DShomshak

Re: [Retro] COTN 5th edition proposal Thinking of Australia from the distant US... Layer 1: Geography. Australia's population concentrates around the coast, with a truly vast, sparsely settled interior. I heard an urban legend that government satellates and/or seismographs picked up evidence that parties unknown tested a *nuke* in the Australian desert, with no witnesses. At least none who've come forward. In a super-world, this could be true. The Outback would be a great place for Master Villains to build their Secret Hideouts and build Doomsday Weapons to conquer the world. The Australian military probably has a special department tasked with watching all the supervillain bases that heroes have found and trashed over the years. Good places for origins, too. Layer Two: Aboriginal. The Dreamtime and all that. Layer Three: Early British settlement. Tall tale characters, who might have been real and established legacies for heroes and villains. Layer Four: Mature nation. I am interested in how Australia's foundation myths affect current attitudes to law and order, as it can shape the conduct of heroes and villains. I remember a documentary program noting Aussies' changing attitudes to accents. Used to be, anyone with social ambitions tried to talk like they went to Eton. Politicians don't do that anymore -- they want to seem authentically Aussie, not some pretender who's ashamed of where he was born. Mature Australia is as technologically advanced as anyplace in the world, and the superbeings should reflect that. Level Five: New Immigration. The same program said that after WW2, Australian leaders made a conscious push to encourage immigration from damn near anywhere, never mind about preserving Britishness, because the low population was seen as a military weakness. So Australia gained a lot of immigrants from Asia (and other places, I assume, but SE Asia is closest). Immigrants mean assimilation issues, and you can hardly expect all the cultural influence to be one way. So the idea of a blonde Australian ninja might not be that incongruous. A Shaolin branch temple in the mountains back of Sydney or Brisbane, why not? Maybe one of the monks is developing 'Roo Style Kung Fu. (Or Crocodile Style -- I hear those huge salties in the northern swamps are pretty amazing.) Dean Shomshak

Re: Things That Exist in a Superhero Universe Or to put it another way, aliens who are enough like humans that Earth, and humanity, are worth conquering. (Given that assumption, it's easy to justify any invasion. For humans, "Because it's there" was historically an adequate justification for attempts at conquest.) 'Course, this assumption isn't unique to superhero settings. Dean Shomshak

Re: [illo Test] What Tartarus Really Looks Like Good idea. Until I get the image insertion codes right, you can find Tartarus at http://s1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee439/DShomshak/ Dean Shomshak

Arcane Adversaries and CV2 both illustrated Tartarus, one of the Devil's Advocates characters I created. Neither illo came very close to how I imagined the character (though CV2 was worse). So now I'll try posting my own illo of what he looks like. Let's hope I have the format codes right. (The preview shows a little icon for an illo, but not the illo itself.) Edit: And the picture isn't appearing. Will re-read instructions and try again. Edit Edit: Ah-ha! When I copied the URL, I didn't get all of it. This should fix it. Dean Shomshak

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! As others have mentioned, though, one big problem with the "Anti-Mutant Hysteria" trope has always been, "How do they know?" It's one thing if a mutant goes around saying, "Look, I'm a mutant!" or has otherwise become widely known as one, but lazy writers effectively gave every Tom, Dick and Harriet a Magic Mutant Detector. At least one writer -- I forget who -- once had a character (Spider-Man?) meet a fellow who was being chased by a mutant-hating mob despite him yelling, "I'm not a mutant! I was in a lab accident!" By the 1990s, though, it seemed to me that anti-mutant hysteria was no longer used as a parable for racism and other bigotries. Given that the X-Men and New Mutants were young, mostly good-looking, athletic, lived in a mansion and had super-powers on top of it all, I didn't think they had much to complain about compared to, say, just about anyone. It seemed to me the trope was now a metaphor for adolescent self-absorption -- a world full of stupid meanies who don't realize how *special* you are, when you understand everything so clearly and they don't, you care so much more, yadda yadda yadda... It's one of the reasons I stopped following the X-titles, and, not long thereafter, all of Marvel. (That, and the inability ever to resolve a subplot. And other crappiness of writing that would e tedius to revisit.) Dean Shomshak

Re: [Retro] COTN 5th edition proposal Perhaps apropos of the importance of the Land, Canadian geologists were central in proving there have been multiple cycles of the continents merging and splitting apart, and that a large block of land (dubbed Avalonia -- hmm) split off from proto-Europe, crossed a previous version of the Atlantic, and smacked into North America to become eastern Canada and New England. Also, in the last few decades Canadian geologists made a concerted effort to map the strata of the Laurentian Shield in depth, reconstructing the geological history of North America back through billions of years. Who knows what eon-buried secrets they have found? Or what special inquiries may have used this project as a cover? Dean Shomshak

