BoloOfEarth

The Wikipedia page isn't my best work -- I was trying for subtle but mostly it came out a bit dull. But if you want to see it: Wikipedia entry: Patrick “Paddy” McGinty (October 30, 1870 – unknown) was a United States politician from Massachusetts. As a member of the Republican Party, he was elected the 50th Governor of Massachusetts and was one of the state’s first Irish-American governors, serving from 1925-1927. Biography McGinty was born and raised in Dunmurry, Ireland. He served in the 14th Engineers battalion of the Royal Army during World War I, achieving the rank of Sergeant Major. He moved to the United States in 1920 and took up residence in Arkham, Massachusetts where he worked briefly in a local quarry before opening an automotive repair shop. Allegations were made during this time of ties between McGinty and Irish mobster Dan O’Bannion but they have never been proven.[citation needed] McGinty gained fame in April of 1924 when he and several associates assisted the Boston police in capturing Patrick Malone and members of his infamous Crimson Gang following the King-of-Ireland Massacre.[1, 2] He was also credited with the rescue of a wealthy Boston socialite from kidnappers, after which he announced his candidacy for governor of the State of Massachusetts. His campaign for governor was rife with accusations of malfeasance ranging from exposes linking McGinty with bootleggers, to claims that he was personally involved in manslaughter as well as numerous acts of property damage and destruction.[3] Despite this, McGinty secured his party’s nomination and was elected governor by a narrow margin in 1924 (ironically, running on a platform of law and order). 1925-1927 Governor Patrick McGinty’s administration took place at the height of prohibition, and was marked by frequent scandals ranging from nearly constant allegations of collusion with bootleggers, to several accusations of conspiracy to commit murder. [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] At a press conference in January 1926 responding to allegations of ordering state police to halt a murder investigation, Gov. McGinty said, ‘To Hades with the lot of you” and announced he would no longer speak directly with any reporters.[12] All future inquiries during McGinty’s administration were handled through a series of short-lived press secretaries. Likely due to the many allegations of illegal and illicit activity, McGinty was denied re-nomination when the Republican Party instead chose Alvan T. Fuller to run for governor in 1926. McGinty left office in 1927 and retired from the public eye. McGinty disappeared sometime in 1929 and was legally declared dead in 1936. - - - - - - - - I was having fun with the citations (note the number of cites about scandals), most of which are scans of newspaper clippings that are less than complimentary of McGinty. As the heroes dig into it, they'll learn that all of the scans were posted by the same person, identified online as SarEinBU. A little digging will reveal her to be Dr. Sarah Einstein, an Egyptology professor at Boston University who inherited her great-grand-aunt's scrapbook of clippings and journals. I'm actually much prouder of my Last Will and Testament of Patrick J. McGinty, which I'll post soon. And his letter to Shadowboxer, revealing where he hid all his mystic books. Which I'm almost positive the players have completely missed. But more on that later.

