BoloOfEarth

Re: Answers & Questions

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments? As Bolo, two incidents leap to mind. The first had to do with a series of Disadvantages my character had. He was Hunted by Firewing, Vulnerable to Fire (2x STUN), and Vulnerable to Explosions (1 1/2x STUN). The GM ran a story arc involving Firewing initiating an invasion of Earth, bringing a force of Malvan troops (agent-level grunts armed with energy weapons). Keeping in theme with Firewing's powers, the GM had them firing explosive bursts of flame. Had nothing to do with my Disads. Anyway, during the first battle, Bolo got one-shot KO'd by one (*ONE*!!!) of Firewing's troopers. - - - - - - - - - The second I blame on lack of sleep. We were trying to track down a mystery mega-powerful villain that was going around killing supers who had harmed innocents and either got free on a technicality or escaped from police custody. After many failed attempts to catch the guy in the act, for some stupid reason we decided to "make" him come to us by grabbing some guy off the street and breaking his legs. In our defense, we had tried everything else we could think of to get the guy, and it was like 1:30 a.m. so we were pretty tired. - - - - - - - - - Okay, there was a third thing, but I'm not directly responsible for it. I just share in the group embarassment. After rejecting every other name individual members could think of, our superhero group was finally named the Ann Arbor People's Justice Co-op (abbreviated as the "A-squared PJC"). Absolutely the WORST name I've ever heard for a super-group, and that includes my players naming their first team "The Heroes of Eastern Michigan," also known as "THEM."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "And in international news, apparently Iraq has its own superhero, a costumed crimefighter going by the name Major Quagmire..."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Joey, I know your grandma always had a smile on her face, but I really don't think she would have appreciated you drawing one on in black magic marker. (And don't even get me started on the moustache and goatee!) And no, I don't think clown makeup would have been a better idea, either.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat They're from Detroit. If that's not Hell on Earth, I don't know what is. NT: Inappropriate times to do the "Hokey Pokey."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat The entire Republican and Democratic parties. Not because they're particularly smart, but rather because they're "poisoning the well" by progressively dumbing down the entire country. NT: The title for the next TV show from your childhood that's going to be made into another craptacular movie.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... That same baddie, Cinobit, had put a magical curse on Aren that allowed her to see through his eyes and hear through his ears, until we managed to get it removed. We called it "Cinovision." So I wouldn't put lojacking limbs past her. Though she's more likely to have done it to keep track of him, not just parts of him. Same game, we said, "Okay, we're taking *everything* off Grishnak. DM: EVERYthing?! Okay, you strip him down. (Looks at the two female players) And you can now see why he's called Grishnak the Mighty.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Last night's D&D game: A little background: Over a year before, our fighter, Aren, was mentally "visited" in his sleep by the female necromancer, Cinobit. Aren managed to fail *every* saving throw, and by the time another hero discovered him, Cinobit had walked through Aren's mind with hobnail boots and he was bleeding from his eyes, ears, and pores. This failure to resist Cinobit has led to our joking that she is Aren's girlfriend. Since Cinobit is a major baddie that nearly kicked our butts several times, we've also joked that one day we'll all end up as her pawns. Anyway, on to the present. The party had defeated Grishnak, the orc chieftan, and were doing the whole "looting" thing. We found a stoppered black bottle with odd writing around the side, in a language none of us recognized. It's magical, but the wizard's attempt to identify the bottle failed, strongly implying that the bottle is an artifact of some sort. Also, the cleric detected that the bottle, and the writing on it, is evil. Aren: Well, I have that helmet that lets me understand any language. Maybe I can use that to read the writing.... DM: (smiling evilly) So, you're going to read it? Yllek: Wait! I cast an Augury. Oh, Autumn Willow, please let us know! Will Aren reading the bottle bring weal or woe? DM: You get a vision. You see Aren, many years older, his hair long and luxurious, his armor shining, a great weapon strapped to his back. He is kneeling at Cinobit's feet, kissing her hand, obviously in adoration. Yllek: Whoa! Wow, that was some vision! Devlyn: What did you see? Yllek: (shrugs) Apparently Aren reading the bottle won't change anything. - - - - - - - - We had gotten the information on Grishnak's location from another adventuring party. In the process of getting the info, however, their rogue had lost his leg. Yllek: I want to take Grishnak's leg back to that rogue as a souvenir. Ryan: The leg has magical runes all over it. For all we know, Cinobit can track it magically. Yllek: Okay, so the smart thing would be to burn the leg with the rest of the body. But I wouldn't be fulfilling my duties as a player character if I didn't do something unwise. So I'm taking the leg.

Re: Jokes What do you get when you mix Viagra and shampoo?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat They insist they be called "sanitation engineers." NT: The new, politically-correct name for white trash.

Re: Answers & Questions Q: What's the strangest order you've ever had at this delicatessan? A: Rosebud. Henri. Hold the mustard. (Rep if you know where that came from)

Re: GM's - putting one over on your players LOVED this one! I'd rep you if I hadn't already done so recently for something else. Well played, sir. Dropping one little name... I tip my hat off to you.

