hfergus

Re: Alternate Earth/WWYCD - Enough?

Folks, we've got a ton of Alternate Earth and What Would Your Character Do? threads floating around here. They all basically say, "talk about your character", which is one of the top ten no-nos for gamers. How many times have you groaned inwardly when someone has said to you, "Let me tell you about my character..."? One thread is fun, a few threads are fine...but roughly half of the threads for the Champions board (including 8 of the 10 most recent) is too much...

 

How about we hold back on talking about our characters for a bit, and talk about something else for a change?

Like what? Examples please. Now I agree, some of these threads are sort of the same, but others may cause you to think about what your character is really like. And why is it a no-no to talk about your character, as long as you let others talk about theirs? I find it interesting as long as there is no monopolization. I like hearing about other characters on this board - and in person. It's even better here because generally others do not go on and on not letting you get a word in edgewise. You can even skip a post without being rude or hurting others feelings. (not that I would ever do that:rolleyes:) Again, I like the WWYCD posts. I find them interesting. I like getting a feeling what other types of characters there are out there. If you want other posts, give examples of what you want, especially by posting one yourself. Just my $0.02 worth.(before inflation)

Re: WWYCD: "Where exactly am I?"

Volt would try to find out waht the world is like and see if he is known and if this is an illusion. He'd try to find a way back if not an illusion, and failing that would try to be a hero here. This is also what Black Tiger and Futurian would do.

Olorin would wake up and go "How did I get into this dimension? Glad I set a dimensional beacon." If he is still in the "correct" time and dimension (the beacon detects both), he'd know it was an illusion and work on it that way. If he had been moved, he'd try to find out what is going on, maybe help out here. He'd go back eventually though.

Re: Was the GM right or wrong in limiting my Gadgeteer?

Normally' date=' I'd agree with you. But he did it 'every' freaking time. Which is why I got so frustrated with him.[/quote']

He might be concerned about setting a precedent. That said, gadget pools (altough I do'nt know about this system) can get real unbalanced very fast as others have said. See if you can work it our like others have said. In Heros, a skill roll can help keep down the abuse. I have a NPC with a big VPP, he can only change it between combats (4 hours). Even so, I have to be careful he does not do everything. Switch sides and you'll empasize, trust me.

Re: I'm going to make a big noise...BOOM!

Volt "Up, up, and away!" He'd fly as fast as he could up and away from people. He'd take the scientist with him, just in case.

Olorin T-port to Antartica with the scientist. If he had a dimension walk spell, he'd go to a time-stop dimension with a trigger to go back. If he had a time stop spell ready, well... he'd have all the time he needed to fix it.

Black Tiger Swear and grab the scientist just in case, running as fast as he can to someplace where innocents can't be hurt.

Futurian would start laughing. Unless this is magic or chemical, it is tech, and in that case, gizmo destroyed; problem over. He'd fly away fast with the scientist if he could not destroy it.

Re: WWYCD: Only So Many Shopping Days Till Christmas

Volt What do you get a 747 year old mage from another dimension? Most of his teammates would get a book the he thought was appropriate. If Olorin had not read them yet, he'd get him a copy of Shakespeare's plays. If he had, he'd get him several tickets to Shakespearian plays; esp Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Midsummer Nights Dream, Macbeth and the Tempest.

Olorin would love the idea. Anybody that liked medieval stuff would get a non-magical sword that he made himself. (they are pretty good, but not the best around.) Almost anything would probably be homemade. Stage magic props (from a real mage; kinda ironic) for some and things like a magic flashlight that never needs batteries.

Black Tiger bah, humbug. Maybe small knives. (weapons, not kitchen implements)

Futurian - small techno gizmos.

Re: WWYCD (kind of): Advice Time for Scarlet!

Volt "Once you do this, your private life is pratically over. Do you really want that? Consider telling your parents only and swearing them to secrecy if you want to impress them. And consider; once you go public, your parents are targets. I guess they may be proud or you may be in a 'told you so' mode, but only a little while before they are killed. Do you want that? Stop thinking only of yourself; don't be like your parents - be better. Do not go public."

Olorin " I have a public Id because the only people I want to protect are supers. Go ahead. Paint a big "kill here" target on your parents if that is what you want. Then I'll go public with why you did it. You'll really be loved then. See, you don't like that. Stop trying to show off to your parents; you are not a child. Be a grown up and suck it up. Do not do it."

