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Kevin Scrivner

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  1. There's also the magazine version: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/text/Shadow-ks.txt Don't forget The Spider, the original web swinger: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/text/The_Spider-ks.txt And the duo who protects Our America from criminals even the G-Men cannot catch: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/text/Green_Hornet-ks.txt http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/text/Kato-ks.txt
  2. A Non-Issue Not to derail the thread or anything, but it's pretty much a non-issue whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. Optimist: Depending on continuity, Batman has trained four Robins, two Batgirls, at least one Batwoman, and Ace the Bathound. The Huntress is still tooling around. Then there are all those "The Brave and the Bold" visiting vigilantes of the week. SOMEBODY'll be around to tackle the thugs no matter what happens to Batman. It's a wonder all those crime families and the Arkham Asylum crowd have managed to survive these six-odd decades with all the costumed crimefighters roaming the streets. Pessimist: On the other hand, all those crime families -- not to mention the Arkham Asylum crowd -- are still terrorizing the Gotham populace despite the ferocity of the Bat Family and Wayne Enterprises' billions. Sixty years of ruthless crime-fighting haven't tamed the violence or curbed the greed that seems instrinsic to the city, and the idiotic populace still won't support the death penalty for the mass of mass murderers intent on thinning its ranks. The Washington politicos who wanted to abandon Gotham after the No Man's Land earthquakes had the right idea. Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon should retire to Tempe, AZ, and let Gotham fall into the ruin it so richly deserves.
  3. Other super soldiers Other Golden Age super soldiers... The Shield (the original flagsuit hero) gained enhanced reflexes and toughness from a combination of chemicals and radiation and topped it off with a bullet-proof suit. He was strong enough to slap bad guys around but not so strong he could tear through walls or anything. He was assigned to the FBI rather than the military.
  4. After reading through the thread, I don't think it is so much an agents issue as a GMing issue. Opponents of any type should challenge the player-characters without being unbeatable. The point is to have fun and leave the players with a feeling of accomplishment. As a GM, I never threw villains at the PCs that I though could overwhelm them. They might be bloodied and bruised but the good guys should win in the end. This was true no matter what genre I ran. It's a basic issue of fairness. When I threw Dalek clones at my pulp adventurers I made the robots tough but I also wrote up only five of them. The heroes couldn't go one-on-one with the invaders but they could team up on them and gradually take them down one at a time. The final robot nearly killed a couple player-characters but then got stuck in the mud (it had rained heavily during the night). In the same way, when I confonted the heroes with Dr. Fu Manchu and the Si Fan, there were hordes of goons but they were 20- to 50-point normals with standard knives and revolvers, not super ninjas with exotic gear. Only Fu's chief henchmen had that kind of power -- of course, the heroes would never get a chance to manhandle the insidious Doctor himself. Much as I would have enjoyed it, throwing a Lovecraftian demon at them from the 1st edition Beastiary was out of the question
  5. The first character I built when I got Champions in 1983 was Space Ghost, based on his Hanna-Barbera namesake. The first character I actually played was Phase, a teleporting, desolidification scientist type whose unstable life energies were contained in a form-fitting metal suit.
  6. Tut, tut. What I want to see is the 3rd edition Guardians in 5th edition continuity. With all the Experience Points they'd have garnered since 1983, they'd teach these Johnny-Come-Lately heroes some manners.
  7. A tail and the terrible tusked turtle Also, shouldn't Godzilla have additional Stretching and a HA attack to represent that long, lashing tail? It's not as if he needs another devastating attack but he makes good use of his tail in several movies. This thread has focused on Godzilla, but what about the other monsters? Has anyone attempted to write up Mothra or Rodan? What about the other studio's prime competitor: Gamera? How would the Guardian of the Galaxy stack up against the King of Monsters? Or should that be the subject of another poll?
  8. But what about a write-up for Captain Barbossa, the undying pirate leader? The scene where his crew walked across the sea floor to attack a ship... brrrr!
