BoloOfEarth

I think she was referring to the sweet taste of victory over her foes. I've learned it's better not to ask.

Yesterday at dinner, I filled a glass with water, and then squirted in some MiO Black Cherry. As the dark red spread through the water, my youngest daughter (our would-be supervillain) said, "It looks like the blood of my enemies." I took a sip and said, "Mmmmmm... but this tastes sweeter." With a deadpan expression, she replied, "You don't know that."

Garble has the mutant ability to scramble a person's thoughts, hearing, and speech, making communication practically impossible. He isn't very close to the other members of Clatter, since his own speech is so garbled as to be nearly impossible to understand. He used to be a member of the Foxbat Five -- for some reason, Foxbat is the only person who seemed able to innately understand what Garble says -- but left the team after a disagreement with the Cowled Crusader. - - - - - - - - - - I've used this idea for a villain team in a past Champions campaign, but let's see what the people here come up with. The Alexandrian Order is a group of 6-7 individuals who use magic items to try and hinder DEMON. However, their view that "the end justifies the means" has caused them to commit many criminal acts and harm a few innocents, making them villains in nearly everybody's eyes. Each member should specialize almost exclusively in one type of magic item: - Potions - Scrolls / spellbooks - Rings - Wands - Rods / staves - Weapons / Armor - Wondrous Items - Runes - Artifacts - Intelligent Items

Tony Graham was bitten by a werewolf while on a camping trip with several college friends. However, the alcohol and recreational drugs in his system caused unusual changes in his lycanthropy: Tony turns into a wolf at sunrise, any day, and returns to human form at sunset. (The only exception to that is a full eclipse, when he turns human for the duration of the eclipse.) Luckily for Tony, he retains his intelligence in wolf form. Unluckily for him, he only has animal intelligence in his human form. As Sunwolf, he aids the Daytimers as their close-combat specialist. He's taken classes in Tae Kwan Do and is a pretty good martial artist. (And even he has to admit it's amusing to see a bipedal wolf in a martial arts gi practicing the tiger stance.)

No offense meant, wcw, but I'd have to question how "cautious or prepared" a person is who leaves a kid in a running car to run an errand. Even on a very cold winter day it's not like the car is going to turn freezing in a minute or two with the engine off, and if her errand was going to take longer than that, she shouldn't have left the kid alone in the car, period. (Personally, I don't agree with leaving the kid alone in the car even for just a minute or two. When my kids were small, the only time they were in the car when I wasn't was when I got out just long enough to get the mail from the communal mailboxes, and the car was not running and was in plain sight, just a handful of steps away the whole time. Otherwise, the kids went where I went, even in the midst of a hard Michigan winter.)

You discover that the date on your Rose Bowl tickets is the day after the game is actually played.

Once again, Hermit stuns us not only with a creative character concept but also an evocative backstory. Well done. I hope this character's powers aren't too sonic-y; I was going more with the concept of resonance. The son of a classical pianist and an opera singer, Jimmy Turner always wanted to be able to sing well, but his voice was at best pedestrian, and was most often slightly out of tune. His father attempted to help him overcome this mild tone-deafness with practice and many instrumental aids, including a selection of tuning forks. One day, after a particularly bad singing lesson, Jimmy was idly playing around with his tuning forks when he notice that each seemed to glow with a different colored aura when struck. His parents and siblings couldn't see this aura, but Jimmy knew it was there. As he looked around, he also notice that various objects also had slight auras to them. Curious, he looked at a stainless steel frying pan, with its tourmaline aura, and selected a tuning fork that had a similar aura when struck. Placing the foot of the fork against the bottom of the pan, he struck the fork -- and the pan cracked as if struck by a powerful force. With practice, Jimmy found he could see the resonant frequency of most objects. And by placing the matching tuning fork against the object, he could cause tremendous damage to that object. This worked best when dealing with thing of fairly homogenous composition; complex things made of various substances or parts (like living beings or intricate machines) have multi-hued auras and the results of "tuning into" them often produce less dramatic results. This would have been merely an interesting ability had Jimmy not also been the target of several bullies at school, the worst being Tom Denning. After one particularly humiliating encounter (where Denning dumped Jimmy naked in a dumpster behind the school), Jimmy became fed up and sought revenge. He sneaked up behind Denning, selected the tuning fork most matching one of the colors in the boy's aura, surreptitiously placed it against the base of the bully's skull, and plucked the fork tines. The resulting tone wasn't particularly loud, but it resonated with part of Tom Denning's brain and caused him to fall to the ground unconscious, When the school nurse was unable to bring Denning conscious again, he was rushed to the hospital, where they discovered that he had intense damage to parts of his brain. Since nobody else saw what Jimmy had done, everybody thought the damage was caused by a massive stroke. But Jimmy knew the truth. And rather than feeling remorse at crippling the bully, Jimmy felt flush with the power. He has since used his powers to take on a life of crime (breaking into safes and bank vaults being a particular talent of his). He has taken the name Resonating Man and joined Clatter because there's safety and power in numbers. He may look ridiculous with dozens of tuning forks hanging from his outfit, but few deny he can be very dangerous.

Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. Actually my first thought was that you were going with "how" (since he can project how something happened at a given location), but then I thought maybe the location was the important part. (I also thought maybe you were playing a bit with words with his name, since "wire" sounds somewhat like "where".) Still, it all works well in the end.

People disagree whether or not The Voice has actual mental powers, but few dispute her ability to command others to do as she wishes, merely by singing to them. A finalist on American Music Star, Myra Scherzinger eventually came in second to a 12 year-old girl; in a fit of picque, started singing about everybody Kung Fu Fighting -- and the coaches, other contestants, and audience members all began brawling. She decided that, if her singing ability couldn't make her rich and famous, her powers to command others to do as she wishes would make herself rich and infamous.

I'm assuming Wire is "where", so that leaves "when" and "how." I'll take the latter, leaving "when" for somebody to post and then name the next team. Footsteps echoed in the dusty offices of the defunct Daily Tribune newspaper. Incognito thought it might be an ironic but appropriate place to call the team's new home, and Motive and Wire were checking it out in plainclothes. "Doc Yok, what's your take on Psychom?" Monty brushed some dust off an old office chair and tested it carefully before sitting down. "Don't you think it's odd he can't see anybody's faces or hear voices when he does his psychometry stuff?" The former criminal profiler shrugged as she looked around the room. "I suspect that's a mental block leading back to his father's stabbing death. Perhaps with some work and time, I can help him get past it." Monty looked puzzled. "What's his dad's death have to do with it? Howie said that cape, Vigilance, did it. His mom saw it and everything." Dr. Yokcor smiled without humor. "Yes, and we all know eyewitnesses are utterly reliable, now, don't we?" She pushed aside some old file folders and papers to clear a space for her to sit on the corner of a desk. "Our friend Howard also said he found the murder weapon, a steak knife, buried in their garden. That was his first experience with psychometric visions, as he relived his father's death. He said he couldn't see the face or any details about the murderer, just a gray form that could well have been Vigilance... or perhaps another person." Her expression was totally serious as she looked in Monty's eyes. "But why would a caped vigilante break into a home to stab an abusive man to death, using a common household steak knife? And then bury it in the garden?" She got up and walked around the office some more. "I believe our friend Mr. Dunlop saw something that he didn't want to see, perhaps involving his mother. He may have even heard things, which he also didn't want to hear. And so he blocked it out, and continues to subconsciously block out individual identities and mutes the voices in his visions. He can see how something happened, but not see specifically who did it or hear why they're doing it." She tested a window, which opened with a screech of protest. "As I said, I think with work I can help him get past those blocks, but it will be tricky and take time. For now, his visions help you identify locations where you can use your powers, or methods that help me exercise my talents." Monty blinked. "Wow. You think his mom did it, and blamed the cape? So, Vigilance is innocent?" "Of that crime, perhaps. But his illegal and antisocial acts are legion, so why quibble over one potentially false accusation when there are so many other true crimes he's committed." Ernestine brushed some dust off her hands and turned to Monty. "I think this place will be suitable for our needs. Let's go tell the others and we can get things moving. Talking this over has given me an idea for a way to get Vigilance captured and convicted for the murder of James Dunlop."

