Captain Emu

Re: Superpowered Worlds I remember even the mighty Alien from the movies was put in its place in a few issues of Dark Horse's series. On their homeworld, they themselves had predators that kept them in check. One could imagine a planet of super-powered humanoids would have similarly and propotionately powerful wildlife, it too having had to evolve in the same environment.

Re: Superpowered Worlds I would say that the physical capabilities of a species aren't going to prevent them developing technologies. A lot of technology is developed as a "labor-saving" measure or to accomplish somethign they cannot do. If anything they'd develope things on a grander scale. If the average citizen can lift one-ton blocks of stone, might not every citizen live in some Cyclopian manor house? You also have to imagine that there is likely a reason that that race has those abilities - some environmental concern that caused its developement (though in comics this isn't always the case).

Re: Help with "Power Ring" type device Well, making a list of specific power limitations proved less difficult and so I just went that route. I do have a new problem. As I'm not too used to using variable power pools, how much would be too much when it comes to the Power Pool for a cosmic-level power pool?

Re: Help with "Power Ring" type device

Re: Help with "Power Ring" type device Well, being a long-time fan of the GL comics, I know that it goes a bit beyond what is portrayed in the cartoons. The rings can heal folks, create machinery to do things like stabilize the wounded, analysis equipment for doing forensics, and a hosto f others. Most of these seem to still be force constructs that simulate the effects of these machines, but they function the same none the less. I would agree that most of what the rings do seems to be force powers and energy manipulation, though. I have considered assigning a Skill Roll requirement determined by the active points of the power being used. This will help simulate the fact that the rings have a finite power limit, but the skill of the user determines what exactly he can accomplish with it.

So, working on a Cosmic game right now and designing a sort of Green Lantern Corps type group for my universe. To simulate the wide variety of abilities I am including a Variable Power Pool into the device they use (a suit of armor instead of a ring). I am having a hard time limiting the Power Pool in clear simple language. I don't want to do a laundry list of powers it can and can't do, because I want to preserve the "intuitive use" feel of the GL power ring. I do however, want to limit certain powers from being used under certain circumstances. For example: I would not want to allow Mind Scan or any other direct Mental power, but using the armor's powers to read the biological response to questioning as a form of biological Mind Scan lie detector would be acceptible. I realize that a good portion of this can be arbitrated by me, the GM, but I'd like players of these characters to have a good solid idea of what they can and cannot do up front. Any suggestions?

Hi all, Watching Avatar today and wondering if anyone has given this great cartoon the HERO treatment. I know that other cartoons such as Ben 10 have been given quite a bit of attention. I'd try to tackle it myself but feel I'm a bit too new to the system and don't have enough exposure to the show to make a good go of it.

Re: The First Just a note, Static Shock takes place in the DC universe. Dakota City has been visited by both Superman and Batman, as well as the Joker. Static has also appeared in episodes of the JLU.

Re: The First

Hello all, After watching the new Superman film (great flick btw), I had a thought about an interesting campaign in which the players or, even better, a player take on the role of the world's very first superheroes. I'm pretty sure it's been done before, though I can't for the life of me name any titles. Has anyone run such a game? Also, any good titles to check out for this particular theme?

Re: Pulp Horror Adventure Idea A bit of an update - First game went down alright. Character got ahold of the parcel and resisted the urge to look inside, especially after seeing what happened to the drifter. They did read the letter and got the connection between the parcel and a rich heiress in San Francisco. So it was off to the train. While on the train there was a dream sequence in which the "soiled dove" wandered from the main coach cars onto a "mysterious" car at the rear of the train. While there she was treated to a rather surreal scene with a table where animals were playing poker and were making their bets with human finger bones. At the head of the table was a large rattlesnake (with hands, but hey, it was a dream). The dream culminated in an eye to eye meeting of gazes between the soiled dove and the snake man against a backdrop of tribal drums. She was roused from the dream by the haulting of the train. The players decided to take a bit of a stroll in the night air as the train took on supplies and fuel, being cautious of several "colorful" character millign about the station as well as a small group of ragged and rowdy Army troopers who had made a few incidental appearances on the train. Just as the players (and their characters) had had time to settle themselves after the exposition of the dream there was a shirek from the sky and the sound of flapping as the thing that had sprung from the stranger body back in the mountains came diving out of the dark. Terrified and a bit under-gunned to deal with this fiend, the girls (the PCs) retreated toward the train. The Army troopers came to their rescue and there was a bit of a rowsing fight scene as the train pulled away, leaving the hapless troopers to their fate. The PCs got away as one burley Sergeant spattered mos of the creature's head with a shotgun just as the last of his life drained from him. We had to end the session there, but it seemed a good place to end as the train chugged into the night, leaving the characters shaken and the players a bit rattled.

