zakueins

...every month, Game Trade Magazine did an article using the various Superhero Systems to simulate the Cool Game/Character of the month? Seeing the Hulk done for Hero 5th, Marvel, SAS, and M&M was interesting. It'd be fun, be cool to see how different systems take different characters. Next month...hm...how about either Hellboy or an anime character?

Re: What would your Character Do? Fire Knight (manga-inspired swordsman)-Check to make sure this is The Real Dr. Destroyer In All Respects. Then cut off his head and mount it on a pike. The Hammer (brick/martial artist)-Peel the armor off, revive him, use every entangle known to man to ensure he doesn't escape, drop him in Stronghold personally. If he so much as whispers a word of disagreement, pound him into pulp.

How would a fully ready-to-go Heromaker file do? And, how does it go "wrong"?

Sure, just make sure to note where you got it-and send a URL, too.

Yea, it's a cool comic, IMHO. The more I think about it, I'm probably gonna revise her a little bit-bump her PD/ED up 1-2 points (she's purely a HTH combatant, so she has to get to close combat range, so she has to take the abuse) and do some minor tweakes.

Built on a lot of suppositions, from- http://thejar.keenspace.com/ Kanazuchi Yuuki Player: Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 20 DEX 30 23 CON 26 20 BODY 20 18 INT 8 15 EGO 10 20 PRE 10 23 COM 7 4/19 PD 1 4/19 ED -1 5 SPD 20 8 REC 0 46 END 0 40 STUN 0 21" RUN02" SWIM029" LEAP1Characteristics Cost: 137 Cost Power END 30 Armor of Asgard: Armor (15 PD/15 ED) (45 Active Points); OIF Unbreakable (-1/2) 3 Toughened Valkyrie Skin: Damage Resistance (4 PD/4 ED) (4 Active Points); IIF (-1/4) 25 Valkyrie Movement Powers: Multipower, 30-point reserve, all slots: , Reduced Endurance 1/2 END (+1/4) (37 Active Points); Incantations (-1/4), IIF Unbreakable (Focus (Valkyrie Suit); -1/4) 2u 1) Leaping +25" (28" forward, 14" upward) (Accurate) (30 Active Points) 1 2u 2) +15" Running (21" total) (30 Active Points) 1 1u 3) Flight 12", x4 Noncombat (29 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2) 1 7 Valkyrie Instant Transform: Transform 2d6 (Cosmetic) (10 Active Points); Limited Target Limited (-1/2) 1 31 Valkyrie Hammer: Multipower, 50-point reserve, all slots: , Reduced Endurance 1/2 END (+1/4) (62 Active Points); OAF Unbreakable (-1) 1u 1) Valkyrie Smash!: Hand-To-Hand Attack +5d6, Double Knockback 2x KB (+3/4) (44 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Conditional Power Power does not work when Valkyrie isn't touching the ground. (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4) 2 2u 2) Valkyrie Valhalla Strike!: Hand-To-Hand Attack +6d6, Armor Piercing x1 (+1/2) (45 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2) 2 1u 3) Hand-To-Hand Attack +8d6 (40 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Real Weapon (-1/4) 2 Powers Cost: 105 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 5 Defensive Block: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +3 DCV, Block, Abort 4 Fast Strike: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +0 DCV, Weapon +2 DC Strike 4 Martial Dodge: 1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort 4 Martial Strike: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, Weapon +2 DC Strike 5 Takeaway: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab Weapon, +10 STR to take weapon away 5 Flying Grab: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, -1 DCV, Grab Two Limbs, +10 STR for holding on; FMove Martial Arts Cost: 27 Cost Skill 3 Acting 13- 3 Breakfall 13- 3 Defense Maneuver: I 5 Disguise 14- 2 Navigation (Land) 13- 3 Persuasion 13- 3 Stealth 13- 6 WF: Common Martial Arts Melee Weapons, Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons 3 Scholar 2 1) KS: Anime (3 Active Points) 12- 2 2) KS: Manga (3 Active Points) 12- 3 Traveler 2 1) AK: Tokyo (3 Active Points) 12- 1 2) AK: Montrose Acadamy (2 Active Points) 11- Skills Cost: 41 Cost Perk 12 Hermod, The Messenger: Follower (60 Base, 0 Disad) 5 Money: Well Off Perks Cost: 17 Cost Talent 9 Ambidexterity (Eliminate Off Hand Penalty entirely) 3 Bump Of Direction 15 Combat Sense 13- Talents Cost: 27 Total Character Cost: 354 Val Disadvantages 15 Hunted: Surt and Fire Giants 11- (As Pow; Harshly Punish) 15 Accidental Change: When Hermod Commands It 14- (Uncommon) 10 Reputation: Intense Manga Fan 11- 15 Dependent NPC: Shuzaya Chiaki 11- (Normal) 10 Susceptibility: Unholy Ground 2d6 damage, per Minute (Uncommon) 15 Hunted: Minions of Loki 11- (As Pow; Harshly Punish) 5 Vulnerability: Fire-Giant Weapons (Uncommon) 5 Reputation: Academic Underachever 8- 5 Physical Limitation: Not Exactly Sure How To Be A Girl (Infrequently; Slightly Impairing) 5 Unluck: 1d6 10 Enraged: When Denied Access To Rare Anime/Manga Merchandise (Uncommon), go 11-, recover 14- 5 Rivalry: Romantic (Myu Myu-chan; Rival is As Powerful; Seek to Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival; Rival Aware of Rivalry) 15 Psychological Limitation: Will Protect Her Collection of Manga Items With Her Life (Uncommon; Total) 10 Psychological Limitation: Wants To Be A Guy Again (Uncommon; Strong) 5 Social Limitation: Not Sure How To Be A Girl (Occasionally; Minor) 5 Distinctive Features: Extremely Attractive Woman (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 4 Total Experience Available: 30 Experience Unspent: 26

