CandidGamera

Re: "Your Most Embaressing Game Mastering Moment" Hard to say. I've had my share of silliness over the years. In my younger days, I did catch flack for naming a D&D artifact 'the Personalitron'. I think I was confusing the appropriateness of the -tron suffix with the -ikon suffix.

Re: I just thought of an extremely scary relationship. "Honey? Were did you put my ring?" "I gave it to that nice little Gollum fellow, dear - I thought you didn't want it anymore."

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero? I think it may be overly complex. Not sure.. maybe an AoE, but with a special limitation of a single target only?

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero? I find that hard to reconcile with Sojiro's swordfighting. And Kenshin's display of 'Swordsman's spirit' at the end of the Kyoto arc. Or the pretty blatant supernatural power of that last big-bad, whose name escapes me.

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero?

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero?

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero? How far along have you seen the series, by the way? On further thought, I might build his sword techniques into a multipower - Hiten Mitsurugi Style.

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero? So, the Battousai, master of the Hiten Mitsurugi style, he of the "godlike speed" - hax a Dex 18 and SPD of 4. Uhhh. I'd give Sanosuke a better Dex than 18, and a SPD around 4, and Kenshin totally outclasses him. Also, treating Kaoru as a DNPC really understates her capabilities. I'd probably also give him a much higher Presence, based on the conclusion of the second arc.

Re: Help building a power? Is there a functional limit on how far apart the gate mouths can be? I'm thinking Teleportation, Usable on Others, Uncontrolled, Persistent, with a misc. limitation that it only connects two specific points. Might be able to help a bit more once I get home to Hero Designer or my books. I suppose it could also be built as Stretching, Indirect, Usable on Others, or some such.

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations Did the puns kill all the interest, I wonder? 1.02 - Burning Passion This episode opened in classic television tradition - our music mage was performing at a nightclub; a well-dressed woman burst into the club, frantic and panting - then suddenly collapses, dead. Roll credits. The woman, widow Martha Thompkins, was a society dame, and had lost her husband under slightly dodgy circumstances ten years before. Examination revealed that the cause of death was that her blood had boiled in her veins. Digging through Third Eye's records, this matched up with the MO of a fellow named 'Fever', part of a small criminal organization dubbed the 'Bloodhounds'. The Bloodhounds are essentially a necromantic group of elementals. Fever was granted the power to control the temperature of blood; Scab can cover himself in an armored shell; Bloodwake is essentially a liquid golem composed of blood; and representing their air aspect is vampire-Necromancer Elias Vance. Investigations proved that Martha had offed her husband for his money, and that the Bloodhounds, thanks to a former maid of Ms. Thompkins, had learned that information and were blackmailing her. She decided to stop paying one day, and the consequences proved fatal. The resolution to the whole plot was interesting - Third Eye managed to get the maid arrested for her part in the shenanigans, but thanks to a Mexican standoff with Fever and their reluctance to take on Vance head to head, they let the Bloodhounds off with a scolding and a promise to stay out of the blackmail racket in NYC.

