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You couldn't get into GEN CON with that outfit--which, given this guy, is a good thing for the rest of us.

There were two illustrations of the Tarantula, the full-page painting with a solid hull, and a sketch that had the open framework. As I remember, the open-frame model was hastily constructed because the invasion was coming and there was no time to build the complete version--which considering it was meant as a sort of booby trap was perhaps just as well.

That's why you have superheroic identities. Change into costume, beat up the bad guys, save the girl reporter (or boy intelligence agent if you're a girl), leave her (and again, or him) to explain things to the police, then dash off and revert to your everyday clothes, leaving everyone to wonder who you really are. The Secret Identity--more useful than anyone realizes.

Link To Blogsite While for the purposes of Pulp Hero the "pulp" era ends at 1940, this blogsite features pulp mags from the 50s, 60s and 70s, and shows us that masculine high adventure can be found after--and during--World War II. And there are more than a few adventurous women as well, from scantily clad women who fight Nazis to scantily clad women who are Nazis. If you're looking for over-the-top adventure with a strong element of spice, this is the place for inspiration. P.S. While there's no overt nudity, I would wait until you get home to open the site. Seems fairly tema by today's standards, but you never know. . .

Link To Article Okay--it's only supposed to get as close as 3.6 million miles--not even within lunar orbit. But it's close enough for astronomers to get a really good look at it, and broadcast its passage online. Just in time for my birthday, too.

What Hyper-Man said--also, I would buy additional SPD with the Limitation Only For Taking Recoveries which should be worth a -1 at least.

If you need some further inspiration you might want to check out the movie Telefon which covers the "brainwashed sleeper with false memories" in greater detail than Galactica did.

Re: Who are The Ultimates?

Re: Lex Luthor Is Worse Than Useless If I Remember Correctly, there have been several times in the comics when other individuals besides Tony Stark have worn the armor and used it effectively. James Rhodes was the first, during Tony's second bout with alcoholism. He did so well with it that Tony let him keep the armor--"Whoever wears the armor is Iron Man." There was another time that Tony was incapacitated (shot by a mentally disturbed former lover as I recall) and Rhodes not only took over as Iron Man, but as head of Stark Industries. An emergency led him to call upon several of Stark's old friends and he put them in several spare suits to meet the threat (I'm afraid I don't remember what it was). The only one I remember having any problems was Bethany Cabe, who complained her breasts were being squashed by the chest plate. It's possible they have changed it so that only Stark's cybernetic impulses can activate the armor--it's been a while since I've read any Marvel comics. But I think the biggest obstacle to someone else using Iron Man armor and technology is the cost. For what a suit of Iron Man armor costs a nation could likely buy a squadron of the latest fighter planes--perhaps even two. (Of course, they could also spend the money on improving the quality of life for its citizens, but that's no way for a nation to earn respect. ) It would almost be easier to just steal an Iron Man suit from Stark Industries than to steal or appropriate the money to build one. Just my thoughts on the subject. Take them as you will.

Re: Foxbat airplane This is a great build--I especially liked the "Hittles" and the fact that you used my idea for the JATO rockets. Can someone Reputate Tigereye for me? I've already done so once in the thread, and he deserves it.

Re: Foxbat airplane Go for it. I think, though, he might try to modify it with VTOL thrusters, or at the very least some sort of JATO rocket assembly--which would likely consist of a giant skyrocket (with the word ACME printed on its side) lashed to the top of the fuselage. Unless Charly (Foxbat For President, pgs. 65-70) is available, in which case she would suggest something much, much more sensible.

Re: Foxbat airplane It is my understanding that it was that lack of information in the West that inspired Craig Thomas to write the novel Firefox, which inspired the movie with Clint Eastwood--which I did enjoy a great deal. Here's another point that must be considered--Foxbat (according to his 5th Ed. writeup in CK&C, pgs. 150-151) does not know how to fly a plane. Being Foxbat, I suppose, he would most likely jump in the cockpit, flip on the autopilot and say, "Autopilot! Take me to the Foxbatlair! I command it!" And then he'd sit and wonder why nothing happens. I suppose he could spend a few of those donated EPs he's accumulated over the years--but then his idea of pilot training would be to play Microsoft Flight Simulator for eleven days straight. Yep--the scenario has "Disaster waiting to happen" written all over it. But that's par for the course for Foxbat.

Re: Upstarts looking to go big time This bothers me to a large extent. If the league team is fighting the good fight--if they're saving lives, saving the world, opposing and destroying the forces of evil, why is it necessary to bring them down just to make the PC team look better and get the funding the league team has? Unless they're secretly pursuing a villainous agenda, there's no need to oppose them, directly or otherwise. The "man-whore" character, I figure will be tripped up by the consequences of his actions--one of his conquests will file a paternity suit, or turn out to be underaged, or claim she was raped ("He used his mind-control powers on me!" "But I don't have mind-control powers!") There is such a thing as bad publicity, and it can and does bring down careers--just ask Roscoe Arbuckle. As for the psi-user--if she's answered for her crimes (if any) to the satisfaction of the law, if the Big-Blue-Boy-Scout team leader vouches for her character, if she's actively defending the innocent and opposing evil and using her powers for the greater good--why would there be any reason to oppose her? What's the point? How can bringing this woman down be considered a victory for truth and justice? This is my problem with stuff like Superdickery and the whole "Superman Is A Dick" meme--if a super-powered individual were so thoroughly self-absorbed and heedless of the needs of others as the Superdickery site depicts Superman to be, then he would never use his powers for good. He'd just take whatever he wanted, and to blazes with anyone else. He'd be like Kid Miracleman, or The Plutonian--perhaps not so monstrous, but just as hateful and selfish. In other words, he wouldn't be a hero. And it seems to me that what you want your PC heroes to do isn't all that heroic, either. Those are my thoughts on the subject. Take them as you will.

