Duke Bushido

That's sort of how I saw it, save I saw them as two-hit wonders, being as how they take no STUN and may still be able to flail a club even if badly battered. SFX can change this: Set it on fire? Okay; one hit's enough: the wiring and motors and such will fry / melt before they have another turn (SPD2 okay with everyone?) It wasn't a pain; it's just that the average gang banger doesn't sign on because he loves manual labor. What I was _thinking_-- and anyone with better ideas, jump in-- that there were initially "cornerstone" batteries that had to be laid every X far apart to create the initial field; other batteries were simply concealed at points between these "cornerstones." For whatever reason, the cornerstone batteries-- maybe 30? Doesn't really matter) had to be buried at "just the right depth"-- perhaps as little as a foot in some places and as much as three or four in others. Make it inches; it straight-up doesn't matter, since the whole "this is where the Skull had us dig all them damned holes" is intended more as a clue than a physics lesson anyway. Once the initial ring was active, those batteries that were simply scattered between these cornerstone locations would -- oh, Hell, _why_ does it matter? There's batteries in the ground; bad guys put them there; they power the dome. At any rate, once the first batteries resonated and brought the others on line and in "line," so to speak, there was energy enough to create the dome, modulate the "destructive pressure" and sink the batteries to their current depth of however far the PCs are determined to dig. (should they decide to dig). We're edging dangerously close to killing HERO all over again with unnecessarily stating out pointless shcrap. Eh-- sorry about that. I'm having an off day. You have solid questions, but in the overall scheme of things, why does it matter why the bad guy didn't like digging holes? Hell, I'm a good guy and I don't like doing it. Bear with the mood; details when I've hit everything I wanted to hit, and I'll try to be better-minded. My heart's not in this at the moment, but it _is_ important to me. The first dead guy _is_ important. Possibly even a second one. We can regulate and debate, but for any RPG scenario to go well, they players are obligated to invest a little bit in the story just as we the GMs are obligated to provide them with a reasonable adventure. As many of the comments I've quoted have pointed out, movies and comics have lots and lots of ways to make death almost tasteful; almost antiseptic, and even leave room to wonder if death actually happened at all. We need a dead guy or two just to drive home "people are currently dying." We don't need a million of them; we don't need oozing wounds and dissented features and bits of circuit jammed through cracked-open craniums and into brain tissue or wires shooting through eyeballs to tie into the nervous system or anything like that, but we need a dead guy for the base line story. In this case, it's not a matter of making the Skull a serious threat; it's a matter of making the entire situation a serious threat. We can certainly dedicate some space in the GMing this Adventure section on how to sanitize out all the dead people; frankly, I think that will be easier than a section on "how to add dead guys in," and certainly more enjoyable to both write and read. I am certainly open to doing that. If we stuck on a rail with the Skull and his plot, period, would you not be asking us why there is no other activity or life anywhere in this world, or how other characters may have aligned themselves and what they're doing? This shallow jog is an answer to that: The mayor is attempting to raise moral; the heroes go along with it, both because they agree the city needs a morale boost and because it seems right that a large gathering would have a higher potential of being targeted in some way (again, assuming the players have decided their characters are actually heroic and are concerned about the welfare of the citizens). The Skull understands the danger of morale, and turns it instead into a chance to add more fear to the citizens. Because not all the players will be heartless dicks Batman. As mentioned, there is some small requirement upon the players to invest in the story. Granted, we _could_ write a novel instead of an adventure, but the idea here was originally to demonstrate that HERO doesn't mandate complex, complicated, overthought anything. It's not without reason, anymore than any other demonstration is without reason. Alternatively, we can not kill, not maim, or inconvenience anyone. The Skull could put up a dome and say "this comes down when you all agree to make me your master. E-mail me when you decide." Then do absolutely nothing for the next several years. Ah! I think I see the problem now. You haven't actually been reading this since the beginning on the "perceptions" thread, or you would already have these answers. To recap: No; the Skull didn't say kill anyone specific. More of a "terrorize as you will" order, though given his general nonchalance about killing, he may instead say "kill as many as you can" just to make sure the point is driven home to the public. The dead NPC is a clue to the personality of CJ. He wasn't chosen by the Skull at all. He wasn't selected at random. He has been a crime boss after the first revision, I think. Perhaps the second. Granted, we may not have spelled it out in as many words, having ascertained that we were all more or less on the same page, so if you did happen to miss that, well that one's on us. Combination intelligence and paranoia. He's paranoid about them being disloyal, which is almost practical given the recruitment add was "join me or end up like the two guys on your left." Self-preservation in the heat of the moment doesn't necessarily mean loyalty, and he knows that. He's also extremely paranoid that he may actually have some disloyal spies (like the guys smuggling in toilet paper-- NOTE ON THAT: That's really only going to be viable if we decide the siege of the city will last several weeks. Just sayin'. Perhaps another note for the GM bin: "If your players are having a _seriously_ hard time bringing the dome down, then a black market will develop." In all seriousness, though, I think we may have to lose that. ) He's also smart enough to know that he is, for all intents and purposes, surrounded. The city can hold out for a while, but it will eventually need an influx of goods, even if it's just _soap_. He also knows that the suits that signed up with him may well have signed up with him as self-preservation, and in all likelihood will sell him down the river for the same reasons. Dead witnesses, dead informants, dead anyone-with-any-possibility-of-knowing-anything is the much more intelligent way to preserve his own self, at least as far as his paranoia allows him to take things. I may be misremembering this (I am a bit distracted), but didn't you shoot down "gang informant" just a couple days ago? That does ring nicely. However, the Skull's megalomania would want them to know that he has "gifted" them with their powers, and the position prior to the powers would simply be the carrot to ensure their loyalty (at least until he is done with them). Agreed. However, it's a far cry from "meth lab" to "mind-enhancement drugs" (real ones, that is). In all honesty, I don't have a problem, given the hyper-intelligence angle, with him being a genius in eighty different fields. What I _do_ have a problem with is breaking that into a hundred and sixty different skills when "Chemisty," "Physics", "genetics," and _possibly_ "Pharmacology" will do. I have a personal hatred of the ever-shattering Skills system in HERO, and if we're trying to demonstrate that "HERO isn't everything you've head it was," then I think "broad skills" is an excellent example of that. This seems reasonable, but let's revisit it in a bit. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1apJUODa7wzi7hyYsUe-XWRUYo-BofZj55Tt0hNqKvUs First gold, then later coal. If we want to have active mines still (I don't, as I don't think it will add more than places for the players to get lost), we might consider radioactives. And now I'm pretty sure you've either got a really stressful day job, or joined in about mid-ways. nothing wrong with that, of course. Frankly, I wish a few more would join in. That's going to be up to the GM. Personally, I saw it as rather grim-- almost creepy, but not out-of-supers creepy: people desperately pretending to be upbeat in the hopes that their cheered neighbors will then be able to cheer them back, nervous and shallow smiles and forced laughs in front of smiling plastic faces repetitively spouting the same canned greetings and joyous tidings through crappy-sounding speakers. And then the killing started (or the attempted killing started). Now as to their necessity: No. They are not necessary. The exact population of Hepzibah is not necessary. Why it's bothersome to dig a freakin' hole in rocky ground is, again, _not_ necessary. But if we answer all those questions, we might as well finish out the campaign setting sourcebook and just include a sample adventure with it-- maybe something were the city gets put under a giant dome. That's got potential. He will be tracking a dozen or so two-hit (one hit?) automatons. I don't think it's going to be too terribly difficult, but again, the likely scenario is going to play as "the cackling plastic knight raises his right arm, and as his ridiculously-grinning head turns back and two, he again attempts to crush you beneath his fiberglass sword." Like any other detail in any adventure ever, he'll use what he wants and not use what he doesn't want. For what it's worth, I rather like the surreal moment of the "survivor's party"-- desperate to try to restore a sense of confidence, taking place in a goofy mini theme park. We can include GM notes about possibly holding it at Bennigans instead. At least there would be alcohol there. While you make a very good point, I am compelled to take a moment to add: F a sidebar. A small section describing the set-up of the encounter is, of course, mandatory, and it's just as good a place as any to introduce these characters. Twelve sentences: There are twelve trademarked animatronic characters used to entertain guests and delight children. Sir Fastention can be found between tables 4 and 5. Sir Reil can be found on the left of the stage, near the steps; Sir Tifyable stands on the opposite side. That's three guys with two sentences. It doesn't seem insurmountable. Personally, I'd like to a have perhaps a full page or maybe even two devoted to this establishment and its details, if only because the GM may wish to rip this out and use it in a city he eventually designs for himself. Who knows? When you get down to it, we are attempting to write an adventure for a book that's completely out of print (check the store on the web site. I did a couple nights ago and was quite surprised to find that the few hundred listed a month or so back are now just gone. So much for a boxed set. Realistically though, a lot of things may get dropped or brought to the forefront as the writing progresses. Still, all ideas on the table is the best way to start. Good question. I was going on the assumption that his power had a definite range or something, and that he would have to maintain the power to keep the chaos rolling. I could be wrong, but as I was thinking through the finer points of making sure his actions demonstrated to the astute player that he seemed to change tactics depending on the nearness of children to his target, it occurred to me that if he _doesn't_ have to stick around, then this clue-- recall at the time-- and possible even now-- there was waffling about the dead kid in the Skull suit, but to make that a significant clue, it would first have to be possible to see CJ in action around children, etc, etc. The thing that makes the most sense is that his power has a limiting factor that keeps him around while he's using it. That's a hard one, but it's because of a very particular set of circumstances: as you have already shot down the exoskeleton as a push too close to power armor, I'm inclined to go the next logical step and move with "robots aren't his thing." Can he figure them out? Probably. It's just not this thing. Further, it's _not_ that the Skull said "Hey; I'd like to unleash some low-quality robots on this crowd; I certainly hope they end up hosting a pep rally near the only set in town that aren't on the Digger Dinosaur Dinsosaur Digger's Experience." It's more "Oh-Ho! They think that can just throw a little party and make themselves feel more secure? Ha! You, there! Yes, henchman Next-in-line! What's your name? I see. Well then, CyberJack, I think this morale-building session should be more a morale breaking experience. See to it that their party is most... unnerving. Let them understand that nothing happens in my domain without my permission, and that they do not have it! There are penalties for doing things without permission. Severe penalties. Go! Penalize them! Severely!" Then maybe some chuckling over the accidental "DOME-main pun.... The animatronics just happen to play to CJ's strengths, and playing to your strengths is just good strategy. And Captain Cluebat the Raven. Or was that the "retired crime fighter" you referred to? Double-check me here so I can be sure: Is this definitive? Is this more or less the "predicted" outcome? If so, we can lose the dead kid / robot duplicate all together. I'd prefer it anyway-- not out of squeamishness, but more out of "it doesn't say 'superhero storyline' to me." That, and while I have no qualm with deaths that reinforce the ideas of "this is dangerous" and "you did badly," I'm rather concerned that players may find a dead kid to be almost a punishment of sorts. Funny. I was thinking about that a couple of nights ago; the old "psychic imprint" schtick. Agreed in _theory_, with the following caveats: We can't reasonably plan for more than two endings; we can unreasonably plan for possibly four endings. _However_..... If we're anywhere near sincere about making this a serial adventure, then we have to both plan and push for one ending. Sorry about that, but it's hard to pick up a story and continue it based on four possible endings, or eight, or ever-how-many. Okay, Mediaeval Pizza Robot 1 is _definitely_ Sir Cumference. I so decree! Agreed. It's why I rather like a dead guy in front of them: it's decision time. Who is your character? What does this mean to him? How does he react? Does this galvanize him, or does he even care? Agreed, and not just with the pizza joint. To an extent, it is. I don't know who else is going to volunteer to write, but go back through this thread (when you have a moment). I have a _crap ton_ of thoughts and opinions to take in and to grind and filter into something coherent and relatively smooth. Frankly, the humor of the distraction has been rather helpful. I see one potential use of this purpose-serving distraction (remember that no matter what distraction it may be, it's also serving to further demoralize the people) is the possibility of "moving house" to his "more suitable quarters." Though, like Hugh et al, I expect him to leave the bulk of his operation in the mines, at least "for now." (yes; we know that "for now" will never come, because the heroes will trounce his evil plans, etc, etc... ) Ha! So, Scott; is this great minds thinking alike or soft minds running together? This can go somewhere. Now, if we're doing the black market, etc, can we agree on a rough time frame for this adventure? If we do black market, I'd say at least a month. Opinions? And now the rest: I haven't read back through my post here (I generally try to do that at least once before I post), but as it is, there have been numerous replies as I typed, and honestly, my heart's not in it and my mood is black. My Brunswick group will be disbanding, at least for the foreseeable future, owing to the deaths yesterday of two players. They are two of my oldest friends: we have gamed together even since before they began the dating relationship that led to their marriage, and their loss makes me the last survivor of the original "Jim's House Gang." I plowed through this thread this evening partly as a distraction, and partly to stay focused on something else until bed time (not to mention that we've seen more activity in this one day than any other day thus far, and I need to know where we're heading). I will likely _not_ be back to this thread until sometime next week. It's not that I don't want to; it's simply that I don't think I'll have the focus to glean anything useful for the next few days. Please continue to contribute thoughts and ideas, and I will be back when I am up to it. Duke

