assault

Re: Australia in the current CU

Of course we are dealing strictly with the official CU, not with the variations individual GMs inevitably introduce, so "if you don't like it, change it" isn't really an appropriate response in this case.

The easiest way to deal with the lack of Australian and New Zealand supers is to take note that the figures given in Champions Universe were from 2002. A lot of supers could have emerged since then. That's not quite adequate if you want them to have been active before then, but at least it would be a step in the right direction, and I would be willing to stop whingeing about it.

So I think we could reasonably lobby The Powers That Be to eventually make it official that relatively large numbers of supers have been manifesting in Australia and NZ over the last few years... Why that would be occurring can be left as an exercise...

Re: Australia in the current CU

I'm personally rather disappointed that DOJ made this decision about a country that seems to have its fair share of HERO gamers, and IMO lots of adventure potential. Oz in the Fourth Edition CU was a far livelier place supers-wise.

 

I rather think that Down Under is ripe for a major super-spawning event in your campaign. My suggestion would be a shower of Kelvarite-bearing meteors.

Yeah. New Zealand is another place where this applies.

Adding the Well of Worlds to the picture helps as a handy potential source of supers.

Kelvarite, on the other hand... Its "glowing green rock"-ness is useful. I've tended to underuse it because of its obvious cheesiness, but then again, my world is full of associations with the dairy industry. Maybe I should reconsider.

I admit that under the influence of the Smallville TV series, I did briefly consider a world that had a single cause of superpowers. An influx of mutagens capable of producing both induced and inherited superpowers would work nicely. Especially if the key superhero was allergic to the source that powers everyone else... Hmm.

Let's see:

Superman. Duh.

Green Lantern. Could be powered by a glowing green rock.

Flash. Mutated by exposure to "chemicals". Now, which "chemical" might have done that?

Aquaman. Well, his origin could stand as is, but he could also be a mutant.

Wonder Woman. See Aquaman.

Martian Manhunter. He's a green alien. For all I know he could be mutated pond scum.

Batman. "Just a guy." No power source needed, although you could tweak his genes if you think it's necessary to allow him to do what he does.

Doing the same for Marvel is easy enough.

Mutants. Children of people exposed to Kelvarite.

Fantastic Four. Duh.

Spidey, Hulk. Indirect exposure.

Ant-Man. Guess what the secret ingredient of his shrinking gas is?

etc.

I'm not sure if I would bother, but, yes, a Kelvarite meteor show would allow a nice localised cluster of superbeings to arise.

About a year ago, I started writing an article I was considering submitting to Digital Hero. It was provisionally titled "Local Hero", and was intended to provide some suggestions for how to rationalise a game set outside Big Cities. In short, it was "a bunch of excuses for why your game is set in your own home town". Maybe I should take another look at it.

The key idea was that superbeings are usually found in clusters, which means that statistical analyses of their prevalence tend to break down. While statistics suggest that you wouldn't expect to find any superbeings in South Nowhere, Nebraska, local conditions can radically change this.

This kind of argument can also be used to explain why there isn't a squillion superbeings in, say, India, unless you want them there.

Re: Australia in the current CU

Whoa! My second personality was really breaking through last night. I find roleplaying Assault easy. I just go temporarily insane.

My serious point, about canonical villains in Australia, is still valid, and I thank everybody for their responses so far.

(I really should design Assault a proper pair of Kirby boots. Unfortunately, he's already wasting a whole lot of points just being himself...)

Re: The Lemurian Secret is out!

Looking at page 139 of HIDDEN LANDS I have figured out the secret behind the Lemurian's energy sources! Forget all that stuff about arcane furnaces' date=' [i']ignaetium[/i] and fulminor, Lemurian technology runs off of Kirby Dots!!!

Well, duh!

---

I should note that the main reason why I don't yet have a proper picture of Assault is that I haven't yet tweaked an appropriate Kirby image.

With proper Kirby boots, I figure that Assault can kick anyone's butt...

OK, well, I was watching bad Australian movies tonight, and during the ad breaks trying to organise a campaign. I don't yet have DEMON, or Hidden Lands, but it ocurred to me that the combination of those, and CKC, could provide something close to a full-time campaign for Australian supers - that is, for the characters played by the people that buy Hero Games products here in Australia.

