Doctor Agenda

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? I know it is a sensitive subject, but I would like to see some sort of treatment of 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Champions Universe feels kind of...off...without them. After the Battle of Detroit did an attack that 'only' claimed a few thousand lives have less of an impact? Did the Sentinels or other heroes save the day (in my last 4th ed. campaign, the Champions kept one of the towers from collapsing by slowing down the aircraft and shoring up the structure...the other fell). Did covert military supers fight a clandestine war in the Middle East? While we're on the topic, did last year's devastating tsunami occur in the CU? If so, how was it different? I know these questions come up. I'm not looking to 'game' these tragic scenarios, but a great many current issues are related to them and I'm not sure ignoring them is more respectful than including them.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Re: Villainy Amok I'm really getting use out of this one, I plan to use at least one of each of the classic bits.

Re: Of course we're criminals. We have to be. In my new campaign, the Justice Defenders (a DOJ legacy team) are technically outlaws because they haven't registered as Paranormals. If they do something too stupid, like bust the wrong guy, they've got legal trouble. Even if they're smart, Viper might set them up. One of them doesn't have a Secret ID, her parents may wind up paying the price. Even cops get to hide their identities when their activities are considered especially likely to get them singled out for retaliation. Superheroes, IMHO, would have severe trouble operating without Secret IDs. Just because you're criminal doesn't mean you're not a hero. Calling yourself a hero doesn't make you one. The public will judge supers by their actions, and that doesn't make you a hero either. If the supers act like heroes, they are heroes.

Re: Super humans populations in cities Superhuman sex can be dangerous, you have to find someone whose powers are compatible. Many superhumans go to cities for the dating scene. Supers are constrained to act like their fictional archetypes by the collective unconscious. The government uses subtle advertising-type influence to get supers to congregate in cities where they can be nuked if necessary...and to keep them away from their secret rural laboratories. Pheremones. A powerful mystic cast a spell on cities to make them attractive to supers in order to protect her beloved countryside and wilderness from collateral damage.

Re: Super humans populations in cities Alot of people live in cities because that's where the better-paying jobs are, and most supers have jobs in their Secret Identities, often jobs that make more sense in a city than a town.

Re: Super humans populations in cities In my current campaign, the hero team operates out of North Detroit (there are already plenty of heroes in MC proper). Part of their niche is as a quick-response to super-crimes in small towns (one of the characters IS the team vehicle, and pretty fast). I'm operating under most of the above assumptions, but there is SOME villainy afoot in Small Town, USA and someone has to deal with it. Also it is a great way to introduce NPCs who are the only hero for miles and VIPER shows up in force to retrieve one of their errant supervillains in hiding. Radio Transmission: "We've got bullet-proof snake-men in a running battle with police and Jayhawk down Main Street, requesting immediate backup from PRIMUS or UNTIL, or ANYBODY!"

Re: The Empyreans I found one other Empyrean-related character: The Commandant of the Viper Training camp is half Empyrean, with characteristics around human max and telepathy that includes the ability to alter memories.

Re: Marvel Second Stringers. Help me out. Off the top of my head: Red Wolf, Texas Twister, Puma, Sandman, Battlestar, White Tiger, and Karma.

Re: The Empyreans THAT sounds pretty cool, Wanderer, thanks for the scoop!

Re: The Empyreans True, as far as I can tell, they only have one mentalist in the bunch, and she doesn't have a write-up (although apparently all the Silent Empyreans can astral project to higher realms). Let's be honest here: Archon and Thalya's mental abilities aren't even particularly impressive given that they're centuries old. I would hope that anyone could become very proficient at their hobbies given that kind of time. Their physical attributes, which are described as merely impressive, are in comparison, vast. Varying, not so much, physically Thalya and Archon are obviously similar in their abilities. Given the description of the UNTIL mentalist, it really seems like the creators have since forgotten that Empyreans are supposed to have 'vast and varying mental abilities'. Isabelli Moroni on the other hand has varying psionic powers and it is implied that were she to cut loose, vast might be the right adjective. Her psychic powers are described as manifestations of her Empyrean heritage. The powers UNTIL knows she has are 5d6 Telepathy, luck (or maybe invisible telekeinesis), Danger Sense, and Lightsleep (if she really sleeps at all...Thalya doesn't need to, Archon does). Also, all Eternals have psionic abilities (plus cosmic power, body control, and 'impressive physical attributes). With varying levels of development, granted. Still, some telepathy here, some mental illusions there, making people forget, using telekinesis to increase the amount of weight they can lift...all pretty standard Eternal tricks. Maybe Empyreans develop one area of expertise to an extreme at the expense of psionic abilities?