Re: Character: Azrael Yep, that's Azrael all right. Thank you! Dean Shomshak

Re: Time Frame for Appearance of Superhumans Oh, and don't believe too much of what you think you know about witch-hunting. It was a complex social phenomenon, with great variation in time and place. For instance, most people probably don't know that the Spanish Inquisition had, overall, nothing to do with hunting witches. (It hunted heretics, especially backsliding former Jews and Muslims, or jews or Muslims who only pretended to convert.) The professional theologians of the SI had doubts whether witches even existed. There *was* one episode of witch-hunting, driven by popular demand. Once the inquisitors started, the accusations and confessions multiplied. However, one of the inquisitors thought the whole thing smelled fishy. Alonso Salazar de Frias did something no one before him thought to do: He checked the stories and found that the details didn't add up. As in, he had people hiding at the places and times that the witch's sabbaths supposedly took place, and nobody showed up. Or, he knew the witch wasn't whisked out of his/her cell by magic to go to the sabbath because he had people watching them. In his final report to Inquisition Central, he laid out in detail how the interrogation process generated false confessions and false accusations against other people. It was probably the world's first sociological study. The SI promptly freed the accused witches still in jail. From then on, Spanish canon law held accusations of witchcraft to pretty stiff standards of proof -- and leveling a false accusation was a crime. In England, OTOH, witch-hunting seems to have been connected to changes in class and social structure. Modern studies of the old witch trial records show that in many cases, the person accused of witchcraft was a poor relation of the accuser. It appears the witch accusation was often used by the emerging middle class to rid itself of poor relations who tried to invoke traditional economic obligations among family. (You also had such entrepreneurs as Matthew Hopkins, self-styled Witchfinder-General, who had their own financial interests.) In Germany, yeah, a lot of witch-hunts seem to have been coopted by the local bishop or burgomaster as a way to acquire land and money. But there was also unquestioning popular belief and fear of witches for centuries. One of the broad patterns that emerges is that witch hunts were usually pushed by local authorities, in places where wider church and state authority were weak. The end of European witch-hunting was as complex as its other aspects. In England, for instance, witch accusations ended abruptly. A woman was accused of being a witch; as evidence, her accuser claimed to have seen her flying on a broomstick. The judge, Lord Mansfield, ruled that he knew of no English statute that specifically forbade flying on broomsticks, and the woman was welcome to do so if this was within her power. It was England's last witch trial. lesson> Dean Shomshak

Re: Time Frame for Appearance of Superhumans In my long-running Seattle Sentinels/Keystone Konjurors series of campaigns, I began with the standard "Golden Age/Silver Age Reboot/More from there" setup, in part because one of my first players wanted his character to be a legacy hero. If I start up a brand-new campaign, I think I'll have the first costumed heroes and villains appearing in the 1980s. That still leaves time for legacy characters and for some heroes and villains to have built up reps, some super-technologies to have matured, etc. But nothing before that. Well, maybe. It might be that there was an earlier Age of Heroes -- early Bronze Age, in fact a whole cycle of civilization that mostly erased itself from history through time paradox. (My current campaign thoughts have time travel being an important element.) But things are still up in the air. Dean Shomshak

