BoloOfEarth

Re: Help Needed with Superhero Bases I could see a garden-of-eden base for Flora, perhaps the very place she "awoke" six months ago. If she feels "born of nature itself" perhaps the base contains plants from all over the world, and allow her some sort of clairsentience wherever one of those plants are located... Or it could be a place for regeneration / rebirth... Or simply a place to bring damaged plants to fix them. The plants could be a collective mind of sorts (working as a unique AI). For that level of game, 50 points isn't really that much; basically, it's like a 350-point character putting 17 points into a power that would be fun but isn't likely to come into game play much. Not really a major loss to the character power-wise, and it could flesh her out in unique ways.

Re: Looking for a new cape. Can I get one here? To touch on a few other points to do with Character Points: (1) Never played M&M, so I don't know how skills / contacts / bases / vehicles work there. In Champions, they all cost character points, and you could encourage your players to put points into any/all of these. This could help slow down their progression to cosmic power levels. (2) Generally speaking, characters don't get points for Disadvantages earned during game play (like if they piss off a big baddie one adventure and get Hunted by him/her for a while), though you can do so if you wish. Or you could swap out an old Disadvantage for a new one. (You're the GM - you have the power.) If the players wish, they can also use Experience Points earned to buy off old Disadvantages (like that pesky ex-girlfriend). (3) Experience Points are awarded however often you like (per game session, per adventure arc, etc). They are typically awarded both for general participation and for roleplaying, and you (as GM) set how many they get, so 1-2 per session is fine, or you could go 3-5 for a several-night story arc. I've also awarded specific skills or contacts based upon things the players did in game play. (For instance, they save the police chief's daughter, so they get Favor - Police Chief.) As to death, in 17 years of running Champions I've killed 2.5 player characters - one by player choice, one by accident, and the 0.5 was in a situation that could easily have resulted in death but I turned into "everybody thinks she's dead but she survived with temporary amnesia and is a temporary villain." Normally, super characters don't die unless (a) they leave a defensive "hole" such as low Resistant defenses, or ( do something stupid and/or selflessly heroic, like pulling a burning gas tanker toward you and away from innocents using wind-based telekinesis (see 0.5 death mentioned above).

Re: The Munchkin Build Contest So instead of Uncontrolled and an Endurance Reserve, replace it with 2 clips of 4 Continuing Charges of 1 Minute duration. All legal and easier on the bookkeeping side.

Re: The Munchkin Build Contest Just noticed that my build broke one of the initial rules - Uncontrolled is a Stop-sign Advantage. Oops.

Re: The Munchkin Build Contest No, at least according to FRED (I don't have 5ER, but I doubt it changed). It says explicitly, "A character cannot Hold his Action and then Recover, nor can he Abort to a Recovery."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Formaldehyde NT: The present you'd *love* to find under your Christmas tree.

Re: The Munchkin Build Contest Toxin Hypo-Dart Gun: 2d6 Energy Blast, NND (Defense is Hardened rPD, +1) Continuous (+1) Uncontrolled (+1/2) Half Endurance (+1/4), OAF (-1), 37 Active Points, 18 Real points, costs 2 END per Phase. Feed it off an Endurance Reserve (Toxin Supply) with 100 END, also OAF, for another 5 points. Make the END Reserve REC only in a lab with extra time (1 minute); cost depends on how high you want the REC - this is effectively non-combat time, so it will rarely matter much. Uncontrolled is shut off with antitoxin, BTW. Semi-wimpy on the surface; it's the Uncontrolled combined with Half Endurance that makes it nice. Hit somebody two Phases in a row, using 10 END (for 5 Phases of effect) each time. Over a six-Phase span, you're doing 20d6 NND (assuming, of course, they don't have the defense). Especially bad if you share the same SPD as your opponent, because they can't even get a Recovery while it's going off, except for post-12. And even if they go unconscious, the damage still continues until it runs out of END, but is now doubled, putting them quickly into GM-Discretion La-La-Land. Yeah, it takes a while, but it gets there eventually.

Re: 7 heroes summoned through time: who are they? Did you mean Annie Oakley?

