Doctor Agenda
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Posts posted by Doctor Agenda
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Re: Horror Hero rant
Sorry for the extreme threadromancy, but I just read the collection 'On Her Majesty's Occult Service' and in trying to find more, came across an e-book CoC-based RPG that uses Stross's setting. I purchased a copy and have already started incorporating elements into my conspiratorial Champions game:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=83956
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Re: Anyone thought about a post-apocalyptic cross genra setting - let's call it "Drif
LOL! Dragon Line Geomancer, Juvenile Dragon, Alliance Gyrene, Insaniac, Mecha Driver, Street Weasel, Firestarter, Mainliner.
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Re: SuperHEROing for humor
How many posts does godfish have to make before he gets rep power?
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Re: SuperHEROing for humor
Mystery Men...how can that not be funny?
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Re: Jinks
Thanks, Bolo, must spread, etc. I liked how Teatime's nom de Jink isn't directly related to her power.
Night Girl has been perfected: In addition to her Nightvision and Vulnerability to Sight Flashes, she has the power to conjure Darkness, No Range, must be centered on her. Sadly, Nightvision won't let you see through Darkness.
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Re: Help naming characters? (Teen Champions)
1. Wiz Kid
2. Push
3. Rookie
4. Goth
5. Catscratch
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Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?
well, technically speaking also spying could be legaland of course scouting
if you are invisibile for animals too (and i speak about total invisibility to sight, hear, smells) you can also work in zoo or reserve; think about getting closer to lions or other animals without worrying about being eat.
ok ok it's silly but it's the only thing i can think right now
btw, nice topic
and i just discovered this trailer:No Ordinary Family seems like they are about to airing a series on "normals" gainining superpowers (btw, super strenght and super resilience is cool but super intellect is pretty lamer if you did'nt couple with... dunno... gadgeteering, chance calculating/alteration or like...)
they are copying your topic?
I'll watch it, but possibly only because I can't help myself.
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Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?
super-intelligence can take you a long way, unless you also have the cliche' of it making you unstable.
Invisibility would be 'handy' in any profession where it would be helpful to be able to see through your hands for a moment now and then while you work...I know it isn't much, but it's something.
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Re: Jinks
The PCs in this campaign, despite their Iron Age tendencies, are raising money for a Charter School in Jinktown to reduce the dropout rate; and are trying to help Doc Mock get his healer's license back. OTH, they're focusing on other crimelords besides Janus because he's coughed up money for the HS project and is giving them tips on arguably worse criminals.
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Re: Jinks
Margaret Mcgillan' date=' IE: Veghead. Retired teacher, Veghead runs the local community garden. She can communicate with and completely control plants... but plants rarely have anything interesting to say except about soil quality, and she cannot make them move or grow any faster than normal. Still, her all organic produce always turns out the best![/quote']This is a good example of what makes Jinktown a little more than an impoverished ghetto. Because of the high drop-out rate and anti-Jink bigotry, there are a lot of factors that make the neighborhood poor. BUT, lots of Jinks have little talents that can make life a little better for themselves and others. Veghead provides better quality food than you would expect. Say what you want about the prettiness of Doc Mock's work, but he can save your life for a tenth of what a hospital would cost, when time is short, your chances with him are better than a whole room full of emergency room specialists. Trashman performs a useful service, Monty and Porter and Wordsmith bring in tourist money...in some ways Jinktown has the potential for vibrancy.
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Re: Jinks
Looks like Jinktown will definitely have the world's most colorful homeless population. With all the casinos it's easy for a person with an addictive personalit to ruin their life.
I'm thinking that Janus counts a seedy Jink Porn studio, probably legal, among his operations; but we probably don't want to dwell on that overmuch. It would probably be very lucrative though, between the attraction to Jinks as 'low-rent ultras' and that segment of the population that is interested in the bizarre. Janus definitely gets a cut of the neighborhood's prostitution business (which I believe is still illegal in Washoe county).
Bioject and Flutter would make good members of the Orphans, they're not all tough guys, it's hard for Jinks to do well in High School, anti-Jink bigotry is still more socially acceptable than it is with most other minority groups. So their drop-out rate is high and many of them are killing time during the day. It can also be hard to deal with non-Jink family members who expect them to 'try to be normal', so there's a high runaway factor as well.
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Re: Mixing Up Comic Book Ages
My current campaign could be described as Iron Age with Golden Age tropes. The morality is grayish (as are the aliens), but secret civilizations figure prominently in origins (from them, descended from them, have artifacts from them, etc.) and aliens fill the role of Nazis. Or they soon will, we're just phasing into the 'what's really going on' portion of the campaign.
I was actually aiming at a bronzier modern Golden Age campaign, but my players are definitely Iron Age, barely managing to avoid prosecution, so far.
