Theron

Re: Urban/Modern Fantasy Questions Well, The Unspeakable Oath is the name of an old CoC 'zine from the late 80s that I really liked, so I think I'll stick with that.

Re: Urban/Modern Fantasy Questions I've got one that's been rattling around my head for a few years. It originated as an alternate setting for the Buffy RPG, but that game never got off the ground, while the setting still lurks in the back of my head. The Time: The Present The Setting: The University of Massachusetts at Arkham, AKA, Ole Misk. The original plan was the Cthulhu Mythos meets the Buffy-Verse, and I still think that could work. Go dancing at The Unspeakable Oath, and hunt monsters in the streets of Old Arkham. Just avoid eating at Innsmouth Sushi. Trust me on that one.

Re: How Do You Handle Machine-Class Mental Powers?

I've got a PC in my game with a number of "machine intelligence" powers and I find it tends to be nearly impossible to adjudicate them in any reliable mechanical sense. By and large, most machinery lacks the requisite defenses to put up any resistance, which seems to make high levels of it just an exercise in spending points for a special effect. The alternative, to assign such defenses to what amount to unintelligent objects tends to snap my reality suspenders a bit too hard. Is there a third path I'm missing here? Because we've got a big fight with a bunch of robots coming up and I don't want to give him an easy path to victory, but by the same token, I don't want to completely nerf him.

Re: Gestalt Podcast Good stuff, Scott! Good questions from the interviewers as well.

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? It seems there was a medieval European weapon similar to the nagamaki, but it's nomenclature is non-existent and it's provenance very scarce. The one place I've seen it is in the Maciejowski Bible: Being used by the knight in the brown surcote on the left. He's clearly wielding itwo-handed from horseback. It's got a blade like a glaive, but the grip/haft is very short. Given that medieval iconography is often not the best source for period details, I would be doubtful about this weapon, except that the Mac Bible is generally considered on of the best sources for images of 13th century military life (although the violence depicted is exaggerated - these were Bible stories for illiterate noblemen; sort of a superhero comic of the day). Interestingly enough, my parallel edition of "The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny" translates the old French "glaive" as "sword." Which makes me think our medieval forebears weren't overly concerned with the niceties of nomenclature. On the weirdly shaped blades front, there are also some pretty wicked looking falchions depicted in the same work: Almost dead center, the figure in quilted armour with green sleeves, wielding the weapon two-handed.

Re: Job Perks Did I ever mention that Jess used to be in my gaming group when he lived in Texas? Great guy, we miss him a lot.

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up One purely game-related note. The extensive breakdown of the combat sequence in this scenario rocked! I don't think I've ever seen a combat with twelve characters run so smoothly or so fast. in fact, I pretty much had to improvise all of the alien invasion stuff off the cuff because the game was running so short.

Re: Campaigns bases off alternate sources. I've done such things in the past, as well as completely home-brewed worlds. At this point in my life, I don't have the time or energy to devote to that level of effort. Also, I found that I tended to spend too much inspiration on world-building and not have enough left to sustain a campaign. So, I'm back to running a highly modified CU (with lots of elements from CNM, and whatever else I feel like throwing in).

