DShomshak

Unless Doctor Monolith is intended for a very low-power supers campaign, he is not combat-capable. Even in a low-power (10 DC) Champions campaign, 15 PD and 15 CON means that mot attacks will stun him. Conversely, 8 DC from his punch will not make him a credible threat to most heroes. As it stands, the only way I see for him to function in a campaign is as a slippery mastermind, in which the challenge for PCs is to find him and corner him so he can't get away. Perhaps that is your intent, what with all the points in agent Followers and a large number of Bases. In that case, though, he needs more than basic Teleportation to get away -- at the very least, a Fixed Point enabling a safe blind teleport to the long-range Teleport Gate in a secure part of each Base. (Which is a good justification for each Base being absolutely identical: One fixed point will do for all the Bases!)
 
Doctor Monolith's motivation for villainy seems feeble to me, but whatever. The DC character Rainbow Raider became a supervillain out of bitterness at being color-blind. (He wanted to be an artist. It is apparently lost on him that many great artists worked in black and white. Silver Age villains, <shrug>.)
 
Building scads of Bases and maintaining lots of agent Followers usually requires a lot of resources. How does Doctor Monolith obtain them? You say he constructs his Monolith Domes with sensors to gather data about heroes, which he then sells to other villains and organizations. That is interesting. Does he have any regular backers, who helped him build all those Bases in the first place and supplied the agents? If so, he should probably have them as Contacts, or -- if the power relationship is less amicable -- he's Watched by them.
 
Summing up, it seems the core idea here is that whatever criminal activities Doctor Monolith and his agents perform, these are just lures to draw heroes to one of his Bases. The heroes assault the Bases, possibly destroy it and capture the agents, and think they have thwarted a supervillain's nefarious plan. The villain got away but still, a decent bit of heroing. Only if they search the Base in detail do they find all the sensors and realize they've been played. That is a good premise for a villain, but I think you need to do more work on fleshing out the details of how Doctor Monolith operates.
 
Dean Shomshak

In my old Champions campaign, one of the international NPC heroes I never got to use was Captain Armenia.
 
Dean Shomshak

Comicsgate: How an Anti-Diversity Harassment Campaign in Comics Got Ugly—and Profitable
 
tl;dr: People have discovered that there is considerable money to be made in harassment of female, minority, and LGBTQ comics writers and artists. 

The sound of a black hole

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.    🛰️

How Tony Stark Spends his experience points seems to mirror how veteran Champions characters spend theirs. 
 
 

Are we witnessing Betelgeuse's death throes?

Can I get an amen from the congregation????
 
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/18/tech/auto-warranty-robocalls-case/index.html
 
Hopefully the text spammers are next...........

In the CU, the Gadroon lost most of tyheir population along with their home planet. Champions Beyond says some Gadroon still practice various religions, though 70% now disdain the old religions -- any hypothetical gods couldn't have been worth much since they didn't prevent the homeworld's destruction. So... Since the Gadroon had supernatural beliefs, they probably had Imaginal Realms as homes for their gods and spirits. A GM might pull some stories from this question: What happened to the Gadroon gods and Parterres after the planet blew up?
 
Quite possibly, the event was a catastrophic for the Parterres as for the planet. Spirit realms imploding, the death of gods mixing with the death of billions of mortal Gadroon. A supernatural supernova sending mystical shockwaves throughout the Galaxy, disturbing things meant to be sealed and sleeping until the end of Time. And as a supernova can leave a neutron star or black hole as a remnant, what remnant was left by the Gadroon implosion? And what use might someone like Tyrannon or Xarriel find for such a remnant?
 
Or maybe the Gadroon Parterres were cut loose and sent drifting through the dimensions. The Parterres themselves are crumbling and the gods and spirits face death without a without a sufficient population of Gadroon to sustain them. The gods might attempt ploys as desperate as the Gadroon's attempts to conquer Earth as they try to reconnect to their people -- or to any people. Or they might be vulnerable to exploitation.
 
