Darren Watts

I skimmed through the postings and might have missed an answer to this:

 

Will there be package deals to aid in building soldiers for the Allies and Axis powers (American GIs, German soldiers/stormtroopers/SS types, etc)?

As I've been slapped on the wrist recently myself on this very issue, they're called "templates" now and yes we have a bunch of them. dw

Guys,

 

I believe this KS needs a bit more love. It is koving ohhhh soooo slowly. More updates woulfd help. More art preview would help. More excerpts would help. Heck, knowing how much shipping will cost would help.

 

Come on guys, a bit more active support!

Well, we don't have any more art to show you, because the art budget is built into the Kickstarter. I'm happy to share a couple more excerpts, though. How about a sample plot seed from Chapter 5?

<5> The Atlantic Charter Assassination Plot

                In August of 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt declared that it was time for a brief fishing vacation. In reality, he boarded the heavy cruiser USS Augusta and headed to Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, where he met in secret with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first time and drafted what became known as the Atlantic Charter, a statement of goals and principles the two nations shared and intended to pursue once the war was over. The United States was still formally neutral, but Roosevelt knew that could and would not last – Hitler and the Axis needed to be defeated, and the United States’ military might would be required to do so. The meetings did not discuss any particular military tactics, but rather concentrated on what the two nations would strive to achieve in the world after the war was over. Victory was assumed.

                Of course, the meeting was top secret, but in a world of super powers such things can always be discovered, and the Axis powers send superhuman assassins to remove the leaders of their two most feared enemies in a single stroke. If the PCs have any sort of good relations with FDR, Harry Hopkins, or the American military, they can be asked to provide security for the meeting (which takes place on the Augusta while the HMS Prince of Wales sits nearby, all in a remote and scenic bay surrounded by rocky shores and forested hills.) If you haven’t introduced the Axis Legion as a team yet, this might be an excellent opportunity to do so; they should be supported as needed by teams of Skorzeny’s commandos, Von Stahler’s Eisenmenschen, or even Atlantean soldiers who might be the ideal choice to deploy some explosive charges to the bottoms of both ships…

Sidekicks as PCs or NPCs/Followers?  (I often wonder ho many players could really pull off playing a sidekick to a full hero who was also a PC).

There's a couple paragraphs specifically discussing this particular dilemma. It's a roleplaying challenge, but sometimes worth it. dw

Do you discuss Radium X much? I.e. what it is, where you can find it, what you can use it for (maybe with examples)?

Heh. No, not really, though it's mentioned in Liquidator's origin. Someday I will have to make a list of everything I've claimed Radium X can do in my home campaign- that sounds like a great sidebar for Silver Age. My current "science explorer" team in the Tuesday playtest group lives on a Pacific island notable for having piles of the stuff deep in its caves, and the company the natives formed to market it has become ludicrously wealthy, Wakanda-style. (One of the PCs also invented the CD in 1960, so that's our explanation for how they afford all their cool equipment.)

I understand. Are there any sidekicks among the NPCs in the book?

Maybe. We'll see who makes the final edit, but if they're not in the core they'll be in the "Secret Files" from the cutting room floor.

Since you're having a section on sidekicks, will there be details in the way of building suggestions for both superpowered types and non-super types with at least one or two examples for each category you listed?

Yes, sort of, depending on what you mean by examples. Fictional ones discussed, yes,  but I don't walk through character creation of them except to say things like "the Derivative Kid should look a lot like their mentor, except a few DCs less power and lower skills", etc. This book presumes editorially that you know how to make characters in general and want to know more about the genre tropes.

Or punch Hitler (or a suitable surrogate).

Well, not to give away too much from the book, but in my second long-term one, they not only punched him a couple of times, they also dropped a spaceship on him.

Oh, now that brings a question to mind... did the Defenders of Justice ever save President Roosevelt?

Sure, a few times. They were present when the Atlantic Charter was signed, saving both FDR and Churchill from Atlantean assassins. The Axis Legion tried to get him a couple of times, mostly for the morale hit we would have taken. Captain Patriot worked as his personal bodyguard a lot (he was one of my GM NPCs and I periodically needed to get him out of the story for a bit, as I disliked playing more than one at a time.) dw

Your welcomed. And you know I'm an idiot with a taist for feet, right? I do tend to taist my own a lot.

