Richard Logue

So all supers look alike?

So all supers look a like?

Holy cow.... See what happens when you're trying to do other things while posting at the same time? When I saw the thread, no one had posted yet so I was writing my reply. When I finally got around to hitting "post," 5 others were there already.... LoL

Classically, a character of such intellectual might could/would become a gadgeteer. And with that in mind, he could arm himself with any number of ray guns, force fields, jet packs, the possibilities are endless. He could become a powersuit wearer like Iron Man or Doctor Doom, if you like. You could purchase martial maneuvers or talents that represent out thinking your opponent. Heck, you could pruchase a power or two that could represent the same sort of wit and cleverness. If I had more than a couple minutes at this point, I'd come up with a few. Perhaps tomorrow.

Overused Corporate Cliches: Mind Control 6d6 ( Human class of minds) (30 Active Points); Set Effect (make that growling sound again; -1/2), Limited Class Of Minds corporate employees (-1/2), Incantations (hackneyed corporate pep-talk phrasiology; -1/4), Stops Working If Corporate Drone Is Knocked Out (-1/4), Side Effects (may incur unnatural thoughts from recipient and/or the Evil Eye; -1/4), Normal Range (-1/4), Limited Range (as can be perceived by hearing with "room" volume; -1/4). 9 points. So I'm bored...

Oddly, I posted twice. Just ignore me.

I'd snag a few different thoughts from here and make it as such.... Don't Touch That Thermostat!: Detect A Single Thing - Temperature Change While Sleeping 15- (Touch Group) (7 Active Points); Conditional Power, Power does not work in Common Circumstances (Does Not Work While Awake; -1/2), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Wakes Up And Cannot Return To Sleep During The Same Sleep Cycle; -1/2). 3 points. Don't forget that when you make a Detect passive, which is how I see this one, that Sense and Enhanced Perception are automatically thrown in. Or at least that's what happened when I clicked on Passive in HD(v2). And it shouldn't be simply a Physical Limitation because there is a benefit involved: he can automatically detect temperature changes during his sleep. (From the original post, we don't know if the ability carries over to waking hours.) He could quite possibly catch CLOWN in their latest late-night temperature-changing caper. Meanwhile, why are you statting your friend's dad?

I once had a new pair 'o dig 'ems. I found i could break ground much faster with a friend along. (I probably should have posted anonymously for that one...)

He ravaged men? Is that an official title?

A lot of good suggestions here for rationales. But in the end, superhero worlds are fantasy. And fantasy can have any property you deem fitting: justify it if you want, or take away the power if you don't want. "Daddy, why is the sky blue?" "Magic."

You know... the crazy animate knife from The Shadow. "No, no, no. I correct myself. I took it out of the Tulku." I'm not even sure where to begin on this one... Is it something with a life and anima of its own, or is it a Focus that can be mentally controlled? Richard

I'm using Hero Designer v2. I've got Shapeshifting with the Costs END Only to Change Advantage. On that I place x2 Increased END cost Limitation. Easy enough right? I do not want the hero to shift back to his normal state if he falls unconscious. According to HDv2 (and the rules), I cannot buy Persistent unless I buy the power to 0 END first. HDv2 does not allow me to buy that Advantage because I've purchased the Increased END Limitation. What to do, what to do? (In my opinion the Costs END Only to Change Advantage should also allow the Persistent Advantage for non-attack powers. Its the same as buying the non-attack power to 0 END; you're not laying out END every Phase to keep the power going.) Richard

My campaign world is of my own creation, but it is standard superhero, 4-color fare. The world has a decent history to it and the players are pretty familiar with the goings-on. Its time to shake things up. Its time to write in one of those 12-issue crossover limited series that effects the entire world. What I'm envisioning is a mystical war. The sort of thing that involves all the sorcerors, mystics, and supernatural folks making war upon each other. And the poor super community is caught in the middle because, publicly, they receive the general blame for everything. In my mind's eye, I can see great, epic battles between good and evil, between sorcerors and their minions. I can see necromancers raising the dead, and earth-bound angels (there's two or three in my world). I can see the public crying out against supers, even some of the more popular heroes, for the damage being wrought. What I can't see is how it starts and how it plays out. And that's mostly waht I need advice on. I've never done a whole lot with the mystical community in my world. I have a few msytically-based individuals running around, including one of the PC's who gained his powers from a relic, but on the whole, I just don't have the experience with this part of the genre. I'm hoping that some of you can help me out. One of my biggest questions is how does the whole thing start? Is this something that happens every X amount of millennia when the stars are aligned? Has some relic surfaced causing the war? Maybe its a universal constant that's finally hit Earth. Perhaps its always gone on, but as a "cold war," and now some villainous sorceror has upped the ante. As always, your help is appreciated. Richard

Los Asesinos I like Los Asesinos... but only AFTER I revised them. They have basically the same crew and outlook as they did, but I made them hoopy. Richard

What about something so abstract in game, that its out of game? For instance, can a character build a Detect Stun to be able to determine if his opponent is about to go down in the fight or not? Granted, he would probably also have to have Discriminatory and Analyze to be able to know the exact numbers involved. But do you think Detect (Game Mechanic) is beyond the realm of what Detect can or is supposed to do? As an example, a computerized device at a super-prison, might be able to Detect Power (Discriminatory, Analyze) to determine exactly what a convict's powers are and how they work (in game mechanics terms) to be able to customize his cell to properly incarcerate him. Richard