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Re: Photographic Reflexes
Just hold some points in reserve on character creation and spend them to 'instantly learn' physical skills the person observes, plus Universal Jack of All Trades for the 'physical' professional skills picked up. Maybe some levels to represent versatility. No need for squeaky rules tweaking, it's just letting the character spend points more freely, and how many of us are really strict about that? I know I'm flexible with 'I learned that a long time ago, it just never came up before' or 'I've been training for that in my downtime' or even 'I would have got that in the first place because it makes sense for my character, but I forgot'. The only difference between Taskmaster and the people he's copying is the special effect of how he learns.
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Re: Please jog my memory
It rings a bell, something in 5th Ed, was it one of the Sci Fi creatures in the Bestiary?
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Re: Jinks
I like, thanks!
Which also brings us to the subculture of Ultra groupies, posers, and wannabes who like Jinks (except the 'icky' ones) as the next best thing to an Ultra and much easier to get close to...not to mention that the minority of 'regs' who consider Jinks sexually exotic is still larger than the number of Jinks. It wouldn't be so bad to be a Jink except they act as a lightning rod for envy and resentment of Ultras since they are comparatively vulnerable and often can't hide their nature.
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In my conspiratorial Champions setting (now includes Teen Champions), supers are called Ultras (for copyright reasons), and you can be an Ultra hero, Ultra criminal, or just an Ultra, if you have powers. They tend to be the product of alien experimentation or interbreeding with members of hidden civilizations (like Telos, under Mt. Shasta). Heredity is a bit unpredictable though, and not everyone with weird genetic structure gets to be an Ultra.
Like the Deuces and Jokers of Wildcards, Jinks (a pun on the speculative Gene X source of super powers and running with the idea that they have a 'jink' in their genetic code) either have insignificant powers or drawbacks that outweigh them, and like the Jokers and Marvel's Morlocks and Mutants, tend to be ghettoized.
Since I am having a whole neighborhood of Reno be 'Jinktown', I'm interested in filling out the population. Not everyone in Jinktown is a 'Jink', even there they are a minority, but there's enough that you will tend to see a few on the street if you're walking through the area. Jinks tend to have a descriptive 'Jink name', not always kind or PC. I'm looking for suggestions. Here are some who have already been introduced:
Janus: Two-headed crimeboss of Jinktown, based on Diomedes from Predators. He is actually a Telosian who did not fare well in the Rebirth Chamber (Terrigen mists 'tribute'). One of his bodyguards is 'Rubbernecker' and can stretch his neck (only) to five feet long.
Forewarned: Early shift bartender at Lefty's Tavern. Male, has four arms and ambidexterity.
Chill: Late shift bartender at Lefty's, can cool something he can hold in his hands down to half the ambient temperature. Connected.
Floater: Member of the Orphans street gang, nearly weightless, wears heavy combat boots to keep from being blown away. Likes to jump off buildings to make an entrance.
Scareface: Member of the Orphans. The skin on his face is invisible, but he can make it visible with effort.
Pop Tart: Stripper at the Jink Pussycat (aka, the Jink), can teleport short distances but can't carry anything with her, even her clothes. Suffers short-term memory loss when she teleports, but it also heals any wounds she may have.
Doc Mock: Unlicensed healer, his powers to heal injuries are effective but always cause severe scarring.
Night Girl: Sees in the dark better than a cat, but is easily dazzled and her eyes are peculiarly large, works as a maid.
Big Brotha: Borderline Ultra, super strong and tough but excessively large and only has normal human stamina. A PI who moonlights as an enforcer for Janus when business is slow. Based on a 4th Ed character named Price.
Fat Lady: Dimunitive woman whose singing voice causes debilitating pain to anyone who hears it. Runs a coin laundary.
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Re: Succeeding The Blood
Brilliant, laddie!
Maybe there's a quiet little village up in the mountains where one family is known for prodigous strength. Maybe Caber is her great-granson!
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Re: Succeeding The Blood
True that. Or an experiment by an Empyrean, as was suggested upthread.
