drunkonduty

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

Was not aware of the caveat on multipowers/special powers. But I'll look into it and see what the deal is. As to special GM permission: I almost always GM and I'd still allow players to put senses in a Multipower (although now I write this I realise that I actually meant to say Elemental Control! Do'h! Does this change make the conversation moot? Don't have rule books handy.)

The characters I draw up are almost never played. :-( So if rules are occasionally bent a little in their design, meh, no harm done.

cheers.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

Trademarks:

Multipowers. Mostly this is for the low cost for versatility benefit. I like the idea of the character being able to learn/develop new powers fairly cheaply and having a small arsenal of attacks/powers to use. I'm particularly fond of doing up things like sensor arrays and weapon systems for power armour types.

I also give them some skills for their normal life. Professional skills, knowledge skills, that sort of thing.

Some sort of tactical weakness. For all that I want versatile characters I don't want someone who is omnicompetent. There should be something there for the GM and a cunning villain to exploit.

VPPs:

I plain don't like 'em. This is because I've seen them abused far too much. Both with overshadowing other characters and with taking up too, too much time at the table while the player number crunches some extremely complex power to the nth degree. I'll reluctantly allow a Gadget Pool because, well, there's no other way to really do a gadgeteer. But I allow them with the caveat that I may disallow it later if I see it turning abusive.

High Mental Strength:

Not a trademark. Usually present but unlike versatility it doesn't make my brain itch when I have a character without a strong mind.

phoenix240 wrote:

It would have been really classic if your character calmed him down with a Hostess fruit pie.

I nearly snarfed when I read that.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

Superman and Louis Lane... a Freudian slip phoenix? ;-)

And, yeah, he's not alien despite being born on another world. He's ALMOST what I'd call a first generation immigrant. Except there's that whole grew up in America's Heartland raised by good ol' Mr. and Mrs Kent thing. He's about as American as Mom and Pastrami on Rye. I consider Pastrami on Rye to be VERY American. Just as I consider immigration and the whole "melting pot" to be very American.

Mmm, kinda vague musings there, sorry if they confuse.

Re: Permian Civilization Resources?

Very cool ideas. I've got nothing to add at the moment, or perhaps ever, but if thoughts come to me I'll post them. Mostly, just wanted to say very cool.

cheers.

Re: Fantasy Economies: How closely should we examine them?

Clearly not an argument I am going to win. Frankly one I am not particularly qualified to even take part in, it being over 20 years since I did economics and maybe 5 or 6 since I last looked at Spanish history in any detail. But when I get some more spare time I shall read a little more widely on the topic.

But the bringing of pests back from the colonies is a great idea for gaming, considering the sort of pests that can exist in the average fantasy game.

cheers.

Re: Fantasy Economies: How closely should we examine them?

The planar issue would work much like colonisation in early modern times. To whit: a nation would set up a colony somewhere and begin to exploit local resources. Either through trade or direct rulership and exploitation. The costs of setting up and maintaining the colony and of exploiting and transporting resources would determine what sort of resources are profitable enough to be worth the effort. Gold (say from the Elemental Plane of Earth) would of course be a popular choice. What would happen if everyone got lots of gold?

Let's look at what happened when Spain got it's hands on all the gold of the New World: It's economy went to hell. Not at once. And not just because all that gold (and even more silver) depressed the value of the metal. The gold rush devastated agriculture and industry in Spain as so many people ran off to get rich in the New World. Those who stayed in Spain got to charge very high prices for their services. Labour shortages are good for some. Higher wages and devalued gold led to higher costs for pretty much everything. Of course at the same time the gold funded the Spanish armies for several centuries (people running off to fight in the wars was another cause of labour shortage in Spain.) Also all that wealth drew thieves of all types. Most famously Pirates!

Now don't get me wrong: individuals can get very wealthy in this situation. And it is an exciting game world to adventure in. But it doesn't really promote stable economic growth. Especially in an economy as laissez faire as the average mediaeval one.

