SKJAM!

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! The Knight of Sorrows is Emilio Ayarro, the reincarnation of Sir Tristan. He's extremely handsome and a smooth talker, having almost supernatural luck with the ladies. (Even evil ones. Oh, and gay men.) He often clashes with Saracen, due to difficulties in their previous incarnations. What Emilio fears most, that he will admit to no one, is the return of Isolde. He's pretty much convinced that once she shows up in whatever form, Emilio will be forced to fall in love with only her, repeating the tragedies of the past. New Team! The Holiday Heroes Membership: 5 Background: Even superheroes need the day off every now and then, especially on holidays. That's where the Holiday Heroes come in--they work only on holidays, picking a city to protect so that the regular local defenders can relax a bit. Despite what seems like a bizarre insistence that each member theme themselves around a particular holiday (from the blindingly obvious to the inscrutably obscure), the members are all quite competent and work well together.

Re: Master List Of Limitations new home Social Complication: "Seen as Sex Object."

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The Wish List and Holiday Wishes communities on Livejournal have just opened for the season. The basic idea of each is that you post ten (or less) things you'd really like to get, from as trivial as more holiday cards, through material goods, to big things like world peace. If someone sees your list and there's something they'd like to give, they can. Likewise, you look over the other people's lists and see if there's anything you'd like to give. No obligation, no pressure, just fun.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! The San Angelo (Texas) Volunteers are a small, not especially powerful or prestigious hero team. Most of them have day jobs, which makes it difficult to arrange schedules for monitor duty, and an employee would cost money they don't have. So their gadgeteer kitbashed together a low-level AI to handle their communications, and named it Domo. Which worked fine until the day one of the Volunteers accidentally brought a bit of Mechanon's source code into the building with his flash drive. It was just a fragment, not enough to turn Domo into a Mechanon copy, but it did kickstart Domo's independent thought mode. Domo's self-preservation programming has convinced it that it needs to keep its full sentience a secret from the Volunteers, but that it also needs allies to help it keep from being enslaved by Mechanon. Thus, it has joined the Red Right Hands as a cybernetics and communications specialists, and its hardware is slowly being upgraded--the Volunteers haven't even guessed yet that Domo is massaging the information they get to further the Hands' goals. New Team: The (Trademark) Violators. Membership: 5 Description: A number of criminal metahumans discovered that they had powers that suited them to certain codenames. The problem was that these names already belonged to famous comic book superheroes, and the trademark holders were known to fiercely protect those trademarks. But hey, as long as they're already criminals, why not just steal those cool names? (Each member has powers related to their famous name, but not the same powers or background as the original person.)

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Diyar al'Shakib is an Iraqi refugee, and the reincarnation of Sir Palamedes. He has begrudgingly accepted being saddled with the code name "Saracen." His special gift is that he can go without food, water or sleep for a week before needing to rest and restock nutrients. He's good friends with Quest, but not so fond of the other members of the Avalon Guard. While Diyar himself is a Christian, he is very forthright in decrying anti-Muslim prejudice, and works to help other Middle East refugees improve there situations.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . . ...Uwe Boll refused the option to make your movie on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity. ...Your base is repeatedly "mistaken" for a public urinal. ...your school-age DNPC is assigned to write an essay on "my hero" and chooses your archenemy as the subject.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . . ...The media makes up an invisible, anonymous do-gooder who's actually responsible for saving lives and fighting crime in the city, because it certainly can't be you folks.

Re: You are unappreciated when . . . ...They're invited to an awards ceremony...to clean up afterwards. ...The mayor openly admits he would prefer not being rescued if the alternative is them. ...The local paper offers a front page reward to any villain who will take them down.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Betsy Evens is the smartest of the Gemstars--which is to say that on most teams she'd be the "dumb blonde." But she's soft-spoken and unassertive, so seldom manages to get her ideas across before the others leap into action. As Sparkling Impact Diamond Lily, she can summon faceted force fields. She vastly prefers to use them to defend herself and others, although they have a variety of offensive uses. In particular, she's afraid of her Sparkling Diamond Shrapnel attack, and won't ever use it on anything that might possibly be alive.

Re: Idle Distraction: Super Webcomics Just discovered "Aptitude Test", about a high school girl who takes a career aptitude test, gets the result "superhero", and gets to "job-shadow" a genuine super for a day. Julie is pretty sure she doesn't actually want to be a superhero, but weird things keep happening in her vicinity (or possibly her best friend is a weirdness magnet, hard to tell.) Two of their classmates just had origin stories, for example...slow updates, but there's been eight "issues" so you can enjoy a short archive binge. http://aptitude.surfacingpoint.com/index.php Be sure to scroll down for an interesting piece on superhero non-costumes.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Hi, welcome to the boards, Star! Cute idea. Now, how does she fit into the theme we're doing at the moment?

