Scott Destroyer

Hello, Excellent discussion so far. The upcoming "mystic world" goodies are high on my list of "Hero-Games-stuff-to get". The typical answer to this one is, "because it's easier". If there really is any "soul-endangering" or other "risks" to the black magic, it should be represented with a corresponding Limitation on the power, or a Disadvantage for the character taking the power. This should make it easier to attain in story terms (just bargain with a dark power for the knowledge, instead of studying and practicing magic), as well as easier to buy (cheaper) in game terms. Also, white mages often have to abide by moral codes or other limitations that would be seen as no fun at all to those inclined to the dark arts - evil mages' Disadvantages tend to reflect wretched excess more than asceticism... I think this one's worthy of some attention, too. Here's my take on the two organizations' views of each other: Circle of the Scarlet Moon: "We entered into the practice of black magic to become the masters of vast dark supernatural powers - not merely their allies, and certainly not their debased and degraded slaves, like the morons in DEMON. Both groups invoke, bind and traffic with ancient and inhuman powers of evil, but when we encounter beings too powerful to control, we wait and study and gather power until we can break them to our will. The fools in DEMON imagined in their arrogance and stupidity that they could get the better of bargains with such creatures, and they sold themselves into the basest thralldom in return for power they might well have had on their own terms with just a bit of patience, discipline, and arcane talent. Their fate is no worse than idiocy of that magnitude deserves." DEMON: "The Circle of the Scarlet Moon is nothing more than a social club for mystically-inclined dilettantes who lack the courage to confront and bargain with the primordial beings, older than time itself, that can grant true mystical power. We, on the other hand, are not afraid to face any being, make any pact, take any oath, render any service, and carry out any ritual that will attain for us the power we rightly deserve. And for our courage, we are rewarded with mystical might far beyond the pathetic dreams of the petty dabblers in the Circle." They can recruit the way con artists and charlatans have always recruited pigeons, and they will have the advantage of magic that actually works. Take advantage of the desperate and confused, people growing cynical and questioning morality and justice in the world, or even petty criminals frantic to gain an edge in a world of super-beings. Tell them you can get them what they most desire, especially dark or impossible desires - untraceable mystical revenge on enemies, magically-compelled love, ensured victory in some important or profitable competition, arcane cures to incurable health conditions, contact with the spirits of the departed beloved. Disparage other options for dealing with their situation, and dismiss moral qualms about "dark magic" as the product of propaganda from materialistic social institutions that have been attempting for centuries to suppress magic for their own ends. A little psychological manipulation can get people in the door and numb their consciences for long enough to get them to take the membership oaths and go through initiation rites. Typically, as part of initiation, new recruits will be asked to commit some criminal or immoral act in the company of their fellows, to prove their loyalty and perhaps show that they have "transcended" their old moral beliefs. If they've been "softened up" properly, and given hope (through the sight of some magic) that their recruiter's promises can be kept, they will go through with it - those unwilling to do so will have been spotted and weeded out well before this point. This can be used as leverage against them in the future, as can any crimes they commit from then on in DEMON's service. When recruits come to realize that they are really just the local Morbane's despised lackeys, they have three choices: try to quit, and face the consequences; continue serving, reluctantly, which will make it that much harder to quit in the future; or "make the best of it", and actually devote oneself to DEMON and its goals, hoping for advancement and power within the group. By this time, too, recruits will likely have seen examples of the Morbanes' utter ruthlessness and depravity, and of the dark sorceries that are used to enforce the membership oaths, and this will no doubt have some influence on their decision-making process. Most recruits, even enthusiastic supporters of DEMON, will never rise very far above their lowly status, but those with a measure of mystical talent and unfettered by the arbitrary strictures of conventional morality can also be tempted with advancement over their peers by initiation into the organization's higher ranks. Note also that even recruits who are low-ranking in the DEMON hierarchy may be persons of wealth and influence in the "normal" world, who came to DEMON in search of things their wealth and power couldn't buy; this will give DEMON some worldly power in addition to its arcane power, enabling it to give some mundane rewards to lackeys who render useful service, and to punish snoopers into its secrets without resorting to overt magic. Hope this helps!

Hello, Not in any actual games - all too easy to seem derivative if you're not careful. But it does work nicely for the occasional message-board handle...

Hello, Awesome Clix mods, proditor. Suicide Squad and Captain Atom were two of my favorite DC books; if DC HeroClix had well-represented versions of them among its figs, I'd probably be buying it already. Your Nightshade and Deadshot figs are especially nice. Any hope of seeing Black Orchid, Shade the Changing Man, Ravan, Duchess/Lashina, and Doctor Light? Waller could possibly be handled as one of those token figs from the map sets, though after her confrontation with Batman and surviving Apokolips I'd probably make her at least the equivalent of a rookie Thug who also had Leadership and Willpower. I also note the apparent presence of Major Victory in your Squad group shot, though he isn't among those you present individually; let me be the first to say that more Force of July members would be way cool... I was also a big fan of the Squadron Supreme, which you have done up as Clix; half the comic writers I see nowadays hardly seem fit to refill the late Mark Gruenwald's ballpoint pen. InQuest magazine published a little Clix scenario involving the Squadron Supreme; it was the Serpent Crown fight with the Avengers, and used DC figs to represent the Squadron. Needless to say, playing the fight with your actual painted-up figs on DC bases would be the very height of coolness for that scenario. Seeing Hellstrom as a Clix fig also brought a smile to the face of this old Defenders fan. I'm just glad the Surfer has that big "D" on his base in the latest Marvel set; after they left it off of Moondragon, I had my doubts... Keep up the excellent work - I can hardly wait to see what you come up with next!

Hello, This fascinating little branch of UFO conspiracy theory has sprung up around the number of advanced long-range U-boats (Types XXI and XXIII) unaccounted for at the end of World War II, the known scientific interest of Germany in Antarctica, the work of a German weird scientist named Viktor Schauberger, more prosaic "ODESSA File"-type South-American-Nazi theories, and a mysterious mission carried out by the Allied military forces near Antarctica in 1947 called "Operation Highjump" (variously described as an arctic-conditions training exercise and as a terrain and resources survey). Some also tie it in to Nazi occultism and the alleged belief of some among them in "hidden races" and the "hollow world" theory, which usually involves secret polar openings into the subterranean realms. It is the premise for an interesting little short story called "The Last Battalion", by David Drake (of Hammer's Slammers fame). Seems like lots of campaign potential there for GMs of a conspiratorial bent... Hope this helps!

