assault

Re: DEMON: A nitpick! It didn't exist as a town. The area was what was on the list. And yes, the fact that he was there could have been part of the reason why it was chosen. And the fact that it was destined to be chosen could have been part of the reason he was there. Magic is "interesting" like that. Destiny happens. I mentioned that there were grazing properties in the area. It's quite likely that Mulraven House could have been associated with one of them. In fact, this seems like the easiest rationalisation, and the one I would go with. But it's still an after the fact rationalisation of what was originally a glitch. Stuff happens.

Re: Retcon the CU

Re: DEMON: A nitpick! Canberra didn't exist at all until the 20th century. There were some grazing properties in the area, so that's one possibility for a pre-existing building. The other possibility is that Mulraven had an unusually extended lifespan. This is not at all improbable, given that we are dealing with a site associated with the Mystic World. We can certainly rationalise the situation. The main point, however, is that such rationalisation is necessary. It's such a fine example how little details can slip past. It's most glaring because of "the writer writing about another country" effect, but, to be honest, similar mistakes are probably just as likely anytime a writer writes about an area they are not all that familiar with.

Re: Retcon the CU Aside from a certain amount of cross-marketing, no. Yes, it's good that people can choose to reuse stuff from other settings if they want. I have no problem with Takofanes being some guy from a mythical past. I positively want to know at least a little bit about the history of Atlantis. On the other hand, I'm not all that interested in using most of the Star Hero aliens, who are a rather poor fit for a superheroic setting. Of course, the tighter constraints in the official setting, the less likely it is that GMs will set their games in it. That's not actually such a big deal, since every campaign is a variant anyway. But aspects that are overwhelmingly disliked and disregarded are aspects that weren't a terribly good idea in the first place. Of course, there will inevitably be a few such aspects in the setting. In most cases, though, the actual effect of the constraints are pretty marginal. It's easy enough to simply disregard the "magic is the source of powers" stuff entirely, and all the future history about powers going away is just one possible timeline. Unless your characters are planning on going time-travelling, it's simply not important, and if they do, who knows what they will find? Yes, there are some silly comments in the setting material. Ignore them. It will save your sanity. Either that, or you could believe that Barry Allen was given his powers by an inter-dimensional imp named Mopee.

Re: Super Eyes Suggestions One I forgot: Speed Reading! A bit silly, but hey...

Re: Super Eyes Suggestions

Because DEMON wasn't one of the books I gave priority to, I only bought my copy yesterday. It's very well-written. But, there is one oddity that I have noticed. On Page 20, Mulraven House is described as being in Canberra, Australia. A paragraph down it says: "They sat around the long table in the dining hall at Mulraven House - a mansion built by Elisha Mulraven, the Beggar King of London, after he fled England in 1843." Unfortunately, this doesn't fit in well with Canberra's history: http://www.tomw.net.au/cnbst3.html

Re: Infinite Crisis You're thinking about the wrong Superman. The old guy had a bit of a harder edge than the Earth-1 version. (Besides, he'd save the puppy some other way. ) Still, "casually destroying whole realities" doesn't seem in character for any version of Superman.

Re: The World's Greatest Superteam! It could be, if you wanted it! (Hmm, which one...) In fact, alas, it's a result of my own silliness. Typically, other things have attracted my butterfly-like attention so I haven't really followed up on this project. Clunky humanoid, or perhaps it looks a lot like the 1st/2nd Edition version of Mechanon. My original idea was for it to be something like this character: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/a/archie.htm I'm not entirely sure who build it. I considered the possibility that it was built by aliens, but some of my subsequent mad ideas pretty much require a human, or at least terrestrial, creator. For what it's worth, my original idea was for the team to be composed of homages to the following characters: Batman and Robin (Superfriends versions!). Detective Chimp (see: http://www.toonopedia.com/chimp.htm ) Rex the Wonder Dog (http://www.toonopedia.com/rex.htm ) plus Robot Archie, of course. I also considered adding a few Scooby Doo influences. Unfortunately, filing off the serial numbers has turned out to be a little harder than I thought. Or rather, more like hard work. About 80 miles/130 kms inland from Brisbane. About 90,000 people, and no shops stocking Hero Games products.

