rjcurrie

Re: Comic books In the SuperSquad America universe, my view is that Marvel and DC exist and publish many of the same characters as they do in the real world. As for any other publishers and whether or not DC and Marvel publish any comics about real superheroes, it has not yet come up so I have not made any decisions on the matter.

Re: The K Metal From Krypton To be honest, this would seem to be legit (but I might be wrong). There are several web sites that appear to be unrelated to this one that make reference to this lost story. And indeed, the Alter Ego (the magazine primarily about Golden Age comics from Roy Thomas) issues mentioned do seem to include the stories referenced (judging from the lists of their contents on the web). Also, I have yet to be able to find any reference on the web that debunks any of these claims. As for the artwork looking fraudish, you have to remember that is not an actual golden age being scanned and uploaded but a modern art team attempting to illustrate the Siegel script since only a few pages of the original artwork still exist.

Re: Change Environment vs Images (light only) Well, of course, as a GM, you can always allow combinations that seem reasonable but are not book legal. And as for Hero Designer, if the program does not allow it, you can always turn off Modifier Intelligence or you can you can use a Custom Modifier and just name it the same as the disallowed modifier.

Re: All heroes are NOT created equal The other thing to keep in mind is that the effectiveness of a character can also depend on the player playing it. For example, a player's own tactical abilities will have a big effect on the tactical effectiveness of the character as will the player's creativity in how he uses the character's powers. It can also depend on the focus of the campaign. If the campaign has a lot of investigative focus, then skill-based characters are more likely to excel in that aspect of that game than the combat monsters, but the combat monsters will shine when combat comes around. For example, in one campaign I played in, the highly skilled and tactical Major Neil Dufferin, a "retired" secret agent with lots of skills and contacts and a few gadgets was played by a tactical and resourceful player who made the character shine. On the other hand, Shimmer, a walking VPP, was played by a player with little tactical sense and the character was way less effective than it could have been. Finally, there was Mr. Incredible (way before The Incredibles), who had a large multipower with a huge range of multi and ultra slots. Because the player who played him was great at managing the multipower, Mr. Incredible pretty much always had the right combination of powers available.

Re: CoH groups you would use in your game? In my 2004 SuperSquad America convention event, I named two street gangs the Skeletons and the Hellboys in homage to the Skulls and the Hellions.

Re: New Guy likes SPD Chart I've been a fan of the SPD chart for 23 yeas.

Re: Infinite Crisis "Infinite Crisis" is a 7-issue monthly. After the 5th issue of Infinite Crisis, all the regular DC Universe books will jump to one year later. Note that Infinite Crisis does not jump a year ahead. The explanation of what happened in the missing year will be told in "52", a weekly series. At this point, I'm not sure if "52" starts after IC 5 or after IC 7. Rod Edit: Looks like JmOz and I posted at pretty much the same time

Re: Original Supervillain Groups -- Get Creative! A few years ago, my SuperSquad America convention event featured an all-female team called the Beddy-Bye Brigade: Nightfall -- a martial artist Slumber -- the brick Starlight and Starbright -- twin energy projectors who could combine their powers for greater effect Dreamweaver -- illusionist Also, there was Villainy International, a somewhat silly international group that included: Colossal Gaul -- a very large gluttonous Frenchman Aunt Arctica -- an old ice-based villainess London Fog -- an Englishman with fog powers Spanish Fly -- a spaniard with shrinking and flight Roman Candle -- a teenage boy from Rome with fire powers and flight similar to Cannonball's Rubber Czech -- a stretcher from the Czech Republic The Ten Foot Pole -- a polish gentleman with growth Black Russian -- a Russian with darkness powers Other members named but not fully developed: Turkish Delight Finnish Lion Ugly American Maiden Japan China Doll Greek Fire And then, of course, there were those that didn't make the cut: English Muffin Belgian Waffle -- could never deside whether or not to join German Shepherd -- not much call for sheep control Swedish Meatball Norwegian Wood -- a horny guy from Norway

Re: Infinite Crisis Yeah, they should have never allowed Grant Morrison to give the name Earth 2 tol his anti-matter universe version of the pre-crisis Earth 3. Also, to be completely accurate, the anti-matter Earth 2 home to the current Crime Syndicate is similar to, but not identical to, the pre-Crisis Earth 3.

