Superskrull

When in doubt, pile on cheese...

The Mad Doctor Klaus Von Klankenhaussen recently unearthed the unique and long-thought wholly imaginary notebooks of Dr Frankenstien. Chortling with glee, the bad doctor has contacted VIPER and arranged to kill two birds with one stone for them. His experiments with the legendary electrical techniques in his possession has shown that the "electricity of life" needed to create his new minions (and a date for Saturday night) requires the powers of biologically generated electricity to do more than create a shambling husk of a man. Elelctric eels being in short supply, he has recently hired third tier supervillain, Zapmaster J and drained the poor sod dry of every last erg he could muster. Sadly, while this has proved insufficient to create more than a few superzombies, he has proof of his skills and VIPER is more than willing to point him towards our unsuspecting heroes.

It's not too heroic, but...

Contract Escort Service

-summon call girls (competent normals 75 pts available) x2 total, amicable +1/4 (prepaid) OAF- phone, Incantations 11 pts total

-use the rest to get the guy a hotel room and to cover room service

This should hold most non-psychotics.

The City, my The City...

Y'know, up til Agent X/DougMc opted to call me an hour before I was going to work the other day, I hadn't even looked at these boards in almost two months. Maybe I was plotting evil, maybe I was surfing the net looking for obscure anime, maybe I was figuring out that I'm about three sessions from burnout on my current Champs game, maybe I was looking at the shiny objects again, I dunno.

However, he wanted my opinion on San Angelo. I said "Huh?" Then I stopped watching TV and thought about it. I didn't have an opinion on San Angelo. I bought it when it first came out. I read it. I set it with my other Champions books and ceased to think about it.

Why? I wasn't sure. I thought about it for a while. Now I know why I didn't use it. It just wasn't what I wanted or needed when I bought it. I liked the city design and info but I didn't like the heroes and villains in it. I also didn't like the world premise with the singularity changing how things worked and allowing the supernormal to occur. That was really all it took.

Flavor felt off to me for what my style of campaign was and is.

I'm also the only one in my group who owns a copy. I found it easier to have the group help me define our own city(ies) as I've seen the demon of disinterest in their eyes when they have to always ask for details and can't just throw in the personal touches themselves. As it stands, I liked San Angelo better when it was briefly described in Heroic Adventures Vol. 1. I pillaged that book happily as all I really want out of a game supplement is ideas for adventures and people. Anything else, I'll do on my own or with my players' help.

Re: Re: Re: Some more thoughts

Originally posted by Bazza

I'd go with Adam Warlock, I doubt both of them can survive a Karmic Blast.

If you are talking about Thor being attacked by Warlock, forget it. Thor can shrug off a Karmic Blast like it was a 9d EB. I believe it was in the Blood And Thunder storyline.

Warlock also mentioned he hated fighting Thor 'cause he had stomped his butt back when Adam was Him (not to be confused with Her or even It, the Living Colossus)

Apparently, Warlock found Asgardians to be more fortified than most against a karmic assault. This was the period of time where Thor was a nutcase and talking to his imaginary girlfriend while bitching about how Daddy never loved him. You'd think he'd have figured out Odin hated him years ago.

Of course, Thor believes talking eyeballs are a good source of information, too.

Originally posted by Stray Cat

Actually, yes. Our team, the Regulators, has had a full plate ever since we picked up Britney and Bagman (hehehe I love that name!). Dunno what SS has planned for us this week, but eventually we'll get back to it!

 

Cat

Fortunately, I did get around to telling me what I'm planning, and I was able to work with what I came up with, but I'm a little slow at times in getting back to me and often have to fake stuff for a while til the players get distracted by something shiny. Sentinel is currently tracking illegal security tape vidclips of Hideous II dancing to the latest Timberlake cuts being shared on file swapping servers while Colossus is trying to break into show biz. Meanwhile, Ebon Knight is hunting transdimensional baddies and nobody has yet to get back to researching more on those crack-dealing robots encountered a few months ago. Man, I love having a dozen plot threads running riot and watching the players scratch their heads in confusion.

