Boll Weevil

Hi folks. I am in the process of buying a new car (yay, me!) and had the option of getting Onstar as part of the "Boll Weevil has no business with this package" package. To be clear, this is Champions and not NGD, I am not looking for a review of this service. Upon reading the features book for Onstar I started, as I am wont to do, to think about how much this service would cost in Hero points. I once ran a campaign wherein we had a character who stayed back at HQ and called in information to the team. He was jacked-in to the team's computer and had access to UNTIL databases, telemetric data of teammates (ala Aliens), some "we need a door opened" power and others. Think Theora Jones (Max Headroom). Every super team needs one of these guys! Not only can the Weevil family not afford Onstar monetarily, I think I do not have enough experience points to buy it in game terms. Thoughts?

I posted this question a while back but I guess it must have been on the temporary NATO boards. Please indulge me once again.. I have a character, The Wombat, who doesn't speak english. He's not human and basically lacks the human faculties of speech. He communicates in growls like Chewbacca. One of his teammates can understand him but is incapable of speaking to him for the same reason...anatomy. In practical terms the situation is similar to Chewie and Han Solo. Han understands Chewbacca. Chewbacca understands english. I'm not sure who in else in Star Wars, besides maybe C3PO can understand him. In game terms how would you handle such a thing. Wombat is far from home and is very unlikely to interact with another of his species in the future. This is important to note when assigning points, eh? My first guess is to give him english as a second language with a physical limitation to prevent him from forming the words. Any thoughts? And what of his teammate? He can understand Wombat's language but is physically incapable of speaking it. A physical limitation would be inapproriate for him as he is not impaired living on earth. The whole thing is giving me a headache.

I do have some standards Thok and Plasmoid. I've never used them. Ooh, and the Fox of Crime...and Buffalo....and that devil woman from Enemies III. And the Raiders...and Sparkler.

Combat I'd like to see a mini-comic with CU players and accompanying game descriptions. Since Fred, every DOJ book I've gotten has been chock-full of excellent power examples, even an entire book (UNTIL SPD) devoted to nothing but. BTW, I LOVE that book. To complete the package I would like to see the minicomic show a battle between, say, The Champions and GRAB or such. The left hand page shows the action between characters we all know. The right page would detail the action in game terms; all the rolls, all the sequences all the MP accounting etc. Since the first ed, the have had a short version of this sans graphics. Ogre robs a bank, Crusader is there on his lunchbreak. This is helpful but with Drains and Aids and Multipowers, expanded Entangle rules, a gazillion manuevers each with their own CV adjustments and rules, I would like to see more. It could be written like the old versions, "Okay Crusader, you see what looks like a big..." I'm less interested in that. Show me the numbers! Besides helping a marginal GM such as myself with tiny mechanics questions, such a comic would serve another greedy purpose. With rare exceptions, I have been out of the comic-buying game for a looooong time. Since I have gotten back into Champions (about a year before Fred), I have satisfied my comic jones with Hero products exclusively. I read CU and CKC write-ups with the same giddy anticipation as I once read comics. The stories are amazing, the characters are cool, the settings are deeper than Tolkein. Well, you know what I mean. With every new supplement my fascination with the CU grows deeper. Thanks DOJ. I've been a Hero fan for 22 years but the stories keep me coming back.

Even better As I've metioned in other threads, Deathstroke and the Conquorers are the two teams I would most like to see updated to 5th ed. If you like Deathstroke I believe there are some updated stats in the old 4th ed Champions Universe sourcebook, not to be confused with the latest CU available now.

I'll do better next time, honest Hmmf. Here is my first draft of the torn-open vault. http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v93/BollWeevil/Champs/Bank_vault2.jpg I think Freakboy did better. I like this game.

