Karma

Re: Evil, Evil Campaign Concept...

"Congratulations hero you now work for us"

"But who are you?"

"We are THEY"

"Huh?"

"When people talk about how They killed JFK, or cover up Roswell or any of the other conspiracy theories that people come up with it is us they are talking about."

"But what are you called"

"Our organisation is so secret that we can't afford to have a name that might turn up in any official documents, all you need to know is what we do and why we do it. that we do what needs to be done, for the right reasons."

Re: What's in a Name?

Crotalus

Most of King Cobra's henchmen use the common form of the snakes the are based on, but for Professor Armin ffaquad ("it's spelled with a double lower case f you plebians") only the Latin genus form of his name would do (and rattlesnake had already been taken by some uneducated fool). Given his views on his fellow snakemen, including their leader, it is unsurprising that they asked him to leave. He was happy, being surrounded by such fools only made him feel his interlect was draining away. Now he is a solo villian taking what he wants from the fools around him, planning to eventually take power from King Cobra and give the snakemen a leader they deserve.

Next up: Storm Warden

Re: What kinds of abilities should my charater have?

Thank everyone these are cool and many of which I would never have thought of. However, feel free to keep them coming.

One additional one I did think of was a movement ability, possibly Megascale teleport with extra time based on his ability to work out how to get from point A to point B while avoiding all possible complications (traffic, protest marches, Grond) kind of like the 'I'll be there in five minutes' ability from Dark Champions.

Re: What kinds of abilities should my charater have?

Not a power' date=' but Lip Reading would come in handy.[/quote']

First skill I bought, I see we think alike.

Re: What kinds of abilities should my charater have?

Have you thought about "Can lick his own eyebrows?"

 

Extra Limbs, 1

Stretching, 1", only for Extra Limbs (-1), Only for Licking Eyebrows (-1)

 

- Pants

1. Eww (even if it might make me popular with the girls (O.k. I am picturing that scene from 'Earth Girls are Easy')

2. I said at the beginning that I wanted to avoid new powers that weren't realted to the original concept.

3. Eww

Re: What kinds of abilities should my charater have?

What about giving him a future high-tech blaster pistol' date=' that he built.[/quote']

I thought about this and ideas like it (I called the powers my 'FIPT (Future Intellectual Property Theft) powers (the idea being that he precognatively read someone elses (like DR. Silverback or something) blueprints that they hadn't written yet and built it 'before it was even conceived'. Interestingly he also knew that many times doing so was the impetus for the Gadgetter drawing the blueprints in the first place "Hey that looks cool, mind if I try to invent one?" "Not at all, in fact I insist you do"). However I would like to try to 'fill out' his powers with powers which are more closely linked with his 'core ability'. Although thanks, it's a good idea.

O.k. the description of my character's power concept: He can see the future, not hear, just see. That's it.

So I've taken the obvious ones (most of those from the Precognician section of the USPD) but he still doesn't seem capable of entering the 'big leagues'. He can hit people (thanks to his offensive precog) but can't resonably be expected to break through their defence (only has normal human strength) and can reasonably avoid getting hit but is less able to take a blow that average (even with high levels of 'Combat Luck'). He's also not all that 'well rounded'.

Now I could 'add some additional powers', but thats kind of going against concept

So what I'm kind of asking is what kind of 'Precog Tricks' type powers can people come up with to add to the Precognician Powers from USPD?

There is often at least one 'name my character' thread running at all times on this board but what about a 'characterise this name' thread?

I have seen a number of threads about 'where do you start when creating a character' and there are those who start with the powers they want and work from there and those that create a personality an then add powers to fit. However, many of my characters begin simply with a 'Super ID' name and I build on that, asking myself 'what sort of powers would someone who took this as their name have? And what sort of person would choose to use this name?'

For instance I took the 'name' "Breakneck" and tried to decide what kind of a character would use this as their Super ID. I had already kind of decided that it would be a speedster (Breakneck Speed), but what kind, and how would he get his or her powers? Since its such an evocative and violent sounding name it wouldn't be appropriate for any hero excpt those Iron Age ones that call themselves 'Bloodclaw' and 'Darkreaper' and such, and I wasn't looking to create one of those. So villian it is.

Then I decided that as well as using that name the character would actually break the necks of his victims (sometimes posthumously) as a sort of 'calling card'. But why? Perhaps he had suffered a similar fate and wanted the 'share the pain'. So we have a speedster villian who breaks peoples necks because he'd suffered one himself. But how could you have a broken neck and still be a speedster, apart from 'getting better' which doesn't have the emotional omph required to make someone quite this nasty the only answer is Powered Armor (yes I know that the 'power armor used to allow a cripple to walk' schtick is cliche but not among villians (as far as I know).