OK, so I'm thinking about who superheroes in Australia are going to spend their time fighting? Or, to put it another way, who are the pre-authorised villains in Australia?

My initial list, to which I am requesting additions...

VIPER

Taipan (a snake. See VIPER.)

The Well of Worlds. This keeps us busy.

ARGENT. Well, we all know that the rumours about New Zealand aren't true, so why should we care?

The South Pacific. Yes, OK, various masterminds have bases under the sea.

So, unless we want to make up our own stuff, who, from canonical 5e material, should keep us busy? DEMON?

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!!

(obviously' date=' I'm assuming he was a 4e villain).[/quote']

 

He was a 3e villain, and one of the few of those who (what's the word?) hit the imagination of a whole bunch of us.

 

Look, back then there were a whole bunch of really talented people who were creating villains for us. I didn't actually buy all the books being produced, and, frankly, some of them sucked. I'm talking about both the books and the characters in them. Some of the books included worthwhile characters, and others sucked from cover to cover.

 

Invictus was one of the good ones.

 

Citizen Bennie was one of the writers whose failure rate was noticeably low. I only worked that out when I took the time to sit around and list who was created by, err, whom. Or however the grammar works.

 

That's shouldn't be read as an insult for the rest.

 

One of my favourite disqualified Champions Universe books is Red Doom. But that was 3e, wasn't it?

 

I'm planning on starting another thread about how to deal with the 5e Universe. My deal is that my campaign is in Australia. I understand perfectly well the concept of ignoring anything that is inconvenient, but, well, if you can fit it in, it's all good, as the youngsters say, these days.

 

Umm, the stuff about "fitting it in" shouldn't be read in an impolite sense. Or maybe it's worthwhile spending the point on not gettin' old so fast. Your problem.

 

EDIT: I reconsidered the previous comment, and decided to let it stand. Sorry.

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!!

And I play Sutherland as a southern Democrat/Dixiecrat' date=' but that's not official and your mileage may vary.[/quote']

 

That's always a good compromise. Everybody hates Dixiecrats.

Re: Telepaths Must Die!

No' date=' I was speaking of the Marvel Comics character.[/quote']

 

Ah. Much less fun.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator?

Didn't Earth-2 Supes become the MAN in Crisis? I seem to recall the older gruffer supes being the powerhouse.

Yes he was. He got the position of honour when it came down to the big beat down on the Anti-Monitor, IIRC.

However, DC canon (for what it's worth) at the time suggested that he was less powerful. This is, however, in contradiction to the actual occasions when he and the Earth-1 Superman met, when there was nothing to suggest they were less than equal matches. Then again, Hourman and the Earth-1 Superman went toe to toe during one JLA/JSA crossover I recall, and that is so obviously absurd as to be beyond rationalisation.

Ah: the classic Earth-1/Earth-2 Superman smackdown was way back in 1969. JLA #74. It's reprinted in "Crisis on Multiple Earths", Volume 2. (Excuse me while I reread it).

Caption: "It begins, then -- the most unique struggle in history -- Superman against Superman!"

Next Panel: Superman (Earth-1): (speech) "Hey --! What.. Unngf!" (thought) Superman-Two's as strong as I am!"

a couple of frames later:

Superman (Earth-1): (though) "...Unnf! His stomach's hard as mine!..."

I think things like "Unnf!", don't you?

A couple of pages later:

(caption): "Meanwhile, the two Supermen have battled each other, first to a Standstill -- and then, to a Lie-still!"

They take each other out, in other words.

Continuity is a moving target. I personally prefer to follow the best stories, and ignore the horseapples that hacks churn out.

Then again, I mostly read reprints these days, apart from about three titles I collect to keep my hand in. OK, two of them (Catwoman, Ultimate Fantastic Four) are actually good, while JLA is distinctly patchy. I should collect JSA, but I think I would end up throwing up too much blood.

I still don't believe that the current Black Canary is the daughter of the one who showed up in the early JLA/JSA crossovers, whatever "continuity" says.

