Alverant

Re: Mystic Masters campaign (old vs. new) What I like in the new one because it's more developed, but only if you don't include the Ultimate Super-Mage from 4th edition. They still developed it more in 5th and that's a very good thing (except for the lack of a bibliography). One problem with 5th ed is that it took so long to get an idea what asteral form needed. Plus it is extremely expensive (and impossible to get if the GM has an active point campaign limit) especially since you have to pay an advantage to get the asteral form different than your original form. Spending 75 points (or even getting it for free) is just simpler and involves less number crunching. Would it really have been that hard for them to have "Base Asteral Form" character sheet in one of the books? How about a download for Heromaker? I wish they did keep the "No Range = -1" limitation for mental powers though. Since mental powers have LOS and no range penalities, having no range reduces their usefulness more than standard ranged powers.

Re: Alien Invasion I just found this thread. I hope no one minds a late entry. The subject has a lot to do with the nature of magic and it's affect on technological development. Is it unique to that world? If so why? If not why don't the aliens know magic? Are there some things magic just can't do, like cross star systems? If the gods bestow magic on one world, do alien gods bestow alien magic? I gave it some thought, if magic is unique to the campaign world, then that could be why the aliens are invading. The aliens want to drain that world of magic for their own use for example. Or take a wider stance and find a way to spread it across the universe or wipe it out entirely. The last one would make for a short campaign due to two words, "orbital bombarment" (especially if there is no magical space travel). So if the aliens invade, they want something that they'd risk their soldiers and resources for. Plus since in most fantasy games, there are subterrian races so an invading force must consider that too (or have the campaign world saved by the drow). Two senerios I can think of is that the aliens want slaves or a habitalble world. In the second case, robots or drones would most likely be sent. The former would make a interesting campaign as the PCs try to free their world from these alien slavers. You would have a good reason to use the classic "old enemies banded together" story hook. In an existing campaign, the "evil underworld race" would become the new patron, providing the PCs with what they need because they can't go on the surface world (and better you than me). There's potential for a great campaign here if handled right.

Re: The things you pick up from Cartoon Network All I picked up is that it's OK to shuffle your schedule around and cancel good shows without warning. Oh, and when you cancel shows, you can still use pictures and characters from them in your ads.

Re: Favorite Marvel 'What If?' Not always. The one where Iron Man sold plans for his armor had potential to stand out on its own as "underpowered" non-armored heroes fought against enhanced versions of armored villians. Then you have the Punisher/Venom where everyone involved was better off IMHO (Punisher got cool and Spider-man rid himself of an enemy who got static after a while). Of course the "best" of all worlds where heroes aren't needed anymore. The High Evolutionary continued to evolve humanity to where they reshaped the universe. Spider-man, with the power cosmic, connected with everyone telepathically for a brief moment leading to a greater understanding of each other and a more peaceful planet. Rogue gained the power of Thor and left the X-men with one less angst-filled mutant. (Of course anyone leaving the X-men is a good thing IMHO.)

Re: Favorite Marvel 'What If?' I liked Iron Man becoming Sorcerer Supreme because it gave a great example of technomancy. What I liked about What If in general was they COULD kill heroes, destory the world, doom the universe etc and explore different aspects of a character. Like with Venom/Punisher, when Castle said he would kill himself if Venom took control again, it emphasised his strength of will. They also remind us how tough it can be to be good and how easy it is to slip up.