So here we have it, a concept 'Psycho speedster whose PA not only saves him from being a helpless quadreplegic, but gives him super-human speed and strength (it takes quite a bit of force to break a neck and to do it reliably enough, untrained, to use it as a 'calling card' would require more sttrength than normal person would have).

And we stat out from there.

So apart from showing how I make characters I thought it might be fun for you guys to try.

Step 1: Take the 'Name' given by the last poster and make a character who might reasonably take that name when starting a superhero/villian carrier (stats nice but not required). The name should have something to do with the characters schtick and/or powers (yes I know that many charaters have names that have nothing to do with their powers, but that's not the point of this challange)

Step 2: Suggest a 'Name' for another person to try to characterise.

With that in mind tell me about:

"The Game Master"

Re: Australia in the current CU

or the villains could come to Australia where they think it'll be easier going.

Lets face it, in 'canon' 5E CU Australia *is* easy pickings given the low number of supers of any kind in/from Australia the number of super heroes and rival super villians would make it the prime spot for a little 'easy money'.

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!!

And why does everyone assume Invictus must be a Republican? He could be a Democrat, or better yet, an Independent. I seriously doubt someone with his level of egomania wants to deal with old party hacks and the rest of the nonsense involved with the Big Two.

Invictus is a meglomaniac. He wants to be the leader of the (free) world, the only way that's going to happen is with the support of one of the Big Two. You name the last Independent President of the United States.

(O.k. you probably can, but I bet he weren't recent)

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!!

I'd say his 'Hates Christianity' disad would be a bigger barrier to his gaining success as a politician then his costume. After all the Republicans have had remarkable success by playing to the Bible Belt set and that disad could cause a massive backlash against Invictus. If I used him in a campaign I'd remove that disad.

Ah but you forget he's a 'politician'. He therefore uses the tried and tested tactic: 'lie to constituents".

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Hey' date=' not everyone thought bad of Seeker. In fact, before I came to the Hero boards, I'd never heard a bad word about him from the players' and GMs' point of views.[/quote']

Neither did I, actually, and I'm kind of annoyed at the main reasons for the bagging, namely that he was seen unconciopus on most of the 4E covers that he appeared on. People tend to forget that on the 4E Champions book, after Defender had had his butt handed to him and Solitare was tending to him, Seeker was taking on Dr Destroyer single handedly (not saying he won, or anything, he probably got his butt handed to him quicker than Defender, but we Australians tend to root for an underdog who, despite overwhelming odds, is willing to continue the fight (just look at the battle that we comemmorate every year (ANZAC Day), its our most famous 'defeat', but one where we were willing to fight on against hopeless odds). The only problem I had with Seeker was that he kept big-noting himself (which as any Australian will tell you is a fast track to unpopularity down-under (we love heroes, but only if they're modest with it)

As for bringing him back, in 5E he's a comic book character and one whose died. Unless a comic book fan decides to 'take up the mantle', he's probably not going to make an appearance in 5E.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Australians and New Zealanders. Heck they *should* get their own book (Champions Down Under anyone?) but if not they should at least be included in the cast (since all the characters who used to be Australians in 4E have either disappeared (Seeker (year I know he was a loser, but he was an Aussie loser and we tend to like our losers) or had their history rewritten to make the Americans (Deuce of PSI, who was originally from Sydney) for 5E).

Re: Team of second rate Villains

I think one of the criteria could be: "Would you overlook this person if you were forming a new 'Masters of Evil' ?"

The Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil had 'Boomerang'. Admitedly the woman was a little crazy and was trying to get one villian for every letter of the alphabet, but still...

Re: Theme Super Hero Teams

Patriots (Captain America, Lady Liberty, Stars&Stripes, etc.)

Or in our modern world of global tolerance, cooperation and 'Coalitions of the Willing' how about a team made up of patriots from different, but allied, countries (or even one of non-allied countries, as an attempt at showing a united front (might even work if an alien invsion happens). There's a novel idea. ;-)

Same/similar powers (all speedster team, all brick team, all gadgeteers, all weapon masters, all robots)

I once had an all PA/Gadgeteer team, but then all the supers were PA/Gadgeteer, so I guess that doesn't count.

