Shigeru

Re: Martial Arts Resources by Stephen Barnes The Aubry Knight series: Street Lethal (1983) Gorgon Child (1989) Firedance (1993) I've read the first book. The main character is a martial artist and the story revolves around him.

Re: Live Free or Game Thanks for picking this up, Beetle (both the GMing and the updating). I've been a total slacker. Then again, journalism was never my gig.

Re: Super "Chi" powers? Chi-Push : HA with Double knockback and Reduced Penetration Atemi Attack : Entangle, transparent to attacks (probably some other good disadvantages to throw onto this one) I used those extensively on my old martial artist PC.

Re: Ninja Hero - Samurai vs. Ninja blood bath I am eagerly awaiting your summary of the first game. I never had any luck with large-scale HERO Games battles. But I could play a jidai-geki or Sengoku-0style game any time, any place. So I am envious, but really happy for you. Good luck. Some of my favorite locations for battles were fondly named "murder in the hot springs" and "battle of the crossroads".

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Pretty sure she'd have made it into mine.

Re: London Knights Well, the London Knights are a hockey team. So it wasn't I that set the precedent. Its the stealing stealer who stole the name. Good name and all, I was just checking to see if it were an homage or a rip. ;-)

Re: London Knights Is that London, Ontario? Like the hockey team?

Re: Champions Online - Server Names What he said. lol

Re: DC ruleset used for modern (non costumed) gaming? "Action Hero"

Re: Hero Rokugan. Ooh. This sounds cool. I want to hear details of your game, sir.

Re: Live Free or Game OK, after a log hiatus I'm going to post my best recollection of events: Episode 3b : Subway Showdown When last we left our intrepid heroes, they had started to work on the mysterious "wolfman" killings. With no real leads, the heroes patrol the streets and skies near the sites of the previous kilings. Sentry spots a van with some shady looking characters in it parked outside of a subway station and decides to investigate. Aurora is called on her cell phone (hey, heroes on a budget) and she arrives promptly. The heroines follow the trenchoated figures into the subway and watch as they have close and animated conversations with the subway patrons, many of whom leave the station. But when one of the patrons, an older man, starts a fight with the thugs, the duo decide to take action. As soon as they close in, they also see...coming down the suibway tracks...a "wolfman" that goes by the name of Fenris. Aurora flies over to take him on while Sentry begins dispatching the agents rather handily with sidekicks and batons upside the noggin. While Aurora is seemingly having it easy ("poor" Fenris can't hurt this young woman), from the other end of the subway comes the mechanical sound of an armored hulk. Sentry surely groans as she recognizes the pattern of fotsteps to be her old nemesis...Ankylosaur. Ankylosaur makes his presence felt with the mighty thumping of his grenade-launcher tail. Sentry just missed the projectile with her baton, swinging for the bleachers and just catching a piece of it. The resulting explosion sends Sentry flying...and recovering. Aurora grabs Fenris on a bear hug and squeeze him into unconsciousness (soon to become a signature move). Then Ankylosaur starts in with Aurora and its a pitched fight, as they are both very tough and can take a boatload of punishment. They trade blows (and grenades) until Sentry comes back for more and Ankylosaur recognizes his tough position. He drops a smoke grenade on the groups and barrells his was down the subway station to freedom. The two heroes take Fenris to the east coast stronghold facility and also speak with John Barkley, who is excited to announce to the press that the "werewolf killer" has been apprehended. The thugs, it turns out, are undercover VIPER agents...and the plot begins to thicken like a thick thickener. Episode 4a : Call Me a Doctor ((This was actually part two of session three. Its was a very productive time, though Bladedancer's player wasn't there. The trio finally appear in full in episode 4, though they still don't have a name. RIght now they are operating as an UNTIL Strike Tem for the most part, though Bladedancer doesn't really have or want any lasting affiliations with them. THe next Episode is another two-parter because it furthers both the "werewolf killer"/VIPER plot and the Nanomancer plot. SOme subplots also start to arise that the players may or may not be aware of...))