It occurs that the bar patrons could be greeted by Sir Vaysa, but I'm thinking that Sir Vicks crosses some sort of line.... Perhaps the prize pit where tickets are exchanged for candy and prizes is manned by Sir Tifikit?

Oh, that was better than thirty years ago. I do much better now. I don't _like_ it, but being in it for 12 to 14 hours a day.... Well, adapt or die.

Funny. I left my hometown of Circle, Alaska and went straight to Georgia. Unfortunately, I arrived in the middle of winter and thought "sweet! I can ride all year round down here!" When the job finished up, I stayed. That first summer, I was hospitalized twice for heat prostration. I'd give a leg to get back to the frozen whatever it was you called it.

What? No portly Sir Cumference?!

Ah, Gweenies.... If only.....

Give that they are essentially-- and forgive this-- "animated animatronics,"-- this is the way I was already thinking. A single full-stat "write-up" that represents all the relatively-easy-to-wreck animatronics and a series (twelve, perhaps? We could have a whole "round table" of these guys) and maybe a few "bards" that welcome people to each section of the establishment, etc. Then a short list of brief appearance descriptions for the individuals. I think it might even be fun to have four or five of them "mounted" to pedestals, unable to move (perhaps serving wenches or even the bards), swinging randomly at anyone who passes by. I just think that lots and lots of "robots running nuts" would create a bigger panic amongst the crowd than would, say, six. And being animatronics, they aren't too terribly hard to wreck. The challenge would come from having to destroy these things _completely_-- think zombies-- crawling at you when their legs are smashed, etc, and _not_ hurting the panicking crowds. Essentially, as the enemies won't be _terribly_ difficult to defeat (but should be some challenge, regardless), this will serve as practice for similar "watch out for civilians" type situations as these players continue to game. I hope, anyway. I just assumed, as CJ builds himself a custom body guard, that the animatronics wouldn't gain a lot of special defenses or attacks beyond-- oh, I don't know: STR 15 and a club; something like that. Again, the assumption could be completely wrong. Dude! That is just awesome enough to include. I'm picturing a couple of "jump scare" scenarios. Good call. Still waiting for more feedback on that. Unfortunately, we're getting less participation than I'd hoped for. Lots of views, but not a lot of thoughts. Covered this before with the magnetism / Zoidberg gag. Granted, the gag was so pants-wettingly hilarious that I can understand how it caused the actual idea to be missed. I kid, obviously. I'm just not that funny. Short version: at a signal, magnetic field between the batteries tightens, drawing them closer. Presumably, the projectors are either located at points well-within the "critical crunch" radius, or are also mobile but some similar means. They are also findable with investigation (re: the "this is where the Skull had us dig all those damned holes" comment earlier in the thread). While I don't disagree with you, remember that this is "adventure #1." Because this is adventure #1, unless we're ready to start offing DNPCs, who is this close personal friend? They don't have one yet. Every dead guy is a stranger at this point, but unfortunately, we need one or two to make sure the players grasp the severity of this situation. Regarding that: I have every intention of including a "changing the feel" section for the GMs. In this, I hope to include notes on both reducing and increasing gore while still maintaining the feel of danger and the threat of large-scale loss of life. In keeping with our goal, these sections will be brief (going to need an editor for _that_. . Any takers? ), but hopefully helpful. You tell us. What works for you? More in a moment: Indubitably. A brief history of the Skull was presented earlier, including his background and small hints of progression. There hasn't been much contribution to that, so I figured we could revisit it when it came time to write it up formally. Still, contributions are welcome. More on that (and the above) after this: And here's the more, or at least an even-briefer encapsulation of his history: Unable to get funding, he turned to the mob for funding, thinking his superior intellect would allow him to control his situation; his (then) naivety, however, proved to be his undoing. He's no longer on the run from the mob as the next thing he did was kill the majority of that mob (at least locally) by using the last bit of money from the mob to built his exoskeleton (shot down by you, if I recall) and the pro type of his power-boosting helmet. He used the resources "procured" from this now defunct mob (wiser members of this mob swore allegiance to him and became the "suits--" the more "professional" end of his operation, as his reputation has grown from "pencil neck genius" to "efficient killer who holds a grudge."). As he continues to winnow the ranks of "disloyals," his reputation as grudge-driven increases considerably. He began manufacturing drugs, used local gangs at distributors, all to build his resources and work on his "revenge." (it was during this period that he picked up the nickname "the Skull.") He freely admits to any who wonder who the target is and why that the target is "everyone" and that they will "pay for the mistake of wronging me." He orchestrated additional crimes for materials, etc, to get his plan up and running-- the manufacture of the drugs, the manufacture of the batteries, etc. He trained the most loyal of his "suits" into paramilitary-type discipline and offed the others. He recruited smarter, more reliable gang members into suits or liaisons between suits and gangs. He finds the gangs extremely useful for distribution and "man on the street" intelligence, grunt work, and not much else. Added later: Once he determined how his revenge would take place-- bottling the city and demanding they acknowledge his genius and accept his rulership (helmet and mind-boosting drugs, as well as prior experience with the mob, are costing him _some_ sanity, which has random effects on his foresight)-- he realizes that the energy matrix he has designed to create the Dome will radiate on frequency "origin X," and quietly investigates for those likely to be affected. Finding random gang bangers likely to be affected, he quickly organizes them into their own gang-- a special liaison group, if you will-- elevated above the normal street gangs, and possibly even the suits themselves. He explains to him that they will serve a special purpose in his plan; that they will become his direct agents of chaos, and christens them as such (knowing the value that "inferiors" place on a group identity ). Given they are little more than hooligans almost incapable of operating with professionalism or with unit tactics, the suits have taken to simply referring to them en masse as "Chaos," as in "oh great. Here comes chaos." or "We've got this under control; we don't need you're chaos over here mucking things up." The gang has perverted this distaste into a point of pride, and refers to themselves as "Chaos." The Dome goes up, within hours, the members of Chaos fall ill. The Skull sees to their needs (leaving the hospital with power, for example), and within two or three days, the members all have the powers that he predicted they would develop. When the dome goes up, it's clear that to his mind, the lives of thousands of people are "just about the right exchange" for having been not immediately seen as a genius and for being embarrassed by the now-dead (or under his control) mob several months back. Those who notice (or later discover) that he has been experimenting on himself (helmet and drugs) all in the name of a single revenge plot realized both that he is very unhinged and that there seems to be nothing out of bounds to him with regard to "writing" a perceived slight. Most of all, they notice the absolute intensity that drives him and continues to fuel his quest for revenge. There. That's two short descriptions, one with the newer stuff. Feel free to toss out additional ideas or comments on the current ones. it is my hope that they can eventually discover the following things, if they discover nothing else: 1) the man is an absolute, unquestionable genius, at least with regard to both physics and engineering 2) the man is vain beyond vain, and this was ultimately driven by a quest to fulfill a need for recognition of item 1. 3) the man is using external amplifiers (drugs and helmet) for his personal powers. He may or may not have the powers without these items, but certainly they will be weaker. 4) he started his operation in the old mines, but now that he "owns the city," he is moving to a more suitable location (toss-up between the hospital or one of the tech firms. Hospital offers more chemistry labs, of course) Any of those four things provide an immediate "handle" on the villain which can, by skillful characters (remember: I didn't say players! Like Hugh, I'm not really big on "if the player doesn't know it, then the character doesn't, either" type games. This is why I _hate_ GMing for my wife: she knows way, way, _way_ more about forensic medicine than I _ever_ will, and she just isn't happy until everything breaks down into one of those "procedural police" type shows (which I personally hate. I'm an action guy. ) There are more things that can be discovered, of course, and even then, none of the above are _necessary_ things to know, but I hope at least those are discovered because I see them as being the most helpful. As always: Chime in. I'm way overdue for my pillow appointment so I'm going to bow out now.