Re: Character: Azrael Oookay... That was an odd repetition of words, and it doesn't show up when I try to edit. Oh well. Here's the character sheet for Doctor Chaim Perlman, Azrael's Creator. [bEGIN CHARACTER SHEET] <3>Doctor Chaim Perlman Val Char Cost Roll Notes 5 STR -5 10- Lift 50 kg; 1d6 HTH damage [1] 8 DEX -4 11- 8 CON -2 11- 25 INT 15 14- PER Roll 14- 18 EGO 8 13- 13 PRE 3 12- PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6 3 OCV 0 3 DCV 0 6 OMCV 6 6 DMCV 6 2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12 2 PD 0 Total: 2 PD (0 rPD) 2 ED 0 Total: 2 ED (0 rED) 4 REC 0 20 END 0 8 BODY -2 20 STUN 0 Characteristics Cost: 25 Movement: Running: 10m Cost Powers END 64 Recreate Azrael: Summon 800-point Tulpa [1c] Specific Being (+1); 1 Charge (-2), No Conscious Control (-2), No Control Over Azrael (-0) 3 Terrible Intimacy: Mind Link x1 to Azrael, Psychic Bond 0 No Conscious Control (-2) -2 Slowed With Age: Running –2m (10m total) 1 Skills 3 +1 Guns 3 Deduction 14- 3 Electronics 14- 3 Inventor 14- 3 KS: Talmud 14- 2 KS: Kabbalah 11- 3 Language: Hebrew (completely fluent; English is native) 2 Language: German (fluent conversation) 3 Scientist 4 1) General Physics 16- 2 2) Cosmology 14- 2 3) Mathematics 14- 2 4) Metaphysics and Ontology 14- 2 5) Particle Physics 14- Total Powers & Skills Cost: 102 Total Cost: 127 100 Matching Complications (30) 15 Distinctive Features: Mystic Aura of Creation and Destruction (Not Concealable; Always Noticed, Strong Reaction; Detectable Only With Unusual Senses) 25 Hunted: Azrael (Very Frequently, More Powerful, Perlman is easy to find, Mildly Punish [torment him while “protecting” him]) 15 Psychological Complication: Consumed with Despair (Common, Strong) Total Complications Points: 30 Experience Points: 27 [END CHARACTER SHEET] Description: In his youth, Chaim Perlman trained as both a physicist and a rabbi. Science won over theology and philosophy, to the disappointment of teachers who thought Perlman would be the next Maimonides or Hillel — or else the next great heretic. When true genius meets Talmud, there’s not much room in between. In the decades he spent researching quantum chromodynamics, electroweak unification and other frontiers of physics, though, Perlman never forgot his theological studies. He married late, had three lovely children, and was a loving husband and father. Though he paid little attention to politics, he favored making peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs. As he liked to say, “Science has no borders; protons have no tribes.” Then, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a restaurant while Perlman was at a scientific conference. Perlman’s wife and children were among the casualties. Perlman realized he’d been a naïve fool to imagine that a life devoted to truth would shield him from an ugly world. He raged against God and Fate, sought consolation in physics and philosophy, but the equations of rage and grief defied solution. At the edge of madness, though, he saw connections between ideas he had never seriously tried to link before. Working to exhaustion month after month, merging physics with metaphysics, he saw how to wrest the creative fire from the hand of God and bend it to his will. Perlman tried not to think about revenge. He told himself this was a boon to humanity, possibly the first step in calling loved ones back from death. But the thought was there. Revenge. Kill them all. For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. So Chaim Perlman built his machine and called Azrael into existence. But his hatred could not both take physical form and remain in his soul. His mind was clear once more… to learn the true horror of what he had done. After that, Chaim Perlman fled from country to country, trying to escape his creation. The third time Azrael caught up to him, Perlman killed himself in remorse — and plunged to new depths of despair when Azrael brought him back. Perlman thought God had finally forgiven him when the Windy City Warriors defeated and apparently destroyed Azrael — but six months later, some street toughs tried shaking down the old man for money, and Azrael reappeared in thunder and fire. “Creator,” the monster said as he laid the punks’ crushed bodies at Perlman’s feet. “You know I will never abandon you.” Chaim Perlman gave up working on the metaphysical equations that birthed Azrael. Once he hoped to find the key to unmaking his creation. No longer: He does not believe God will grant him the mercy of a techno-fix. No, the only solution is that they must die together, creator and creation, so that neither can bring the other one back. Until then he travels the world, visiting physics conferences and old colleagues, hoping to stay ahead of Azrael until the day he hears that the monster is dead again. To most people, Perlman is just a gaunt man with gray hair and haunted eyes, looking older than his 50-some years. Other scientists pity him: Perlman was once a leading light in physics, but now they think he’s a bit of a has-been and a crank. Mystics, however, might sense that Perlman radiates the aura of an apocalyptic god, crackling with the primal cosmic energies that create and destroy worlds. Telepaths who probe Perlman’s mind might accidentally open the erratic psychic bond between the scientist and his creation. They will not find touching the mind of Azrael pleasant… especially when they feel the creature’s outrage that anyone should so defile his Creator’s mind, and realize the dark angel has marked them for death. Dean Shomshak