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up Episode Nine: Mayhem at the Mall! [Contains spoilers from "Let's Go To The Maul" from Champions Battlegrounds. You've been warned.] And we're back from mid-season hiatus. Things start out at a local mall (the New Urbana Mall from Champions Battlegrounds where The Guardians are making a public appearance to celebrate the roll-out of a video game based on their likenesses and powers (Bari Silver, Bard's agent works FAST!). Fanboys (and girls) are lined up out the door and down the hall. Apart from the inevitable lame and intrusive question and comments, things are going well when there's a ruckus outside. Shoppers spotted someone up in the belltower, and it looks like he's about to jump! The Guardians excuse themselves and go out to look. Sure enough, there is a shadowy figure up there. Suddenly, he leaps into space, to reveal himself as Foxbat! "Stand aside, you so-called do-gooders! No one will stand between me and the culmination of my master plan! So declares Foxbat!" (The PCs then managed to fail any and every possible KS to help identify the masked lunatic, so their immediate reaction was, "Who?") Foxbat shot Bard with an Explodoball that did little in the way of actual harm. ByteTorrent and Bard tried to clear the crowd out of the way, while Oracle took a shot at Foxbat, narrowly missing him. Foxbat dropped a smoke cloud, which force The Magician and Rex to carefully find their way out to clear territory, buying more time for the larcenous lunatic. Just as the heroes began lining up beads on Foxbat, a bright flash of light heralded the arrival of GRAB, via Cheshire Cat's teleport gate. Bluejay spotted heroes and tagged The Magician with capture foam while Black Diamond smashed a display case. Hummingbird flew towards Bard to pursue her own agenda. Flying near him, she shouted, "Bard! It's me! I got your text about today and it's wonderful to finally see you, darling! Let's get away from this and find a quiet spot to be together." Since she backed up this enticement with a 10d6 Mind Control, Bard was momentarily amenable to this suggestion. (While I'm not using the Interface storyline, from CB, I do like the notion of a supervillainess who's fixated on Bard. It serves him right. So, I'm assuming she's been led on by a jealous ex.) With Bard chasing the love he didn't know he had, Foxbat had a clear landing path. Posing dramatically, he shouted, "No! No interlopers will stand between me and the world's largest cubic zirconium! Foxbattalion, attack!" Meanwhile, in the smoke cloud, Oracle, in her aspect of Artemis, was unhindered by the darkness and had a clean shot at Foxbat. She hit him, doing minimal damage (I included the experimental ablative Foxbat armor made from old AOL CDs to protect him), but she did manage to knock him into the fountain. At that moment, a massive crash overwhelmed the sounds of battle. A car, a brown Honda Civic with a yellow F painted on the hood came roaring through the mall in reverse. The driver, a chubby teen in a Foxbat-style costume and the passenger, a shapely young woman in a similar outfit, brandished ping-pong ball guns, as the car skidded to a halt near the fountain. Foxbatboy popped the trunk, "Foxbattalion, reporting for duty, sir!" Cheshire Cat, clearly on a manic swing looked for someone to fight. Bard was off chasing after Hummingbird. The Magician was all sewn up. Rex Radium was too far away, and he couldn't see Oracle. That left, ByteTorrent. Who, for once, was solid with his Force Field up. Not that the latter helped, much. He teleported next to the Man of Data, "Hey! Let's you and me fight!" He smacked ByteTorrent with his billy club and slammed him into the car. Blue Jay hit Rex with her Atrophic Ray, weakening him substantially. The Magician struggled with his bonds, while Black Diamond continued to grab jewelry. Rex caught himself and said, "What's good for the gander is good for the goose," and tagged Blue Jay with his atomic enervation beam, turning up the heat in her armor and fatiguing her substantially (it's a high-end CON drain). While ByteTorrent tried to reboot, Cheshire Cat looked down at him, "I wouldn't normally hit a man while he's down, but you're not a man." He struck Byte-Torrent again, rendering him the equivalent of unconscious for data constructs. Bard shook off Hummingbird's mind control. "Look, I'm sure you're a very nice person, and you're quite pretty, but I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about and there are people in danger, so this is going to have to wait." He leaped across the fountain, landing near the Foxbatmobile. Feeling spurned, Hummingbird lashed out at him mentally. Fortunately, Bard's godly heritage protects him from mental attacks as well, and the attack did little harm. Blue Jay realized that Cheshire Cat was off-script. She also realized another attack like the one Rex landed and she'd be waking up in a cell, so she turned on the afterburners and made tracks for