Manic Typist

Did this get posted yet?  (Spoiled because it's a little long.)
 
 
 

The nivoncoli also come from the background of my Planetary Romance campaign. They were fairly important in the backstory of the focus planet, Sard, because during the war between Earth and the Conglomerate, mercenaries working for the Transcendent Orodosheth abducted/destroyed the most tech-centered human colonies. This was an important factor in turning Sard into a Planet of Adventure instead of a "normal" colony world.
 
The nivoncoli were also a bit more playable than the inhuman zyradu. Their psychology had quirks instead of being deeply alien. Nobody chose to play a nivoncoli, but the option and the Package Deal were there.
 
(Oh, and this was all 5th edition, if that wasn't obvious before.)
 
 
NIVONCOLI
 
Biology: Nivoncoli look like humanoid antelopes. They are tall and slender, often topping two meters, with short, sleek fur mottled in various shades from white to brown. A nivoncoli has a long, narrow head with widely spaced eyes and short antlers. They have very poor depth perception but a wide angle of vision. Nivoncoli are completely herbivorous.
 
By their own account, the proto-nivoncoli lived in a desert environment with scattered and intermittent food sources. The sporadic food supply created a social hierarchy more like pack hunters than the usual grazer. When a herd converged on a food supply, the alpha male and female ate first, followed by their offspring; then the beta pairs and their offspring, and then the betas distributed food to their own subordinates. Tool use began with piling earth and dung to increase the growth of an important food-plant: Unlike humans, the nivoncoli invented agriculture before fire or language.
 
Like Earth mammals, nivoncoli give birth to “live” offspring rather than eggs, but they feed their young regurgitated food rather than suckling them. Young nivoncoli can crawl within hours of birth and walk within days.
 
Culture: For millions of years, proto-nivoncoli culture centered on finding highly localized patches of food plants, tending them to increase production, and protecting them from rival herds. The result was a species obsessed with territory and property. A nivoncoli’s status is directly based on quantity of possessions. Sapience and civilization merely abstracted the notion of property from food plants to land, money, stock options, art collections, scientific knowledge, or anything else for which “more” and “less” are meaningful. Status competition takes the form of “property” displays. For instance, a nivoncoli might respond to a display of great wealth with a counter-display of encyclopedic knowledge, no matter how trivial the subject: The object is simply to show I have more of something than you do. “Gifts” — from food to portrayal in a work of art — create a relationship of client and patron that can only be countered by some other sort of gift in return.
 
The notion of “herd” also became abstracted from its roots in kinship. A nivoncoli “herd” can be a business, a university department, an artistic movement, or any other grouping based on common property, activities or interests. Kinship bonds remain very strong for most nivoncoli, though.
 
To humans, nivoncoli seem like natural businessmen, assiduous both as managers and employees. Millions of years of pre-sapience agriculture locked in the idea that if you have an asset, you make it grow and use it to attract subordinates. Millennia of civilization and star travel led to the Conglomerate, a loose alliance of nivoncoli magnates whose wealth dwarfs even the largest human megacorporations. Each member of this “herd” owns multiple planets outright and claims millions of other nivoncoli as client-employees. The Owners, who are also called the Transcendents, strive to increase their holdings and status in a competition that no longer bears the slightest meaning to anyone except them. Their schemes play out over decades or centuries, since the Owners long ago hired zyradu geneticists to make them immortal. The multi-species world Trinicus is the closest Conglomerate-owned world to Earth.
 
The Mahal are a less exalted nivoncoli culture. These nivoncoli cut themselves loose from planets long ago to live in self-sufficient asteroid or O’Neill colonies. The latest development in this society is the construction of gigantic planoform ships so the Mahal can “graze” from star to star as opportunity beckons. The first human explorer to meet the Mahal gave them that name because the domes and spires of their ornate spaceship reminded him of the Taj Mahal.
 
Over the millennia, the nivoncoli built many other societies. These are too far away to interact much with humans, though. Humans know the nivoncoli chiefly through the Conglomerate and the Mahal. Nivoncoli space is at least 200 light-years in diameter and encompasses hundreds of worlds and numerous client species.
 
Technology: This race has highly advanced technology that it applies on a massive scale. Kiloscale constructions — huge starships, space colonies, arcologies — are commonplace for the Conglomerate and Mahal, while Conglomerate systems often show megascale engineering such as space elevators, ring cities, and even Banks orbitals. Arid nivoncoli worlds sport planet-girdling canals straight out of early human fantasies about Mars.
 
As biologists, the nivoncoli are second only to the zyradu, and they might surpass them as terraformers. Zyradu scientists may have a better understanding of ecology in detail, but nivoncoli ecological engineers know how to make a biosphere profitable. With the (important) exception of the Transcendents, the nivoncoli never seem to have felt much desire to engineer themselves — just their crops.
 
The nivoncoli are masters of the very small as well as the very large. They have better nanotechnology than anyone else within a few hundred light-years. Both the Mahal and the Conglomerate sometimes plant a “seed” of micro-machines in an asteroid to replicate and convert the raw substance into refined metals and volatiles or even complete starships or sections of an O’Neill colony. The microfacs used in Meroë are based on nivoncoli technology, though much cruder.
 
Just about everyone has experience with nivoncoli technology through the Conglomerate. The hyper-corporation sets up factories on every world that allows it entry to build anything people are willing to buy, from starships to salt shakers. Conglomerate technology is advanced for humans but merely average for the nivoncoli themselves. Anything built by the Conglomerate is sure to be sturdy, reliable and easy to use.
 
Governance: Conglomerate and Mahal societies are built around patron-client relationships. Much of nivoncoli law and government takes the form of personal contracts, spelling out what a client owes his or her patron and what the patron may expect in return. In the Conglomerate, hierarchies of patron and client become almost feudal: Owners grant their primary clients the right to take clients of their own, and to set rules for anything the Owner does not care to define. A typical Conglomerate nivoncoli, therefore, may live under three or four levels of contractual obligation from Owner down to immediate manager. The Mahal organize as stockholder republics (in fact, they gave humanity the model for such governments) with each colony or starship administered by a board of directors that acts as collective patron to the community. In a nivoncoli university (probably chartered under a Conglomerate Owner), students are clients of their teachers and not only pay them directly, they might assist with anything from research to building the teacher’s house. The teachers pay a cut to their department head and supply other favors. In general, for any nivoncoli society — from a military force to a hobby club — the most prestigious member (however that’s defined) takes the role of patron and sets the rules for subordinates. Some distant nivoncoli societies have evolved impersonal, universal codes of laws by abstracting the notion of “patron” to the state as a whole.
 
Interstellar Relations: The Conglomerate is far and away the most powerful alien polity near the Terran Sphere. It’s also the one with the most involvement in human affairs. Various Transcendents own banks, factories and other businesses on every developed world; sometimes openly, sometimes hidden behind layers of holding companies. The Conglomerate owns a great deal of property in the territories of the surellans, zyradu and every other advanced race within several hundred light-years. The Conglomerate extends further than most societies manage because it isn’t a unified government, and its true chief commodities are knowledge and capital.
 
