Spidey88

Re: The eulogy of a HERO! I second that - Phidippus is of a serious enough bent concerning death that he'd try to tailor a speech to the fallen hero in question, and would suggest other candidates if he honestly felt someone else would be better at the job. However, since I still want to contribute to the thread in at least a tangential fashion (though I'm in a bad mood and feeling lazy), I'll refer you to a post of mine from an older thread (Pariah's 'WWYCD: Write Your Own Obituary') - in this case, it's what Phidippus would hope to hear about himself: Today we mourn the loss of one of the city's, indeed, the world's most stalwart defenders - Phidippus. In the brief time that we knew him, he proved to us that true heroism transcends the darkest past, and that sincere redemption is not just a naive dream. From humble origins he came: an orphan, taken in by vipers, and given great power with the intention that he use it for destruction and evil. Those vipers, as did many who sought to commit hateful acts against those around them, underestimated his fortitude, courage, and unquenchable spirit of decency; and against all odds, Phidippus cast off the shackles of treachery and deceit, and embraced his true destiny - using his lightning-quick wits and unparalleled athletic prowess as our cherished defender, role model, and friend. Though he faced incredible challenges on a daily basis, not for a single moment did his dedication to his noble ideals falter; though others might have used such astounding abilities for selfish purposes, he pledged them to our defense and well-being; and even though he stared down modern-day demons whose darkness threatened to envelop our very souls, he maintained the lighthearted spirit and good nature that touched everyone who knew him, however short-lived their acquaintance. He has left an enduring legacy, both for those who knew him and those generations yet to come. We will all miss Phidippus. Though he is gone, he will live on eternally, providing we remember him, and follow the example he set for us. In that sense, at least, his immortality is assured. Phidippus leaves behind no next of kin, but all those kind and decent in the world, especially the children, called him "friend". All those wishing to pay their respects may do so at Memorial Park, Tuesday at 9:00 AM, where the Mayor will unveil the statue commissioned in his memory. Please bring a donation of non-perishable items to be given to the food bank, gently used clothing of any kind for the homeless shelter and orphanage, or a monetary donation for the above if you are able. (linky for the curious) http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1313782#post1313782 I was surprised that thread didn't get more responses - it seemed like a very interesting question...

Re: The Two Funerals Phidippus' response will depend on the villains in question, of course. Unless the villains are notably nasty and/or slippery, he'd wait until the services were over before making any moves. He'd likely just try and stay out of sight of them, lurking up in a tree or some such thing, and relying on his danger sense to keep him appraised of anything that would warrant a quicker intervention. If said villains (deceased and/or attending the funeral) were of a particularly noble bent, eg. of the Lady Blue persuasion, he'd likely step up with the white flag raised to pay his respects. "I may not have approved of her methods, but she had motivations I could appreciate. In different circumstances, I would gladly call her 'friend'". If said villains were notably harmless and ineffective (eg. incompetent wannabes), he'd probably want to do a similar thing, but make the speech a little more along the lines of: "This is what likely awaits you along the path you've chosen. Rest assured, I'm not saying your friend deserved this; but your fate may end up disturbingly similar unless you hang up the cape or change your tune. Ask yourselves 'why do I do this?' There are much easier and safer ways to get rich and earn respect - and much nobler ways to employ the skills and abilities you've been graced with. I'll leave you to your grief for now - but I'll be watching. I hope my words, maudlin though they may be, have not fallen on deaf ears." (Whoa - did I just unknowingly channel the Ultra-Humanite?)

Re: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Ah - good call. I tend to ignore SPD scores in regards to actual movement (paying more attention to inches of movement relative to other characters). I forget sometimes that others may care slightly about realism!

Re: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Nice work as always, Susano! I have to ask: though I'm not particularly familiar with the original stories, I certainly get the impression from what I do know that the Grey Mouser in particular is athletic and fleet of foot. Would an extra couple of inches of running be in order?

Re: The Candy Striper Heh heh - yeah... That's what got the song running through my head in the first place!

Re: The Candy Striper My first thought upon seeing this character? "Who can create such tasty weapons?" "The candyman can!" (AHEM) Fun character, Enforcer84. I may just have to swipe her to drive one of my players (who's got a dark, brooding, smart mouthed character) nuts...

