hfergus

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Ok, here's one from about a month ago. Yes, I really said it. Warning, bad pun alert! A friend and I were taking a walk for exercise. Star Wars came up. We noted that Luke lost a hand and Anakin lost a hand. I said it was generational. She said "Does that mean Leia would lose her hand?" Without pausing I said "No, but she can lose her Han." She stopped dead and speechless.

Re: The Unmasking Volt - a) Wonder if this caused his villian nature. Nevertheless, turn him in. And try to help with the disfigurement. Either go a) "figures" if he never liked him or "Whoa! I'd never guess." No matter what turn them in and expose them. Olorin -a) He's seen worse. No biggie. He's a good judge of character, so it's unlikey he liked the guy. Or trusted him. In any case, he go "Ok. That's interesting." and turn them in exposing then. Black Tiger - All cases. Shrug, turn them in and expose them. Scenario A may cause to wince a bit, but he's seen worse. Leadman - A) Pause. Blink a bit and then turn them in. Ditto. Friends he would be shocked by - since he has few and knows them well. He has lots of people he knows though. Futurian - a) "Whoa. Is he ug-lee! Even this time period has plastic surgery. Why didn't he use it?" "Oh wow. Frajic. (future slang for freaky/tragic)" Turn them in and promptly forget about it.

Re: The Twelve most Wanted Volt would try to find other heroes (and or resistance) and plot a lot. Eventually he would stop laying low and attack. Olorin - Well, he'd wreck havoc on this scenario. He can time travel and dimension travel. How many heroes could he bring? As many as necessary. He could call in favors from Faerie (Doubtful he would) Or create heroes as needed (more likely -but take a while) and then attack. Could take decades, but he does not age. Black Tiger would organize or join a rebellion. He'd use a combination of stealth and power to take out as many as he can. Leadman would do the same as Volt, but would take longer. Futurian "Oh this is going to be fun. Not. How do I get into these things?" He'd build a rebellion. Of robots. And then mess up the bad guys tech. Then attack at time of most chaos. He'd actually be focused for once. He'd find a rebellion if it was easy or it contacted him. Otherwise, it'd be him and the robots (and rogue programs, malfunctioning tech, etc.)

Re: Your hero the villian Volt - Doubtful he'd do it. It'd have to be a desparate situation, and the specifics of what he was expected to do (and not do) laid out in detail. It would leave a bad taste in his mouth. Olorin - Oh, he'd have fun with this. Way too much. Knowing him, he'd pretend to be a necromancer, using illusions to fake it. (It's known to some he hates necromancers.) He would probably go a bit off the plans, but Until would probably not complain too much. He'd deliver. Oddly enough, a lot of villains may end up mysteriously dead. Oh well. Black Tiger - "Where do I sign?" He'd also go off track a bit, some villians may end up dead or disabled. Oddly enough, less than Olorin. Leadman - He'd do it reluctantly. He'd be the only one whose disguise is part of his powers, so he'd have to pretend to go bad. He'd be mostly worried about turning back into a hero. Futurain - "Let me get this straight. You want me to pretend to but a villain, but I can't do the fun stuff like rob a bank? Just what can I do? Aw, what the heck, I'm in." Until would regret it. He's a bit scattered and would go very off track and not do too well. Nothing serious, but still....