an outside exit. Foxbat gracefully leapt from the fountain, made an acrobatic grab on the Anna Nichola Smythe Diamonelle, and landed in the trunk of the Foxbatmobile, pulling the lid shut. Oracle, still hidden in the smoke lined up an easy shot on the unsuspecting Cheshire Cat. It didn't knock him out, but it did slam him into the wall across the corridor and left him counting chirping birds. Black Diamond, being many things, but none of them a fool, realized that discretion was the better part of valor and bolted, running up the stairs to the second level. None of the Guardians pursued her. Foxbatboy and Foxbatgirl shot at The Magician and Bard, with little effect. Before the Foxbatmobile could make a getaway, Rex shot out a tire, and Bard grabbed the hapless vehicle, picking it up effortlessly and shaking all within violently. Oracle freed The Magician, and the crowd erupted in cheers. (Hummingbird slipped out unnoticed. But it won't be the last Bard hears from her.) While waiting for the cops, the heroes had a chance to interrogate Foxbat and crew. Not that it helped much. Foxbat was his usual mad, egotistical self. Foxbatboy hyperventilated when Oracle (as Athena) tried to question him, and Foxbatgirl spent her time sitting on the ground and talking to the bottom of her foot. Rex took Bari the Agent aside to inquire if he knew anything about this. "No way, Rex Baby. If I wanted to make you guys look good, I wouldn't have hired a schlub like Foxbat. But we've got to sign him for the add-on pack. He's great comic relief!" Upon returning to the headquarters, the Guardians found they had a message waiting. A transmission from Dragon Knight. It was full of static and hard to understand, but the following was audible: "...achieved a breakthrough. The war...badly. They're coming. Warn the world. Prepare..." ByteTorrent went to work cleaning up the transmission. The Magician contacted Galsworthy to see if he knew more about the Dragon Knight's whereabouts. He got up to "They're coming" before Galsworthy teleported into their midst. "They're coming? This is bad. This is very bad! We need to contact the GUARD. Now!" At that point, ByteTorrent replayed the cleaned-up message. Dragon Knight addressed the camera. He looked battered. His armor seemed patched and modified. Odder still, it seemed he'd aged significantly in a very short period of time. "This is Dragon Knight on Guardians priority frequency. The Malvans have achieved a breakthrough. The war goes badly. They're coming. Warn the world. Prepare for the invasion." ByteTorrent contacted the GUARD. Jankowski immediately forwarded him to Maj. General Jonas "Broadhead" Brooks, Commander in Chief of GUARD Operations. "This is the old Guardians' frequency. Am I safe in assuming you represent their new incarnation?" "This entity confirms your assessment." "And you're contacting me about an invasion from space?" "Affirmative." "You aren't the first to do so. Successors to the Sentinels are calling in from all over. The GUARD is calling an emergency gathering of all willing and able to confront this threat in DC in ten days. I hope we can count on your participation." "The Guardians will be there." Galsworthy filled in the blanks. "The Malvans are an alien race. Sort of like the Roman Empire. Decadence, gladitorial games, that sort of thing. They subjugate worlds and use them to serve their noble classes. The Sentinals discovered they were looking this way, and decided to meet them head on, about twelve light years from here. Doesn't sound like it's going so good." Rex asked, "How did the Sentinels find out about them." "Hey, they get around. It's a big universe." Bard interjected, "So what? We're superheroes. We can take 'em." "Don't be so sure. A single Malvan gladiator is a match for any of the Sentinels. They may be decadent, but they raise 'em tough. If they've gotten past the line, we're looking at a major alien invasion. And you guys are going to be on the sharp end. I think I'd better get in touch with the Circle." With that, Galsworthy excused himself. Byte-Torrent began running through every astronomy resource he could find. While nothing appeared in the official sources, he did discover some fringe astronomy sites that noted something blue-shifting toward the Earth and a high rate of speed from that sector of space. With that news, the Guardians communications channel came to life like never before. Teams from across the country, across the world made contact: From New York, the Justice Foundation; from Toronto, NorthStar; Europe's AEGIS, and Millenium City's Champions. Most were fairly inexperienced, but all committed to the Summit in ten days. As the Guardians signed off, the door of the Operations Center slid open. Standing in the door was the tall figure of an older man. A familiar man, his crippled leg housed in a cybernetic brace. Donald Henderson, the Marksman. "I hear we've got company coming. You want an extra gunhand?" Oracle beamed, "Absolutely." Roll credits...