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations 1.01 - One-Hit Wonder This session begins with the Third Eye recruitment drive; NPCs interview PCs, trying to determine if they'll be a good fit. Watchman, Ellan, and a third PC, Largo, are recruited. (Largo was a wild-talent wizard with a music focus - essentially a magic VPP that required singing or playing of an instrument.) Watchman has a 'Third Eye Knowledge' and a 'Future History' skill because of his time-travelling background. To provide a little amusement, I introduce a minor change in history - originally, the first applicant Third Eye interviewed was a precognitive code-named 'Zodiac' - and his attitude put them off the recruitment process entirely, so they went forward with no new members. But Zodiac was delayed in this version, as his cab was cut off by a maniac on a motorcycle.. "YOU!" he roared, pointing at Watchman. After things were calmed down, the PCs hit the streets on their first case - someone was distributing a new drug on NYC's streets, a drug that gave the user temporary Super-Strength, called 'Wonder'. (And now the pun of the title becomes apparent..) The substance isn't on any government restricted chemical lists, so while not strictly illegal, it's certainly dangerous, and weird enough to be right up Third Eye's alley. Some general headbusting and street-wising ensue - they discover that the distribution chain flows through a hapless schizophrenic fellow they come to know as "Looney" Ben. Ben has the ability to see things most people don't - and then show other people via Mental Images. They get hints that Ben's receiving his instruction from a person so powerfully telepathic that he can "bodyjack" random folks temporarily. Ben can always recognize the fellow, though. He sees the aura. Without any solid way to track the bodyjacker, the team focuses on eliminating the immediate distribution chain - including the warehouse in which the drug is packaged in its final form. They fight through some more Wonder-thugs to get to the materials, and succeed. If memory serves, they also encounter a lawyer-fellow this session, hanging around with the thugs. Max Epstein, is his name. And he has Purple-Man-esque powers of persuasion. (Suspiciously, as they later learn, absent from the Federal powers registry - he's listed as a parahuman, but the power is unspecified.) Max walks free, as he has done nothing illegal, strictly speaking. Ben goes to Bellevue's psychic parahumans wing for treatment. And Wonder is temporarily off the streets.

Re: Generic Heroes and Villains I'm not sure what you mean - feel free to share any character idea that you'd like to share. For my part, I'm just trying to present concept/name combination that might intrigue folks, so they could drop them into a game - even something other than HERO, if need be. Does that help?

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations Episode List: First Season 1.01 - One-Hit Wonder 1.02 - Burning Passion 1.03 - Bellevue to a Kill 1.04 - Swarm-Blooded 1.05 - Power Trip 1.06 - Miami Weiss 1.07 - Fantastic Foresight 1.08 - The Sound and Der Fuhrer 1.09 - Cult Classic 1.10 - Surely You Gestalt Second Season 2.01 - Underworld 2.02 - The Devil and the S.E.C. 2.03 - Mnemonic Possession 2.04 - Soldiers of Fortune 2.05 - Stark Raven Mad 2.06 - Harvest 2.07 - Promises, Promises 2.08 - Dream Girl 2.09 - Thoughtcrime 2.10 - Grave Matters 2.11 - Time to Kill 2.12 - The Agony of LaFitte 2.13 - Photo Finish 2.14 - Breakthrough Performance Third Season 3.01 - Kung-Fu From Another Planet 3.02 - I Oni Have Eyes For You 3.03 - Eire Education Thought I'd copy this list over for now, to give folks some horrible puns to chew on. We've had one session since 3.03 - episode 3.04 'Unorthodox Religion'. Episode 3.02 is part of a running-gag I have; I have for the last several years done a 'Halloween' adventure in whatever campaign I happened to be running at the time. When I was running my 1930's Pulp Supers game, I introduced the players to an oriental fear-demon. He had been sealed inside a jade heart - a Stanford professor of antiquities loaned this artifact to a friend of his to study, then promptly lost contact with the friend. The team was called into investigate, in the adventure I titled 'Loaner of an Oni Heart'. Well, the little fear demon (inspired partly by the one from a memorable Buffy episode) made several return appearances, each time accompanied by an 'Oni' pun for the title. ('My One and Oni', 'Oni the Lonely') And I'm sure the tiny fear demon will return again someday, in 'You Oni Live Twice'.

Re: Essential OHOTMU: worth it or not? There were several different editions of the Official Handbook, and I haven't looked at the new Essentials version to see which it is. Off the topb of my head, I think the releases were 1982, 1985, and 1989. And then the 3-ring binder version, which I wish I'd managed to collect all of. I think it was early 90's. I really thought the 80's Official Handbooks were very cool. I haven't enjoyed their more recent descendants, though.

Re: Comics that I miss. Wonder Man's book was surprisingly solid, considering the star. And you're right, excellent writing - that's why I stuck with it so long.

Re: All-New Iron Age Zoo Crew? Well, actually, Superboy's gone all emo and abandoned his friends because he's afraid of getting mind-controlled again and killing them all, as he nearly did. This is a rational fear. He knew about the Lex Luthor DNA for a long time before that, but didn't leave the team until he thought he presented too great a danger. As for the change in his history.. (the Ret-Kon? ) .. in his own title, he had a run-in with hypertime. It was silly, but there was an elelment that could erase a person from all hypertimelines if they came into contact with it. Kon's previous human DNA donor, Cadmus poobah Paul.. Westfield? was erased. So history had to change to accomodate that..