Black Tiger " Have. You. Lost. Your. Mind? Why do want your parents dead, were they that bad? Do you have other people in your secret id life? What about them? Why are you asking me anyway?"

Futurian "Don't do it unless you want your parents dead."

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

Volt would try to help the woman while trying to broker peace. He would not lik the transformation, but if trully voluntary (the cultural "push" should be minimal, or it is abusive.) he would not appose it. Suggesting moving on to another planet would be an option. Failing that, the machines would be fought, and with him being electro magnetic and most robots/etc having problems with that, he'd be quite effective.

Olorin would act pretty much like Volt, as to helping and brokering peace, but he'd have an ace up his sleve. He could transform the transformed humans back into real humans; and he'd prove it! (Then he would transform the now human back as a gesture of good will - man, all this transforming is getting confusing.) This would probably scare the transformed humans badly.

Black Tiger is a simple soul. "They're machines! Smash 'em! Turn 'em to rubble!"

Futurian "Why do you think I, and almost everyone where I come from, has such control over machines? (mind control, body drain, speed drain, etc vs machines only) We fought this war and came to an understanding. They left the earth, and we pretty much let each other be." Unusally, he would be serious and not be snarky or a snot or obtuse. He would not be pegged down as to when this happened though. He really could mess with these guys. If teamed up with a geneticist, every human (or at least a lot) could be changed to have his powers; war over!

Re: WWYCD: Mindset

Volt, Olorin and Futurian would be about the same - and would try to stop it/her long before this on the grounds of A) slippery slope; where does it stop? You do not have the right C) How would you like someone overwriting you to their liking?

Black Tiger would have to be restained from killing her. To him, this is just about the ultimate abuse of authority.

Re: Twist off the WWYCD

Volt I would split it 15 on tk (vs metallic only) 10 on absorbption (electric & magnetic only)

Olorin would buy off his 15 pt disad unfamiliar with earth culture (he does learn fast after all) and the rest would go into his VPP.

Black Tiger 10 points to up his speed, the rest to up his CV.

Futurian 5 points to buy "unfamiliar with present earth culture" down to uncommon moderate (he's learning!) the rest to CV

One day as you are patroling (or anything as long as you are in hero id) all of a sudden you are in Faerie! You know it (it's Faerie after all) and there is no obvious way back. What does your character do? (remember, Faerie can be nasty as well. Recommend reading "Faerie Tale" by Raymond Feist. It is very dark though.)

Volt "Ok, let's review the rules. Don't go off the path. Don't eat or drink anything from here. Be very polite to everything, even plants and animals. If you have a sudden urge to sleep, don't sleep there. Be wary about accepting gifts; try to exhange something instead. Be careful about any cold iron you have. Listen to your heart about helping others. I think I am missing something, but hopefully it is not too important." From there he'd wander on the path hoping to find a way back. If Olorin was with him. it'd be no problem getting back, but he'd still review the rules.

Olorin "How many times does this make now? I guess I should visit the Lord and Lady; they be disaapointed if they found out I was here and did not at least say hi. Lets see, where am I? Ok that looks familiar... unless it moved again. I'll just keep moving and the first being I come to I will say I wish to see the Lord and Lady. That should do it." Yes, he's been there before and the Lord and Lady know him and like him. He can go back after prepping the spell (a few hours) to go back, but he would try to see the rulers; it's just polite. If he were with Volt, he'd be fairly impressed when Volt rattled off the rules.

Black Tiger "Ya gotta be kidding. Now are there are going to be fairies flitting around? Gaaa!" He'd be so grumpy about it. He'd probably break just about every rule Faerie has. Hopefully he'd run into a good one that would help, or he would not last long.

Futurian "Faerie the vacation world? I guess not. Oh boy, I'm in trouble. No machines. Well, I guess I'd best go down the path and hope." At the begining he'd be humming "We're off to see the wizard."

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

I remembered another old quote. Very strange dungeon I made that was "designed by an insane mage"(I did not make sense, but I wanted to do weirdness.) The party was in a very long winding hall with no rooms or branches off. They were very suspicious and checked for doors, traps etc. They then reached a place where they could go no further. On the end of the hall was a carved human(oid) with a stone sword through it. Some thought it was a magic sword, and I was about to have a NPC say the line I wanted when one person plopped their head on the table, groaned and said "It's a dead end." Yup. I did the whole thing for that line.