Agreed. We're shooting for meticulous, effective, long-range planner; not the Joker. Understood. I also like the idea that, rather than sending a message, it's laying a red herring to confuse the investigation. And the fact that it's a kid demonstrates that the Skull is not as all-knowing as he believes himself to be: where he _truly_ omniscient, he would know that CJ would _never_ hurt a kid. I also like that even though intended as a red herring, it's actually a clue. The thing we have to script for is that putting a kid in there will cause CJ to categorically _deny_ that he was the mastermind, and fight the accusation tooth and nail, no matter what his fear of the Skull might be.

Remember this from the early, _fun_ days of the internet frontier? https://www.theyfightcrime.org

Dean: And please, please, _please_ understand that I say this with respect, appreciation, and thanks for everything you're suggesting and for everything you've done. I have some of your older stuff, actually, and it is based on my experience with that material in mind that I offer the following possibility: Alternate versions. "Super Magic" isn't of much use or interest to my groups (most of our supers games don't really include magic as more than an occasional SFX or bit of origin; it's not something any of us really dig). But where magic and undead and zombies and walking skeletons is of _great value_ for us Fantasy and its sub-genres. Without having to go into backgrounds, origins, etc-- any such "supernatural" characters that you create for supers: a simple appendix with abbreviated write-ups for "heroic level monster" versions would be a great deal more than an amazing thing. Just something to consider....

Well yeah. I don't really care much for the Joker, and to be honest-- and no; I'm not intentionally baiting the fans-- I thought the Heath Ledger interpretation was possibly the worst in history. The intensity? _good_. Everything else? yiiich, It just really bugs me, the idea that "he's cant' be scary because he's new."

Forgive the lack of clarity. I thought I was pretty clear that I'm not a big fan of high-body count stories for supers. This is why I _am_ a fan of the dead guy in the Big Bubba suit. Stay light on _actual_ deaths, but make the ones that do occur as poignant as possible: keep the heroes aware that without their intervention, death _will_ happen. As admitted perhaps even a hundred times, I know bugger-all about comics. Now I know that the Joker can arrive on the scene absolutely terrifying from Day One, but the Skull cannot attain that even over the period of weeks or months between losing his mind and setting his plan in motion. Evidently there's an "instantly terrifying" power build that only one of them may possess.

That's not better.....