Re: Okay class: Make me a rogue.

I love me a good rogue. My favourite characters are rogues with a bit of brawling thrown in.

Here's a revamp of an old character of mine from way back. He's basically Raffles crossed with Percy Blakeney (The Scarlet Pimpernel). A nobleman who turns cat burglar out of boredom (well the cash is nice too.)

Here's his background if you can stand the purple prose:

Perseus Dandoline, aka The Black Orchid.

Perseus Dandoline, of the ancient and noble House Dandoline, was bored. Life in the Imperial Capital was a dull, dull, dull. Just an endless cycle or parties, soirees, debuts, balls, dressings, laying-ins, et cetera, et cetera. Perseus, Perce to his friends, needed something to amuse himself. Something more exciting than maintaining the hot house bequeathed him with the estate. Oh he didn't mind pottering in the old shed. His father had amassed the greatest collection of tropical flowers in the Empire and Perce was rather proud of the old boy for doing so. He just wished his father hadn't spent quite so much of the family fortune upon it and then lost almost all in the Great Rose Crash of '08. House Dandoline had never recovered and it was all Perce could do to maintain appearances.

One evening, at the Contessa de Marcheward's second daughter's Debut, he found himself idly watching the nervous girl as she entered the ball room, wearing the most amazing gown and veritably dripping in diamonds. The starring piece, even more so than the debutant, was the Star of Mohandi, the great diamond depending from a chain of platinum upon the girl's modest breast. As Perseus watched the light play upon the thousand facets of that priceless jewel he idly wondered how much it was worth. And how well it was protected. Why one wouldn't want anything to happen to it, would one? Would one?

Perce raised his quizzing glass to his eye and looked at the Star again. And as he looked at it he felt the most enormous thrill. By gad, he would steal it! Tonight, after the Debut, he would return and steal the bauble and damned if he wouldn't!

And so in the small hours of the morning a shadow passed across the roof tops of the de Marcheward Estate. It slipped in through a high window that had been left unlocked by a careless guest earlier that evening. The shadow slipped through the galleries and halls and into the Contessa's very room. It passed the sleeping maids in their closets the Contessa, snoring gently in her four-post bed, and slipped into the Contessa's dressing room. Perseus nearly let out a sigh of relief as he slid the door closed.

A quick search found several lesser jewels, delicate strings of diamonds and emeralds and rubies that the Contessa must have been too tired to bother putting away. These he passed over as beneath him. Then he found the strong box behind a sliding panel in the dresser itself. He drew it from its hiding place and pushed at the lid. The lid steadfastly refused to move. Perseus examined the lock and swore silently to himself.

A gentleman's education covered many areas. Fencing, riding, shooting, tying a cravat. But none of his tutors had ever taught Perce the fine art of lock picking. He would need to key. But where was it? Did the Contessa keep it in her ample decolletage, hidden somewhere in the sea of frothy lace? Or did it lie with some chamberlain in some distant room of the house? Perce didn't know and nor could he possibly search the house for it. The strong box was too heavy to carry off. Nor could he smash it open unless he wanted to wake everyone within ear shot. He gnashed his teeth in frustration but in the end he accepted there was nothing he could do about it.

Perseus pocketed a few of the prettier bracelets and necklaces by way of compensation. Then he reached into the pouch he wore close beneath his shirt and drew forth a small flower. The whole, stem and bloom, was only about the length of his hand. The stem was dark green, smooth and unremarkable. But the bloom! The bloom was a delicate shell of dark petals curled around one another like lovers entwined. They were black at the ends fading ever so slightly to a deep blue at the heart of the bloom where the bundle of tiny, golden stamen poked forth. It was a Black Orchid, the rarest flower in his father's collection. No-one else in the Empire had ever seen one. His father had jealously kept this prize to himself. Perseus had only found out about it from reading his father's last letter. He passed the flower under his nose and smelt the heady perfume before placing the flower on the strong box.