...as in what you've seen in Matrix Reloaded? So far, I'm looking at a pretty hefty multi-pool, using the whole "stop bullets" as a tricky form of Missile Deflection, various movement powers (to represent battle leaping and flying), and a LOT of martial arts skills. ;-) What did I miss?

There's a lot of good anime soundtracks that'll be great for a Superheroic game. http://www.jameswong.com/ykproject/core.html Yoko Kanno does some of my most favorites, including Cowboy Bebop (my MA in one game was named Spike, had a Pickpocketing skill of 21-.... There's a story about when he stole the Campaign Master Villan's Superweapon key that's worth two beers at a con.) Ghost in the Shell (the movie) is great for a Miami-Vice type of vibe in music. Speaking of Miami Vice, Jan Hammer's music for Miami Vice (especially the two soundtracks and Escape from Television) are spot-on for any '80s game. Also, the GTA 3:Vice City soundtracks (which are a cool compliation of about 1/3rd of my favorite '80s music and bands).

Honestly.... I was a bit disappointed by Terran Empire. (Puts up 1.3x10^17th rPD/rED Hardened force field....) My two biggest pet peeves were how the Imperial Government was organized (in that the system seemed to have remained static from start to finish, without much changes), and that the game's universe felt flat....as if there wasn't any real "get up and go" motivation towards any real adventure. For an example, GURPS Traveller has the whole upcoming Fifth Frontier War on the horizon, Imperial spying of Zhodani core expeditions via Longbow II, the mysterious death of Duron, etc, etc, etc, etc. Referencing the future of the universe is nice, but there should be more data about the game PRESENT.... It's got good info, tho-I did buy it, and I'm going to keep it.

10D6 Major Cumulative Transform (Add Psych Lim-"Must Always Tell The Truth, Without Exception or Evasion"), Explosive, Mega-Scale, 0-END, Personal Immunity. Watch the crazyness result.

How about "players to villans"? We were running a game of Champions set in the late '50s/early '60s, teenage heroes, and we were up against Dr. Doom himself. (Yep, THE Dr. Doom. We'd stuck into the Lavertian embassy via the sewers, as Dr. Doom was about to pull the Kryptonian Generals out of the Phantom Zone using a Phantom Zone Ray projector stolen from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and he had mind-control bands for the generals and everything-he even made sure to steal enough Kryptonite, just in case....) Anyways, the players wake up after getting thrashed by Dr. Doom's robots, escape their death traps (mostly by thinking their way out), get their foci, and go after Doom. During the battle, my PC (a martial artist/gadgeteer/brick) was "playing unconscious" on the floor when Doom came by. I asked the GM if I could use acrobatics as a 0-phase action to leap to my feet and whack Dr. Doom into the wall. He said yes. I did it, rolled my dice to hit and rolled.... A three. House rules said that a 3 or a small range of numbers greater than 3 (I forget which, I think it was 1/6th the to-hit roll or something), means you have considered to have rolled the max for the damage-all 6's and all 1's on the knockback dice. On a 20D6 Double Knockback attack. One game inch away from a force field, then a solid concrete wall, one inch past that. Dr. Doom's feet were sticking out the wall when it was done, and he was OUT (-30 stun, GM option to recover) of the running. That brought such a smile to my face....

Heh, I'm just about finished with one of the independents that I'm going to put in Allies&Associates. Digital Hero, here it comes. And, the universe does need some more rounding out-which is what this product is for. My biggest complaint about UMA (Ultimate Martial Artist) is that there aren't sample characters, running the gamut from "normal human MA" to "ultimate metahuman MA".