The last character I posted, Tress, was a joke. Azrael... isn't. He's sort of a mystical character, though. [bEGIN CHARACTER SHEET] <3>Azrael Val Char Cost Roll Notes 60 STR 50 21- Lift 100 t; 12d6 HTH damage [6] 23 DEX 26 14- 30 CON 20 15- 18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13- 18 EGO 8 13- 30 PRE 20 15- PRE Attack: 6d6 8 OCV 25 8 DCV 25 8 OMCV 15 8 DMCV 15 6 SPD 40 Phases: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 35 PD 33 Total: 35 PD (20 rPD) 35 ED 33 Total: 35 ED (20 rED) 20 REC 16 60 END 8 20 BODY 10 60 STUN 20 Characteristics Cost: 372 Movement: Running: 12m Flight: 34m/544m Teleport: 44m Cost Powers END 82 Deadly Angelic Powers: Multipower, 82-point reserve 8f 1) Burning Light Blast: RKA 4d6+1 3 Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 8f 2) Burning Light Burst: Blast 11d6 8 Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2) 8f 3) Flare of Light: Sight Group Flash 9d6 3 Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 8f 4) Freezing Dark Blast: Drain BODY 6 1/2d6 3 Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 8f 5) Freezing Dark Burst: Blast 6d6 8 AVAD (defense is Power Defense; +1), Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4) 8f 6) Numbing, Icy Night: Darkness to Sight and Touch Groups, 10m radius 3 Personal Immunity (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 8f 7) Mingled Burst: RKA 2d6 8 +2 Increased STUN Multiplier (+1/2), Penetrating (+1/2), Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4) 5f 8) Annihilating Touch: RKA 1d6+1 3 NND (defense is Hardened/Impenetrable Resistant Defense; +1), Does BODY (+1), Area Of Effect (personal Surface — Damage Shield; +1/4), Constant (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4); No Range (-1/2) 8f 9) Mind Over Matter: Telekinesis (30 STR) 3 Area Of Effect (Selective 4m Radius; +1/2), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 8f 10) Command Unworthy Mortals: Mind Control 13d6 3 Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 4f 11) Seek the Doomed: Mind Scan 10d6, +16 MCV 8 Cannot Attack Through Link (either way; -1) 2f 12) Resurrect Doctor Perlman: Summon 130 point mortal 4 Specific Being (+1); Cannot Demand Tasks (-1), Need Perlman’s Corpse (-1) 35 Wings of Night: Multipower, 52-point reserve All Restrainable (-1/2) 3f 1) Soar through Mortal Skies: Flight 32m, x8 Noncombat 2 Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) 3f 2) Vanish In Thunder: Teleportation 42m, x8 Mass 5 30 Nigh Invulnerable: Resistant (+1/2) on 20 PD/20 ED 0 Hardened (+1/4), Impenetrable (+1/4) 17 Nigh Invulnerable: Hardened (+1/4) on 35 PD/35 ED 0 17 Nigh Invulnerable: Impenetrable (+1/4) on 35 PD/35 ED 0 10 Burning Gaze: Sight Group Flash Defense (10 points) 0 5 Burning Gaze: Nightvision 0 6 Burning Gaze: +4 versus Range Modifiers for Sight Group 0 10 Relentless Will: Mental Defense (10 points) 0 7 Spiritual Substance: Power Defense (7 points) 0 45 Spiritual Substance: Life Support: Total (includes Longevity: Immortality) 0 19 Virtually Unkillable: Regeneration (1 BODY per Turn), Can Heal Limbs 0 Talents 3 Ambidexterity (no Off Hand penalty) 3 Striking Appearance: terrifying glory, +1/1d6 20 Universal Translator 13- Skills 20 +2 All Combat 3 Acrobatics 14- 3 Breakfall 14- 3 Interrogation 15- 3 Oratory 15- Total Powers & Skills Cost: 430 Total Cost: 802 400 Matching Complications (75) 10 DNPC: Doctor Perlman (Creator) (Frequently, Normal, Noncombat Skills) 20 Hunted: Governments worldwide (Frequently, As Pow, NCI, Capture/Kill) 15 Negative Reputation: Demented mass murderer, 11- (Extreme) 20 Psychological Complication: Exists only to cause death and destruction (Common, Total) 20 Psychological Complication: Obsessive/Protective of Dr. Perlman (Common, Total) 10 Psychological Complication: Frightened and confused by kindness and mercy (Uncommon, Strong) 15 Susceptibility: to being forced to act against his nature, takes 3d6 damage instantly (Uncommon) 15 Vulnerability: x1 ½ STUN, BODY, Mental Effect from Kabbalistic magic (Uncommon) Total Complications Points: 75 Experience Points: 401 [END CHARACTER SHEET] Background/History: Chaim Perlman hated Palestinians with a deep, bitter passion. He was not alone; many other Israelis lost families to Palestinian terrorist attacks, or in wars with the Palestinians’ Arab backers. Not so many Israelis were also brilliant physicists, engineers — and philosophers learned in metaphysics, Talmud and Kabbalah. After his family’s murder, Perlman retreated into his research, spending every waking moment with the equations he hoped would unlock the secret of reality itself. Perlman made a breakthrough. Thoughts and symbols were as real as matter and energy, and all could be converted into each other. His colleagues made polite noises when he tried to explain his discovery, and sadly shook their heads behind his back. Perlman was a fine teacher, and a good researcher in his younger days, they told each other, but obviously the tragedy had affected his mind. So Perlman built a machine to test his theory: a machine to turn thoughts into reality. He attached the many electrodes to his head. The scientist began by imagining a small metal sphere, but grief and rage invaded his thoughts. As he had so many times before, Perlman brooded on his losses and yearned for revenge. Darkness curdled in the materialization booth, shot through with lightning and fire. The booth shattered and every circuit burned out. Before Perlman stood a mighty figure, an angel of fire and shadow. Azrael, the Angel of Death. Perlman saw his creation and reeled with anguish and remorse. He tried to stop the dark angel from its horrific task, and Azrael laughed. “Desist? Have mercy? You created me to destroy your enemies, and destroy I shall! But I will return to you, Creator. You will never escape me.” And Azrael vanished from the lab in a crash of thunder and black fire, to begin his genocidal reign of terror. Chaim Perlman left Israel. He has fled his creation for years, to no avail. Wherever in the world he goes, Azrael finds him again, and sets about to kill anyone who could be an enemy of his Creator. Even death gives no escape — for Azrael can raise Perlman from the dead. Personality/Motivation: Azrael is a creature of pure hatred, untouched with any hint of moral scruples. At first Azrael just killed Palestinians, but he soon expanded his field. Azrael hates everyone and everything in the world. In fact, he even hates Perlman, despite his seeming devotion. Azrael destroys anyone who might oppose Perlman, and he destroys anyone who might help the scientist. The death-angel wants it to be just the two of them, bound by a mutual hatred more intimate than love. If the rest of the world keeps getting in the way, then the rest of the world will have to go. “Sometimes, my Creator, I dream… of a perfect, barren world, cleansed in fire except for You and myself, together among the bones, forever…” Quote: “Why? I am as my Creator made me, as are we all. My nature is to kill… as yours is to die.” Powers/Tactics: Azrael is not really an angel. Rather, he is a tulpa — a materialized imaginary creature — created through a blend of science and mysticism. Doctor Perlman has never tried to reconstruct his machine and would rather die than do so. The death-angel seems to be unkillable: If destroyed, it reappears the next time Perlman feels great fear, pain or anger, ready to protect its Creator once more. In addition to great strength and resistance to damage, Azrael has many energy-based powers, some of brilliant white fire and others of icy, opaque darkness. He can also move or grab targets using Telekinesis or dominate individuals as a way to set people up for their deaths or to make them help him (if only for a little while) in one of his murderous schemes. He often grabs opponents with Telekinesis to then pummel them with his fists, or attacks hand-to-hand under cover of Numbing, Icy Night. In combat, Azrael is vicious but not especially subtle or clever. One foe can easily distract him from finishing off another. While Azrael murders people with great enthusiasm, he knows that he can’t kill really large numbers of people with his bare hand and powers. To this end he tries to break dams, cause toxic chemical spills, collapse skyscrapers, and the like. All that keeps him from starting a nuclear war is his inability to launch missiles once he’s got them: governments set very tight safeguards against unauthorized launch or detonation. So far, Azrael has never mustered the patience for a really devious plot to trick a government into using its nuclear weapons. Campaign Use: Azrael is a straightforward homicidal monster given a twist. If Azrael appears, Perlman is likely nearby; Perlman may be the best resource to explain the crazed logic behind the death-angel’s rampage. Azrael is almost certain to Hunt anyone who threatens Perlman, or who helps the scientist flee his creation. The death-angel presents heroes with an additional challenge in how they deal with Chaim Perlman. Azrael cannot be destroyed permanently as long as Perlman lives. The only way to end Azrael’s threat forever is for him and Perlman to die before either resurrects the other. Perlman killed himself once already in guilt over Azrael’s crimes: He is okay with dying again to make sure Azrael cannot return. The PCs may feel differently. To make Azrael more powerful, double the reserve of his Angelic Powers Multipower so he can use two slots at once (plus still using his vast strength). To reduce Azrael’s power, make his defenses no longer Hardened and Impenetrable, and/or reduce the Active Points of his Angelic Powers. Appearance: Azrael is a powerfully built man standing 6’5” tall, with jet-black skin and eyes of blue-white fire. He would be extraordinarily handsome in a hard-edged, blunt-featured way if not for his cold, contemptuous expression. Deep black, feathered wings rise from his shoulders. He dresses in sandals and a white loincloth on a silver belt. His brow carries a silver coronet set with diamonds. [bEGIN BOXED TEXT] <3>Azrael Plot Seeds • A master villain learns how Perlman created Azrael and wants the secret for himself. Can the heroes rescue the scientist before the villain forces him to reveal how to evoke monsters from the id? Azrael also tries to rescue his Creator, but there is no chance of a team-up, and the death-angel’s assault will cause a lot of collateral damage. • Perlman finds a fellow scientist who is willing to try building a weapon that can kill Azrael. He hopes to lure the monster into a trap. The scientist, however, is actually a supervillain who just wants Perlman’s help in designing a new super-weapon. As the criminal scientist steals the components for his super-weapon, Azrael comes to town. Even if the PCs follow the trail to the supervillain and Perlman, do they stop the plot? Or do they just try to make sure the weapon is, in fact, used against Azrael? The death-angel, meanwhile, immediately decides to kill the villain and the heroes, then use the super-weapon himself. • A mystic who doesn’t know the true story of Azrael’s origin thinks the monster really is one of God’s angels of wrath and punishment who has somehow escaped proper direction. The mystic asks the PCs to help capture Azrael so the death-angel can be returned to Elysium. What happens if the PCs succeed, carry the captured Azrael to Elysium and then hear, “Sorry, not one of ours?” [END BOXED TEXT] [bEGIN SIDEBAR] <3>Azrael Facts Here are some facts that characters and NPCs might know about Azrael if they succeed with an appropriate Skill Roll: N/R: Azrael, self-styled Angel of Death, seems interested only in killing large numbers of people. The black-skinned, black-winged creature has diverse powers: super-strength and invulnerability, destructive beams and blasts of light and darkness, flight, teleportation and more. K/R: Azrael also has mental powers. People must obey his commands, and he can find individuals no matter where they flee and hide. -1: Azrael has been “killed” at least once, but the body dissolved and Azrael reappeared several months later, so the death-angel may be a true spirit. His first rampage took place in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, but since then Azrael has massacred people in many places around the world. He has fought several heroes — and villains too, when he tried exterminating entire cities through poison gas, fire or high-powered military weapons. -2: Sometimes, Azrael seeks out specific people to kill for reasons unknown. Some rampages follow a pattern of killing specific people, then other folk connected to those people, and then an attempt at a general massacre. -4: Azrael is not a genuine spirit. He pursues the physicist Chaim Perlman, who accidentally created Azrael by means unknown. -6: Azrael’s creation was not an accident, but Perlman now regrets it. Azrael can raise Perlman from the dead, and Azrael cannot truly die while Perlman still lives. Many of Azrael’s rampages are insanely overblown attempts to protect Perlman or avenge harm done to him. [END SIDEBAR] Dean Shomshak