There's a place outside of Savannah that went up a couple of years ago-- I can't remember the name of it, but that's sort of what you brought to mind when you suggested inviting the town to this place. It's got a massive video and pinball arcade that spits out prize tickets (the part I refer to as the "Child Casino") as well as Go-karts and a couple of mini-golf courses. There's a snack bar there, and they appear to own more unused property that they can expand into if they take off. When you made the mayoral invite, I sort of blended that place into a Chucky Cheese and gave it your Kinghts of Olde theme. I added a couple of "rides--" nothing to spectacular to fit not a city lot, but fun for kids who aren't into (or are bored with) the video games. Most importantly, it's a pretty large complex: it would be possible to run a couple of thousand people through here in a day's time. Seemed about perfect. Moreover, there's a place in Rye Patch that actually has a castle. They rent it out for venues (my wife has a niece who got married there..... >shudder<... Sorry... it was a D&D-themed wedding..... >shudder<....) It's _huge_, and really sad, all at once. It's made of concrete blocks with no attempt at pretending these are stone, or even hand-made blocks. The "moat" is an algae-filled drainage ditch they ran completely around the castle. When the place is in use, the owners will come and pour a turquoise-colored dye into the ditch and turn on a couple of pumps to get it circulated. The end result might as well be _paint_ it's so opaque. It has a kitchen, a couple of small dining rooms, a couple of "use them for something" rooms, an interesting entryway, and a _massive_ dining room, as well as a couple of costume rooms / changing rooms. The restrooms seemed insufficient for the occupancy, but there was always the ditch..... At any rate, I couldn't help but think "that is so perfect for a set piece....." So they all got pushed together, thematically. I think we're sort of on the same page here. Hey, thanks, Scott. mighty kind of you. That's about where I am with it, though I get the "Freddy's" reference, and suspect that most younger player would as well, I think that might actually _detract_ just a little bit: a shout out to the "real" world in the middle of your pretend one, as it were. _However_... I also like that even if CJ ends up copping to everything, the dead kid serves as a clue for the astute character, most particularly in hind-sight, should we go with "the Skull gets away this time." Agreed, at least for the most part-- PC's should still be able to pick their own names. You just have to play it as the name that was "given" to you if you're a local boy. That's why I was sort of pushing for the Skull to have been named by those people with whom he dealt when I did the write-up. It amused him enough to run with it when he announced himself to the world. It's a bit of a cop out, but I'm not opposed to the gang members already having street names that proved to be coincidently prophetic. Agreed. When you see me type "Skull" in this thread, it usually indicates I'm on a touch screen, or just really in a hurry to get something down. But yes, this character is undoubtedly _The_ Skull. There are no other Skulls like him. The Skull is the skull to which all other skulls aspire. The Skull is the ultimate embodiment of intelligence and planning; cunning and bad fashion.... You're not a jerk; you had an idea and you ran with it. It served several purposes, whether that was your intention or not: 1) This is real. This is dangerous. People are going to die. 2) The Skull kills, and does so indiscriminately. So indiscriminately that it never occurred to him the guy he's framing up (have to wrap up any loose ends, after all, even his favorite general) might not kill a child. 3) Clue potential for (forgive me, people) "finding the _real_ killers." My concerns mirror Scotts: possible squeamishness, side-tracking the story-- my concern is that it might be a distraction. Again, I can go either way, but as it has the potential to totally change the outcome of the story: CyberJack either _is_ or _is not_ willing to be the fall guy (I have to believe that even his fear of the Skull would not tolerate taking the blame for a child murder). If he's not willing, we need to frame him pretty hard. Nope. That's got to stay. I don't _love_ it, but I totally get the need for it. It's easy for a television-raised generation to gloss over the murder of a few hundred nondescript people. They need at least one grisly kill pushed directly into their faces to get that "this is what dead means" feel. Got to get them into the mood, so to speak. I think pretty much all comic books have mutants. Most brands just roll with it as a thing, just like the mutation that resulted in my pretty blue eyes. Then one company did something stupid with it that made lots and lots of money. But this is not the place for that discussion. ;). I have zero issues with the word "mutant." It doesn't make me think movies and superheroes. In all honesty, every time I hear it, I think of fruit flies with curled wings. I've never _heard_ of one, so we're even.

Personally, I base it on the liaison itself. That is, the connecting sounds. If it ends in a fricative sound, like "earth," or "Snarf," I go with "Ling." If it ends in an S, change it to an "Sh" sound-- Mars to Martian. anything else is something of a toss-up between "ian" or just "an." (Witness the occasional episode of Star Trek where Spock is "Vulcanian" as opposed to "Vulcan"). As a quick and dirty rule of thumb, if it ends in a simple syllable, I go with "an". If it ends in a dual-vowel syllable, "ian," to preserve the pronunciation of the root word. If it ends in a vowel, either "Ling" (uncommon) or just slap and "N" on that bad boy and let it ride. I have no idea why, but I feel if you dig back far enough (in years) amongst some old grammar text books, you'll probably run across actual rules for this sort of thing.

From the above link, it's the 84th-largest city in the US. I rather wanted to avoid hard numbers for the same reason I don't want to stat out the dome: it's unimportant. When originally presented, I saw it as one of those tourist-traps mini-themepark type affairs: You know: mini-golf, two, maybe three small rides (knights and dragons themed, of course), a go-kart track, perhaps. As it was presented as the place the mayor invited the city to attend, I rather instinctively assumed it was a place large enough for an appreciable amount of people to assemble. I was fairly confident he wouldn't say "I think the eight thousand residents of this town should run to McDonalds and have a great time." I also factored in the expectation that more than half would not attend, and that the "event" would run all day, or until supplies /resources ran out. But that's just me. Steriaca didn't say that specifically: I just assumed the mayor wasn't an idiot. (Though we could lighten the tone of the game by writing him as one, and have Prince A. Pals be an off-court eatery in the local mall. That might actually be kind of fun. )

