BishopofB&W

Originally posted by Scott Heine

I'm sorry...

There, there. Some of us wish the store had had Alien Enemies instead of European Enemies so we would have bought it instead before it went out of print.

Looks good. I also like the Mama Punisher. The concept of the Punisher family on the comic page was was a strangely appealing mix of camp and grit. Almost, IMO, as good as the Archie Comic-Punisher crossover.

Originally posted by cubist

I liked CLOWN and if I ever get a game on, they will be updatef for 5th ed.

Who should stay dead? Anything out of the Champions of the North book except for Borealis. Nope, never liked it, never used it and as far as I'm concerned, it was never printed(go to the happy place, go to the hppy place). I would even salvage some things from European Enemies but not CotN. CAll it a personal bias I guess.

I've never had a chance to look through a copy of CotN, myself, but I've read other posts giving good reviews. What did you not like about it?

Originally posted by Southern Cross

Oh well,everybody makes mistakes....

Personally I preferred Genocide to the Institute for Human Advancement,which I think is a deliberate attempt to fool Saps (the nickname the Tomorrow People gave Homo Sapiens)

I loved that show! I saw an article where Thames Productions was bringing the original cast back together to do radio-style dramas about their further adventures as adults.

Originally posted by Sketchpad

Personally, I use both the IHA & Genocide ... IHA is the public branch of the organization, handling recruitment, publicity (or mudslinging) and political ends. Genocide, on the other hand, is the militant "shadow" branch that uses hi-tech, big robots and slaved mutants to hunt down the genetically impure. At the moment, they only use the big Minutemen in last case scenarios and against the heavy hitters, opting to use the Minuteman X (a smaller bot that's akin to a Boomer). Their tech level is that of Genosha's army (back when they first appeared) and none of them wear yellow

I was thinking the same thing last night. You could have both IHA and Genocide together in the same type of symbiotic relationship as Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army. IHA would point to Genocide as the logical consequence of a failure to control renegade mutants and Genocide members would say IHA moves too slow and drastic measure must be taken NOW before it’s too late. The leaders of both groups, of course would work hand in glove because they’re really doing a “good cop, bad cop†routine on the entire country.

This is my expansion on my other idea for a more sympathetic organization that is still troublesome to supers.

Council for a United Society—Supports many of the same legislative agendas as IHA but has completely different goals. CUS believes that allowing mutants and other paranormals to go unregistered slows down their acceptance and full integration into society at large. Its members, some of whom have low-powered paranormal relatives, want children screened early for paranormal abilities so they can receive the guidance and training they need to control their powers and grow up to be fully-participating, productive citizens. CUS argues that mutants are the ultimate minority group and often have needs, both physical and educational, that far exceed any other group. The rivalry, if not outright hatred, between CUS and IHA is bitter, indeed. They both agree on the need to prevent and punish paranormal crime and CUS’ lobbyists are just as strident as IHA’s in their criticism of the careless use of superpowers. They sharply disagree on just about everything else. When IHA brings up the specter of future mutants enslaving the world, CUS responds that the best prevention for this is to integrate them instead of keeping them at the fringes of society. IHA dismisses this as naïve dreaming. Both groups have sympathizers in all levels of government. Law enforcement personnel in the CUS camp tend to adopt a “hope for the best, prepare for the worst†attitude.

This kind of group could be a big headache for PR-conscious heroes.

I don't remember from The Once and Future King, but in The Sword in the Stone, I think Archimedes was active during the day but took a lot of short naps.

One thing I liked about the Genocide book was how it didn't paint all members with a broad brush. It even suggested stories where the PCs would get to know and befriend people in their Secret IDs and later discover they were Genocide Pawns. The point being to show that there were people in Genocide who had sincere concerns and didn't see any other group addressing them.

I'd like to see a mutant-registration lobbying group that come s from the opposite viewpoint. They could lobby from the basis of accelerating full metahuman integration into society. I think they would be far more troublesome to supers not only because of their integrationist message but because they could point out real abuses of superpowers and not be casually dismissed as well-funded bigots.

They'd need their own super-protection from both IHA and mutant supremacists. They could also serve as another group for wealthy supervillains to use to get their foes publicly ID'd.