Several alien races are now clients to individual Owners, perpetually paying back debts incurred centuries before. The Transcendent Orodosheth owns the sakaryans’ world and uses them as favored minions and mercenaries. He also owns Trinicus. Orodosheth’s rival Ishalethon virtually owned the surellans. The surellans attacked Earth in hopes they could pay off their debts with a planet’s worth of loot. Neither the surellans nor humans yet know whether the war was really the surellans’ own idea, or whether Ishalethon hoped to extend his reach to Earth — or whether Orodosheth planted the idea so he could sell the UN a battle fleet without anyone caring too much about the fine print. When humanity learned how the Conglomerate operates, the result was the Corporate Rebellion and the World Governance Board takeover. After that, the WGB prevented any Owner from gaining too much power on any human world; but the Transcendents are patient… and they still own large sectors of the economy on every developed world.
 
The Mahal inspire less anxiety among humans and other races, because they have no desire to claim territory. All of space is theirs already. These nivoncoli trade their technology for rare elements such as vanadium or chromium — about the only thing they can’t make for themselves. The wandering Mahal occasionally turn pirate if they think a settlement is too weak to put up a fight, and the nivoncoli expect never to pass by again. Most Mahal are content to sell a consignment of starships, medical nanobots, or whatever, and move on. Some Mahal space colonies conduct steady trade with the Terran Sphere. Mahal colony-ships move freely through the Terran Sphere, “grazing” on Oort clouds and uninhabited star systems, because nobody can stop them.
 
Nivoncoli relations with the zyradu are as subtle and complicated as everything involving those emotionless masters of biotechnology. Most zyradu don’t care much about hardtech, but have no objection to the Conglomerate or Mahal making whatever they need. On the other hand, the zyradu also have no shame about defaulting on debts, and the nivoncoli don’t dare press too hard: the zyradu can fight back too well. Not a few nivoncoli also make their wealth as vendors for zyradu biotechnology, since people of most species prefer to deal with middlemen than with the mercurial and ruthless zyradu themselves.
 
On a personal level, nivoncoli tend to be unfriendly to members of other species: An alien is about as far “outside the herd” as possible. Personal experience can overcome this instinctive hostility, though. Nivoncoli who associate with aliens in a company, hobby group, or other shared activity often come to feel loyalty and affection for members of this synthetic “herd,” no matter what their species.
 
NIVONCOLI RACIAL PACKAGE DEAL
 
Ability                                                                                                                                     Cost
+3 DEX                                                                                                                                   9
-2 BODY                                                                                                                                 -4
+3” Running                                                                                                                             6
Angled Eyes: Increased Arc of Perception (240 Degrees) with Sight Group                              5
Keen Nose: Discriminatory on Taste/Smell                                                                                5         
Sharp Senses: +2 PER with All Sense Groups                                                                          6
 
Disadvantages                                                                                                                       Value
Physical Limitation: Poor Depth Perception, doubled Range Penalties (Infrequently, Greatly
            Limiting)                                                                                                                       -10
Psychological Limitation: Acquisitive (Common)                                                                        -10
 
Total Cost of Package:                                                                                                            7

The zyradu are part of the background of my Planetary Romance setting, but they are not entirely my creation. Some friends of mine have run a Traveller campaign for decades. However, they dislikes some elements of the setting and rewrote them. Notably, they rewrote the aliens to make them more alien. Really, nothing but the names were left. So the vargr stopped being uplifted wolves and became a powerful species of biology-focused and utterly pragmatic aliens (and a lot weirder looking). When I joined the campaign, I offered some additional cultural detail. When I set out to create my own campaign, I did another rewrite (and changed the name and appearance to avoid confusion), resulting in the zyradu.
 
I'm using them again, under the name Hyadans, for my new Champions campaign.  -- Dean Shomshak
 
 
ZYRADU
 
Biology: The zyradu show many anatomical resemblances to Earthly reptiles. They have an internal skeleton, scaled skin and slitted eyes. They also lay eggs. Zyradu have seven limbs, though: two arms, four legs and a tail that ends in a bone spike. They also have four eyes. One pair of eyes sees colors in bright light, while one sees in dim light. Zyradu skin is colored various shades of blue or purple, from medium hues to nearly black.
 
The average zyradu weighs 200 kg, and 300 kg is not uncommon. Zyradu are never unarmed, since the long, muscular tail can curve over a zyradu’s body to strike a foe in front of the creature. Zyradu warriors sometimes affix a gun or bayonet to their tails, along with whatever weapons they carry in their hands.
 
Zyradu share one trait with pack animals, which hints at their evolutionary past: Relatively few female zyradu bear offspring, but those who do lay five to ten eggs at a time. Most zyradu cultures consider motherhood something best left to professionals. Humans have great difficulty telling male and female zyradu apart. Zyradu practice complete gender equality with no sexual politics, to the extent that they lack gender pronouns. Culturally sensitive aliens refer to zyradu as “it,” like the zyradu themselves. Zyradu have no nudity taboo, but may wear clothing for warmth, protection, or because pockets are useful.
 
Culture: Encountering the zyradu gave humanity its first hint about just how inhuman aliens might be. Zyradu lack emotion. They show physical drives to survive, mate and protect their progeny, but no love, no hate, no loyalty, anger, fear or joy. In the most general terms, zyradu seek their own best advantage, balancing what they hope to gain against the risk they must undertake, like the ideal rational actors of classical economics.
 
Zyradu recognize that no one can possess perfect information about the profit, loss and risk of every situation, especially about the long-term consequences of actions. Like humans, therefore, they form ideologies to guide their choices. Each zyradu ideology constitutes a guess about the strategy most likely to assure survival for oneself, one’s social group and the zyradu species as a whole. Ideologies do not possess any moral or transcendent aspect: zyradu do not choose an ideology because they believe it is “good.” They believe that a particular strategy optimizes their chances of surviving to propagate their genes and beliefs.
 
These different ideologies or survival strategies form the basis of social or political groupings that human xenologists dub “clans.” The zyradu term combines the connotations of extended family, political party, and even religion, while not precisely meaning any of these things. Zyradu society includes more than a dozen major clans and numerous minor clans and sub-clans. Many of these clan ideologies draw heavily on concepts from biology and ecology.
 
Zyradu clans are partly hereditary. Zyradu seek to indoctrinate their offspring with their own beliefs because people who share one’s beliefs increases one’s chance of implementing that ideology. It’s not unusual, however, for zyradu to switch to a different clan than their parents. In the remote past, groups of zyradu experimented with genetically “hardwiring” clan loyalty into their offspring, but they found that this made their societies too rigid and insular to optimize their survival. Zyradu show about the same degree of loyalty to parents as humans do: While zyradu feel no love for their parents, they do not feel any need to rebel, either.
 
Most zyradu also belong to extended families. These “phratries” combine several generations. Members usually follow the same ideology, but this is not always the case: Some phratries consider it strategically desirable to place members in multiple clans. The relationships between clans and phratries become at least as complicated and subtle as any human politics, and as volatile. Individual zyradu become leaders of their phratries or clans through seniority, skill at administration and persuasion, and interest in taking the job.
 
