steriaca

I noticed that there is no one Hantori Hanzo, but many of them over the centuries. I believe that this is not really a name but instead a title. Sasaki is another name associated with the ninja.

I hope Requiem and Frost get new powers. I can see Requiem developing vertigo based powers (basically Mental Illusions, hearing flash defense adds to mental defense, perceivable (by hearing), only to do vertigo effects). Frost could maybe absorb heat and maybe redirect them. Or not.

3 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

For my part, I would like a more serious Deathstroke. Both versions of the team make for formidable opponents, and it's emphasized that his past failures and years in Stronghold have made Requiem a much more thoughtful, disciplined criminal. But I admit in general I'm no fan of silly supers.

Seriously funny characters are not the same as silly supers. The "funny" stuff is not what they do, but what happens to them.

Of course, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Your mileage will vary. And there should be various ways to run the characters.

Which reminds me, the idea of Deathstroke slowly taking control of the USA village by village, county seat by county seat, reminds me of Across from Exele Saga. 

What do you actually like? A "seriously funny" Deathstroke? Or The Conquerors who are worthy of the name?

"Doctor Draconis" was another straw dog for Deathstroke. Or maybe an independent villain who hired the group as henchmen.

Draconis as a straw man is simply repeating what they did with Dr. Death. And if they keep doing that, some heroes start getting wise to that. And Deathstroke as hirelings is rather underselling a group who actually did have a goal (country domination, working up to world domination). But sometimes life makes hireling status something they have to do.

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I was quite fond of it too. I particularly liked their political philosophy by which they recruited their support agents -- replace the current corrupt American government with rule by crooks who are at least honest about it. That's scarcely more outrageous than a lot of what we see in real politics today. I wish the module had done more with that.

Well, they could decide to return to that. It's just...they are prone to having the worst luck of any supervillain group in the world. They started out as a serious threat to the world, but if anyone remembers Deathstroke they remember how many of their members are doomed to die.

But, just because the group has a bad reputation doesn't mean there is nobody who wants to join the group. 

It might be funny if two of the recruits attracted Requiem's attention by calling their duo Deathstroke, believing that nobody is using that name...

Then their is my idea for Scatterbrain 2. A woman who was slipped a bit of PSI serum when the guy who wanted to drug her mistook it for some designer date rape drug, she awoken with psychic powers but also with problems remembering things.

3 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I'm not sure its worth 120 points to be able to survive terminal velocity unless it also protects you from, you know, being punched as well.  If its just "I fall safely no matter how far" that's really not worth a lot of points.

True. Forcently you can add power limitations to reduce the cost. And it is an option. 

Buying enough PD to counter Terminal Velocity works also. As does buying enough Damage Negation also (othoe like Damage Reduction 100%, it can't be reduced by limiting it to one special effect).

Easy power limitations: Limited Power (Must Be Concess To Use...Can't Be Stunned Or Unconscious: -1/4), Limited Power (Can't Preform Any Action But Movement, Can Still Preform Move Through/Move By/Grab By Attacks: -1/4), Limited Power (Not Usable If Flying Under Any Power But Natural Gravity: -1/4)

Of course, your values may vary. 

Three chears for Hero Machine! 

You keeping 6ed Deathstroke history?

Some ideas...

A member of Deathstroke who is related to the man who was Dr. Death (there strawman in the original module) who quietly seeks revenge on Requiem and Frost, and can be the "Starscream" of the group. "Requiem has fallen. Now I, Doctor Death rule Deathstroke...opps, spoke to soon. Sorry boss."

...The Conquerors. Well, I don't know if Wyvern could survive without Alkie. Or even controllable. 

Well...Deathstroke (only Requiem and Frost) is in 6ed. And Neuron and Arc are in the background of 5ed Stronghold. But of course, you have your take on them. So I'm looking forward to them.

Remember to do a few things...

Talk about Deathstroke's string of bad luck.

...how both groups differ from the official Champions Universe history. Especially true with Deathstroke, as most of there members were killed off and Requiem and Frost (or was that Chiller?) spent a lot of time in Stronghold. 

...maybe a new member or two. If your going to say that most of Deathstroke were made fresh thanks to, say, Dr. Kirby Loo, then Neuron's team (I forgotten there name) might need a few new members (Alkasaure [sp!] is in Champions Villains Volume 3. Wyvern wasn't brought forward. Officially Neuron and Arc were depowered by overexposer to Stronghold power nullifier cell modules. 

Well, there is 100% Damage Reduction available through Advance Player's Guide page 87. Sure, its costly (80 normal, 120 resistant), and doesn't actually get a reduction based on special effects, but does the job quite well.