Re: Infinite Crisis Yeah, but the mindwipe thing does set some other things in motion. Yeah, Bats needs better security Rucka himself admits that "Sacrifice" should have been part of the the actually miniseries and in fact, the collected version is going to include both "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" and the Wonder Woman issue you mention above. Day of Vengeance, actually. While I agree that this was the weakest of the four lead-in miniseries, I quite liked the main characters, especially Detective Chimp. The main point seems to have been to make magic, a wilder, less-controlled factor in the DC universe. Supposedly, Issue 2 of Infinite Crisis is intended to bring everyone up-to-date on the current state of the universe including a 5 page summary of the history of the DCU pencilled by George Perez. I suspect this will be done when the 4 COIE refugees bring everyone up-to-date on the former multiverse and related matters. Yup, the best of the bunch. Pretty much sums it up. There's also the fifth miniseries which ties heavily into Infinite Crisis, even though it wasn't marketed that way: The Return of Donna Troy. While the first three issues were uninspiring, the fourth issue pretty much revealed that post-Crisis Earth was broken and that Donna Troy, like Power Girl, is the result of improper merging of characters from many Earths. Dark Angel, part of John Byrne's horrible mangling of Donna, is revealed to be not only an alternate Donna who had escaped the merger, but the Anti-Matter's own version of Harbinger. Thus, Donna has become the spiritual successor to the original Harbinger and is gathering heroes to deal with whatever may be happening with the rift that is appearing in space. Who thinks that that rift may be the Anti-Monitor returning?

Re: Infinite Crisis I just wished they hadn't used the "All Star" moniker on that line, simply because to me that name is associated with the JSA and company -- from the original All-Star Comics in the 40s to the All-Star revival in the 70s and All-Star Squadron in the the 80s.

Re: Infinite Crisis

Re: Infinite Crisis OK, I thought that might be what you are referrring to. Given Loeb's tendancy to play a bit fast and loose with the details of continuity in Superman/Batman, I assumed that the future Superman seen in that story arc was simply meant to be a future version of the current Superman and that the similarities to the version of the Earth-1 Superman seen in the ending of that arc was simply an homage to Alan Moore's great "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow". I'm not sure it was meant as an indicator that it was actually the Superman from that story. With that said, it would not surprise me if the Earth-1 Supes did put in an appearance given that we have also seen an adult Jason Todd in the Batman books as the Red Hood who could be interpreted as the original Earth-1 version whose origin was overwritten and an alternate Earth Luthor in Villains United who as far as most can tell has to be the Earth-1 Luthor.

Re: Infinite Crisis

Re: Infinite Crisis As am I, which is why I asked for clarification so I could counter his points as a way to encourage readers of this thread that perhaps the miniseries wasn't the "disaster" he was painting it to be. And as a big fan of the original Earth-2 (not the current anti-matter universe Earth-2 with the new Crime Syndicate) and the original Crisis on Infinite Earths (although not necessarily of the effects it had on my favorite earth), I absolutely loved the final page.

Re: Infinite Crisis

Re: Infinite Crisis Perhaps you can elaborate on what you find so objectionable.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? From what I hear, one of the major points of Infinite Crisis is that the original Crisis did not properly merge the earths. Thus, I suspect that Zero Hour and the very concept of Hypertime are a result of the unstable universe that resulted. This would explain why folks from DC have said that Hypertime is a dead conept -- once the universe is stabilized, there will be no more Hypertime. Rod

Re: Wings of the Valkyrie

Re: Highest level Champions game you could play? To me, the maximum level that I would be willing to play would depend almost entirely on the GM. If I felt the GM had a strong grasp of the Hero system and the high level superhero genre, I would be willing to try almost anything. In general, I think the success of any Champions game has a lot to do with the quality of the GM.

Re: your campaigns "Superman". Actually, the universe used for my SuperSquad Amerca convention games does not really have a Superman type. Instead, the first, best, and brightest role is filled by the original Challenger, who is basically a Captain America type with about STR 35 or 40 (never actually wrote him up), a DEX of about 30 and martial arts. He was the first costumed hero and led the premier superhero team of the 1960s, the original SuperSquad America. In this universe, the space shuttle Challenger had been named after him.

Re: What Would Your Character's City Be Like? For the members of SuperSquad America from my convention event (www.supersquadamerica.com): Rick Davies the Resilient Rubber-Man and Swift Kick (his wife): Probably some place like Astro City, a city full of heroes fighting the good fight with lots of different neighbourhoods providing the full range of the superhero experience. Fast Track: A high-tech city of learning but with a hint of darkness in its future. Diva: Definitely a media center where she is one of the city's biggest personalities. Silver Bow: A birght, shiny, and optimistic city on the surface but with an underbelly of crime and corruption that is eating it away. Challenger: A modern city that has never forgotten its past. In fact, maybe some people live in the past a little too much. Crimson Fist: A city that isn't sure whether it wants superheroes around or not. It's tough being a hero there. Nightingale: A bright shining small city that lives almost entirely in the present with little thought given to the past. It's the kind of place where it's good to raise a family. Forethought: A dark dangerous city full of secrets and conspiracies.

Re: I need a name for a society of adventurers I think I'm going to go with the Order of Odysseus; however, I probably won't have need of the organization for another year or so, since I decided to go with a different plotline for this year's Friends of Justice convention event. Rod

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs In Hero, being a gnome is just a special effect. It's the STR 20 that is important and you pay the same for it as any other character. GURPS in general, bases its costs (in 3E anyway, it seems a litttle less so in 4E) on how hard it is for a character to obtain an ability, while HERO bases its costs on the usefulness of the ability in the game. It's just different design philosophies. Rod