Houston GM

Re: WWYCD: A Damsel Who Doesn't Want To Be Rescued... The group bursts into the throne room. 'Mancer: "We're here to rescue the lady you abducted from earth." Damsel: "I don't need to be rescued. I don't want to be rescued." (pause) 'Mancer: "We're here to overthrow the Warlord, capture him, and take him back to Earth." After capturing the Warlord, 'Mancer turns to the damsel. 'Mancer: "We're returning to Earth and taking your boyfriend with us. You can either stay here or return with us; your choice."

Re: Hero's List In my game: Sex (of any orientation) is assumed to occur behind closed doors. It really has not been an issue. I've had straight/gay/bi players, and they've had straight/gay/bi/asexual characters. Villains never announce their orientation, and the heroes never take the time to ask.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Angela, explaining Otter's agoraphobia: "He's afraid of the 'big blue room'." ---------------------------- Player 1 was trying to decide upon a heroic name for Angela. An out-of-character discussion followed. Player 2: "I would suggest 'Serahim', but that idea wouldn't occur to Otter." Player 1: "Or I could go with 'Cherubim', but that wouldn't occur to me either." Me: "Or you could go with 'Cherub' ... which has entirely different connotations." Player 1: "And I could shorten it to 'Cherry' ..." Me: "... which has entirely different connotations." Player 1: "... like a cherry on top of a sundae, looking down on everything." Player 2: "Ow. My brain just went four directions at once."

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so 18) Random groups of unrelated monsters will congregate in dungeons. These groups will have no ecological reason for existing in close proximity. 19) The dungeons these monsters dwell in will have been constructed for no conceivable purpose ... except to house said monsters. 20) These monsters will collect treasure, even though the treasure does not serve any survival mechanism for said monsters. In fact, the only function the treasure serves is to attract adventurers to kill the aforementioned monsters.

Re: [Power Build] Blur As a GM, I have allowed something along these lines. I have no issue with a person having high DCV as long as they have weaker PD/ED. If I can drop them with AEs or Explosions, I can still drop them. Your GM may have a different viewpoint. The only thing I'd veto is "Lim. Power does not protect against area of effect attacks." AE attacks use the hex's DCV, not the player's.

Re: writers block

I'm looking for adventure ideas that could be used with a teen heroes game that are not world/campaign/powers specific. Basically, I'm looking for ideas that involve more normal teenage stuff. Ideas I've used (or am using) already: 1) A PC's girlfriend suspects that he's been cheating, so she starts hanging out with his rival. 2) The PC's have to create a project for "______ Appreciation Day". 3) A PC's sibling runs away from home, then falls in with disreputable people. 4) A PC's parents join a cult. I would welcome any other "teen drama" ideas that you can come up with.

Re: Fifteen points of wealth is very justifiable In the campaign I GM, it gets you a few useful things: 1) It gets you access to wealthy, famous, powerful and/or political people. You still have to use skills (conversation, high society, persuasion, etc.) to make use of that access, but you get your foot in the door automatically. 2) You can hire people. Why pay a lawsuit when you can hire a fleet of lawyers to fight it? You can hire accountants (who can decipher the financial data you recovered from a criminal enterprise). You can hire private investigators to follow suspects and photograph any interesting/suspicious/illegal behavior they witness. You can also hire people to do things that are illegal.... 3) You get bonuses to your Bribery skill. You sometimes get bonuses to other skills (like Seduction). 4) So you wrapped your convertible around Ogre and Pulsar blew up your penthouse apartment? No big deal. It's trivial to get a new apartment and a new car.

Re: Locations to cover the United States... As an alternative, you might want to get a map that shows population distribution. It's likely that trouble will occur most frequently in or near population centers. A one-hour response time for anywhere in the U.S. is good. On the other hand, most villains will be able to strike a target and escape in minutes. If you can reach major population centers in 5 minutes or less, it's a whole new ballgame.

Re: WWYCD: Out of cash The Count has a strong sense of noblese oblige. If he is unable to provide the finances (which would imply someone had put considerable effort in eliminating his own wealth), the Count would assume that other wealth community leaders are obligated to donate their own money to the cause. In Houston, that would most likely be the biggest oil corporations. Since he has Persuasion (16-), and preventing a disaster is in the corporations' best interest, this would be easy to accomplish. If it's not enough, 12d6 of Mind Control could be used to "remind" the corporate leaders of their obligations. In order to rebuild his fortunes, the Count would start robbing the wealthiest criminals in the city (particularly drug dealers). 'Mancer (a tech type) would license some of his inventions in his secret ID. He'd probably have to settle for less money in order to close the deal fast with a substantial sum up front.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Otter: "I'm going noplace to meet a nobody about nothing in particular. If you can keep your mouth shut, you're welcome to come along." ********************* The heroes have been spotted by security. BLAM, BLAM "Freeze!"

