Mindscape

Re: Thoughts on Evolving Villains

Had a Zodiac group of villians that showed up frequently and adjusted their tactics to the PC's and I think it went really well. The PC's thought they had everything planned for (who would fight who and so on) but things changed really quick once they learned the villians were ready for them.

The villians managed to hold their own for a while until the PC's leaned that the same old thing was going to work on them.

Since it was a Zodiac group I had 12 villians to pick from all with different abilities so preparing for a fight required me to think outside the box.

(Follow the link in my sig to where they are posted, they are being reworked right now but I'll repost the first again soon)

I think they did very well as recurring villians and if nothing else they forced my PC's to think their way through a fight rather than smashing their way through.

Hope this answers your question.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

From last night game, The Legionaries (Our Pulp Game).

Our Pilot/Flying Ace got invited to join the army of Sky Master (a world threatening villian) but instead of taking the postion of third he challenged the second in command for his position. While the rest of us remained on the Sky Master's flying fortress, they took two planes out and prepared for a dogfight.

Rex (our Pilot) :As soon as we pass each other turn straight up and get ready to come at him from above.

Rex and GM roll for Combat Piloting since this trick is difficult to do in the planes they are flying.

GM: Ok you pull up and glance back in the direction he was headed and you see that he had the same idea. What did you beat your roll by?

Rex: 10.

GM: You beat his roll by a lot so you are actually able to get right behind his plane.

Rex opens fire with the dual front mounted guns of the plane and rolls a six with the guns which have 5 shot autofire.

GM: The plane drops like a rock:nonp:...In the first phase of combat you beat a guy that is built with almost 100 points more than you.

Rex: Alright now to see if I can bring that airship down so the rest of the guys can get away.

Meanwhile on the airship, my character (a fearless explorer and the only other member of the group with piloting skills) is watching the dual from the flightdeck while under guard.

Race (my character): Well, seems my friend managed to handle your commander quite nicely. So, I assume that our plane is refueled and we can leave as soon as he lands.

Guard: No, in fact Sky Master ordered us to drain the rest of the fuel. He says you are not allowed to leave until he has a word with your friend.

Race: I guess we'll have to do this the hard way.

A fight between my character and the guard insues while the rest of the group tries to reclaim our weapons.

Race: Well now that he is out of the picture I just have to find the fuel tanks and we can make good our escape.

GM: Rex, what are you shooting at?

Rex: Well probably the fuel tanks since I don't know that our plane has no fuel. Blowing those up would do the most damage.

GM: You see Rex headed straight for the duel tanks, both guns blazing.

Race:...Guess I have to glide our plane down to the water, that shouldn't be to hard...right?

Let me start by saying I'm not sure if this is in the right place. Anyways this question is for the staff of HERO games and I most likely already know the answer but I wanted to be sure.

In the main book for Galactic Champions it mentions the future versions of some villians like VIPER and Firewing but none of the immortals from other Champions books. Is this because it is assumed they were destroyed in the big battle mentioned at the start of GC or that they are still around but are no longer villians or are they purposfully left out so that the GM can decide if he wants to add them or not.

I'm fairly certain it was left open for the GM to decide but I wanted to make sure I had not missed something.

Re: Zombie variant options

My favorite change to the classic zombie was one that I made. The zombies had and EB linked to a Drain CON I believe (haven't used it in forever). I defined it as they would pull out a random rotting organ and throw it at the PC's. The looks I got when they though they had some thime before the zombies got into combat range.

Re: NINJA HERO campaigns

My group is going to start a Naruto campaign in a few days. It's going to be more serious than the show and darker. It took forever to get everything together, we basically had to write a mini source book to cover everything we needed for the campaign.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

From our fantasy game last week.

Xercis (our Wizard): My fireball has a radius of 6" so I'll put it away from the Orc leader.

GM: How do you manage that? You don't see distance in hexs.

Me (OOC): He doesn't but I do. Psychological Limitation, baby!