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! Ohh yes. Not the only "gotcha last" at all. But that's off topic. And I like devising origin stories that GMs can reuse. Also off topic. The CU's three great dimensional conquerors supply a nice compare-and-contrast for villain mentality. Tyrannon is arguably insane in the legal sense, in that he cannot choose to act otherwise. That he can be balked temporarily argues against this, but still, he is unusually monomaniac even for a master villain. The Tyrannon who first attacked and consumed another Thulkosian mage-god made a moral choice. The creature he became does not have a choice any longer. No more than a rabid dog or a cancer cell. Skarn, OTOH, is genuinely nuts without being legally insane. He has free will; he makes meaningful choices; in most respects he interacts with reality in an effective way. He doesn't need to conquer in the way Tyrannon does. He just starts from the delusional premise that the Multiverse exists to create him so he can rule it all. As such, he can be held responsible for his actions in a way that Tyrannon cannot. (The Cosmic Cancer doesn't need to be punished. He needs to be excised. Or cured, but that could be even more difficult.) Finally, Istvatha V'han does not seem to be insane, in that she can still make meaningful choices and can tell what's real and what's not. She's not crazy in that she doesn't seem to have any major delusions. She's just very, very ambitious. (At least, going by the information in Conquerors, Killers and Crooks and CV: Master Villains.) Considering her success so far, her ambitions do not even seem unrealistic. Whether Istavatha V'han is evil depends on your view of unprovoked aggression and conquest. Most people through most of human history thought this was just fine, as long as they were doing the aggressing and conquering. She's adversarial, and that's enough. Dean Shomshak

