BoloOfEarth

Re: Half-Move and Sweep I recently created an NPC character in Champions that I gave an off-hand penalty with his second attack, since it fit his concept. He had two wrist blasters, but hardly ever used the left one, so he was -3 OCV with that. (Both blasters ran off the same END Reserve, so firing both consistently would eat through his END.) During the battle with the heroes, he became somewhat Enraged and fired two-handed several times, but IIRC he never hit once with the off-hand attack. Edit: In this same game, one of the player character heroes will frequently fire two-handed (he has two different Multipowers), and I do NOT impose an off-hand penalty on him.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "I'm Flaming!"

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat (Looking at the side of the cereal box) "Hmmm... Sodium, 35 grams... Protein, 7 grams.... Cyanide, 150 grams...." NT: Things you don't want to see or hear as you're buying a new house.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Last night's D&D game: A noble was killed by what appears to be an Infernal Dire Were-Wolverine, and his 12-14 year-old servant boy was the only witness. Thinking maybe the boy was the actual culprit, the heroes offer to take him in "protective custody" to another town to supposedly turn him over to the orphanage there. Aren (male fighter): "I'm teaching him calisthenics; I'll make a man of him." DM: A few moments later... Aren: After we get done, I want to take the lad to a "guards bar." DM: Aren: Is there one nearby? Y'llek: Well, there's Ye Olde Blue Oyster Pub... DM: So are you all going to the "orc castle" to the north, or heading to Randarn to investigate the Infernal Dire Were-Wolverine? Y'llek (rabidly orc-hating ranger): Orc castle! I'm telling you, the orcs are behind Lord Whyte's killing! This whole "wolverine" thing is just a subterfuge! After the four male heroes argued over whose room the kid was going to sleep in (none of them wanted a potential were-wolverine in the same room with them): Devlyn (female rogue): To heck with it! The kid can stay in the same room as Leila and me! Ryan: *She'll* make a man out of him! Y'llek reluctantly agrees with the rest of the party to investigate Lord Whyte's death after all, and the heroes travel south to Randarn, the noble's home city. We discover that an engaged couple staying at the same inn as the noble were using fake names and left Randarn with one of Lord Whyte's caravans (a huge shipment of fine weapons) heading northeast to a city on the coast, whose name I've forgotten. We travel at best possible speed (augmented with magic) to try and catch up with the caravan, verifying at several towns enroute that the couple was indeed traveling with the caravan. And just five hours travel from the coastal city, we encounter the caravan heading *away* from the city, back toward Randarn. The couple is not with them. We also discover that the caravan never went to the city, but instead turned off the road, and somebody (likely a druid) covered up the tracks with a bunch of raspberry bushes. Il'Marcum (in a Dark Helmet voice): Only one person would dare give us the raspberry! A few Survival / Tracking rolls later, we find out the couple, along with some huge creatures (leaving giant footprints) are heading northwest. Ryan: What's in that direction? DM: Well, if they keep heading that same direction, the only thing that way is the castle... Y'llek: I TOLD YOU! IT WAS THE ORCS! NOBODY BELIEVED ME! IT!!! WAS!!! THE!!! ORCS!!!

Re: Your "2007" Pet Gaming Projects My current project is to finish up and submit two related adventures to Digital Hero. Curse of the Eagle's Eye, a Pulp Hero adventure, lays the groundwork for The Secrets of the Eagle's Temple, an adventure for Champions. They're written so either can be run alone. And for a Champions campaign, you can run the adventures in sequence (using provided heroic characters for the Pulp Hero half). After that? For a long time I've wanted to write up a DH article, kinda like Jason does in YGHC, on Nicola Tesla. Maybe I'll get going on that (though I have no illusions I'll be able to do as good a job as Jason). Other than that, I'll continue running my Champions campaign, featuring Chicago's very own superhero team, S-Squad.

Re: Repercussions of a VIPER Assault on PRIMUS (S-Squad, STAY OUT!) Just wanted to let everybody know how the battle finally played out. I included some info here (from the Gaming Quotes thread), but didn't go into Windchill's fate. FYI, the representative from the NYC Nest was Golden Boy. He's a 16 year-old genius, both tactical and otherwise (for one thing, he has Precog with some uncertainty, based on considering individuals' probable actions). The VIPER airship had a flight deck, and the main battle took place there. One of the heroes, disguised as a VIPER agent, overheard Windchill and Golden Boy have the following exchange: GB: ...had you informed me the full extent of this assault, I could have made it successful. Paranormals do add an element of uncertainty, but even so... W: And you would have informed the Grandfather of the full plans. GB: Well, yes, but... (thougtful look as probabilities play through his head) ... ah, I see your point. You do realize that the Supreme Serpent... W: Yes, I do. GB: And you're prepared for the repercussions? W: I hope so. About then, the fight broke out. And at one point Windchill was cruising along on an ice slide, about 15 meters from the edge of the landing platform, when one of the heroes clubbed him from behind. Since Windy was technically Gliding, the knockback sent him flying. He went over the edge, falling to Lake Michigan far below, and the heroes were too busy dealing with the other VIPER forces to go after him. (I didn't exactly plan it that way, but am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.) The last person to see Windchill was a PRIMUS pilot, who told the heroes that a "block of ice" had fallen past him. Actually, Windy had encased himself in a giant icicle, but it was close enough for government work. One of the players did say, very sarcastically, "Nobody could *possibly* survive that!" thus ensuring that Windchill would indeed return one day. And he should have time to plan and build an organization without immediate interference from VIPER, though they also anticipate he survived the fall. Thank you all, again, for the wonderful suggestions. People like you are a big reason that HERO is such a great game system.

