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Re: Legion of Super-Pets Ever hear of Catherine the great?

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did "Blue Beetle" circa 1987-ish. I didn't really notice the "Booster Gold" book until it neared the end of it's run. "Starman" -the Will Payton character - Roger Stern and Tom Lyle at first - went 44 issues - gets no respect from DC today. "Young Justice" - yeah, it went 53 issues, but they still saw fit "Young Heroes in Love" "The Defenders/The Order" the mid-to-late-90s Larsen and Busiek run.

Re: The Funny Villains Hmm. Funny villains. In my campaign world... The Invincible - a (originally) low-level brick who went around wanting to prove he was the toughest strong man type out there, and regularly got his tuchas kicked. Later on he got a "super drug" and got beefed up physically, but still gets his tuchas kicked. Manifest Density - a gigantic, super heavy, villain. He's incredibly tough and strong, and really quite dangerous. If he was smarter he might be a real threat. But his name keeps people from taking him too seriously. Lightning Strong Man, a former low-level pro-wrestler who gained electrical powers and super strength. The real punch line was out-of-game though. When I was 4 or 5, I came up with a character called Lightning Man. When my brother was 4 or 5 (and I was 8 or 9) he came up with a character named Lightning Man. Not yet realising that every super-hero fan creates a hero called Lightning Man when they are 4 or 5, I got defensive about my creation. But I was willing to take a Jay-Barry approach to it. Matt, or course, has no recollection of my creation (he was too young), but didn't care for my attitude anyway. So he decided his character was also super strong and was Lightning Strong Man. So, a quarter century later, we're playing Champions, and I unleash my new LSM and watch Matt's face as the horror of our childhood silliness returned. Kristoffer Mordred's Son - one of my really, really big villains; he is the sorcerous son of the Arthurian character. His schtick is that he wants to plunge England into its darkness hour so his grandfather (Arthur) will return... and then Kris wants to kill him. It sounds nutty, but since he knows his parents really are Mordred and Moran le Fey (yeah, it's a really creepy family) it isn't that nutty. And I play him completely straight. The gag for my original players is that there was this dean that lived on campus who got on our nerves. His name was Christopher Moderson. Hydronaut II and Devilfish II - There were a couple of aquatic themed power suit villains: Hydronaut and Devilfish, created by two different GMs at different times. Not major players, but they appeared. Some years later, a third GM was running a game in Denver. He decided to use the two, together, to rob a bank. The GM's logic - they're still effectivly invulnerable and super-strong in the suits. I was like, but the getaway, their personalities, it's just... wrong for them. So, later on me and Savinien developped Hydronaut II and Devilfish II, the pair of thugs who stole the powersuits out of police impound while the originals were in jail. The originals will have to get new armour suits now. But Herb and Lester, between their devotion to one another, and their general goofiness, make them amusing. Prince Tubit - Earth was invaded by mercanary aliens in boob-trapped power suits. It turns out they were hired by an alien from yet a different race who was low-level loyalty who wanted to use the conquest of the Earth as a way to climb in his society's caste system. But to the heroes of Earth he was just another "Tubit, Alien Prince." I went 45 minutes just calling him "Prince Two-Bit" before I sprung the pun on my players... The Thunder Twins - a pair of super-strong, super mean bricks with a Corsican brother-type connection. To a player group that grew up on super friends, their nom de guerre causes a chuckle. Sadly, they're two of the meanest, casual killer, casual rapist villains on the planet. They really aren't at all funny, except for the name.