Re: Generic Heroes and Villains Der Hund Character Description : In German, the name means simply 'The Hound'. I originally used him in my 30's campaign. He acted as a bodyguard for certain high-ranking Nazis, and later, as an infrequent nemesis for the PCs. Der Hund does not have a plethora of unusual abilities - he's a very skilled hand-to-hand combatant, though. His single "superpower" is the detection of parahuman abilities. In Champions terms, I'd give him Discriminatory/Analyze on that sense as well. (To further the Hound analogy, one could link it to smell) This simple ability has serious implications for PCs, though - while slipping on a pair of glasses might be enough of a physical appearance change to protect one's secret identity from ordinary investigators, Der Hund's ability to identify each and every superhuman ability someone possesses means that he can recognize unique power signatures - once he's seen a metahuman, he can forever after recognize that person. Uses : His German background is window-dressing, so one might use him in other, more modern genres. He provides an excellent spoiler for characters who believe their identities to be safe. With beefed up combat abilities, and perhaps a 'Detect Vulnerabilities' addendum to his powers, he could make an excellent bounty hunter, specializing in parahuman targets.

Re: All-New Iron Age Zoo Crew? I think the Zoo Crew story was supposed to be paralleling Captain Carrot's self-enforced retirement with Superboy's. It was nice to get in touch with those characters again. (Last seen in Superman/Batman : World's Funnest - if memory serves)

Re: Generic Heroes and Villains Well, assuming you're not going to publish it and make huge piles of money and walk away laughing and counting your new money, perhaps using one of the bills to light a cigar or some other rich person cliche, and when you walk by me, sitting on the corner, minding my own business, eating a sandwich, then you kick mud in my face.. sure. Other folks are welcome to post generic hero ideas too - I got a million of'em, but I can't be the only one.

Again, I'm new here, so I'm not sure if there's a thread similar to this, or if this is even something folks will be interested in. My goal in this thread is to present superheroes and supervillains, without stats, so that folks might borrow them for campaigns and write them up at a power level they like. Of course, this doesn't preclude posting a write-up; I just have several ideas I never converted into Champions that I'd like to throw out for general consumption. The Vigil Character Description : The Vigil is much in the mode of Vigilante (the 80's DC character), and I originally used him in a 1930's campaign where gunning down the mooks and mobsters was not such a reviled idea. What makes Vigil a bit different is his origin - he's essentially a psychic projection created by the mind of a young boy. Wendell Vicks lost his father to mob-related violence at a young age, and his latently psychic mind drew upon Wendell's perceptions of his father (a security guard) and popular images of viglantes from radio and pulp novels to create The Vigil. Wendell may or may not be pulling in some deceased soul to inhabit The Vigil - who seems to have a mind of his own. The Vigil can only be active while Wendell sleeps. The Vigil's powers are enhanced agility and combat ability, and his twin guns, which are psychic constructs like himself. They never run out of ammunition, and the bullets they fire don't hang around as evidence - lasting only long enough to do the killing. Optionally, his unique psychic makeup may make him more resistant to some sorts of effects (diseases, poisons), and more vulnerable to others (disruptive mental attacks). If The Vigil is 'killed', the effect is left up to the GM - Wendell may suffer psychic feedback, or may be able to subconsciously reconstruct the vigilante the very next night. Wendell isn't at all aware of The Vigil's symbiotic relationship with him. Uses : When I originally used the character, the PCs were supposed to be puzzled as to the Vigil's identity, believing him to possibly be Wendell's father, whose body was never recovered. In many campaigns, the ultraviolent methods of The Vigil might bring him into conflict with the PCs, but it's very difficult to imprison a man who fades away as young Wendell awakens for school. Also, if the Vigil is a truly separate entity from Wendell - who is he, or was he?

