Amorkca

So, a couple days ago, I was running for one of my many Champions groups, New Frontier. 
 
The current team consists of:
 
Capacitor: Arrogant scientist and energy absorber redirector
Celestia: Non-Earth Human who wields the power of the Galactic Soul, a source of cosmic energy. 
Lady Liberty: Insane mystical defender of freedom with mystic armor.
Vasily: Temporally displaced Russian Brick
Garaja Nari: Vudra-infused Americanized Indian
Rogue: Invisibility generating Ape in a Man Suit (This will become important soon.)
 
So, the characters encounter a villain named Manyapes. Manyapes produces more apes every time he's struck physically. This leads to problems. Figuring out a way to track him after he places a bug in Rogues apartment (Because the gorillas he is roguing against are pretty darn sure he's also a gorilla) and a horrific fight in Rogue's apartment, the heroes track him to an abandoned SPIDER base where they previously fought one of their old enemies. 
 
When they get there, as Rogue  disabling alarms, Lady Liberty busts in.
 
Rogue: I can go home, you know. 
 
So, they make their way down, now that the apes are alerted, and, of course, they decide to have a conversation with the gorillas. There are two scientist type gorillas, Gilberto and Jose Orilla (Yes, those really are their names), who were considered brilliant enough by the people of Ape Island to have their brains transplanted into gorilla bodies, and Manyapes. Sitting in the center of the room is their temporary power source for the base, a tiny chunk of glowing blue rock in a console with some advanced technology they don't have time to analyze. Jose Orilla is invisible. Floating above the console is Capacitor's archenemy, Bill Watson, in an insubstantial state, because he's been separated since his last fight with the characters and molecularly exists in two places at once. Bill was sucked into the energy source when the Apes rebuilt the base, and they really don't know what to do about him, which was why they bugged Rogue's apartment in the first place...
 
Gilberto: Buenas Noches
 
Capacitor: And good evening to you, sir. Please desist in whatever you're doing, and we will go easy on you.
 
Gilberto: You are a very clever man, sir. We would like to give you a reward for your intelligence. 
 
Capacitor: What sort of reward is this?
 
Gilberto: We would transplant you into a body like ours, and you would join our side. 
 
Capacitor: No thank you, but when we defeat you, I would like to compare scientific notes.
 
Gilberto: You will have plenty of time to discuss this in your new body. 
 
Combat Ensues....
 
During combat, Rogue tries to sneak around the side, as he can also go invisible.
 
Me: Please show me the exact nature of your path. 
 
Rogue: (Tracking it on the battlemap) Is there a trap here? 
 
Me: Not exactly. You bump into something. 
 
Rogue: What? 
 
Me: So as two invisible gorillas collide in the corner...
 
Rogue: I can't see him?
 
Me: That's okay. He can't see you, either! 
 
As the fight continues, Ag Vandar, cybernetic leader of Ape Island, shows up, because he's about to lose two of his top scientists, and he can't let that happen. Ag Vandar generates cosmic energy through the power of the bluish rock. They throw everything they have at him. Garaja Nari, whose rolls are on fire, is pasting everything they have with arrows that rain fire from the sky, there are unconscious apes all over the place, and it's general chaos. Now. Please refer to the special effects section of what the characters do at the top of the chart before reading the rest of this. 
 
Realizing that with Ag Vandar in the fight, they cannot win, one of the heroes flies over and hits the self destruct button. The chunk of meteor generates a massive energy wave. Everything in the combat takes 15d6 of Damage. BUT...
 
The massive amount of energy absorption, redirection, cosmic energy, quantum mass displacement (man suits), and advanced technological devices involving similar energies and warping space and mass creates a colossal disaster. Garaja is knocked out. Lady Liberty is knocked out. The two scientist gorillas are slingshotted around the globe to random locations. The desintegrator pistol, used to apparently kill Manyapes, is within the radius, making things even weirder. Ag Vandar is sucked through a hole in the dimensional fabric. Vassily reappears at the Center of the Earth, in the lands of the Pterodactyl Men. Bill (remember Bill?) turns solid, so there are now two of him in separate locations. Capacitor, since their powers are opposites, is now insubstantial. And when Rogue wakes up, since his Man Suit was left behind, he's in chains, somewhere in the world, in a cage.
 