Re: Live Free or Game I am totally unreliable. SOrry. I will post this weekend.

Re: Live Free or Game OK. I am bumping this because I haven't updated it and we've played a few sessiosn since. I will update this week.

Re: Live Free or Game Episode 3a : Search and Rescue After the terrible events of the Museum Massacre, Sentry rededicates herself to the heroic ideal and starts the investigation into the whereabouts of John Barkley of UNTIL. Things are not easy, as all non-UNTIL personnel have been locked out of UNTIL's local offices until the crisis has passed. Also, Blade Dancer is nowhere to be found. She investigates those scientists who worked with Nanomancer while he was still a promising student at MIT. She is led to Harvard, where the current professor of robotic sciences was also in the group of scientists that Maximilian McMurdoch (aka Nanomancer) associated with at MIT. Sentry goes to Harvard to question the professor but waits for him to finish his class. Little does she know that attending that class is s new student named Mandy Aarons, the alter ego of the brand new superheroine Aurora. Mandy listens to the questions Sentry asks the proifessor and takes a special interest as she has seen Sentry on television and knows she worked with UNTIL. ((Mandy Aarons, Aurora, is a flying brick who is being groomed by UNTIL to be a part of their United States East Coast superteam. Her ability to fly into space, as well as her superhuman strength and reflexes, make her a most valuable asset. She and her family trelocated to Boston when Many was accepted into HArvard. She suspects UNTIL pulled some strings to get her in, but not because she isn't smart and capable...)) As Sentry leaved the school, Aurora catches her and volunteers her assistance in finding the missing John Barkley. THey have some new information on the villain, but nothing solid. THe two heroines hear on a radio broadcast thatthe recently arrested Amber BLaze wants to make a plea deal. He has information on both the whereabouts of John Barkley as well as the plans of Nanomancer. The heroes go to Stronghold and interview the villain, who tells them where to find Barkley...in the hopes that peopel will listen to his information on Nanomancer and set him free (or lessen his sentence, at least). Sentry manages to disable the secutiry on the warehouse and unlock the door, but when she does they hear the ominous hum of electrical power... The warehouse is wall-to-wall mirrors, a suitable combat zone for Narcissa, and the trappings fo a robotics lab are present. WHat is also present is a very large Jacob's Ladder, with the bound and gagged John Barkley tied between the two electrified poles. The sparks of electricity sre forming at the bottom of the poles and it is only seconds before Barkley becomes a toasty, conductive carbon-based material. Oh, also in the warehouse are a suprised Narcissa and a gruff-looking bodyguard of sorts who's would later be revealed as Deathwish, mercenary assassin. Hilarity ensues. Aurora's flight and stregth allow her to rescue the helpless UNTIL agent from certain doom, while Narcissa shots a command to Sentry to "attack that ugly girl" (GM's note : Aurora has the highest COM around....besides Narcissa).The classic mind-controlled superheroine sidekicks her new partner. In short order, however, Sentry breaks free form her control and the two heroes team up to defeat the heroes. Deathwish, a superb martial artist, holds his own against the mighty Aurora but has second thoughts when he sees Narcissa fall to Sentry's billy club. WHen he turns tail to try to escape, Aurora grabs him and squeezes the breath out of him. PRIMUS arrives a little late to the game (PRIMUS is a n arrogant pack of cowboys in my game. As Beetle likes to say, "VIPER with badges") and takes the villains off to Stronghold. Sentry warns the PRIMUS agents that Narcissa can teleport through any reflective surfaceand they need to be prepared for that. Do you think they were prepared? John Barkley is immensely thankful and opens his office to them once again. He tells them he's going to start looking for a headquarters for the team (which may or may not include the as-yet unconfirmed Blade Dancer) andwants them to start working on the mysterious "wolfman" case that resulted in two mutilations over the past ten days. Barkley himself will do some looking into the information gleaned from the villainous warehouse (whipping manifests, invoices, etc that define a few overseas manufacturing plants that made deliveries to the warehouse). Our next episode : Subway Showdown ((BLade Dancer's player couldn't be here, so we went ahead with two heroes once more. THere was some more variety with the new player, but three players will make a world of difference. I had some GM guilt for throwing a mentalist into the mix, but Aurora had some mental defense (at my suggestion) and I was liberal with the breakout rolls so as not to create a totaly unfair environment for the PCs. I forestalled the "final engagement" with Nanomancer because I wanted to have all the players there. Instead, we played out the Subway Showdown encounter, which I planned to run after the first episode comncluded. All-in-all, it was a good session, with a new player being introduced that gave the game a new look.)) Here's a picture of Deathwish, who was once a character of mine. He actually makes a better villain than a hero, even if I had to change some of his disadvantages to make him a little more unsavory.

