PoorWandering 1

Re: Jet City Champions Campaign Log Hmmmm. We have a dictator of a small-yet oil important mid-east country who personally destroyes/devistated a major US city. I think the only real question would be whether to use air/sea power to flatten the country or to move land forces from the Saudi bases. Hmmm Roleplaying is strange in Bush doctrine post sept 11 america.

Re: Jet City Champions Campaign Log So how is Sudi Arabia/US reacting to destroyer land. It looks like a godsend of an enemy in an election year. The Dr. may be good but he can only be in at most a few places at the same time. I could see the Dr. becoming a major target in the 'war on terror'. Think about it the US will not allow Dr. D to threaten the Gulf. Djbooti is in a near perfect position to do just that. A cynic could say that is why there are major US military bases in that tiny country. Btw what happened to those bases? I smell a gulf of Tonkin/remember the Maine sort of thing going on.

Re: Monster Squad Ideas He he if you scare them enough you might even get them to freak out at the watercooler back at hq when it gets cloged and makes a strange noise. They might even open fire. Idea. Make then take the bit of hair back to where the boat sank. The ghost whish is by now quite insane sees this as a threat and attacks them. It's stronger on it's home turk so it is able to animate the rotting bodies of the slaves and the former crew. Perhaps even lifting the rotting boat out up to the surface. The party will have to board the boat, finght their way into the hold and find the correct corpse to give the hair back to. Then they hafe to run like blazes as there is nothing holding the boad together any more. Could be dramatic. Course i also suggest the the "sane" heir be killed by the ghost. The party finds out about Mr White from the Heir's payments to the asylum.The party then races to mr white for round two. Cures mr. white by destroying the fetishes drives off the ghost after the attach on the aslyum learns about the bit of hair and the animated ancestors. Another race to the graveyard. The fetishes animating the ancestors are also keeping the ghost at bay so they are "safe" for now. The party learns the full story about the guide from the ancestors. After the ancestors are destroyed the party now knows where the boat sank and what they need to do to stop the ghost. Climatic battle on the boat party victorius. The now cured Mr.White takes over the family company gratefully funding the pc's org out of remorse for being the indirect cause of the Heir's death. Party praised back at HQ. Comic closing sting with the watercooler. Fade and credits. That's what i would do anyway. However this version is more like a 2-3 session Stalking the Night Fantastic/ CoC adventure than a one shot HERO Horror. In Fact if you don't mind i think i'll write it up as such to have in reserve in case i have to step in for a AWOL GM sometime. ~PW1

Re: Monster Squad Ideas If the ghost could reach him in the asylum why is he still alive? Does the ghost not want the family dead? The fact that he is still alive led me to the idea that something was protecting him. Add the fact that at some point he must have been functional enough to create the fetishes for the dearly departed and that the fetishes did not work as he intended them, the water ghost is still after the living branch of the family after all, and i see a slowish fall into madness. I could even see White as the one who woke up the ghost in an early experiment in necromancy. Why is the ghost captured by the time the players reach the aslyum? I don't see the ghost being dealt with until after the undead branch of the family is destroyed. Otherwise why have the bit of scalp available? I could see the party figuring to freeze the ghost bevore they go to the aslyum but i can also see them reasoning that the water is simply animated by the ghost and if they froze it it would just animate a new body from another water source. Heck if the ghost is still around you could play with the players heads by simply having it rain when they first arrive at the asylum. By the end of the game you could have the players jumping at the sound of a faucet turning on esp if when the ghost attacks in the asylum it animates a body out of the water in the pipes. If you do go with the "White's magic protecting the asylum while driving everyone mad route" you get the possability of the party, after breaking into white's cell, will destroy the master fetish holding the spell together. Everyone suddenly feels the grip of this place release, some of the inhapitents are having their first coherent thought in years. White turns to the party, his back straightens and the light of comprehension returns to his eyes.... and then the ghost attacks. You gould really get a good water = threat = fear theme going.

Re: Power Defence... Ugg Jackalope. Of course drains/etc will be rare in youre campaigns. You disallow the most usefull and effective ones. How do you deal with poisons if not as a body drain over time? Or for a more superpowered example i once ran a super named "Secondhand". His main power being the ability to move time. He had a linked dex/speed transfer to dex/speed he got faster as you got slower he also had a dex/spd aid with a dex/spd drain side effect so he could give you his time. Eventually the party brick managed to land a grab and it was a free trip to Stronghold for Secondhand. Or take "Presto!" a mutant who can vanish objects for a short time. I origionally built this as an all or nothing body/def drain. You pull a gun *poof* the gun vanishes until it's full body has returned per the normal rules for recovering from drains. Either of these could be done as transforms but drains are so much simpler. I wonder though why you leave one of the nastiest drains in the game as still available? In the hands of even a low power Mentalist an ego drain is a godsend, It's pretty easy to get ego +x when you've only got to beat the x. I agree the drains/transfers need to be carefully considered but the same can be said for aid powers and it is trebly true for transforms. My .02