Nor are clans monolithic. A zyradu who disagrees with the dominant clan in its region may find it expedient to go along with the majority while attempting to nudge other zyradu to its point of view. If a zyradu sees some clear advantage to acting against its ideology, it may choose personal gain over abstract principle. Zyradu of the same clan do not necessarily agree in every detail, either, or feel mindless obedience to the clan’s interests. Zyradu pursue their own interests first. They do not even have words for concepts such as patriotism or loyalty: They must import such words from other species, or translate them as “insanity.” Zyradu can display altruism, though — some ideologies define the individual as a temporary and expendable vehicle for genes and memes.
 
Technology: The zyradu have developed biotechnology to a very great degree. Their “machines” may consist in whole or in part of organisms genetically engineered to perform special functions. For instance, zyradu do not build computers: They grow creatures whose brains are hardwired to perform intricate calculations or operate complex machinery by instinct. The zyradu grow living buildings, factories, vehicles… and weapons. Zyradu warfare relies on synthetic plagues and artificial organisms of varying lethality. Biotechnology cannot replace all “hardtech” — living fusion reactors or starship engines just aren’t possible — but the zyradu possess great expertise at integrating living and nonliving devices.
 
For millennia, the zyradu have genetically engineered themselves, too. However the species began, the average zyradu is now stronger, tougher, and smarter than the average human. Some zyradu diverge wildly from the species norm because of altered genetics. Most zyradu consider genetic alteration and bioengineering completely normal. They do not understand how humans could fight devastating wars over such an issue.
 
Governance: Zyradu space extends more than 200 light-years. No single polity extends further than a single world, however, and few zyradu societies grow even that large. Zyradu space consists of ever-changing alliances and counter-alliances between clans. A clan may wield enough power in a particular region that humans would say it “rules” that world, continent, city-state or neighborhood, but the zyradu would not. Zyradu space is not a government, or even a collection of governments: It is an ecology in which clans and phratries compete and cooperate like different species in a reef or forest. Even a single clan operating on the fringe of human space, however, may command the resources and power of a human planetary government.
 
Interstellar Relations: Different clans hold different attitudes to humanity and other species. Some zyradu want peaceful coexistence with other species; others regard competition as better for zyradu and aliens alike. A small, radical clan advocates the extinction of all other sapients to make more room for zyradu expansion, but the overwhelming majority of zyradu believe this strategy is counterproductive.
 
Zyradu treat other species the same way they treat each other. Often, they do whatever seems expedient to get what they want. Sometimes that means whatever they can get away with. Trust is one of the most valuable commodities for zyradu: Those who must live in close proximity can count on reciprocal self-interest to keep their fellows honest, but how can they prevent robbery, cheating or default if a zyradu can hop on a starship and vanish? Zyradu use elaborate methods to make default more costly than keeping faith. Humans joke that the zyradu invented the escrow company before the wheel. More extreme measures include mutual poisonings, with the antidote delivered when a deal is complete, or floating assassination contracts on anyone who robs or cheats the client. The zyradu who provide such services work very hard to establish their fidelity, for that is their fundamental commodity.
 
Clan alliances sometimes fight wars with other species. Zyradu warfare appalls humans for its cold-blooded pragmatism. These creatures don’t care about dominance displays, honor, revenge, or other intangibles. They also don’t care about mercy, rights, or rules of warfare. Nothing matters except achieving some tangible advantage over a rival (or victim).
 
The zyradu specialize in biowarfare — spreading plagues to remove an enemy’s capacity to resist. If the zyradu think a foe might become useful later on, they create diseases to incapacitate enemies and supply the cure once the enemy surrenders. If zyradu see no potential benefit from an enemy, the plague kills. Fortunately for other species, the far-sighted zyradu rarely decide that today’s enemy is a threat forever and a resource never. Most clans believe that outright attempts at genocide cause more problems than they solve.
 
The causes of wars against aliens range from the obvious — zyradu want to colonize a world but not share it — to the utterly obscure, at least to the aliens involved. To be fair, some of the wars make no sense to the zyradu, either. The zyradu make no secret that they find much of other species’ behavior difficult to understand — especially humans. Wars between zyradu and humans (or other species) usually end when someone buys out one of the attacking clans or finds a way to make the zyradus’ goal too difficult to be worth the effort. Wars between zyradu factions tend to move in slow motion, as the members of each participating clan ponder each new development and recalculate their own risks and interests.
 
Much about zyradu society and politics remains puzzling to humans, though zyradu themselves insist (of course) that their societies are entirely rational and therefore entirely comprehensible. Other species do not understand zyradu culture because other species are not rational. Individual zyradu possess different sets of information to guide their decision-making, however, and this leads to inevitable disagreement and in some cases to error and less than optimal survival strategies, or even different standards of what constitutes “survival.” Xenologists caution humans to tread cautiously and to avoid reading human motives and viewpoints into zyradu societies.
 
CLANS
At least half of all zyradu merely ally with whatever faction seems strongest or pays best. They desert when they find a better deal. These “Opportunist” zyradu display no loyalty to each other, either — only to their phratry.
 
Many of the clan names refer to biological, ecological or evolutionary concepts — a link to the zyradu’s awesomely advanced biological science. Clans known to humans include:
 
CLONAL MONAD: These zyradu form hive-mind societies in isolation even from other zyradu. Their hives often live in space colonies.
 
COERCIVE GARDENER: These zyradu advocate conquering other species as a means of managing them and, in the long run, assimilating them into zyradu society. When zyradu control all sentient life, other species cannot threaten zyradu survival.
 
COMMENSAL ADAPTER: This clan advocates cooperation with other sentient species for mutual benefit. These zyradu point out the many instances of cooperation between species in every planet’s ecosystem. The Commensal Adapters chiefly interact with humanity through trade, leading some humans to call them “Commercial Adapters” instead.
 
COMPETITIVE SELECTOR: This clan advocates war against other species to winnow out weak societies, both zyradu and alien. The Competitive Selectors think the zyradu can out-compete other sapient species and displace them from their worlds.
 
DISCRETE GENOME: These zyradu oppose any cooperation with other sapients and advocate strict isolationist policies. They would use force, if necessary, to keep other sapients at a distance and prevent contamination from non-zyradu cultures. The Discrete Genome also tries to prevent species contamination between biospheres.
 
IMMORTAL: A defunct clan from zyradu history. About 15,000 years ago, a group of zyradu created offspring who never grew old. In a matter of centuries, the immortals achieved immense influence over zyradu society through sheer accumulation of resources. The Immortals dominated the zyradu for millennia in a stultifying period that many zyradu now regard as a dark age. The Immortals did not make more of their kind because they had no need for offspring to carry on their genes or beliefs, and every other Immortal was a competitor. Over the millennia, the Immortals died by mishap or assassination, or they retreated into ultra-secure, self-sufficient bunkers. Few of them remain active and they wield no great influence in zyradu space. (However, they gave ideas to the nivoncoli who became the Owners of the Conglomerate.)
 