You could have something like the 'Johnny Hercules effect' where powers are transferred from person to person, only it follows a bloodline. Maybe an 'Inheritor effect': At some point generations ago, a normal human receives power from whatever source (a deity, a wizard, an alien artifact, nanotech, all the usual and unusual possibilities). They can transfer it once in their lifetime either at will or upon death (maybe you could do it more than once if the powers are given back, but it's simpler if you can never receive them again)...if not designated, it could go to the nearest person (which would be quite a payoff for a murderer--maybe the power can be 'sent out' to avoid your killer getting it if you have time to realize what's about to happen), or the closest blood relative without powers, or the nearest 'worthy' person, or just a random person out to a certain range. The powers granted could be consistent, or be sort of a free-floating origin (every Inheritor gets something customized to them), or some abilities are consistent and some personalized, as with Empyreans. So far this may be interesting, but not the makings of a super-powered dynasty because there is always just one person with the power. So the twist is: if you have any children after inheriting the power, the first one also gets the power: either with the usual rule, or only the same powers as the parent, or at a reduced power level. Maybe the offspring can only pass on the power to their firstborn, or maybe they can give it away the same way someone who receives it as a gift can. This allows for a gradually growing group of related supers. One dynamic would be people in the know trying to get someone to give them powers, by currying favor, manipulation, payoff, and so forth. There would be a strong incentive to keep knowledge of the source of power limited to as few people as possible, especially if you can get it by being the closest person to an Inheritor when they die. Another dynamic would be trying to locate a new Inheritor if a random recipient becomes one due to random Inheritance due to death (it's possible Inheritance comes with instructions, or not, interesting either way).
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Re: Succeeding The Blood
I have Empyreans on the brain, because I am a Kirby fan. Another possibility would be a 'human' Empyrean mating with a compatible alien race (Mandaarian, maybe) and the programmed Empyrean/gifted ratio knocked askew because of the genetic difference from humans. Ditto for an Empyrean/human mutant combo. These have the extra flavor of powers from both sides of the family.
Scions have the potential to spin off just about any kind of lost race you could want if you add them to a small enough gene pool and , uh, lose them. Amazons, Subterraneans, aquatics, you name it.
Maybe in some lineages the power set becomes more standardized. Generations could be skipped, so a 10th generation character might be equal to a 6th generation of another lineage because the inheritance tends to skip generations. 'We haven't talked about your grandmother much, son, but since you've been flying around the house so much lately....'
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Re: Succeeding The Blood
But lets go with Scions. The first half-Empyrean Scion was the Matriarch (as a placeholder title). She gets a modified Empyrean Package: +55 points in Characteristics, which we'll say is a blended trait that averages out with each generation, except for INT, which is dominant (judging from the Empyrean's gifted offspring); we'll just knock the 1/2 End off the Flight, replace Self-Contained Breathing with 4 points of Extended Breathing, cut the Empyrean Toughness, Physiology, and Mental Shielding defenses in half, lose the Light Sleep and Universal Translator; and finally, keep the 100-point Powers Template: a Scion either does or does not inherit the potential to develop a power set, although those that do may not be able to fully develop it if they're too many generations diluted with normal humans. So we have a 250-point 1st-Gen Scion package. From here there are two paths: power set or no. 2nd Gen without powers gets everything else (just to be nice) for 150 points, except longevity goes to 4-points and loses a point every generation until it's gone, with powers loses 50 points off Mom's deal that can come off of anything. Reduce the value of the package 25-50 points with every generation of mixing, bearing in mind that the power template can be lost from the lineage at any point. By the 8th generation of mixing at most all a 'Scion' has is a colorful family history, maybe a little extra sharpness and motivation, and possibly a neat heirloom or two; plus whatever they can make of their humanity. If two Scions have a child, just average out their bonuses...I discourage anyone from getting 'icky' with a 225-point package; but it's your game if you want to use any of this.
If I accidentally stumbled on something Steve has in mind by dint of writing a wall of text, I don't claim any right to any of this, in fact I would be immensely gratified/pleasantly surprised if any of it was deemed useful enough to use in a published work and greatly disappointed if something wasn't used just to avoid duplication.
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Re: Succeeding The Blood
This offshoot could have happened a long time ago. Empyreans could pass as gods, these guys (need a cool name) could have been heroes, like Argonauts or Finnians. Due to 'thinning of the blood' power levels could range all the way down to competent normal before it fades into the genetic background noise. Maybe these offshoots are one explanation for the mystery of why there are so many characters 'without superpowers' running around with characteristics in the 15-25 range in the CU...they're the last generation before they're indistinguishable from the general population.
If the original hybrid Empyrean (could just call 'em Hybrids) was immortal, she could still be around, occasionally having a child and keeping the bloodline from dying out because the source is still around, or there might be some descendants 'in the know' who encourage a little selective inbreeding to keep the power alive (or both, of course), especially during the long generations of low magic background keeping them from their true potential. A super team related by this common origin would also be related (however distantly) by blood.
The temptation to just call them The Blood is really strong.
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Re: In Progress From Blackwyrm Games: Mythic America
I want this book.
Horror Hero rant
in Other Genres
Posted
Re: Horror Hero rant
The above may seem less out-of-the-blue if I note it is in response to post #41 by Xiowar, I just forgot to 'reply with quote'.