BoloOfEarth

Many thanks, everybody, for lots of great ideas, as well as things to think about overall. FYI, I altered some of the villains' backgrounds and origin stories to fit the whole Paranormal Flux thing, as well as modifying some of their powers somewhat (particularly the 3rd edition characters to bring them up to 6th edition, plus some tweaks to make some of them a bit more useful or rounding them out a bit). So if I mention something that doesn't match the original character 100%, that's why. Regarding Southern California, I don't want to have too much going on down there that might involve the players' hero team (the Golden Gate Guardians, by the way), since LA has their own NPC hero team (Angel Force), with whom the PC heroes have made an effort to have a pretty good working relationship. But I can always have goings-on down there appear in the news, with things eventually tying into something going on in the San Francisco area. Since the Guardians have recently gotten official sanctioning from the city of San Francisco, that alone could make them "tools" and targets in the eyes of the Dissidents. And Rainbow Warrior being on the Board of Supervisors give her extra "stooge" status. I've had the heroes accompany a prisoner transfer from the High Desert State Prison in upstate California down to Alcatraz Prison (it's being turned into a super-prison, and the refurbishment is partially complete). If the Dissidents attack legal weapon shipments, the government might ask the Guardians to accompany a future weapons shipment, particularly if it's bound for another country and sailing out of San Fran. I didn't think about the Dissidents wanting to recruit any of the heroes but that's a good idea. (In a past campaign, VIPER tried to recruit one of the PC heroes. That was a blast to run.) And with Echo around, the Dissidents can figure out if the hero tries to play along just to set up an ambush. Could be quite interesting... I like the idea of the Dissidents going after a San Fran-based biotech firm - they have Dragonfly (who was transformed by a lab accident and hates being a 'freak'), Flower (who is convinced she got her powers from a covered-up leak at a nuclear reactor when a different supervillain team stole some fuel rods. There wasn't a leak, but good luck convincing her of that. It's all a cover-up!) and Titaness (who lost a lot of friends due to a company dumping toxic waste near their commune). Maybe target that company, kidnap some scientists and steal equipment / chemicals / other supplies to try and restore Dragonfly and Flower to normal. (Not sure whether Titaness would want to give up their powers, though.) If the heroes learn about the toxic waste dumping, that even ties into Sundog's idea of adding some mental conflict for the heroes. For the future, I like DT's idea of mining NCIS for ideas. It's been a while since I watched the original NCIS, and didn't really follow either NCIS-LA or New Orleans, but I can do some research online. From what I recall of the original I should be able to find an idea or two to steal borrow with appropriate alterations. As to someone manipulating the Dissidents, I do have some demons who are trying to make life difficult for Angel, and already manipulated another metahuman group (Divine Right, a group of fortunetelling supes, not quite villains but not quite heroes either) into facing off against the Guardians. Tricking the Dissidents into doing the same sounds like it would be up their alley. Again, thanks, everybody, for some great ideas.

In case it helps, the hero player characters in my campaign are: Angel - female actual angel with wings and martial arts skills, also Streetwise (and a bit of Wealth, for some strange reason) Escudar - male Hispanic martial artist with Code vs. Killing and gets enraged at people harming the weak and innocent; sneaky but no real streetwise or investigative skills yet Flux - female interior designer with vibration powers (blasts, flight, vibration-based radar, has Conversation skill Jack Frost - the "Face" of the group, a male attention hound with cold/ice powers and major musical talents Rainbow Warrior - non-gendered public ID (is on the Board of Supervisors for the city) with light powers (blasts, teleport, invisibility, holograms), has Bureaucratics, Conversaton, Persuasion, and Streetwise skills Techtronic - male technopath with cyberkinesis / electrokinetic powers (taser-style Entangle, machine psionics, camera vision), has Electronics and hacking-type skills Thumper - male brick able to manipulate his own size and density (so, growth and shrinking, density increase, desolid), very wealthy with minor noncombat skills (Conversation, Stealth) but not much in the investigative field They have an "office manager" (Wally Burke) who has the metahuman talent that he can frequently (but not always) hear local police band transmissions - from about 15 minutes in the future. So the team often gets a heads-up when things are going on, with enough notice to hopefully arrive in time to save the day.