The next day all the salons of the city talked of nothing but mysterious thief known as The Black Orchid.

Cheers. :-)

Re: How to Build: Mecha-style bits/funnels/fangs/airds/etc

.....then again if I spend yet another 35 pts, totalling 95 pts on doubling, and have a million palindromedaries who knows what I could do....

I'm imagining a Lawrence of Arabia style charge across the desert at the German lines. Unfortunately the palindromedaries keep trying to go backwards and forwards at the same time.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

@Bloodstone

Oh cool. There are quite a few characters on that list I didn't realise had alternative sexualities.

@Lucius Alexander

I seem to recall a thread here a year or so ago that touched on these sort of issues... But can't remember details so maybe I should shut up. Or try and dredge up the thread.

Re: Champions Universe Groups In Japan.

The Mecha Police. Their duties include policing hi-tech crime (including industrial espionage and hacking) and the much flashier, high-profile fighting against power suit villains, rogue robots and Kaiju attacks. They work closely with Bureau 17 (?that the right number?) having developed a close working relationship with them over the many Kaiju attacks that Japan has faced.

Although I don't like that name.

Also need some sort of non-governmental organisation for all those Anime Magic Girls. Some sort of White Council that trains and oversees them. Probably a very old organisation, something that goes way back to the time of Magic. Probably has a few non-human members as well: benevolent Kami of some sort.

Villains. Well obviously there's the Yakuza. They're probably very well armed, having access to lots of hi-tech gizmos from various zaibatsu they have infiltrated/robbed/blackmailed/extorted.

Mmm, need to re-read the Champions World Wide bit on Japan as well as Monster Island to be certain to write stuff that fits with existing canon without doubling up.

anyway, as I said in the other thread, I like the general idea.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

I'm wading into this waaaaayyyy too late.

On the inclusiveness front I'll keep it simple: inclusiveness of non-mainstream types (by which I mean folks who aren't straight, middle-class, white males*) is a good thing. And it needs to be an active thing because, to date, the existing culture has been one that has been dominated by straight, white, middle-class male characters (in both comics and comic related games.)

On gay characters in CU: if you can find a copy of the 4e PRIMUS book there's a gay Silver Avenger. Can't think of his name off the top of my head. He has a female friend (another PRIMUS agent IIRC) who knows about him and happily helps as his beard. His write up explains how he is not open because he fears the backlash he'd face from within PRIMUS. Was PRIMUS an arm of the military in 4e? If so he could be kicked out on a psychological grounds. (Section 8 as they called it in MASH.)

I would also like to propose Bulldozer. OK, nothing in his write up says he is gay. BUT I would like to point out to you his aggressively macho attitude towards women. And look at the picture of him in 5e Conquerors, Killers, Crooks. The guy looks like a member of a bad Village People covers band. I would say he is massively over compensating for his true sexuality. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

So let's add 1& 1/2 to the tally.

Cheers all.

*of which I am one.

Re: Would you buy...

#1 and #5 are the only ones of interest to me.

The Grimoire would want to ply me with a specific magic system. Ya see, one of my few peeves with HERO is the amount of work I have to put in to make a comprehensive, coherent magic system for a fantasy game. (I'm not worried about that for a supers game.) Something based on Power Pools or Multi-Powers that is still balanced with the sword swingers and has the feel of magic rather than video-game like super powers.

Champions of the Rising Sun sounds like a great idea. Chapters on Mecha, Cat Girls and Magic Girls and Japan's meta-human history are all A+ in my book. Also a look at Japanese folklore and myth to give an appropriate feeling and flavour to any game set here. Oh and Japanese super hero fans. I just see the Japanese as taking this, oft-mentioned rarely fleshed out phenomena, to some truly weird/brilliant levels.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Actually I think the WHY of why she is invading Earth is important. It gives the HOW of how to defeat her. By which I mean it sets the limits on what the campaign/scenario is about.

