Prometheus

Re: What would happen if Los Angeles County vanished? Well, how about losing (just to name a few) USC, CalTech, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Northrop Grumman, Art Center College of Design, The Brewery Art Colony, LACMA, the Getty (both of them), MOCA and the Geffen, the Huntington, Castaic Lake, the Tar Pits, Griffith Observatory, LAX and Burbank Airport, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach (over a quarter of all container traffic entering the United States, fifth busiest in world), innumerable ethnic communities (some the largest outside their countries of origin), 10 million people (3% of of the US population, or an order of magnitude greater than what it lost in the Civil War), and the 17th largest economy in the world? Wouldn't you rather take Orange County? In a superheroic world, everbody effectively goes to DEFCON 2, particularly the Avengers and Justice League equivalents. Reed Richards and Co. check in on Doctor Doom and scan for traces of Galactus snacking between meals! The Guardians of Oa dispatch Lanterns to Apokalips and Sector 666! Dear God, where is Tony Stark!?! Batman reveals the Batcave West Disappearance Protocols! Cats and dogs, living together! Mass hysteria! We're talking at least a 6 issue crossover.

Re: Hollow Earth --Not!

Re: Hollow Earth --Not! To be fair, you're trying to add something the size of a continent to the map while keeping anyone from seeing it. And it'll be hard to lose once someone has found it. Put it in the antartic; Terra Australis has potential. The ice makes for good camo and there's a fair amount of room.

Re: Enemies for Teen Champions game Adults in a position of authority are good foils for a teen group. They don't necessarily need a great deal of power either. I would, though, recommend a fair deal of survivability; you want the adults to be able to act tough and return to plague the heroes later (looking at the numbers you’ve listed, a 20 - 25 PD/ED and STUN in the 35 – 45 range should put up a decent fight). Just putting them behind the scenes initially is a good way to make them last, but you don't want them getting pasted by just 1 or 2 of the heroes- invest in some defenses or minions to screen for them. Or both. For some examples of this, have a look at Brother Blood from the animated Teen Titans, Emma Frost as she appeared in New Mutants, or even the Mayor from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There's nothing that says the adult has to have any kind of superpowers either. Anyone with clout (and some points to spend) can be a worthy opponent. A few words of innuendo and trophy-wife looks (18 PRE + 18 COM + Seduction 13- = 15 points) may be all a villainess needs to get the jerk football player to make your gadgeteer's life hell. Does he risk his secret identity showing up the jock? And just imagine the look on a player's face when after a semester of chasing after her, his character shows up at the head cheerleader's doorstep only to find Lex Luthor waiting to meet who's come calling on his little girl!

Re: Another Possible HPA In The Works: Born To Be Wild I have to ask, how narrowly defined is the Wild Man? Tarzan and Mowgli can be fine-tuned with packages like Noble Savage or Wild Child respectively, but could the Wild Man also include the Outsider Gone Native (mentioned above), or the Territorial Vigilante (the Phantom!)? And for the GM, a template for the Queen (and the character is invariably a woman) of the Hidden Land, ala La of Opar and Hero's own Spider Queen. A word or two on how to integrate them into a game would be great. If the Boy-Raised-By-Monkeys is being run as someone who can't speak any human languages, is perpetually trying to establish dominance over the female NPCs, and spends combat flinging unmentionable materials at his opponents, then there has been a disconnect with the genre. Something else to consider might be some pulp powers- environmental movement, immunities, or abilities learned from animals.

Re: HPA In The Works: The Great White Hunter's Bestiary

Re: HPA In The Works: The Great White Hunter's Bestiary

Re: HPA In The Works: The Great White Hunter's Bestiary

Re: HPA In The Works: The Great White Hunter's Bestiary Are you looking just at what they might be hunting, or would you include what they might be hunting with? Not every hunter heads out with a faithful companion, but brief packages for hounds, pointers, retrievers, etc., would give any hunter some added color. Also, while most of them are already written up, will there be any notes on the Big Five?

Re: Painted into a plot corner and the muse has fled! In a comic book world, nothing like that happens without sending out ripples. All it takes is a witness noticing the peculiar behavior of another motorist after the accident, or one of the "assistants in line" narrowly escaping (maybe someone the heroes know?) to tip off the good guys that something is going down. What do the heroes do when they aren't fighting crime? Could any of them be at the right place at the wrong time? Honestly, what you've got right now sounds like a plot idea rather than a game idea to me. There doesn't seem to be an in for any player, and without that interaction it's just the GM describing how the bad guys won.

Re: Nanobot Cloud Have you had a look at the insect write ups in the Bestiary? An entire swarm is built as a character, so you could design the cloud along the same lines. On the other hand, the scenario you've described doesn't really lend itself to that build- you're probably looking for something closer to Grey Goo. I would probably just give it a BODY stat, with a BODY Transfer to feed it, and have it increase in size for every +5 BODY.