Re: Evil Organizaitons I'm considering the questions and suggestions posed here. They are all valid and deserve to be taken into account. I didn't take all of them because I wanted to stick to the concept. If I didn't take a suggestion, I wanted there to be a logical reason for it. The Exiles (as they're called now) are a group of scientists, generals, clergy, artists, politicians, etc who led a coup against a new powerful leader who took control over the dimension. They were the best their world had to over, but they still failed. As an example to others, their souls were extracted from their bodies and cast down to the lower worlds (Earth and similar dimensions). So far Earth has been the best place to stay and rebuild and contains the largest number of Exiled. Sometimes one from another dimension finds their way here and is welcomed into the larger group. These are a pround, and somewhat ethical people, they do not like taking control of others but see it as a necessary evil. They feel accepting worshipers or willing help from "lower life forms" would contaminate their righteous cause. (They have a bit of a superiority complex.) Also being from another universe with different physical laws, their technology is not quite compatable with our universe. On the other hand, our technology would work in their realm. (A gun is still deadly even if electricity doesn't work.) However they are willing to trade. Like a mercenary unit, they are willing to do work for resources. Due to their nature, they do mostly spying. Our own politics and power plays are petty compared to their own mission. Since humans are so primitive and unenlightened, they only do this if necessary. The only requirements for the bodies they are trying to build is that it be sofisicated enough to interface with ther souls. Canidates can be one of Mechanon's spare bodies to a cloned mutant from Telious to a magical construct made by Demon. To insure success next time, they aim to have a variety of options. In theory they could use the Internet as a body but due to its useage and fragile nature, none want to try. (Picture your right arm suddenly detaching because a server in Atlanta goes down.) Some of the Exiled have already taken artifical bodies. A few daring members decided that a weak body now would server the whole better than a strong body later. They are not as attached to these bodies and can be ejected easily. This is the closest they have to Minions. They act as a physical link to Earth to further their plans. They can also interface with computers on a basic level. They can do about as much as normal person can do via mouse and keyboard. Their human "allies" have no illusions about how they fit in. They server the Exiles to further their own agendas. One may help them build a robot if it means recieving an upgrade to their armor in return. The Exiles do not double cross their partners and are a vicious enemy if they are betrayed. The Exiles choose villians because they are least likely to offer more than what is agreed upon. Alturism from humans is interperted as being condescending to them. An offer to help without asking for a reward would be taken as an insult. I'm aiming to mold this group into a "behind the scenes" organization rather than direct confrontation. They are an indirect threat because of the help they give to other villians. An emeny may suddenly get a boost in power and the PCs will have to find out why. There may be rumors of a large robot hidden under an abandoned building and no one knows who built it. One of Telious's clones takes on a life of its own. A Demon sacrifice escapes possession by an edomite spirit. Mechanon is seen fighting Mechanon. Little anomlies here and there lead the PCs into a mystery climaxing to an army of Exiled, each as powerful as Dr.Destroyer, returning to their world to fight who knows what. I don't know how well this would work without more physical clues. I could see a superteam missing everything unless the Exile's return will have horrible consequences and becoming a plot device. If that happens, the purpose of the group has failed.

Re: Champions in 3D I sure hope so. C3D came out before Ultimate Super-mage which established the structure of the multiverse. This would be a chance to flesh out the Splendor, Beauty, etc (can't remember their Kaballist names). C3D was more alternate Earths, but with the expanded cosmology, this is their best opprotunity to. Since C3D is mostly an info book, there's no reason why it can't be used for 5th Ed. Hey, it's an alternate Earth with an alternate history. So you can use the history of a previous edition right?

Re: Evil Organizaitons Thanks to everyone. I wrote down the ideas I had for the one I was developing. I still need a name, but I have a rough idea of them. The organization is a group of exiles from a higher dimension. Originally they were generals, scientists, etc who tried to usurp control. They failed and their souls were pulled out of their bodies and all of them were exiled to Earth. Their goal is to create new bodies then return to their home dimension and have their revenge. Being souls, they are invisible and desolid by nature and few can see them. They can, however, possess a person. Unfortunately once a person takes control back (wins 3 consetutive Ego vs Ego rolls) they cannot be possessed again by this group. And they remember everything that they did. So they have to plan very carefully. Also unfortunate that so far this is the only way they can communicate with Earthers and affect the physical world. They have no minions or structure per se since all of them are important and they share the same goal. Some may break off from the main group to pursue their own ideas, but they have to look out for each other. I see this as being an ongoing plot. First a rash of mysterious robberies with the crooks claiming possession. Then rumors from psychic and magical organizations about these "spirits". A rich businessman who finds a way to communicate with them thus becoming their only Earther ally. (These guys would make great spies.) The PCs inveistigating mysterious robberies as each Exile guides the creation of their own new body. Finally the decision of whether or not to let these guys go and leave Earth forever and start a civil war back home, or fight to keep them on Earth and risk the lives of millions here as they get more and more desperate to return. I haven't decided if the Exile's cause is just or not or even a grey area. (That is to say the guy they are fighting is just as bad of a ruler as they would be.) I did decide that when/if they leave Earth, they won't come back. This could make them a temporary, but daunting ethical, problem for the PCs.