Re: Your personal comic book origins When I was 3 or 4 and still learning to read I discovered a "picture book" of my Dad's (already a mind blowing concept) called "The Great Comic Book Heroes" by a man named Jules Pfeiffer. The "picture book" portion were reprints of a bunch of old golden-age stories. The bright colours, the fantastic action, the fact that it was words and stories all contributed to my love of the stories (it also meant a guy born in 1968 had Jay Garrick, Jim Hammond, and Alan Scott as his first Flash, Human Torch, and Green Lantern.) Then I discovered that some of these characters were on TV: reruns of George Reeves, Adam&Burt, the old Marvel heroes cartoon, etc. When I was 5, and in the hospital, my dad got me my first comic book. It was an issue of "Batman." Had Man-Bat on the cover and in the lead-story (it was one of those 100 page books with 25 pages new and 70+ pages of reprints. A few years ago I found a copy of the issue and finally replaced the one I read to death as a child. I got other issues of "Batman" over the next year or two when I was sick or whatever. (I should note, my dad had been a comic book fan growing up, and even read some during his army stint - he tossed out his copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 when he got shipped out.) I watched Super Friends avidly. I watched PBS, and saw Spider-Man on the Electric Company. Christmas 1974, I received as a present, Justice League of America #110. (The one with a dead Santa on the cover - and my second GL was John Stewart.) There was a JSA reprint ("Plight of the nation") and a JLA reprint ("Z is for Zatanna and Zero Hour.") There was a group shot of the late-60s JSA including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and an adult Robin. I didn't know the multiverse yet. But I could handle stories being told at different characters at different times. And since my dad read Batman when he was a kid, of course Robin could be an adult. (Later I'd learn about the multiverse, and later DC would tell me I was right the first time.) An uncle had an good sized collection of comics (Marvel, DC, Archie) which I read when we went to grandma's house. he gave me a bunch of "Spidey Super Stories" comics too. Justice League of America #143 was the first comic I bought with my own money, I think. And an add for #144 told me I had to have that one (the origin of the JLA minus one.) Dad got me Teen Titans #47. I picked up JLA #150 (the Key! I remembered him from #110.) Went without anything new for a few years; I still was going through Uncle Russ' Avengers and Fantastic Fours when I could. Finally, I picked up the "Crisis on New Genesis" three parter. Then my brother (4 years my junior) asked for, and received a subscription to the "Star Wars" comic. It had never occurred to me to ask for subscription. Until then. My JLA subscription kicked in around JLA #193. And I started picking up the DC reprint digests. And then "The New Teen Titans" and "All-Star Squadron" started and I picked up a few of those, but then I discovered the comic book store two blocks away from my house and I was lost. And I got my dad collecting again too. Not sure which bugged my Mom more - Dad getting me started, or me getting dad restarted.

Re: Is Crimefighting Ethical? A true story about glasses disguising identities. It was winter of '87-'88, and we were into '88. The winter-spring semester had started. My on-campus job that year involved, among other things, delivering boxes of books (dropped off at the physical plant) to the campus bookstore. One day, I was doing this. On my way out, I noticed on the stairs a girl's glove. There hadn't been a lot of people in the bookstore, but I had noticed the O'Connell twins had gone in. I figured the glove was one of theirs, and since the glove was green I figured it belonged to the one with the green jacket. I went back, asked her if she was missing a glove, etc. and returned her glove to her. Now, at this point I was wearing an old army trenchcoat to keep warm, and a fedora. I also had my glasses on. Less than an hour later, I was sitting in a classroom, waiting for my 4 o'clock class to start. My hat and coat were off. And because I was resting a little, I'd removed my glasses. I was among the first to arrive (my boss dropped me off at the building as we made our rounds), so I'm kind of watching people come in. The O'Connell twins are in the class. They come in. They sit down, and as it happended, in the row in front of me. And this green glove drops out of a green jacket and its owner doesn't notice. I do. I bend down, pick up the glove, and return it, saying something about being more careful as this was the second time in an hour I found it on the ground. She looked at me with a blank stare. I say "At the bookstore, just a little while ago." She hadn't recognised me as the same person. And I wasn't trying to pass myself off as two people.

Re: Else Earth Naming Game... Microsoft

Re: Need Help with new power idea. If it's B, then I have to assume that the lower cost character is starting at fewer Base Points than his teammates. Therefore, he doesn't need a convoluted game mechanic. He just needs to slowly have his Base Points raised to match his teammates.

Re: Economics 101: Character Building in a Point-Based System I disagree with the "cannot be predicted" aspect. It cannot ALWAYS be predicted, but sometimes it can be predicted. The example I gave before about the campaign I joined recently is proof of it. Jim (the GM) and I successfully predicted that my level of skill as a player could allow me to overshadow the other much less experienced players. And we did let it influence the chargen process. We consciously diminished the character's potential. Markdoc and Zornwil are right. Equivilant points should mean equivilant potential. But having equivilant potential doesn't matter! A mature enough group of players will recognise that inequities exist in the source material. Henry Pym was not built on the same number of points as Thor. Aquaman wasn't built on the same number of points as Superman. Cyclops wasn't built on the same number of points as Logan. And the mature group will grasp onto those inequities, and use them something to role-play off of. The less mature group is the one that will want everything to be equal to avoid hurt feelings. So all the characters are built on the same number of points. And the hurt feelings happen ANYWAY! Which means the main reason for having all the points balance didn't happen. Now, are the points still useful for judging a characters potential? Yes. Are they useful as a tool for creating opponents? Yes. But as a tool to keep things balanced or fair? No. Or a simpler situation. A group of gamers games regularly. Six months after the game start, a new player comes in. Now, the fair thing is to have that new character start with the same potential the others did right? But, short of numerous no-shows, what will it take to actually get the new character truly equal to her new teammates?

