BoloOfEarth

59 elections, 340 candidates, 44 exploratory committees, 38 focus groups, and 218 debates later, we're still in the dark. In other words, the world may never know. [Note: The above numbers are as precise as any figures spouted by a political candidate. In other words, not at all.]

Continuing "A Village Corrupted" The group has figured out that some cultists must have summoned the demon hound to kill the villager, but why? When they figure out that another demon hound has been keeping watch on the clinic, and also find out that the dead man had reported seeing a demon hound near the clinic, some of them want to check the place out. Pedro asks Doreen to make a donation to the clinic in exchange for him getting some supplies for his first aid kit. GM: As a Red Cross worker, you have a pretty good field kit already. Pedro: Shhhh! No I don't! I'll need to pick up a few things, preferably while Doreen keeps the volunteer nurse busy so I can look around. Det. Fuentes doesn't trust Pedro and is following him around inside the clinic, pointedly flipping his handcuffs on his index finger. Pedro fails all of his Concealment rolls. Pedro: It's the handcuff thing. It's throwing off my concentration. The group decides to stay the night in the village. Sgt. Ishada, Det. Artega, and Sgt. Chamaro decide to "rough it" on the hill overlooking the clinic, while Lt. Truxillo, Doreen, and Pedro convince one of the local ranchers to let them stay in a bunkhouse on their property. Leaving Det. Fuentes to stay in his car overnight, parked within sight of both the bunkhouse and the clinic. Pedro: (to Det. Fuentes) You know, all alone like that, if this was a horror movie you'd be the one they go after first. But the detective isn't worried about getting attacked. Probably because, unbeknownst to everybody else, he is in league with the cultists (using his position as a fed to sidetrack or bury investigations into cult-related crimes). He also has use of an invisible spirit to do his bidding (TK, Flight, and deflect attacks ala Resistant Protection). And he knows an item is hidden in the wall of the clinic -- a stolen Mexican Red Cross first aid kit used in the summoning ritual that created the Corrupted. Thus, everybody's interest in the clinic, along with Pedro asking about Red Cross first aid kits, has Fuentes rather concerned. He sneaks away to arrange for the cultists in town to summon another demon hound to attack the group watching the clinic, while the cultists themselves set fire to the bunkhouse. Too bad Fuentes doesn't know about Pedro's precognitive dreams. Pedro: Doreen! Lieutenant! You must wake up! I think we are in danger! Lt. Truxillo: What? In danger? How do you know that? Pedro: Um... I heard something... outside... (mumble mumble) Doreen: Did you have a vision of something happening? Pedro: You really suck at keeping a secret. You know that, right? Truxillo radios Sgt. Ishada to warn her they're about to be attacked, and she spots a demon hound sneaking up to the rear of their position. Soon, the night's silence is broken by automatic gunfire and magical fire blasts as the battle is joined. Or two battles, as one group fights a demon hound while the other group fights cultists. The forces of good have taken down the demon hound and most of the cultists when Det. Fuentes notices something. GM: (taking player aside) You see a second demon hound heading toward the clinic. Det. Fuentes: What? Why? That wasn't part of the plan! GM: It looks like De la Cruz thought he'd be clever. Probably summoned a second hound and sent it to get the hidden first aid kit before the good guys find it. Fuentes: #&**@&^!*&^@!! Okay, if I see an opportunity, I'll use my TK to mess with the good guys' aim or whatever. Sgt. Ishada had hidden some micro cameras and bugs in the clinic earlier, so she sees the demon hound crash through a side window and head for the supply closet, just as they KO the first demon hound. Chamaro: Go to the clinic, I'll finish this one off. (pulls out grenade and sticks it into the creature's mouth) Ishada: At least wait until I'm outside the blast radius! Ishada, in her stealth suit, runs to the clinic and dives through another side window. GM: The creature turns to you and hisses. Ishada: How does it know I'm there? I'm invisible! GM: Maybe the window shattering inward was its first clue. Fuentes has climbed in the window broken by the demon hound and is looking through the doorway as Chamaro leans in the other window and takes aim at the creature with his assault carbine. GM: (rolls dice) As Sgt. Chamaro takes aim, he hears a "thunk" as his weapon magazine drops to the floor. You still have a round in the chamber, but that's all you have right now: one shot. He takes the shot, and Ishara jumps on the creature's back to try a Choke Hold, while Det. Artega runs to the front door to kick it open. However, (after the GM receives and quickly checks a text on his cell phone) Chamaro then notices something more worrisome: the pin from one of his grenades, floating away from him. Chamaro: What the... (BOOM!) Luckily, neither he nor Ishara take a lot of damage, though Fuentes gets hit with some shrapnel. But then Artega charges in and has remarkable luck with his pistol, taking the second demon hound down. Ishada: Be aware, there is someone around here using Mage Hand. Possibly invisible. Doreen: (to Pedro) Can you scan for minds? Pedro: I can try. (He uses his Mind Scan) GM: You only find the villagers, none nearby, plus the KO'd cultists and of course all of you. Of course, that only detects human minds... The good guys collect the hidden first aid kit (covered with magical sygils painted in blood) and call in backup to cart off the cultists to the nearest jail cells. They also search the vicinity, including using Doreen's Detect Magic spell, all without success. Unfortunately, before they can question the cultists the next morning, the three men are found dead in their cells. GM: It looks like cyanide. Fuentes: Heh. Serves 'em right. Truxillo: I searched them! Even their mouths! I wouldn't miss a poison pill in a tooth! GM: I know In fact, you're certain they didn't have anything on them when they were locked up, and checking them now, you don't see a fake tooth or anything. An autopsy later reveals the remains of a capsule in each cultist's stomach. Truxillo: So someone must have slipped them poison capsules when they were in the cells. Crap. I don't think the other players ever did figure out Fuentes' duplicitous nature. Should be interesting when the superheroes arrive...

