Squall

Re: Trick Arrow Villain? I'll have to dig up the character sheet to get them all, but for a "Suicide Squad" sort of game (villains press-ganged into gov't service, doing black ops) I ran a sociopathic archer assassin type of guy, Quiver. He primarily used regular broadheads (just nice RKA's), but I had a few trick shots bought as part of the multipower (with the caveat that they used up charges from slot 1, the basic RKA) that also had weak RKA's built into them. There was an Entangle (only possible if target was near an appropriate surface) to represent pinning people to walls, etc. A "Crippling Shot" (attribute drain, STR and DEX) to represent those nasty knee and shoulder hits. I think I even paid for the Increased Stun Multiplier on the basic killing attacks, now that I try and remember. I know he was horribly lethal. Other than that most of his arrows were pretty basic, like a flash-bang, a smoke/chaff mix (neener neener, you can't see AND you can't radio for back up), some grappling arrows (shared charges, either as a stretching with limited uses, or a swinging movement), and a few flatheaded arrows (built as EB's, stun only). It was all comparatively low-tech stuff -- nothing that teleported folks to other dimensions or turned them to stone or anything -- but he was a pretty nasty little guy, in the few fights I was able to get in before the game fizzled. When I was creating him, I was readying a lot of Green Arrow stuff, and just thinking "Now how can I make that meaner?" I'm (still) of the opinion that most of Green Arrow and Hawkeye's fancy schmancy trick arrows are made because good guys in comic books need nonlethal ways to take out bad guys. A bad guy that's an inhumanly good shot with a bow? Well, he'll just stick a broad, sharp, arrowhead through your brain and call it a day. Not as much of a NEED for tricky stuff like nets and bolos and junk.

Re: Ultron I hate it when people do that to me, too!

Re: QuestionL Would you consider this unfair or rail roading? My fix would be for the group to split -- speedsters or super-fast fliers (or teleporters, whatever) would have to go globe-trotting to rescue everyone's DNPCs, while the rest of the team had to do their best to "hold the line" and continue disrupting the ritual, halting the flow of demons flooding into this dimension, or whatever. Then the quick ones come swooping back in, and with the band back together (hopefully) everyone's able to take a few recovery tests, and whoop the big bad guy. SO...I'd say if you're willing to split the group (maybe have a co-GM or guest GM for that session?) as a means of them solving the problem, I'd be okay with it if it happened in one of my games. Or, well, even not necessarily splitting the party. That was just the first method to pop into my head -- I guess overall I just feel if there's some way for the team to "pull the impossible" and rescue both the overall planet and their DNPCs in particular, and still feel heroic. Or, at least, to give them a shot at it.

Re: Running jokes in your campaign Though I've yet to use it in a Champions game (I have yet to GM Champions, in fact), my longest running tradition in GMing came from an on-line Shadowrun game I was running. Whenever the players got too bogged down in the details, nit-picking at stuff and dragging the game to a halt (taking weeks and weeks to overplan a scenario when everyone knows full well plans only work in Ocean's 11, for instance), or posting slowed down, quality of posts dipped, interest in a game waned... COMMANDO ATTACK. Wherever they were, whatever they were in the middle of, a four-man team of commandos in urban camo would rappel into the room, blazing away with suppressed submachineguns. The commandos would invariably have some sort of hint on them (all using guns manufactured by the corporation I wanted them to target, all from an ethnic or metaracial group that would give away the behind-the-scenes threat, they'd have cyberware implanted that the team's decker might be able to crack and find out the name of who gave them their orders, etc)... but mostly it was just a way to keep them jumpy, inject some adrenaline into the game, stop the players from getting too comfortable. No one really relaxes in movies like The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible, etc. So whenever folks got too cozy, felt like their safehouse was really safe, or forgot what a hurry they were supposed to be in -- COMMANDO ATTACK. And it can be ported over to any setting, really. Ninja Attack, Bandit Attack, Supervillain Henchman Attack, Combat Android Attack, etc, etc.