I've decided to introduce the Dissidents to my Champions campaign, set in San Francisco. The premise of my game world is that it was very similar to our own world until about 3 years ago when an event (called the Paranormal Flux) caused a number of people to get superpowers. A small number (say, a fraction of 1%) got full suites of powers, while significantly more (say, 5%) got minor powers (5 STR TK) or only one useful power (like, say, 30 STR or x-ray vision). So now the world is turning more and more into a comic book-style world, with megalomaniacal superhumans trying to carry off plots that are "sheer elegance in their simplicity" (which is often utter BS). The Dissidents were a supervillain team from 4th edition, introduced in the Champions Universe and made up of characters from 1st through 4th edition. For those who aren't familiar with them: Lady Blue (from Classic Enemies) - team co-leader, female; magnetic/force field powers from a self-designed battlesuit make her a flying brick with an energy blast, has Code vs. Killing and a concern for the poor and homeless Cold Warrior (from Classic Organizations) - team co-leader, male; cold / ice powers from self-designed battle armor; Russian expatriate; Protects innocents and Hatred of war/military Titaness (from 3E Enemies: Villainy Unbound) - female growth brick with limited-use electrical attacks; determined to destroy society Dragonfly (from 4E Corebook / BBB) - male scientist transformed into bug-man; has flight and bioelectric sting; metes out "justice" and hates his bug-like appearance Mongoose (from Classic Enemies) - male martial artist, fun-loving swashbuckling showoff Rainbow Archer (from Classic Enemies) - female speedster archer with trick arrows; has Code vs. Killing and Overconfidence, robs from the rich and gives to the poor... and herself Bluejay (from 4E Corebook / BBB) - female with flying battlesuit and sonic powers; has Code vs. Killing and won't endanger innocents; since my world's VIPER-analogue is only just starting out, I removed them from her background and just made her Greedy. Flower (from 3E Enemies: Villainy Unbound) - female hippie able to transform into a ball of energy that can fly around bashing targets has Code vs. Killing and an urge to correct every wrong, sees all issues in black and white Echo (from 3E Enemies: Villainy Unbound) - female former Russian spy with mental powers based on making the target remember past info or relive past events; mirrors traits/desires of those whose minds she's read To quote from 4th edition CU: "The Dissidents have begun working together to attack what they see as the real enemies of the world - the military/industrial complex and major business conglomerates. They often clash regarding methods (some are definitively more blood-thirsty and/or careless than others), but all in all, they get along." I'm seeing them as an overly-aggressive socially-conscious group, and already introduced them in the news, having attacked a Northrup Grumman facility where they're building replacements for the Minuteman III ICBMs. While I could easily go the environmentalist / eco-terrorism route with the Dissidents, I'd rather avoid that as I already have two other supervillain teams that run along those lines. Other than attacking defense contractors, any idea what other plots I could use the Dissidents for? I'm trying to think of some multi-part plot but am drawing a blank on anything I haven't done before. I thought of the Dissidents kidnapping a company's CEO / executives / major stockholders and demanding the company redistribute some wealth to the poor / divest itself of factories in poorer countries who employ children / cease creating dangerous or addictive Product X. However, the wealth of Code vs. Killings above means they can't exactly threaten to kill their hostages, so what could they threaten them with? Has anyone used the Dissidents or these characters in the past? If so, what sort of things have you done with them? I'm open to any ideas people might have.

A Megascale Presence Attack?! I must have missed that one.

(sigh) Giraffes are a measure of height or length. T-Rexes are a measure of weight. Asking how to convert from T-Rexes to giraffes is like asking how to convert from ducks to windmills.

Is that the one he wore on the sound stage where they filmed the lunar landing? (just kidding - don't want Buzz to show up and punch me)

My daughter pointed out that Netflix is carrying the first two seasons of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. We had watched many an episode together when she was just a kid, so I binge watched it for nostalgia. I enjoyed it a lot. Loved Gordy, the janitor -- I also had enjoyed seeing that actor in both Veronica Mars and iZombie.

Yep. Our republic might as well die by political violence as well.

"Purrfect for Jewish Cats!"

At times, I do wonder whether I'm still alive, or if I actually died at some point relatively recently and am "living" in my slowly fading imagination and memory. Other than that, I'm of a mind with Ragitsu. If I'm a construct created by someone else, then either they're not very ambitious / imaginative or I was created as part of some class team project where the team members are pretty much half-assing it.

Don't tempt the GOP. I'm sure they'd love to show us.

Once, there was a lumberjack who wandered into a magical forest. As he swung his axe, the tree said “don’t cut me down, I’m a talking tree!” The lumberjack replied, “and you will dialogue.”

Evil Does Eventually Die: a scathing obituary.

I told my wife that I still have it -- two women were checking me out while I was shopping, particularly about my rear end and my waistline. One said, "What a waste!" and the other said, "What an a**!"

If it sinks just a little bit more, until the "NO" is obscured, it'll be fine. (Might need to list to port so that side is obscured, though.)

"Profanity cheapens the soul and weakens the mind." "If we don't find an antidote, her heart's going to explode like a sausage casing full of weasels." "Do you have any idea how much of the Earth is made up of... earth?"

Yay! Another installment! Less than a week after my birthday, so I'm calling it a birthday present. Woot!

The heroes on pogo sticks, chasing after bad guys on unicycles. Over and around the burning wrecks of automobiles, naturally.

The President wants to pick Foxbat's mind on what he might expect from the Group of Opposing Politicians in the coming months. He figures their antics are about on a par with Foxbat's Master Plan.

I added it to the Thread for Random Videos.

I loved the entire series, and am bummed that was the only season. Though I did enjoy the ComicCon table read of the never-filmed 13th episode. "Clarence?!"

Oh, fooey. That's exactly what a supervillain would say.

For my birthday today, my wife bought me the complete series of The Middle Man. Watched the first three episodes with the wife and kids. They loved it, as did I.

Wait, you were Photoshopped in, too?!