assault

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN RAVEN is credited to L Douglas Garrett and George MacDonald in Super Agents.

Re: Limitations and the Silver Age I think it is useful to differentiate DC and Marvel here, though. The Silver Age saw Marvel's great "heroes with problems" breakthrough. I've also seen this described as "Stan Lee's 'But...'", as in, "Iron Man has all these Leet Powerz, But..." DC was more inclined to relatively bogus weaknesses. Some made more sense than others. But then, they also had Flash, who didn't have a weakness, but was incredibly powerful and versatile. There is one point I would suggest when designing Silver Age characters: don't use too many Disads. Use only enough to define your character, and not more. Give them lots of Base Points instead. So, instead of building on 200+150 points (Base+Disads), use 250+100. And, of course, read lots of the source material.

Re: Rarity of Magic?

Re: Rarity of Magic? I tend towards "wide, low". This partly stems from a period I spent in Papua New Guinea, crossed with a generally "Greek Mythology" feel to my (main) setting. Essentially, almost everybody is under the protection of one or another spirit of deity. Magic is then essentially a matter of the right prayers, sacrifices and charms to draw upon this protection. You still have to farm, but most people would never dream of farming without honouring the relevant supernatural entity or entities at the appropriate times. The people with the greatest access to magic are the people with the greatest degree of divine ancestry. Being a Demi-God has its advantages, but it tends to draw divine attention to you. My "other" main setting is broadly similar, but with a more Scandinavian feel...

Re: Elves

Re: Normals w/Abilities vs Supers [Offshoot of CSL vs MA] The whole point is that this applies to many/most "superpowered" characters too! Why should an Energy Blaster, for example, necessarily have ANY superhuman stats? Really? What game are you playing? I thought we were talking about Champions!

Re: Normals w/Abilities vs Supers [Offshoot of CSL vs MA] Well, there ya go. I think that is a major part of our difference. You appear to think that everything that is permitted is reasonable. It's hardly surprising that you are attracted to formal constraints on character builds. Most campaigns don't enforce NCM on "non-powered" superheroes either. The official CU certainly doesn't. Incidentally, it's quite easy to build viable characters that "can be taken down with a bullet or 2". The thing is that while they "can be", they usually aren't. Just like Batman. I guess they're just lucky. In fact, of course, you've just told us that not only should "non-powered" characters be hosed, their "powered" colleagues should all effectively be at least demi-bricks, thus further driving a wedge between the two types of character. I have my own writeups for the original X-Men. They work quite well, thanks. It's a work around because it rules out certain character origins in practice. "I can't play a viable Batman-style character, so I'm going to play a character that is built the way I want it to be, but he's a minor mutant." Bravo. --- Meh. This is the Hero System. Play the game the way you want to! Nothing is wrong.

Re: Normals w/Abilities vs Supers [Offshoot of CSL vs MA] Have you ever seen such a character? It has more than a faint whiff of straw man about it. I would probably allow a 30 STR. It would have to be a major feature of the character, not just something added in passing, though. The problem is still: WHY does "being superhuman" give you permission to buy anything you want, while "only being human" automatically (mechanically) constrains you? It reeks of arbitrariness. As I have pointed out, I would be willing to consider this kind of condition in a package oriented game. Essentially, this kind of game could be designed to ensure that normal human characters aren't being forced to be weaker than other characters. There is a world of difference between a setting in which one character has an energy blast and another doesn't, and one in which one character not only has an energy blast, but is faster, stronger and smarter than a character that doesn't. Think about the Fantastic Four and most of the X-Men and Avengers. Most of them are no faster, stronger or smarter than anyone else. Those that are have it as part of their schtick. There is no blank cheque issued to "superhuman" characters that allows them to be more powerful than anybody else. Some are, of course. A related argument that comes up occasionally is: "why is Batman in the Justice League? He's hopelessly outclassed!". The answer to that is, of course, that he is not outclassed by the likes of Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Aquaman, the Atom, or even Zatanna. He's actually well and truly a middle-ranking member of this extremely powerful supergroup, when it comes to actual combat capability. Characteristic inflation has a bit of a history in Champions. It isn't really a problem, but it is kind of untidy. The only way to get around it in a particular campaign is to oppose it across the board. You can't deal with it in a fair way by only imposing restrictions on certain characters. All you will end up doing is causing players to come up with character conceptions that evade your restrictions.