Re: Archetype Twists I tend to combine archetypes, more than I go against them. I've got The Warden, who combined Daredevil senses with Green Arrow's archery (and trick arrows). I've also got Squall (who turned into my namesake for comic-related internet stuff), who was a gadget-belt and escrima-stick using martial artist/detective type...with moderate telekinetic powers he was trying to get a handle on, as well. My most recent's a fairly straightforward "AquaBrick" type (strong and tough, but stronger and tougher underwater), though. Nothing too fancy there. I'm currently trying to find a game for Striker, a powered armor guy (whose armor happens to be powered by him being a mutant energy projector, and provides him control over his otherwise sporadic electric powers).

Re: Power suggestions for a "Perfect" human being 30's across the board (or whatever your campaign's ultimate human maximum is) for every stat, some running/swimming/leaping, skill bonuses, and a bunch of talents (ambidexterity, lightning reflexes, eidetic memory), stuff like that. It'll eat points pretty quick.

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? I bet Ironclad would work...

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks?

Re: Jetpack for Bicycles Maybe if he used the jetpack a little less and the pedals a little more, his shirt buttons wouldn't be straining like that.

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? I...what's that even mean? Seriously? I'm sorry if you're having a bad day or something, but there's no need to take it out on the people that're commenting on the conversation you started, and then go tossing together words at random and throwing the freaky not-sentence at me over it.

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? *sigh* Yeah. That's the way to get people to respond constructively in your thread.

Re: A Challenge: Supers are new to the world Personally? I'd probably kill them, depending on the bad guy. It sounds like two of the three have so far displayed lethal intent and ability, and given there's no realistic way to lock them up (without knowing more about them), they'd probably wind up dead. The Bandit chick's a unique problem in that she doesn't seem worth executing (nor deserving of it), but is even harder to incarcerate. She seems the sort that you've just got to harass if/when you can, let her break out, harass her some more, and repeat until someone comes up with a way to keep her locked up. But, yeah. Crazy guy, and Reaper? I'd bet those two would put up a fight (in a fashion obviously lethal enough) they could be put down, and legally, on a self defense argument.

Re: Thunderbird Questions

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? So you're saying he punches the side of a building, and a city block blows up?

Re: WWYCD?: Champions Universe Zombies I'd start bustin' out the Killing Attacks, guilt free!

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? Is "only to protect against non-nuclear real weapons" really a -1, to most people? How many nukes do you guys run into in your games?

Re: Calling all Archers

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age I didn't mind Wanted, actually. Once. Knowing what I was about to read, and not expecting an actual comic book about superheroes. It's like walking into a movie theatre, really. If you go in expecting the wrong title, of course you'll be disappointed and hateful. If I'd thought Wanted was going to be just another TPB about comic characters, or whatever, I'd've been pretty hateful by the time I put it down, too. But I'd heard enough about it that I figured it was worth a Barnes and Noble gift card, and got a little chuckle out of how hard the author was trying, and now it's back on my shelf. *shrugs* No harm done.

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? Interesting thread, but I think the nail's already been hit on the head with this one -- it's just a matter of points. While you can squeak by with the basics of a Daredevil or a Nightwing for probably 250 or so, you can make a solid (very solid) Daredevil for probably 350-400, realistically. He'd have plenty of cool stuff from the comics, at that level. He can tackle a half dozen thugs without much trouble at all, take on a (similarly pointed) pseudo-Brick Kingpin with a good 50/50 shot, jump real far, run pretty fast, and all that good stuff. You can't really make a Ben Grimm, Colossus, or a Hulk for 350. Not really. Nevermind a Superman or Captain Marvel. With even half of the Brick Tricks we see these guys pull off, I'd estimate a good solid 600 or so even for the lower-end of these guys (Thing, Colossus, and those two are only that low because both have a few decent disad's just off the top of my head), up to an easy 800+ for the Hulk, and probably four digit numbers for Big Blue (or any other Kryptonian). The problem is, no one wants to play a 250 point Nightwing alongside a 1200 point Superman real often. If they do, the fact stands -- Nightwing and his escrima sticks don't scare Krypton's Last Son, by a longshot. But that's just an issue of game balance and simple math.

Re: Thunderbird Questions Looks good to me. I've always been a sucker for that sort of "low scale Brick, but pretty quick, too" character, though. Just an All Around Better Than You, Human sort of power suite.

