Prometheus

Actually I wasn't alluding to being a fish, I was talking about being a higher life form. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure if you've got vertabrae, you've got a B.G. It's also been established that Aquaman's powers extended beyond just sea life. Both Namor and Aquaman have a (in my opinion) very underrated "nature's fury" angle going for them. It's always seemed to me though, that Namor's rage generally degenerated into a slightly more eloquent version of "Hulk SMASH", while Aquaman's is more a focused aggression. Namor's unfettered fury can lay waste to New York on his lonesome, but I think Aquaman fights dirtier- he has to, he's honestly outclassed in raw power- and that gives him the potential to pull "one of 'em one-shot exaggerations that plagues the industry". And c'mon, the guy had a harpoon for a hand...

It should probably be mentioned that Aquaman once defeated a Flash styled white martian by telepathically upsetting his Basal Ganglia. Seeing as how Namor is most certainly evolved from fish life, the resulting seizures would likely cripple him as well.

I've always run U.N.T.I.L. along the lines of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Marvel, with agent acting somewhere between policeman and spy. Just recently I added the "gung-ho" special ops branch, U.N.I.T.E.D. (United Nations Interdiction Team, Elite Division). With members like Deuce, Crimson, and Steel, it's pretty obvious who they're based off, and my players appreciated the nostalgic homage.

I'd have to agree, but there's always room for Wilson Fisk and Justin Hammer. I've always felt that the Champions Universe lacked comic book staple "Robber Barons"; it's good to see some finally cropping up.

I think our best has been, "I had to attack the lawyer, he was coming right at me."

Adapted from a description in Ultimate Super Mage: Qliphothium:- "...this residue is denser than mercury, chemically inert, has the superfluid properties of Helium II and is an almost perfect electrical and thermal insulator. It has all the properties of a vacuum except the absence of matter." One of my villians, Darqling, produces small amounts of it as a side effect of his powers. Imagine what you could do with that.

Uh, duh, guys. Mechanon is obviously homage to Mechanon from Eclipse comics.

The Dune universe operates on a few assumptions that allow for otherwise contrived storytelling. The rules of Kanly prohibit and formalize feuds between houses. The Butlerian Jihad did away with computers and "thinking machines". Space travel (and control of outer space) is limited by the Guild's monopoly and the availability of spice. Shields and lasguns have a (literally) explosive reaction to one another. The list goes on... Really, these are all stipulations that Herbert presented to his readers to allow him to tell a certain story. No computers means no calculators, PDA's, robots and such- or any extrapolation thereof. Radio controlled shield bombs, laser gun drones, and satellite controlled cruise missiles? Using them means breaking the ban, and attracting the attention of the Emperor and the other houses. As a GM, think of this as no different than allowing or disallowing certain powers in a campaign. If you don't want the PCs running around immune to small arms fire, you don't let them have alot of resistant defense; Herbert did the same thing. Don't want to have to deal with extrapolating the processing power of a computer thousands of years in the future, or worried about PCs relying on their AI too much? Get rid of them all together. If you're thinking about running a Dune campaign (or even just one based on it) you may want to start by thinking out the stipulations you plan to enforce in your campaign world. After that you can move on to the themes and plots and intrigues; the plans within plans...

My players knocked him back into a time machine. Multi-Man: "That's just great Darkstar. Now when he comes back, he'll be immune to time machines."

Very nice write ups, even if running a Sin City game would be an exercise in either fatalism or excess. Any chance of seeing the likes of Ava, Nancy or Hartigan? How about everyone's favorite hitmen, Klump and Shlubb?

Some of this has been already mentioned in one form or another, but how about technological frailty vs. environmental conditions? Aboard a spacecraft, firearms may have too much penetration to be safe. Or maybe the electrostatic discharge fries circuitry too easily. Firing a weapon from the inside gets dicey if you run the risk of blowing out a bulkhead or shorting out the life support. High-end, accurate weapons have tight tolerances- parts have very little room they can shift or give before the weapon's performance suffers. On a water world or a desert world (or any similar sci-fi environ) those tolerances take alot of strain. When moving parts seize up, you'll have to rely on low tech alternatives. Yeah, those are a stretch, but extrapolation is a staple of sci-fi.

Scorpia and Feuermacher had obviously failed to take into account Giganto's misguided devotion to Professor Muerte. Like an overprotective St. Bernard, Giganto fetched Muerte's broken body- still living, but barely- from the ocean. He had fled with it to one of the Professor's hidden bases, where the automated facilities nursed Muerte back to health. In time, Muerte recovered, but he would never be the same. Bitterly, he vowed revenge on his former team for their treason. But how? In his current condition, facing his betrayers directly was out, and most of his organization and resources had been burnt to the ground, literally and figuratively. All he had was his incredible incredible intellect, burning hatred, and a brainless, simpering lap-dog in a... near... indestructable... body... The professor poured giddily over the plans before him. The project had been originally discarded, tossed into a corner when he had reached an intellectual impasse. It might work, he had found, only if the victim had insufficient will and brain power to resist- useless against the driven mindset of his heroic enemies. Giganto moved the machine into place, as Muerte had directed. "Stand... here," croaked Muerte, and he obeyed. The professor hobbled to the control panel for the final adjustments and donned the Encephalo Helmet attached. "You have served me well." The words were almost a bark. "And you will again, one last time. Engage." Professor Muerte smiled. In a moment, the Personality Tranference Device would complete its work. And then, he could begin his.