None of this has any relevance to my Champions universe, since no published characters exist in my world except through homages.

EDIT: It's very difficult to describe my response to a Superman versus Superman fight. After a glass of (very cheap) wine, all I can think of is: Mate!!!

Which is very Australian, in its own way.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator?

Minor quibble. Prior to Crisis' date=' she was roughly on par with the Earth-2 Superman - who was noticably less "super" than his earth-2 counterpart.[/quote']

 

Except for when they actually met and fought.

 

As always, this stuff is highly variable.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator?

1. Powergirl is not vulnerable to kryptonite, at first she thought that she was annother kryptonian until someone unleased some kyrptonite on her and she realized nothing happened to her.

This is, of course, a retcon, as is all of this stuff.

2. Before Crisis she was roughly on par with Superman in terms of powers and power levels. After which she lost a significant ammount of power in compairison to Superman.

She really only lost power compared to Superman when she was injured during the JLE period. She might have been talked down a bit before then, but it wasn't really obvious.

Before Crisis was when she was a Kryptonian, of course.

Re: Who would be in this group?

Kim Possible

Teamo Supremo (and Level 7 as an agency).

Re: Telepaths Must Die!

So what goes through your head if you're arguing with someone like:

 

- Radioactive Man

Probably confusion. At least if you are talking about this character:

http://www.answers.com/topic/radioactive-man

On telepaths:

One of my world's dirty secrets is why the Cold War lasted as long as it did, given that the West had a virtual monopoly of superbeings.

Re: Comic books

Watchmen itself directly addresses the issue by suggesting that in an age of superheroes' date=' people dont want to read comic books about them and that their place is taken by pirate comics. [/quote']

 

Gardner Fox told us that superhero comics on Earth-1 were about the real heroes of Earth-2. Barry Allen learned how to be a superhero by reading about the adventures of Jay Garrick. This was shown in Showcase #4. Later on, of course, he met Garrick in person! (Flash #123).

 

It's a difficult choice, isn't it? Two authoritative sources in conflict. Obviously we need to go with the one which is the more fun.

 

Given the amusement value of PCs getting involved in marketing, I would go with superhero comics being published personally.

 

I refuse to comment as to whether or not any supposedly fictitious superheroes actually exist in a parallel universe...

Re: Big Question: How did superpowers come about in your campaign?

I don't bother with a unified explanation for superpowers in my campaign world. There aren't more than a couple of hundred supers at best and each super is a fluke and a statistical outlier. On the other hand, I am partial to alien and Hidden Land type origins. It's probable that most supers in my world are of that type, along with the various varieties of super competent normals.

To put it simply, my world is more early JLA than X-Men.

I have toyed with other setups. Mainly, though, I tend to focus on a small group of PCs, their opponents, allies, rivals and so on. I don't tend to pay much attention to NPCs that don't really play a role in the game.

Re: Time Line Help

2) lack of knowledge about popular fiction times. (ie was Jack the Ripper in the same "Time" as Sherlock Holmes? Sure' date=' I know one is a fictional character, but would it have worked?[/quote']

 

Google Is Your Friend.

 

The Holmes stories were published between 1887 and 1927. The Ripper was active in 1888. I guess that's a yes.

Re: Enter...The MACROVERSE!!!

I was thinking' date=' in your campain, are there dimentions which one has to GROW to visit, and SHRINK to go home to? If so, do you think a requiered "Side Effect" for minor physical damage to the enviroment is requiered? What do you think?[/quote']

 

Notionally, at least, my CU has a Microverse. I hadn't thought about a Macroverse. It's not a bad idea though. It would really only work for characters like the Spectre, who grow bigger than the Earth quite regularly!

 

I wouldn't let "normal" Growth characters do it.

Re: New Global Guardians PBEM Campaign Looking For Players

AFAIK' date=' yes. these characters are build on 500 total points. They are the Justice League/Avengers of the Global Guardians setting so have a higher base total.[/quote']

 

Hmm... Maybe I should submit Assault to one of these games. He works nicely at that point total.

 

(He's overbuilt for lower totals, with lots of neat noncombat stuff).