And the Monster Maker, a lovely lady with a grudge against dozens of other superheroes, is grinning at him through the bars of the cage. "Looks like someone has some explaining to do." 
 
So, yeah. It was a blast. I have no idea how they're going to fix this stuff. But it was awesome.

BIKINI @$$HOLE
 
 
Over 70 years ago his people were forced off their home island “for the good of mankind” they starved because their temporary home was too small for them In 1970 his people were allowed to return only for them to be forced to leave a decade later when heightened radiation was found in their bodies.
 
 
The Bikini @$$hole was the last child born on the island before the second relocation. His body was affected by the radiation and his left side is covered in waxy skin like burn damage and his left eye glows blue with cherenkov radiation.
 
 
Just looking at his right side he is an unusual tall and muscular example of Bikinian heritage powerfully built with the rich brown skin tone indicative of Marshall islanders.
 
He wears tan cargo shorts or occasionally a traditional fringed skirt. He also wears a tee-shirt with the bikini Island flag which looks similar to the US flag but symbolizes the debt the US owes to his people. His right bicep is tattooed with a ring of 23 white stars and 5 black under which is inscribed MEN WŌTŌMJEJ REJ ILO PEIN ANIJ meaning "Everything is in the hands of God."drawing from the symbology of the flag
 
 
Power wise he's mostly your plain vanilla brick soaking up punishment hitting hard and leaping great distances. He has one other power that he keeps concealed he has the ability to absorb high energy EM waves especially gamma and X rays and can store that energy either to Supercharge his powers or generate a extremely devastating eye beam from his glowing left eye.
 
 
The reason he keeps it secret is that he wants people to think it's a good idea to blast him with energy attacks and thus get the bonus.
 
He's not much of a tactician he really just likes to get into it and do as much property damage as possible.
 
Details of the flag for the curious
 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bikini_Atoll

La Quercia Ninfa aka The Wood Nymph
 
 
Quieta frainetto the mysterious young owner of a mansion on Esquiline Hill. A prominent if discreet environmental philanthropist she is linked to a number of environmental and preservation charities.
 
 
The few people who have visited the house over the years find a once beautiful house now shuttered and dusty the lady of the house entertains solely in the beautiful vibrant garden usually under the spreading bows of the majestic Italian oak at the garden's heart.
 
 
Quieta is not her true name her original name is lost to antiquity she is the last of the Querquetulanae or oak nymphs and the oak in the garden is the last descendant of the sacred Grove that once stood on Esquiline Hill.
 
 
Once her ancestors defended just the Grove but as the modern world has encroached and many nymphs have gone from the world Quieta has found herself taking on more responsibility she considers herself a lares or guardian spirit not just of her tree but all the natural spaces and households of Italy.
 
 
in the modern world this has manifested as being a Superhero.
 
 
In her heroic aspect she is a tall powerfully built female figure who appears to have been carved from oak. She wears a simple tunic made of oak leaves. And wields a 6 foot Oaken staff. The staff is formed from a limb of her parent tree and can change shape at a thought normally a simple staff it can become a spear sword or grow branches to form a shield.
 
 
The most common second form though is a long bow. She is a deadly shot able to create oakleaf fletched arrows at will. She is superhumanly strong durable and able to heal from just about anything as long as she can touch her home tree.
 
 
Her ability to communicate with plants is limited but can give her clues a fight on grass or in a forest will find her enemies at a serious disadvantage with her able to sense every movement for a considerable distance.

Death master.
 
The world greatest assassin master of every weapon ever created trainer of killers and spies. Death Master is a living legend in the Super villain world.
 
Or at least he was back in the twentieth century. He retired in the eighties to settle down with his wife in Cornwall as regular old Reg Dwight he had a nice quiet 30 years despite the semi annual assassination attempts.
 
All was well until last year when his wife died suddenly of a stroke his way of dealing with his grief was to torch his house dig up his weapon caches and restart his supervillain career.
 
Unfortunately for Reg he hasn't really kept up his training and didn't realize till his return how bad it was too many cigs in the 60s means he gets winded fast early stage Parkinsons has ruined his perfect aim. lumbago and arthritis make his martial arts moves a bit less deadly than they used to be. The final nail is his failing memory. Other supervillains former colleagues apprentices have felt sorry for him and have made the budget baddies take care of him. he's still a lot more dangerous than he looks and when he can be kept on task a tactical and strategic genius.
 