The only child of wealthy parents, Ella d'Ville was in elementary school when 101 Dalmatians came out, so of course she was tagged as Cruella and taunted mercilessly by jealous classmates. A once gregarious young girl who loved animals, she soon grew to hate her name, hate other children, and even to hate animals -- especially dogs. By the time she reached adulthood, Ella had become much like the Cruella from Disney's animated classic. She now trains dogs to help her perform crimes, particularly against the Disney corporation. - - - - - - - New Team: Yellow Journalism Members: 5-6 Yellow Journalism's goal is to use their superpowers and talents to root out and reveal the corruption, injustices, and hypocrisy in politicians, corporations, government agencies, and (their favorite target) superheroes. They feel that their ends justify any means necessary, including revealing national secrets, breaking personal privacy, and putting innocents in danger either indirectly or directly. The members of this team represent the "five W's" that are basic to reporting: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. Since some include "How", a poster may create a character to cover that if he or she wishes. However, the five W's must be represented to make this group complete.

Last night, playing D&D 4th -- Our group of adventurers was at sea and were attacked by a larger magical ship, crewed by wooden automatons and led by a person who appears to have stolen the ship in the first place. Our sorcerer has figured out the ship is siphoning off arcane energy from any nearby magical items, and possibly from magic-using persons (like himself). After we defeat the captain and take the ship as our own, and the sorcerer is trying to figure out how to make the ship go while the rest of us are considering new names for our new ship. One of the female players innocently asks the sorcerer, "Aren't you worried about the ship trying to suck off you?" After about the third or fourth comment from various players involving either "suck" or "blow", the sorcerer said, "Okay, I have a name for our new ship. It's the Innuendo."

If the object of Slot 3 is to do at least some knockback, I'd just go with 4d6 Blast, Double Knockback. On an average roll, this does (((4 * 2) - 7)* 2) = 2m Knockback. Basically, something to maybe take a foe's feet out from under him (unless he has Breakfall). Or if the GM allows you to buy Double Knockback more than once, make it 3d6 Blast, 4x Knockback. On an average roll, this does (((3 * 4) - 7) * 2) = 10m Knockback. If the GM is pretty gullible, go with 2d6 Blast, 16x Knockback. Average roll = (((2 * 16) - 7) * 2) = 50m Knockback. Or take it all the way to 1d6 Blast, 1024x Knockback. Average roll does 2034m Knockback. Bam, Zoom! To the moon, Alice!

David Lister Redmon refuses to admit that his real beef is with the physics concept of Conservation of Mass, and not with the Disney Conservation. When Redmon was a teenager, he discovered he was a duplicator. He could make six duplicates of himself (no more, no less); however, the mass of all seven of him was the same as that of his original non-duplicated (and admittedly very overweight) self. As Dave Redmon, he is a tall and rather, um, "stout" man with bright red hair. As the Red Dwarfs, he becomes seven very short people. After the tenth time people sang, "Hi ho, Hi ho, It's off to work I go" or "It's a Small World" to him, he snapped. When he heard about the ADS forming, he jumped at the chance to join.

"Dugan, you ready?" "Sure, Sharpshooter. Ready as I'll ever be." Jimmy Dugan grimaced. Bad enough the Eliminators had kidnapped him and his camera crew, but now he had to interview Stoneface. Dugan clutched the stump of his left forearm, remembering the last time he had put a microphone in the living gargoyle's face. Damned supers. Someone should wipe every last one of 'em off the face of the earth. Stoneface stepped forward and grinned, his wings spread wide and his sharp gray teeth prominent. "Heya, Jimmy. How's the hand?" "You tell me. I'm just sorry you didn't choke on a bone." "Awww... and here I thought we were pals, Jimmy. What with you always talking 'bout us on your newscast." "About what a menace you freaks are? Yeah, favorite topic of mine." Dugan ignored the panicked look on his cameraman's face. He'd be damned if he'd pussy-foot and softshoe around any super, whether cape or criminal. He put an obvious fake smile on his face and handed the microphone to the living gargoyle. "Maybe you'd prefer holding the microphone this time. Remember, this is going out live, so if you want to spend a few minutes stringing a thought or two together before answering my questions, I'll understand." Stoneface's grin slipped. "You're lucky I'm the forgiving sort, Dugan. And you're forgetting, this isn't about you asking questions. It's about us Eliminators telling Professor Protector what a loser he is, and how we're going to kick his armored can back to Germany." "Hmmm... last time, the Eliminators just barely escaped the good Professor's attempt to bring them in for justice. Do you really think you have a chance against a man who is arguably the most powerful caped vigilante alive?" "When he sees what we have waiting for him, he won't be alive for long." Dugan smiled. These superpowered fools, always ready to brag and boast. Should be easy to get him to spill enough details for Professor Protector to kick the Eliminators' butts once and for all. Not that the crusading reporter was any fan of the caped vigilante; he just hated the Eliminators more. And Stoneface most of all.