Re: The Empyreans OK, I paid my shekels for DI #20, and Archon is cool and all, but am I the only one who remembers that Empyreans are supposed to have 'vast mental powers'. The UNTIL sourcebook mentions a psychic on their staff who is actually an undercover Empyrean. The official writeups: strong, tough, flies, shoots bio-energy bolts. I hope the Hidden Lands has more on Empyrean psionics.

Re: The Empyreans Yeah, this is supposed to be all about me! Unless I've wandered off the All Hail Doctor Agenda thread again.

Re: The Empyreans:Optimus II I promise, those stats were spaced out when I wrote them. So much for my computer-savvy.

Re: The Empyreans:Optimus II I couldn't wait for HL, so I made my own Empyrean character with Thalya as inspiration (although she doesn't seem to have the mental powers ascribed to Empyreans elsewhere, even though she is built on 700 points). Originally the basis for the concept was based on the problem of cramming a character like Thalya into a 350-point package, AND have psionic abilities. The character turned out to be more interesting with lots of plot hooks because of that challenge: Zantar was a Silent Empyrean. In the late 1940s his psychic explorations led him to the technique of exploring the lives of others by switching his mind with theirs. He would live their lives for a time while they slumbered in his entranced Empyrean body. Benjamin Franklin Davis was born in 1930, near Detroit, the youngest of four brothers. In 1949 he had a job driving a delivery truck and a new bride, Sarah, with a baby on the way. That's when Zantar usurped his life. Unlike Zantar's other subjects, who merely lost a day or two of memory, Ben lost everything. Zantar carelessly got his fragile human body killed in traffic and Ben spent the next fifty years trapped in Zantar's alien dreamscape. Eventually, as he developed his will and a rapport with his new Empyrean brain and body, he awoke to find himself surrounded by strangely garbed and still figures in a vast hall. He instinctively used his powers to flee, and found himself in orbit, gazing at the world below him. Again, clumsily and instinctively, Ben tried to go home, crashing into the earth and unconsciousness near Millenium City. Fifty years out of his time, in a body he doesn't recognize, Ben doesn't know what has happened to him, what he is, or how he got here. Sometimes he isn't even sure he is awake. His powers very erratic at first, he managed to escape the Viper squad that came after him hoping to find a crashed satellite or piece of alien tech. Homeless at first he haunts libraries trying to find out what has happened to the world and his family. When he finds them he doesn't know what he'll do...it's been fifty years and he doesn't even resemble his old photos. He does understand the likes of Viper, though. He won't stand by while people are hurt, and knows the kind of responsibility power like his carries. Ben chooses to call himself Optimus, after his favorite hero in the Defenders of Justice when he was a kid. Right now, that's the only life he's got. Optimus II Value Char Cost Characteristics: 155 Abilities: 195 Total: 350 50 Str 40 Base: 200 Disadvantages: 150 23 Dex 39 Points Disadvantages 25 Con 30 25 DNPC 8-, Group of 4, Daughter Hannah and her 12 Bod 04 family (for now he just watches over them) 13 Int 03 10 Hunted 8- by Lemurians (why, he doesn't know) 17 Ego 14 15 Hunted 8- by VIPER 15 Pre 05 05 Hunted (Watched) 8- by Empyreans (what's up 16 Com 03 with Zantar?) 10 PD 00 10 Phys Lim: American teenager in an Empyrean 5 ED 00 body with no memory of 1949-2004 5 Spd 17 15 Psych Lim: Code of Heroism (emulating Optimus I) 15 Rec 00 15 Psych Lim: Protective of Innocents 50 End 00 10 Psych Lim: Searching for His Place in the World 50 Stn 00 10 Psych Lim: Won't Murder 15 Soc Lim: Secret (Human in the Empyrean body of of Zantar--so secret even he doesn't know it yet) Cost Ability 20 Vuln: x1 1/2 Body and Stun from Magic 20 Elemental Control-Empyrean Durability 25 a) Armor: 15 rPD, 15 rED-Empyrean Toughness 30 Life Support: Total-Empyrean Physiology 33 Multipower, 50 Active Points: Empyrean Disciplines, all x2 End (-1/2) 3u EB: 10d6 Bioenergy Blast at 10 End 3u Ego Attack: 5d6 Mental Bolt at 10 End 3u Mental Illusions: 10d6 Dreamsend at 10 End 3u Telepathy: 10d6 Thought Link at 10 End 3u Telekinesis: 25 Str Mind Over Matter with Fine Manipulation at 10 End 3u Teleport: 10" Mind Over Location, x2 Mass, Megascale at 1"=1000 km (+1) at 10 End 3u Transform: Major 1 1/2d6 Molecular Rearrangement to Anything (+1) at 10 End 25 Multipower, 25 Active Points: Empyrean Flight 2u Flight: 10", x4 NC at 2 End 2u Flight: 6", Megascale at 1"=100 km, can scale down to 1"=1 km (+1) 2 End 5 Flash Defense: 5 points vs sight-Empyrean Eyes 7 Healing: 1 Bod per Turn Regeneration-Empyrean Regeneration 10 Knockback Resistance: -5" Knockback-Empyrean Toughness 5 Lack of Weakness: -5 for Resistant Defenses-Empyrean Toughness 9 Perception: +3 (15-)-Empyrean Senses 1 KS: 1940s Trivia, 8- Although not reflected in his disadvantages, Optimus II was very erratic in combat at first. He doesn't know his own strength or how best to use his powers (or even what all of them are). It was several adventures before he could function as written. He takes an old-fashioned approach to crimefighting, going on patrols and helping out wherever he sees a need, including rescuing cats.