(continuing the Boston Champions game; Paddy McGinty will be making periodic guest appearances throughout the campaign with prior permission from Drhoz and McGinty's player) Malarky hits the density altering guy (Gerrymander) with a powerful Flash attack, making the bad guy decide to duck back into the building. Malarky then runs over to the woman, who appears to be cowering in fear. Malarky: Come here, miss. I'll get you out of here safe. (She doesn't react to him, so he reaches out to grab her arm... and his hand passes through it. He's looking at a very realistic illusion.) Looks like she already got out of here. One of the bodyguards / covert VIPER agents recovers and was moving to get to Ms. Browning, but stops when Malarky ran up to her, and pulls out a radio. Shadowboxer listens in from a nearby shadow, but can only hear one side of the conversation. VIPER Agent: They've got Attache. Repeat, they have Attache. What do you want me to do? (pause) Roger that, be there in a few. Shadowboxer recalls hearing that someone named Attache is the newly-appointed joint second-in-command of the Boston Nest, so he lets the agent leave and tails him to the Robert McNair building, 4th floor, room 4103A. Meanwhile, the fight ends, with the heroes capturing Splinter and the mimic (Dyer), but Gerrymander escapes. PRIMUS arrives to debrief the heroes and cart off the bad guys. Lt. Williams: (looking at Honey Badger holding what appears to be his unconscious twin) How do we know you're the real Honey Badger, and not that guy? Honey Badger: The real Honey Badger doesn't bruise when you do this. (Proceeds to bash Dyer repeatedly with Splinter's Louisville Slugger, which breaks and doesn't automatically heal) Aw, man, Honey Badger was looking forward to using that! [Yes, Honey Badger routinely refers to himself in the third person.] Lt. Williams: (watching Honey Badger using excessive force on an unconscious captive foe) (in a bored, deadpan voice) No. Please. Stop doing that. You can't treat prisoners that way. (yawns) Circe notices an old man in a wheelchair watching the proceedings from the sidelines and chuckling to himself. After a while, he wheels himself to the nearest street and hails a cab. The cabbie helps the man into the back of the taxi, then proceeds to load the wheelchair into the trunk. Mystery Man: You watch what the fook you're doing with that! Do you have any idea what those things cost?! (waves his fist in the cabbie's face) Dent that, and I'm denting your fookin' haid! Maker: (OOC) Were you trying to do an Irish accent there, or was that accidental? As the man is getting into the cab, Circe uses her smartphone to snap a picture of him. Circe: (OOC) I imagine smartphones must be a pain for GMs in modern campaigns. Everybody always has a camera ready. Circe tails the cab to W. Haven Street, where the old man gets out of the cab and wheels up to one of the houses. After the cab drives away, the old man gets out of the wheelchair, carts it up the front steps of one of the houses, and goes inside. Eventually, Honey Badger takes Circe's place watching the house so Circe can get the photo to Malarky and Maker, two of the team's technical-minded members. They run it through facial recognition comparisons to known criminals, then a Who's Who of Boston, and finally a global internet search. GM: The best you get is a 78% match to an old photo of some guy named Patrick McGinty. Former governor of Massachusetts. Malarky: Former governor? When? GM: 1925 to 1927. Malarky: This may not be a good match. Do a Google search on him anyway; anything interesting? GM: (hands him a typed-up Wikipedia entry on Patrick "Paddy" McGinty) Malarky: This may be the guy we're looking for. Honey Badger is keeping watch on the house on Haven Street when he hears what sounds like whispering in the wind. Disembodied voice: Suuuugggaaarrr... Beeeeaaaavvvvveeeerrrr... Despite nobody seeing the old man leave the house, they later discover that it's empty. They do a title search on it and discover that it's actually being held by a Boston law firm for an estate trust. Nexus: Which law firm? And what's the name on the trust? GM: Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. Nexus: Cool! We get to meet Denny Crane! What's the name of the trust? GM: The Shadowbox Trust. (All players look at Shadowboxer expectantly, but all he can do is shrug and shake his head.) After the fight at MIT hits the news, the college student that Circe and Nexus rescued from the near-clutches of a mystery mentalist calls Circe. She has decided to tell all she knows, having figured out that the nightclub owner who saved her used mental powers to do so, as did one of the heroes in the MIT fight. Kristina Shaw: I mentioned yesterday that I knew some people on Snak Attak! [a group of low-powered or no-powered Boston University students patrolling to try keeping their campus safe; all are named after snack foods - and yes, that's how it's spelled]. Well, that wasn't the full truth. I'm actually Twizzler, a member of Snak Attak! (She demonstrates her stretching powers) One of my friends, Nerds, convinced me to tell you what I know, so you can hopefully get Whitey put behind bars. She proceeds to explain that a villain group (Boston Commons) on her original world must have been pulled over in the Cross-Rip. They are: Whitey: Gangster with mental powers Common Man: Duplicating martial artist Dyer: Shapeshifting mimic Gerrymander: Density-altering brick Marathon: Greek-armor wearing archaeologist Puritan: Woman able to heal friends and drain away powers from foes Sense: Invisible illusionist woman Splendid Splinter: Baseball-obsessed plant-controlling man All of the Commons ended up in the Fortress (her world's version of Stronghold) except for Marathon. Since his enchanted items could be taken away, leaving him powerless, Marathon (aka Dr. Loukas) ended up in the general population at Riker's prison. Obviously, the thefts were being done, along with this world's Dr. Loukas' kidnapping that the players hadn't learned about, to restore Marathon to the team. Honey Badger: They're from another world! I wonder if any of them are Dr. Lizardo. Or John Bigbooty. "Big-boo-tay! Boo-Tay!" GM: (stares at HB's player in disbelief, then hands him the character writeup for Common Man, pointing to one paragraph) Read this paragraph. Common Man's writeup: "A fan of Buckaroo Banzai, Common Man named his duplicates in the same manner as the Lectroids in the movie: all are John followed by a last name (sometimes quite odd), and all were mentioned by name or from the computer screen list in the movie." Honey Badger: (smiling impishly) It's a power of mine. (Still more to follow)

