drunkonduty

As for what takes me out of my fantasy immersion... I think it depends. I'm a big fan of working out with the players (or the GM on the rare occasion I'm not the GM) what sort of game we will be playing. So if we agree to Thundarr the Barbarian storms the walls of Mordor upon the back of a Pern dragon, then so be it. What would take me out would be, I dunno, the sudden appearance of the Olympian gods in a steam powered zeppelin. Sorry, I know that's not a specific example of what has ruined my immersion, simply what might. I GM almost exclusively so those times I've been taken out of immersion have been player moments. By which I mean player idiocy. Like a PC suddenly insulting the King in front of his court for no reason except "bored now, let's fight." Even more annoying when the player then says "I was just playing around. Jokes. I wasn't in character. I don't want to deal with the in-game implication of insulting the king. But I still want the king to be insulted." Grrrrr. Again not a specific example but this or something very much like this has happened so many times. So. Many. Times. I get it. The players want to have fun and jokes while playing. Well, not on my watch, you don't! Re. informal poll. I started with a rather beautifully illustrated book of Grimm's fairy tales. Then King Arthur. My folks were big fans of Camelot. You know, the musical. I also recall a series of kids books (I'd guess aimed at 5-7 yrs old) with all sorts of colour coded characters - there was a Blue Pirate (the character's actual name, IIRC) and his boon companion, the Golden Griffin. But I'd say I really started getting into fantasy with the Greek and Norse myths when I was 10. Shortly thereafter Lord of the Rings, which I continue to love to this day despite it's flaws. Then I dove into that ocean of pretty mediocre fantasy that inundated the 80s - your Shannaras and Belgariads, etc. Ye gods, I even read about a dozen of the Forgotten Realms novels. Still love Moorcock's stuff, although I agree he did seem to disappear up his own arse somewhere along the line.

We know Roy had a lot of personal growth while he was dead.

Well in that case - Fantasy. It's genre appropriate.

Maybe there'll be a Valkyrie/Jane Foster Thor ship in the next Thor.

Thanks, @Simon. Now I guess gotta read the instructions.

Not a problem for me as I have as almost all the material I have is either 4th or 5th ed. The two are so close I don't feel a need to re-write things just to represent a small change in costs. I have some 6th ed stuff (Champions Beyond and Book of the Machine) and if I ever get around to running a Champions game and needing stats from this I'd have to do some tweaking. But honestly, I wouldn't do much. For example I hate Damage Negation as a concept and would simply ignore it.

This is genius! Why have I never thought of this? I am absolutely stealing it. Thanks!

re. the dragon boobs thing. Yeah, it makes no sense. Yet if you want to you can find many loooonnnnngggg justifications for them on different gaming forums. If you want.

Like these guys: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l51nr

Is it possible to change the points cost of Characteristics? I'd like to house rule DEX, INT, and PRE all costing 2 points each (and still be able to use Designer for character creation.) I'd also like to get rid of CON completely (I'd use BOD whenever CON is called for) but I assume this would cause a lot of issues. Thanks.

The suits can ALWAYS screw it up.

