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assault

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Everything posted by assault

  1. I was thinking about "The Incredibles Problem", aka, "What happened to the Supervillains?", and that led me to consider the other people who fight supervillains - the super-spies and super-agents. Obviously the official CU has SHIELD-homage agencies like UNTIL and PRIMUS. Other possibilities are Men In Black style agencies, with a more low-key approach, but with similar ultra-high technology. Then, of course, there are the James Bond types. Bond, of course, routinely deals with mastermind type villains, and the occasional near-super thug, but doesn't fight actual superhumans. A slightly wilder variation on the theme is of course, The Avengers (John Steed and Mrs Peel, etc), who actually did deal with the odd robot and so on. And finally, there are the "just plain tough and smart" cop types - basically non-powered action heroes. In comics, they would include Dan "Terrible" Turpin (famous for arresting Kalibak the Cruel, the son of Darkseid(!)), plus, I suppose, Commissioner Gordon, at least on those occasions when he is allowed to use his own brain, rather than being totally dependent on Batman. So there are actually models for filling the gap in cases where superheroes aren't around, as long as the supervillains aren't that numerous, or that, well, super. These are, potentially, quite playable situations. This is not a new idea, of course, since The Great and Powerful Aaron Allston wrote Super-Agents twenty years ago, and it has been referred to in several publications since. Still, just because it has been written about doesn't mean that many people have actually played in such a game... I suppose what I am asking is: has anyone here actually played in such a game? How well did it work? For my part, I am vaguely considering such a game as a mini-series, to be run as a side-show to an Incredibles style game. I'm a bit torn between the idea of it being Cops versus Supervillains, or Spies versus Supervillains. Either way, it would have more in common with Champions than with Dark Champions, being, essentially, a four-colour superhero game where the superheroes just happen to be absent this week. (Hmm... another possibility... Doctor Who and UNIT...)
  2. Re: All-New Iron Age Zoo Crew? You know, I could have lived my whole life in peace without knowing this. Now I need a lobotomy... Just for revenge, try very hard not to think about the Iron Age implications of a character named "Captain Carrot".
  3. Re: Golden Age Day Jobs The invaluable "The World At War" supplement Mayfair Games published for their DC Heroes RPG back in 1991 contains a list of DC's Golden Age heroes, including their occupations. Some have been listed above, but I'm not going to try to weed them out. A fair few of them seem to be vulnerable to the draft. District Attorney (& lawyer in general, I guess) "former Athlete/former Janitor(!)" Physics Student US Senator(!) Army Pilot US Marine Publisher Chauffeur Archeologist Physician Private Investigator Chemist Playboy Debutante/Vulcanologist Research Scientist Apprentice Shaman Student Broadcasting Executive Policeman Newsreel Photographer "Various" - "Boxing champion, rodeo cowboy, sailor, G-Man, crimefighter" and idiot. Soldier/Espionage Agent Journalist Big Game Hunter Radio Announcer Newspaper Reporter former Special Prosecutor/Private Investigator Businessman Student/Writer Debutante Assistant District Attorney Scientist Performer Assistant Museum Curator Police Detective Novelist Thief High School Teacher Spirit of Liberty(!) Singer/Actor Millionaire Prizefighter Stage Magician Obviously, being young or female helps - neither are subject to the draft. Being a mystic entity without a "real" Secret ID is handy too, as is being legally blind! Nobody is going to conscript Dr Mid-Nite!
  4. Re: Don't Buy Everything In a Good Story (Topic: Supers and the Law)
  5. Re: Don't Buy Everything In a Good Story (Topic: Supers and the Law) There wasn't any need for superheroes. We don't have much of a sample, but it's quite possible that supervillains were actually rare and low-powered by the time the heroes were forced to retire. That's quite plausible, if there are no revolving doors on the prisons. All the big boys could have been taken out of commission. A lot also depends on how many supers there actually were. (About 20-odd were mentioned in the film).
  6. Re: "What do you mean, the character came off the paper and won't come back?"
  7. Re: Pulp Hero Resources The Museum of RetroTechnology: http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm For all your Mad Science needs...
  8. Re: Kid Whiz and his SuperSonic Skateboard
  9. Re: Your government anti-paranormal agents The main model I'm using at the moment is the Southern Squadron universe created by Cyclone Comics back in the 80s. (See: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/chaloner.htm ) Not being derived from the major US companies means that it's a bit of an oddity in terms of Ages, but Bronze probably sums it up pretty well. It's been suggested that there are similarities between the Cyclone universe and the Giffen JLA, although the Cyclone universe is a bit more serious. And happened first.
  10. Re: CHAR: Aquaman More like: Aquaman: Hi, sharks! Sharks: Hi, Aquaman! Aquaman: There's some yummy food over yonder! Sharks: Mmm, food! Bad Guy: Oops!
