Nagisawa Takumi

Re: Who is your Taskmaster?

VPP' date=' skills only, choose your lims. Not book-legal, but it fits the bill.[/quote']

 

And is actually the "official" build for such things anyhow.

 

FOR me, and what I've seen of what it does, that doesn't work. The Taskmaster gets to keep the physical abilities he wants permanently. A VPP doesn't work that way, at least not to my mind.

 

However, the psychometric ability I found and modified (The original power from the manga had the user remember all the details and history of past users as well as transferring the skills. I just took the skills part.) works better for me, because then, I'm not actually stealing from a source.

 

 

Too bad I never got to play him.

Re: Superhuman women and normal women

It's interesting that the major comics franchises have done little to address this issue.

 

Do little girls in DC's universe play with Wonder Woman and Starfire dolls rather than Barbie and Skipper?

 

Do guys in Marvel's universe hang posters of She-Hulk or Sue Storm instead of Halle Berry in their bedrooms?

I found this kind of ironic, because of all the impossibilities.

For example, the average American human female is about 5' 5" tall, with the male at 5' 9". Wonder Woman was at one point 5' 10" (Although I hear she's grown to like 6' now. Yay artists) And Starfire is 6' 4". On the Marvel side, She-Hulk is 6' 7", but at least Mrs. Reeds/Sue Storm was, at last count, something like 5' 7-8", maybe a bit less.

Honestly, I think most girls would 'give up' their dreams of being like these women once they're old enough to realize that they'll never be that tall. Just like most women when they look at 'super' models.

Re: Who is your Taskmaster?

Actually... I have a Champions character that's kinda like him, and the Taskmaster is my FAVOURITE Marvel character. EVER.

As I've yet to figure out how to do the Photographic Reflexes thing in a game system, I gave this guy a limited version of Psychometry that I once saw in a Battle Angel Alita comic.

He can read 'skills' off any object that's been handled with 'love' and 'care' for more than a month, and mimics their abilities perfectly. However, remove the object from his hands, and the skills are gone. In my 'universe', people leave psychic impressions on their favourite things, and if it's tool or weapon, then it will have the right skills to use it.

Of course, when certain objects have more than one owner, and multiple skill sets (As in differing Kenjutsu styles in the case of a Katana) he can only take ONE of the sets at a time, not able to mix and match as he likes.

However, after a month of constant handling objects, he gains the skills permanently and is able to adapt them to his body.

In the Champions Millenium setting I was planning on playing he's an Ex-Ninja Viper, well, he was between the ages of 12 and 14. Then he was to be a sleeper agent in to a Super Teen academy in Bay City (The remains of San Fransisco after a super's war.) Sadly, the Viper cell got killed before they could activate him and destroy the cover personality. It gets even more messy and convoluted after that.

He actually works as a mercenary, but is on call with the Guard (The Super's policing unit) although he doesn't mention what he has done for others with them...

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

I've played (and encouraged others to play) "Good cop, bad cop, telepathic cop". Bad cop makes threats, good cop makes offers, telepath in room next door gets information.

 

The genre also matters: in a Dark Champions campaign, such things as threatening kneecaps are the norm. In a 4 color campaign, no.

 

With a 20 point code vs killing, the character isn't going to do it, and will discourage others from doing it.

 

Batman doesn't break a lot of kneecaps. He doesn't have to. He has the reputation of being merciless, and so doesn't have to be merciless. He can hang a person by a rope over the edge of a 40 story fall and they'll talk, because he has the reputation of letting people fall, *even though he's never actually done it!* (Reputation: Ruthless Vigilante, +10 presense attacks vs lawbreakers, +5 to presense based skills)

ACTUALLY, he HAS. But NEVER to their death, it's still enough to break the hardest of men. Saying is one thing, but if the guy seems to REALLY mean it, very few thugs and goons (Cowards to begin with) will want to test the theory.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Unless of course you have a religious fanatic or ninja in which in several genres they're often invincible vs torture or intimidation.

