Midas

Re: Idea for a robot campaign

Little robot men in funny helmets weird me out.

 

Jus' sayin'.

Marvin the Martian is a robot??

Re the topic of the thread: What would be distinctive about this campaign? Why would running robot characters be *different* than running a group of SF characters with one or two being robots?

Midas

Re: Space 1999 aka Space 2099

 

Now as to how the asteroid leave earth's system, say that they were testing a

new drive system...maybe a kinda FOLD Jump drive system. Maybe the first attempt

at using the drive, it by accident took the whole asteroid into Fold Space and

transported them to some unknown part of the galaxy and can't find their way home.

Since there is a large Scientific research station also located on base, they are able

to figure out how to make small controlled "Folds" to different systems and etc. They

just need to figure out where Earth's system is to where they are in space.

 

Penn

Now this could handle the biggest "suspension of disbelief" problem I had with the show:

OK, they're on Luna and it got blasted out of Earth orbit.

OK, they are making interstellar travel.

OK, they aren't aging hundreds of years between stops, so they must be traveling at near light speed.

So how are their Eagles et al interacting with all those non relativistic planets?

Yep, a Farscape meets Sliders origin works. "Assuming we're in the same galaxy, does anybody recognize these constellations? ANYBODY?"

Midas

(My other problem is that the FX people from Dr. Who would shake their heads in pity at the show's FX budget, but that is just me).

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

N) Dragons can only breath their coded breath weapon three times per day, and will always have their three times available for the next group of wandering snacks ("I LOVE these things! The metal outside wrapping helps to cook them soooo evenly!).

Midas

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

DCU: Dark Champions Unlimited?

Damage Classes Ultimate?

RE: thangarians and DCU

 

DCU means DC Universe, or the universe existing in the comics produced by DC comics

 

Thanagarian is a world in the DCU, best known for Hawkman and Hawkgirl. It should be noted that in the comics the wings are like jetpacks, but for the bird race here it is part of them

Shoulda known that. Oddly enough, only since the Warner animations have I had much interest in DC universe. To make it even more ":doi:," Hawkgirl was my favorite from JL (Always preferred the "No problem too big for a bigger hammer" outlook ). Biggest "Hmnn, interesting, but...hmnnn" was making Wondie the New Kid.

Re the Pidgeonoids, does the homing/nav skill work only on planetside or can it be used for interstellar nav, as mentioned above?

Midas

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

As for the homing pigeonoids, definately go with the pulp "mystical awareness" rather than the more prosaic choice. Esp if the homing ability works over interstellar distances. (BTW, did you post the race somewhere? I haven't seen it). If it works over light years, then either it is a mystical ability, or the race can detect minute changes in constellations, and intuitively compute ...can't think of the word (and dictionary/thesaurus is no help ) something similar to parallax: The ability to determine an object's location from comparing its location and direction from "here" as opposed to "there." Come to think of it, having that as an intuitive ability would be pretty cool.

I'm not sure I'm getting the idea across, here's an example. Suppose our pigeonoid stood on earth, and memorized Ursa Minor. He then travelled ten light years directly toward Polaris. He would notice the tiny lengthening of the Little Bear's tail, and intuitively know how far he'd travelled, and in what direction, from Earth; by the differences in the angles between the stars of the Little Bear where he was, as opposed to from Earth.

Midas

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

A drider is a high level DnD monster, a spider centaur. Elf from the waist up, eight legged spider body below.

Back at ya: "Thangarians"? "DCU"?

The write up looks ok, I'd suggest one minor change. Swim = 0, buy it back with the armor/LS suit. However, it might be more fun to have them be "water spiders" and have air a somewhat hostile environment. Or are there various subspecies?

Oh, and PRE & COM unchanged? With no social DV (while they may be "normal" to other spider people, presumably they will be interacting with humans). Even if they don't get a looks DV, should they have a rep to live up or down to?

Also, these seem a bit...orcish. High phys stats, low mental ones, slavish loyalty to hive mother (as the local avatar of all things evil?), they seem ready made as cannon fodder NPCs. I'd suggest some guidance on how they might be played. Give a mildly interested player some reason to play one.

Midas

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders

For the Spider People: high strength, clinging, entangle generation, a psy limit: Guilt Trip...

OK, levity out of the way, what are you looking for?

Drider type creatures? Something more like an animal Doc Ock?

Humanoid except for faceted eyes? Do the females eat the males -before, during, or after?

Would they have web casting or just web building (or none of the above?). Are entangles limited to out of combat, in other words.

Touch at range, limited to the web.

360 degree vision.

Extra limbs.