Re: Hmm, didn't find these Sciences listed in Ultimate Skill... Teratobiology and arcanobiology, in the context you describe them, seem to have a lot of overlap - to the point of practically being the same skill. If you want to stick with existing science skills (or at least, ones that are a little less esoteric), xenobiology is a good filler skill - a good chunk of it is centered around analyzing new lifeforms in regards to how their physiologies work, their role in an ecosystem, etc. Sort of "what is this creature, how does it work, what does it do" kind of skill. As for good skills for a field scientist? Speaking from experience, it's very much dependent on the science in question! In general, if you've got to go to far away places to find your specimens/subjects, speaking the local language is always helpful. Streetwise can be useful sometimes too, even if your only intent is to steer clear of less-than-above-board elements in the local culture. If you've got to go to very out-of-the-way places, some wilderness, orienteering and survival skills will come in handy. Mechanics and electronics skills can be mighty handy if you've got specialized equipment that needs repairs in the field - from ATVs to electrofishing gear to seismic sensors. Depending on the situation and subject in question, climbing, stealth and concealment (specifically when you're studying live animals in the wild), and contortionist (specifically with spelunking) can come in handy. Area Knowledges are a must without a local guide (and useful even if you've got one), or failing that, some local contacts or research about the areas in question. Tracking is indispensable for many wildlife biologists. Enhanced perception is a boon for anyone, really - but makes a huge difference when your livelihood is partially dependent on searching for things! With a "teratobiologist", I can assume that extra inches of running and extra DCV levels would potentially be very useful as well!

Re: New to Hero My best friend had Gauntlet: Legends for PS2. During the time we played it, I'd request a snack break by exclaiming loudly: "Green entomologist needs food badly!"

Re: Champions Of The North I got the book yesterday, and I like it. I was slightly disappointed that there was no mention made of the fact that my hometown's (Edmonton) slogan is "City of Champions", but you can't have everything!

Re: Flying Dodge Would you guys, in theory, be more comfortable with Flying Dodge if you removed the "automatically avoid melee" aspect, while retaining the move + DCV bonus? Justifying a successful hit (possibly retroactively, I know) as "tagging the speedster as he tries to zip out of your reach" - hard, esp. considering the DCV bonus, but maybe doable. Just a thought. Personally, I like the thought of Flying Dodge - I have a hard time imagining The Flash landing sprawled out on the ground every time he has to evade a grenade (as I believe would be the case with Dive For Cover). I freely admit that years of reading Spider-Man comics may have led to some bias on this particular issue...

Re: Elemental Controls, how do they work? Actually, you did a pretty good job describing an EC, Squall. The one thing I'd want to mention is that the base cost for an EC is half the points in the cheapest power - it is often wise (from an efficiency standpoint) to put a few more points into the lowest-cost power in the EC. It, and correspondingly, the base cost, are more expensive - but will be more than counterbalanced by the increased savings on the other powers in the EC.

Re: Star Trek’s 10 Cheesiest Classic Creatures In a homebrew setting I was helping my buddies develop some time ago (I was responsible for all the game mechanics and crunchy bits, in addition to creating some of the odder races), I gave humans a considerable boost to luck and willpower. Humans weren't any "better" or "worse" than any other race. They had less funky abilities, sure - but they had a great deal of tenacity, and things just seemed to go their way a little more than the rest (for some unknown reason). It felt like a decent fit to me, at least.

Re: Suggestions needed: Animal super villains A martial artist with the powers of a mantis shrimp would be utterly devastating. An ungodly amount of bonus HA that's invisible to the sight group is bad enough on its own!

Re: Pet Powers I can relate! I'm a pretty good roleplayer - I can play a brute, a fool, a genius, or a wimp. However, one thing I absolutely cannot abide in my characters is klutziness!

Re: Pet Powers High DEX, Clinging, extra limbs, 360-degree vision, and large amounts of movement powers are all my stock in trade in pretty much any setting. All my roleplayer buddies would agree...

Re: Suggestions need: Animal super villains Wasn't there a short-lived Marvel comic book with most of these guys in the early 90's?