Re: Galactic Champions Word Gal Champs has that write-up of an Empyrean I've been longing for, although she's 700 points and STILL doesn't have the 'vast mental powers' mentioned in the Champs Universe. She must have been a poor student in psionics class. She did give me a good starting point for an Empyrean character with respectable, although not vast, mental powers. Trimming down to 350 points was a bit tricky (I used an 'Empyrean Defenses' 20-point EC for the Armor and Life Support, and cut the Armor in half, and cut what else I could and still keep the concept strong), I used a partial-amnesia excuse for the lack of skills after I paid for Characteristics and Powers. Life Support in Gal Champs now goes up to 90 points and the most expensive part of Life Support is Immunity to Disease. I thought Life Support was already over-priced...didn't there used to be a philosphy that abilities that are unlikely to be useful in the average scenario were supposed to be cheaper? It still costs the same to attack and defend and move, but 5th edition tripled the cost to be ambidextrous or immune to diseases. Plus the logic problems of how alien diseases affect humans as well as the aliens they evolved to affect, and how they get at people who can survive in vacuum. In play it is very rare in my experience to even have to worry about diseases, unless the GM finally decides to let you get some use out of those points. And all of the Life Support in the world won't help you if the GM decides to design a disease that isn't stopped by it. Of course, this is more a 5th Edition problem (IMHO) that is just logically continued in Gal Champs. All said though, interesting read, I'm thinking of running a Terran Empire Champions with some of the ideas I've gotten from Gal Champs. I never liked how the whole fluctuating power levels worked...I'll just have supers be more rare and forced underground by paranoid authorities with the technology to deal with them. Flavor of the setting is mostly preserved and I can still have Champions between today and the Federation. I would also be happy to run a character in this subgenre. That said,

Re: A Challenge- Make a legacy hero cooler than the Original Mine-that I haven't had a chance to play yet-is Optimus II, a teenager from the 1940s in the body of an Empyrean (thankyou, Galactic Champions, for finally printing an example of an Empyrean...all I had to do was trim off 350 points). He chose the name because Optimus was his favorite hero when he was in High School and that's the standard of heroism he tries to live up to. The world shouldn't have to do without an Optimus!

Re: A Challenge- Make a legacy hero cooler than the Original You can make a legacy hero from the Champions Universe as well, since they've provided that nifty timeline and all. And since the details are sparse, it will be hard to argue with your interpretation.