I felt inspired this weekend:

Nanoweave—Material made of carbon-based nanotubes. Though expensive, it has a variety of uses in communications, computers, and biotechnology. Less commonly known are its military applications such as in body armor, stealth and infiltration gear, and battle dress for elite special forces units. A bodysuit made of the appropriate weave configuration can defeat radar, infrared, or disperse radiant energy to provide some protection from lasers, electricity, and heat-based attacks. This can be increased by combining it with Mallorite.

Mallorite—A substance which can channel kinetic energy, radiant energy, or even hard radiation through itself into a predetermined location (or locations). Invented by Dr. Matthias Mallory in 1966.

SpectraSilk—A synthetic fiber invented in 1970 by a chemist named Waylon Carver (great-great-grandson of the scientist George Washington Carver) after analyzing a scrap of The Protean’s biomorphic costume he recovered near the site of The Protean’s defeat by the members of The Love Generation. SpectraSilk was an instant sensation in the high fashion world because, though it ordinarily possessed a near-perfect transparency, it could accept any dye. It could go from see-through to solid opacity depending on the designer’s preference. It is more expensive than ordinary silk, but is lighter and stronger and can knit cuts and tears back together when treated with a special solution developed by Carver. Carver’s secret was that one key component was grown out of the original biomorphic scrap. It never got much use in clothes beyond the runways of New York and Paris but it found wide acceptance in other applications such as parachutes. The profits from the initial sales allowed Carver to launch his own company, Spectrum Solutions (We have your solution!). In 1973, Carver discovered that his nephew, Darius Johnson, was the lightning-projecting superhero Power Surge. Not only was Darius using a costume made of SpectraSilk, but the material had somehow attuned itself to Darius’ bioelectric field so that it acclimated to his powers. Carver couldn’t find any proof but he began to suspect The Protean’s morphic technology was extraterrestrial in nature. Word quickly spread through the metahuman community and soon SpectraSilk was on every superhero’s and supervillain’s list of costume upgrades. The daringly clad flying brick feminist Ms. Steele publicly endorsed it after it held up during an incident involving an exploding gasoline truck.

Real-Life Miracle Materials

TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM

http://www.rense.com/general20/transparentalum.htm

NANOTUBES

http://news.com.com/2009-7337_3-5091267.html?tag=nefd_lede

AEROGEL

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad26oct98_1.htm

And Boats and the Space Shuttle and Helicopters and…

The Hero System Vehicle Sourcebook is very good for genre simulation. It has representative vehicles from each era that has been portrayed in film and comics. Okay, not all eras, but it has sidebars that refer you to write-ups in The Ultimate Vehicle for things like chariots and sedans. Basically, all the cool vehicles from fictions are represented here. The Camaro, the Lamborghini, the F-16, the Mirage, the Mig, the Sherman, Tank, the Panzer, the Bullet Train, and the Humvee are just a few of the real-life vehicles included. It has a couple of small sections for Fantasy Hero and Superhero vehicles. Here you can find the official stats for the battle van that appears on the cover of The Ultimate Vehicle. There’s another set of stats that looks suspiciously like something used by a certain green-skinned nemesis of a certain wall-crawler. The artwork looks very clean with crisp lines and really helps show how much designs have changed over the decades.

Is it absolutely necessary for your game? No. (Heresy! Heresy!) You can create any or all of these with just the rules from The Ultimate Vehicle or FRED. But you will likely also have to spend a lot of time researching the vehicles. Since Steve has already done the hard work, I’d recommend buying the book. If you need stats for a Stingray instead of the Camaro, it’s easy to modify the Camaro stats. You can do this for most other vehicle types.

I’m impressed with how much is in the book. Like I said, if you saw it in a period movie or a comic book, you’ll find it or something like it in here.

Originally posted by Kevin

How about a support group for bitter ex-sidekicks?

 

I'm thinking along the lines of ex-child stars who grow up and then whine that they never had a childhood, didn't really have a choice about what they were doing, and now have been tossed aside in favor of younger faces.

I thought they were called Old Justice.

