Matt Frisbee

Re: What's in a Name? Silver Tongue is the name, I hope. Anyway, here goes. Bradley Westlake was a smooth operator under pressure. As a police negotiator he had to be. The selfish fools, the despondent suicidals, the desperate criminals, the terrified paranoids, the drugged-out losers and the shell-shocked victims were his stock and trade. But fate is both cruel and fickle, and eventually turned the tables on Bradley, placing him in the middle of a hostage crisis as a victim -- powerless and helpless in the gunsights of a raving psychotic. Nothing he could say or do could sway the situation -- he could only watch in horror as the madman gunned down the other hostages and stood laughing over their mutilated bodies as they bled themselves dry. After taking the lives of the others, the maniac turned his attention on Bradley, savoring the raw, pure terror of his actions as he deliberately drew out the suspense -- debating with himself openly about what part of Bradley's anatomy he was going to blow off first. With the adrenaline surging through his body, Bradley's bound body trembled with the anticipation of the first touch of pain, straining at the ropes that held him fast. The first bullet tore through his left leg just below the knee, but it also parted the ropes pinning his legs together. Bradley screamed in pain, rage and fear -- the dischord of a wounded predatory beast -- so pure and bestial it was inhuman. The sound of that scream ripped through the delirium of the psychotic who froze in confusion and sudden fear as Bradley thrashed at him with his unwounded limb, kicking the deranged man's legs out from under him. Unknown strength surged through Bradley as he tore his wrists free, screaming again as the savaged skin of his wrists fell away with the ropes. His would-be murderer now cowered in a fetal knot, vommiting blood while covering his head in a desperate but futile attempt to shut out that horrible sound -- the sound that was killing him. As the body of the psychotic was wheeled away in a body bag, Bradley came to terms with what had happened. Words, his stock and trade, had been useless. Only the unrestricted roar of that bestial part of him he had tried to repress since childhood had saved him. He tried to articulate his experience to others, but found he didn't have his voice anymore. At best, he could whisper only a few ragged words before it would fail him altogether. The police union backed him up for a disability retirement, and his days of negotiation were over. In retrospect, he mused, he had only postponed the inevitable for most of the criminals with whom he had spoken. That was going to change. No more negotiations. No more words. Only a roar of vengeance for all the victims they had claimed. The scum of the earth would hear their doom when they met him -- Silver Tongue, The Voice of Death. Hope you like that one. Here's the next name: Black Jackie Matt "Still-diggin'-this-concept" Frisbee

Re: Champions Diceless Role-playing A much simpler solution to the above problem would be for the brick to grab a car with his or her casual strength and splatter said martial artist with the convenience of a multi-hex object (taking full advantage of the bonus to OCV). Matt "Mongo-like-hit-people!" Frisbee

Re: Sharing the Campaign ideas you can't use... yet Unused Campiagns from the Frisbeeverse: The Way of Giang Hu -- Super-powered martial artists in a setting much like China, but a fantasy-based world with demons, ghosts and monsters. Kind of a mix of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and InuYasha. All of the superpowers would have needed to be magical or an outgrowth of one of the myriad "secret" schools of martial arts. Ranma 1/2 without all the comedy, perhaps. Fighting Entropy -- A near future scenario where the villains have banded together and control nearly the entire world, while the characters are desperately trying to protect the final part (New Zealand, in this case) and inspiring the few supers not working for the bad guys to organize themselves to resist. Definately a battle-intensive campaign, but I conceived it after watching Band of Brothers on DVD, and thought it might be an interesting change of pace from the traditional mask and cape campaigns. The New Warriors -- A fairly standard superhero campaign, except that supers have only started appearing since the turn of the millennium. Nobody really believes that supers exist, so most of the action is underground with few witnesses. The whole campaign is shades of gray, so someone who was on your side last fight may be at your throat the next. There's no way that supers have any kind of legitimacy anywhere and if the governments have them, they're not telling. It was supposed to be a dark and gritty street-level campaign with low-powered heroes, but it got shot down by my players because they love the four-color stuff. (Yes, I stole the name from the Marvel comic book series, but only because I loved it.) Anyway, there are dozens of others that never got past the conceptual nugget stage, but these three actually had some initial work done to the point where I was ready for my players to make characters when they got shot down. *sigh* One fine day, though, they will get played. Matt "Still-carrying-a-torch-for-the-concepts" Frisbee