IMMUNAL EXTINCTION: This radical clan seeks to annihilate all species, sapient or otherwise, that could threaten zyradu survival. Other zyradu periodically suppress the Immunal Extinctionists on the grounds that this clan itself endangered zyradu survival by provoking wars with other species. The clan keeps reappearing, however, as a spontaneous sociobot.
 
MUTAGEN: These zyradu engage in radical genetic experimentation upon themselves in hopes of bypassing evolution and finding ways to improve their species. They conduct similar experiments upon other species too, including other sapients when they can get away with it. Mutagens believe that a more powerful genetic science increases the zyradu’s power and safety in the long run, even if it costs the lives of individuals — preferably not themselves, of course.
 
SAPIENT CLADE: These zyradu promote social and biological diversity among sentient life. They think diversity confers flexibility and rapid innovation, and this in turn brings strength and promotes survival. The Sapient Clade believes in protecting endangered cultures — even non-zyradu cultures — just like endangered species. Who knows what gene or meme might become useful at a later time?
 
SLAVER: This small clan rules and exploits a species called the r’yax. The Slavers began as a Commensal Adapter group that tried to accelerate the r’yax’s technological development and ended up conquering them. For their own safety, the Slavers cannot release the vengeful r’yax. The Slavers point out, though, that parasitism is one of the most successful of all ecological strategies. There may be other Slaver clans in the depths of zyradu space.
 
STEEL INTEGRAL: These zyradu pursue hardtech instead of biotechnology. They place particular emphasis on bionics as a way to combine the strengths of zyradu and machine. Steel Integral members can hold any other ideology as well, but they agree that technological development forms the most important strategy for their species’ survival and growth.
 
SYMBIONT VOID: This clan eschews planets to live in mobile space habitats. It also seeks to incorporate other species into the clan society. Humans know little about the Symbiont Void.
 
Humans perceive two major alliances or super-clans in zyradu culture, which they call simply “Clan Group A” and “Clan Group B.” Clan Group A generally takes an aggressive posture to other species. Clan Group B generally advocates some form of peaceful coexistence. The Coercive Gardeners and Competitive Selectors are bulwarks of Clan Group A, while the Commensal Adapters and Sapient Clade lead Clan Group B.
 
Other clans remain neutral or make temporary alliances based on shared interests. For instance, Symbiont Void zyradu usually side with Clan Group B, but they can also work with the Coercive Gardeners if that seems like the best way to increase the species diversity of their space habitats. Conversely, the Discrete Genome sometimes sides with Clan Group B if they think a war would increase contact with another species.
 
ZYRADU RACIAL PACKAGE DEAL
 
Ability                                                                                                                                     Cost
+5 STR                                                                                                                                    5
+3 CON                                                                                                                                  6
+3 INT                                                                                                                                    3
-6 COM                                                                                                                                  -3
Tail: Extra Limbs, Intrinsic (+1/4), No Manipulation (-1/4)                                                       5
Tail: 1d6 HKA                                                                                                                        15
Tough Skin: 2 PD, 2 ED Armor                                                                                               6
+3” Running                                                                                                                             6
 
Disadvantages                                                                                                                       Value
Psychological Limitation: Lack of Emotion, Driven by Self-Interest and Abstract Philosophy (Common, Strong) -15
 
Total Cost of Package:                                                                                                          28

Here's the system for divine miracles, which Father Edmondo is using:
 
Miracles:
With enough faith and God’s favor, some people can perform miracles, ranging from minor blessings to epic Old Testament-style CGI spectacles. [This section is written from a Christian viewpoint, but a Muslim or Jewish version would probably work much the same, just with different “flavor text.” For that matter, it could probably be adapted to most pagan religions if you wanted.] [For game purposes I’m calling this a magic system. But keep in mind that Christians (et. al.) don’t think of their miracles as “magic,” and would in fact be quite insulted at the comparison.] Miracles are accepted as a normal part of the world of Revelations 1001, tho physical, tangible miracles are fairly rare and impressive. Note that the ability to perform miracles is not restricted to the clergy. Kings, great warriors, and even commoners have been known to perform miracles. People who perform miracles are generally revered rather than feared, so being able to perform miracles rarely qualifies as a Complication per se. However characters that perform miracles will often have other religion-based Complications such as Psychological Complication: Pious Believer, Social Complication: a Muslim in Christiandom, or the like. Characters known for performing miracles may have (or develop) Positive Reputation. Faith (Skill): This EGO-based Power Skill is used to control the Miracles VPP. (It’s not really a learned skill, but we’ll treat it as such mechanically.) Various religious Knowledge Skills may also be appropriate. Miracles VPP: The ability to perform miracles is built as a Variable Power Pool.Individual VPP slots do not have to be defined in advance, and are frequently made up on the fly. (Tho common blessings and the like should be statted out in advance whenever possible to speed up gameplay.) The most common miracles are variations of Aid, Healing and so forth. Overt attacks like fireballs or lightning from heaven are rare, but not unheard of. The VPP takes a +1/4 “Miraculous” Advantage to reflect the following:Changing powers out of combat requires a Full Phase Action and a Faith Roll at -1 per 20 Active Points in the effect. Changing powers in combat requires a Half Phase Action and a Faith Roll at -1 per 10 Active Points in the effect. Note this means most miracles will generally take at least a full Phase: ½ Phase to change the slot, and then ½ Phase to “cast” it. All slots take the following Common Limitations, which can be abbreviated as “Miracle, -1”:Conditional Power: Only If God Wills It (-1/2) Incantations (Audible Prayer, -1/4) Unified Power (-1/4). Most miracles will have very few other Limitations. For simplicity, things like taking extra time, use of a holy symbol, and the like are generally handled as bonuses to the Faith Roll, rather than Limitations per se. Typically, the only Limitation that can be ignored with the Overcoming Limitations Maneuver is Incantations [-1 to the Faith Roll an additional x1 END]. Although miracles rely on Divine power rather than that of the caster, channeling that much energy is still tiring; normal END costs usually apply. Divine Aid: This Talent allows a character to occasionally perform miracles that exceed their VPP Pool. Divine Aid costs 10 points.Excess Hero Points can be banked as “Grace,” representing extra bits of divine love and mercy you have earned. HPs can be converted to Grace at any time, and there is no limit to how many you can bank or carry over. (If things get ridiculous, we may have to revisit this.) Using Divine Aid requires spending Grace. Each point of Grace applied grants 1d6 Aid  to the user’s Miracle VPP. (Mechanically, this increases both the pool and the slot simultaneously.) The GM reserves the right to limit how many points of Grace may be fed into a given miracle to maintain game balance. Other characters of the same religion may donate one Hero Point to be used as Grace by a character performing a miracle, but it must be used immediately; it cannot be banked or saved for later. In extreme cases with GM approval, a character may go into “negative bank” on Grace by swearing an oath to do something specific to earn the points back as soon as possible afterwards. You’re essentially asking Heaven for a loan. Example oaths might include swearing off alcohol, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, or whatever. The character then suffers 1d6 of Unluck for every point they’re in the red, and is unable to accumulate positive Grace until they have fulfilled their oath. ItemsA standard (ie - free) cross or other holy symbol has no in-game effect. Or you can buy one that gives a bonus to Faith Rolls. [Holy Cross:  +1 with Faith Roll; OAF; Cost 1 CP] Holy relics, mostly of the Saints, are hugely popular and sold/traded shamelessly throughout Europe. The vast majority of these are fakes, but a handful are real and have genuine power. Genuine holy relics can do anything from giving bonuses to Faith rolls, to increasing the effectiveness of Grace, to providing stand-alone abilities like basic blessings. While it is possible to build a character’s entire ability to perform miracles around their possession of a holy relic (ie – making it a required Focus), we should talk first about what your character would do if they ever lost that item… Blessed or holy weapons may have OCV bonuses, damage bonuses, or even advantages like Armor Piercing. Sometimes just the fact that they’ve been blessed may make them more effective against demons and other forces or darkness. Generally, if you want to start the game with a holy or enchanted item, you need to pay points for it. Items acquired in game are usually free and distributed by GM. Some relics or holy items can only be used by those able to perform Miracles; others can be used by anyone with enough Faith. People Of Faith cannot normally use sorcerous or pagan enchanted items, and vice-versa.

