Trained Chicken

Re: An Avengers Campaign I think he's pretty much done 'em.

Re: Will the real Jolly Jonah Jameson please stand up? I don't think these different portrayals you mention are inconsistent at all. Each showcases a side of a man who is terrifically faceted- one of the great creations of Steve Ditko, to be sure.

Re: CHAR: Thor. (Marvel Style) Officially, Thor has a STR of 60.

Re: Marvel's Ten Best Metamorphs 1. Gorgeous George (no points for knowing who this is) 2. Random 3. Machine Man 4. Hank Pym 5. Mimic 6. Vision 7. The Fixer 8. Wolfsbane 9. Marrow 10. Sandman I am a surprised by my list as anyone.

Re: Is there still such a thing as a mainstream Marvel Universe? Nah, nothing concrete for you. Although watch the upcoming runs of the SUperman and Batman books (although this points to a place where DC is doing a good job).

Re: Slightly Less Powerful DNPCs in Champions Someone with extensive combat skills, such as Alfred Pennyworth, or Jim Rhodes, would apply I think.

Re: Who Ya Gonna Call? (and How?) If someone doesn't have a secret ID, or is known to be in the employ of a public or private agency, this is not a problem. I try to make sure that this is the case for at least one person.

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) Heh, I've never seen anyone other than an UG with an atlatl.

Re: Marvel's Ten Best, Continued...The Ten Best Energy Projectors 1. El Aguilla 2. Paste-Pot Pete 3. The Wizard 4. Black Bolt 5. Dazzler 6. The Shocker 7. Oort, the Living Comet 8. Vibro 9. The Asp 10. The Masked Marauder Okay, this is dumb. Or maybe it's me who is dumb. Go ahead, quote it.

Re: Is there still such a thing as a mainstream Marvel Universe? Let me go "meta" for a minute. Continuity is a nice tool. It lets characters seem more real, since they remember their pasts, just like their readers do. Anything that lets readers relate to the characters they read is a good thing. Continuity as a defining force becomes clunky and Byzantine. Unless you're a Marvel Zombie or the analogue for the other company, you feel clueless. You miss an issue, you miss a gazillion in-jokes and major plot points. This is why, during the 90s when every story was an eight-parter running through four books, things got tiresome for many of us who have more than one hobby to spend money on. This is why "Elseworlds" was such a treat when it first debuted. It was full of "imaginary stories" (as opposed to the factual accounts in mainstream titles)! Fans loved them because they were self-contained, and you didn't need the OHOTMU to figure out what was going on. As time goes on, writers, editors and so forth are realizing that they can split the difference a little more. More self-contained one- and two-parters, more accessible stuff that doesn't reference other comics, and so forth. Marvel is doing better than DC at this since Marvel has a more healthy stable of characters ATM, and Joe Quesada has a very good sense of what the fans want- much like Stan did back in the old days. What you're seeing now is a return to what comics were like before the late 70s... and I think it's healthy for both fanboys like us and casual fans. But no, it doesn't resemble anything in the last 25 years.

Re: DC Suckverse? Gotta say, Enforcer, while I agree with the irrelevance of the early 90s and slightly later, and for the reasons you cite, I can't begrudge corporations making money off of superheroes. After all, if nobody was trying to make money off of them, we wouldn't have such a large sample to look at and talk about. I mark the Dark Age of Comics from June of 1992 (approximately the beginning of Image) to early 1998, when Marvel's Heroes Return relaunches brought back Captain America and the Fantastic Four (among others, less successfully) as fun, character-driven adventure in the style of the mid-80s. While there were some fun stories developed during this period, it was mostly trash coming from Marvel, DC and Image. Oh well, the 50's weren't great, either. Give it time. It'll get back. Not back to what it was "in the day" (whenever "the day" was for you- for me, it was about summer of 1989), but back in that general direction. And in the meantime, we have tons of stuff to gripe about, which is tons more than if we didn't have people making money off of superheroes.

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) Okay, maybe I'm confusing "genre" with a small stable of books Marvel was using to trot out various ideas, superhero-oriented and otherwise. In any case, he's such a fabulously multifaceted character, I can't see the Avengers without him.