Mmm, how to explain it better...

There's a bunch of reasons she might be targetting Earth. Each reason will directly inform the way in which V'Han (and her operatives) act in the invasion. What the goal is will effect how the D-Soldiers go about trying to achieve it and will define what is considered a "win" or "loss" situation by her local commanders. It will also be quite telling about V'Han's personality OR the way her Empire is being run by the local governors in this neck of the interdimensional woods. (These two things may well be at odds.)

Some examples:

1. The classic Earth is located at an important dimensional nexus. V'Han wants a hyper-space by-pass put in here. Cue 'dozers. Or Earth makes an excellent forward base for further expansion. Cue large military staging base.

2. Earth is a great source of phlebotinum. She intends to set up a massive phlebotinum mine and refinery here. Shame that refining phelbotinum causes such horrible, mutation-causing pollution. Corrollary: maybe removing the phlebotinum removes Super Powers from Earth. There's a way to get the heroes motivated. In any case: humans are just "primitive animals in the way of exploiting an important economic resource, they need to be exterminated."

3. To serve mankind (1.) You know the way I mean: humans taste delicious. In this case maybe she's content to set up a forward base/staging area/factory and leave the actual harvesting to private organisations that send out hunting parties to harvest the free-range humans. Or maybe it goes all "factory farm and automated slaughter house."

4. To serve mankind (2.) V'Han is delighted and at the same time oh so annoyed to see a world that has such wonderful ideals (universal equality and all that Tom Paine "The Rights of Man" stuff) but that fails to live up to them. "Why, with a decent centralised administration that isn't subject to interference from vested interests, this little back water could become a Utopia." This would make for a "kinder, gentler" invasion in the form of a (pardon the politics) Legitimate Regime Change.

6. V'Han wants to put an extension on her multi-dimensional palace. Specifically a whale watching addendum to her Water Gardens. In this case she might be content with just blowing the heck out of whaling nations and only claiming a small part of Earth. "Oh, the Pacific Rim sounds nice."

7. Similar to 1. Earth is needed to prevent a vast salient forming around her army in the Gadroon/Qularr war. Would also explain why the Qularr have invaded earth a few times recently as they try to forestall a V'Hanian conquest.

8. A local Satrap/Grand Moff/Duke Palatine takes it into their head to invade Earth dimension because they think (right or wrong) that it will enhance their prestige and promotional prospects. Or perhaps they seek to break away from V'han and set up their own little Empire of a Billion Dimensions and the invasion will help in some way. Any of the above reasons could also apply but there's the opportunity to work with V'han.

So, yeah, I think the WHY, or a selection of WHY's to keep the players guessing, is good.

Other things I'd like to see:

A rough (very rough) overview of Imperial Administration with a more detailed look at the folks who run the Empire in this neck of the woods. Plus maybe some internal politics between factions.

Also what, if any, Public Persona does the Empress like to maintain? Is there free media in the Empire that can act to keep her honest or is it all Big Brother, Newspeak and the Ministry of Information?

Is the Empire a Tyranny? Does V'han maintain direct control of all major ministeries? Are there Satrapies? Are there local (for a given definition of "local" of course) councils? How do they interact?

anyhoo, I love V'han as a character and look forward to seeing an expansion on her.

cheers.

Re: How much do you customize the setting?

I'm pretty lazy. I mostly use the CU stuff as published, leaving out the bits I don't like (eg. Dr. Destroyer) or want to hold off to introduce to my players as a First Encounter (eg. Ist'vatha Vhan(sp?)). I have created a couple of villain teams as well.

Certain aspects of the history of the CU, like the Turakian Age, I leave out but no-one will ever know, so not sure it even matters.

Re: Taming the Slayer

Well I have definite preference for brunettes so my vote goes to River too.