  11. Re: Your government anti-paranormal agents If my explanation of the situation in my world wasn't clear enough: non-government superheroes are neither required nor welcome. Basically, they are just private citizens, should mind their own business and not engage in private vendettas. It's the government's job to hunt down supervillains. Of course, that doesn't prevent superpowered busybodies from sticking their oars in. Fortunately, my world's most powerful superbeing disappeared decades ago. Who knows what would happen if he was to return...
  12. Re: What does a SuperTeam need? I don't acknowledge the retcon either. For what it's worth, the next three characters to join after the seven founders were: Green Arrow, Hawkman and the Atom. None of these are exactly powerhouses, although Green Arrow did once fire an Atomic-Warhead Arrow... Green Lantern did actually use his ring to give him telepathy in the early days, so he counts. Aquaman had his fish telepathy, and J'onn, of course, was a "real" telepath. Wonder Woman at that stage seemed to have been a mind-controller rather than a telepath... Hawkman could talk to birds, but it doesn't appear to have been telepathically. Still, that's four mentalists out of the first seven members! Pretty impressive, even if only two of them (MM, GL) were "real telepaths". As for the Avengers... their second line up, after the founders resigned, was impressively second rate. Cap, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye. Woo hoo. Even after Hank Pym and the Wasp rejoined, they weren't exactly world beaters! Of course, once Thor and Iron Man rejoined, things were different...
  13. Re: Your government anti-paranormal agents This is something I haven't really decided, but my Australian government superteam has a non-powered agent as leader, and the team's limitations and weaknesses are well understood. So they can theoretically be taken out if necessary. It's their job to keep the other supers in line. Of course, there could be a nasty sequence of events if they had to be taken out, and then another bunch of supers started playing up. That would require normals to try to deal with the situation, at least until some other supers could be rounded up. As a last resort, bringing in foreign supers is always an option...
  14. Re: Champions "What Ifs" They do. They just don't know it.
  15. Re: What does a SuperTeam need?
  16. Re: What does a SuperTeam need? My point was that most of the time they haven't had a mentalist. ... Starfox had an emotion control effect, rather than "full" mental powers, IIRC, but I could be quite wrong. I suppose that the Scarlet Witch's powers could interact with mental powers, at least to the degree of causing mind controls and similar effects to snafu. She was probably the closest thing they had in the very early days. Thor, presumably, would be pretty tough for mentalists to deal with.
  17. Re: CHAR: Superman To put it simply, Superman began as a solo character, and is fundamentally a solo character. His relationship with Lois will always predominate, because she is a character in his own book, and Wonder Woman isn't. Similarly, Superman isn't going to simply hang about with the other cosmic supers because, fundamentally, they don't exist in the same universe, most of the time. He has to spend his time with humans, because otherwise he is, fundamentally, alone. Supergirl notwithstanding. Of course, what obviously should happen is that Superman and Supergirl should get over the Kryptonian taboo about cousins marrying...
  18. Re: What does a SuperTeam need?
  19. Re: Hard Science....easy descriptions. My approach to Hard Science games is to keep the Science offstage. Apart from anything else, that helps conceal any rubberyness that slips in. That means that the PCs don't generally have to worry about stuff the players don't want to have to worry about. The "ship's computers" handle most of it. And it's more realistic too! After all, ships' weapons, for example, if any existed at all(!), wouldn't be manually controlled. There are some pieces of rubber science that are convenient to slip in. FTL may or may not be one of this - it's optional. Artificial gravity is another - it's extremely useful, if only on a limited basis. But, of course, by definition, an SF setting can and probably should include a certain amount of "future technology", so slipping in a bit of what is useful is OK. Incidentally, a lot of what is often regarded as "Hard" SF literature can more realistically be regarded as Space Opera. Larry Niven is a particularly fine example of this. His stuff is classic gimmick/science driven SF - but is scientifically complete nonsense. And don't get me started about his human societies...
  20. Re: What does a SuperTeam need? This is a wargamer-ism. The fact is that a group can't cover all contingencies - and shouldn't try. Characters should be chosen because they are fun to play, and for no other reason. It is a fact of life that every team, and every character, will get hosed every now and then. The best thing to do is to choose your vulnerabilities, so you get hosed in fun and interesting ways. If you try to ensure you don't get hosed, you will get hosed anyway, and annoyed as well. All of this means that while it's fine to have a mentalist in the team, it is not required. Of course, the team will then be vulnerable to enemy mentalists, but that's just part of the business.
  21. Re: CHAR: Superman These are two separate things. "Magic" is a special effect. Complicated builds are cheese. An "invulnerable" character must have weaknesses to be playable. But "cheesy builds" aren't an appropriate weakness. The distinction, I suppose, is between "what is being simulated" and game mechanics. The latter should never be allowed to subvert the former.
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