drunkonduty

Re: Depression-era and WW-II settings from a Not-American perspective Quisling: OH! So he was. Well I've had that wrong for a long time. Thanks for the correction!

Re: Depression-era and WW-II settings from a Not-American perspective The British Empire was still the Empire on which the sun never set. Although I believe it was during this period that the Empire became the Commonwealth. Interestingly Ireland was also part of the Commonwealth at this time. It became a Republic in 1949 and left the Commonwealth then. Just had a quick look: the Commonwealth could be said to be in existence from 1931, although many countries that are members today were not independant nations at the time and so were still part of the Empire. India and Pakistan are two good examples of this. And speaking of them: this was the period when the Indian independence movement got into full swing. Ghandi, Nehru, Jammir(?) and the Indian Congress are good topics to look up. Independence was a major issue in India at the time, with all sorts of activism like the Non-cooperation Movement; Civil Disobedience Movement and Salt Tax protests. The infamous Jallianwalla Bagh massacre took place in 1919. Independence movements were probably beginning all over the Empire around this time, but this is just my guess. Japan invaded China in 1937. WW2 starts this year if you ask the Chinese. They'd invaded and occupied Manchuria in 1932. Renamed it Manchukuo. There was Japanese colonisation of the area organised by the government and seems to have been a complete disaster for those Japanese and Korean families who went along. (starvation and extreme hardship with no help from the government beyond initial settlement.) Someone above has already mentioned the Rape of Nanking. Nanking was by no means the only Chinese city to suffer this treatment but it is the most infamous. In Japan itself the rise of the militarists took place through the 1920s and involved the usual rounds of cabals of officers leading murder squads against political opponents and all that. China as a whole had ceased to have an effective centralised government some time before this. Whole regions were run by warlords with no pretence of popular or fair government. The Chinese Communists began their rise to power in this period, in the face of extreme reaction from the Kuomintang. The Long March took place from 1934 - 35. Shanghai was an open city. It was administered by various nations at the time, inc. Japan, Britain and France. Maybe US? As well as the Chinese. There were many White Russians and Russian Jews in Shanghai at this point, having left Russia in the wake of the communist victory in the civil war there. Russia. Well, there was that Revolution thingy in 1917. Everyone knows that one. Frequently overlooked is the fact that there was civil war from 1918 til 1921/22, the Reds vs. the Whites. The Reds were the Bolsheviks and their allies under Lenin and Trotsky. The WHites were a broader, less radical movement led (kinda) by Alexander Kerensky. Also, from 1919 to 1921 there were up to a couple of hundred thousand British troops helping the Whites. This army was supplied through Archangel in the north. And then after all that, in the Pulp era proper, there was the rise of Stalin and disgrace of Trotsky; the early 30s had the Stalin executing thousands of officers and private soldiers whose loyalty he doubted. And his infamous quotas. (He would give an area quota of people to be killed. Didn't care who, as long as the number was met.) Five Year Plans and other economics that make Reagon-nomics seem like good sense. Gulags (ie.: concentration camps for people Stalin didn't like.) The Spanish Civil War. 1936 -39. Republicans (mixed bag of democratic reformers, anarchists, socialists and communists) vs. Nationalists (read Fascists.) Russia, Germany and Italy used it as a war by proxy and training ground. There were the International Brigades, private volunteers from across the world who went to fight with the the Republican side. The best armed of these were the Communists who had supply from Russia. The infamous Condor Legion was sent from Germany to help the Nationalists. A good argument could be made for the German contribution being essential in Franco's eventual victory. It was this outfit that carried out the well known Guernica raids. The Italian presence was quite large but, um, seems to have foreshadowed their WW2 effectiveness quite closely. If ya know what I mean. The Rise of Fascism (in one form or another) was a world wide phenomena, by no means limited to the 3 famous nations. There were popular fascist movements in every country. Here in Australia there was serious worry in the government that the right wing militias would try to overthrow the government. That event at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (mentioned above) involved a senior member of one of these militias doing a bit of grandstanding. In the UK you had the birth of the National Front under Oswald Mosely and, commenting on the rise of Mussolini, Churchill said something along the lines of 'If I were an Italian I would be a Black Shirt too.' Poland and Portugal both had Fascist governments and there were Quislings in more countries than just Sweden. Then there were the Communists. This too was a much wider movement than popular history would have you think. Up until the early 30's there were more Communists in Germany than there were Nazis. They had running battles in the streets and there'd been a Communist revolution in Germany just after WW1. The German army coming back from the Armistice put an end to that. Fear of Communism was one of the main reasons that the Allied Powers supported Fascism in many paces. Yoiks! gotta go to work. Bye.