He still wears his original death master costume black body suit utility belt sword and twin pistols with a gun metal skull face mask. Unfortunately it was designed for a man with a much better physique and kind of hangs off him now. Silver Tufts of his once lustrous raven wing dark hair stick out through his mask straps.

Yes, once i find out how to do that.  

Chuck Norris, Steven Segal, and Vin Diesel, as the three stooges....

To quote WoW... "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me..."

The new guy is always evil.

To be fair, the disciples who followed Christ saw lots of miracles that He performed, but the general public did not see them.
 
Hence the PC's are the disciples seeing the miracles and being part of history...  Just a different view for you

9 Sessions in, here are some random thoughts/observations on how things are going, some specific to this campaign, and some applicable to fantasy gaming more generally:
 
Tl:dr - everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. After last week's game, two players were debating whether that session was the Best Game Session Ever, or only in their personal Top 10. So I'll take that as a win! (Who knew being captured and tortured by the Antichrist wound be such a crowd-pleaser?)
 
One challenge has been that roughly half the PCs are outdoorsey types with poor social skills, and the other half are urban-social characters with poor outdoorsey skills. So when we're in the city doing political intrigue, half the players are bored/useless, and when we're on the road/wilderness, the other half are bored/useless. So I'm working harder to bridge that gap and keep everyone engaged at the same time.
 
As I've alluded to elsewhere, the lack of a common tongue has been more of a pain in the butt than I expected. Aside from several info-dumps almost getting completely missed due to language differences, I think it's made some of the players feel a step removed from the action when they can't talk to the NPCs directly. So I've gained a new appreciation for that RPG trope.
 
The thing about low-fantasy games is: once you let the PCs have magic, they're going to expect to use it regularly. As well they should - they paid points for them, after all. But it's harder to maintain the feel of "magic is this really rare thing" when literally every combat includes at least one verifiable miracle. I'm moving into acceptance on this one - nothing I can do about it now without nerfing entire character concepts.
 
Along similar lines, in hindsight I kinda wish I'd been more restrictive about the use of magical Healing. Harder to keep things gritty when the Priest heals everybody's wounds as soon as the battle is over. But the idea was to use Biblical miracles as the basis, and particularly in the NT 90% of them were some form of healing.
 
Another thing about low fantasy games is it can be really hard to work in things from a PC's backstory - family dynamics, clan politics, etc - when they're all 2000+ miles from home. I thought of that in terms of whether or not something is worth a Complication, but it also has I think made it harder for a couple players to get into character because their backstories just don't come up as often.
 
The problem with prophecies (like the Book of Revelation and its equivalent passages in the Quoran): if things play out exactly as prophesied, then there are no surprises. And if things don't follow the script exactly, then you have subverted/nullified the prophecy. "As It Was Foretold" has always been my least-favorite literary device, and frankly this has only reinforced that for me.
 
Google Earth and the Internet generally are a godsend for historical games! "So what does the terrain north of us look like?" "I dunno, let's take a look..." (Mostly doing that between games, not actually at the table.) Similarly, being able to pull up paintings of what 11th Century Constantinople actually looked like really makes things feel more real and lived in.
 
For someone whose knowledge of medieval history has been very Europe-centric, researching what's going on east of the Bosporus has been highly educational. I mean I knew 11th century Europe was basically a backwater, but I hadn't fully appreciated just how much. The further east they travel it's like moving forward in time several centuries. And I keep looking into areas that in my mind were blank spots on the map, and finding out actually it's been highly settled and developed for 2000 years at this point. Sobering to realize just how selective my education has been.
 
And after struggling to pronounce actual Arabic names like Mahmud bin Sebuktigin, and Abol-Hasan Qābūs ibn Wušmagīr ibn Ziyar Sams al-maʿālī, I will never again make fun of fantasy authors for their unpronounceable names.

"Only gods could defeat the Outsider Invasion. But the Outsiders knew of all the big ones. They were prepared for each and every one of them and so all the big religions Deities fell.
 