  9. Here's another monster link that highlights the various Godzilla versions: http://rodansroost.com/rodansroost/ One of Godzilla's minor powers is the ability to fly short (for him) distances using thrust from his atomic breath. Would you write that up or leave it as merely a clever move with other powers?
  10. Many pulp suspense and horror stories were collected in "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" and "Rivals of Weird Tales" -- two hardback anthologies published in the 1980s. Others worth reading: H. Rider Haggard -- "She" and "King Solomon's Mines." Haggard was challenged to write a novel as good as Rober Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and practically invented the jungle romance. Rudyard Kipling -- Best known today perhaps for "The Jungle Book" and "Just So Stories." But he wrote a lot of exotic tales of suspense and the supernatural, too. "Mark of the Beast" and "The Haunted Rickshaw" are two excellent short stories that come to mind. Arthur Conan Doyle -- Again, he's best known for creating Sherlock Holmes, but Doyle also created Professor Challenger of "The Lost World" and "The Poison Belt." Like Kipling, he snuck in a few science fiction and supernatural stories in there, too. Sax Rohmer -- Creator of the insidious Doctor Fu Manchu. He also wrote a series of mysteries that didn't feature Fu such as "The Golden Scorpion," "The Yellow Claw," "Bat Wing." Zane Grey -- Go West, young man! Grey's books such as "The Border Legion" and "The Thundering Herd" were written in the early part of the 20th century when real cowboys and not-quite-subdued Indians were still around. Action light on graphic violence, genuinely heroic cowpokes, and a big side order of romantic suspense. H.P. Lovecraft -- Creator of the Cthulhu Mythos and a worth successor to Edgar Allan Poe in the scare department. Edgar Rice Burroughs -- He's already been mentioned, but don't neglect his John Carter of Mars and Carson Napier of Venus sagas. The Pelucidar novels about a world inside a hollow Earth are good, too. Personally, I think the whole "pulp" schtick encompasses more than just the serialized novels published in cheap magazines. The genre includes the whole '20s, '30s, and '40s pop cultural scene. With that in mind, I'd include movie serials, newspaper strips, and radio dramas -- all of which cross-fertilized each other and the pulps. The Shadow was created on radio and migrated to the pulps. "Terry and the Pirates," rip-roaring pulp adventure in China, was a newspaper daily comic strip. "Tailspin Tommy" and "Smilin' Jack" were heroic aviators that also began as newspaper strips and moved to other media. In addition to obvious radio show selections such as "The Shadow," "The Green Hornet," "Suspense," and "The Lone Ranger," don't neglect nearly forgotten adventure classics such as "I Love A Mystery," "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar," "Bold Venture," "Escape," "Chandu the Magician," and "Box 13." Also, many of the famous pulp detectives migrated to radio: The Saint (Vincent Price), Nero Wolfe (Sidney Greenstreet), Sam Spade, Philip Marlow (Gerald Mohr), Richard Diamond, The Falcon, among others. You can catch many of these radio shows online at http://www.radiospirits.com and http://www.radiolovers.com Favorite movie serials include "Daredevils of the Red Circle," "Drums of Fu Manchu," "Mysterious Doctor Satan," "Adventures of Captain Marvel," "The Crimson Ghost," "G-Men vs. The Black Dragon," "S.O.S. Coastguard." All of these are still available on VHS or DVD or can be borrowed through your interlibrary loan program. Good sources for serials include http://www.moviesunlimited.com and vcihomeentertainment.com
  11. Another thing to notice is that all the tall tale heroes are vocation-related with abilities to match their jobs: Pecos Bill is the best cowboy there is; Paul Bunyan is the best lumberjack there is; Feebold Feeboldsen is the best backyard tinkerer there is; Jack Magnarmac is the best steel worker there is. So in your Western Champions campaign you wouldn't want to, say, have two cowboy characters because they both can't be the best. Instead, you'd have the best cowboy, the best frontier newspaperman, the best blacksmith, and so forth. That would also limit the powers your player-characters would have. The best frontier blacksmith wouldn't need to fire Zeta Rays from his eyes but he'd probably be impervious to heat-based damage (so he can handle and shape iron with his bare hands), the strength to squeeze stubborn metal into the shapes he wants, and Inventor skill out the wazoo (again, limited in application by the 19th Century setting). Also notice that tall tale heroes don't worry about origins much. Paul Bunyan was just born that way, growing outrageously fast after his birth. Pecos Bill fell out of his parents' wagon while it was crossing the Pecos River (hence his name) and was raised by coyotes. Jack Magnarac and Feebold Feeboldsen were immigrants apparently fresh off the boat from Europe. Johnny Appleseed was an entirely ordinary New England youth until he chose a vocation and headed West. Your player-characters' origins should be similar -- no space aliens, cosmic entities, elven halfbreeds, etc. Don't worry too much about how they got their powers; as long as they are appropriate to and consistent with the character's vocation it's all right.