Originally posted by Enforcer84

How bout a five man villain group based on a boy band?

 

The tough one (brick or tough ma)

The cute one (Mentalist)

The Shy one (skulker/gadegeteer)

The (hmmm I don't know what the titles are... I'm pretty happy about that actually)

lets call him the Talented one (Martial Artist)

The Funny one (Blaster)

 

 

call them Mayhem Boyz or somthin...

I feel unclean now;)

It terrifies me that this has already been done and in a Stan Lee-associated production. I take it you never heard of the Backstreet Project? It was a mercifully brief one-shot magazine & series of online flash toons. I was working magazines at a bookstore at the time and had the distinct pleasure of returning like 80% of the suckers.

On a disturbingly related note, my current campaign features a villain/rampaging monstrosity originally dubbed Bagman and later christened Hideous II. This physical powerhouse now smashes heroes rather than doing the singing and dancing that Justin Timberlake is known for in real life.

Be it madness or just a warped sense of humor, I had the idea to have the hapless performer and his then-paramour Britney Spears transformed by the "fatal car wreck" they had allegedly suffered a few years ago with Spears a near-amnesiac and Timberlake now a hideously scarred psycho stalking her across the country. To add to the confusion, there seem to be doubles of Spears and Timberlake still performing as if nothing is wrong.

I'd imagine the recent spit-swap between Spears and Madonna should make Hideous II livid with destructive rage.

Hmm, and it's my turn to run on Saturday...

Re: Re: Re: Creative Use of the Rules..

Originally posted by GamePhil

Did you ever read the old Ultimate Supermage? In it, he goes over a trial he ran in his game where everyone was asked to come up with *the* most abusive attack they could on 60 Active Points or less. The one that made targets cringe the most when used on them. Guess what it was?

 

Let's put it another way: You're fighting a target with, say, 72 Defense. Which one will you hit it with: the 12d6 EB, or the 4d6 Killing Attack? Well, actually, you'd probably use the 6d6 NND, but if you only had a choice of the two, there is certainly no doubt which one actually has a chance of hurting the Invulnerable Man.

Well, I've had as many, if not more, failures with 4d RKAs as successes both as a player and a GM. I've knocked out the team brick with a wimp villain using a 3d RKA and scored 6 Body & Stun on a 5d RKA from what was supposed to be an in-scale evil Superman clone. Most of the time, though, my 4d RKAs seem to produce slightly less results than my favorite attack, a basic EB.

Re: Creative Use of the Rules..

Originally posted by Earthson

This would be your GM's problem but with the END battery you would run low after a turn or two and people would have a crack at you if you were surprized. Nothing too out of balance but those 4d6 RKA's would make me think twice...

Just out of curiousity, why do the 4d6 RKAs make you think twice?

Hmm. Not too shabby. I like the emphasis he placed on developing his insidious mental powers. You might add some Mental Defense to his base sheet unless you use the option of giving characters figured MD. He has a wicked amount of Presence for inducing fear & awe and this should add nicely with his mental abilities. You might buy him a few 'Renfields' like a cop or two, a local doctor and a few politicians or businessmen as either followers, contacts or favors. I'd also drop some points into a base, a suitable vehicle, some level of wealth & maybe a perk to represent his aristocratic background.

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Where are people getting "horn dog" and "spicey" from in The Gladiator? Hugo Danner was romantically involved with a grand total of two women in the entire book, and their intimacy was never more than alluded to.

Well, there was Anna Blake in Indian Creek, Bessie the New York prostitute, Lefty's cousin Iris, Charlotte at Coney Island

and Roseanne Cane the farmer's wife. while no actual blow-by-blows were said, his endurance and ardor was mentioned.

Don't take this as a knock at the book, as if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be sitting 3 feet from my computer.

Originally posted by Agent X

Has anyone here read the novel Gladiator ?

