BoloOfEarth

Some more hopefully constructive feedback - on Heavy Metal: His Multipower has a Limitation of "Invisible to sight, not underwater or in vacuum". Invisible to Sight would be an Advantage, not a Limited Power. I dropped that part entirely and made the limitation "Does not work underwater or in vacuum". One could easily make the argument that sound still travels through water, so that should actually be two Limitations: Does not work in vacuum (-1/4) and Half damage when underwater (-1/4). His Mental Blast really should be bought as Alternate CV: OCV vs. DCV (+0). No point difference, but OMCV vs. DMCV doesn't really fit for a sonic attack. I added a slot: Ballad of Insanity. Basically the same as the Song of Insanity, but with AoE Cone. Moan of Death, as written you forgot the All or Nothing part if having deafness as the alternate defense. Personally, I'd make keep it an AVAD (vs. Flash Defense [Hearing], so Very Common > Uncommon), not NND, and add a Limitation that it doesn't work at all vs. deaf / deafened people. For the Roadkill Grenades AoE: Explosion, you should increase the radius to accommodate the decreasing damage. So, for an 8d6 Blast, that would be 18m radius. As to Complications, there's nothing saying you have to cut them down to 75 points or so, but that's all a 400-point character needs, and I've found that converting characters from 4th or 5th Edition to 6th Edition is a good excuse to get rid of some deadwood in the Disad department. So I'd drop at least the Hunted by father and the Addiction, if not others.

(Bolding added above) Because, y'know, with over 200 pages of character sheets and info, you need some fluff in there to bring the page count up. What Mike's not saying is that Foxbat hacked his computer, and 58,000 of the words are variations on "Foxbat rocks!", "Foxbat rules!", "Foxbat for President! For Real This Time!" and "Foxbat is so not lame, you poopy head Defender!"

Right after 6th Edition came out, I did a handful of character conversions. And I recently looked back at them and had a few "WTF Was I Thinking Back Then" moments. None of us are immune from the learning curve. And you're very welcome. Keep up the good work.

Hermit had an excellent idea in the SAT, WITCH, CLOWN, and Other Forgotten Orgs thread (http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90124-sat-witch-clown-and-other-forgoten-orgs/) for updating CLOWN: I'm putting Hermit's idea into effect in my game. I've already added a news item about CLOWN to my in-game newspaper: after a major identity theft of account holders' private information from a major bank's credit card division, CLOWN covers the bank's skyscraper with pasted credit card applications during the night -- and then, while people gather to gawk the next day, CLOWN performs a fly-by and air-drops hundreds of credit card applications filled out with the personal information for the bank's major officers. I don't want to hijack this thread for CLOWN; I'm just pointing out that, with the right approach, a lot of unpopular groups (like CLOWN and Road Kill) can be perfectly useful in a game.

Ghost-angel has a fair point about the disparity of defenses. However, in fairness to rjd59, the original writeups were similarly broken. Heavy Metal had decent defenses (20/10 PD and 16/10 ED), Screech's were insane (38/30 PD, 37/30 ED force field from stage keyboards, or 23/15 PD, 17/10 force field from portable keyboard), Axeman and Boomer had no resistant defenses at all (if they didn't deflect a ranged attack, they'd be toast), Ted was brick-tough (36/18 PD, 20/10 ED), and Sparks was one superhero attack away from the ICU (6/0 PD, 5/0 ED). I got the impression that the original writer of Road Kill had very little sense of character balance, but this wasn't unique to that module. There were several modules that suffered from poor grasp of the rules (I recall a character, I think in European Enemies, who had an Energy Blast with an Increased STUN Modifier) or game balance. As with any published group, I used Road Kill's writeups as mere guidelines and redid 3/4 of the writeups myself. Critiquing the defenses in rjc59's writeups presented here, I'd replace Heavy Metal's Damage Negation with straight Resistant Protection; Screech's force fields really shouldn't be bought as Barriers but as Resistant Protection (though I'd add a Barrier slot into the Stage Keyboards as that is totally fitting); Axeman's defenses (or relative lack thereof) are completely true to the original character but I plan to boost them some; Boomer's VIPER force field fits the background (and I plan to include that in my version) even though it wasn't in the original writeup; Ted's Damage Negation is over the top (I'd go with a mix of Resistant Protection plus Damage Negation, though much lower than rjc59 has), and my comments on Sparks' defenses would be exactly the same as for Axeman.