Re: 10 Global disasters that YOU team might encounter... Here are five global disasters that the teams in the game have encountered: 1) Mechanon took over the International Space Station and began converting it into a platform for an orbital massdriver. 2) The Idiot King released his "millenium virus" which recreated the "Y2K bug". When the clocks ticked from 11:59:59pm on 12/31/2000 to 12:00:00am on 01/01/2001, all the computer calendars would reset from 2001 to 1901. 3) Humanity First (my campaign's version of Genocide) developed a nanoplague to wipe out all metahumans. The nanoplague got re-engineered to affect all life, not just metahumans. 4) Mechanon unleashed his version of the biblical apocolypse. Notable features included the Four Horsemen (i.e. Pestilence unleashed a genetically-engineered plague) and "oceans turning to blood" (the red tide unleashed on a global scale). 5) The heroes were sent back in time (to a far off world) to delay an alien invasion so it would occur after metahumans had developed on Earth. The current campaign occurs after the alien invasion, during the alien occupation. Here are five more global disasters that the current campaign might encounter: 6) Dr. Destroyer triggers several massive volcanic eruptions simultaneously, triggering a mini ice age. 7) The alien invaders begin harvesting the ozone layer. 8) The alien invaders decide to "terraform" the earth into a more hospitable environment for them. 9) Mechanon releases a genetically-engineered, rapidly spreading form of algae that begins converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on a massive scale. When the oxygen levels reach sufficiently high levels, Mechanon ignites the atmosphere. 10) When the alien occupation is finally driven off the planet, they decide to employ a "scorched earth" policy by unleashing a nuclear holocaust. And if any of my players are reading this, you can be certain they're sweating right now.

Re: Wanted, South American Supervillains ! In my campaign I've used several villains from Mexico, but you could relocate them to any spanish-speaking country. Hijo del Sol (trans. "Son of the Sun") If you play in my campaign, don't read the following spoiler. Anyone else is welcome to read it. At one point a team of Hijo del Sol's followers tangled with the PCs. I remember most of the team, but not all of it: Tiempo Vola (trans. Time Flies) His major powers included Aid to SPD (which he used on his entire team) and Suppress SPD. Montana (pronunciation: there's a tilde over the "n", so it's pronounced "moan - Tanya") (trans. Mountain) This brick has linked Growth and Density increase. Bandido (trans. Bandit) This is Montana's brother. Unlike the rest of the team, Bandido has NCM and no superpowers. However, he is built on the same number of points and is an extremely skilled shot (combat levels, find weakness, etc.). The PCs decided he was a threat when they saw him do a 1-shot KO with his hunting rifle against a guy in powered armor. Cerebra (trans. Mind) The team's mentalist. She's not versitile, but has TK and Ego Blast. I'm having difficulty remembering the last member, but I think it was Infierna (trans. Inferno and/or Hell) She's a fairly standard fire-based energy projector. Another campaign I played in (long ago) had a group called the South American Nazis. These were the children and grandchildren of Nazis who had fled to South America after WWII. The only one I remember was Uberfrau (trans. Overwoman), a brick.

Re: Gadgets...GADGETS!!! I was just working on a utility belt for a hero. Here are the ideas that I came up with. (Most are 10 point ultra slots, so two can be equipped at a time.) Utility Harness: 20 pt multipower; OIF (-1/2) (20 pt/13 pt) (u) Airhypo of Endorphins: 2d6 healing to STUN; OAF (-1) (20 pt/1 pt) (u) Airhypo of Nanosurgeons: 2d6 healing to BODY; OAF (-1) (20 pt/1 pt) (u) Airhypo of Stimulant: 2d6 healing to END; OAF (-1) (20 pt/1 pt) (u) Binoculars: +6 PER vs range mods w/ sight group; OAF (-1) (9 pt/1 pt) (v) Grapple Line: 17" swinging; OAF (-1) (17 pt/1 pt) (u) Hearing Protection: 10 pt flash defense (sound); OIF (-1/2) (10 pt/1 pt) (u) IR Goggles: IR vision; OIF (-1/2) (5 pt/1 pt) (u) Microscope: 1000x magnification; OAF (-1) (9 pt/1 pt) (v) Parawing Glider: 17" gliding; OIF (-1/2) (17 pt/2 pt) (u) Penlight: images, 1" radius; OAF (-1), only to create light (-1) (10 pt/1 pt) (u) Polarized Goggles: 10 pt flash defense (sight); OIF (-1/2) (10 pt/1 pt) (u) Rebreather: life support - independent air supply; OIF (-1/2) (10 pt/1 pt) (v) SCUBA Flippers: +17" swimming; OIF (-1/2) (17 pt/2 pt) (u) Shotgun Microphone: +10 PER vs range mods w/ normal hearing; OAF (-1) (10 pt/1 pt) (u) SureGrip Gloves & Shoes: clinging; OIF (-1/2) (10 pt/1 pt) (u) Truncheon: 3d6 HA; OAF (-1) (9 pt/1 pt) This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. I haven't gotten around to working up details like the GPS, shaped charges, smoke pellets....

