Doctor Agenda

I really enjoyed playing a character inspired by that book: The Samaritan, a renegade Saietta. Boy, did he have family issues.

Really sorry to hear. I've got all of his Champions and D&D books, and Doc Sidhe, too. I wish he could have stayed longer.

In my game, there's likely to be some damage to nearby walls and vehicles. Between games, the characters have to help fix all that stuff as a show of goodwill and to keep the city's premiums down; so they try to move fights to locations where the collateral damage will be minimized. They operate out of Albuquerque, so that usually isn't difficult. An unusual feature of this setting is that a lot of cities allow beefs between superpowered folks to be settled in 'combat zones' and put the battles on PPV, provided all parties agree to the rules. It helps avoid damage to property and bystanders, and makes the city money. The participants also get a cut.

Impressive contributions, Cassandra. I can always count on you for write-up ideas.

Just a thought: A group led by a triad (playing off a previous suggestion) because it was orginally three separate organizations crippled by hero activity and forced to unite in order to survive. Although severely weakened separately, the combined organization is more powerful than any of its three component groups ever were. Of course, it is also more fractious than any of its component groups ever were, as well. It might be interesting if they interlock, due to the different parts that were damaged by heroes. One might still be highly advanced scientifically but short of agents, another might have more agents than it needs but no longer have the resources to maintain them, while the third might be quite wealthy but otherwise having to start over nearly from scratch. One part could be an alien conspiracy, another a decentralized cult, and the last a cabal of billionaires seeking to control the world's wealth. Or any of many other possibilities. Help yourself to anything out of my musings that you can use.

In operation, it's a setting for Fantasy Hero Champions. Empyreans fit in, which should tell you something. However, there's no reason you can't run it as a 75-point Fantasy Hero setting; just don't get in a fight with Atlantean magic-equipped super soldiers or Lemurian agents with sorcery-tech if you can't also take on dragons. Of course, getting ahold of Atlantean or Lemurian gear could be quite a power-up. I'd be up for a low-fantasy to epic fantasy game like that.

How does the exorcist actually remove the demon from the victim? Are the demons built with a phys lim that causes the possessing spirit to vacate its host if it, say, fails three EGO combat rolls against the exorcist, perhaps with the exorcist getting to make a complementary Demonology roll to boost his or her ECV? Maybe one attempt at exorcism per hour, the demon wins if it succeeds three times before the exorcist does? That could all be covered in a 'subject to exorcism' phys lim, with the value depending on how hard it is to perform the exorcism.

Agree with Hyper-man, I'm running a character with -5 DCs Physical and -5 DCs Energy Damage Negation, plus a 10/10 Force Field, so he's completely immune to small arms fire but not easily hurt by large area effect attacks. You could put a limitation on the extra protection like 'only up to damage that could have been stopped by non-reduced Damage Negation'. Or add more Damage Negation, 'only to offset factors that reduce Damage Negation'. So, for 90 points, you could have -6 DCs Physical and -6 DCs Energy Damage Negation, plus an additional -6 DCs Physical and Energy Damage Negation, only to offset reduction to base Damage Negation (-1). That's pretty close to complete immunity to attacks that cause 6 DCs or less, and roughly equivalent to 50% resistant Physical and Energy Damage Reduction on attacks that cause 12 DCs or less.

Re: In Progress From Blackwyrm Games: Mythic America Will 'the kids' (Billy and Sundance) make it in?

Re: What Makes An Iconic Superhero Costume? Amen, brother. I think that did as much to sink his solo comic as taking the guy who could relate to kids in the hood on the basketball court and making him a cosmic scientist. With the jacket, you could believe the guy the Spectre inspired to become Mister Terrific was still in there.

Re: Magistracy: A School for Monsters I am not sure how to reply to this....

Re: What Makes An Iconic Superhero Costume? What not to do: Take away Mister Terffic II's jacket.

Re: Ratios of Superpower Archetypes I'm using a limited-origin setting (supernatural, training, realistic hardware), so no laser eyes or guys who can throw aircraft carriers into orbit. Plenty of super-mages, monster heroes, and mystery men.

Re: What if there are no super-prisons? I'd think Supernal is in the clear as long as he is willing to turn his prisoner over to the authorities (US authorities, whether they have jurisdiction over the Marianas Trench or not) on demand. It sounds like everyone knows what they're getting into if they take responsibility for Valak's custody. There may be some attempts at negotiation for mirror-cell technology, but ultimately no one is going to take him if they know they can't contain him. It's not like Valak is a citizen of an earthly country.

