The Monster

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested) Tireless Workhorses - Aid REC, only to horses and oxen (or other draft animals per campaign). Charge could be built to duration of anything from a week to a season. (Could also be adapted to Aid STR for plowing season) Another version might be to bless the royal roads with Aid REC, to assist travelers and cargo haulers. Night Sentinels - Infravision, usable by others. Bestowed on soldiers of the watch for each night shift. Spells to grant skill levels of various kinds could help the realm with various aspects of prosperity and well-being: Canny Merchants: + Trading Fine Cuisine: + PS:Cooking Master Metalworkers: + Weaponsmith Superior Mounts: + Animal Handling Rhetoric Masters: + Oratory ...and so forth Walls of Adamant: provide a castle or other large building with enhanced protection - extra Armor, Force Field, or even Damage Reduction. (Force Field could run off an END Reserve, which can be refilled by a ritual of your choice (sacrifice, prayer, burning magic items, etc.)) Army of Heroes: Aid +6 PRE for a large group (i.e., an entire army). Not a huge effect, but enough to nudge many PRE attack effects and skill rolls up or down a notch, which is all you may need to swing a battle. Shadow of Terror: Drain/Suppress 2d6 PRE over a large area (a mile or so, most of a battlefield). Enough to knock most normal troops to 5 or less PRE, making them quite vulnerable to fear and oratory. My Perfect Weather: Change Environment over a single farm, with a charge that lasts for a week, usable by other (the farmer) so that s/he can later the weather for that one farm by enough to improve the crop yield. Each week the local priest/wizard comes by to renew the spell and collect the fee/tithe/favor. Larger version might be usable by a baron. Puissant Arms: add AP to all weapons of a large group/area. A group could include any company of an army; an area would still be useful if cast over the body of archers. To get really nasty, make the advantage AVLD (so that only magic protection/armor/force field is still effective). As long as we're talking naked advantages, other good ones might include No Range Penalty, Indirect, Penetrating... Lucky for Life: several Life Support effects would be extremely beneficial if applied to the community - disease resistance/immunity has already been mentioned, but consider the ability to eat/drink less often, or to eat/drink stuff normally harmful. Or the ability to ignore hot and cold temperatures. Even someting as minor as immunity to the venom of local snakes would be seen as a great blessing. (Be careful of the aging reduction, though - you'd likely run into population pressures, not to mention someone might object to being stuck in puberty for 30 years!)

Re: New President - Bruce Wayne - President proven executive skills, wide business and political connections, record of charitable and social activism... Clark Kent - White House Press Secretary Superman - U.N. Ambassador Wonder Woman - Secretary of State Batman - Head of Homeland Security

Re: Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror This brought to my mind that one TV episode (was it Twilight Zone??) where aliens came to Earth and warned us we had thirty days to prepare ourselves to be judged worthy of membership in the Galactic Federation or be destroyed, and we were only getting a warning because we had shown great potential. The Earthlings went to work, made a world govenment, established world peace, set up poor relief for everyone, and so forth. When they proudly presented the evidence when the aliens returned, the aliens laughed riotously: they had been impressed by the Earthlings' ability and cleverness in making war; by eliminating it, they had sealed their own fate. Here's a thought: the pyramids (and other ancient wonders) are actually parts of a galaxy-wide network of power (perhaps a vast computer grid or navigational beacon or something), which is in the process of self-destruction, or is being destroyed - either way, the destruction is not something under snetient control, but is a self-perpetuating prcoess (Doomsday Machine, anyone?). A few aliens are trying to stop it; some are trying to garner some advantage from the demolition (even something as simple as filing jumper claims on the minerals once the world is uninhabited; or trying to steal the long-forgotten technology which built the thing in the first place). So you've got the humans, who are trying to save Earth; a few aliens who are willing to work with them (either out of sheer altruism or the promise of future trade/diplomatic benefits), and some aliens who don't want them to interfere at all.