Greeting Herophiles. I have just wasted an hour of precious work time perusing both the Superhero Images thread and the Storn's Images thread. Smashing good both of them. Many posters have requested ideas for their homegrown superhero tabloids and many many others have lamented the fact their artistic talents pale next to the Storns, Nato's, Deschesnes et al. I must count myself among those artistically challenged but I do enjoy a good Photoshop challenge.When my daughter was born I spent countless nights up late at night coloring Classic Enemies pics. With that in mind I thought it would be fun if we started a thread where anyone can request an image and the great Hero collective can help out. Need a picture of a strange villain-created storm for your campaign newspaper? Need a picture of a bank safe that has been blasted into by Photon to offer your players as a visual aid for your next game? Perhaps we can keep the posted pics on the cheap for the boards and send the requestor the higher res stuff on request. Got a sketch you want colored? I think this could be a lot of fun. Any takers?

I miss more than I don't I've always been a picker & chooser anyway among characters in published works that the ones who didn't work for me never bothered me that much. Alien Enemies was not great but my campaign just wasn't ready for "first contact". Terror Inc worked for me too. My campaigns have always featured higher-end heroes but Dr D was too much for my players to fight directly. TI was a pretty good fight at the time. I miss more than I don't. Deathstroke and the Conquerors were my two villainous staples. Deathstroke was just nasty and the Conquerors were played as sympathetically as I could muster. For this reason I didn't mind Santuary although I rarely used it. My campaigns' heroes knew the Conquerors and, although they weren't exactly blood brothers, handling them took a bit more finesse than power. The heroes fought back-to-back with the Conquerors on many occasions. Neither of these great teams were bungling fools as the later works suggested.

Hello, Extreme Makeover? If the Bad Professor ever does come back I wonder how he'll respond to the fact Dr D no longer has a scarred face. Remember, it may seem like a good idea at the time but tattoos and hideously disfiguring acts of loyalty are permanent. Oh well, I've seen some infomercials for skin concealing makeup that just might help

I don't color, I stamp I like it! I have always had a hard time with metallic. I found a pic of C3PO online, erased the yellow and Clone Stamped the brassy goodness. It's a little darker than yours but I wasn't sure exactly what metal you were looking for...

Just how do I get that crown off that pointy villainous head? The Obvious Inaccessible Focus (OIF) has always given me trouble. Can I take it off or not? The text describes well which foci are OAFs or OIFs or the wacky IAF. Any thoughts or personal tales of inaccessible focus removal? I am particularly interested in battles with those tiara'ed toughies, those hellions in haberdashery, those demons in diadema, the Krim Boys.

I thought so too Hmm. I guessed as much. I was thinking specifically about Bloodstone's nasty Bloodworking powers. Is there a way to define Ironclad with a "no blood" construct without stepping on the automaton rules?

Hi all. BW here with a question about our ol tin buddy Ironclad. Is he metal all the way through or is his skin just infused with metal? His stats don't include "Does Not Bleed" so officially I think he does. Any thoughts?

Respect the ball curve I have never made a character with a COM over 15. One a related note, is there a female in the CU with a COM under 20? I understand that Champions emulates comics and comicbook females all look like hot babes in lycra but geez. Just once I'd like to see a supervillaness with a writeup that reads "Laser Lass is an average-looking woman in her early thirties with bad skin and weighs 160 pounds. This is how comicbook fans/roleplayers sterotypes are born.

Hiss, put it on my luggage!! The Weevil. Now THAT'S a great name. Notice how it rolls off the tongue.

Needs to be updated to 5th but... Deathstroke and The Conquerors. The Conquerors have been enjoyed the most recurring roles in my games. They have gone through many personnel changes but have been the best villain team for roleplaying. First, I ditched all non-mutant members. Sorry Ankylosaur, but this team is the foil of enocide (or IHA, whichever you prefer). After a couple of "stop the warehouse robbery" scenarios, the Conquerors came to demand a certain respect from my players. The PC's know these guys, some socially, but share different goals and beliefs which often put them on opposite sides of the hexmap. Like Professor X and Magneto (with no coincidence), the Conquerors and my past hero teams(s) coexist, often fighting together vs common enemies and prejudice. The Conquerors are stamped from the same archetype pool as the many Champions teams, representing a diverse and dangerous mix of powers and character conceptions.

Take the easy way out Well sure, if you wanna go and read the book, uh...<> Thanks for the input. My illiteracy has shamed me long enough. I WILL learn to read!! Alibear, I think if both limbs are offhand, I would reduce your Dex. Physical Limitation: Throws like girl?

