Doug McCrae

Re: Who is... COUNT INFINITY? There's a William Gibson story called Count Zero.

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

Re: The Golden Age Recruitment Drive I think these two are at odds with one another.

Re: How do I make this a golden age character? Golden Age superheroes wear colourful circus costumes. Pulp heroes might dress a but funny but didn't have the distinctive superhero cut. Superheroes always have codenames, pulp heroes usually don't. If it ends in '-man' then it's a superhero - dead giveaway. Hating guns is a bit modern Batman-y, don't you think?

Re: D & D Diatribe I love 3rd ed D&D. Don't think it's munchkin at all, though it depends what you mean by that. IMO it's the most balanced system I've ever played. The one drawback is that spellcasters rule the roost from about 10th level onwards (and suck at low levels) but that's always been the case.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? Given the world we live in there simply must be one or more Al-Qaida type genuine bad guys. However there also ought to be at least one Arab or Muslim good guy as a counterpoint. See, you can please all the people. At least some of the time.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Re: I should read more... comics...

And I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm not sure what sort of law officer would be most appropriate (not knowing much about the setup in the US) whether the government would be agreeable, whether a new post should be created etc. The background: Superheroes have only been around for about 10 months. There are only about half a dozen in existence (along with a much larger number of supervillains, most of those currently in custody). The PCs have good relations with the government. In particular they have the ear of the Secretary of the Dept of Homeland Security, having been called in by him when a small town in Tennessee tried to secede from the union. (They defeated the hillbilly mind controller responsible.) The PC in question, Event Horizon, volunteered to reveal his secret ID to the government as part of gaining official status.

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

Re: Iron Champions A stoner gang I know uses that as one of their catchphrases. They say it whenever someone's about to fall asleep. By making this post though I have, unfortunately, failed to stay on target. For which I apologise.

Re: Background Cliches I'd say elements derived from the publishing history of comic books - the first superhero being a strong guy who debuts in 1938 or a lull in the 1950s - don't count as cliches. That 50s lull being due to McCarthyism OTOH, does count as a cliche. It's been used in Watchmen, Wildcards, probably Superfolks I'm guessing and, of course, Champions Universe.

Re: Background Cliches Orson Welles famous 1938 Halloween hoax is real - alien invaders genuinely did land at Grovers Mill. The superheroes that arrive separately to repel this invasion form a superteam. This is used in CU and also independently by Big Willy, the GM of our Golden Age Golden Heroes campaign. And in this random bloke's superhero universe that I just googled. Three's a bit too many for my liking. I'm calling cliche.

Re: Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics Vigil, you make good points but superhero comics are unlike the heroic myths of Hercules, Balder, etc in one important respect - they never end. Since the beginning, superheroes have been more like Sexton Blake, Doc Savage or other pulp heroes. For as long as they make money, their stories must go on and on and on with no end in sight. You can't kill off all the X-Men, no matter how grand their deaths are (and I'm not sure they ought to be, given that the X-Men are a little closer to real life than the likes of Superman or Thor) cause the X-Men are big money makers. I've always felt the best Superman stories are the ones where he dies. This story has actually been told a bunch of times in the Silver Age, as well as the Doomsday thing, but the SA ones were all imaginary stories. Though, to quote Alan Moore, "Aren't they all?"

Re: Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics

Re: Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics

Re: Iyo: The Most Underrated Or Underused Character In Comics I really liked Raven from the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans. One of my favourite characters in comics. Is she still around? She had very poorly defined powers though, even by comic book standards.

Re: Achilles' Heels Are you saying DC comics are crap?

Re: If Champions didn't exist... I'm running a Silver Age Sentinels game at the moment. If SAS didn't exist I'd probably use DC Heroes or Champions. For a game set in the Marvel universe I might use the Marvel SAGA system - the one with the cards. At some point I'd like to give Mutants & Masterminds a try as I hear it's pretty good.

Re: Tales of the Common People As far as I'm aware, Kurt Busiek's Marvels (1994) was the first example of this idea - a superhero universe as seen through the eyes of a normal.

Re: Unused Bird/Flying Creature Motifs Hope it clears up soon. Hyuk hyuk hyuk.

Re: Unused Bird/Flying Creature Motifs Harrier Lammergeier Skua Shrike (with apologies to Killer Shrike) Carrion crow Black swan - black=sinister, right? Hornet Pteradactyl Pteranodon Ornithocheirus - largest winged reptile evar! Cockatrice Pegasus Wyvern