NP, man, I just didn't want this thread to go too far off rails. If you want to post elsewhere on the same topic feel free.

Thanks, that makes me feel much better. 

 

BTW I shared your response with friends on the some inclusive RPG boards. Good work deserves recognition and support by customers.

Well, thanks much!

And tell you what, steriaca, how about I answer the questions in this thread? Thanks!

So are the characters all White guys or is there some diversity? We had many different races living in the US and while the Comics only showed white guys, it would make sense for all races in the US to have Hero(ines).

Not at all. These are superhero stories, and so the world is idealized a bit. Lessee- the DOJ is made up of seven white men, one African-American man, one Japanese-American man, one alien male,  two white women and one Atlantean woman. The King's Men is three white men (one gay), a black man and a white woman. The book also features heroes from China (male) and Africa (female.)

Darren, you mentioned that of the 19 "American" characters, some originally came from elsewhere but spent most of the war in the US. Are any of the latter from Axis countries? (Would make the nationality perspective look more balanced, y'know?)

Hmm. No, not specifically. I have characters on the Axis side who aren't happy to be there, but I don't have any on the Allied side from historically-accurate nations. (Technically, Mara and Fubar both fill this story role, but they're from made-up places, one actively in the Axis and the other conquered by it.) And Quake is a Nisei, but he's from California. Only so many perspectives you can fit, I suppose - I look forward to seeing other people's characters!

I believe that, while traditional power armor was not known, "robot" heros were known (the original Human Torch comes to mind), and I do believe there is one rideable robot hero (not exactly power armor, as the robot can act on it's own).

 

Another thing which appeared is the hero who is a living brain in a mechanical body (DC's Roboman 1, later payed homage to with Robotman 2 of the Doom Patrol in the Silver Age).

Hence the Mechanically-Enhanced Brick in the archetype list. There were several robots (a couple of which were human brains in cans), and at least one notable retcon in Commander Steel (who was basically the Six Million Dollar Man thirty years early, making him at best the Two Or Three Million Dollar Man.)

I accept Darren's point. You can certainly have any background for your Golden Age character that you like and can logically justify; but if the purpose of the book is to recapture the style of American comics of the era, it should point out that some things weren't a significant part of them.

The same, for example, goes for powered-armor heroes. The trope of suits of exo-armor providing strength, protection and weaponry was popularized by Heinlein in the Fifties, so there aren't really any historical examples of GA comic heroes using it. Does that mean you can't put one in your own game? Of course not. But the book will explain why they're not common, and why *I* didn't include any in the CU.

Actually that point is what I would like to ask Darren. Since some villians were good fighters, would.describing it as eastern martial art break the feel of the game? Or would with careful addition of the anachorism be ok?

 

This seems to be a topic that maybe Darren should touch upon in the book.

I can't answer what would break the feel of YOUR game, nor am I in the business of "forbidding" anybody's fun. I simply say in the book that the idea of eastern martial arts was far less pervasive in pop culture during the period, and far less common in character backgrounds. The more "period" your game is, the more it will stand out as unusual. If you're looking at the GA from a retro perspective, taking into account lenses from other periods and other fiction, then it becomes much more of a common trope- the kind of fiction that, say, Iron Fist draws on retcons characters into that period who clearly use such arts, the same way lucha history presumes a historical line of luchadores extending far back before the arrival of masked wrestlers in actual Mexican culture, or the way Judomaster was retconned into WWII-era stories in the Silver Age. 

Not even a Yengtao-trained fighter from that era, like the Cobra?

Again, you can play any character you want. But there are very few period examples of the pure martial artist, who becomes a trope post Bruce Lee/Shang Chi/Karate Kid. Judomaster is a notable one, but he was created in the 60s. dw

Just do me a favor and don't make the germans too onesided.

I admit that even I as a german can have fun bashing Nazis I hate it when we are displayed as too stereotypical.

