Spidey88

Re: Discussion: Taxonomy and Pathology of Halloween Monsters Another way to look at it: 1) Assume there's some sort of critical threshold at which a vampire's victim becomes a vampire, and before which he's merely drained of some blood (possibly enough to die, likely just weakened). At the very least, vampires have some control over who becomes one of the children of the night. 2) Vampires are generally very intelligent; but underneath their sophisticated exterior, have the instincts of an extremely territorial predator. 3) Vampires, while completely devoid of any sentiment or emotions such as mercy or compassion, are concerned enough with their own well being that they want to preserve their own existences. A combination of those three factors would generally lead to these: 1) Vampires don't want to create other vampires without very good reason (boredom might qualify, mind you) - other apex predators in their territory would be competition for valuable resources. Vampires would likely be well aware that a world full of vampires with no blood sources would be bad news for them! 2) Plus, vampires might just resent having other beings on their power scale around, period. You spend 200 years being a selfish narcissist, chances are you don't want someone around who can challenge your supremacy. 3) More vampires around means that there's more of a chance those wimpy, but irritating vampire hunters will catch wind of your kind. You spend how many decades getting comfortable in this moldy old castle, and some young upstart from the graveyard down the block sucks the mayor's daughter dry in the middle of a huge party - now everyone's carrying torches and stakes, and you can't get any sleep for fear of waking up with a sharpened broomstick through your chest! Basically, if the act of a vampire feeding does not automatically create another vampire (some supernatural "seed of evil" must be passed on, perhaps; or there must be sufficient transfer of tissue in order to catalyze a transformation, such as the typical "victim must drink of the vampire's blood"), then I imagine most vampires would not want to create more of their kind unless there was some reason to. As for werewolves, it may be a similar thing - while they aren't known for self-control, they are possibly territorial... Also, if the infected human is aware of his condition, he's likely to want to isolate himself as much as possible, limiting his exposure to potential victims. Perhaps there are only very specific circumstances that lead to the creation of werewolves - only people with a rare recessive gene can contract lycanthropy, there's a binary element to contracting it that only rarely occurs (victim is able to bite werewolf fighting back and draws blood, needs to die in contact with some particular substance or plant, etc). Heck, maybe all you need is a survivor of a werewolf attack (A viral infection won't work on a corpse) - that could be pretty rare in and of itself! In other words, some external limiting factor shouldn't be too hard to come up with - what it is will just depend on what the cause of vampirism/lycanthropy is.

Re: Champions Background Information I'm one of them! I really like both those books too.

Re: Your favorite champions character My favorites are: Phidippus, my GMNPC in the Champions game I ran for over 2 years (and will again at some point), a thinly-veiled Spider-Man pastiche with extra arms, eyes, and a light exoskeleton. I've got the chance to play him more than any other character I've ever made (which isn't saying much - either I have to be the GM, or I don't get the chance to play). Kraken, the character I'm currently playing in a friend's game. Monstrous DEX and SPD, and mid-level superstrength (with extra STR for grappling purposes). In addition, he's got eight tentacles sprouting from his back that allow him to swim, leap, and climb sheer surfaces at tremendous speeds; and he's got a host of cool cephalopod-based abilities, to include (but not limited to) chameleonic camouflage, ink clouds, limited desolidification (squeezing through incredibly tiny spaces), stretching, and enhanced vision. Part of the reason I enjoy this guy so much is the history - he's an updated/reworked version of my very first Champions character that I made when I was 13 (that's over 19 years ago)! I only got the chance to play him in about 5 individual sessions back in the day, so when my buddy was starting up his game, I dusted him off and got to cleaning him up to my satisfaction. I was (and still am) really excited that a) I finally get to play! YAY! and I'll be doing it with my old pal Kraken, who never got a proper kick at the can. Heck - as long as I'm jabbering, I'll try to post a picture I drew of him: [ATTACH]32779[/ATTACH] I'm not sure how long this campaign might last, but I hope Kraken has a good run! Our last session was Thursday (Cephalopod awareness day, amusingly enough) - our first session in over 3 months, since everyone has screwy schedules - and I was the ONLY one who came fully prepared, with my character sheets and the NPCs I was to be controlling in a huge football-style competition. Even the GM forgot his stuff! It was insane! I very nearly had a quiet, polite brain embolism. I swear to God - that session could only have started off worse if it involved a house fire. We ended up playing anyway and things went amazingly well, but only because I've got a freakish memory for numbers and was able to recall the pertinent stats for 3 PCs and 6 NPCs off the top of my head, without having seen them in 3 months. I have to say - that was satisfying. My own mini Kobayashi Maru - turning defeat into a fighting chance for gaming! (Anal-retentive rules lawyers are a VERY GOOD THING sometimes!)

