Alverant

Re: Modern Villains that would translate well into Pulp Hero

Dr.Destroyer was already translated into a Pulp version. Circle of the Scarlet Moon would work almost as-is since their power is more "NCI" style than "active points". I think the Devil's Advocates, or at least the idea of them, would work since the Pulp era is when SCIENCE!!! was seen as an answer to everything. Binder from the Ultimates would work if you scaled down his glue gun and became more of a theme villain.

Of course Foxbat goes with everything.

Re: Definitional Points for a Champions campaign

I'd be rather surprised by such an extreme reaction' date=' but I admit my own character would have non-lethal options.[/quote']

Key word is "options". My armored hero character has an AVLD Power Defense stun cannon and an overpowered meson cannon (RKA).

 

I don't know if I'd call it an "extreme" reaction, but in my current campaign one of the players talked about making a utility character who didn't do damage (or much damage) but would assist other characters in combat. I could see doing that as a change of pace and seeing what you can do with the system.

 

I should also point out in that campaign our first kill was by someone who had CvK total. She used her flash power against a Viper helicopter pilot and he crashed into a building. To this day (almost eight years later) she insists that it wasn't her fault.

Re: Definitional Points for a Champions campaign

I'm not really interested in debating the moral issues of requiring a Code versus Killing (although if locking down 20 of the 75 complication points raises mechanical problem I'm unaware of I'd appreciate a heads up). As a GM' date=' I could require that all the PCs be mutants, or teenage high school students, or normal costumed vigilantes with no actual superpowers, and nobody would bat an eye about it. Yet somehow a mandate that the PCs not be killers requires justification? It's a parameter of the campaign. If you can't have fun playing a character who doesn't kill, this just isn't a game for you.[/quote']

 

Well it's a difference between WHAT you play and HOW you play. A campaign around high school mutants is different than requiring a psych lim at the total level. Players don't like to be bound in that way. It restricts their role playing ability. But it's your campaign. If you're going to have the CvK, then you should make some decisions about mental powers and how advantages affect AP totals. And don't forget unusual powers too. Since mental attacks don't usually do Body, they would work will in your campaign. Same with drains and NNDs. I don't know your players but I wouldn't be surprised if you had more than one mentalist and one who specialized in support (drains CVs, heals, barrier, etc) and few frontline combatants.

Re: Definitional Points for a Champions campaign

If the Code versus Killing is a serious issue' date=' you probably don't want to play in my campaign anyway.[/quote']

Ouch. That's a bit harsh don't you think? Could you explain this some, please?

 

Not having CvK doesn't mean the character will kill. They can choose not to. But requiring it at such a high level doesn't make sense for all character concepts. At the "total" level you don't just have an aversion to killing, it includes killing attacks period and high level normal attacks (which still do Body). It means pulling your punches even if you're fighting someone who can obviously take them. Worse, it means interfering with those who don't think the same way.

 

If you're going to ask your characters to have CvK, I would suggest dialing it down to 10+ or 5+ or allowing another code of conduct that discourages killing in its place (for example no killing of minions or "normals" and no killing of supervillains who don't kill as well. But when faced with a psycho, go ahead).

Re: Submitted for your approval: 10 too human aliens.

There's a race in 5th ed Star Hero about insectoid aliens who take over mammals as hosts.

If we're including audio dramas, I would say the Tookah from the Ruby Gumshoe series (from ZBS)

http://www.zbs.org/catalog/images/TOOK.jpg

(Watch the 3rd eye, it tells you what they're REALLY looking at.)

Let's not forget the Great Old One, Ctuthullu.

Re: Ideas needed for a 600 year old hero

Hrmmm, why does every immortal want to use a sword for a weapon. Give him a S&W 500 for a weapon with fast draw and multiple clips (speed loader).

 

Immortal 1: "Draw your sword and we shall duel like gentlemen."

Immortal 2: "Nah, I rather just blow your head off." Takes out gun.

Immortal 1: "Hah, a gun won't kill me."

Immortal 2: "Maybe not, but then again" "it only" "has to" "stop you" "long enough" "for me to come closer."

Immortal 1: "Hah! I still" "yet live"

Immortal 2: "Not for long."

What happens if you let an immortal adrift in high earth orbit or sent him/her on a one-way trip to a hostile planet (Venus has my vote, but Mercury if you want to be extra-mean)?

