Pariah

Re: Superhero Legal Disclaimers

Something like "I am required by law to inform you that I am a metahuman. If you wish to surrender' date=' you will be remanded into police custody..."[/quote']

 

That sounds pretty good to me. Short, descriptive, unambiguous, and to the point.

 

Of course, several of my characters (Jack Diamond, Morningstar, ColdFire, et. al.) would follow up that statement with something like, "...if not, you will be remanded into the custody of a good trauma surgeon once we're finished."

Re: What Kind of Heroes do you GM?

Well, my current group is pretty balanced as far as player archetypes. We've got one Newbie, a Loonie, a couple of Powergamers*, a couple of Thespians, and something more than a century of combined Champions experience. It's a great group to play with.

When GMing, I used to be pretty uptight about mechanics. One of my players actually voluntarily retired a character because with just a 30-point VPP, he was causing game balance issues.

These days, I'm more concerned with the storytelling aspect of the game. Any kind of character is welcome, as long as s/he can fit in well with everyone else. The current hero lineup, for example, includes a fireman turned superhero, a Superman sidekick wannabe, an extreme sports star, a telepath/blaster with a coin fetish, a cellular manipulator with a winged snake for a pet, a marble-throwing blaster who walks on (and through) walls, and the reluctant leader of a centuries-old secret mystical society. They have radically different backgrounds and attitudes, but they're united for a common purpose. Their differences make them fun to run, and their collective and individual heroism makes them worth running in the first place.

--

*Lord Mhoram claims to be a 'reformed' Powergamer. Keep telling yourself that, pal.

Re: Heroes and Nukes!

Just a few thoughts:

1. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to detonate a 300 megaton nuclear (or is it 'nuk-ya-ler'?) weapon covertly. Satellite recon and seismograph stations make that sort of explosion impossible to miss. As soon as it goes off, the rest of the world is going to know about it

2. The effects of an unplanned, unsanctioned nuclear detonation would be provocative at best and catastrophic at worst. The very least that such an explosion would do is to set the entire world (see #1, above) at a state of heightened nuclear awareness, not unlike the scariest parts of the Cold War. At worst, it's not unlikely to arouse the wrath of some nation (India? Pakistan?) who's convinced that the attack is the work of their mortal enemies and launch a counterstrike. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon, all the nuclear nations are playing the game. World War III, anyone?

3. If, after the consequences discussed on this thread are revealed to him, your player still insists on nuking the island, Let him. But have him make appropriate skill rolls along the way. When he blows one, well, your campaign still has all the same problems as before, but at least that particular character's not around anymore to worry about them.

Re: Answers & Questions

A: It's 8:47PM and I have no idea where Carmen Sandiego is. But I've found Martha Cleveland.

Q: You were supposed to be here at 8:30! And who is that tramp you've brought with you, anyway?

A: No woman in her right mind would do that!

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Smoothie maker. You can never have too many smoothies.

New Topic: The best thing NOT to plug into an electrical outlet.

Re: [What If] Dr Destroyer really did die. What now?

On a less serious note...

 

Rise Of The Foxbat.

This would make one heck of a "What If" adventure. If it ever got written and published, I'd buy it.

Re: [CHAR] Iron Maiden

As Bill & Ted would say, "Iron Maiden? Excellent!"

She looks tough. Hate to run into her in the "Grrrl Power" thread.

Re: Your character gets 50 points for a base

Gotta be a base? Not a vehicle? Arguably' date=' Nemo's [i']Nautilus[/i] was both.

Yup ... my base would have wheels.

Mine would have a hyperdrive (or a warp core).

Re: Answers & Questions

A: Pia Zadora' date=' Lindsy Lohan and Hillary Rodham Clinton.[/quote']

 

Q: What is the scariest possible lineup for "Charlie's Angels 3"?

 

A: I'm a Taurus. I don't believe in that sort of thing.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

In Freak Squad campaign, our characters have followed some leads to a local occult bookstore. As they're leaving, Robert Plant (yes, from Zeppelin) arrives in a black Corvette with a black dog in the passenger's seat. This is suspicious enough in and of itself, but when he uses his Casual STR to resist the team mini-brick's attempt to restrain him, we begin to get really nervous.

Coldfire: I'm beginning to think this isn't the real Robert Plant.

Humongous: An artificial Plant?

Re: Answers & Questions

A: I look forward to the day you spontaneously explode over Albuquerque.

Q: What's with the sudden interest in New Mexico, honey?

A: There's nothing to put off.

Q: Didn't Procrastinators Anonymous have a meeting today?

A: Nobody could possibly be that stupid.

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

Picture a world where superhero teams are organized like a sports league. For example' date=' there would be some kind of overseeing organization that would grant franchises in various cities and set the rules for the heroes to follow....[/quote']

 

It sounds a little like what Tony Stark is trying to do to Marvel America right now. [shudder]

Re: Character: No-One

Polka? J. Strauss' Thunder and Lightning Polka could serve as interesting inspiration...