Re: Suggestions need: Animal super villains Thinkg back to some recent threads: "Boomerangutan", anyone? How about "El Pellizcar" (Spanish for "The Pinch", I believe) - the coconut crab luchadore? Seriously, though... I'd go for a Brick template for the rat/mouse, just for contrast (for the same reason I might create a sloth speedster). Maybe an energy projector - "Oh, cute little mousie... Why are his eyes glowing?" BZZORCH! How about a shark that can breathe air, fly, and go desolid? You can see that dorsal fin making a beeline for you - though it's obvious what it is, you're a little surprised to see it coming down the sidewalk... A constrictor with density increase? Not only would it be impressively strong and tough; but as soon as it wraps around you, it increases its weight to about 25 tons! I'd assume you'd fall over with a resounding CLANG! You can't tell me that an octopus weaponsmaster with several skill levels with Sweep, Ambidex, 2-weapon fighting, etc. wouldn't be a complete buttkicker - esp. in conjunction with its natural chameleonic abilities. To be honest, I can't think of an animal more naturally suited to the role of a stealth/infiltration expert than an octopus (I can give you gobs of reasons why if you need them)! 008, anyone? The players in my game have faced the supervillain team known as The Swarm. They're all genetically altered humans with the abilities of particular insects (or groups of insects) - here's the roster (which you're more than welcome to swipe: assuming you like them, just make them giant insects instead of altered humans). Hornet: the guy from CKC, only beefed up a lot. Agile shrinker/Energy projector with demi-brick STR and boxing skills (float like a butterfly...) Scarab: Massive 4-armed brick. Think Grond's little brother (though not a dope), with membranous wings and an exoskeleton. Termite: Looks very similar to a conventional termite; only he's sentient, about 300 lbs and has hands. A high speed tunneler, able to drag foes underground and create huge embankments; as well as secrete acid and gluey entangles from a gland on his forehead (MP: Fontanelle secretions). Nasty bite to boot. Mantis: I was pretty bland with her - she's an agile martial artist with nastily barbed forearms. Bivouac: Named for the grouping of army ants. He's a low-level brick, who's got shrinking linked to duplication - he can create over 2000 tiny mindlinked versions of himself, each with a 1/2 d6 penetrating bite (death by a thousand paper cuts). He maintains his 30 STR at 3 inches tall to boot - so he's thrown my players for a loop when they try to smoosh him - and it makes him very good at performing "fastball specials" with his duplicates. (Jeez - looks like a lot of us were thinking the same thing!)

Re: What OOC role do you play in groups? I'm generally the organizer, librarian, rules lawyer, and driver. (I'm vocal, have a ton of books for any system I enjoy, and have a car.)

Re: Integrating "normal" things into a "Super" world I'm a little late to much of the discussion, but I'd like to put in my two cents: In the superhero game I'm currently running, only the BODY damage from killing attacks that exceeds resistant defenses will produce STUN damage. Much like one of your house rules that you posted, Lord Liaden - it essestially means that if you bounce the bullet with no problems, there's no stunning of any kind. For example: Officer Johnson is wearing a super-tech rigid bulletproof vest (8 rPD/8 rED). He's hit in the gut by a stray bullet from a high-powered rifle, which does 12 BODY. 4 BODY gets through (breaking several ribs) , which then has the STUN lotto applied. We'll say he rolls a 5, and takes 16 STUN - enough to knock the wind out of him and give him a hard time, but he's able to scramble off and get behind cover. If he was shot in the leg, however, it'd be crippled, and he might very well pass out from the shock (I'd assume most of that BODY damage would be multiplied for STUN damage - I don't recall offhand if there's a limit on how much BODY can be applied to a limb). This reduces the effectiveness of killing attacks in my game - but I don't really mind, since it's not really darker than Bronze Age stuff at its worst. (I don't think any of the PCs have killing attacks of any kind, and I'm fine with it.) Also, I don't know how they're written up offhand, but any conventional firearm should have the "does no knockback" limitation (or at least very limited knockback) - at least if they're supposed to be fairly realistic (there's only so much force a teensy little bullet can impart to a big-ol person, no matter how fast it's going). Based on that truth (and ignoring expected cinematic effects when it comes to bullets fired by mooks and normal cops), you should be able to get shot and not really budge much. I could see being knocked off-balance by a bullet, but you really shouldn't get knocked around at all. This is what I tend to go with, unless we're dealing with a hero or villain's "super-gun"( which probably ignores physics anyway), or if you've got a character whose schtick is being a gun-bunny. (Going with this assumption also means that established weapon writeups may have to be jiggered with slightly - and I can understand why you'd want to avoid it, L.L.) A combination of these two things means that if you've got a character in my game who's got a rPD of 15, he can walk through a hail of fire from low-to-mid caliber handguns and not suffer a scratch, or pass out in the process. So far it's worked alright for me, but there haven't been many incidents with conventional weapons - are there any factors you guys could see (that I've possibly missed) that would throw a huge wrench in the way I've been doing things?

Re: WWYCD: Registration Payback "You need to spread some Rep around before giving more to Hermit" yadda yadda...

Re: Champions the Comic "Only available to residents of the United States." Dagnabbit!

Re: New to the Fora; Back to Hero Since I don't think anyone's said this directly yet: The differences between 4th and 5th edition HERO System are relatively small. While the changes made have been meaningful, your 4th edition stuff should still be quite useful to you. All the major stuff is more or less the same as it used to be, IMHO. That being said: 5th edition rules are great, so get them as soon as you can!