Hi again, The original Suicide Squad was a war comic, along the general lines of Sergeant Rock, Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos, The Haunted Tank, and that sort of thing. The later Squad comic revolved around a secret government agency. The original concept of the agency was to use convicted super-criminals to carry out high-risk secret missions in return for pardons for the survivors - a kind of superhuman Dirty Dozen. It later also recruited other superhumans to whom it could offer help of one sort or another. Amanda Waller headed up the agency (which later expanded into "Task Force X", and included units other than the Squad), and the Squad's field leader for most of its existence was a military officer, the son of one of the soldiers in the original Squad. All of the criminals on the squad wore locked explosive bands on an arm during missions; if they strayed too far from the team leader, these would detonate - and they could also be triggered remotely by the team leader. Later models included a electrical stunner to give the team leader a non-lethal option. This bit of Squad lore has unpleasant echoes in the recent news story of the guy who died being forced into robbing a bank with a similar device around his neck. The Squad's book was very Bronze Age/Iron Age in its sensibilities, though without the requisite number of Iron Age hotties in form-fitting thong-bottom jumpsuits (but Nightshade came pretty close... ). The casualty rates were the highest I can remember in a major-company comic, and colossal screwups, inter-team betrayals, and fighting WAY out of their weight class were not uncommon. The Squad's criminal recruits tended to be on the low end of the power scale, as real tough guys could laugh at the Squad's armbands, and also tended not to be caught in the first place. Besides, half the rationale for the Squad was to get these guys killed off, and DC seemed to have a nigh-endless supply of lame low-powered super-crooks for replacements. The toughest guy ever on the Squad's roster was the Parasite, and of course on the first attempt to use him, they woke him from his suspended animation and he went completely berserk and out of control. Firestorm wound up having to take him down, and the Squad barely managed to cover up its own role in the whole affair. Another favorite Squad moment involves Batman. Concerned about the number of people he's put away who are back on the streets somehow (through Squad pardons), he uses his mad detective skillz to discover the Squad's headquarters (Belle Reeve Prison, Terrebonne Parish, LA). Bats infiltrates the prison, finds out what's going on, gets past Squad members who try to stop him (including his old buddy Deadshot), and confronts Waller in her office, going into full Bat-intimidation mode and telling her he's going to blow the whistle on the whole operation. Waller just looks him straight in the eye, tells him she's been monitoring his progress through the prison, and points out that his hurried infiltration and confrontations with Squad members have almost certainly left behind enough evidence for her to be able to discover his secret identity. She basically says, you tell our secrets, and we'll tell yours, and she actually backs Bats down. Not a feat to which many can lay claim... The Squad's book folded many years ago, and it's been a while since I've bought a comic, but I hear Waller's got a high post under Prez Luthor, dealing with supers for the goverment again. Not a bad comeback for someone who did some time, in a Liddy/North kind of way, when the Squad finally was exposed and the political hearings began. Hope this helps!

Hello, Yeah, I remember this one. French-accented lady with a greenish robe-like costume similar to that of the actual Statue of Liberty, complete with a torch that focused her energy powers. The Force went down fighting in an issue of one of my favorite old DC titles, Suicide Squad. Two Force teammates are murdered by less-than-sane Squad members, but the remainder of the Force teams up with the Squad for a strike at the enemy who maneuvered the two groups into conflict, Kobra and his minions. The mission takes them to Kobra's orbiting base, where the Force's laconic Duplicator, Silent Majority, is taken out assaulting Kobra's master-villain über-weapon. In the coolest Duplication scene I've yet seen in the comics, his Duplicates are being shot down by Kobra's agents about as fast as he makes them, yet each one comes into being a step closer to his goal...until, finally, his last one is shot before he can Duplicate again, just as he is climbing up to the weapon's control platform. After this, Lady Liberty is able to get close to Kobra's weapon, and, seeing the battle going badly for her side, decides to cut loose with a full-strength blast into the weapon at point-blank range. It blows up, killing her but foiling Kobra's plot of destruction. This leaves Major Victory, the Force's leader, its last surviving member. Man, did I dig the Squad. A much better solution to the storage-closet-full-of-ridiculous-weak-villains issue than Marvel was to take later with Scourge. And Amanda Waller has got to be one of the coolest non-powered characters ever to appear in a major-company superhero universe.

Hi again, Still toying with some vehicle weaponry ideas. I'm considering making vehicles with "hardpoints" that can mount various combinations of weapons, sensors, and other packages. A Multipower, with slots representing the different items that can be mounted on the hardpoints, would seem the obvious choice for such a construct. But Multipowers can be switched instantaneously, while the hardpoint items should only be switchable by support crews back at the vehicle's base. So, my questions are: Is the Variable Power Pool Limitation "Powers Can be Changed only in Given Circumstances" appropriate for Multipowers? If it is, should it be taken on the Slot costs, the Reserve cost, or both? (I'm asking this mainly because of the answer in the FAQ that states that, sometimes, a Limitation can be applied to a Multipower Reserve without being taken for all, or even any, of the Slots. It's a similar case actually - the example given there is Extra Time to change Slots.) And finally, should the actual values of the Limitation be the same as those for a VPP that changes under the same circumstances, even though the Disadvantage is more limiting for a Multipower (which can, by default, be changed at Zero-Phase speed without a Skill Roll)? Thanks again!

