rjcurrie

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

Actually there's a Post-CRISIS Earth 2 that used to be Earth 3 pre-CRISIS and the only living inhabitant left from that world is Alex Luthor jr. , son of Earth 3's Alexander Luthor, not to be confused with the new Earth 2 Alexander Luthor.

 

Also, the golden-age, pre-CRISIS Earth 2 Superman is not from the current Earth 2.

 

And "I don't Know" is on 3rd base.

 

Does that help clear up everything ?

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

Although they are largely well-written' date=' most of the [i']Infinite Crisis [/i]storylines had a lame, half-baked premise.

 

****SPOILERS BELOW****

 

 

 

- Identity Crisis: The whole mindwipe thing was dumb and had nothing to do with the murder.

 

Yeah, but the mindwipe thing does set some other things in motion.

- OMAC Project: Batman loses control of his super-advanced spy satellites. This is the 3rd time in three years that Batman's "fail-safe" plan has fallen into the wrong hands (JLA's Tower Of Babylon arc and the War Games storyline). The story is further flawed in that one of the KEY plot elements happens in another comic outside of the miniseries.

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.

- Spirit Of Vengeance: Boring and there've been a few too many "Spectre out of control" storylines.

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.

Infinite Crisis: Tied too heavily into the other minis and waaay too dependant on continuity and minutiae (and I'm a fan of that stuff) and there's no way it could possibly attract new readers. I don't think somebody new to DCU through Batman Begins or the JLU cartoon are going to know what to make of Batman's mindwipe and killer satellites or the golden-age, Earth 2 Superman.

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.

- Villains United : this one's actually pretty good. Lots of villains and pretty much a self-contained story.

Yup, the best of the bunch.

- Rann-Thanagar War: Not as good as VU, but pretty good. Has Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Adam Strange, Captain Comet, et al. Only real complaint is that anytime Adam Strange is used in a story, he should at least once, solve a problem through some obscure scientific trivia like he did in the original Gardner Fox stories.

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 think that's what their new "All Star" line is designed for.

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

I hear ya' date=' Rod. I am a total JSA/All-Star Squadron fanboy. It's really kind of sad.[/quote']

 

Oh, yeah, there was a point in the early 80s where my two favorite comics were All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc. I also went digging through the bargain bins at the local comic book stores to get a pretty much complete run of the revived All-Star Comics from the 1970s as well as the continuation of those storylines in Adventure Comics. There was a lot of fun stuff in those comics -- sigh, I still miss the original Helena Wayne version of the Huntress.

Re: Infinite Crisis

I got the impression that the Earth-1 original Superman was in Superman/Batman #18. I also get the feeling that the E-1 original might be the one that is left when all of this is done.

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

Its kind of fatuous to talk about "clearing out the darkness' date='" when the darkness wasn't *there* before you frickin' started adding it in yourself.[/quote']

 

Well, of course, a certain amount of this darkness was added as part of the lead up to Infinite Crisis to make things bad enough for the four refugees from COIE to decide to do something about it, when they haven't gotten involved during any of the other events of the last 20 years.

 

Remember, it's always darkest before the dawn.

Re: Infinite Crisis

Firmly in the camp of people enjoying the title.

 

 

And c'mon...what old-school reader didn't get a kick out of the last page revelation?

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

The most complicated thing is just trying to figure out which Superman is which. So far I think we've seen the Earth-1 retcon' date=' the Earth-1 original, and now the Earth-2. [/quote']

 

Where have we seen the original Earth-1 Superman?

Re: Infinite Crisis

Perhaps you can elaborate on what you find so objectionable.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator?

But-but-but what about hypertime??? and Zero Hour??? and-and-and all that... stuff?

 

Keith "I'm moving to Earth-π" Curtis

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

Got mine for free' date=' as a gift from the author Rob Bell. And he autographed it. [/quote']

 

Me too, actually.

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

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs

Of course' date=' this depends on the feel you want. Many like the fact Hero is not a "classed" game. The traditional D&D type racial modifiers are also a form of class-based system (in fact, some versions of D&D in the past used the two interchangeably - you could be a Human Fighter, Cleric, Thief or Magic-user, or you could be a Dwarf, an Elf, or a Halfling). In a non-classed system such as hero, some of the allure may be the ability to say "Yes, the typical Dwarf is tough, hardy and slow. MY dwarf is agile and nimble, but sickly. Your fighter knows spells and can pick pockets, so quit hassling me for having a non-standard characrer as well."[/quote']

 

Yeah, you pretty much summed up my feeling on this situation. What difference should the race make in the costs paid for characteristics or the characteristics that are chosen? Of course, if a player chooses to play a weak dwarf, then he can expect that dwarf to picked on being inferior by other dwarfs. I would expect derrivations to be reflected in other areas of the character design such as Disadvantages (psych lims, social lims, reputation) or Perks such as repuation if they are way above average.

 

On the characteristic cost, why should my human pay more to have a STR 25 than your Giant when it has exactly the same effect in game terms?

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

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

I have a 19th level Fire/Dev blaster on Justice named Preppie that I'd be happy to have in a team with people from the boards.

I also have 34th (i think) level En/En blaster on Champion named Prof. Plasma who I haven't played in a while but am thinking about taking up to Croatoa to check it out.

Re: C.U. alternate world, after "Independence Day"

I've always assumed Canada's defense force consisted of 1 Tank. Just to say they had one.

 

apparently it is one HELL of a tank.

 

 

[too all Canadians ... this is a joke.]

Who do you think arranged the alien invasion in the first place?

Hey Folks:

On the Friends of Justice (my Pulp Hero convention event) section of my SuperSquad America web site, I have added pictures and character sheets for all characters and brief backgrounds for Doc Justice and his daughter, Veronica Justice. Backgounds for other characters should follow shortly.

The site can be found at http://www.supersquadamerica.com.

Rod

Hey Folks:

In addition to the SuperSquad America cafepress store that I added yesterday, I have made major updates to the SuperSquad America Web site.

I have updated all the backgrounds for the SuperSquad America (my Champions convention event) characters and added the 2005 versions of their character sheets. In addition, I have added the official description for the SuperSquad America 2004 (Year 7) event.

On the Friends of Justice (my Pulp Hero convention event) section of the site, I have added pictures and character sheets for all characters and brief backgrounds for Doc Justice and his daughter, Veronica Justice. Backgounds for other characters should follow shortly.

The site can be found at http://www.supersquadamerica.com.

Rod