Re: slightly off topic... Cool enough to get his own cartoon series--second billing after Superman--

Re: My Orcs Are they artificial organisms or augmented/mutated humans?

Re: Famous People Super Heros That sounds like an idea I had for Dean Martin--he was a globe-trotting secret agent in real life and the Matt Helm movies served as cover. If Sarah Michelle Gellar and Summer Glau are in his thread, then we have to have Eliza Dushku; she's just as good a combat artist as either of them--and she is the unofficial mascot of the HERO Discussion boards, so she deserves to be a superhero. Jennifer Love Hewitt is my choice to play Witchcraft should there ever be a Champions Universe movie, so I think she'd make a really good sorceress/seduction artist--and definitely one of the good guys. Nicole Kidman would be good as a sort of cat burglar/spy--someone who was so good at staying out of sight and hiding in the open that she's functionally invisible, if not actually invisible. She could handle herself in a fight, of course, but she never has to. More later as I think of them.

Re: Superhero Images This Looks Like A Job For. . . WONDERBOY! "Wonderboy, AWAY!!! For he's the kind of Wonderboy who'll save the day!"

Re: Cool concepts for your games. Some really nifty concepts there. The artist works at Pixar, and the drawings do give the feel of concept sketches for an animated series. Some of them look like they belong in an Adult Swim series, but still--

Re: In Progress From Blackwyrm Games: Mythic America This. And this-- Hope that helps.

Re: Champions Villains Volume 4: Fan Favourites There's my interpretation of Doctor Bedlam, which seems to have been fairly well received. Between the adventures posted in that thread and the plot hooks for that character published in Everyman (pg. 124), there should be plenty of opportunities for fun. Here's one more-- (Modern Era) Doctor Bedlam returns after decades of absence, committing new crimes and running roughshod over police and superheroes alike. The thing is, it's not Wanda Van Der Schaaf in Bedlam's costume. Either Wanda herself comes to the heroes and asks them to solve the mystery, or Hypnos goes after the new Bedlam (as himself or in his Doctor X persona, with the DAMM in tow) and the PCs get caught in the middle. But who is the new Bedlam?

Re: Superhero Images And Now--The Newest Kid Superhero Sensation--MIGHTY AWESOME! "I can't hear you over the sound of how Awesome I am! Because I'm MIGHTY AWESOME--and that's the kind of Awesome that I am!"

Re: Recommendations and Reviews of Superhero products both old and new Exactly. There would be a very few who would likely be too violent to be pacified, or who would react badly to the pacification effect--but they wouldn't be numerous enough to pose a huge threat. They would be not unlike the main character in Damon Knight's story The Country Of The Kind, in which a man who commits an act of violence is shunned by the rest of society, who don't even acknowledge his existence. (Now in Wimp World the people would be more likely to flee screaming from such a person, but the result would be the same--the offender would be left alone to do whatever he wanted.)

Re: Recommendations and Reviews of Superhero products both old and new I had an idea as to how that actually might have come about, as I really couldn't see it occurring naturally--evolution does not favor wusses. In that reality, shortly after the end of World War II, a brilliant scientist decided to bring about an end to war before it brought about an end to humanity. To that end he built what he called the "Pacifier"--a mass mind control device (not unlike the Mind-Control Wave Emitter described on page 123 of 5th Edition Champions) that would suppress all violent and aggressive thought. He activated it, and it worked beyond his expectations--all war--indeed, all violence--came to an end. But at the same time that the Pacifier was suppressing humanity's aggressive tendencies, it was also suppressing the related tendencies of bravery and ambition. Technological and societal development slowed to almost nothing, as no one had the desire to achieve any sort of progress. While the scientist who created the Pacifier realized all that had happened, he concluded it was a necessary price to pay for world peace. Fortunately for humanity, the Pacifier worked just as well on alien minds as it did on humans. Any potential invaders found themselves pacified as well, rendering them unable to perpetuate a war of conquest against Earth. Before long the word spread to the peoples of the galaxy--"Leave this world alone. There is nothing there worth your time." When the PCs arrive, the Pacifier has been in operation for generations, and the world has been well and truly "wussified," according to the descrpition of Wimp World in Champions 3D. But the machine is starting to break down, and more and more people are committing acts of violence, usually in the form of rage-fueled outbursts that everyone else is too terrified to stop. Some of these who actually can control their anger have been ruthlessly dominating their less violent fellows, bullying their way to the top of the social order. It is up to the PCs to find out what is going on and engineer a solution--if one can be found. Hope that helps.

Re: Whatever Happened To: That would be Dr. Jon Cole. I should have mentioned that in my last post; Thank You for reminding me.