Lawnmower Boy

Re: Alien Mysteries of the Champions Universe Lord Liaden is my god. So, having finally dropped the ol'vacation pay on some Hero stuff, Iv'e finally got a look at Evil Unleashed. -Has "Cleopatra," the COIL base with unknown alien super-technology been explicated? --Stareye and Sunspot have the same origin. Which is cool, because it recalls an early issue of All-Star Squadron of which I have very fond memories. On the other hand, what is NASA doing, sending one mission after another on close encounters with the Sun if bad things keep happening. Are they looking for something? --This isn't an "alien" mystery, but COIL introduces yet another (after Teleios and Herr Doktor Pandemonium) example of the idea of an inserted loyalty gene. In the first two cases the backbround of the discovery is mysterious. Teleios does not remember who gave him the basic breakthroughs leading to his current status, while Timothy Blank won't explain how he came up with the COIL gene. The source of the gene that Doktor Pandemonium is manipulating it is very definitely not a mystery. It was put there by the Elder Worm to turn humans into a horrid, Qliphotically-tainted slave race. Are Teleios and COIL using Elder Worm technology? If so, I hardly need to point out what a disturbing agenda is at work here.

Re: Rest in Peace: Bob Bledsaw Goofy but lovable. For that alone, RIP Bob Bledsaw.

Re: Alien Mysteries of the Champions Universe So, in Champions of the North, 125--6. Teleios has some DNA samples from the Hzeel. What's the deal here? Literally -what did the Hzeel take in exchange, and what else might Teleios have dealt for?

Re: Favorite flavor of Guardians? Clearly someone needs to make the very important point that Admiral DeGill does sometimes get involved in Atomic Betty's adventures. So Guardians do go into the field.

Re: Soviet Superheroes His story makes me sad. But he should still stop trying to justify the Iraq invasion.

Re: What is your favourite Superhero adventure/storyline? But does the SPCA qualify as a silly storyline? Hmm... I distinctly recall a Lois Lane adventure in which she was accidentally turned into an Atlantean, requiring exposure to water every hour or so. Now, it just so happened that a mob hitman was on her tail, and knew this. So he decided to keep her away from water every hour on the hour as she went about her reporterly day. (At this point I'm supposed to add a snarky voiceover comment, but even at this point my imagination is failing me, and worse is to come.) At one point, the moment comes as Lois is touring a thermometer factory. The who the what now? Anyway, since she just happens to have a violin by her side, when she realises that she can't get to water in time, she plays the violin, causing the glass on all the thermometers to crack, bathing her in liquid mercury. Lois is saved! And every day when I try to recall some lost bit of important information, I thank Mort Weisinger that I have brain cells tied down with that.

Re: Guns in Fantasy Black powder weapons are written up in Fantasy Hero. And they work just fine. As for enchanting them, there's a reason that everyone knows that silver bullets kill werewolves. People have been enchanting bullets for as long as there have been guns. I don't think it actually works in the real world, but there isn't any compelling reason a priori that it shouldn't work in your campaign.

Re: Order of the Stick Obviously Candyland. Best way of preventing O-Chul from escaping? Give him Monster-San to help.

Re: My Pre-Terran History Rough Outline It's like totally...whoah. Where did my weekend go? You know what I could go for? Some Cheetos. Oh, sorry, apparently they're not mass-produced until 2143. On another note, this whole "Canada joins the United States" thing? Not only is it never ever ever going to happen, we up north tend to find it offensive, whatever our politics.

Re: Bran Mak Morn My read (goirng from the more certain to the more speculative) is that Kull/Conan is REH's fantasy projection, and by extension all the reincarnations along the way. I know that Kull appears alongside Bran at one point, and of course has Brule as a sidekick. Bran is Chinchagook to the Atlantean/Celt/Cimmerian Leatherstocking. And, of course, REH's fantasy perfect boyfriend, as well as a projection of his social anxieties about his father's "passing." But Jim Thorpe makes for a good contemporary model. Ordinarily, Howard was no football fan, but the narrative of Thorpe's big games with Harvard is pretty compelling. How could a good Scotch-Irish Democrat not identify with the opponents of the oppressively Republican, Anglo-Saxon Crimson?