  12. The Feel I thought about this a few years ago myself. A Western Champions campaign should feel like a tall tale. Powers and abilities and gadgetry should be tailored to fit the 19th Century setting (perhaps stretching things a bit with a Jules Verne/H.G. Wells twist). Think about some of our traditional examples: Pecos Bill -- super skill levels at riding, roping, shooting, etc., and probably Damage Reduction. He could ride anything -- vicious horses, moutain lions, tornados. Paul Bunyan -- giant brick, masterful organizer and leader, clever inventor John Henry -- brick, tunneling, super endurance, labor organizer Jack Magnarac (I think that's it) -- Hungarian-born steel mill worker, the original Man of Steel. Strong, impervious to physical harm. He was working in the factories back East while Pecos Bill was taming the West. His name means "jackass," reflecting his strength and stubborness. He melted himself down to protest the closing of the steel mills. Johnny Appleseed -- mystic. Single-handedly stops minor wars, talks to animals, expert herbalist and healer. I'm sure you could find other examples at the library. So ... no powered armor. No lightning bolts shooting out of people's heads. No spandex. The powers have to fit the time period.
  13. How about a pacifistic McGyver/The Professor type -- can turn any object into a device of some kind but never creates anything lethal? What I liked about the 4th Doctor was his ability to talk/bumble his way out of situations in contrast to his more action-oriented predecessor.
  14. Humans born and raised on the moon would tend to be tall and willowy by Earth standards, the lesser gravity allowing their spines to extend and requiring less muscle mass to simply move around. Not sure what the fluid distribution would be in the body; current astronauts report fluids tend to shift toward the head. As previously stated, they might not be able to return to earth, at least not without a severe workout program first. But they might have the physical advantage on the deep space missions their colony was designed to support, less adjustment and disorientation in weightlessness. Because of cleanliness issues (dirt doesn't fall to the ground) they might wear hair short or shave all bodily hair entirely -- makes grooming easier and they don't need hair for warmth in their climate-controlled environment. Might have weaker immune systems, fewer germs loose in their purified, heavily filtered atmosphere. If they grew up used to tunnels and tight spaces, some individuals might be intimidated by the vast open vistas of the lunar surface. If they support themselves by hydroponics, they might develop a vegetarian lifestyle as mentioned by others. On the other hand, I can see them raising small animals for meat, using it sparingly as in much Asian cooking. It would be interesting to speculate on what sort of subculture might develop in such an environment. Living in cramped quarters, would they be all touchy feely or have strict rules about personal space? Since there really is nowhere else to go, how would they handle dissent and hard feelings? It isn't as if they could banish someone, and confinement might be moot since they're all pretty confined anyway. How would they blow off steam? Lunar sports sound fun but would they be allowed since full medical help is days away? After all, what happens if you break your spindly leg playing space rugby? Will it heal properly in low gravity, and who will do your (presumably essential and life-sustaining) work while you're recovering? Would people actually live permanently on the moon, or would they go in shifts like miners and submarine crews -- six months on the moon, six months on earth? If it's in shifts, they'd be less likely to bring spouses and children.