I laughed, but my soul died just a little more at the thought of this happening. Given how bad I've been of late, probably just dump the coal in my driveway. NT: There's a coal shortage! What is Santa going to give people on his Naughty list instead?

(stretching "superhero" in a way that Nick Fury would approve) Well, whoever this Phil Coulson guy is, he's sure gonna miss the sweet-looking '62 Corvette that Santa left in our driveway. (looks at keychain) I'll bet there's a story behind why it's called Lola II.

Ryan Thorensen has the distinction of being the only person to seek out the Dream Stealers and willingly ask them to do their thing on him. As the disgraced chief scientist of Prime Technologies, Thorensen was revealed to have been supplying Dr. Nymax! with materials and information for years, including the details of several top secret contracts Prime Tech had with the government. He thought that turning state's evidence would help him, but he didn't count on Nymax!'s responses to his duplicity, nor did he anticipate a federal judge tossing the plea bargain out the window. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Thorensen figured the best thing to do would be to disappear as completely as possible. He thought he could hide some of his money from the Dream Stealers and retire in luxury with his new face and complete non-identity, but he didn't realize how thorough the Thief of Everything could be. Thankfully, Thorensen (now calling himself Ernie Gower) still has extensive science skills and a penchant for inventing. He built himself plenty of gadgets to help him in his quest to trash the government (and if possible, get a few shots in on Dr. Nymax! along the way). Everybody thinks he calls himself the Examiner, but only he knows it's spelled Xamyn-er (a subtle dig at the bad doctor, using his name spelled backwards).

Your post reminded me of: Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward? Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Maria: And what does that mean to you? Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield." I've been tempted to have a periodically-appearing in-game group, either a government agency or a villain group, with an acronym whose full name keeps changing throughout the campaign. "You may have captured me, but you'll never stop IRONFIST! One day, the Independent Rulers Of Nations First In Strategy and Tactics will overthrow this nation's puppet regime and..." "Wait a minute! Last month, weren't you Forcing Indoctrination with Strength and Terror?"

In my game world, I use both UNTIL and PRIMUS, with the attendant tensions/conflict between the two. I don't worry overmuch about "divisions, directorates, and bureaucracy" because, frankly, my players only care about those details insofar as they hinder or benefit the hero team. Since that occurs infrequently at best, I pretty much handwave it, using some bureaucratese to explain it in-game. All my players really care about is that the two agencies exist, that they frequently come into conflict (something the PCs are more than happy to use to their advantage), and what kind of help/hindrance the heroes can expect from each. I can understand that some might need those details (for instance, if an adventure plot centers on a shadowy government conspiracy involving PRIMUS). I tend to avoid those kind of plotlines, though. I've rarely used SAT in-game, but as I recall I considered them as a combined-branch military group for dealing with supers. Heh. I could see SAT being brought in to assist if a state governor called in the National Guard to deal with a superpowered crisis -- with SAT and PRIMUS not always playing nice together, necessitating the PC heroes having to help deal with the crisis. Because as a GM, it really all comes down to the PCs. As to what Vondy has said about government agencies and inter-agency puppy-piles, I agree that's more realistic. But PRIMUS is one of those cases that, in my game world, I'll put genre convention above realism. Thus far, my players haven't seemed to have a problem accepting that.

