zen_hydra

Re: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for 2008 How about Richard Mayhew from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere? ...or for a woman character, Door, also from Neverwhere.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINE: What Do *You* Want To See? Can we get an explanation why Mechanon doesn't just constantly crank out multiple, active copies of himself? Since it is clear that he has the ability to rebuild himself after being destroyed, why does he favor only one active "self"? I would also like to see a modular version of Mechanon with a series of modules to connect to various hard-points on his basic chassis.

Re: Ape Name Needed How about Steven?

Re: The artwork drives me nuts I will be very sad if I have to wait for Champions/Hero to change ownership again before the production quality goes up. I was very impressed with the 5ed books when they first came out. Unfortunately, it seems that there has been a steady degradation of the art quality ever since then. Perhaps this is just another sign of the forthcoming tabletop-rpg apocalypse.

Re: The artwork drives me nuts While it may seem superficial, I have to admit that art does have a bearing in whether I buy a product, or not. Champions is a comic book themed RPG. Comics are a largely visual medium. In my opinion, the art is just as important a part of character concept as the game stats are. I can go out and find a picture somewhere else to represent a character with bad book art, but it will never perfectly fit the original character concept. Also, I don't think that I should have to buy a book, and then jump through hoops to find an appropriate image for all of the characters in that book. I am more than willing to pay more for a book that has good quality art. As it currently stands, I still feel burned by Predators (for DC). As much as I have been tempted, I have stayed away from buying any new Hero Games products solely because of the terrible art. I may be in the minority, but art very much matters to me.

Check this out. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/03/07/captain.america/index.html What will Marvel do to screw up the next incarnation of Captain America?

Re: Don't have it yet In the original DC (which was essentially a genre book) the Harbinger was included as an example of a very powerful (point-wise) street-level character, and he was pretty much the iconic Dark Champions vigilante.

Re: Don't have it yet No, Harbinger of Justice!!!??!!!

The lucky bastards that I call friends, just went to Gencon. While they were there the picked me up copies of the UNTIL Superpowers Database (because I am an intrinsically lazy person), and Dark Champions (because I really loved the last edition of it). Can someone let me know what vigilantes and villains are detailed within DC (especially brand new ones)? Please?????

I can't help but completely dismiss the idea of running anything approaching a 4 Color campaign anymore. I just can't reconcile vigilantes and especially villains using massive, godlike powers that cause huge amounts of collateral damage and never intentionally killing anyone. Maybe I have become jaded by the real world over the years, but that kind of naivety just doesn't inspire me at all anymore. So I ask this.... Does the new version of DC cover more than street level heroes? Would it be a good resource to play a more Aberrant style game? I want the cold hard viciousness of the "real" world plus godlike powers.

I have never seen any mention of the fates of the Asgardian goddesses. They are never mentioned in any of the mythology regarding Ragnarok so it is possible that they survive. Though I would guess that Sif and Hel, at least, would have been in the fighting, and are therefore probably killed.

How to you make a missile immune to missile deflection/reflection? I want to make a non-AOE missile attack that can't be deflected/reflected. Any ideas?

That is seriously HARDCORE. I like sleep too much to ever do anything like that.

I like the camera idea. How about camera/radio transmitters that send a constant scrambled feed to him from his teammates as well as any other units he has tactically placed, and this info is displayed through a HUD with possibly an onboard computer for analysis? He could be a master at coordinating attacks (especially with a computer's tactical analysis) Perhaps an array of traps/mines to allow him to control the battlefield even more.

Thanks, I was wondering how I could recreate Dio's "The World" stand ability from Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure.

I think just expanding out Binder's Glue Gun in a manner like that of Spiderman's web-spinning versatility could go a long way in making Binder a better villain. Also, an array of gadgets (glue themed, or not) would be an improvement.

I wish that I was in a position where I could just be a player. Alas, if there is to be a game at all with my current group, I will have to run it. I only recently moved here to San Antonio, and haven't been able to round up any players experienced enough to GM a Champions game (or any game for that matter). Another problem is that my group of players is lacking in type A personalities (at least while playing), so I feel like I am always having to push the scenes along. No one really takes the initiative to act, plan, or do mutch of anything without some degree of prompting. It's a very frustrating situation.

Thanks for all the great advice. I think you are all pretty much right. I have talked with my players, and instead of an intense, in-depth storyline where there is background, and defined motivation for everything, we are going to just play in a generic comic book setting with an established precedent for people to dress up in spandex and act in a melodramatic fashion. Instead of beating my brain to try and make the team a newly established taskforce for the Dep. of Homeland Defense (with all of the politics and bureaucracy), we will just be another X Men type super team with no motivation other than stopping the super-threats because no one else can. Maybe after falling back on the common conventions of the superhero/comic genre I can get my "juice" back. Again, thanks for all the encouragement.

Greetings, I am suffering from a problem, and hope that one of you can give me some advice. Here is the situation. Though I have been playing RPG's for many, many years, in the last couple of them work, school, and circumstance have kept me from playing. I (like many) am a bibliophile, and I have always been someone to buy new games, and supplements whenever I can, and I love to pass my idle hours away working on material for various campaigns I intend to run "one of these days." So, recently I find myself in a position to run a game of Champions, and I have worked up a game setting with all sorts of details and NPC's, but when we play I find that the old inspiration is all gone. I can't find the proper motivation to deliver anything more than the flattest, most uninspired lines of dialog. I find that I am unable/unwilling to lead the PC's through transitional scenes, and mundane minutia. I am unhappy with this situation, but don't know how to fix it. I feel like I am out of inspiration, and/or my imagination has left me for someone else. So, has anyone experienced a problem like this, and if so how did you get out of the slump?

"Well, we play in Northern Virginia (DC 'burbs), so we're Team NOVA, which seemed darn appropriate until I thought I saw a Nova team in the Champions book. I also saw somewhere a deeply disturbing reference to a character named "Tesseract", which until then I thought was an incredibly inventive and unique name for my character. I too had a character named Tesseract, thought I was quite clever, and was subsequently disappointed when I saw the CKC character.

"You see? It's this kind of ignorance. He can not only breath under water... he could move, sense, and act normally on the ocean floor... that's a lot of pressure... that's a lot of weight. Actually, he was faster and stronger than most with all that resistance... take that away (put him on the surface) and it's a world of difference - superhuman across the spectrum. And you criticize the name? Come on. It perfectly fit the naming conventions of multiple decades." I am sure that the big, seahorse riding, moron would be happy to know that he had such staunch defenders. Ok, can someone please clue me in on what the mighty Aquaman's real name was/is?

Give me a break!!!!! Come on! Your talking about a hero named Aquaman. All hail Aquaman King of the Seven Seas! What an uninspired name. What an uninspired character. He can swim. He can breathe underwater. He can...talk to fish. Sorry, I have even more of a problem with this guy then I do with the Greek chick in a US flag costume.

I am dismayed at the obnoxiously Euro-centric views of magic being displayed. Magic as an institution for good has been, and in many places, is still practiced around the world. Magic has always been more about trying to better control / influence ones environment and very rarely about consorting with evil spirits just for the hell-of-it. Would someone please explain to me the overt evil nature of Taoist magic, or Tribal African magic, Shintoist magic, Native American magic, Australian Aboriginal magic, and these are but a very few examples of the worlds magical traditions? How can anyone be arrogant enough to make a sweeping comment about how magic is intrinsically based in evil?