Jalinth

Re: Idle Distraction: Super Webcomics Malaak: Angel of Peace is a comic I discovered a while back. It's been a really enjoyable read thus far. A bit slow to update, but worth the wait.

Re: Armor Wars Generally the finer points on how a foreign government is structured is not something I have memorized. I knew that the US Secret Service was part of the Treasury Department thanks to Tom Clancy novels. The knowledge from my second post mostly came from a quick trip to wikipedia, as I was wondering who actually guarded the bullion depository and went on from there. The theory that the armour is nothing more then a focus for your powers and so useless to anyone else is one I've seen in a few places. It does quite neatly explain why you don't see the American 1st Mobile Infantry responding to an alien invasion.

Re: Armor Wars While I can see the United States Mint Police needing power armour, since United States Bullion Depository is on Fort Knox, an Army post, I can see them just using army issue power suits. Until 2003 the ATF, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the United States Customs Service, and the United States Secret Service were all under the Treasury Department. That's when they got moved to Homeland security.

Re: Armor Wars I can see the Secret Service needing power armour. Those 25 suits should do nicely, considering the small numbers. There is a very memorable scene in Gust Front by John Ringo involving the such. In some settings it is a questions of the availability of materials and the lack of infrastructure for mass production. It is quite possible for the methods used to not scale up well for mass production. For a one off suit, it's fine. The really slow methods used for the prototype don't matter. You're only building a couple of them. When it comes to making them for the army... well if you need vast amounts of nanowoven carbon fiber armour, and at best can make enough for 20 suits a year, or the plant that builds the power packs can only ship enough powercells for 8 suits ever 16 months then you run into limits on the number of suits. It's not that the raw materials cost for 1 suit is really high, it's mass producing the supertech components that is the problem.

Re: Freedom City Conversion Those will be quite useful. I play M&M quite extensively, but I like trying out different systems. I just picked up the Champions 6e book, and might try my hand at converting a couple of my M&M characters to Hero for fun. In the main game I play in, we actually do the opposite of what tcabril was asking about. Not long ago my reformed Necromancer turned Elementalist was aided by Gyeroy Vedun in an arcane working, right after Freedom City was attacked by VIPER. Both the Champions and the Sentinels from the Algernon files are also in universe.

Re: Champions Sneak Peek #2: The Superhero Gallery! That certainly looks like a solid response to one of the most common criticism of Hero I've seen. Accessibility for new players. While experimenting with character creation in 5th I found this complaint to have some merit. Mutants & Masterminds is what I currently play for Supers, but I'm considering giving Hero a shot at some point. I like trying new systems from time to time, it helps keep things fresh. As I would be both learning the system and teaching it to new players at the same time, being able to just hand a bunch of examples like that to them would drastically drop my workload. Even as a player, I would like it. I'm a tinkerer at heart, but with any point-buy system as wide open as Hero is, it is very easy to overlook something key or just get lost in trying to figure out where to start. With a template like this, the casual player who just wants a character who won't suck can get started quickly and someone like me can start from a solid baseline to tweak. As an example - In my main M&M game, one of the other players was very new to M&M and only had a very little experience with RPGS in general. He took the basic power house archetype from the core book, made a couple tweaks and started playing. He was pretty happy with it, and has taken his play experience and experience points over the last ~9 months to grow the character in an interesting direction. I'd been doing M&M for a couple years by that point but was short on time. So I took the Elementalist Wizard archetype from the Book of Magic, and tweaked it heavily. It was faster then building from scratch, and helped make sure I didn't overlook anything important. Again, quite useful. Overall these two pages, more then anything else I've seen for the new edition, has moved Hero up the queue of 'RPGs to Play'. Hmmmm... now that I have high speed rather then dial-up, maybe Hero Central will be usable...