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

I just remebered an old quote. It was a board based military game and the player was splitting a stack (army) and sending part to hilly terain. He said "I'm splitting and heading for the hills ... I can't believe I just said that." The three dots was at most 3 seconds and probably 2 seconds.

Re: Hero in the Hospital

This would not apply in my current campaign most of the time. 1) There is a pretty good hospital in the base for this sort of thing - physical injuries etc. It is mostly automated; one PC is a nurse, and others are sworn to secrecy. 2) We have Olorin the mage. Can we say healing potions? He keeps at least three on him and three in the base at all times. (Well, almost. )Given time (a couple hours for fairly standard diseases like flu, ebola,(!) malaria) he can cure diseases as well. Disease/curses like lycanthropy, vampirism (if defined that way) and others probably will take days to months depending on what it is (and the GM). Nice guy to have around.

Re: WWYCD: the mermaid

Volt may talk to her and may not. She's not hurting anyone and does not seem to be in need. His curiosity may kick in, and if so he'd just find out what's going on and find the spoiler info. He may try to get her as a contact, and allow himself to be one as well.

Olorin would almost certainly talk to her - in merfolk (language from his world) to start. This would probably not work, and then he'd chat her up in any language she knows (Universal translater, high skill roll). The conversation could go on quite a while if she's willing and neither has a time constraint. (He's curious and loves to talk to people.)He probably would also do the mutual contact thing that Volt did.

Black Tiger "Am I being 'punked'? Not falling for it." Then he'd walk away, since this does not seem to need a hero.

Futurian would talk to her, finding out the spoiler info unless he was in a hurry. Beings like that exist in his future; they were genetically modified to live in the seas - voluntarily. It can be fairly easy to reverse too where he came from. (About the level of minor plastic surgery now - but not so easy as a botox injection. Say about a nose job level.)

Re: WWYCD/W:The gift

Volt- I have every thing I trully need, unless you can get rid of my arthritis.

Olorin "Can you give me a map to my home dimension or otherwise allow me to travel back and forth from there and here? If not can I have an I-phone?"

Black Tiger "Santa. Right. Pull the other one." He doesn't even trust Santa - or is that especially distrusts Santa?

Futurian "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Really, I dunno. Hmmm."

Re: What OOC role do you play in groups?

Source of bad puns and "totally useless" trivia. I am almost always the rules expert - not rules lawyer. I know the rules well, but often say "That's silly. Lets' change them." I often know the rules (and sometimes campaign) better than the GM. Once during a board game "Star Fleet Battles" I had my ship launch a probe and when asked why, I said "It's in the rules; but not where you expect." The rules were quite complex depending on what optional rules you used. It was a bluff; and it worked. They were so freaked out about it that made other mistakes that I took advatage of. They still don't know this.

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

The president is visited in a locked office by a shadowy figure with a grating voice' date=' demanding that the law be repealed or else there will be consequences. Then when he doesn't repeal it, every superhero -and- every supervillain who dislikes the law, suddenly gets British Citizenship and a job that gives them diplomatic immunity (I.E. a royal pardon for all past crimes). Then, if the law still hasn't been repealed, Britain declares war on the 'upstart colonies of America'.[/quote']

First, unless your world is different, the president cannot negate laws. He can veto them, but could get overridden. However, he could decide not to enforce the law- which could lead to his impeachment and removal from office. He could also use his leverage with the American people to get the law overturned.

 

As to the war - WOW! Over that? Your world must be very different. I do kinda like the Brits giving citizenship to people here, but that would mean the people who accept would be deported to the UK... But is that part of your plan? Hmmm...

Re: The Ultimate Weapon(s), per Wizard Entertainment

"In brightest day, in blackest night,

no evil shall escape my sight,

let those who worship evil's might,

beware my power,

Green Lantern's Light!"

Love the ring, love the oath. I agree with #1!!!

Re: WWYCD: Registration Payback

Volt would help solve the problem while giving every pro- registration politician a small lecture in the line of "Doesn't feel so good with the shoe on the other foot, does it?" For those anti-registration, he'd be very simpathetic if they were affected.

Olorin would start by laughing. If both pro and anti registration were affected, he'd help the anti first and be very sympathetic. The pro he would give a good, long lecture to before curing them. Once cured, and noone was watching he'd say, "Just remember, I can find you whenever I want - and put the nanobots back." He could, but probably would not - but might do the magical equivalent to particularly egregious offenders.