Re: Champions Christmas Adventure Seeds! I twisted this idea into a fun adventure. The heroes hear that Foxbat is stealing all the Cuddly Cailey dolls, the hot toy in the campaign city this Christmas. Produced and sold only locally, these dolls (nicknamed the "i-Doll") have liquid-gel-filled bodies and a sound chip (and memory + wireless receiver) in the head. They'll "sing" downloadable music, "say" customizable phrases, or make programmed noises when hugged or squeezed. Only a couple hundred are made, so there's a rarity value, too. (In my world, Foxbat has a team, the Foxbat Five, to help him in his Master Plan.) Foxbat and his pals first steal all the dolls in stock at the three stores that sell them, also copying - and then erasing - the stores' sales records. Over the next few nights, they break into the homes of people that already bought Cuddly Cailey dolls, taking all of them they can find. Luckily, PRIMUS sets up a sting operation, luring Foxbat to attack the factory and nab him, putting an end to the Cowled Crusader's little Grinch act.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat The Quality Quadrant. (Same comment as CC) NT: World's worst comic book crossovers or team-ups.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat To sell T-shirts, toy phasers, plastic communicators, and anything else we can think of... To find new life... in old plots and complications... To boldly go where everyone has gone before! (Star Drek) NT: The next attempt to alienate the Trek fanbase... oops, I mean the next Star Trek series

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... (Sorry, Kirby, a little backstory needed) Fantasy Hero game, where one player kept missing out of gaming sessions. The other players are getting irritated, so their characters: (1) replace Mr. MIA's oak staff with one made from some flexible wood, balsa, I believe; (2) replace the arrows in his quiver with ones with the fletching seriously messed up so they won't fly straight; and (3) hire some local toughs to fake an attack on the party. The next time Mr. MIA *is* there on gaming night, the ambush happens. When the toughs show up, the other players make sure Mr. MIA's character is in front. He begins firing arrows, which all veer off from their target. Mr. MIA: "They have some sort of magical deflection field!" Other players and GM, all trying to keep straight faces: "Um... yeah! Right! Yeah! That's what it is!" So Mr. MIA rushes forward into HtH range, takes a swing with his staff... which bounces off the thug's chest. As the end of the staff waves back and forth in the air like a rubber bone, you can just imagine the look on his face. Mr. MIA: "What the... how... Okay, I *gotta* know how you drew that power up!" At this point, nobody could keep a straight face any more, and we all broke up laughing.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "Famous Last Words" from campaigns and games long ago. Fighter in full plate mail, standing in a river about waist-high, facing off against another fighter: "Gimme your best shot." (opponent rolls critical success, one-shot KOs the PC fighter, who falls in the water and begins to drown) Superheroine Tempest facing off against the VIPER Nest Leader, Kilowatt: "He's MINE!" (Kilowatt zaps Tempest, KOs her in one shot)

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat You saved the cheerleader.

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas! The Bank Robbery, Part 2 I Guess It Really Does Grow On Trees Some thugs into a bank after hours, activate some sort of weird electronic device, and are handily defeated by the heroes. (The device, rather fragile, gets damaged or destroyed in the battle.) When the bank clerks check, they discover that the bank actually has too much money, to the tune of about $10,000. Doing a recount, it's now $12,350 off. Money seems to be appearing in the vault - what the heck is going on? The Root Of All Evil After a foiled bank robbery, various patrons and staff of the bank begin committing crimes, mostly impulse crimes ranging from petty theft to assault. At first, this goes somewhat unnoticed until a PC hero catches a DNPC doing something completely out of character. What happened in the bank to cause this strange crime wave, and how can the heroes stop it? Pen and Teller Foxbat takes over a bank and steals... one of the tellers. That's right, he leaves the cash behind but takes the girl -- whose ex-boyfriend is a con serving time for ripping off a gold shipment, a huge part of which was never recovered. Is Freddy after the gold or the girl? Does she even know where the gold is?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat I saw Foxbat kissing Santa Clause, While robbing the mall on Christmas Eve. He didn't seem me creep, My Stealth roll left no peep! He'd used sleep gas on mall guards So they'd fallen fast asleep.