I would suggest caution here. Going to far with "insane" and "need not make sense" yields Foxbat with a real gun. I would, however, find "doesn't make sense without careful analysis" acceptable: for example, if he's already working on step five while the heroes are dealing with step one, well it's certainly not going to make a lot of sense right away. As sort of a 'frinstance, imagine finding a little boy hard at work in the woods with a folding shovel, digging a shallow trench eight feet long. "Whatcha doin', Kiddo?" "Missy Peters started a-goin' to my history class, and she's real nice, and I'm powerful sweet on her, an' I think she might like me, too, but I don't want her to go away until she kin make up her mind as to us maybe going steady 'er not." ?? que? The young man becomes satisfied with his shallow trench, folds his shovel, puts it in his pack, pulls out a sandwich, and walks away, pleased with his efforts. "that'll do it." This makes _no_ sense. Then the summer ends, and the rains and snows start, and the thaw comes, and the waters starting draining down the hills. But that one trench-- that one little minor shift to the flow of runoff in this one spot-- the waters dig and cut and soften the soil around the roots of one particular tree. And that three leans over and falls, ripping a staggering divot of soil and stone, creating a massive hole into which the water flows, repeating the process on a larger scale, and two weeks later a massive landslide cascades toward and into the river, creating a small flood and forcing the water to create new routes and new diversions, one of which runs across the Peters' farm. For two years, Elmer Peters has struggled with his pivot system, and has been unable to produce a full, healthy crop due to poor irrigation. If he had a third year of this trouble, he would lose the farm, and pack up his family and move southeast, where his brother has assured him he could find a factory job. That's not an issue this year, though: there's a small stream running right through his land, and at the absolute worst, he can irrigate with nothing more than a gas-powered mud hog. Some strange act of Providence has bought him both the farm, the time he needs to repair his pivots, and the money with which to do it. That sort of "crazed planning" I am totally cool with, particularly for a super-genius sort of character: he's way, way ahead. Yes; he's insane. But his "crazed plots" are, when studied closely, absolutely ingenious. I am not calling you out on the term; I've used it myself in the past. I _am_ calling out what modern culture has _done_ to the term. Between Pokemon and other such "knock-off" structures, I'm not entirely sure people even _understand_ what actual "evolution" is: they seem to think it's interchangeable with "metamorphosis." I don't even know if the X-men are still using "the next evolutionary step" as their justification of mutants. I'd rather like to just avoid the term completely. This-- this is the part I wanted to hear more of your thoughts on. If you find a minute, I'd like to know why you feel the Skull is directly at fault. I grant the following: he's taking home-brewed "brain expanders" and using a "cerebral enhancement device, side effects of which include paranoia and generalized insanity. He may even be addicted to them at this point, if only because the heightened paranoia demands that he always be at his "utmost" mental capacity lest he miss some key 'thing.' I find these to be interesting (and genre-appropriate) enough to like including them. However, they are character flaws; not flaws in his plan. And like Steriaca, I feel the destruction of the dome to be the condition of -- though I don't like using the word in an RPG-- "victory" for the players. Everything else-- capturing various bad guys, saving various lives, figuring who is who and did what and how-- those are all a bit of gravy for the players who have enjoyed the game enough to want to dig into it a bit. As to being the force that brings him down-- well, I'm not sure what you're driving at. I would like to hear more on both of these comments if you can find the time to elaborate. I can't really answer that. So much of "satisfaction" in an RPG is presentation, and presentation from start to finish. If they find the rules cumbersome, they're going in with a negative "joy factor." if the don't like the story, there's a negative factor. unfortunately, we can only write the story: we can't tailor it for every possible audience (though that would be _awesome_!). Case in point, it's already got the potential to be darker than I care for personally with regards to supers. I'm not opposed to 'dark' at all; I just don't care to mix it with supers. But if that's what people want these days, then that's what we should be looking at. To be honest, I would like to hear from more people on that-- for and against. I can go either way, but if we look at it from the point of view of player satisfaction, it gets even trickier: if the players do not figure out the Skull's background (and there's no reason they shouldn't, if they're interested enough to dig for it), and they believe that Cyberjack -- also a tech villain, of a sort-- really _is_ responsible, and they have captured him and he denies nothing (for whatever reason), then will they be satisfied? If, to their minds, they have caught the guy behind it all, is that not a solid conclusion to their adventure? As this is not an actual comic book, we can't "retcon," be we can, after a fashion "precon." If we had written from the beginning that CyberJack set all this in motion and created a "dummy mastermind" in case he should be foiled, -- if we changed it right now, for that matter-- to that very thing, would it still present the same problems for you? Granted, it would make it harder to learn the Skull's background, as he wouldn't have any at all, unless ol' CJ has been working this with a _major_ long game in mind. Then, ten issues down the line, the editor says "No; this script is crap. Give me something else by tomorrow so we can get the pencil guys to work!" So the writer says "Hey! What if, instead of Needlefoot being behind it all, we use the Skull?" "The Skull?" "Yeah-- you know back last year, when CyberJack put Hepzibah under a big dome and made that robot decoy to take the fall if it all went sour?" "Yeah; I think so. What about it?" "Suppose it was the other way around? Suppose there really _was_ a Skull, and CyberJack was _his_ puppet? It would explain why CJ never put up a big argument that he _wasn't_ the mastermind, and it's like one of those twist surprises things that we can sell with four of five different covers." "Well, I like that part. I like people buying the five copies of the same book for no sensible reason. But that means that CJ knew there really was a Skull. Why didn't he protest such?" "Who knows? Maybe Skull has something on him, something really big. Maybe he's just that terrified of the guy that he was scared _not_ to take the wrap!" "Why would he be scared of a brand new villain?" "Every time we make a new villain, we want them to be _threatening_. We want them to be scary. What's the point if they're not? Do you remember how much we had to retune Sandman until he was finally something that people stopped laughing at?" "Yeah; that kind of bit us in the ass, too. By the time we used him as a movie villain, he was damned-near a good guy in the print. But what makes CJ so scared of a guy without money and connections?" "Jesus, Dude... What makes the Joker scary? A tall skinny guy? You know-- like me and like Jeff in editing? Both of whom got our butts kicked regularly all the way up until college?