swbaxter

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members

Re: STARFIRE the Roleplaying Game

Re: STARFIRE the Roleplaying Game I've got some notes on an RPG setting adapted from one of our Galactic Starfire campaigns. Never really got off the ground, though. For the iconic Starfire universe, it'd probably be best to use the novels as source material rather than the game material. I don't think it'd be particularly hard to come up with something fairly quickly, Starfire's background started as a justification for setting WWII naval scenarios in space and it doesn't get terribly deep. Really the major obstacle is that the Starfire universe as we see it in the books is oriented towards multiship naval operations, which doesn't necessarily lend itself well to a small group of PCs. With warp points as the only means of interstellar travel, it seems to me it'd be pretty easy to regulate interstellar travel, and somewhat hard to justify a small group of PCs going off and exploring or doing the Han Solo thing. You could maybe have them engage in political or industrial espionage with one of the big wars as a backdrop.

Re: Character: Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter (SPOILERS!!!) Looks good to me. If you want to go crazy adding stuff to the book 3 sheet, she probably also has a few more contacts: Aliam Halveric, the Lady of the Ladysforest, possibly various other elves, and the High Marshal of Gird. She knows a lot of movers and shakers by the time it's all over. She might have a KS related to threats to the Taig from her time with the Rangers - they seemed to guard against a unique array of threats, with weapons to match. She also has some kind of power that sends her where she needs to be, that could be some kind of uncontrolled precognition that only gives vague feelings. Of course, that's a plot device power so no real need to stat it up. You might want to put "KS: Lore of the Gods" in the Book 1 version. IIRC, she first learns about the various gods from other soldiers in Phelan's company, even if a lot of it isn't especially accurate. She might also have some kind of military campaigning KS in the book 2 writeup, a fair amount of her education at Fin Panir was logistics, supply, siege equipment, and so on.

Re: [Campaign] Champions of Vancouver They're actually on a separate tabbed worksheet on that spreadsheet. Sorry 'bout that, I just use that spreadsheet so I don't have to add.

Re: [Campaign] Champions of Vancouver Just a quick note - this one's a PRE drain, not Body. Mister Noir uses Forbidden magic, not the full-blown evil stuff . Edit - looks like his disads didn't make it in, either. Here they are: 15 Secret ID (Peter Kinkaid) 20 Code vs. Killing 20 Psych Lim: Paranoid Conspiracy Nut (V.Common, Strong) 15 DNPC: Laurel Sipowicz, editor (normal) 8- 10 Psych Lim: Hatred of Illuminati (Uncommon, Strong) 20 Hunted: Demon (More powerful, NCI, kill/capture) 8- 20 Hunted: Viper (More pow, NCI, kill/capture) 8- 10 Hunted: Brainstorm (As powerful, kill/capture) 8- 10 DF: Mystic aura, not concealable, special senses 10 Vulnerable to light-based magic (uncommon, 2x stun)

Re: Extrasolar planets Another recent discovery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4647142.stm A planet of about 5 times earth's mass, 25000 light years away, discovered via microlensing. Looks a little on the cool side for a vacation spot.

Re: Legal status of major supergroups The way Interpol works is that within each member nation, there's a National Central Bureau which is staffed by law enforcement personnel from that nation. For example, in the US the NCB is within the Department of Justice, in Canada it's part of the RCMP, and so on. The NCB is the main point of contact for inquiries from other Interpol members where no bilateral relationship exists, and also usually serves as a conduit for Interpol data. So there aren't any Interpol operatives with international powers, and chances are the staff associated directly with a given NCB don't go into the field much. The closest thing to international police powers in the real world would probably be the various UN organizations that are empowered to investigate and enforce various treaties. For example, arms inspectors. Sometimes members of police forces are sent as part of a UN peacekeeping operation, to train local police forces and/or provide neutral oversight in particularly fractious areas. There are also various bilateral agreements in which law enforcement agents in one country are permitted to operate in other countries for particular investigations. So an Avengers-type group that's sponsored by the US government might be asked to serve as superhuman peacekeepers by the UN, or perhaps sent abroad as part of a US operation under some kind of bilateral agreement. They'd probably have to deal with a lot of red tape. It's also possible they could head out of the country on publicity tours or exchanges. In Hero terms, it'd just be part of their national police powers perk, and any international escapades would probably be covered by a disadvantage, "subject to orders" or whatever.

Re: Stats for Paksenarrion? She needs about three different writeups in Book 2, IMHO: Brewersbridge adventurer, paladin-candidate, and then at the end (which I won't spoil for you). Probably two writeups in Book 3, as well. Useless fact: For any old-time D&Ders, Brewersbridge is a stealth novelization of a classic old AD&D module, "T1: The Village of Hommlet". Names changed to protect the guilty, but otherwise remarkably true to the source.

Re: What happened to the Champions? I always figured it was a matter of getting the IP under DOJ's control. Obsidian, Solitaire, and Quantum were more or less directly replaced by Ironside, Witchcraft, and Sapphire as characters with similar power concepts, and I dunno if there's much reason for those substitutions beyond just getting in-house characters into the team. Seeker I wonder about, though - I think I've seen his artwork floating around this site somewhere, which would mean DOJ still owns him. If that's the case, it's a little surprising not to see him in the 5th edition Champions Universe, if not the main team - nothing wrong with him that another 100 points wouldn't fix.

Re: Need help with scientific term for my campaign... Sure, but it's only the first 100 km or so that are really expensive, you don't have to go as far out as a Lagrange point to realize significant savings. And of course, you only realize those savings if there's relatively little traffic from the space station to the planet, which seems unlikely. If goods and people have to travel to and from your Lagrange station on a regular basis, then it's not a matter of savings so much as shifting costs around. If you're doing this for a trading structure, I think you're better off using a station in geostationary orbit with a beanstalk of some kind. It'll probably a lot more efficient to run cargo (and incidentally, people) up and down a space elevator than it will be to have them transported by spacecraft to and from a Lagrange point. Lagrange points are better for something like a space city, where the structure is so massive that fuel costs for even minor orbital corrections would be prohibitive, and/or acceleration would cause problems (either structurally or for the inhabitants, or both).

Re: Superhero Images