Re: GM's - putting one over on your players (Repeat of a prior post in another thread) I used the 4th Edition Sanctuary (the island in the Pacific) in a past Champions campaign... In one adventure, the heroes were relaxing at Sanctuary when an alien hive-type invasion struck the campaign city. They rushed home via Sanctuary's teleporters... which promptly overloaded and shut down. (The players figured I did that so they couldn't count on a ton of instant super-assistance, and they were close...) The heroes rushed into the fray, blasting aliens... and boy, were the players surprised when two of their characters actually died in combat. The others retreated, and as they were getting their wounds treated, they learned that they were quickly physically degrading at the cellular level, and only had hours to live. The players were wondering what the heck I was doing. (PC death in my games is almost unknown, and never done as casually as I was doing it there.) I then said, "Okay, meanwhile, back on Sanctuary, since the teleporters aren't working, your characters and other heroes are all cramming into the Champions jumpjet. Defender is telling you, 'According to the teleporter's sensors, it appears *something* was integrating on the receiving end in New York City just before communications went down, but I have no idea exactly *what* they received.'" At that point, the heroes figured out that their PCs that fought (and were dying) back home were actually imperfect transporter copies. It was neat to see the remaining ones throw themselves fully into the fray, sacrificing themselves so the original heroes could get behind enemy lines and take out the hive 'queen'. - - - - - - - - - - - - Other "GM shenanigans": In one of the first Champions games I ever ran, the heroes were being given medals by the grateful mayor for saving the city the week before, when the whole ceremony was attacked by a villain and a bunch of VIPER agents. One of the PCs (a spider-powered heroine named Black Widow) grabbed the mayor and ran up the side of the building, where she saw a cop holding a submachine gun. She handed the mayor off, then jumped back into the fray. After the battle, when the police asked where the mayor was, she said, "I handed him off to the cop on the roof." "We didn't have an officer on that rooftop." "Yeah, you did! The one with the submachine gun!" "Um... we don't carry submachine guns, ma'am." The look on her face was priceless. - - - - - - - - - - - - My players have rarely had a great working relationship with PRIMUS, though not really open warfare. In one game, they did discover that PRIMUS had extensive files on them, including ways to take them out of action, and the feds were obviously trying to pin down the heroes' secret identities. During one campaign, Genocide managed to kill one of the PC heroes. The player was drawing up a new character, and asked if he could be a PRIMUS agent infiltrating the team. I agreed, and Glare joined the team with a special reflective battlesuit. He was accepted 100% into the team, trusted completely, and I'm pretty sure he soon knew all of their secret identities. The other heroes never did discover the truth, and to this day, I don't think the players ever knew, either.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat An exit strategy.

Re: Order of the Stick I'll bet Roy still "answers the call" when his teammates finally try to resurrect him, because he feels a responsibility to them. However, I no longer think it'll be the no-brainer everybody assumed it would be.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Jessica Alba. NT: Superpowers that didn't quite make it onto Heroes.

Re: Answers & Questions Q: What are the Canadian armed forces going to do if they don't get that pay raise? A: That's easy, just feed a llama six cans of beans and send it to Cleveland.

Re: BBC Airship Article Keep in mind that I wrote an article for Digital Hero detailing an airborne casino/tour ship, the Bayside Blimp, so you can guess where I stand in regard to dirigibles. But in the process of writing that article, I did quite a bit of research on blimps, dirigibles, and other airships. Some of the things I learned surprised me. One point I heard in favor of airships for cargo transport, as opposed to planes/ships, is that an airship can go point-to-point. You don't have to load the stuff onto trucks at the factory, then unload from trucks and onto planes or ships, then back onto trucks to take the cargo where you want it. In most cases, an airship could pick up the cargo directly from the origin point and deliver directly to the delivery point. So if you look at the big picture, the airship's slowness is offset some by them cutting out a few steps in the shipping process. Given some third-world corruption** and inefficiency, this point-to-point delivery could also allow aid organizations to get food, medical supplies, and so on directly where it needs to go, without having to bribe as many officials and losing less of the shipment due to theft/misdirection in transport. Despite this, I think airships would remain a niche industry, even if they do enjoy a resurgence. Unless you're talking about delivering a fairly large amount of stuff, it would probably still be faster to go truck-plane/ship-truck. Now, the idea of cruise line airships, airborne casinos, etc. -- I'm not sure they would recoup the initial investment involved, but it would certainly be cool, and incredibly distinctive for a given city. That's how I wrote up the Bayside Blimp, as both a tourist attraction and a mobile city landmark. **I have a friend in Liberia that I can't reasonably send anything to, since she basically has to pay a "ransom" bribe to various government officials before she can receive things. She has worked in other third-world countries and said this is not unique to Liberia, either.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Nuclear Wedgie. NT: You just won the election and are President of the US! What's the first thing you do after you're sworn in?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: Vehicle Disads? Had another thought, if the vehicle was designed by an outside company: Reputation. An anti-hero employee might slip the vehicle's specifications and blueprints past security and posted them on the internet. Sure, you caught the guy and had the info removed from the web, but it was up long enough for fans -- and a few foes -- to download it. (This could tie into a group DNPC, too.) So those fans now argue online whether the AeroArrow has a greater climb rate than the BatJet, or let slip the thickness of its armor, and so on. This means an enemy might dig up details (or find and kidnap a fan to get his hands on the vehicle's specs, if you also go the DNPC route).

Re: Vehicle Disads? There's always Hunteds, too. Maybe Foxbat thinks the AeroArrow is pretty cool and wants a FoxbatFlier of his own. Or perhaps the whirlygig isn't licensed, so the FAA is trying to clip your wings. Or perhaps the vehicle is distinctive enough that it can be more easily tracked by one of your own Hunteds. So you have Hunted (8-) by VIPER, but they noticed that the AeroArrow makes a distinctive ultrasonic hum while in use, so they're able to go after you more, justifying Hunted (11-) by VIPER on the vehicle. Is the vehicle a prototype donated by a company? A Watched might then be in order.

Re: Am I the only one who ever noticed...

Re: Am I the only one who ever noticed...

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat (I know, this topic was already done, but I had to say it...) Y'know, most parents wouldn't even consider allowing their kid to have a sex change, but "she" was pretty adamant...