My friend Lord Mhoram, who introduced me to the Hero Boards, tells me that the 50th post is something of a transition event--a rite of passage, kind of like being told you don't have to sit at the kids' table any more. So for my 50th post I wanted to do something to celebrate the milestone, as well as something to help me develop a deeper connection with the people reading my posts (if any). So I came up with this.
Below is a list, as best my memory will allow me to compile, of every character I've played in a campaign setting. Some of these characters I've played for only a gaming session or two, and some I've played for years. I've been playing Champions since 1987, so the list is pretty substantial.
Enjoy. And feel free to post similar lists, if you're interested.
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Quasar - My very first Champions character, which I shortly thereafter turned over to another player because he liked the character and I wanted to build something else. Flying energy projector, light-based powers.
Impulse - Telekinetic and Focused (IIF: Soul Gem) telepath. Also had a 3rd Edition Martial Arts package and some investigation skills.
The Wanderer - Jedi-style (complete with laser sword) alien martial artist who mistakenly ended up on Earth. Naturally he joined the first superhero team he could find--the rest of whom were all mutants. Hey, it was the 80's.
The Vanguard - My first truly long-running character. He started off as a Black Knight clone and was called Cavalier. The GM ran him on a lot of solo adventures (we were roommates), and he really helped me establish a back story and flesh out the character. My love of novella-length character histories dates back to this character.
Black Bow - Former SWAT team member who took up a crossbow to fight crime. He had the standard array of trick arrows/bolts, as well as a few normal ones.
Riptide - Marine biologist and engineer who developed a supersuit for undersea exploration. When the government agency he was working for cut off his funding and ordered the prototype destroyed, he stole it instead. Played as part of an aquatic campaign.
Ricochet - Part of a 'first supers in the world' campaign, Ric could produce two-dimensional force/energy fields that he could use as FFs, FWs, EBs, or RKAs. Based loosely on the New Universe character Justice.
Lotus - Martial artist with passive psionic abilities. Formerly a PSI trainee. In her secret ID, she's a pediatrician who teaches Wing Chun Kung Fu on weekends.
Lightning Rod - Electrical energy projector with a metal rod that gave him OCV bonuses and reduced END. His secret ID is a meteorologist.
Sterling - A mutant servant of the British Crown, he can change his body into a shiny, super-strong metal alloy. He was sent to the US on semi-permanent assignment to work with the American superhero populace and see what he could learn.
Solaris - She fights crime with the aid of the Solar Bands, a pair of bracers that allow her to construct light-based energy constructs. In an adventure with the Crimson Centurion, it was revealed that her Solar Bands may be the 'Lost Bands' long sought by the Cosmic Centurion Corps.
Chill - Firefighter who got caught in a chemical fire and developed ice powers--but all of them were non-ranged. So basically, a cold-based energy projector with no ranged attacks.
Big Jake - Jake was a fairly normal Labrador retriever who was kidnapped and experimented on by an extradimensional wizard. Now he has human-level intelligence, speech capacity, and the ability to alter his size. He still has some canine instincts, though, such as the time a suspect got away by telekinetically making a car drive down the street by itself. Jake, of course, chased it.
Kid Thunder - Originally intended as a short-term replacement for two characters whose players moved to the precise middle of nowhere and left the group without anyone with ranged attacks. In costume he looked like Raiden (from the original Mortal Kombat), but without the hat. He stuck around and eventually grew up into the hero Thunderstrike.
Jack Diamond - He saw his best friend murdered during a robbery attempt and spent the next ten years studying martial arts and criminology in order to get back at the guy. He opened a private detective agency, with Jack Diamond as the primary detective and his secret ID as one of the office workers. He later became a member of Watchtower and inexplicably became one of the leaders of the team. In addition to his inhuman speed and agility, he also has an impressive array of gadgets--some of which he's taken as trophies from bad guys he's helped bust (like the crooked former Golden Avenger's power gauntlets).
Pariah - Cast out of a magical secret society for advocating contact with the outside world, he was eventually exposed to mutagenic waste and captured by Genocide. When Watchtower invaded the facility he was freed and joined the group. He's a brick with a 40-point tactical magic VPP.
Magnetite - When Elizabeth fell off the parallel bars and sustained a severe concussion at an international meet in Paris, she lost her chance to make the US Olympic gymnastics team. Sometime shortly thereafter, she discovered she had gained the ability to control magnetic fields and manipulate metal. She served with Watchtower for several years before leaving with teammate Phoenix (no relation to Ms. Grey) to join StarGuard. Her current location and activities are unknown.
Fang - A world-renowned immunologist who accidentally infected himself while trying to discover a cure for lycanthropy. His treatment allows him to make the transformation voluntarily (except under a full moon) and to keep his human intellect. He was a bald-faced ripoff of Hank McCoy, although I don't believe Fang ever said, "Oh, my stars and garters!"
Desperado - What happens when a self-absorbed professional ski racer finds that his floozie of the day is actually a demon? He escapes with his life--just barely!--and becomes part of a group of interdimensional operatives working to preserve the cosmic order. He's ridiculously quick and athletic, plus he has ice powers. For now. His power set seems to change without warning from time to time.
Knight Owl II - The grandson of Francis Krill, the original Knight Owl from Word War II. He uses his grandfather's newest invention, a suit of powered armor, to fight crime in San Angelo. Inspired by/ripped off from Batman Beyond. Called "Egg Boy" by his teammates because of the egg-shaped grenades he uses.
Alexander Kamensky (aka Enigma) - He spent nearly ten years as an officer in Air Force Intelligence, specializing in cryptography, translation, and electronic surveillance. When he was diagnosed with an incurable disease he volunteered for a government test program, survived the experiments, and gained super strength. He worked briefly for a US Government black ops unit before becoming a free agent.
Morningstar - On her way home from a party she'd been told not to go to, she saw her parents murdered by Genocide. She discovered her superpowers shortly thereafter. Upon turning 18, she was released from a state foster home and joined the New Champions. She's a flying force field projector with a mace. Tactically, think Hawkgirl from the Justice League cartoon.
Knight of the Scarab - An ancient warrior with mystical weapons who found himself lost in time and space, only to emerge in present-day San Francisco. He was eventually retired from the Meeb campaign because he just wasn't bizarre enough to hang with the rest of the team.
Wild Card - An archaeologist who discovered a set of magical playing cards made for Napoleon as a weapon. Each card value (Ace, King, etc.) has a different combat effect; so does each suit. (Built as two linked Multipowers.) Unfortunately, he never knows what he's getting until he actually draws a card. Good thing he also has a Savate package to rely on. NOT a ripoff of Gambit, thank you very much.
ColdFire - A computer science student who was kidnapped from a seance by something from the Other Side. An Ice Demon Lord named Fomri took her with the intent of transforming her into someone he could mate with and sacrifice the child to establish a permanent gateway to Earth. She was transformed, but escaped before he could, uh, consummate the deal. Or so she thought. She has cold-based powers that look like blue-white flame.
Amethyst - A member of an ancient mystical secret society (The same one that booted Pariah? Nobody knows.) who's spent her whole life preparing for an extradimensional invasion she knew would come in her lifetime. Now it's here, and her organization has recruited a number of heroes to help fight it off. Magical powers centered around Telepathy and Telekinesis.
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And as far as I can remember, that's it. Twenty years of heroics. Thanks, Hero System!