 

Thanks

 

(Will back this)

I hope you'll be happy with what I've done- I don't like purely one-dimensional bad guys either (except Totenkopf, and he's a demon.) dw

As I understand it, Golden Age characters are alittle one-trick ponies. (Not rhat I mind). So are you going to discuss the use of Power Skill in depth? I could be wrong but even in GA, didn't the Heroes sometimes used a one off power?

You know, I didn't specifically. That seems more like a Silver Age trope to me - Golden Age writers were more likely to simply forget what the hero's powers actually were (cf. Green Lantern, who started out able to *control metal.*) I'll certainly put such a piece in SAC when I get to it! dw

I believe that the Eastrrn Art of Judo/Jujitsu should be available.to a PC. Cyclone and.Black Cat used it though it should be awfully rare! : )

Anything's *available*. It's just not common. Heck, Sherlock Holmes used "baritsu." And it's not that westerners didn't know eastern martial arts existed, we just didn't have much specific knowledge about how they worked, leading to hilariously incorrect portrayals occasionally. Ever see Jimmy Cagney's judo in Blood On The Sun? dw

That's a good list! Will they be converted similarly to the Champions Gallery in Champions (something I thought was cruelly missing from Champions Complete).

 

Also, any indication of cost of shipping to Australia?

 

Finally, would you care to name the characters on the cover?

There aren't character sheets for these, just textual discussions of their tropes, typical powers and skills and whatnot. And I wouldn't presume to guess about international shipping, especially months in advance. Jason will put together the best deals he can at the time. dw

So can trained fighter be used as a martial artist?

Yup! Eastern martial arts knowledge is pretty anachronistic, particularly in pop culture, but "super" heroes who basically had a gimmick costume and some boxing or wrestling knowledge (Wildcat, Crimebuster, Atom, Guardian) are pretty common.

I recognize most of them from references elsewhere. The guy in yellow and green socking Hitler in the jaw is Bulletproof (who reappears in the far future in Galactic Champions).  The fella emerging from darkness on the far right is Dr. Twilight, grandfather of Dr. Ka, the mystic hero from Vibora Bay. The girl punching the giant robot is the Sea Hawk, aka Princess Mara of Atlantis (Queen Mara in modern day, as described in Hidden Lands). Dude in blue and white at bottom left is Optimus, leader of the Defenders of Justice. I'm afraid I don't recognize the energy projector at upper left.

It's the Golden Age Meteor Man, as described way back in 5th Ed Champions Universe.

Just looking for numbers. 

 

Also looking for Archetypes... Superhero Tropes or our versions of Unique characters?

 

QM

Aah, I think I get you now. (You really need more complete sentences, if you're going to go around calling yourself QuestionMan!) Golden Age is a "Low-Powered Supers" setting according to the standards set in 6e1. It doesn't use NCM. Most of the characters have 50-60 AP for their main power, but there's a wide variety there depending on their roles. 

And there's a ridiculously-complete list of archetypes and sub-archetypes. I'm not including any definitions here (buy the dang book!) but here's the complete list of archetypes discussed:

I. Bricks

Flying Bricks

Indestructible Bricks

Strange Visitors

Perfected Bricks

Exploding Bricks

Chemically Improved Bricks

Mechanically Improved Bricks

II. Energy Projectors

Elementalists

Focus Wielders

III. Mystics

Inheritors of Ancient Magic

Stage Performers

Occult Detectives

Ghosts

IV. Speedsters

Traditional Speedsters

Flyers

Swimmers

V. Weaponmasters

Archers

Anachronistic Lawmen

Vehicle Masters

VI. Mystery Men (replaces Martial Artist)

Costumed Detective

Femme Fatale

Frustrated Lawman

Great White Hunter

Mystery Man of Science

Trained Fighter

Wild Man or Woman

VII. Others

Gadgeteers

Mentalists

Metamorphs

Powered Armor

Patriots

VIII.Sidekicks

Derivative Kid

Female Counterpart

Comic Relief

Boy In Charge

Darren, how many of the NPC heroes and villains you gave totals for earlier on the thread will be getting full character sheets and artwork, as opposed to abbreviated descriptions?

Those are the ones with character sheets. Some sections include a handful of "lesser" characters who just get a short paragraph, and the first part of Chapter 6 is a run-through of characters who have sheets in other CU titles, but there's going to be well over 60 total new complete character writeups.