(continuing the Champions game) As Ms. Browning is meeting with Pops, Malarky is walking across the MIT campus heading to class and notices two men, looking exactly like the guy in the Red Sox uniform from one museum theft, and the man who pulled the stolen Greek artifacts out of the bus locker after the other museum theft. Also, two guys who don't look like students are standing around, waiting. So Malarky call all his new-found friends. Unfortunately, most of them are still enroute when Ms. Browning leaves the building, and the Red Sox guy pulls out a baseball and takes down one of the latter two guys, who are Ms. Browning's bodyguards. Malarky: Looks like I'm going to be late for class. The man from the bus depot was very well-dressed, but this guy on campus is wearing jeans and a parka. Circe: Wait, the guy we saw on the bus security camera was in an expensive suit. Maker: How do you know it was expensive? Circe: (points to KS: Fashion on the character sheet) I know an expensive suit when I see one. Pops teleports over to the opposite buidling's rooftop and begins teleporting students from the soon-to-be-battlefield onto the rooftop beside him. Pops: Now the big question is, are they going to just stand there and watch, or are they going to run downstairs and get the heck out of here? Maker: There's going to be explosions and stuff. They'll run away soon enough. Pops: These are students at MIT. In a supers universe. They see explosions, they'll think, "Oh, it must be Tuesday." A police helicopter appears overhead. Literally appears, out of an apparently empty sky. Honey Badger: Now that's a quick response. The helicopter fires a missile at the guy in the parka, doing no apparent damage. Circe: Wait, when did police helicopters get outfitted with missiles?! An apparent twin of the guy in the parka, this one dressed in a nice suit and overcoat, steps out of a building - as in, through the wall - and heads for Ms. Browning. Circe: Well, we found the guy's brother. Honey Badger arrives and faces off against the Splendid Splinter. Splendid Splinter: How about... (pulls out Louisville Slugger) ... a little Bat-Fu? (takes a batter's stance) It's a bit high and outside, but it looks like Williams is going for it. He's swinging for the bleachers... (CRACK!) The bat cracks when it hits Honey Badger, but then he notices it instantly heals itself. Honey Badger: Honey Badger's gotta get one of those! After taking down Splinter, Honey Badger turns toward the guy in the parka, who punches Honey Badger... and transforms to look like Honey Badger! Honey Badger: Guys, I don't think they're brothers... Maker figures out the police helicopter is a hologram being projected by a much smaller flying robot. She blasts it, damaging the hologram projector. GM: The helicopter turns into a Piper Cub, hovering in midair. Then a flock of birds. And then a dolphin. Maker then flies closer and hits it with her EMP. Maker: And I catch it before it hits the ground, 'cause this one's mine. (More to follow...)

