Superskrull

Re: WWYCD: An Alien among them

OK, multiple moons and an alien world. Tech level circa 30's to 50's by all appearances. Local humanoids are definitely not the same phenotype as humans and there's no free local language conversion effect going. What to do?

Well, none of my guys are the world-conquering opportunist types so that's not a problem.

Gallant- He can be reasonably discrete and stealthy, so it's off to the rooftops to hide out til he susses out just who to approach for decent chances at communication. In the meantime, if there's local problems such as violent crime, that's not too complicated to figure out. Carefully confront the criminals keeping circumspect concerning crushing criminal collarbones. Mangling steel in his bare hands should prove sufficiently deterring to them.

It's gonna take a while to pick up the local language and he'll try not to horrify people too much. Good thing he's immortal.

Thunderbolt- well, he's got a few really useful mystic rituals that'll make this much simpler to blend in. He's got an ear for language and can use translation magic til he gets a good feel for it. As to appearance, well, he's already using a glamour in his normal ID to disguise his being about 50 years younger than he should be. Tweak that and he's capable of blending in. Using translation spells, he's see about selling fiction and finally find a use for that SC Chemistry he hasn't used since the writing career took off. Meanwhile, fighting crime is near and dear to his heart. In what spare time he can find, he'll see what the locals have in the mystic lore department and work on spells to probe the hole in spacetime he tore landing here.

Doremo- time to dust off the old ninjutsu techniques and fade into the woodwork. He's pretty pragmatic so swiping food until he can find a way to honestly earn a living isn't gonna make him lose sleep. His allies in the superhuman community would be working to retrieve him and they've got some experience in dimensional physics and other mad sciences. He'll bide his time, work on learning the language(s) and see what they might have in the way of local martial arts. Never know what you may learn. As to crimefighting, he's gonna bone up on local physiology to avoid killing people on accident but he's certainly not going to let innocents suffer no matter what they look like.

Kid Dynamo- "Aw, man! Not another alien world!" Regardless of his complaints he's going to get involved. Meanwhile, he'll see about getting his safety locks undone in the hopes of remodeling his body (temporarily) into something more suited to local appearances. At least right now he's not stuck in grade school.

I doubt he's coming out of Combat Mode anytime soon. Wonder if the human body he's been cursed with will remodel itself when he retools his Combat Mode? As to getting home, that's gonna take serious local tech uplifting. This could be a while...

As to local lack of superbeings, Doremo isn't going to give it much thougt while the other three know one superhuman leads to more. Moreover, McCoy's dolphin character missed one other obvious problem. The PC, whoever he/she/it may be, just appeared at the far end of a breech in spacetime. If that's not an excuse for the locals to start experiencing 'origins', I don't know what is.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

The Waking Edge -Jethro Tull

Re: Thoughts on Solara

What's handy, that Ruth's an experienced school nurse or that she hardly ever panics?

Both. If she's gifted with a dry wit too that would only make it better.

Re: Thoughts on Solara

Tim/Solara has a small, informal support team.

 

His mother, Ruth, is the heart of it. She's an experienced school nurse who has seen so many weird things that she hardly ever panics.

That's handy.

Another is Doctor Arcane, think Doctor Strange or Jason Blood. He's a contact of Solara's, but not Tim's. She sometimes goes to him for advice.

C'mon, it's Dr Arcane. The Doc knows more than he lets on. It's classic.

A third is Cathy, the ghost of Tim's favorite baby sitter. Since she was at a formal affair the night she was killed in a drive-by shooting, she'll always appear in an evening gown and long gloves. (A group of punks were firing at a rival gang who were ten feet away from Cathy and stray bullets killed her.)

 

She occasionally stops by to chat with Tim and help him understand his new life. Although intangible, Cathy can become solid for 30 seconds each visit. She does this to hold Tim's hands and hug and kiss him. (Although most boys his age wouldn't like this, Tim doesn't mind. Of course, he always had a crush on her.)

OK, first, that's creepy. Second, how long ago was she killed and how old was she when she died? Third, is Cathy choosing to manifest or is this a side aspect of Tim's Solara-powers? Fourth, he's totally scheming to bring her back to life, you know, 'cause that's how these things work.

On a barely related tangent, a sorcerer, Dr Phantasm, I made for a game years ago was haunted by the spirit of his dead girlfriend. She'd been killed several years earlier in a botched ritual that left her spirit bound to him. She was often visible when there was fog, mist or smoke in the air. Never failed to depress him because she always assured him it wasn't his fault and she still loved him.

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions

Is there any chance of synergistic power use between two or more Runekriegers? You know, a power they might only invoke in a combined ritual or something?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Boogie-Woogie Amputee -Barnes & Barnes

Re: World at War!: Hitler's minions

Interesting idea there.

You could make the wielder of the Hagalaz rune able to summon Mjolnir. I've seen some translations that indicate it can mean "That which smashes" and that should work nicely Call him Hammer. It's apparently the same word in German. Can't you see him smiting tanks and walloping PCs with abandon?

