Tom McCarthy

Re: Time of Crisis FWIW, I converted Omega to Champions to run him for my group.

A fairly simple, straightforward pair of questions. i) I'd like to have two powers which are 'linked' in that the random element of their results is the same. For example, a Drain 4D6 BODY and a Energy Blast 4D6 NND, where I only roll 4D6 once, and the result applies to both. If there were no Transfer, perhaps I'd want to 'link' a Drain and Aid together for the same effect. Ideally, I'd build it as a +0 advantage or -0 limitation on the powers. Can you think of any reason why this value would be wrong? ii) Any chance such an advantage/limitation might someday see print?

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members I knew a fellow who had a beloved electrical blaster called Hydro Bill. In the province of Ontario, the electrical power company (at that time) was Ontario Hydro (short for Hydroelectric, I think). Canadian Shield is a huge geographical region, but I've seen it used for team names and character names. Some simple names, translated to French Canadian, work well. Monsier Puissance, for a brick, perhaps. True North is also a common name for teams and heroes (it's from the national anthem). Canadian Guard works well ("we stand on guard for thee"). Grizzly bears and Kodiaks are great outdoors beasts. The Canadian lynx, badger and yes, wolverine, are also right up there for outdoors wild animals. Liberator, Vindicator, Avenger, these are all common enough international concepts.

Re: Elder Worm Reference Collection Did you want to include references as far back as Champions 3rd edition or earlier?

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign? Foxbat is the recurring villain who gets the most play in my campaign. A Foxbat caper tends to be shorter and a bit more direct, and there aren't layers or minions to worry about (inept sidekicks, yes, but not minions). So even if more sessions are devoted to mechanon or Dr. Destroyer, Foxbat runs more plots. And he's the only one who can really be the villain for the Christmas Special (Foxbat plans to shoot down Santa!), the comedy caper (Who is kidnapping all the original guest stars of the Batman television series, and why?), and the mad Science! plot and still be the same guy. I last used him to kick off an adaptation of M&M's Time of Crisis using the Champions Battlegrounds mall fight. Before that, one of the players wanted to GM, and I needed a quick and dirty 350 point hero. So I took Foxbat's character sheet, called him the Cannoneer, and proceeded to ham it up (8D6 NND up the nose!). When the Cannoneer was revealed to be Foxbat and to have successfully infiltrated the team, the players were flabbergasted.

Re: Homages you would like to see officially Planetary, the Authority, the Secret Six, even the Wrecking Crew could all be nicely 'riffed' on. Firestorm's transmutation abilities could be cool. The current Green lantern storyline suggesting a single alien race is responsible for a subset of GL's rogue's gallery who all are all 'evolved' specimens would be interesting. For that matter, the Identity Crisis notions of a premiere superhero team who have a dark secret, a villain whose specialities are information and networking, and the villains who team up to battle the heroes could all be interesting themes. Or, at the other extreme, a small set of street smart heroes used in a Secret War to destabilize a small European country or international corporation that was funding high-tech gadget-oriented villains as terrorists. Maybe UNTIL has the same rogue elements as SHIELD, maybe not. The manipulative mind controllers/puppeteers from Dan Simmons' novel (Cold Comforts ? Creature Comforts ?) could be excellent. Our mad friend from Popup could be cool. Absorbing Man, DC's Amazing Man, Klaw, and the Thunderbolts are all nice ideas.