Or maybe the Imaginal Realms are drifting but the gods retain a tenuous link to the remaining Gadroon worshipers. The Gadroon managed to secure a beachhead in Canada and hold it against human counterattack. Are the Gadroon Gods making their own invasion attempt against Earth's spirit realms? Or since humans and their gods are sometimes not very nice, are any attacks going the other way? Tezcatlipoca, for one, might see pantheons of weakened gods as sacrificial victims to fuel his own campaigns. Takofanes could see similar potential. The Devil's Advocates would likely be sneakier, possibly investigating ways to use the Gadroon gods against the technological mortal Gadroon.  And whatever the Dragon thinks of these spiritual immigrants, its goals are undoubtedly evil. OTOH the Gadroon and their spirits have no connection to the Dragon: It cannot see their dreams, nor whisper in their unconscious thoughts. A farsighted mystic might see possibilities here, if some peace can be worked out between humans and Gadroon.
 
As for the nature of the /Gadroon Parterres, well, Champions Beyond lists four main surviving religions, and basic mystic reasonuing would correlate them to the Four Zoas. So postulate four Gadroon Parterres, representing the ways Order, Chaos, Art and Nature express themselves in Gadroon thought. But that's an arbitrary tidiness. I wouldn't insist on it. It might be more interesting for the Gadroon to be, as it were, mystically unbalanced, adding a cosmic conceptual dimension to the conflicts.
 
Dean Shomshak

In the CU, the Gadroon lost most of tyheir population along with their home planet. Champions Beyond says some Gadroon still practice various religions, though 70% now disdain the old religions -- any hypothetical gods couldn't have been worth much since they didn't prevent the homeworld's destruction. So... Since the Gadroon had supernatural beliefs, they probably had Imaginal Realms as homes for their gods and spirits. A GM might pull some stories from this question: What happened to the Gadroon gods and Parterres after the planet blew up?
 
Quite possibly, the event was a catastrophic for the Parterres as for the planet. Spirit realms imploding, the death of gods mixing with the death of billions of mortal Gadroon. A supernatural supernova sending mystical shockwaves throughout the Galaxy, disturbing things meant to be sealed and sleeping until the end of Time. And as a supernova can leave a neutron star or black hole as a remnant, what remnant was left by the Gadroon implosion? And what use might someone like Tyrannon or Xarriel find for such a remnant?
 
Or maybe the Gadroon Parterres were cut loose and sent drifting through the dimensions. The Parterres themselves are crumbling and the gods and spirits face death without a without a sufficient population of Gadroon to sustain them. The gods might attempt ploys as desperate as the Gadroon's attempts to conquer Earth as they try to reconnect to their people -- or to any people. Or they might be vulnerable to exploitation.
 
Or maybe the Imaginal Realms are drifting but the gods retain a tenuous link to the remaining Gadroon worshipers. The Gadroon managed to secure a beachhead in Canada and hold it against human counterattack. Are the Gadroon Gods making their own invasion attempt against Earth's spirit realms? Or since humans and their gods are sometimes not very nice, are any attacks going the other way? Tezcatlipoca, for one, might see pantheons of weakened gods as sacrificial victims to fuel his own campaigns. Takofanes could see similar potential. The Devil's Advocates would likely be sneakier, possibly investigating ways to use the Gadroon gods against the technological mortal Gadroon.  And whatever the Dragon thinks of these spiritual immigrants, its goals are undoubtedly evil. OTOH the Gadroon and their spirits have no connection to the Dragon: It cannot see their dreams, nor whisper in their unconscious thoughts. A farsighted mystic might see possibilities here, if some peace can be worked out between humans and Gadroon.
 
As for the nature of the /Gadroon Parterres, well, Champions Beyond lists four main surviving religions, and basic mystic reasonuing would correlate them to the Four Zoas. So postulate four Gadroon Parterres, representing the ways Order, Chaos, Art and Nature express themselves in Gadroon thought. But that's an arbitrary tidiness. I wouldn't insist on it. It might be more interesting for the Gadroon to be, as it were, mystically unbalanced, adding a cosmic conceptual dimension to the conflicts.
 