Re: The Envelope Zalman is a reformed necromancer who now practices other forms of magic, primarily elemental magic. He lives in a building with controlled access, and his small room is the only place he can call "home". It's one of the perks of being on parole as a super-villain. That said, should the mysterious letter arrive at some place for him, Zalman would take a moment to scry the bus station and take a good look inside the locker. Then he will report what he found to his Parole officer. If there is anything of particular interest, he would probably magically retrieve the contents of the locker. Either with a teleportation gate or sending a summoned elemental to grab it. Probably the former.

Re: What's Up With These Protestors? (2 parts) Zalman is a reformed necromancer currently serving his parole with a work release program, as part of it's B-Team. Project Freedom uses paroled super-villains to do community service. It started as conventional community service, but after an incident where Team A saved the life of a member of the Freedom League (Justice League equivalent) they started being used for Super Heroic type jobs. Normally really unpleasant ones, such as sewer patrols, guarding unpleasant people, and the like. So the very premise of the game just screams for protesters. All that needs to happen is any member of the team to screw up in public. Just once. Then Mrs. Wainwright will be massively annoyed about bad press for her pet project. Depends on the details. He's come far enough that he won't be to tempted to burn the protesters to ash, but he may well let them know what he thinks of them. With an intimidation skill higher then all but the local Batman equivalent on the heroic side and a few gods/god-like beings on the evil side, Zalman would have little troubling scaring them off. Which wouldn't help a bit, and earn him a serious dressing down from the afore mentioned Wainwright. Which is why he'd probably just stay quiet and follow orders.

Re: The Twelve most Wanted Zalman is a mage. He started life as a Necromancer, but after things got to hot on his homeworld (evil fantasy version of the campaign world), he worked a ritual that sent him to said campaign world. Eventually he ended up reforming, mostly giving up on Necromancy in exchange for Elementalism, and is now serving out his parole on a work-release program with the Department of Probation. While he could probably kill one or two of the weaker Master Villains through scrying followed by teleporting in when they are the most vulnerable, it wouldn't work more then once. Perhaps twice at the most. In a straight fight, he'd give his foes a beating, but wouldn't win. As one of the, if not the, most knowledgeable men when it comes to the art of Necromancy on campaign world he could work up some form of ritual to turn the dead against the overlords. The problem is that his main rival for the title is a Lich who was involved in the fall of Atlantis, and certainly one of the Master Villains. Zalman isn't willing to kill innocent's and enslave their souls for power. Well, at least not any more. Malador will, and probably is doing so in his zone. Zalman isn't really suited to be a leader, and so organizing a resistance movement is more or less out. Besides, if there were none able to withstand the foe before, he would doubt there would be any 'walkers of the path' on the world to make it worth his time to try. Still, if all else failed he could start finding talented youngsters and training them in the mystic arts. Eventually he'd have enough half talented mages to make a creditable strike force. What he'd probably do would be dust off that ritual he used to get to campaign world in the first place and return there. He'd pass the details to the local top tier super teams and the Master Mage of the dimension. If for some strange reason he couldn't convince or shame anyone into freeing the other world, he'd talk his fellow parolees into accompanying him on a jaunt the next time they got a day pass. A full team of six top tier supers should be able to free at least one zone. From there... it would get even more interesting.

Re: Your hero the villian Zalman is currently serving his parole on a work-release program with the Department of Probation. As an (extra-dimensional) reformed necromancer turned elementalist, he wouldn't have any moral issues with anything he was asked to do. However, Project Freedom has enough bad press without ANOTHER member going rogue and so Mrs. Wainwright (his parole officer and founder of Project Freedom) would veto it.

