Nucleon

Re: Name for French Brick

No expert on French here, but wouldn't that be Triompe? (And if I blew it I apologize -- I told you my French is bad.)

Triomphe it is, mortals.

Re: Champions Characters DEX Inflation Why?

I believe the strength chart represents what a person can pick up and carry not what he can bench press. But have you ever heard of Paul Anderson:

Nucleon would express His desire to look more closely at the Paul Anderson exemple.

According to your exemple, he could lift 2850 kg. That's STR 32-33. However, we can safely assume that Anderson exerted himself a lot during this record, or, in HERO terms, he pushed.

Let us stay conservative and take the heroic rules for a push; It is 5 characters points more, assuming minimal success on the EGO roll (to let his starting STR be more important.

That leaves Paul Anderson with a 27-28 STR, consequant with the HERO terms of 30 being "the absolute peak" for non-augmented human. If Nucleon had to "build" PA in Characters terms, He would give him exactly that, a 27-28 STR, with the 7-8 pts overhead bought at double cost.

Re: Name for French Brick

A character for Seeds of Change. He'll be a high powered (750) brick who's considers himself the national hero/defender of France. Said character is 20 years old and quite the French Super Patriot' date=' bordering on supremicist. I can't think of a good solid adventuring name for him though. Any suggestions?[/quote']

 

Sure; French is Nucleon first... errr... favorite language after Cosmic Speak, of course. Here are some suggestions of His:

 

Malabar; Rarely used these days, it signifies a tall, strong man.

 

Balaise; The word the French use these days instead of "malabar"

 

Colosse; The equivalent of Colossus.

 

Géant; Signifying Giant. The French also use "hercules" to denominate what the English generally designate by "strong man" in a circus, for exemple.

 

Cocarde; Meaning a round, patriotic insignia.

 

Republicain; or more precisely "Le Republicain"; means the same thing than in English.

 

Avant Guarde; Basically means vanguard.

 

Phalange; for Phalanx (sp?)

 

Tricolore, (three colors) if he is a flagsuit.

 

Bastille; the name of the prison building which fell to the hands of the Revolution in Paris, marquing the beginning of the Republic. And a very good name.

 

Strong French nationalistic symbols also includes the rooster ("Coq"), the somewhat monarchic Fleur-de-lys or "fleurdelysé" if described as a flag, but not the frog. The cockatrix ("coqatrice") is also a typically French fantasy creature.

 

Nucleon hopes that this will inspire you somewhat, mortal.

 

Re: Liefeld's Titans

Remember, you asked...

 

Sorry, all. She asked.

Brrhhmm. That's what Nucleon was writing about.

Well, Still trying to do the Devil's advocate, maybe "cap" was, at the time, stuck in the sixth dimension (which Nucleon occasionnaly visits), where people appeared both sideways and front-facing... anyone?

(Ho well... Why does Nucleon even tries anyway...)

Re: Liefeld's Titans

I just picked up my overflowing file at Clockwork Comics and was slapped in the gob by the suckbomb called Tean Titans. Is anyone else upset by this mini-arc of blech?

Booooaaaaaaoooooofff, that's not so baaaadd.

Nucleon remembers much more horific stuff, especially in the "Heroes Reborn" debacle. He would even venture that Liefield has somehow learned to draw since then.

This guy is almost single-handedly responsible for the Iron Age, for the Immortals' sake! Give him a chance... and a crappy comic to draw. Why not "New Avengers" for that matter? He would be complementary with Bendis "nothing is ever happening" style, for what Nucleon thinks.

He guess one god's meat is another one's poison...

Re: Highest level Champions game you could play?

From my experience' date=' it's probably going to start getting dicey(or absurd) at around 650-700 points per character. At least with the scale we're currently using. At that point, I'm running a pretty high end Avengers team, damn near JLA level. That's a hard group to challenge without resorting to Gods and the like. Heck, they're at 500 now and it's starting to get tough. Though part of that is because the game was started as a "street level" game, but obviously, that isn't the case anymore. So I'm trying to preserve some of the "street" feel while using villains like the Mandarin who are anything but.[/quote']

 

As a GM Himself, Nucleon echoes that. He has two rules of thumb about these.

 

First, never wander too far from reality. If you play in a universe where gangsters are at 600 pts, well, a 1000 pts charatcter should be à propos. Else, it is quite tough to provide credible opposition.

