Doug McCrae

Originally posted by Checkmate

Don't know why, but I don't want to play a plain looking female character, but have no problem playing a plain looking male.

Because looks are more important for a woman than a man. With men it's strength, intelligence, power. Perhaps professional ability in the real world. Society values different attributes in females - affability, child rearing and, above all, beauty.

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

...the WTC towers and a large part of Manhattan were detroyed during an alien invasion in 1982

V?

Originally posted by altamaros

I gonna try (i insist on "try") to make a little synthesis of that thread on "national theme" heroes.

What we can note as recurrent aspects :

 

a) the flag theme :

the national allegory theme :

c) the national pet theme :

d) the national plant:

e) the national hero/father of the country/historic reference

f) the national monument/building theme

 

Someone sees anything else ?

Anything that's distinctive to one country. It could be, but is far from limited to, a geographical feature, type of weather, animal, historical event, myth or legend, piece of folklore, National character/symbol/anthem/dress/religion/sport/custom.

Examples:

Marvel

Puck - Canadian sport: ice hockey

Sasquatch - Canadian cryptozoology. (The American version would be called Bigfoot.)

Vanguard, wielded a hammer and sickle - symbol of USSR (not Russia).

Me

The Gent, dresses in pinstripe, wields deadly bowler hat or brolly - distinctive British dress

The Batsman, wields a deadly cricket bat - distinctively British sport (Aussies may disagree!)

Sirocco (North African wind) - weather type

Dreamtime - Australian aboriginal myth

Trident - National symbol of the Ukraine, I discovered after a websearch.

Kalkin - The next avatar of Vishnu. Hinduism is really the national religion of India.

America First, villains based on The Force Of July

Constitution (super-health) - Founding document for American government

Red Glare (eye-beams) - Line from national anthem

Pilgrim (possesses a special item: The Bible Belt) - Historical founders of the nation

Bee-52 (GM bee/human) - Warplane

Rushmore (stony giant) - National monument

Originally posted by AlHazred

Most attempts by American comic book makers usually seem pretty lame to me, and that's even ignoring the ridiculous caricatures that showed up on the animated series of the 70s.

It seems to me that the treatment of foreign superheroes in American comics has become more and more favourable, and there has been a growing trend towards internationalism, since the 70s. It all kicked off with the new X-Men who debuted in Giant Size X-Men #1. The team contained a Canadian, an African, a German and a Russian. Colossus, a simple farmboy (rather like Superman) and Storm, the elemental spirit - pandering to ideas of Africa/blacks being closer to nature or more primitive - may be regarded as rather stereotyped. But at least Colossus was a true superhero, presented during the Cold War. Nightcrawler, though, really stands out for me as being a totally non-stereotyped German - he's a devil-may-care swashbuckler rather than an efficient Aryan or Prussian nobleman with a dueling scar.

In popular culture, the idea of an international team, even incluiding Russkies, didn't start with the X-Men, it started with Star Trek. But the X-Men were a comicbook first.

You can draw a line down from the New X-Men, thru Justice League International, StormWatch and similar organisations. The influx of British writers in the 80s and 90s has increased the numbers of non-stereotyped British and Irish characters. I'm thinking particularly of Jenny Sparks of StormWatch/Authority. Christ, the only way you could tell she was British was all the sodding bloody swearing. Well, that and the wankering t-shirt.

I think perhaps it's gone too far and there's now too much internationalism in comics. After all the audience is mainly American. Internationalism risks alienating the majority of the readership.

Originally posted by AlHazred

The trick, of course, is to come up with a name that members of that country would call their Captain America clone, not what the American comic book makers called them.

Rubbish. The majority of posters on these boards are American. The vast majority of Champions players are American. Why should they care what foreign nationals would really call their Cap clones? What matters is what your players will perceive as plausible.

Re: Re: Golden Age Campaign

Originally posted by MisterVimes

THEME villains, Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Clock King, etc...

Clock King first appeared in 1960, according to Overstreet.

The paucity of supervillains was a distinctive feature of the Golden Age so you might want to consider that in the interests of establishing more of a period feel. Many (most?) superheroes of the time lacked powers so it seems appropriate that the bad guys should too. Opposition could come in the following forms:

Mad scientists. They would often have only one invention. Once that was dealt with they'd be seen no more. Some did return though - the Ultra-Humanite (just a bald bloke, despite his wonderful name), Luthor (started out with hair, I believe), Dr. Sivana, Dr. Psycho (a Wonder Woman opponent).

Crime bosses would usually have some sort of interesting schtick and could also have a supervillainy sounding name like the Octopus (I think he fought the Spirit).

Aliens, whether from space or (rarer) another dimension. Rampaging robots. Monsters. Wizards. (The line betwen science and magic could be pretty hazy back then.) Evil swamis with the power of hypnosis - a common ability. Vampires, ghosts and other supernatural beasts. (Batman fights a real vampire, called the Monk, in Detective Comics #31-32.) Ordinary criminals. Fifth columnists. The nazis of course. Homegrown fascists, possibly - DC's Uncle Sam first appeared in 1940 to help a boy whose father had been killed by the "Purple Shirts".