Re: Monster Squad Ideas Questions that might derail the PCs 1.What is causing the insanity at the asylum? 2.Why isn't the water ghost haunting the elder heir? 3.How do the players uncover the drowned slave story? Possable answers 1. "Mr. White" The PCs will find fettishes for all patients/staff members including Mr. White. The fetishes were intended to keep the water ghost from harming him or the others. The insanity is a side effect caused by his paranoia bleeding into his magic. This option prevents the insanity transformation from effecting any of the pc's unlegg he can swipe a personal object/hair etc. 2.Kept away by the fetishes. Maybe there is a record of an attack on the aslyum before the fetishes were compleated and the insanity took hold. Maybe even a transcript of Mr Whites intake interview/case notes where he details how he hopes to send the ghost after the dead relatives. 3. Mr. White could tell them. The intake/early records of the asylum or staff may have this info. A Newspaper/historical society local to where the drowning took place might have some info that would lead to the maritime insurance company which would lead to the ownership of the "cargo" and possably the name of the "guide" Anywhay these are the spots where i would get confused. I hope it's usefull to you.

Re: Dark Champions Campaigns Many moons ago i was in a x-com based game. The GM used the origional traveller for the rules. It was a blast. We usually played multiple PC per player to offset the rather high death rate. The weapons fit with minimal changes and the skills were very easy to "de-space". It was a fun game but if you want to stay true to the game you have to have the high death rate. The alien's plasma weapons are 1 shot kills until you get the really nifty armor and by that point the Etherials are bringing out their mind control. I would recommend that the players play a game of x-com or the more recent UFO:Aftermath to get an idea of the death rates and the effects of the alies vs. human tech imbalance. The monthly council budget meetings were a blast. The GM assigned players to be reprasentitives of the varoius funding nations while one player got to be the X-Com rep. The nation players were briefed as to how the alien threat was seen in their country, how much alien activity vs x-com activity etc. The Rio base ended up being built not to counter a alien threat but because a coalition of southern hemisphere countries demanded a greater role. The Rio base came in handy though we moved laser weapon production there after an attack on our main Hamburg production facility. At the next meeting the German rep complained about the loss of jobs but that meeting broke up when the x-com rep announced that there was a terror attack in progress in Koln 2 minites before the West German rep knew about it. It turns out that the West German Government was being infiltrated. In short X-com RPG can be fun but you need to work to make it something other that a prettyfied minatures game

Re: Monster Squad Ideas Kudos for high standards! But then again posting works in progress may help find a few of the curve balls the players will come up with. You never know, we're not 10,000 monkeys but we might just get lucky.

Re: Monster Squad Ideas Did blue post the outline? Rats i missed it. Maybe Blue pulled it because some of the players may curise the boards?

Re: Monster Squad Ideas Idea 1. I ran a one shot horror fantasy where the players were isolated in a small village terrorized by a supernatural wolf. Think Hound of the Baskervilles and you won't be far off. One recommendation. Beware giving the pc explosives, they will be tempted to simply destroy the structure as a solution. idea 2. Grues from infocom. Seriously, make them very araid of the dark. The team arrives at sunset called in to respond to a school shooting by say local police/fbi/what have you. The team walks in the door at exactly sunset. The local contact is missing and there are a number of civilians/students/whatever. A quick search finds the half eaten body of the contact in the photography dark room. Creepy stuff like the fact 8 rounds were fired by the contacts gun and there are only 4 bullet marks on the wall and nobody heard the shots. I recommend having the word "dark" written by the contact in his own blood as a hint. From this point on anyone alone in the dark Dies messily, use the staff/kids as replacement characters as needed. Once they figure out that something in the dark can kill them remind them that it is a moonless cloudy night and there is at least 100 yards of darkness between the door and the nearest streetlight. One of the nice things about this idea is that in the beginning the phones still work. They can call for help but that help has to cross the same 100 yards coming in. With any luck they will call for help and then get to watch that help get eaten. For a prop i recommend a large ticking clock and playing the 6-8 hrs of darkness in realtime. Remember to trash the fuse box once they turn on all the lights, the light in the basement where the box is auto shuts off to conserve power. Just a few random ideas Note the planecrash-strangely abandoned town-giant ants plot is always good for a dust off.

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That! Aw, no Amazing Yo-Yo man for you then i take it? Re: The AY-YM i almost got the PS:Classical Cello past the GM, almost.... Drat!

Re: Crisis of Infinite Foxbats Hurled outside of time by a freak ping pong ball accident freddy finds himself stranded in 1940’s north africa. Yes that’s right he is the desert Foxbat.

