Prometheus

Re: Pulp Era Board Games

Further search on BoardGameGeek indicates they released a number of Indiana Jones games: Raiders of the Lost Ark

I actually owned this one. It was standard board game fare, but the gameplay captured the now-you-have-it-now-you-don't search for the ark pretty well, and was very entertaining. At least in my (then) pre-teen opinion.

Re: DC's Best Martial Artist

1. Richard Dragon

2. Lady Shiva, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Conner Hawke

3. Batman, Bronze Tiger, Black Canary

4. Ra's Al Ghul, Kobra

5. Nightwing, Mr Terrific (Michael Holt), Talia,

6. Catwoman, Hawkman, King Snake

7. Wildcat, Cheshire, Question

8. Arsenal, Huntress, Hawkgirl

9. Catman

10.Robin, Shrike, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)

Given that some of these have "daisy chained" victories over one another (Mr. Terrific beat Kobra, Kobra beat Batman...) it's a little tough to get these into a satisfactory order, especially near the top.

Potential ability (vs. demostrated ability) plays a tricky role as well. Hawkman and Hawkgirl both use Nth metal, which has been shown to enhance their abilities, but not necessarily their skill, and if Batman gets to keep this utility belt, then the Hawks are in, right? Catman got a nice power up in Villains United- he can be "creatively ruthless" when he needs to- but I don't feel he has the straight up moves to take say... Wildcat. I'd also argue that a full grown Tim Drake could mop the floor with Arsenal, but right now he doesn't have the skill to overcome the limitations of his size the way Cassandra does.

Re: Three New HPAs in the Online Store

Excellent! Thanks very much.

Re: Three New HPAs in the Online Store

Purchasing HPA 14 in the Online Store gives you a link to download HPA14.jpg, the cover to Four Fiends. It's very pretty really, but unfortunately it doesn't come with character sheets.

Re: The things you pick up from Cartoon Network

Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends - A boarding house for unwanted imaginary friends. Suprisingly creative and well through out. (The blind kid's friend had a zillion eyes, but was completely devoid of color).

I've seen a few episodes under the pretense of wanting to know what my niece is watching. Like you said, well thought out- so far the squiggles have been my favorite imaginary friend.

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

The Pleasure Palace of the Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

Wait, is it too late to change my vote?

How about:

• A European castle
  
• A Hollywood mansion
  
• A social club, along the lines of the Empire Club or the Odyssey League
  

I don't know what you could attach to the castle, but Hollywood is a pulp goldmine, and at the very least I'm curious just how much a Contact with a movie starlet is worth. And maybe membership requirements or even a package deal for the club?

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

If you do include ship deckplans' date=' then they could do double-duty. They can be used for a shipboard adventure (spies, pirates, jewel thieves, whatever). Then, to make them a sunken wreck, just add water .[/quote']

 

Maybe something like this for various locales? Something along the lines of a generic island map and write up, for example, with options for customizing it into an air squadron base, secret nazi sub station, or "polynesian playground" (think Cape Suzette from Tailspin, with hula skirts). It can even be just in the set designs: a no-name speakeasy might have a reinforced door and a secret hatch behind the bar, Mick's might have the entrance on the south wall and replace table 3 with an upright piano, and the Carthage Club might have imported crystal tabletops and a huge chandelier.

 

It certainly makes for alot of nuance when you start breaking things.

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Just off the top of my head...

A lagoon or island base. Aerial, naval, or both. Blackhawks optional.

An archeological dig site of some Earth-shattering significance. Ark, Spear, Knot, and Grail optional.

Any place accessible by gondola or speedboat.

Any place with at least one door labelled "Section", "Projekt", "Warehouse", "Abteilung", "X", "23", or any combination thereof.

Two words: Martian. Canals.

Re: Worst comic book superfight ever

Me too. And Spidey can beat Firelord' date=' temporarily, if he pulls out all the stops. So I've got no problem with it.[/quote']

 

 

Superfights have always been a means to an end, and if you can sell it to me, I won't bat an eyelid. This is Mythic Stuff after all, or at least to me it is.