Re: Another Lost World found! Man, Gaboon Vipers are scary critters.

Re: Seeker vs. Nighthawk- THE REMATCH! Yeah. It was hampered by the Fuzion rules and the terribly terrible Image-inspired artwork, but the actual setting material was gold. I'm using a big chunk of it in my current campaign (minus the Champions).

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up It was a GM call, having played with the player in question for over a decade and knowing he'd roll with it because it was in character. The miscommunication got worked out.

Re: Doesn't this sound like a gadgeteer villain idea to take over the world? In DC's "Final Crisis," the Anti-Life Equation went out to the people of Earth as mass emails and text messages.

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up Episode 8: The Christmas Cookie Caper [NOTES: After the Hell-Queen multiparter, I wanted to run something lighter in tone and done-in-one. Also, the past few adventures had a lot of mystical/magical elements that were putting Rex Radium on the sidelines. Also, I realize his detective skills and man-out-of-time schtick really hadn’t gotten any spotlight time. The story hook and the bad guys for this one are cribbed from Evil Hat Productions’ “Spirit of the Season,” a supplement for their excellent pulp RPG “Spirit of the Century.” In letting Rex draw on past memories that his player had never defined, I hit on putting a method that worked pretty well – I’ll explain it at the end. Also, I had one major screwup during the combat that I’ll also mention at the end.] It's several weeks after the defeat of the Hell-Queen. Life in Bay City has returned to some semblance of normal, and the Christmas holidays are approaching. Peace on Earth, good will towards men and all that. Right? We start off catching up with our heroes as they settle into life as members of the Guardians. Galsworthy the Great has transformed an old laboratory into a "Supernatural Gymnasium" and is putting the young cartomancer through his paces. (Magician's player couldn't make it, so he remained off camera until the end of the session when his powers were needed). Bard is having lunch with is agent, Mr. Bari Silver. “Do you realize what a marketing bonanza this is? Bard, baby. You are HOT! I’m telling you, I’m fielding twenty calls a day right now. You know that Cronen the Barbarian remake that was stalled at DreamQuest? The minute you sign, it’s green-lit.” “OK, so you’re sold on doing the superhero thing for a while. I can get behind that, but you’ve got to let me help you. You’re in Silicon Valley now. right? What about a computer game? I’ve got two offers on the table right now. We can put in that demon chick you clobbered and some of those other freaks. But both of them want the rights to the rest of your posse. Who represents them?” He manages to browbeat Bard into at least giving the others his card as the entrees arrive. Meanwhile, back at the headquarters, Oracle (in Athena aspect) has dragged ByteTorrent down to the gym. She's convinced he needs some actual combat training and that she's the only one who can provide it. "Now stop going desolid and I'll show you how to defend yourself." "This entity does not understand. Desolidification is the perfect defense. This entity cannot be harmed." "Do I really need to go get the refrigerator magnets again?" "This entity acknowledges your point. However, this entity has developed new techniques of non-lethal response. Observe." Byte-Torrent then zapped Oracle with a flash attack. "Human ocular function is transported to the brain via electrical impulses. A temporary disruption of those impulses is all that is needed to render human's sightless. If this entity cannot be seen and cannot be touched, further combat technique is unnecessary." Before Oracle could further respond, the local police alert went off. ByteTorrent responded: "Thank you for contacting the Guardians Emergency Line. What is the nature of your problem?" "This is Sergeant Bailey of the BCPD. We've got an incident down here in the Tenderloin. Bunch of people acting like zombies, tearing up the Mission Soup Kitchen. Weird stuff. We could use some back up." "Very well. We will be there momentarily." Byte-Torrent forwarded the alert to the rest of the team." Bard's alert went off as the check was arriving at fēdbag. “Is that the Guardians?” “Yeah. There’s a zombie outbreak or something, not too far from here. I’d better…” “Hold on there! I’m not just your agent, I’m a fan, baby. Love to watch you work. I’ll drive.” We shift our view to the office of Rex Radium, Private Investigator. Rex is holed up inside with his memories, a copy of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and a cheap bottle of rye. He’s also got his communicator switched off. Christmas is the biggest reminder of how the world has changed and how nobody he used to know is around. At the Mission Soup Kitchen, things are kind of weird. The normally harmless homeless folks who frequent the neighborhood have become mindless automatons, bent on wrecking the place. The police have set up a cordon, but are reluctant to use lethal force on them. Bard and Bari pull up in his Lamborghini as the G-Wing lands. Leaping before he looks, Bard jumps into the crowd, intent on grabbing a few and carrying them to a police transport. “Bah humbug! Bah humbug!” The crowd of homeless zombies mutters. They seem to be mustering their forces to attack the homeless family shelter across the street. Bard easily grabs a couple of the mob, but fails to notice a skittering sound nearby until a mechanical bug drops on his head. Fortunately for all and sundry, his Asgardian nature protects him from the mind-controlling device (a Humbug). Its presence alerts the Guardians to the nature of the menace they face, as they notice similar bugs on the backs of all the zombies’ heads. ByteTorrent successfully hacks into the Humbug on Bard. He’s able to determine that it’s receiving