Re: How to understand the SuperHero Genre

I would say the two main differences between fantasy and superhero is the level of civilization and free will is higher with superheroes. Fantasy games struck me as being a bit racist. Orcs, trolls, ogres, etc (as presented in earlier editions of AD&D) are inherently EVIL. Period. There's no chance to change their ways (save for the very rare anomaly a GM throws in just to mix things up). Heck, you can even tell the alignment of a dragon by the color of it's skin. I know things might have changed recently, but this is what I remember when I was playing it 20+ years ago.

I assume you read Knights of the Dinner Table. For those who don't in the comic the party is given an orc cub (note it's a "cub" not "child") and the normally moral character insists that it be left out in the woods to die of exposure. This was a baby. It couldn't even talk yet and already the moral center of the party is willing to condemn it to a prolonged death and doesn't even entertain the possibility of raising him with moral values. For me, that's a big turn off to the whole genre.

In fantasy heroes killed their enemies because 1) settings were modeled after the Dark Ages and that's what you did 2) there was no real prisons (not that they would do any good anyway since most of the occupants are EVIL by nature) 3) most adventures took place away from civilization and closer to being a war zone. Beating up a tribe of orcs and tying them up is useless because there's no police to take them in, no prison for them to serve time, and no way they're not going to go back to doing what they were doing before.

But the superhero setting takes place in a city. A city where everyone is expected to follow the same set of laws and there's a police force there to enforce it. Death is suppose to be a rare event, save for natural causes. Superheroes are expected to protect the citizens from multiple dangers and, being mightier than normal people, are held to a higher standard. In the real world police officers are investigated for any kind of shooting and double that if it's fatal. And with good reason. We don't want our protectors to be our overlords. As a society we accept the notion that lethal force should only be used when lives are at risk. Since they are in a modern city, risk of death does not happen as often as a more primitive rural setting.

Now add superheroes to the mix. Any concern people have about cops shooting innocent people goes up for the superpowered. A superhuman killing up normals, like say Viper Agents with blasters, becomes a threat to all because when you take away their padded armor and gun they're a person. A person just like you who can quit the organization and change who they are. Super on super violence is more acceptable since it's among equals. In fantasy Adventurers aren't held up that high.

I have to recommend not getting into the comics. For a new person, it's difficult to start reading a comic that's been around for decades. There's just so much back story you have to know (and it often contradicts itself) to get started. Instead go to the movies and TV shows because they begin and the beginning and accessible to everyone. Megamind is a good example of the superhero genre. Apart from property damage, no one got killed or seriously hurt despite the mammoth saw blades, lasers, rockets, etc being fired around and once. Plus (as I'm sure you know from the commercials) it has a villain who becomes a hero. In other words, he changes.

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

There's the liaison to the authorities (local or national) or the team patron/organizer/teacher. They should be pretty well developed. Early in a campaign a organizer/teacher should have his/her own story arcs and maybe even be removed from the campaign eventually if the team can get along without them. The mentor archtype in literature is famous for leaving, often dying so the student can proceed on their own. Obi wan is a famous example.

Re: 6th Edition Books on eReader?

The best e-reader that I saw the 6e books on was the Kindle DX. Even then the display was slow and the ability to zoom in close was lacking. The Nook blows apart the PDF's formatting in favor of showing the text so ends up worthless for the display of PDF's like the 6e books.

 

I would recommend finding someplace that has a demo of the reader, loading the 6e books on a flash card and see how it performs.

 

So far the only reader like device that does a good job at Displaying the books is the iPad. The iPad allows gesture based zooming and scrolling of the books. It also switches very quickly to landscape mode for easier reading of the full page width. So far it's the only thing outside of a laptop that makes the PDF books actually usable/readable.

Thanks. I was thinking about asking for a Kindle for my birthday/Christmas (the two are 9 days apart) for reading the Hero Books (like Broken Kingdoms), small press sci-fi, free PDFs from Gutenburg, etc. My main problem with the Kindle is that it doesn't support ePub, the PDF format that public libraries use. I see what you're saying. It looks like the Kindle will involve a lot of scrolling. It would be fun to try it for a while.

My problem with the iPad is that it's the iPad. It's got a short battery life, the screen can cause glare, I already stare at a screen most of the time anyway, and worst of all you need iTunes to manage the software. (Sorry, but I've had bad experiences with iTunes on my earlier computers.) Do you know of any good alternatives to the iPad?