Re: Just Picked Up Champions Worldwide Well, tomorrow I'm going down to the wonderful city in Queensland referred to, at various points, Brisvegas, Brisneyland, or, on rare occasions, Brisbane. Sadly, Champions Worldwide won't be available there yet. So I am going to have to buy the most interesting books that are available there. But that's OK, because I already have a bit of a plan for how Australia, no, Brisneyland and The Swamp (the place where I live/exist) relate to the Champions Universe. Sure, all of the stuff in Champions Worldwide is true, but, let's face it, most of the interesting super-people in Australia are Empyreans, Atlanteans, Lemurians, aliens or whatever. Who cares about the rest. Well, OK, it looks like there might be a couple of people to worry about, but, I'm sure "we" can sort them out. I've actually reconstructed the original 3rd Edition version of my favourite character, Assault, recently. It will be interesting to see how he compares with the nasties in Champions Worldwide. They will undoubtedly be much tougher than him, but that gap would close a lot if I were to build him up to 350 points. No, really, 250+ point characters don't entirely suck. The original version of Assault grandfathers to about 290 points, once you add the extra skills required these days, plus a bit of Knockback Resistance. His defences are seriously excessive compared to the current recommended levels, but that was part of his original conception. I don't have his original character sheet any more. However you want to look at it, Bricks are cheap and easy builds. Even a very basic lame-o character is good fun to play. Oh yeah. Obviously I am hanging out for the book that describes Assault's official allies/rivals and opponents. Duh. But I'm not going to see it for a couple of months.

Re: But I want to play Champions Back in the day, we would start a scenario, and work out what was really happening during our walk down to the shop for snacks half way through the game. Surprise, surprise, the PCs would be being double-crossed a whole lot, because that was the easiest mid-session plot twist.

Re: Superhero technology Now, dude, I first played Traveller in 1979, and I played DnD in 1980. I first played Champions in 1982. OK? Psi-Shields were "stuff that happened". They didn't necessarily have any such freaky effects. Oh yeah. I first played Runequest in 1981. That was when I first ran into the work of Steve Perrin, who has been known to post on these boards in the past. OK, he's not The Champions Guru, but he's a Great Old One in terms of roleplaying games. So therefore we should pelt him with fruit if he ever shows up again.

Re: Favorite Supplement For Champions Ditto, and Repped.

Re: But I want to play Champions Of course you can always use him as a McGuffin. "Why did he suddenly disappear?" is a good one. He can be captured by his Hunted and need to be rescued. He can turn evil, whether apparently or for real. He can have his own "supporting cast" (DNPCs, Rivals, Watchers and so on) who can be introduced into scenarios. In other words, you can embed him in a network of relationships, which would allow him to develop as a character, while acting as a link between the PCs and other NPCs. And not take the focus off the PCs, which is the main point.

Re: Overall Levels are they too good or not good enough?

Re: I Need A Teen Champions Plot! I'd go with Stress. Specifically, stress related to puberty. This is supposedly associated with Poltergeist phenomena, which in turn, seem related to the kind of stuff we are talking about here. And it's just right for a Teen Champions game, natch.

Re: Retcon the CU

Re: Retcon the CU Raven appears to have been dropped because it was seen as redundant. Basically, it was just a copy of VIPER. Now, it's actually perfectly reasonable that VIPER would have competitors and splinter groups, but it seems that the 5th Edition approach seems to favour one group per niche. Even DEMON lost its technological elements. It probably didn't help Raven's cause that it suffered from multiple retcons in earlier editions. One of these turned them into rather buffoonish puppets of VIPER, while the other rather bizarrely crammed them into the street-level genre. Neither of these did them any favours, IMHO. On the other hand, ARGENT seems to be vaguely reminiscent of Raven. I suppose you could think of it as being a continuation of/replacement for Raven in the same way that the IHA replaces/continues Genocide. For what it's worth: I like ARGENT more than VIPER. But I suspect that that will only last until ARGENT gets a full writeup.

