MoonHunter

Hypnogenic Gas While not a death trap per say, they can be a useful trap. One of my favorites. Heroes can be exposed at any time, public rallys are good places (lots of collateral damage, but hey... you're a villan). Once hit with the gas, they begin to see things or experience things (built in programming from the gas), triggered by a flash or smoke bomb. My favorite is that everyone experiences their own scenes in a movie they like (So TexStar is a cowboy, the Martial Artist is in a KungFu flick, and so on). While so distracted, your villian can do anything they want. The heroes of course think they have been teleported (the flash). [[[The fun part, is do the gas trick one. Then do the "mission impossible"/ Arcade switch the next time. While they are trying to make EGO DRs to get out of the illusion, it is the real thing. ]]] Other favorites: everyone looks identical... so you can't tell who is who, a giant monster, or fireworks going off.

Falling floor and Ceiling The Floor drops out from underneith you. The walls of the pit are greased. You fall towards the spikes (which are electrically charged, as is the floor they are on). Of course the flying characters and acrobatic types save everyone from the spikes/ blades. The catch is the ceiling is "falling" at the same time. While everyone is focusing on the falling down and the spike, they might not noticed the falling roof coming down with great weight to crush them. Someone will try to catch the roof. Of course the ceiling completes the circuit and thus everyone touching the ceiling, spikes and floor, will then be electricuted. Suitable for capture and torture at your leisure. "AHAH! Now you will watch Teletubbies until you talk!"

Other Templates Slightly off topic... Does anyone know of other templates sites (NON DCU) that are available for character creation? Long ago, there were seven or so, but all of those urls are all gone. Does anyone know their new homes?

The Book is very nice...However... Make sure that you get the original suppliment from the Original Boxed Set. It had a great deal of source material on 20s and 30s. Very useful.

My rules are a long time rules... My world has had masked vigilantees since the time of "The Hood" (i.e. Robin Hood), with powers growing over time. English Common Law would have the following additional laws that would be translated into US laws... People with established and recognized by the government identities, can testify as these people, even though they are not their legal identity. This would allow heroes who are masked and accepted to testify. It also allows media starts to testify without having to give their real names. You can maintain these identities until convicted of a crime. Common law recognizes "honary marshalls", that local authorities can extend courtesy privleges. Most municipalities require paperwork to be filed before these people are allowed a degree of police power and access. The Geneva conventions prevents "Xs" those of extraordinary powers from being part of the military and taking part in military actions. Several treaties similar to nuclear prolification treaties have been signed to include meta humans in military and government positions. The Use of a meta power in the commision of a crime automatically makes it a felony. If already a felony, it falls under the federal statutes. i.e. use a gun or a power, go to jail. This was enacted in the 1950s in the US and has been adopted by England, Canada, Japan, and Germany. Vampirism is considered a disease, while lycanthropy is actually a genetic variation of humanity. Assalt by Magik and assault by psionics are included in most states lists of deadly weapons. Mental and Magikal powers are not admissable in court. They can be used as advisories, but tangible and reproducable evidence must be produced. (Evidence must be cooberated by two magicians one for the prosecutor and one for defense. One of them always opts to put in a "putz" with no power so the evidence is thrown out.) AIs, aliens, and magikal creatures without human birth certificates, have no legal rights (except in california) except those extended as a courtesy of the court. Those with birth certificates are considered "people" and must obey the law. That seems to be the ones that come up most often.

There are a few shows that would work Man from Atlantis: The team of the Aquatic Research Center deal with all the strangeness the GM can generate in the ocean. One or more water breathing characters are possible. SeaLab 2020: The cartoon created a great sciencefiction world, with plenty of real science threats. This cartoon did not slip into goofy kid things, nor supernatural threats. It was good, solid, if dates, science ficiton. Misfits of Science. 75 base with 75 disads superheroic campaign, set in the modern world. BattleStar Galatics: A great space hero game where we can have great fighting scenes. The Bionic Series: Another low level superhero game, with each player being an agent of the office of scientific investigation. We could have bionics, psionics, people who could learn anything, people who are invunerable, an invisible agent, and a variety of other low level powers. Defenders of Tir-na-nog: Fantasy superheroes in a celtic setting. Despite some of its Sentai conventions, it is an interesting background.