Hello again, Well, some linkage between warfare and resource acquisition is hardly a surprise. Clausewitz himself stated that war is the continuation of politics by other means, and politicians have meddled in economies for about as long as there have been politicians. But I'm far from alone in suspecting that the less quantifiable psychological considerations play a much larger part that they are commonly given credit for, especially by rationally-inclined scientists of the sort who produce research studies. No better relatively-recent example of this than the Falklands War - expenditure on both sides far in excess of anything the islands could possibly bring to either for many, many a year. Even the farthest fringe of conspiracy-theorists have had a tough time trying to conjure up materialistic rationales for that one, weak mutterings about potential North Sea-like oil fields around the Falklands being about the best they can come up with. The eternal dilemma - given his philosophies and goals, conflict with Destroyer is inevitable. You can fight it now, or fight it later. If fighting it now were to Destroyer's advantage, you'd be fighting it now, because he'd be attacking you. Therefore, striking as soon as possible, as hard as possible, is at the least an option to be deeply considered. You almost always have a better chance in a fight if you get in a good first shot. You could outwait the communists - they thought all they had to do was survive, and "inevitable historical forces" would drop victory into their lap. Destroyer is unlikely to harbor such delusions. If you don't have technology on your side, and you can't match Destroyer's tactical brilliance, the war of attrition is your last real option, and such attrition is best started as soon as possible. For all his technology, can Destroyer really match the industrial output and human resources of the last world superpower and any allies it can muster (and, again, if he can, why is he bothering with the Third World and diplomacy)? If he upgrades his systems, he may kill 5, 10, 20 tanks for every Black Talon you take out. But can he afford to lose that one Black Talon as much as you can afford to lose the twenty tanks? The US Military is well versed in this sort of strategy. It's how they beat the Confederacy, it's how they and the Russians beat Hitler. It's bloody and costly, but I have little doubt they'd resort to it again if they thought it their only hope of victory. As for Destroyer's weapons of mass destruction - well, he's not the only one on the block with them, either. The US has used them before, on an enemy already on the ropes, an enemy with inferior technology who apparently presented far less of a real threat at that point than Destroyer with his shiny high-tech toys. Even if Destroyer can supposedly protect himself to some degree, how many of his new-found allies will stay at his side with stakes like those pushed onto the table? Hussein and bin Laden are not confirmed to be dead. But neither, personally, is likely to be showing his face in public, or ordering up wars, heavy weapons, or major terrorist operations. You don't have to find a ruler to cut his links to his forces in the field, which are not so easily hidden. If Destroyer can be put in a similar position, it will probably suffice for the purposes of those opposed to him. It would, of course be better to have his threat removed once and for all, but if he does escape back into hiding - well, he wasn't doing much to anyone for the last ten years he was hidden, was he? Robot duplicates can be a two-edged sword. It shouldn't be too hard for anyone to build a robot that looks like Doctor Destroyer. If you have conditioned subordinates to obey robots that look like you, how much havoc could be caused by an enemy capable of building such robots? If such robots incinerated anyone with the effrontery to question the will of Destroyer by asking for a password or other identity confirmation, would this harm or help their subterfuge? Besides, Hussein and bin Laden seem much more practical and subtle than Destroyer. They are well aware that there are forces in the world more powerful than they. I'm not so sure the same can be said of Destroyer. And they don't have the personal hatred of the world's most powerful psionic. Again, this I could probably see Destroyer doing. Finding new leaders, and setting them up in positions explicitly subordinate to his own, the way Gigaton and Rakshasa are explicitly subordinate to him. He might even intimidate existing leaders into accepting such positions. But this explicit subordination to the world's most dangerous criminal would seem to throw away any of the diplomatic benefits you are apparently looking for with this UN thing. And it could conceivably even increase his odds of being attacked - "Let's see, we'd have been happy to attack Destroyer before to pay back the harm he's already caused us, and keep him from doing worse in the future. Now, we can pay him back AND have an excuse to install friendly governments in Third World nations filled with natural resources we need - those with the taint of collaboration with Destroyer must be removed, after all. And if we don't attack him now, we give him time to exploit the resources of all these nations, which will better his position against us even further." Well, don't worry, you're not alone here, because as far as I know, Warlord made his debut in the current Champions Universe, and was not in previous editions (though my own knowledge of 4th is admittedly scanty). He seems to take the general campaign role of the old Professor Muerte - a character similar to Destroyer, but powered down enough that a party still under starting Active Point or Damage Class limitations has a chance to take him. And he's been given a background and personality seemingly calculated to endear him to old wargamers like myself. You do certainly have a point about Destroyer having a lot of enemies - Gravitar has supposedly talked some smurf about him, too, Firewing might relish a few rounds with the "top of the Omega list", and money talks with a mercenary like the Warlord. Powerful potential allies all! From my reading of him, Warlord wants to be a world-conqueror, and cares much less about being a world-ruler. He wants to go down in history next to Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon. I could see him making actual deals with people, settling for total command of a coalition of Third World militaries (stiffened by his own elite troopers), and leaving real power over domestic and economic affairs (beyond what is necessary to support his armies) in the hands of current rulers, including the real power base of a domestic secret police. And I could see many of these rulers accepting such deals, as their own power would grow when the Warlord turned conquered areas over to them for administration while he moved on to the next conquest. Destroyer seems the sort to take all power for himself, the sort to be reluctant to leave his "partners" even the appearance of any actual decision-making authority. On the downside, Warlord is far less powerful than Destroyer, and a far newer player in the world-threatening super-villain game. This, though, is all the more reason for him to cut real deals with current leaders. I can also tell you what my response would be were I a player in your campaign who was faced with the offer of working with VIPER, EUROSTAR, or other villains against Destroyer: I'd take the offer in a heartbeat. An altruistic character would see it as a chance to give villains an opportunity at redemption, while if I were playing a more cynical type, I'd hold the view that, if people have to die fighting Destroyer, at many of them as possible should be lowlife scum like VIPER goons or Fiacho and his cronies. I would, of course, always have an eye open for potential treachery from such "allies". I suspect, from my responses, that you'd have guessed I'd take this stance, though. Polaris, I do hope this discussion is helping you with your ideas. I'm making a lot of assumptions about conditions that haven't really been explicitly stated (you're using current-timeline CU; Destroyer is as pompous and as arrogant as in CKC, or even more so; US and world political leadership in your campaign at least roughly corresponding to those in the real world, campaign moral tone tending towards "shades of gray", and so forth). At the least, I hope I'm helping you get your thoughts tuned up to drop this concept into a campaign with a maximum of plausibility and a good fit into your play style. At any rate, it's been a fun discussion from this end, so far! And good luck with the campaign, no matter which decisions you wind up making!