I tend to tie my campaign to real time, with some wiggle room for multi-session or time-intensive arcs. I try to put out a news sheet (the Heronet Herald) each game session, which helps keep things on track. The hard part is incorporating major real-world events, or when the game world sometimes has major events that are decidedly not real-world (such as an alien invasion). None of my players is that hung up on the minutia of "why did X happen if supers can do Y" so I can hand-wave a lot of that stuff.

You know how some comic books will have a few pages involving people other than the main character(s) -- typically setting up the story for that issue. Every now and then, I pull that in my Champions campaign, having the players run a set of characters I generate. That is what I did Sunday evening. The temp PCs consisted of: Lt. Vicente Truxillo -- UNTIL Intel / Forensic agent originally from Spain Sgt. Shiiko Ishada -- UNTIL Surveillance originally from Japan, with stealth suit and stealth drone Detective Rodrigo Fuentes -- Nicaraguan federal police officer (20+ years on the force) Detective Alfredo Artega -- Nicaraguan federal police officer with luck powers 1st Sgt. "Oso" Chamaro -- Nicaraguan soldier assigned to protect the federales, primarily Det. Artega. Doreen Park -- wealthy US citizen who is magically adept Pedro Sandoval -- Nicaraguan Red Cross worker with minor psionic and precognitive powers, serving as a guide to Doreen Park During the first adventure of this campaign, the rest of the hero team had poked a little fun at Maker (a Chinese American) for being a ninja, with her repeatedly responding "I'm Chinese, not Japanese!" When I took each player aside to go over any secret stuff on their character sheets: Sgt. Ishada (played by Maker's character): (OOC) You made her Japanese and gave her Ninjutsu skills just to mess with me, didn't you? GM: Yes, as a matter of fact. Yes I did. Det Alfredo Artega: (OOC) If anybody gets hungry, I happen to be a tasty pasta dish. 1st Sgt. Chamaro: (OOC) This all takes place in Nicaragua -- do we have to speak Spanish the whole game? A respected farmer in a small Nicaraguan village reported seeing "demonic dogs" and then two days later died in mysterious circumstances. The UNTIL agents and federales meet at the police morgue in a nearby city, examining the body with the coroner. Dr. Cabarus: The lethal wound goes clean through the body. The murder weapon was triangular in size, about 4cm on a side entering the back, and tapering down to about half that exiting just under the sternum. Lt. Truxillo: How much force would be needed to do that? Dr. Cabarus: Oh, you'd need a good amount of force. Someone strong like... the sergeant there. (points to Chamaro) Det. Fuentes: You wouldn't happen to have a triangular-shaped spear, would you, sergeant? Chamaro: (whistles innocently while miming leaning on a large spear) Meanwhile, Doreen and Pedro arrive in the town to look into the strange murder. Doreen is looking for items believed to be connected to a ritual where evil other-world spirits were able to possess a group of missionaries, thus creating the villain team The Corrupted. The town