Finally started a new Champions campaign after a 4-5 year hiatus. This one is set in Boston, one month after an event (called the Cross-Rip) that cause many superheroes to disappear from the game world, along with a fair number of supervillains, many of whom were in one of the superprisons at the time. For those in prison (and in some isolated cases outside), most of the supervillains that disappeared were replaced with other supervillains, many of which were not known in the game world. A few civilians also disappeared, or in a few cases switched places with their cross-world counterparts. All a plot by the Empress of a Billion Dimensions, that didn't go 100% as she had planned. But the details of all that might not be of interest to anybody here, and aren't really quotes anyway. The heroes (team still unnamed) are: Circe - beautiful, rich female mentalist, owns a nightclub (among other things) Honey Badger - super strong, incredibly tough, and... Honey Badger don't care Malarky - Irish-American MIT student who is learning magic and has some... interesting spells Maker - Female NASA astronaut gadgeteer who got energy powers in an accident at UNTIL's Gateway station; daughter of a Chinese woman and... Leroy Jenkins! Nexus - also beautiful female wizardress, able to see and talk to the dead (her Contact is a spirit) and plays in a band at Circe's nightclub Pops - MIT professor who created extra-dimensional tech allowing him to teleport himself and others Shadowboxer - Shadow-controlling PI able to see through and move through shadows, split off his own shadow, etc. Pops (Dr. Stevens) is looking at readings from an experiment when he sees three energy spikes (unrelated to his experiment) whose signature is remarkably similar to that of his own teleportation. But much higher - someone is teleporting tons of mass, somewhere fairly nearby. Unfortunately, his equipment wasn't designed to get a heading and relative range. To get the parts he needs fast, he seeks out Li Jenkins, who has a rep for creating things fast with her 3-D printer. As they discuss his designs, a pair of mafia thugs (Tom and Jerry) walk in, intent on hitting her up for protection money. Tom (looming over Stevens): You're done here. We need to talk to the Jap chick. Maker: Jap?! I'm Chinese, you jerk! Pops: Jap? Funny, you didn't strike me as Jewish. (pause at Maker's confused expression) Jewish American Princess? (pause at her continued blank expression) Y'know what, never mind. Honey Badger: (OOC) Use your ninja powers on him. Maker: (OOC) I don't have ninja powers! I'm Chinese, not Japanese! Maker: (OOC) I'm in secret ID. Can I use one of the things on my work desk and make it look like the energy is coming out of it? GM: Sure, what the heck. There's a toaster handy. Maker picks up the toaster, points it at Tom, and sends a nice NND blast into him, stunning the thug. Pops: Wow, that must be a four-slice model. Meanwhile, at Circe's club, her nightclub manager asks her to talk to a musical group's agent (Damon Folmier) about his client wanting to play at the nightclub. Circe finally agrees to allow the group to try out in a few days, without once asking what the group's name is. Damon Folmier: Okay, so Road Kill will be there Wednesday at two. Nexus: Road Kill?! You're booking Road Kill to play at your club?! Circe: Why? Who the heck is Road Kill? (After getting an explanation) Hey, they're trying out. Nothing says I have to say yes. Circe and Nexus are leaving the club when they notice a limo pull up next to a female college student. The man inside rolls down his window to talk to the girl, who looks panic-stricken and tries to run away. She stops, however, when a mental attack (which Circe sees) hits her from inside the limo, and she starts heading back to get in. Circe breaks the obvious mind control. Pops: (OOC) Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she was mentally attacking the person in the limo... GM: (thoughtful expression) Hmmmmmm... Circe: (to Pops) Now you stop that! No giving the GM ideas! Circe and Nexus learn the girl was actually pulled over in the Cross-Rip, and whoever was in the limo was apparently from the other world too. But she's too afraid to talk, and the heroes don't push it, so they don't get more useful info from her. The heroes begin investigating a series of thefts of Greek artifacts from several area museums - a breastplate, helmet, horn bow, short sword, and greaves. One theft is done by a shapeshifter, mimicking one hero's DNPC friend who works at the museum, who took the stolen items (in a black suitcase) to a bus depot, put that into a locker and took a grey suitcase (with forged replicas) to plant in the poor schmuck's car trunk. The heroes check out the locker, finding it empty with no secret panel or hidden compartment, then pull the security camera tape and watch the switch, but nobody opens the locker before they got there. They check the tape for the camera that had a view of the lockers on the other side, and see a man reach in, apparently through the back of the locker, and pull the black suitcase out. Malarky: We'll tip off the police about both camera views. They'll see the guy pulling the suitcase out and should let Tom go. And the tape is unaltered... GM: (smiles malevolently) Malarky: ... well, we'll alter the part where we checked the locker... From security cameras, they see that the other theft was done by a man dressed in a Red Sox uniform, along with a woman dressed as a 1600's Puritan woman. GM (describing the Puritan woman, looks at Honey Badger's player): ... you kinda get that "naughty librarian" vibe. Honey Badger: (whimper) You're killing me. Pops (in secret ID) is interviewed by PRIMUS Lt. Williams, who is trying to pin down the location of the lab for The Professor, second-in-command of the Boston VIPER Nest. (It's a poorly-kept secret that the lab is somewhere on the MIT campus.) One of the players (I don't recall which one): The Professor? They should just look for stuff made out of coconuts. Lt. Williams' questions make it evident that he thinks Dr. Stevens (Pops) is up to something, but he doesn't come right out and say it, until... Lt. Williams: So, do you like being the professor? Dr. Stevens: It's pretty cool. You get to... wait, did you say the professor? You think I'm The Professor from VIPER? (rolls his eyes) Where do they get you people? Later that afternoon, Dr. Stevens meets with a woman (Allison Browning) trying to lure him to work for a private research firm (Boston Science and Innovations), founded by a former MIT professor kicked out about 7 years back after a prototype AI robot went berserk, killing a grad student. Pops: (to another player) Hush. I'm trying to become a mole in VIPER. (more to follow)