Re: How to balance the heavy brick ? I disagree. You've got a guy strong enough to benchpress the space shuttle, and on top of that, he's got large, hyperdense fists - so instead of 12d6 with a punch, he does 14d6. That seems reasonable to me for a 300 point character. It seems part of your problem is that you automatically separate STR damage dice from extra HA damage. His extra 2d6 HA isn't a "wimpy attack", it's a small bonus to his already impressive superstrength punch. It's like an extra 10 STR, with the limitation "only for damaging stuff". 27d6 is probably too much for a Galactic Champions game, where characters are built on 700 points or more - don't be afraid to tell this player that his character is absolutely crazy and unbalanced! One of the best ways to curtail this sort of min-maxing, IMHO, is creating a series of campaign benchmarks - basically, create at least a vague list of various characteristic and power levels representing where the rest of the heroes and villains in your campaign world sit. For example: The (consistently) strongest guy in this world has a STR of 90. Most bricks at your power level will have a STR of 55 - 70. Don't go above 65, unless your character is all about STR and nothing else. A SPD of 5 is average superhero-level, a SPD of 6 is on the fast side, a SPD of 7 is "wow, that guy's pretty fast" by superhero standards, a SPD of 8 is "good grief! that guy's really fast!", and SPD 9 and up is powerful speedster territory only. Sounds like you and your crew are pretty new to the HERO System, so these kind of mental benchmarks may (understably) not be second nature to you - there's a few threads kicking around here about various characteristics as they relate to various published superheroes, so that might be a good place to start. Also, If you have any of the books with collections of heroes or villains (eg. Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks or Champions Worldwide), those are a good place to start looking for these sorts of common reference points. That's par for the course, ESPECIALLY when the players don't understand the rules at all! Making a character in any system should be an effort split between the player and the GM, and it's even more so with a game that permits as much freedom as the HERO System. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!

Re: The Mosquito Take it from an entomologist: they've got a huge battery of senses designed for honing in on hosts. Real-life mosquitoes can detect heat emanations from warm-blooded animals, detect general body odor, even hone in on tiny differentials of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere created by their host's exhalation. I'd hesitate to describe any of these as targeting senses in a real mosquito, but it isn't much of a stretch to assume a mosquito-person might have trained with them to achieve that level of sensitivity. Tracking is a must for the enhanced smell and CO2 detection, though. How about a small Drain EGO, only while in flight, for that irritating whine when a mosquito won't leave you alone at night?

Re: File Planet quick-fix and issues of note. No, you don't have to subscribe - I didn't have to, anyway. The Fileplanet site is just un-user-friendly in the extreme. If I remembered the random button-mashing I did to download the download manager and then get the beta key, I'd tell you - but it is possible.

Re: Split's Serpent Society Thread Works for me - I just wanted to weigh in on a subject I found interesting. Thanks again for posting the Society!

Re: Split's Serpent Society Thread A little late on the response here, but hopefully my input will be useful... I haven't read any comics with King Cobra in them, outside of those issues of Spider-Man he's appeared in. There were a few in the 80's though, so I'll work from there. His speed and agility were noted to be nearly at Spider-Man's level (without all the bonus levels in DCV, though), so I'd say that definitely puts him in "superhuman" territory. How much is from training and how much is from his altered physique? Who knows - but personally, I'd feel comfortable putting him at DEX 30 or so (what you'd want would depend entirely on your campaign benchmarks, of course). I don't recall him ever performing any feats of real superstrength, outside of his constriction/grab attacks, so I'd say you've got him pegged right on the money in that regard. Works for me, anyway. Nice job across the board!

Re: A lot of new traffic from the Champions MMO website? Hey! What did we ever do to you?