Re: The Dysfunctional Super Team! Bits of this sound like the Misfit league (the group I'm Gming.) No ex-criminals. No love quadrangle. Two (soon to be 5) new to the game. One suspicious and responds poorly to most authority (you have to prove yourself). One a medieval with all that implies. Teamwork? What teamwork? Oh, they help each other, but the planning stinks. (The leader is a bit too easy going.) As too what they would do, only two qualify as leaders. Volt is the leader of the above group, so it would not be too different, but he'd watch the ex-villains and talk to the quadrangle and expose it if needed. If Olorin, the medieval mage were in charge... Teamwork would be better. Some villians would not survive. Olorin would kill them. Can we say iron age/vigilante? He'd almost never make a mistake though. Olorin would have fun with this. The quadrangle? Exposed. Deal with it guys. Lack of control? Practice, practice, practice. Ex villians watched carefully and turned in (killed if bad enough) if they go back to being villains. He'd find out quickly too.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I was just reminded of an old quote. In character. (by me) Character: Mordain, dwarven Paladin of Moradin Soulforger (love that name!) A bit naive about the above world; spent all his life before adventuring underground in halls of stone. On his way to a swamp, he learned about quicksand. He was furious. "What? Dirt betraying it's existence by acting like water? Blasphemy!" At that point he carried a large rock around and dumped it on any suspicious ground. He finally found some, and the rock sank like, well, a rock. At first he was angry, then a bit taken back. Then .... he began to smirk, held his helmet over his heart and said: "Let us have a moment of silence for this brave rock. Without thought for itself, it gave it's life saving others and dying by a horrible death. Drowning. Who can claim such courage? I hope to live up to the rock's example. It's sacrifice will be engraved in letters of gold, and its deed will be sung in mead halls forever. Hail the rock. Hail!" I have no idea where that came from. The players were laughing themselves sick. As were the PC's. Glad I wrote it down.

Re: I killed a PC. Have I, as a GM, ever accidentally killed a PC? Nope. On purpose? With players approval in advance? Yup. Great for pathos/radiation accident. Did I ever have a PC of mine killed by "accident"? Oh yeah. You see, I had a dwarf that went berserk and charged into battle under certain conditions. I knew he'd get in over his head eventually, and had a backup character ready. Lasted a lot longer than I thought. Ended up charging a wizard and getting a fireball up his nose. Since he was so close, the wizard took some damage and wasted an area effect spell on one character. Saved the group. He would have loved it.

Re: What does your hero, or hero team, stand for? Misfit League - Two kinda mashed together. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" and "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded." To them, it means to use the powers, and use them well.

Re: What's the craziest thing your Supers have ever done? Wasn't a true super, was a D&D cleric. After being offered a pittance for a reward from a king for a task, he mooned the king. Then waved his private parts at him. You see, I (yes it was me) decided one day to come up with a cleric. Did not know which god yet. Decided to roll on personality chart that was intended for NPCs as a lark. Rolled up insane. Said to roll again, if insane again, roll on insanity chart. Rolled insane again. Went for it anyway. Came up with dipsomania, an extreme craving for alcohol. Suddenly, I knew the god! Dionysus. Decided that in extreme circumstances (whenever it seemed right to me.) I'd roll a 6 sider. On a 6, do something crazy. Yup, did it when the king lowballed us. He had a rep at that point. The Gm rolled, and decided an advisor knew of the rep. Told the king "Better not hurt him, he's possesed by Dionysus, and if you don't want all your alcohol to go bad, at the very least, you'd better treat him well." King all of a sudden got very generous. Darphil got into such trouble at times, but never seroiusly. Whenever not actively adventuring, you could find him at the bottom of a bottle. Then there was the time he ended up with an Everful Jug. (yes, it could do alcohol) Getting it away from him was "fun". I miss him at times, but he was a challenge to do.

Re: Your "Oh #@$%!" Moment AD&D. As GM. Players met Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pit. Yes, they survived. No, they did not beat her. Long story summarized - Went from 18th level to 6th. They loved it. As player - caught in carpet bombing. Managed to survive. (Ran a lot)

Re: My Parallel me and I I've used the parallel bad PC's and good villians once. The players liked it. Alternate universes? A lot. A few, not complete list, follows. 1) Nazi world. The nasty Nazis won. 2) "Nazi" World 2. The "Nazis" won and conquered the US. They were the good guys vs the bad US. (Swastikas, uniforms, SS, but good guys. Yikes!) 3) Horror world. Welcome back, Cthulhu! 4) Star trek universe. (Both TOS and Next Gen, plus inbetween.) 5) Babylon 5 universe. 6) Destoyer universe. Doctor Destroyer won. I could go on, but it would be a while. My players had a blast (except in horror world. They left it as fast as possible.)