 

Second, experience should be harder and harder to get as a character progresses. Let's face it; Handing to a bunch of street gangers their behinds could well be counted as experience for a 250 pts hero, but definitively not for 1000 pts behemoths. With this, it is quite plausible to have a 5000 years-old NPC at 1000 pts, intead of the 10000 pts montruosity he would be if experience keeps the same relativity.

 

Yes, we're quite lonely here, at the top.

 

Now, to directly respond the question, Nucleon would permit a 550 pts campaign, but only with experienced players.

Re: Presence in your campaign

The mighty Thane and the Shadowmancer were in a situation loathed by most heroes; A hostage crisis. As soon as they move a finger towards Razorwind, he would slice his hapless then fight to the death. They needed a diversion.

Thane the mighty seized the situation; A nearby cop shouted orders around; Thane did quite a display of power at that moment, stealing thunder from the skies as the poor cop learned how much Hyperborean immortals like to be bossed around. Even Razorwind laughed...

... until he was stopped by the Shadowmancer, that is. The lady feinted from stress; the poor cop had a week's vacation.

Re: Shazam!

Multiple Users: +20 strength, based on the number of users [+5 for 4, +10 for 3, +15 for 2, +20 for 1]: -1/2

Granted, that's also a great idea (and reasoning).

There is also the limitation "No Conscious Control" that can be used in a more abstract way. So much valid ways, Nucleon ponders...

Re: Shazam!

I wouldn't even worry about the limitation in regard to sole possession of the powers. If you cut CM's strength in half he only goes down 5 strength [in my game from 125 to 120]. That's not enough to make a dent in the character' date=' IMO. It's better to just treat the sole possession as a physical limitation: 5 point decreased powers when sharing with 1 other, 10 points with 2.[/quote']

 

By the Suns, this appears quite valid to Nucleon. However, He thinks that the "sharing of power" thingie is more a limitation per se than a disavantage.

 

Furthermore, it's not like Nucleon's cutting CM's powers in half; He rathers multiplies them times two (figuratively speaking, of course)!

 

Re: your campaigns "Superman".

Nucleon defines a "Superman" as someone having superstrenght, invulnerability, flight and, optionnaly, "Heat Vision".

(Yep. Half of DC's supers are "supermen".)

Oh. And it's also about the ideals. But we can do without the corny power justification, IHO.

So yes, He has a couple in His universe.

There is Vanguard, "Possessor of True American Radiance", a mix of Supes and Cap, America's first Super, having becoming public in 1775. He dons a flagsuit, of course. More an E-Proj than a brick, althought he has enough STR, DEF and skills to be considered one. Vanguard is around 1000 pts.

There is also Captain Justice (the third of the name), a flying (or more precisely diving) brick with no projection power, and a typical arrogant attitude. People in Nucleon's campaigns have learned to loathe him. He is a cheap, but efficient "superman" at 500 pts.

Finally, there is Red Dawn, the atomic Russian project. His story is a bit like Hyperion in the "Supreme Power" serie, althought he is an altered being instead of an alien. A midrange "superman", Red Dawn sits at 750 pts, having an efficient "Atomic Multipower" as his projecting powers.

Re: Shazam!

If Nucleon had to "do" the World's Mightiest Mortal (indeed), He would first build a credible Billy at 50 pts max, then buy all add-ons OIHID, including some skills (Deduction comes to mind), reflecting the fabled Wisdom of Solomon.

Nucleon would also build some of the Big Red Cheese's power overheads with, as limitations; Only if sole possessor of the Wizard's Power At The Time (-½, if there are 2 other potential "Marvels" in action. Kind of cuts into super-slacking time, thought).

Then, Nucleon would built his fabled "Shazam Grab-bolt" as such, a no-ranged E-blast, maybe with an activation or skill roll.

Verily, Nucleon is rather fond of this character.

Re: Goth Henchmen?

You campaign looks like great fun indeed, Mortal.

Goths? Not the ones conquered Rome huh?

Nucleon would grant them Darkness, of course, as well as big PRE and tiny scalpels, the kind that really hurts and makes you bleed, but cannot kill you outright (a feeble HKA, reduced penetration linked to a Drain of some sort).

Ultraviolet vision also comes to mind... and why not the hability to Tunnel? Aslo, give them claisentience via "gothic" animals, such as crows and rats. How about a screech area attack?

Re: new spin on Justice League

Nucleon thinks that the Martian Manhunter' revised origin -and appearance- is a lot better than the original. What a confused character, that MH.

On the other hand, He thinks the new Superman has a little bit of déja-vu.

This looks like a great campaign.

Re: WWCYD: One for Many?

Queen of Spades would be most royally pissed that Necro-boy did in an entire city just to get the 'key' back. Besides, waste of resources to raise an entire city right when you've commited yourself to the ritual. But she'd give the 'key' back in exchange for the teammate.

 

However, being the kind who takes absolutly no chances, she'd quickly construct an explosive shell designed to trigger in multiple ways to go boom (even remote teleportation would set it off), and stuff the 'key' inside of it. Then she'd sneak it close to the dead-head, hand off a false 'disarming device' in exchange, and run like a bat outta hell with teammate in tow.

Most impressive...

Re: WWCYD: One for Many?

What does your chacter do?

Well, Nucleon himself is nigh omnipotent and basically, a GM. But in this epic, anniversary issue, let's see what would dashing, impulsive Bravewind would do;

His group has decided that the lives of many must be preserved over the lives of a few, and knowing the hostage for what she is (a self-sacrificing hero), they gloomily prepare to the loss.

But Bravewind, more warrior than hero, ever refuses to bow down and thus losing a valuable comrade; Such is Bravewind's Honor. He steals the Key from the group and disappearing, arrange for a meeting with the Necromancer and (long story short) ends up fighting him in a uphill battle with the help of Hostage, as the rest of the group burst through the wall shouting the appropriate rallying warcry; Many shine, but still it is not sufficient to defeat the Necromancer until ... Hostage sacrifice herself, willingly, to vanquish the Necromancer.

They have won the day...

But at what cost?...

Re: Clean Slate or What Would Your Villain Do?

In alternate universe, a cartel of very powerful men has developed a method of creating super-powered being (including giving power to themselves). They plan to use this army of super powered warriors to over throw the governments of Earth. But one rogue scientist, who was researching trans-dimensional travel, has rebelled. After searching the multi-verse he has stumble upon the dimension fill of super powered individuals. Not wanting to deprive that world of its heroes, he looks to those who are in the twilight between good and evil and offers them a clean slate to help out a world on the verge of tyranny.

 

So who are the villains in your campaign world that would be willing to throw off the mantle of villain and step into the boots of a hero?

First, let it be know that Nucleon is impressed by the idea.

In Nucleon's universe, those vilains who are themselves heads of states would surely rise to the call, albeit in an interested, un-trusting way; Not that there are so many, thought.

Those "vilains" who are somewhat happy with how the systems "works" are able to be employed, if that requires a mercenary fee in many cases.

Also, all these vilains who are themselves idealists, if crazy ones.

Those who would be a danger would be the revolted, fatalistic ones; they might end up selling the World!

Re: Your character's theme song would be?

Nucleon:"One Of These Days" on Pink Floyd's "Meddle" album. The song actually is at the base of this cosmically powerful entity.

Dominator: A huge absorbing brick with a SM twist; Black Sabbath's "Zero the Hero", including the little intro before, on the infamous "Born Again" album.

Bravewind, Native martial artist with a mystical boost, and a dashing vanguard fighter; The theme from the videogame "Turok 2", second level song; great music high-adventuring music, Nucleon says.

Generally speaking, surf rock makes an excellent super-heroic background, but maybe that's because we're so much silver-bronze age. Many of Nucleon's players "adopted" a surf song like "cheyenne" or "surf Rider".

Re: Your Character's Room at the Base

Aha, yes, the privates appartements...

Marble Man; As a Kardhar prince, this subterannean lives in sturdy quarters, to accomodate his high density; Holos of deserts are projected on the wall. Marble columns surrounds a little garden of upright, cristal-looking stones. Low, stumpy black obsidian chairs surround an elevated slab of limestone serving as a table. In one corner, a low deck is filled with the finest sand to serve as the Prince' bed. A computer holoscreen is the only concession to the upside world, Marble man using it to play his favorite music; Australian dingeridoo (sp?).

Myst's room is not only melancolic; it is sinister. A huge column bed stands alone in the center of the room, wrapped by flapping veils of diaphane fabric. Every piece of old-style furniture is under a diaphane wrap also, and cobwebs tends to invade the corners. Old dusty dolls are lined on the bed, waiting. Both sounds of distant laughter and crying can sometimes be heard. Myst is a ghost for 40 years now...

