Terrapin

Re: Anyone got a Superman Write-up? For a quick fix, you can also just use 5Ed Viperia's stats with one of Allandrel's Kryptonite disad models glued on.

Re: Day jobs for characters... Of the Wild Rovers (the team I'm GMing)... Sun Walker (mutant energy projector) is in show business (actor/singer/dancer). Like Solitaire, he has a Public ID, so mixing his careers, while difficult, at least doesn't require much secrecy. Orca, the half-Atlantean, does odd jobs for the Atlantean royal family and human oceanological concerns (provided their intentions are benign). Witch Hazel began as a high school student; she has just graduated, and now studies via correspondence with the Trismegistus Council. Shasta is a sentient plant-girl and so, as Hermit pointed out, doesn't really need a job - she can just stand in the sun on public land and photosynthesize. However, she does some consulting work for environmental groups. Renegade can't get legitimate work on account of his secret backstory, but hais few material needs. Sun Walker, who is sympathic to the plight of the undocumented, basically covers for him.

Re: The Team "Vibe" The Wild Rovers are sort of a superpowered hybridization of the Scooby Gang and the Order of the Phoenix. They are a roaming band of principled individuals who prefer to establish no official standing ties to organizations (governmental or otherwise), have no fixed base or home area, are pledged to fighting evil and righting wrongs and regard each other as comrades and equals.

Re: Villain Slush Pile BLACK MONDAY - Mastervillain Economist Modus Operandi is based on the relative value of economic wealth. He's rich, but so are a lot of people; he can get richer, but so can they...but if he can bring about the collapse of the global economy and the annihilation of all fortunes except his own, then as the Last Tycoon Standing he'll be able to effectively buy the world at fire-sale prices. Appearance: Powerful, expensive battlesuit, black bearskin cloak. Powers: His understanding of voodoo economics has allowed him to develop voodoo powers. His wrestling style includes Bear Hug and Dropping You Right Through The Floor. His battlesuit's systems enable him to attempt hostile takeovers of other battlesuits and equipment, and to entrap enemies in bubbles that eventually implode. Tactics: Insanely complex acts of economic terrorism. PCs will need investigative skill to find out that he's behind it all and to locate him; then they must break through the glass ceiling of his base and do battle.

Re: Speedster Tactics A good general tactic is the "Defense In, Offense Out" sequence. On a given Phase, use the Flying Dodge Maneuver to accelerate to full Running speed and get in among the enemy (not adjacent to anyone, but within a couple of hexes). Any CSLs should be put into DCV. You are as hard to hit as you can make yourself, and your position amidst the enemy will hopefully dissuade them from popping off Explosive or AE attacks. On your next Phase, conduct a Charge, Passing Throw or Move-By/Move-Through with CSLs switched to OCV and/or damage increase, and end your movement as far away as possible and ideally around the corner out of sight somewhere. As Haerandir said, your sucks-to-be-me time extends from the moment you make your attack to the end of the attacking Segment, so it helps to move yourself clear as expeditiously as possible; you never want to finish your attack run a couple of hexes away from the enemy. Even though your high DEX will help you win interrupt-action roll-offs, if enough bad guys hold their actions, one of them will eventually hit you when your DCV is down. You can, however, make this a tactical gambit; on the way in (high DCV), try to reach a hex from which you are threatening a number of potential enemy targets. If the entire opposition is holding half actions trying not to get caught off guard by the speedster, they yield initiative to your teammates, who will feel less pressure and will have more freedom to act.

Re: Champions Universe Movie Casting Call I think Joaquin Phoenix would be a smoldering Menton. Besides, casting a guy named Phoenix as an uncontrollably powerful psi kind of stands to reason.

Re: The Funny Villains Captain Chronos isn't really a villain, but he's good for a laugh. Also, in our campaign, Gravitar is a bit comical, since her "bored heiress with Omega-class mutant powers" theme gets stressed; she comes across as a sort of Paris Hilton with gawdawful-strong gravity powers and an outrageous accent.