Yeah. Once Roy Thomas mentioned it in Young All-Stars, I managed to track it down. Hugo and Clark certainly share many physical traits, though Clark is blessed with several things Hugo didn't have. The biggest single difference is a purpose in life. Superman has fantastic power, a strong moral code and enemies to vie against. Hugo's power was something holding him apart from everyone. The best time for him was when he operated as 'Le Colorado' saving lives and crushing the Germans during WWI. Both before and after, he was held apart as a man of steel in a flesh and blood world. Superman was veiwed as a hero. Hugo saw himself as a freak.

nice stuff there, good spread of DCs and an interesting mix of origins. I have only one thing I can say.

Why did Crossfire buy Rapid Autofire twice? You listed it near the beginning of his skill list and again near the end.

I don't see him as a ripoff of anything. Sure, he's a rich meaty blend of fantastic elements from foklore, religion and science fiction, but he's always seemed more noble than a mere ripoff.

He's a hero. It's how his creators designed him. He was made in order to save his creators from poverty and obscurity and he kept them fed for years, regardless of later corporate difficulties.

Originally posted by Jhamin

A friend pointed out that while Superman was much more formidable, he was also probably more vengeful than that character should be.

 

I know he has his reasons, but Supes is supposed to be bigger than that. "I'm not stopping till your a smear on my fist" is not what you would normally think of as something Superman would say.

 

Batman is supposed to be the dark one, and Superman holds his own by showing that honesty, compassion and earnestness get you just as far. I hope the new season won't lose sight of that.

TAS Superman has had it drummed into his head that Darkseid is honorless scum who stops at nothing to achieve his goals. Darkseid killed Superman's friend Inspector Dan Turpin in cold blood after being forced to leave Earth by Superman, the New Gods and a decent section of Metropolis' population. That kinda stuff really gets Superman's shorts in a twist.

Originally posted by MuscaDomestica

Well

::Bump::

After last nights episode we can see that Supes does have an enraged disad with just seeing Darkseid. He hit Bats hard when he tried to stop him.

That would dovetail nicely with the Superman TAS shows they've done, since Darkseid killed Inspector Dan Turpin in cold blood and sneered at Superman afterwards. Darkseid and TAS Supes have a rather nasty history and Darkseid has jerked Superman's chain way too often for Superman not to be furious.

Re: Re: The Strongest is.... HULK

Originally posted by Kristopher

That's just plain overkill, IMO.

Maybe, but I've seen him swing a train and it's cars like a bicycle chain and hold up a collapsing mountain range. I think they're being pretty conservative. There's always a problem translating a fluid medium like a comic to a fixed point like a set of RPG stats since the writers have the character do whatever the story calls for, while the RPG stats establish boundaries everyine abides by.

Originally posted by McCoy

But if you follow the Earth-1 / Earth-2 convention, the Earth-2 Superman was never Superboy, so it could be said that all the Superboy stories 1945 on were about the Earth-1, Silver Age Superman.

Yeah, mostly so, I'd think. Just try not to think about when they show Superboy in the 20s-30s. Then again, when the New Adventures of Superboy was coming out in the 80s, he was adventuring in the 60s and edging into the 70s. Made me cackle out loud when they did that Legion guest app in Superman:TAS. Happened in the late 70's-early 80s inside the story and had lots of fun pop culture references to the times.

Originally posted by Klytus

Not until the Silver Age.

true, but there isn't a clear demarkation that shows the Gold turning to the Silver. All through the 40s & 50's Superman's powers swelled to ever greater proportions and due to the superboy stories, he was always shown as having this power level.

Originally posted by tiger

Looking for the old lineup to use in my campaign. Always like the old line up. Thought I'd give them a different name incase I decide to use the present Champions as well.

 

I have several NPC heroes of my own, but you can never have to many. Who knows they might even go bad

So, you think there's a possibility that a team with two Nazi-engineered superhumans might be usable as a villain group, huh? You might have something there.

Re: Old Champions Lineup stats

Originally posted by tiger

Hey

 

Looking for stats on the old champions. Gargoyle, Marksman etc. Anyone know of any websites?

Well, I've never found any stats on Gargoyle but I typed up text files on Flare, Sparkplug, Marksman, Icestar & Rose from the original LS from Eclipse. Those I can email you if you want.

