assault

Re: New Teen Champions: Ravenswood Academy "Provisional expression of interest". (Hmm... OK, maybe Shamrock won't be my next PC after all... ) I'll contemplate it some more tonight.

Re: Opinion: EuroStar

Re: Mystic Team Vehicle?

Re: Setting Concept: The Power of Lineage Except in this case, the daughters aren't the daughters of the ostensible father. It's more likely that he would prefer to breed with Kulrain's sister or daughter. The point of my (Roman) Republican style government example was that there was no inevitable political system, and that even democracy was possible. Although, of course, oligarchy would be more likely. There is no evidence chastity belts ever existed, apart from Victorian era forgeries. --- More of my own thoughts: I think people are getting a bit carried away here. It is most likely that what would exist would be a clan system, where the senior bloodlines of each clan would tend to end up as leaders of society. This could result in either monarchies or oligarchies, and social struggle could even extend the latter into something resembling democracies. The racehorse stuff probably wouldn't happen, although births - especially legitimate births - would be carefully kept track of. The Romans had an official with this responsibility - the Censor. He was in charge of the census, keeping track of who was who within society. The main reason why the racehorse stuff wouldn't happen, of course, is that it assumes a very high degree of social organisation and unity. The simple truth is that most of these bloodlines probably aren't going to be in regular contact with each other, or even aware of each other's existence. Any effects that result from the lineage concept are likely to be localised. Getting back to the clan notion: there are two equally likely possibilities that could occur here. One would be the emergence of a caste system, where members of particular bloodlines only marry members of similar (or the same!) ancestry. The other is that all members of a clan could be descended from a common ancestor, and that all members of a society could be members of such clans. The leaders in that case would be the most senior, direct descendents of the ancestor, or alternatively, the clan elders. This could be a considerably less hierarchical society than the previous one, although this need not be the case.

Re: [Creative] Need help! First question: what are werewolves and vampires? If they are demons, they are just plain nasty, and what they are fighting over might have little or no bearing on or meaning to mortals. If they are something cheesier, well, meh. Whack 'em all. Or rip their rubber masks off. Hmm... I wonder how a talking Great Dane would get along with werewolves?

Re: Setting Concept: The Power of Lineage I once designed a Republican constitution for a country in Birthright. Basically, there was a religious figurehead monarchy, with real power in the hands of a Senate and Assembly. If you wanted to, you could make the Senate composed of "bloodline" families, while the Assembly also represents Joe Nobody. The relative power of the two bodies could vary as you see fit. I was trying to create a government that wasn't necessarily dominated by the genetically superior(!), but would still have access to all the neat stuff they get.

Re: Quark! It made its way to Australia, so there are Brothers of the Obscure here too. The funny thing was that I hadn't actually seen Star Trek at that time, so while I knew that a lot of references were there, I wasn't really familiar with them. I still loved the show though.

Re: Mystic Team Vehicle? Tragically, this would be the option I would be most likely to use.

Re: Wondering about ideas on conscription. Organised peasants were called the Swiss, and had a certain reputation.

Re: A Question of Title The best part about all of this is the sheer inconsistency of what happened historically. First of all, things changed over time. Second, there were often regional variations within a single state. Third, different kingdoms/whatever had different systems. In other words, England, Scotland, Denmark, Aragon, Bohemia, and Athens would all have different systems. All of this means that you can set the rules you feel like using, and still be historically "correct". But then, if you are using a fantasy world, you can do that anyway.

Re: "Mostly Harmless" powers Most of the sidekicks from Sky High are suitable for this. Able to turn into innocuous animals, puddles and so on. At least some of the characters from the Legion of Substitute Heroes: able to turn to (immobile) stone, able to change the colours of objects and so on. At the more formidable end, you could have characters that are almost adventurer grade, except their powers aren't under control, or are only occasionally available. DC's Hero Hotline series had a lot of fairly limited powered characters. Zeep the Living Sponge was quite literally a human sponge. Marie the Thunder Turtle was never shown using her powers, but basically, she was a turtle. Being a talking animal is an interesting "superpower" in general, even without other powers.

Re: A Question of Title

Re: Wondering about ideas on conscription. My input: Put the rulebook down and back away slowly... Some things shouldn't be built with points. If you are bored at work, and you wanted to work on this kind of thing, you would be much better off dealing with it in "real world" terms.

Re: Sky High, the DVD A pretty good movie, and a playable setting. What more could you want?

As threatened, here is a more refined (but still incomplete) version of my CU's timeline. ~1525 The sole survivor of a pirate attack, dedicates his life and those of his descendents to hunting pirates and fighting evil. He adopts the identity of the Grey Ghost (Portuguese: ??). 1934 Stage magician and mentalist Lee "The Amazing Draco" Drake becomes the first known superhero. 1936 The 20th Grey Ghost begins his career. 1938 Draco and the Grey Ghost meet, team up and become friends. 1948 FBI agent Arthur Lockhart becomes Atom Man, the most powerful superhuman known to date. 1951 21st Grey Ghost begins career. 1954 Atom Man mysteriously vanishes. 1958: Eagleman (Ralph Dixon) emerges as Australia's first superhero. Later becomes the "elder statesman" of Australia's superheroes. 1960: Draco retires from adventuring. Drake's subsequent academic studies of mental powers still form the basis of psionic theory today. 1967: Eagleman retires from regular adventuring. 1970: 22nd Grey Ghost begins career. 1979: Eagleman's last adventure. 1980s: For unknown reasons, superhumans become relatively common during this decade. 1994: 23rd Grey Ghost begins career. 2000: Ralph Dixon is appointed the Australian government's official advisor on superhuman affairs. --- Names for Australian NPC superbeings will be chosen from the following list. Unfortunately, a lot of really nifty names have been used in the source material I am lifting stuff from and are therefore ruled out by my self-imposed rules about filing off the serial numbers. I will, of course, waive this rule if and when I see fit. Magpie Captain Thunderbolt Toecutter Wombat Flying Fox Captain Midnight Humongous Bunyip Captain Moonlight Yowie Bushranger Cyclone Shark Standover Boomerang Taipan Lomo. An alien. I have plans for him.