Re: A more advanced origin. Hey, This might fall under the magic category, but how about those superheroes who were granted their powers by a god? A holistic source of powers wouldn't necessarily be magic, right? The only quick example I can think of happened in The Odyssey -- one of the combatants was chosen out of the battle and "supped on the milk" of a goddess to be reborn as a mighty warrior, or something like that. I was trying to work a character once who had a small piece of a holy relic inbedded in his body which gave him superpowers, but could never decide what sort of powers such thing might give someone. Anyway, that's my two cents' worth. Have a great day, all. Matt "Getting-repetitive-motion-injuries-from-shaking-the-piggy-bank-too-much" Frisbee

Re: Champions Diceless Role-playing Diceless Champions? Let me get this straight -- you want to throw out the combat system and the characteristics rolls, then figure out how to make the rest of it work? Hmmm. I think it might be easier doing that with Fuzion rules, actually, since most of that system is "let's just make stuff up" when it comes to superheroic role-play in the first place. I've played other systems where they tried to go diceless, but there was either another system for randomization (Castle Faulkenstein) or there was a point pool where one player could outbid another (but I forget which one that was) or all of the players had to establish a pecking order before the game ever started (Amber). Some people love that sort of thing, and more power to them, but I don't think that Champions lends itself to that sort of makeover without being made into something that is completely unrecognizable. And if that's the case, you might as well go with something a little less systems-intensive like BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) which I think has the moniker "Tri-Stat System" these days. I'm not trying to be caustic here, just save yourself some work and go with something far simpler to convert if that's the way you want to go. Matt "Still-lovin'-that-handfuls-of-dice-chucking-action" Frisbee

Re: Law & Order: Spandex Vigilante Unit I think you've got it covered, BDH. I remember writing up something like this for a Traveller campaign I ran, where any evidence was admissible with the understanding that whoever submitted it essentially was pleading guilty to whatever crimes were committed in obtaining it. Since it was usually the defendent who submitted such evidence, it simply meant that other charges would be filed and sentenced, though most judges who like the truth would be willing to pass light sentences for such evidence. (A loophole which the characters in the campaign repeatedly exploited in their exploits on behalf of the Imperium.) Well written and thought out, even though I have no rep, I'm still rep-ing your entry. Have a great day. Matt "Respecting-the-big-methodical-type-brains" Frisbee

Re: The Munchkin Build Contest You know, if I didn't have a campaign to run, this would be such a tempting subject to post to... Matt "Still-living-in-the-4th-edition" Frisbee

Re: Skills for Battlesuit Technician? All kidding aside, here are some other ideas, depending on the battlesuit: Weaponsmith: (Whatever weapons are appropriate for the battlesuit) or Weaponsmith: Battlesuit Weaponry SCI: Metallurgy (or Polymers or Armor-Reinforced Bikini Mesh, whatever the suit is made of) SCI: Cybernetics (if it's a neuro-interface type of suit) SCI: Aeronautics (if it flies) Most of these skills aren't completely necessary, of course, but when you're working with super science, those contributing skill rolls can add up to make a really tough job easy. (How do you think these inventors come up with cool toys like this in the first place? They know a lot about other things and apply that knowledge to the problem at hand. That's why Dr. Destroyer has all the cool toys, because he has the skills and resources to build them, along with one heck of an Inventor skill roll.) Matt "Still-chippin'-in-my-two-cents'-worth" Frisbee

Re: This week on "Champions"... Sunday 7:00 pm Bay City Rollers -- "Grudge Match" When two of the world's most powerful mortals decide to settle their long-standing differences with a fight to the finish in downtown Bay City, can Artemis, Firehawk and Paragon stop the fight before it levels the city?

Re: Steering A New Player Towards The Superheroic Short and sweet, because I'm not going to jump to conclusions about the person involved -- I agree that the best tactic is to shove some reading material in the person's general direction. Specifically, some comic books, animation and feature film stuff that reflects the sorts of campaign adventures you'll be running. Another idea would be to run the first session with pre-generated characters with a number of archetypes and let the players pick which ones they wish to run, end-running the unplayable character issue in the first place. I usually have a few guest heroes floating around in case there's an unforseen friend of the gaming table who just happens to be free for a night to play. That way, you have your team already assembled and the rest of the team can be NPC's until someone comes along to pick up the gauntlet. Matt "Ever-the-flexible-artful-dodger" Frisbee

Re: WWYCD: Will you forgive me? I'm afraid most of my characters wouldn't believe it until they had seen proof of the villain's condition for their own eyes. At least one character I've run would have volunteered to have a go at whatever was ailing the villain (he had some serious healing and transformation powers). Slightly off subject, doesn't a really good body aid fix "incurable diseases" or does it just put them in remission for a short time? I was always under the impression that a healing aid did exactly what it said it did -- return STUN & BODY stats back to original values. Matt "Still-hasn't-figured-out-the-details" Frisbee