and transmitting signals to a nearby location and how to send out a command to shut them all down. Bard and Oracle continue to stem the tide while he traces the signal. Meanwhile, at the Atomic Detective Agency, there’s a knock at the door. A sultry female voice calls out, “Rex! It’s Velvet. I know you’re in there. Open up, I need some help!” Rex opens the door, revealing Miss Velvet L’Amour, proprietress of the Velvet Lounge, one of Bay City’s more…storied establishments. “Aw, Rexy, I’m sorry to bother you around Christmas, but I’ve got a problem with a tenant.” Rex raised an eyebrow questioningly. “No, not one of those tenants, this is a real renter. Perfesser Kibbler. Nathan Bisko Kibbler. He’s one of them genius nutcases. Rents a place up on the fourth floor of her “ahem” establishment. Leaves the girls alone, always pays his rent on time. Squirrelly, but who knows with them geniuses, yeah?” “Anyway, somethin’ happened to him last night. Gloria, you know Gloria, yeah? She’s kinda sweet on the kook and went to take him some breakfast this morning. His door was unlocked and there was blood. You know I can’t get the cops involved and Gloria’s all broke up about it. Can you take a look and see if you can figure out what happened?” Never one to turn down a pretty face in distress, Rex puts the bottle back in his desk drawer and hits the pavement. Since the Velvet Lounge is catty-corner to the Mission Soup Kitchen, he arrives on the scene just as ByteTorrent shut down the Humbugs. After a couple of uncomfortable questions about his communicator (he switches it back on) and seeing his allies had the situation in hand, he proceeds upstairs to Kibbler’s apartment. As described, the place has clearly been rolled. There’s some blood, but not a lot of it. By the looks of things, Kibbler got clocked upside the head and carried off. There’s a trail of blood drops and what look like cookie crumbs leading towards the open fire escape window. No blood on the ladder or the ground below. Kibbler’s notes are missing and there’s no indication the guy used a computer. The strangest thing is the place is full of what looks like soot. Like someone vented a smokestack into the room. There’s an odd smell Rex just can’t quite place. As Velvet said, Gloria’s a mess. All tears and sobbing. “Ernie was going to take me away from all of this! He was on the brink of somethin’ big. A cookie that could wipe out world hunger. Oh sure, laugh why don’tcha? He said it had all the vitamins a person needs! He was a genius. IS a genius! Oh no, what if he’s dead?” She starts bawling uncontrollably. Back on the street, Bard calls for medical help for the homeless folks. He also writes the Mission operator a check for $20,000 to cover the damages (Bari screams in anguish off-camera). ByteTorrent locates the coordinates of the control unit a few blocks away and the heroes check it out. It’s an abandoned car. ByteTorrent runs the plates and traces them to a rental company. The car was rented by a Robert Cratchitt. There’s nothing obvious in the vehicle, but none of the assembled heroes are particularly good at detective work. Fortunately, Rex is but a call away. Taking a sample of the soot for later analysis, he made his way to the abandoned car. He found some fingerprints on the steering wheel, but they didn’t match anyone named Cratchitt. They belonged to a small-time loser name Heskowitz with an outstanding warrant in Idaho. More interesting, however, was what Rex found on the floor of the car: more soot. The smell was familiar. “Eww, smells like Pittsburgh,” said Bard. “Yeah,” said Rex. “Like coal smoke…and Cratchitts, and…Guys!” the Glowing Gumshoe exclaimed. “I think I’ve got an idea about who we’re dealing with. It’s an old case, from my past. (Cue black and white flashback) Back in 1948, the great heroes of the Pulp Age were on the way out. The years and mileage had caught up to far too many. Thanks to Rex’s atomic mishap, he had a new lease on life. And a good thing it was when his path crossed with Nick Saint, the so-called “Spirit of Giving” and his Reindeer Men. Rex and Nick were working the same case from different directions and decided to combine forces to excellent effect. The Bad Guys: Jacques Frost: A French-Canadian explorer obsessed with lost civilizations underneath the Arctic ice. His mysterious Amulet of Oryk allowed him to locate, thaw, and revive the great beasts of the ice age. Baroness Blackheart: An alchemist obsessed with immortality. She replaced her heart with a mystical furnace. It granted her long life and other powers, which she supplemented with potions of her own making. You suspected they were working with the nefarious Doctor Scrooge. A nutcase who considered himself the rightful heir of (the fictional) Ebenezer Scrooge, he was a shadowy figure of immense wealth, of whom much was suspected, but little proved. He used his minions “the Cratchitts” to do his dirty work. In the Christmas Caper, Rex encountered Frost when he used a mammoth to hijack a shipment of toys intended for a local orphanage. After that, Nick entered the picture, as he’d learned Baroness Blackheart had come up with a way to channel the children’s despair into greater longevity. He suspected Scrooge was involved, as the Cratchitts were assisting her, but it couldn’t be proved. In the end, Rex’s knowledge of the city proved invaluable as they tracked the Baroness to her lair, a disused sub-basement of the California Academy of Science. His radioactive might coupled with the combined talents of Nick and the Reindeer Men allowed them to defeat the Baroness, Frost’s Dire Bears, and the Cratchitt’s. The toys were delivered to the tykes and no waves of despair added years to the Baroness’ life. The Baroness, Frost, and the current crop of Cratchitts went to prison. Shortly thereafter, Rex took his own long nap. Since he came back, he’s been too busy to look them up. Oracle looked incredulous, “Doctor Scrooge? Reindeer