Re: Marvel Second Stringers. Help me out.

Well, I like the Russian heroes; Vanguard, Red Dynamo, Mj Ursus, the Titanium Man... not all the bunch of them, mind you...

...Hercules...

Does anybody remember Atomia? She was in Namor's entourage during the events of Super Vilain Team-Up, Hydrobase and stuff...

The Heroes Reborn debacle left us at least one good character we saw a bit in older Thunderbolts; Rikki Barnes, the Franklinworld's Bucky.

Gorgon, Medusa, Black Bolt, Jawlock. That was sooo Kirby.

Nova. It would be good to see Nova back somewhere.

And there is more...

Re: Marvel's Exiles: Hyperion Challenge--build a team to beat him!

Your team must have at least 6 members, no more than 12, and must be someone from mainstream or alternate Marvel continuity. They could be a villain, but please, no gimmicky "and he's got the Infinity Gauntlet" type of picks. Any hero who's appeared in a Marvel book is acceptable.

Well first premise, Nucleon thinks that the Surfer, Thor, Warlock, and all of the Marvel Cosmic Patheon can take him by sheer versatility, each of them alone and on their own; Heroes à la Superman are very old-school in the way they're built, concentrating on sole physical superiority.

If that argument is to be the one that defines it all, Hulk would be the most powerful being ever.

If Nucleon assembles a team of 6, it will be quickly assembled one, offering the wider brush of versatibility possible. And they would be heroes. And they would not be full-timers in another contemporary, well-established group. Of course, none of them will include an individual who can stop Hyperion by himself.

Let's take Green Lan... er, Quasar, for starters, as the team's assembling Early Warning element (great protective powers).

He re-assembles the Vision (He can do the intangible trick, keeping him occupied). Or Wonder man. NOT both.

The Thin Man, recently jobless since the New Invader's cancellation, could act as the team's brains (he is a reality-warping scientist).

Why not Vanguard, you know, the Russian guy who could reflect power? Yes, him. For fun.

Then, Mantis.

Moondragon will then have the final shot on poor ol' Hypes.

Ooops, Nucleon think we just overkilled the guy.

After an epic limited serie of 4 issues, the makeshift group decides that the experience was, well, quite gruelling actually. They disband forever.

Re: Design a ME Team

I cringe at most Australian superheroes, because while American authors are capable of making American heroes who don't necessarily scream 'American', those from other cultures, for some reason, have to be VERY much from those cultures.

 

I mean, take Cyclops. Give him a different name, different background, different look, he could be from any country on earth with minimal change.

 

But for some reason, when it comes to Australian heroes, they all have to be 'The Jackaroo', or 'Captain Colonial', or 'Dreamtime Man'. Same with Middle-East, I guess.

 

(...) It's something that's definitely annoyed me about most super-characters. The key is subtlety, people!

 

(This mini-rant brought to you by the sighting of yet another Crocodile Hunter ripoff character in webcomics.)

Aye, this is part of a certain Gold and Silver age heritage; the caricature of the ennemy (at first), then the caricature of the ally, about which the authors in these days knew little most often than not. The medium was not yet serious enough to make a in-depth study of the history, culture and ways on the archetype they were about to picture.

From the Bronze age on, it is more and more common to see deeper concepts of foreign supers.. We may soon even accept a super-comic whose action is centered around another culture... and that is good.

That being said, Nucleon can enjoy a bit of sillyness in the despiction of foreign individuals (it still got a certain naive charm), but He would not want to do it Himself, albeit He sure like a cultural or historic bent on a character's origin.

Nucleon guess it is a question of dosage.

Re: Design a ME Team

If you want to include an Iranian, you might try a brick character named Rustam. He's _the_ great Iranian hero, a man so blessed with superhuman strength he asked God to reduce it because every time he took a step he drove his foot several hundred feet into the ground. The main hero of the Shah-Nama (Persian Book of Kings), you'll find murals depicting various events from his life on the wall of almost every coffeshop in Iran even today.

 

There's also the little problem that, if you want to keep close to the legend, he's a Zoroastrian. I don't know how much trouble that could make in an aggressively Shi'ite Iran.

Now that was some brick.

