SuperPheemy

Re: So, Who Else Is Gonna Grab Galactic Champions ASAP?? Prepared to pounce on Darren's prolific prose promptly after I perceive it's presence in my FLGS! *EXCELSIOR*

Re: Your Character's Greatest Fear? SuperPheemy of course has no fear! However, SunKnight held a deeply hidden fear that one day the bonds that held his energy form in cohesion would break and he would lose the last physical, tangable element that was himself. Armored Bear was afraid of rats. Even in the armor, he often obliterated rats that scurried out suddenly. (12D6 Penetrating Energy Blast). Comes from his childhood struggling in Soviet Russia. The house he grew up in was infested, and his grandmother warned him to be good, or she would feed him to the rats in the walls. Broken Arrow has a fear of losing control to the government again. However, he keeps the fear so deeply buried in his psyche that it manifests as his drive to oppose authoritarian abuses.

Re: Culture HERO Boy George: Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry? Assembled Klingon High Council: YES!!!! Carnage such that has not been witnessed since the days of Kahless ensues...

Re: Aircraft Carrier...*Rant on* CLOWN can make *anything* fit on the Carrier, so long as the result was funny. After all, Merry Andrew is a genius just shy of Dr. Destroyer's league (33 INT), he can come up with something. And the bullet to the head's been done. It's why Tag has that steel plate nowadays. .

Re: Aircraft Carrier...*Rant on*

Re: Aircraft Carrier...*Rant on* Do your players want to actually GO places in this boat? The Aircraft Carrier itself isn't the most efficient means of superheroic travel. "Dr. Destroyer just took over Fiji! Never fear, the Freedom Squadron will be there in a week!" However, if it were just a floating base, with the ability to occasionally move (say, if the characters were to go on an exteded adventure away from Chicago, and would like their base to be nearby for the duration). I see no problem with that. I'd build it as a base, see what the points come out to, ask the players how many points they're willing to donate to the cause, then round out the rest with Disad points. (Such as: Hunted - WWII Historical Preservation Society, 14-, or Distinctive Features: WWII era Aircraft Carrier). As a base it wouldn't even need that much crew. Just enough staff to ensure the lights stay on.

It's CLOWN. Now that Steve has removed them from Champions Universe continuity, Merry Andrew and company have escaped into the real world. Look for a clownfaced Elvis impersonater doing road shows and finishing his set by shooting a television with the jeweled handgun.

Don't feel bad, Kris. He doesn't do windows either.

A nice "Proper Care and Feeding of Your Megalomaniacal Supervillain" essay or two. A discusson on how recurring villains can remain recurring. Especially useful would be tips on dealing with Supervillain heads-of-state (with accompanying scenario where the heroes have to aprehend said villain in his home country without creating an international incident), how Masterminds run their organizations from behind bars (again, provides a good scenario where heroes have to deal with an imprisoned villain who continues his nefarious plans by proxy), and a step-by-step example on how a single influential supervillain manipulates criminal events through multiple vectors (sort of a "bloated spider at the center of a tangled criminal web" scenario).

Let's say that Da Champ, the really strong Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world were to punch Da Contendah. For purposes of this example, Da Champ will have a STR of 20, and is assumed to have hit his target. a 20 strength yeilds a 4d6 punch which averages 4 BODY. Knockback subtracts 2d6" from that which averages 7. Most of the time, Da Contendah won't go flying accrosss the ring. In the "worst case scenario" (for Da Contendah at least), Da Champ rolls fantastically and scores 8 BODY (this happens 1 out of every 1296 punches) and rolls a 2 for Knockback, sending the Contendah flying back 6" (or 12 meters) (this happens once in 46,656 punches) and is a good reason for Kockdown rules in Heroic games. But, in the overwhelming majority of the time, Knockback on a 20 STR attack will either not knock the target back, or only yeild an inch or two off knockback, good enough for a dramatic "he knocked Da Contendah thru da ropes" moment. People in our world seldom get to a 20 STR, much less beyond it. However in the fantastic superhero Universe, people can have STR scores reaching upwards of 60 or more, and toss around attacks that inflict 12+ dice of damage. However, since the genre already breaks a few laws of biology, physics, and chemistry in allowing superfolks to wander around in the first place, a super-uppercut that sends Dr. Punching-Bag into Low Earth Orbit actually contributes to the mood and theme. Thus, we get to lovingly count out hexes on our battlemats hoping for our newley-created projectile to impact something suitably solid and unmovable.

My worst NPC experience EVER I was running a long-term Vampire game (using that game system designed for Tellers to Relate Stories from the compay of Genus Lupus and Pale of Pelt) where every character (7 in all) had developed a close relationship with a different NPC or two or three. As the PCs were a widely vairied lot, the NPCs they interacted with became widely varied as well. We had Spewey-Doo the dog, Jamal the Drug Pusher, Marvin the Club Bartender, Guido the Mob Contact, Moe, Larry, and Curly who were dim muscle for the Sherrif, Ariel the Girlfriend, and a host of others ranging from stuffy English Butlers, to teenage junkies. One evening all seven players did nothing but interact with NPCs, all seperately, all simultaneously. I was literally going from NPC to NPC with each sentance (INCLUDING THE DOG as two of the characters had the ability to speak to animals). For six hours this went on, until the wee hours of the morning when we ended the game for some well-deserved rest. For two days following, I was unable to maintain a single topic of conversation for more than three sentances. My wife thought I'd cracked. I've warned all my players since that if they ever do that to me again, all of their NPCs will become "Bob", and "Bob" will react and act the same way for any given situation.