Xercis: True I don't but I did buy absolute range sense and I know how big my fireball is so I can figure out where I need to place it to just hit him.

Xercis (OOC): Surun has some protection against fire, just in case right?

Me: Only what my armor gives me which isn't a lot so don't miss.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Wipeout, kind of an American version of Ninja Warrior. More focused on comedy, one of the host is an actual comedian...forgot his name but I found the show to be excellent.

4 of 5

Some of the players were annoying but overall it was a very good show.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

From our Champions game the other night.

The group was fighting a team of supervillians at a military base. During the fight the brick for the bad guys team picks up a jeep and prepares to crush some helpless soldier with it.

The Sphinx (Mummified Mage):I'll use my TK it should be more than enough to pull that jeep away.

GM: O.k. it's a Str vs. Str roll. (Dice are rolled and Sphinx fails.)

GM: You exert all your willpower towards the jeep and...manage to pull the rear view mirror to you.

Sphinx:...shoot the mirror back at him.

GM: Well you managed to make him slightly mader than he was before and he is headed your way.

Re: Name Generator

Well, thanks for the posts. These have all been a big help and I hope that people post more of them since, in my mind, coming up with names is the hardest part of the creation process.

My group is going to start a new game in a world that I created, there is just one problem. I can't come up with names for the gods in this new world. So my question is does anyone know a good generator for fantasy type names? I've tried a few in the past but they mainly just slap letters together and call it a name. I don't really care what style of names the generator produces (LOTR, Forgotten Realms, etc) just so long as it is fairly easily to pronounce the names it comes up with. Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

Few that a friend sent me.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

From our Pulp game last week. Our group had just found a hidden city in the jungles of Africa and in order to make sure the Nazi soldiers that had followed us didn't get their hands on the secerts that were hidden their we had to face several trials to prove ourselves.

GM: Durr, you are lead into an arena-like area and given a pair of knives, the people of the village are chanting something in their native language.

Durr (Big Game Hunter, OOC): Ask our translator what they are saying.

GM: He says they seem to shouting the name of the beast you have to fight...it means "He who eats the World".

Durr: Wonderful, not only is it dangerous enough to be used to prove ourselves to these people but it's survived long enough get a name like that.

GM: The gate opens and out comes the biggest Crocodile you have ever seen.

Durr (OOC): I thought the one that we fought in the river, that left me with one BODY was the biggest one I had ever seen.

GM (OOC): It was. This one is even bigger and this time you don't have your Elephant gun.

Durr: (Wets his pants). Why couldn't I have been the one that had to race through the jungle.

I have a player that created a No Normal Defense Electrical Attack that he also bought Does BODY for. He used it against an NPC that had Absorption only against Energy. I argued that Absorption works against the Body done by an attack and he argues that NND overrules that.

My question is which is right? Does the Absorption absorb the BODY done by the attack or does the NND apply to the BODY damage as well?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Re: What is Your Inner Character?

Chaotic Evil Dwarf Paladin... How is that possible?

Oh, wait, Paladin of Slaughter from the Unearthed Arcana...ok then that works for me:D.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

Wondering the same thing. Thought they said something about a poll if they did I hope voting starts soon.

Re: Cities that need heroes

How about Mephis or Nashville. Never see any teams based in Tennessee, course the most important thing we have is the country music capital of the world so that might have something to do with it.

Re: Super Names

Heroes

Order, The Platinium Protector

Sigil, Master of Solomon's Seal

Villians

Technocrat

The Corps

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Reminds me of an Epic D&D game I played in once.

We had just finished a very long quest that ended with us having possession of the eye and hand of Vecna. The original plan was to take them to a temple to learn how to destory them (since no one was lawful good that lasted like ten seconds.) We instead decided to keep them and even found a way to make money with them. We would find some town that was completely lacking of wizards or any serious guards, then at night our wizard would summon a level one skeleton. He would throw some old rags on it, attach the hand to one wrist and put the eye in on of it's empty sockets. A few finishing touches and behold one evil super lich. After a night or two of the skeleton wondering the town, we would rush in and after a totally legitamate battle , recieve payment for saving the town. Just a little something to keep us entertained between quest and the GM couldn't bring himself to stop us. I still remember some of the classic moments this plan lead us to. Like this one.