Re: Normals w/Abilities vs Supers [Offshoot of CSL vs MA] I don't insist on NCM. It would simply be an arbitrary penalty against certain character origins. More to the point, I don't regard there as being any consistent difference between "human" and "superhuman". After all, why does the ability to blow fire from your nose enhance your dexterity? It would, frankly, make as much sense to impose NCM limits on many superhuman characters as on "normal humans". I've actually considered doing something along these lines. In effect, all superpowers would be bought through packages. Ultimately, it's too complicated to be worth the effort.

Re: Elves I don't make a particularly firm distinction between the Elves and the Gods in my campaign. I doubt I would let anyone play one. I definitely would let someone play one of their mortal offspring. The main problem with playing them is that the less powerful they are, the more localised they tend to be. And the only ones that aren't built on insane point totals are the least powerful ones...

Re: WWYYCD: The Rally Assault wouldn't have waded into the fray until the Klan's supporting supers started endangering people, so he would be claiming to have only been protecting the innocent... He wouldn't be at all sympathetic to the Klan: "Nazis get what Nazis deserve", etc. On the other hand, he wouldn't be keen to fan the flames of the next rally though. It mightn't be possible to prevent casualties next time.

Re: WWYYCD: The Rally The following apply to pretty much any character I could be bothered playing: 1. Join the protests against them. 2. Protect their opponents and any innocent bystanders from violence. If the Klan get their butts kicked, too bad. My character might possibly even protect the Klan from certain forms of lethal attacks, although rather begrudgingly, and making little or no attempt to apprehend the culprits. Note that this is assuming that the Klan are a relatively weak and marginalised force in the campaign world. In cases where this is not the case, my character might have to take them more seriously. Historically, they were strong during the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, when it was rare for this kind of issue to be addressed. Hmm... what if Campaign City was somewhere in the south of the US during the Civil Rights campaign? Well, my character would protect the Civil Rights Movement and the Black community, and not lift a finger to stop the latter from organising themselves for collective self-defence. A superhero can't be everywhere, you know...

Re: My CU based webcomic Cool. I'll definitely take a look when I get a chance.

Re: My CU based webcomic My first thought: do you have permission from Hero Games to use their intellectual property? I can't actually look at the site at the moment, since I'm pushing my luck being here at the moment...

Re: Gimme 5 Names! Golden/Silver Age: Heroes: Captain Wonder Wonder Boy Wonder Lass Atom Man Atom Girl Special Bonus name: Eagleman Villains: Roxxor the Space Pirate Dr Emil De Ville The Shadow Queen Atom Emperor, the Quantum Conqueror The Invisible Skull

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign Relatively free peasants could have access to a lot of things. See your average Viking for more details... Or your English yeoman with a longbow, or a Swiss peasant with a halberd or pike. Come to think of it, check out the Hussites. It's quite conceivable a less free peasant might have some experience in hunting and related skills. Furthermore, they are likely to have at least some familiarity with their own religion. Even if Holy Books and the like are unavailable to them, they are likely to be aware of the "folk" version of their faith. In particular, that might mean that they are aware of the local "saints" and protective spirits, and be able to make offerings to them that are actually magically effective. In addition, they may also be part of extended social networks along the lines of, say, the Scottish clans. Even if they are at the bottom of the heap, they may be able to call upon the aid of their more prosperous kinsmen, who may be considerably more militarily formidable. There are also likely to be local dignitaries, who may have access to magic in a fantasy setting. Witches are obvious enough, but priest types are also likely. Village priests aren't necessarily all that socially distinct from their parishioners, may be literate, and have at least some access to divine magic. Also, there may be wandering holy men - friars and the like - who may or may not be integrated into the status quo. You could probably add some "Gypsy" type conjurers and soothsayers. There's potentially lots of lower class magic around. There can also be lower class fighters. Many rank and file mercenaries are likely to be from the lower classes. Foresters and the like can also be efficient combatants too. The wonderful old ICE "Campaign Classics" series included a Robin Hood book, which focuses on more or less lower class characters, if you can track it down. Its character stats aren't all that useful, but it's full of chunky goodness. More usefully though, just go back to the source material.