Re: Help Me with My Campaign Finale Well, I'm not sure I can offer much advice right now in the way of plot development; but if you need some more opposition for the heroes, I can throw a bunch of concepts for Nazi Supervillains I developed for WWII Gurps Supers campaign I was planning (but never managed to make happen): The obligatory Blitzen ("Lightning"): vast electrical powers, flight, regenerates when exposed to current. The pride of the Ubermenchen, he's smart as hell and a brilliant tactician. His attendant Donner (Thunder"): Brick with sonic scream (flash vs. hearing, shockwaves, energy blast in cone shape). Fleicher ("Butcher"): super-agile weaponmaster w. low-grade superstrength, he's a sociopathic sadist. Gestapo: duplicator with regenerative abilities. Basically a thug who can create legions of himself. Geisterhand ("Ghosthand"): powerful telekinetic who can make himself invisible at will. Wutenhund ("Mad Dog"): think a berserk, feral Wolverine or Sabertooth for general powerset. Add to the mix is the fact that the more damage he takes, the stronger and more bloodthirsty he becomes (absorption to STR and BODY). Normally Fleicher keeps him on a leash until combat breaks out. (I found I really liked this name. Just sounded cool to me for some reason.) Maus ("Mouse"): Growth-based brick. Drachen ("Dragon"): Think Marvel's "Lizard", with chameleonic abilities and a venomous bite. Der Shrecken ("The Horror"): can tranform into a massive, two-dimensional shadow (with a huge PRE score), as well as drain life force from those he envelops. Can also create terrifying shadow-based illusions. Pretty much a nightmare brought to life. Some other villains I never fleshed out, but came up with names for: Jager ("Hunter") - sniper or stealth expert? Der Steppenwolf ("Coyote") - martial artist/disguise expert (or perhaps gadgeteer )? Fensterspiegel ("Spy-mirror") - clairvoyant? Eiszapfen ("Icicle") - cold/weather powers? Panzer - perhaps another brick, with massive defenses and energy projection? Hopefully those names aren't too tongue-twisty!

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation) Phidippus would be in a bit of a pickle. He's just suspicious enough to wonder if the letter is for real (why me?), but so concerned with stopping evil (and helping out disadvantaged kids) that there's no way he'd be able to avoid getting involved. Presumably, he'd dive into research on the conflict to see if the letter had the ring of truth about it, find out it was likely the real deal, and immediately get very sullen... Feeling out of his depth, he'd first contact The Champions and Dr. Silverback, both of whom have far more political connections and a higher public profile than he. Let's assume for the sake of this exercise (and proper drama) that they will be able to provide significant aid, but only in the long term - they can make enough waves and get enough attention for the cause that the U.N. will look into it, but not enough to provide a quick fix. Phidippus cares for "the law" (as much as any tolerated, but unofficially-recognized vigilante can, really), but this would stick in his craw, and badly. Some poor kid in a horrible situation called on him for help; and blast it, he's no doubt just one of many. While the wheels of the political machine have begun to move, they're just. too. slow. Innocent people are dying. Who can he really trust? Who would join him in a mission that could end up in career suicide, if not imprisonment or death? That's the real clincher in the decision for Phidippus. If it looks legit, he'll dive in to do whatever he can - but even if the help would be useful, would he necessarily want to bring his friends into such a sticky situation? In the end, he'd probably say "yes", and ask the heroes closest to him if they'd want to get involved, leaving the decision in their hands. On the short list would be his teammate Ashley (TK-user and martial artist), who's been to Hell and back with him. Phidippus trusts his motives and spirit, if not his horrible mouth. Density-manipulating brick Event and energy projector Horizon would be next; followed by billionaire industrialist/self-made superhero Canadian Crusher, who should be able to throw plenty of money at the problem. Last, and most importantly, is his erstwhile teammate Alagara, whose faerie lineage grants her great magical might from a mystical connection to nature. She's the lynchpin - with a 60-pt VPP for magical effects, she'll be transportation, translator, sensor platform, and fire support. Heck, the Champions and Doc Silverback will get an invite too, as Phidippus trusts them implicitly - and super-smart help is definitely the best kind of help... For drama's sake, let's assume all of the above associates can't get involved directly for various reasons. The Champions must irrevocably forsake their government ties to jump in and can't abandon the city for that long, Ashley's embroiled in a case that requires his full attention (and could capture one of the city's vilest crime bosses very soon), and other such things. If all else failed, Phidippus would beg and plead Alagara - even if she won't help directly, she can at least teleport him there and give him a command of the native language easily enough. Fashioning another identity for himself to protect his cherished reputation as a respected hero in Millennium City, Phidippus fades out of view. A short time later, a mysterious 6-armed being wrapped in ragged cloth known only as "Anansi" begins a one-man guerilla war on a tyrannical regime in Duhu. No rebels are slain by this man-thing; but nonetheless, they soon learn to give the village of Tazera a wide berth...

Re: Super Fantasy- The Land of Mar'Veldc You guys should really look into this little limited series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avataars It didn't turn out all that awesome (through no fault of the writers - Marvel was a huge mess at the time), but it's right up the alley of what you're discussing here.