Here are the Sorcery rules, which borrow a lot from the Valdoran Age. None of the PCs went for it, so looks like this is just going to be used by NPCs.
 
Sorcery:  Dark powers obtained by summoning or bargaining with demonic forces.
Most Europeans regard sorcery as straight-up evil. Most sorcerers believe (or at least tell themselves) sorcery is just a tool that can be used for either good or ill. They talk about fighting fire with fire, and the poetic irony of manipulating evil beings to do good deeds, and there is some truth in that. However, bargaining with demons is the original slippery slope to the Dark Side. Most sorcerers eventually wind up corrupted and/or insane no matter how well-intentioned they start out. Assuming they live long enough, that is.  In addition to Summoning per se, a wide variety of Powers can be created with “summon a demon” as the sfx, ie – “I send a demon to go look and report back” built as Clairvoyance, or “I summon an infernal spirit to protect me” bought as Resistant Defense. All sorcerers must buy Sorcery Skill (INT-based Power Skill) and KS: Demons (11- or better). Spell Research (aka Inventor) is needed if you want to create new spells or modify existing spells. Most sorcerers take Social Complication: Sorcerer (Infrequently or Frequently depending on how visible your powers are, Major Effect). Negative Reputation may be appropriate for characters that are commonly known to be sorcerers. In extreme cases: Distinctive Features: Demonic Aura might even be appropriate. Sorcery MP: Spells are typically purchased in a Multipower. Adding new spells (slots) requires in-game learning/research, as well as XP expenditure.Common Limitations: All sorcery spells must take at least -2 worth of Limitations, including:Requires A Sorcery Roll (@ -1 per 10 AP; -1/2) Side Effect  (Minor, on failed Sorcery Roll; -1/4) Unified Power (-1/4) Plus at least -1 of the following additional Limitations: Concentration, Gestures, Incantations, Extra Time, Foci, Increased END, or Charges. The following Limitations cannot be bypassed with the Overcoming Limitations maneuver: Requires A Roll, Side Effect, Unified Power, Charges, or Increased END. Sorcery Roll: Casting a spell requires a Sorcery Roll, at -1 for every 10 AP in the spell. The Sorcerer may get the usual bonuses from taking more time, excellent equipment, etc, and may also spend Obligation to add to the roll (see below). Side Effects: If you fail your Sorcery Roll, in addition to incurring Obligation (see below), the GM will roll on a custom Spell Failure table (TBD) to determine the consequences. Most failure results will be relatively minor, but can increase in severity based on how much you missed your roll by.  Trigger: Some experienced sorcerers have mastered the ability to complete the bulk of a spell ahead of time, leaving only a final key word or gesture to activate it quickly. The number of spells a sorcerer may carry prepared in this manner is equal to INT/3. Spell Research: Most sorcerers learn their spells from other sorcerers, musty old grimoires, or from demons themselves. But sorcerers with the Spell Research Skill can attempt to create new spells, or modify spells they already know.Spell Research typically takes 1 day of research per 10 AP in the spell. Creating a new spell requires a Spell Research Roll at -1 for every 10 AP; the roll for making changes to a spell the character already knows is only at -1 for every 20 AP. (The GM has final word on what constitutes a “new” spell vs. modifying an existing one.) The Sorcerer may take the usual bonuses from additional time, etc, and can spend Obligation to add to the roll (see below). Failing a Spell Research Roll has no Side Effects. The sorcerer can usually try again later, but failing three times generally means the desired spell is impossible or beyond their abilities. The sorcerer must pay XP for new spells or any increase to the cost of existing spells. Obligation: Invoking demonic forces is a decidedly two-edged sword. While demons can sometimes be commanded outright, much of sorcery involves bargaining with them for favors, knowledge, power, and ultimately souls. To reflect this, each sorcerer keeps track of their Obligation, a running total that reflects how much leverage they have over their demonic contacts…and vice versa. While narratively Obligation is typically spread among different demons or entities, for game purposes we’ll treat it as one “fungible” account.Obligation is earned by:Exceeding a required Sorcery Roll: +1 Obligation for every 2 below the needed roll. However, any bonuses from taking additional time, etc. (or from spending Obligation) do not count towards earning Obligation. Exceeding an EGO contest with a summoned demon: +1 Obligation for every 2 below what you need to command the demon. Giving information: Knowledge is power, and providing secret information to demons can buy Obligation proportionate to the usefulness and secrecy of the information. Performing tasks: Similarly, agreeing to perform a task for a demon can buy Obligation proportionate to the nature and difficulty of the task. Be wary… GM reward: As appropriate in game. Obligation is lost by:Failing a Sorcery Roll: -1 Obligation per 1 above the required roll. Failing an EGO Contest with a summoned demon: -1 per 1 you missed it by. Additionally, if a sorcerer loses control of a Summoned demon, any evil acts committed by that demon may reflect on the summoner’s soul as negative Obligation. Spending Obligation: Carrying a positive Obligation balance doesn’t accrue any direct benefits, but allows the sorcerer to spend Obligation on various things:Add to a Sorcery Roll before dice are rolled: +1 per 1 Obligation spent up to a max of +3. Overcome the results of a failed Sorcery Roll after dice are rolled: +1 per 2 Obligation spent. Note this is in addition to the loss of Obligation that accrues from failing the roll, and any Side Effects from the failure still occur. Add to EGO Contests with summoned demons before the roll: +1 per 1 Obligation spent up to a max of +3. Overcome the results of a failed EGO contest with a summoned demon: a sorcerer can spend Obligation to try and bribe the demon into voluntarily doing what the sorcerer wants. The cost will depend on the nature of the task requested, but at a minimum “Don’t attack me and return to Hell immediately” typically costs 1 Obligation for every 1 the Roll failed by. Sorcerers can spend Obligation to add to Spell Research Rolls, essentially calling on infernal powers to help them create/modify spells, at a cost of +1 per 1 Obligation spent. Obligation cannot be spent to overcome a failed Spell Research Roll after the roll. Spending Obligation can also reduce the amount of time required for Spell Research by 1 day per point of Obligation spent. (Time required cannot be reduced below 1 day.) Sorcerers can also spend Obligation to barter information from demons, as if they were Contacts. Cost varies based on the type and value of information sought. Results of carrying a negative Obligation balance:Being in debt to infernal powers shows up as a stain on the soul, which may be detectible by other magicians and practitioners of faith. Even those unable to consciously detect the taint may react to it subconsciously, making people less likely to trust the sorcerer. In game terms, this works as a kind of Negative Reputation, starting at -5 Obligation and increasing from there. As more debt accrues (typically starting around -10), the demons may call in the sorcerer’s marker by asking them to perform a task. These tasks can range from minor to epic, depending on how much Obligation the sorcerer owes. If the sorcerer refuses the task (or accepts it and then fails), the points in negative Obligation convert to additional character Complications – typically Distinctive Features, Social Obligations, or Hunteds. These Complications are permanent, at least until/unless they are bought off by a combination of XP and roleplaying. Keep in mind that Obligation is a practical measure of who’s controlling whom, not really an ethical comment on how good/evil the sorcerer is. Similarly, you don’t gain or lose Obligation for doing good/evil deeds; you gain Obligation by staying in command of your demons, and you lose Obligation by losing control. (Which may very well result in you being forced to commit evil acts, but that’s another matter.) Magic Items:Many sorcerers use enchanted items to assist their work: providing bonuses to Sorcery Rolls, boosts to certain Powers, Endurance Reserves, or enchanted weapons and armor. Most sorcerous items can be used by any sorcerer, but some are specific to the sorcerer who enchanted them. A few are specifically made to be used by non-sorcerers. However, religiously devout characters (to include those able to perform miracles) cannot normally use sorcerous items; conversely sorcerers cannot normally use holy items.   Generally, if you want to start the game with an enchanted item, you need to pay points for it. Items acquired in game are usually free and distributed by GM.