Can Detect be use to sense abstract concepts? Is there a Detect Evil, for instance? Detect Health? Richard

I used them to kick off a campaign awhile back. I revamped the whole group and some of them individually and played up their roles as mercenary assassins that specialize in offing supers. I made certain that they worked well together by creating several tactics they could use and coordinating their skills and powers. They gave the heroes a thorough trouncing their first night out as a "group." Afterward they resolved to pull it together to beat the Asesinos. Since the heroes were outnumbered, they had to research the bad guys and come up with hteir own tactics. All in all it turned out pretty well. Just to throw these ideas at you, this is how I revamped the group a little. Stalker. Not a lot of change power-wise. But instead of making him an actual vampire, I just made him have vampire-like powers. Maine. Changed his name to Ironclad and made him a little more of a serious opponent. However, I did keep all the faultiness of his armor. It was good because it made his armor seem to change everytime they encountered him. Kept the players guessing. Mosquito. Since he is an inherently weak individual, I gave him a communication gadget to allow him to speak directly with Stalker and used him in the role of a scout. He never saw much real combat, but helped them as a team immensely. Also, instead of his nose being the weapon, I gave him a sword, a wee tiny sword. Ocelot. No real changes here. Tombstone Kid. Shortened his name to Tombstone. Gave him a pair of slightly mystical six-shooters and played up his undeadness. Montaña. Changed his name to Avalanche. Made him more in tune with the earth spirits. Gave him a horrendous (and Endurance expensive) attack that combined an EB and an Entangle; he could erupt the earth underneath you in a radius. Muerto Obscuro. Completely got rid of him and replaced him with a female martial artist with a penchant for spiders named Black Widow. She has a large, gadget spider wrapped around her torso. She can cause it to "leap" off of her, Entangle an opponent, and inject a STR Drain poison. Spider Monkey. When the heroes first encounter Spider Monkey, she was with Black Widow. Since Widow obviously had a thing for arachnids, they just figured the monkey was part of the show. BWAH-HA-HA! Nobody expects a spider monkey to be a mentalist! Fun stuff. Richard

In Hero Designer, one may purchase Discriminatory Sense (Detect) for 5 points. One may also purchase Detect and then click on Discriminatory and this is 8 points. Similarly, Analyze Sense (Detect) is 5 points while Detect with Analyzed clicked on is 13 points. How are they different? Which is correct? Richard

Are Los Asesinos (from the BBB) officially part of the 5th ed. Champions universe? Thanks Richard

Mordred might be a good name for a traitorous English occultist/sorceror. ------- One of the German heroes I created for "historical" purposes in my world was based on the real-life boxer Max Schmeling who boxed in the 30's and 40's. Although he was considered a national boxer and hailed by Hitler as a prime example of Aryan blood, he secretly hated the Nazi regime and even aided Jews on occasion in escaping the country. In my version, the boxer, who I named something else, goes a step further and dons the mask and tights to become a superhero. Sure, he has no more than a greatly athletic physique and a desire to do what's right, but isn't that common in the Golden Age? Keep in mind he (Schmeling) also served in the German army as a paratrooper. Until the heroes in your campaign figure out he's one of the good guys, they may jump to conclusions about the darkly clad German speaking individual. Then of course there comes the time that he approaches the heroes to help him rescue friends of some sort. Lots of possibilities there. Rich

V4. If you're familiar with Hitler's "vengeance weapons" you might like V4. During the war, Hitler had several uber-weapon projects going on. The V1 was also known as the doodlebug and was basically a very crude cruise missile that was fired over and over into England. The V2 was probably the most famous of the vengeance weapons. It was a longer-ranged, more powerful rocket. In theory, they could be launched at New York from Europe. The V3 were long-range guns that fired rocket-propelled rounds in barrages. Some of the guns were buried underground while others were fixed to mobile train cars. You could go a few different ways with a Golden Age Nazi villain named V4. He could be a guy in a crude suit of power armor. He could be a soldier who wears a prototype rocket pack akin to the Rocketeer. Or he could simply be the result of a late-war super-soldier program. Personally, I kinda like the rocket pack commando version. Perhaps he was out testing one of the prototype models when the munition proving grounds facility was bombed out of existence by a flight of B-17's. Now he has the only one left and they cannot be recreated. Himmler commissions him as the V4. Rich

In a campaign that a friend of mine ran briefly in 1995 (long before City of Heroes), I had an American Golden Age super named Vanguard. Vanguard's foremost nemesis was the evil Ratzi saboteur named 5th Column. Essentially, 5th was an agent-level sort with many connections and resources. The campaign itself was not set in the Golden Age, but Vanguard had been shot to the future (the present, 1995) by a time-traveling device (alien tech) that 5th Column thought was a disintegrating "ray gun." Yes, somewhat Captain America-ish, but its the sort of character I wanted to run. As a side note, it turned out 5th Column was still alive, albeit 50+ years older, and had firmly entrenched himself into American high society and politics and business. But, once he discovered he had not killed Vanguard but merely transported him to the future, he grew incensed and began many scenarios of revenge. After all, it was hardly fair that his enemy was still young and he had become an old man.

The Corsican Brothers, or Tomax and Xamot, the Crimson Guard commanders. One gets hit and feels nothing, while the other takes the damage. How would you do that? Richard

The Spectre vs. Perry White... poor Spectre...

Zip-Lock. Speedster with entangles. His No. 1 enemy... Freezer-Burn. Half fire, half ice. All bad.