Re: Pulp basics I've posted this link before because I think it's a pretty good primer on pulp: THE PULP AVENGERS: Game Mastering Pulp Adventures in the 1930s and 1940s Even if you just read a little bit of it, it should help give you a better feel for running or playing in a pulp game.

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting Likewise. Occasionally, the textures will do something funny, but I haven't had any gamestoppers. Hopefully they can put together a solution for the problems PC owners have had- it really is a pretty entertaining game.

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel The Burial (Another Painting) One of the hotel's banquet rooms houses a modestly sized painting, inspired by, or perhaps an imperfect replica of, Courbet's Burial at Ornans The painting is poorly hung, only because the viewing distance didn't seem to be taken into consideration- it's way too high on the wall for art its size. Looking at it closely will reveal odd details, but the painting's inaccessability, the hall's somber lighting, and the style, palette, and arrangement of the piece will always make them difficult to confirm. Observers may each notice different things, but there is never any problem pointing out what they think they see to others. "Is that a woman? Right there, behind the two old ladies." "Hmmm, that man's nose is awfully big." "Are those crossbones? And what kind of a crucifix is that." "You know, that building on the hill looks kinda like the view coming in from the highway." "Hey, you see that little girl staring out of the picture? I think the painter left out her legs." "Actually I don't think he's holding anything. Weird." "Wait a second- that's not something draping into the hole, it looks more like... like something reaching out..." The viewer can never be certain.

Re: league of extraordinary PULP HEROs The Thrilling True Tales!!! site hasn't been rebuilt, and we haven't played in a while, but the group in that particular campaign was a "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". The group was: Karagoz - Master of Mesmerism Kerzak - The Great White Ape Johnny Danger - Daredevil Archeologist Ulysses S. Adams - Two-Fisted Patriot I even cooked up some Bruce Timm style interpretations of the characters for us to use as cardboard heroes (though I don't know why that last one is an oddly small size). I'm pretty sure my own character, Johnny Danger, made an appearance in Freedom City by Stephen Kenson. At least according to the annotations.

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting If you haven't already had a look at it, you may want to start with the Mass Effect Wiki. A little note taking will get you started and you can always refer back to it later. Depending on how faithful to the game system (rather than the game world) you want to stay, most of the special abilities can be written up as talents or powers, or can be extrapolated from skills pretty easily. If you're GMing you should consider how to rework some abilities, depending on how you see them affecting your game. The "recharging bonus" works for a video game, but at least for me, it doesn't transfer to the tabletop. Having never read the novels, I don't know how they translate into prose. Equipment is a big deal in the game, but for the tabletop I'd just work out the basics and make minor adjustments. Pistols and Assault Rifles have a high output, Shotguns and Snipers do more damage; Pistols and Shotguns are shorter ranged than Assault Rifles and Snipers, but are generally more accurate (at least without the Assassination skill). Play around with the Damage, OCV, RMod, and Stun X and you can add a fair amount of nuance to the weapons, as can Advantages like Increased Knockback, Armor Piercing, etc. You may also want to break up Weapon Familiarity, since being able to use one weapon gives you no skill with another (Pistol-12 with Sniper-0 will still give you alot of "float" when you're trying to aim the big gun), and most characters can't use them all. Only a start, but that help any?

Re: How Would You Make Green Lantern? The big issue you're facing is that the assumptions you're working from aren't entirely clear. Are you intending to run your Green Lantern build in a game? If you are, then likely you'll be working with a limited number of points. For a standard superheroic game that's going to be 350 pts, but is that the level you plan to play at? You can start a game at 100, 2000, or even a 1,000,000 pts, but the Hero rules assume every character is going to have same points to work with. At each level those characters are also going to interact with each other and their surroundings in very different ways. Likewise, being able to suggest a build that suits you hinges on knowing what you plan to work with. If you're building this as a construction exercise, is there any cap you want to impose or is the sky the limit? Which Green Lantern you're trying to build is important too, as is what version. Showcase Hal is not the same as Emerald Dawn Hal is not the same as Sinestro War Hal. And is this a yellow impurity/24-hour charge ring, no impurity/genetically-coded ring, or a fear vulnerability/variable charge ring? Honestly, before you can come up with a build, you need to define what you're building.

