Trained Chicken

Re: What does a SuperTeam need? Thank you! I'm a friggin expert on Marvel comics between about 1988 and 1992. Small claim to fame. Hehe, you and everybody else! The book was cancelled after that issue, I think. Avengers Spotlight was 37 issues of really kind of boring Hawkeye solo stories, followed by a reboot of Tigra (trying to save her from the nonsense Byrne put her through in WCA), The Vision (giving him a fighting chance against The Byrne with a "secret Identity" hologram and the personality tapes of some old dude), and Dr. Druid (who I don't think Byrne butchered, but I wouldn't bet against it). And that was it. It was the lowest-circulated Marvel title for ages. I think the Steeltown Rockers mini beat it out for 1989, and that was only four issues. Camp Candy outsold it. It was putrid. But because of its low readership, it turned out to be the perfect place to do a little John Byrne damage control. (Speaking of which, I think the 1989 Damage Control limited series beat it out too.)

Re: What does a SuperTeam need? In the Avengers Spotlight reboot of Dr Druid, probably around 1990, The Ancient One revealed to him that this was exactly what had happened: he (the Ancient One) was practicing for Dr. Strange. For a moment, Dr. Druid was pretty upset, but when he realized his unique contribution to the process of bringing about a new Sorcerer Supreme, he was clearly pleased. While this may not have been the most luminous chapter of Marvel canon, I believe it's still in continuity. As far as his drinkin' buddies, your guess is as good as mine!

Re: What does a SuperTeam need? To be fair, when Dr. Druid learned that he was indeed the point man for the Sorcerer Supreme, he wasn't at all upset. He was pleased to be of service to The Ancient One in such a role.

Re: CHAR: Wonder Woman

Re: Favorite Marvel 'What If?' LOL they'd have to reboot it every eight to 10 years, like DC does!

Re: Homages you would like to see officially I always thought the one-shot from the Amalgam Universe about the Challengers of the Fantastic was about the best one there was. It lost nothing from combining the two universes- and felt right at home in either SA or modern "continuity". Amazo and Absorbing Man are the two that need the treatment the most.

Re: What does a SuperTeam need? I must disagree. Certain archetypes are not mandated for a supergroup- a group can get by without any particular superpower or super-archetype. It is however difficult to get by without a couple of combat monsters of some variety. In fact, it's usually the most fun when everyone can somehow get some licks in against the bad guy- but not even this is mandatory.

Re: Favorite Marvel 'What If?' It's funny, when I saw the thread topic, I was thinking about V2 #13 where Prof X becomes the Juggernaut- one of the best comic book stories I'd ever read at that time. TGhe end is priceless: As they blow Xavier into deep space from Asteroid M, the narrative goies something like: "Nothing can stop the Juggernaut, and nothing ever will." It gave me the same eerie feeling I get when I watch the best Twilight Zone episodes.

Re: Personality Archetypes Brooder- someone who is part of the group for a reason other than cameraderie, or someone who is invited to be part of the team so that the other memebers can keep a better eye on him or her. Examples of this type are Punisher or (in some incarnations) wolverine.

Re: Your favorite Archetype examples in super hero comics I took "patriot" out since I don't think it's a power set category (we've got another thread here telling why). Cap goes way beyond a single entry under a single archetype, which is why he's spawned so many clones and variations on the theme, which is why it might now be considered a class of characters- but "patriot" is really a loose set of Disads rather than a character class. Brick = Juggernaut! Energy Projector = Not a big fac of this kind of character. Also feels like it overlaps a lot of "weapons Master" types. I'll go with Superman for the heat vision. Gadgeteer = Mr. Fantastic, Batman Martial Artist = Daredevil Mentalist = Again, not a huge fan. The Leader I suppose. Metamorph = Mr. Fantastic again, Hank Pym Mystic = Rintrah (look it up if you have to) Powered Armor = Iron Man, first last and best. Speedster = Jay Garrick Flash, Max Mercury Weapons Master = Hawkeye, Bullseye, Captain America, Crossbones, Thor.

Re: Hidden Template Sorry to Necro up a thread from a few days ago, but I've been away from my computer and only read it now. We call these characters "speedbricks", and they are defined as characters who have spent more than 60% (give or take) of their points on Characteristics. While this is obviously not the only defining factor, it's a good indication of what a character is about- melee combat, usually.

Re: Late Golden/Early Silver Age Champions Although it's kind of messy and scattered, there is a rich resource here of the old Archie superheroes and villains. It's interspersed with bad fan art and has a lot of typos, but it will give you a good feel for the period if you read the dates closely.

Re: Good Concepts, Bad Characters Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Hawkgirl, and so forth- someone ought to shoot whoever decided to screw up their continuity past the point of no return. If all the DC reset maxiseries should be frowned upon for one reason, it's this: Nobody knows what the hell is going on with these characters anymore, and nobody seems to care.

