segerge

I can think of one time where I should have upgraded villains before writing them.

Reader's Digest Condensed Version: Starforce one-shots a GENOCIDE Rook and throws a Presence Attack on the Pawns present (the story "The Lady in the Lake").  When I turned to the character sheet in "The Mutant File" for GENOCIDE Pawns, my first reaction was shock.  My second reaction was "Who the H*&^^ designs agents in a superhero campaign with a PRESENCE SCORE OF ONLY  10?!?"

On 11/14/2019 at 6:30 PM, Elrikk said:

I’m confused, does the damage act on every segment or based on the speed of the person throwing it?
 

 thermite pellets ii: RKA 1d6, Constant (+1⁄2); OAF (-1), 6 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Turn each (-1⁄4), Range Based On STR (-1⁄4)

This looks familiar.  Did you get this from a build of the TASK FORCE superheroine Ladyhawk?

If it is, Lucius' explanation on damage accrual was what I had in mind when I designed that power, and how you should run it.

Don't discount the usual suspects such as Mechanics or Electronics, either, when you're doing you Weird Science character. 

Another useful skill is +4 to INT-Based Skills with the limitation "Only to Offset Time Modifiers" if it absolutely, positively, MUST be built right now.  You never know when you need to turn a toaster and a VIPER pulson rifle into a Gauss Gun to stop the running battle in the casino lobby, after all...

3 minutes ago, steriaca said:

So far, it looks good. I guess what I am doing on another thread (Champions 2050) would not be publishable in the Hall (as, ultimately, it is an expansion of the timeline), not like I was thinking seriously of doing so.

 

Right now I have lots of real life on my plate. I have to find a new, cheep place to live by the end of February, for example...

I thought the same about TASK FORCE, too, until I emailed Jason.  The worst he could do is say "No," and you might be surprised by his answer.

On 11/16/2019 at 7:49 PM, Cancer said:

Don't overlook some conditional Presence adds when laying out Weird explanations.

That's actually something close to what's on Starforce's character sheet:

Expert at Technobabble: Persuasion 13-, Only for technical talk and explanations (-1).  Given a PRE of 20, that's only 1 point.

It also came in VERY useful during the time travel story "Greatest Generation," when he came up with an explanation on the fly to the Base Commander at RAF Woodbridge on how TASK FORCE had appeared in Rendlesham Forest in September 1944 with a Nazi wunderwaffen.  Though he knew better, even team leader Ranger almost believed it...

5 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Grond's origin involves him falling into a polluted river then being struck by lightning. 

 

The pre-5th edition origin story had him having a bad reaction to experimental drugs injected into him, then panicking and tripping into the containment pool of an experimental nuclear reactor with questionable shielding before the lightning and the polluted river.  The line that followed all that always made me laugh: "No one knows what triggered his transformation into Grond..."

Email sent to Jason this afternoon.  Perhaps this will overcome the roadblock which resulted in me publishing TASK FORCE as fan fiction.

5 minutes ago, massey said:

 

No no.  It's a +1 1/2 Variable Advantage before doubling.  So a total of +3.  She could slap on an AVLD if she wanted to.

I saw the 330 active point total on that  power and my brain must have flatly refused to believe it.  So I guess I plead, "Coping Mechanism?"

Also, the only time I have ever statted out a 330 active point power was the device Ultrasonique used to take Starforce's armor offline in the TASK FORCE story "A Week at Davos."

On 10/13/2019 at 10:36 PM, massey said:

The variable advantage allows you to make it Area Effect, or Armor Piercing, or whatever you want.  There was a reason I picked +1 1/2, but I don't remember what it was now. 

If I had to guess, you wanted Double Knockback as an option?

Ham could have coerced some of the Hollow World people up to accelerate the tech development of the gorillas he found.

For additional pain to Steve Long, make the remote African mountains the Mbang Range of Western Africa ("VIPER: Coils of the Serpent")

On 8/26/2019 at 10:20 AM, Hermit said:

Okay, JFK wasn't around for Apollo 14...so it becomes obvious that Richard Nixon used Mission 14 for something shady, much to his frustration it failed, but some of the Astronauts reported a telepathic experience they were never able to reduplicate. It's almost as if some small furry spy had warned the Confederation from Earth itself.

Ham eventually escaped when he was 'retired', his fate seemingly unknown...

If anyone wants "Chimp City" well, frankly I don't trust Primates, but let's hear your ideas.

Okay.  After escaping, Ham could sort of be traced heading into the heart of Africa, where he finally passed beyond human history and knowledge heading toward a remote mountain range with a rare species of gorilla.

After over 4 decades, a research mission into that range trying to follow up on that gorilla species suddenly encounters an antiquated-looking but yet advanced barrier blocking sight.  They succeed in penetrating it, only to find it was hiding a society of gorillas more or less at the late 19th century of technical advancement.

That's right.  Steampunk Gorillas.

On 7/30/2019 at 9:25 AM, Dkap said:

Trying to reinvent the Island of Dr Destroyer and looking for new ideas on traps and all around nasty things to throw at my players.Any ideas?

An idea that I posted a couple of years ago was a variation on the gas-filled deathtrap in which the PCs knocked themselves out.  Probably a little subtle for Doctor Destroyer's tastes, but does demonstrate that His wisdom sees far indeed.