Soooo... We have a new winter storm approaching. Winter Storm Thor. I was wondering how much Marvel paid to have that name inserted into the list, and pointed out to my daughter that this begs the need to have Hurricane Hulk. She said, "No, we need Winter Storm Bucky. 'It'll be tough, but we'll have to Soldier on...'"

The knock was quiet, hesitant, as if the person outside wasn't sure this was the right door. Reginald, majordomo for the Morpheum Club, opened the door to see a young lady in a gingham dress with only a light cloth jacket to protect her from the cold outside. Her long brown hair was tied back with a red ribbon. "Good afternoon, miss. Please, step inside. You must be freezing out there." The girl nodded, her teeth chattering, and stepped inside, being careful not to brush against Reginald. "I... I'm not sure if I should have come here. He gave me this..." She showed Reginald a small business card, frayed at the edges and a bit stained with blood, with the Morpheum Club's address still readable under a bloody thumbprint. "... as he was dying. That, and this." She held up a brass pocket watch with a large bullet hole through it. "Who was it that gave you that card, miss? And that watch?" Reginald asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer. "He said his name was Nicky." "Young Nicholas." Reginald shook his head sadly, "And you say he died? A pity. Sir Graham was rather fond of the lad." As the girl's eyes began to tear up, Reginald went to take her arm and lead her into the study. "There, there, mi..." She tried to pull away, but wasn't able to before he touched her -- and then he disappeared. The girl sat on the floor and began to cry in earnest. "Why is this happening to me? What is happening? Where am I?" After a few minutes, Reginald reappeared, moving as he had been before he disappeared. "... ss. No need to..." He stopped, startled to find her now sitting on the floor a few feet away from him, and paused in thought. "Temporal displacement of others. Apparently involuntary. How fascinating," he said quietly, then knelt across from the girl. "Relax, child, you're safe here. No need for tears." He took out a handkerchief and let it drop onto her leg. "Where are you from, miss?" Taking a look at her clothing, and noting the way she jumped when a car horn sounded outside, he added, "And when -- what year was it before you arrived here?" "I'm from Oak Junction. Kansas Territory. And it's 1843." "Not at present," Reginald said kindly. "There's no easy way to say this, miss. You have been moved through time, to 2015. Apparently because of that." He nodded at the broken pocket watch. "But perhaps one of the members of the Club can help return you to your home, and your time." - - - - - Unfortunately, that hasn't worked yet. Every time Sarah Wilder was taken back to 1843, she immediately returned to 2015. Now known to the other club members by the nickname SkipTime, she is trying to get used to a completely different world. She has learned how to somewhat control her ability to make anybody touching her (or anything she touches with her hands) skip forward anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours forward in time. She can now keep from automatically "skipping" someone in time with minimal effort. With concentration and a little luck, she can specify how far forward she sends somebody. With extreme concentration and a lot of luck she's even been able to send someone else backwards in time (though not extremely far - the longest she's done is a few hours).