Re: A Funny Thing Happened When I Read About The Sylvestri Clan... Jack Kirby Neal Adams

Re: Just Picked Up Champions Worldwide The sad truth is that you usually wouldn't even have to change the name to create an Australian character. I do appreciate the concerns of our Brazilian friend. I've complained quite frequently about the misrepresentation of Australia and Australian characters by writers from the US, and there's not even (much of) a language difference between us. Aside from stereotyping, a lot of the problem simply seems to be a case of people not checking their facts. For what it's worth, I would love to see a Latin America (and Caribbean) sourcebook for Champions. Provided, of course, it was written by people from the region, and preferably by a team of people from different parts of the region. A licenced GURPS product, IST Kingston, gave details of Jamaica in the IST setting for GURPS Supers. I'm not sure if it made any money, but I bought a copy, and it provides some kind of precedent for setting books that might not be regularly used in most campaigns. Unfortunately it was written by an American, and I don't know how many howlers it contained. I do know that the Australian character in it felt a bit odd. There are a couple of things in it that were "interesting" to say the least, but I'm relaxed enough these days to laugh at them, rather than be annoyed.

Re: Chronicles of Gor

Re: What Super-game you like? Yes, he's kind of interesting/odd. I've been struggling with my timeline. I might just change my universe to something with a more Southern Squadron feel. That would result in a fairly sparse timeline, but the setting would be playable. It wouldn't be that big a change from what I've been working on, since I've been mucking about with lots of stuff from comics either written or reprinted in Australia. Everything would be "homaged", of course, since I don't believe in using published characters without filing off the serial numbers. But here's a quick draft with the original identities: 1530s: The first Phantom. 1934: Mandrake. First known modern superhero. Possibly a mentalist, rather than a mystic. 1936: The existence of the Phantom becomes publicly known. 1948: Captain Atom (the Australian version) becomes world's most powerful superhuman. The obligatory Superman analogue. Either 1948 or 1958: Crimson Comet emerges as Australia's first superhero. Later becomes "elder statesman". The later date would allow him to be younger in the present day, so I would probably use it. He'd be about 70 in that case. ~ 1975-80s: Supers become relatively common around the world. ~ 2000-present: Supers start reappearing in Australia. Formation of Southern Squadron, etc. Hunteds would be: sundry conspiracies, masterminds, aliens, international supers, a few nasty mercenary villains, etc. Origins: Mystics and powersuits would be discouraged, but otherwise it would be fairly open. Power levels: fairly low, but potentially with lots of perks. I'm going to edit this into my next draft of my timeline. I will, of course, end up making changes.

Re: What Super-game you like? A game I can actually play in (and that I have enough time for)... Fairly light hearted, preferably. I do enough serious stuff in the Real World, so I don't need any more. Actually, my ideal game would be one influenced by these characters: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/southsqd.htm That would rock. Come to think of it, it's probably the game I should run. I'm not a hundred percent thrilled by their government connection, though. I guess I could get over it, or around it.

Re: CU - Wold Newton Ah yes, Texas. The state bigger than Tasmania. OK, it's bigger than Victoria, too, but it's small than every other Australian state. It also has about the same population as Australia, making it relatively densely populated and urbanised. That doesn't really fit its classic image either, does it? Hmm...

Re: What does a timeline need?

Re: Growing Up Polytheistic The way I would handle things would be quite simple: you venerate/worship the spirits/gods that protect your family/clan/tribe, your city, and, when one exists, the empire. Generally speaking, rituals of this type would be carried out by relevant community leaders - family heads at the lowest level, kings and things at the higher level. In certain cases professional priests might be involved. Cultists who refuse to participate in normal social functions are likely to face consequences, whose seriousness may vary. Foreigners are either worshipping your gods under strange names, or are engaged in meaningless mumbo-jumbo. Or, in a very few cases, are worshipping real gods that you haven't heard about yet. Magic: well... the whole point of worshipping gods is for them to protect you, isn't it? If you don't, they won't. If you do, they will, or at least might. They won't teach you to throw fireballs, though. If you go into battle without divine protection, you will lose.

A couple of people have posted bits of their campaign timelines, and this has inspired me to try to write mine down. The obvious question is: what should be in a timeline? Some things are obvious: - When the first (modern) superhero(es) appeared. - Hints as to the sources of superpowers. - Any waves ("Ages") of superheroes. - Sufficient details to allow players to develop legacy characters if that is appropriate and desired. (But how much is this?) What else is necessary/appropriate?

Re: A Funny Thing Happened When I Read About The Sylvestri Clan...