Hi again, Nation-states have always held that other nation-states have the right to do these things in time of war, following certain rules, and in their own defense or in other prescribed circumstances. None has ever acknowledged that private citizens, working under no color of national authority, have any right to do so. Such persons have always been regarded, at most, as bandit chieftains. If Destroyer could have submerged his ego for long enough to pretend to be the champion of some "oppressed people", he could probably have garnered a fair bit of support. In a sense, that's exactly what this UN gambit of yours is. If you're setting things in standard "current-day" CU, though, it would already seem far too late for that. He has too much blood on his hands for less "altruistic" reasons, and they know him too well already to fall for such an act. I'm sure he'll be guarded at least as well as Lee Harvey Oswald was... I have no doubt that Third World rulers would happily accept economic assistance and any other assistance Destroyer would offer them. I have huge doubts that they would bargain away their actual power to get such assistance, though. Thank you ! But the question I have in mind is, would they really BE "atop their societies" if Destroyer is the one giving the real orders? I don't think they would be, and I don't think they would think they would be, either. They would go from enjoying both the trappings and the actuality of power, to just having the trappings (at most), and I'm sure they'd know it. And without the power, you only keep the trappings at the whim of whoever does have the power; I'm sure they'd know this too, and it wouldn't please them. The US isn't ruling any nations except ones that they've outright conquered, and they certainly seem leery about staying in even those for long enough to give a reasonable expectation of long-term stability. Yes, nations cozy up to superpower sugar-daddys. That's a far cry from letting them take over. The US can't even get their clients the Saudis to openly allow Christian chaplains on US bases on Saudi soil. Do you think that is the level of control Destroyer will be satisfied with, the level that will let him carry out his grandiose plans? Only two strategic opponents of the US have had nuclear weapons capability before the North Koreans: the Soviet Union and China. Neither is a nation that the US has any chance at all of conquering in open war, whether they have WMD or not. Yet even these two nations have been placed under various none-too-subtle diplomatic and political pressures from the US. For North Korea to presume that a few nukes, for which they have no delivery systems that can threaten the continental US, would put them in the same league as Russia or China is pure idiocy (which is not to say they don't presume exactly that). Exactly, now this I could believe. Destroyer murdering Third World leaders and taking over their countries. What I have more trouble buying is the idea that he would bother giving them an alternative (especially one involving nominal equality or near-equality with him), or bother with the whole diplomatic rigamarole. I have a very hard time seeing that any internal economic policy short of outright thievery (uncompensated "nationalization") or the breaking of international treaties would result in war. The UN intervention in the Congo in the early '60s had more to do with mutinies, coups, secessions, and rebellions than diamonds. And if Destroyer really does already have a retaliatory capability massive enough to deter the US, why is he even bothering with diplomacy and Third World nations? 300 points is higher than the Low-Powered Superheroic range. But these troops are not going to be superheroes, they are going to be agents with above-average agent equipment. SPD in the 3-4 range, defenses 9-15, with about half of that Resistant. And real-world militaries are hardly ill-equipped themselves. A single automatic grenade launcher, of the sort mounted on every US Marine amtrac, as well as many other vehicles, runs about 120 Active Points. Destroyer's Black Talons, with PD and ED 18, will stand up about as well as a real tank to a TOW missile (6d6 RKA AP, for about 12 BODY per hit to a Black Talon). Destroyer's toys may be superior individually, but so were German tanks and equipment in World War II. And I don't doubt that any forces opposed to Destroyer will have superhuman assistance of their own. Not necessarily "heroic" assistance, either; you yourself pointed out the willingness of governments to work with lowlifes at least temporarily in their own interest, and you also pointed out the opposition of VIPER and EUROSTAR to Destroyer... Brings to mind one of my favorite old comics, DC's Suicide Squad. They are not fighting conscripts, or any other soldiers; they are fighting terrorist cells. The troops are not there to fight a war - which they've already done, and very quickly - they are there to hunt down particular individuals, and keep Iraq intact until its own army can be rebuilt from a tool of the previous regime into something resembling a professional, apolitical force. They are not staying several years because they might suddenly lose the capital to enemy forces, they are staying because they expect it will take that long for the terrorists - who, hidden as they are among the civilian population, have the initiative - to launch enough attacks to deplete themselves into ineffectiveness. WIth a bit of luck, they'll get enough good intel to finish off the terrs quickly and get home before the worst-case dates that drive planning. If the US Military were fool enough to concentrate on the peasant armies, that might be true. But they wouldn't. In your scenario, Destroyer himself is the true threat, and it is against him any real thrust would be directed. Control of governments has long been determined by political and military means. When those governments are in power, they either follow economic laws, or eventually implode on their own, without any need for external military action, usually wrecking the nation's economy in the process. War would be fought with Destroyer, it would just have approximately zero to do with the price of diamonds, and everything to do with the man's previous actions. While there are those, arguing both for and against wars, who like to grossly oversimplify the actual reasons behind them, I don't think it can be truly said that any modern war was fought, in large measure, over the price of any commodity. Those started by democracies are typically fought to take dangerous men out of power, before they become even more dangerous, more powerful, and more of a threat. And the dangers these men represent are not generally economic in nature, but military. The memory of capitulation at the Rhineland, the Saar, and the Sudetenland, and the price paid for it, drives a lot of the thinking behind war in the West today. I have no doubt that there are many in Third World lands living in truly appalling conditions. Most such unfortunates live in lands torn by war and rebellion. In more peaceful times, they may, it is true, be poor. But there is still a serious difference between someone who is as poor as a slave, and someone who is a slave. And in any case it is not "the people" Destroyer is dealing with, it is their rulers - unless you mean to have him leading popular rebellions. What I mean is, pardon my language, these people don't take crap from anyone. To me, this is, in general, an admirable trait. But it does fuel a lot of the violence that plagues the Third World today (and not just the Third World - see Ireland). And if they won't take it from their neighbors, why should they take it from a megalomaniacal white imperialist like Destroyer? Because he will kill them otherwise? That I could see, sometimes - but Third Worlders have their pride, too, and are no more cowardly than anyone else. Because he is sweet-talking them? I can hardly see this of either Destroyer or the Third Worlders. Because they're living better? Rating matters of pocketbook higher than matters of pride and honor is a thing for the decadent West, not proud emerging civilizations - if they were willing to do this, many of them would probably have been living better already without Destroyer's arrival. Again, if Destroyer can really retaliate massively against First World nations, why does he need Third World puppets? And the US didn't intervene before because there was nothing and no one they cared about there. If Destroyer (or, in the real world, Osama Bin Laden) were to turn up in the middle of an otherwise identical massacre today, I can about assure you the US would be there in some fashion or other. It would be a fool's game for lesser mortals. The intellect and will of Destroyer are not bound by such petty limitations! The Earth and its dimension are but the first step - if a slow-witted and tender-hearted alien such as Istvatha V'han can forge an interdimensional empire, what is to stop one with the matchless cunning and ruthless will of Destroyer from bettering it? This is in large measure true, with one caveat - a proud nationalism often fires the hearts of Third World peoples, and oppressions they might accept from a fellow-countryman trying to make his land a regional or world power, could be viewed quite differently when coming at the hand of a foreign ruler. This would indeed be one reason for Destroyer to work with local puppets, but the big question is, would his ego acknowledge this? I have my doubts. "Dependence" on natural resources is always a temporary state of affairs. The minute the resource becomes too scarce or expensive, alternatives become profitable, and people with an eye for those profits will be there ready to rake in the money. Short-term "supply shocks" are the most that can really be accomplished by manipulating the supplies of a given resource; these can cause chaos and political changes, and bring in some cash for those controlling the supply, but they'll hardly lead to mastery of the world. By the way, a lot of my real objections, as I have noted, have to do with Destroyer and his egomania. Jeff's idea of replacing him with the Warlord has a lot of merit to me, in that respect. The Warlord seems a soldier at heart - I suspect he'd be happy as the chief conquering general of a world-ruler, not needing to take the trappings of leadership or the burdens of administering conquered teritory himself. The Warlord has also killed a lot of superheroes, but presumably much of his killing was done as a "legitimate" mercenary, in the service of recognized (if disliked) rulers, or even arguably in self-defense, protecting at least quasi-legal arms transfers (his business, after all) with unpopular international leaders. A lot of Germans didn't particularly care to be "liberated" from Hitler, especially by the Soviets. Many of their lives were a lot better under him than they were under Weimar fecklessness, the Depression, hyperinflation, and reparations to France and England. The view of many was that he was leading them to a truly independent destiny so glorious that jealous capitalist and communist alike ganged up on Germany to prevent it. But Hitler was not attacked for what he was doing to Germans, he was attacked for what he was doing to foreigners. The Germans got their "liberation" anyway, whether it improved or worsened their lives.

Hello, The man is wanted by UNTIL. He has destroyed a city, sunk warships of at least one UN member nation (and permanent Security Council member), and killed more superheroes than anyone else alive. He has not even the pretense of being a "spokesman for an oppressed people", or indeed any other expressed political agenda besides his own aggrandizement. He has ties to Hitler and the Third Reich. Menton, who probably has more than one of these people under his control, hates him. What makes you think anybody's "sponsorship" would make the slightest bit of difference in how Destroyer was handled, even assuming he could find someone willing to take the massive diplomatic and political risks of "sponsoring" him. Saddam Hussein, who destroyed no cities, was taken down despite being a recognized national leader with First World nations and long-time US allies running interference for him in the UN. And that's just governments. Superhuman vigilantes who have had friends murdered by Destroyer and his cronies will, I suspect, have much less concern for the diplomatic niceties than any foreign ministry. Just which nations would these be? Nations sunk in chronic "economic plight" tend to be doctrinaire communist or socialist regimes, or lands torn with tribal or ethnic violence, or comprehensively corrupt dictatorships and oligarchies. Most rulers of such nations care little about "economic plight", except to the extent that it is a direct threat to their continued rule. Indeed, rulers in the lands wracked with insurrection tend to actively encourage "economic plight" in areas deemed insufficiently loyal to them. Such rulers, whatever other faults they may have, are generally cunning and ruthless veterans of vicious political infighting, often in places where the also-rans can count themselves lucky just to get something akin to the quick death Leon Trotsky got. And these are the guys who are going to roll over at the promise of some technological aid, or a few million more in the old Cayman Islands accounts, from a bombastic German octogenarian in a tin suit? As to "intimidation", which regimes do you think believe they will get less intimidation from the US by sucking up to a guy like Destroyer? So these hardened maximum-leaders-for-life are going to "protect" their power by, de facto, turning it over to Destroyer? All in return for a luxurious lifestyle, which most of them (unlike Rakshasa) have already? And the other half of Rakshasa's deal is, "or I'll kill you." Is Destroyer going to threaten all these Third World leaders with outright murder? What will THAT do to his diplomatic status? These nations apparently found such policies unacceptable even when ruled by one of their own. Why do you think they will suddenly become acceptable under rule from an outsider like Destroyer? Or will he force these policies on "his" people? He couldn't deter an attack on Destruga, which was packed to the brim with his vaunted technology. How is he going to defend an actual nation (or several, possibly non-contiguous), with borders the size of a real nation's? And Destroyer's army of 20,000 troops is chump change in the real war business. It's one division. Sufficient, under modern calculations, to defend perhaps ten kilometers of front line against a determined attack by a competent foe, if its flanks were secure - and that only for long enough to let reserves mount a counterattack. Destroyer could perhaps use the peasant conscript armies of the former rulers of his lands for static defensive work, and keep his own troops as a reserve. But Third World conscript armies barely rate as speed bumps before a large, modern, mobile combined-arms force. There are small nations and cartels of nations with near-monopolies on certain exotic minerals with industrial uses. But the forces setting the prices of those items are economic forces, not military forces. The Congo can demand any price for diamonds they want, and if their customers don't like it, then those who are supplying the other 30% of the diamonds will see nice increases in their orders, and their mines, shafts, and synthetic diamond production processes that would have been unprofitable at lower volume will now make them the beneficiaries of Congo's avarice. As for politics, could there be any idea LESS communist than exploiting your monopoly on a natural resource to raise prices obscenely? When communist regimes are attacked, from within or without, it is because the attackers loathe the ideas and methods, and frequently the personalities, of communism, not for specific price breaks on specific items. The idea of launching a war over a few percentage points difference in the price of diamonds is so absurd as to be laughable (which, admittedly, would probably get it approved as a major story arc in a Denny O'Neill book). "Virtual slavery"? Yeah, Mobutu, Kanunda, and Mugabe (to name just three) were living in conditions comparable to those of Mississippi field hands circa 1859 - NOT. And the fact that many of these peoples won't put up with "strong leadership" from outsiders, even ones of the same skin color, is the cause of much of the trouble in many of these nations today. How does Destroyer plan to deal with that? The same way his old buddy Hitler did in the Balkans, by picking a local ally and giving him weapons and a free hand to massacre his opponents wholesale? If intervening in such a Rwanda-like situation would have given the US an opportunity to grab an enemy who had done them as much harm as Destroyer has, I could about guarantee they'd have intervened. The entire scenario just seems thoroughly un-Destroyer-like. I could see him conquering Third World countries. I could see Third World countries offering to work with him, exchanging his technology for diplomatic cover and bases. But I can't see Destroyer haggling with anybody, even in bad faith - to bargain with someone acknowledges near-equality, which Destroyer would almost never do, and certainly not with people he would view as tinhorn dictators of backwards low-rent nations. I can't see him caring much about diplomacy or whether others like him. And I can't see the rulers taking "deals" that would cost them their actual power over the nations they rule, no matter what they were promised, 60 PRE or not, unless they were actually threatened with immediate death - and maybe not even then. I seem to remember this; this would have been to retake Latveria after Doom's contingency heir, Kristoff, took over after Doom's apparent death at the hands of Terrax and the Silver Surfer. Kristoff's mind was "imprinted" with Doom's personality and intellect, making him a formidable opponent. I also seem to remember, vaguely, a graphic novel in which Doom succeeds in taking over the world, using a device that amplified the Purple Man's mind control powers. If I remember rightly, his rule was overthrown by a few people immune to the control, including Ultron (a robot), and possibly Wonder Man (ionic energy body), and at least one other - maybe Namor? This graphic novel might also bear some relevance to the discussion; does anyone else remember any more of the details?