Re: How Would You Make Green Lantern? How many points are we talking here? At the standard starting level for a superheroic game, you're just not going to be able to squeeze in the more spectacular abilities of the more iconic and powerful characters in comics. For a 350 point version of Green Lantern, I actually think Supreme Serpent has this one down right. Everything you've described has damage as a component, and that can be simulated with a properly built attack. Now, if you're trying to simulate the feats of the Green Lantern Corps in all their glory, 350 isn't going to be nearly enough. A writer has no real limits when it comes to effects, because they're the ones making it up after all. Kyle Raynor kept a small nova in check, Guy Gardner vaporized a Khund battleship, and John Stewart hit a target across huge interstellar distances, and GL lore puts them below the power levels of Hal Jordan and Sinestro! Writers have also regularly redefined the rings' abilities and limitations (often inconsistently), so you're really aiming at a moving target. Don't let that discourage you though, I don't mean to come off as a wet blanket. If you want a reasonable solution (or at least what I consider reasonable), you may want to start by defining what you think a Green Lantern ring should be able to do, in the simplest game terms possible. At the very least have a look at the Power skill, Variable Advantage advantage, and Variable Power Pool framework- all three are easy to track down in the index. Build a set of powers that are appropriate for the game level you want to play, particularly looking at the suggestions given above. Then try it out! You can always go back and make adjustment as you get to know the rules better. The Hero system is robust and accommodating, and that's what makes it great.

Re: Street Sweepers

Re: Favorite flavor of Guardians? How they behave- even when they have little direct involvement- can really set the tone for the story. Compare Yoda and the Jedi council from Phantom Menace to Obi-wan and Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back. Mass Effect's Citadel Council views humans as the new kids, and there is definitely a sense of having to prove yourself as the one representative of the human race. Strictly personal preference, ESB Yoda would get my character motivated. He does less, but I could see him getting a PC (and player) involved in the storyline, moreso than directly confronting a bad guy. I guess that's a nuance I'm looking for: what kind of guardian would your character follow?

Re: Favorite flavor of Guardians? I like this one. There's some wiggle room available, without making the authority figures blatantly stupid or malevolent, and the players can face the difficult decisions for some good role-playing. Scenarios with ethical quandries spring to mind pretty easily, but while I'm picking other people's brains, what kind of rogue elements could there be? I'd imagine there has to be a distinction between such an element and an outright splinter group or enemy within the ranks.

Re: Favorite flavor of Guardians? Well sure, though I get the sense some things translate a little better than others, and I'm trying to get a feel for what those are. As a player, I don't think anyone likes to be railroaded through an adventure, but there's also a point where a laissez-faire guardian loses all personality. Can there be a balance, or (for example) should I ask my players to accept that Mentor Knows All as part of the campaign, for the sake of telling a good story? Or maybe some version is just plain cooler than the others? Maybe this should have been a poll...

How do different types of Guardians work in a space opera Star Hero game? (By "Guardian" I'm refering to the group or entity that typically acts as a patron or central command for a patrol/enforcement organization in space opera: The Jedi Council (Star Wars), Mentor of Arisia (Galactic Patrol/Lensmen, the Guardians (Green Lantern), the Citadel (Mass Effect), etc.) In the Lensman series, Mentor, for example, is reputably infallible and his agents are chosen from amongst the incorruptible. At first blush, this seems like it really wouldn't work in an RPG setting. On the other hand it could certainly make for an challenging roleplaying experience: sure things are black and white, but how do you play incorruptible without coming off like Dudley Doright (sic) all the time? The most recent Green Lantern series brings back the Guardians, but there seem to be times when their wisdom isn't so... wise. The direction they've steered the Lanterns in is questionable, and at times their agents often have a clearer, truer vision than the Guardians themselves. While Lanterns are certainly fallible (some of the greatest have been the ones to fall farthest), they also seem to have a greater range of diversity and personality. At the far end of the spectrum, Mass Effect's SPECTRE agents are about as grey as they come. There's good and bad, but results are what matters. While out and out brutality is generally unacceptable, if intimidating- or outright threatening- a bureaucrat saves a planet from destruction, so be it. Actually, if it came down to a bureaucrat or an entire population, the Citadel would likely look the other way even if you had to put a bullet in him. In the end though, responsibility falls on the agent's shoulders. Yeah, all of these have potential, but what works? Genre and story conventions don't always translate onto the tabletop, so are there any obvious (or not so obvious) pitfalls inherent in any particular one? Is there one that just grabs you, plain and simple? I'm thinking outloud here a little and would like to see what the rest of Star Herodom has to say.

Re: Powers and Pulp How about: "A man so cold, so fearless, he freezes his foes in their tracks." A high PRE, some Change Environment (That Guy Gives Me the Chills), Lightning Reflexes (Frozen in their Tracks), and either Combat Skill Levels or +1d6 KA with Pistols- or both (Stone Cold Dead). For pulp, this would likely be a mesmerist, but it could also be something a little more exotic. An archeologist trained as a Shaman? Or better yet, some cross-cultural knowledge? Practically any power could be included. "Not to worry. We take a little Australian bat guano, this Rhodesian gemstone, and a pinch of the Tso-Tso tribe's 'Red Fire Dust' and..." *BOOM!!!* "The Living Library!" Cramming bought multiple times, Acting to represent a degree of adaptability, a block of Overall Skill Levels (Anything You Can Do...), and a Shape Change/Disguise combo with Continuing Charges to represent a material (Plastic X!) that allows him to take on the appearance of others, but only for an hour.