assault

Re: Metallic Ages?

Re: Characters Places Things and Groups Needed for the Perfect Superhero Universe? I'm not saying that crossovers are undesirable. I'm simply saying that they are not necessary. In the example you give, there would be no other group that has stopped the villain before. Indeed, there may be no other (super)group at all. In the extreme case, there may only be one superhero in the entire universe. Or else there will be a main superhero and his or her supporting cast.

Re: The Role Models Retcons claim a lot of things. Was Doctor Occult actually switching genders or not? You seem to be suggesting that he wasn't.

Re: Characters Places Things and Groups Needed for the Perfect Superhero Universe? There doesn't need to be any reason whatsoever to believe that the heroes exist in the same universe. Unless the heroes have a crossover, or become members of a team, it is quite acceptable to treat them as though they do not co-exist.

Re: Killing Damage and Defenses

Re: WWYCD: I, The Jury Subtlety is overrated. Make sure they meet their police contact, or whoever gets them involved in the case at the crime scene. I mean this. It's a classic opening scene, and it's sufficiently obvious that the players should pick up the hint. And if that doesn't work, their contact can always invite them to take a look around "if they feel like it".

Re: WWYCD: I, The Jury

Re: The Role Models We could probably add characters like Mandrake and Zatara, both of whom preceded Superman, and had at least some degree of "magic" powers. Batman, of course, was preceded both by Pulp characters and the Phantom.

Re: Machine Class of mind

Re: Machine Class of mind Of course, some players might try to munchkinise by going for an obscure class of minds, in the theory that it would effectively make them immune to mental powers. If I was GMing, it might actually work once, and then I'd pull out the cyberkinetic or other character with the ability to hose them. This would be perfectly justified, since such a character would naturally be involved with people with related backgrounds. This villain would then be one of the recurring villains in the campaign. But, of course, a mentalist with the "wrong" SFX would be a regular too, just to prove that I'm not a total scumbag.

Re: The World's Greatest Superteam! More nonsense: This week, Professor Pan goes out the window, and is replaced by: Bleep, the Blue Flying Space Monkey. Bleep's species is the less intelligent of the two sentient species native to the planet Zorrex (name subject to change). His species are commonly used as servants by the nobility of the more advanced species. Bleep originally worked for a powerful sorceress named Zaina, but fled after growing tired of her fickleness and cruelty. His greatest fear is that she will turn up to reclaim him. Bleep possesses the normal attributes of his species: the ability to fly, plus a limited ability to shapeshift. This allows him to disguise himself as either a normal terrestrial monkey or a champanzee, and to vary his size within certain limits. His function in the group is that of scouting, stealth and infilitration expert. His combat effectiveness is rather limited, although he is surprisingly strong and has surprisingly large fangs for his size. (I don't think he knows Monkey Kung Fu. ) He is the only member of the World's Greatest Superteam who can fly, which is actually a bit of a problem. Hmm. His species traditionally dwell in villages carved out of the sides of mesas and similar rocky outcrops, but I promised myself I would refrain from making jokes about flying butte monkeys.

Re: Alternate United Nations & UNTIL Easy. The Korean War would have escalated into WWIII, and the US/UN would have nuked China and the Soviet Union, in that order, without fear of retaliation. And then, quite possibly, lost the war. The Baruch Plan was never going to happen, though. UNTIL doesn't make much sense as written. You could probably come up with something more plausible by making it something more like UNIT from Doctor Who, which appears to be a collection of national agencies loosely coordinated by the UN. That way, the UNTIL units operating in the US would actually be drawn from the US, while those in the former Soviet Union (if any) would have been drawn from the former Soviet Union. The composition of detachments operating in Kiribati or Tuvalu would be negotiated with the governments of Kiribati or Tuvalu. Trying to make sense of Major Martinez is a bit difficult too. His background is a bit odd. He was originally described as an "ex-freedom fighter from Paraguay". He's a what now? I'm not going to express my opinion of the Real World UN.

Re: WWYCD: I, The Jury Yes, it is, isn't it? Assault is appalled. He has no respect for most existing "justice" systems, but the thought of vigilante killers filling the gap makes him seriously twitchy.