How about using Raidho to create Deathmask or Totenmaske, the unkillable fighter? Beats the traditional idea of a zombie master.

Manaz could create the Doppleganger, a concept so generic I had to say it.

Other than that, I've been at work all night and I need sleep badly.

Re: WWYCD: A Bomb for Two Cities

Hmm.

Doremo lives in LA. His martial arts skills allow for few options here. Running down the street like the Adam West Batman trying to throw it into the ocean, vaporizing it with a chi bolt or smacking it. Hmm. Option 2 seems like the best of a bad set of choices. He'll just have to deal with the mutation as it comes.

Kid Dynamo lives in San Francisco. His top flight speed is like 300 mph so sayonara, Big Apple. He's got some tech skills, lasers and enough brute strength to throw it into the bay. Since he's a android, he's not too likely to mutate. However, should the effects linger long enough he may wind up mutating once he converts to human from his combat mode. Long story there involving ignorant but helpful spellcasters, y'know?

Gallant lives in Miami. He's a mutant brick. Assuming that thing's under 700kg, he's throwing it into orbit. Let space deal with it. If not, he's carrying it out of town. He's also not gonna be getting to NYC at 120 mph running speed. Lemme know what it does to a guy with LS Radiation, Disease & Bioagents, 3 Body Regeneration w/limbs, 20 pts of Power Defense and a 20 Body.

Thunderbolt lives in Baltimore. He's coating both of those things in ice and chucking them into space. Since his top flight speed is 4500 mph, he should be able to handle both. Again, he'll have to cope with the side effects.

Atlas lives In Freedom City. Since that is somewhere on the east coast between MA & NJ, he can get to both no sweat due to his Megascale Flight.

He'll fly into the upper atmosphere and aim for the moon with a nice fast pitch and a Str of 150. Owing to his divine ancestry, he's suffered weird transformative side effects before that eventually wear off. Last time, he was a gorilla for a week. This time should be interesting as well.

Regardless, I don't have any characters who aren't going to at least try to stop whatever bomb they can reach. Curse that tendency to pick Protective of Innocents.

Re: Thoughts on Solara

A quick question. Tim's Jewish. When he turned 13' date=' he became an adult in the eyes of the Jewish community. This means that he can be called to the Torah and can be counted for a [i']minyan,[/i] or quorum, of Jewish adults. (Ten Jewish adults are needed to hold a public worship service.) Is this a 1 point perk?

No. That's simply a function of roleplaying the character and his background correctly.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

I was going to read We Few by David Weber & John Ringo the other day but discovered after I started it that it was the fourth in a series. On the bright side, after rummaging through a few used bookstores I located the first in the series, March Upcountry, which was still quite entertaining. It's the whole snotty royal brat matures into a decent human story.

At least I wound up finding a series of four decent novels by buying one on a whim.

Re: An Old Quiz, But A Nice One.

Hey! I'll have you know I'm 75% Buttkicker!

Re: An Old Quiz, But A Nice One.

Is it so wrong to want to win?

You scored as Tactician.

You're probably a military buff who wants to have the chance to think through complex problems. You want the rules, and your GM's interpretation of them, to match up what happens in the real world or at least be consistant. You want challenging yet logical obstacles to overcome.

Tactician

83%

Butt-Kicker

75%

Storyteller

75%

Method Actor

67%

Power Gamer

50%

Specialist

50%

Casual Gamer

25%

Re: Terminator II

I've been mucking about with Champions since '88-89. I have a habit now of cataloguing characters in my head when watching movies and TV. It's gotta come in handy sometime, y'know?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

The White Stripes -Fell In Love With A Girl

Re: Terminator II

I'm too lazy for a real write-up. However, from what I can recall of a movie I last watched more than a decade ago, he was basically a shapeshifter.

Give 'him' a few powers liberally blended into the Framework of your choice.

Shapeshifting, shape and voice & such, no scent alteration since John Connor's dog could still tell who he was

some Regeneration, not when frozen, not vs body loss due to heat, can regrow limbs

a HKA, enough to kill a normal in one shot, say 1d6+1, 2 1/2d with Str

a smidge of Stretching (1" or so) for stabbing people across the room

a few inches of extra running to fail to catch speeding cars with

some automaton powers, like Doesn't Bleed and Can't Be Stunned, since 'Uncle Bob' stunned him with a pump shotgun at the mall and stuff but he bounced back real quick

some Desolid, not through solid objects, not vs energy if you don't want to have him use shapeshift to puddle himself under a door

some enhanced senses, like IR Vision & Ultrasonic hearing, maybe some Telescopics on sight and sound, add a few Per bonuses to make up for Terminators not being the sharpest knives in the drawer

As to stats, hmm...