Peter Christian, probably the best CHAMPIONS GM I've ever played under (sadly, he games much less these days, he's MAKed), ran his campaigns under some simple principals. As a GM myself, I've tried to uphold the tradition- *One game session (more or less) is a single "real time" month. *Almost as a rule, a character starts out new, levels up to a level of power pretty quickly, then doesn't change very much, and EP totals should reflect this. *Supers tend to have (reasonably) a super-career life of about 10-12 years, then they burn out, get cynical, get very badly injured/killed... Most players should understand this in ther character creation. There's some more, but it's mostly deep rules stuff. (Ed note-the term MAKed means "Married and Kids". Hey, happens to the best of us.)

Like anything, it's all in the details. If there's a problem with continuity, we'll thresh it out. If it's a problem with copyright, I'll toss in and pull out groups and characters to get them to fit the theme, but not be violiating somebody's intellectual property. One thing that I've always wanted to have as a "fill out" item is a bunch of characters that aren't villians, aren't quite heroes, but are super-powered and fill a niche. That's why it's called Allies and Associates. Hey, they might reject it anyways, then I'll figure out some use for all the characters that I've created. (Hm....perhaps we can pull the Redeemed out and put in VA-Villians Anonomyus, working their twelve steps, one good deed at a time... ).

One thing I'm gonna include in the book is, at least for one of the superteams and some of the various independents, is "Villan Team Conversion"-how to quickly turn this same team into a bunch of supervillans. Danger, Inc, isn't too lilly white (it also acts as a hiring front for supermercs such as Lazer and his ilk), but a lot of what it does is good stuff. There's one or two characters in it that could easily become Hunteds or Rivals (and if you ever get Darkness on your ass, just fill out your will now-she DOESN'T do anything less than "kill her Hunted"), and there's a lot of neat little character things that Danger, Inc can do, even be the sponsors of the player's own team. So far, the super-team list is as follows- SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HUMAN EVOLUTION-If you can't figure out who's serial numbers I've filed off for this one, you flunk Superhero 101 and have to re-take the course. One hint-they have a school in Boston. ZEN TEAM-There's been some swapping of characters, and some power improvements. Also, the Zen Jeep and the Zen Jet have been written up. ORDER OF THE QUEENS OF HEAVEN OVER EARTH-Yes, a sailor suit team. Yes, they're barely post-pubesent. No, they are not going to be naked. And no, you're gonna be suprised at what they can do. CYBERKNIGHTS-Like Zen Team, a partial port from Allies, but there's a new member and some other adjustments. THE REDEEMED-Pretty much unchanged, with two new people. JUDGEMENT-An entirely new group of vigilanties, based around a mystical character that claims to the the Angel of Vengence. I'm thinking of adding these two groups as well, as "starter seeds" for a GM needing a group NOW and to fill out the universe- SAN FRANCISCO SENTINELS-A newly formed group of superhumans in the San Francisco Bay Area, built around two other, defunct teams and with a few new members. THE UNION JACK-England's premere superteam, badly decimated by an attack of the Crowns of Krim, but rebuilding slowly. The independents are coming together pretty good. One thing which I'm emphasizing is a good number of "white hat" or "samuari" mercinary characters-more like contractors in the Metahuman world. There's one guy that I'm really starting to like-a powerful mage that one day decided to try and rob a bank, and just as he walked in, he realized, "How much money is there in preventing people like me from stealing stuff from people...?"

Not yet, I haven't run out of character ideas yet. At a rough guess, I'm going to bring a quarter to a third of the original characters from Allies, if possible, into this book.

Re: War The PCs could start to get their powers DUE to 9/11.... (One of these days, that game WILL be run. By whom, nobody knows.)

One of my favorite non-"Ultimate" books for Champions has to be Allies. It's just so useful to either pull them for DNPCs, Hunteds (with the serial numbers filed off), filler characters, and sometimes even a character to give a new player to help them out. So, shortly (as soon as the outline is done), I'm gonna send Hero Games a proposal for Allies and Associates, which is like CKC, except that they're good guys (mostly). Here's my question-what do you want in a book on Allies and Associates? What I'm thinking of is- 1)Two big super-organizations (Primus and Danger, Inc (Danger, Inc is the huge contracting firm for low-to-mid powered superheroes, like GURPS Supers SuperTemps, but with more variety).) 2)Three to four Mega-Heroes (on the scale of Dr. Destroyer and ilk). There won't be a "Superman with serial numbers filed off" in the group, but there will be some pretty close clones, and one quirky Mega-Hero. 3)Groups ranging from the very powerful to newcomers, probably about 4-6. I'm gonna have two big "theme" teams, based on Semi-Popular Comic Mythos, with the serial numbers filed off. The rest will be more like most gaming groups, with a variety of character types. 4)Independents running from very powerful to talented normals. Around thirty to forty, wide variety of power levels and skills and powers. So, anything I should add? Think about? Change around or otherwise tweak?