assault

Re: New Teen Champions: Ravenswood Academy

For any interested' date=' as of now, I'll accept ALL submissions done by Hero Designer [/quote']

 

Another problem...

 

I don't have Hero Designer.

 

At least if I use powers from USPD, it should be possible to use the USPD templates if you want to key it in for me. Or I could ask (grovel to) someone else very nicely if they would be willing to do it.

 

Speaking of USPD...

 

I've been looking at the Water Form power, which I was going to use as a key part of the character. It's basically Damage Reduction (50% Physical, 25% Energy, if I recall correctly). Unfortunately it's 45 Active Points. There's an alternative build based on Armour, but that results in defences that are way too high. I may just have to go for a lower amount of Armour and call it "Water Form". Meh. No drama.

Re: New Teen Champions: Ravenswood Academy

*PCs with powers are prohibited from joining sports' date=' as it would be an extremely unfair advantage. (Which, prohibits nearly every PC type )[/quote']

 

Actually this will be an interesting bit for my character, who will be an enthusiastic swimmer, but will have to find excuses for why he isn't in the school team!

Re: New Teen Champions: Ravenswood Academy

I'd prefer elemental over mystical, but that's just because I have a dislike for the mystic side (but that's me, and with no VPPs, it'll make life easier for me) and I haven't enjoyed the mystic books released yet (though I know other have).

 

Here's another Disadvantage to help with the 100:

5 pts - Social Limitation: Minor (Occassionally, "Minor")

I meant "Elemental" in the mystical sense - as in "Elemental spirit".

But I have been considering other possibilities too, because I'm not a big fan of mystic stuff either.

The only option I'm not considering is Mutant. Bleah.

Thanks for the other Disad. I have been struggling. I presume there are lots of suggestions for Disads in Teen Champions. This is where not having it is a worry.

Still, once I get a bit more of his background and personality together, it should be easy enough to get some suggestions.

Incidentally, are these characters day students or boarders? In other words, would his family be around on a regular basis? This would have an impact on his "supporting cast".

Re: Opinion: EuroStar

That could actually turn into an interesting plot - the villain who wants out of his group after realizing they're all psychos. It might not work with Tachyon, but could be conceivable with a new villain.

 

For extra fun don't let the PCs know about the new villain's change of heart. Have them encounter him a few times with Eurostar and then vanish. Six months of game time later, up pops a brand new hero!*

This would work well with Shamrock.

I would handle it like this:

The IRA struggle ended, but Shamrock didn't receive an amnesty. As a result, he has to find himself a new identity.

Unlike Scorpia, he's basically a freedom fighter, rather than a psychopath, so Eurostar would turn out not to be an option. So, he would fake himself up a new civilian identity, establish himself as a hero, and build up a network of legitimate contacts for himself. Hopefully, if his real identity came out, his achievements as a hero would get him out of trouble.

And he was always lucky, so he has a good chance of getting away with it.

---

I've always liked Shamrock. He is my favourite "villain you would go to the pub with".

His actual origin write-up in Enemies I (I don't own Classic Enemies) is a bit dodgy, but I like the basic idea of the character. "Controversial freedom fighters" are always a laugh.

---

Edit: can you have two Irish characters? Why not? If Fiacho was to keep recruiting, he would soon "realisitically" run into the situation where there were multiple candidates from a single country. He's nuts enough to insist on only one from each, but he might also be enough of a realist to not put arbitrary rules ahead of increasing his strength. So from Fiacho's view there's not necessarily a problem.

The real question is, of course, what the GM wants. If he or she wants to limit the team to one member from each country, well that's fine.

In fact, it's possible to have things both ways.

What if Shamrock doesn't join as a full member, but is hired as extra muscle for a few missions? That would still allow for the "these guys are nuts! I'm outta here!" plotline, while allowing a different selection of permanent members.

In fact, if Eurostar was to take up the practice of using extra muscle in certain circumstances - in non-critical roles, and after scrutiny from Mentalla! - a GM would be justified in using almost any character they felt like in a "Eurostar" adventure.

---

And I still really like Shamrock, and I intend to build a variant of the character for use as a PC.

Re: New Teen Champions: Ravenswood Academy

I'll contemplate it some more tonight.

OK, some results of contemplation... Comments (from anyone) welcome.

I'm considering a male character with water powers. Basically, built straight out of USPD, with Water Form, one or two other powers (possibly in a multipower??), plus some relevant Life Support. He should be able to breathe water!