Str seemed around 30, the Terminator series didn't seem to throw cars much and the tussle in the mall mostly smashed up some interior walls, sides, they can always stand there and haymaker for 10d6 to batter through tougher barriers

Dex is tricky, if this is against superhumans, you may wanna cook the stats to fit your group, 15 for Heroic, maybe? 20-23 for Supers range? Lightning Reflexes might work nicely here

Con ? I dunno, they didn't get tired but that could be 0 End on things, with Automaton powers, they aren't gonna get Con-stunned

Body-hmm, I dunno, he took a grenade and de-splatted rather than discorporating like a good little nanomolecular menace, I'd say 20+, make him hard to put down

Int 13 max, and I'd go for 8-10, the Terminator is no master of improvisation

Ego, you may wanna go for none and build him with a Computer mind and some programs but at least he's machine class so most telepaths can't dance him like a puppet, if he's got a score it's none too high, maybe 10

Pre-he's just not as spooky as Arnie untill the freaky shapeshifting and then it's Presence Attack Bonus time

Com variable, leave it at 10

PD & ED are gonna need to scale to what the adventure calls for, and don't forget a smidge of Damage Resistance or Armor

Spd, tough call, a 4 would clean house against the crunchies he usually fought/killed but that's kinda slow against superhumans

Rec- not too big a deal if he's 0 End & Regen style, go for 15 or more otherwise

End - Ennhh, I'm leaning more to 0 End now for style

Stun -50-60, he's like a nanotech psycho-killer with his Can't Be Stunned

Anyway, that's a start for you and 5 or so minutes of work for me.

Re: Thoughts on Solara

Since the definition of magical girl seems to be a transformation into a female with magic powers, then your version of Isis counts. You did say she was based on the 70's TV character, right?

Re: Another possible origin of Mechanon... (Warning: Long)

I'm with Lord Liaden here. That's a nice retooling of Mechanon without losing the important stuff like his desire to kill organics.

Re: Batman's home city is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not Gotham City, New Jersey

Lobe four would be public gardens.

Y'know, technically speaking, those are private gardens. This being a pocket universe used by a privacy-minded masked crimefighter and all.

Lobe six would be a cemetary and crematorium.

Ah, those'll be handy for those oh-so-awkward corpses already left lying around the flotsam of dead universes. Of course now I find myself wanting to make jokes about Jason Todd Memorial Cemetary and this Batman hasn't even gotten off the ground, career-wise.

Re: Thoughts on Solara

So, other than Solara (irregardless* of his being a true magical girl or not) are there other magical girls operating in your campaign world?

* see http://herogame.dans.cust.servlets.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1043110&postcount=7 for more info

Re: Help with a character: She knows she's in a comic book

This is just a pointless quibble with your character concept.

She's wrong, y'know. Herogirl (or whatever her name winds up) isn't actually in a comic book. She's in an RPG.

Hmm, wonder what you could do to sim that?

Re: Mind Titan

Yeah, then swap out his TK brick for a variable summoned TK manifestation and you're in business.

Re: Costumes in a Real World Game

In the "Real World" people who burst into flame tend to get hurt. In the "Real World" the pesky things like physics matter. But you've probably already thought about that stuff already.

Sure. In fact, he covered that by saying people got superpowers, y'know? It's been ten years of superhumans in the game background. One can assume "I can explode like a living bomb... once" Man has already voided his warranty. Likewise, since this is an RPG and not an Iron Age comic, we can run with the idea that superstrength doesn't flex the meat clean off your now splintered bones and that when you bench press a car, you pick the whole thing up rather than ripping it apart. Assuming otherwise usually gets frowned on by the players who probably wanted to actually enjoy their characters.

After all, the Real World and this campaign obviously diverged when the alien weapon turned people into supermen instead of bacon bits or cancerous growths.

Re: Which Villain Do You Want to Play?

Hmm, well, if we're constrained to Champions characters, then I want to be a Mechanon unit that got fitted with a behavior governor, Asimov's Laws style. That way I can still trash-talk the organics but be forced to risk my shiny hide saving them.

If it's wide open, then it's my namesake for sure. There's just too many ways to work him in as operating on the side of the angels. He could be doing some wierd plot like when he impersonated Iron Fist, be indebted to the PCs for something or working to stop a menace to the Skrull race/empire/whatnot. The possibilities are endless. He works as evil plotter, weary veteran, missguided patriot or opportunistic jerk. Plus, he can be scaled up or down dependant on the amount of power being fed to him.

Re: Thoughts on Solara

Hmm. Well, it's your character, knock yourself out. I can only breathe a sigh of releave that Tim wasn't looking through Skin 2 or reading up on shibari or some such before finding the bracelet.

Re: Ghost Archer! Explain this please!

I'd think the side effect reads that the beam is on if the visor is off. Well, if there's no ruby quartz coverings and his eyes are open. Seems to simulate his little control problem fairly well, y'know?

It probably looks a little confusing since people tend to use shorthand when writing up fairly well-known characters. After all, it is a writeup of a character with some easily documentable disads.