Re: New team on the evening news Some interesting responses, thank you. Here is some more information, if anyone feels the desire to expand. Investigations into the team would reveal very little information about Journey and 2 of his teammates. The other 2 members of the team have more information floating around. They are former solo heroes, not very well known but with nothing terribly suspicious about them. All the members seem to be young and fairly idealistic, and all seem to be in the upper tiers of power for supers. Not Superman level, but certainly from a power level PoV they would not be out of place on the local JLA/Avengers team. Higher skill level investigators would find out that out that the two unknowns fit the same mold as the two other former solo heroes, just with a lower profile. Journey on the other hand is something of an enigma. Observations would show he seems to be as idealistic as his companions, but he can be rather arrogant at times. (See the speech above. Yes, he wrote it.) Journey also seems to be rather older then the others. He occasionally can be heard muttering phrases that are archaic to say the least. Either Journey is several thousand years old or he is a scholar fluent in a dozen languages that no living mortal still speaks. He has a great deal of wealth, but tracking down the source is mostly futile. One can tell that it seems to be very old money though, dating back a few centuries, perhaps more. This money has funded the Protectors, including the construction of their base. An artificial island 3 miles across, home not only to the team but a support staff of mechanics, doctors, engineers, and scientists. It's less well armed then Destruga, but is capable fending off an significant airstrike or a small team of supers (though not a top tier team. The Protectors themselves would need to deal with that). It is also capable of moving at 10-12 knots. It stays well away from any shoreline, firmly in international waters. (Note: In the FC setting where this game took place Destruga didn't exist.) If one was familiar with the power of the local Empyreans equivalent, then one would recognize Journey's powers as closely matching them. Unless you were are particularly ancient Empyrean, one wouldn't recognize Journey. He hasn't had anything to do with them for a LONG time. Now for the WWYCD portion. Feel free to jump in at any point. Their first operation is responding to an devastating earthquake that has destroyed a small city in a war torn area. They arrive within fifteen minutes of the Earthquake on board a hypersonic spaceplane. They set about helping as best suits their powers. Anyone seen trying to do violence to them or innocents are swiftly taken out, though no permanent damage is done. Fifteen minutes later a large teleportal opens and teams from the island start coming through. The provide aid, and start leading the refugees back through the portal, promising food, shelter, and medical attention. No one is forced through and aid is provided on site to those not willing to travel to the island. Journey will later make a public appearance, saying that the refugees are doing well, the Protector Island are not limitless. If any government would be willing to provide a place for the refuegees, the Protectors would provide transportation both to the site and back to their home city once reconstruction was complete. If no one was willing to take them in, then the Protectors would continue to provide shelter until it was safe for them to return home.