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! (I admit, I dislike Takofanes for reasons that have nothing to do with the character himself. First, I got there first, dammit, with Archimago. Second, Big T is designed to link two settings and genres, and I thought that linking all the HERO published settings into one big meta-setting was a bad idea the moment I heard of it. I still do. But that is a different topic.) Getting to the point, I've thought it might be a fun "reveal" to have heroes, after great effort and danger, penetrate the mind of Takofanes... and find there's nothing there. Tens of thousands of years of imprisonment are too much even for an undead arch-wizard. His ego crumbled, leaving only fragments of knowledge and a force of magic that keeps him going through the motions. Dean Shomshak

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps!

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! Heh. I'm just amused by all the "Gaining powers twisted his mind" statements in supervillain origin stories (it's practically a refrain in Champions: Villains I, II and III). Outside of satires such as the Guide to a Nonexistent Universe, though, I've never seen a hero's origin story use that line to explain why a formerly normal person who suddenly gains super-powers decides they should put on a costume and fight crime. I mean, if the metamorphosis of empowerment can cause one form of warped thought, why not the other? While I have used the "twisted his mind" bit for villains whose origin was especially traumatic, usually I try to suggest they weren't very nice people before they had powers. Conversely, in heroic origin stories I often try to suggest that characters had heroic qualities already and gaining powers just lets them do good on a larger scale or more direct manner. It's also worth considering that most notions of "normal" or "sane" behavior are based on people having a certain degree of power, i.e. almost none. When you can punch through an armored car, shoot laser beams from your eyes, fly or read people's minds, your choices become somewhat wider. Or at least your calculations of consequences change. To return to the Doctor Destroyer example, he isn't crazy because he wants to conquer the world. He's crazy because he keeps trying to conquer the world through one grand gesture of overwhelming power. It's not hard to think of other, slower plans that would have a better chance of success. Dean Shomshak

Re: Arcane Adversaries Outtake: TRESS! Your puns about my character pass all bounds of decency. Nevertheless, I shall forgive your Tress pass. Dean Shomshak

Re: Arcane Adversaries Outtake: TRESS! For a start, see p. 105 of Ultimate Mystic. Text box, "Robe/Costume." Once upon a time, a certain kind of gown meant you were a scholar and/or priest, and therefore entitled and able to to control powers unknown to common men. Fashion is all about controlling reality -- at least social reality, how other people see you -- through symbol and image. It's very magical. Dean Shomshak

Re: Arcane Adversaries Outtake: TRESS! Tempted at times, but no. The concepts were strongly bound to Mage: the Ascension, and and many aspects of that game seem like they would not translate well to Champions. (The core idea of mystics who set out to look more like other sorts of superheroes would translate, but Spheres, the whole mystic background of the Ascension War... I dunno.) Dean Shomshak