Keeping in mind that this is all in a game and so things don't necessarily have to 100% follow real-world logic and consequences... Anti-Oprah detractors would slam the "so-called supers" appearance as Hollywood smoke-and-mirrors and dismiss it all as a publicity stunt by Oprah's producers. Any bad guys who would benefit from keeping the superheroes from being believed in would throw their weight behind discrediting it all. Oprah would definitely push to have the heroes put in a repeat appearance, if for no other reason than to show that her people didn't fake anything. Once she and her people verify the heroes are for real, maybe arrange something outdoors, a public place with plenty of civilian targets witnesses. Invite her detractors to attend and share the stage with her, to prove it's all real. Of course, lots of advertising beforehand. (Can you say "super-fight on live TV"? I knew you could!)

(May Seeker and Paul Hogan both have mercy on my soul.) Finder is a full-blood Japanese man who traveled to the Australian outback and learned how to wrestle crocodiles and use aboriginal magic from a mystic master there. In his floppy shark-tooth hat, khaki pants and vest, and boots, he's quite the striking figure, even if he's a bit short. And his machete... now, that's a knife!

That fills out the team. Freakboy6117, would you like to propose the next team name, theme, and number of members?

For my new Champions campaign, set in Boston, I'm using parts of the 4th edition VIPER sourcebook. One thing from there is that the Nest Leader is technically Python, but much of the Boston Nest's work depends upon Python's second-in-command, a robotics expert named the Professor. (Of course, my players expect their characters to see a coconut-powered robot somewhere along the way.) To add my own twist to the Boston Nest, I added another lieutenant for Python: a young woman named Attache. My initial concept was a completely normal, if highly talented, young woman, to act as a professional rival to the Professor. She has since morphed into a woman who has one (relatively broadly-defined) power: she can teleport small objects from her "storage area" to her briefcase, valise, or pockets. She can also create objects from raw materials. (So if she had read a book at some point, her eidetic memory would allow her to create that book in her attache case. Or she can use her Forgery skill to create counterfeit money. I'm representing that overall power as a VPP with which she can make a Major Transform to create things from thin air. Or create a VIPER blaster pistol. Or create food. The actual writeup is: Variable Power Pool (30 pt. Pool, 50 pt. Control), Change as Half-Phase Action (+½), No Skill Roll Required (+1); Pool and all Slots at least IIF (-¼), Object Size Limited by Size of Space to Pull From (-¼), Slightly Limited Powers Available (must be something in her “storage area” or a mundane object she can clearly and completely visualize; -¼), Not work if Teleports blocked (-¼) Does this seem a reasonable and viable writeup for that ability? Or is there a better way to do this?

I'm thankful my daughter's high school was (and hopefully still is) an exception. When she was in middle school, she was one of five students in her class tested early in the school year and moved ahead a grade in math. Everyone in the group was female. That group of students stayed a grade ahead in math throughout the rest of their schooling; they were joined by two boys in high school who were similarly skilled in math. It was interesting watching how the group all supported and challenged each other to excel. FYI: my daughter is currently pursuing a degree in environmental engineering and considering a double major with mathematics. Wish I could claim some credit, but she's the one with all the focus and drive.

The Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl.

The more I consider Barry and Caitlin, the more I think it would be like Barry and Felicity: they may seem great for each other, and they could try, but ultimately they'd both decide the spark just wasn't there. Which is really a shame in both cases, because both women are nice, incredibly smart, incredibly attractive, and genuinely like him for the person he is.

Watching last night's episode, half of me was cursing Cisco for being so dumb, while the other half (my gamemaster half) was pointing out it was plot-necessary stupidity to line things up for the future. Last night's villain wasn't as great to me, but I'm loving the various other villain personalities, especially when considering their future as a Rogues Gallery. Imagining Captain Cold and Pied Piper and Captain Boomerang working together -- I wonder if all Flash will have to do is some fast talking (pun fully intended) to get them at each other's throats. "Really, Hartley? Taking orders from a thief with a cold gun? No wonder Dr. Wells sent you packing..." Drunk Caitlin was amusing. "You're a good guy. You deserve a peek."