Re: Mechanon take control of the Minute Man VII Robots Me, I'd tend to put a twist in this scenario. Sure, Mechanon can access the Minuteman robots and control them, but only one at a time, and he has to literally control all of a robot's actions himself (0 DCV Concentrate Throughout). So if the IHA is fielding three robots against the heroes, he might control one to attack the IHA forces, then switch to another one to attack an oncoming train (leaving the first temporarily confused and under fire from its own forces), then finally bounce to the third to attack the heroes, since "those carbon-based IHA fools were such deficient programmers" and he could do much better. Might even put another twist, that a sufficiently skilled electronics expert could use this link Mechanon now has with the upgraded Minuteman robots against him (whether just to locate him, or to access and control lower-level functions). Just a few thoughts.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my Champions game, two weeks ago plus last night. The local VIPER Nest is attacking the local PRIMUS base, en masse. Over two hundred VIPER agents, air-cav agents, fighter jets, two tanks, a half-dozen Mech-VIPERs... HUGE battle going on. Heroes were lured to the other side of town so they're arriving late, after VIPER has had some time to pound pretty hard on PRIMUS and local police officers. VIPER has also had time to fly off with the captured Silver Avenger, the PRIMUS base commander, and a female doctor, Emily Patterson, who is the true target of the VIPER operation. One PRIMUS agent, a female named Sgt. Hix, had just broken off a relationship with PC hero Squeeze. He didn’t know it, but she had become mystically bound to a powerful, evil magical artifact, which was making her increasingly emotionally unstable. And she’s just watched VIPER agents KO all of her teammates, including Mac, a Tim Allen-type who likes to personally “upgrade” his weapon to make it more powerful. VIPER agent (leaping onto car and pointing weapon down at her): Die! Sgt. Hix: I… DON’T… THINK… SO!!! GM (rolls 21d6): You see her blast the agent, leaving only a pair of smoking boots. Serendipity: What’d she do, borrow Mac’s gun? Hix then flies up and blasts a VIPER Air-Cav squad, sending them tumbling away. Squeeze can now see the magical Coin of Power glowing in her hand. Squeeze: (expletive deleted) Sentinel heals PRIMUS Lt. Tinsdale, Sgt. Hix’s immediate superior. Tinsdale: Hix! Get down here! Hix: I’m *through* taking orders from *you*! (TK grabs Tinsdale and throws him 50 meters straight up) Sentinel (flying up to catch Tinsdale): Hey! I just *healed* him! The VIPER Nest Leader, Windchill, is directing combat operations from a dirigible far overhead, hiding in a self-generated cloud. (Dirigible is courtesy of the NYC Nest Leader, the Grandfather, who sent one of his lieutenants, Golden Boy, to assist.) The players didn’t know this, however, when the following happened: Synergy, desperately battling a Mech-VIPER: (OOC) I’m going to try to distract it. (IC, points up at the sky) Look! A blimp! GM (thinking, “what the heck?”): You look up where you’re pointing, and amazingly enough, you see this (shows picture of VIPER airship) coming briefly out of a cloud. Synergy: Oh, my God! It really IS a blimp! GM: You see one of the VIPER flying APCs take off from the roof of the PRIMUS building. Then the doors on both sides open, and the VTOL APC beings a slow roll, causing VIPER agents to fall to the street several stories below. Squeeze: They’re falling like sacks of wet cement! Oh, the humanity! GM (catching the WKRP reference): To my dying day, I swear I thought VIPER agents could fly. GM: The APC drops down to hover beside Squeeze, and the canopy opens. You see PRIMUS Lt. Earnhart, in a ‘borrowed’ VIPER uniform. Earnhart: Hey, Squeeze, how’s it going? I think I’m getting the hang of this thing! Think they’ll let me keep it? The