Re: Ben 10 (again!) And at least in this case the addition of new forms is in character for the show. It's not like they set up that it definitely only did 10 forms. That was just the jumping off point.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff You'll forgive me. Though I have spent many years intrigued by the mythos, I have not spent much time hunting it down and only recently have I been interested in running it as a game, and only then at the request of my players. I'll have to go hunting again. Maybe I can pick some up cheap at the local discount book store.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff Here is the link to Ithaqua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaqua Looks like a name change is in order. Too close. Considering it was written off the cuff at work, I think the name is a minor issue. I'll just have to change it.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff I do know that and haven't had read much of any of the actual literature. I seem to have a hard time finding good printings of it.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff I am not sure. Wow, if I stumbled on that name by accident, I might need to check for squid infestation. I honestly have had little exposure to Lovecraft's actual works.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff Thought I'd post an idea for something "Mythos-esque" that came to me at work. It's just sort of a seed. What I will do with ito, or what other might do with it, I am not sure. But sometimes the idle prattlings of a bored mind are worth a sniff. Let me know what you think.

Re: Ben 10 (again!)

Re: New Game "The Unremarkables" - Advice Sought As for power-level and background, yes. The Unremarkables "theme" is sort of a fine line. None of the characters has an identifiable source for their abilities. Medically they are quite normal (Even in the case of "Mr. Dead" who's medically, quite, normally DEAD). Unfortunately, the game is full right now, but it it takes off, I might run a second game next to the other. I also, may start inviting "Guest GMs".

Re: Pulp Horror Adventure Idea I have to say that I like the feel of the Mythos and have always felt a little hemmed in by trying to stick to the published beasties. The genre has so much to offer, and I'm sure if anyone was actively writing/publishing in this genre we'd have seen a slew of new creatures. The plot pretty much develops with the parcel being an idol with a strange power - it slowly leeches power from other realms into the space immediately around it thus it can corrupt things in our world with enough exposure or even allow lesser creatures to slip between worlds. The cloth it's wrapped in is actually a piece of blessed cloth that shields it. The stranger had made the mistake of tampering with the shroud. I like the idea of it being Yig, that would work well with the Southwestern setting and then I can send the heroes into the New Mexico desert and have some trippy American Indian shaman NPCs and such. Also planning on a brief encounter with some Chinese NPCs while in SF, perhaps a grungy shop for some exposition.

Re: Pulp Horror Adventure Idea Wow, That is a lot of stuff. I have to say that my knowledge of the Mythos is a bit pathetic. I am more familiar with the theme and tone of the genre than actual names and such. You have given me some serious food for thought, Midas. The current game is designed as an intro. The characters are entangled in a plot by powers most mortal who wish to use the powers of the GOO for their own purposes. This allows me to ease them into the setting and also keeps the badguys on the lower level for now. I can build from here into any direction.

Re: Lovecraft Stuff Oh, please do.

Re: Pulp Horror Adventure Idea The plan is for the creature to show up later. The paranoia should be built by the fact that the thing doesn't bother to fight or anything, but goes off like it has better things to do. The overall story includes a scene on a train ride to SF with an encounter with more mythos denizens and the discovery of a conspiracy against a wealthy debutante in the city.

Hello all, Thanks again to everyone who helped with the Cthulu stuff a bit back. Since then I have formulated an outline for the openign game. My players (my wife and her sister) have decided they wanted to play a sort of Old West Pulp Horror setting. The characters are both female, and interesting set of problems in such a setting in itself. One of them is a sort of con-artist who maquerades as a soiled dove. The other is a lady cowboy, a sort of rough and tumble "I'm as good as the the boys" sort. Anyhow, my idea for the first adventure and how to get them into the mythos is to use the old "mysterious gift" idea with a bit of a twist. The game opens with them travelling by stage coach when the coach colides with a stranger who stumbles from the treeline and is killed. The man looks to be afflicted with some sort of disfiguring pox, but none that any can identify. On the man they find a strange parcel that is bound in ancient cloth and chained closed. There is a letter with it, addressed to a man in San Fran. The body is loaded to the top of the coach at the insistance of of an NPC preacher and the parcel is held onto by the same. The game continues until the coach lurches as somethign shifts up top. They stop the coach and climb atop to find the enshrouded corpse of the stranger is perhaps not dead - it moves. As they try to look closer, strange things happen and a creature emerges from within the corpse and flies off into the quiet of the night... This is just an intorduction. I have a series of outlined events in mind, but was curious what some of the other "mythos" players might have to auggest as posible routes to take this. I have to admit, this is my first time running anythign that uses the mythos specifcally.

Re: What kind of aliens? Also keep in mind how many other predatory primates we have in the fossil record or whether or not all our modern day primates were originally hunters or not. I think you can make a case for anything becoming sentient but the odds seem to favor predators because being a predator is hard and requires, in most cases, more up top than the grazers and herders.