MCMaenza

Re: Team Base... Who pays? This has varied from game to game I've run. A lot depends upon the players involved. Some will have characters who will benefit more from a base - and thus they put more points in. Other times, its an equal split of the cost - to be paid either up front or on installments from their earned XP. Other times, I've had players that didn't want to pay for a base. That team then got something provided to them by the sponsored city - in this case, it was Rough Justice setting up as Baltimore's premier super-team. Of course, they got what they paid for - which wasn't much. Laser and a trio of villains called the Enforcers ended up bringing the place down on top of the heroes in the final run of the game.

Re: Chronology, Continuity, Comics and Champions Usually the campaign I start running in my world tends to take place at the same time/year it is in real time. Depending on how things progress, the characters can find themselves a few weeks/months off of real time depending upon the flow of the game, how often we played, etc. Continuity and world history is very important to me though (as evidenced by the timeline on my gameworld site - see link in my signature). Characters age, retire, die, etc. Some have their heroic legacy picked up by a newcomer while others blaze new trails.

Re: Organization: The Tarot Council Michael, sounds like good sourcebook material to me. I was probably out of Haymaker! by the time you joined. That box of APAs is all packed and waiting for our relocation move. I'll have to break them out when I get settled.

Re: Rules For Picking A Superhero Name A fun list to read regardless of the original source. You could almost do the list to that tune of that popular song a few years ago (I forget the title but it's about the singer/speaker addressing a graduating class).

Re: Organization: The Tarot Council Michael, this sounds like a wonderful organization. I could see it operating out of Europe very easily in a gameworld. Thanks for sharing it. Oh, and I was involved with an APA entitled Haymaker! in its early stages in the 90's. I wonder if we're talking the same thing. If so, very cool!

Re: Teen Guardians Nothing wrong with someone called the Pusher. I created a hero back in the early 80's that I called 'the User'. He was an African-American male who could touch other objects and take on the physical properties of them. He 'used' their abilities in essence. Think of him as akin to Marvel's Absorbing Man or DC's Amazing Man (from the All-Star Squadron title).

Re: What does a timeline need? Lots of good suggestions about timelines here. On a different angle of the same topic: what I did was have two versions of my timeline. One was for me, the GM, that included things like secret identities, birth years of key figures, etc. The other version was for my players - which had any info in the GM's timeline that the average person could put together with a little research (newspaper archives, computer searches, etc.). My players enjoyed this a lot as it allowed them to be able to get details about my world history that might benefit them down the road during the game. Plus, it gave them a sense of what had gone before, possible allies or resources they could go to, etc.

Re: Top Ten All-Time 'Favorite' Superhero RPG Books Ever In no particular order: - To Serve and Protect (love Scott's art) - Champions 4th Edition - Strike Force - CLOWN (yes, I said it - I like this group enough to put them in my world. FUN!) - DC Universe Atlas - Teen Titans Sourcebook - Champions in 3-D - Dark Champions 4th Edition - Stronghold (something about Ripper on the cover...)

Re: I need help with a couple power ideas, please. This is a neat concept for a power/focus item. And this just goes to show why I enjoy the HERO system so much. The game system allows you to build some very interesting combinations of powers and effects. Granted, as many noted, this can come out expensive and a player really would have to work with the GM to determine what is within the realms of how he/she runs the game. Still, HERO is flexible.

Re: A Blast From The Past - old 4th ed pregens I like your layouts here in that they are quick and dirty and very easy for Con game usage. This is especially helpful for folks not totally rule-savy. I like the Translations for Champions Impaired (TCI).

Re: Character Cutouts Dominique, thanks for posting the links. Having various representations for characters on the game mat is always a plus.

Re: Yet another timeline I love gameworld timelines! The timeline for my gameworld can be found on my World of Maenza site (click on the link in my signature and then go from there). I enjoy legacy characters and like how your timeline extends back from older times through today. Keep at it. You have a nice foundation with which to start.

Re: What would your character buy? Galeforce: because she suffered from a bought of amnesia when she went from her homeworld to Sean Fannon's gameworld, she would likely try to find gifts for her teammates that would evoke some kind of memory of a time or event she shared with them.

Re: Help With Gadget Idea/Design I kind of like the mindlink within the tight radius. This way the people can "talk" without it appearing like they are talking. Otherwise, folks walking buy would see them moving their lips but nothing would be coming out - thus the folks viewing them might think they were losing their own hearing. Then again, if that's the effect you want to go for...

Re: The New Circle Csyphrett! Hey - good to see your writing again. I forgot you were into Champions too. Some Rep for you.

Re: Strike Force I have to agree with Lord Liaden: this classic supplement is one of the best books from the early run of titles. It had a wonderful amount of details from the campaign from which it sprang. As a novice GM at the time, it really helped me to further comprehend how wonderful and encompassing a campaign could be. I hope L.Craig was able to find one.

Re: Are the Early Wolfman/Perez Titans a ripoff of the Avengers? I can slightly see how one could see the New Teen Titans beginning of the run could resemble the Avengers run at the time. Consider: George was doing wonders over at Marvel on the Avengers. Dick Dillin was doing JLA for a long run until his unexpected death. George was approached to pick up JLA which George has gone on record as saying he wanted a shot at. The catch was DC also wanted him to do art on a new Teen Titans book. He figured the latter wouldn't last long so he jumped over to DC. Both the Titans and the Avengers were set in NYC - thus George was on familiar grounds as far as back drops. That would provide some commonality in the book. Both teams had distinctive landmark headquarters. The Avengers had the mansion. The Titans had their T-Tower. Both buildings were key elements to the storytelling and adventures - almost an extra character in the book if you will. With their new book, the Titans also got a kick up on their enemies. Gone were the days of Mad Mod, Flamesplasher and Mr. Esper. They fought aliens (the Gordonians), a super-skilled hitman (Deathstroke the Terminator - who initially had a lot in common with the Avengers' foe Taskmaster whom was introduced during George's run on the book), a more powerful team of villains (the Fearsome Five) and an otherworld demigod (Trigon). This was all in the first six issues of the book! I think, thematically and visually, the two books were similar - at least until the Titans found their own groove. Clearly though DC wanted the NTT to be more of an X-Men contemporary. George being on JLA was more like the Avengers - but sadly that was a short run.

Re: GM's "rights" I think its perfectly acceptable for the GM to make suggestions to the player regarding changes in the character before the character gets introduced into the game. That means the player needs to get his stuff together and sheet passed by the GM before they sit down for the session. Anything that needs to be worked out should be worked out between the two and not by committee with the other players. As a GM, I tend to be more critical of certain powers or levels if I know it will throw the balance out of the campaign. As a player, I am willing to abide by whatever campaign rules the GM puts forth. As for nebulous stuff in the background, I've been there as a player - in a game run by Sean Fannon in fact. I wanted my character to have amnesia. That gave Sean as the GM the ability to trickle in background pieces that made sense to the campaign world, etc. I decided the character's personality - he provided the fun stuff. It made the game very exciting for me.