Re: Evil Organizaitons The Raven organization sounds interesting. Did it just have the two-tier system or did it include the middle class which came to power during the Renassance? It seems like they'd have an uphill battle since many people think they can improve their lives. Unless there is some kind of upward mobility, the only recruits they will get are those who think they can't do any better. Those people would become dissatisfied quickly. (I suspect most of them would say "%&$*@ this, I'm gone!" when the first one of them got zapped by a superhero.) The idea is still good though if they can sell the romantized medieval era seen in popular fiction.

For fun, I thinking about creating my own Evil Organization. The problem I am having is that I keep coming back to established organizations (Viper, Demon, etc). Since I want mine to be more original, I need an idea that won't let me slide into a Viper-knockoff. Any organization (good or bad) needs to clairify several things. 1) Goals: What are the goals of this organization. Is it a specific cause that could potentially go on forever (get rich, eco-terrorism, protect the Earth from aliens) or if is there a specific goal it works towards (take over the world, return the dark gods to this plane, destroy a particular supergroup). In the second case, you have to decide "what then". For example, what happens if Viper actually DOES take over the world. After partying for a few days the agents will stand around asking "OK what do we do now?" The Viper book doesn't tell us much how it plans to maintain control over the world once it takes over. Does the group change goals, disband, shift focus, or shurg their shoulders and say "you know, I never thought that far ahead"? 2) Minions: How does this organization recruit and treat their common soldier? This can range from expecting each minion to kill himself if captured to making a rescue immediately. Minions don't have to be human, they can be manufactured as well which makes things much easier in some respects. How are they treated when not on duty? How is disipline maintained? 3) Weakness: If this organization is going to be an atagonist in your campaign, how do the heroes find out about them and stop them? Too often a human failure (usually a minion) makes a mistake which clues in the heroes. You can't make an organization so tight they can acomplish their goals without risking discovery and interference. 4) Self-image: Does the organization even see itself as being good or evil? I don't mean how other people view them, I mean how the members see themselves. Demon is proud of being evil. Some members of Viper see themselves as ultimately fighting for a good cause while others know what they're doing is wrong and like it. Do they adopt an "ends justify the means" policy and anything goes provided it works towards their goal? This whole thing can be a topic for an article, even a book. I have some ideas brewing and will post again when I hammered them out. In the mean time, what ideas did you have for original Evil Organizations?

I'm working on a power that let's the character teleport to whever someone is calling him on a cell phone. The problem is I'm confused about how megascale works in this situation and how flexible a fixed location can be. A fixed location is a definate point in space bought with the power. So if the location is "entry hall of the team HQ", what happens if they move and the HQ is miles away? Does he teleport to the old HQ or the new one? That's the logic I'm working with. The fixed location is "location of caller", the idea stays fixed even though the teleport destination is different each time. Also since I'll have to work Megascale, I am wondering how it works with fixed location. Since, as I know the rules, you can't "scale down" past 1"=1km a teleporting megascaled gets you anywhere in that 1km sized hex right? So would I be within 0.5 km of the caller (caller is in the center of the hex) when I use megascale or be next to them and megascale is only used for distance of port. If it's the latter, why not just buy 5" teleport and megascale it up to Galactic Champions level and go anywhere? Thanks