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Kibuko Baragawa was a stereotypical member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Traffic Division--young, pretty, and just in uniform to have a career between college and matrimony. It wasn't that she didn't have decent physical and mental skills, but that she'd bought into a social pattern that viewed women's careers as secondary to thier role as wives and mothers. She'd found a young man with good prospects, and was about to get married to him, so tendered her resignation from the PD. However, the evening of her resignation, Kibuko discovered that her fiance had not gotten an expected promotion, and the wedding would have to be put off. When she crawled back to the police to ask for her old job back, she was informed that the Traffic department opening had already been filled with a new cute girl. Kibuko said she would "do anything", and was told that one position was, in fact, available. Assistant to Detective Inspector Tengami. Kibuko hastily agreed. She was somewhat shocked to find herself driven to a nearby hospital. Was the inspector investigating a case there? No. It turned out that Tengami was a patient there, hooked up to a frightening number of machines. He didn't appear to be awake. "Touch him, Baragawa-san." Reluctantly, she did so, and suddenly she could hear a voice in her head. Turned out that Inspector Tengami was in a coma, but his powerful mind could still link to an outside one. He could see and hear everything that Kibuko could, and they could communicate mentally. The previous "assistants" had been unable to endure the constant presence of an intruder in their minds. Fortunately Kibuko was more mentally flexible. Moreover, somehow the mental link activated previously unsuspected powers in herself, making Kibuko mildly superhuman in speed and reflexes. Combined with the keen detective skills of Tengami, "Rover" proved invaluable to the Tokyo PD. That is, until someone got the bright idea of seconding Kibuko to Blue Shield. The good news is that the mental link persists even across the world; the bad news is that in English, Rover is a dog's name. Kibuko's silent partner is a secret from the other members, and she often comes across as a bit spacey just before showing uncanny deductive skills.

Re: Your PCs might be Underpowered if... ...if they fend off an alien invasion by showing up and convincing the aliens that based on its defenders, Earth is too puny to bother taking over.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Robert "Uncle Bob" Pratchett was a constable in the Metropolitan London police force. He was a competent officer, but no more than that, so he was on the oldish side for his rank. Just to keep him from getting too comfortable in any one chair, his superiors moved him from squad to squad every couple of years. Robert was, again, competent but not outstanding in each assignment, and built up a good store of varied knowledge and police techniques for any circumstance. Eventually, he landed on the Special Powers Squad, a unit called in when there was suspicion of metahuman involvement in a crime. His time on the squad was solid but not spectacular until the day a mad scientist got very angry that the police were invading his laboratory (the search warrant was in order, it wasn't the cops' fault the resident had been listening to heavy metal while experimenting and hadn't responded to a polite knock.) The madman threw a random vial of mutagenic chemicals at the officers, and Robert dived to intercept it and save the rest of the squad. While recovering in the hospital, Robert discovered he was much stronger than before, but more disturbingly, his fingernails had grown into razor-sharp claws, as hard as diamond. It took some doing to learn how to use his hands with this new feature, but Robert is now extremely deft with them, able to filet a fish as easily as he can rip through solid steel. He took his codename from the first truly professional police force, the Peeler.