Re: Let's hear it for villainous organizations Villainous organizations, eh? Okay, they're always good for a few laughs as the heroes slap them around. Kudos to whomever wrote the VIPER sourcebook (for 4th Ed since I haven't read the current incarnation) for making these guys genuinely dangerous to heroes for a change. In my campaign, the really big baddies are Rogue Legion which is a paramilitary terrorist organization which does crime to support its political agenda. The organization is headed by a hyper-intelligent mastermind named Colonel Fang. (I haven't put his character together yet, but I'm thinking he's going to be around 750 points.) Another group of nasties are The Followers of Set, who are seeking to bring the ancient snake god back to earth. They generally steal Egyptian artifacts from museums and private collections to aid in their quest, though they also kidnap people and steal animals for various ritual sacrifices and to brainwash into their ranks. A third organization is a technocriminal group known as The Illegal Army (stolen whole cloth from the Bubble Gum Crash series) which employs cyborgs and hardsuits to hit financial and government institutions for weapons and cash to support themselves. Occasionally, they help overthrow governments (for the right price) and undertake black ops for (evil) corporations. Also, I use DEMON from the Champions Universe, since the majority of the player-characters have magic in their backgrounds somewhere. BTW -- I love the Supreme Serpent's take on MALICE. Matt "Who-put-sugar-in-my-creative-juices-tank?" Frisbee

Re: WWYCD: Heroes on Strike Okay, okay, point taken. But isn't the expounding fun, too? To me nothing's funnier in Mystery Men (the movie) than when The Shoveler, Mr. Furious and Blue Raja are arguing about what sort of super-science weapon is about to attack them when, in fact, the lawn sprinklers are kicking on... Sorry, but I do love low-powered hijinx. Be well. Matt "Metagaming-far-too-much-for-my-own-good" Frisbee

Re: Need an immortal name - suggestions? Some non-ethnic suggestions for your long-lived character: Continuum -- making reference to time and space Millennium -- another long-haul reference Perpetual -- yet another time reference Good luck with the name game and have a great day. Matt "Fingers-still-hot-from-thumbing-through-the-old-Thesaurus" Frisbee

Re: N3 Not a bad concept, KS, but 4d6 Unluck?! Good gravy, just imagine the chaos if N-cubed is doing a lab experiement and those dice roll just so... Reminds me of D&D wizard who has a low DEX score: "Vailen the Clumsy is casting fireball! Arack-uh-nacky-sacky-oops!" Pretty cool otherwise, though. Have a great day. Matt "Duck-and-cover" Frisbee

Re: Super Human Registration Act in 5th ed Superhuman registration, played properly, can be both good and bad for a registered character. I do not use the CU 5th Ed. version, but I took a cue from The Incredibles and created the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs in my campaign universe. The deal there is that a super who registers gets support in the form of insurance for those acts committed in fighting crime. The government handles the costs of property damage, the super is immune from lawsuits (since he or she is technically a part of the government), and is granted limited federal police powers (mainly authorization to stop a crime in progress and detain those responsible until they can be taken into custody by formal authorities). It should be noted, however, that only about 4% of the estimated 5,000 metahumans in the United States have registered, and only about half of those are actively fighting crime. (That means only about 100 heroes.) The others have registered their powers for assistance in getting employment (waivers from OSHA, special psychological and physical treatment from BMA specialists, etc.) but are not actively fighting crime. The other 96% are either trying to hide their abilities or are supervillains. (24 villains for each hero -- things stay busy in my universe!) It's fairly obvious that agencies within the US Government in the CU 5th Ed. Universe have ulterior motives, which could lead to serious plot complications down the road... Matt "Metagaming-the-possiblities" Frisbee

Re: WWYCD: Heroes on Strike Okay, but what if Doctor Destroyer rigged up a special mind amplifier which included the invisible power effects, armor-piercing and penetrating advantages to Menton's natural abilities? Maybe Menton found a lens (like from the lensmen series? Maybe the Infinite Man is conducting an experiment? Personally, if I was playing in such a campaign, I'd throw some dice at the GM for creating such an unbalanced power (unless he told me it was a plot-complication-power-level event). Then I'd be secretly thankful that it wasn't affecting me! Matt "Trying-to-remember-what-recharges-the-endurance-battery-on-the-neuroscambler" Frisbee

Re: WWYCD: Heroes on Strike No, you're not the only one -- that's what my danger sense is telling me about it. Anybody seen Menton lately? (Like you'd remember, right?) Matt "Scratchin'-his-head-and-looking-for-that-spare-neroscrambler" Frisbee