100% Falling Damage Reduction, Resistant: 120 points. This resists both physical damage from hitting the ground, but also burning up in reentry (it doesn't cover the fact that there is low to no oxygen up there and the freezing temperature up there).

11 minutes ago, starblaze said:

There was a Punisher parody in the Tick cartoon named Big Shot.

I also remember a Punisher parody facing Slapstick, hating all mutants because they interrupted Wheel of Fourtion.

Mostly this subject is better to watch or read about then play, mostly because the players use this as an excuse to get away with evil deeds safely than to actually think of it as "your character had a moral core, it's just looks different from most people",

Cyberline? I liked it as a drug, and agreed with Lord Liaden about the protental reasons why it was changed. Considering that IT'S YOUR GAME AND YOUR CAMPAIGN, you can change it to whatever you darn well want to. Nothing prevents you from making it into whatever method you want. 

Just like you can easily scrub the energy entity from my version of the Ubermachine and make it whatever you want it to be or make it work the way you wish.

In other words, your mileage always differs. 

5 minutes ago, assault said:

 

Validus.

Psimon - the DC character, not the CU one.

Was speaking Champions wise. Othoe someone is going to point to the leader of the Brain Trust anyways...

Well, there are villains who are mindless...

1 minute ago, Beast said:

Guess you did not see the like icon on your original post

 

I did. Thank you. I still felt the need to explain myself thoe.

43 minutes ago, assault said:

That said, a machine that creates superbeings is always going to have to be unreliable, unpredictable, and generally messed up. Otherwise everybody will be trying to build them. (Which, come to think of it...)

Well, the energy being doesn't enhance everyone who subjects itself to the Ubermachine. Some people actually don't have desires for powers, or desires for powers the entity can not grant (it works by the entity implanting its energy inside it). It will not enhance anyone who is already powered, even if the power is latent. Also, if the person who steps into it has even a tiny bit of a wish to die, the entity will sense it and grant it.

Also, the entity needs to sleep and eat. When it is asleep, it won't even notice anyone using the Ubermachine. And if it needs to eat, it will eat the first soul who enters the Ubermachine (it feeds on souls/bio-energy/whatever macguffin you wish to explain it).

Also, Professor Pomegranate regulates the darn thing. Yes, he wants to have more powered helpers. But he seen how Jabberrok turned out. He seen people step out looking worse than Jabberrok, or even never to step out of the machine alive. So...

(Or at least that's my explanation. Your mileage may vary.)

5 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Of course it is, and of course he does. It could not be otherwise!

 

Dean Shomshak

If your going to cover your brain with a high strength plastic shell, your going to want to show it off.

Also an excuse for a few levels of Striking Appearance ("hideous") and a Distinctive Appearance (brain visable in plastic shell).

Also, what other character who is not a brain in a jar has a visual brain?

57 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

The team of super-thieves called GRAB are also in the game just for the money. They go out of their way to avoid hurting people while committing crimes, and have even helped with things like disaster relief. Their patron is a mysterious older man who is "obviously wealthy and powerful," but whose identity is unknown to them. That man is "the Fox of Crime, a fox-faced, teleporting, practical joke-playing superthief who was active in the Seventies and early Eighties, but retired after age diminished his powers to the point of near-uselessness. GRAB is his way of staying involved in the underworld and enjoying himself without risking exposure." The Fox of Crime was last written up as an active supervillain in the Fourth Edition villain compendium, Classic Enemies. He could be your character's father, or even grandfather if you accept that super powers could "skip a generation," or if something happened to leave her an orphan. I can provide more info from his CE entry if you desire it. GRAB is written up in CKC and Champions Villains Volume Two, including the passages I quoted above.

It should be noted that Tiger used The Fox Of Crime as a new member of CLOWN. If your GM decides to use Tiger's revival of the group, then you got to deal with CLOWN as well as GRAB. Of course, your GM might decide that that Fox Of Crime is actually one of the original Fox's children (this, The Fox Of Crime Junior).

57 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

It's worth noting that given the circles they run in, and their attitudes, it's not improbable that the Fox of Crime and Cateran might have "hooked up" in the past.

 

It's possible. Women love men who make them laugh after all...

1 minute ago, tkdguy said:

 

The real horror is that werewolves are man-eaters. So if the Hulk becomes a lycanthrope, he'll eat you after he's done smashing you.

Broken bones are easier to eat.

54 minutes ago, Beast said:

And I use to play in Dennis's game for 27 yrs

And Dennis' version is 100% correct. But since we never seen his stats, your free to create your own version. 