Re: Things That Exist in a Superhero Universe On the base thing, there's powers and super-technology that can be used to explain their construction. There are mundane ways as well: if a prisoner can build a 30' tunnel in a prison with daily inspections without being detected, I'd say that's proof of concept.

Re: Bells and Whistles and Experience Points 'I already knew how to do that' is something I allow if it is plausible. I'll even advance the experience points for it if it's really plausible or adds a good plot hook. A player in my current game is playing a jinn detective. He's always been working more on building up his detective and occult detective skills instead of concentrating on his characteristics and powers. I'm running a loose translation of M&M's Time of Vengeance, based on the ten plagues of Egypt. Chimaera, formerly the Crimson Mist, wants to understand the Hebrew names of the plagues, saying he picked up the unofficial equivalent of a bachelor's in Semitic languages while trying to find out more about his people. I say 'Okay, but you have to also spend experience on Arabic'. It's a deal, he's happy, and it shouldn't be hard to come up with an occasion where someone speaking Arabic will advance the plot.

Re: You Don't Have to be Crazy to be a Superhero, but it Helps! It's exactly how Muslims are treated regarding bad actors, and too often how parents treat their gay children, minus the fear their son will fry their brains with his super powers. Propaganda works, there are people who devote all their efforts to scaring people about minorities in the land of the free, and it has a very successful track record. "I don't care if Muslims are less than 3% of theUS population, we've got to ban them immigrating or they'll impose Sharia law!"

Re: looking for non-Causasian pulp roles Oh, Josephine! Dancer, singer, spy; oh my! One of the most accomplished femme fatales who ever lived!

Re: Your "2012" Pet Gaming Projects Yes, I used a lot of public domain Golden Age characters for historical purposes, the Purple Claw was one of them. Zen's player wasn't very good about spending her XP, and we had an adventure to recover the Purple Claw for one of our benefactors, then he surprised the team by bestowing it on her. Now she's got 4d6 Luck, only for getting involved in thwarting supernatural evil and can call on the Purple Claw to employ its weird powers to thwart evil.

Re: Year One I really can't rep you enough for all your work, Cassandra.

Re: Timeline of Heroes and Villains Are you planning a combined DC/Marvel universe?

Re: Your "2012" Pet Gaming Projects Thanks! They sure are, the golem nearly short-circuited my adventure today by jumping to the 'boss level' with his power-tracking sense, but he's a hot-head so he charged in alone and got stunned, giving the Angel of Death an opportunity to escape. It wasn't wasted though, now she plans on eliminating the heroes with her team of plague avatars before she destroys the city. I should give them credit: Ohm (taser-gloved, martial artist son of the Super-American), Zen (empath and wielder of the Purple Claw), Apex Predator (golem), Dr. Nyx (vampire hunter), Barrier (orb-wielder), Emerald Avenger (Celtic demigod), and Chimaera (djinn raised by humans).

Re: looking for non-Causasian pulp roles In the American South of the period, blacks had doctors, lawyers, preachers, and so forth; who just operated within the African-American communities. Almost anything a white could be, you could find a black doing the same thing 'under the radar'. In addition to Voudou, Hoodoo could be considered a separate, more Eastern (US) mystic tradition, less of a religion and more 'practical magic'. Hoodoo emphasized the role of will in getting mojo hands and the evil eye to work; and a great Trick Doctor would undergo great austerities to develop their willpower to incredible levels. At least that's what they say.

Re: Your "2012" Pet Gaming Projects I finally got my Urban Fantasy Champions setting going early this year. Mostly original stuff seeing where the characters take me, but I've converted a modern Cthulhu scenario (and it probably won't be the last time) and am currently running an M&M scenario (Time of Vengeance) I very loosely converted. The group has a demon-blooded empath, a legacy martial artist, a half-vampire vampire hunter, an orphaned jinn, a person with an intangible mystic orb in their chest, a good-looking flesh golem, and a Scottish demi-god. It's something I had in mind for some time and I'm fairly pleased with it: an Urban Fantasy setting where the critters take advantage of comic-book tropes to operate more openly. In a way it's simultaneously open magic and secret magic: you can fly all you want, but there's a conspiracy to keep the fact that it's magic a secret.

Re: Why Don't The Villains Kill? Some villains will kill, but it's just as unrealistic to portray them all as casual killers as it is to portray them all as gentleman bandits. It should depend on the villain, and it should go by the villain's character concept. If you've built a greedy bank robber with super strength, getting an opponent to stay down long enough for a getaway should be as much violence as she'll wait for. If you've built a weapon master who has trained for years to be able to take down the hero who slept with his mother, be prepared for him to follow through if he ever has that hero at his mercy...maybe with an ego roll first if he hasn't murdered someone before.