Thanks!

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

Thanks for posting the discussion. I confess to being too lazy to do it myself. I figured anyone who would read this thread would have also read the Champions Beyond thread.

Re: Nebula from Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks p.184-186

Champions Beyond... BUMP!

Thanks!

In that thread someone commented about how Nebula's weapon was a one-shot-kill power that's easily abused. Another post reminded us that the characters are not set in stone, that we can change them if we wanted. I found three ways (not mutually exclusive) to keep it from being abused.

1) The gun teleports the target to a holding cell on her ship. The target is brought to "trial" with telepathic scanners and if found guilty they may be punished to Dures. Naturally this takes time (enough to allow for a rescue) and provides a chance for role playing as the character tries to explain why they are not guilty.

2) Anyone sent to Dures can be retrieved at will. The gun (or whatever means is used to send people there) adds a tracking signal during transit making rescue as simple as scrolling back in the gun's history and select "recall". Of course first you have to get control of the device from Nebula....

3) Nebula's programming is not as rigid as listed. She recognizes that she is outside her jurisdiction and attempts to work with local authorities to capture Vibron and return home. The PCs are to keep an eye on her so she doesn't harass citizens sforphling (with our without a license) or breaking some obscure alien law that doesn't apply on Earth. Hilarity ensues.

Re: Brainsorming: Golden Age Champions

Racism' date=' sexism, and nationalism are part of the period, for better or for worse. But I do plan to try a little less black and white morality.[/quote']

I'm not sure if this qualifies as part of the B&W morality, but one thing I do like about the pulp/golden era games was the lack of deception. People didn't pretend to be something they're not or if they did 1) it becomes obvious quickly with little effort on the heros' part or 2) a good guy is going undercover but will always be there to help the PCs whenever necessary.

 

The problem with deception in an RPG is that it greatly depends on the skills as a GM. If a player spots something but the character doesn't then the player has to restrain him/herself. But if the player doesn't spot it, who's to say the character would have?

 

One NPC I'm planning is "Chinese by birth, American by choice," who is "in the import/export business." Grey market, if not entirely black. Will be able to supply the PC's with anything they might have trouble getting due to war-time shortages, such as new tires. On the wall of their office are framed photographs of the First American Volunteer Group ("The Flying Tigers"), and an autographed picture of Gen. Chennault with a note of thanks for the Christmas boxes.

 

Another is a mysterious, some might even say suspicious, man with a German accent with his own agenda, but willing to assist the PC's when their interest converge.

 

There will be homegrown villains who are simply greedy, but I will try to show those actually employed by Axis powers as German/Italian/Japanese patriots, nor evil incarnate. Working on one Charles Lindbergh inspired villain who is a patriotic American who believes America has entered the war on the wrong side.

 

One idea I had was an NPC who is 120% German. He wears leiderhosen, drinks everything out of a stein, uses German words instead of English whenever possible, has German artifacts and flag from 1930 and before, etc and would almost be an exaggerated stereotype. Except he loves his country and NOT those running it. He knows the Nazis will only bring ruin to der Fatherland and hates them even more for that. He would do anything to stop the Nazis and when the war is over, he will return home and lead the rebuilding effort. Everything he does is for restoring Deutschland to it's pre-WWI glory and that means stopping the Nazis.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See?

I'd put Chapter 2 between Chapters 9 and 10 so you have the major races first followed by the minor races. Also I noticed most of the major races are Earth's enemy. Are there any that are neutral or even friendly to Earth?

A reason why superbeings are more common on Earth than other planets. If they're not more common, list some of the major superheroes/villains on the planets. Are there alien supergroups protecting their own groups? If so, how are the relations between them and the groups on Earth?

For Star*Guard, will there be a way for a PC to become a member (a Star*Guard package deal)? I'd like to see a basic and experienced officer write-ups. I hope they have more variety in their powers than the comic book style space-cops. Relying too much on one source of power is a weakness. They should have medics, information officers, guards, a version of SWAT, etc.

Re: Brainsorming: Golden Age Champions

What would you like to see in a Golden Age game? Would you want your character on the Home Front, or the front lines? What tropes are essential for a Golden Age game, and what do you hope to never see again?