Re: Best books and Curing diseases If I was you, I'd probably go for Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks next. It's full of all sorts of bad guys to toss into your games at the drop of a hat - many of them are very well-done, and using the book will save you a lot of time. The other villain books are done well too, but this one's got most of the iconic ones we refer to here (or are mentioned in other books), eg, Foxbat, Eurostar, the Ultimates, etc. Next, I'd recommend Villainy Amok - chock full of great ideas on how to run comic book tropes like: saving people trapped in a burning building a drug hits the streets that gives normal people superpowers aliens are invading! etc. Great stuff. Champions Battlegrounds and Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth are both fun modules that will keep your players busy for many sessions worth of play (they did for my group, anyway) - both are excellent in my opinion. The Hero System Combat Handbook sees a lot of use in my games, as do the various Ultimate xxxxxxx books (esp. Brick and Martial Artist). If you've got any favorite archetypes, put the associated books on your list of "must-buys" for sure. The Ultimate Skill is pretty awesome, too. That's my two cents, anyway. As for the cure-all? I'm not sure if it's legal, but perhaps Life Support: Immunity to disease, Costs END, Usable as Attack?

Re: Character: Duncan MacLeod I'm thinking we should start calling Bubba Smith "the Necromancer!"

Re: The Grand meeting of Superheroes: The Nexus Phidippus would probably have a hard time - as a comic book artist in his secret ID, he'd probably be in geek overload! Really, he'd probably be a far more social creature in the Nexus, with so many cool people to talk to. If nothing else, he'd probably try and talk to a lot of the heroes he meets (and approves of) to see if they'd be alright with him writing comic books about them... He'd likely steer clear of grumpy guys like Wolverine and Batman, or those who don't share his Silver-Age take on superheroics (casual killers are not on his list of friends to make). When things had settled and he'd had the chance to get to know different heroes a little better, he'd probably gravitate to these folks: Spider-Man, as Phidippus is a thinly-veiled pastiche of him. Not exactly the same, of course - but about as close to a soul brother as he's likely to find. They'd have a lot in common - general powerset, native scientific skill, ironclad moral code, and a deep-seated feeling of being a shunned outsider. Maybe a little too close to home to be totally comfortable with him at first, they'd likely form a strong bond after they fought by each other's sides and traded tales of hope and sorrow. Captain America and Superman, as well as other similar icons. Phidippus tries to hold himself to very high moral standards, and would no doubt find these guys very inspiring - even if he's never heard of them before. Both would be a good source of pep talks if he ever had a hard decision to make. The Thing, as he's much like Diamond (who Phidippus idolizes). Everybody's favorite grumpy uncle, who'll always back you up when you're in trouble and never gives up. Blue Beetle, (Ted Kord) due to his funky arthropod-themed gadgets, love of science, and great sense of humor. The is the sort of guy Phidippus would enjoy spending downtime with playing video games or something. For practicality's sake, he'd want to talk to Reed Richards and other superscientists as much as possible, particularly regarding genetics and biology. He's always looking to expand his knowledge. After that? I'm not really sure. I'd need to give it some more thought, but I need sleep badly... I might edit this later to add more.

Re: Champions Personality Poll Sounds like one of my characters...

Re: Penalty skill lvl question My current Champions character, who has six arms, has several OCV levels with Sweep (perfectly legal according to Ultimate Skill). I gave those OCV levels the 0-pt. limitation "cannot exceed normal OCV", so that he's not better when using all his arms in concert - he can just use many of them all at once without any penalties. In this fashion, I can Sweep as much or as little as I like, with up to four arms at once, with no penalty or overall bonus to my attacks. In essence, they act like PSLs when used this way. If someone were to ask for the same thing for their character in my campaign (and it's come up), I'm fine with them recording those levels as PSLs instead of OCV levels, as it seems a little more intuitive and easy to understand. My character is super-agile, 6-armed, 8-eyed, and supposed to be an incredible multitasker. I rest my case.