An early Detroit-based Champions adventure of mine involved the PCs having to locate and board the Boblo Boat after it is captured by supervillains. Had a similar situation in another campaign, involving terrorists taking control of a cruise ship. IIRC, one of the heroes was aboard the ship in secret ID. I ran an adventure where Foxbat was committing crimes across the city, and one of those crimes involved stealing a prototype VTOL from VIPER (it had a cloaking field, which then helped him commit more crimes). He renamed it the Foxbat Flier, and when the heroes finally stopped him, they took the Flier as their own team vehicle. That vehicle had a part in many encounters, whether it was VIPER or Foxbat trying to steal it back, or PRIMUS trying to take possession of it, and I think another villain group tried to get their hands on it too. In a Millennium City-based Champions campaign, I had the Boblo Blimp, a dirigible (yes, I know dirigibles aren't blimps, but it was a word play on Boblo Boat) with a casino and restaurant. (I figured MC needed something iconic to appeal to tourists.) That airship was either the setting for or played a part in several adventures. (The original airship appeared as the Bayside Blimp in Digital Hero #12.) It played enough of a part in that game world that the PC gadgeteer hero built a "smaller" scale (large van-sized) version for his remote-controlled GI Joe robots. My most recent campaign involved aliens declaring war on Earth, and the heroes captured a small starship that became their team vehicle. (If you've seen the Future Armada deckplans, I used the Gryphon.) That campaign involved quite a few vehicles from Future Armada, from landing craft to space stations, and I still use the Argos III space station maps when the heroes do anything on UNTIL's Gateway station. My heroes have had fun dealing with TEE-HEE, the CLOWN car; the Zodiac orbital base/vehicle; a floating mobile "island"; Soundwave's flying surboard. So yeah, vehicles can play a decent role in my games. If I was to give advice on "metavehicles" it would be to give each one some sort of personality, whether from the vehicle itself or the NPC(s) that drive/fly/repair it. The rusty but trusty bucket of bolts. The too-slick high-tech vehicle with a generally helpful but often sarcastic AI. The really useful vehicle that's nonetheless maybe more trouble than it's worth. (That was the former Foxbat Flier, by the way.) A hotshot pilot who could make even the most mundane trip a real adventure. The mechanic who keeps adding untested features to the vehicle. ("Oh, that red button? It kicks in the afterburners. Yeah, you got afterburners now. No promises, but they might get you up to Mach 3. But if the button starts blinking, better hit it again to turn 'em off. Might want to land and let things cool off a bit, too.") The metavehicle shouldn't outshine the PCs, but it should be memorable in some way.

I forgot to mention, when my wife and daughter and I watched a recent episode of The Flash on Comcast's On Demand, they showed their message that the fast-forward was disabled. My daughter said, "Can we pause for a moment and appreciate the irony that we can't fast forward during an episode of The Flash?"

Let's see what people can do with: Speed and Limit

Operating on the OP's original instructions, I'm posting another version of Razzle and Dazzle for consideration. It's hard to make a living as a stage magician, and doubly so when you're a female, even if you can peform actual magic instead of simple sleight-of-hand and misdirection. For some strange reason, people seem to think illusionists must all be male, which frustrated Rosalyn Lee to no end. Still, she soldiered on, plying her trade as the Amazing Roz in various second-string venues across the country. Then she met Desmond Jacobs, a smooth-talking con artist who was on the run after he used his questionable talents and his low-level mental powers to cheat a mobster out of a lot of money. Roz and Des fell in love, and Desmond joined the Amazing Roz as her "handsome assistant." After a few years of wedded bliss, however, the mob finally caught up with Des. Thanks to Roz's magic and Des's psionics, they defeated the mobster's goons, but the battle was caught on a cell phone camera, posted online, and went viral. The pair decided to go public, taking on the identities Razzle and Dazzle. They still tour the country, performing along the way. But they also help people with their powers, wherever they can. Razzle's magic includes short-range teleportation (of herself or others), transformation of non-living objects (she really can turn a handkerchief into a boquet of silk flowers with a wave of her hand), and the ability to render heself, another person, or an object temporarily invisible. Dazzle's mental powers include the ability to read surface thoughts, simple mental illusions, and a short-term mental entangle.

If descendants of serum recipients have powers, how could you tell whether someone got their powers from a black market serum, or is the illegitimate child of a government serum recipient? Alternately, the serum could make most or all recipients impotent. (That could even have been built into the serum's design, to avoid a race of supermen replacing the normal humans.)