Re: martial Arts Comedies I liked Kung Fu Hustle as much as Shaolin Soccer. For the oldschool, I say go with The Big Brawl. I remember likeing it quite a lot and its got soem classic Jackie Chan comic moments.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Diary of the Dead. It was good, but the "film within a film" angle, a-la Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast is worn the heck out.

Re: Live Free or Game Sorry folks. Lets try this again... Narcissa, Amber Blaze, Nanomancer.

Re: Live Free or Game We played our third session this weekend and I'll get around to summarizing as best I can in the next couple of days. To tide you over...I have pics of the villains...here they are. Narcissa, Amber Blaze and Nanomancer

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Yeah, I stopped cold around that time, too. Working on the last DVD for the first season of X-Files right now, then its on to season 2. Also, Olympics. How can you not watch at least some of it? Watched all of the women's all-around gymnastics. Amazing stuff.

Re: Famous People Super Heros Michael Phelps - Aquaman

Re: Live Free or Game (Here is the second alf of that second session. Sorry for the long-winded post. That's just how it came out of me. Anybody want to do some free editing ) When last we left our heroes, they had defeated the supervillain Amber Blaze in a public display. But he was rescued by a second supervillain...a lovely lady with unknown powers. Who is she? How does she know Amber Blaze and what do they want? Let’s hope the heroes find out the right way! Today’s episode: “Museum Massacre” Fresh from a successful public battle, the heroes return to their “normal lives”. Sentry resides in an apartment paid for by taxpayers through the witness protection program. Blade Dancer stays in a nice house in the suburbs. Life is good. Both heroes are later called back to UNTIL labs where they are shown some footage of their last confrontation. The video footage is analyzed and a couple of items surface. First, the female super that helped Amber Blaze escape is a relatively new supervillain names Narcissa. As expected, her powers center around mirrors and reflections, but nobody knows more than that. Second, the film reveals a strange phenomenon. There’s a swarm of bugs flying around the battlefield. Damned peculiar, until the video is enhanced to reveal that they are not bugs at all, but micro-robots, some no larger than a fly! Curiouser and curiouser! Sentry, now back at home, decides to secretly check in with one of her contacts from the “old days” on the west coast, the high-tech supervillain Bluejay. Turns out she’s heard of the roboticist that created the microchips from the first encounter at the bank. And as it happens, he had a nephew who continued his work in nanorobotics as well as took over his estate! Maximillian McMurdoch. He was working at MIT on an experiment that could channel power into an electromagnetic wave that allowed for the control of any and all electronic devices in its range...until he decided to control some military devices. He was never able to complete the device because his funding was cut and he was forcibly removed from the school. The heroes soon learn that the Boston Museum of Science is having an exhibit of an electromagnetic power converter remarkably similar to McMurdoch’s designs. (Plot convenience playhouse presents...instant adventure!) The Chinese have completed it and are giving an exhibition at the museum on one day only. Fearing someone might attempt to steal the device, the heroes sign on as added security. Because the Chinese embassy will not allow UNTIL to act as security, they are forced to watch from the sidelines (i.e. a van with assault agents outside) while the heroes take on the security task alone. So the heroes wait and watch various scientists, students and technogeeks filter in and the five Chinese scientists set up the large (a globe about 6 feet around) converter. Once the display begins, the heroes begin to realize how powerful this device could be as their radios are out of their own control and are used in a sing-songy display of beeps and buzzes in concert with the phones, blackberries and other gadgets