is on her list of places to search. The crime scene is being watched by a local police officer, Raoul. Doreen: Is there any chance I can bribe him to let me check out the crime scene? GM: Let's see how honest he is. Lower is better for you. (rolls 3 on 3d6) I'd call that a "yes" on you bribing him. Raoul: You look thirsty. I'll just run over to the general store and buy you a drink with this fifty you gave me. Doreen: That's an expensive bottle of pop. The federales and UNTIL agents are discussing what kinds of vehicles each pair has. Det. Fuentes: How about this one? (shows picture of armored personnel carrier with MG, painted bright blue with "Policia" on the side) GM: I'm going to say... no. GM: The UNTIL agents will want something nondescript. Det. Fuentes: Like a Cadillac Escalade? The detectives and UNTIL agents arrive in town to see the crime scene unmanned, and a pair of civilians walking around nearby. Det. Fuentes: I believe Raoul will be looking for a new job soon... (to Pedro and Doreen) What are you two doing contaminating my crime scene? Pedro: No! No! The crime scene is over there! We are over here! Det. Fuentes: You know, we have some very interesting prisons here in Nicaragua. Doreen: (reaching for her wallet) Maybe for a hundred, we can... Pedro: NO! NO! (stage whisper) Senorita, you do NOT offer money to the federales! (pause) If they want some, they will ask. Pedro helpfully points out some unusual tracks he found about 6m away from the pool of dried blood and leading off into the woods. Pedro: Capitan? El general? Det. Fuentes: Detective. Pedro: El capitan it is. I found some tracks you might want to see... Det. Fuentes: Do they happen to match your boots? Pedro: Me? No! I have no boots! (mimes kicking off his shoes) I am barefoot, see? Pay no attention to those boots over there... The tracks definitely came from an animal and are consistent with a "demon hound" mentioned in a PRIMUS report shared with UNTIL. That creature had been summoned by DEMON brothers in the Boston area, and was used to hunt down and kill select individuals. The motley crew of federales, UNTIL agents, and civilians begin talking to people in town to see who knows what. Pedro discovers that his character sheet lists the ability to detect spoken lies. Pedro: This Rojas that the detective is questioning -- is he telling the truth that he didn't see the murder? GM: Rojas is lying like a cheap rug. Meanwhile, using her stealth drone to do an aerial search of the village, Sgt. Ishada notices more "demon hound" tracks on a hill overlooking the small clinic. Det. Fuentes goes to check it out, followed soon after by Det. Artega and Sgt. Chamaro. Chamaro: Maybe I can set up a booby trap for when the animal returns tonight. GM: When the animal gets a whiff of the detective's Aqua Velva it probably won't return there. Det. Fuentes: Please. It's Old Spice, just like my father wore. (more to follow)

Kinetik resolves to cut back on his caffeine. NT: You just won the Powerball jackpot and decide to use a chunk of the money to make a movie. What is it? (the more ridiculous, the better)

I revised the Corporate Raiders PDF with bookmarks and links.