Re: Homages you would like to see officially I miss Black Claw, the cowardly Wolverine homage. Remember when Oculon was a whiny, incompetent homage to Cyclops ? And of course, Eurostar was a wonderful homage to the Uncanny X-Men. Homages to see: - Shi'ar Imperial Guard / Legion of Superheroes. Dave Cockrum knew how to take a good thing with him when he went from DC to Marvel. Let's see a nice take on it from Hero. - Extremists. A villain team from the world that gave us DC's doppelgangers of the Avengers (part of a nod-and-a-wink 'crossover' between the two companies that also gave us the Squadron Sinister/Squadron Supreme/Supreme Power) - DNAgents - Jon Sable, Freelance - Bill Willingham's Elementals - The member of the Masq who has all the powers of the Fab 5 - Annihilus

Re: THE ULTIMATE METAMORPH -- What Do *You* Want To See? What's the game construct for a stretcher to enter a building under the door or through the pipes ? We've seen typical PD/ED, etc. for steel, iron, etc. in the USPD or Ultimate Brick, but collect them in one spot and maybe add a few more materials. I like the idea of listing the levels of DI/Growth/Shrinking at which: i) you have a noticeable gravity field ii) you are a black hole iii) the earth or typical building materials will not support your weight

Re: Dr. House INT 15 or 18 as required to stand out in campaign PS: Doctor Perk: Licensed to practice medicine Perk: Positive Reputation as highly skilled diagnostician Perk: Tenured SS: Medicine SS: Anatomy SS: Pharmacology KS: Obscure diseases Contacts or Followers ? (Dr. Cuddy, administrator, friendly oncologist, three assistant doctors with various specialties Foreman (B&E, brain surgery), Chase (rich) and Cameron (epidemiologist)) KS: Soap operas KS: Monster trucks Physical Lim: Lame in left leg, -3" running Dependency on painkillers (incompetence) Unwilling to be vulnerable to people emotionally Unwilling to observe social niceties, abrasive Fascinated by insanity and altered mental states Identifying quote: 'Patients lie. Everybody lies.'

Re: What Do You Want To See?: DC: The Animated Series Didn't Chris Avellone have community just down the coast (on a peninsula, I think) from Hudson where there were actually low-powered superheroes fighting DC style campaigns ? I thought it was the setting for Widows and Orphans and New Bedlam Asylum.

Re: What Do You Want To See?: DC: The Animated Series Well, it's Allen Thomas writing it, so I'm not too worried about it. Pulpy villains, even stereotypically so. The time of crimebosses who are scary and crazy enough to kill underlings for failing them. Preferably with strange motifs and themes (video games, clowns, mimes, opera, romance, playing cards, monocles, top hats, umbrellas, riddles, puzzles, confectionery and pastry, baking, eggs, snakes, scorpions, spiders, jetpacks, airplanes, postage stamps, lumberjacks, boomerangs, colours, you name it). Giant props would be good too (robot dinosaurs, oversize coins, giant typewriters, 40 foot lottery machines). Strong jawed heroes with a CvK and the kind of PRE attack where punks just crumble and talk. The kind of heroes who have strong psych lims about doing the right thing and at least one mental hangup or flaw that makes you think 'this guy is mentally damaged' (dead parents are good, dead sibling hasn't been seen as much, ailing parents and sibling are promising, too). Oh, and they should be uninterested in material wealth; maybe they're rich or maybe won't accept rewards. I want to feel an emphasis on style over detail. If you've studied the Shadow, you know about the fire opal ring, the magnums, and Shangri-La. But you also know that all this unfolds slowly, only seen in glimpses. Digital Hero had a nice article on the importance of style in TAS campaigns. I want grandiose schemes. Blackmailing someone is a crime, but it's rare that it impacts a TAS hero. Blackmailing the city, cornering the drug market, stealing a unique artifact or radioactive isotope, these all qualify. They all scream out that something unique is happening here, and it needs a special hero to stop it. If you've got the space, a CU:TAS section might be good. Note how Nighthawk and Nightwind fit well in DC:TAS, as does Shugosin. In a limited way, Solitaire might, too.

Re: Cheeze Alarm I try to figure out how long the character can stand being hit for 42 STUN every third segment against PD or ED, or 21 STUN against MD. If the answer is more than 2 turns, this is one very tough PC. I try to figure out how often one or more Hunteds will show or how often a total psych lim will occur. More than 50% seems too high for most campaigns. I check if the character has a movement power, attack power, or defence power far greater or far lower than anyone else. It's a warning sign. Too many advantages or limitations on a power is also a warning sign. If the character concept can't be conveyed in a single sentence, it's a bad sign.