Re: Campaign cliches we love Like Supreme Serpent, I like to run 'the PCs vs. their Evil Duplicates'. Whether they're clones, robots, alien mimics or ecapees from the Opposite Dimension, they lend themselves to a predictable-but-loveable plot sequence: 1) The PCs are shocked to see themselves on television, committing crimes and wreaking havoc. 2) The PCs have to evade law enforcement and other superheroes until they can clear their names. 3) The PCs have to locate and overcome their evil twins.

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas! Foxbat - How the Foxbat Stole St.Patrick's Day Foxbat's new master plan involves procuring a large quantity of chromatic-absorptive chemical gas and successfully releasing it (using the Foxbatblimp) into the stratosphere by March 16. The gas will interfere with the photochromatic spectrum at a specific wavelength, thus removing the colour green from everywhere. Foxbat can then demand an enormous ransom from the people of Earth who wish to celebrate the Wearing of the Green on St. Paddy's Day. Foxbat hasn't really thought through other consequences of banishing 'greenness' from the world, which may include: - catastrophic damage to Earth's biospere due to inhibited photosynthesis, imperiling the existence of life on the planet - a grey Grond who think's he's a mob enforcer Can the PC's prevent him from succeeding or, failing that, convince him to release the counteragent?

Re: The world is a fragile, fragile, place... I could see this character as developing a fondness for a "getaway spot", an environment either natural (the Slaadcave) or artificial (the base's Danger Room, a garage 'furnished' with chunks of defunct machinery, cinder blocks etc.), where everything is either durable or disposable, and where he can relax his guard and just hang out. I imagine he might have had a spot like that back home, and when he resettles he'll miss the place and want to find or construct something similar.

Re: Champions Universe Movie Casting Call As much as I admired Christian Bale's performance in Batman Begins, I wouldn't cat him as Defender or Nighthawk, simply because it would be too much of a reprise for him. For the same reason, I wouldn't want Alyson Hannigan as Witchcraft; Bethany Duquesnes and Willow are two separate characters, and I wouldn't want to blur the line between them. Michael Dorn has made it clear that no force in the galaxy will ever get him back into the makeup chair for two hours a day, so I'm thinking he wouldn't take Ironclad unless Ironclad's appearance were digitally altered. Bale is, however, too good not to use. I'd try him as Firewing. Lawrence Makaore could be Ironclad, or Herculan, or Blackstar. Dr. Destroyer continues to rock the world with undiminished power despite being roughly the age of the heroes' grandparents. I nominate Sir Michael Philip Jagger for the role.

(I am not entirely sure whether this belongs in Champions or non-gaming; apologies if it needs to be moved.) In a recent interview with French reporters, actress Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) discussed how appearing in a WB blockbuster had altered the dynamics of her acting career. If my rusty attempt at translation is accurate, she said: "Stardom...exerts an unbeatable force; it is like the power of gravity..." And then she flashed the slightly wicked, superior smirk she used in the Goblet extended trailer. And then my brain went klunk, and I could not help picturing this person: http://www.veritaserum.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=209&pos=23 in a mask, cape and slit-sided dress, gesturing at scenery and causing it to sail around at her whim. Clémence Poésy would absolutely devour the role of Gravitar in the Champions Universe movie, which will appear in theaters when the Qliphotic realms freeze over. Who else would we want to include? I'm thinking that Andy Serkis (LotR, King Kong), the Master of Motion-Capture Acting, is our last best hope for Grond. Andy could appear as Sidney Potter in a flashback cameo, then put on the capture-suit and serve as the template for the CGI Grond. If anybody can double-shoot every sequence with two sets of arm positions and make it work, he can. Also, I'm very stuck on the idea of double-casting Kirsten Dunst as both Talisman and Witchcraft. Not many young actresses can convincingly portray evil; she managed it just fine at the age of twelve. She's been a DNPC long enough to get the hang of superhero films; now it's time to cast her as heroine and villainess. It's a silly line of speculation, but in the spirit of the old Casting Call thread on rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our Champions campaign: The situation: Hummingbird has approached the PCs, at normal size, to parley. She claims that her teammates are out of the country, and she’s being stalked by Freakshow. The heroes are understandably wary; none of them are mentalists, and none would have an easy time hitting Hummingbird or resisting her Mental Powers if she shrinks. Witch Hazel whips out a potion phial. Witch Hazel: “This is Instant Bat Juice. I uncork this, or drop it, and 750 common black bats will swarm out. They have no rational mind for you to affect, as they are little more than very fast, agile, hungry insectivores intent on gobbling up any moving thing smaller than themselves. Do you understand this?” Hummingbird: *puts up hands* “You had me at ‘bats’.” Later… Orca: “’Instant Bat Juice’? Good one, Hazel. Out of curiosity, what was in that phial?” Witch Hazel: “Instant Bat Juice.” Orca: “You actually carry around a phial of Instant Bat Juice?” Witch Hazel: *shrugs* “Well, you never know, do you?” Sun Walker: *smiles and shakes head* “Now that’s totally witchin’.” Later…Hummingbird and Witch Hazel are having a private conversation about fears. Hummingbird: “I suppose you think I should just, like, build a bridge and get over myself, right?” Witch Hazel: “I imagine you could just ford across. You’re pretty shallow.” End of session, Freakshow is downed and bound and Renegade has him Covered, waiting for the authorities… Freakshow: “I’ll get you for this! You’ll never see me coming!” Renegade: “True. I can’t see you coming with your bag of knives, and you can’t see me coming in my battlesuit.” Freakshow: “Just remember, hero…you have to sleep sometime.” Renegade: “I’ve been trained not to sleep.” [Note: This is true.] Freakshow: “Man, you are just creepy. And not in a good way.”