of the on looking crowd. And then it comes. A hole is blasted into the domed room and in flies two powered-armor villains: Amber Blaze and, presumably, McMurdoch himself...styling himself the Nanomancer. The villains intimidate the crowd and the heroes spring into action. Blade Dancer exchanges with Nanomancer and Sentry tussles with Amber Blaze. But only moments into the encounter, something unexpected happens. Sentry tosses a flash pellet at Amber Blaze and, in a moment of déjà vu, blinds him soundly. She comes out with a witty quip (which I should be shot for not remembering, but I was trying to think a step or two ahead) and Amber Blaze screams in anger. Amber Blaze, a gloryhound and simple but dangerous egomaniac, has a problem with being embarrassed. In this case, the fact that he fell for the same attack in two separate encounters, and was taunted...was enough top set off his Berserk. Amber Blaze fires an arc of flame at Sentry but misses her, instead burning the flesh from an as-yet-unidentified onlooker, killing him (or her) instantly. Sentry, who begins to have terrible flashbacks to her days of super villainy, has her Code Versus Killing kick in mightily and leaps towards Amber Blaze. She hits him repeatedly with her billy club, the two of them crashing through the wall and sending Amber Blaze into the Charles River behind the facility. Meanwhile, Nanomancer proceeds to pick up the Device and carry it out of the museum, despite the attempts by Blade Dancer to stop him (he is a minor master villain, after all). He manages to escape, but Blade Dancer watches some nanobots fall dead as they swarm in to deflect a watery blast headed his way. Blade Dancer collects the defunct nanobots. Back in the river, the mysterious Narcissa rises from the reflective water and threatens to take Amber Blaze away again...but when Sentry threatens her, she decides to leave Amber Blaze to his fate and escape alone. Sentry unplugs Amber Blaze’s power supply and sits on him. UNTIL and PRIMUS arrive on site to investigate. Sentry is down on herself and Blade Dancer helps PRIMUS load his brother into their hover van for transport to Stronghold. He tells them that his brother needs his power supply in order to regulate his circulatory system (*cough* Iron Man rip-off cough) and they agree. Amber Blaze looks shocked to have killed somebody, but is also seething at being defeated yet again. Back at the Museum, TV cameras and Leslie Chung are back on the scene asking questions, but UNTIL manages to keep them off the heroes for now. While Sentry’s psyche looks for solace after someone died on her watch, Blade Dancer contemplates just what it means to have your brother arrested...when you have a secret identity... But during all of this, Narcissa manages to kidnap Sentry’s UNTIL watchdog, John Barkley, out from under their noses. Did she get the last laugh after all? And Nanomancer escaped with the electromagnetic power converter. What will he do with it? What will happen to UNTIL’s John Barkley? Will Blade Dancer’s identity be revealed with Amber Blaze in Stronghold? Will Sentry be able to live with the death of an innocent? Tune in next time to find out!

Re: How flawed is your Super? I have an interestign thing going on in my Hero Central game. All the PCs are presently VIPER agents, but none of them have that outright villainous nature about them. They are generally products of bad luck, scheming and a lack of opportunities. The intention os for all the agents to undergo a "radiation accident" which will give them powers. As soon as they have powers, a world of change opens up before them. But I wonder how far gone some PCs will be intot their current psyche that being "heroic" will be a lot more difficult than being selfish? THat's going to be interestign to play out. The game was originally intended to be as 4-color as I coddl make it, but its just not possible given the many variances in characterizations and motives and the fact that a turn from bad-to-good has to come with yet more emotional turmoil to make them distrust others. Its a scary sort of idealogical Darwinism and while its fun, its also goign to get very crazy. And I'm going to throw superpowers on it, to boot.