First: Thank you to the people who sent PMs welcoming me to the forum. I would respond personally, but I have not yet found how. (Me big tech dummy. Also, AOL tends to freeze up within a few minutes of my logging onto the Champions forum.) To business: Arcane Adversaries presented a variety of mystical solo villains. I created many other mystical villains for my various Champions campaigns. Some of them would have been appropriate for AA. Others were, very definitely, not. Tress comes from the “Not” category. I think you’ll see why. Nevertheless, here she is. -- Dean Shomshak [bEGIN CHARACTER SHEET] <3>Tress Val Char Cost Roll Notes 25 STR 12* 14- Lift 800 kg; 5d6 HTH damage [2] 20 DEX 16* 13- 25 CON 12* 14- 13 INT 3 12- PER Roll 12- 20 EGO 10 13- 30 PRE 16* 15- PRE Attack: 6d6 7 OCV 16* 7 DCV 16* 7 OMCV 12 7 DMCV 12 5 SPD 24* Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 25 PD 18* Total: 35 PD (20 rPD) 25 ED 18* Total: 35 ED (20 rED) 15 REC 9 60 END 6 12 BODY 2 40 STUN 8* Characteristics Cost: 210 * OIAID (-1/4) Movement: Running: 12m Cost Powers END 70 Cosmic Coiffure: Multipower, 105-point reserve All OIAID (-1/4) 7f 1) Cosmic Blast: Blast 12d6 4 Variable Special Effects (anything; +1/2), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4); OIAID (-1/4) 7f 2) Omnipotent Will: Telekinesis (56 STR) 4 Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4); OIAID (-1/4) 7f 3) Mistress of All Forces: Reflection (78 active points’ worth) 0 Any Target (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); OIAID (-1/4) 6f 4) Nova Aura Surge: Blast 14d6 4 Area Of Effect (personal Surface — Damage Shield; +1/4), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4); OIAID (-1/4), No Range (-1/2) 3f 5) Create Monster/Cause Origin: Summon 400 point Something [1] Variable (GM’s Whim; +1/4); OIAID (-1/4), 1 Charge (-2) 3f 6) Enslavement Coiffure: Severe Transform 7d6 (vs. EGO, impose Total loyalty; broken by disrupting victim’s hair) 10 Limited Target (people with hair; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Minute; -1 ½), No Range (-1/2), OIAID (-1/4) 26 Cosmic Force Aura: Resistant Protection (10 PD/10 ED) 0 Hardened (+1/4), Impenetrable (+1/4); Not Persistent (-1/4), Perceivable (-0), OIAID (-1/4), Unified Power (-1/4) 33 Cosmic Force Aura: Flight 20m 0 MegaScale (1m = 1 km; +1), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); OIAID (-1/4), Unified Power (-1/4) 10 Cosmic Resilience: Resistant (+1/2) on 10 PD, 10 ED 0 8 Immovable As The Cosmos: Knockback Resistance –10m 0 OIAID (-1/4) 6 Sovereign Mastery of Self: Sight Group Flash Defense (5 points) 0 Hardened (+1/4), Impenetrable (+1/4); OIAID (-1/4) 18 Sovereign Mastery of Self: Mental Defense (15 points) 0 Hardened (+1/4), Impenetrable (+1/4); OIAID (-1/4) 12 Sovereign Mastery of Self: Power Defense (10 points) 0 Hardened (+1/4), Impenetrable (+1/4); OIAID (-1/4) Skills 12 +4 Blast/TK/Reflection 2 KS: Pop Occult 11- 2 KS: Sacred Geometry 11- 2 Language: French (fluent conversation; English is native) 4 PS: Hairdresser 13- Total Powers & Skills Cost: 238 Total Cost: 448 400 Matching Complications (75) 20 Accidental Change: BODY damage to Hit Location 3 causes total power loss (Uncommon) 15 Hunted: Secret international conspiracy of hairdressers (Frequently, Less Pow. NCI, Capture) 25 Psychological Complication: Megalomania (Very Common, Total) 15 Susceptibility: Takes 3d6 STUN when slave freed from her control (Uncommon) 15 Susceptibility: Takes 1d6 damage per Phase if confronted with evidence against her occult belief system (Uncommon) 10 Vulnerability: 2 x BODY from attacks using hair care products (Uncommon) Total Complications Points: 75 Experience Points: 48 [END CHARACTER SHEET] Background/History: Tyra Ressam seethed with rage. She should have won the All-California Hairdressing contest! She knew every mode of cutting and styling hair, from hot curlers to Melanesian mud-packs and the most advanced designs in Paris. Politics and favoritism, that’s what it was. Tyra swore she would create designs so radical and powerful they would crush any competition and show that she was the greatest hairdresser in the world! But how? Tyra chose the occult. It was a perfectly logical choice: As a denizen of Los Angeles, Tyra naturally encountered a wide variety of occult practitioners, from pet psychics to feng shui interior decorators. Her pursuit of the occult roots of beauty eventually focused on sacred geometry: the theory that certain numbers, ratios, shapes and angles have occult significance, and that their architectural use concentrated supernatural forces. Tyra figured that what made buildings beautiful and powerful would also make hairstyles beautiful and powerful. She did not ignore other doctrines, though. In months, Tyra synthesized lore from several pop-occult books into a new arcane science of Hermetic hairdressing. Why should she give kabbalistic coiffures to others before trying them herself? With the help of her last loyal assistant, (the others, cowards and fools that they were, abandoned her and called her mad), Tyra moussed her hair into Archimedian spirals held on a wire scaffold of Golden Ratio ellipses. As she carefully placed crystals mounted on bobby pins, Tyra felt the energies of the cosmos converging on her hair. Yes! Power such as she never imagined! Power that made her a living goddess! Tyra Ressam was no more. She was Tress, and with her new power she would not just silence the mocking tongues of the hairdressing academy. She would rule the world. Personality/Motivation: Tress is bugnuts, quite apart from her loony notions of mystic hairdressing. She was already vain and obsessive. Giving herself super-powers convinced her that she has ascended to divinity. As a goddess, it is her right to conquer the world and impose her vision of proper hair care. But she is a merciful goddess: She does not destroy those whom she defeats. She styles their hair so they properly perceive her cosmic omnipotent right to rule, and become her willing slaves. Her greatest fear (though still not very great) is a bald super. Quote: “Tremble before Tress, Mistress of the Coiffure Cosmic!” “Why do you oppose me? I shall build a new world — a world free of hunger, strife and split ends!” Powers/Tactics: Tress is a Mad Mage, as described on page 10 of The Ultimate Mystic. She channels her magic through a delusion system of occult hairdressing. An aura of cosmic energy protects her and enables her to fly. Her pseudo-divinity also helps her resist mental, adjustment and other unusual attacks. Tress can move objects by force of will, bounce ranged attacks off her aura to whatever new target she wants, or make her aura surge with power to blast off Entangles or Grabbing characters. She relies chiefly on her Blast, though, which can manifest any Special Effect she wants. While a straightforward bolt of lightning or pure cosmic energy works, her madness means that high-pressure shampoo, hot curlers fired like bullets, or, heck, flaming chihuahua dogs make as much sense and are just as likely. Maybe more. Any damage to Tress’ hair disrupts the Cosmic Coiffure and removes her powers. This requires an attack that strikes Hit Location 3 that manages to inflict BODY. Even though the Cosmic Coiffure is very large, its vast power tends to deflect attacks, making it no easier to hit than the rest of Tress’ head. Well-presented evidence that her cobbled-together occult doctrine is based on false premises can inflict psychic pain on Tress: This requires not only KS: Western Occultism 11- (or better), but also a successful Presence Attack to penetrate her mania. No one could ever persuade Tress her doctrine is flat-out wrong and impossible, though, for she has felt her hair channel the Power Cosmic. She knows it works. Belief in her divinity prevents Tress from attempting clever tactics. Her plan is to rampage until the world surrenders. She does have one somewhat clever strategy: If she captures another superbeing, she enslaves his will through an occult hairstyle. She intends to build an invincible army of well-coiffed supers who worship and obey her without question. Such a force quickly becomes more dangerous than Tress herself. Once per day, she can also infuse cosmic energy into some convenient person, animal or object to create a brand-new superbeing (with great hair). The new super is no more likely to obey than any other Summoned entity, but this power can add a further twist to a fight. This is also an excuse for the GM to introduce opponents who can be even stranger than Tress herself. Campaign Use: Tress is designed as the villain for a silly one-shot adventure. As such, this description of Tress assumes the PCs encounter her on her first rampage: There is no information for PCs to gain through a successful KS: Supervillains roll. Since the source of Tress’ power is obvious, though, it’s just a matter of time before the heroes defeat her. If the PCs don’t think to shave Tress’ head at that point, the authorities will. And that’s the end of Tress… until she gets a wig. Unless that happens, she has no way to Hunt anyone. To make Tress more powerful, increase the active points of her attacks, give her combat skill levels or a higher OCV, or just allow her to defeat and enslave additional super-beings before the PCs encounter her. You might also make it harder for opponents to damage her hair and so de-power her. To make Tress less powerful, reduce her defenses or the active points of her attacks. Appearance: Tyra Ressam is an Arab-American woman with skin the color of old ivory, dark eyes and waist-length, straight black hair. As Tress, her hair is piled and styled into a yard-wide construction of interlocking spirals and radiating spikes, with some brass wire loops as further support and various crystals set here and there. She wears a miniskirt, bustier and high heels. A crackling aura of multi-colored Kirby dots surrounds her, and sparks crackle through her hair as she gathers her power for an attacks.