Re: Improved Absorption? I seem to recall you could do a decent job of boosting an attack power by buying a bunch of dice which drew END from a reserve which only was energized by Absorption. 30 Absorption vs. energy attacks 6D6 to END in END Reserve 10 END Reserve (100 END capacity, 0 REC) 20 Multipower of power boosts, draws from END Reserve which is usually empty (-1/2) 2u +6D6 EB 2u +30 STR 2u +10" Flight, additional x4 NCM 2u FF (15 rPD, 15 rED) With this kind of structure, 15 BODY absorbed is 30 END which will allow you to unleash an extra 30 active points about 10 times.

Re: Probability? I think you want 1- (5/6)^n, where n is the number of dice. I get the following: 1 die 16.67% of one or more sixes 2 dice 30.56% of one or more sixes 3 dice 42.13% of one or more sixes 4 dice 51.77% of one or more sixes 5 dice 59.81% of one or more sixes 6 dice 66.51% of one or more sixes

Re: The Authority RPG ???? Just got around to perusing this now. First off, it's good to see a book priced with a realistic conversion rate. I live in Canada, shop in Canadian dollars, and know the exchange rate is floating around .75, so it bugs me to see books where the MSRP suggests an exchange rate around .60. Secondly, it's a thick, full colour book for a licensed property, so I'll accept that the price tag's going to be a bit high. I'm relatively lucky in that my games budget will support this kind of stuff (especially with my great games group kicking in the odd item to help my RPG budget), so I picked it up with several other nice looking products a week ago. It's actually my second full-colour copy of the TriStat gaming engine, so it might be an unnecessary expense, but I understand why the licensing company might feel they need the full set of support in one book (What is an RPG ? Example of combat, How do I build a character, etc.) In terms of appearance and such, it's a great looking book. The layout and design people seem to have made a conscious decision to keep the book the same dimensions as a comic book and then keep all the art reproductions from the comic in full colour and the same size and scale as originally published. It's a small detail, but one I appreciate. In terms of scope, the book does limit itself to The Authority 1-12, by Warren Ellis with art by Hitch and Neary and the Secret History of Jenny Sparks. While the character history delves a bit into the Warren Ellis Stormwatch issues, detailed issue by issue breakdowns are given for each of those 17 issues and most characters in those issues get writeups. The book contains both TriStat and D20 stats for all the characters, but the text inside suggests that only the TriStat engine is given. That certainly seemed the case in my limited reading so far. There's an interesting choice to give the actual stats at the back of the book, separate from the descriptions of the characters and their history. This is interesting and probably serves two purposes. First, it emphasizes the story over the crunchy numbers and second, I think the character history enjoys stronger copyright protection than the crunchy numbers. I haven't yet tried to run the characters through the Reality Storm conversion matrix but I plan to. Obviously, they'll prove to be very powerful characters, but the authors do seem to have tried to place some limits on them. For example, the Doctor seems to have had to use 'extra time' and 'push' in order to destroy all of Italy with one attack.