Re: Arquebus, Musket, Cannon Your loading time seem a very short esp for the cannons. I would also give them a chance to blow up when used. It was quite commin for gunners to be missing fingers, eyes or even limbs. Early guns hand made of often suspect quality metals were far from reliable esp when repeatedly fired with out being allowed to cool. I'm not positive but i seenm to remember that the grand cannon that the turks used to batter Constinople never fired more than a few shots an hour. I sugest at least tripleing the loading times on the cannon and then letting a skilled crew cut that with skill rolls. A similar idea of long reload time shortened with a skill roll should apply to the smaller arms. In battle or hunting these small arms rarely got a second shot. By the time you could reload the survivors of the first volley would be in hand to hand combat. In your time period you are talking lit-match-shoved-in-hole for a fireing mechanism and rather crude black powder. I recommend a ltrip to a library to find a text on the history of firearms. Any decent book will give you an idea of how long it took to relod these early beasts. Black powder recreationists websites would also be a good source. Howecer not very many people today work with stuf from the time period you are thinking of, too dangerous. Just think the hight of Carribian piracy was 2-300 years after your period and was still common for a pirate to loose a hand or eye when their own gun misfired. Even the muskets used in the French & Indian war were slower and had shorter range than the bows used. The only real advantages the guns had were ease of use and stopping power. .75 and .6 caliber musket balls made very messy wounds. food for thought anyway.

Re: Crisis of Infinite Foxbats Dark-Foxbat? my brain hurts now.

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #69 Stonewall- Turn the files over to the kids. Each kid gets their own file a note explaining how Stonewall aquired it and a way to contact him if they wish. It would be interesting to see how the 'evil-teens' react to the idea of Viper having this much information on them.

Re: Help me create an Alien Arena Sport I would suggest starting by asking what purpose the Game, hereafter known as skeeball, will have in your game? Will the fate of the universe hang on the result of a do or die skeeball contest or is skeeball more window-dressing say in a gangster story where a star player is being blackmailed to throw the game? Answering this question will determine how detailed you need to be and where you need to focus. If it's window dressing then you need to focus on how the game looks and it's 'alien' nature. If it's poviotal and the players will have an active part in the game (and if it's pivitol to the plot, they should have controll) then you have to get detailed. I wouyld say that the players do nor NEED all the detailed rules but they do need enough to get on with. If it were cricket they would need to know how runs are scored and when to leave the field but they would not need to know all the complexities of the Leg before wicket rule. If yoiu want to get detailed i recommened finding a little known sport and 'alienizing' it. Example take the current sport of team handball and have the players play while riding alien beasts. The best example in print that i can think of it the way Jasper Fford transforms croquet into a contact sport. The game is familiar enough for the reader to picture what is happening but just strange enought to keep you off balance. I think this same familiar/off balance feeling would translate well to a game. Could you tell us something about the aliens and the culture that 'skeeball' comes out of? Do they have capeabilities byond those humans? Imagine how soccer or basketball would change if it was being played by 2 hiveminds or if the players were from a cyborg race where specialized parts could be swapped out in response to the other sides stratagey. I also recommend taking a look on the web at a game called "brainball". This real game involves a ball that moves twords your opponents goal based on how relaxed your mind is. Team brainball would look quite alien. Well that was my $.02. I hope it was usefull.

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #68 Reverie: After he's cooling his heels in Stronghold, I'd point out that the US and in particular this administration does not have a good record with treaties.

Re: All the superhero PCs I've ever played Looking back, it's been a strange crew. All champions mainly 3rd ed. The highlights Stonewall. Forcefield based brick. Openly gay. One of the other players, who happened to be gay, had a wonderfull time baiting this to-PC-to-be-real paragon. Super Flea! You can have an unseemly ammount of fun with high strength and 7 levels of shrinking. Only played once or twice, too one sided to be fun once the comedy wore thin. T.T.T.Timelag. Duplicating MA using the 3ed duplication rules. Died, in a plane crash, from being eaten by an dinosaur, due to the deflected and redirected arrow from an overly violent team-mate and retired to write adventure novels. Kid Thursday. His background was never revealed but he had a grab bag of strange and unusual powers. Images visible only to n-ray vision. Full invisibility only to machines and animals. Extra limbs /w invisable power effect. McGuffin bombs and other oddities. In retrospect bropping a McGuffin bomb in the middle of the GSVC may have been a bad idea. Asked to retire as he made the GM's brain hurt. Presto. Teen mutant with ranged 'anything to nothing' transformation attack. Now you have guns, now you don't. Theremin. Dark Champions. Sound and taser using blind MA/vigilante. The active sonar was surprisingly usefull. Sunspot. Dark Champions. MA with flash grenades. Of them all Thursday was the most fun. I hope to play him again someday.