Dean Shomshak

In the CU, the Gadroon lost most of tyheir population along with their home planet. Champions Beyond says some Gadroon still practice various religions, though 70% now disdain the old religions -- any hypothetical gods couldn't have been worth much since they didn't prevent the homeworld's destruction. So... Since the Gadroon had supernatural beliefs, they probably had Imaginal Realms as homes for their gods and spirits. A GM might pull some stories from this question: What happened to the Gadroon gods and Parterres after the planet blew up?
 
Quite possibly, the event was a catastrophic for the Parterres as for the planet. Spirit realms imploding, the death of gods mixing with the death of billions of mortal Gadroon. A supernatural supernova sending mystical shockwaves throughout the Galaxy, disturbing things meant to be sealed and sleeping until the end of Time. And as a supernova can leave a neutron star or black hole as a remnant, what remnant was left by the Gadroon implosion? And what use might someone like Tyrannon or Xarriel find for such a remnant?
 
Or maybe the Gadroon Parterres were cut loose and sent drifting through the dimensions. The Parterres themselves are crumbling and the gods and spirits face death without a without a sufficient population of Gadroon to sustain them. The gods might attempt ploys as desperate as the Gadroon's attempts to conquer Earth as they try to reconnect to their people -- or to any people. Or they might be vulnerable to exploitation.
 
Or maybe the Imaginal Realms are drifting but the gods retain a tenuous link to the remaining Gadroon worshipers. The Gadroon managed to secure a beachhead in Canada and hold it against human counterattack. Are the Gadroon Gods making their own invasion attempt against Earth's spirit realms? Or since humans and their gods are sometimes not very nice, are any attacks going the other way? Tezcatlipoca, for one, might see pantheons of weakened gods as sacrificial victims to fuel his own campaigns. Takofanes could see similar potential. The Devil's Advocates would likely be sneakier, possibly investigating ways to use the Gadroon gods against the technological mortal Gadroon.  And whatever the Dragon thinks of these spiritual immigrants, its goals are undoubtedly evil. OTOH the Gadroon and their spirits have no connection to the Dragon: It cannot see their dreams, nor whisper in their unconscious thoughts. A farsighted mystic might see possibilities here, if some peace can be worked out between humans and Gadroon.
 
As for the nature of the /Gadroon Parterres, well, Champions Beyond lists four main surviving religions, and basic mystic reasonuing would correlate them to the Four Zoas. So postulate four Gadroon Parterres, representing the ways Order, Chaos, Art and Nature express themselves in Gadroon thought. But that's an arbitrary tidiness. I wouldn't insist on it. It might be more interesting for the Gadroon to be, as it were, mystically unbalanced, adding a cosmic conceptual dimension to the conflicts.
 
Dean Shomshak

The Dread Pirate Gilbert Pensworth II 
 
The Seven Seas and the Oceans of the world are the playground and plunder rich environment of The Dread Pirate Gilbert Pensworth II.  Law Enforcement blame an over-fixation on the Princess Bride and Pirates of the Caribbean for this buccaneer and his 'scallywag' ways. Gilbert thinks he is a star and something to be admired but the police want him dead or alive, preferably the former. He has a ship and a submarine so he can attack ships on the sea and illegally salvage from those beneath it.
Gilbert's foe is Waterman, the Lord of Atlantis (what can I say ? King of the Seas, Sea King and other variants on Ocean have already been taken so Waterman it is.). Gilbert needs the others to fight on land as he is useless fighting there and also clueless. On a river, lake or in the seas he is very effective. (Not swimming pools or aquariums though.)
 
(So we have Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Batman and whoever Black Fedora is (Sandman ?) based on.)

NSFW Language 
 
 

Roll for SAN loss. 
 