Re: Gods and Champions I have a thing for playing myth-based characters, I even ran a campaign with a team premise that everyone's character would have a origin related to myth or at least a myth-based theme. I used the standard cop-out that the general public thought characters like Marduk and Magni picked their names 'cause they thought they sound kewl. Marduk was always meaning to get his religion restarted, though...he was just too busy to give it enough attention.

My opinion... Apocalypse baby has just NOT been done enough in roleplaying. I've seen it all over the place elsewhere, but have never run it or run into it. That's a keeper. Plus, Three Investigators and a Baby...it just does something for me.

Megadamage The Palladium system gives reasonable jump-off for duplicating this stuff...you know how a LAW Rocket compares to a Wilk's Laser Pistol, compares to a tank, and HERO has all but the Wilk's. Using the Wilk's as a base (3d6 RKA, 2xAP for +1), just add more damage classes for additional d6's of RIFTS damage. To translate the feel of the megadamage armor, I made the low end about 10 Def, double-hardened, with extra def only vs Stun, and extra Bod so you have to chip the armor off. More powerful armor has higher Stun Def and Bod, not regular Def. Of course, someone in a suit of non-mega-armor (say, 8 Def, hardened) will get large holes blown in it by a Wilk's.

I've run a number of modern horror campaigns over the years, and they ARE usually more occult-adventure than true horror. I've decided that's okay...it takes more work to make a scenario really creepy, to the point that it unnerves the Players. So I save it up. There'll be several episodes of figure out what the current Bad Thing is and finding a way to destroy it, with combats against dozens of undead, checking out the libraries and bars, and now and then a crate of explosives. THEN, I'll throw something at them that their usual tactics are useless against. If the PCs have special powers, they don't apply or the fiend is immune to them. Guns are useless against it, or somehow neutralized. The PCs can't detect it, or if they can it puts them in an awkward situation. For example, the creature might be invisible except to the PCs "Kirlian Goggles"...and in a crowd of people. It could be possessing a DNPC or an innocent child. It could use mind-controlled innocents to fight. We're not quite to horror yet, but the players are off-balance and challenged. How about if it is in the basement of an abandoned building and can disable all of the investigator's electrical equipment? What if it is killing a victim every three hours in a horrible fashion, and the longer the heroes take to find its weakness, the more people die? Getting surreal can give players the feeling you want. What if they're actually fighting a series of post-hypnotic suggestions that have been implanted in everyone in a small isolated town...including THEM? There are alot of good horror games with advice on creating the feeling you're looking for. I've focused on how you can make a game scary for seasoned occult commandoes. Show no mercy (or at least make the Player believe you won't show any).

I think I'll use 'masks' as the generic slang for anyone who feels they need a special costume to fight or commit crimes...and for the groupies and wannabes who like to dress up. It has a ring to it. The somewhat more derogatory 'tights' works, too. Low-level psychic powers have been considered proven in this background since at least the seventies. The first confirmed person with undeniable super powers was the Living Blaze, who torched a respectable percentage of the outlying areas of Mexico City before being brought down by soldiers. The corpse was never identified. This may have been an 'emergence' type of event like in Aberrant, rather than a malicious rampage. Tentatively the rising weirdness is due to Fortean-like intrusions from alternate timelines and other planes of existence, perhaps related to the existence of psychic phenomena (and therefore levels of being like the astral plane and collective unconscious). Just about any origin is possible, but space aliens are not known to exist and there is no mutant 'x-factor'. You might think you're a mutant, but that just means you don't know how truly weird your origin is. The player group will start off realizing that they have spent the last five years purposefully gaining super powers and setting themselves up to be a classic superhero team, using knowledge and skills they never learned, but their memories of the time are detached and they feel like that time passed instantaneously. They've got superpowers or gadgets or superior training or magic or whatever, a base, costume designs, a sparking and malfunctioning power supply, and the feeling that they were up to no good up to about a minute ago. There have been some very good suggestions, I hope this extra information helps inspire some more ideas. I appreciate the help.

I like Primes and Selects. Those are exactly the kinds of names I'm looking for. They get the 'supers' idea across and are cool-sounding.