These should be rare and only in genre for certain types of villains.

So in your games even Batman would be ineffective at interrogating people?

And the sad part, he usually hangs them from high places as his method of 'torture/interrogation'.

The problem I see here is that people aren't always drawing a line at genre emulation and what THEY'D like to do when faced with a certain situation. Also, most 'Bosses' don't have the means to really scare their minions into not revealing anything.

Of course, I once had an Anti-Hero type of character once mention to the captured mook that it really didn't matter whether or not he talked. His BOSS will think he did and kill him anyway, however, if he did talk, then there's a chance he'll get to live longer because the Boss won't have time to think about who squealed.

My GM thought it was good enough, and it worked. My Anti-Hero never touched the guy outside of binding him to a chair, but I still see it as 'torture'.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Baddie: "You'll just hurt/kill me anyway - I'll never give you what you want."

Wait... This I never get. Criminals are not that strong willed. Not in real life, and especially NOT in comics, so how in the HELL do people pull this lame ass stunt and get away with it???

Most people just want the pain to stop, they don't have the time to think the implications through, nor are they usually quick witted enough to lie about their intentions when faced with an immediate threat.

If your GM makes all the criminals and minor baddies this 'tough' then you have a BAD GM and you should go find a GM that supports your gaming style. And I'm not condoning torture, I'm talking a basic 'Dangle baddie over the edge of a building', or 'roughing them up to get them to talk', schticks.

Seriously, people go read some comics some time.

Now that we've established the questionable morals of the torturer' date=' why should the baddie believe you're not as bad/worse than he is, so he has nothing to gain?[/quote']

 

Interrogation IS torture. Deal with it.

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!"

If you'd ever been to Hull you'd wish you been transported to the 1920s. What a hole.

Hull, Quebec, Canada? If so, I agree with you.

Re: The Spy Factory

In my games Telepathy is illegal, greatly feared, and lusted after by every agency...

 

The spytech is limited to James Bond level (ie; pretty dang out there!)

 

The CIA in paticular has a spacial section for PSI-spys and a semi "rogue" anti-telepath black ops unit (Project Hellhound, and Project Bloodhound)

Off topic: The Bond 'Spygear' is based off REAL world technology, most of the stuff you see him loaded with you CAN do with our level of tech.

Re: Utility Belts

If a detective/weapons master has a utility belt built as a multipower, what sort of active point cap would you likely put on it? And how many slots is too many?

 

Feel free to post your favorite ultility belt (whatever the build) here.

 

I get the feeling that 40 active points ought to be the most, and 15 slots is too many if it's a multipower. YMMV

Batman doesn't have any limits in what he has in his belt, why should you?

Re: The Spy Factory

"The Spy Factory" sounds like a great name for a Henchman temp. agency.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Fair enough. Let's let this one go' date=' shall we?[/quote']

Fair enough.

Re: Change of Fortune

The MACH 5 (The fifth model. ) has some experimental tech, at least to THAT game world, namely the forms it takes, there's a Melee mode, Ranged and Flight, each rebalances and changes key components of the suit (The enhanced strength actually fluctuates between each, as do the entire weapons array.) Then there's the Super countermeasure unit, which can adapt versus cold and fire controllers (Defenses vs. Entangles with Ice Special Effect), among others and that would bust down quickly without recalibration after each and every mission.

There's a reason that MACH 5 is a government operative. He needs the money that his bounties bring in, as well as access to U.S. Army facilities (He's a former Army Military Engineer, specializing in Weapons. His GF is a robotics specialist and another of those 'young graduates' from MIT.)

Re: Change of Fortune

Man i wish I had a Power Armored hero for this one.... Fallout lives inside a Nuclear reactor and doesn't have much need for money. Apollyon is a drifter by nature and the loss of his savings would really only affect how well he travels as he's not one for the finer things in life.