Sometimes you just need to step away from GM duties for a while and get some rest. Don't be so hard on yourself- slumps are part of the creative process. Getting some time in on the other side of the GM's screen is a good change of pace. Having people rely on a constant stream of creativity from you can be draining, and being on the other side can be a nice change of pace. Is their anyone else in the group who could run something for a little while?

I guess if I could distill it down to one idea, I'd say that "actions have consequences" is a pretty vital part of a good time travel story. Whether it's subtle or blatant, in the past or future, avoidable or inevitable, if you do "A", then "B" will occur. You can twist that around alot, but I think no matter what you do to it, it's a staple.

Well... Prometheus is either: 1) The reincarnation of the titan of greek myth, who uses his titanic might, amazing intellect, and powers of foresight to fight evil. Or 2) A time travelling scientist from the far flung future, who- having penetrated the Promethean Barrier that separates the past, present, and future- was granted tremendous power. His own era ravaged by a Super/Human war, he uses his powers for the Greater Good, in the hope that his example might help prevent the terrible war in the future. It depends on who you ask.

The Pulp Hero game I play in is almost the opposite. Whether by chance or design, all of the male PC's (my own included) have a COM of 16 or above. Some of us even eclipse the leggy starlets and jungle queens we run into.

I've converted a couple of Heroclix for use with Champions and most figures will fit onto a standard 25mm base. I use round unslotted bases from Games Workshop, but I'm sure that hexagonal bases will work just as well. The based figures fill an entire 25mm hex, so you need to take that into account if you run alot of massed, in-close combats or often have multiple characters in a hex.

While running Day of the Destroyer for my group, one of the characters, Sentinel, made a few... questionable decisions. 1) Sentinel is first on scene at the hostage situation involving Villians International. He speaks briefly with the police officer in charge and assures him, "I'll take it from here." He decides not to wait for his team mates- minutes from the scene- and literally charges in, using his powered armor to blast through a wall. And runs into a waiting Golden Marauder. Powered Armor + Magnetic Powers = GM's option. 2) The team sneaks onto Dr. Destroyer's island via the main power plant, and surprises the ten technicians on staff. One of the techies has the presense of mind to bolt for the alarm- at SPD 2. One of the team members yells "Stop him!", knowing that if the techie hits the alarm, Destroyer's army will be on them like white on rice. Sentinel charges forward with a Move Through. On a normal. He reduces the techie to a mangled and broken mess, but then doesn't have enough room to slow down. Sentinel's glowing, rocketing form blows through the outer wall, and out toward the nearby agent quarters... 3) The heroes have fought their way into Destroyer's inner sanctum and come face to face with Dr. Destroyer himself. He rises from his throne and begins a soliloquy, "Greetings, ladies...". At which point Sentinel (again) lauches himself toward the enemy. He reasons that Destroyer can probably take a hit from him, so he figures he'd better go noncombat. He has to travel along a tight curve to accelerate to full speed, blows some levels to make the turn, lines up with Dr. D and unsurprisingly his zero OCV attack misses. Once again he doesn't have the room to stop and slams into the wall- only this time it's DEF 23. At his speed he knocks himself instantly into GM's option, and close to death. "...And gentlemen," continues Destroyer. Sigh. Sentinel's player moved to Seattle, and we all miss him.

The jet-set crew of Freedom Force, formerly Freedom Five, keeps Los Angeles sunny and safe. The 10th to 15th floors of Drake Towers- built on the former site of the Bonaventure Hotel- house the team's HQ.

...if you buy off your secret identity because... well, where else are the points gonna go? ...you might be overpowered.

One of the characters in my campaign has a 43 INT, but in contrast to your example, he brings alot of raw physical power to the campaign as well. Adding to what has already been said, here are a couple of things to consider: 1) PER Rolls. An 18- borders on Danger Sense when it comes to surprise, and villians that rely on Stealth are going to be confounded by the PC's keen senses. The same holds true for Acting, Disguise and Invisibility. Barring an arbitrary decision ("You just didn't catch that, sorry."), you're going to have to find a way to deal with the PC's keen senses. 2) Knowledge, Professional and Science Skills. It seems like a godsend to have a PC with strong non-combat skills in a team, but the potential for abuse is stunning. PS: Lawyer 18- may mean that the your villians go to jail for a long time, and generally cleaner streets, but it also means that the PC is all but immune to conviction (arrest and bad press are a different story). Even at -8, he has about a 50% chance of spin doctoring past the jury. With a very high INT, the PC becomes a plot vehicle- good if you want to have a sure fire way of keeping the team going, not so good if you want to have some control over story flow.

Prometheus, 4th ed.: "DC? Hmmm... THEMIS, can you get me some wind pattern and fallout projections for the eastern seaboard?" Prometheus, 5th ed.: First, a combination of Lightning Calculator, Megascaled Flight and Life Support for a suborbital flight to DC. Enroute, he'd mindlink a request to THEMIS, his A.I., for any information on the villian (i.e. KS: Supervillians), and have her request DCPD have a hazmat team on standby. Catch up with and board the train, find said villian. With the information from THEMIS, it comes down to a choice between brute STR or a Powers skill roll, with an emphasis on restraint. If he can get the villian tussled up and immobile- but unhurt (wrap a handrail around him, tie him up in seatbelts, etc.)- so much the better. That leaves about 1 to 2 minutes to either slow the entire train, or get everyone out of the first car and detach it from the rest (assuming the bomb isn't in the first car). Then, give local authorities an update and turn the situation over to them, making sure our villian is properly restrained. Stay just long enough for the requisite "Just doing my job son/sir/ma'am/miss, they're the real heroes." with a nod toward the appropriate emergency crew, then it's up, up, and back to L.A. Rescue a cat from a tree along the way, if possible.