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Quotes from Owlcon From Steve Long's Pulp Hero game: Randall (ooc): "Is there anyone here that I don't have romantic history with?" ---------------------------- ---------------------------- Upon returning from the adventure. Doctor Otto von Kiessler: "Where have you been?" Randall: "Doctor, you wouldn't believe me if I told you.... So let's get some drinks, and I'll tell you the whole story." Thanks for running a great game, Steve. ---------------------------- The best quotes of the week, however, came from a Starchildren game. The rock band is crashing for the night at the the house of their manager (John Elton) while he is occupied elsewhere. Georgie: "I'll crash in John Elton's bed." Taupin: "You're not the first boy to sleep there." Georgie: "I'm the first one to sleep there alone." ---------------------------- Half the bandmates are aliens, who are affected by alcohol like it's caffeine, and by caffeine like it's alcohol. Georgie (describing his actions): "In the morning, I come downstairs carrying two bottles of beer. I give one to Maxwell and take one of his mugs of coffee." ---------------------------- The band arrives at a radio station for an interview. Hoffman (welcoming the band): "You can go down to the lounge. There's a cheese plate." Roxy: "You had me at 'You can go down'."

Re: Help with player knowledge vs. character knowledge I wouldn't leap to that conclusion. However, I would make the assumption that someone who is standing on one leg may be a little off balance, and ripe for being knocked down.

Re: Everyone loves a scavenger hunt! One ninja of any clan The left gauntlet from any suit of powered armor that doesn't belong to the competitor One dragon's egg One asteroid of 500kg or greater mass One fully intact pipe organ One talking dog (the dog must be fully organic) Gravitar's autograph One bottle of wine in excess of 500 years old One perpetual motion machine One reality TV "star" One holy relic (relic must be recognized as such by the Vatican) One forged letter of authentication from the Smithsonian One enigma machine

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In a teen superhero campaign, Raphael is talking to his DNPC girlfriend, Danielle. Raphael: I need to take off for a little bit. Something came up. Danielle: Oh. Okay. (pause) Danielle: With who? Raphael: Just some people I know. Danielle: Oh. Okay. (pause) Danielle (suspiciously): Will there be girls there? Raphael: Uh.... Uh.... (SLAP)

Re: The Benchwarmers: Semi-super heroes I was toying with a "benchwarmer" supergroup concept for a while. The best character I came up with was... Olfactor: Discriminatory Smell, Tracking Smell, Ranged Smell, Targeting Smell, +PER to Smell Group Shape Shift for Smell Group only Images for Smell Group only The guy is a crimefighter, but primarily on an investigative level. He can smell a meth lab a mile away. He can find drug dealers and users. He can track fugitives. Benchwarmer Group concept: (In a "recent origins" universe) the benchwarmers used to be sidekicks in superhero-sidekick duos. The U.S. government decided to form their own team, so they invited all the superheroes to join it ... but they weren't interested in the "weak" sidekicks. However, the sidekicks were more valuable than they appeared to be. They were the investigative half of their respective pairs. When the ex-sidekicks form their own team, they're not nearly as laughable as people expect.

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas! Small nitpick: Mechanon has very good skills with chemistry. Any body (even a dead one) is organic. Even oil and coal are organic, and they've been dead for a much longer time. However, Mechanon might not view Takofanes as being an organic life form (depending on programming), so your overall idea works just fine.

Re: Height & weight ratios DENSITY A lot of heroes aren't made of flesh and bone. After you come up with a W from TransMetahuman's formula, you can multiply it with the density of whatever substance your hero is made of. Here are some samples below. Aluminum 2.7 Basalt 3 Diamond 3.5 Granite 2.7 Ice 0.9 Iron & Steel 7.9 Titanium 4.5 Water 1

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Two members of the team had combat driving -- primarily so they could speed around town without crashing. The most cautious member of the team was riding with the more reckless of the two.... Martin Knight (mentalist): "You feel a sudden urge to drive prudently."