The situation is from a Play-by-Post M&M game that lasted 1 adventure, in the Freedom City setting. My character was the one speaking. Substitute references to FC specific items to ones appropriate to your game. At some point during your day to catch a news report. "Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, Honored Delegates, and Citizens of the World. Today, on the fourth anniversary of the Grue Invasion I have come to tell you of the founding of a new team of heroes. But first, a little background. The world today is beset by myriad threats. These range from the crimes that have plagued humankind for all of recorded history, to the comparatively recent advent of the super powered criminal, and culminating with extra-terrestrial threats such as the alien Grue Unity and the nihilistic forces of Omega, lord of the Terminus. In the face of such threats, It speaks well of the human spirit that so many use their gifts to defend the innocent. Young people like Sonic and Streetmonky who focus on their home neighborhoods. Others, such The Rooftop Society of Neon City or the New South Wales Defenders take still larger areas under their aegis. Beyond these, are teams such as the Northern Lights or Tiger Squad who are dedicated to an entire country or collection of countries. And of course there is the Freedom League. Defenders of Freedom City, the World, and at times beyond. Finally we must not forget the police, firefighters, and medical personal who, despite lacking any form of super powers or hyper technology still work day after day to keep people safe. It is on the shoulders of these worthy souls that the we can do so much. Without their daily sacrifices, the work of the super heroes of the would be as drops of rain in the face of a sea of troubles. Each individual and group stands for somewhere and something different. Each acts as they feel best suits their skills and temperament. Each is worthy of great praise and I salute them all. Following the proud examples set by those that came before, we have chosen to do our part to preserve the life and well being of the peoples of Earth. We call ourselves the Protectors. We are united in our belief that all people are one, and that national boundaries or racial differences are meaningless in the face of the threats facing the people of the world. We are a group without allegiance to any nation-state or power bloc. We are not beholden to police, to governments, or to borders. We are free to act in the best interests of the world, without dealing with the bureaucracy that ties the hands of other worthy groups, such as the Freedom League and UNISON. We have no interest in combating common crime, nor forcing our views on people. We will not interfere in the internal affairs of nations, save for the most heinous of atrocities such as the Holocaust of the 1940's. Local problems, we feel, are best left to those with a local perspective, who will be sensitive to hidden tensions an outsider would be blind to. Instead we focus on the larger picture, on global threats. Alien invasions, trans-dimensional evils, extinction level disasters. These are what we shall concern ourselves with. When these do not threaten, we will act in an humanitarian role, helping those who have lost everything to rebuild. Some will, no doubt, harbor suspicions about are motives and our methods. I can say little other then this - Judge us by our actions and the fruits of our labours. You will not be disappointed. The Protectors welcome cooperation with the nations and super teams of Earth. United, we can do far more then any of us can do alone. However, we reserve our right to act as we feel best serves the interests of the people of Earth. It is time to help those in need, where ever they might be. Thank you." --- NBS Correspondent Kate Caldwell: "This was the scene today, as a superhero calling himself Journey called a press conference to declare the creation of the Protectors, a new super-team, and then stepped into what appeared to be a sort of teleportational gateway and vanished without taking questions. His announcement has drawn sharp criticism from some quarters for what Senator Jerome Blackwell described as 'a disturbingly unilateral disregard for human law.'" "Captain Thunder of the Freedom League declined to comment..." -- How does/do your character(s) react?

Re: Make a Green Lantern Oath Where shadows gather, and joy withers Where hatred's crop bears bitter fruit Where the waves of fear wash hope away And the tide of violence rises high There I will go. To drive away the shadow, to nurture the seeds of joy To root out the spawn of hatred To calm the storm of fear and hold back the blood red tides. In the fury of these darkest hours I will bring the Green Lanterns Light!

Re: Make a Green Lantern Oath Darn, I find a trivia question I know the answer to, only to find someone answered less then 6 hours ago. So instead, I'll take the idea and convert another song's lyrics into an oath. I shall do no injustice to another I shall defend the weak & innocent Truth & honor will always guide me Courage shall find a life within I shall stand when no one else is willing I shall not act in hatred or in spite I shall be to this world as a perfect knight, even if it means my life. I swear, by the Green Lantern's Light.

Re: Portal to another World As it turns out, they are willing to talk. Their homeworld have been overrun by extradimensional invaders or aliens from outer space. The reports are a bit garbled. Either way, the base that houses this portal is the only remaining stronghold and there are more then ten thousand refugees waiting to transit. There is a severe shortage of food, medical supplies, and just about everything else. A closer inspection shows that the various troopers shows that they are not actually from UNTIL, PRIMUS, VIPER, or Dr. Destroyer. Simply a rather close version from this alternate earth. Three of the worlds mightiest beings are defending the base from the attackers, trying to give time for the refugees to escape. There are also a thousand volunteer soldiers and agents that stand inside the base as a final line of defense, willing to sacrifice their lives to buy a few more minutes. Lord Adamant, who sounds like a slightly more ethical (but just as powerful) Dr. Destroyer. He is the ruler of Russia, and leads the defense. He was also responsible for designing and building the escape portal. The other two are less known. One is a former British soldier with truly immense flame powers and the other is an almost total mystery. Both are at least as powerful as Lord Adamant. Already they have held off thousands of the invaders, but millions more are closing on the base. No doubt the some of the invader's champions will soon join the attack. These champions, though few in number, were known to single handedly wipe out entire superteams. The gate is two way, and the defenders would allow anyone who wished to pass through and join the defense. They'd understand if there was a lack of volunteers to commit suicide though.