Re: Economics 101: Character Building in a Point-Based System I have so gotten over the "Economics" aspect of the game. I minored in Mathematics. I'm comfortable with Math. I like Math. And I could minmax with the best of them. In my group, there were quite a few people with "Math Anxiety" so as often as not, I'd help them get as much Ooomph out of every point as well. But the fact is, point balance is a sham. Two characters built on the same number of points. One has a fairly low OCV, but does a lot of damage. The other has a high OCV, but doesn't do a lot of damage. They're fighting a villainous set of twins. The high OCV guy hits every time, and whittles his oponent down. The low OCV guy swings and swings, misses a lot, but finally connects, and his opponent is down. It's all balanced right? In a pig's eye! Two things: #1, that lucky roll where the low OCV finally connects and drops his foe ... it could come early. All of a sudden, he's out an opponent while his buddy's still fighting. And if he then proceeds to help his buddy, well, I don't care how balanced the points are. Odds are the high OCV guy is going to feel diminished. Now granted, it's also possible that the lucky roll never comes at all, and the high OCV guy has to help the low OCV guy. But we're talking more time, and more attack rolls. It's a lost less likely. #2 is that players are going to remember the single shot that dropped the opponent. Twelve seconds of game time can take an hour or more depending on the size of the group. The fact that Bob rolled his dice and got a hit and rolled damage every fifteen minutes or so is not a detail people recall. It'll blend into the background. "Yeah, Bob was there fighting." But when Frank misses, and misses and misses, and then POW! puts his foe across the street with a single shot... people will talk about that and remember that. And in a few years, if the campaign lasts, Bob's bought his character's damage up, so he drops his opponents faster, and Frank's bought up his character's OCV, and polishes them off faster too. It might achieve balance, but that's because they've achieved sameness. Or, maybe the campaign doesn't last. Maybe it ends. And when the group tried again, Bob builds the low OCV high damage guy, and Frank has the high OCV low damage guy. Roles are reversed, so now it's balanced right? Wait, but now while Bob is kvetching because he's missing and missing, waiting for that one low attack roll, Frank with his high OCV character martial throws his opponent into a passing car or off the building or into Bob's character's swinging fist. People are still talking about Frank and his character. Player creativity and panache can, and will, make point balance moot. I've recently started playing in a game where most of the players have been playing for two or three years. I've been playing for nearly nineteen - two years more than the GM has been playing. I bring in my character, 330 points, 20 points below the starting level, and 50-90 points less than the other player characters. Five heroes, seven villains. Guess which character bagged three of the villains himself, and had "the assist" on a fourth (whittled him down for someone else's coup de grace.) There are so many things role-playing requires that aren't governed by points, that all the game balance in the world can't help the hard feelings from happening. And a mature player says, "You know, Thor and Hawkeye aren't point balanced, and it's not really fair. So instead of ME kvetching about the inequity and pissing everyone off... I'll talk to the GM about starting a subplot where Hawkeye is kvetching, and borrow's Hank's growth serum to try to gain some form of balance, though really in a few years I'll be back to status quo."

Re: Champions Diceless Role-playing

Re: When you think "Superhero".... Well since the term "super hero" was named after Superman (not the other way around) it stands to reason that he be the ultimate archetype of the super hero. In my own experience, I find I have MORE interest in the so-called flawless types like Superman or Captain America than I do with someone like Spider-Man. Because there is too much empathy, really. Job woes, sick realtives in the hospital again, problems with friends or with romantic relationships? I don't need to read comic books to find all that stuff. I get that crap by getting up in the morning. Why would I want to read about someone else's problems in great detail? Now that doesn't mean the characters for whom that stuff is detailed aren't heroic. Actually, they very clearly are. I'd simply prefer to see less of the human problems and more of them while they are transcending the problems. When they're being the person I want to be, not while they're being the person I am.

Re: Champions Diceless Role-playing I've run a diceless Champions session. And for that single session, it worked. It was in a long running game, and everyone knew the charatcers involved. And the situation was a kind where the narrative could tell the story, and all dice would have accomplished is slow the whole game down. The big cosmic effects were there. The character interaction was there. The combat was a minor point. One guy said, I'll fight the (guardian creature) and you guys go around.... It worked, and everyone was happy with the scenario. But I can't imagine doing it long term.

Re: Need Help with new power idea. Do! Not! Use! This proposed "ability!" It is an overly complex and officious way to gain experience points without earning them, on some kind of regulated method that takes XP control out of the hands of the game master. Experience Points are really a method for the gamemaster to regulate the rate of growth in a game. If you want a character to develop faster, you can award more points, above what the book says was earned. That's your right, and your perogative. And I'd go so far as to even recommend it sometimes. But it's the game master's ability, and his responsibility to use said ability responsibly, and to try and be as fair as possible with it. But this idea. No. No.