Hi again, Thanks for the kind words, Herolover. Picking names is usually a tough part of character creation for me as well, and it's especially important in superhero RPG's, where you want something that makes a cool, concise statment, and can't just take a decent-sounding name of vaguely Celtic, Saxon, or Latin extraction. These, though, popped into mind one after another, much faster than I usually manage such things. Kind of surprised me, actually. Of the other names I see here, I have to say I think Doug McCrae's "Dark Matter" is way cool, too, with its cosmological overtones. Creating any substance apparently from nothing is bound to have some interesting deep physics implications, right? Yes, this sounds entirely reasonable. Both sound like they could be nicknames, either cruel or affectionate, picked up from fellow adolescent teammates or classmates; there's a very New Mutants or Generation X feel to both of them. They're not really the sort of things most teens would pick on their own, nor are they the sort that would likely be assigned as code-names by a Professor X or White Queen adult leader-type. I considered this for a bit as well, but decided to mention it anyway. It's supposedly not really any of the main content of the Uncle Remus stories or the characters people object to, so much as the thick stereotypical accents (implying ignorance), and the absurdly romanticized portrayal of slavery and its conditions. Neither really applies to a simple name in plain English, of course, and folk tales in general are universal and transcend race and culture. Heh heh heh...for those who don't think "Tar Baby" would stir up a big enough racial hornet's nest...why not have everyone of Mexican or Italian heritage in the neighborhood throwing rocks at the poor guy as he passes on the street... This actually gets a lot of cool points in my book, though not for reasons a stereotypical jock would know about. The Inklings were an informal circle of writers at Oxford in the early-to-mid 20th century, and included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - double the geek cool, double the fun... These could actually work out pretty well if the GM is a Troma Films or Evil Dead fan and is mixing that style of over-the-top comedy into the campaign.

Hello, Another potential reason to want to change the name is that Stormfront is also the name of one of the more famous real-world white-supremacist Web sites. When I first saw Stormfront's name in CKC, I wondered if he'd be a Red Skull-type. One hates to lose the use of cool names and symbols just because they've been co-opted by wrong-headed people, but letting such a name distract or confuse during game play isn't a great alternative, either. A brilliant GM might be able to exploit such coincidences for memorable gaming, without offending anyone, but I'd be leery of trying it with my own less-than-mad GMing skillz... The original Mizia article? A treasure indeed. You know a gaming mag's a vintage item when there's a TFT article in it... And the Autoduel Champions reference makes me wonder: does Mr. Allston still wear the "I am not the Champions Guru" T-shirt now that he's the actual credited author of Champions?

Hello, Well, the substance seems to bear some superficial resemblance to tar, which would be a usable name for it, though it is of course not necessarily any closer in composition to real tar than coconut "milk" is to real milk. This would in turn suggest "Tar Baby" as a character name, referring both to the famous Sticky Entangler of the folk tale, and to your character's teen-aged youth. It doesn't seem the sort of thing a stereotypical insecure teen might call himself, though, so such a name would likely have been bestowed by a flippant witness or reporter. Or, he could just have a well-developed self-deprecating sense of humor. The substance is also a liquid (at least sometimes), liquids carry waves, and "Dark Wave" (or perhaps some variant thereof) does sound like the kind of thing a stereotypical insecure teen might call himself. Returning to the tar theme for a moment, teenagers also sometimes get the idea that drug references are cool, and "Black Tar" is a nickname for a variety of heroin, as well as a workable description of your character's substance. Perhaps he listens to a lot of Nirvana... If you're looking for a quasi-scientific name, tenebroplasm is semi-passable Latin for "dark (or shadowy) moldable substance". Perhaps something could be done with that... Incidentally, there was a character in Mark Gruenwald's excellent Squadron Supreme limited series with a somewhat similar power (though apparently not as versatile as your character); his name was Quagmire. Anyway, even if you don't pick one of them, I hope these suggestions have at least helped kick the old idea machine up into gear!

Hello, I've been playing around with designs for vehicle weaponry lately, and I thought an automatic grenade launcher might be nice. Taking a look at the Autofire Advantage, I noticed that Powers with the Area of Effect Advantage are on the list of Powers that require an extra +1 cost for Autofire. Explosion is not on the (explicitly incomplete) list, but is targeted on a hex location in the same manner as Area of Effect, which would seem to make it a power that "does not require a normal Attack Roll". So, as a default rule, does Autofire cost an extra +1 when bought for a power with Explosion?