Rogue: Ok, since we can't find the place until the next full moon, who gets to kill the lich this time?

Barbarian: Me not get to yet.

Wizard: Fine with me, just let me conjure up Bernie (movie reference) again.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

One that came to me just about an hour ago,

A former detective turned mystic that believes that he should not only fight the magical threats to humanity but also the more mundane one like robbery and gun-running. Gives a different feel to the old stand-by of superhero mages are only concerned with the things that ordinary people are are unaware of (demons, invasions from other planes, etc).

His costume would be black pants, boots, and a black sweatshirt with mystic runes that run along his arms and the inside of his trenchcoat (something left over from his detective days), he uses magic to conceal his face but might still wear his old fedora. He uses a combination of magic and hand to hand combat, but still has a set of magically enhanced throwing blades hidden in his coat just in case.

Still needs a name. Suggestions?

For the evil mastermind thing...

Technocrat: Believes that the world should be run by the smartest of humanity, herself above all others. Blessed with the ability to understand and recreate any machine that will be designed within the next 2000 years. She is the threat of tommorow, today.

Technocrat's advanced understanding of technology has put her on par with the likes of Mechanon and Dr. Destroyer. Revealing that she may not be able to achieve her dream within her lifetime she has replaced much of her body with cybernetics. She has replaced her right arm, both legs, and part of face along with almost all her internal organs. While her fiery red hair and piercing green eyes would have made her attractive before her transformation, they serve only to remind everyone around her that nothing will stand in her way of conquering the world.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

During a recent Champions game the group had acquired the top five levels of a skyscraper to use as a base. A villain had infiltrated the base and attacked them when their guard was down.

Jazz (Flying Blaster): Come into our house and start a fight, that was stupid.

Jazz (OOC): I'm going to transform the floor into air so he falls to the next level.

GM: Ok, the floor disappears just as you remember that only you and Order can fly and he doesn't have his power armor on.

Later on in the fight, the villain threw a entangling grenade and the only person who didn't get caught in it was the martial artist Apex.

Apex (OOC): Everyone else is entangled?

GM: Yeah.

Apex (OOC): Ok, I'll do a running jump kick and try to knock this guy out.

He rolled 3 to hit and then all 6's.

GM: Holy crap, the guy goes flying out the window and it doesn't look like he can fly. Unfortunately, kicking with that much force sends you out the window as well.

Apex: Ok, don't panic I have teammates that can fly down and save me.

Jazz (OOC): Forgot the entangle didn't ya?

Apex (OOC): ...Yes...Yes I did. What are the chances I can survive this?

GM: You have no powers and just your martial arts so about as good as the real you surviving that fall.

Apex: Well, at least I can try and land on his head to make sure he doesn't come back.

Gm: Alright, give me a Dex roll.

Some time later...

GM: You guys find the villain, minus his head and a puddle that looks a lot like your former teammate Apex.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

Sigil: A mage that relies on drawn symbols and arcane runes to fight his opponents. He wears street clothes, usually blue jeans and a tee shirt with tennis shoes. He always wears short sleeve shirts to show off the numerous demons he has imprisoned inside his own body, they manifest as tattoos. Probably drawn standing on the key of solomon to reinforce the whole relies on magical symbols and such.

Re: The Zodiac Group

Soon to Return.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

Order: Kind of an Iron Man type of character. His armor is solid silver with navy blue running up the outside of his legs, up the chest and stopping at the armpit. Another strip runs from his throat down the outside of the arms to his fingertips and with a balanced scale on the chest piece. The armor has reinforced shoulder-guards and the faceplate is blank except for the eye-slits.

Re: The Zodiac Group

Soon to Return.

Re: The Zodiac Group

Soon to Return.