heroes are tying to figure out how they’ll get up to the airship without putting Earnhart at risk, in case the APC gets shot down by the airship. Sentinel (looking at the APC, then at her teammates): Can any of you fly? Serendipity: I can. Sentinel: Okay, you can pilot the APC while… Serendipity: Oh, I can’t fly *that*. Sentinel: But you said you can fly! Serendipity: I meant, I can fly! (hovers off the sidewalk) The heroes hop into the APC and Earnhart flies them to the VIPER airship to rescue the hostages. Synergy takes the uniform from a captured VIPER agent and puts it on enroute. The airship crew takes remote control of the APC to guide it through the cloud and land it on the airship’s flight deck. The heroes look out the front window to see Windchill and Golden Boy standing there talking, while a squad of VIPER agents stands to one side. These agents have white trim, whereas Synergy’s uniform has the standard yellow trim. Synergy gets out of the APC and walks toward the bad guys, hoping the uniform difference isn’t going to be a problem. Golden Boy (looks at Synergy, then turns to Windchill): He’s one of yours. Windchill (turns to Synergy): Report. GM: Golden Boy is walking away, mumbling something into his radio. Roll sight PER. (Synergy makes it by 2) You notice the agents surreptitiously switch on their weapons. Squeeze: The jig is up! Synergy (OOC) And gone! (IC, to Windchill): Message for you, sir! (Blasts with both hands) The heroes exit the APC and begin the battle. Shortly after, the airship crew remote-controls the APC, with Earnhart still aboard, to go backwards off the landing area and drop toward Lake Michigan far below. Synergy: I get on the radio. Earnhart, how’s it going? Earnhart: FALLING!!! FALLING!!! Synergy: Turn off the autopilot, Earnhart. Earnhart: NOT WORKING! STILL FALLING!!! (Sound of smashing controls) THAT DIDN’T WORK EITHER! STILL FALLING!!! A squad of VIPER Air-Cav fly into the hangar area and blast Squeeze, stunning him. Styx jumps over and clubs a few agents like baby seals. VIPER Air-Cav squad leader: Forget him, he's inconsequential! Press the attack on Squeeze! Styx: Inconsequential?! I'll show you inconsequential! After the heroes finally beat all the supervillains and VIPER agents on the flight deck (and Earnhart disables the autopilot), the airship engines rotate to point straight down and it begins to drop like an express elevator. Synergy heads down to the control gondola to discover the controls blasted apart and the crew had flown off using VIPER-issue jetpacks. GM: You hear banging on the locked door behind you, and a female voice saying, “Einer! Let me out of here *right now*!” Synergy: I open the door. Dr. Patterson: You’re not Ein… I mean, Windchill! (recovers her wits) Take me to Windchill immediately! Synergy (still in his borrowed VIPER uniform): Aren’t you going to say, ‘You’re too short to be a VIPER agent’? Synergy takes Dr. Patterson up to the flight deck, where the other heroes are preparing to toss an empty APC overboard. Synergy: Wait! I need some stuff from there! (He flies into the APC, and the others hear him ripping out parts of the APC’s control systems.) Sentinel: Synergy, we need to toss this overboard so Earnhart can land and pick us up before this thing crashes! Synergy: Go ahead! I can fly! With too many non-flying allies + KO’d VIPERs and not enough room in the APC, Earnhart flies the VTOL off the airship leaving Synergy and Styx behind. Sytx: I dive off the airship. (rolls dice) I make my acrobatics roll by 5. How many flips can I do before I hit the water? Synergy jury-rigs some controls, makes his Inventor roll by 9 but just misses his Electronics roll. The player mimes turning the dial. GM: Your impromptu controls look okay, but nothing happens. The engines are still pointed straight down. Synergy: (mimes turning the box 180 degrees, then turning the dial the other direction) How about now?

