Squall

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age I guess it just never really occured to me to categorize it in my head with other comic books. Ditto with 300 and Maus -- they might share the medium as a means of telling the story, but I just don't think of them as "comic books," if that makes any sense. So the notion of lumping Sin City in with Superman and the X-Men just never even entered my head.

Re: The downsides of the Iron Age I don't dislike the Iron Age in principle, but I dislike how they've implemented it. I don't like the Iron Age rubbing up against the other eras. I LOVE the Ultimates line (Ultimate FF being my current favorite, largely because it's been so long since we got new stuff for the Ultimates themselves), in much the same way I liked the Age of Apocalypse. Gimme grim and gritty and bloody and dark -- in a grim, gritty, bloody, and dark pocket 'verse! Don't toss a jerk like Cable (especially drawn by Liefield!) into the middle of the New Mutants, and expect it to all be hunky dory. Don't give me The Punisher beating up Spider Man, making Daredevil cry, and rubbing elbows with Captain America every third issue; give me Born or Welcome Back, Frank, and call it good. I don't even mind the Authority too bad, since they're (for the most part) in their own corner of the comic book universe, dealing with their own type of threats in their own way (though, I agree, the ony reason it works is because their bad guys are so bad). In fact, I love Sin City. I don't think of it as a comic book, though, is the trick; I simply think of the graphic medium being used to tell hyperviolent Noir stories. But what gets me grouchy is when we get those same sort of grim, gritty, morally gray characters rubbing up against the Good Guys (capitalized on purpose). Give me the first few TPB's of The Outsiders, not Captain Boomerang in bondage gear and Grace breaking a man's fingers. I can take some real-life drama and relationships and issues from characters in spandex; I won't take Dick Grayson throwing explosives at trucks full of people, or ordering a team mate to allow herself to be raped. It's one thing for the X-titles or the Titans to have realistic issues out of costume (members of the team dating, or not getting along, or whatever) -- it's another thing altogether to have them crossing the line into something I'd expect from a Wildstorm or an Ultimates comic.

Re: Calling all Archers

Re: Calling all Archers Not sure if the list of published archers is still going (what with the thread being officially undead, and all that) -- but there's one in Dark Champions: The Animated Series, too. I believe his name is Trick Shot.

Re: What's the Kryptonian speedster benchmark ? It just seems to me that reading comics that features Supes and his "family" (Superboy, Supergirl, Power Girl, etc), and even the Superman homages in other universes (Gladiator, Sentry, etc) -- they don't always move at Speedster speeds. They're capable of it, but for the most part we think of them as "flying bricks," not "flying speedsters," y'know? But every now and then they can really pour it on. Hence the average-to-above-average SPD all the time, and the capability to really haul bootie (SPD 10-12 or so) when they're willing to exert themselves appropriately. *shrugs* Makes sense to me, at least.

Re: What's the Kryptonian speedster benchmark ? I'd say the high 20's is fine for a DEX (though perhaps a 13-15, with the rest bought as part of his Kryptonian super powers package). You can probably get by with a 6 SPD or so, and then another 4-6 SPD that can cost END or something (Superman doesn't move that fast ALL the time). *shrugs* Of course, this is assuming you're (as mentioned) working with an appropriate number of points, and facing appropriate threats. It'd be pretty boring, otherwise.

Re: Crude Combined Marvel/DC timeline to use as backstory to a Supers campaign Actually, I believe the most recent Batman arc has his son in it. Some kid that was raised (IIRC) by the League of Assassins or something (so maybe a Talia link?). I haven't followed it myself, but a buddy mentioned it to me.

Re: Big Blue in control: WWYD Ah, heck, why not? Most of my characters would jump in alongside, roll up their sleeves, and start changing the world. If you're gonna keep saving the place from supervillains just to let it stay a crappy place to live anyways, what's the point? ...plus I gotta buck the trend a little.

Re: Crude Combined Marvel/DC timeline to use as backstory to a Supers campaign Keep in mind, even though Bats has an "aversion" to firearms, he still knows how to use them (and has trained his Robins in how to do so, as well, on a range in the Batcave). "Know your enemy," and all that. And rich white-bread upper crust types like the Waynes likely do a fair amount of sport shooting, clay pigeons, duck hunts, and that sort of thing -- so it's not like it's breaking character for him to be able to handle a firearm.

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program I've always figured your average infantryman is supposed to (a) shoot the bastard, not karate chop him, or failing that ( take 'em in hand to hand just by being in better shape than your average Joe on the street. There's not a ton of hand to hand training required, then (given they're generally busier, and better served, through more marksmanship or general PT), and -- as was mentioned -- the possibility/probability for injuries in hand to hand training's gotta be pretty danged high. Never (quite) got to Serve, myself. Signed up as a 12B in the Army (Combat Engineer), went to Ft Lost-In-The-Woods in 2001, had two weeks to go of OSUT, and got sent home, diagnosed with asthma, and check-marked as "physically unfit for service." Nothing quite like finding out you're asthmatic at basic. It's still one of my biggest regrets -- I keep thinking maybe if I'd tried it just a few years earlier (and been just a few years younger than my then-23), maybe I could've done better, and the asthma never would've come up. Ah well. Spilled milk, and all that.