  15. I like it! I like the back story for your new powered armor hero. Local hero makes good. Very Golden Age even though set in the modern day.
  16. We've enjoyed several "Doctor Who" related threads here. So take the quiz and determine which "Who" you are. http://quizilla.com/users/winternight/quizzes/Which%20Incarnation%20of%20the%20Doctor%20Are%20You?/
  17. I like the idea of a Golden Age game. But how did you go about establishing the right feel and subgenre conventions for your game? Does point total make any difference (200 pts. for GA vs. 350 for modern)? Did you create pulpish PCs then allow them to add powers to the conceptions? I'd enjoy researching a Golden Age campaign but how to get players into it?
  18. The villainous flagsuit Dardevil encountered was Nuke, psychotic product of a super soldier program gone very wrong. He was a pill-popping, steriod-crazed killer in triocolor body paint. Darvdevil managed to defeat him and turned the unconscious Nuke over to the police to expose the covert program that created him. I've read a little of Archie Comics' The Shield from the 1980s and thought it was OK. Wasn't impressed by the Impact Comics version from the 1990s -- too much conspiracy theory stuff. In the original Shield universe, J. Edgar Hoover was a hero genuinely trying to protect Americans from harm and being a G-man, even in spandex, was a good thing. The Shield could regard his service in the FBI and CIA with justifiable pride. It's hard to be a cynic when you're draped in the flag, although American Flagg managed to promote justice and roll his eyes at the government he supposedly represented at the same time.
  19. It is true that the Western as a genre has gone through different phases. I read one Western written in the late Forties that was essentially a hard-boiled detective tale set on the prairie. You could almost see the cynical hero's trenchcoat poking out from beneath his chaps. My point, however, was that pulp Westerns are still in print, as are the famous movies based on them. Grey, L'Amour, Luke Short, Jr., Max Brand, Johnston McCulley, and Clarence Mumford were pulp authors by any definition. We remember the characters they created even when we can't recall the writers themselves.
  20. Marvel's Captain America gets all the acclaim but he wasn't the first hero to wear a patriotic set of longjohns. Here's an homage to other heroes who've borne their nation's colors. The Shield (1939, MLJ aka Archie Comics) -- The original star-spangled hero, Joe Higgins was an FBI (later CIA) agent with a bulletproof costume and chemically enhanced reflexes. Like Steve Rogers, he got frozen at the end of World War 2 and was revived in the modern era. His costume was based on the shield of the United States, with a blue cowl and shoulders and red-and-white striped torso. Uncle Sam (1940, Quality Comics) -- A Revolutionary War patriot resurrected by his nation's need during World War 2, Uncle Sam wore the Thomas Nast top hat and swallow-tail coat we've all come to recognize. A brick, created by Will Eisner. The Fighting Yank (1941, Standard Comics) -- Bruce Carter, aided by a magic cloak of invulnerability and the spirit of a Revolutionary War ancestor, battled evil in a tricorner hat, domino mask, and buckled shoes. In addition, he wore a white longsleeved shirt with an American flag on it and blue slacks. The Star-Spangled Kid (1941, DC Comics) -- Acrobatic, wealthy Sylvester Pemberton was one of the few kid superheroes who was the leader of the team. His sidekick, beefy adult Pat Dugan, was Stripesy. They had a rocket car but no powers to speak of. Miss America (1943, Marvel Comics) -- Marvel's first female superhero sported a red and blue costume. Madeline Joyce gained strength, invulnerability, and the power to fly from an inventor's electrical gadget. The Fighting American (1954, Prize Comics) -- A Jack Kirby creation and a Cold War curiosity. Wimpy Nelson Flagg had his brain transplanted into the robotically enhanced body of his murdered brother and went on to battle satirical Russian villains. Patriotism that didn't take itself too seriously. American Flagg (1983, First Comics) -- Reuben Flagg, an out-of-work actor in a dystopian future America, finds his television persona taking on a life of its own. He becomes a representative of and enforcer for a U.S. government relocated to Mars after a global disaster. His costume was fairly understated, a black bomber jacket with tricolor lapels, blue slacks, and red boots. And, lacking superpowers, he carried a big blaster. Any others you all can think of? And besides you-know-who, which one's your favorite?