But if were to just go by kill factor: I'd go Buffy. Both have taken on hordes of minions, but only Buffy has taken on gods.

Re: Moll

Awesome. I think I shall use her in my next session in a couple of weeks. I'll just have to France-ify her.

Re: Adventurers' Club Update

Ah, you're over in Burwood. I've been meaning for ages to get over and check out what goes on there. Most of my group have been over to Good Games and played at least a few times (although none recently I think.)

We play at my place in Newtown. The idea is we do a few weeks on one game; then someone else runs a few weeks of another game. Trying for one session a week but having trouble with schedules and all the rest. Bloody real life.

Re: Iron Skies Trailers

Ooooooh. Good point.

Now I'm wondering what exactly the movie will go with...

Even more keen for it.

Re: Iron Skies Trailers

Guys, guys! Stop with the thinking already. Yeah the Nazis would return to Earth and find they were in a hostile environment: super heavy gravity (how can you aim a luger when it weighs 6x what you're used to?), germs to which they have no immunity, out of date fashion, loads of other stuff I'm sure. One might also wonder why they would have internal combustion engines in an oxygen poor environment (that motorcycle at the start of the second trailer, for instance.)

But all this hard science is out of place in a Pulp Action Adventure! The important thing is : Space Nazis on the Moon!

Revel in it!

Re: Iron Skies Trailers

Space Nazis on the Moon! Awesome.

Re: LOTR thoughts

Adventures in the Fourth Age wouldn't have to diverge from Tolkien's plan to be fun. Obviously it's different because there's no Dark Lord on his Dark Throne. But there's plenty of stuff to do. The appendices mention Aragorn and Eomer fighting wars against Gondor's enemies as far as Umbar and far into the east (as far as the Sea of Rhun?) Far ranging (heh) enough to plague the Sons of Denethor wherever they try to run.

And the Orcs and Trolls and Dragons are still there. The Olog-Hai are described as becoming mindless and losing their ability to withstand the sun now that sauron is gone. But there's nothing to suggest that the Uruk-hai can't breed true and continue to be the evil minion par excellence. As for dragons old Smaug was described as the greatest dragon of the Third Age but that still leaves a fair bit of wiggle room for other, lesser dragons.

Maybe that's the crux for some people right there: the Fourth Age is less epic. All the villains (and heroes) are lesser lights compared to what came before. But that's what the good professor describes. The whole theme of his history is one of "dwindling." The end of the Age of Wonders. It's all a bit sad.

For a more epic game you'd be better off setting it in the Third or earlier ages. I ran a short lived campaign set in the First Age using Fantasy Hero many years ago. The heroes were HEROES! Man could they slaughter Orcs. We didn't play it very long but I was looking forward to when they finally started meeting some worthier foes, like Dragons and Werewolves and Vampires.

As for the Daughter of Sauron: sounds like fan fic to me. It doesn't sound like something Tolkien would have considered. It's certainly never been hinted at in anything I've read. I admit I've not read anything that came after... er, what was the first collection of notes called? The one after Unfinished Tales. That one. Didn't see much point in it or any of the other collections that were published.

Re: Adventurers' Club Update

Still reading. Sounds like a fun game.

On a related note I've just kicked off my own Pulp campaign. Starting in Paris 1930. Only one session so far. Have introduced the characters to one another and have set them on the trail of some white slavers, who will turn out to be a bit more than they seem...

Re: Paladin's Horse

@ the Palindromedary

What does "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" mean? I put it into an online translator and got "Planter Arepo To occupy Work Wheel."

sorry for the off-topic.

Re: Who's Hunting You? And Why?

I've just started running a Pulp game. One of the PCs back story is that he escaped from the Bermuda Triangle with a functioning rocket pack. He's being hunted by the rocket packs creators: the Robo-Men from Mars!

So far have only played one session. Here's hoping it's not one of those still-born campaigns.

cheers.

Re: You ARE Dr.Destroyer

The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!