 

Like the Batman vs Guy Gardner fight- there was only one way that goes in a straight fight, but the writers knew that and "sold" their version pretty well. It's still one of the funniest, most satisfying, and... shortest fights ever.

Re: Worst comic book superfight ever

NO ONE has yet mentioned Spiderman vs Firelord?

 

I will remember that steaming pile of elephant dung on my death bed!

See, that one never bothered me. Spidey was outclassed the entire fight, mostly because he was trying to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, and it at least made for a good read ("Man, how's he gonna get outta this one?!?"). I think people forget that Spidey's a powerhouse, despite him handing out the humbleness to bricks like Titania and the Iron Man from the future.

As for truly bad... I don't recall the name of the characters- I've blocked out most of the details, it was so bad- but there was a trio of Cadmus (?)supers that took out Superman. In about two pages. With a taser.

Lame.

Re: I need your help with my Pulps Adventure

The serials have a few villainesses you could use. Carol Foreman alone gave us five.

And if you're not set on the good girls' side, might I suggest The Domino Lady, or Sheena?

Re: Doomsday evolution power

Some of the environmental stuff in a little tricky to model- you either have it or you don't.

For the combat version you can try Damage Reduction that only works against an attack the second time it hits (or third, or fourth, etc.). With the right limitations you can even effectively delay it until the "next encounter".

Re: Realistic Hero Games

Realistic Teen Champions: Batman t-shirts and cheerleaders don't mix. You go to the prom stag.

Re: CU - Wold Newton

Don't usually care for Wold Newton, but your version is uber-cool.

Any chance of Hyborian age warrior-kings or Nth metal making an appearance?

Re: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs HERO

Dark Horse collected the series in to two trade paperbacks, Xenozoic Tales Volume 1: After The End and Xenozoic Tales Volume 2: The New World. Creator Mark Schultz is still working on self publishing the rest of the series, so the story is as yet unfinished.

The press release sums up the setting pretty well:

Schultz’s vision of the future includes ruined cities, guano-powered Cadillacs, warring factions of humanity, reborn dinosaurs, and their intelligent, humanoid descendants. The tough-as-nails shaman, Jack Tenrec, and the beautiful scientist, Hannah Dundee, yearn to uncover the origins and secrets of their violent world while dealing with their own rocky relationship.

Sound gamable?

Re: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs HERO

I don't know that Cadillacs and Dinosaurs really needs alot of conversion into HERO- if you've got Pulp HERO, HERO System Bestiary, and HERO System Vehicle Sourcebook, you have all you really need.

Getting your hands on The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay might be helpful, even if it is targeted at a relatively young audience. So much of C&D involves nature and technology, understanding what you might need to keep a car running (like say... oh, a Cadillac perhaps?), or how to keep electricity running in the City in the Sea might come in handy.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

On the V'han front, I do think that the negative assessments of her strategic capabilities based on published sources are a little harsh. According to her writeup in Conquerors, Killers And Crooks, she'd known of Champions Earth for dozens of years, but held off invading it because of the high concentration of superbeings. That certainly implies advance scouting. She made a total of three attacks in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The first two were repulsed (they might charitably be described as test-runs), but the third was on the verge of success when Istvatha made the tactical error of coming to Earth herself before it was completely pacified, allowing heroes the opportunity to capture her - which is really the sort of exceptional accomplishment that heroes in comics are supposed to do to save the day. As I mentioned previously, her invasion of Earth and its allies in 3000 AC was a tactical tour-de-force, defeated only through the use of a (almost literal) deus ex machina.

And there is also no way of knowing how many times she's actually conquered the Earth dimension, but had it all invalidated, ala Justice League's Savage Time or JLA's Rock of Ages.

The D-Soldiers described in CKC are explicitly called the basic "grunts" of her forces, inferior to her specialized troops. I agree that it would be better to have some of those elites described, but if necessary there are now lots of other "agent" writeups that we could adapt. CKC specifically suggests modifying the appearance of any of the other characters in the book to make them superhumans in her service.