Other than that, try http://www.heroicpub.com/characters

since that's from the folks working with that set of characters these days.

the cow jumped over the moon...

So, I take it you guys weren't plagued by Superman wannabes like I was with Con-El? As soon as DC 1 Million came out, the player called me and demanded to know how much superleap he'd need to jump to the moon like Superman 1 Million. I just count my blessings, he didn't start wanting to "punch through the time barrier" too.

Originally posted by Oruncrest

What issue number was that?

White Wolf # 25 (1991) I found that a few years ago, myself. I'm still looking for another copy of the Space Gamer with Aaron Allston's first review of Champions. Had a green cover with Lightrune, Swashbuckler & the Overlord on the cover. He mentioned how he blended all the old pulp & comic characters together in one world and had them age normally.

I'd love to reread that as it's been years and my memories slowy blur with time.

You might also hunt down Space Gamer #70 (1984), Shadis # 18 (1995) & the Dragon Magazine Archive that came out back in the late 90's. that one has PDFs of Dragon 1-250 & a search function that can turn up such tasty stuff as an old article on other agencies such as the Japanese criminal agency ONI or the awesomely powerful 3rd Ed Champs character, the original Quantum.

my two cents...

Well, I have carefully read this thread that may actually be indirectly my fault since I'm the obsessive guy reading over the Until book and grumbling to Agent X after the game this weekend. I was trying to figure out this Martinez Scale, BTW, and it seems kinda inconsistent.

Anyway, I read the prior posts and I'm gonna talk too, for what it's worth.

When it comes to rule mods for characters I have previously constructed, I am of exactly one mind; I already balanced those point totals. I did it using the 5th Ed rulebook and a calculator. They balanced and there was no attempt to cheese a few points here and there. Tell me why I have to look at a newer book and go online to check the FAQ I have no interest in reading.

FAQ stands for frequently asked questions, not for rules errata. Why should there be anything but clarifications of hazy points in rule use in a FAQ? If I wanted a new rule book, I'd start asking for one. I'd ask for it in print, too.

The big problem I have with these alterations to the rules isn't that I don't want a change but that the change I see is one that is causing further alterations. In D&D, your character sheet can change due to all sorts of circumstances. Gods grant you additional Strength, touching the cursed relic of Whazzat makes you kill plants by looking at them, drawing a card can add 50000 XP or steal your soul. That happens, the only thing you do is note the changes on the sheet. In Hero, you not only have stats, they cost points. Beefcake, hidden deity of gymnasiums gives you +5 Str for saving him from Infomercial Hell, that goes on the sheet as " 5pts -Blessing of Beefcake: +5 Str" & 5 XP are added to your total or listed as Beefcake Bonus 5pts over by disads and XP. Tell me why I have to suddenly add Stupid New Rule Bonus

6pts to Water Witch's sheet because her book-legal Str 50 TK Water only (-1/2) now costs more or lower her TK to Str 43 or so to make up the 10 active point difference.

The problem isn't that there was a change, it's that the change messes with the characters and they need to be rebalanced, pointwise. It's annoying to be told that I need to keep shelling out the bucks and checking the web lest my character grow obsolete.

Here, try some of these...

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/1674/MAIN.html

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/6249/

http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/battlespire/85/homepage.htm

http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/meridian/544/mshstats.htm

can't really vouch for their accuracy but it's a start.

over on the DC Heroes/Mayfair Engine/Blood of Heroes side, we have http://www.writeups.org/ which despite using yet another system to convert from, has many marvel characters and rather complete histories where possible.

and finally, I love these two sites, despite them not being actual game sites...

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/index.htm

and

http://www.users.xeroanime.com/~handbook The latter of which Morningstar already pointed out.

Also, I'd just resign myself to doing the old stand-by of hitting the links pages and webrings that you discover prowling through search engines. It can be a hobby and a research project all in one fun time-sink.

I realize that there aren't going to be any HERO power descriptions in it, but you might check out the novel Slipt by Alan Dean Foster. The main character has a subtle but nasty teleportation ability that results in several intriguing applications you could swipe.