What was left was us, the forgotten ones. The Greek gods. The Egyptians. The Mayan.
But our alliance did not stop there. It included gods and godesses of whom the people had even forgotten even the language to speak thier names in - like the Celtic ones or the revered ancestors immortalised and deified with the ancient Moai.
But even united in purpose and goals there was no way for us to defeat the outsiders at this point. In the end even our temples, our shrines were destroyed as was the entire earth. But we were not defeated that day. We still had one option left. A option almost forgotten to time, as every other time a god would try it, his own Pantheon or all the others would surely intervene during the departure: Time Travel.
 
So we permanently fused our divine essence together. And stepped back into the past, before the Outsider Invasion.
The current gods and even our past selves are not...amiciable to our existence or activity. But that does not mater. We will stop the invasion, one way or the other. If you need a name for us, call us Pantheon."
 
Pantheon is the amalgam of all those lesser gods from no longer relevant religions, that fused together and travelled back in time to prevent the "Outsider Invasion". They are not greated well by the existing gods, as time travel was generally a taboo amongst the gods. In particular the big, current ones view it with suspicion, as not part of them is inside Pantheon (wich is simply because they were defeated first, so nothing was left to join the Alliance).
While a timetraveller send to prevent a alien invasion sounds good, Pantheons methods seem questionable at best so he is regarded on the far end of the "Dark Hero/Vigilantee/Villain" spectrum. It should also not be mistaken for being generally pro-Earth existence. A lot of the dieties of those ancient religions were trying to destroy the earth themself. The are mostly along becaue "how can I destroy the planet, if the outsiders already do so?"

A name generator could be fun too, based on actual golden age character names from the comics and pulps.

Peter Parker always complains about being bitten by a radioactive spider.  He should consider himself lucky.  At least it wasn't a radioactive lightning bug.
 
Sure, I can fly.  That's kinda cool.  And I don't need to go hunting for a flashlight in the middle of the nigh.  But it's a pain (both literal and figurative) to fold my wings down so I can walk around in normal clothes.  And no going to the beach, unless I want to kiss my private life goodbye. 
 
Good thing that, like ol' Spidey, I'm a scientific type.  Built a keen exoskeleton that enhances my strength, has radar antennae, and chest blasters.  Plus, there's my Vari-Beam baton.  All in all, I can kick some pretty decent butt.
 
So I took the name Lampyridae and go out fighting crime and trying to make the world a better place.  Why?  I dunno.  Just seemed like the thing to do.  Just don't call me Firefly or I'll light your ass up something fierce.

Titaness
 
Val Char Cost
15 STR 5
20 DEX 30
20 CON 20
10 BODY 0
13 INT 3
20 EGO 20
15 PRE 5
18 COM 4
5 PD 2
5 ED 1
4 SPD 10
7 REC 0
40 END 0
28 STUN 0
Total Characteristics Cost: 100 Points
 
Cost Skills
8 CSL: Combat +1
3 Conversation 12-
3 High Society 12-
4 Lang: Native English
0 Lang: Native Greek
5 Money: Well Off
2 Navigation [Ground] 12-
Total Skills Cost: 25 Points
 
Cost Powers
45 Armor +15 rPD +15 rED
52 Multipower (52 Points)
4 u) EB 10d6, Gestures (-1/4)
5 u) Invisible [sight & Hearing], No Fringe, No END (+1/2)
5 u) STR +35, 1/2 END (+1/4)
5 u) Telepathy 10d6
4 u) Teleport 10", 2x Mass, 1/2 END (+1/4), Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4), Variable Advantages (+1/2), [[invisible [Hearing], Megascale [1km], or No END Only (-1/4)]]
5 LS: Longevity [immortal]
Total Powers Cost: 125 Points
 
Total Cost: 250 Points
 
150+ Disadvantages
5 DNPC: Athena (As Powerful) 11-
10 Hunted: Cronus (As Powerful/NCI/Mild) 8-
5 Hunted: Hera (As Powerful/Watch) 8-
10 Hunted: Zeus (As Powerful/NCI/Mild) 8-
20 Normal Characteristics Maxima
15 PsyL: Feels Obligated to Fight Crime (Common/Strong)
15 PsyL: Overconfidence (Very Common/Moderate)
20 PsyL: Protective of Innocents (Very Common/Strong)
Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points
 
 
Titaness is Metis, the daughter of Cronus, King of the Titans.  After Cronus has a vision of Metis being responsible for the fall of the Titans he imprisons her in a lamp and forces her to grant three wishes to those who possess it.  One of those who came to posses the Lamp is Zeus, who has Metis grant him the power to create the Olympians.  Trapped in the Lamp until the 20th Century she was freed by the man who would become the crime fighter Nighthawk.  She took the identity of Melinda Travis and started the Odyssey Club in order to reconnect with other immortals.  
 