Re: WWYCD: I, The Jury Assault could look at the crime scene until his eyes dropped out and he wouldn't find anything the cops didn't find first.

Re: The World's Greatest Superteam! Obviously, this thread is progressing according to my energy and inspiration, but here is a further update... I've dropped Possum. I like the character, but there are too many animal characters. Mr Robot is now going to be named Mechanoid Mike. New supporting characters: Professor Phineas Plott: Inventor of the Plott Device. His exact role in the setting will be decided later. Doctor Max McGuffin: Scientist. Amongst other things, his work on Trans-Dimensional Physics helped make the Broome Closet a reality. Margaret Susan McGuffin: Daughter of the above. Romantic interest for Boomerang. Investigative reporter of the Lois Lane ilk. Plus: More details on Muffin! Muffin is a Great Dane whose spirit was awakened by his former owner's* experiments in Shamanism. Initially, he was a member of a team of young mystical investigators. After his key role in cracking the Case of the False Takofanes**, he was invited to join The World's Greatest Superteam as its resident expert in the supernatural. * His owner will be further defined later, but I hope the Scooby Doo influence is obvious. ** He'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids! Finally: To get maximum value out of this thread, check out the following free article from Digital Hero: http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh11superfriends.htm

Re: WWYCD?: Nice Kitty... This sounds like a job for The World's Greatest Superteam. One of their members is a dog.

Re: Campaign Sheets The main thing to remember is that you are the GM. You have the right to demand changes in all characters presented to you, and you can waive your own campaign guidelines if you wish. Talking to your players before they start designing characters would be a good idea. See what they want to play, and ensure that the group is reasonably well balanced, make sure that your campaign guidelines can encompass reasonable versions of their characters, and, of course, make sure that their characters are reasonable within your campaign guidelines. It's entirely possible that your problem might solve itself, if everybody sits down and has a brainstorming session.

Re: WWYCD: I, The Jury Staking out the suspects' houses would be a good start. Use team members, or any trustworthy cops or other allies that are available. Doing that for the judge might be politically a bit awkward, so the stakeout on him would have to be unofficial/deniable. Having someone impersonate the target is a good idea, if rather dangerous. Assault isn't exactly a master of disguise, so somebody else would probably have to do it, and it's unlikely they are quite as invulnerable as him. Have people trying to find the target, and put him "under protection". Assault personally would probably be watching the decoy, but would be waiting to respond if any of the other approaches worked. Unfortunately, my current "back to basics" Assault doesn't have much in the way of movement powers, so he would have to rely on conventional transport to get around. Most of my other characters would more or less respond in the same way, because I'd be the one playing them. Boomerang, from The World's Greatest Superteam, would, however, be serving as decoy himself.

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

Re: WWYCD: Benevolent Overlords Another factor in Assault's suspicion in this situation is kind of political. He has a real problem with self-appointed godlings deciding humanity's future. As a result, he will always look for the downside in this kind of situation.

Re: Economics 101: Character Building in a Point-Based System My general approach is to build characters that aren't entirely useless by themselves. In particular, they can both fight to some extent, and have some non-combat capabilities. Granted, they can then still find themselves out of their depth, but they are capable within their own fields. Obviously you can't expect a scientist to do a mystic's job, and vice versa, but at least they should both be able to actually talk to people. Of course this approach rules out pacifist healer types, but who cares?

Re: Where did the idea that Bricks are usually slow come from? That's a curious way of doing things. Having the big attack as one of the MP slots is a lot more conventional, and certainly more efficient in points terms, even if the big attack is a lot bigger than the less damaging ones. eg: 110 MP - Eyeblasts (110 pt base) 11 u 1. Main blast - 22d6 7 u 2. Reduced Endurance Blast - 12d6, 1/2 End 7 u 3. Explosive Blast - etc...

Re: WWYCD: Benevolent Overlords Assault is old and cynical enough to know that you should always check the mouths of gift horses. There's undoubtedly a catch somewhere. And where is Destroyer?

Re: Infinite Crisis Levitz and Perez working together? I am so there. And I don't normally collect JSA.

Re: Where did the idea that Bricks are usually slow come from?