Re: Batman Begins

Ra's Al-Ghul is in it? Okay' date=' apparently the reviewer in the paper I read didn't catch that part; he said there wasn't a 'costumed villain' in the whole movie. I suppose Ra's didn't actually wear a costume, per se, but he still qualifies as a supervillain![/quote']

 

And possibly he missed the bit where Dr Icabod Crane puts a sack over his head, uses 'fear gas' and became Scarecrow. He only did it 4, maybe 5 times (of course he only started refer to himself that way until the end and you probably need to know the subject material to get the reference so I suppose he's forgiven).

Re: Body hopping? How do i do that...

You may want to look at the USPD (Until SuperPowers Database). They have a power called "bodyjacking" that might be what you're looking for (I don't have the book in front of me so I'm not sure how it works). The USPD 2 will have something on Spirit Projection so you may want to consult that book when it comes out.

 

Just my $.02

I'm pretty sure Body Jacking is a temporary power, a combination of Mind control and Desolid that allows you to 'possess' the body and them control it. Not much like the power you describe (for one thing there's a chance that the posessed can resist any suggestion). I'd just make it a 'Transform: Corpse (or human/living being) into Obihai, reversed by same or similar power (if it's part of the sword he's better hope it isn't universal), Side effect original body disintergrates/ceases to be/become souless husk (gotta be worth -2). There you have your power, Nasty aint it (and not just for the poor shlub whose affected by it. I bet Obihai really hopes no-one can reverse it).

If you want a less perminant solution (for Obihai at least) then you might allow him to recorporate/repossess his original body if the transformation is ever reversed (although what's the fun in that, and dramaitic imperitive kind of says that someone like this 'should' be only destroyed by his own soul-sucking sword).

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out...

At some point about 15 years ago, some villain with electrical powers shouted out 'Of course! No stickum! He's using an advanced form of STATIC ELECTRICITY!!' (You know, just like real spiders do) and then suppressed Spidey's wall crawing.

 

Then Spidey beat the crap out of him. Oh, no. No wallcrawling. Now he only has super strength and super speed. And webs.

 

--

Good powers: The proportionate strength of a spider.

Bad powers: The non-proportionate strength of a spider.

While we're speaking of wall crawling supers... Spider-girl has inherited her father's powers, sort of. 1. Not only can she stick to stuff but she can stick other people to stuff at range if they are both touching the same surface (using only her 'wall crawling' ability). 2. Not only that but she can 'reverse' her sticking ability so that she hurls things away from her at the same level of force that she has to stick to stuff (which if it's anything like her fathers is considerable, given that the surface he's climbing is more likely to come apart than he get pulled from it) and she can do this at range too (stick someone to the floor and then throw him into the air).

And you thought that her father's powers hinky as 'spider powers'. Lets face it no Champions GM in his right mind would allow these in a 'Spider Powers' EC. Gotto love the fact that writers don't 'need' to justify their character's powers like Champions players.

p.s. Spider girl has also been stripped of her powers by an electrical jolt, but she lost all of them.

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out...

I reject that on the grounds that he's still alive.

 

Although... maybe he gets the energy from them being disintegrated, and THAT fuels him... but then he might as well "eat" anything organic by touching it.

 

Although... maybe he just likes the taste of the cereal.

Or maybe you right about him absorbing energy from what he disintergrates, but he since he has some major issues about what he is he attempts to act as 'normal' as possible by putting organic substances in his mouth before they disintergrate then swallows the resulting stuff, thereby getting as close to what 'normal' people do as he can.

Given his character (dude got self loathing and angst down to an art) that is the most likely justification for this scene (apart from, you know, "the artist forgot").

Oh and it's possible he has a moment or two to taste food before it becomes gets 'dusted' (or maybe organic substances retain their taste after they are distintergrated (the same as when we chew them up) and, you're right, he likes cereal.

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out...

I thought, in a few of the comics at least, the power-suppressor technologies also left the user/victim dull and listless, that it sapped their energy levels.

Yet Surge (also part of said Academy X series (although not the Hellions limited series) has a pair of power suppressor gloves that don't make her listless. However, like Cyclops' glasses they are custom made for her power (they actually absorb her electricty, allwong her to release it at will (or when the gloves get too full). Perhaps, as you say, the side effect of 'catch all' power suppressors is that they turn the mutant into a listless zombie and that even Beast (or any other super intelligent mutant/friend of the X-men) can't overcome this problem, so only those who don't care about mutant's wellbeing are willing to use them, others have to find other solutions that cater to individual powers (ruby glasses, electricity sapping gloves, lack of human contact).

