David Johnston

Re: Civil War in the Champions Universe! On the other hand the new status quo is a great setup for the online RPG they'll be doing even if they damaged Richards, Stark and Rogers in the process.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Isadore Melton was a true crackpot, a would-be inventor who wasted his life trying to create a perpetual motion machine. In a more rational universe he never would have developed anything, but in a superheroic universe, while crackpots can't make genuine discoveries they can, just by wanting it enough, make the occasional artifact that acts as though they had. Thus for Melton he had one of those unique unreproducible, essentially useless breakthroughs, the Speedball, a spherical vehicle that drew it's motive force directly from something called "The Momentum Zone". Inside there was a second sphere containing the pilot seat and the control joystick that could rotate the inner sphere horizonally, changing the direction of travel of the ball as a whole in the process. The Speedball could accelerate to sonic speeds, smashing any obstacle. Now, another man having invented such a thing might have decided to use it for a life of crime since it obviously wasn't useful for superheroics. Melton was not such a man. He went out to try to fight crime in it, because he was an idiot. The property damage and danger to bystanders was truly phenomenal. Worse, the Speedball was virtually indestructible while in motion, so attempts to disable it seemed fruitless as it rampaged through the streets. The heroes who tried to stop it had to come up with schemes to slow it down down enough that it would be vulnerable to attack.

Re: Character: Gary Hobson The cat is a plot device. It isn't an DNPC because Gary never had to save the cat. It isn't a follower because you can't tell it what to do. It isn't a contact because all it does is bring the paper and the paper is independantly purchased as a power.

Re: Character: Socially Conscious Man! Grim and Gritty Avenger of the Night: Yeah the guys I fight got jobs! They got jobs as hitmen!

Re: Canadian Super Villain Team- Need Help No, although the Canadian provincial forces scored a few victories against the American invaders on their home soil, there's nothing recorded about any Canadian colonists being part of the Chesapeake bay operation. Of course at that time, we were British so we (except the Quebecers) consider ourselves part of it anyway. As to the actual subject of the thread, a team of anti-American Canadian supervillains are much more likely to be treehuggers than flag-wavers.

Re: Civil War in the Champions Universe! Not as such, I think although these things seem to sometimes come out differently in different comics. Seems to me he was point out that if Spidey left the protection of Stark's facilities, the two of them would be a lot less secure now that they were publicly known.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Doctor Fate was drawn back into superheroics when he fell under suspicion as a blackmailer. The rich and famous were all finding themselves victimised by someone who knew their most embarassing secrets. After one victim killed himself and left a detailed recounting of his conversation with a masked man who seemed to know everything he was thinking, the police became very interested in Fate's nonexistent alibi for the night in question. While Fate had no real mental powers, he had developed something of a knack for putting things together. He identified several of the victims, and retraced their past movements, determining that they had all eaten at the same fashionable restaurant, and that the blackmail had started after that restaurant had hired one "Ivor Karzik" as a busboy. Karzik was reading their minds. Karzik of course, realised that Doctor Fate was onto him and threatened to expose him as a phony if he didn't back off. Reading the helpless frustration in Fate's mind, he was sure he was home-free. His next blackmail rendezvous was a trap set by Doctor Fate and the media swarmed as he was taken in. True to his word, he denounced Doctor Fate to the media, only to find to his frustration that he simply wasn't believed. After all, Doctor Fate had fooled "Mister Mind", so who had the greater mental powers? That Doctor Fate had just changed his mind after a chat with a mysterious woman simply wasn't interesting enough for his reporter-fans.

Re: Richest Man in the World Disease Probably not. A brief exposure isn't likely to do that much damage.

Re: Elementals as "Physical Manifestation" of a power It isn't, though. Because they don't take stun, their victims are going to have to actually get a point of BODY past their defense. If they do, then your water elementals will be scattered for a moment and then reform and continue to attack (assuming you continue to use the power).

Re: Richest Man in the World Disease If all my players wanted to be rich, then I'd treat it the same way as if they all wanted to be mutants or aliens. I'd say "Keen. A unified campaign theme". Even if it was just a majority, I'd try to suggest to the remainder that they consider being the "bodyguard/assistant" of one of the billionaires, or perhaps the love interest of one of them.

Re: World at War: Ragnarok! Ah but what you don't realise is that Loki is the good guy. Baldur was so popular with the Aesir that Odin grew to fear for his throne. Meanwhile Loki was just kind of an annoying pain. So Odin figured he'd kill two birds with one stone and frame Loki for Baldur's murder by setting things up so it looked like one of Loki's practical jokes gone awry. Now Loki wants to start Ragnarok, because only that way can Odin be brought to justice and Baldur brought back to life... What? OK, never mind. Yes the answer is presumably that either the prophecy isn't set in stone, or can be gamed. And after being tortured for however many centuries, well he's just got a bone to pick with Asgard.