Re: What's the best way to conquer Canada? Well, if you want to do it the hard way (politically), you're going to need to use super resources, but you can actually stir up the political landscape by appearing to offer answers to Canada's political problems. Essentially, the weakness of the Canadian government is that it has offered too many things and can't back them up financially. Cash strapped military, cash strapped education, cash strapped health care; those are hot button topics (in reverse order, really). To a lesser extent, sovereignty, the environment, fishing bans in Newfoundland, immigration, a scientifically-unsupportable beef export ban, and the cost and quality of post-secondary education, high taxes, and the value of the dollar (not its buying power) are political issues. There's several elements of the nation pushing for the government to adopt the deficit spending styles of the other G7 nations. And of Canada's three national political parties, only one strikes me as having a strongly seated leader; any or all could be challenged by a mind-controlled or misguided dupe from the ranks (a 'backbencher'). A supervillain who can, through a legitimate appearing front, offer very high quality and timely health care on a for-profit basis will draw down the ire of the federal government. If a provincial government actually backs the entrepreneur, it will quickly become a political issue. A political leader who advocates a stronger military with supertech (say, arming a new elite airborne (definitely lower case 'a') with UNTIL tech) might be seen as out of touch with the constituency, but if he can do it cheaply and effectively there may be a real cry of support. Oh, and it's definitely not a two party system. If Kang and Kodoss replaced Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, we'd still be free to vote NDP, PQ, Independent, Green, Communist, or any of a dozen other political affiliations. It would be a pretty strange legislature, but we wouldn't elect aliens. ===================== Now, to conquer the nation militarily, this may not be too difficult. If you can control a strip about 150 km wide for the length of the border, you're as good as gold. Heck, there's only 30 million Canadians and I don't think there's more than 10 or 12 cities of over a million people, even post-amalgamation. In an open military invasion, you'd have to worry about US allies storming the border. To hold them out, I'd almost hope for a 'City Walls' scenario, where the border mystically becomes impenetrable to foreigners (only Canadians can enter, only US heroes inside can help stop the plot) while summoned mystical forces help control the population. This sounds like a job for DEMON or a serious supermage.

Re: Fate systems I cribbed a plot point system from Chris Avellone, I think. I give out a PP for good play or a smart move, and typically everyone gets about 1 or 2 a night. You can trade 5 in for an XP, or you can spend them. Automatic hit on minor target: 1 point Guaranteed average effect or damage: 1 point Automatically push: 1 point Reroll 1 die in skill or to hit roll: 1 point Reroll 2 dice in skill or to hit roll: 3 points Reroll all 3 dice in skill or to hit roll: 5 points Reroll any 1’s: 1 point Reroll 1’s and 2’s: 2 points Automatic success for skills of 14 or better: 1 point Automatic success for skills of 11 or better: 2 points Minor power stunt (ie. using powers in a logical or thematic way, but which you didn’t pay points for): 1 point Major power stunt: 2 points Unbelievable power stunt: 3 points +1 OCV or DCV in a phase: 1 per, 3 max Plot points will be usable for even more things in order to tell a good story (dramatic edits, initiative, damage classes, last ditch defence). Dramatic edits - use plot points to create lucky coincidences Initiative boosts - 1 PP for +2 DEX in a phase Damage classes - 2 PP for +1 damage class Last ditch defence - 2 PP for +1 resistant defence

Re: I'm building this power... I'm not sure that's exactly the best way to do it, but it would fly in my campaign (you're getting about what you pay for). I might also choose to buy it as: EB 6D6, AE 4" Cone doubled (120 degree, +1 1/4, -0 for reducing length to 4" from 6"), no range (-1/2), limited to only hex lines and doesn't fill the cone (-1/4), 12 charges (-1/4); 33 points

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That! Worst GM I played with ? I liked the guy, I really did. But he was the kind of guy who liked to bring things up in a conversation, and unfortunately, they were things we'd finished talking about ten minutes before (he could never follow a conversation). So, we're playing Champions 4th ed. and we've all got new characters. Not all the players are helping him out, since many wanted to be 'lone wolves' and the GMs trying to get the team together. And after two sessions, it happened (with a little coercion from a mind controlling heroine, just so we could start playing; we only had 3 months for the campaign, you know). Then the villains start to appear. The GM has gone and taken PSI from Mind Games, a highly competent villain team with some downright disturbing overtones. And changed all the SFX to match a 'college cheerleading team' theme. And changed the source of the powers from 'mutation' to 'vampirism'. I didn't know vampires could throw Ego Attacks by waving their pompoms at you, but I soon found out.