Re: Custom Figures Images THose are awesome. Especially like the buildings. You have a lot more gumption than I've got, it seems. I salute you.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The Gorgon , an old and not terribly good Hammer film, despite the casting of both Peter Cuishing and Christopher Lee. Dark City : The Director's Cut . I liked it betetr the first time and I am reminded why I haven't watching it since it was first released. Cool in some ways, but overwrought and sometimes nonsensical. I couldn't figure out how it was different from the first version.

Re: Live Free or Game (As it happens, we packed a lot into that second session. Here is a summary of the first half of that session:) Our next episode... "Amber Waves of Pain" Sentry goes back to her apartment and, while checking in with her UNTIL "watchdog", steals some time in their meager local lab. Blade Dancer, at his private company, comes up with the same information. They determine that the microchip taken from the robots in the bank heist are custom-built and bear the hallmark of a specific person. That person was a MIT graduate named Robert McMurdoch who died not too long ago, but not before he pioneered some work on nanotechnology and made millions in technology stocks... Everyone goes home and tries to work out what it all means, when there's a disturbance. The TV switches to a special report, where we see a being in powered armor, throwing flame at buildings and cars alike and clearing a path in the streets of Cambridge (again). He calls himself Amber Blaze and he's here to make a statement abotu who's the better man...and he calls out Blade Dancer to meet him in battle. Blade Dancer groans, gets into costume and drives his motorcycle to the scene. At this time, Sentry gets a call from her UNTIL contact. As it turns out, he's in one of the buildings that has caught fire and they can't get out because the first two floors are a flaming mess. "Seentryyyyy, come help meeeee! Oh, and these people too if you have the time..." And Sentry also dons her costume and makes the scene, leaping the rooftops all the way. Underneath the watchful eye of a TV News chopper, Amber Blaze proceeds to smoke Blade Dancer and gloat in front of the camera. (It must be said that they were fairly evenly matched, but I bear all the good-rolling karma this day). WHile Blade Dancer tries to nullify Amber Blaze's fire powers with his watery saber (unsuccesfully), Amber Blaze whallops him with an autofire flame blast. Being that his main objective is not the destruction of Blade Dancer, but the possession of his magic sword and the family birthright, he does not kick hinm while he's down. But Amber Blaze now has the family sword, the source of all Blade Dancer's powers! He's pretty happy about this and flies up to the rooftops to let the TV cameras get a better shot of him holding the sword (even if he doesn't yet know how to activate it). Meanwhile, Sentry has been evacuating people two at a time (she's nimble AND strong, that one) through the back door and onto the fire escape of the adjacent building. Just as she finishes, she hears the telltale exhale of a man who lost all the breath he thought was his. She bounds to the roof tops in time to see Amber Blaze gloat and tosses a flash pellet at him. Now it gets interesting. Blade Dancer has recovered enough to get a big gulp of air and stealthily hops to his feet and onto a lightpost. He swings to get momentum and plans to jump up to where Amber Blaze is hovering. Seeing her "partner's" plan, Sentry aims to time her own leap from the rooftop so that they will hit him together. But both are attempting a Disarm, because that guy just does not need a magic sword... Being that he is blinded, hitting Amber Blaze proves easy as pie. They add their Disarm strength together and boy did they need it (that powered armor IS powerful, after all). THe sword flies from the hot hands of Amber Blaze onto the pavement below. The two fighters scramble for the sword, but Sentry crushes the blind baddie with a side kick that propels him into a building. But Sentry also spies something awfully strange. A woman in super(villain?) getup flies through a windshield from within a car...but nobody noticed her before? Just before Blade Dancer, who has reacquired his weapon, can smite Amber Blaze, the supervillainess disappears back into the windshield of the car and reappears from a reflective stoorfront window, grabbing Amber Blaze and dragging him through the window pane into...where? THey have disappeared from the scene! WBZ TV's Leslie Chung interview the heroes after they help to douse the remaining fires. Sentry, the experienced adventurer, plays it cool for the cameras, and BLade Dancer eats it up. "So, Blade Dancer...why would Amber BLaze call you out? Do you have some history together?" "Well, yes. He's my brother." Dun, dun, duuuunnnnn. ...stay tuned for our next installment : "Museum Massacre"