How so? He singlehandedly killed 13 people who were coming to ambush HIM. He killed 77 people singlehandedly- all either trained assassins themselves or people used to violence and otherwise "in the life." This would make him one of the most prolific killers in United States history, if you exclude soldiers in combat zones. And those killers who exceed this record- serial killers mostly- did so over a far longer period of time and to a much more vulnerable population.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

 
No. That is exactly the kind of language that, even if offered in jest, is demeaning and unhelpful, just like saying "Being raped sucks, but at least you're alive afterwards and can heal from the experience."
 
Leaving aside the issues of what happens after death (and therefore whether the murder is "over" for the victim)- it's never over for the friends and family of the victim.
 
They are both horrendous, monstrous acts that should be confronted and prevented at every turn. And they should never be compared in a game of one upmanship. To do so diminishes the human dignity of all involved, including the speaker.

Re: Lets Talk Disads: The Point Trap
 
I handle Disadvantages in Race Package deals as offsets for the cost for this very reason -- it does not make sense to me that a character from a particular race would be less of an individual just because their Race Package uses up a lot of their max Disads.
 
Here's how it works out in practice in my High Fantasy HERO campaigns:
 
Less base points (50 instead of 75)
Max PERSONAL Disadvantage points = 75
 
Race Package Disadvantages offset the cost of Race Packages; Race Packages must cost at least 0 points.
 
All Race Packages have NCM for 20 points and a Distinctive Feature: Member of Race worth 5 or more points (typically 5 but some Races qualify for more if they are universally disliked).
 
The net effect is a 150 point character plus any points in their Race Pacakge paid for with extra Disadvantage points required by the Race Package. *
 
With the exception of specifically indicated Options and "Choose" groups a Player has no ability to alter or cannibalize a Race Package; they must take the good with the bad.
 
Alternate NCM is also handled directly in the Package; any Characteristics taken from a Race Package are bought as Powers and thus are immune to NCM doubling -- the net effect is they increase both the starting and the NCM levels of that characteristic. Thus if a Race Package grants +3 STR then a character of that Race starts with 13 STR and has an effective Maxima of 23 STR.
 
Similarly any Characteristic penalties taken in a Package modify both the starting and maxima values. Thus if a Race Package imposed a -2 DEX then a character of that Race starts with an 8 DEX and has an effective Maxima of 18 DEX.
 
 
Works like a charm.
 
*In HERO Designer this is easily accomodated by setting the Disadvantage limit equal to 75 + the cost of Disadvantages in the Race Package.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Wife: Let me guess: you're not at a save point.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Once in a great while, a player almost unwittingly utters a line that suspends all gaming activity for a noticeable amount of time. Thus do I present unto this forum....
....Tomorrow Boy: The Defenders' uber-genius teenage gadgeteer from the future with a penchant for accidentally dropping references to future events.
 
The group was investigating a crime scene when Foxbat (who is convinced that The Defenders have shown him the error of his ways and is striving to prove he's now a hero and worthy of joining the team) interrupted them in an attempt to "help." Having already determine which direction the criminals had fled by using his high-tech gadgetry, Tomorrow Boy points the overeager Foxbat in the wrong direction.
 
Tomorrow Boy - You might be able to help us after all, Bats. Looks like whoever did this went THAT way! *points* We still have some wrap-up work to do, but if YOU hurry, you might catch 'em!
 
Foxbat - Ah ha! Evil doers beware! *he ascends to his Foxbatcopter and heads off.*
 
Nighthawk - Nice work dealing with that lunatic, TB.
 
Tomorrow Boy - Eh, no problem. Still.... hard to believe that guy actually becomes President.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
"We fight for justice and HAVE NO PANTS!"
-------------------------------------------------
"Cool, I can summon beer!"
-------------------------------------------------
"We need to get Avalon (the Knight of Faerie) to learn some modern smacktalk. This 'blackguard' and 'cur' stuff isn't cutting it. You know, stuff like 'Thou momma art so fat ...'"
---------------------------------------------------
(Brick holding a car over two prone VIPER Agents)
"If you vanna see me unpimp dese agents, let me here you say 'vot'."
Other PCs, in unison: "What!"
*KRA-FUNCH*
---------------------------------------------------
"So, was my research fruitful?"
"Dude, why are you researching fruit?"
*slap*
-----------------------------------------------------
"Pardon me, guys, I gotta go defrag my brain."
---------------------------------------------------
"I want to move my sister into the base, where she'll be safer."
(Table-Wide Stare)
"What?"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Another one from the Avengers Next game. The new Avengers are being questions by the press ... and the press is starting to ask some tough (even hostile) questions. Sorry about the length, but this one literally put chills up my spine. Kudos to Kolbrandr the Brave!
 