Re: Infinite Crisis Except Wonder Woman. Who's back to her super-spy persona while her former sidekick wears the mantle, and is stuck with a bi-monthly title. Their handling of the big three in JLA has been awesome (and, with Arsenal being my favorite comic character, I'm happy to see him bumped into the big leagues) -- but as far as individual titles go, I think it still shows Wonder Woman's the redheaded stepchild of the trio. Supes has a half dozen titles, Batty and family are probably half DC's printing pulp every month...and Diana gets a half dozen issues a year.

Re: Registration & Sanction Neat packages, and I could see more and more games making use of that sort of thing in the wake of Civil War, etc. When reading over them myself, the comparisons I came up with were "One is a concealed carry permit, one is a badge." Hopefully that's not too far off from what you had in mind when creating 'em.

Re: Infinite Crisis I didn't hate Infinite Crisis, but I have to admit I enjoyed the build up (the mini series, etc) far more than the actual 7-issues of IC itself. Villains United rocked my socks off, OMAC Project was a cool read, etc, etc. I loved the sense of impending doom, the momentum that was called forward, the sudden (re)emergence of Dr Light as a Grade-A bad guy... ...and then they just crammed so much into seven teenie little issues that not much of it made sense. Most of what was going on was expanded upon in regular monthly titles, but I really think IC would've been better if they'd just had more elbow room. A few more panels here and there for fight scenes, a little more room for thought bubbles to show some character's motivations, that sort of thing. At one point I even had my wife (a new-to-comics comics fan) reading Infinite Crisis with that month's Teen Titans comic in her lap, too, flipping from page to page and panel to panel (both comics covered the Superboy Prime Kicks The Titan's Asses fight, the TT comic in quite a bit more detail). It really just felt like there was a ton of build up...and then this mad rush to squeeze too much stuff into too little space. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't awesome, either. I also know they made some huge changes between the mini itself and this collected hardcover version. Whole bubbles of text are different, and some of them are pretty important changes. I found that kind of disappointing -- why not do it RIGHT the first time? Because they were in too big of a hurry? All in all, though, it could've been worse. It was just a shame how much better the stuff leading into it was, compared to the "event" itself.

Re: WWYCD: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish... Even my Aqua-Brick characters wouldn't particularly care.

Re: WWYCD?: The blatant-ening. I'd stick the syringe in my own character's arm, just to see the look on the GM's face.

Re: How do you know if a character name is already being used? Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Use a little Google, use a little Wiki, and you should be pretty much in the clear.

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign. Make up your mind. Do you feel Apocalypse is more poweful than Thanos, or not? Stop trying to have it both ways. Either the other posters on the thread are right, and you just listed them in the wrong order (or in random order), like you said... or the other posters on the thread are a bunch of fanboys. Stop backpedaling and make up your mind. Which is it?

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign. Not only because they were listed in order, but because you then commenced to arguing when people tried to point out Apocalypse isn't that tough (at least, not compared to a few others on that list). Maybe if you'd just said "I know Apocalypse isn't as badass as Thanos, sorry for the confusion in the order I posted the list," instead of disagreeing and sticking up for Apocalypse, the whole argument might not have happened.

Re: HWYW*: Marvel Civil War? No, it could still be heroic -- if both sides of the issue were given a little heroism. If it wasn't made clear to the readers, so very very strongly, that the pro-Registration side is wrong, there could still be some nobility in it. If both sides were genuinely fighting for something worth fighting for, all the heroes could still have a little dignity. Potential, uhh, spoilers, or whatever. I can't find a spoiler code. Asgardian Wars with the X-Men, came out maybe late/mid-eighties? Anyone remember it? Ready? Here comes the spoiler. Spoiler spoiler spoiler -- Loki presents humankind with a "gift," a magical fountain that gives normal humans superpowers based upon their personalities. An engineer could suddenly create buildings (to shelter all the worlds homeless). An avid reader suddenly knew, well, almost everything. A medic was given the ability to heal someone completely of whatever ailed them (Puck of Alpha Flight was made healthy and tall, Wolverine was cured of his berserker rages, Professor X could walk, Cyclops didn't need a visor). Everyone affected by it was made hale and healthy, (mildly, at least) superhumanly strong and fit, tall and proud. With that fountain, mutants wouldn't be special/strange any more, the hungry would be fed, the homeless sheltered, yadda yadda. A perfect world, right? The downside was that the change in magic was killing those who were already capable of magic. In addition to them losing their lives, those affected by the fountain lost their ability to imagine/dream. They were able to do their "miracles" through rote memorization, almost; they lost their ability to genuinely create, that spark of creativity. The X-Men and Alpha Flight were torn. On the one hand, they had this fountain that might bridge the gap between humans and mutants forever. No child would ever starve to death again, chemically imbalanced people (super villains, any one?) and everyone else with an ailment could be healed of it, a perfect world was just around the corner thanks to that fountain. On the other hand, "the good of the few" was at stake with some people dying as a result, and humanity's spark of creativity was also endangered by the fountain. Was it fair to make that choice for the world, that they'd lose so much to gain so much? The result was, of course, a super-fight. Alpha Flight and the X-Men split up down the middle (along ideological, not team, lines). Northstar fought Aurora, Collossus fought Shadowcat. But you know what? Everyone was still heroic. Everyone was still fighting for something positive. Everyone still had noble motivations, everyone still thought they were fighting the good fight, hero was battling hero because they generally thought they were right, and helping the world. It was a neat read. It's one of my favorite books. Everyone was still a good guy, when the dust settled. Civil War doesn't have that. It's been obvious, from the get go, who is right and who is misguided. There's no drama there, no heroism, no feeling of difficult choices being made. It's just superheroes (Cap and his buddies) fighting against superthugs (who happen to be guys who used to act like heroes). We get superheroes vs. superthugs every month, in every title. So Civil War's a flop, and a shame.