Re: About PRIMUS Thanks Peregrine. I do have Champions Universe and Millennium City. I I'll have go through and re-read them. Not to mention the various NPC write-ups for all the many super power giving projects listed there (like Project Sunburst.) And yeah, my player's scientist is going to be fairly successful in the super power creating game. 2 of the other characters have him in their origin stories. cheers again!

Re: Balancing Mental Powers LOL! That's just mean.

Re: About PRIMUS Great thread! Lots of interesting material here that should be relevent to my upcoming campaign. Not to mention the interesting real world factoids too. One little question, a little off-topic. Up-thread someone mentioned a whole list of Super-Soldier style projects: Cyberline, Perseus, Achilles. Is there any single list of all the Super Soldier projects in the CU that outlines the Who, Where, When, and Effectiveness? It's just that I'm starting a new campaign and one of the players wants to play a scientist who's worked on a lot of super soldier programmes. I'm really just looking for some extra background material to give him. thanks guys, Glen.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Well, I'm a brick at heart myself. So I hear where you're coming from. Finding challenges for players can be hard enough and more so when it's not in your own specific area of interest. OK the first thing to do is ask your player to reduce the powers to 60 active points. Explain that you're having enough trouble thinking of interesting challenges as it is and just need them to be within campaign limits to make things easier. And don't be scared of where the points go: a character having a broader range of powers/skills/etc. makes the character more useful in more situations. Helps avoid player boredom and/or overly narrow game focus. Here's a few other ideas. Mix and match them to change things up. Note I said 'change things up.' You don't want to completely nerf the Mentalist, just give them more of a challenge. Most of the time they should get the effect from their powers that they expect. Remember the player is playing a mentalist because they prefer the fun of confusing and bamboozling the enemy to smashing them through sky-scrapers. (I don't know how this can be, but it takes all kinds. ) 1. Give the opposition a mentalist of their own. The mentalist can use their powers to counteract the PC's. 2. Psych lims. can make the target needed higher than normal. If the PC does not intentionally aim for this higher level the power does not work. And this can be done without being cheesy at all. For instance: Loyal to Team seems a reasonable psych lim. and it will make mind control that much harder. (although probably not illusions.) 3. In the case you mentioned, making friends look like enemies: In some situations the target may get a bonus to the Breakout roll for situational circumstances. Like if there's 2 of the enemy brick, one of them standing where one of the target's team mates should be and using that friend's signature attack you may decide this justifies giving the target a bonus. 4. In the case of an enemy like VIPER or a Gadgeteer they have the opportunity to go in prepared (assuming they expect to run into the mentalist.) Give the targets some higher Ego and/or Mental defence in a focus. 5. If the target's team realise the target is mind controlled et.al. they can take drastic action to bring them down like targeting vulnerabilities or simply stay out of the mind controlled target's way. 6. The Comeback. Next time the bad guys encounter the Heroes they know to be careful of the Mentalist and target them first and hard. Cheers mate, hope this helps.

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" Just about to start a new Champions campaign (my first in years!) Reading this thread I've decided to insist on characters taking either Public or Secret ID OR having very and full explanantion of why they've got neither and not likely to ever get one.

Re: Fantasy Magic System You could simply insist that they must learn the spell from somewhere or develop it themself. This takes time/resources. Requires a skill rolls to learn. Maybe limit the spells that can be chosen. Possibly a different MP or VPP for each different school of magic. Maybe bring back the 4th ed* idea of mages needing to know X points of spells before being able to qualify for tougher spells. (Something like a -1/2 limitation and X need to be 1 for each 10AC of the spell learned, IIRC.) *I'm guessing it's gone as it doesn't seem to be in the Fantasy Hero Grimoire 2 that I own but I don't have Fantasy Hero and so don't know for sure. any of that help?

Re: Fantasy Hero 101 For role playing possibilities in the Caves of Chaos: you can always play up the evil clerics and the temple. IIRC in the original module they're just there, another combat encounter. But if you make them the secret masters of the place with a wider aggenda then that will open up other options. Do they have spies in the Keep? Are they targetting specific NPCs for human sacrifice? What are they're long term goals? Do they have ties to other temples? Just some thoughts. Cheers.

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!! Well thanks to all for the interesting discussion. I have learnt a lot. Have only recently got 5th ed and am only having my first detailed read through it now. So it was with much interest that I read the above. Heck, I never knew that about EC's in 4th ed either. Of course now I have to re-do some of the practice characters I've spent the last few days doing.

Re: The Worst character in comics Oh choices, choices. I'd have to throw Cable in there first up. For all the reasons stated up at the start of the thread. But let's not feed him to the Great Whites, that's an endangered species you know. And Wolverweenie for what he's turned into. He has been cool in the past but that was the past. HAven't been reading comics for a while so I can't talk about Iron Man. ALthough from what I've read on these forums it sounds like he's been turned into a joke. Does anyone think it was all just preliminary marketing for the movie? Bishop & Gambit come in for some hate too. Bishop just cos who the hell needed another refugee from the dystopian future. Gambit cos he's a twink. And if he was a DnD character you just know he'd be an elf.