Re: Pirates : An amusing question. Long-term plans often require documentation - incriminating letters, records of misdeeds, "get out of jail free" cards (hey, if it's good enough for Dumas...), blueprints of target strongholds, family trees, etc. A secure place to store these would be invaluable. Part of the plans might also include theft (or legitimate recovery) of rare and/or precious items (such as church relics, family heirlooms, and the like). More storage, more security. Depending on your preferences, a place to put captives (for ransom, interrogation, or other purposes) could be essential. Granted, for most of these kinds of situations, a more ad-hoc site would be less incriminating, but occasionally there's that one special person... Just having a place to hide out, especially as long-term revenge plans come toward fruition; it could be very nice to have a heavy "home court" advantage. In addition to merely hiding out, a place where allies and followers can be brought to work for you - armorers, healers, and other specialists. If your plans include a cadre of specially trained assassins (pirates and ninjas together!!!), you need a place for them to hone their skills (and they'll guard your stuff while they're there). Dressed up properly - either with real gilt and expensive hardwoods, or with chintz and brass (if convincing) - a lair can be used to impress others into supporting your cause, or at least not getting in your way. If you don't plan to live or work there, you can set it up to be a haunted castle, with rumors and stories and such. It only takes a couple mysterious events to get the rumors rolling. You could even disguise your own trips there as brave attampts to confront the ghosts, then come running with more stories of ghosts and other horrors. (And it could even be a lure for zealous church-sponsored exorcist wannabees...but watch out for "those meddling kids!")

Re: dungeon No, then we'll find out who is a REAL archaeologist and who is just a poser. You throw me the idol, I throw you the whip....

Re: dungeon The best rationale - non-historical mind you - I've ever seen for large dungeon complexes is Empire of the Petal Throne, where every so often (i.e., lifetimes or centuries) a new city would be built on the ruins of an old one - whether because the old one was abandoned, or because some emperor decreed such. The half-razed, now-underground remains of previous iterations of the city were the "dungeons" of that world, and some areas were still used by secretive cults for worship and other nefarious purposes. The idea of cities built on the remains of older cities isn't fiction, though: some old cities of the Middle East are constantly discovering chambers and streets of ancient construction, dating back hundreds and thousands of years. A purpose-built D&D type dungeon? No such animal that I've ever heard of in rela life. You can find some things that are vaguely similar: catacombs under Rome and Paris, the cliff-dweller cities of the American Southwest, that kind of thing. Maybe you could adapt some of the mine complexes of Europe that, even in medieval/renaissance times, could go pretty deep and convoluted, but those weren't dug so much for storage of goods or people as for pulling useful stuff out of the ground. But no ten-by-ten-foot rooms with thirty-foot corridors leading due east...

Re: Building NPCs to Develop Themes This sounds like a fun idea if you can pull it off. To me, one of the biggest reasons I love the TV show "Heroes" is precisely that it is always pushing on the theme of "what does it mean to be a hero." Is it killing the bad guy? Is it putting aside your personal preferences, ambitions, or even your morals to protect your government? Your community? Your species? Your family? Your friends? I've only managed to focus on a theme a couple times (maybe only once, really) in my campaigns. My 7th Sea campaign spent several adventures in an English Civil War analogy, where my theme was Loyalty - what choices do you make when forced to choose between loyalty to the crown, the people, the environment, etc. Several times, the PCs had to choose between different factions, without clear guidance as to which was the "right" side, making choices between different aspects of their chosen side. The choices defined what adventures they got into and where they went, and what rewards they could expect. But there was always more than one choice they could make, more than one path that could be followed with honor intact. The theme was there, and it was always in my mind as GM, but I didn't harp on it, especially during game play. I wanted very much to make it warp and woof of an otherwise fun game, which could be enjoyed even without being aware of any Theme. Your idea of parallel NPCs is a good one (I mean, hey, Heroes uses it with the Petrelli/Sylar match), but I'd use that as just one tool. Don't just explore the use of powers, but the making of choices which are not pleasant or simple (let alone easy!). One potential definition of a hero is someone who is willing to make the hard choice to do the right thing, giving up something of himself - profit, popularity, comfort, security, even life and wellbeing. (At the risk of getting all Joseph Campbell-y, the "Hero's Journey" always includes the death of the hero, whether in physical, emotional or symbolic form.) Many or most of those choices may only peripherally, if at all, include the application of superpowers (indeed, you could even touch on the issue of "are you avoiding real-life issues by parading around as a superhero?"). Not that you should get all emo about it, but I think that to be really effective, the choices relating to the theme need to be organic within the game situation, and shouldn't get in the way of a fun time, but should enhance it. It sounds like you're definitely on the right track, though - keep up the good ideas!

