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Re: What does a SuperTeam need?

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...

Re: CHAR: Superman

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.

Re: CHAR: Superman

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.

Re: CHAR: Superman

Re: CHAR: Superman

Re: What Champions Books Would You Like Published in the Future? Meh. There's enough scope for adding in extra ones these days. Just plop down an Empyrean, a Silver Avenger, an Atlantean, a "good" Sylvestri or whatever, and you are still broadly compatible with the "official" CU. I'm happy enough with Australia and NZ's representation these days. A couple of extra *villains* might be nice, but there are even more generic types that can be slotted in than there are heroes. On the other hand, the current CU's aliens aren't as useful as they could be, in my opinion. Being able to stick in a few more of them would be handy. There probably isn't much point for there to be a whole bunch of extra named superbeings hanging around in Australia/NZ. At most, I wouldn't mind seeing a comment in the eventually-upcoming CU update to the effect that the super-population of Australia was underestimated in the original, for whatever reason. I've got all the characters I need.

Re: Champions "What Ifs" What if... Seeker was real? Professor Muerte had not died? Vanguard had not died? Takofanes was an old man in a rubber mask?

Re: Personality Archetypes The Scholar aka the Scientist

Re: Your favorite Archetype examples in super hero comics Sorry, you're getting confused here. Hal Jordan is not, and never was, a mass murderer. Another character with some similar attributes may have been. This was during a period in which many characters were distorted or destroyed by talentless hacks. Taking such stories seriously is a mistake. Mind you, continuity horrors aren't a recent innovation. I'm still not impressed by the Earth-1 Black Canary being the daughter of the Earth-2 one. I would have thought Green Arrow might have noticed that they weren't the same person... The fact is, of course, that they were, until some brainiac decided otherwise a decade after the Canary had moved to Earth-1.

Re: 3 Names required - Help! 1. Well, I was considering Aphrodite and Ishtar... I also like Brick's suggestion of Amora. If I make the character an Empyrean, or something of the sort, Amora would work nicely. I've got two possible uses for the character: as a member of my silly "World's Greatest Superteam" group, or as a member of what began as an Avengers homage group. I could easily do both, since they don't coexist in the same world. So, yeah, I think I might go with Amora. Brick has been Repped. 2. OK, the boomerang thrower.... Well, I was already using Boomerang, and nobody else has come up with anything better, so I might just stick with it. Meh. He's a member of the silly team anyway, so it doesn't really matter what I call him. 3. I might just scratch the archer entirely. He's not dramatically necessary. Just because I was originally thinking of my "serious" team being an Avengers homage doesn't mean that I can't swap characters around as I see fit. --- Anyway, thanks to everyone for your responses. Expect to see the names "Amora" and "Boomerang" in a couple of threads in the near future!

Re: Magnetism: Abuse And Super Metals Well, your campaign's super metals behave the way you want them to! Just try and be consistent. In general, my standard routine with magnetic powers is for the character to carry around a quantity of iron filings, ball bearings or whatever. Basically, the character uses the magnetic powers to manipulate them, and they act as the character's hands. Or as the character's bullets... If that isn't sufficient, the character should start picking up bits of the scenery and throwing it around. An opponent can be as non-magnetic as they like and still get pummelled into the dirt by that tank you are using as a hammer. Magnetic powers rock.

Re: 3 Names required - Help! Anything that sounds good... She could even be an Empyrean. Venus, unfortunately, is out, since she's the character I am "homaging". I do have some ideas, but I'm keen to hear what other people think. Your other suggestions are appreciated as well. Sadly, even I couldn't get away with "Tosser".

Following on from a couple of my silly threads, I've decided that I want to add another character to my universe, and rename two of my existing ones. So, I'm looking for suggestions for names for: 1. A Goddess of Love. 2. An Australian guy who throws Boomerangs. 3. An Archer - a Hawkeye homage from the US. Slightly silly names are acceptable, but keep them PG-13. This is how far you can go - I have a character called "Uranus Lad". I'm not sure that I'm going to keep him... Silver Age is good.

Re: Late Golden/Early Silver Age Champions The problem is that the 1950s Avengers were created in the 70s (and not by Kurt Busiek). No such team existed at the time. Of course, that's a terrible shame, given its wonderful composition, but it's still not "authentic". The Legion of Superheroes first appeared in 1958, which puts them in the period, although only towards its end. The obvious thing to do with them is to make them (or rather, their homage) come from the 21st Century. After all, it's the future, isn't it? There was the "Club of Heroes", but they usually operated independently. An international bunch of Green Arrow wannabes showed a bit later, in what was apparently a rewrite of a Club of Heroes story. Of course, Batman, Robin and Superman worked together so often that they could be regarded as a team in their own right. Still... it is hard to beat a goddess of love, a boy from Uranus, a robot, and a talking gorilla. Maybe I should revisit my World's Greatest Superteam thread... Or maybe I should finish my current project first.