As I posted, I do have one. And he'd be screwed big time. To make sure his suit doesn't break down, he'd have to live in it, and that would just delay the inevitable. It's one of the suits biggest flaws, if you let it rest in one mode too long it'll start to lock up and get mechanical errors.

And then there's the whole electronic suite that's built into it. Designed to counter most super powers, they're very resource intensive (The only major things that the suit would have issues countering with are big things like Weather manipulators, Gravity controllers and the like, as well as Magic, those would just be bad.) Finally, there's the fact that the telemetry and radar is done by a second operator, she's back at base reading the info and being his eyes at the back of his head.

The MACH 5 is actually a two man operation.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

If you're playing a cinematic fantasy where torture really does work' date=' please enjoy. Just don't confuse it with reality or with heroic action.[/quote']

 

Most Heroes aren't professional interrogators. In fact, of them all, I'd say Batman is, and depending on who writes him this month, he may or may not actually use force to get his info.

 

You gotta make do with what you got, and sometimes it ain't pretty. But if you prefer your games to have a sort of Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe, go for it! There's no wrong way here, it's all a game and games are meant to be fun.

 

For me? I like to have some options that aren't always 'nice'. But then, I used to run Dark Champions games mostly, so I admit four colour or Silver Age or whatever, isn't my bag.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Then you're going to have to work harder and smarter at your interrogating. 'Cause torture just won't work.

Says who? A good punch to the face is just much torture as anything exotic you might cook up, and you know what? Dunking the guy's head in water for a few might just get him to spill.

Because if you don't have the time, if he doesn't break, then you're screwed no matter what, no matter any other method, he'd just stall until... *BOOM!*

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Vulcan,

 

Why do you assume heroes are idiots? Are you absolutely incapable of figuring out other ways to find/disarm a bomb?

 

Gadgeteer: Build a scanner that can detect large concentrations of the primary explosive in the bomb. Use demolitions skill (or other skill) to disarm the bomb.

 

Mentalist: Read the villain's mind to find the bomb. Read the villain's mind to disarm the bomb.

 

Metamorph: Disguise yourself as the villain's boss, partner, accomplice, mother, significant other, spouse or child. Trick the villain into revealing the location of the bomb -or- convince the villain to disarm the bomb.

 

Mystic: Same as the Mystic -or- Create a spell to find the bomb. Turn the bomb into a turnip.

 

Skillmonkey: Use clues and good old-fashioned detective work to find the bomb. Use demolitions to disarm the bomb.

 

Speedster: Run to another city, pick up a friendly mentalist, bring him/her back to read the villain's mind. Use movement powers to take the bomb to someplace where the detonation will cause minimal harm.

 

 

I found six different ways to stop the ticking bomb without relying on torture. Why can't you think of one?

 

Have you ever been part of a game where the entire team was a bunch of combat monsters who had no skills/powers/special senses that would allow them to solve mysteries? I never have. Usually everyone can help solve a mystery (with, at most, one combat monster exception).

Ah, but if those take more time than you have, what do you do? You're assuming you have more than a day, you have less than an HOUR, and you have no idea where to start looking, even if your Gadgeteer has all the parts he needs. Also, if the bomb is buried deep, you need to be able to GET TO IT. Now, which of these techniques will work?

The only two that might work are the Mentalist and Mystic, but then mental violation is apparently A-OK.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

MORE, MUST HAVE MORE!!!

I love it, Storn, keep it up!

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Torture is never heroic. It is evil. It is wrong. Any "hero" who tortures to get information of any sort ought to be arrested by real heroes and put on trial.

Hate to break it you, chief, but no 'hero' as depicted in the nearly 70 year history of comics that's been semi-successful has ever been as 'heroic' as you apparently think they are.

Using force to get information, or the threat of, is a time honoured tradition in comics. Superman, Captain America, Spiderman, Batman, Wonderwoman, the Avengers, the X-Men... All of them has at one point in their canon used mental and physical trauma to save more lives.

Sadly, this means that none of them ever will truly be 'heroes'. At least by your standards.

