Lethosos

Re: Summoner If the Deckmaster doesn't have any armor played on him, of course. Seriously, though--the idea was a semi-random selection of effects that he could bring out into play through a metagame construct--an actual deck of cards carefully balanced with in-game effects written down on hand. Swapping in more powerful cards into his deck required an expenditure of XP, of course.

Re: Summoner Michael, stop listening to my ideas on my conceptual superhero, Deckmaster. It'll be safer that way.

Re: Summoner FFVI, if you're wondering. I always called the summoned beasts Espers no matter the version. But that's not the point (besides, I also know the actual term for 'esper'.) I think that if the GM's gonna have a problem with the summoner being the 'odd one out' in a battle, you should consider 'possesion' instead. (Multiform, this time.) You can always explain away that they need a host to act as their physical form in order to act on the mortal plane, and let them 'change' your body. Viola! No extranious guy hanging around, tempting any stray shots that may come his way.

Re: Summoner Gwynhar is her name, I think. (Yes, female celestial panther of Mielikki.) I think using FFX-style summons might do it, but you'd want to tie your history together with the 'Espers', so that they have a very good reason to follow your suggestions and advice. (Commanding is for the stubborn ones, methinks.) If you ever get an opportunity to get plenty more XP, turn your summoner into a support-type character, with powers either affecting both Espers and PCs or just the Espers.

Re: Okay, how do racial package deals work? A racial package (such as the one defined in the book) is pretty much what would be the differences between an average member of that race compared to a human normal. This means that, say, your Elven package has like +2 DEX--you add +2 to your baseline DEX. That's it.

Re: Western / Steampunk Hero Idea Bouncing: "Bone Falls" Monster's got an excellent point. I'd start researching the Sioux Nation, and see how you might be able to adopt that in appropriate areas. And the Free States (which I'll be using from here on, until you have a better name,) would be more amendicable to allowing territories granted for such nation-tribes to develop. A goodly swath of plains Colorado down to Arizona/New Mexico areas would be a start, IMO.

Re: I touched it! Stop touching yourself man! Especially in public! ...Oh, you were talking about Pulp HERO manuscript... Still, bad boy! You've mighti've gotten dirty fingerprints all over it now!

Re: Western / Steampunk Hero Idea Bouncing: "Bone Falls" I'd defintly create paraellels with the orignal Wild West. Throw in some local big-shot rackets--the Iron Duke suggestion would do very well, and would make for some interesting plots if he decides to side with one or the other. I'd suggest something like making him a former cattle baron who started dipping his fingers into other investments, like railroads and mining, and decides that he wants to carve out a nation of his own. Work from there. Alternatively, shuffle around some general arrangements in regards to state divisions. (I'd keep the states/territories the same.) Have it pit the East Coast against the West Coast, for a change--the Great Union vs. The Free States of California, if you like. Territory management and resources would factor hugely in here.

Re: Vibora Bay and Hurricane Ivan Hurricanes do happen on Vibora Bay, but I suspect its inherent magical protections gives it minimal effects (ie., broken windows, soggy floors, occasional roof collapse, but no wide-spread devastation.) This is from my own experiences from all four--I live in Orange County down there, where three of them have left their mark there, at least. But this is all GM's fiat--if he wants widespread devastation, he'll do it and give outs to every of his supers to stop it.

Re: Anthropomorphic/Furry HERO Resources There is further verification if you look through the very first graphic novels. I can't recall right off, but I think it's in #2 that you get to see Counselor Hebi talk to Lord Hikiji himself. It's very obvious that he's 'hyoo-man.'

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting Well, Klang is good for an over-arcing villan, but he'd want to manipulate things before revealing himself. Thus he'd play with the lesser powers; he could somehow feed information to Karnage on certain tatics and wait for the chaos to happen before executing his own scheme. Khan follows this kind of tatic to keep himself clean, so why not Klang, to keep himself out of sight?

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting It's called 'quirkyness.' How can you not love a big talking bear who flies? Now that we have two primaries, let's bring out the scuzzy ones! Don Karnage or Colonel Spigot would be a great adversary, mainly because they're fun to outwit.