I've been working on my campaign timeline, and inevitably have been sidetracked by shiny ideas... Specifically, I started thinking about what a Champions campaign set in the 1950s would entail. Well, for starters, the period covered parts of both the Golden and Silver Ages, as well as the "superhero gap". It also covered the heydays of the British and Australian industries, which thrived while their US competition was relatively weak. Even in the US, superheroes never stopped being published, but there was an extended period in which they were relatively rare, and not actual teams were being published. The closest thing to teams were groups of associated heroes like Batman, Robin and Bat-Woman, or the Marvelman Family, or else ad hoc teamups like Batman and Superman. In effect, this was a period largely consisting of "major character and supporting cast" teams, rather than gatherings of equals. The first "real" team to reappear may have been the Legion of Superheroes, who exhibited the same "supporting cast" behaviour with respect to Superboy, even if they were notionally equals. All of this suggests that PC groups in a 50s game should be rather small, and, perhaps, that the PCs should have linked origins, or be tied together by a central character at least initially. What else, then? Well, timelines probably aren't that important. Continuity doesn't seem to have been a major factor in contemporary stories. Rather, characters often seem to have been living in fairytale time. While some players may not be terribly impressed by this, it does have some benefits. In particular, it smooths the rougher edges of the actual historical setting. Dealing with the real world politics of the period isn't much fun. It's better to play in a setting where Communists are Eeevil and racism never happens. So time and continuity aren't that important. What about places? Well, obviously you would need a map of Campaign City. It may or may not be based on a real city. In fact, there's probably a slightly greater chance that it wouldn't be a real one than would be the case in a game set later. You might also want to scatter a few Mysterious Places around the world if you are going to play a fairly high level game. (That's less of an issue, but still relevant, if you are playing a Batman type game though.) Your map of Campaign City probably doesn't have to be that fancy though, since you can make a lot of it up as you go along. And if you contradict yourself in the process, who cares? OK, so we have a sketch map of our Metropolis/Gotham/whatever city. Let's see, opponents? Compared to the early Golden Age, supervillains are probably fairly common. A lot will be theme villains and mad scientists, though, even for the higher end characters. Gangsters always work of course, as do leftover Nazis, and, of course, Communists! If you have a strong enough stomach, the old Japanese stereotypes can be recycled as Chinese stereotypes as well, but... Most importantly, however, there are two categories of opponents that take on new importance. They are, of course, Monsters and Aliens. (And, of course, Alien Monsters!) Monsters are pretty straightforward. They rampage. They usually can't be stopped just by hitting them, so you have to find out what their story is and sort them out based on that. And some may actually be Good Guys. Aliens: well, you know the drill. Resources for research: * There's plenty of Golden and Silver Age reprints floating around these days. * The 3rd and 4th Edition versions of Golden Age Champions focussed on WWII, but both contain stuff that is useful for a post-war game. * GURPS Atomic Horror is a rarity - a roleplaying supplement set in the 50s. As such it is useful. * Google. No really. Find things and read them. And, of course, old films, TV shows, books and music. Don't be afraid of getting it wrong. Even if your game takes place in a setting that's a cross between the 60's Batman show and Happy Days, if it's fun, it's good. Finally, oh yes, there were plenty of Super-apes and 5th Dimensional Imps in the 50s, too!

Re: Percival Clayton, Lord of the Pigeons "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to OddHat again." You know, I don't recall ever having actually received this message before. I guess I'm just a cheapskate with the Rep thing. But this load of silliness deserves some.

Re: Superman's current STR: 365+?

Re: Yet another timeline Since I will have a bit of time on my hands over the next few days, I am going to do more work on my timeline. My first step will be adding a US based team, which will be a homage to the Avengers' second lineup. That is, it will contain homages to: Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Hank Pym and the Wasp. So far, I have the following names: Vanguard (lifted from Golden Age Champions), ?, WhizKid, Scarlet Sorceress(!), the Crimson Cockroach(!) and the Hornet. I'm not bothered by Silly Name Syndrome. My world is rather tongue in cheek at the best of times. So, I need names for an archer, and the team itself. I may also do something about the two "red" characters. I will also write a bit of background on them. All this is the easy bit. The next thing will be harder: the aliens. In particular, I would like to homage Flash Damingo (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/f/flashdam.htm ). This will be a bit awkward, because, well, he's a platypus...

Re: Horror for Superheroes. There are interesting points of intersection between the two genres. First of all, the Marvel Silver Age grew fairly directly out of their preceding monster books. A couple of their heroes (Hulk, Thing) actually were monsters, while the character that became identified as Hank Pym began as a sequence of nameless blond scientists who got themselves into trouble through pushing the boundaries of science. Furthermore, there are obvious horror-ish elements at the more mystical end of the superhero spectrum. By the time you get to the likes of John Constantine, you are in true horror-land, even though he has significant mystical powers. The problem is probably one of how to get the atmosphere across to the players. It probably doesn't help much if they spend most of their time in scenarios with a different flavour.

Re: Character Challenge: Write up Bizarro-Apache Chief It's a bit difficult Bizarro-ing him without designing the original character first, but... Same powerset - *lots* of growth and related stuff. Similar skillset - lots of wilderness stuff. Plus he can actually speak like someone without brain damage. But he's ugly, and has no more fashion sense than the original.

Re: Most Powerful Member of the FF? Reed by a mile.

Re: Your favorite Archetype examples in super hero comics Brick: Superman (even though he's actually a mixed archetype...) Energy Projector: Green Lantern (Hal or Alan Scott) Gadgeteer: Mr Fantastic Martial Artist: Wildcat Mentalist: Saturn Girl (difficult choice) Metamorph: Metamorpho Mystic: Dr Fate Patriot: Captain America (I guess...) Powered Armor: Iron Man (bleh!) Speedster: Flash Weapons Master: Green Arrow