Re: Calling all Archers I'm not sure if he would count, but I think a Marvel What-If had a sort of "next generation of Avengers!" story in it, at one point. She-Hulk and Hawkeye had a kid who went by Stallion, that was a pretty cool Brick/Archer hybrid. Imagine Hawkeye taking shots with a bow so powerful you need She-Hulk's strength to draw it back. It was a fun read. And I'm not sure if you're asking only for official comic book characters, or just people's Champions stuff -- but I'm in an on-line game with a character I threw together who goes by The Warden. He's (in summary) got Daredevil style super senses, and Green Arrow style trick arrows and stuff. Haven't gotten in TOO much play time yet (it's kind of a slow moving game), but I think he's got some potential.

Re: Top 10 List of the Lamest Superheroes of All Times Yeah, that's changed. Well, unless it changed back (which is far from impossible, I'm sure). It turns out Cable is, for lack of a more scientific term, "ZOMG TEH BESTEST SYCHIC EVAR!!111!!" Spoilers ahead: Apparently he was never able to fully use his TK because he was constantly using it on the subconscious level to keep the techno-organic virus (his 'cybernetic' arm, eye, etc) from overrunning the rest of his body. They changed that in a mini series or two, and the last I read of him he was ridiculously powerful. I mean, downright absurdly powerful. So stupidly potent he had trouble controlling himself, so he went back to using guns most of the time because he was scared he'd destroy mountains or whatever. After getting shot full on in the head, point blank, his body reflexively used telekinesis to pop the bullet out and re-knit his rent flesh, bone, and brain matter until he was fine in about twenty seconds. He used his telepathy to shut off a violent mutant's ability to use her powers -- and accidentally turned off the brains of about fifty people. He used his TK on a vine of growing grapes, to manipulate them on the molecular level and turn them into poison (effortlessly). With a glance, he telepathically turned off the ability to breath in a half dozen bad guys at once. Silly stuff. I stopped reading it.

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age I'm noticing a trend in most of the posts here (or, I dunno, I could just be making it up) -- it's not that we hate Iron Age Storytelling...it's that many of us object to it being overdone. In moderation, it can make for some powerful stuff (Miller's Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns, etc). It's when Iron Age "style" became the norm, or when it's overdone to the point of parody or satire (without anyone saying it's supposed to be parody or satire, like in The Authority) that we, for the most part, seem to be disliking it.

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age Check out recent issues (One Year Later) of the Outsiders. I have no idea how to do a spoiler tag, so hopefully a stern warning will suffice: WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT SOME SEMI-RECENT OUTSIDERS COMICS SPOILED. I AM A SPOILER, LIKE ON THE BACK OF TRENDY LITTLE CARS. SPOILERS, THIS WAY! The team's infiltrating some African country that's stockpiling nerve gas for genocidal attacks (iirc). Thunder (Black Lightning's daughter) gets sent in undercover, and at one point radios Nightwing and -- sorry, but I forget the exact context -- warns him she's going to be forced to have sex with the country's leader, or she's being suspected of being a spy and soldiers are gang raping her, or SOMEthing like that, and asking to be pulled out. Nightwing gets all grim-faced and tells her to stay, because their mission is so important. Thunder, btw, is a lesbian (or at least a bi-sexual), also, which (in my mind) would make that sort of thing even MORE intolerable. In the same story arc, he's got Grace and Captain Boomerang all dressed up in zipper-face black leather bondage gear, torturing a gov't official from that African nation (breaking his hands, plucking out his eye with their fingers), and all sorts of other pleasant stuff. Because the mission was so important, and they needed that information. In their first OYL issue, they attacked a military convoy, and were using lethal attacks on the soldiers therein. Nightwing, Dick Grayson, included. Nevermind the RESOURCES that team could call up, with their friends and contacts and mentors, to get the whole thing solved in a day or two, tops (without the rape, the torture, the killing)... *blech* I don't read Outsiders any more, after flipping through those few issues at the comic shop. Pretty much every character involved is out-of-continuity, to me, after reading it.

Re: Thunderbird Questions You could probably make him with 30's-35's or so across the board with physical stuff, a little bit of running and leaping, a bit of armor, and a plus 3 or 4 or so on perception tests, I'd bet.