Mr. Boll Weevil has two extra limbs. Should my four-armed hero be considered two have two or three "off-hands"? If the answer is three, would ambidextrity work on all four arms?

Once again Boll Weevil calls upon the collective mind of the Hero Boards to answer a 1st edition power question. Sigh. OK, Let's say I buy IR vision. Can I see normally too? If my vision sees variations in temperature, how can I pick the blue pill? Can I quantify a surface temperature by sight ("Most of the wall is room temp, but there is a small square of warmer temp")? Can I see Firewing through walls? Blue Thunder and Robocop could. I guess I want to know what someone with IR vision "sees". Different temp=different color like IR cameras? How do I describe to a player with IR what he sees? Help me Herodome Assembled. You're my only hope.

I will do it Ye have me eyes, sir. You can send it to joegaines@cinci.rr.com

FWIW I've run a couple PBEM's with some success. PBEM's are great for those players who are a bit daunted by the Hero System. Not every player or GM would enjoy the way I ran mine, but here are some of my experiences: I rolled all the dice. I know part of the excitement of combat is rolling the dice but I had to draw the line somewhere and none of my players complained...much. This afforded me the luxury of playing in the style that suits me best, PBEM or Face-to-face. I could describe everything that happened in real-world terms ; no game terms. Skill rolls, perception rolls, to-hit rolls, Presence rolls etc came and went without my players knowledge. PBEM also helped me play on my strengths (or helped me avoid my weaknesses: tomato/tomahto) as a GM. I articulate much better in writing than speak. The PBEM dynamic better accomodates the situation of players being split-up. I can relay information to the players without other tabletop players hearing and having to ignore. Information like unique senses, eidetic memory, past experience with a villain, perception rolls that their colleagues failed. If you are a map-user, especially in combat, you can give small pieces of information without showing them the whole map. Keeping time when your party separates is a challenge. Combat is sloooow in PBEM. Conversations are slow in PBEM. I do not have my past PBEM game transcripts here at work. If anyone who has run a successful PBEM has some sample posts he/she would like to share I think it would be helpful. A good post representative of both role-playing and combat would be nice. The GM posts will likely be longer and more detailed than player posts. Sometimes a player will write nothing more than "Raise force-field" in response to your 2-page post. That's OK. When you post next to his partner you can add color and sound, smell and feel to it. When the adventure is over, you have a complete and detailed story, written by five people and documented for posterity. Good luck!

Who? Who is your FLGS? I know only of Comicbook World. They're OK, but I would sure be interested to know if there are better in Cincinnati.

Boll Weevil's a big fat dummy Some good advice, KA. Where were you 3 years ago when I needed you? When I first started working for Swiffer, my wife and I were looking for a local person who makes "cornhole" sets. For those who don't know, Cornhole is a game (also called Slopes, Ramps etc) wherein you toss beanbags at at ramp-shaped box in the yard. The object is to get the bag into the hole, or on the ramp. A fun game, very popular on Cincinnati's west side. Like the big dumb asshat I am, I Googled the word "cornhole" at work. Needless to say, the first hundred hits made no mention of yard games or carpentry. Never in the history of the internet has a web-browser been homed, temporary internet files and history erased. The decription of the sites found haunt me to this day.

Mr. Duncan stays I had a problem with it at first. The film is supposed to be an adaptation of a very visual medium. We all know Kingpin at a glance. His image is an integral part of his persona. If I were to pick a black actor, Mr. Duncan is high on my list. I sat down to check the boards tonight because my wife is watching Jurassic Park II which I have seen twice. The casting of an african-american girl to play Jeff Goldblum's daughter was a neat idea. I understand she showed up for casting call despite the description and they fell in love with her. I have not seen Daredevil yet, sadly, but I am curious to see what Michael Clark Duncan brings to the role. I have already decided not to expect too much fidelity to the comicbook.

Staring us right in the blackface I can't believe this topic is already on page 2 and not one mention of Black Mambo. Get it? He's black and has snake powers. Black mambo!! Black Diamond. Get it? She's black and she's tough. Black Diamond!! Neither are stereotypes but the names have always made me chuckle.