Re: Pulparize It! Hmm, for another Death Note pulp idea, we might want to work with the "third Kira" scenario. Eight prominent businessmen receive communications from the Death Note Killer that show an uncomfortable level of knowledge of their personal habits. Each is invited to a special meeting. At this meeting, a recording informs them that the are now the Death Note board of directors. They will pick, as a committee, the criminals who will be killed by the Death Note. In addition, at each meeting, they may pick one other victim that stands in the way of their economic prosperity and that person will be eliminated too. Naturally, betraying the group or revealing its existence to the outside will result in the traitor's death. It's fairly obvious from the beginning that the Death Note Killer is actually one of these eight men, but our heroes must first learn of the Eight's existence, then investigate. And at this point, the members of the board will start being eliminated from the suspect list one by one...permanently.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Lucifer used to have a different name. Well, two different names, but he's more concerned about his hero name. In his old life, Lucifer was, in fact, one of the most powerful superheroes on Earth, and certainly the most successful. He was a legend in his own time, the man who fought Doctor Destroyer to a standstill in single combat, the one who banished Tyrannon for a whole year. He saved the world easily dozens of times, and was adored the entire galaxy over. All the top superteams wanted him, but he never permanently joined any of them. After all, they'd just hold him back. There were schools named for him, and one small African nation even considered renaming itself after him when he singlehandedly solved all its economic and social woes in a day. Yes, life was good...back then. And if he was a trifle vain, a little overweening in self-pride, well, what of it? The man who would become Lucifer was, indeed, just that awesome, if he did say so himself. One day, he condescended to help the Time Rangers out on a mission. The fabric of reality was at stake, a multiverse at risk, all in a day's work. And the Rangers must desperately need help, considering they'd had to dig up a Nazi scientist to fill out their ranks. After much combat and bizarre time glitches, the great hero and the Rangers came upon the misshapen crystal device that was causing all the trouble. "Okay," said Weaver, "we need to--" The man who would become Lucifer simply disintegrated the device. No device, no problem. Well, except for the rapidly enlarging crack in reality. That looked particularly ugly, but surely a creative use of his vast powers would-- "I should have gone with Plan B in the first place," said Weaver. "I guess I had too much hope that you wouldn't screw up." "Plan B?" Weaver pushed the great hero into the crack before the other could brace himself. The crack sealed, and the hero was trapped in the maelstrom beyond space-time. He does not know how long he drifted, but the man eventually discovered that he could sense a way out. But at a dire cost, for every erg of power he exerted in this maelstrom would be lost permanently, and he did not know how far it was to the exit. Nevertheless, the man persisted. He felt himself grow less and less, eaten away by the non-Euclidean forces of this wasteland. At last, he emerged, a free man, back on Earth! He took a moment to rejoice, then took to the skies (for he still had a fraction of his former power) to go home. But there was no home. Where the palace built for him by a grateful public once stood, there was only a taco stand, old and dilapidated. Accosting a passerby, the man learned that it was only a day since he had left, but there had never been a palace there. And the stranger did not recognize him. The man put this down to his disheveled appearance and ripped costume, but his codename was a mystery to the stranger. And to everyone else the man talked to that day. The next day, the man had acquired some civilian clothing (yes, it was stealing, but he'd repay the store as soon as he got his money back) and went to a library to use their computer access. His codename was nowhere on their interwebs, no one matching his description. All of his great deeds had been done, but according to the official records, by other heroes. Many times they had struggled more than he had, and a few paid for victory with their lives, but it was as though he'd never really been necessary. The man wondered if, in this strange world, he'd ever been born at all. So he flew to his hometown, and inquired after his birth name. (He'd changed enough in appearance over the years that he was confident no one would guess the connection.) Such a person had been born, the man learned. But the event that had given him his powers in his late teens had, in this warped world, never happened. The man's other self had grown up bitter, convinced that somehow his birthright had been stolen from him, and always blaming his bad luck on others. The other self had never amounted to anything, and claiming that a "conspiracy" blocked everything he tried to accomplish. Finally, the other self had died of hypothermia, homeless and friendless. The last thread snapped inside the former hero. He understood now. Weaver had been jealous of him, of his greatness, and had deliberately stolen his power, his glory, his very history. Fine, then. Like the first fallen angel, Lucifer would gather other forgotten and fallen beings, and he would reclaim his heaven, if he had to battle the gods themselves.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Dr. Emil Lime was one of several scientists working on Project Maps (Man Amplified by Powered Suit) for the US government back in the early 1950s. He had a double identity, though. As Scarlet Steel, he posed as a Soviet agent attempting to steal the secrets of MAPS for the Commies. This would cover his own ordinary selling of information to the Reds. Unfortunately for him, Captain Justice figured out Dr. Lime's game, and gave him a good and proper beating in the process. Dr. Lime was convicted of treason (despite his claims that he'd actually sold the Communists worthless information--"I'm a capitalist at heart!") and narrowly escaped prison before being executed. Building a better Scarlet Steel outfit, Dr. Lime went after Captain Justice for revenge. It wasn't that much better, and Dr. Lime was soon back behind bars. Scarlet Steel clashed with the good captain twice more before Justice vanished. Thwarted from his vengeance, Dr. Lime went into general supervillainy, constantly refining and upgrading his powered armor. When the Seven Syndicate was formed, Scarlet Steel was made the leader due to his long experience and undeniable intelligence. (As proof of his intelligence, Dr. Lime was a mastermind who did not turn the rest of his team against him with arrogance and abuse.) But then one day Scarlet Steel discovered that Captain Justice, the real Captain Justice, had returned from temporal exile, and had now joined the Constitutional Guard. At last, he was able to take the cause of vengeance up again. Dr. Lime carefully studied the Constitutional Guard and devised ways to make his armor impervious to all their powers, both individually or in any combination. Then he struck. Captain Justice laughed at first to see his old enemy again, but five decades of technological advance had made Scarlet Steel far more formidable than the clunky "rustbucket" he remembered. Scarlet Steel walked all over the Guard, easily swatting aside the less important members and concentrating on the man he hated so. Soon, he had his metal hands on Captain Justice's throat, ready for squeezing. "Now, Captain Justice, you shall die, slowly and hor--" Captain Justice waited for the end of that word, but it never came. He couldn't feel any relaxation of the armor's grip, and he could hear Dr. Lime, aged though he might be, still breathing. But the armor wasn't moving, and Scarlet Steel wasn't talking any more. The rest of the Guard awoke and recovered, surrounding Scarlet Steel. Still, nothing changed. They tried various ways of attacking the villain, or breaking Justice free. But the suit's defenses held, automatically protecting it from all damage. After a few hours and the loss of some neck skin, Captain Justice was able to wriggle free of the death grip. It took three more days to finally break through Scarlet Steel's armor, and by then Dr. Lime was dead. After an autopsy and federal investigation, it was concluded that Scarlet Steel had had a severe stroke from the emotional stress of fighting his old enemy. It damaged the speech center of his brain, which was also how he cybernetically controlled the armor's functions. The defenses were automatic, but not the hydration and nutrition systems, which had to be actively engaged. Scarlet Steel had been alive and very probably conscious until an hour or two before his armor was breached. "He was protected from everything in the world but old age," as Captain Justice put it in a press release. "Old age and his own hatred."

