David Johnston

Re: Help with Mental Power Do you want it to look like she's insubstantial, or is taking damage from the attacks?

Re: Military Size

Re: Hero Sysem 4, D&D, convert or not It's definitely a heck of a lot easier to convert D&D into Hero than vice versa.

Re: Looking at the Universe Timeline

Re: Ãœbermensch Nietchze was a philosopher. For him, the activities of "destruction" and "creation" were both intellectual processes because what is going on inside of your mind is much more important than what you actually really do. The Ubermensch would have no need to kidnap Lois and threaten the city with a death ray. The freedom N aspired after was the freedom to think the unthinkable thoughts free of the moral values instilled by societal pressure in general, especially religion. (Because he, like, totally had a mad on for religion.) But acting on those "unthinkable" thoughts, when they would surely cause the rest of society to be out to lock you up or kill you as result? N would point out that's just stupid.

Re: Looking at the Universe Timeline Would it be effective to group psis that way instead of just having one psi backed by conventional troops so he can give them information and they can keep him alive?

Re: WWYCD: Omelas

Re: Ãœbermensch Of course the Ubermensch that Nietzche actually had in mind was far less literally destructive than a supervillain. In fact, a vigilante superhero seems to be a lot closer to what he had in mind than the power crazed madmen attracted to his catchphrases.

Re: Question from a non-Hero player

Re: WWYCD: Omelas

Re: Looking at the Universe Timeline I'd be surprised to learn that mental powers are unavailable to humans during the Alien Wars to Federation period. After all they are very much a part of space opera, unlike the ability to shoot lightning bolts out of your nostrils or juggle buses while floating in midair.

Re: Difficulty reaching Super-Hero status Someone in a suit of power armour is a Brick. I'd go the other direction for a "primitive" suit of power armour actually. While I can't read those hero creator files, instead of increasing speed, I'd pile on the armour and make it oversized, durable, slow moving, and packing a heavy cannon. I'd also make sure that since the suit is so large and clunky, that the character inside is a kick *** heroic character in his or her right.

Re: Looking at the Universe Timeline Thinking about that... The reason why magic stops working is, let's say, because it comes from other universes like the heavens and hells for holy and infernal magic, and more neutral universes for the amoral magics. It's a kind of energy that just doesn't naturally exist in the default Champions Universe, but can be summoned into it when the barriers between the universes aren't very "thick". Now this whole "thin inter-universe barrier" rationalisation can be used for any of the conservation-law violating superpowers and super-gadgets. Instead of actually needing a power plant or consuming enough calories to fuel that energy blast or that superstrength, you just draw the energy out of some lower entropy universe where energy is free for the asking. That energy itself is still mundane energy without the peculiar semi-sentient nature of magic that responds to symbols and Word of Power but it still comes from other places with other rules. So in 2020, Earth's heros and villains have the big showdown with the Lords of Edom or such like extra-universal monstrosities. If they win, then powerful barriers are created to shut them out or cut them off from their power sources so they die or deactivate. The result is that the most powerful superhumans also lose contact with their power source and are suddenly depowered. This means that super-gadgeteers who build gadgets that no longer work weren't deluding themselves at all any more than someone who builds an automobile was deluding himself because later on petroleum ran out. But the cosmic power dudes aren't relying on a foreign energy source. The energy they call on is native to their universe. So, they are unaffected.

Re: I need your opinion You wanna know the truth? For the Titan Guard I prefer scary giant robots inspired by Sentinels.

Re: Alternative Superman Assuming that we are talking about a Superman making his debut in 1938, it's very possible that he'd resort to a full face mask and gloves to conceal his skin colour to avoid doing more harm than good by creating public backlash. He'd only reveal his identity once he was well established as a national hero. And of course then the readers would gripe about the retcon.

Re: Presence attacks never work? Frankly that's true to life. I'm not really impressed by myself.

Re: Building a sensory-deprivation tank for a mentalist There's something else to consider. Being in a SD tank will give you defenses against physical attack.

Re: brainstorming Registered heroes could still have law enforcement agencies as hunteds/mildly punish.

Re: brainstorming That's a ferocious pace you're setting for yourself and your players if you are to make this work. I also think the players may find it frustrating to be playing in an historical game with a pretty much fixed future.