-- say.... By _you_ a couple of times! What the Hell, Man?!" "Forget it! We were dumb kids. Besides, you still got hair, don't ya? See? You win. But people are scared of the Joker because he's scary. We tell them that. "The Skull is scary. I told you that." "But the Joker is absolutely _nuts_!" "The Skull is absolutely nuts. Not only is he insane, but he's insane and a _genius_; a man who can make his plans come to life." "But the Joker doesn't have plans; he's just scary." "Yeah. Let's agree to disagree on that-- or anything else n the Joker, so we can move on." "The Joker kills people." "The Skull kills people." "With a gun. Joker shoots people." "Forget the Joker!" "Fine, but people like the Joker." "Yes; there is a great deal of comfort in reading the same story over and over." "So what's so scary about the Skull, then? Why would CJ be scared of him?" "What's the first thing the Joker did when he showed up?" "Hell, I don't know. I don't remember. I'm not even sure I was born yet! I'm only fifty-two." "Right. For the record, it was a series of lame practical jokes. That's how he started." "But he's come a long way, then, because people are terrified of the Joker." "Right. He went nuts, about the same time Batman did." "Batman's not nuts!" "Again, let's agree we're not going to agree, okay?" "So what makes the Skull special?" "The first thing he did was capture and entire city and kill a bunch of people. He terrified an established villain and murderer so much that the villain himself took the rap." "Why?" "He started out crazy. Serial killer, mass murderer insane. _And_ he made his plans come to life, and did it with almost no resources other than sheer drive. _Drive_, man. An unstoppable, indomitable _will_ to subjugate all those around him." "Who does that? Who has that kind of will power?" "Batman." "No doubt. Wait-- the Skull is Batman?! We'll get sued! Wait-- do we write Batman?" "No, we don't. But the fact is that "unconquerable will power" is something of a trope for comics--" "I knew that!" "That's why your the editor, Boss. Problematically, our audience is primarily First-World people with enough disposable income to buy the same four-dollar comic book five times to get all the different covers. They're generally soft enough to have forgotten that this sort of will power is _real_. Look at those kids you see on those "adopt a child in horrible circumstances while still being able to leave them in those circumstances and not actually have to bring them into your comfy house or prepare meals for them" commercials." "Hunh?" "What I'm saying is that this kind of drive-- this will to live, to move on, to thrive-- it still exists; our audiences don't see it much in their own worlds--" "That's _fine_! The less interesting their worlds are, the more inclined they are to buy stories about ours!" "Yeah; this wasn't about that, but sure; whatever. What I'm saying is that it is a rare wallpaper hanger who gets rejected by a young lady and then spends the rest of his life attempting to wipe her entire ethnotype from the face of the earth." "Do what now?" "Let's just call that an example of the sheer, unstoppable _drive_ that is within the Skull. It's so powerful that you can _feel_ it. Combine that with barn bat crazy and super genius, and he's positively terrifying." "Will it work? Will it lead to a lasting and memorable character that people are absolutely terrified of?" "Saul, I don't know. I mean, it's no series of lame-assed practical jokes, but it might take off. It might not. But it does give a nice call back to a story we got some complimentary letters about." "Okay, then-- the most important thing: can you script it and have it on my desk by eleven tomorrow?" "You have my firmest 'probably.'" "Then make it happen! Come on! Get to work!" okay. Apparently I really needed that. I haven't done one of those in a long, long time, and it felt _great_! That's the long way around. if we're creating a new mastermind, one who will appear more than once in a series, and we want him to be scary, then I think the key is that people really believe he is capable of reaching his dreams. No; I'm not suggesting "he's Hitler." That example was chosen by one character above as an example that he was certain his target audience would understand (and he was sort of wrong). I _am_ saying why can we accept that EGO means willpower and determination, but not accept that a 45 EGO is one hell of a lot of both of those things? EGO-based Presence? That'd be sweet. Anyway, this started as an example of how fans of the genre "buy it" every day. But as we can't just go back and undo players' achievements (without being total dicks), we have to pre-include our retcons. If they are so clueless as to not find any of that, then there is no reason for them to not accept CJ as the primary villain. Considering that I _personally_ feel (again, not a fact; just something I feel based on experience) that as the first game session is not going to be a truly memorable experience as there will be lots of uncertainty, lots of interruptions for clarifications and rules-checks, etc, it would be more satisfying to catch the mastermind when the players are more able to put their hearts into the play experience itself, whatever they have determined that play experience should be (tactical, immersive, or whatever). I might be wrong. For some, it might be a matter of taking all the stats and skills, entering them into a spreadsheet, and assigning EP based on how the totals fall out; game over. Good session. See you next week. As for the killing a kid: I'm not sold on that. I'd like to hear a lot more feedback from a lot more people. I can go either way, as I mentioned last night, but I think we should consider the ramifications for the guy being set up to take the fall, and the likely effect it will have on the progression of subsequent stories. I'm not sure I understand why he can only be one of those things. Let me apologize: at some point during my pre-practice dialogue bit above, I touched the screen wrong or my cursor jumped or something, and suddenly I was tying all that in the totally wrong place. I didn't realize that until I just re-read where I broke your post above. It's just a massive pain to put it back where it belongs, and the over-fifty-percent chance of deleting all of it during the attempt (I f'n _hate_ touch screen interfaces) compels me to leave it right where it is. However, I apologize to you and everyone else about the mess it has made of this entire post. I sincerely hope it hasn't been too much of an irritation to follow it. I also liked this; I'll figure out how to work that in. I like this even more, first because it plays to "Skull is super-smart" and second because it plays to "Skull is a terrifyingly effective long-game plotter." Excellent points! However, if we go with "slightly more powerful than PCs," we will have to wait to introduce them until we're certain that the PCs have had a couple of combats already and have had some time to practice their teamworks, etc. Perhaps present them at two power levels, make one (or possibly two) encounters with them that are not tied directly to the chronology of the story, so the GM can insert the encounters where he feels his players will be the most "prepared" for such encounters? You know: Chaos has been ordered to hunt down the heroes; they've been searching for a couple of days, but they don't happen to find them until the GM decides "I think my crew is ready for this" as opposed to "as you round the next corner, you see movement-- a team of assailants has been lying in wait, and you've tripped the trigger for the ambush!" At the end of the day, we, as the writers, don't know when the players will actually be ready, so I feel it's best to write the encounters so that they do not tie directly to the character's actions at a particular moment. Hugh, my man, I want to hug you for this. It's not the detractors, either: how many threads have we done over the years for statting out things that just don't need to be statted out? How many of the old Circle of HEROes scenario offerings and equipment lists went all overboard with statting out cigarette lighters and other equipment that just didn't need it? How many people have attempted to stat out cell phones and police scanners? it's just unnecessary in all but the tiniest of cases (most of which involve "exactly how much damage do I need to break it?", and all of which can be played off-the-cuff, without rolls, etc. and be fair calls by any GM) I withdraw that hug. I know those things are popular, but if I could point to the _one single thing_ i dislike most passionately about the last two editions, it's those damned sidebars. Yes; I know I'm in the minority. Put that Sh^( in a footnote, or it's own sub-section, but don't distract my reading with more reading that drifts down past where I was reading so that when I'm done reading I have to go figure out just where the hell I stopped reading and hope that it's not a reference back to a page I've already read or been referred to twice previously. And nothing gives a more "damn! I'm back in school!" feeling that those F*($%# sidebars. Wasn't it Derrick that offered an indexing document for sidebars because of the number of them that aren't indexed or catalogued already? I just hate them. You can't have a decent conversation in a column that's two words wide and expect it to stay where it's relevant. It's either not enough information to be of any real help, or so much information that you end up a page away from where you want to be. Ditch the damned things, and format to allow that information to be properly placed in a "relevant notes" section of some sort, even if you have to put one within each section. Gad but I hate them.