Loooong over due for an update here. Since July we have played depressingly few sessions. One of those sessions was really a BBQ with about an hour's worth of game chat tacked on the end. So the game has moved only very slightly. The following took place over 2 sessions: The heroes talked their way out of trouble with the Inquisitor. It helps that three of the party can work as the Face. All three together can be a formidable bunch of bullshit artists. That being said the heroes decided they weren't staying around long enough for the Inquisitor to appeal to higher authority; their librarian friend had given them a rough idea of where to go to find the Dooms of Ra and they went. They hired a ship and sailed south. (The sea they are sailing is basically the Red Sea. It is long and narrow, the western shore is the coast of Kemet, the eastern shore is basically the Arabian peninsular.) Their plan is to sail south, past the southern border of Kemet, make landfall and head west. About 3 days into their journey they are hit by a sudden squall and they see a huge water spout form before them. It comes straight for the ship, they tack but the water spout changes direction and continues to rush toward them. Just as it is about to smash over their bows the spout stops and transforms into a huge (20' tall) woman - a marid! She introduces herself as Hai al-Sabd, the sultana of the Narrow Sea. The heroes greet her with suitable platitudes and humility. Pleased by their humility the sultana asks them to perform a task for her, in return for which she offers a casket filled with pearls. All the heroes must do is rescue her lover. He is being imprisoned by her great enemy, the dragon-turtle Ahtalilla. Her lover is actually being held in a cage suspended from a tower, that itself sits atop a high crag, far above the sea. It is difficult for Hai al-Sabd to reach it, and would put hers at great risk. Not to mention there is a good chance it is a trap. After some negotiations the heroes accept. She gives them a piece of enchanted coral that will summon her if dropped in the sea. On the marid's advice they take the ship's long boat to the island. The hope is that it is small enough to escape notice, especially in the storm. The plan almost succeeds. A patrol of Sahuagin does notice the boat and comes to investigate. They catch the heroes upon a narrow pebbly beach just as they are looking for the best way to ascend the crag. In the ensuing fight the halfling sorcerer comes within a whisker of dying but is rescued by a heroic, last moment run by the cleric, who dodges past 3 or 4 enemies to reach the halfling and lay some healing magic on them. The fight was much bloodier than I anticipated but the heroes burn some healing and continue on. About half way up the crag they find a deep pool. The path past it lies between the pool and a long drop. Carefully, watching the pool for monsters, they begin to edge around the pool. To no-one's surprise a few large drakes leap up out of the water, their wings beating as they take to the air. In the battle I knock the ranger of the cliff, but that's okay as he has awesome reflexes and is able to catch himself before plummeting to his doom. After this the only tempting target was the halfling sorcerer, who was also standing on the cliff's edge. A drake charges him and... misses. The drakes are then dispatched quite quickly and the heroes carry on up the steep crag. Finally at the top of the crag they approach the tower. The imprisoned lover sits in a small cage that hangs from the parapets at the top of the tower. One of the heroes (the paladin I think?) calls out to the prisoner "Don't worry, we'll rescue you." Several other characters sigh deeply. The tower door swings open at their approach and a warm, welcoming light streams out into the cold, wet night. The heroes peak through the door and see a room that is decorated like an undersea grotto; all shells, frescoes of frolicking dolphins, etc. Amidst the room stand three beautiful women who welcome the heroes into their home. Not even the paladin is falling for this one but they enter anyway. The women claim they are goddesses and that their prisoner has committed the crime of spying upon them while they were bathing. At this point my wife, who knows me too well, says "They're hags under an illusion aren't they." Me: "Er...no?" But the heroes are still the good guys and don't go all sword-swingy without provocation. While the heroes converse with the "goddesses" they are being subjected to their Evil Eye power. This has the effect of staggering the target. (Think of it as SPD drain.) The heroes must make PER rolls (actually sense motive rolls) to notice the hags' subtle attacks. It takes a round but one of them (the cleric I think) does notice and accuses the "goddesses" of cursing them. Weapons are drawn and the fight is on. It's a bit drawn out, the SPD drain slows things down and the hags are able to retreat up the stairs to a higher level of the tower. Two characters (dwarven twins, both warriors) go down under the hags' Evil Eye, cursed and dying. But in the end the hags are not able to match the heroes in a stand up fight. Luckily the heroes had shown some forethought and had purchased potions to remove curses and both twins were saved. They then rescue the marid's lover, a man called Sherbad. He looks like a young Omar Sharif. As quickly as they can they get back to their boat and sail away, to rendezvous with their ship. Back aboard the Wave Cutter they set all their sail and head away from Dragon Turtle island as fast as they can. The heroes have of course been talking to Sherbad and how his lover sent them to rescue them. Up until now Sherbad had been playing with a very good poker face and hiding his true feelings. But now, many miles from his prison, he admits that he isn't all that keen to see Hai al-Sabd again. He had in fact been running away from her when he'd been captured by the hags. He begs and pleads with the heroes not to call the marid. There followed a pretty long debate about what to do. Som epeople pointed out that Sherbad was clearly a douche. (He is. No doubt about it, I played him that way.) In the end they decided to get to where they needed to be, and be onshore when they summoned Hai al-Sabd. From the safety of the dunes, about 50m back from the waterline, Sherbad explained that he was no longer keen adn that they should see other people. It was, he explained, him, not her. That's about when Sherbad legged it inland. Don't worry, he'll be back. The heroes then go on to argue that Hai al-Sabd now owed them a casket of pearls. They Point out that she had asked them to rescue Sherbad, which they had done. Angry, hurt, and crying the marid throws the casket of pearls upon the sands and leaves. The heroes have reached the land of Axum and are now planning their journey westward to find the mountain known as The Pillar of the Sky and the Valley of Dead Fire that lies inn its shadow.