In an attempt to head off calls for US registration of paranormals / metahumans / superpowered individuals, a coalition of American hero teams proposed a team be created to keep an eye on superhero activity. This group, known as Oversight, is composed of three superheroes plus three government and/or civilian representatives, with additional superheroes or government agents called in for short-term assignments as needed. (So a PC superhero might get asked to work with Oversight on a particular investigation or assignment.) Government / civilian reps are selected by US Congress, while superhero members are selected by the various hero teams participating in Oversight. Oversight is typically sent to look into superpowered activity at the President's request, but they regularly report to Congress on superhero activity. Active membership in Oversight rotates on an annual basis, so the postings here are for the current members. Examples of government or civilian reps could be US marshals, FBI agents, US military, federal prosecutors, Senate or House members, special investigators, journalists. Please provide info on either one of the three current superheroes, or one of the three current government / civilian reps assigned to Oversight.

Some heroes have super-vehicles to get from point A to point B quickly, or carry their spare weapons, criminology equipment, or what have you. As a speedster, Quickchange can typically run faster than his vehicle can travel, and he doesn't have extra weapons or exotic equipment to be lugged around. What he does have, however, is clothing. Hundreds of outfits, all of them designer originals. Plus accessories. And a half-dozen camera drones to record all the combinations and poses -- oh, and the crimefighting action as well, if you're into that sort of thing -- and show it on his own online marketing channel. Quickchange was a failed male model who leveraged his mutant speed powers into a nominal crimefighting career that is much more a sponsorship bonanza. He typically switches outfits several times each fight, and obviously plays to the cameras. (According to his critics, often at the expense of whatever investigation Team Fabulous is pursuing).

"Don't worry, boss. There's no reason for me to upload that video onto YouTube of what you did *before* painting yourself pink and climbing onto the roof. Unless, of course, I find myself unemployed and short on cash. By the way, can we talk about a raise?"

I'm almost positive it was a no-knock warrant. The guy they were going after was wanted for murder, for shooting and killing a teen two days before. I know it was technically the wrong address -- it's a two-story house split into two separate apartments, with two separate exterior doors at opposite ends of the front porch - one door leading upstairs to the flat they were raiding, and the other opening into the ground floor where the girl was shot and killed. The officers went in both doors during the raid. What gets me about this is that they were filming the raid for a reality show (A&E's "The First 48"). A Special Response Team (basically SWAT) conducted the raid, using flashbangs and SMGs. Unfortunately, the TV show cameras were outside and didn't get the shooting on film, so it comes down to he-said, she-said -- the officer (Joseph Weekley) said the girl's grandmother jumped up and smacked his gun, causing him to pull the trigger and shoot the girl. The grandmother says she was on the floor when the gun went off. Weekley is no green cop. During the first trial, he said he's served 300 warrants during his seven years on the SRT at the time of the shooting, and has been first man through the door for about 100 of those. So this is somebody quite experienced. And has appeared multiple times on "The First 48." The cynical side of me is wondering whether the raid being filmed had an effect on the mindset and conduct of officers conducting the raid. Something like, "Gotta make this look good - it's gonna be on national TV."

How's this one for obscure? On the surface, Project: Orbital was simply one of PRIMUS' early studies of how superheroes came about. Beneath the top-secret clearance, however, was a plan to create their own hand-picked team of super-patriots. Agent George Wood was one of Orbital's test subjects. After rather painful year-long exposure to gamma rays, cosmic rays, and injections with various experimental serums, Wood developed relatively low-level light powers, including the ability to generate semi-solid light "refraction balls" that could redirect ranged attacks. Unfortunately, the pain of the procedures drove Wood insane. When he heard that PRIMUS considered him a danger and was going to lock him away, Wood escaped. On the run from the authorities, he took the name Refractor and began a life of crime, vowing that some day PRIMUS would pay for what they did to him. While not a very powerful energy projector, the rest of the 3-D Six like the fact that he helps protect them from enemy attacks.