Men?” “Hey,” Rex muttered. “Show some respect. Things were different then.” ByteTorrent runs a check on the bad guys. Jacques Frost served his time, was released, and died in Nova Scotia in 1956. Baroness Blackheart drops off the radar after her release fifty years ago, and searches for Scrooge inevitably dead-end into “Christmas Carol” references. “I know it sounds crazy,” Rex said, but it fits. “I’m working a missing person case. Some guy who developed a cookie that would end world hunger. His apartment was covered in this same soot. I’m sure it’s coal smoke from the Baroness’s Black Heart.” “Why would anyone kidnap someone over a super-cookie?” Oracle asked? “Maybe Blackheart thinks it would extend her immortality.” “This entity believes there would be substantial commercial value in such a foodstuff. Is this not correct?” ByteTorrent asked. “Yeah. Doctor Scrooge would want a piece of that action.” “Hey guys?” Bard chimed in. “Speaking of commercial value, you know that guy who drove me over to the Mission? That was my agent. I hate to do this, but he wants to talk to you. There’s this computer game company that wants to do a Guardians game and there could be some good money in it, so I told him I’d give you his card.” (Bard’s not very good at picking the right time and place for things, as you may have noticed.) Deciding a sixty year old lead was better than none, the Guardians make their way to the Institute of Science. The sub-basement is still reachable by an external access-way. Furthermore, the external door had clearly been opened recently, by someone leaving a lot of soot. Making their way in, they find a large dimly-lit storage room full of odd Victorian-era technology. At the far end of the room, none other than Baroness Blackheart and two men in Victorian style garb menace a whimpering man tied to a chair while a shadowy figure looks on from an oddly Victorian looking television screen. Once again, proving himself the master of subtlety, Bard leaps into the room, violently showing off his strength and demanding the villains’ surrender. It does have the effect of causing a number of hidden Cratchitts to hesitate, but if has no effect at all on the emotionless Baroness (her PRE is 50 for defensive purposes). ByteTorrent goes desolid and moves into the room, hoping to draw fire. Oracle takes on the aspect of Artemis, rushes into the room and smites Baroness Blackheart with an arrow from her silver bow. It strikes true, and slams her into the television (destroying it) but it’s not enough to put down the immortal alchemist, who surveys the heroine while grasping a glass globe from her belt: “Ah, the vessel of the three goddesses. Perhaps you will appreciate the Medusa’s Kiss.” The glass globe breaks at Oracle’s feet and, as her fellow Guardians looked on in horror, the Olympian Avatar turns to stone! More Cratchitts enter the room, with Ether Pistols at the ready. One catches Bard in “Marley’s Chains” (an entangle), but his ally stupidly destroys the chains when he tries to shoot the Asgardian Powerhouse. The Baroness unleashes the fires of the Black Heart on Bard, blasting him back, but not hurting him very badly. ByteTorrent attempts to use his Ocular Disruption on her to no avail. He then tries to taser a Cratchitt with minimal effect (his dice were comically bad). Suddenly, Baroness Blackheart vanishes from view (she slipped on a ring that grants invisibility). She fires a burst from her gatling pistol at Bard, but the bullets bounce off harmlessly. Realizing discretion is the better part of valor, she uses the Cratchitts as a distraction, slugs down a flight potion, and quietly wings her way out of the room. Bereft of leadership, the Cratchitts surrender, dropping their lousy English accents as they give up. While Rex ascertains that this is Professor Kibbler and that he’s basically alright, ByteTorrent contacts Galsworthy the Great, who teleports The Magician to the sub-basement. The Magician uses his healing to restore Oracle to flesh. The Guardians reunite Kibbler with Gloria. Oracle is less than pleased with what she sees at the Velvet Lounge and makes a decision regarding the computer game. ********** Meanwhile, in Earth orbit, aboard a cloaked satellite that looks like a deranged and evil Christmas orbit, the following conversation occurs. “Blast! That damnable Radium. Who let him back into the world. Oh well, no matter, there’s always next year.” “What’ll we do next year, Guvnor?” “The same thing we do every year, Cratchitt. Try to destroy Christmas!” [END NOTES: When I was coming up with this, I wanted to tie the very pulp-style villains into Rex’s past. However, Rex’s player didn’t know any of this history, so I had to come up with a way to introduce it without spoiling the investigation stage of the story from the outset. Ultimately, I made a fake newspaper page (using a PowerPoint template I found online) featuring Rex saving Christmas for the orphans, and added a page of background on his earlier adventure. I gave him a sealed envelope and asked him to wait to open it until I told him, which came when Rex found out Cratchitts were involved and had identified the soot. Once he opened and read it, he performed the big reveal in character, which seemed a lot more natural. The player liked it, so that’s really all that matters. On the downside, when I turned Oracle to stone, I completely blew my PS: Champions GM roll. Thanks to a communications failure, Oracle’s player (my wife) thought I’d just killed her character. Worse, she proceeded to sit things out in a manner consistent with someone who’s character had been turned to stone, not killed (she was trying to be stoic in the face of misfortune) for at least half an hour of game time. When I discovered this mistake, it only sort of helped matters, because she immediately began blaming herself for not understanding the rules. Bummer. Things are OK now, but I wish I’d handled it a bit more clearly.]