Re: WWYCD? "Once more, with Justice"

Re: Are YOU a superhero? I don't know. I'll go out and try and stop a speeding bullet. I'll get back to you...

Re: What are/were DC's great non-superhero titles? Sandman. Lucifer, at least the first few books. It got pretty awful after the Mansions of Silence.

Re: Who is the best Super in comics? Spidey, Doom and Storm. SPidey and Doom have been covered above. Storm has the guts and integrity I love to see in a comic book character. I started reading X-men when she had no powers. Didn't stop her being one tough, gutsy hero. She was knocked down but she was never out. (And they give Wolverweenie the healing factor, go figure.)

Re: Sweep or Autofire for melee? Speedsters annoy me too. There's just something so smug about them.

Re: Repost: Squirrel Girl Shouldn't she have a martial manoeuvre equivalent of "low blow?" You know how squirrels go for nuts.

Re: Did the CCA create the Silver Age? I have no idea which created which. But I will say that a little restriction really can make a good artist shine. I always point to William Blake when a discussion like this comes up. Blake believed that restraint and energy (IIRC, Urizen and Orc in his language) worked together to create great art. As an engraver he knew the necessity of strong outlines (ie: the restraint) but within those outlines he played around as he saw fit at the time, his various printings never seem to have come out the same colour twice (the energy.) This is not the place for a long discussion of Blake (haven't even mentioned his poetry) but I'd recommend checking him out. (Of couse many of you reading this are probably well aware of the man and his work.) Likewise the Hayes Code. I remember seeing a doco many years ago about the Hayes Code. In one interview a fellow was saying how the Hayes Code challenged them to be creative. He referred to a classic "love" scene (sorry, I can't recall what movie, this really was years ago. It may have been a Hitchcock movie, I seem to recall Cary Grant being in it) in which the leads were constantly on the move, not quite getting on the bed, only kissing for the briefest of moments before moving away. All of it adding up to one great, sexy, tease. So, although I hate censorship, in practice a good artist will not be overly restricted by it. As others have said: bad artists, well they're bad. Maybe less freedom of expression for them would be a good thing. cheers all.

Re: Characteristics in an EC Well I feel I should back down a bit from my previously stated: "don't allow it!" POV. The case I mentioned was an abuse but I must agree with those of you who've pointed out that it's actually quite reasonable to do at times. The point about the advantages coming with a set of appropriate disadvantages is a very good one. The point about the stats being extra drainable is a good one, but I use drains so rarely. How about other folks: do you use drains much?

Re: Super Valentines Just goes to prove Batman and Robin have more than a mere working relationship.

Re: Characteristics in an EC >>>> Especially if your EC is "God of Myth and Lore" or "Solar Powered Alien" <<< I saw a guy do exactly this. His character was an Eternal (from Marvel Universe) and he swore black and blue that having everything bar his skills in the EC was justified by the character concept. GM allowed it, I refused to play in the campaign. That was one broken campaign thanks to that particular Mary Sue character. It was better at everything than any other character. Don't allow it!

Re: Best and worst jobs for Superheroes that list makes a bad job for anyone.

Re: WWYCD Fantasy HERO Edition #1: The Princess Shell Game It seems there's much more vile folk than simple old Dirk Darklord about. Me, I'd either use a glass slipper, or if I don't have one handy, a stack of mattresses and a pea. Mmm, that could pose logistical difficulties. My only ever fantasy hero character was a not too bright half giant. Once tried to head butt his way through the city wall on a dare. He'd eenie-meenie-mo his way through this test. Eventually he'd get the right one, the one that doesn't try to eat him. The rest he'd just leave in their cells.

Re: Super tech effects on the world at large. Hey Cancer: I might borrow some of those side effects for my campaign. I first came across the SCIENCE! as the result of unconscious reality manipulation by the SCIENTIST! back in the Wild Cards books. I liked it there but I wouldn't want to play it. Much prefer the economics reasons for slowing the spread of super-tech. Got to say that the Fantastic Four paraphrase above makes me a bit uncomfortable. Richards' basically just put himself into the evil bastard category with that attitude of "sod the world at large, I can make personal profit." Not very heroic. Of course, I never did like the plonker, Sue should have stuck with Namor.

Re: Super tech effects on the world at large. Re: Unfriendly Corps. Well Master Control is the head of a tech-based mega corp. As for other corps: that's what corporate espionage is for. Nice won't come into it at all. Genetic Engineering: I was thinking of letting VIPER get that. It would be nice to have genetically modified supers spring out on the heroes as a big surprise. Was thinking the Ripper. But hey, if it ever gets played what the players do will effect who gets what. That way the PCs actions early in the campaign will have an ongoing effect on the campaign.