Re: Galactic Champions That's a neat article, and addresses some of the concerns I've run into as I've started playing Champions. Personally, when I read and purchase comics, I like either the gritty street level types (I've got lots of Nightwing, Green Arrow, Daredevil), or the world-shoving powerhouses (the Kryptonians, a little Thor, Ms Marvel, Wonder Man, Apollo of the Authority, Gladiator). There's not much middle ground in my comics library, and not much middle ground in the character concepts I come up with in Champions games. When I flip through published books and look for NPCs and PCs that are interesting to me, I read about Green Dragon -- oh, and Gigaton and Firewing. When I think "comic book genre," that's just what pops into my head; either the kung fu guy with a few gadgets, or the demigod defender of humanity. I'll acknowledge it's my fault, and a genre-thing, at least as much as it's an issue with the system -- but it's still something that's nibbled at my enjoyment of the game on and off. The 700+ point games (realistically, I've seen write-ups of some of my favorite characters well into the 1000-1200 raneg), where you can make a Superman or a Thor are few and far between. Most games are, of course, 200 bp + 150 disad's. Trying to cram Captain Marvel or Captain Atom into a 350 (or, in a recent on-line game I'm in, even a 400) point character leaves you either (a) feeling unsatisfied with your character, or ( getting arched eyebrowed looks from your peers, and earning a reputation as a powergamer. I'm pretty curious about how a "Pointless Champions" campaign might work out. My wife and a few of my friends have been thinking about trying to get in a few games over Christmas break -- maybe I'll propose those few sessions as a test run of a pointless game.

Re: HWYW*: Marvel Civil War? My biggest problem with it so far -- to be fair, this is all second-hand, I'm planning on waiting and snagging the TPBs someday -- is that from all I've heard, they've been very heavy-handed with the pro-Registration team. They're coming off more as Gestapo agents than as superheroes that happen to be arguing with Captain America. The early issues that I looked at, things could have gone either way; Iron Man and his boys seemed to have a rational reason for what they were doing, and it was an interesting idea to have this year's bloated, sprawling, crossover even be Heroes vs. Heroes. ...and then it just got more and more "Captain America and his heroic freedom fighters resist oppression and tyranny!" I thought, for once, maybe the Right-leaning comic book fans might've had a shot at something. Maybe the whole thing wouldn't come off all anti-authoritative, painting governments and their agents with broad, derisive, strokes. Maybe it wouldn't just be comic book writers ranting about politics through their characters. But it got worse, and worse, and worse, until it hit the point that anyone who feels pro-Registration might as well be goose-stepping around. Whether I, personally, would be for Registration or not, I was disappointed that they very obviously wanted the fan base to swing away from it (and, in the meantime, all the characters that are pro-Reg are coming off as bullies and tyrants). If I want to read The Ultimates, I'll go read The Ultimates, thanks.

Re: Crude Combined Marvel/DC timeline to use as backstory to a Supers campaign Very cool stuff! Two thumbs up!

Re: (best ever...) reasons for becoming a superhero "Because someone has to."

Re: City of Heroes (Champions of Champion) I played it a bunch for about two months, then just kind of burnt out on it. I was working hard on grinding up the levels to try and get some new Issue 8 stuff, and then it dawned me I was was working. I felt like I needed to earn levels, like I had to spend a certain amount of time every day working on getting xp, etc, etc. My fun-time had turned into an obligation to "get my money's worth." So, yeah. That day, I cancelled my account. Blech. I love character creation, I have a blast levelling, I think the graphics are neat (for what it is), I think gameplay is fun (for what it is), and all that. I just can't afford to play something where I pay $15 a month for the priviledge of playing -- because then it feels like I have to play, or I'm "wasting" the money.

Re: Best and Worst Costume/Appearance Changes