The basic idea requires no one in the party to have self-contained breathing, Smell/Taste sense group with Discriminatory and Analyze, or some form of Detect Molecular Composition.  The PCs get trapped in a reinforced room that starts obviously filling with gas.  Being heroes, they all start holding their breath thinking it's some sort of knockout or poison gas while they try to punch or blast (or lockpick) their way out.  If the DEF of the room is designed correctly, all the PCs will pass out before they can escape.  The gimmick?  The gas is totally non-lethal or damaging in any way.

OCCASIONAL dinosaur?!? 

This is Doctor Destroyer.  He'd have cyborg velociraptors and T-Rexen with shoulder-mounted miniguns at a minimum.

18 hours ago, Cancer said:

Andrew Luck announced his retirement.  Guess I can't blame him.

Considering that team management could not or world not put a competent offensive line in front of him to protect him, I agree.

I wasn't expecting the Colts to enter a 15-year rebuilding program so soon

4 hours ago, Hermit said:

And yes, while only a handful know,  the Astronauts did put something on Luna as their president directed, something even they didn't understand.

If I may be allowed to abuse my historical knowledge of the Apollo program...

it didn't have to be all six landings which did the Plutonian's bidding... just one.  Seen in that light, I now have to ask, "What was so important about Fra Mauro to the Plutonians that Apollo 14 was re-tasked to perform the mission Apollo 13 couldn't do?"

Also consider in Real Life that LMP Edgar Mitchell publicly admitted to attempting an experiment in interplanetary ESP with someone back on Earth during that mission.  An enterprising GM can take things from there.

7 hours ago, Hermit said:

The Plutonian Confederation was intentionally a tease about the demotion it got from 9th planet to 'dwarf planet'... the irony being of all the planets, THAT's the One of import? Maybe the Aliens have a wormhole near there (Props to Assault) and there was a translation error or the  Press just dubbed them that and that's what stuck.  Maybe Pluto, while a small chunk of cold rock on the outside is another hollow planet and some life is quite comfy there in this setting.  I'm still tinkering.

 

If your Pluto is hollow, make it bigger on the inside

While you're at it, Charon is no moon, it's a fully-armed and functional battlestation defending the Plutonians...

11 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Oh, you were just thinking of involving her with the corporate Disney, rather than their characters? Fair enough.

 

In that case, I would suggest Brangomar learns of Disney's Maleficent property and is incensed that they've obviously "stolen" her identity. So she creates a gate between her Shadow Realm and Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Florida, which she occupies while sending her minions to terrorize the Magic Kingdom, until Disney provides proof of having destroyed all their Maleficent-based materials.

If you really wanted to be evil, have her use some of her dragon gold to fund a lawsuit for infringement of prior art. 

Then if the trial in Orlando doesn't go her way, she uses her gate to the Shadow Realm for a Change of Venue...

That IS gruesome.

Also funny if you call the Giant "Supermarionation" and the other players remember Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's "Thunderbirds" series...

3 minutes ago, archer said:

 

If you combine him with a partner who has several levels of Growth and who used Dead and Buried Man as his marionette, you could have Dead Man Walking.

This is Champions.  Forget the Growth, give the partner lots of DEX, at least 20 STR TK usable only on Dead and Buried Man invisible power effects, and possibly PS: Puppeteer.

Good lord, I've just created Zombie Jim Henson...

Not my character, but one that has been a standing joke with my first GM since 1982: "Dead and Buried Man."

To the best of my knowledge, he was never statted out -- except for the obvious Physical Limitation "Dead," a hellacious PRE score, and 4 DNPCs to carry him into battle and throw him at the enemy shouting "DEAD AND BURIED MAN!!"

I know it's more associated with one of the Ghost Rider movies, but I always used "The Wolf" by Erich Lee as Destroyer's personal leitmotif whenever he took to the field of battle in a story.

Actually, I'm American but did get all the references   I have no story need for schools of wizardry, but the captain of the largest spacecraft launched off of Earth by the time of "Kingdom of Champions" is infamous in-universe for something she did in back in 1995.

"

3 minutes ago, steriaca said:

 

Anyways, got a nice Master epoxy?

Not yet. Looks like I might have tonight's project on Hero Designer, though

5 minutes ago, steriaca said:

Ah. I'm going to assume the chap from the two theactrical movies (Dr. Who And The Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth) than the serial number filed off version of the real thing.

Actually, the first time Starforce meets him ("Kingdom of Champions") he inadvertantly blurts out, "Ohmigod, it's the Third Doctor!" before Julie can properly introduce him 

5 minutes ago, steriaca said:

 

Which begs the question: Who's your Doctor? (Mine is Tom.)

Depending on my mood, David Tennant or Peter Capaldi.  Before New Who, probably Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee

Lacking my old copy of 4th ed. Kingdom of Champions when I wrote the TASK FORCE story of the same name, I filled in details on some name drops in FRed:Champions Worldwide and News of the World (Rhiannon, Repulse) as members of the New Knights.  Repulse also got a twin sister Renown and a shared origin.

Beyond that, the only other British superhuman I currently have stats on is the current Deputy Minister for Superhuman Affairs, who was once known a millenium and a half ago as "Merlin" and is more of an expy of the Doctor than a true wizard.

In the TASK FORCE universe, Union Jack was the equivalent of Captain America, John Bull was a second-generation legacy of the WW2 hero, and Aquarius (4th Ed: The Zodiac Conspiracy) was the son of Richard II of  England.  I also had a "hero" Lionclaw" who was the functional equivalent of Wolverine