Re: My New Project - 101 Days Of Champions Having put together my fair share of campaigns, it's nice to hear that others "spin the wheels" occasionally and spend time on what eventually become dead end conceptual trails. Not to worry, though, since finding out what won't work always leads to new inspiration for what develops in the long run. My current campaign took four tries before I finally settled on what it was going to be about and how the setting was going to accomplish that. However, I'm one of these guys who needs to find out what characters are going to be present in the game before I can focus on the background. Most of the landmarks I put in a city setting wind up being battle locations for the heroes and villains, or meeting places for PC and NPC's. Keep up the good work and keep us informed. This really is fun. Matt "Living-vicariously-through-other-gamers?" Frisbee

Re: Bases and Places Ouch! Enough with the couplets already! Hmmm...bases. Oh, yeah. As the GM I usually have to design these things. It's usually the first sign that whatever campaign I'm running is about to fold up like a house of cards... The only base I've actually designed as a player character was for a dark avenger of the night type in a powered suit called Nightowl, who took up residence in the old Montogomery Elevator testing tower in the Quad-Cities. As I remember, it had a lauch catapult for the hero (gliding, not flying, and it was a long glide slope to cross the Mississippi); an automated medical clinic; a situations room for monitoring police, military, citizens' band, amateur radio and broadcast radio and television frequencies; an A.I. with extensive files on known supers and super powers in general (for quickie answers to tough questions) as well as a criminology lab for analyzing stuff the hero "borrowed" from crime scenes. It was one of the older incarnations of the game, but I think I paid for it by "banking" most of my experience points for several sessions. In campaigns I've run, the bases have been in numerous land-based buildings (a converted warehouse, a refurbished water tower and the top two floors of an office building), but one of the more intriguing locations suggested by a player was the conversion of a moored freighter to a base. One of the coolest bases I designed was a mobile command post that was a converted tour bus (armored up and augmented with a gas turbine engine) which could drive itself in an emergency to "the scene of the crime." It was a pain in the butt to build, but it saved the characters' collective posteriors more than once. Matt "Still-crunchin'-the-numbers" Frisbee

Re: where could i find..... Great write-up but only two problems -- 1) how many dice in that transform? and 2) total cost? (Assuming this is affecting an otherwise normal person?) Matt "None-for-me-thanks-I'm-the-GM" Frisbee

Re: What in genre bit do you like that no one else seems to enjoy ? RIOT! RIOT! LOL -- Thanks for the laugh! Matt "Still-getting-a-chuckle outta-it" Frisbee

Re: Real world vs. Game world Hi, Supers responsible for the damage they cause? Isn't saving the world from domination or destruction enough? Yeah, I've grappled with this one more than once, and the answer came from an unlikely source (which I've incorporated in my current campaign). The Incredibles tackled the subject by saying the federal government was in charge of cleaning up the messes caused by super heroes and villains. My take on it is there's a government unit (presumably with great ties to the Federal Emergency Management Agency) called the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs. They handle the paperwork and bid out the repair jobs in the various areas where registered metahumans (i.e. Superheroes) are active. The reason the government is willing to tolerate the bills? Because even though supercrime rates invariably go up where supers are active, normal crime takes a nosedive, more than balancing the books. Insurance companies like it, the governement likes it, the people like it -- win, win, win! Okay, it is idealistic, but then, what four-color genre superhero game isn't? Matt "The-ever-lovin'-old-school-comics-fan" Frisbee

Re: What's in a Name? Okay people, I'll tackle this one, and I swear I won't make a single Kenny Rogers joke...no, really! Fate is a fickle mistress for most people. But Jack knew the odds -- personally. He noticed it early on in life -- this mysterious ability to alter probability would manifest itself at grocery stores (his line always moved the fastest), at traffic lights (they were always green for him) and even on multiple choice tests in school (he always seemed able to guess the right answers). In fact, the only thing in life that didn't seem to be a sure bet for Jack manifested itself during a trip to Las Vegas. He could win most of the time but not all of the time. Instead of getting angry, Jack was overjoyed -- finally some uncertainty in life! The thrill of gambling became an obsession and Jack, consciously or not, honed his abilities and powers around the certainties of probability and the uncertainties of unbridled chance. Now, The Gambler, tired of playing just for money, plays for higher stakes, using his ability to manipulate probability to orchestrate disasters and deathtraps for heroes. How exactly his powers will manifest is left to chance, and he always carries a pair of six-sided dice, a set of cards and a clutch of straws (with a short one) to let fate decide. After all, the most dangerous games have the biggest thrills and The Gambler is addicted to the juice. Next name -- Bollux. Be well, people.

Re: Between Two Cities Why just limit it to two cities? When I was starting out, all of our adventures took place in the Quad-Cities! (Davenport & Bettendorf, Iowa plus Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. On top of that, the Twin Cities, Chicago, Des Moines and St. Louis were all within a quick flight of the team's Valkyrie jumpjet.