BobGreenwade

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine The name on the file is Fallout, and I rather like that. He could be someone born in the wake of the Three Mile Island disaster, with powers of heat and radioactivity. As a side effect, he has ongoing health problems including a body temperature that's too hot for anyone to touch comfortably, keeping him out of any romantic relationships. He uses his powers to vent his frustrations on society, especially on those he sees as responsible for his condition -- power companies, proponents of nuclear power, those who blocked proper funding of the Harrisburg plant, the NRC, the NSA, and all Silver Age superheroes active in and around Pennsylvania at the time. (He also uses his powers for profitable crime, since revenge doesn't do very well for paying the bills.)

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See? Not necessary in this case; we made our own.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See? My main wish item was for Racial Templates to easily make PCs from various alien species, and you already have that covered, so I'll have nothing to complain about. I'm also very much hoping Chapter Eleven includes some Templates for species that Earth hasn't encountered yet (and thus don't call for Templates in Chapter Two), but that are part of the Hero Universe's sci-fi settings up through Galactic Champions. If they're not in Chapter Eleven, maybe they could comprise a special Appendix, or a separate HPA. That could extend the usability of Terran Empire, Alien Wars, and other 5th Ed Star Hero books. (Special request: Roin'esh.) And this would be yet another possible book to include Blue Screamer.

Re: Random Pulp SciFi Name Generator "The Tribe that Transformed the Editor." That's a born classic.

Re: Cause vomit power... 6E1 153 (second column).

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine The name that comes to mind for this guy is Deathwing.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Whoever he is, there's probably some relationship with SerpenTina -- friendship, enmity, similar origins, or something.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! A child of the oh-so-hip nineties, Lewis Ng was Phabrykater long before he met up with the other members of Escape Clause. He has the uncanny ability to build small devices of narrow, specific use that can be concealed and smuggled through a variety of means: plastic telescoping lockpicks, otherwise harmless solvents of mortar, and once even a bit of carefully-painted origami that unfolded -- yes, unfolded -- into a life-size mannequin head (inspired by the famous Alcatraz escape). He provides such devices for Escape Clause. While he normally keeps to the sidelines, Phabrykater keeps a number of disguised weapons about his person just in case authorities find him. He can fashion nearly anything into a dangerous weapon if he has to: a sheet of paper, a pillow, his underwear, even the handcuffs used to arrest him. He's an unparalleled master of the surprise attack, to the extent that it doesn't even matter if you never turn your back on him.

Re: What should I add to my equipment list? Do you have EVA suits, and environmental sensors?

Re: Need Hero Team name I'd try to lean toward an acronym myself; wcw43921 listed a couple of pretty good ones. Also, the team name should generally reflect the team philosophy. If their main goal is to keep the population safe, for example, then perhaps you could go with something like Protective Operations, Welfare and Emergency Response Team (or POWER Team).

Re: SusAn Perhaps you could take the "Zone Travel" option for Extra-Dimensional Movement from The Ultimate Speedster (and The Ultimate Mentalist) and turn it around backwards, calling it (for example) the Suspension Zone. Something like: Suspended Animation: Extra-Dimensional Movement (any physical location in the Suspension Zone, but limited to the location corresponding to the character's location in the normal-speed world) Trigger (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger requires a Turn or more to reset; +1/4) (27 Active Points); Leaves Incapacitated And Helpless Body Behind (-1), No Conscious Control (return requires a specific action by another party; -1). Total cost: 9 points. Of course you'd have to adjust things -- especially the second Limitation -- to fit your conception, but that should be a good start.

Re: Infrared Perception (Hearing Group)

Re: SyFy Television Movie Genre: This is a pretty good list. Hopefully when it comes time to do Star Hero, Steve will take a moment to devote a page to this subgenre, and what you have here would be a good start. (One could legitimately argue that it belongs more appropriately in Horror Hero, of course, but I'd rather see this given a light treatment in SH and then something more in-depth in HH.)

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Does anyone have any recommendations for a good tool for gouging out one's own eyes?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine He only builds when stoned....

Re: Redneck Ninjas! This needs to be on Saturday mornings. Or Cartoon Network.

Re: Infrared Perception (Hearing Group)

Re: Infrared Perception (Hearing Group) Prof. Kakalios has a PhD in physics, and teaches at the University of Minnesota. I'd say he's qualified to know what he's talking about. At least, the editors at Gotham Books thought so. I'm not able to test his statement myself, as I have chronic tinnitus, but a quick Web search does show that the average volume threshold of human hearing is indeed about 5-10 dB above the sound of Brownian motion (given as -23 dB). But that's not the point. The point of the thread, despite Sean's assertion to the contrary, was finding an interesting statement and turning it into a mechanical power. Admittedly, Infrared Hearing would have limited utility, since (as Ockham's Spoon pointed out) one could more easily sense the ambient temperature by Touch. But if one also has special abilities with the Hearing Sense Group -- like, say, Tracking -- then one could apply such abilities to this Power, but not to the Touch-based Sense.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! I'd call Gaiter and Tinker a character + follower. You can count them as two characters for the group if you want, but if so it's your turn to come up with a group theme. Either way, they still need illos (since The Arc led us in that direction).

Re: Cause vomit power... It has occurred to me that this could also be modeled with a Continuous Drain STUN and END, with a Linked Change Environment (Stunning).

As idle reading, I've been going through The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios. For the most part it's a fun and informative read, looking at real-world physics as illustrated by comic book superheroes. Then, not quite halfway through, at the end of a discussion on the Three Laws of Thermodynamics using the Silver Age Atom as an illustration, I found this paragraph: Hearing the temperature of the room? There's an interesting idea. It's a power that I think could be given to any character with super-sensitive hearing (superheroic types obviously, but aliens in a sci-fi setting could have the ability as well, as could certain impressive pulp heroes and kung fu mystics). As suggested by the thread title, I think the best way to model this would be with Infrared Perception in the Hearing Sense Group. Any other thoughts? (Not just game mechanics, but general applications.)

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! For those who don't want to do the cross-referencing (I would've had a heck of a time figuring out how to find page 373 out of 112): Shamballah Her background

Re: Cause vomit power... Mind Control, Based On CON is another alternative.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine