garou

Re: Favorite Superhero Lines

From Herobear and the Kid:

So, for the next few minutes, they proceeded to school me in Respect 101. And to make sure that I understood the lesson, they offered me some demonstrations. They used props and visual aids. And they really encouraged class participation.

(Meanwhile, during each panel, the three Bullio brothers are beating up on Tyler (aka the Kid), noogies, snowballs, etc.)

So it's a soliloquy, not a quote. Close enough, right?

Re: Favorite Superhero Lines

DK2, Batman to Superman

"That's the problem with all those high and mighty powers. They made you cocky. Overconfident. You never learned to think strategically. I did. Pardon me while I drop ninety tons of planet earth on you."

Re: Super humans populations in cities

Plus there are some other factors to consider.

1) As they sale in real estate, location, location, location. Cities have all sorts of potential hideouts, such as abandoned warehouses, alleyways, rooftops, sewer system, slums, penthouse suites, etc. There are hiding places in rural areas, but they are fewer and farther between (plus some, like cornfields, would be very seasonal dependant.)

2) Industrial base - important for technologically-minded superheroes, access to a high-tech area is almost a must for anyone who wants to be a major supervillain. Yes, you could scratch build all the pieces for your Doomsday Ray from things you've ordered out of Sharper Image and Best Buy online, but it's soo much easier to raid the university's high energy physics lab for components. Plus, you can avoid all those pesky shipping fees.

3) Innocent bystanders. Another factor for supervillains - in a densely populated area, the local law enforcement isn't going to blast away willy-nilly with high-powered weapons. You get out into an area where the next town (and hence, most likely innocent bystander) is over the horizon, and you'll see a more forceful (though slower) response.

Re: Teen supers ideas

You might also reference the comic book "PS 238" (a grade school for super-powered children), and Teenagers From Outer Space. While any powers in TFOS are low-grade, the game has a reasonably comedic bent and plenty of situtations which you should be able to readily adapt.

Re: What??!! The Roman Empire fell to pieces while Jesus was still alive??!!

What caused the early fall of the Roman Empire? Goths? Punks? Plague? Little green things from outer space?

Re: How can an Napoleonic Era frigate fire a broadside every 12 seconds?

The Hero System is a game of panels and cut-to scenes [phases] it's not a game that sits around measuring how much a sailor sweats while loading a cannon to determine how much grog he will need to drink after the battle to keep from being dehydrated.

One pint in temperate climates, two pints in the tropics. Add one if the fight runs longer than 15 minutes, and one if the sailor is on the victorious side.

Re: Help me with my Champions plot

According to his PR, he was all of these things.

 

When in doubt, go to the source.

Isn't that always the case though? I mean, if you've got some hero who can level mountains, uproot rivers, kill demons, etc - are you going to call him stupid? Or contradict him if he says he has magical powers? I doubt it.

Re: Help me with my Champions plot

Gilgamesh was on Earth looking for the secret of immortality. (Assuming even Kryptonians can eventually age and die.) He found it - and lost it. But that's another story.

 

The Seal of Gilgamesh is the magical key that opens the Tomb of Enkidu, the mighty Beast Man. (Gilgamesh "froze" him so that his friend Enkidu would not age while he, Gilgamesh, tried to get the secret of immortality back. Instead, he died trying, leaving Enkidu, ever young, in suspended animation.) That's your hook to lead into a second adventure.

 

As soon as they find out that this is about the Seal of Gilgamesh, and one way or another they will find out soon, one of their experts on mythology will tell them the tale:- Gilgamesh found the secret, but a serpent stole it. So he had endured his mighty labours only to make serpents immortal. To Viper, that can have only one meaning: the secret of immortality belongs to them alone!

Or, Gilgamesh did indeed find the secret, and used it. Unfortunately, a latter adventure (which was not recorded) causes him to lose his memory. Since then, he has been wandering the Earth. While he is immortal, he has no recollection of his past life (indeed, his current state could be that of a derelict, unable to recall yesterday, let alone the days of Uruk.)

Using the seal has two immediate results: one, it opens up the tomb of Enkidu, and he is set free. Two, Gilgamesh recalls who (and what) he is, and he wants his property back. Now. He's not interested in the excuses of "it belongs in a museum" or "we're the good guys" - all he knows is that someone else has what's his, and he wants it back.

So, you have Demon and Viper fighting over the seal, with heroes intervening, until someone actually uses it. At which point, you now have Demon v Viper v heroes v Gilgamesh, oh, and by the way, a wild man is rampaging through some town, tearing up cars and babbling in a long-forgotten tongue.

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

Perhaps as Mind Control, Only to make Bad Guy soliloquize? Since it's already a genre convention, you'd only have to beat the Ego by 10 or 20.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Actually' date=' nearly everything Stephenson has written is interrelated. The skateboarder in SNOW CRASH has a cameo in THE DIAMOND AGE. CRYPTONOMICON has references to character in SNOW CRASH. The Baroque Cycle makes mention of the "Cryptonomicon." It's all one universe![/quote']

 

The Big U is an exception, I believe. I certainly did not note any correlation between it and the other books. Likewise, Zodiac (well worth reading, BTW) seems to be on it's own as well.

 

And Enoch Root is in the Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle. (Currently reading vol 1, so no spoilers, please!)

Re: Super Day Jobs

Also:

Product spokesperson

Safety inspector (read: Crash test dummy, for powerful bricks)

Expert witness for court proceedings

Motivational speaker

Re: Powers of a Roman Catholic priest?

No problems. At least you weren't referring to it as Colorado Springs.

Languages would be good. You might also consider Bureaucratics (church bureacrocies are notorious in some areas!), Conversation, Interrogation (not torture - but some priests are very good about using the holy roller bit to extract information), Oratory (a must) and Persuasion. And professional skill: priest, to handle all the other stuff.

Re: Powers of a Roman Catholic priest?

Unbeknownst to him, his mob relatives asked their pet congressman to secure him an appointment to West Point even though his excellent grades in a Catholic high school might well have earned him a scholarship anyway.

 

Once at Annapolis, our hero found he excelled at languages, and began learning Latin. Since the military is perpetually short of interpreters, his decision to major in linguistics was approved by the Naval Academy.

 

Shortly after he began his junior year at West Point. . . .

 

 

He completed his schooling at Annapolis and served the requisite four years .. .

 

Comments or suggestions?

Quibble the first - you keep switching between West Point and Annapolis. I'm sure anyone in the crowd at an Army-Navy game would be pleased to point out the difference.

Quibble the second - I could be wrong, but when I was considering the military academies, the basic term of service was five years, more for certain fields (like aviator or nuke tech).

What are you thinking in terms of skills for this character?

Re: Powers of a Roman Catholic priest?

Nope - but I have read through the "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes... " series. Does that count?

Re: Powers of a Roman Catholic priest?

Possibly a high Pre,only vs. "sinners" (Repent or go the ****), armor of faith (PD/ED), possibly an EGO attack, Aid, Healing, Luck, Power Defence (My faith protects me), Suppress (magic of demonic origin) - any of these might be appropriate.

If it were a nun, I would add HKA, OIF (Ruler).

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

I enjoyed:

Rose of the Prophet trilogy (Weiss and Hickman), as well as the original Dragonlance books.

Dragon Price trilogy (Melanie Rawn)

Chronicles of an Age of Darkness: The Wizards and The Warriors, The Women and the Warlords, etc (Hugh Cook)

I also would have included many of the others already mentioned on this thread.

Grunts (Mary Gentle)

Discworld series (Terry Pratchett)