Me? I'm more inclined into thinking that sometimes, the situation calls for desperate measures, and if you start to enjoying it, then that's when it's time to hang up the tights. Until then, do what you think you have too. After all, hindsight is twenty-twenty, but when it happens, time isn't on your side.

Re: Change of Fortune

MACH 5: Well, if for whatever reason that he became black listed with the U.S. government and thus lost his money, he'd be in a real bind. The Mechanically-Assisted Combat Harness Mark 5 is a 'Hanger Queen', requiring constant use or it'll start to break down, and the electronics alone are hard to keep up without hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

'Tank' Matherson: He's just a regular joe working for an Avengers styke group of heroes, so he'd be rich. However, he'd give his parents the money because his needs are more or less already taken care of.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Under the same circumstances, I would vastly prefer the team TP to get the information his way. Torture is not something a hero should do lightly. But (and this depends on character psych limits and player temprement) it is an available tool, and sometimes we don't like the tools we have to use to get the job done.

 

YMMV, of course.

So mental torture is OK, but physical is not? Because rape is rape, no matter the method to me.

YMMV.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

Please stop yelling. You missed my point entirely. I did not argue that either character had anything less than a Total CVK. I explained that the value of the Disadvantage would be determined by how often it is disadvantageous not to kill someone in any given game.

 

If I'm running a campaign in which it is never advantageous to kill someone, CVK won't be worth any points no matter how strongly a character is committed to not taking a life.

 

If I'm running a campaign in which it is always advantageous to kill someone, CVK will be worth points as long as a character is at least somewhat committed to not taking a life.

 

If I'm running a campaign in which it is sometimes advantageous to kill someone, CVK will be worth some points...

 

Etc.

Which was never my point. I'm basing it on the assumption that the setting is as lethal as it deems to be worth the full 20 points at all times.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Dude, stop. Just stop.

I'm going to keel over in Jealousy! If I could rep you, I'd do it again. >.<

Re: Champs-What if you had to draft a superpower registration act?

You have been called to work with a congressional committee to draft a Federal Law to make using superpowers illegal. How would you set up a law to do this? If you fail to help them' date=' you risk a more extreme version of the law being enacted.[/quote']

 

The problem with this is the same as a gun registration act. It would only serve to punish the good people, which in this case are the heroes, rather than villains.

 

And WORSE, you'd be making them a target for all the villains out there who want to hold them hostage.

 

Because to start off with they'd have to divulge their identities, and it's very easy for a dedicated hacker to get information nowadays, imagine super villains with super intelligence?

 

Sorry, but most of my characters would refuse to help, and point out these flaws. Of course, which would be completely ignored, and a 'civil war' would start.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

And?

*Sigh* Let me repeat myself. They BOTH have a 20 point CvK, which is on ALL THE TIME. OK? They BOTH have the EXACT SAME LEVEL, they WILL NOT KILL EVER.

However, HOW THEY GO ABOUT THEIR 'HERO' BUSINESS IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE CvK! IT'S THE OTHER LIMITATIONS THAT THEY HAVE.

A lot of you seem to want to make mean MORE than it does. Like 'Soft Hearted' or 'Respect all Life', which simply SHOULD NOT WORK THAT WAY.

Because you're killing character concepts. Hell, if you do that, you CANNOT make Batman because he doesn't have a 5 or 10 point CvK, he's got the full 20 (Or 25, or whatever) version, except that to some of you, it means he has to be more 'heroic' or cartoony in his delivery of Justice.

I say no.

In any of MY games, and this is just my game, a Code Versus Killing is just that, a Code saying "I shalt not kill". Kneecaps fall under OTHER psychological limitations.

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps.

I'm not sure that both receive the full 20 points. That would depend on how often not killing someone proves disadvantageous. The value of the Disadvantage would have to be sorted out in a discussion among GM and players.

According to this thread, Batman and the Silver Surfer are the two characters that have a total CvK.