 

Yeah, it would be very difficult for a Perseid mystic to find the dimensional 'path' to any of Earth's Imaginal Realms, and it would be very difficult for Witchcraft to find the way to any Imaginal Realms that Perseids might have. Not impossible, though -- especially for Witchcraft, because she's (effectively) a PC. PCs manage to do things that NPCs don't -- or at least the NPCs don't want it enough.
 
In the CU, mystics of most species probably didn't even know of each other's existence until their respective species attain FTL and meet each other. So why would Earth mystics even think to look for Perseid or Hzeel Parterres? They don't even know those species exist. (Until now.)
 
For Spells of the Devachan, though, I deliberately reversed this. Long ago, mystics from different species in the Milky Way Galaxy met each other in the Outer Planes and so learned of each others' species. That includes humans. Earth mystics have been using astral travel to visit other worlds, and their Parterres, for centuries. There isn't just a Mystic World, there's a Sorcerer's Galaxy. But the gods and spirits generally need mortal help if they want to act beyond their native worlds and Imaginal Realms.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

Yeah, it would be very difficult for a Perseid mystic to find the dimensional 'path' to any of Earth's Imaginal Realms, and it would be very difficult for Witchcraft to find the way to any Imaginal Realms that Perseids might have. Not impossible, though -- especially for Witchcraft, because she's (effectively) a PC. PCs manage to do things that NPCs don't -- or at least the NPCs don't want it enough.
 
In the CU, mystics of most species probably didn't even know of each other's existence until their respective species attain FTL and meet each other. So why would Earth mystics even think to look for Perseid or Hzeel Parterres? They don't even know those species exist. (Until now.)
 
For Spells of the Devachan, though, I deliberately reversed this. Long ago, mystics from different species in the Milky Way Galaxy met each other in the Outer Planes and so learned of each others' species. That includes humans. Earth mystics have been using astral travel to visit other worlds, and their Parterres, for centuries. There isn't just a Mystic World, there's a Sorcerer's Galaxy. But the gods and spirits generally need mortal help if they want to act beyond their native worlds and Imaginal Realms.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

The way I wrote it, the Kings are bound in "hidden, empty prison dimensions and barren worlds" (Arcane Adversaries, p. 41). These can be Qliphothic, but don't have to be. Keeping in mind that these labels are human attempts to classify things that humans do not entirely understand. Is the prison dimension of D?eizzhorath the Dissolver qliphothic? It extends through all space and time, and other dimensions as well, outside any system of classification.
 
That's an important aspect of how I wrote the Kings as a class. One of their chief defining characteristics is that they don't fit in standard categories. They aren't aliens, although some aliens (such as the Elder Worm) serve them. They aren't mystic entities or dimension lords, though some mystics call upon their power. Even calling them "qliphothic" is to try forcing them into a box in which not all of them fit. Even a label such as "Kings of Edom" is an attempt to put them in a box.
 
Dean Shomshak

Yeah, it would be very difficult for a Perseid mystic to find the dimensional 'path' to any of Earth's Imaginal Realms, and it would be very difficult for Witchcraft to find the way to any Imaginal Realms that Perseids might have. Not impossible, though -- especially for Witchcraft, because she's (effectively) a PC. PCs manage to do things that NPCs don't -- or at least the NPCs don't want it enough.
 
In the CU, mystics of most species probably didn't even know of each other's existence until their respective species attain FTL and meet each other. So why would Earth mystics even think to look for Perseid or Hzeel Parterres? They don't even know those species exist. (Until now.)
 
For Spells of the Devachan, though, I deliberately reversed this. Long ago, mystics from different species in the Milky Way Galaxy met each other in the Outer Planes and so learned of each others' species. That includes humans. Earth mystics have been using astral travel to visit other worlds, and their Parterres, for centuries. There isn't just a Mystic World, there's a Sorcerer's Galaxy. But the gods and spirits generally need mortal help if they want to act beyond their native worlds and Imaginal Realms.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022/08/salman-rushdie-j-k-rowling-cancel-culture