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas! Firewing: Teach Us, Master! Firewing finds himself sought out by a growing group of young, post-Iron Age supers - not as a foe, but as a mentor. After all, he's very powerful and charismatic, (sort of) honourable and not compromised by political bias or outmoded cultural thinking, and misunderstood adolescents identify with him; emerging wannabe-superwarriors consider him a better role model than the so-called heroes, and they implore him to help train them to be worthy warriors in the mold of the Malvan gladiatorial tradition. They've even built a hidden arena/training facility. How will Ariax Thone react to a mob of naive, battle-eager kids who idolize him? If he agrees to teach them about honour, victory and the tactics of single combat, will he end up unleashing a plague of Malvan-trained supervillains - or will teaching others teach him something about himself? Best used in Teen Champions campaigns.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Situation: The PCs are helping Kodiac, who has been wrongfully suspended. Their next move is for Shasta to go into a henchmen dive incognito and troll for information. KODIAC: She'll need close-in backup. That's a rough crowd. SUN WALKER: Shasta can take care of herself, believe us. KODIAC: She can? I thought she was some sort of science-created flower dryad. WITCH HAZEL: She is, but she's also sort of a Were-Whomping-Willow. SHASTA: Yes. Don't make me hasty. You wouldn't like me when I'm hasty.

Re: Hybrid Characters I share these goals. For me, archetypes (pure or mixed) are part of what I look at during party generation, because it is vital to me that every player should feel that his/her player has a valid role to play in the group, and archetype is one of the defining elements of role. For instance, if Joe wants to play a brick and Fred also wants to play a brick, that shows up as a little magnifying-glass-symbol in my GM's mind; there's nothing inherently wrong with having two bricks on one team, but neither one should end up feeling like a redundant feature. If the characters have different personalities (if, let's say, Joe's brick is a grizzled ex-military leader type and Fred's brick is a brash young kid), then they could have exactly the same powers and still each have a unique place in the group's dynamic. I once played in a campaign with a pair of martial artists, one of whom was an upstanding, code-versus-killing patriot-type and one of whom was a hard-bitten, ex-mercenary ruthless scary guy. They honored for each other's skills and had saved each other's lives several times over, so they played off each other as a double act which established the boundaries of our team's moral spectrum. It worked because both players were willing to play out a rivalry balanced with enough respect to keep the tension constructive, not an impediment to enjoyable play. When primary archetype and attitude are looking a little too similar, I might want to work with the players to hybridize a little, in order to establish separate capabilities so that they'll both feel useful. Some players who prefer to play classic archetypes are really into being "the best they are at what they do". It can be a real killjoy for them if two other guys on the team are just as good at whatever it is that they do, and GMs who want their campaigns to thrive need to avoid setting a player up for an unpleasant experience (not character-unpleasant as in 'last session I got Haymakered by Durak', but player-unpleasant as in 'last session there was nothing for me to do, again'). This can be especially important with skill- and knowledge-intensive archetypes such as the Sleuth, Gadgeteer or Mystic; after all, two guys with 60 STR can punch out two different villains and both feel like they're contributing, but if two heroes can deduce that the arcane symbols drawn in blood at the crime scene are of Lemurian origin, one of them gets to say so, and one gets to stand there and say "I knew that, too". Archetypes also tend to determine a team's style of encountering and engaging obstacles, and a GM can use this knowledge to foresee problems. If the party's starting character concepts include a high percentage of indirect support types, skulkers and standoff types, that can make trouble for whoever gets stuck shouldering a disproportionate share of the front-line work. I was once in a short-lived campaign with a team that included a commando-trained super-sniper, a permanently invisible martial artist, a mentalist who preferred to stay well off the battle map and a four-color flagsuit with moderate defenses. In every single fight, the entire villainous side would target the only hero they could detect, the 4CFS would be brutally overwhelmed, and then the rest of the team would stalk and snipe away at the opposition while the patriotic smear on the floor moaned and congealed. It's great if the team has one (1) stealthy scout, and it can work when the entire team is stealthy and makes sneakiness the group's trademark style, but it's the GM's responsibility, IMHO, to try to envision whether the team will be unbalanced in a way that will prevent some players from being able to enjoy the game. As for hybrids, I find that the longer people play Champions, the more they tend to gravitate toward complexity in their characters, and so veteran PCs tend to be the ones who like to design hybrids - it's more challenging for them. Generally, I won't stand in their way; the experienced players know what they're doing. I'd be more worried about a neophyte designing a 'multi-class' hero out of an impatient desire to be all things at once; I'd want to oversee character design carefully, to ensure a playable result.