Re: Justice League Avengers, Assemble! Ladybird could be a former KGB agent with a sonic attack... I always thought Black Widow should have blond hair, anyway.

Re: Who would you recreate? Hey now, are you playing this live and in person, or over some long-distance communication? I would just love to sit down across the table (or world) with re-imagined superheroes. The only time I accidentally nicked a name in use it was, embarassingly, Nighthawk. I bought the 5e book, and he's mentioned casually a couple times, and I'm like, "Oh, neat". Then I come here, and find out who he is, and it quickly seemed a lot less neat. I now do my best to pick original names with the full force of the Interhole as a research tool.

Re: Good Concepts, Bad Characters So, you mean... heheh... the writers goofed up? Next thing you know, you'll be telling us they made Storm into a punk and took away her powers.

Re: Homages you would like to see officially Are there CU analogs of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne? One of my favorite creations is a character that is a total homage to Hank Pym.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? A bunch of guys playing Champions... including Zornwil and a bunch of other guys who I forget.

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion I repped him for that, too. Consider calling him Igor, the Minion in the Silver Age tradition of a name and descriptor as title. The random input acceptance matrix sounds a lot like another form of life- humanity . If an absent-minded but monomaniacal professor built him, and used his own "brainwave patterns" as a basis for the open-ended programming of this model, the random input acceptance matrix (RIAM) would practically self-organize. I would build it in game terms though, perhaps with an Accidental Change (GM's fiat) between two states: Subservient and Aloof. This bizarre and total personality trait would be worth at least 15, and probably 20 or 25. I like the idea of the robotic assistant. His catchphrase might be, "I'm here to help." His costume and look might resemble Metamorpho's- clearly nonhuman, but humainoid, and not particularly scary (except in the "resembles-a-clown" kind of scary way). I'm thinking green and red, almost a court jester motif, with bluish-white "skin" on his hands and face, and no hair. His face doesn't need to be terribly expressive, almost like a mask, but with human features. If anything, you might be able to portray him as a creature of great pathos, magnified by its own incomplete self-awareness. Something like Data from Star Trek. As far as power go, you can certainly make him very durable (takes no STUN seems perfect, as well as either Armor or DR), faster than a human, smarter than a human, and I like the idea of tunnelling more than XDM or Teleportation or something. Also, being able to conjure simple gadgets from his insides can go either way- I'm not sure if it's necesary. Certainly, the invisibility and darkness powers are winners in my opinion. So far, so good. I think you've got a real winner of a character here. I wonder why the PCs would want to follow this thing? And would he eventually make a good member of the team?

Re: Homages you would like to see officially Considering how well the WEG version turned out, this can't be a bad thing.

Re: Good Concepts, Bad Characters I think it was a really crummy move to kill off Doug, even though I only knew him posthumously.

Re: A Real Life Session Using the HERO System Your industriousness astounds me. I am really happy to have this as a resource! And none of you sound very nerdy- quite a feat. Newman sounds like a lot of fun to play- and of course it's not because of anything written on a character sheet, but rather because of the way he's being played. This may say more about me as a player of RPGs than the game session or players, actually, that this is a new observation for me; I'm not really sure. But after hearing him being played, it's a character I would like to play or be a teammate of.

Re: Homages you would like to see officially I'd like to see Excalibur done right. While I never liked to actually read the issues I bought due to extreme hack crappery, I love the character concepts. I'd like to see Moon Knight treated with respect. Guardians of the Galaxy. Mr. Miracle and the New Gods treated as a pantheon. I'd like to see Static aka Virgil Hawkins. Give me back the old Champions, btw. Give Nighthawk his own team like the Outsiders. OK on celestial power level, Galactus is indeed right up there with Death and Eternity. He does not have cosmic awareness, but he does hold within his worldship all knowledge of the Multiverse in a strange energy-beam computer. The whole 'power level proportional to gas tank" thing is untrue- he just doesn't exert himself unless he reaslly has to. Galactus can singlehandedly smack down any entity or entities in the MU aside from Eternity and Death (and don't challenge him on this one, because he might beat them, too). Statting him out is nonsense. As mentioned earlier, he took on the entire Celestial Host and singlehandedly shooed them off, without his worldship.

Re: Good Concepts, Bad Characters Absolutely. Not only was Cap good for her, it showed how cool Cap can be. He was able to reform a supervillain with the power of his superb abs!

Re: What's in a Phase? Trying to track exactly how long a phase is is tough. I do imagine that it's one panel of a comic book. The slower characters are standing around marvelling at the faster characters- or, in the case of someone acting upon someone else where the target has not action that phase, someone who is "too quick" for their intended target to react. Which reminds me of my speedster character, who is of course one of the fastest men alive, blah blah blah...but only spd 5, dex 23, on account of having an all-too-human mind in charge of the best reflexes in the universe. So I suppose that at least in his case, his SPD is a reflection of both his body's speed and his mind's speed.