Re: Tell us about your Pulp hero. I made a scientist/ex-gangster named James Baker. It started when Baker was a grad student. Using crystal harmonics he discovered a way to render alochol molecules inert (thus undetectable) until heated to 140 degrees. Being naive and having romanticized notions of the mob, he sold his idea to a small crime family who took him in. They taught him many of the mobster skills, but kept it "in the classroom" for the most part because they didn't want him getting a police record or dispelling the illusions. So they kept him happy and in the dark about the real world and the profits came in. He learned how to shoot a Tommy (at empty houses) and drive the wagon and similar things and in return, James made the booze legal to transport. Years later a rival family tried to take over. By sheer luck Baker was the only survivor. The mob war lasted only two days (one small family rubbing out another small family), the "victorious" rival was so weakened they themselves got wiped out by a bigger fish who saw an opportunity. Baker's illusions came crashing down around him and he was overwhelmed at the horror of what he has been part of. After months of trying to put it behind him, he decided the only way to get peace of mind was to use his gangster skills to help people not hurt them. He was recruited into an organization of like-minded individuals who have their own reasons. But to Baker, this is his chance to make a real difference above and beyond his own debt.

Re: Pulp-style Anime

Re: Pulp Disadvantages Basil, Good point. It's sort of along the lines I was thinking of. The DNPC would be someone who has the same false romantized illusions about being a gangster/adventurer the PC had and want's to steer the DNPC away from. I'm picturing as an example a young man who read too many pulp novels or heard a few too many gangster stories and sees the character as a proof of what he's read. And if the character is rich and fly around the world on adventures, so can the DNPC.

Re: Hero System: Anime Physical Limitation: Reverts to normal human, spirit banished to asteral plane when defeated; Rarely Fully. I'd do the rest as a special effect because it's so limited and has little effect on game play. The key point is you get their power which is already in the VPP.

I made an ex-gangster pulp character who still had a large amount of money stashed away. Now the rest of the gang is dead and his connection to them isn't strong enough (of what can be proven) for the law to get involved. But it's still an open secret that he has money. I gave him the disadvantage Hunted by Moochers to reflect it. Also since some of these moochers occasionally wants to try out the "romantic" life of a gangster and tag along I also gave him a DNPC I like to call pulp-wannabe. Now I know that "wannabe" is a recent word but do the two disads fit the pulp genre?

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero One of the reasons I posted a link is that it seems like everytime a TV show has a character that breaks a stereotype people complain about being PC. Have more than one minority in the central cast, they're being PC. Put a woman in charge, they're being PC. The hero isn't Christian, they're being PC. Stereotypes are rarely, if ever true, and breaking them shouldn't be considered being PC.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero I found this article on MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9598717/ that deals directly where these types of stereotypes come from and how applicable they are today. Basically they're from a few examples that stick out in people's mind, events that have happened in the past and may not be true today, and cultural differences. For example we've seen the stereotype of the French eating frog legs. Because most Americans don't eat them and find the thought distasteful, the stereotype Frenchman eats them daily.

Re: Comments on sexism and racism at the outset of Pulp Hero As an anime fan, I would agree and go a further. If you're thin-skinned about sexual or religious matters, I'm sure I can easily give you a list of a dozen titles that would be considered offensive. NGE for example.

Re: Where's Amelia Earhart? We still have the question of why she wasn't mentioned. The "not enough space" arguement is invalid because the last page of the Biography section is one third blank. Adding her would not have required adding another page. I also don't buy the "she didn't do much of anything new" claim because other people who are listed did less. For example the accomplishments and usefulness to the Pulp genre of Floyd Collins, Frank Buck, and Beryl Markham don't hold a candle to Earhart. Especially Beryl Markham. Why is she listed but not Earhart? You can make arguements for anyone being or not being listed, but I think most would say Earhart is closer to pulp than Markham. OK Markham was a bush pilot, but how many people know her by name? Also with more female gamers, it would make sense to include more female "role models" especially when adding one would not make things longer page-wise.