Re: Campaign cliche: The demise of the Champions Our current campaign began with the "all established major superteams are mysteriously vanishing" plot kicker; it gave the PCs a reason to step up and band together to form a new team, and also gave them a mystery to solve while coping with the problems springing up from the sudden "supers shortage". I was once in a "Champions 2018" campaign in which we played a group of fresh heroes who revived the Champions name ten years after the original team disintegrated. Sapphire didn't die; she left. She had begun, briefly, to date Defender in his Secret ID, and began spending time with his family. Corrie hated the way James Harmon IV's parents regarded him as a disappointment and a spoiled playboy, and at a critical point, after hearing more than she could endure, she became exasperated and told them exactly what kind of a hero their son really was. When he found out, James was extremely hurt and upset; they had a tumultuous argument and Sapphire resigned from the team. Afraid that other hero teams might ostracize her (since spilling your teammate's Secret ID is something Just Not Done in the paranormal crimefighting community), she took leave from full-time heroism and focused on the performance career and, increasingly, on mutant rights and other social justice issues. By 2018, she was being tapped to run for office, and during the campaign became Lieutenant Governor of California. Ironclad died while fighting Firewing, by Diving For Cover into the path of a lethal Flame Blast which would otherwise have struck a passenger jet full of people. This incident struck a deep moral blow to Ariax Thone's conceptions of honor, causing him to be plagued by ever-worse dilemmas of conscience and to behave erratically. Years later, as our team progressed from fighting the Crowns of Krim (our original nemeses) to gearing up for an eventual confrontation with a resurgent Takofanes, we were confronted with the Undying Lord's new servitor, Experienced Zombie Ironclad! Experienced Zombie Ironclad was Sourcebook Ironclad plus about a hundred points of upgrades plus the Zombie Package (Does Not Bleed, Takes No Stun, Does Not Breathe etc.). He was unbelievably tough to stop, but he also introduce another plot hitch: Firewing was infuriated by this "desecration of the memory of a true champion of the arena", and decided to join the fray against the Undying Lord and his minions. We were in the middle of a hopeless-seeming battle at the time, and being Unexpectedly Reinforced By Firewing, while confusing, went a long way towards tipping the scales back. Nighthawk became disillusioned with the idea that whacking Mechanon with a billy club was really a meaningful way of combatting lawlessness, chaos and disregard for life. His frustration grew, not only with his teammates, but with police, the courts, politicians, agencies and all theose who were supposed to be imposing a measure of decency upon the world. Lured by a chance to become a far greater force for order in the cosmos, he became Consort-Martial of a Billion Dimensions and now targets the multidimensional forces of Chaos directly, commanding the covert arm of the V'hanian military. After Sapphire left the team, Defender and Witchcraft finally began to express their feelings for each other. Their love blossomed over time and they became engaged, but meanwhile the forces of Takofanes were stirring, apparently seeking out the future Archmage in order to prevent his/her rise to power. The Trismegistus Council insisted