  21. You don't consider the Mummy movies to be pulp? Or you don't consider them to be good? Or is it that you haven't seen them as yet? === Frankly, I forgot about them. I saw and enjoyed them both, and yes, they could be considered pulpish. So could "The Mask of Zorro" since Zorro is a quintessential pulp character. Simon Templar, the Saint, was originally a creature of the 1920s and '30s. Which brings up an interesting point. The Western is the one pulp subgenre that has survived intact. Despite pulp's sporadic success at the movies, actual pulp fiction is hard to find. Not many reprints lately of the Shadow, the Spider, Doc Savage, G-8, or the innumerable detective and aviator heroes. Tarzan and Fu Manchu have become politically incorrect and aren't often seen around despite their fame. Sure, the influence of the various pulp heroes is wide in pop culture and you can find their adventures on the Internet or occasionally on the dusty back shelves of used book stores. But they're a historical curiosity to most readers. But the Western is still going strong. The works of Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, and others are still prominently displayed on bookstore and library shelves. Many classic films ("Stagecoach," "Destry Rides Again," "3:10 to Yuma") are based on the novels and short stories of pulp writers. Audiences who look cross-eyed at the "Sky Captain" trailer will watch or read a Western and never realize they're participating in pulp. And Zorro, a sub-subgenre of the Western, is still a viable commercial property. I find the mention of James Bond interesting. How broadly do we define "pulp"? Both Sherlock Holmes and the Three Musketeers were introduced to the world serially in magazines. Could they be considered pulp fiction? What about the science fiction and supernatural tales by the likes of Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other writers whose better-known works are considered "literature"? In the pulps, the works of new authors such as Lovecraft and Burroughs were introduced by ripping good yarns by authors from the previous generation.
  22. It's been a while I, too, hope it lives up to its promise. The last good pulp movie I saw was Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." You have to go back to the trio of "The Rocketeer," "The Phantom," and "The Shadow" before that. You're right about the critics. Reviewers of "Atlantis" kept trying to compare it with Japanese animation, never realizing its family relationship to "King Solomon's Mines" and "The Lost World." Other films are pulp movies in disguise. "Big Trouble in Little China" and "The Last of the Dogmen" (good Western) fall into this category. And "Dark City" certainly had its pulpish elements. I'd probably include "Pirates of the Caribbean" here, too, because of its army of zombie pirates.
  23. Despite its eerie qualities, the Phurba didn't seem to be able to act independently. It required a controller with sufficient mystical/mental powers. I'd go with a OAF RKA that requires an EGO- or mental powers-based Skill Roll. I wouldn't worry about an HKA effect since the whole Phura schtick was that of a flying dagger. Of course, if both your combatants have Telekinesis, you could skip all the game mechanics and make it a simple STR vs. STR roll to control the weapon. The Phurba itself would just be an ornate dagger.
  24. Memories of Captain Marvel Reminds me of an old Captain Marvel (Shazam!) villain, Mister Mind. He was a wormlike alien with vast mental powers -- but he was tiny and wormlike all the time. A villain like this will need brawny henchmen (with low EGOs) to defend him should the heroes get within striking range.
  25. It's no contest Well, Santa Claus conquered the Martians in an infamous foreign film of the same name, vanquished the Frost King in the graphic novel "Jingle Belle," and overcame the Winter Wizard in the TV special "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Volstag, Batman, Wolverine, and the Grinch are all toast. Cindy Lou Who, who is no more than two, is more problematic. Saint Nick always was a sucker for cute little girls.
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