Originally posted by allen

Where's this book from? I'm not sure I've heard of it....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561630519/qid=1077639609/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-4747345-7427059?v=glance&s=books

Unfortunately, it's out of print. It's a very funny book about the lighter side of superheroing. It includes important considerations like how your name, costume, and personal rogues gallery will affect your marketability. It gives the pros and cons of boy versus girl sidekicks, how to get superpowers and how gaining them can go horribly wrong (Radiation accident= Mr. Low Sperm Count or Mrs. Low Sperm Count), and such things as advice on where to acquire a sidekick. Good method: find a kid with precocious acrobatic skills whose parent were just murdered. Bad method: raid a random orphanage or approach kids on the street offering to teach them wrestling and give them a pair of tights so they can go cruising for action with you in your car.

Originally posted by Von D-Man

According to the CU book UNTIL suffered significantly in its ability to operate because it didn't enjoy American support - and that the US, after joining the treaty, began to provide the majority of its funding.

 

That being the case - without that boost in funding - why would UNTIL, even with enforcement powers, be able to rival PRIMUS, which would have received the bulk of those funds before the US joined the treaty?

 

Why would the US allow an international enforcement agency to operate unrestricted within its borders when it could simply dump those additional funds into its own agency, which is beholden to its constitution and its direct executive control?

 

Now - with all that funding coming from the US - the united states would enjoy undue influence in UNTIL, but I still find the structure of UNTIL completely improbably, let alone its ability to operate on a paramilitary level within the US.

My take on UNTIL is that since superpowers first appeared during WWII, people would want some kind of international response after decades of seeing the sheer destructive potential of metahumans. I agree that it is highly unlikely that such a group would have the access and power inside US borders that UNTIL has in CU. However, I could see the US government helping establish an agency that can respond in regions that lack the resources to fend off supervillains. It would most likely be dominated by NATO nations and would be unable to intervene without permission of the national government.

I'm working on an idea in which the NATO allies helped Interpol develop a Tactical Response and Counterterrorism(TRAC) branch as a response to VIPER and supervillains. It is like a SWAT Team for Interpol. It is incapable of taking on most Generic Villainous Organizations directly. Rather it is a rapid response that hurts and distracts while an attached military battallion (probably on a rotating basis, I don't know yet) scrambles to follow right behind. It is heavily dominated by the countries that provide the most funding, such as the US, UK, France, etc.

As far as advanced technology is concerned, they can only dream of having UNTIL's resources. However, President Reagan had the idea of testing out advanced weapons systems as part of TRAC when Congress wouldn't fund it in the regular military budget (Star Wars black technology). Therefore, they have some access to advanced tech under the watchful eye of their principal financiers.

It's a work in progress.

I use the UNTIL Sourcebook mainly for ideas on organizational structure, names, and gadgets.

Originally posted by Von D-Man

Personally, I felt the scenario outlined in the CU that led to the US signing the UNTIL treaty was completely contrived.

 

For instance, which is the quantitatively AND qualitatively better law enforcement agency - Interpol or the FBI?

The FBI, of course. The real Interpol is an information clearinghouse for law enforcement agencies. Contrary to popular fiction, they have no authority to enforce any laws.

I picture a fictional Interpol as more like in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Even there, its strengths would be in investigation and small surgical interventions. It still couldn't match PRIMUS or the FBI for overall manpower and enforcement capability.

In Busiek's Astro City, there is a club called Butler's where superheroes can mingle in their civvies. The busboys (and girls) are there hoping to be noticed and recruited as sidekicks.

The book How to be a Superhero has an hilarious section on the do's and don'ts of picking a boy or girl wonder.

Originally posted by SomeAsianKid

What I don't understand about Prof. X is that a normal human who sets up in a sniper position could kill Xavier. He doesn't wear X armor and he doesn't have a force field. You would think a man with as many enemies as he does would do something to protect himself.

He already has the most powerful protection of all: THE PLOT. Of course THE PLOT could turn against him but I'd rather have that than any armor.

Also, I think in the first Ultimate X-men trade paperback Xavier was a bit of a voyeur. He got off on prying into other people's innermost thoughts and desires. He took particular pleasure in announcing to his students that he knew all of their "ribald" thoughts.

I understand that White Wolf loves angst. However, in Mammon's place, I would have gone in for liposuction and hired a personal trainer. Much easier than opening an S&M club and lurking in the background like Boo Radley.