Prolly a social limitation (ugly and scary by human standards).

architechure as an inherent "every spidey" skill?

Re the pigeon people: (OK, Real World Intrusion ) How big are they? Can they fly? Human size, and wingspan of say six feet? Morphology-are they built like pigeons, or more human like?

Just throwing out things to consider,

Midas

Re: {campeign construction}: Flash gordon Like

"The Emperor"

Plenty of rumors about who/what he/she/it is:

A powerful warlord like Ming?

A living corpse like the 40K Emperor?

A sentient computer/network?

(an oligarchy of Ubergeeks who control all communication? )

An intelligent virus (either kind)

A Q like entity that is either bored and playing the Q equivalent of Civilization, or is trying to set some particular course of history?

The last living Forerunner?

Going with another thread, a sentient light saber that confers power and immortality on the holder: IE, it isn't "Ming" who is the Emperor, but Ming's sword. Also has the tendency to have the Swordholder mutter "gollum" after a few centuries...

Just stray thoughts at 1 in the morning,

Midas

Re: Dumbest thing...

Well, what else was he going to do? Where there other options available that would have been more effective? Was it just a desperation thing? Did Cap doing it actually make the situation any worse? Serious questions, since I'm only mariginally familiar with Secret Wars. It sounds like he was taking a "what the h**?" shot. If it didn't hurt anything then it was better than standing there not doing anything at all or just giving up (from a purely game perspective, there's no way to tell if some minute damage isn't seeping through from the combined hits and every little bit helps, maybe the Beyonder has Damage Reduction. )

 

If there were other significant options, I agree it was pretty silly for Cap to resort to the shield.

Well, like I said, it was "dogpile on Beyonder." Everybody who was anybody in the Marvel Universe was there. And *everybody* was drawn as getting their perferred licks in. Professor X might have been hurling Ego blasts or whatever he calls them. So it was a a drawing of everyone in the fight doing something they could. The "cap could have done something" idea works if there had been a thought balloon or narration saying something about "One last desperate chance..." As it was, Cap was an extra, looking busy instead of standing there like a pole, which was a good thing. It was particularly galling because later in the free for all battles, characters would be in the midst of a fight, then in the next frame, had been knocked out (Shulkie had that problem). If Cap had nothing to do, keep him off screen to keep him from looking silly.

For comparison, I'm not familiar with Lobo, but I take it that Wolverine was totally outclassed? Similar deal here. I think the howls would have been long and loud if a normal had taken out a cosmic character.

Because mine are burried deeply in long storage, could some one else see if they can find and post the scene in question? If you see the frame, maybe it will make sense.

Then again, what I find absurd unknamed regular poster others will undoubtably find perfectly reasonable.

Midas

Re: How to start a War

Well, with 30 views and no comments, let me ask the general population for some help.

 

Any suggestions for what to name a cosmic being who passes judgment on planets? How about for a highly advanced alien race that loves to interfere?

 

Ideally I'd want both names to be somewhat neutral sounding. Most of my players are big sci-fi nerds (more TV and movie than comic book however), so any names ripped from those sources are likely to be spotted. My goal is to slowly start presenting the truth in pieces, and the alien race to initially be presented as altruistic and beneficial. So names like 'Borg' would color that perception obviously.

 

So.... Help?

OK, just to make it clear, you are not pushing either side as the bad guyz?

So, they you wouldn't be interested in "Cthulhuvians" or some such for the Outside magician faction? (though that might be what the techies call them).

For the tech guyz, "Borg" is out, but "Collective?" Probably too laden with connotations. "the Technocracy"? Then you could give all kinds of propaganda about merit promotions vs social ladders, etc.

There are plenty of synonyms for "judge". "Arbiter" and "Arbitrator" look good. "Evaluator" fits, but isn't a very awesome name. "His costume includes a green hatband and a jeweler's loube..."

Are you looking for a fitting title, or a formal one?

Midas

Re: Dumbest thing...

(re Captain America trying to take out Beyonder with his shield)

I don't see the problem with that. It's worth a try. Maybe the other guys would have succeeded in battering down the Beyonder's forcefield. Maybe the Beyonder would just turn out to be allergic to vibranium. Champions has coordinated attacks just so weaker characters can in theory contribute versus characters with defenses too high to be hurt' date=' just like in the comic books, right?[/quote']

 

Really? Don't recall that rule (but I've not studied 5ER to the point of knowing it like I would if running a game).

 

Story wise, it was way too early in the plot for a surprise like that. And even so, in the next panel, the Marvel Bricks were still pounding away.