Warning: it's quiet day and I'm bored. So a long answer follows. I'm assuming that it's Thanos and the Obsidian Order. If he has the Gauntlet then the only thing taking him down is the writer's deus ex machina; with infinite power comes zero dramatic tension. Marvel Spiderman. He's well out of his league. But I like Spidey. So he's in. Namor. Because you don't need to just fight Thanos on a physical level, you also need to meet him arrogant jerk ass to arrogant jerk ass. Think of it as a meet-cute. Cyclops. In these sort of stories some one has to die. To add poignancy. To give the reader the feeling of "oh shit, this for real!" I volunteer Cyclops for this job. Sue Storm. Because her force fields are super powerful. Invisibility helps too. Also for the URST with Namor. Phoenix (Rachel Summers, as written in Excalibur all the way back when.) Power. Guts. Tragic back story. Ginger. She's got it all. Also, someone should give a damn when Cyclops bites it. Sersei. One of the real Eternals, not those cheap Titan knock-offs. DC (This is much harder, don't really follow DC.) Wonder Woman. Tough enough to take Thanos one on one. Hal Jordan. He's a space cop. Thanos is a space villain. They should meet. Zatana. Because a thorough beating requires... evening dress. Jenny Sparks. Because so far there's been a distinct lack of hard drinking and hard swearing. Batman. Same reason as Cyclops. Shazam. Hell, why not? He's got the power and his cheerful optimism makes a nice counterpoint to Thanos' grim dark "blah blah blah". Marvel/DC Crossover Doom. Because every sentence ends in an exclamation point! (Doom bows before no-one! So come, titan, match your power against the unparalleled intellect of Doom! You will be found wanting!) Lex Luthor. As a counter point to Doom's bombast, Luthor can play it pretty cool when he wants to. Loki. Who's side will he even be on? I don't know. Hela. Well there's that whole "in love with Death" thing and they've been dating or something. I know it was covered in some way in recent comics. So she's here because of that. Emma Frost. Has anyone even tried ego blasts on Thanos? Can Frost even do ego blasts? Darkseid. So both he and Thanos can curl up into little balls of existential dread. Hard Drinking and Swearing Crossover Jenny Sparks. She gets to be in two lists. Elsa Bloodstone. She's got a shot gun. Jessica Jones. Because detective skills and representing working mums. Valkyrie (MCU version.) Look, I don't know if it's even possible for fictional movie characters to exist in the same fictional universe as fictional comic book characters. But Tessa Thompson is awesome. John Constantine. Trench coat? Check. Fag? Check. Can out-scheme demons? Check. Wolverine. <sigh> I hate myself for even including him. But look, if anyone can permanently kill him it's Thanos right?

I've never seen Combined Power attack used in a game. I think your suggestion of ditching is a good idea.

re. Drakine birth rates I'd just ignore it. As you point out it makes no sense.

Sadly, I thought this thread would be about a certain comic book rabbit samurai.

He was also the villain in Get Smart.

That is a good point. Perhaps I should reconsider my judeginess of the the organisation.

Oh I've seen evil parties descend into mean spirited PvP back stabbing very quickly. I've been a willing participant in the mess. I was young and insecure and being a dick (as were my friends.) I'm aware of the sort of mean spirited PvP stuff that goes on at World of Darkness LARPs. Never joined in WoD LARPs myself, but I have friends who have. The stories they tell give me shudders when I think about the immense amounts of effort people put into being dicks. Do they not realise that, if you don't want to hang out with certain people it is easier to just walk away? But mature people who want to explore a different dynamic are quite capable of playing "bad guys" without being dicks to one another. I've offered some suggestions above as to how this can be achieved. Also, I don't feel any of this is off topic. It's all about how to handle evil/monstrous PCs, the good and the bad.

A game I ran a few years back had the PCs turning into villains. The game was meant to be more or less normal heroes, somewhere in the bronze age of comics for feel. The heroes do the usual hero stuff and are working toward accreditation with PRIMUS. One day they are getting a tour of Stronghold with their PRIMUS contact. The PCs suddenly decide to rescue one of the inmates in return for cash. Seriously, it just happened. They see Dreadnought on the internal security screens. The players have a quick quiet chat then go into action. The team mentalist distracts the on duty guards by "suggesting" they all take a few moments to look away from the screens and adjust their socks or whatever. One hero/villain can teleport and is invisible to cameras. He makes use of the distraction to teleport in and make Dreadnought an offer, freedom for cash. Dreadnought is suspicious but quickly agrees anyway, he doesn't want to be in prison. And then he is teleported away. From there the players decided they liked being bad guys. I warned them, GM to players, that there were potential repercussions if their clandestine activities came to light. They were cool with it and the campaign continued. Alas the game didn't go much further, half the players moved to another country. But I think it could have worked. Like running an evil DnD game you, the GM, has to keep in mind that the PCs need a reason to work together. So give them one. A common enemy. Revenge. Safety in numbers. You should also point out to the players that being bad guys doesn't mean that everyone secretly hates everyone else. Plenty of criminals have people they care for. Have the villains genuinely like one another, or at least respect one another professionally. Lastly point out that intra-party fighting is fine - as long as all players are okay with it and as long as it doesn't prematurely end the game.

It's a pretty grim setting. I like it. 🙂

How does your house rule work? Is it full damage per segment? Do you take the damage per phase and spread it evenly over the segments? Something else?

Oh please tell me that Ator the Fighting Eagle is among your inspirations!

I think it comes down to: what role do you want magic to have? I prefer a low magic, low fantasy feel. So in my home setting I don't give points breaks to spells and mundane equipment is bought with money, not points. In this scenario magic works best if it does things swords can't. So the spells I have created for the setting tend to do either do things like give bonuses to allies, heal, fly, unusual defenses, etc. Many attack spells target different defenses; so transforms, flashes, mental attacks, physical attacks based on ECV, indirect attacks. There are spells that duplicate what mundanes can do; they're not the most efficient points spend, but if a player wants to sling rocks around using magic instead of using a sling, so be it. If you want more of a classic DnD style game with tonnes of powerful spells, then divide by 3. Or 5. Or whatever number you like.

I'm assuming that unless said otherwise the NCM is x2. <edit> OH! I read that as Non-Combat Movement. But your talking Normal Characteristic Maxima. Oops.