Re: HUDSON CITY: What Do *You* Want To See? I'm hoping I'll be able to clearly find: i) the nearest prison (because nothing says 'shooting gallery' like a big jailbreak) ii) the municipal jails (and their capacity/capability to hold unusual foes) (because, sometimes you only want a small shooting gallery) iii) the nearest asylum for the violent and criminally insane (because that's where the DC villains you let live to see trial frequently wind up) In the spirit of Florida '04, I'd like to know what kinds of inclement weather HC gets, and what other natural disasters they might expect. I almost never ask the guys in capes to rescue people from bad weather, but see it as very cool and cnematic as a backdrop for climactic shootouts. I might like having sample vigilantes from 2-3 of the neighbourhoods (maybe one DC:TAS, one heroic level, one high end heroic). Maybe a bulleted profile on state and federal politicians from the city.

Re: Favorite Published Villains Shades of Black definitely cranked my opinion of the Black Paladin way up. It gives him an aura of menace I've seen few villains achieve. A true shame that Allen Thomas doesn't get to write adventures more frequently. I used to use Bulldozer and Blowtorch as pushover villains. Blowtorch is now deadly and Bulldozer is competent. Foxbat remains a player favorite, and one they want to trash. Viperia, on the other hand, virtually defines 'one man wrecking crew' in my mind, while I fear Dr. Destroyer is too deadly for me to wield effectively against my players. I can't say I've warmed up to Thunderbird, though he looks interesting enough. Black Harlequin still hasn't grabbed me, though the players find him interesting enough to ask for more.

Re: All stats are 2/+1 I'd be tempted to make it even simpler and more different. (Based loosely on someone else's ideas, which were posted here and probably better thought out than this.) All stats cost 1. Strength only gives PD as a figured characteristic and costs 1. Dexterity is split into Agility (DCV, acrobatics, balance, etc.) and Dexterity (OCV, lockpicking, manual dexterity, etc.) and neither effects Speed. Constitution only gives ED as a figured characteristic and costs 1. Body's cost is reduced to 1. Intelligence and Presence are unchanged. Ego becomes Mental Resistance and Willpower; Willpower gives OECV and Mental Resistance gives DECV. Comeliness is purchased only as a talent or perk. Recovery then costs 1 point each, since you'll be buying a lot more of it. STUN, PD, ED, Speed and END are unchanged in cost (though again, Speed, STUN and END base values will be much lower). That said, your idea of losing EGO in favour of INT and PRE is a good one, especially with PRE now the stat which is attacked by fear powers.

Re: 4th Edition still OK for a NEWBIE? I think you should be able to get tons of mileage out of the 4th edition Champions rulebook. It's a strong system built and refined by years of experience. 5th edition, as advertised at the time, made few big changes but tweaked things and added interesting options to broaden the scope of things you can build with the system. If you choose to buy some 5th edition books, you'll generally find that everything lines up reasonably well with 4th edition. In a very few cases, things will be changed (Shape Shift, for example, or the definition of Total Life Support) and you'll find the superheroic PCs are typically built on more points (350, not 250). Most things will be self-explanatory, so it shouldn't cause any grief at all. And this board is a great source of advice and help. There's a few key concepts to get you going on the game, and then you'll find it pretty darn easy. Skills: Where D20 systems have you roll D20, add your bonus from attributes and skill ranks (say +9), and meet or beat a DC (say 25 for very difficult), Hero has you take your skill rank (say 14- aka 14 or less), apply a modifier (say -6 for very difficult), and try to roll the new target (8 or less) on 3D6. Combat: Where D20 has you hit by rolling D20 and adding your bonus (say +9 from BAB, DEX for a ranged shot, and feats), then comparing it to the defense (say AC 25), Hero has you take your OCV (your dexterity divided by 3, the attributes bonus really; say 8), add levels (the equivalent of BAB and feats; say 2) and 11 (like the base AC 10 in D&D it's the average roll on the dice) and subtract the target's DCV (his defence; say 9). Roll that number (12) or less on 3D6 to hit. Then the damage roll is typically a big hand of D6's, and the target typically gets to use physical defence (PD) or energy defence (ED) as 'damage resistance' (in D20 terms) to reduce the actual damage done. Speed Chart: This is the big one. In D20, everyone gets one action in a round (roughly 6 seconds). In Hero, everyone has a Speed (SPD) stat, and they act that many times in 12 seconds. Normal people are about 2, police and soldiers are 3, and superheroes start at 4 or 5, bunch around 5 or 6, and speedsters and martial artists go to 7, 8, 9 and 10. Each 'phase' allows a character to act, and many actions take a 'half phase' (much like an action within a D&D 3.5 round).