Some superpowered individuals have the ability to summon copies of themselves from other dimensions, giving them the ability to seemingly duplicate themselves. Malcolm Archer has a similar mutation, though he summons his alternate selves into himself, making him increasingly fatter (and stronger and tougher) the more he pulls into himself. The process has an unusual side effect -- he also gains any skills and knowledge those alternate selves possess, depending upon which versions of himself he merges with. Others dubbed him Mammoth Mal, a name which has unfortunately stuck with him. An angry young man, Mal was more than happy to join the team when Tessie approached him.

Robert Morton used to fight crime as the brilliant tactician and skill mimic TacMaster, until an errant SWAT team's sniper bullet left him paralyzed from the waist down. He now works from a wheelchair, studying superpowered individuals (both hero and villain) and organizations (both government and criminal) so he can train teams of agents to work better with a client hero or team's tactics and exploit their more frequent foes' weaknesses. In addition to his ability to analyze an individual's fighting style, TacMaster can psionically imprint skills he has learned onto others on a somewhat temporary basis. (Transferred skills last about a month before fading, unless the recipient spends time training [aka spends points] to make the skill permanent.) Thus, he can quickly ramp an agent team up to a client's specifications, while having those agents start on a training regimen to keep those skills long-term.

The popularity and influence of the Kardashians.

New Team: We've had groups in the Villain Theme Team thread that provide services to villain groups -- but what about on the heroic side? The not-for-profit group Hero Support trains and provides agents, weapons, armor, equipment, vehicles, base construction, legal aid, financial and other services to hero groups across the world. Who are the four heroes who formed this organization? (Since this isn't in the Villain Theme Team thread, I'd prefer that they not have villainous intent, though members may have selfish reasons for doing what they do, if the poster so desires.)

William Wilson's grandfather (a very wealthy and selfish man) was cursed by a gypsy long ago -- "May you and all your descendants face woes and misery all the day long." The family soon became poor, with accidents and illness befalling each of them. It wasn't until William Wilson's father, Reginald, that anybody figured out that difficulties only happened from sunrise to sunset (yes, even gypsies have to be careful how they word curses). So he worked only at night, inventing things that he turned over to his in-laws to sell during the day (giving Reginald a cut of the profits). It took decades, but Reginald slowly but surely rebuilt his family's fortunes. William inherited his father's technical expertise and continues as his father did, working at night. However, William also traveled to Europe (flying at night) and consulted gypsies to find a way to break the curse. Eventually, one proposed that William might do so by positive action -- she said that selflessness and heroic deeds might make up for the wrongs his grandfather did, and the original gypsy's spirit might approve of this and free his family. So he built a battlesuit with which to fight crime and do good. However, to keep his curse from causing accidents with his battlesuit that might hurt innocent bystanders, Goodwill only works at night.

Think about it the other way -- so many villains with Unluck, all in one place. A natural disaster is bound to strike eventually.

In my upcoming campaign, I'm making Stronghold temporarily hamstrung. Much of the structure and defenses are badly damaged and are being rebuilt, most of the guards are new to Stronghold and fairly inexperienced in dealing with supers, etc. Basically, a plan by the Empress of a Billion Dimensions to remove the supers from the campaign world (to make it easier for her to take over) went awry. A bunch of supers disappeared from their cells in Stronghold, many of which were replaced by a bunch of new supers from another world. Unfortunately, those new supers had powers different from what those cells were designed to suppress or resist. Cue one mass escape and super-riot that destroyed much of the super-prison and left many of the guards either dead or badly injured.

Ha! Love it! Just curious, have you ever played in one of Dave Mattingly's BYOB (Bring Your Own Brick) games at GenCon or any other convention?

I ran a campaign arc involving psionic aliens trying to start a war with Earth. At the beginning of the arc, a particularly not-nice alien prince was captured and put into Stronghold. (He had "mind-raped" a high-ranking UNTIL officer and had sensitive top-secret info, so the powers-that-be didn't want to just let the prince go.) The PCs were called to assist when alien ships attacked the super-prison, ostensibly to rescue the prince but actually to let a bunch of prisoners free and mind control the most powerful and easily-duped supervillain they could find (in this case, Grond) to kill the prince, giving them justification to declare war with Earth. (The whole plan was concocted by a younger prince in an attempt to get his older brothers killed off to put him next in line for the throne.) By the time the heroes arrived at Stronghold, there were over a dozen supervillains loose inside the prison, along with alien troopers and heavily armed spaceships to contend with. It was a grand melee, with the PC mentalist the only one who knew, but couldn't prove, that Grond was mind-controlled by one of the aliens to kill the prince.