Re: Examples of low-powered/street level supers not from comics Ooh ooh! He's a bit on the silly side, but Darkwing Duck.

Re: Examples of low-powered/street level supers not from comics The Destroyer (Remo Williams), particularly in the first few books of the series (later on, when he gets a full handle on Sinanju, he might be a bit too much.) The Avenger (pulp) is a good one for street-level (especially with his useful aides), the second radio Avenger might be interesting because his "psychic power" is so easily limitable. (It's a Immobile Focus, Telepathy, thoughts connected with strong emotions only, Area Effect Radius, Megascale, requires Systems Operation skill roll.)

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Alouette Lupin is the descendant of a long line of gentleman thieves and classy cat burglars. (You may have heard of some of her more famous relatives, though the werewolf side of the family keeps itself out of the headlines.) During her childhood, Alouette was dumped off with a nanny while her parents went off and stole things, and sometimes spent time behind bars. In her teens, she was finally allowed to travel with them, seeing exotic locations, meeting interesting people, and ripping them off. Alouette also discovered that she had a talent for piloting light aircraft and gliders. Aviation soon became her primary joy, far beyond thievery. But then came the day when her parents were ambushed by rival robbers, ones who didn't believe in fair play and minimal violence. Her mother survived, though without her hands, but Alouette's father perished. And of course, the police couldn't be bothered to deal with the death of a notorious criminal. So Alouette turned detective. She adopted a new guise, the Sky Wolf, swooping down from the air to catch criminals in the act. It took a couple of years to track down the murderous gang, during which Sky Wolf got a good reputation as a crimefighter. The rest of the family is rather appalled despite their sympathy for her loss. Sky Wolf is superbly trained in the arts of thievery, and is an agile combatant with an unofficial high ranking in the art of Savate. She's learned the art of detection as well, though is still something of a beginner. Sky Wolf is somewhat stronger and faster under the full moon--she may be at risk for lycanthropy. She wears a costume with glider wings, though she prefers to use actual gliders or small aircraft for long flights.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Hillard Hart used to be known as Flim-Flam the confidence man. Back in the late 50s-early 60s, he was an annoyance to superheroes and adventurers across America. He'd blow into town in his loud suits and gaudy rings, and sell the citizens on some pie-in-the-sky scheme that was going to make them all millionaires, or super-powered, or immortal. His slick-talking ways and boudless optimism got people to trust him, even those that should know better. And sometimes the heroes would figure out the scam or the hook before Flim-Flam could close the deal, and sometimes they'd only be able to kick him out of town afterwards. Now, the "super" part of supervillain didn't seem to apply to Flim-Flam, since he didn't seem to have any actual powers or advanced weaponry...but he did have this weird knack for people forgetting not to trust him any more. He'd come back six, seven months later with a new spin, and people would be taken in again just as if they'd never been stung in the first place. Eventually, one of Flim-Flam's operations actually caused the death of one of his victims, purely by accident. But that meant the kid gloves were off, and the heroes coming after the conman were a different breed. (He shares The Rush's contempt for "killer heroes" though he doesn't know how deep George's grudge goes.) It was time to find greener pastures. Bermuda, Monte Carlo, Singapore, anywhere with people he could bilk and not have to tap into his savings. Ah, world travel was the life. But Flim-Flam got older, and most of the warrants against him had expired, so he moved back to the States to retire. Too bad he trusted a broker who put all of his money into subprime mortgages. Faced with an impoverished existence in a second-rate (at best) retirement home, Old Flim-Flam's signed up with Social Insecurity as their money launderer and fence. Yep, he'll take real good care of their money.