Re: Marvel's Ten Best, Continued...The Ten Best Energy Projectors Are we talking about characetrs whose main power is an energy blast of some sort, or characters who control certain energies?

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) The character of Hank Pym nearly singlehandedly saved superheroes as a genre. Never been the most popular, but definitely very important to the modern development of the genre.

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) Maybe it's awfully phallocentric of me, but I always kind of think of Jan as an appendage of Hank. If Wasp is in, then by definition, she's in with her partner Hank. You can't have Wasp without Dr. Pym. At this point though, it looks like it would be better for Enforcer to stat out about ten guys. What say, Enforcer? Up to that kind of task?

Re: Like a Defender from City of Heroes My Raven homage is a controller- gravity/kinetics

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. The other game system I won't mention (but it's initials are AD&D) would kill for this picture.

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) In an issue of Avengers Spotlight, roughly early 1990, he goes on an adventure wherein he learns that he was the "point man" for Dr. Strange; and gains back his hair.

Re: CHAR: Captain America It comes when he whistles. When he has enough space to throw it, he can seemingly toss it away, then have it hit his target from an odd angle after a short interval- say, three or four panels. This seems like an Indirect and Time Delay.

Re: The Marvel Magnificent Seven (Avengers) Black Knight (Dane Whitman, Ebony Sword era): Dane Whitman is a world-class geneticist, owns a castle in the Washington, D.C. area (wealthy), has a kid sidekick from the Middle Ages, and uses an unbreakable sword. Everyone knows, superheroes with unbreakable HKAs sell books. Photon (Monica Rambeau): Although currently the butt of a running joke of other superheroes stealing her name, and spending most of her on-panel time in some dive bar in Louisiana or somewhere equally yucky and remote, she has the power to send radio waves without using a radio, something even Rick Jones couldn't manage as leader of Captain America's Teen Bridage. Definitely room for some diversity on this roster. Mockingbird: Although techincally deceased, this has never stopped a superhero before. Her SHIELD training and contacts with the equally-formerly-dead Nick Fury could come in really handy when you need a tactical nuke to blast Ultron-187 or something. Additionally, she was emotionally strong enough to deal with being married to circus freak Hawkeye for many years. She-Hulk: Eventually, John Byrne will be tapped to write and draw this book. Let's just save him the trouble of recruiting her and stick her on the team to begin with. She can also serve as a source of legal advice at team planning session and during battles which may or may not break international treaty. Tigra: Really, just here for the other heroes to have meaningless flings with. I mean, was she ever much more than a toy anyway? Dr. Druid: Cut-rate Dr. Strange, he was the first Marvel Superhero in the Silver Age (1961), and has a nice, full head of hair. If you need someone to be spooky and foreboding, he is your man. USAgent: The team's resident hothead, he also has a great sense of tactics and the respect of the superhero community. Also, unlike Captain America, his name doesn't start with "Cap", which should keep the team from getting confused when someone calls out "Cap" in the middle of combat- considering that Photon and Mockingbird have also achieved the rank of Captain in their respective military organizations. Also, he's a real winner with the ladies, and this team's got ladies to spare.

Re: Captain Average!!! Green Arrow and Hawkeye, the Wasp, Nightwing, Bloodshot, USAgent, Troia, She-Hulk (yick).

Re: What happened to the Champions? I'm not sure how Seeker is any more cheesy than anyone else from the 4th Edition days. In fact, Seeker had the added benefit of being delightfully cheesy, like a Hooter's restaurant or Spongebob Squarepants.

Re: Providing Character Resonance and Moments that matter Among all the revolutionary modelling techniques built into the Hero rules, the one I .ike the best (if you forced me to choose) would be Disadvantages. My wife often asks why we need to spend points on things, and why do characters need disads? The answer to the second question can only be fully appreciated by playing, and more specifically, GMing. If you have a good handle on a character you make, the disads are easy to write. And if your player has a good handle on his PC, and can give you those disads to use, then the best way to pull them into the game is to use those disads. I don't need to tell you how.

Re: I need a trained parrot writeup As my wife was dismissing this as the "dumbest superhero you have ever come up with", she also referenced a pirate theme. It honestly didn't occur to me.

Re: Champions CCG? If it ain't Magic, then people don't play it. If it ain't Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh!, it won't sell enough to invest in.