By challenging him to a fencing duel. (Different kind of foil! Ha!) NT: Against all odds and logic, Foxbat's next Master Plan has succeeds and he's now Extremely Cool Absolute Ruler of Earth! What is the first thing he does with his new-found fame and power?

I've never seen Smallville or Gotham. Only watched two full episodes of Arrow. One was the Flash crossover. And the other was the Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak. Because, y'know, Felicity Smoak.

A businessman is on a flight from LA to NYC, eager to get to a dinner meeting with an important client. About an hour into the flight the pilot reports over the intercom, "Folks, I wanted to inform you that we've been having a problem with one of our engines since takeoff, and we've decided to shut it down. However, this airliner has four engines, and can easily fly with only three engines, so we've decided to continue on to our destination. Unfortunately, we'll be moving slightly slower, so we'll be a half hour late to our destination. We apologize for the inconvenience." The businessman is upset, but knows there's nothing he can do, so he sits there and steams. A while later, the intercom comes back on. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot. We've just lost another engine. Don't worry, this airliner can stay aloft quite easily on two engines. We considered rerouting to a nearby airport, but the weather across the Midwest isn't very good right now, so we decided to continue on to New York. However, this will make us about an hour later than our scheduled arrival. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and be assured the airline will help with rescheduling any connecting flights." The businessman is even more upset, as he realizes he may be late for his dinner meeting. As the airliner is passing over Pennsylvania, the pilot comes back over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to say that we've just lost our third engine. Most of the airports in the region are completely snowed in except LaGuardia, so we're going to keep heading in. Don't worry folks, this is one of the best airliners around, it can still land safely with only one engine. However, we're going to be even later - I can't really give you an exact estimate on exactly when we'll land, but it may be an hour and a half past our scheduled arrival time." Meanwhile, the angry businessman sends a quick text to a colleague, telling him he'll likely miss the dinner meeting entirely. As the plane is nearing New Jersey, the intercom goes on again. "Folks, we just lost our last engine..." At this, the businessman screams in frustration. "THAT'S JUST GREAT! Now we're going to be up here all day!"

Now you're just trying to pi... Oh, cra... This whole thread is going down the toi... Never mind.

Be aware, that's the quality of joke you're going to get if you keep up with the puns.

Can't remember if I've told this one here, and with the Search disabled I can't check, so I'll assume not. A man walks into a bar, walks up to the bartender, and says, "I'll bet you a beer I can bite my left eye." It's a slow day and the bartender's bored, so he shrugs and says, "Sure, why not?" And the man takes his glass eye out and bites it, then wipes it and puts it back in. The bartender laughs and pours him a beer. The man takes a drink and says, "Okay, now I'll bet you $50 I can bit my right eye." The bartender pauses before answering. The man walked in on his own, didn't seem blind, and looking close it certainly looks like a real eye. Finally, he says, "Okay, fine. Let's see you try." And the guy takes out his false teeth and uses them to "bite" his right eye. "Okay, fine, you tricked me," says the bartender as he hands the guy the money. The man thanks him, takes his beer, and has a seat. He uses some of the money to buy a round of drinks for the few people there, then strikes up a conversation with the four guys at the table next to his. After about a half hour, the man walks back up to the bartender. "How'd you like a chance to win back your money, and then some?" The bartender cautiously asks, "How?" "Well, I have incredible control of my ability to pee. In fact, I'll bet you $100 I can stand on that end of the bar, and you could stand on the other end with a shot glass, and I can pee and get every drop in the glass." The bartender looks incredulous. The bar is over 20 feet long, and he's sure nobody's ever pissed that far, let alone with any accuracy. But he'd been burned by this guy before, so he figures there's some trick to it. "No deal. You've got some trick up your sleeve." The guy chuckles. "It's not my sleeve the trick's up, believe me. Tell you what, we'll up it to $200 and you can move the glass any way you like to try keeping me from getting any in it." The bartender thinks long and hard about it, but he can't see any way the guy can trick him. So finally he says, "All right, you've got a bet." So the man climbs onto the bar, and the bartender moves to the other end with a shot glass. The man unzips his fly and begins to pee. At first, the bartender starts moving the glass, but the guy isn't even coming close. After a moment, the man say, "Okay, fine, you win," zips up his fly, and climbs down. He hands the bartender $200, which gets tucked into a pocket before the bartender grabs a towel and begins cleaning off the bar. Chuckling and shaking his head, the bartender says, "You had to know you couldn't do it. Why'd you make that bet?"