Re: If You Had To Play a Marvel Character… Incidentally, if ONE big company puts his tech on the market, the others lose. He just needs that one. And if all the US companies aren't interested, maybe a Chinese company will be... Of course, the US government might try to stop him transferring his technology to China, but that's a whole new ballgame.

Re: Spells for the Goddess of Love and Lust The assumption of polytheism was there in a bunch of "medieval" societies. That includes "pagan" European societies, as well as Buddhist/Shintoist Japan. Historical mythologies were related to, and reflected, the societies that created them. An "invented" mythology(!) should also be reflected in its associated human society. In other words, "medievalism" is entirely compatible with polytheism, since it would be a variety of polytheism compatible with "medievalism".

Re: WWYCD: Crisis of Champions! Everything. Actually I am redesigning my "Wonder Boy and the Super Hero Club" timeline at the moment. This is a thoroughly wacky universe. In "the future", government officials and leaders of the Super Hero Club are chosen by a machine called the "Orbital Probability Device". Google "Planetary Chance Machine" for the origin of this idea...

Re: If You Had To Play a DC Character… Superman. Duh. The First and Greatest. Ultra Boy. Interesting powers. Interesting personality. Cute girlfriend. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). Preferably while hanging out with Oliver Queen. Robin (Dick Grayson). Preferably while in the Teen Titans. The sensible member of the team. A formidable crime fighter in his own right. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord). OK, not "really" DC, but a cool guy before he was turned into a joke. Let's see: I've covered the JLA, Teen Titans and LSH. Superman was an honorary member of the JSA, and Robin was a Golden Age character too, so that's covered as well. That's near enough for me. Still... I feel I should make a choice that's a bit more... individual... as well. This is difficult. There are many characters I like that I aren't quite right for this purpose. Mr Miracle is one possibility, but to be truly unique I'm afraid I would have to go for the one and only Jimmy Olsen. Bog it though. I'd go with Ultra Boy or Superboy. There are really no other choices, as far as I am concerned.

Re: If You Had To Play a Marvel Character… First thought through my mind: Spidey. Considered opinion: Reed Richards. Why Reed? Johnny's too young. Ben's too ugly. Sue's a girl. Basically, Reed is "just right".

Re: The latest cliché? There is nothing in The Hobbit to suggest that Bilbo had ever stolen anything in his life. He was chosen because he was one of the few Hobbits with an adventurous streak. It appears that nearly any Hobbit could have done the physical sneaking - very few could have mustered the courage and "wildness" necessary to participate in the dwarves' expedition at all, let alone do so successfully. There were other influences on "the archetypal Fantasy rogue" than merely "the sneaky halfling", too, of course. It's likely that the need to differentiate "Thieves" from "Fighters" was a major consideration too.

Re: The latest cliché? "My character is a mercenary. When he is employed he spends most of his time fighting, practicing fighting, or standing around on guard duty. He's currently between employers." "My character grew up on the streets, where he learned to steal things for a living. Now he's an adult and still steals things." "My character is a commercial wizard. He makes his living performing small feats of magic for ordinary people." "My character is a sucky jerk who apparently has some religious association." What I am trying to show here is that the bog-standard (DnD-type)archetypes are actually mostly viable people. Fighters can make a living from being a fighter. So can magicians, as long as they have at least some spells that aren't related to blowing things up. I was being snide with Clerics, though, because I don't like them and refuse to play them. I wouldn't use anything like them in any campaign I ran, either.

Re: Things I learned playing a Thief We should also remember that Conan was a thief.

Re: Anyone have solutions for the Stun Lottery that a high dice Killing Attack create