Re: Speak with the dead Given the player's description, Mind Link might be a fair way to represent the desired power. It would need the Any Distance/Dimension adder to reach into the afterlife (the spirit of the dead is effectively in another dimension, in the sense of "some location or state of being that is normally inaccessible), but is also No Range (or some analogous Limitation to represent that the character must be right by the body in order to speak to the dead person). Not every restriction on usage needs to be represented in the Power writeup. Some sound like they are better treated as part of the nature of the supernatural/spiritual world in the campaign setting. Dean Shomshak

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete I'm a little late in the discussion, but I think publishing some starter adventures would be a really good idea. For some time I've been concerned that HERO wasn't as accessible to new players as it might be. A sample showing "Here's how you play, here's a starter scenario," could be helpful. (Heck, I've been doing this for decades and I STILL find First Scenario of the Campaign a bitch to design.) Dean Shomshak

Re: New Kickstarter has an interesting take on a SuperVillains as PC RPG Wow. I finally get my system running properly and look into the HERO Forum (Oh, I've missed Champions!) and what do I see? Me, mentioned in the first thread I look at! Flattering. I wouldn't presume to tell Greg Stolze anything about game design. But yes, there've been so many villains where the premise is that an ordinary person was possessed by an evil force (a demon, Tesseract's 6th dimension invaders, etc.) that for a long time, I've wanted to see a character whose origin is that he was a not-at-all-nice person possessed by a force of Good that forces him to be a hero. (Supernatural sorta did this, though whether Castiel still counts as a hero -- even by the standards of that grimdark world -- is debatable.) If there's ever a new Champions: Allies book, I recommend this concept! Dean Shomshak