Re: Power Rangers No. Just... say No to Power Rangers. They've gone through sooooo many incarnations that they're starting to blur together, for me. (At least the Green Dragonzord is still nice and distinct--can't hate the Gojira homage.)

Re: City of Heroes writeups I think you guys got the new issue #1 of the Phalanx saga, so there's some better ground-level thoughts about the Freedom Phalanx. Manticore and Sister Psyche are, to me, at human normal characteristics--only Sister has actual superpowers while Manticore is a gadget-based character on the level of Batman. (Back Alley Brawler is probably the same general range, as a highly-trained martial artist--but I'll have to dig a little further on him to be sure.)

Re: Scooby Doo True, but it felt like only Shaggy knew what he was saying. I'd still give him a Disad of "Only Understandable to Mystery Inc. Characters" in this case. And thank you for the name corrections.

Re: City of Heroes writeups Well, I'm only at 27th level, so I can't do any real research that way. But we'll find out later on. What I suggest is, as I've said before, work with concept. We can always re-evaluate them if they do something canonical that runs counter to our results. For the Praetorians, they're basically evil dupes of our greater Paragons (save the Woodsman--he died in the past, and can't really go outside of Eden's area, being a ghost now.) Hrmm... should we do one of Talos, even though it's not necessary? There were a hint or two about him not being truly gone, and anyone interested might want some ideas...

Re: Scooby Doo Not to nitpick, but... Isn't Scooby's full name "Scoobius Doo" or some wierd spelling? And wouldn't he have the Disadvantage: Speech Impediment? (Not that he was hard to hear, but he doesn't speak that much for a reason.) And for kicks, what about the other two members of the Doo Clan that's semi-frequent enough for a writeup--Scrappy Doo and Doobie(?) Doo?

Re: Campaign/World Building Help That's okay, I'm just starting out myself. Big project for a 250 page HERO sourcebook. It's the writing that gets to you.

Re: The Second Semi-Annual Great Champions Challenge Figure Contest! Hrmmm... *gets an evil idea* Naaaah. Too late to get that character write up into Digital Hero. Don't want to unsurp J's position for writing interesting characters anyways.

Re: The Second Semi-Annual Great Champions Challenge Figure Contest! Clarification: Do we have to do specifics (ie. pre-listed Heroes/Villans/Mooks?) Or is it open, as in pretty much anything as long as it's superhero-based and not a blalant copy of anything copywriteable?

Re: Which book should I get? If Villany Amok doesn't strike you, then take Battlegrounds if just for the one senario that sounds just right for super supers. (I'll just say 'Holocaust' so everyone who has it know what I'm talking about.) You can even weave it in with the module following that one if you wanted--it'd be neat to see how they can handle the 'special' bits in that one...

Re: Which book should I get? Depends on what you're looking for. Villany Amok is primarly geared toward improving an existing campaign, with senarios and sideplots to keep you on your toes. Battlegrounds and Serpent's Tooth are plot-line material. I don't have Serpent's tooth, but it's VIPER material. Battlegrounds is a series of senarios that you can do right off--only two as far as I can see are connected to each other directly, while the rest can be played "as is" if you don't want to use the baddie at the end. (J did the "Shopping Maul" scenario, which I particularlly like the best for its excellent groundswork--very useful for other plots if you wanted to.)

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting When the majority has hands, Kaa would be at a very severe disadvantage. So no, Kaa isn't in the series. It is oddly important to note that the Jungle Book was the prime source for characters in TaleSpin. Why they did it that way, I dunno, but Baloo has the belly for it. Man, I miss that series--the Communist boars were funny.

Re: Pirate Hero arrrrrg! You may even want to run around on the Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates forums for some thoughts from the regulars. They may be even willing to give you plot ideas and useful things for Pirate HERO. But I would be careful if they start nitpicking about the differences between a cleaver and a scimitar...

Re: Creating a mafia Also, as a GM you'll want to keep things as much under wraps as possible. Defintly lead them on semi-wild goose chases that lead to dangerous dead ends. Get them to realize that she's not afraid to call out the big guns if they meddle in her business too often. But don't be afraid to have her occasionally 'offer' help with strings attached--that's how a crimelord works, after all.