I could also point out that I once built a character that was passingly similar to No One. I called him Nowhere Man. You could probably make a whole superteam based on Beatles songs.

Re: WWYCD: Grrrl Power- emphasis on Grrr

Thunderstrike suddenly misses Black Cat and Gibraltar, who have been off-world for years, quite a bit less.

Jack Diamond begins investigating what has happened, and when he finds out how it all started, he tries to find a way to fix it selectively--leaving the female members of Vengeance's staff more aggressive than normal, for example.

In the new Champs' date=' [b']Terminal Velocity[/b] (and the rest of the team) would work on what was wrong, while staying away from Jeopardy and Morningstar (the two females on the team, the two with the baddest temper anyway, and the heaviest hitters on the team - this one almost seems tailor made for this team). Trouble is Jep is also the team detective.

Morningstar seeks out out Terminal Velocity, who's overdue for a beating.

Re: Character: No-One

I think I've seen more interesting characters, but No One comes readily to mind.... [cue rimshot]

One quick question: No One has The Band as DNPCs and The Police as a hunted. Has No One got something going on with 60's and 70's musical groups?

Re: Changing direction mid-jump

Buy a limited form of Gliding defined as "changing direction during a jump through sheer muscle control" (or something equally daft).

Re: The Question write up?

So many great moments from JLU. My favorite:

 

Supergirl: Have you been going through my garbage?

Question: Please...I go through everyone's garbage.

Great moment indeed. And Jeffrey Combs is perfect for his voice.

Re: Answers & Questions

A: That's 4.71 hours of my life I will never get back. Thank you!

Q: What did I say to my ex-girlfriend after watching Titanic?

A: It's not the most disgusting thing I've seen today, but it's close.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Rorschach. Not just because he'd be a lousy neighbor, but that neighborhood is a sewer. And his landlady? No thanks.

Re: test.

Keep this thread alive or I shall refer again and again and again...

Please, no, for the love of all that is good and holy...and tasty...

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

NT: Things to make the Joker happy

Harlequin, Poison Ivy, and a big vat of strawberry Jell-O.

New Topic: Superman's most embarrassing moment.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

NT: How the Champions plan on spending Memorial Day weekend.

They're appearing in a Celebrity Supers Softball Tournament against the Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, and the X-Men. Look out, Defender, Wolvie is one sneaky pitcher.

New Topic: Creative uses for an abandoned VIPER base.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

He was out to sea for an entire year after that' date=' he could have got seduction.. just not the kind he was expecting.[/quote']

'Ello, Poppet....

 

Yeah, we're seeing Pirates 3 today.

Re: Viper/Demon and organization in other fiction like them

In the Stargate SG-1 universe, the obvious candidates are the NID and their successors, the Trust. They have all the cool toys, and lots and lots of agents. And they're doubly dangerous because they have substantial government contacts.

Re: Colossus

It is my understanding that an attack had to do body damage to cause Knockback.

Perhaps I may be of assistance. Yes, an attack does need to do BODY damage to cause Knockback. So attacks that don't do BODY--most NND attacks, for example--don't cause Knockback. Attacks that have the potential to cause BODY damage, like standard EBs, KAs, or punches, can also do Knockback as a result.

Here's the critical bit: a character does not need to suffer BODY damage from an attack to take Knockback from it.

Example I: My version of Colossus has 20 DEF and an average 12d6 attack would be worth 12 BODY and 42 STUN. So if he was hit with an attack like this he would take 0 BODY and 22 STUN. Apply his Damage Reduction and he ends up taking 11 STUN from the attack. No BODY damage got through so Knockback was not caused by the attack.

Standard, Resistant, and even Hardened Defenses have no effect on Knockback. The only things that affect Knockback, if I recall correctly, are Density, Growth, and Knockback Resistance.

Let's take look at your example above. Your version of Colossus would, indeed, take 11 STUN and no BODY from the attack. However, Knockback is determined independently of all that. Let's say this attack was a punch thrown by another brick--Arclight, for example. After tallying the STUN and BODY, Arclight's player rolls two additional dice. Let's say she rolls 7. She subtracts this from the BODY total to get 5" of Knockback (12 - 7 = 5). Assuming that Colossus has one level each of Growth and Density Increase, as suggested by some of the other builds, we factor those into the Knockback calculation as well: Growth gives -1" Knockback/Level and Density Increase gives -1"/level. So, in the end, you end up with a total of 3" Knockback that Piotr takes from the attack (5 - 1 - 1 = 3).

In short, you can do Knockback to a character without getting any BODY through their defenses. For example, I remember a fight between several of Colossus' teammates and Juggernaut. Juggy hit Rogue and sent her flying several hundred feet (and through a stone fence, as I recall). Rogue spent the trip shouting "Ow-ow-ow-ow-OW-ow-ow...", but when she got up, she had no bruises, broken bones, or other impairing injuries. In other words, she'd taken a lot of Knockback--enough to send her trough a stone fence--but had taken no BODY damage.

I hope that helps.