Re: Ultimate Brick "Realistic" Throwing Tables Okay, so how far can I throw a postage stamp? I mean really. Whether the base assumtions are right or not (our curved planet has a plane?) who really cares. In a discussion of how far a 200 lb. person can throw an object that weighs more than four times his body weight, why is anyone worried about realism?

Re: need a villain organization name Criminal Research, Engineering, Science and Technology. Some people like AIM. I've always preferred CREST.

Re: Real world vs. Game world I've stated that Parahuman Insurance is one of the advantages to belonging to a super team, and that the parahuman Insurance is actually one of the major costs of funding a super team. On the government side of things, there is a presdiential cabinet position Secratary of Parahuman Affairs, who is the person the head of the Central Security Bureau answers too.

Re: WWYCD: The Crossover from H E Double-hockey-stick It has already been shown on my campaign world that the Las vegas crime lab is staffed by Grissom's staff, and the Boston morgue staff is Jordan Cavenaugh and friends. And since I don't care for UNTIL, I've ocvcaissionally used UNIT...

Re: Help! I'm stuck in a disad rut! Psycological Limitation: Insane. Physical Limitation: Life Support (no need to eat) causes medications to help mental state to not work. I basically played the character as well nuts. He was a fairly basic brick. When his new friend (would have been teammate if the campaign lasted) turned invisble, my character decided "to turn invisible." Obviously, he was seen sneaking up on the next villain he encountered. My guy "deduced" that the crooks could still se his costume. So my chracter stripped. And promptly loped downstairs to where most of the action was happening, "invisible" and naked. GM made me roll a presence attack for some reason.

Re: Limitations and the Silver Age A cold iron hasn't been plugged in yet. A hot iron is much better for pressing (ironing) one's clothes, though. All in all, I'd rate getting hit with a cold iron uncommon.

Re: Ley lines and leyline nexus "If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" is my favourite lay-line, but I use it out in the 'burbs more than being in the actual city.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious Generally speaking, towns of around 5000 will usually have a few basic amenities like a grocery store, laundymat. etc. In fact, there's a good chance if the town has gotten that big, it may be the county seat. The "grain elevator, convenience store, but not much else" towns are probably no more than 1000 people, with 500 or 600 people being more common.

Re: Always On.... There is a drawback to it being Always On. Eight phases of game play, and he's out of charges. Also, Always On could imply that he's always regrowing cells at a tremendous rate. He's be costantly sloughing off skin and his hair length would be phenomenal (a la DC's the Shaggy Man.)

Re: Elves In this discussion are we talking PHYSICAL maturity or MENTAL/EMOTIONAL maturity? From a physical standpoint, the idea of a humanoid race maturing at one tenth the rate of a human being is really kind of silly. If their bodies grow that slowly, their healing rate would be one tenth of a human's as well. The idea of being toddlers for 30-40 years seems really, really strange. Similarly, the idea of not even hitting puberty until one is over 120. The 30-40 year old elf Spence mentioned would be a child. I have problems in role-playing games with my buddy's 12 year old particpating. Mental/Emotional maturity is even harder to guage. We live in a society that says after you've been around the sun sixteen times, you're responsible enough to handle a piece of heavy machinery along with thousand of other people handling similar machinery. After seventeen trips around the sun, you're responsible enough to see bare boobs, or hear the f and s words in the movies without your parents' permission. After eighteen, you can vote and fight and die for your country. But you have to be twenty-one in order to legally consume alcohol. Our system of guaging maturity is seriously messed up. Now, do elves mature emotionally slower or do they mature emotionally on a level comparable to humans. Is Elven Daycare full of jaded 40 year-old elves because they've matured, emotionally, at the same rate as humans? And then there's the issue of sexual issues. Are they emotionally ready for sex at 20, even though their body is comparable to a human two year old? (That's just seriously wrong!!) And if their emotional maturity is slowed to match their bodies? Didn't someone already mention the "terrible twenties?" Then there's the other way, they age physically normally for the first 18-25 years, but their emotional maturity is slowed. Yeah, just what I want, a elven chick with the body of a 35 year old, and the emotional maturity of my niece. (Actually, I may have gone on one, and only one, date with her.) Because puberty and hormones affect our emotional state, physical and emotional maturity have to be syncced up.

Re: Stupid firearms question There are no stupid weapons. Weapon designers may be stupid, and the the weapon weilders may be stupid, but the weapons themselves are more just non-intelligent.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious No, but most of Illinois a few hours north would be roasted in a nuclear attack. Chicago - major population center. Batavia - Fermilab Rockford - production of vital airplane parts Savanna - the Savanna Army Depot (I don't know for 100% certainty if it's still activly used, but I know that during the Cold War it used to house a fair number of nuclear weapons.)