Re: Malazan Hero It was a tough row to hoe for me as well. Initially, I thought I was just too exhausted to give it the attention I needed to read it (I bought the book the week after Hurricane Ike tore up my house), but in comparing notes with other fans, the consensus is that it's not an easy read. That having been said, I eventually hit a point where finishing it was like a compulsion. I'm not sure where, exactly, but I remember reading the last three or four hundred pages in enormous gulps.

Re: Going from Champions to Mutants and Masterminds

Re: Going from Champions to Mutants and Masterminds

Re: Going from Champions to Mutants and Masterminds It's something I've contemplated a number of times, though for the moment, I'm still committed to Champions. For my money, M&M plays faster, and has some built-in rules that reinforce the genre tropes I like. I generally feel like I have to do less contortions with the rules to get the characters I want. Also, I play in a weekly D&D game and it's a bit of an easier mental gear shift between D&D and M&M than D&D and Champions. So, why am I still running Champions? Familiarity. I've been playing the game for twentymumble years now and it's second nature. My group are mostly Champions veterans and are comfortable with the game. Learning a new system would disrupt our valuable game time. My campaign relies almost 100% on published material. I don't have the time to spend creating and hand-crafting my own setting anymore. M&M's got a lot of stuff in print, but Champions has far more and I own a lot of Hero Designer data sets. My wife (one of my cornerstone players) really didn't enjoy our brief experiment with M&M. I think I didn't know the system well enough to run it properly at the time and that she would get a kick out of it, but every time I bring it up, she says, "It took me fifteen years to figure out Champions. I'm not spending any more time learning a game system."

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up She's been alright so far in terms of dealing with niches. The group doesn't have a dedicated mentalist, so the Aphrodite aspect handles that, and as Athena she shares the front line fighter duties with Bard. The aspect that sees the least use is probably Artemis, but that's been as much a function of recent adventures as anything else. It helps that two of the PCs aren't heavily optimized for combat oriented (ByteTorrent and Rex Radium), and The Magician is really a jack of all trades, master of none type. The biggest problem I've seen with her so far is in terms of XP expenditures, because even one or two XPs in a Multiform yield a ton of points for the alternates.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine A while back, he posted he was going to change it. As best as could be made out without a native Portuguese speaker, he felt badly that the artwork wasn't his own creation and was going to do his own thing and when he did, he'd be pulling the Timm-verse version down. Given the Beta notation, I guess he finally did it. End of an era, I suppose. I never was able to snag a local copy for my use, more's the pity.

