Just A Guy Name

GAAH! Don't give me a reason to start railing on Witchcraft! Actually, Talisman could even be behind the whole thing, but that seems a bit trite; perhaps she is just the front for another, more sinister villain?

Inspired by Balok, who was inspired by Hermit, who has the ball in his court :| Not a poll, for the obvious reason that there are way to many permutations. The premise is that half the Champions have gone bad, for whatever reason (MC, corruption, replaced by evil lookalikes, doesn't matter), and the remaining half of the team has to not only stop their friends before they become major bad guys, but do so (in the tradtion) without hurting them, and find out what happened to them. We can add Kinetik into the mix, so that both sides will be even in number. The question is, which three members going bad will make for the best story? Take into consideration appropriateness of each individual being cast into a villain's role (as in Balok's poll), but also the ramifications of power mixes. I'll propose the three evil Champions be Ironclad, Defender, and Witchcraft; leaving Nighthawk, Sapphire, and Kinetik to oppose them. Witchcraft, because we don't want that Transformation to thwart the storyline too quickly. Ironclad, because he's the strongest and best protected, which will make taking him down both harder and more poignant. Defender, for the dramatic reasons (his turning will be the most shocking to the other Champions), plus he adds a nice balance to the other two. That looks like an obvious choice to me, a little too obvious;) Other ideas?

Definitely an improvement, though not the way I would prefer it.

The big ears are way cooler than the dopey little triangles that make him look like Astro-Boy (not that I have anything against AB, mind you).

Don't do art, sorry. Drop the bill, replace it with a hood that can keep his face at least partially shadowed. Stylized bird's head on the hood might be a nice touch, as long as it had no more than muted colors. Darks or simple linework might be better. I'm ok with the rest of it.

It's still there. Follow the link Jesse left on his last post. Helloo? Is this thing on?

Did you follow Jesse's Tantalos Inspired Link? It's a joint project between Hero Games and The Guardians of Order, mostly desired for the official conversion rules between Champions and SAS.

Re: Re: Tease Birth of a Rumour

Whether it was "rigged" in any sense, or not, was never an issue for me. The entertainment was in the back-and-forth discussions on the SS board. Certainly the results of the last two contests gave at least the appearance of collusion, but, so what? It was all in fun. The point now is; what to do to enliven the interest in the RS project? Would a second SS contest get reader support? Or is it a lost cause? I'm partial to the idea, but then I have been a big booster (offline, mostly) of the whole DoJ-GoO xover thing since I first stumbled onto the SS webpage nearly a year ago.

Maybe the way to revive the gaming community's interest in this project is to start talking about it more? What do you think the format should be for a new Showdown? Another Hero vs Hero? Villain vs Villain? A sequel to the original Showdown? To me, the first two were played out in the original contests, while the latter seems integral to the upcoming Reality Storm. A new arrangement might be best to capture the attention of readers (and potential buyers). Two scenarios that spring to mind are: 1. Get a set of different heros and villains from each system (different from SS1, that is). Pit the CU heroes against the SAS villains, and vice-versa. 2. Gather a set of morally-questionable characters or hero-villains from each system and pit them against one another. This has a downside though, in that some of the participants in the supervillain Showdown fit into this category, making it less than completely fresh. Opinions? "The cure for apathy is to cut the prime minister's power" Michael Meacher, The Guardian, 07 Jan 2004

Sounds like a call for... Superhero Showdown II !

Re: How would you build a Smart Bomb? Couldn't you just give it an INT of 10+?

Cool! How complete? The Nexus crossovers? The I am Coyote xover? Hey, Larry!

Anybody remember the classic Comics Journal cover with Popeye knocking the Hulk out of a boxing ring? Sort of a paean to the early Segar strips, where Popeye regularly fought MUCH bigger opponents, and would win with ease.

Finally! A question that I can waste MY time on! Let's see... Well for starters: Jhamin gave me the idea of doing a Champions in 3-D, Revisited. Each of the alternate worlds from the original would be revisited by the heroes, with space allocated for the history of the alt-world since their first visit. Next (out of sheer orneriness); Champions: Retconned. Every character from the current CU (or at least as many as we can fit. Oh, WTH, we'll do it in a mutiple volume collection ) is retconned to pre-5th Ed. standards. All the Champions are re-cast as 250 point characters, and all NPCs values are reduced proportionately. All current players are advised to bring their existing characters in line with the new standard. Fun for all!

While I still think it is not the best way to simulate the power in question, DI UaA does fit conceptually. If the extra PD and ED are deemed not in accordance with that concept, then you could just dump them along with the STR increase, and adjust the advantage appropriately, probably to +1.

Re: Star Boy and Light Lass I think your problem is caused by a confusion of the meaning in the Usable As Attack section. The injunction there is against taking limitations on powers UaA, unless the limitation affects only the character using the power. In your case (presumably in the case given in the book also, as it is exactly the same as your idea: an editorial error) however, the "Does Not Increase STR" modifier is not a Limitation to the power, but rather an Advantage, as it is enhancing the debilitating effects of the attack on the target. The same logic applies to your Shrinking dilemma. If the DI would still provide the pluses to PD and ED, I would estimate it at about a +3/4 advantage. Since the decreased size provides the only benefits to Shrinking, the "No Size Change" should be worth more, maybe a +1. Just for the record, I think an Entangle is probably a better way to represent Star Boy's power, although I rather like the idea of the Shrinking power for Light Lass.

Looks like a pretty good write-up. My one contention with it is that the STR seems too high. I haven't read all the stories ( only 6 or 7) but he doesn't come across quite so powerful as STR 35 to me. The GURPS sourcebook ( did you reference that?) lists his ST at 30 for GURPS, and I think about that, or maybe a 28, would be a closer approximation in HERO.

Speaking of MWWellman, I'd recommend his Silver John stories ( 5 novels and a couple of collections, I think) to those interested in that brand of pulp fantasy; although they are not S&S by any means.

By "universality", do you mean adaptability? Certainly the existence and playabilty of multi-genre campaigns using GURPS is verifiable, and ought to indicate otherwise. Regarding the example of pyrokinesis, et al; if abilities have exactly the same effect, they should have the same cost. GURPS design philosophy treats the SE of each of the attacks as fundamental, resulting in different pricing for each. Whether the costs are fair, compared to each other, is another matter;)

Captures the trend of "friendly interviewing" quite well. Nice work.

I'm surprised more people do not favourably remember The Blood And Dr. McQuark. The section on the Dr. never worked for me, but the Blood continues to be a presence in my games to this day. Some of the family are featured prominently in the Strikeforce sourcebook,also.

Coolness:cool: Thanks for the insider, Ben!

One of General Winter's powers is Telekinesis: (Ice/Snow).

HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy Heh, lots of good quotes from HGG. The one I use all the time ( in gaming and in TRW) is "Don't Panic" ( written in large friendly letters)