I like all the ideas I've seen so far. I would also like to see a rationale for the split between the Inner Circle and Outer Circle. Are the infernal powers being bribed to go along with it? Are they subordinate to the Kings of Edom? Why don't they just have the Outer Circle take over the whole group? What's to stop one King of Edom from cutting its own deal with the infernals to take control? What do the infernal powers get from the earth becoming a place of horror and misery instead of the playground of possibilities for temptation and corruption that it would be otherwise?

Originally posted by Monolith

There's KC, 5 villains, and his COIL agents.

Plus anyone else he manages to put his COIL-touch on.

Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth

I just picked it up yesterday. As you may have guessed, it’s about King Cobra and COIL. I’ve only read the source material and skimmed through the adventures. You want access to Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks and VIPER:COTS. There are sidebars referencing specific pages in these and FRED for specific rules and villains to use. Or just substitute. One of the best parts of the book is all the maps, You have a New Mexico tourist trap town set over a VIPER Nest, a mutagenic plague hotzone, sewers, an underground animal habitat and genetics lab the size of the old Seattle Kingdome, a subway, and a train station. King Cobra is still the classic megalomaniac. There is a way for your players to get to know Viper-X (his old enemy Krait now works for COIL and is an example of how to create a neurokinetic). I couldn’t help comparing the character Gorgon to Medusa in Clash of the Titans. Depending on what’s going on in your campaign, the only drawback is that unlike Champions Battlegrounds the three connected adventures are written to be used one after the other. As they are, there is only time for a short adventure between the adventures. This may work for you or you may have to do some revising.

There is less art in this book but it’s more than made up for by all the maps by like I mentioned above. Ironclad is looking more like Conan the Barbarian (especially on the cover), but it works for him. Andrew Cremeans’ and Chris Stevens’ drawings of Witchcraft are good because they hint at someone with a little more depth and even personal quirks than just a generic magician with a bad family background. There’s a nice shot of King Cobra “recruitingâ€. Also some shots of some of the Ultimate under the influence of the COIL gene. A shot of Sapphire and Ironclad fighting Gorgon. Sapphire looks more mature and less trampy. One shot of KC trying to strangle Nighthawk (not his fault, KC has a higher STR, DEX, and SPD) while Defender springs into action in an Errol Flynn pose. Lots of serpent-men.

In your campaign, do mages have established dimensional travel routes? If so, a contest of wills would probably work when the target enters the route. If not, you might consider requiring a Mind Scan or Clairsentience lock-on to see where they start their travel from and then snatch them to the new location.

Originally posted by TheEmerged

"Who needs a kick in the teeth?!" I am so looking forward to the recently announced sequel taking place in the past, as opposed to a prequel...

"Not so fast, my red friend!" "Let's go find us a commie!" "I'm ready to fight the Communist hordes!":D

Originally posted by TheEmerged

And BTW, the music for Freedom Force is also a selling point -- this is on the short list of games I'd want a soundtrack for (and Tropico DOES sell the soundtrack seperately).

Nuclear Vinter! Nuclear Vinter! OOHHH!

I thought I remembered this. Nice article, Storn!

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/Hero_for_a_Day_various_5_1.html

I like the Nighthawk costume. I didn't like it when I first saw it in the Champions book but I now think, after comparing it to the one on the Champions Products webpage, that the the print resolution was slightly off. To me at least, the webpage version has nicer, cleaner lines. I don't even dislike the beaked cowl. There are a couple of changes I would make. First, change the silver to a darker gunmetal. He is supposed to sneak around, after all. Second, I wouldn't make it so obvious where his eyes are. Instead I would make the cowl so that it would look like he was seeing out of the birdseyes. Much more totemic and intimidating, IMO. I'm thinking of Anubis and the Horus guards in the Stargate movie. Just don't give him bird feet.

Originally posted by Storn

The hardest costume and drawings I've ever had to tackle was my own character Vector in the long running RDU. His costume changed as he did. In the beginning, it was a vest and flight goggles, gloves, baggy pants...he was a pilot after all.

 

At the end, his outfit is stately, as befitting a politician and statesman. It screams authority.

 

Oh, yes, there is power in a costume. I draw so many, I can affect the way players play their characters by an illustration and by that specific costume. I've seen it happen. Costume (or lack of), personality, codename and appearence are a parts of a whole. But costume and codename are symbols... symbols have power. Hence the word; "iconic"

Didn't you write an article on this subject for RPG.net?