Dennis, by the way, is free to run with my ideas also (since this IS the only place I'll publish it). I'm not going to sue for something he originally created after all.

(I think the Professor only is mentioned a few times in his comics and I don't believe we ever seen him.)

Just searched Comic Vine. He appeared in 13 issues. 

20 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

That's quite an original take on a super-empowering device, with interesting long-term campaign potential. And I really like how you took a silly name and the tiny published history for him, and extrapolated a credible character while still retaining a bit of gonzo.

Thank you. The idea of the character was basically a gonzo mad scientist. So, well, and only remembering small facts about him, and knowing I definitely wasn't going to be correct about him, I went all in with the "wierd science" aspect.

I also went with the "alien energy being" aspect because, well, why not.

20 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

BTW Pythias Pomegranate was named for the Greek mythic character, who with his best friend Damon play out a parable of self-sacrificing friendship. Note that part of the history of Prof. P is that he has a loyal brother named "Damien."

Blame my misremembering his name and my habit of misspelling. I'm better than I use to be, but worse than most people here.

1 hour ago, tkdguy said:

The Hulk... with werewolf powers.

An American Hulk In London?

The Hulkling?

The Hulk Man?

3 hours ago, Trencher said:

Nice. The gameplay feel of martial arts actually being different when it comes to the numbers is one thing I liked about the original Ninja Hero. 

Let us hear how it goes.

That is simply "the laws of special effects" applied to hand to hand combat.

On 2/2/2023 at 3:30 PM, Cloppy Clip said:

I think you've got the core ideas down right. It's been a while since I've gone through Part 4, but those would cover most of the uses of his power that I remember. A Multipower with the different uses probably wouldn't be too expensive either, although you might want some sort of Power skill (maybe flavoured as the finesse needed to word his commands?) to access the weirder uses of his Stand that wouldn't be covered by the normal powers. Since making somebody launch themselves backwards at high speeds was one trick he used, and then never spoke of again for the rest of the series, that would seem like a good time to use a Power skill.

Agreed. I'm sure he did more created uses in his solo stories (This Spoke Rohan Kishibe, Rohan At The Louvre, etc.) Power skill should have that covered.

This is my take on the character of Professor Pythias Pomegranate and his Ubermachine. Any other take is, of course, someone else's take. Since we don't really have, never gotten, and will never get "official" stats for both, we will probably never get them. I MIGHT do some writeups later on.

The Ubermachine And What Exactly It Is.

The Ubermachine is actually a "fraud". The machine is NOT what actually gives people superpowers. What the machine DOES do is open a portal into a place with a sentient energy being. This being connects to the mind of the subject, and grants the subconscious wish of the subject. It also implants a portion of itself within each subject. The Blonde Bombshell wanted to be beautiful, so the entity made her such. Darkion wanted to prove his theory about "darkion particles", so the entity made it so that he could generate thoes particles and make them work the way he wished them to. Jabberrok wished than nobody could harm him, so he made his skin like stone. Spectra only wished to stay by Jabberrok's side, so the entity had to improvise. And Professor Pomegranate himself only wanted to be the smartest person on Earth.

The entity tends to grant people energy based powers, but it is also capable of granting physical powers. It can't grant psionic powers in the normal sense, but can grant physical powers which mimic psionic powers.

The Entity And What He Wishes And Wants.

The actual name of the entity is unknown. What he wants is to empower 666 individuals with part of his energies, then cross over to our section of dimensions. It is up to the GM on how many he has changed, and what his goals are once he gets here. It could be possible that the Ubermachine is actually a portal to Kurin. Or not.

Professor Pomegranate And His Powers. 

Generally speaking, Professor Pomegranate simply has increased intelligence and EGO stats. He supplements his intelligence with gadgets, but rather uses his henchmen to fight.

It should be noted that another "power" allowed his brain to be safely transplanted from body to body.

In the Professor's old body we was rather feeble physically with bright red hair. He is now in his sixth body, an enlarged brain in the body with his brain in an plastic transparent shell he just loves to expose. Over time he has added devices to the shell, like a device which changes thoughts into electrical bolts (a "Mind Storm", as he likes to call it). All in all, his head roughly resembles a pomegranate fruit. 

The Professor's best friend is a man known only as Morese, better known as the Thugmaster. It is unknown if the Thugmaster has ever been through the Ubermachine or not. Thugmaster likes to employ the Professor's subjects, paying the Professor a portion of the profit for each crime. The Professor uses the money to just research for more technology and science. 

Tell me what you think.