Must... resist urge... to make joke... about things being... fully inflated... Guys will pay attention to more than the commercials during halftime. NT: surprising things people are going to bet on during the Super Bowl, other than anything related in any way to the game itself.

New Team: The 3-D Six These six villains were once fictional characters, literally comic book RPG villains, until they came to life one day. They refuse to say how that happened, but apparently it's a short-term thing because any of them that get captured seem to disappear after a handful of hours, only to appear somewhere else, hale and hearty, days later. (Pick an obscure Champions character, file off the serial numbers and rename him/her, but put the original character's name in a Spoiler tag. Bonus points if people can't figure out who the original character is until they check the Spoiler.) For anyone who don't know how to do a Spoiler, put {Spoiler} {/Spoiler} tags, but with square brackets instead of curly brackets.

"He's short, he's cheesy, he's very hard to please-y!" (cue obviously fake laugh track) "Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the world famous magician, back from another failed tour of Lost Angeles and If-Only-It-Were-Lost Vegas -- Reductio!" (cut applause, even more obviously fake since it starts in the middle of the clapping and cuts off just as unrealistically) Reductio (his full villain name is Reductio Ad Absurdum) is 3' 6" of bad puns, poorly executed stage tricks, twisted ego, and the dangerously powerful mutant ability to transmute himself and others. While his abilities are by no means restricted to changing a person's size -- he can grow wings, for instance, or claws -- he seems to get a particular thrill over turning a person's feet, hands, head, or other body parts either abnormally small or overly large. (The Champions still talk about Reductio's boob job on Ironclad and Witchcraft's "big hair day.") Since these transformations (never for more than 20 minutes, and usually for just a handful of seconds) do not suffer from problems with blood circulation, people had thought they were actually mass mental illusions, but that has proven not to be the case. Contrary to his public persona and general actions, Reductio actually is quite intelligent. If forced into it, he knows how to use his powers quite dangerously -- say, shrinking a person's lungs to the point that they can hardly breathe, or blind and deafen people by making their skin cover their eyes and ears. But he generally takes the "ad absurdum" part to heart and often does things with his powers that are only moderately effective.

If it's any consolation, BoneDaddy, there's a decent chance that having to work harder to learn will make her better prepared in the long run. Give her better study skills, help her find ways to retain things better, than someone to whom learning comes easy. And she won't take education for granted like many do. And having someone on her side, like it's apparent that she does, is not something to discount either.

Before my question, a little background: I'm running a Morrow Project Hero game on RPoL -- for those who don't know, MP is a post-apocalypse game where teams are trained, outfitted, and frozen before the coming war so they can help rebuild after the worst has passed. However, instead of waking up a few years afterward as planned, they wake up over a century later on their own. In my game, 130 years after the big one. In the original MP game world, teams were frozen in the 1970s and early 80s, with the war happening in 1989. I altered the war's start to 2016, with most of the current team having been frozen in 2014 but the knew that some Morrow teams had been frozen decades earlier. However, the PCs are going to be communicating by radio with another Morrow person who was originally frozen in 1975, then woken up in 2014 for retraining and re-equipping, before being re-frozen in 2015. So he has extensive early 1970s knowledge, and just a smattering of 2010s info (some of which may be misconceptions). He also has good reason to be paranoid and not implicitly trust that they are who they say they are. So he's going to ask them questions to make sure they're the real McCoy. I'm figuring he'll ask when they were frozen, and who was president then. Maybe a question or two specific to the Morrow Project, though different teams had different training, and a lot of the Project was top secret, so the teams won't know a lot of the inner workings or details. He'll want to ask a trick question or two (maybe "who was the first woman president"), to see how they answer. (And he's a crotchety old man, which will color his interaction with them. I plan to have some fun with this.) What other questions might somebody like that ask to make sure the PC team is who they say they are?

The leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties are betting which of them can trash United States's principles and international reputation faster and more thoroughly. Thus far it's a dead heat.