Re: Standard vs. Dramatic scenes (Torg-inspired) In our Champions campaign, we're actually using the Torg deck, flipping a card after segments 6 and 12, with the players having a hand of cards, straight out of Torg. Most of the direct bonuses (e.eg., "+3 to do this") can be run right into Hero; some of the other effects - flurry, "up," that kind of thing - take a little interpretation, but it seems to be working fairly well. It adds a bit of complication to the game; but the use of cards expands the options to players.

Re: Possible New Player/GM with Questions Another thing about Hero is that once you learn how things work, you prety much know how things work. There isn't a whole list of spells or feats or edges that each have their own special little rules, and while the expansions are worth reading, they won't have new rules or tricks you have to keep track of. The mechanics are consistent and robust enough to do practically anything, and to do it without much twisting or exceptions. Character and power creation is scary because you have so many options, and the complexity is all front-loaded. D&D isn't so much less complex as it is easier to enter, since you start (at 1st level) with just a few abilities, which are well-defined, so the decisions are all role-playing and tactical rather than "how do I build this power?" Imagine trying to start playing D&D with a 12th-level character, and having to pick all your feats and skills and spells without ever having played the game before - and that's without even having to decide how all your spells work in the first place).

Re: I need to brainstorm some anachronistic items No, no, no - the ceremonial dagger used to kill Pharoah Seti I in 1290 AD

Re: God of Prosperity? A good quest would be to find or open a new trade trade route - find one (under more or less divine guidance), a la the Northwest Passage, or the Straits of Magellan, or a major mountain pass. Open one that is either unknown or was taken over by bad guys years/centuries ago. One is more exploration, the other could be as "simple" as cleaning out critters, or as intricate as undoing a major curse (or even negotiating roads and tolls). Similarly, finding or re-opening a precious resource - anything from a gold mine to a new spice or medicine. On a less earth-shaking level, tasks such as escorting a trade caravan (or organizing one), carrying an item (records or precious goods or a key) to a particular place, defending or protecting a place or person from bandits - or even taking part in raids against an authority force which imposes unfair or unreasonable taxes.

Re: Sooo... Immunity to magic Here's a warped idea: how about a big Suppress (all magic) effect, limited to self only, always on, etc.? You could even make it "no range" instead of self only, so that if you're Grabbed by the critter, you lose the benefit of magic? Not 3.5 canon, sure, but could be amusing...

Re: Now to: Missing time I'd leave it with the Mystery Disad - 25 points is big enough to make people wonder. What you can do, however, is open the option to take disads based on the missing time - intensely curious, paranoid, embarrassed, that kind of thing. In one pulp campaign I ran, a character had a multiyear gap in his memeory, and had an intense phobia of the occult. The two were linked, but of course, the character had no clue how.

Re: Remote Control For the character The Chauffeur in my Champions campaign, I did this: For simple remote operation, a fine-manipulation Telekinesis (to operate the controls) linked with a Clairsentience (to *see* the controls). Straightforward stuff, and since the TK is only STR 10 or so, there's the possibliity that the actual driver can struggle for the controls. For more advanced control, what I did was build a Summon effect, which summons an AI into the target machine. This gives it an EGO, and a handy framework for dealing with the machine as if it were a living thing (which, in a limited sense, it becomes once a "mind" is summoned into it). It's a very cheap effect, but considering that it is limited to available machines, the power so far hasn't been unbalancing - what does happen, though, is that there are times the power is decisive, and times when it is useless. In the fight in the city park, it was pretty much useless; but in the fight against invading mechs, it was decisive, since the hero could trigger the ejection seat after just a phase or two of summoning and negotiating. This form of the power means that I have to be very careful about using robots and vehicles as key plot elements (androids and such are okay, since the Summon can't work against anything that already has EGO).