Re: The Deconstructing of Wynnie Wonder Question for you, Hermit: Are you asking for a response from the timeframe of the "flying slowly back to the toy company" scenario, or the context of "what would your character want to do in the long term?" For the sake of expedience, I'll try to answer both: Phidippus has quite the dilemma on his hands. First things first: try to restrain her via nonviolent means (re. webbing), while attempting to contact his teammate Alec, aka. Dr. Werewolf. "Get to my position as fast as you can - and bring whatever sort of electronics you can carry that would have to do with computer diagnostics, programming, interfacing, and monitoring communications. Seriously - whatever you can carry - I might need you to interface with an AI and rejigger some of its programming if nothing else works. We're heading in X direction, at about Y mph." FYI, Alec is a computer programmer who's been infected with nanites of his own creation which turn him into an 8-foot cybernetic werewolf, replete with its own programming and personality. Really, no one could really have a better hope of getting into Wynnie's head and removing select bits of programming than Alec - after all, he does it on himself all the time! Extreme care will be made to ensure that the new, darker personality isn't deleted - it may have rights too. I can only assume that Alec, being a programmer of truly astounding skill and more experience than nearly anyone alive at this sort of thing, will succeed - it's just a question of "how long will it take". Assuming he's not otherwise preoccupied trying to restrain Wynnie, Phidippus will try to placate any civilians watching - especially any kids. "Aaugh! They're hurting Wynnie!" As soon as he's got a free hand or three, Phidippus will be on the communicator with the Champions (who he's well accquainted with) to see if they'll help with the PR end of things - if it's prudent, he'll bring Wynnie to Homestead instead of his own underground base (esp. considering it's location is secret, and Wynnie may have a homing beacon). With popular heroes backing them up, they'll have a better chance. This will no doubt be a tremendous hurdle to deal with, but if Wynnie's going to have a chance in a legal sense, she'll need to have public support. With any luck, Edge E. may be faced with such a huge PR nightmare to deal with that they'll just say "there - she's free" in order to save face. On the plus side? Dr. Werewolf's perfect computer memory should be admissible as evidence in court, with replays showing Wynnie's tears and desperate pleas. Phidippus won't be doing this solo, that's for sure - but he'll be busting his butt, day and night (8 hour of sleep a month is all he needs), to ensure Wynnie's looked after. If need be, he'll start studying law himself to find loopholes. Assuming Wynnie has normal human reactions, she'll likely be terribly distraught, and Phidippus will do his best to ensure she doesn't feel alone - with no family, and likely few friends, she'll need some support. There is the possibility that Wynnie's not sentient - after all, it could just be elaborate programming. Still, there's going to be some point at which Phidippus will have to say: "Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to. Is sophisticated computer programming any different than our own network of synapses? Not really. A question best left for philosophers, not lawmakers. Even if there's the slightest shadow of a doubt Wynnie is an unfeeling machine, that's enough reason to give her a chance to live her own life. To do otherwise would be slavery and torture, pure and simple." Hopefully the law will give her the benefit of the doubt, at least enough to concede she should be treated as if she has rights until such time as an official verdict is reached. If it turns out he's wrong and Wynnie isn't sentient (and he believes it), at least his conscience will be clear. If Wynnie is apparently sentient, and it looks like the system will work in her favor, Phidippus will try and get Wynnie to stick it out for the sake of those artificial life forms yet to come. If Wynnie is apparently sentient, and it looks like she's not going to be treated as such (or the decision process is too long, and she's in anguish in captivity), Phidippus will try, with whoever's help he can get, to arrange for her escape to somewhere safe. If that's not an option, he'll get Alec's help downloading her core programming into a surrogate body (ideally as surreptitiously as possible). He'll at least put up the front that it's a complete surprise to him that she's gone (to quote Jon Lovitz: "ACTING!"), but "wish her well wherever she is, and hope she knows there's people who care about her."

Re: What is Your Inner Character? I got Lawful good Elven ranger. Works for me. The last test of this nature I took gave me Neutral Good Elven Ranger/Bard - you can find it here: http://twinrose.net/dandchar.php More detailed questions, but much easier to "cheat" on.