 

OK, Beyonder was a totally, literally, cosmic villain: As much PD and CON as he wanted, knockback resistance of -1000 or so , etc. So after four of the heaviest bricks in Marvel Universe (Thing was there too), did little more than get his attention, what was a glorified hubcab going to accomplish?

 

Granted, the shield *could* have done something unforeseen and useful, but even in Superheroic fiction, I wouldn't have bet much on it.

 

Midas

Re: Dumbest thing...

Secret Wars was a masterpiece in comic book literature compared to Secret Wars II.

No love for Bert Convy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Convy

(For the baffled reader, The Beyonder as drawn in SW II had a marked resemblance to the game show host).

Midas

Re: Who are the DC/Marvel cat-themed villains?

AC has She Cat, nominally a hero (sort of a distaff Wolverine power/attitude wise), but her power is based on a cat demon trapped in her body (at least in one of her origins I don't recall the other, and which was labelled non canon). AC also owns the Golden Age characters Cat Man and Cat Girl. IIRC they own The Black Cat, also.

Midas

(Who likes strong independent women)

Re: Dumbest thing...

One I just mentioned in an earlier post. Secret Wars, dog pile on Beyonder. Hulk and She Hulk are pounding away with every ounce of strength. Thor is throwing Mjollnr as hard as he possibly can. And Captain America decides he can make an iota of difference in the fight by flinging his shield at the Beyonder.

FYI, the Beyonder was an intelligent *universe* that happened to notice the Marvel Universe next door, and decided to see what he could do to make it more interesting.

Midas

Re: Go home, Superman!

However, the very actually last thing I want to do is wind up in an "x could beat y" debate. I merely wanted to point out that, realistically considered, Batman would not be able to take on certain kinds of challenges, and some that he theoretically could take on would require so much trouble and expense that only a raging narcissist would fail to realize that these things are better left to people with actual superpowers.

Yep, we're talking about Batsy alright.

Just a guess, but I bet you don't buy the "Bats could beat Supes" arguement, am I right?

(It's on the net some where, JFG it). More to the point, a character with the NCM DV really has a insane number of 10 point levels, or if you aren't into point shaving, insane plusses on KS: Criminal Behavior, KS: MO's and shticks of known villains, Find Weakness, research skills, and the kicker, an ultra high roll on his gadget pool.

If Galactus made an interuniversal jaunt and showed up in the DC solar system, the first thing Bats would do is find out what the Big Purple Guy wanted. Oh, that is a problem. Secondly, he would try to get Supes, GL, Martian Manhunter or anyone else more qualified to do handle this kind of thing. Stipulating that Batsy is the only one available (everybody else is "doing something" per previous posts), he wouldn't bother with trying to shoot Galactus with the Bat plane (Digression: During Secret Wars, Captain America threw his shield at The Beyonder. I'm hard put to think of anything quite as much of a waste of time as that ). Galactus vs the Batplane would be like Cap trying to knock out The Beyonder by throwing his shield at him, or something. What Batsy would do, is research. He would try to find out what would be indigestable to Galactus, and find a way to convince Big G that what he is looking at is not edible. Now *how* he would convince Galactus that he has found another planet full of Dire Wraithes, I leave to more imaginative minds than I.

Re the topic of the thread: If your Dark Knight archetype doesn't have the "My Turf" DV, any of the above suggestions would work. Bats does, I think have this DV, which is why you seldom hear of Supes or anybody else shutting down The Joker, Catwoman, etc. Bruce gets bent out of shape when someone picks on one of his personal sparring partners. Would your characters consider a hunted/rivalry campaign? This way, the characters would spend a lot of their own roleplaying efforts keeping DKA in the dark.

Another possibility is the Batman Beyond scenario. Bruce is old, tired, and physically broken, though nobody outside of his own circle know that. The character that is talented enough to crack his SI gets first place in the nomination to become the new Dark Knight archetype.

An idea that happened in an *old* campaign (the character predates Darkwing Duck/Negaduck), is that a villain that is functionally identical to the hero (or super NPC in this case) finally manages to copy the sthicks of the hero enough to impersonate him. No one except the PC knew of this Evil Twin, so when crimes were committed by someone who was obviously the hero and no one else, he had to go deep undercover. Because seriously, who would believe the Evil Twin defense? Really blew a hole in his merchandising, too. So something to consider: Negabats commits crimes around the city, and DKA disappears. What would the characters do?

Midas

Re: Help Wanted: Neutralising Gadgets

Presuming you are designing a character who tailors her VPP to known enemies, how about these ideas?

Darkness: aoe radius of whatever, Personal Immunity? That handles your ranged specialist, brick, and generic martial artist (wouldn't work on Daredevil, but he is anything but generic ). The shapeshifter would be trickier, unless you knew his exact powers. Too easy to shift into something that could also have immunity to that particular kind of darkness. Not too good on the the Giant clone, since he will simply use a big enough area of effect.