Re: What in genre bit do you like that no one else seems to enjoy ? I've always liked the "dimensional exiles" game where the PCs are regular people cast into an alternate universe. Fantasy touches on this lightly but generally dismisses the idea without much thought. I wouldn't mind much if my superteam got involved in a multi-session arc carrying them across several random dimensions before getting home. With the earlier comment about the VPP, it all depends on how you use it. A multipower with 10 ultra slots has the same cost as a cosmic VPP with the 1/2 limitation "only of a certain special effect". So someone who has (for example) fire powers could have a multipower of a straight EB, 1/2 END, 0 END, Explosion, AE Radius, and the RKA counter parts all to reflect his mastery of his gift. Buy converting the Multipower into the VPP you give him some extra mastery to justify having EB with Autofire or Penetrating or AE Cone without spending the extra points. He wouldn't be able to use it for Teleport, Stretching or the "exactly what we need" power because of the limitation. I like to use the "5 second" rule. If you have a Cosmic VPP you have 5 seconds to determine how you're allocating the points. It keeps me from abusing it and fits in well with my character. He has a collection of parts which can be rearranged to produce different powers. Right now all he has are plasma generators so I'm rather limited. As the character gets more parts, he gets more possibilities.

Re: Would Change Enviornment be subtle for this effect? How about this Extra-Dimensional Movement as a gate? Destination is an alternate universe where the building is in good working order, but everything else is unchanged. (That's why this is a stop power. You could legally buy this power with the destination, "everything is the same except character critically hit the target OR target critically missed".)

Re: Would Change Enviornment be subtle for this effect? I agree. Change Environment is the best way to handle it because the effects are temporary and have such a minor effect. One of the "problems" with the Hero system is that it's easy to go overboard with the minor details. Almost any power effect could be made more expensive no matter how simple or effective it winds up being.. What we have here is "temporarly change abandoned building into livable building". Since water and electricity are turned off and on by the utility companies and carried inside the building by wires and pipes, a rules lawyer would say that to have them start working again, you'd have to buy Telekinsis to flip the switches and turn the nobs then Healing to fix the wires and pipes. Then a Dispell to turn things back to normal. Change Enviroment is good enough. The rule book indirectly hints that minor effects of a power should be ignored. I'm specifically thinking about how powers work underwater. Some are more effective underwater, some are less, but neither gest a modifier because of it. In fact, they have to buy a small advantage to have them work normally instead of having the limitation "works abnormally underwater".

Re: Teen Champions: my take I took a good look-through the book and I realized something. Several of the students aren't ready to graduate yet, at least in terms of controlling their powers. Too many were described as "barely scratching the surface of their potential". Holding them back a year probably isn't the best solution for a variety of reasons. Then it hit me, College Champions! Do you think Starheart was the only hero who had trouble with his powers? You set up a super college to help students of all ages refine their abilities. I don't just mean young adults who want to be superheros, I'm including the paranormals who are more interested in learning what they can do without the risk. (The, "Me? In tights? Are you crazy? I can get killed!" crowd.) Plus the adults who just had an origin and need help. This would also be the place where fed up normals go to become costumed crusaders (Nighthawk had to get his training somewhere right?) Superhero U would be more open in what it is, students can register in their secret, public, or heroic identity unlike Raven where keeping your powers secret was part of your education. This fits in not only with a more relaxed atmosphere, but to allow paranormals with not concealable distinctive features a chance to walk around in the open without worrying about causing a panic. You know, the deformed monsters, aliens, extradimensional travelers, cosmic entities, giants, elementals, etc. Part-time students are allowed for those who just want to improve their powers, not get a degree. Instead of cliches, there are frats and sororities. Beer is banned. No one wants to find out what happens when a bunch of drunk supers decide to pull a prank. "We thought it would be a hoot to replace Demon's sacrifices with maniquins." There are also no official sports but there are several small football teams made up of students who claim that one year they will take the Superbowl trophy. Not win it, take it. Comments?

Re: Force Field powers help?