Did Rustam was a litteral contemporary of Gilgamesh, Hercules and Samson? Many cultures there seem to include an immensely strong man. Nucleon thanks you for this interesting lead.

Some great ideas on this thread BTW!

Oh yes, there really are indeed.

Re: Design a ME Team

Don't forget that though we hear mostly about Islam in the region there are also Jews and Christians as well as various what I suppose would be called pagan beliefs. Add to that ancient religeons such as the worship of the sun' date=' etc. Granted it doesn't make the news, but in many places people of various religeons DO get along, even in the middle east, North Africa.[/quote']

 

As Nucleon wrote; Pre-Muslim culture is also very rich, as is the North African one. Nucleon expect some members of the said team to be Muslims... but He has no intention of turning this into a religious matter.

 

So far, religious-wise, Nucleon ME group two Muslims, one Alien in Erdamon, one Animist in Dervish, one Pagan in Jaida, and probably an Atheist as well in Anthot.

 

Conceptually, Nucleon cannot picture a (obvious) Jewish figure in any representative ME supergroup... it would be like having a communist in the 60s Avengers: Unless that figure change sides, of course. Well, not until the war started in1948 is still going on.

 

Oh, and don't forget Isis....zephyr winds that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly!

 

I am SO dating myself...luckily most of you probably wont' have a clue...

 

Huh-huh... Wasn't that some kinda saturday morning cartoon?

Re: Why Kill At All?

Would you agree that Mister Incredible (and the other Incredibles) had a good answer to this question?

I don't think he did; Here is a paste-and-copy from a post Nucleon committed deeper into this thread about the Incredibles:

It is a very deadly movie. Nucleon witnessed at least 5 heroes deaths (Dynaguy, Thunderhead, Stratogale, Splashtom, Megaman) by "costume malfunction", very silly deaths IMO, plus Gazerbeam and a plethora of other heroes killed by Syndrome's "testings".

Bob did not kill Syndrome; He threw a car at his plane, to prevent Syndrome's flight, not to kill him. Syndrome's death was due to another "suit malfunction".

These kind of villain deaths we saw in this flick (death by their own designs/faults/evil ways) Nucleon can live with. It is a kind of Karmic Comic Justice that is a standard since the Platinum Age. If the Incredibles were random killers themselves (and they were not, if Nucleon judges by the scene where Bob grabs Mirage), Nucleon is sure they would have a lesser success, or interest for that matter.

People need heroes, y'see. Not soldiers, not agents, not mercs, but heroes.

Now, that being said, that should not prevent Bob to beat the snot out of Syndrome if he had survived the "suit malfunction". But it would be very un-heroic for Bob to, say, grab a rock and hit Synrome repeatedly to crack open his skull.

Nucleon thinks a character's own life sacrifice is so much more powerful than the killing of the much-deserving villain, even if he is universally hated. Heroes that killed because of wrath or to protect a greater good can still be heroes INNSHO, but only after they sought some kind of redemption.

Death does make for interesting stories if said death is not buck-cheap. Nucleon hopes He answered well.

His original post was to point out that heroes who kill may not only lack in morale, but also (and foremost) in means to do otherwise -at least when viewed through the HERO system.

Re: Why Kill At All?

Syndrome's death in The Incredibles I could easily see.

 

Syndrome had just kidnapped Jack-Jack. Only due to Jack-jack's powers did the kidnap attempt fail. Then Syndrome had to open his big mouth and threaten to kidnap Jack-Jack again and laugh about it. Syndrome was begging to be killed.

 

Mr. Incredible's family is very important to him.

First, it is a very deadly movie. Nucleon witnessed at least 5 heroes deaths (Dynaguy, Thunderhead, Stratogale, Splashtom, Megaman) by "costume malfunction", very silly deaths IMO, plus Gazerbeam and a plethora of other heroes killed by Syndrome's "testings".

Bob did not kill Syndrome; He threw a car at his plane, to prevent Syndrome's flight, not to kill him. Syndrome's death was due to another "suit malfunction".

These kind of villain deaths we saw in this flick (death by their own designs/faults/evil ways) Nucleon can live with. It is a kind of Karmic Comic Justice that is a standard since the Platinum Age. If the Incredibles were random killers themselves (and they were not, if Nucleon judges by the scene where Bob grabs Mirage), Nucleon is sure they would have a lesser success, or interest for that matter.

People need heroes, y'see. Not soldiers, not agents, not mercs, but heroes