Re: Panzer VIII "Maus" Yes, the "water carrier" story comes up in several contexts: the shop was said to be making "tanks" for Mesopotamia, and the railroads moving them in France were said to have marked the boxcars for tanks. What I'm saying is that this suggests a folk etymology. The people who actually built the durn things were experts at agricultural machinery (obviously) and tank engines, which is to say, locomotives with the fuel and water storage usually allocated to tenders built into the frame, allowing them to run backwards, giving intraurban railways (especially early subways) extra flexibility. Except for the army bits and the caterpillar tread stretched around the running gear, tanks and tank engines are pretty technically similar, and in some ways so is the application. (Think of the battlefield as an extension of the new electric metropolis: the purpose of the tank is to restore mobility on it.) If my proposed derivation is wrong, all I can say is --it should be right.

Re: Bran Mak Morn He's left-handed? Interesting. Does anyone know if Jim Thorpe (my guess at the inspiration for Bran) was left-handed?

Re: Super City Embassy Row Okay, it is a little odd that some countries put their embassies in Super City rather than, say, Washington. But then, there are some countries that probably wouldn't be allowed to put embassies in Washington. Best just not ask and spare the embarrassment. And besides, the Supreme Dictator for Life likes to have a place to crash when he's visiting Super City, which he does a lot. You know, a bedrom, an office, space for a few Dictatorbots, an extra suit of armour.... The necessities of the diplomatic life.

Re: Order of the Stick I can't help recalling some argle bargle on the GiTP forums about the evilness (or otherwise) of various characters. There were those who wanted to argue that the MiTD wasn't evil, and the response was to bring up the "kid's meals." Rich Burlew is going out of his way to specifically contradict the one specific evidence of the MiTD's evil that we have, I doubt that was done for the sake of a few jokes. But hey, what do I know?

Re: Who is the Champs Univ. Equivalent of . . . The most direct equivalent is "Korrex the Time King," a villain of old referred to in the Sentinels backstory in Champions: News of the World. Unfortunately, he has never been written up, so far as I know.

Re: Panzer VIII "Maus" Silly Germans, going diesel-electric on a machine big enough for steam. It's Theodore the Tank....engine, coming to the magical Island of Sodor just as soon as the Reich has an LCT big enough! (I suspect that "tank engine" and "tank" actually are related, but that's enough hijacking my own comment.)

Re: You know the GM has it in for you when... "Takofanes? Is that you, baby?"

Re: Tell me Tiger Squad..... Yes, it is too late for the Olympics. But the 2008 Olympics are supposed to be China's coming out party. We will be hearing more about China, not less, in 2009. I know it is too late for Champions Battleground 2008. It is not too late to catch the Beijing wave. The following is in compliance of the official Hero Games Discussion Board thread jacking requirement. (Including the off-shoring of Chinese industry to India, if anyone cares. And watch out for when Pakistan gets its piece of the action)

Re: Super City National Security Threat Docks Sure, the Super City Port Authority has a container port up the river that handles all the real cargo, but there has to be a place to clear all the creaking old Eastern European and Central Asian freighters, crammed to the brink with bunged-up crates and seedy crew with mysterious curios to sell in the first bar. In fact, that seems to be the only cargo that comes through these dirty, wooden, old-fashioned wharves. Hint: don't bring any photographic film you can't stand to lose.

Yes, this is derivative. But CBC Radio was doing a variety show from China this afternoon as I was skimming the threads. Beijing is going to be the coolest place on Earth for the next few months, and one of the many things that makes it cool, as the show pointed out, is the fame of professional MMOers. MMOs so far have made few concessions to the larger world out there. The Champions Universe is different. With the Tiger Squad, The Superhero Division.... there are things here that could appeal pretty directly to the global audience and give Champions Online an imaginative reach that other MMOs do not. But will they be there?

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Says the guy who is trying to bluff us out of bringing out Brady Bunch Hero before he's finished the final draft.

Re: Legacies- Champions Universe style Well, yeah. In fact, Doctor Teneber II is active right on these boards.* (Arcane Adversaries, 96-7.)

Re: Who is the best Super in comics? The Paul Kirk Manhunter.

Re: When Lois married Lex: more Superman Silver Age Silliness Clark Kent and Troy McClure. Separated at birth?

Re: When Lois married Lex: more Superman Silver Age Silliness The link worked fine before it was exposed to magenta kryptonite.