Because I'm not from the US, and could possibly miss some of the more subtle cultural references, I'll make him someone who grew up in Australia, and moved to the US recently-ish with his mother, after her divorce. That way he will have an excuse for being at Ravenswood.

I don't have Teen Champions yet, so I will need to be provided with any relevant stuff during the design process. I'll be getting it as soon as I can.

Do you have any preferences about origins? I'm considering a magical/elemental background, although I find them a bit of a pain to write.

I see the character growing more in a martial artist type direction rather than an energy projector one, so he probably won't be much of a fighter to begin with. He might have a Flash attack though - there's a nice one in USPD.

And yes, I have been thinking about the Superfriends a lot recently...

Re: "Mostly Harmless" powers

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

 

A celphone, rollerblades, and a parrot for a sidekick

 

See in the dark, blind in the light

 

Scream really loud

 

That would be:

Air Wave

Doctor Mid-Nite

Black Canary

I spotted some of the others too, but hopefully this is enough to show that these are all "real" superheroes.

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

Also' date=' even though they have Durak, I would love to see Shamrock in Eurostar with more probability control (from the USPD) powers. A slightly weaker brick with boxing, probability control and an obvious connection to Scorpia seems like a great fit for that team.[/quote']

 

Interesting, especially since he's less of a psycho than Scorpia. Or, indeed, any of the other members of the team. Good call.

 

Actually, I should build a version of Shamrock for myself. A brick with probability powers would be a really neat PC.

Re: Mystic Team Vehicle?

Or just a ritual where any of the heros lights up a cigarette' date=' and then a bus arrives. ( so you have to put it out... )[/quote']

 

Heh. I had a ritual for summoning trams in Melbourne that worked like that. If nobody else was around I would add an incantation.

 

It was surprisingly effective.

Re: Setting Concept: The Power of Lineage

- Among your various possibilities is' date=' as [b']sinanju[/b] described the incredible liklihood of outright slavery, as well as open (and possibly black market) bidding war culture for who gets to breed with whom. "Yes, I did have my wife breed with Kulrain behind my back, as that provided me with a daughter with 5 lineage trains, and puts her in position to claim the throne of the barony, as Kulrain is the 14th illegitimate son of the Sultan of the Sands." That thought alone creeps me out, but it's a powerful possibility.

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.

- You do have an automatic, no effort, political system built in. Which Heroes/Nobles/Ancestors have more pull?

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.

Chastity belts would be a big thing. They'd have to be.

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!

Why are the Werewolves and Vampires at war? Any ideas would be great.

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?

• 
  A Green van that was once used by a bunch of kids and a dog

Okay .. so the last one was a joke, but the other two could easily be adapted for a magic team

Tragically, this would be the option I would be most likely to use.

Re: Wondering about ideas on conscription.

Any trained soldier with armor could take on a small squad of unorganized peasants. A MOB? That's a whole nother matter entirely' date=' as are [i']organized[/i] peasants, but generally speaking, it's throwing neighbors at each other.

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

A Squire is a slave; the only person he's important too is his Knight' date=' and that's because the Knight is generally too important to do what needs done himself. [/quote']

 

That's true in early periods. By the fourteenth century or so, kings in at least some countries were trying to force landowners to become knights, because of the fees that were involved. At that point, the difference between a squire and a knight would have been effectively non-existent, although some squires would still be "knights in training".

 

The main system of titles I use in my fantasy games is a very simplified one. There are three titles: King (or Emperor), Count and Knight.

 

Baron and Prince are courtesy titles. Duke is mainly a foreign title, which if it is used at all "here" is given to royal princes.

 

Viscounts are either appointed deputies of Counts or of Kings. In the latter case, they are generally known as sherrifs (shire reeves). In both cases, they are important local barons, despite technically "only" being knights!

 

Confusing enough? I hope so, because that's the point!

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

My concern about getting the book is that I could take any other CU character and just give them a foreign sounding name.

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

Except (and someone please correct me if I am wrong)' date=' isn't the treatment of women in Gor pretty much in tune with Norman's own views and philosophies on how men and women should interact?[/quote']

 

Yes it is. I tracked down his real name and googled it once out of train-wreck curiousity. I can't remember his name, and don't want to.

 

His "serious" stuff was just plain nasty.

Re: What Super-game you like?

I could get into playing Flash Damingo.

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.