 

If you were told "Golden Age," no other details, what character would you like to run? What makes a good Golden Age villain? What NPC would become your favorite contact?

One of the tropes of GA has been one of the things that turned me off was the black and white morality. We're good. They're evil. Kick their a$$. It felt 2D. Heroic motivations were little more than patriotism and villains were motivated by their desire to inflict pain and conquer. I'm not sure if it could really be otherwise, but I would like to see more complexity in characters and setting.

Re: How does a Megacorp make money?

Where's the profit in going into shooting wars with rivals instead of out-competing them in the marketplace?

Well you can spend millions (or billions) on a new product that may or may not succeed OR you can spend a fraction of that sabotaging your competitor so people will by your product instead. A common theme in cyberpunk is that the right to make a profit overrides little things like the law and human life.

Here's a fictional hypothetical. Microsoft makes a secret addition to the next update, a virus that infects any iProduct hooked up to a Windows computer. The virus waits until Apple makes 2 updates (just to play it safe), then suddenly you can't turn it off and the volume is stuck on max. Apple has its reputation damaged and people are going to rival products making your own market share bigger. Even if the virus was countered, some damage would remain. And if what MS did was discovered, they could blame it on a random manager who has been "disciplined" for his/her "unauthorized" actions. Doing that is probably cheaper than improving the Zune and trying to compete with the iPod.

And if there are few real profits to be made' date=' how does the corporation support its massive structure?[/quote']

No one said that the megacorps were sustainable in the long term. They're based on greed. You make your money, build up a nest egg and golden parachute, and don't loose much sleep when the decisions that made you rich wind up destroying the company. Unfortunately we're already seeing the effects of that attitude today.

Re: Fantasy locations that should be real

The Bazaar on Deva (Robert Asprin's Myth series)

Re: Stops the shrapnel but not the kinetic energy

Unfortunately side effect damage automatically bypasses defenses so this doesn't work.

Well the rules aren't set in stone. I would cut the value of the side effect limitation in half and allow defenses to be applied. All you're doing is turning a 2d6 KA into a 6d6 normal attack. It's not a big abuse of the rules.

Maybe make a new power called Damage Conversion which is 2 pts per DC of KA to normal attack. All the advantages to the KA are still valid. The lower amount of body is balanced by the larger amount of stun.

Re: Riddles

A problem with making riddles is that they often follow your unique thought process. It's like those adventure games that were fun in the 80s and 90s. Sure the puzzles made sense to the developer, but no one else got the reference and most puzzles were solved by randomly clicking on items. So if you're making riddles, be aware that your players don't know everything you know and they know things you don't. What's worse than not solving a riddle is finding out there were two completely different yet completely legit answers.

Re: Setting: Reverse Concentration

Considering the history and religious significance of that part of the world, how many would consider it to be a divine act? Plus since that part of the world is mostly Muslim, the countries in the West would start developing anti-super technology. I would see a rise in technology (ie Iron Man) style heroes. Military personnel, especially snipers would be deployed to kill any supers explicitly working for unfriendly governments and terrorist organizations immediately before they can be used.

One big question would be if the plague reached India (it would have to cross 4 countries and an eighth of the world, but it's mostly dessert so it's still possible). Pakistan and India have been enemies for a long time and if one side gained supers and not the others, war would be a strong possibility. India has one of the largest populations in the world, most of which live in poverty. If the plague reached there, it would quickly spread giving the country the largest number of supers making Mumbai (Bombay) the equivalent of NYC.

Re: Flying like the Greatest American Hero?

I'd say OIHID since he wore it most of the time under his clothes (disrobing was another source of humor in the show) and it didn't work in his civies.

Instead of side effects, I would have a dice or two of unluck with the agreement with the GM that it would only be used for how badly he lands. (I have a character who has the ghost of his samurai ancestor living in his head who takes on the role of harsh teacher/mentor. He has 1d6 unluck for those times when the samauri berates him and he talks back out loud. The GM loves making me roll and I wind up rolling 3 or 4 times a night when we do a role playing session and not a combat oriented section.)

Re: Flying like the Greatest American Hero?

I thought there were times he could start flying by jumping up. In either case, he had to start moving before turning on his flying so a stall velocity may be in order. I don't remember him hovering which could help the Stall limitation. To reflect his awkwardness while flying, I'd add Concentrate 1/2 DCV (or 1/2 DCV side effect) and extra turn mode and Dex Roll to land. I'm not sure how much of a lim some of them will be worth, but we're going for effect.