Really, that's her biggest problem- V'han needs to learn how to delegate. The way she's written up right now, she's just too much of a micromanager. Who's to say what she could accomplish with a few cronies, or an heir or two?

Re: Jonny Quest

I'm less curmudgeonly, but I too have to go with the original.

The newer series were very pretty- some of The Real Adventures were very, very pretty in fact- but the cool factor just wasn't there, even if Race did take out an assault chopper with his bare hands. Too much Tech, not enough Pulp, maybe?

I never followed the Comico series, anyone know if those were any good?

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

I don't know how much of a fusion you want in your world, but have you considered introducing some more Western staples?

P.A. is already Western with some window dress. How about:

• Dusty towns with wide streets- for shootouts of course. And after a long ride through the wasteland, nothing beats a stop at the local saloon.
  
• Riding shotgun on stagecoaches (or their post-apocalypse equivalent). Stagecoaches are old west plot vehicles. No reason why a few nuclear explosions should change that.
  
• Robber barons with an iron grip on towns. With the world going to hell in a handbasket, who's to stop someone from exploiting his fellow man?

You can grab just about any Western staple and twist it into something usable in P.A. Take railroads- I could see some crazy idealist digging up an old steam engine with dreams of helping pull the world out of a dark age by reintroducing travel and commerce.

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

You could take pretty much any character from Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales, file off the serial numbers, and have a pretty good character for a "post-apocalypse kinda game". Lifting a storyline (or two) from Xenozoic would make for a decent adventure as well. The world isn't quite as bizarre as Fallout or Gamma World, but it can certainly be as inhospitable.

Re: Blowing up a mountain

FRed lists one hex of dirt as BODY 10, and Stone as DEF 5, BODY 19 per hex. From what I've heard, Dragonball routinely has fights that destroy mountain ranges and are fought on the horizon, so you're looking at some pretty big attacks.

Re: Help me with my plot for my next session!

How about if Titan isn't cloned, but brainwashed instead. The escape, the return to Earth, the rebels- they're all part of the plan. When the rebels come asking for help six adventures from now, Titan will be "activated" to destroy the rebels and defeat his friends, leaving the road open for the eventual invasion of Earth.

Run a scene with Titan describing the mindbending encounter and give him 10 XP to keep the whole thing a secret.

Re: Deathstroke

The old Mayfair Games/DC Heroes write up of Deathstroke was pretty scary, and in that system I could see him taking on the JLA the way he did in IC. In the latest iteration of the DC universe in RPG form- DC Universe by West End Games- Slade just ain't what he used to be, but alot of that's due to the system, not necessarily his write up. For the record, in his latest version, Slade beats out Nightwing and Bats in raw physical stats, but comes in third behind 'wing in Martial Arts skill.

If you're looking for a Deathstroke write up for your campaign, have a look at Mechassassin from CKC. If you internalize most of his abilities, you have a good start for Deathstroke, which you can flavor to taste.

Re: Pulp TV Shows

Jonny Quest was originally a prime-time show' date=' aimed at parents as well as kids. I don't think it was faulted all that much for violence - westerns in the early 60's were plenty violent. I think it failed because people weren't ready for an animated show at prime-time. Of course, "failed" is a relative term. It did run for 26 episodes, and never really had a chance to go downhill.[/quote']

 

Jonny Quest was a great show. I remember reading that despite being hit with viewers, it couldn't pay for itself. The show was apparently cutting edge for its time, and was just too expensive to keep producing.

 

Or it could just be studio propaganda.

 

Regardless, Johhny Quest is a show worth watching. I think you can still catch it from time to time on the Boomerang channel.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

A small section on the pitfalls of adapting Pulp to Hero, similar to the GM notes on what works in comics, but not in Champions.

And since Hero gamers tend to roam in packs, something on how to handle a Pulp Hero team.