Re: Evil organization with science + supernatural elements? True enough - and it should be enough reason on its own for the other PCs to want to get involved! I'm still waiting for a credit card payment to go through, LL, so I haven't been able to pick up that DH issue yet (I should be able to tomorrow). I am interested, though - I'll give you a heads-up when I've got it, and am ready for further illumination. Of course, if there's info that would be appropriate without having read the article yet, feel free to send it my way! Thanks for the offer, at any rate! I was able to get DEMON today, and Herr Doktor Pandemonium looks like a pretty much perfect fit. When we get into the character's background, he'll have vague memories of a surgical theatre, and a blonde man with some arcane device on his face and neck wielding some nasty-looking implements: before everything goes black, he notices swastikas displayed on the wall... Perhaps the character's whereabouts were provided clandestinely to Herr Doktor by Prof. Muerte, who was curious to see what the Doktor could produce? If the project goes well enough, Muerte might just have to make a pawn of this Pandemonium fellow (or plagiarize his results)!

Re: Evil organization with science + supernatural elements? Thanks for all the response thus far, folks! Much appreciated! Anyway, to respond to your posts as best I can: It would seem than DEMON might be a decent fit after all. Admittedly, I don't own the book yet (despite having about 25 other 5th ed. books, and a dozen or more 4th ed.), but it's at least a name I can throw into the background if it comes up. I don't necessarily need a ton of detail this very second (so I can do some research shortly), but I would like to be able to answer the player when he asks "so who's my hunted again?" Herr Doktor Pandemonium + Nazi cyborgs sounds pretty decent in that regard. Barring any other insights, I'll probably at least drop the name; though the character in question won't really know too much about the group that messed with him. DEMON can still be rather obscured in the background for now... Interface? The other PCs have already faced him - and though the scenario you describe is just dandy, Darkfire, I think it might be retreading the same ground a little too much for my tastes (plus, I already have some plans for Interface's revenge plots against the other PCs anyway). Good idea, though! The Millenium Organization? Probably too familiar to a couple of my players for my tastes, in the same way I'm not comfortable with just using WW:TA's Pentex. I'd prefer that I hold the cards, rather than cajole the players for info when I stumble, or have them put words in my mouth. Still, this sort of thing would be right up their alley, save for one thing - they seem to be vaguely "the good guys", or at least "the good guys who do terrible things because they must". I like my world fairly black-and-white (going for a silver/bronze age feel), and I'd rather have an organization that was really eeeevil, or failing that, utterly amoral. A group no one will have issues opposing! As for Prof. Muerte? Well, even if he wasn't responsible for this character's creation (and he still might be if I like your article enough, LL) - he'd want to get his hands on him as soon as possible! I'll have to give it a read toute suite. I'm fairly familiar with his 4th ed. incarnation (though I realize things have changed a lot, what with the whole "back from the dead" thing), so I imagine bringing him in wouldn't be much of a bee in my bonnet. He's got some history I can work with. This has all been great, guys! Feel free to throw me more! (BTW - I'm all out of Rep for now. You all deserve more!)

Hi, folks! I'm about to introduce a new player into my Champions game. In a nutshell, his character is a natural lycanthrope (and based on the character's background as well as precedents in the CU, his lycanthropy is a condition of supernatural/mystical origin). He was captured by some as-yet undefined paramilitary organization (specifically him because of his lycanthropy) who infused his body with a pool of nanites that was intended to turn him into a cybernetic werewolf killing machine with an integral combat computer (Ware-wolf, perhaps?). Fortunately, the character has some impressive scientific skills and has managed to subvert much of the combat computer's rather lethal programming - but he's now on the run from the organization, wandering from town to town Bill Bixby-style. Sort of a Bruce Banner, by way of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, with some of Wolverine's background for spice. At any rate, the organization that created him is a minor pickle. Ideally, it's got to have some significant resources in both scientific and mystical arenas, in order to have cybernetics that can synergize with a mystically transformed beast. As far as the CU goes: you've got organizations like VIPER and ARGENT mostly on the scientific side, and groups like DEMON on the magical side. Are there any groups in the CU that cover a little of both? Some bunch of covert nasties who might recreate Von Frankenstein's revivification experiments for the field of battle, employ vampire snipers, or infuse high-tech missiles with the spirits of dead rattlesnakes to improve their infrared targeting systems? That kind of stuff. I'm certainly fine with creating such an organization from scratch - or assume that a well known organization from one side of the science/magic fence recruited an individual or group of experts from the other - but I'd rather find a group/organization that fits better right off the bat. Unsurprisingly, an analogue of Werewolf: The Apocalypse's "Pentex" would fit the bill nicely. Alternatively, tell me how an organization I may have initially not considered as appropriate would be a good choice after all - I'd like to avoid VIPER if at all possible, since it's got a lot of exposure in my games already. I'd also like to avoid using Pentex whole-cloth, as the player in question is far more familiar with it than I, and would likely assume too much about it right from the start. At the risk of sounding lazy, I'm basically looking to save myself some time, as our next game is Wednesday night! Thanks in advance! (Ideas for an interesting monster-hunter adversary will be appreciated too!)