Re: Top 10 Accidental Comic Book Discoveries IMO, Maus I and II justify the existence of the graphic novel medium all by themselves. Nothing else comes close.

Re: I need to brainstorm some anachronistic items ...superhero stuff...hmmmm.... The Global Humanitarian Prize awarded jointly to Mother Teresa and Grond for their partnership work among the poor of India. Wanted posters (or video from "America's Most Wanted") featuring one or more of the player characters for various despicable crimes. Distinguished Service Cross awarded to for throwing the first atomic bomb from the deck of the USS Essex into Hiroshima, several miles away. Letter from Albert Einstein, world-famous wizard, to President Roosevelt explaining how a superweapon could be produced by applying newly discovered thaumaturical principles, and how the Nazis were already beginning the required rituals to produce such a weapon. Mysterious (and partially melted) artifacts from Chernobyl, where an interdimensional portal opened unexpectedly and spewed forth alien invaders: extreme measures (including superhero assault) were required to stop the invasion, but the presence and activities of the aliens - unlike anything seen before or since (by anyone!) - poisoned the area for miles around. (By the way, if you want images for WW2 low-powered supers, the RPG "Godlike" has some delightful doctored and re-interpreted photos; soldiers lifting tanks, flying, and such.)

Re: Rocket-propelled Chainsaw UNDEAD CHAINSAW HOOKERS !!!!!! OF SEATTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ULTIMATE RPG CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The world can end now, it can't get any better than that!

Re: I need to brainstorm some anachronistic items oh, this is too much fun.... The broken spear of King Leonidas, history's greatest traitor, after he surrendered to the Persians beore Thermopylae, sealing the doom of the Greek city-states. The complete series of "The Wheel of the Time of the Ring" - all thirty-eight volumes! - by J.R.R. Jordan The 2007 "Best Movie" Oscar for "Serenity II" Signed photo of Manfred von Richtofen, Air Marshal of the Luftwaffe, 1942. Official war bonnet of Pontiac, governor of the American colony of England. Movie tickets to the immortal 1916 film "Macbeth," with Sir Charles Chaplin's career-defining tour de force in the title role. The ring of Pope Augustine, the first German to occupy the Holy See (formerly known as Martin Luther).

Re: I need to brainstorm some anachronistic items The copy of the Two Powers Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin in Teheran, dividing the world into spheres of influencing, ending the Second World War in 1948. The Magna Carta, signed in 1215 by Prester John in central Asia. The Golden Spike, marking the completion of the Trans-Imperial Railway between Rome and Constantinople. The assassin's bullet that struck down General Patton during his victory speech after the taking of Moscow, 1947. Oswald's rifle, which killed Jaqcueline Kennedy, making President Kennedy a widower. The crown of King George the First of America, crowned in 1789 by a grateful Continetal Parliament. The sandals of Saint Mohammed, who revitalized Christianity in the Middle East and North Africa. The "Feathered Thunderer," Emperor Montezuma's ceremonial heavy tank, complete with gold-inlaid decorative carvings. Terra cotta soldiers from the Forbidden City of Chicago.