The question was in reference to the death of the Vision, which happened a few years previously:
"This is a question for Cinnabar," a reporter speaks out. "But I'd also like to throw it open to any and all the other new Avengers to hear their take on the matter. Cinnabar, your father's death was a terrible blow -- not just to you personally, but to the other heroes around the country, and to the nation as a whole. But his death brought home an important (and often overlooked) truth about superheroic activities -- that sometimes the good guys don't win. Can you share with us your feelings on this dangerous, potentially deadly job you're about to take on? "
 

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
All from our Teen Champions campaign:
 
 
"Ewww...I've got monk all over me."
 
 
-----
 
 
Potential (gadgeteer): "...so when I was thinking about how we can make Tranquility [the monk] a bit better able to take a hit, it occured to me to create a spray-on polymer compound -- similiar to what's used in flak jackets, personal armor, and so on -- that we could use on his robes. It'd deflect most small-arms fire and some larger stuff, too."
 
Gestalt: "Are you telling me you're trying to make an actual Bulletproof Monk?"
 
Potential: "Well...yeah, I guess so..."
 
 
-----
 
 
"You got the monk a Dragonball Z t-shirt, didn't you?"
 
"Heck no! I've got better taste than that...it's Street Fighter!"
 
 
-----
 
 
"Did you know that you get into a lot of trouble if you use your mom's washing machine to refine uranium?"
 
 
-----
 
 
"Well, I'd call 'coughing up a lung' a significant side effect!"
 
 
-----
 
 
Twilight: "You realize you've just turned a supercomputer into the world's most expensive Post-It note."
 
 
-----
 
 
Twilight: "No, what I summon are damned souls. Just think of it as being like a prison work-release program, but they're not making license plates."
 
Potential: "That's good; after all, when you put zombies to work making license plates, they all come out reading 'Brainsss...' "
 
 
-----

I wrote this a few years ago. As far as I recall, I've never posted it anywhere. Until now.
 
With the Ultimate Skill coming, and all the buzz on the board about skills now, I thought I'd go ahead and post it. By the way, I remember writing more than this, and I did intend to go on and expand the idea to the other adventuring archetypes. Who knows, maybe I'll finally do so. And if I turn up the "lost materiels" that I suspect are still hidden in my stuff in storage, I'll post them too.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary wonders if we'll be able to fit the whole thing in this next post....

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
A couple of weeks ago, an NPC mage asked my character (Kessa, the laconic barbarian), outright if she'd sleep with him.
 
She replied, sighing heavily, "The last time a mage took an Iceraven woman using his magic to aid him was during my tenth summer. I remember that all of the women of my clan hunted him down, staked him to the ground, cut off his hands, and left him to die."
 
The mage says, "So that's a no?"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
There was a fringe artist in the 60's and 70's named Vaugn Bode, the guy whose work inspired the movie "Wizards" by Ralph Bakshi. He had a cartoon of a female soldier (his art style meant she was wearing like a helmet, boots, and a gear belt and nothing else) carrying a machine gun, who was walking along with a treaded robot, which was talking and saying things like "You are an enemy, but I cannot destroy you. Your beauty has enchanted me, and I must protect you from now on." This goes on for several panels, the last one of which is the robot syaing "Now all I must do is kill the ugly bag of mostly water, and you and I can be together forever, beautiful machine gun."
 
Bode was always doing things like that.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Here's one, but it's not from my session or even from my gaming group.
 
It's from my girlfriend, whose only exposure to RPing has been in patiently listening to me rant about it.
 
It's hard to tell it for full effect, you sorta had to have been there, but...
 
She was talking about how it's pretty much impossible to come up with truly unique plots etc when writing etc, and the reason for this is that the vast majority of ideas have been thought of, and so we have this pool of common knowledge that gets reused, and new ideas are rare because we aren't allowed to use out of character knowledge.
 
Believe me, the first time she said it, it was done perfectly. *Tear* So proud.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
A few from last week's fantasy game:
 
GM: "You need to be funnier."
Other Player: "He's a lizardman wearing a toga - how much funnier does he need to be?"
 
GM: "OK, so it's you and the three rogues..."
Me: "I keep one hand on my wallet, and the other hand on...my wallet."
 
Shortly thereafter: "I'd trust him with my life. Just not with my wallet."
 
"Is it too late to flash-bang the room?"
"It's NEVER too late to flash-bang the room!"
(Yes, I did say this was fantasy...)
 
This last one requires a bit of context: one of the PCs is a lizardman who typically fights unarmed, and does not normally wear clothes because they "cramp his style." My PC is a female lizardman, leading to the following OOC exchange:
 
"What's your COM?"

"Maybe you should wear clothes..."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
From our Tueday night Deadlands game....
 
I play a gunslinger named Stone, with a hankin for cigars
My wife plays a huckster named Liliy
Erine plays a mad scientist named Eon
Roger plays a gunsmith named Colin
 
We just beat the bad guys, took over their ranch....while searching the barn we found 4 large bags of gold nuggets......
Stone "I guess we should tell the local sherrif what happened here and that we found these three bags of gold."
Colin "Don't you mean two bag?"
Eon "Bags? All I see is four nuggets."
 
Earlier that evening...
Stone "This isn't Champions, we can kill the bad guys!"
 
Colin "When in doubt burn something."
Colin "My name is Colin! Not Colon."
 
This isn't really a quote, but it was funny...While searching the gold mine. We brought no light source, but found a oil filled latern at the opening of the mine.
 
I tried to make a spark with two rocks, then realized I had a box of matches, so I took one out.
Eon said, "Why don't you light it with that cigar in your mouth?"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
GURPS Black Powder & Magic: [setting the Scene] We have survived a trip down the rapids that the Gods Plane calls a Drain and arrive at our destination. We are tired, wounded, and concerned for the life of a companions framiliar.
 
There is a hole in the ceiling about 4 meters up where we are headed.
 
GM - "Right, how are you getting up there?"
 
Nicalo (Nobleman Wizard) - "I levitate"
Malik (Northman Wizard) - "I use my grappling hook, rope, and climb"
Fate (Elf Swordwoman Wizard) - "I climb the rope"
 
GM (Looks expectantly at me) - "And how is Rufio getting up there?"
 
Rufio (Master Swordsman - Trying to look innocent) - "We are on the Gods Plane right?"
 
GM (Nods)
 
Rufio (Raises arms, palms out, and tilts head back) - "Right, I Ascend"
 
 
 
Guess you had to be there.
 
QM

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
From our fantasy game:
 
One character had just been swallowed by a dire shark. Another character is fighting the shark, and is also swallowed.
 
As soon as he sees the other character in the shark's gullet, he says:
 
"I'm here to rescue you!"
 
------
Discussion comes up in our D&D game about the lack of a cleric in our group. One person immediately points to our fighter with the Storm Giant strength and says:
"He has Turn Living!"
 
Later, in a nasty fight, the fighter throws a dagger and does more damage in one attack than any other person can do in three or four (good roll, plus that whole Giant Strength thing). One of the players immediatley turns to him and says:
"Please tell me that's at least a magic dagger!" [it wasn't]

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Superhero team, narrowing the search for the villains, anticipating battle.
 