Re: Villains and their Secret ID, post-trial

You think citizens are telling the police Dirk Garthwaite just robbed the bank? No' date=' they say the Wrecker was just here. [/quote']

 

At which point the police look to see if The Wrecker has ever been arrested and if so put out an APB on Dirk Garthwaite containing his uncostumed and costumed appearance, his Alias as The Wrecker, list of associates (including the real names of the Wrecking Crew who have also been arrested), last known address etc.

Secret ID means that the people who would most benefit from knowing your real ID (ie. Hunteds) don't know it. Public ID is when people who couldn't care less can tell you the real name of a hero/villian (Most villians never get this public even if they are world shakers unless they use their real ID as their 'villian ID' (and even then the man on the street would most likely be unaware that of Dr Doom's or Baron Zemo's given names). Neither ID is when those who care enough to find out your civilain ID can, but most people wouldn't make the connection.

Re: Player vs. Character

I suppose you have to look at the character in the first place. Does he have 'Reckless', or 'Thinks actions speak louder than words', 'Glory Hound' or even 'Heroic' as a disadvantage? If not then you can't punish him for wanting to think of the best response to a given situation. However if you want to keep the franetic pace up then put the franetic pace in.

Iron man destroys the door. Does he:

a) See that he is needed in the fight and that any delay on his part will lead to the villian winning/getting away?

Sees that he is not needed at this point and has time to recharge his batteries?

If a) then he's going to risk running out of juice in order to do what is necessary, but if then even the most heroic person, unless he's a complete fool (or glory hound 'I saved the day, even though my batteries were drained'), is going to take the time to make sure he's at full strength before he returns to the fight.

If PCs in your campaign are in situation a) and decide to 'take a time out' then the villian should escape/win, but just the same if they are in situation and rush in where they are not needed while underpowered they should learn why the saying is '*fools* rush in' not 'heroes'. Just because your a hero doesn't mean you have to do the stupid thing.

Still if they rush in *when needed* they should be rewarded for their heroics (since that is what heroics are all about).

Re: Help! Would You Allow This?

I'm not sure I would agree with those who are suggesting creating situations beings with powers specifically targeted at this character, unless, of course you want the player to leave the game. Creating villians who are tailor made to hose specific PCs are a good way to loose players. If you create a team with each member designed to play on the weaknesses of one PC that's different (and a time honored tradition), but attacking one charater specifically (especially if it's obvious your doing it because you don't like the way she's 'rorted the system') is part of the Killer GM handbook (BTW this is *NOT* a recommendation)

My recommendation. If you don't want to disallow it (and as you have pointed out there are good reasons to do so) then having her deal with Dispels is the best idea (as a paraplegic she's going to be 0 (or at least low) DCV for the round she looses her flight, every round she fails to get her powers back up, and the one she tries to get her powers back). Also rule that 'Concentration' requires that you not be distracted during the round (ie. by getting hit) or you need to spend another round 'concentrating', then she's going to have to crawl to cover before she concentrating to get her powers back. Use the same rule for anyone (and have a few villians who need to concentrate so the PCs can make use of the rule as well).

Play up the problems of 'always on' powers as much as possible.

Although personally I'd just disallow it.

I just picked up 'Villainy Amok'.

It's all very cool and I'm looking forward to using it. However I noticed that the entirity of table 2-2-4 in the Mad Scientist section is missing (the one on his artificially created 'son') and I was wondering whether someone (like Scott) might be kind enough to tell us what that table contained or write an Errata linked to the products page on the Hero site or something.

Re: Let's Talk CvK

The CvK ph stick is "How does my character feel about killing."

Actually, as you descibe it it's 'How does my character feel about having to kill' whereas its usually described as 'How does my character feel about the subject of killing others, be it him/herself or by others'. A character with your disadvantage is able to do this: "I can't bring myself to kill you, even though I know that by allowing you to live you may one day return to make me regret it" (Turns to another character who doesn't have a CvK) "Kill him". As far as I'm concerned that's not a very heroic mindset

Whatever a heroes reason for his CvK he is doing his companions a disservace if he allows them to use lethal force without at least arguing against it if only because they will go down in his estimation for ignoring his moral beliefs.

That said I have a character who has 'Doesn't kill' out of pure survival instinct (the demon that shares her body is allowed to attempt to eat her soul if she ever kills anyone) but that's not really a Psych Limitation since she is not opposed to others killing (and would proabably play out the scene above)

Oh and in my games 'Casual killer' is a pointed psych limitation since it sets them apart from the vast majority of people (who don't see lethal force as an answer to everything) and would make people with it roll EGO not to use full lethal force against someone who was opposing them/annoying them/in their way on the sidewalk/looking at them funny. Said people would have an increasing level of Hunted: Law enforcement and decent supers everywhere.