that Witchcraft was in terrible danger and needed to get out of sight. She agreed, but first she and James were married, with family and friends in attendance. Then the two of them went into hiding, combining their considerable talents to conceal their whereabouts. Two years later, their bodies were found in the rubble of their small home, apparent victims of Kal-Turak's Spell of Soul-Reaving. It was assumed that Takofanes had killed Bethany to prevent her from becoming Earth's new archmage, and that James, despite being caught out of his armor, had characteristically tried to save her. Fourteen years later, we the PCs were to realize that this was not the complete, true story. While investigating mysterious Takofanes-related events surrounding a band of young supers, we began digging into the background of their leader, a boy hero named American Owl (a young mystical patriot with casual, dark-haired good looks and brilliant green eyes). We discovered that the Trismegistus Council had concealed from the mundane world the existence of James and Bethany's son, who at the age of fifteen months had somehow survived the wrath of the most powerful evil sorcerer ever known. Although up until this time we had been beleaguered by the oppressive notion that we would never actually have a way to beat Takofanes for good, we eventually learned that if we, the destroyers of the Crowns of Krim, could destroy the Dragon Crown which rendered Takofanes invincible, and keep the kid alive so that he could claim the Sceptre of the World Mage and learn to use it to counteract the Sceptre of the Undying King, and show him the true meaning of heroism so that he would never succumb to the lure of dark power, then Takofanes would finally meet his fate at the hands of James Harmon V, the Boy Who Lived.

Re: WWYCD: Stark Contrast Sun Walker has a Public ID, so he could seek medical/scientific/mystic help for his condition without jeopardizing his identity. Since his powers are all light-based, it's possible that they might also be altered by whatever the Manichean did to him - he'd be extremely hesitant to use them for fear of what might happen. Witch Hazel is a high school student who has missed too much school time already due to superheroing; she'd have to get through classes and such without revealing her trouble, which would be worth a few laughs. She'd probably seek out help from her four great-aunts: Morgause, Rowena, Hecate and Sue, four dizzy old bats who know rather a lot about magic, if one has the patience to engage them in conversation long enough to get a useful answer out of them. They might not have the power to fix her, but might at least point her in the direction of the answer. Orca can get by with Active Sonar until we find the Manichean. Being of mixed Human/Atlantean blood, he's got a built-in hostility towards those who insist on seeing everything as being either one or the other, having had to put up with a lot of it growing up. Angry speech bubbles will fly as fast as his fists. Shasta would use her Plant Telepathy to help navigate until she can find the Manichean. Having been raised and educated by Luther Burbank, she would use agnostic-humanist ethical arguments, along with her mind-affecting Floral Pheromones, to help him appreciate relativism. Renegade can't go to anyone for help and would have a rough time finding the Manichean by himself in the state he's in. This would be a huge character-development opportunity, as he would really need to trust his teammates enough to let them help him.