Lots of things I'd like to get details on, but an impromptu game session came up, so I don't have much time. Still, I'd like opinions on something right off the bat: I'm not keen on wrapping a kid inside the decoy robot. There are two ways it plays out: Cyber Jack absolutely _refuses_ to cop to _anything_, because killing a kid is so far out of bounds for him that he will risk retribution. I have more thoughts on this, but no time just now. Second way it plays out: Cyber jack still cops to it, but astute characters will realize that it wasn't him. Maybe not in this adventure (unless they actually figure it out, let it lay for the Skulls reappearance). The Skulls reappearance can be introed with one or more of them making this connection; whatever. Hugh: You hit on something early in your post I really want to hear more about; I'd like to revisit it when I have more time. For now, I'd like to point out that someone not being world famous doesn't preclude them from being scary as Hell itself. Given familiarity, or even close quarters, some people just rub you that way. It doesn't take much to make CyberJack, established local villain, an early recruit and general for the Skull, to spend some time, hear some plans or negotiations or whatever-- to realize that this guy: someone both motivated by "worship my genius or die horribly" and dangerously capable of forcing that choice on anyone he pleases. It's not really difficult (at least for me) to accept that he scares the absolute sanity out of CyberJack. Who knows what sets CJ off? Rwlly gotta run; more when I have time.