Re: Your "2006" Pet Gaming Projects I am all about pet projects. I'm working on a sorting of my comic books; I'm working my way through every Mystery Science Theater episode ever; and on the gaming front I will finally, at last, start my second major full-production D&D campaign. I seriously waffled back and forth between converting it to HERO or leaving it as-is. I ultimately decided that d20 lets me improvise more smoothly and swiftly, and provides me with built-in power "tiering". My problem with HERO was that I don't like PCs *not* paying for cool equipment in the (heroic version) system, but I can't really accept them having to spend precious character points on random finds, either, were I to use the superheroic system. D&D does have that handy 'GP Value / Character Level' correspondence. One other thing I have been working on as time permits is converting RIFTS to HERO. RIFTS - lousiest system on Earth, but great setting. I'd like to put a major dent in that this year.

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations We all seem to enjoy it, though it has been plagued by inconsistent scheduling, and I feel my Dungeons and Dragons roots starting to scream for me to run a sword and sorcery game. At least two of my players have been really impressed by the system, as well, so it is helping to spread the HERO gospel. Page Fault and I were already HERO fans by the time I started this one. The basic story arc of the campaign so far: Season One Watchman, travelling back through time, changes the future in a small way. The team assembles - they soon learn of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Sun, mystical bad guys with their fingers lurking in every corner of the government. Thanks to some clever manipulation, the Brotherhood manipulates Third Eye into attending the release of the spirit of their founder, with the intent on having him possess the body of Arthur/Meme. Watchman's primary task is to prevent that from occurring, and he succeeds - but the sorceror possesses Damper, instead. The last session of Season One was an odd romp, where 'Scan' comes out of his catatonic state, asking for Third Eye's help, and using his powers to project their astral selves into waiting hosts on a parallel world - essentially, each of the players inhabiting a fantasy-genre character similar to themselves. Ellan stays behind to learn about her Werewolf abilities (and as her player takes an eight-month trip to New Zealand.) In Season Two, the team learns that the Brotherhood, foiled in their attempt to take Arthur, is up to a new plan of no-good. Despite the lack of formal spells for the purpose, and the lack of raw magical power available to achieve it, they are managing to erode the dimensional barriers separating this Earth from parallel Earths. Over the course of the season, the players deal with all manner of dimensional invaders, and discover how the Brotherhood is managing the effect, why they're doing it, and how to stop it. In Season Three, still in progress, the Brotherhood's taken more of a back seat as Third Eye deals with alien and possible time-travelling menaces.

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations Such synchronicity! I was working on my post about the PCs even as you wrote this. I outlined pretty broad guidelines for the PCs, and it was the players who picked the campaign style in the first place. Essentially, I didn't want anything too flashy or overting superheroic - teleportation wouldn't be allowed without a darn good justification; magic's somewhat depleted on the world (which is a plot point in the campaign) so no hurling of Buick-sized fireballs with spells (though a psychic firestarter would be fine). My key points were "Make sure your PC has a reason to join the investigators, be it a need for protection, a desire for the paycheck, a quest for truth - whatever." Professor Raven's probably the hardest to motivate, as his desire is for money and he already has plenty of money, but he finds it useful to be in a position to play Third Eye off against their primary antagonists, the Brotherhood of the Eternal Sun. The general population is aware of parahumans. There's a registration law. However, they are not aware of magic or aliens - and the government conspires to keep it that way. (Some amusing details on this subject - magical crimes can be put on trial, but always get magic-aware judges and jurors - meanwhile, the public face of the proceeding is fabricated to keep the general public unaware of magic; the relevant law allowing this is the Gellar Act, named after Uri; also, magic-users are exempt from the registration law because of their first amendment right of freedom of religion.) The government is well-aware of magic, having been infiltrated by a couple of magical power groups. They even have their own special bureaus for "odd" occurrences. They're also aware of a few of the alien presences on the planet, but not entirely. Plot summaries will be forthcoming, as time permits. Most of my notes are at home..

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations

Re: [Campaign] Third Eye Investigations I've lurked here awhile, reading some of the lovely conversion information from time to time. I was just inspired by Lightray's crosspost to finally sign up.