He gave the approximate date (March 2013) and vote count (7-1) by the city council. I found a second source that gave the same info, and a YouTube video of a tv news report on the city council discussing the switch on March 25 2013, so I'm inclined to believe it.

Played right, VIPER agents can ruin a hero's day. (pause) Too bad I play them with the Cobra variant. Seriously, though, if running a Champions combat involving agents or thugs, I lump them into groups and use mass combat rules. Makes them much more effective against the heroes. They may still only last a few Phases, but they'll do some damage before they fall down.

"Hey, they're mostly poor people; we're probably reducing unemployment and the number of people on welfare! What's not to love?" Also BTW, they were originally getting their water from Detroit. Yeah, Motor City water was cleaner. And they switched back to getting water from Detroit back in October. While I happen to agree with the bulk of the article posted by Hermit, I find it interesting how it was carefully worded to completely bypass that. Though to be fair, I read another article that said that "there are concerns that lead problems persist due to damage the corrosive river water caused to the water distribution system." Also in fairness, I see that the (now ex-) emergency manager says the changeover was actually decided by the mayor and city council 7 months before the emergency manager took over.

BTW, the water changeover happened after a state-appointed emergency manager took over in Flint. To quote the Detroit Free Press:

Hey, it's not like they were written up by a lawyer, y'know.

I don't think you can. According to 6E1, p. 399 (bolding added): Since you're talking VPPs, I don't think I'd allow having one VPP link to another one. That said, I'd think he could do a Multiple Attack, hitting with both powers at once (so, a 17d6 and a 6d6).

Sent a PM regarding bookmarks / links. As to embedding odd fonts, it may be simple as checking or unchecking a box in the Printer Properties of whichever PDF converter the library is using. I know that's how it's done in Adobe Reader. Although if they use a freeware PDF converter, embedding fonts may not be an option. Before you hit Print in Word, check the printer properties for the PDF converter.

Regarding the "superprison revolving door" trope, I think one big reason for this is that a GM could put several weeks into creating a balanced and challenging group of villains that pique the players' interest and (most important to me) the players have fun fighting -- and then they're usually almost immediately captured and locked away for who knows how long. So, barring a superprison breakout, you have to find ways to either (1) ensure that the villains almost always get away, or (2) create such powerful villains that they almost always beat the heroes. I think most players would hate either of those even worse than the prison breakout. That said, as I approach the one year mark of running my current Champions campaign I've only had one supervillain team break out of PRIMUS custody, and they immediately called the hero team to brag that they were trashing the PRIMUS base and dare the heroes to show up and recapture them. (Hey, it was the A-Team -- it was all part of their "plan coming together.") Oh, I also had one villain get found "not guilty" in court because someone else was playing dirty pool with the prosecutor. I'm steadily running out of villain groups to face off against the heroes, so I'm gearing up for a mass breakout from Stronghold. To take some of the sting off it, I'm setting things up for the heroes to be able to permanently de-power the villain team that will be (mostly) responsible for the breakout. My point being, there's a reason for that trope. It may not be a good reason, but it's there nonetheless.

Oh, as to continuing the series, I'd say "yes." The overall concept of the books is cool, and useful both for the villains as well as the heroes or their allies (government agencies, other hero groups, etc.) I've created many NPC teams around common themes, but only a very few with common origins. Years ago, I created a handful of low-powered villains intentionally for the heroes to handily beat, then had a master supervillain give all of those losers additional power, which rather surprised the heroes. Great recurring foes. I could easily see doing something similar with the Dynatron, and presumably other Shared Origin plot devices. The main downside of this series is that most of each book is going to be for GM eyes only, thus restricting your potential purchasing pool. But I think you're going to run up against that with most RPG supplements.