Re: A Thread for Random Videos How 'bout ?

Re: Something bothering me As a GM, I draw up a lot of characters, and I'd say a fair amount have Multipowers, especially for attacks. This allows you a decent variety of attacks without costing way too much. I also like using MPs for "either-or" choices (i.e. character has heat and cold powers, but not both at once). In truth, some of those characters might benefit from replacing the MP with a decent EC or VPP (especially the VPP; if you have enough slots in an MP that's not heavy on Limitations, a VPP may actually be cheaper and is a *lot* more versatile). But it's easier for me to just list powers as slots in an MP, and I don't have to worry about creating VPP powers on the fly (if the GM's doing this, it can slow combat way down).

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat When Ma Kent saw the "bullet" holes in his bedroom ceiling. NT: The superhero you'd *least* like to have as a neighbor.

Re: Regrettable Disads I always thought it might be amusing to play a character like one in the movie My Favorite Year. All the way until the end of the movie, he would only communicate by whispering to a female coworker, and *she* would then say what he had told her. He wasn't mute, just extremely shy or insecure.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Steve's post reminded me of an old fantasy game I played in. Brief backstory: I had a halfling thief, who in theory should have been good but in practice kept blowing his rolls. In one dungeon, he managed to (1) get his foot chopped off by a floor trap; (2) get a crossbow bolt in the forehead from another floor-triggered trap; and (3) get a hand chopped off in a wall trap, none of which he spotted beforehand. In each case, the party had to bundle me off to the temple to either get the missing part reattached, or in the second case get me resurrected. Somewhere along the line, however, my character found some magical lockpicks on a body in the dungeon. A few weeks later, some heavies from the Thieves Guild grabbed my character and dragged him off to the guild hall, where he was accused of killing the Master Thief. After all, I had his lockpicks. Me: "You think *I* killed the Master Thief?! Look at this!" (pulls up pants leg to show nice new scar where my foot was reattached) "And this!" (pulls up sleeve to show other nice new scar where my hand was reattached) "And lest we forget, THIS!" (pulls off helmet to show the crossbow-bolt-shaped scar on my forehead) "If I can't even get past a few simple traps, do you *honestly* think I'd have had a chance in Hell of killing a Master Thief?!?" They let me go.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: A Thread for Random Videos How about Bruce Campbell in...

Re: Countries that don't exist (but should) I don't know if anybody here reads any of the Dortmunder books (by Donald Westlake), but in one of them, a NYC con artist who specialized in mail-order fraud created a fictional Pacific Ocean country called Maylohda (say it aloud, and imagine you have a New York accent). Then she applied for international aid, registered ships under Maylohda's "flag" for a fee, and other similar money-making activities. Overall, if you like reading books with con-artists as the protagonists, I recommend the Dortmunder books.

Re: Regrettable Disads I ran a game where a player had an electrical character with Susceptability: partial or total immersion in water. He was okay in a light rain (or if hit by a water pistol), but stepping in a deep puddle or jumping in a pool was out. I ran one session where a Beyonder-type megapowerful alien moved the heroes' consciounesses into a group of PRIMUS agents (the PCs always ragged on PRIMUS, and the alien wanted to see if being a "superhero" was tied to having powers). The electrical character's player wasn't available that weekend, so I ran him through a solo adventure. The character was put into the body of a Silver Avenger on vacation in Florida. Diving off a boat into the water, to be precise. Since it wasn't his body, the Susceptability didn't come into play. But the player still acted as if the character had it (IOW, freaked out in the water), because it was such an intrinsic part of the PC.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: Repercussions of a VIPER Assault on PRIMUS (S-Squad, STAY OUT!) Actually, the heroes got caught in the middle of a VIPER-COIL war a number of months back, so COIL is already an established factor. Thank you, all, for your input. If I haven't repped you yet, it's because I ran out of rep (or I've repped you too recently to do it again right now).

Re: Jokes They're married to the women who don't go shopping constantly, love their in-laws, love kids, are drop-dead gorgeous, do housework without complaints, don't expect continuous gifts and fawning from their husbands, and are INTERESTING. I think they all live on the same block with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and all the honest politicians.

Re: Repercussions of a VIPER Assault on PRIMUS (S-Squad, STAY OUT!) Based on what many people here have suggested, I think Windchill will be a persona non grata with the main VIPER organization, and thus no longer the Chicago Nest leader, but I don't want them to assassinate him. (I think the players would somehow feel cheated if that happened.) But Windchill might allow an assassination attempt to *appear* successful (or fake one himself) so he can go into hiding. The old "Nobody Could Have POSSIBLY Survived That" thing, conveniently with no body recovered. The players won't be fooled, but that's fine by me. I like the idea of him setting up his own (pseudo-cult militia-type) organization afterward. He's no dummy and could anticipate the VIPER high command's reaction, so he'd have already set aside quipment and maybe even a hideout (secret even from VIPER) beforehand. However, he wouldn't want to compete with VIPER, as his main focus is on harming PRIMUS, and fighting VIPER would take away from that goal. So I think he'll eventually come to some sort of "arrangement" with the VIPER high command to save his own skin. Perhaps capturing some key COIL members and offering them in exchange for VIPER dropping the bounty for his head? I like the name "Windchill" too much to change it; for one thing, it fits so well with Chicago's nickname as the Windy City. And there's no way he could ally himself with the heroes, as they quickly developed an irrational hatred of him after only one or two appearances. I can easily see them telling him, "Wow, sucks to be you. Good luck, you're gonna need it."

Re: Repercussions of a VIPER Assault on PRIMUS (S-Squad, STAY OUT!) Actually, me too.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From last night's D&D game: Ryan (on failing a Will save and running away from a fight): It's not a failure, it's a safety feature. God gave us fear for a reason.