Yep. Fists are typically slower than lasers.

Honestly, I think we _all_ did that eventually! I'm willing to bet we all drew lines all over the backs of our sheets for Fantasy HERO, just to track the equipment.

I am neither of those things, Good Sir, and I very much liked it! (what I _am_ is 59 years old, and nearly all of that is in my eyeballs. )

Your initially-suggested Then look _harder_. No one's buttons are being pushed; lots of people are pointing out that it's not a great simulation of leadership. No leader on earth makes you better with his presence. He makes you better (or worse, I suppose. Not all leaders are good at it) by inspiring you to try harder, or by training you, or by coaching you on teamwork or even drills. Sometimes, he just inspires you to train yourself. I expect a brick to be strong. I expect a leader to have leadership. Call me crazy. If can't role-play leadership, he can buy the skill: the skills are there for people who don't know how to be able to simulate knowing how, after all. Now for things I _don't_ expect: I don't expect my brick to be weaker because the leader went away. I don't expect _any_ well-trained, well-disciplined _anybody_ to suddenly suck when they are left to their own devices for a few minutes. Problematically, that's precisely what your initially-suggested build comes packaged with: Leader steps out for bit, and the buffs go away. Not even a little bit. The concept of everyone become two steps crappier because the leader went away, though, _is_ outside the bounds of anything that isn't the local Wendy's here in town. Now, I'm not sure why this is the only focus you have, unless you were just waiting for the opportunity to give this speech, but as an actual concept, it's _yours_; do what you want with it. You asked for questions, and they got answers. Wether or not you believe it, I _am_ sorry that you don't like them, but I can promise you that they were honest and that, just by the nature of the folks here and the game we're playing, nobody's chain got yanked; nobody's buttons got pressed; nobody's feelings got hurt. You got answers you didn't like, and that was the extent of it. Further more, I can still promise you that I _honestly_ believe that _someone_ will offer to help you with this build, if you're patient enough. hmm. Seems even as I type this that Matt offered something useful. Hell, I would have, but you want it for 5e, and I ain't savvy enough in 5e to be much help. In spite of that, I _did_ offer you some places to start looking. I don't know if you don't have access to your book right now of if this speech was more important, but what I gave you: 1) honest answers to your questions 2) possible alternatives that don't come with an instant de-buff for the leader not being near you 3) things to look at while you're waiting for a better answer. I got nothing else to give you, and I'm starting to think that's a two-way situation. Yeah, I got that. That was the _primary_ reason I offered a workable idea that didn't have much direct-to-damage utility. You got your buffing up the dudes ability without it having been a purely tactical decision, and you know that those players / characters who want your leadership genuinely want _leadership_, as opposed to free buffs. Even Matt's suggested build for Captain America doesn't offer Characteristics and Power buffs; it offers four Skill Levels. So here's the thing with the buff's model: My gun gets stronger. The buff model means that, with your better leadership, my _gun_ becomes stronger. If I bought an antique 6-shooter at the pawn shop, it picks up two damage classes because I agreed to let you be the leader because my gun would pick up two damage classes if I let you be the leader so that my gun would pick up two damage classes. My _equipment_ gets better. Now, just as always, you do you, Dude, but that's damned hard to reconcile as "leadership." We can fake that out as better shooting, I suppose, or we can use the Skill level model and actually get better shooting. That's it. That's all. I'm not telling you it's not do-able; I'm not telling you it won't do just what you want it to do. All I'm saying is that it'd be damned hard for me to reconcile as "leadership," and that's it. Beyond that, do what you want (or at least what your GM will let you. ) Once again, that's fine. It's your character, your group, etc. If it works for you guys, well it's a done deal, and it doesn't matter what we think. Hell, what we think isn't even important: it's not _for_ us, ultimately; it's for you folks. Okay, see? _That's_ the sort of up-front info that helps out. However, I think it's going to be harder than I had first thought to fit all the buffs you want into those limits and still have your own unique talents and abilities, simply because of the costs versus the caps of your starting game (if your assumptions are correct, I mean). You might want to consider reducing the number of things that get buffed, or the extent to which they get buffed. New Limitations would reduce the actual cost, of course, but they're not going to drop the AP cost.

I like it. Done and _done_, Sir! (Ma'am? I really don't know, but consider yourself to have received the proper honorific! ) Duke

Succor! That's what it was called! Great. Now I've got to go sand my nipples clean. ugh.

Yes; it is. I believe I admitted as much, straight-away. It was... Well, I would have to say "more palatable" than was "I'll make your shooting power more stronger." Being that there is a long-held idea that Leadership is itself a Skill, going with _minor_ Skills boots sat better with me. I was trying to stay within your parameters of "bribing my followers is okay," yet offer a build that made the bribe both less-tempting and more based on a "simulated tactician." That is all. Yep. got that. But just to go a bit further: does your GM (since I _now_ see that you are not him) have "campaign limits," and if so, what can you offer a character who is already there? As I also admitted up-front, I'm not the best guy for help there, but 5e has a power called Aid, and one of the sidebars showed a custom build using that with some ridiculously mediaeval-sounding name. Yes; it's still a word, but it's damned hard to say while both keeping a straight face and _not_ feeling just a little bit like some teenage goth kid offering some other goth kid a chance to taste his nipples in the storage catacombs behind the restroom of a shopping mall.... At any rate, that's going to be the base of the builds you're looking at. It's not cheap, and when you add in Usable by Others-- I _think_ 5e made "many others" and "many others simultaneously" each add even more cost-- and don't forget the Reduced END x2 cost so as too keep from falling out in a dead faint when six "others" are using this power. I don't remember if Aiding several things at once cost more or not. And-- now _please_ bear in mind that I don't play (or even particularly care for) 5e, mostly because of stuff like this-- You might have to had "no conscious control" or "persistent" or several other things that allow you to "fire and forget" this power so you can do something else while these other folks are doing their thing with your Aid power. Again-- I am not sure about _any_ of that, but I am absolutely _certain_ that someone will take this as a creative exercise and offer you a few options that would work.