Re: Super Names Bloody Bones: (A monster from English folk tales) Crimson Alizarin: Fata Morgana: (Literally Italian for Morgan Lefay, but it means "a trick of the eye") Phreak Shock (the monkey): War Dove: Laser Nightsky (The name of a real cult leader) Lakwena ("Messenger" in one of the languages spoken in Uganda. The tutelary spirit of Alice Aum, aka Alice Lakwena, a rebel leader cum prophet in the 80s.) Schwarze Teufel ("Black Devil" in German) Ghost Wind Crimewave Netwraith. Dark Oracle Kinslayer

Re: Villain Slush Pile The Thing In the Night: Hard to kill, very stealthy anthropophagic monster that only attacks people in the dark when they are alone or in a couple.

Re: Cyberpunk / Dystopian Adventure Formulas Well, let's try this: The Bodyguards: Protect a person from assassination or abduction Slumming It: Find someone who has disappeared into the bottom level of society Frankenstein's Oops: A dangerous intelligent "monster" created by genetic or cybernetic means has escaped from it's creators and is roaming the streets. Information Wants To Be Free: Someone has discovered a terrifying secret and people want to kill them before they can reveal it. Who Are You?: All of a character's records have been removed or erased leaving them with a different or no official identity.

Re: Tattered Plot Threads Ordinarily I'd expect them to start searching the world for a way home, meaning that you are going to at least going to have to start by dangling d-hop techniques in front them and have them encounter menaces along the way. It would be bad roleplaying for them not to want to return to their DNPCs and homeworlds unless things had turned sour for them at home to the point where they had nothing left to return to. They won't start forging new lives for themselves until they are satisfied that there is no way home. One way to approach that is to make it a Sliders campaign once they get their hands on a means of dimensional travel as they search a near infinite multiverse for their home plane. This problem is why I recommended you just have the players be playing dimensional counterparts to "their" characters. It really is easier unless you want to run a d-hopping campaign.

Re: Fire portals No, you aren't. You're just trying to suppress the fire coming out of the portal. If you spray a fire extinguisher at him for example, you don't have to put out the entire plane, just the fire coming out of his interface. Of course with this particular character, the answer is simple. Just switch to another element. You might want to have switching forms take extra time, though.

Re: Eygptian Sorcerer spells? http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ema/index.htm The important thing to remember about Egyptian magic is that it is all about "hekau", the words of power. Essentially Egyptians believed that the gods could be compelled to perform services for you if you could _exactly_ pronounce or write their names and the words which gave them instructions. The curses on tombs are written there as much to actually invoke the fiends as they are to try to frighten off tomb robbers. We see a reflection of this in Doctor Strange where he would, for example, summon the Flames of the Faltine, the Faltine being supernatural beings who when correctly invoked must lend some of their power to the invoking magician, regardless of whether they approve of him or what he's doing, although it can be dangerous for Strange to repeatedly call upon a hostile being's powers. It is because of this Egyptian belief that the hebrews forbade any (except a priest) to "take the name of the Lord in vain". Attempts to coerce their god by speaking his true name were regarded as blasphemous. (Note that in Egyptian mythology, the gods actually grow afraid of the human power to coerce them with hekau and respond by sending Sekhmet, a Kali-like manifestion of Bast to wipe out all of humanity but think better of it before she quite finishes the job.) Thus a comic book version of an Egyptian spell might be something like "May the light of Horus strike thee" at which point a brilliant light would dazzle the target, or "may the spear of Horus strike thee" and a light special effect RKA attacks the victim. The best approach for inspiration is to look at a mythology website for names and portfolios and then come up with the kind of powers you give to that god if you were making it as a character, and invoke those powers with that god's name. Defense, magics however, typically would be placed upon an amulet, with the hekau actually engraved into stone, ideally semiprecious workable stone like lapis lazuli or carnelian. This gives the character ongoing protection against unexpected threats even if the character in question has the ability to cast the protection spell himself. And of course amulets were placed on mummies within their wrappings not merely to protect them and their soul, but also to complete the process of bringing them back from the dead. Just as you can call upon a god's power by speaking his name, you can also call upon gods (and in fact pretty much any living or dead creature) by making an image of them. That's the justification for the magically invoked card spirits in the Yugi-Oh cartoon. The theory is that those spirits really exist in a spiritual realm and the people playing the game, (if they have the requisite spiritual power) are actually invoking Whosisface when they play his card. It is for this reason that the hebrews also forbade the making of "graven images" to represent their deity. However a three dimensional image would be expected to have more power. So in a comic book version of Egyptian magic, you might expect to see a fair bit of people animating statues to fight on their behalf, or taking out little figurines made out of wax or stone to make them grow and fight. The Golem is an example of such a form of Egyptian magic passed down through Jewish forklore.