Atlanteans/Lemurians/Muvians could pose a threat. After all Namor started out as a kind of halfway supervillain who duked it out with the Human Torch. Who knows how a fishman might act in a strange environment? Personally I think they're after our women, perhaps as a kind of twisted revenge for all those sailor/mermaid couplings.

There were swarms of Dark Champions style vigilante superheroes. In the comic books I don't think hero ever fought hero over justice vs. due process but they could in your campaign universe.

A few superheroes of the time got their powers from being raised by animals including tigers and condors (yes, he learned how to fly!). What if an abandoned orphan was raised by evil animals such as pythons or vultures? It could lead to a villain with some pretty repulsive table manners.

The playing of pranks and jokes was common for GA supervillains: Prankster, Toyman, Mr. Mxyztplk, The Joker - though his were sick and evil. There were catwomen - Catwoman and Cheetah. Some bad guys were associated with stage and screen - The Dummy and Clayface. Perhaps other vaudevillians could turn to crime - acrobats (good second storey men), expert knife throwers, animal trainers.

It seems to me that a lot of GA bad guys were really quite scary and horrifying - The Joker, Two-Face, Clayface (so many faces), The Dummy, Red Skull. An equal number were comedic and non-threatening - Prankster, Toyman, Mr. Mxyxtplk, many of the Marvel family rogues gallery, though I still think Black Adam was very sinister. He may have been the inspiration for Kid Miracleman's appearance in Alan Moore's Miracleman run. So I reckon a GA foe was either eevil or funny with few in the middle ground.

Originally posted by Rage

Union Jack for England. an actual cool non american patriot (shudders at things like "Big Ben")

Big Ben - The Man With No Time For Crime!

Originally posted by wcw43921

...the character sounds an awful lot like a genetically engineered killing machine who bears a strong resemblance to Jessica Alba, and was featured on a TV series a few years back.

And *I* thought he was copying John Byrne's Next Men. They were a group of genetically engineered teenagers, raised in a virtual reality environment. Something goes wrong - an explosion or some such - and they escape into our world. One of them was a girl with super-agility called, I think, Jazz. It's quite a good name but some of the ones suggested have been better IMO.

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica -

XYY-trisomy

Relatively common human sex chromosome anomaly in which a male has two Y chromosomes rather than one. It occurs in 1 in 500–1,000 live male births, and individuals with the anomaly are often characterized by tallness and severe acne and sometimes by skeletal malformations and mental deficiency. It has been suggested that the presence of an extra Y chromosome in an individual may cause him to be more aggressive and prone to criminal behaviour, a condition called the “supermale†syndrome. Studies of prison populations have tended to confirm this hypothesis; but subsequent studies of the general population, especially those in which affected individuals were observed from early childhood over a long period of time, have cast serious doubt on the validity of linking the chromosomal anomaly directly to behavioral abnormalities.

Team One: High Fliers.

From the descriptions I don't think any of them actually fly but you could give them all jetpacks or something to make it fit.

Team Two: Big Willy had a very similar concept in his Overwatch UK game - a gold-based villain theme group called the Bullion Bunch.

Goldbrick - brick

Gold-Digger - tunneling

Gold Fever - induced disease

Gold Rush - speedster

I think there may have been one or two more but I don't recall them. They were probably my favourite bad guys of the campaign. I'm a big fan of theme teams, mind.

Re: Re: Unknown reasons

Originally posted by Dynamo

Hodmandod got cut because Snail is a lousy super name.

Reasons why 'Hodmandod' is a good name

1. It sounds good.

2. Precedent - The Flash fought a GA/SA villain called 'The Turtle' who planned to beat the scarlet speedster by travelling too slow for him to cope with. He is now in prison. Although the plan, and the character, was clearly stupid, such things exist in comic book universes.

3. Not every superbeing has to be a kickass nuclear lightning bolt-hurling laser-god with tiger DNA.

4. British things are often naff, especially in comparison to American things.

Re: Naturally I left my character binders at work....

Originally posted by Mayday

Les Gitane - French for gypsy, a family of tattooed gypsy mages

'Gitanes' does mean gypsies but it's also the name of a popular brand of French cigarettes. Most people in this country would assume you were referring to the latter.

Originally posted by Gary

I honestly don't think there are any teams that can deal with a full strength Legion of Superheroes.

How about the Golden Age JSA, with the Spectre? As we saw in Crisis on Infinite Earths, when he battled the Anti-Monitor, the Spectre is DC's most powerful superhero.

Your discussion sparked off an idea - there are several supervillains that rule countries. What about a villain who *is* a country? That would be one tough bad guy. Kind of like Ego the Living Planet but on a smaller scale.