Some Horrific help I rely on three elements to convey horror in games 1. Isolation: The protagonists need to realize that they cannot get help from any outside source. Whether it's by physical isolation (lost in the wilds, on a deserted moon-base, or stuck on a boat in the middle of the sea) or social isolation (the "no one believes us" tactic where even if the protagonists ask for help, their pleas are at best ignored or at worst taken as evidence the protagonists are cracking up). 2. Helplessness: The protagonists need to understand that the direct, easy approach isn't working. Even logical deduction seldom yeilds progressive courses of action. This is the classic "you can't nuke Cthulhu" element. The protagonists should swing between "defeat the menace" and "survive the menace" throughout the scenario. Not knowing what to do is one of the essential elements of horror. 3. Mystery: The protagonists shouldn't have a clear idea of what they're up against. They should chase evidence, catch brief glimpses, or stumble on the aftermath of the menace, but never get the whole picture, except perhaps at the climax of the scenario, or the epilogue. Knowing what you're facing gives an element of comfort, a sense of stability which is something the protagonists should never have. I also use several tricks to help the players maintain the mood. The first of which is an agreement between all players and the gamemaster that this is a horror scenario, and to accept the conventions of the genre. If you can, run the game in a place that enhances the horror mood. Preferably someplace with broad empty spaces behind the players and gamemaster. You don't need to play in blackout conditions, but use a single source of light bright enough to play by, and eliminate any distracting sources of light. Make the hallway leading out of your family room as dark as possible. Sit with your back to a window looking out into a darkened front yard (I tend to run my horror games at night, since daytime intrudes too much on the mood. HAM IT UP as the gamemaster. Describe scenes from a "first sence perceived" standpoint. Rotting dead bodies are scented before they are seen. Shambling horrors are heard shuffling through the streets. Cold winds chill the flesh. Give the players just enough to let their imaginations run wild. You'll realize that players are excellent at scaring themselves. Finally, keep the pace moving. It doesn't have to be car-chaces and gunfights, but events must keep occurring. Don't let the protagonists rest too long. For horror to work there has to be pressure to keep going, the sense that if you stop you're dead. Hope this helps a few of ya.

Odd, I've been enjoying the story arc. The writers got me to empathise with Captain America who, despite his efforts was unable to save the mother from a horrible death at the hands of Thunderball. I liked the portrayal of Hawkeye when he told the Avengers that the LAST thing he thought was that the mother could have died. The Avengers don't lose very often. Clint went back to being a hothead, and promptly got himself in deeper than he could handle. And the Yellowjacket/Wasp scene had a nice tie-in to the one-off issue of some months back. Hank doesn't realize that some scars may heal, but don't go away. Jan acts rather human in an ugly way by refusing to fully forgive, even years after the fact. Most of all, I liked Steve's interaction with the kid. He was at a loss of how to explain to this grieving boy that he failed him. Captain America seldom fails, and while he is comfortable and in a sense humble with the hero adoration he receives, for once the great leader of the Avengers seems to be in need of leadership. She-Hulk is doing much better by comparison with the younger daughter. But, I'm a sap for sacrifice and storylines like these.

1d6 EB. Will hurt people at range, and is not very likely to kill them. A steal at 5AP.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! It's more elegant and simple to use than the system I was working on! OH WHY DO THE HERO GODS TORMENT ME SO??? On the other hand, it is a good alternative to rolling handfulls of dice at high DC values.

I just assumed HKP was pourning all of his points into Follower: Spot the cat.

That wasn't Hong Kong Phooey. Far too competent. More like Go-Ku Phooey.

Re: Re: Speed of Lightning, ROAR of Thunder! OK. OK. I get it, ROAR of thunder. Jeez it ain't bad enough that I posted a reply as a new topic, but I managed to commit an animation faux pas in the process. It's like all the bad NGDF Karma has struck in one incident. Where's Hong Kong Phooey when you need him?

I thought the Elementals were Bill Willingham's.

Am I reading Pax right? 75 STR + 75 STR (no figured char) for 150 total STR, then 90 points of Absorbtion added for a grand whopping 240 STR total? We're getting close to pre-Crisis Superman levels there. Not that I'm criticizing, C-Pax IS supposed to be the "Superman" of the Aberrant Universe. It just makes me wonder what Divis Mal is like. *shudder*

Blast! This was supposed to be part of the "superdrugs" thread elsewhere on this forum. CURSE MY FAILED MESSAGE BOARD SKILLS! CUUUURSE THEEEEEEEM!

And who could forget "The secret space of my ring I fill With an Underdog super-energy pill!"

Kraven the Hunter had a special elixer that allowed him to be on par with Spiderman. Some sort of mysterious concoction he discovered in the deepest Jungles of Africa.

Sun Knight, a near-direct lift of the character Sunturion from Iron Man. Fairly mundane flying energy projector.

X-Ray vision baby!