I was blissfully unaware of either product until seeing this thread, and have now purchased the Dynatron PDF. I've only read maybe a half-dozen pages into it, but I'm initially impressed. The background story is well written (important to me as I hate tripping over misspellings and extraneous or missing words), well crafted (at least, I didn't run across anything major that I wish had been covered) and entertaining. I'll try to post more meaningful feedback as I read more, especially when I get to the character writeups. One disappointment: no bookmarks / links in the PDF. One thing I liked that Dave Mattingly did in Digital Hero, and I carried over into Haymaker! when I was coordinator, was incorporating bookmarks, with Table of Contents entries also serving as links to jump to those points in the manuscript. If the PDF was generated with something that doesn't allow bookmark / link creation, there's nothing you could do about that. But if that's not the case, in this digital age there's no reason not to be able to point, click, and jump to where you want to go. (And as I say this, I realize that I forgot to add bookmarks and links to the Corporate Raiders PDF I posted last night. Shame on me. I'll try and fix that this weekend.)

One of my players got me a present from GenCon many years back - a random name generation booklet. It's broken down by country of origin, each with surnames (usually 1-2 sets of a hundred numbered 01-00) and lists of male and female first names (also numbered for random selection). So I tend to give names whether or not the character is significant at all. Sometimes the name evokes a certain personality type and I run with it. To clarify: the toaster incident involved the PC in secret ID, so she couldn't just raise her force field or blast them. Thus, the thugs' stats became (marginally) important, as did her use of items of opportunity. And throwing names on the thugs helped me stat them out on the fly. On a related note, I find the game world becomes more "real" to the players if the low-level thugs aren't all two-dimensional cookie-cutter types, so I encourage a little variety in your street-level thugs. Sure, a lot of the time it's not necessary -- the hero plowing through a dozen mooks doesn't care what their names and personalities are, or whether their STR is 13 or 15. Nor will the player remember them weeks later. But when the hero gets to the last guy, who is a weasel with an unusually high DCV (say, 6) and dodges around while pleading with the hero to let him walk free -- that the player will remember. Heck, if the player roleplays it right, he could get useful info from the weasel mook or might even turn him into a free Contact.

Devon Kilpatrick is a Detroit native, born the night before Halloween. He was always a mischief maker, but as he got into his teen years that mischief turned to mayhem, with crimes ranging from robbery to arson to grand theft auto. He became so good at being bad, he was recruited into a DEMON cell, but he quickly grew bored and tried to leave. That's when he found out that you don't just walk away from DEMON. They used him as a sacrifice in a ritual, with the being the summoned inhabiting Devon's body rather than follow DEMON's dictates. Restored to unlife, he now calls himself Devil's Knight and perpetrates evil on a larger scale. [ Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Night ]

I had contacted an artist friend to commission some last year, but had cash flow problems and haven't been able to get them yet. I still plan to do that, even if only for my own campaign. (I left space in the document to add pics for each character.) If/when I get character art, I'll update the PDF and post a note.

Here is a supervillain team (the Corporate Raiders) and an adventure suitable for an introductory session. This was something I was working on for a larger project involving other posters on these boards, but that project has unfortunately fallen by the wayside. This PDF does not include character artwork or maps, but I think it could still be useful for a GM starting a new Champions campaign. If used or perused, feedback on what does or doesn't / won't work is always welcome. T and S 003 Corporate Raiders.pdf

Yes, I know he changed it but I Just. Couldn't. Stop. Myself. Feel free to ignore this post as it's not as serious as the others. Like his father, Pierre Devereaux is an excellent cook. That's not his profession, however. He's a brilliant biochemist, though he's fond of pointing out that "Cooking is simply Chemistry where your laboratory is the kitchen." When Monsieur Souffle was unmasked as Gaston Devereaux, Pierre was devastated and mortified. People seemed inclined to condemn the son for the sins of the father, so Pierre quit his job and put his skills to use creating foods that go beyond simple nutrition to actually increase healing from injuries or diseases. He's also branched into dishes that increase natural abilities beyond their norms for up to an hour, such as his Quickness Quiche or his Muscles Marinara. He wears a mask and hides his true identity, of course, since nobody would trust the culinary creations of Monsieur Souffle's son. As the Dietitian he doesn't have any offensive capabilities at all, but he does help buff up the other SotF's prior to battles and assists Mercy with helping injured noncombatants. Ref from Villain Theme Team thread:

If you're talking about street thugs, low-level mob enforcers, and the like, I don't generally stat them out. They may have 13 PRE on the theory that they have to be able to stand up for themselves on the mean streets. But generally I put more thought into their personalities than their stats. The players won't notice or care whether Joey Bag-o-Donuts had an DCV of 3 or 4 or 5. But they'll remember that ol' Joey called the Chinese gadgeteer PC a "Jap chick" and tried to hit on her just before she beat him unconscious with a toaster. (Actual game occurrence, BTW.) Should it become important in play, I'd invent some stats on the spot based on the street criminal's personality and specialty. For example, Joey's more of a talker than a fighter, so he only has 10 STR but 13 PRE and +1 w/ all Interaction skills. OCV of 3 overall but 5 with his pistol. DCV of 5 because his mouth gets him in trouble. Running of 8m for the same reason. Meanwhile, Joey's fellow enforcer Sam is the big, strong, silent type, so 15 STR and CON. OCV of 5 in HtH, DCV 3, with 8 PD and 28 STUN. Brass knuckles (specially made to fit over his meaty paws) for +3d6 HtH. He might actually have 18 PRE.

In general, I'm of the school that "what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa." That works for character creation, NPC use, Complication implementation, XP expenditure, snacks brought to the game, etc. I'm going to take one point above and give my views on it. First, I appreciate the "tends to" above, acknowledging that one size does not fit all. As a counterpoint to Tasha's statement, I think that en mass XP expenditure, especially done in reaction to a recent event, may miss other less drastic character needs or desires from prior adventures. A player whose character gets curb-stomped by mentalists a few times may decide to spend a good chunk of XP on EGO and Mental Defense, ignoring his previous desire for a particular noncombat skill that would be useful in play. As a GM, I'm just as guilty. I often bring out a villain group that's been dormant for a few months, figure out how much XP they've earned since last used, and then make some chunka-changes on the character sheets. I need to (and sometimes fail to) remind myself to maybe add a noncombat skill that fits the character, or buy down (but not completely remove) a Complication, instead of just adding a few new slots to the Multipower that would be useful against the PC heroes and/or adding Hardened to defenses because the martial artist's AP punch took the villain out too fast last time. That's not to say reacting to in-play events shouldn't be done. If the players find a way to quickly and easily shut a villain down, that villain would set aside other wants in order to ensure that doesn't happen again. Likewise, if a villain figures out how to one-shot a PC hero, that hero would likely set aside other plans to find a way to protect himself in the future. I just think there should be a balance in there. Purely reactionary XP expenditure makes Jack a dull PC. Sticking blindly to a long-term experience plan may make Jack a dead PC. - - - - In relation to thinking out XP use more completely, I'd point out that many people have very busy lives outside gaming and may not have either the desire or ability to put that much thought into their characters' "career paths." As a GM, you may be lucky if some players can take the time to spend a chunk of XP once every few months. Yeah, it would be nice if they put more thought into it along the way, but that dreaded "Real Life" gets in the way more often than not. While GMing, I try and remind myself that this is all a game, and we're all there to have fun. If that means I have to bite my tongue or hand-wave things a few times along the way (as long as doing so wouldn't break the game), then I'll do that for a better time overall.

Bobby Burke is a Golden Gloves boxer who was recently kidnapped by a VIPER scientist and injected with a variation of the COIL gene. He wasn't completely altered by the injection, however. He's stronger and tougher, with scales covering much of his body, but his head remains normal-looking (though his hair did turn snow-white). A Bascomb Vegetables rep talked Burke into being the Grocery Greens' brick, Cauliflower Ear, naming him after a feature he's had since early in his boxing career.

Agreed. However, I only award the incarcerated villains 1/2 the XP that the heroes earned during that time. That's the price they pay for getting locked away. I figure that takes a bit of the bite out of the superhero trope of villains not being permanently incarcerated.