 

Unfortunately, I'm unlikely to ever get around to it.

Re: Does Seeker still suck?

Actually I miss Seeker.Every New Zealand hero needs an Austrailian hero as a Rival' date='and Seeker was admirably suited for the role.[/quote']

 

The problem is that Australian heroes need American heroes as rivals. We end up with a daisy-chain effect.

 

Still, taking both US and NZ rivals would be a pretty good way of racking up a few extra points...

 

"Hmm", thinks Assault. "I was considering writing up a formal 350 point version of myself, and I was wondering where to get those last few points. I suppose I shouldn't take a rivalry with another Australian hero as well. That might be going a bit overboard."

 

(Voice from out of panel): "You're breaking through the fourth wall again, Assault. I told you to stop doing that!"

Re: Evil, Evil Campaign Concept...

Check out GURPS Black Ops. This is their core concept.

 

Actually a very good book.

Sounds more like GURPS Illuminati.

Also a good book.

Re: Your Character's Comic Book

George Perez would absoutely have to be the artist. As to writer, it could be anyone Mr. Perez would want doing it.

 

Ooo...Ooo...Ooo...OR Jack Kirby. That would totally RAWK!

You beat me to it. KIRBY!

Or Perez.

OK, maybe Keith Giffen.

Writers: Dennis O'Neil. Marv Wolfman. Kirby, again. Giffen, again. Paul Levitz.

Age: Silver/Bronze, possibly with slight touches of wackiness.

Secret ID: Musician. Read: Guitarist.

Yes, Assault would like to be paid. It would free up his time to be a hero.

Re: Does Seeker still suck?

Seeker is cheesy. And?

I could find a use for him in my game, if only as laughing stock.

I think someone needs to invent a hamster wheel for Kinetik. Soon.

But then, of course, we'd have to start thinking about scenarios for the yearly Earth-4/Earth-5 crossovers... The first two would, of course, be titled "Crisis on Earth-4" and "Crisis on Earth-5".

Ahh, Gardner Fox. A true genius.

Re: Belief in magic by normals.

I don't use the CU...in my games the official word is all magic is bunk...

In my CU (not the Official CU), religious belief is about as widespread as it is in the Real World. So there are a whole lot of folks who pay at least lip-service to the reality of magic.

Actual public manifestations of "real magic" are rare enough to not really be a problem. There are no Thunder Gods wandering around whose claims are taken seriously.

On the other hand, there probably is a slightly higher level of superstition, since "miracles" occasionally do actually happen, and "magic" does occasionally work. I haven't, however, actually done anything about this.

There are still plenty of atheists around, too. And some of them practice magic.

Re: Things to Do With Hunteds

I just give a +5 for (many hunteds) when somebody wants a rogue's gallery.

I don't bother with this. I just say that the collective hunters are equivalent to a single hunted.

Essentially, if you have an 8- hunted, you have someone who shows up roughly one scenario in four.

An 8- Rogues' Gallery hunted means that someone will still show up roughly one scenario in four, but it could be one of a number of people.

The net disadvantage to the PC is the same.

---

Generally, on the topic:

One way to think of things is to consider an 8- hunted as consisting of a number of 7- and 6- hunteds. A 7- hunted will show up about one time in 6, while a 6- will show up about one time in 12. That allows you to make some kind of comparison with a year's publication of a comic title.

You can ask: how often does the Joker actually show up in a Bat-Book? How often does Luther show in the SuperBooks? - and tweak your hunteds appropriately.

Re: Things to Do With Hunteds

A friend of mine and I cooked these two things to do with Hunteds, to add a little flavor to the game:

 

1. Rogue's Gallery

 

The character has a number of independent villains, all of whom are hunting him. These villains all have either powers, or themes, that relate to the character. These villains do not (normally) work as a team, but instead show up one at a time. For each session, the GM rolls a single hunted, and then selects the villain most appropriate to the scenario.

I use Rogue's Gallery hunteds, too. In my opinion they are better at mirroring the actual frequency with which most hunters show up. They are especially appropriate in solo/very small group situations.

I haven't quite sorted out the relationship between individual hunters and their impact on teams, though.