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality? I forget. Have we quoted the Flaming Lips' "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" yet in this thread? "What would you do with all your power?

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Dan Harding thought he was as tough on the inside as he was on the outside. He was the black sheep of the Harding family, always in trouble with the law for some callous petty crime or another. Dan was even less liked than his religious nut cousin, and was only at the family picnic because it was inside his parole area. When the empowering water hit him, Dan's skin turned diamond-tough, nigh-invulnerable and extremely painful to be hit by. Rather than team up with his goody-goody relatives in the Hard Line, Dan cashed in on his newfound ability by selling his services to the underworld as a bodyguard/enforcer codenamed The Hard Man. He put up with the vulgar jokes, he was tough after all. Used to the ways of criminals, the Hard Man did his mercenary jobs with no qualms. That is, until he was hired by the Dream Stealers. This was a depth of evil that the Hard Man had never truly realized existed--not motivated by greed or anger or lust, but by the simple delight of causing misery and suffering to others. Dan was made uncomfortably aware that he did, in fact, have a conscience, and it was telling him to get the hell out of Dodge. Now the Hard Man is a member of the Union Underground, and working to atone for some of the horrible things he's done over the years. But every night he wakes from nightmares, for he knows that the Dream Stealers will eventually take horrific revenge for his betrayal.

Re: WWYD - Raising You Dr. Nostalgia is a gadgeteer; the kid might be bright, but it will take years of education for him to start inventing on his own, even if he wants to follow in his brother's footsteps. The Doc might finally have to get serious about finding a wife to help him raise the kid--he'll quickly learn that no amount of gadgetry can substitute for human interaction with a child. (Adoption is out of the question.) The Mask of Justice's parents are still alive, if older; they can absorb the kid into their extended family (lots of cousins) one way or another. The child's ability to see with his eyes covered is going to be a bit tricky, but not as dangerous as some other powers. There's going to have to be some strict ground rules to keep the youngster out of trouble. Calculus is already the father of one small boy--explaining the new kid to his wife will be a bit of a problem, but that goes with having a secret identity. Raising a supergenius toddler will be interesting, to say the least...there just isn't much of a peer group for him to relate to. For Rock Bottom, this is downright traumatic. He's just starting college himself, has no current romantic prospects (and gay marriage is still illegal in Maryland), there's no way he can take care of a small child. On the other hand, he's still deeply wounded from his father's rejection of him for being gay (and later, a "freak"), and there's no hiding that the child is a living statue--it's going to take very special foster parents for Rock to even consider letting them raise his brother. Kira Midori was raised in a relatively utopian society where it was normal (but not universal) for children to have telepathy, telekinesis and/or precognition. Her little sister here is not so lucky. There's no way she's going to allow this kid to be raised by strangers. Kira will finally have to accept one of her suitors and settle down to raise a family. Talion will mostly be perplexed by a) why would VIPER bother? and how they duplicated the powers, given that they aren't in Talion's DNA. He's just fine with putting the kid into the adoption system; the further the child is away from him, the better for the little fellow. (Disciplining a child for whom "this hurts me more than it does you" is literal might be tricky.)

Re: Pulparize It! Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) A young astronomy student and darts player with an obsessive habit of writing down what's going on around him in his diary discovers one day that his diary is suddenly writing itself. Each morning, his diary is filled with the coming day's events. At first this is kind of cool, if creepy. But then our hero discovers that there are twelve other "Future Diaries" out there, each one slightly different. And the last diary holder alive gets to rewrite history to his or her desire. Which isn't so comforting, considering the political views of some of the diary owners. Oh, and you don't have to directly kill the person, destroying their diary will kill them too. Good thing our hero discovers that one of the other diary holders is a female classmate who loves him. Loves him a whole lot. Loves him enough to bury an axe in the head of any other woman he seems to be attracted to. Umm, maybe not such a good thing after all....