Titaness is an original character I created, and is used to show the template for a Mystic heroine.

I also saw the new Jack Reacher movie a few days ago.  I thought it was great, and hope they make some more...
 
But Dr Strange isn't available for me for another week... waiting with great anticipation for it!!!

I watched the new Jack Reacher movie last night.  I liked it.  It was far different than the first movie.  Some have even compared it favorably to the most recent Bourne movie.  The Reacher character actually has more in common with Kwai Chang Caine though.  The way the movie shows his nomadic lifestyle makes it both appealing and tragic at the same time.  If you enjoyed the first movie you'll likely enjoy this one too.
 
HM

Sorry I did not see this earlier. Sadly, I once had much of that saved to disk. That was about four hard drives ago (at least) and I doubt that I backed it up to CD or DVD. I'll check through my archives so see if I can find it. We had a very lively discussion about the Wheel of Time setting and magic system. It was pretty over the top, but the blademaster forms were very grounded.
 
I'll see what I can find, if anything.

I like her form... 
Sorry couldn't resist...

Constantinople, April 7th, 1001. And now for a little Church politics...
 
The Patriarch of Constantinople has passed away, and the various Church factions are vying to have their man elected to replace him. One "dark horse" candidate, a priest named Gregoras, is pushing for Constantinople to break completely with the Roman Church. (50 years earlier than it happened in "our" timeline.) Our heroes have learned Gregoras is being backed by a foreign prince (who may or may not be the Antichrist), who has been greasing the palms of many Byzantine officials to get Gregoras elected. After our heroes reveal this information publicly (High Society by 10, and a natural 3 on Streetwise!), public opinion becomes so outraged that Gregoras is stoned to death by an angry mob. Leading to this exchange between multiple characters:
 
"Congratulations, you just engineered to have a Man Of God stoned to death. But you're pretty sure he was dirty, so..."
"Did we just turn him into a martyr?"
"No, because he was stoned to death by Christians. If he'd been killed by infidels, sure."
"But what if he was right and the people who stoned him were actually heretics?"
"The Bible says "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," right?"
"Riiiiiight..."
"Therefore the people who threw stones must've been sinless. QED."
"LOGIC!"
"I'm so confused."
"Welcome to Catholicism!"

Pathfinder: Xcrawl
 
Player Cast:
 
Drew Blood: Female Human Barbarian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Yes, she has the accent)
Scarlet: Female Dhampir Assassin
Silver Sorceress: Female Human Sorceress (Dragon Blooded)
Lacey Cravat: Gender Confused Dwarven Cleric
 
The Action:
 
Dungeon Judge: Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Empire, to the inaugural Boston Crawl! The first team to compete is Blood, Death, and Vengeance; featuring Drew Blood --
 
Drew Blood: Plays to the crowd. Flourishes her Great Sword.
 
Dungeon Judge: -- Scarlet --
 
Scarlet: Waves to the crowd. Blows a kiss to the fans.
 
Dungeon Judge: -- Silver Sorceress --
 
Silver Sorceress: Plays to the crowd. Extends her claws as the water vapor in the air freezes around her hands.
 
Dungeon Judge: -- and the rest!
 
Lacey Cravat: "... and the rest!? What the ... I just got 'Professor and Mary Anned!'"

Sooo...Calgary's finally got its own superheroine now, eh?
 
 
Major Tom 2009

In a snowstorm?

How many tickles does it take to make an Octopus laugh?
 
 
 

Drank coffee twice in my life...enough to know it sucks.

"They only lack the light to show the way."
 
That's what Zack Snyder and crew forgot. Superman is supposed to be that light. He doesn't act for public acceptance or ego gratification, but because it's the right thing to do. He demonstrates that power doesn't have to corrupt; that hope and compassion are stronger than fear and hatred; that the strong have a moral responsibility to protect the weak, not exploit them; that being more powerful than everyone else doesn't make you better than everyone else.
 
The irony is, Jor-El in Man of Steel tells his son practically the same thing as Jor-El in Superman, but along the way that message was lost. (I sometimes feel that Jor-El was the real Superman in MoS.)