Hello, As far as question 1 goes, there's a bit of a problem. Fascist ideology in general is closely tied to nationalism, and your expatriate Nazis will be foreigners anywhere but Germany - arguably, even there, since many are other-worldly "aliens". This would tend to encourage behind-the-scenes action, with your Nazis propping up a local dictatorship somewhere as "powers behind the throne", much as Der Spinne/ODESSA did for its favored South American regimes. With superhumans and perhaps some Nazi super-tech, your Nazis could enjoy much more actual power than ODESSA did, and hold de facto rulership through a local puppet, rather than simply aiding like-minded rulers to spite ideological opponents. Your actual choice of nations is perhaps broader than you might think. A small but organized and ruthless faction, especially with superhuman assistance, could plausibly seize control during the chaos of popular revolution in any country. The Jacobins, the Bolsheviks, and the Nazis themselves all came to power in a very similar manner. The nation of choice need not be large to enjoy immunity and other diplomatic perks, and small island nations like the Comoros and the Seychelles have seen coups and power seizures by foreign mercenaries even as recently as the 1980s. Here's one suggestion that I've not seen anyone offer yet: Iran. It's larger even than Madagascar, the population is of "Aryan" racial stock, it has valuable natural resources (oil), a strategic position in the Middle East, a disdain for Jews, a distrust of both captialism and communism, a previous nationalistic government with powerful secret police and other quasi-fascist characteristics, minimal presence of intelligence services of major nations likely to meddle in events, a non-trivial scientific and industrial capability, and it currently has an oppressive government on the brink of total collapse. A change of government there would be welcome enough to many regional and world powers that, with a bit of discretion, your Nazis could plausibly avoid interference in their plans until they were solidly entrenched there. Question 2 is much simpler. Keeping a giant bureaucracy like the U. N. from acting is like keeping water from flowing uphill. And it's a buyer's market for permanent-member Security Council vetos. Heck, sometimes even the most heinous dictators have chances to get them dirt-cheap, if the vetoing power can back-stab a perceived rival in a manner that will improve its domestic political situation. Even overt Nazism might conceivably be ignored, given the praise for Hitler that pops up from time to time in certain government-controlled Arab media outlets, and is routinely ignored by major Western media. As to the other issues that have been examined: The "Fascism - 14 Characteristics" article was highly amusing. 13 of the 14 characteristics applied strongly to the old Soviet Union, which would presumably make it about 93% Fascist. Nationalism (of the sort that would call the greatest conflict in human history the "Great Patriotic War" for Holy Mother Russia, and suppress the languages and cultures of its subject states), disdain for human rights, scapegoats (the bourgeoisie, kulaks, counter-revolutionaries), military priority (20%-25% of GDP, vs. 8%-10% for U. S. and 3%-5% for Western Europe, shown off in all its glory every May Day in Red Square), sexism (regular preaching against abortion, "strict regime" camps for homosexuals), controlled media, national security paranoia, government-controlled religion, suppression of labor (Solidarnösc!), all-encompassing censorship in academia and the arts, harsh punishments for crimes and nigh-unlimited police power, cronyism, and bogus elections all had their place in Soviet Russia and its satellites. Lord Liaden's "Aryan homeland" concept seems interesting but unlikely. Even established nations with freely elected leaders that skirt the edges of similar principles have gotten the diplomatic backhand (see Austria). I'd find it hard to believe a new, upstart nation could succeed with such a policy. South Africa seems like a possibility, but a long shot. As Lord Liaden implied, the current South African regime is the darling of leftist politicians the world over. Still, apartheid SA does have historical ties to France, which could run interference for it in the UN, and who knows if all its nuclear weapons were really destroyed... Switzerland is an intriguing case, but also seems like a long shot, even with the ill will some Jews have recently stirred up there by suing for recovery of money and other treasures stolen by Nazis and deposited in Switzerland. Swiss neutrality and pragmatism and Nazi idealistic fanaticism seem too much at odds to mix well. Trebuchet, murdoch: you seem like sharp and well-educated folks. So I must say I'm a bit surprised to see you bothering to argue with those who believe that "there is only one Socialism and Marx is its prophet". The things which distinguish the broad outlines of socialism to a normal person - the command economy, the mix of egalitarian rhetoric with "vanguard of the revolution" elitism, the vast contempt for the middle class and its materialistic "bourgeois" values, the substitution of some form of "social conscience" for true conscience - are hopelessly simplistic to those immersed in progressivist Newspeak. Orwell's vision of a totalitarian future was a boot stomping on a human face, forever; to some, though, it's apparently not totalitarian if the boots are nice soft felt valenki rather than nasty hard leather jackboots. Such people do occasionally change their minds, but it seldom happens until the unpleasant truths of socialism in practice become undeniably blatant - which usually only occurs when one of their personal sacred cows is gored. But, I suppose, hope springs eternal... The comment about German business leaders being allied with the Nazis was particularly laughable. By those standards, American businesses are strong allies of the IRS (just look at all the money they give it!), just because a few of them think they can manipulate the tax code to their advantage against their competitors. The employment discussion was also chuckle-worthy - how hard can it be to have 100% employment when a regime can order everyone to work, at jobs of its choice, and fling those who refuse into prison for "parasitism"? The worker's-eye view of the situation was the classic Soviet proletarian's comment: "we pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us." Anyway, hope this helps!

Hello, Just caught the show earlier tonight. My overall impression: adequately done. Skewed a bit towards DC and its icons, though not unjustifiably so given their wide recognition among even non-fans. Some of the analysis seemed on the weak side. My gut reaction: Denny O'Neil lives, breathes, and gives interviews while Mark Gruenwald lies cold in his grave. There is truly no justice in the world. Hmm, the Champions genre book regards her death as the end of the Silver Age and the beginning of the Bronze, but does point out that there's plenty of room for different interpretations of the comic "ages". In any case, it's clearly an important event. What about him? I always did get kind of a kick out of stories of psycho fans coming up to him at conventions and going off. "You killed Phoenix! Murderer!" The X-titles were at their peak when he was at the helm, and he deserves a lot of credit for that alone. From the heavier stuff like the Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, to lighter fare like Kitty's Fairy Tale, the quality was generally amazing. It didn't really start to slip until about the time the Marauders showed up, and some titles, like Excalibur, stayed excellent long after even that. I remember seeing a rumor to the effect that many of the character changes that went on at Marvel later in Shooter's tenure (Spidey's black costume, Rhodey instead of Stark as Iron Man, USAgent takes over for Captain America, etc.) were the result of a threatened lawsuit by one of Stan Lee's early partners (I think it was Kirby), for royalties on characters he co-created. Some of these changes were handled well, others less so, and Shooter seems to have done about as well as could be expected in overseeing the Marvel lineup during his tenure. In any case, most of the characters went more or less "back to normal" once the threat of the lawsuit evaporated. The worst thing to happen during Shooter's reign was probably the Secret Wars. It was rushed out with ridiculous haste to beat Crisis on Infinite Earths to the shelves, plotting used a blatant all-powerful deus ex machina (the Beyonder) who would have seemed trite even in the Silver Age, and it started the trend of yearly universe-wide crossover stories that required you to pick up issues of titles you didn't collect if you wanted to get the complete picture of what was going on. Not to say the series didn't have its moments, but overall, it was just weak. One policy I thoroughly hate I first saw in action during his tenure, though I doubt it either originated or ended with him. It is the policy of taking a writer who has brought a title to new heights of brilliance, assigning him to a weak-selling title in hopes of boosting its sales, handing his previous excellent title off to talentless hacks while hoping its sales will stay high on sheer reputation, and letting said hacks utterly ruin the title. Post-Byrne Alpha Flight and post-Simonson Thor are the books that most stick in my craw here, though the post-Claremont X-titles have had their nadirs as well.