The main problem I see is that the humor in the show came from how he couldn't use his powers right. It was a struggle to do anything more than super strength and invulnerability. A player (and likely the rest of the group) won't put up with that and insist XP be spent to get the character to straighten up and fly right.

Re: Political/Religious Space Colonies?

I think that would be Totalitarian' date=' not Communist. Communism is when the people own the means of production. It was meant as a way for people to throw off the chains of the feudal system. Which was the way that many countries were still being governed. Also in many "free" nations, the corporations were treating their workers like it was a new feudalism. Which is how things are starting to look again in the US with wages so low and much of the real jobs being shipped off to where people will work for slave wages.[/quote']

 

I stand corrected. But wouldn't that make god and his churches totalitarian dictators? And as such don't we as free willed individuals have an obligation to fight against such a dictatorship? We've invaded countries for less.

Re: Political/Religious Space Colonies?

Funny thing is that IMHO if you can get the majority of the population working with wages that are in excess of that needed for survival' date=' that it will increase profits in the long run. Also those profits will be sustainable for the long term and not be so bound to credit bubbles and such.[/quote']

 

Key word "long run" in the short run they cause lesser profits. The people in charge of businesses would rather have $10 now instead of $5 every week for the next three weeks. It's instant gratification they want provided someone else has to pay for the consequences.

Re: Political/Religious Space Colonies?

I think it's fair to say that they consider themselves to be christian - but that doesn't mean we have to. They also consider themselves part of the "master race" and I guarantee' date=' take the hoods off and you'll be surprised at the number of drooling chinless wonders with no foreheads, that you'll see. Under Hitler, the nazis set up their own christian organizations - but I think we can agree they didn't represent mainstream Christianity anymore than al-Qaeda represents mainstream islam.[/quote']

 

I never said they represented mainstream christianity. I just said they were christian groups. I do agree that al-Qaeda doesn't represent mainstream; however many people do. It's a twisted double standard. Extremist christians aren't "real" christians, but extremist muslims, Atheist, wiccans, etc are still considered "real" muslims, Atheists, wiccans, etc and somehow all the members of those groups are responsible for what the extremists have done. Worse especially "distasteful" christians are labeled as Atheists (like how BobGreenwade claims the Nazis were Atheists even after being shown that they were christian) to protect the reputation of their religion.

 

Ironically if you look at christian history, the extremists of today were a lot closer to the mainstream of yesteryear. For example Rev Phelps claims dead US soldiers are God's punishment for our acceptance of homosexuals. Compare that to the claims that the 9/11/01 terror attacks were because God was angry at liberals, witches, homosexuals, etc. There's not much difference between them.

 

Morals change. Society changes. The fringe and mainstream switch places and everyone is convinced THEY are the part of the real version of their religion and everyone else is a counterfeit. Martin Luther's ideas were considered revolutionary in their time. Hitler uses those rules and it was considered backwards. Yet the word of Jesus is centuries older and is still considered relevant? How does that work?

 

Looked at in that light' date=' the KKK are no more christian than (say) Glenn Beck. In both cases, they self-identify, but use their purported religion as a tool to sow hatred and for self-aggrandizement.[/quote']

 

Who is anyone else to say they are using their religion for self-aggrandizement or if they are doing what they think is the will of their god? You don't have Telepathy 8d6 or Detect Aura and neither do I. I take people at their word and if they seriously say they are christian, I believe them.

 

The smart thing to do in all of these cases is for their erstwhile coreligionists to say "Buddy' date=' you got no business defaming my religion like that[/i']".

 

Who's doing the defaming? The people like Glenn Beck or the people like Martin Luther King Jr? To defame something you first have to define what it is so you can make comparisons and qualifications. In religion, it comes down to how you interpret holy books and interpretation is a very individual thing. Add contradictions, passages added/removed for reasons only the writer knows, multiple translations, and language problems and the problem only gets worse. As Shakespeare said, "Even the Devil can use the Bible to justify his actions."

Re: Political/Religious Space Colonies?

but Jesus was not interested in political power. That was left to lesser men.

Jesus called himself the "King of Kings" and as Monty Python pointed out, you don't vote for kings. Sounds pretty political to me.