Re: That Mechanon fella jest ain't right: a roleplay question All my players are good role players and could keep separate what they know and what the characters know. They'd be cautious, and express some concern with the serial killer info. They'd insist on some sort of shutdown command (more than one). Also if I had not previoulsy mentioned Mechanon as a villian, they'd have no clue. They are new Champions players, and a lot of info is missing My characters? Given no Mechanon (or a different name) Volt and Olorin would act the same. They'd want more than one shutdown. (They both read sci-fi, and Olorin would consider it to be a golem - that he did not create, so he'd be wary.) Black Tiger would work with it, aprreciate its abilities, and never trust it until it destroyed itself. Lead man would be cautious, but be the first to trust it. Futurian "Destroy it! Destroy it now! It brings the.... Oh crud. If I say the future will be changed. Oh crud. It may not be "The One". " He'd set multiple destructs on it. His powers are aimed right at machines and tech. He'd watch it closely. This is one thing he'd never let lapse, unlike almost anything else which tends to be "out of sight, out of mind."

Re: How does your world handle Magic/Psi? In my world, psionics on the super level is rare and fairly recent. Any "olde time" psionic was invariably thought of as a specialist wizard (and they do exist). Magic was (and is) rare at any level. Huge magic occurance a long time back caused it to damp. Magic is reasserting itself slowly. "Blasters" (supers) are very rare. There might be twenty in my whole world. The rest are manipulators, information sources, or rely on "deals" with "powers" (good or bad). Psionics tends to make people nervous. Magic less so, for 2 reasons. 1) obvious magic is very rare, as stated. 2) Arthur C Clark's 3rd law comes to mind for most: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Olorin, my mage uses that line a lot when explaining his magic. And he loves technology. He sees a difference, and oddly enough is trying to have them interact.(Technomancy) Old wizard groups tend to dislike the "upstarts". Some from jealosy, some from desire to keep things low key.

Re: A Game Of Questions Eh, who cares anyway?

Re: Waking up with not-so-super powers I'd take the power to make people, on command, tell the absolute total truth. Leave nothing major out. Many politicians gone. Bad bosses gone. And note, it's on command, so if I do not want to know....

Re: Wanted: Heroes Once Volt was sure, (and he'd want to believe) he'd welcome them. He might offer to help their dimension. Once he found out the dimensions were merging, he'd definately help so they could go back home. Olorin would be able to tell they were from a different dimension quickly. He'd also tell them quickly that they are bringing the dimension closer, and that that is not good. The merge may be very destructive to both sides. He'd then offer to help them back home. Black Tiger. Not sure he'd ever believe them. When the dimensions began to merge, he'd be saying "See. I told you. It's all a plot." He'd be watching them very closely. Leadman. Watch for a while and then gruglinlgy accept them, all the time saying "I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. This will end badly." When the dimensions started to merge, he'd say "See. I told you so." Futurian. "Oh wow. Heros. Cool. Bummer about your dimension." And promptly forget about it until the dimensions merged. "Oh wow. Fragic." Fragic is his slang for fractured/tragic. That is messed up and really bad. The most likely group would be the Ultimates. Or a group I'm working on called "The elementals." Not quite the 4 classic Greek elements. Or Chinese either. (Earth, Fire, Cold, Pain and Darkness.)

Re: Escaped Amorphoid Black Tiger - Watch for it. Deal with it if it causes problems. Otherwise, ignore it. Futurian - "Hmm. Thinking goo. Eh, who cares?" and leaves it alone. Volt and Olorin - look for it and possibly help it. Intelligent depends. Is it intelligent or self-aware? A smart dog may have been able to get out, or a racoon. Self-aware gets help to maintain it's freedom if not destructive. Destructive gets dealt with as gently as possible. Merely intelligent gets returned if not too destructive - it's property like a dog. Researchers get a lecture at this point. Researchers would be quizzed as to its needs to see where it might be and whether it might be a problem. Leadman - Talk to researchers about where it might go, its needs, etc. Then go after it and bring it back. If it demonstrates self-awareness and it is not destructive, he helps it.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Got him for you all.