Our Leader, half in character, half out of character: "Let's keep the damage down to one city block this time, eh?"
 
Chuckles all around. I tentatively raise my hand, speaking for my super-strong character.
 
"Yes?"
 
"Is that one city block for the whole team, or a city block each?"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
From last night's Dark Guardians' Champions game...
 
GM: "Okay, recap from last time. Midnight and Shade are stuck in a room with a bunch of Satanists who are pumping poison gas into the room and neither one can teleport out. Well, actually, Midnight can't teleport out because of the magic, and Shade can't teleport out because she's unconscious on the floor with some guy's face in her cleavage."
 
(on Qurria'al and Touchstone getting ready to take an elevator down into a Satanists' pit)
GM: *points to Qurria'al* "Okay, he's taking the handbasket to hell..."
*then points to Touchstone, who's going to wait for Qur'rial to get there and then teleport down*
GM: "And he's waiting for the express trip."
 
(Midnight and Shade are still trapped, and the other PCs are outside trying to get in past the mooks on guard and the sealed door)
Whisper: "No problem, I'm a ninja! I'll just take a flying leap and kick the door down!"
(not so hot roll later...)
GM to Midnight: "You hear a faint thud on the other side of the door..."
 
(Midnight has just dived down the hole after the escaping Satanist head honcho, and lands in his office just as he's got out a big, ugly staff that is about to release some really nasty spell)
GM: "Okay, he's about to clobber you, because he's chanting. And not like his mooks were doing, that whole-"
*affects a deep, melodramatic voice*
GM: "We are chanting because it sounds impressive, and you know we're summoning something terrible!" kind of chanting..."
*drops his voice back to normal*
GM: "This is much quieter, and much faster, and it's aimed at you."
Michelle: "What the hell is he going to aim at? I'm invisible to Sight, Mental, Danger Sense, Combat Sense, Spatial Awareness, how the hell is he going to even know I'm there?"
GM: "Well, the door opening when you fell through it would be his first clue, and the sound of you hitting the hard wooden highbacked chair of his on impact would be the second."
Michelle (IC): "Oh, f***ing hell." *just as the spell goes off*
 
(on the head honcho escaping, and Whisper not quite being fast enough to follow Midnight as she leaps after him)
Whisper: "I missed it?! I was right there!"
*turns to the mook that he bodyslammed into the floor and starts kicking him*
Whisper: "THAT'S FOR DISTRACTING ME, DAMN IT!"
 
(Midnight on surviving playing catch with the spell equivalent of a frag grenade)
Midnight: "I didn't die. That's a bonus!"
 
(Michelle takes a wild guess about where the Satanist's safe is - and guesses correctly that it's in the potted plant rather than behind the portrait on the wall, and promptly digs it up)
Midnight: "Can any of you open this thing?"
GM: "You're telling me that with all your stealth skills, you never learned how to crack a safe?"
Midnight: "I'm a professional gambler, I'm using to WINNING money, not stealing it."
 
(Whisper makes a knockout roll and gets the safe open, at which point Midnight takes all the money out of it - about $100k - and heads for the casino floor)
Touchstone: "Midnight, I'm shocked! You're not planning on gambling with that, are you?"
Midnight: "Of course not!"
*Midnight takes a quick moment to clean up then strolls out on the casino floor with a winning smile and starts handing out hundred dollar bills to each of the casino patrons*
Midnight: "Compliments of the manager, Thomas Davidson, as the casino will now be closing. Permanently."
 
(on Midnight playing catch with the spell-equivalent of a frag grenade and looking it)
Whisper to Midnight: "Follow some lady to the bathroom, knock her out, take her clothes, then go back out onto the casino floor. That's what any real superhero would do!"
 
Touchstone: "So what should we do with the safe?"
Midnight: "Leave it on Primus' doorstep and let the cops figure it out."
 
(on what everyone's doing in the casino)
GM: *to Touchstone* "You've found a printing press..."
*points to Midnight*
GM: "You're handing out a bunch of money..."
*points to Qurria'al*
GM: "And you've found a bunch of cops."
 
(after we've nearly wrecked the casino dealing with the Satanists)
Vice (the base computer) calls Touchstone over the radio: "Captain Touchstone, police reports of a disturbance at the casino."
Midnight *overhearing the conversation*: "We ARE the disturbance, Vice..."
Touchstone: "... but thanks for letting us know."
 
(on the counterfeit money we found)
John (OOC): "Imagine the anti-counterfeit measures in Champions, like you press on the president's face and it says something like, 'This is not an unfake bill.'"
RC: "Only if the president in Champions is Bush."
John: "Actually, if it were Bush, when you put your thumb over his face and press, it'd say something like 'Mmmfph mmmpb mmmh mmmpfb.'"
 
(on Qurria'al terrorizing the cops outside)
Touchstone: "Oh, all right, I'll go outside and see what the problem is."
*Touchstone wanders outside and finds the cops cringing in terror from the seven-foot half-demon, who's looking rather bemused by the whole thing*
Cops: "Oh! Touchstone! Thank God! Could you please take that... that... that someplace else? And maybe find a leash or something?"
 
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
Grabbing proxies for a battle I ran last night, on the edges of a circus.
 
"Ok, you guys are here here and here. Cristobal is Dath Vader, Kyle is the Emperor's Guard, the elf's an elf... Alar, you're the saltwater taffy on top of the slinky."
 
"Oh oh! Can I be the wookie?"
 
"Fine, you're the wookie on the slinky. The kidnapped girl is the taffy. The stormtroopers are the bad guys."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
 
We're playing a varient of the "Virtual Ice" adventure presented in Heroic Adventures, Volume One and the players' characters have just been introduced to what is essentially "City of Heroes" in the game universe.
 
Player 1: Okay, OOG (Out of Game) so why did we just make characters for this minigame again?
 
Me: It's the on-line character your character will be playing while you're trying to figure out what The Bandits are up to with this ripping off the virtual museum every night.
 
Player 1: So I have to play this on-line character as if my character were playing it, right?
 
Me: Exactly.
 
Player 1: This is going to be so confusing...
 
Me: Well, look on the bright side -- at least I didn't put in an arcade like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas...
 
Player 2: (To Player 1) Yeah, 'cause I'm willing to bet your on-line character would just suck at Ms. Pac Man.
 
Player 1: (To Me) All right, now I want that arcade to be there so I can kick his (Player 2's) butt!
 
Player 2: (Obviously not paying attention) What?
 
Player 1: That's right, I'm going to kick your butt at Ms. Pac Man!
 
Player 2: Okay, now you've lost me -- which level of reality are we talking about again -- real life, the game universe or the virtual reality in the game universe?
 
Me: He wants to kick your butt on Ms. Pac Man in an arcade in the virtual reality in the game universe.
 
Player 2: They have arcades in this thing, too?
 
Me: Since it would be even more confusing, no, because now I'm getting a headache.
 
Matt