Hello, Whoops, good catch, there. He did indeed first appear in one of Spider-Man's books. I tend to forget that, probably out of pure dislike for Daredevil. I've mentioned before that Istvatha V'han reminds me in many ways of Lilandra of the Shi'ar (with perhaps a dash of Ming the Merciless), and a corps of superbeings in her service would nigh-inevitably draw comparisons to the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, at least from me. Well, I think his write-up does say to treat him more or less like a "master villain", giving him Vehicles, Bases, and so forth as needed for his plots. And as for getting away from combat, he does have 6 dice (!) of Luck...

Hello, Hmm, seems I'm getting into this thread a bit late, but, Here is the real answer to your question: Massive, politically influenced weapons-procurement bureaucracy. If you look at some of the fiascos that have gone on in American weapons procurement, you'll think it a wonder that the United States has any weapons at all. Look at the fairly recent Advanced Combat Rifle project, an attempt at finding a replacement for the aging M-16 series of rifles (which has a ridiculous and convoluted development and procurement history of its own). Even caseless ammunition - heck, even plastic-cased ammunition - is too radical for the bureaucracies. Do you really think they'd go for something as sci-fi as beam weapons, especially since they're not really much more effective than current weapons (2d6 Killing Damage, with Autofire, for a $500 M-16, vs. 10d6 Normal for a VIPER blast rifle)? Even the "high-tech" new OICW (an over-complex, overpriced, overweight pipe dream, in my opinion) is an ordinary .223 assault rifle with a whiz-bang grenade launcher stuck on top of it. And then there's the political side of it. The trials that selected the U. S. military's new 9mm pistol dragged on years longer than necessary because one designer had political clout, while the trial winner, a foreign design, didn't. Re-tests were ordered again and again, in the hope of exposing some flaw in the foreign design. Only when it became undeniably obvious to all that the American design was inferior was the foreign design adopted as the M9. These struggles only become fiercer as the items procured rise in price. The MBT-70 tank with its advanced Shillelagh gun/missile system, the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, various mobile ICBM projects, the A-12 carrier-borne stealth attack fighter, and most recently the Crusader artillery system - all had lots of technological potential, but not enough political pull. There are constant whisperings that a certain fighter was judged a winner of a fly-off because its manufacturer was located in the state of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, or that certain submarines continue to be built only to preserve shipyard jobs in the state of another influential Senator. Every American competitor for every project has its own patron Congressman or Defense Department official, and, opposed to them all, there are plenty of dovish politicians who think that America already has more than enough weapons, and that these will suffice indefinitely no matter how much the state of the technological art advances beyond them. Other first world countries are just about as bad. See L85 rifle (UK), Stingray lightweight torpedo (UK), Rubis-class submarines (France), Rafale fighter (France), T-64 Tank (Russia), et multiple cetera. These sorts of stories, and MANY others like them, are the sort of thing that make the limited usage of exotic super-tech weapons one of the most believable aspects of superhero universes to me. They probably would. And I'm sure if he went and got one with his own money, he'd probably be allowed to use it on the job. But putting it in the annual Budget Request...well, if we give him one, all the other Silver Avengers will want one. And for procurement on that scale we'll need a Request for Proposals, and trials among those who respond, and...well, you get the idea. Much quicker and easier just to make arrangements with the local cops for rides on their helicopter when you need one. Hope this helps!

Hello, So, there's a General Winter in the SAS Universe, too, eh? The one in Champions Universe was a WW2-era Russian superhuman, first appearing in 1942, but that's about all they say about him. Perhaps the duel should have been between the two of them...winner keeps the name, loser goes to Disputed Copyright Limbo...

Hello, Hmm, can't think of any characters I've seen so far that I outright hate, but there are a few that have annoying aspects to them. Some troublesome ones include - Gravitar - her place as "premiere mutant villain" in CKC will inevitably bring her comparisons to Magneto, and those comparisons will not be flattering (especially after the last X-Men movie ). "Petulant brat with lots and lots and LOTS of raw power" - doth it really a master villain make? Given the nature of her world domination plans, it seems she should at least demand a refund on the points she spent for her INT 25. Takofanes - the "undead" theme seems to belong in a "Tomb of Dracula"-style horror comic, fighting the likes of Blade and Brother Voodoo, but his power level is right up there in the league of Dr. Strange's rogues' gallery. It's a discordant mix to me, and also has a bit more High Fantasy flavor than I care for, especially to be fighting so many non-mystical heroes, as he apparently does. He's usable, but I'd far sooner have seen his CKC slot as "premiere magical villain" go to Tyrannon, Dr. Yin Wu, or even this new Skarn the Shaper. (and am I the only one who thinks his name would look much better if you replaced the "f" with a "ph"?) Anubis - He looks like Anubis, he thinks he's Anubis, he has powers that could be appropriate to Anubis. He's actually Set. Huh? And I know the mask has messed with his head, but he hasn't figured this out? He does have KS: Egyptian Myth & Legend 14-, ya know... Black Paladin - This one's more of an art nitpick, but it still bugs me. He's supposedly from the Arthurian era, around the 5th and 6th Centuries AD, but his armor looks about 900 years ahead of its time. Even his language is a bit disturbing; the Franks had not long been in Gaul by the time of Arthur, and were by no means the only powerful tribe there... Cateran - OK, I can see putting a Highlander-style immortal in the book. But to make her Scottish, too? She might as well walk around with "Blatant Rip-Off!" tattooed on her forehead. Her first appearance would bring play to a screeching halt as my Highlander-fan players laughed her out of the room. And if I were going to lift from Highlander, I'd go for the coolest of the cool, and lift Methos... I also wouldn't have minded seeing an Empyrean in the "immortal" slot, since (unlike winterhawk) I do enjoy the "hidden races" themes. (This is also why I cut Zorran a lot more slack than some others here seem to.) Dr. Silverback - Pure personal preference here; I've just never liked the "intelligent gorilla" schtick; when it's bad, it can be horrible, and even when it's done well, it has a goofy and unoriginal air to it. Still, I admit that it can be done fairly well, and I do like the color art of the Doc in the sidebars here. Well, he's in good company then, because the Punisher is himself a blatant ripoff of the pulp-fiction vigilante "the Executioner", Mack Bolan. Punisher seems to have originally been a caricature created essentially so that the Daredevil writers could preach against lethal, non-Comics Code, Executioner-style vigilanteism. She may be the ruler of hundreds of millions of dimensions, but how many are infinite as this one, and how many are tiny "pocket" dimensions, perhaps devoid of life except for one of her outposts? And she's not the only player in her league. She's Hunted by Tyrannon (who, remember, counts as more powerful than her), and I don't doubt that the large majority of her resources and attention go to defending her current holdings from him, and attacking him where she can. So I have no real problem with her inability to conquer Earth. She also sounds like a good catalyst for a "classic Trek"-style story about how guts, wits, daring, and the indomitable human spirit can overcome aliens with vastly superior resources and technology.

Hello, Here's another one who likes Nebula. As I've said elsewhere, she reminds me of my favorite "New Universe" character, Justice, in the year or so before Marvel utterly ruined the character and the setting. Both are alien elite cops, stranded on Earth far from home and friends, who apply their accustomed standards of justice in their new environment and dispose of baddies at the drop of a hat. And besides, I was a kid in Hawaii in the '70s, so how could I disagree with Kikaida! Welcome to the boards, Jiro! (Ah, the glory days of "KIKU - Nihongo Televidas". Himitsu Sentai Goranger, Kikaida, Kamen Rider, Inazuman, Akumaizer 3, Rainbow Man, Diamond Eye, Ultra 7, Getta Robo G, Raideen...classic sentai and anime by the boatload, subtitled for those of us kids who spoke no Japanese...)