Black Tiger "About time." He would do nothing unless bugged by his team, and might not even then. Also any bad thing he saw would only confirm his distrust of authorities.

Futurian "This isn't due to occur for quite a while yet!" No one would be sure if he's serious or not, and he won't elaborate. He'd then help, and act somewhere between Olorin and Volt. Given that these are nanobots, and his powers, he could trace it back and apply them to the people that did this in the first place- and probably would.

Re: WWYCD: One Wish

Volt- "Can I pass or get to it later? I'm reminded of the tale 'The Monkey's Paw', and the saying 'Be careful what you wish for; you may get it.'" If convinced there was not a catch, he'd merely wish that his daughter would never be n financial need- probably.

Olorin - would act about the same as Volt, and even mention the monkey's paw. In addition, he'd ask "One sentence right, and no asking for more wishes?" "Can I take a while to write it up to close the loopholes?" If he could, he ask for what he needed to get back home at will, and get to this world as well... with all the loopholes closed "no powers gone or lessened in punch or unreliable etc..."

Black Tiger - "What's the catch?" I would take a while to convine him, and he would probably want his memory back - although he sort of fears what is there. He has a ten year gap during which he got his powers.

Futurian "Only one? Aw c'mon!" He'd porbably ask to go back home - the future. This would mean he would no longer be a hero.

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

"We're not evil, we're differently morallated."

I am reminded of an old D&D campaign by this quote. Most of the characters were "chaotic greedy." (joke. They were normally some shade of good- but very money hungry.)

Re: Is your character religious?

And he does tend to ignore some scriptures here and there (As in "thou shalt not kill") He does go by a strict moral code in some aspects. He takes fidelity issues very seriously (no sex till marriage' date=' not that the prospect of marriage is likely given his reclusive nature but anyhow)[/quote']

I have just enough knowledge in this area to be dangerous. The word really should not be translated "kill", but rather "murder". War, self defense, defense of others, etc are ok. Given that, your character may still not follow it too well.

Ignore this post. Somehow I posted it twice. Ooops!

Boy, am I asking for trouble. First I had a post about politics (which actually did not go too badly) and now religion. I must have a death wish. (My bad puns confirm that). As the title asks, is your character religious? I ask mainly because the "Once Bitten" thread mentioned some Catholic characters and it got me thinking. Note that my characters do not necessarilty have my politics or religion. They can't since they are all over the place. (Unless I have multiple personality disorder:rolleyes:)

Volt -Even though he is an intensely private person, he is well known as a devout Christian, and does not regret the world knowing. He is not Catholic, and when asked if he is protestant he said "I am not protesting the Catholic church." When pushed further he said "I believe in the Bible, and am in a church that emphasises it, even the Old Testament as it is important." He used to get cold and rather snippy if pushed further. He now sings, in a rather good voice, part of a song called Oh Budda:

"Cause it won't be a Baptist that's sitting on the throne,

A Prebyterian or a Methodist that's calling us us home,

And it won't be a charasmatic that plays that trumpet tune,

So let's all just live for Jesus 'cause He's coming back real soon."

Olorin is a pagan - rather a polytheist - so he says. He really is convinced there is a "Maker of all things" and thinks that being gets involved. He does not trust "gods" as he was asked to be one and hated what he found out. He is searching, and many may call him a "seeker". He is busy investigating this worlds major monotheistic religions.

Black Tiger is barely a lapsed Catholic. Really his is nothing and does not think about it. His family brought him to mass on Easter and Christmas until he was 6 years old and that is it. The church sex scandal just fed his distrust of all authorities.

Futurian Is sort of a Deist. He also believes there is a "Maker of all things", but is not sure about the beings involvement. He calls himself a "agnostic Deist", but does not think too much on it.

Leadman is a retired character, but is a good Polish Catholic boy. He got really disturbed when he found out the "widget" he uses to become Leadman was a magical artifact using earth magic. He sort of thinks he is redeeming the object, but it bothers him.

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

No Demons perfected taxes. hmm... that makes me wounder if Daemons view the IRS as some kind of dumping ground.

Something much worse perfected taxes - Bureaucracies.

Just to note, I work for the IRS. I do not do individual forms, just corporate. I also think the tax system should be reformed and that taxes are too high.

I also am offended! We are not the dumping ground! We are the cream of the demonic crop, the best of the best! Now apologize lest I send "THEM" to investigate you!