Another is "instant obluette." Desol ground, instant (& obvious adv/lim: UAA etc). I'd suggest only making it a single hex (except for the growth dude), to keep the ref from slapping you. Drop the target five feet into solid concrete then have witty dialogue for the rest of the day. Won't work on the brick, may or may not on the growth specialist.

How about an oxygen sucker like fire retardant foam? Suppress REC is a nasty thing to use on high end burners/damage sinks like bricks.

Midas

Re: Forth wall perception?

 

Still, I can't see how anyone else wouldn't end up coming to the conclusion that the one character was delusional. That being said, I wouldn't want to go into potentially lethal situations with a superpowered candidate for a padded cell. You'd have to come up with a compelling reason why the rest of the PCs would have to put up with the presence of someone like that...

 

$0.02

'k, how about because his precog and clairvoy skills are dead on accurate, even if the special effect weirds out the other heroes?

Midas

Re: Xena-style Amazons

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086882/

Check out the comment page.

I don't remember the VP getting arrested at the end, but I do remember a teen aged daughter of one of the (dead) antagonists crying and practising with her bow at the fade out.

It was based on the then popular factiod about the Arawak indians. They had been destroyed by the Caribs, but the Arawak women were enslaved, not eaten. Because no Carib would learn "woman's talk" the Arawak culture (transmitted by the Arawak mother to daughter) survived longer than the Awarak nation. Similarly, the Amazons were enslaved (by Hercules? Sorry, DC interlude ) and thought to be destroyed as a culture/nation. Didn't quite happen...

Midas

Re: The Grand List Of Overuse Science Fiction Cliches

[sNARK MODE ON] Is is just me or is this a reasonably accurate description of 21st Century America. [sNARK MODE OFF]

(re point #19)

Well, it pretty well discribes every noir story ever written, from Bladerunner, to Glen Cook's Garrett* series.

Midas

*Which is a pretty decent fantasy pastiche of Nero Wolfe.

Re: The Grand List Of Overuse Science Fiction Cliches

The issue I have with this list comes here

 

1. 
   
2. The incredibly competent man-of-action with more skills/degrees than you can shake a blaster at.
   
3. The incredibly competent woman-of-action with large breasts, no sexual inhibitions, and more skills/degrees than you can shake a blaster at.

These are the same character for all intents and purposes since I assume character 1 also has no sexual inhibitions and frequently has bulging body parts as well. So why is one sexist and the other not?

You've come a long way, baby.

Well, obviously because beefcake is perfectly normal and natural. Cheesecake is gross and offensive.

(/snark mode)

Midas

Re: A Map of Zothique

wow. nada.

Tells you how often I have had time to visit the boards this summer.

C A Smith is my fave author, though I prefer the Hyperborea cycle (and for that matter, the "world's end" stuff that Carter brought together) over Zothique. In any case, excellent map.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares

Try this on for size:

 

"It was a slow day in the cornfield -- one of those hot summer days when even the crows don't come out in groups of more than three or four. That was just as well, because for a guy like me scaring them away can be a complete mystery.

 

"Then she walked up, with that cute little blue-and-white plaid dress, her hair up in braids, and a Cairn terrier nipping at her heels. I should have realized from the moment she opened her mouth that, from that day forward, my life would never be the same."

Ah. That would be "The Private Detective of Oz"' date=' yes?[/quote']

 

I believe that quote was from Tin men and Yellow Bricks, the novelization of the earlier short story.

 

Anybody know of others in the series?

Re: "Bag of Holding"

...hold his favorite signed picture or Lindsy Lohan only to get it back covered in stomach slime.

Thank you for that um...flavorful...mental picture.

Midas

Re: Astrophysics question

Ah' date=' the key here is that photons have no [b']REST [/b]mass (aka invariant mass). They do have relativistic mass, so they can run photovoltaic cells and persuade the optic nerve to send signals to the brain.

Much Grass.

I'll check the links when I can find more time. (I'm chauffering some relatives who are layed over in Dallas, so whenever the rains let up...)

Midas

EDIT: Nyrath and Cancer repped.

Re: The ElDorado Directive

I'll stick an oar in here.

The author Zane Grey wrote mostly westerns, but he wrote some "contemporary" stories too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zane_Grey. You might read Lost Pueblo (set in the flapper era), or Boulder Dam (set in Mob era Las Vegas). Lost Pueblo might be particularly good for your purposes (Annoyed father drags Flapper Daughter "out west" to help her "clear her head").

Midas