Re: If you were a Duke... Some general ideas... A) University (as previously mentioned). This can get you all kinds of littel bennies that add up: --an in with the intellectual elite, who can influence events beyond your boundaries and across class lines --an image as an overall good guy, supporter of civilization, blabla, even among those who never set foot on campus --a potential informal spy network with traveling scholars and their support staff, who are likely to be tapped into the upper crust of other lands --depending on the institution, a source of technical knowledge (for engineering fortifications, bridges, and so forth), artistic enjoyment (music, sculpture, etc.), or the like (maybe even magical support) Improved security and stability - in the form of better roads & bridges & canals, and the troops to patrol them; maybe a messenger (a la Pony Express) system, or even a scrying network for communication. Plus the means to enforce & protect - additional and/or better equipped and trained troops, perhaps a band of national police (a la Charlemegne's Paladins, maybe even on flying mounts!) C) Major religious center(s) - much like the university, but specifically with a religious bent. Gives similar benefits, and if anything they're more likely to be favorable to you as a true supporter of their cause. In a fantasy world, the influence of deities is no matter of mere symbolism and culture! D)"A Stately Pleasure Dome..." - it could be a nest of decadence and/or a center of elite culture. Either way, a definite lure to the rich & powerful from everywhere, and a means to influence them. If you can pull it off without overly opporessing peasants and being a selfish idiot, they're less likely to try cutting your head off, too. E) Start a bank - make yourself a Fugger or Medici or whatever, eventually able to make loans to kings and make them kowtow to you. At the very least, a way to increase wealth and influence - and gain a news/spy network in faraway places. F) Sponsor settlement - take some of those wild lands and offer "40 acres and a mule" to anyone who wants to make a fresh start by clearing trees and critters. You'll get some "wild west" towns, sure, but you'll also be increasing the tax base and drawing in the adventurous from all the other duchies G) Fund Adventures - hey, if there's ancient treasures and magics to be had, there's always some stalwart adventurers who are looking to make a few gold pieces. They get a few thou, and you get kewl wom-woms to play with! And they can knock down some of the pesky monsters in your land. Plus, you'll have good contacts with people on the fast track to individual power. That should do for a start.

Re: How would you create this power

Re: The PRE Brick? Lots of possible powers come to mind... -- Inspire Confidence, from the D&D Bard, is equivalent to Aid of various kinds Aid STUN to reflect the inspiring leadership for that "one last push" Aid PRE (of course) ???Skill Levels, usable by others??? -- Dispel Mind Control and/or Aid Mental Defense ("c'mon, snap out of it!") -- penalty skill levels against others And you can get a reasonable discount on all these by making them RSR, using a PRE-based roll. At PRE 40, your basic PRE skill roll is 17-, so you can even afford a few points of penalty due to Active Point cost. Now, of course, these are powers in and of themselves, not uses of PRE per se. The problem is that, while PRE costs the same as STR, it functions rather differently. PRE affects a whole raft of skills, while STR affects almost none (Climbing, and what else?). It's almost as if the two stats are functional opposites: STR is really useful in combat, but rarely useful otherwise; PRE is rarely all that useful in combat, but very useful in any noncombat encounter.

Re: SG-1 style campaign Meh - I hit "Post Quick Reply" instead of "Go Advanced" From this basic framework you can do just about anything, and the world remains largely undisturbed from its real-world roots. The idea of a military SG type team is quite attractive: you can lift it direct from SG1, where the team is only one or two links away from the Oval Office itself, and operates as a totally black-budget operation. Given the proclivities of comic books, you can even include an overarcing alien threat - imagine a galactic empire led by evil supers (not Sith, of course... ). The Terran Empire book has as much stuff about alien races and tech as you could ask, if you go this route (there're analogies for everything from Klingons to Goa'uld). Another possibility on the Stargate/Fringeworthy conept is to have the team cut off completely from Earth, either by accident or design - their starship crashes, their orders are to never reveal Earth's location, something like that. Could be amusing. Actually, that brings to mind a possible published background to check out - Uplift, novel by Brin. There's a fine GURPS sourcebook on it, and an Earth team in the early phases of contact might fit pretty well in that universe (no superpowers, though).

Re: SG-1 style campaign Heroes. The TV series. The existence of supers is known by certain individuals and government agencies, as well as certain non-governmental groups (VIPER, etc.), any and all of which may or may not have the wellbeing of the supers as a high priority. The supers themselves may be uncertain about their abilties and the existence of others; some will have banded together for do-gooding or for personal protection or even for exploitative action (or all of the above).

Re: Pimp My Stardrive! The nontech description: The Speed of Plot. The technical description: Inifinite Improbability Drive. Cut, Paste, Save - Done!