Hello, Ah, the tangled webs of Illumination... Most of the villainous characters and organizations in CU and CKC, even the "master villains", are fairly straightforward criminals in the classic "four-color" style, and seem more suitable as potential pieces on the Secret Masters' Great Game board, than as the Masters themselves. Still, there are some that strike me as having a fair degree of Illuminated potential. In no particular order, we have: VIPER - with ties to Victorian-era secret societies, links with mysterious serpent-cults, and a hidden leadership whose true goals are cloaked in obscurity, VIPER has always seemed to me to be a group with lots of Illuminated possibilities. Their continual struggle for political power by violent means would seem to align them with the master political conspirators, Bavaria. DEMON - arcane secrets that grant great power, multiple levels of initiation steeped in ancient ritual, and an unholy agenda known only to an elite few of the highest leadership would seem to make DEMON the most Illuminated among known CU organizations. Obvious Illuminated affiliations would seem to include the Servants of Cthulhu and the Adepts of Hermes. ARGENT - a technological conspiracy of this magnitude must surely have come to the attention of the Network. Their forays into the arenas of crime and conquest may indicate that they are a Network tool for use against Bavaria. UNTIL - they are an arm of the United Nations, that has been granted unprecedented international power, even in nations such as the United States that have traditionally resisted UN influence. And the UN is, as all students of conspiracy know, the current shaper of the One World Government plot that will bring on the New World Order desired by the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria... PSI - with their potential for subtle manipulation, they would seem to be excellent conspirators. But a closer look shows them to be low-rent gutter sweepings who lucked into power; far too ignorant and limited of vision to operate on an Illuminated scale. Their former mentor, Dr. Sebastian Poe, would seem a much more likely candidate for Illuminati recruitment; perhaps his current ruination is Illuminati punishment for failing with the experiment that has wound up as the current incarnation of PSI... the Lemurians - a remnant offshoot of humanity, remembering true history stretching back to the glory days of Atlantis, living secretly in subterranean fastnesses, and even in their decadence commanding strange and awesome ancient magics like no other. All kinds of potential here for ties to about any of the not-explicitly-technological Illuminati groups. the Atlanteans - similar to the Lemurians, but living underwater instead of underground, and also ideally situated for affiliation with the Bermuda Triangle... Shamballah and Agharti - secret cities hidden past labyrinthine passages and mystical wards that stretch and twist under the mighty Himalayas, locked in a centuries-old mystic struggle fought with sorcerous means towards unknown ends. Geography and apparent philosophy would seem to link Shamballah with Shangri-La; Agharti may have ties with other mystically-oriented Illuminati groups. RSvKg - the occult roots of Nazi prejudices have a prominent place in some conspiracy theories, and the RSvKg seems like a CU analogue to such shadowy real-world organizations as the Thule Gesellschaft, the Germanenorden, and the Ahnenerbe ("Ancestral Research", a branch of the SS). Sure, the Nazis have been out of power for a few decades; that just means that the RSvKg packed into the U-boats and sailed off to the secret Argentine and Antarctic bases with the rest of the Fourth Reich plotters... Alien Races - most of the CU alien races seem much more the Starship Troopers/War of the Worlds type unsubtle alien invaders than the X-Files-ish alien conspirators that would best fit into an Illuminated campaign. The Varanyi, with their psi powers, would seem to have some potential here, but the best fit looks to be the Thane, with sorcerous powers (or simply "sufficiently advanced" technology?) and a reason to stay secretive until they can re-establish themselves. Dr. Yin Wu - here is one who seems truly to have the power, the brains, and the temperament to be a conspiratorial master. But the standard Illuminati groups seem a bit Western in outlook for him, except for Shangri-La which seems too benevolent; something along the lines of the White Lotus Society or the I Ho Chuan ("Boxers") would seem more appropriate for one of his anti-Western sentiments. Menton - with, like PSI, tremendous potential for behind-the-scenes shaping of events, Menton would seem to be an ideal master in a world-threatening conspiracy. But his power and his arrogance are so great that he would neither desire nor need the assistance of any conspiracy beyond those he can create for himself with telepathic compulsions. Mechanon - all but screams "Network! Network!". So much so, in fact, that he may be just a diversion by another Illuminated group... Tyrannon the Conqueror - definitely on the level of a Thing Man was Not Meant to Know, but about as unsubtle as it is possible to get. Still, despite disdaining conquest by means other than raw power, he (or, more likely, his servants) may become involved in conspiracy for reasons relating to his odd code of honor. So, there are a few ideas to play with. Have fun with them! You may also want to take a look at GURPS Cabal, which is written by Kenneth Hite, and steeped in conspiratorial weirdness. It also contains the way-cool GURPS Hermetic Magic rules, a development of the standard GURPS magic system. This sounds like a film version of Lost Horizon, the novel in which Shangri-La first appeared. Hope this helps!

Hi again, Would indirect-fire artillery require any level of the "Indirect" Advantage? (Been kicking around some ideas with the Warlord recently...heh heh heh...) Long-range cruise missiles, with waypoints that you can set to allow attack from any direction, would certainly seem to need it. But would ordinary tube artillery, mortars, and free-flight rockets? They can certainly fire over obstacles at targets not in their line of sight, but they can't actually fire through obstacles without penetrating their defenses, and ordinary OAF grenades can be lobbed over walls and through windows at unseen hexes without buying the Advantage. So, what's the verdict here?

Hello, I actually have more 3rd Edition stuff than 4th, so while I can recognize most of the classics, I'm still unsure whether many of the characters new to me are new to 5th Edition as well. Yes, they're a worthy inclusion, and the theme approach is interesting. But I still miss Plasmoid... Presumably the expected reaction. My first thought was, "Hmm, Hottie McLeod of the Clan McLeod. Duncan's heritage, Amanda's attitude towards other people's property, and Slan Quince's build." And that's definitely the highest hemline I've ever seen on a kilt. "Only"? Man, 350-point PCs spoiling people already, eh? ! He'll kill me first chance he gets! As far as my own favorites go, Istvatha V'han is pretty high among the ones I'm fairly sure are new. The "Empress of a Billion Dimensions" thing is indeed cool, and she strikes me as sort of a blend of the Shi'ar Empress Lilandra and Lady from Glen Cook's "Black Company" series of books. And ya gotta love someone with the cojones to take Tyrannon for a Hunted. (*shudders to think he counts as "More Powerful" than even her*) Also on my list are Captain Chronos and Tesseract (always loved the space-time manipulation powers), Nebula (reminds me of Justice, my favorite "New Universe" character before Marvel ruined the place), and Zorran the Artificer (I'm a sucker for the whole "secret history" and "secret races" conspiracy-theory schtick, and he looks about as close to a proper magus as we're going to get before Ultimate Mystic comes out). The classic character writeups are welcome too - Dr. D (Daddy!) is suitably impressive, and it's nice to have a write-up (and name!) at last for Holocaust, who's on the cover of more than one of my 3rd Edition books. And it's also nice to see Firewing, Foxbat, Grond, the Monster, and the rest of the gang all brought up to date and ready to unleash their evil in the 21st Century.

Hello, No doubt. It's just like the big-name hard-copy comic books - when the art is good, it's kudos all 'round to pencilers, inkers, and colorists... And the art on the other pieces was fine as well - it was just the intricate detail of the Doc's clothing with its floral pattern and the light-and-shadows among the rumpling that caught me. Between that sort of thing, and all the colors available on a computer, seems like you'd really need a "Prestige Format" book to show most of these pieces in all their glory in a paper comic.