Re: Genocide The GM. Or in the case of the Marvel Universe they're emulating with this kind of plotline, the writers. In the Marvel Universe, every "mutant" has a particular brainwave pattern, and a distinctive change to their genetic structure that causes this, and which all of them hold in common. Anyone who has this power will develop superpowers. The specific powers they manifest however are determined by how that particular genetic complex interacts with the rest of their genetic structure. Other people, even other superpowered people do not have this. If you decide to include the Distinctive Feature "Detects as Mutant" in your game universe, you have already decided to go this route. In the Marvel Universe they did. The chaos was considerable until Doctor Strange rounded up all the copies and wiped everyone's memories of it. That's the reason why Doc acts to keep magic a secret. You see, magic there is like the violin. It's an easy instrument to play...badly. People with a particular aptitude for magic are often sought out by various forces and individuals looking for a valuable ally, tool, or threat, but everyone can do it, at least a little. The difference between Doctor Strange and the inept teenagers holding a seance to summon wandering spirits is one of degree, not kind. In the Champions Universe of course, while everyone possesses magic aptitude to one degree or another, whether they can actually put it to any measurable use, depends on how much magic there is to use and whether or not they've receive any training. But fundamentally ordinary zhlubs can sign on with Demon and go through the training, and while they'll never make a Morbane, they may end up being able to learn a few weak tricks, as long that is, as the background magic count is strong enough. Of course, if there is no such distinctive feature, then they'll just go by "common sense". Smart people who invent gadgets will only be thought to be mutants if their heads are exceptionally bulgy. People who have deviations from the norm that are not disfiguring or particularly advantageous get a pass.

Re: Genocide WHen I said "a particular difference" I didn't mean "just any old difference". They would pick on a specific genetic trait associated with the spontaneous development of superpowers in humans because that's what scares them. In the Marvel Universe and the Champions Universe both, all (or nearly all) humans _can_ use magic. Some characters may have a mutant power that lets them use magic without training, and those characters would qualify, but the others wouldn't. Assuming that is, that the mutant hunters were even aware of magic.

Re: Howto: A Body Of Force Fields?

Re: Genocide The answer is no. Aliens would not make the list and neither would magicians or people who just have high IQs. The test would be for some particular kind of genetic deviance from the human norm.

Re: The compressed timeline I didn't care about being off reality, but Presidential elections really should occur at standardised intervals, so I'm grateful it was pointed out.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) This time I'll give the nod to Whitewings. His Scarecrow is interesting and unconventional, and actually does stuff. Sadly I can't rep him again so soon, but it is up to him to pick the next name.

Re: The compressed timeline OK, I edited it a bit. However I thought it obvious that Nixon was re-elected by the fact that I referred to it as his second term.

Re: My Champions Universe Timeline. They were located in mountains on Earth in 616 continuity until Black Bolt leveled the city (I think) and they relocated to the moon.

Re: The Ultimate WWYCD: Ninja or Pirate!

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) The next name is: Scarecrow

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Yuri Zhulianov was the Russian army's top competitive boxer when he was tapped in 1942 to wear a costume for the Motherland. The Americans, the British and the Germans all had "superheroes" and the Americans were even sending a team on a mission to assist Russian war efforts. Obviously, even though they needed the help, it would be embarassing for the Soviet Union to look as though it could muster no "heroes" of it's own but instead must rely on foreigners, so they issued Yuri a costume and one of those tediously long-winded "Patriotic Defender of Socialist Consciousness" titles in order to assign him to meet, be photographed with, and work with the American heroes. The western media however, dubbed him the Red Tornado instead. It was shorter and more exciting. Yuri died in action and after the war was over, the only hero of the republic that Stalin wanted remembered was Stalin. But time passed, Stalin was gone and by the seventies Yuri's granddaughter was an engineer for the state in charge of evaluating and applying the latest in stolen American power armour technology. The Russians had of course built their own suits of armour, but they were hulking clumsy things that were no match for the more sophisticated American power armour hero who was the cutting edge. So she built a suit using his technology, custom designed for a small Olympic gymnast...her sister, Anya. Russia now would have a power armour hero even more agile than the American, beating him at his own speciality. Everyone else in Russia had forgotten Yuri, but the story of his heroism had been passed down in his family, and in his honour Russia's new hero would be named after him. A new Red Tornado was sent into action.

Re: The compressed timeline Absolutely. Mind you, things that didn't happen in Marvel comics need not necessarily have happened at all. In the Marvel Universe, 9/11 is a fairly routine supervillainous scheme only notable for it's unusual success and low tech approach. When you've got the Red Skull around, it's safe to assume the development of terrorism gets a kick-start. Also of course the 1967 war happens in 1960. Oh probably. I was just playing around with Marvel's idea of compressed time, where somehow Jameson was old enough to read newspapers, maybe even a cub reporter, in World War II and yet he's a man in his sixties now. Why is that? Obviously because it isn't 2007. The presidents I mentioned appear because they got more than their fair share of attention from Marvel comics (which is why Eisenhower and Reagan are two term presidents, because Marvel really paid attention to them). Carter, Johnson Ford, Truman, the elder Bush get turfed because Marvel didn't seem to pay much attention to them. This is history roughly as someone who only knows about history from Marvel comics would reconstruct it. Although admittedly I have changed the reason why the Avengers broke up to suit my own wishful thinking. As for why the Avengers didn't stop it, that was something of a question in the 9/11 special too. Then again, so's why the Air Force didn't stop it. The only answer I can come up with in both cases is that they were deployed incorrectly. Mind you since the 9/11 special didn't mention anything about the Pentagon or White House flights if I recall correctly, maybe they did do something about them and they weren't in New York because they were in Washington.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Whitewing's entry is a very original use of the word but the character doesn't inspire any plot seeds for me. Nexus gets the nod and chooses the next name.

Re: Alignment Issues It isn't. You aren't being punished any more than you are punished for touching heated glass without knowing what it is. It's just something that you react negatively to. It makes you feel sick or it burns your hand or something.