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up And today saw the finale of the Hell-Queen Saga. We began this one where we left off, with the heroes looking down from a vantage point on Eurydon's encampment upon the Plain of Baal-Shagoth. Lakshvir (her intended opponent) advancing upon the scene with her massive army in tow. The Cateran stayed back to guard Crusader. (This was a GM call, because I really didn't want to deal with a powerful sword-wielding NPC who was significantly faster than everyone else in the party.) The Magician surveyed the camp with his Mystic Vision. It was swarming with magic. Eurydon appeared to be disguising the extent of her injuries with some form of illusion. The Guardians debated their options briefly. What if they could find some way to convince Eurydon to abandon the challenge? (Answer: she's dead. They'll hunt her down and kill her.) What was the fate of the woman Eurydon used as her mortal vessel? (Unknown, but probably something bad.) What will happen if they simply knock her out and give her to Lakshmir? (Unknown, but the challenge would probably be off. Assuming, of course, they could knock out a demon of Eurydon's magnitude.) Finally, Oracle tired of the discussion. Taking up Hasufring, she charged the camp, getting the attention of a couple of sentry demons, one of whom blasted her with hellfire, knocking her off her feet. Byte-Torrent went desolid and ran after to create a distraction and Bard rushed to Oracle's side, helping her back up. Morgaine the Mystic and Rex Radium provided covering fire, while The Magician turned invisible to just about every available sense and began creeping up on the camp. An enormous demon hound snapped at Bard, missing him narrowly. Hellfire continued to rain down on Bard and Oracle with little effect. It also rained down on Morgaine with significant effect, rendering her unconscious in a single blast. Rex hit the gigantic hellhound hard enough to knock it down, which gave Bard and Oracle the opening they needed. While Byte-Torrent caught Eurydon's attention (and a lightning bolt that did PATHETIC damage), Bard grabbed the sword-wielding goddess and leaped with all his might, landing at the feet of the demoness. Oracle swung Hasufring and connected solidly. Eurydon screamed and rocked on her feet, but stayed up. The look she gave Oracle was death incarnate. A hellhound snapped at Bard, missing, but a blast from a flying demon put him on the ground in front of the slavering beast, robbing him of any chance of a follow-up strike on Eurydon. Though she'd struck first, Oracle was far from unhurt. The hellish radiance surrounding Eurydon burned her badly, and she knew the demon would strike her next. If she attempted to dodge, there was a good chance Eurydon would miss. But if she did, she'd give up her chance to finish the demon once and for all. In a moment worthy of the aspect of Athena she bore, she stood fast, waiting for Eurydon's cut. When it struck it was quick and clean. Too clean, in fact, as the GM rolled 23 Body and 0 Stun. Yes, Oracle was badly, BADLY wounded, but she was also entirely conscious and had an even more badly wounded demon in her sights. Hasufring sang one last time. 22 Body and 88 Stun(!). Even with Eurydon's defenses, it was more than enough. Eurydon exploded in a blast of white light and a huge cloud of bone dust. When it cleared, the Guardians found themselves standing by a large crater, surrounded by a demon army, with a terrible visage looking down on them. With the body of a enormous spider and a three faced head on a long, flexible neck, Lakshvir gazed down upon the heroes. "Eurydon's interlopers. You have robbed me of my plaything. What am I to make of this. What am I to do with you?" "We have eliminated a threat to your rule. Further, we bring word of another who aided her. Perhaps you know of a demon who calls itself the Gourmand? All we have done, we have done to our own ends. All we ask is to return to our own realm." Lakshvir barked a command in a harsh, demonic tongue and a platoon of demons flew off towards Gourmand's island. She surveyed the heroes, her glance not flinching from the unsheathed Hasufring. "So you have, little mortals. My realm cannot abide that...thing," she said, gesturing towards the sword. Begone." The heroes found themselves standing on the promontory of rock stretching out over the pit. It no longer glowed. GUARD officer Jankoski took one look at the bloody and burned Oracle and called for a medic. Before one could arrive, The Magician healed her. "WE CAME, WE SAW, WE KICKED IT'S ASS!" Bard shouted. "But you've only been gone ten minutes!" Jankowski exclaimed. "Ten minutes is all it takes," the egotastic hero replied. The Crusader regained consciousness and took his sword back. After a moment, he said to Oracle, "Hasufring said you did good, pagan. I shall have to...pray on this." He saluted and limped away with Cateran in tow. Technocrat collected her cold fusion generator from ByteTorrent. They briefly discussed the different flow of time in the Netherworld, where approximately six hours had passed. Aleister Thoth and Galsworthy arrived and noted the Hellscape seemed to be reverting on the outskirts of the zone. The Pit remained and, although it no longer seemed to be a direct gateway to the Netherworld, it was fairly swimming with magical energies and appeared bottomless to all available forms of mundane and mystical perception. Thoth announced the Circle would keep an eye on it for supernatural threats and told The Magician he could expect to hear from them again shortly.

Re: The great supervillain market There was an Earth-Quaker in the Tick. He looked like the guy on the oatmeal box.

Re: Gestalt's Tyranny League Someday, I will run a Gestalt game. Someday.