In a couple of threads over the last six months I've suggested that the world's greatest superteam would be composed of: a dog, a monkey, a robot and a small boy, plus a guy to lead them. At last, it is time to design them. Here are some initial descriptions. I've included a couple of their allies at the end. Feedback and suggestions are actively solicited. *** Boomerang Major Abilities: Natural leader. Highly trained athlete and martial artist. Master of the Boomerang. Origin: Australian Ninja. Boomer Major Abilities: Natural leader. Highly trained athlete and martial artist. Highly skilled with the Boomerang. Origin: Sidekick of Boomerang. Muffin Major Abilities: Hyper-intelligent Dog. Skilled detective. Origin: Experimental subject. Professor Pan Major Abilities: Hyper-intelligent Chimpanzee. Scientist. Origin: Experimental subject. Mr Robot Major Abilities: Super-strength. Resistant to damage. Origin: Constructed. *** Allies. Boomer has also been known to work together with another couple of young supers, forming an informal group usually referred to as the Trio of Terrific Teens. The other members are: Wonder Boy Major Abilities: Super-strength. Almost invulnerable. Able to fly. Origin: Rocketed to Earth from the planet Neonia. Possum Major Abilities: Able to assume the form of a small arboreal marsupial. Wonder Boy's girlfriend. Origin: Mutant. (Possum was inspired by the character from Sky High who could turn into a purple guinea pig).

Re: WWYCD: Category 6 Storm Assault consults with local weather experts to confirm that this situation is actually as improbable as it appears. He then starts to investigate anybody who might possibly be capable of and has a motive for destroying Chicago in this way. Obviously this would involve talking to local authorities to see if they have received ransom demands and so on. If nothing is too obvious on this front, the attack on the power system is another potential avenue of investigation. If it isn't possible to find out who is playing with the weather in time to stop Chicago from being destroyed, well, Assault can always be a useful rescue worker. Then again, he might also start looking for his DNPC. Chances are that she has stumbled on the bad guys' headquarters... There's a reason why he took a Lois Lane homage as a DNPC.

Re: Retcon the CU

Re: Retcon the CU Back to the original topic of the thread... One change I would make would be to tweak the worldwide distribution of supers a bit. In particular, I would increase the prevalence of supers in Australia, New Zealand and any other relatively significant market for Hero Games products in order to give a bit more freedom for GMs to fit their campaigns into the CU.

Re: "Teen Champion" to Regular It seems to me that the most obvious change in the builds would be the presence of Power Frameworks. If you can handle that transition smoothly, the rest is really just the equivalent of giving them experience in big chunks rather than a point or two at a time. So how would you handle that? Let's see: VPPs (apart from gadget pools) are a bit of a worry. I would recommend discouraging them in favour of Multipowers, at least at first. Given that, we are talking about ECs and Multipowers. Multipowers aren't too difficult. Converting a normal power to an MP is really just a case of paying the slot costs. The character simply becomes more versatile over time. You could even fold a couple of powers into the Base in this case. ECs are a little trickier. It's easiest if the characters are actually gaining raw power. Basically, you let them spend their "experience" as points in the EC's Base. You end up with a sub-optimal EC for a long time, but it still would save points. An example: Solar Boy initially spends 40 points each on EB, Flight and Force Field. He decides he wants to put them into an EC. After 10 experience, his EC looks like this: EC - "Solar Powers" 10 Point Base 40 1. 10d6 Energy Blast 40 2. 25PD/25ED Force Field 40 3. 25" Flight As he gets more experience, he builds up the base, boosting the various slots appropriately. Eventually, his EC looks like this: EC - "Solar Powers" 40 Point Base 40 1. 16d6 Energy Blast 40 2. 40PD/40ED Force Field 40 3. 40" Flight Along the way he could also have added slots. Obviously this is an example only, and you would have to manage things carefully. You might also want to allow a partial rebuild at some point to fix some of the wonkier side effects of this kind of build. The point is that the character can "mature" incrementally, without any big shocks.

Re: How to handle RKA?

Re: Dr koo