Re: WWYCD: "Tell me about your teammates." Phidippus' views on his teammates thus far: Ashley: Though he started off as an insufferable pain with more mouth than sense (and a real need to piss people off for no good reason), Phidippus has come to realize two important things. One: He and Ashley have a heck of a lot in common, save for one twist of their origins - Phidippus got away from his evil creators before they could dominate him, while Ashley never got that chance. A "there but for the grace of God go I" kind of situation that's really caused Phidippus a lot of grief ("that's no excuse!"), and helped him understand the man under Ashley's abrasive exterior ("I know where you're coming from, man"). At the end of the day, a true friend and soul brother, and utterly committed to fighting the good fight - worthy of trust and a loyal ally - but never, EVER let the reporters talk to him... Event: A good kid all around - great head for science, ironclad moral code, decent sense of humor. He's really coming into his own as a hero, and without really needing to guide him at all - he seems to be making all the right choices, even when things get tough. He's been spending a lot of time lately with his civilian ID (which he's certainly entitled to), and Phidippus is worried that it's a sign that the stress of superheroics is getting to him. He's got a lot of potential - let's just hope he isn't burning out so soon after getting started. Horizon: Levelheaded and precise, with strong morals and a keen mind. He's got a lot of potential too, but he doesn't seem to be as committed to the work as Event - if he wasn't there, Horizon likely wouldn't be either. Kind of a tough guy to figure out - one moment he's facing down King Cobra without flinching, the next he's flaking out on patrol duties. He's totally dependable when he's there on the job, but it's hard to get him involved in the first place sometimes. Hopefully he stops riding the fence and chooses one way or the other. Is there some secret he's hiding that demands a lot of his attention? Will continuing to help and guide him cause him to open up about what's on his mind? Only time will tell. Alec/Dr. Werewolf: Jekyll and Hyde have nothing on this guy. Alec's a thoroughly decent guy who's in a really difficult situation - a very familiar one. With any luck, we can track down who created him and help put his life back together. If that can't be done, he'll still need friends to watch his back - even if he doesn't want to live the life of a superhero (can't blame him - he does have a life to get back to), he's got the heart of a good one. As soon as we get a decent amount of downtime, we'll definitely need to share some notes on various scientific disciplines. Dr. Werewolf, on the other hand, is an accident waiting to happen. Militant cyber-werewolves bristling with experimental energy weapons are generally bad news - though his programming in this personality seems stable enough, all it might take would be one trigger-happy cop to set off a powder keg. His tertiary form (giant cyber dire wolf with even bigger weapons and berserk attitude) is, quite frankly, a menace that is nearly as big a threat as any villain we've faced to date - all the more reason to keep it close by. Alec, though well-meaning, shares memories with these things - so don't let him stick his nose in too much sensitive info. Alagara: Phidippus just wants to make her happy (or is it so she'll be grateful and make him happy?) - but she's following her own path. Hopefully she comes back one day for good. He's not quite sure what his feelings are about her; but whatever those feelings are, he knows he misses her. The real question is: Is it because she really does occupy a part of his heart, or because he's trying to shoehorn her into it? Is she as perfect and true a friend as he feels she is, or is he putting her up on a pedestal? For that matter, is her move to another city a sign that he's been too pushy or clingy? Does he mean anywhere near as much to her as she does to him? Oy. Beating up the bad guys is so much simpler...

Re: Your character's pet peeve(s) Phidippus has a very Silver-Age code: as such, he finds "heroes" who use excessive force, villains who endanger innocents, authority figures who abuse their positions, etc. very hard to stomach - I would hesitate to call those "pet peeves", since they kind of go with the territory he frequents. Pet peeves a little more specific to him? People who judge a book by its cover, people who don't take responsibility for their own actions (eg. "I was just following orders!" will seriously tick him off), folks with no sense of humor who should otherwise have one, and hardcore, hysterical arachnophobes (if you don't like them, fine - but don't assume I want to suck out your innards either). Also, he guards his friendships with fanatical passion, having very few people he really feels close to. You mess with them (his surrogate family), and you can expect a world of hurt in very short order. (You should have seen when Interface nearly killed one of his teammates! Four consecutive rounds of pushing his STR - let me tell you, Interface weren't pretty no more...)

Re: Telekinetic "Push" I agree. For ex: Indy didn't seem too disabled by that huge German boxer who met his end at the prop of a flying wing, but he sure couldn't stay up under the force of his blows! Seems like pretty clear Knockdown to me. Maybe stunning was a factor?

Re: Telekinetic "Push" Gotcha - I wasn't sure, since I pretty much always use HERO for superheroes. Good to know!

Re: Fear Power. I'd recommend seeking out some writeups of Ghost Rider here on the fora - his Penance Stare would possibly be very similar in game terms. Find something that feels right, and toss in "uncontrolled" for good measure.

Re: Telekinetic "Push" Another thing - though I don't have the book right in front of me, I'm fairly sure an attack doesn't have to actually hurt a target to do knockdown (certainly not knockback). I'm positive about the knockback, at least. You can resist all the damage from knockback without feeling a thing (ie. take no actual BODY by bouncing it off PD or the like), but you still factor in all the BODY of the attack when calculating knockback - Captain Invulnerable may not be the slightest bit hurt by that H-bomb, but it'll likely fling him a long ways, unless he has gobs and gobs of Knockback Resistance!