Originally posted by zen_hydra

Would someone please explain to me the overt evil nature of Taoist magic, or Tribal African magic, Shintoist magic, Native American magic, Australian Aboriginal magic, and these are but a very few examples of the worlds magical traditions?

Well, of course they don't tell you it's evil. They keep that secret. As is so often the case, evil and cunning go hand-in-hand.

Originally posted by Monolith

The Champions in the CU have only been a hero group for a few months, and are the same power level as any other beginning-level character. Those characters are not the "icons" of the new CU within the universe itself; they are just the only characters we have stats for.

Fair enough. And I wasn't aware of the Justice Squadron and Sentinels you mentioned in another post. But why were the Champions entered in a "Who's the most iconic?" competition, then? That's just confusing people.

Re: Rifts HERO?

Originally posted by gauss

Has anyone done any Rifts conversions to the HERO system?

 

I love the background (though I admit it is cheesy), but damn if I don't pretty much hate the rules.

Amen, brother. I've heard so many people express that exact same view. Great world, crap system.

Re: change the name

Originally posted by ShadowRaptor

I know this is a drag, but to avoid any possible repercusions from KS at Palladium perhaps it would be wise to change the names of a few things, if only to avoid legal action.

He is probably the most litigious man in roleplaying.

GURPS books I rate include, in order:

Suppressed Transmission 1&2 (dunno if these count)

Illuminati

Time Travel

Reign of Steel

Warehouse 23

Middle Ages

Ultra-Tech 1

Bio-tech wasn't so good, kinda dull. Lots of stuff about catmen, birdmen, fishmen, etc. I can easily imagine catmen myself - I'm loking for something a bit more unusual. Alternate Earths disappointed me too. What if the Romans conquered the world? The Japanese? The Russians? Their just empires with different hats.

Illuminati University was one of my least favourite things ever. I spit upon it.

Re: Book of New Sun and Horseclans

Originally posted by allen

I had heard/read that GURPS had sourcebooks for Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun and Rober Adams' Horseclans. Does anyone have these, and if so, any thoughts/impressions?

I thought the GURPS Book of the New Sun sourcebook was pretty good. Not wonderful or anything, but a decent product.

Originally posted by Darren Watts

Fantasy II (Madlands, by Robin Laws- I can't recommend this setting enough to fans looking for alternative types of fantasy storytelling)

I've heard that's really good from a number of sources. Been looking for it for ages.

McCrae Comics presents: The Random Silver Age Character Generator. Featuring the most unexpected guest star of all time!

Notes on use: Keep rolling until you have a combination that seems interesting. The Random Silver Age Character Generator does not contain every feature of that period, but focuses more on those aspects that are unique to, or characteristic of, the Silver Age. That's why the Powers table is so short.

Excelsior!

Section 1

Roll 1d6

1-2: Nature

3: Origin/power source

4: Powers

5: Name

6: Miscellaneous

Section 2

Nature

Roll 2d6.

2: Mischievous imp

3: Secret agent. Works for acronymically named organisation.

4: Commie. If the character is a hero, then commies are involved in origin.

5: Ape. Roll on Subtable 1

6: Marvel character. Roll on Subtable 2 - Problems.

7: Outsider. Roll on Subtable 3

8: Teenager

9: Female. Reduce point total by 50%.

10: Evil version of hero like Sinestro or Abomination.

11: Superpet

12: Hippy

Origin/power source

Roll 1d6.

1: Struck by lightning

2-5: Radiation

6: Power armour

Powers

Roll 1d6.

1-3: Animal powers

4: Possesses all the powers of a superhero team.

5-6: Useless power. The ability to eat anything for example.

Name

Roll 1d6.

1-4: Alliterative name.

5-6: Also known by an epithet.

Miscellaneous

Roll 1d6.

1: From an alternate Earth.

2: Ludicrous rogues gallery.

3: Incorrectly programmed an experimental computer causing it to hate all organic life.

4-6: Golden age connection. Roll on Subtable 4.

Section 3 - Subtables

Subtable 1 - Ape

Roll 1d6.

1-3: Gorilla.

4: Orangutan.

5: Baboon.

6: Monkey.

Subtable 2 - Problems

Roll 1d6.

1-2: Monstrous appearance.

3-4: Hated and feared by the public.

5-6: Physically disabled - blind, heart condition, lame or confined to a wheelchair, for example.

Subtable 3 - Outsider

Roll 1d6.

1: Alien.

2: Robot.

3: Mutant.

4: Lost race.

5: God.

6: Bio-engineered.

Subtable 4 - Golden Age connection

Roll 1d6.

1-3: A Golden Age original.

4: Son/daughter of a Golden Age hero.

5-6: Modern version of Golden Age hero. Name and powers same as original. Costume and origin updated.

More than one, I'd say. But I'm a pretty hardcore minimalist.