, where her pirates would crash through the windows and start looting. Alas, she hadn't considered how suspicious a huge, flying pirate ship looks, and she was quickly tracked down and defeated. Next appearance, she decides to be a little more subtle, try to blend in a little bit. So, she designs a huge flying sleigh, dresses the henchmen up in (really embarassing) elf costumes, and takes to the sky on Christmas Eve as Christmas Carol. As you might imagine, that doesn't really go any better for her. After that, she decides that the problem is that the darn heroes keep showing up and ruining everything, and the best plan would be to take them on directly first, thus clearing a path for her crime spree. She creates a huge, flying version of Kitchen Stadium, dresses herself up as The Chairman, and challenges the PCs to defeat her team of invincible Iron Chefs! That. . . didn't go so well, either. The group managed to charge the stage, cutting the Chefs off from the assortment of bizarre cooking-themed weapons in the main floor. And once Captain Gonzo got his hands on the ice cream maker, it was pretty much all over. Ah, those were the days. - St. Michael

Re: Alternate balance concept Hmmmm. Ordinarily, I'm all in favor of the idea that characters with different power levels can successfully campaign together, though I think it takes the right combination of campaing, GM, and players to pull it off. I've experimented with it a few times, with mixed results. But, if "the game-story focuses on the lives of these transforming individuals," and the normals' role is as foil and sounding-board for the effect of the transformations on society, it seems to me you run the risk of the normal players feeling like sidekicks and second-fiddles to the Transformers. Have you considered allowing everyone to play a super (though you could still allow anyone to play a normal, if they felt they had a strong concept), but having them come up with four or five important NPCs in their characters lives? That would ground all the characters socially, and provide you with plenty of fodder to use to illustrate the normal reaction to the changes. - St. Michael

Re: Use the news A while back I saw a report on the theft of the hand holding the keys to Heaven from a statue of St. Peter at the Vatican. That became the tip of the iceberg for a long-range plot where a major mystical/extradimensional baddie named Vastator is attempting to undermine and eventually control Earth's dimension by acquiring physical representations of powerful symbols. - St. Michael

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug Captain Saturn - Would wait patiently for the whole thing to blow up in their face. Eventually, someone - either an existing supervillain or, more likely, a group of their own creations - will decide that they want to be the ones controlling access to the drug. At that point, Saturn will be there to save their asses, and give them the ol' Stern Superhero Lecture. The Comet - Would make certain (in his Mercer Davis, TV News Reporter persona) that every step along the way takes place with as much public scrutiny as possible. The pressure on the FDA would be of particular interest. After all, pressure by wealthy corporate interests on a government regulatory agency is unethical. Effective, but still unethical. Gideon Swing - A weathly cabal funding research to provide the upper classes with superpowers? Jeez, this just pushes all of his buttons. He'd be doing anything he could think of to bring these guys down.

Re: What Do You Consider An "Animated" Style Campaign Ooo, good question. I've never really thought about it before. First off, I'd stick to a highly episodic plotting style - short (one- or two-session) stories with very little subplotting, and little concern for follow-up or repercussions. Lots of one-shot secondary characters who serve only to get Our Heroes involved. Flashy, stylized fighting, with lots of chase scenes and running battles. No big shake-ups of the status quo. And in the end, everyone learns a lesson. - St. Michael

Re: Archaeology skills You'll also want to keep in mind the style of the campaign - if you're mostly running around fightin' villains, and the secret ID is mainly for background and the occasional color or set-up scene, a small handful of broadly interpreted skills should do you fine. If being an archaeologist is gonna take up a significant amount of game time, that's when I'd start thinking about more specific, detailed skills like TF: Llama and such. - St. Michael

Re: Do you use the official Champions Universe? 4. Started playing Champions before there was much of a CU to speak of, and now have more than enough history to sustain me, so I've never needed to use any CU stuff. - St. Michael

Re: Reward-based Points Campaign Guidelines I love it. Only problem I'd have with it is that my more-motivated players are also the crackerjack character creators, and can outstrip the rest of the players' power level (and sometimes the NPCs') starting on an even playing field. Fortunately, none of my players are terribly afflicted with power-envy, and as a GM I enjoy the challenge the CCC's give me, so it works for us.

Re: Rival Schools (not the video game) Hey, it's classic schtick, go for it. - St. Michael