Re: Code vs Killing (Total)

Re: Secret IDs: In or Out? As to Secret Identities in general, maybe (or probably) they're unrealistic in the modern age. But then again, I don't write comics or have superpowers, so I really don't care much about "Secret Identities in general." As far as in my game, Secret IDs will remain a staple because they enhance game play and player enjoyment. (Plus, it give me another way to mess with the PCs. ) A character who can lift buildings, juggle cars, and bounce anti-tank shells off his chest may not be challenged by much. But it's a new kind of challenge to sneak out of a dinner date because he saw a known supervillain breaking into the building across the street. I don't pursue the realism of Secret Identities, because once you insist upon realism in one aspect, you almost have to bring realism to all the rest. I was in a game where a hero was running at superspeed, and tripped over a fence. One person used real-world physics to argue that the hero should have face-planted the ground at 200 mph. Another said, "Your character shoots wind out of a stick. Care to explain the physics of that?" It may or may not be genre, it may or may not be realistic. But secret identities do add to the fun, so they are free to stay in my game.

Re: [Worst Ever...] Reasons to be a superhero "Because my uncle said, 'With great flour, comes great responsibility.'" - quote from The Amazing Baker at the start of his two-hour long crimefighting career "Someone must stand for the American Lay of Wife." - Dyslexic Man's motto "I own several construction firms and a hospital, and business was getting slow."

Re: Code vs Killing (Total) I ran an alien invasion story arc before, and CvK didn't come up at all. The aliens were rather bug-like and didn't act highly intelligent, so that might have mitigated the whole thing, though. To be truthful, the players were (unknowingly) running imperfect duplicates* of themselves at the time - you should have seen their faces when the first of them died in the battle, then the second, then the third... That said, given the context provided by Shaft, I think the player is justified in choosing to take a strict interpretation on the Total part of the CvK. It sounds like this player is more interesting in roleplaying the character; he started out with Strong CvK but increased it to Total due to consequences of his actions. I wouldn't worry about it requiring him to be a vegetarian. I would have more problem with someone taking Total CvK as easy points, then trying to argue his way out of it hindering him every time he wants to gut someone like a trout. In that case, I'd go with a literal "Total = all the time, no matter what" interpretation, just to make sure the player doesn't try pulling the same thing with his next character. *My campaign world at that time was 4th Edition and had Sanctuary, an island in the South Pacific typically accessed by transporter-like devices. When they heard about the invasion, they were the first to transport home - and the transporters overloaded. The players didn't know that the PCs never actually left Sanctuary, and imperfect duplicates were created at the receiving end.

Re: Millennium City/Doctor Destroyer Ideas I once came up with a story arc after reading the Helmet of Dr. Destroyer adventure by Bob Greenwade for Star Hero (from DH #25). Though the article didn't provide the adventure I ran, I have to cite it as the inspiration. Remember that the only thing found after the Battle of Detroit was Destroyer's (damaged) helmet. The premise I was working off was that Destroyer's battlesuit linked into his mind through the helmet, so its circuitry could be used to create a copy of Destroyer's brain pattern. A mentalist of sufficient skill (cough*Menton*cough) could use this to, in turn, create a device enabling him to potentially bypass Destroyer's mental defenses and battlesuit control. And a mastermind supervillain as powerful as Destroyer might learn of that mentalist's plan and try to get the helmet first (initially on display at a memorial to the Battle of Detroit). At that point in time in my campaign, Destroyer had not made his "return from the grave" known, so he didn't want to just jump in with all guns blazing, as it were. It's been two years, so I don't remember details, but as I recall the heroes ended up smack in the middle of machinations by both Menton and Destroyer to acquire the helmet. Not a nice place to be, believe me. And if the heroes end up in possession of the helmet, you can bet that Dr. D will be knocking at their door in some form or other.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Technically, this is a superpower that NONE OF THE REST OF THE WORLD wants you to have. I have the power to instantly turn my opponent invulnerable. NT: What is Dr. Destroyer's *big* secret?

Re: Best and Worst Costume/Appearance Changes I haven't collected comics in something like 15-20 years, but I always liked Wasp constantly switching costumes. I wasn't a big fan of Spidey's black costume, but I did love the bit where he runs into Daredevil after first getting the new duds, and is a bit miffed that DD didn't even comment on the costume change. Hate the new Iron-Spidey costume with a passion. Only consolation is that, once the Civil Wars fiasco is over, he might ditch it quick.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat I'm the Batman! (SPLAT!) And I'm the giant freakin' lizard. Any questions?