I understand that Mental Shape Shift can't affect how one thinks (by altering INT or Psych Lims). What I do not understand is whether Psychomorph lets you change the appearance of what you're thinking, or merely the appearance of who is doing the thinking? For instance, if I am John Doe, a psychomorphically-gifted CIA spy trying to get hired as a thug by Eurostar, can I shapeshift my thoughts so that Mentalla will read: A: *I am a completely random person, not John Doe, who thinks in American English and wants to turn you in to my CIA superiors.* B: *Och aye, I'm thinkin' in me thick Scottish burr that I'm after turnin' ye in to me CIA superiors.* or else C: *Och aye, these folks pay a sight better than the Glasgow Mob, and doesn't that wee Spanish lass look jus' lovely?*

Re: Battlesuits: Too efficient and flexible?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Somewhat HERO-System-specific humor: WITCH HAZEL: "Shasta, if you get Knocked Out while you're in your tree-form, I don't know how I'll be able to carry you off the ship." SHASTA: "If I get Knocked Out, I revert to my humanoid form. It's not a Persistent Vegetative State."

Re: WWYCD? The Trap

Re: Help needed: character who causes intoxication Hmmm...either Mental Illusions or a Mental Transform to impose psych lims. "I Am A Comic Genius." "All the Women Are Attractive." "I Can Outfight This Guy."

Re: WWYCD?: You Shall Be Mine, My Love... Shasta appears, most of the time, to be a lissome, captivating young woman with a subtly entrancing honeysuckle-like perfume. However, she is actually a motile, sapient form of plant life cultivated by Luther Burbank after the untimely death of his adoptive human daughter. Her pheromonal fragrance brings all the boys to the yard, but she's all show and no go. She would be unsurprised but unperturbed by the villain's infatuation. Witch Hazel, unfortunately, has Psych Lim: Attracted To Bad Boys, Psych Lim: Thinks She Can Change People For the Better and Double Effect from Unluck in Personal Relationships. She would almost certainly fall for the villain, ensuring an all-around train wreck of a subplot. And, since we live in a liberated era , if a villainess were romantically stalking a male PC... Orca is of mixed Human (specifically, Liberian)-Atlantean descent, and comes across as quite romantically conservative, as if he needed to prove that although he is a 'mongrel' he is not incapable of responsible sexual conduct. He also would not want to seem receptive to the advances of a 'loose' or aggressive woman. He would deflect her advances with verbal scorn, impugning her morals and refusing to acknowledge that he feels any attraction to her. Sun Walker is a professional singer, guitarist and salsa dancer with a high PRE and COM. He is not unfamiliar with female attention, and has been known to engage in Antonio-Banderas-style 'battle flirting' with villainesses. He might feign interest in a female evildoer in order to escape/defeat her, but he is not presently interested in a long-term, committed relationship and is too noble to pretend otherwise merely to have a fling with someone. A sane, adult, relatively non-evil villainess (such as someone from GRAB) who tried to strike up a casual relationship might succeed, but an obviously unbalanced would-be soulmate would be kept at arm's length. Renegade, for reasons which he chooses not to discuss, finds the villainesses of this dimension to be underwhelming.

Re: WWYCD? The Trap Renegade would disable the trap, carefully noting exactly how it worked, how to spot similar traps in future and how to duplicate it (just in case). If the trap involved some essential, rare, necessary component small enough to slip into a belt pouch, that's where it would go (just in case). Sun Walker, Shasta and Witch Hazel all have CVK:Total, and would probably first engage the Obsessed Avenger in an ethical debate and then fight him if he did not surrender. If, as a plot complication, the Obsessed Avenger was not just some whackjob with a thing for killing criminals but a well-established (if dark) crimefighter who'd saved the world many times over, was fighting a morally (if not legally) justifiable defensive 'war' and had saved the PCs' butts in a previous adventure, they might offer him a deal along the lines of "we're going to the authorities with this; start running now" or even "we'd rather not have to bring you down; don't let us catch you doing this again". Orca, being less devoted to upholding land-dweller laws and a little gullible regarding appeals to 'honour', might be willing to accept a solemn promise to desist. The PCs are relative newcomers and are technically vigilantes themselves, although they abide by a self-imposed code of conduct which has kept them out of serious trouble with the law to date. They are still finding their footing in the philosophical demarcations of crime-fighting.