Re: Transgendered Superperson Volt - A bit too attached to his gender and only heroing because he has the powers. Bye-bye powers, hello normal life. Olorin - Been a woman before, will shrug it off. He can also shift gender at will magically. However, if it is a curse (and would have to be given the scenario) he'd reverse it (eventually) and go after whoever did it if applicable. Black Tiger - Oh boy, will he be mad. Being a woman as such would not bother him, just that messing with him is not acceptable. He'd blame this on his memory loss period, and go into obessive mode figuring it out. Once he takes his vengence (And it would most likely be violent) he'd go back to being a normal man. Leadman - Gets his powers from a magical aumulet. Would give it up, probably to a good, heroic person who did not mind switching genders. Futurian "Man, I've always wanted to try out being a woman, but just never got around to it." (Where he is from, gender swithing back and forth is easy and safe but not too cheap.) "I'm going to be gorgeous! Well, I already am, but I'll be a gorgeous woman. This will be fun." He'd stay that way for a long time before even contemplating turning back. (possibly years) Wouldn't really care.

Re: An Opportunity For Self-Improvement Volt - Probably would want his arthritis and maybe allergies to go away, using any unused experience first. He'd also want his force wall to be stronger and easier to use, mainly to protect innocents. Might take disads such as "must protect innocents, common, strong." Would not take and CVK though. Olorin - The only disad he may want to get rid of is his unfamilarity with modern Earth culture. However, he's already whittling away at that and it does not worry him. He may take a mild hunted or two as he's used to that. Any points left over would go into his already rather large VPP. Black Tiger - He wants his memory back! It would probably be replaced with an obsession to make the people who did it pay for it, probably with their life. He'd turn very dark. Leadman - He'd be pretty content to leave it as is. Although his teammates might want him to remove his "grumpy and pessamistic" disad. Futurian "I'm perfect as is, can't you see that?" And he'd mainly mean it. "I just need to be more me. And that'll just take more time."

Re: Only You Can...

Re: your pcs might be OVERPOWERED IF... You can survive a blast from the Deathstar. And your punch can reduce it to rubble.

Re: Holding the end of the world Volt - Yikes! To a mage he goes! He has no way to get away from Earth without help. Would sacrifice himself if need be. Black Tiger & Leadman. See above, with swearing. A lot in Black Tiger's case. Olorin. Laugh. Being a mage, this is right up his alley. 1) He could take it apart harmlessly over a few days. Since he needs about 4 hours sleep per week, it's not a problem. 2) Drain the magic. Faster, but more tiring. 3) Most likely. (in fact, almost certain) Dimension walk it to an empty dimension where time is stopped or severly slowed. (If need be, he could create a pocket dimension just big enough to hold it.) Leave it there for possible use later. (can we say plot device?) Futurian - if before he makes the Misfit Ship: "Gaa! Quick, find me a mage or something else to get me far away from here." If after he makes the ship, he warps out of the solar system, kicks it out the airlock and warps back home. "Next!"

Re: Time Travelling "Historian" Volt, Black Tiger and Leadman would do the same thing. Nothing, except ask for a ride home. He's not destroying the books, he's recording them. Profit? He's risking his neck, and I'm sure it cost him to be there. Seems appropriate to them. Volt may say to him to let a couple go free, as he could afford to. Olorin would go "Hey, good idea." and eventually record them magically himself. Some he'd sell, some he'd keep and some he'd let go free. Oops. This means the other guy's profits would go down, as some would be available. Too bad. Futurian - Back off quitely. It's very likely to be Futurian himself. "Oh God! Mustn't meet myself. That never works well." In fact, in my world if I did this, it would be Futurian from the present Futurian's past, which is the future. (Time travel wreaks havoc on tenses.)

Re: Real World Books in Fictional Libraries Oh yeah, I've done it. In a mad scientists labs: Methods of Digital Computation. Differential Equations and Boundry Value Problems Physical Chemistry All the above were text books in classes I had in Chemical Engineering. The Silmarillion was in a dark lords tower once. (he considered it a "what not to do" book) There were more, but I can't remember them.