As I mentioned, I've only featured them in my games a few times. Mostly they're background noise - a news item here or there, mostly for comic relief. However, I am starting a new Champions campaign. One of the (female) PCs is in a band, and another one owns a bar/night club where that band frequently performs. All of the NPC members of the band have (relatively minor) powers. So you can bet Road Kill is going to put in an appearance, purely to be irritating. (cracks knuckles) Looks like I need to write some more Road Kill lyrics. How does You Make Me Wanna Hurl sound as a song title? Or how about Bite Me, You Skank? (Yeah, I know those both sound punk rather than heavy metal. See my prior comment on Road Kill not even getting the concept of heavy metal right.) Many thanks, rjd59, for updating them. I'll likely make changes so they can more properly irritate my players, but even so this saves me a ton of work.

Heh. What you see as a bug, I see as a feature. Y'see, I always portrayed Road Kill as a group of powered-up losers, so them not even being able to get the basic concept of a heavy metal band correct actually works for me. Funny you should mention Weird Al. One of the few times an adventure in my games featured Road Kill, they were going after Weird Al for doing a parody of one of their songs. (I know he always asks permission first, so I figured the band's manager gave Al permission without asking the band.) The players thought it incredibly cool that their PCs not only got to meet Weird Al, but that they ended up with a Favor from him after saving his life.

When the Crimson Cosmonaut tried to mind control the United States from his lunar base back in the late 1970s, he might have succeeded if not for the quick actions of the newly-formed hero team Near Earth Orbit. However, while CC's lunar base and most of his lunar satellites were destroyed by the heroes, one satellite was damaged but survived. It housed a device that broadcast a special empowering energy, keyed to CC's physiology. The NEO heroes were never able to figure out why the Cosmonaut grew in power during the night; they simply locked him in a special cell and didn't think much about it. The chance that someone else would share a close enough physiology to be affected by his Empowering Beam is pretty slim: about one in a few billion. Stacy Keenan is that lucky individual. As soon as the lunar satellite rises over the horizon, she becomes much stronger, agile, faster, and tougher than normal. It also affects the brain in odd ways, making her very happy-go-lucky and fun-loving. (She's like a manic brick-speedster.) As soon as the satellite's beam is blocked, however, the effect fades and Stacy is soon back to normal. The satellite is orbiting the moon in such a way that the Earth is in the Empowering Beam's path from about midnight to 9 am, so that is pretty much Stacy's window of operation. She decided to become a superheroine after one of the Daytimers saved her from a burning building. Taking the name Luna-Tic, she joined the Night Shift to get training and experience in becoming a superheroine before she eventually strikes out on her own.

Cal Orbach was your normal couch potato gamer dude, playing with his XBox and Wii and Playstation all day and night. His atrocious appetite and complete lack of exercise led to him becoming grossly, morbidly obese. And his constant game playing, only interacting with others online and most often in PvP, led to his utter lack of social skills. Needless to say, he also has horrid hygeine; that, plus his odious personal habits, make him repulsive to be around for any length of time. Cal would have continued in this mode if not for a freak lightning storm. A surge of electricity blew out his game consoles and flowed through the controller into Cal, causing an amazing transformation. Cal discovered that, by simply holding a game cartridge, he could gain the powers and abilities of any character in the game (yes, even opposing NPCs, though he can only take on the mantle of a "boss" character if he has defeated that character in a game). Nobody knows how a 400+ pound man can do incredible martial arts stunts as if he was in peak athletic trim, but somehow he can. He can also summon weapons, equipment, and even vehicles from the game. (Actually, they're psychokinetic constructs, but Cal insists he "summons 'em from the game.") It takes Cal a bit of extra time to switch characters, and even longer to switch games, so he typically stays as one of a select few favorite characters, but in a pinch he can switch to an obscure character, especially if that character has an unusual power set that Cal requires. After spending maybe 5 seconds considering becoming a superhero, Cal decided to embark on a life of crime as Gamer Dude. His first run-in with a superhero led him to seek out Tons of Fun. As long as the crimes don't interfere with his gaming (especially after a new game release), he's perfectly happy to use his powers to help out.

He drives over you the next time you ask him whether he's the guy that created the Chrysler Lebaron. NT: Stan Lee's surprising cameo in an upcoming Marvel movie (Ant Man, Age of Ultron, Dr. Strange, etc.)