Re: Crisis of Infinite Foxbats Dial F for Foxbat !

Re: Crisis of Infinite Foxbats It shouldn't be hard to cut loose here. All you need is a handy guidebook or a good run of comics. For example, I just finished Essential Avengers vol. 4 yesterday. The original Avengers lineup included: Iron Man Thor Giant Man Wasp Hulk so: Iron Bat - Foxbat in a potent suit of power armor and running a powerful company. He's still a loon, but his parents never lost their money and he's an economic powerhouse, an arms engineer with an eye for 'unconventional solutions'. Thunder Bat ! - In a world where young Freddy Foswell's parents were archaeologists whose careers were ruined by their vile competitors, DBlanc and Oklahoma Jones, Freddy rose to power when he found an ancient croquet mallet in Castle Elsinore, Denmark, which when struck on the ground transformed him into some ancient Norse god. Freddy strives to sound appropriately god-like, but occasionally is distracted by just how cool it is to fly. Towering Fox - Freddy's parents were the world's greatest biochemists and helped him developed the famed Foxbat helm which would allow him to telepathically command and control foxes and bats, and the power to shrink himself small enough to ride a bat. Still, he tired of this (because there weren't enough foxes and bats in a city to threaten most criminals), so he set out to change some bats to be as large as foxes ! However, lightning struck his chemical rack one night, and he himself gained the ability to grow to a height of 100 feet (typically leaving him light headed and lead footed; he frequently falls over after a sudden size change). Foxy Wasp - Freddy Foswell's secret ID will never be discovered ! In what many would term a mortifying development, the formula which was to turn Freddy into Ant-Man, scourge of the insect world, also swaps his gender so he becomes the tiniest of heroines, Foxy Wasp. Sadly, Freddy only read a few girly comics, and all he remembers of them is that he must not wear the same costume too many times. Consequently, his brief 60 month career has seen some 123 costume changes. Freddy Smash ! - Freddy Foswell, it's said, lacked common sense. He was the world's leading authority on alpha-beta-omega rays, and his alpha-beta-omega bomb was going to be the newest in cutting edge military technology. Still, Freddy was quiet, introspective, and prone to retreating from confrontation, retreating into the world of "graphic novels" and "illustrated fiction". But on the day of the alpha-beta-omega bomb test, a callow youth wandered out onto the test range and Freddy ran out to save him. Now Freddy is an outsider (not Outsider, that's another universe) and wanders, on the run from the law, forever dogged by the fear that his dark, violent side will emerge. "Don't make me laugh. You wouldn't like me when I laugh." Or perhaps most fittingly of all: Freddy Foswell, sidekick - Freddy has led a curious career, indeed. From the day he wandered out onto the alpha-beta-omega bomb test range and accidentally created the Brute, to his brief stint as sidekick to the time-lost warrior, Captain Confederacy, to his time sharing a body with the mighty Perseid warrior Marvelous Marv, it's been a rollercoaster. In a similar vein, flip through CKC and ask yourself, "What would Freddy do with these powers ?" Or flip through a list of TV shows and ask, "How would Freddy fit in here ?" It's almost too easy. "Rocketed from a dying world by his father, Fos-El, young Freddy would grow to be the foremost champion of Epsilon-Eridani IV...Foxbat !" "When he saw his parents gunned down before his eyes by a mugger, young Freddy Foswell swore an undying oath to avenge them. Because criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot, he took the costumed form of The Flying Fox"