Re: Campaign backstories Recent Origins My Champions campaigns have been a series based shortly after the "origin" of superpowers. The first one began 6 months after superpowers appeared. The following one began about 2 1/2 years after superpowers appeared. The last one jumped a decade or so into the future. This has the following benefits: #1 Nobody is certain what caused the origin of superpowers. In the first campaign, nobody had a clue. In the second campaign, a couple PCs became convinced that the origin was connected to the appearance of alien artifacts. In the third campaign ... well, the truth might finally come out. #2 I don't need to explain why technology hasn't kept up with supertech. For the first two campaigns, there just wasn't time for the tech to keep up. For the third, there have been noticeable advances over the previous two campaigns. #3 In campaigns with earlier origins, you either need to completely re-write the timeline, or you need to come up with a plausible explanation why the timeline so closely parallels our own, despite the presence of superpowers. In an "Origin" or "Recent Origin" campaign, you can start diverging at the present time, without having to alter the past. #4 You can demonstrate some organic growth to crucial elements of the campaign world. My version of Genocide/IHA started out as a grassroot organization of rednecks with assault rifles. Over the course of the campaign, they started fielding assault robots and powered armor. This put forth the very obvious question: "Who is providing the money and know-how for all this technology?"

The Bank Robbery The Bank Robbery The Money Got Away The PCs encounter a standard bank robbery: a pair of supervillians accompanied by a small group of normal minions. The PCs should be able to easily defeat and capture them all. The PCs are the heroes of the day ... until the bank takes inventory and discovers approximately $300,000 is missing. Did one of the robbers get away? Were the robbers the diversion for the real robbery? Did one of the PCs get sticky fingers? An Inside Job The PCs respond to a nighttime break-in at a bank. There's a 6" hole in the bank wall, a 6" hole in the bank vault, and the door of one of the safe deposit boxes is hanging by one broken hinge. The safe deposit box is empty, but nothing else seems to be stolen from the bank. Upon examining the damage closely, it becomes apparent than this wasn't a break-in. Instead, something broke out of the safe deposit box, out of the vault, then out of the bank. Who owns the box? What broke out of the box? Was anything else taken from the box?

Stormfront? This was my "Tropical Storm Allison" adventure. It will not work if you have a hero with weather control powers. Stormfront? "Rain, rain, go away." Inclement weather hits the campaign city, and it starts to rain ... a lot. At first it's just a side note to the real action, a couple days of steady rain. Finally, the heavy rains move in. News reports from around the city focus on the flooding. Underpasses are flooding. The banks of the river are near the crest. People are getting trapped on the tops of their cars. Cars are stalling out from driving through deep water. And it's still raining. If the heroes go out, they'll witness firsthand how bad it's gotten. Most vehicles will float (for a few minutes), leaving them at the mercy of the current. As the river overflows its banks, some cars get swept into the river (possibly with passengers inside). Ambulances can't get past the stalled vehicles in the street. Some of them may even stall as they try to push through deeper water to save patients. The fire department's resources will be stretched to the limit in its "emergency rescue" role. If a fire breaks out, they may not be positioned to stop it. And it's still raining. Much of the city has lost power, but back-up generators are working. Homes are starting to flood, and not just down by the river. Water can't drain fast enough, so most neighborhoods are starting to see water getting into some homes. Where is the heroes' base? What do they keep in the basement? The back-up power generator? The computer/AI? The vehicles? The prison cells with captured villains? Their occult library? Even if a base is completely water-tight, it can still flood. The water gets above the level of the door, and then you convince the heroes to open the door. It's not that hard. The entire city will be sending the heroes urgent requests for help. The hospital's back-up generators are in the basement, and they just got flooded out. (That was the case for the entire Medical Center during Allison.) Hospitals are losing critical departments as their basements flood: radiology, hematology ... (one hospital even had their ER in the basement). Is the jail near the river? Are they having to evacuate prisoners to higher floors? What if a riot or jailbreak starts, as prisoners take advantage of this rare opportunity? Unless the heroes choose to spend the entire adventure trapped inside their base, they'll have to open the door and let the water in. It's still raining, and the water's still rising. Just in case your heroes aren't busy enough, a team of aquatic supervillains decides to hit some high-profile targets. They can now use that 20" of swimming down Main Street, and the police can't make it to the Gem & Jewelry Exchange in time to stop them.... Plot Complications: Is this a natural storm? Is Stormfront (or some other villain) behind it? If so, was the whole storm being used as cover for an even bigger crime? If a villain is creating the storm, where do you search when the "crime scene" covers 100 square miles or more? And can you begin to cover all the potential targets if the storm is just a diversion? Mood: You're standing in your home as water starts coming in under the door and through the foundation. It's been pouring rain for hours, and it shows no sign of letting up. And you can't stop the rain. The real feeling I tried to convey with this adventure is that some things (in this case, a very "normal" storm) are beyond the power of the heroes. The heroes can mitigate the damage, but they can't prevent it.