This all works on assumptions This only works if Paranormals are an accepted part of society and allowed other nitches than crimefighting. Most super worlds have the metas as somewhat accepted by the populous. Everyone wants to have a paranormal around durring a disaster or crime, but nobody wants to live next to one (the occasional fight, the odd effects that occur around them, etc). Yet there are worlds where Metas are grudgingly accepted, and only when they are dealing with other meta threats or crisis beyond normal expectations. Yet other worlds, people actively hate the Metas (marvel mutants). So a school team would only work in very few worlds. People would feel more comfortable with their paranormals as crime fighters in colorful costumes. That is the role they expect them to have. They would be wary of those not following the expected rules (You're an accountant and you have ice powers? Umm. okay. Why aren't you fighting crime?) (Or Oh you are stunt man.. okay) I don't know about you, but I would not feel safe that a corporation had a group under its control that had more firepower than a military division. Do you think others are going to feel safe? If they don't feel safe, will legislators do something about it? Lets not even think about corporate espionage and insurance events. Corporate sponsorship for a super team would be along the lines of a charitable event, like A sporting event or an art and wine festival. It is all done for the community good will and publicity. And if the team does a "booboo" and gets bad press, your corporation will get dragged through the mud as a sponsor. It would be a balancing trick. This brings us back to a campus team. Meta college students are just as likely to being villains at one point as they are heroes. And think about the PR backlash if the public found out they got their initial training from the college? Say goodbye to alumni and federal funds... Now the campus meta team might be something they could set up on the sly. Just like governments and corps might. Schools would be trading scholarships for their help in providing security and for testing their meta abilities. By the way, this is a good thread. Thank you for pulling it over.

Oh man.. do I know GM block I had a case of GM block that was soo bad, I could not GM for nearly a year and was going through the motions playing. I came up with the following tips on resolving GM Block... (These tips were first posted on http://www.openroleplaying.org.'>http://www.openroleplaying.org. Please do not repost these tips without giving credit to the site. sorry, they make me say this.) GM's Block: GM's block is a serious problem in the roleplaying world. Nothing stops a campaign faster than a burned out GM, except maybe unhappy players. Signs of burn out are a) lack of enthusiasm for your own play, throwing the same old plots at your players time and time again, c) seeing your scenarios fall flat on a regular basis, d) not finding a new hook or thing to do in your campaign, e) players expressing dissatisfaction about the game which they never have before. Most people have a time of day when they're the most creative. Do your brainstorming then. Try going without sleep for a while. Two o'clock in the morning is usually the time when the brain is least reasonable. You can come up with great ideas (or simply crazy ones) that can be added together with other random thoughts. Always leave a notebook and pencil by your bedside. You might wake up with a new approach that can get you started again. Read! I've been burned out before, and reading new things always reawakens my imagination. I read fantasy books to stimulate my creativity, but any genre will work. They do not have to game related fiction. In fact, books of a type you never normally read are best for inspiring you. You can get ideas from movies. Watch movies with different themes. A western can give you ideas completely different from ideas inspired by a martial arts movie. Get ideas from dramas, mysteries, suspense, horror, whatever. Reading and watching movies may have some feature that might provide the spark of inspiration from which a campaign might be born. Use your eyes. Artwork, both fine and graphic, are great sources of inspiration. You can get ideas from a painting of the countryside, a castle, or maybe just a portrait. Flip through your books and see what kind of artwork is in them. I recommend the annual Spectrum book series as the best inspiration art book of all time. If it does not work one way, try another. Consider switching to another campaign setting or system. A new setting may be a refreshing break from the standard things your players are used to. If you play Fantasy all the time, use a different section of your brain and try a science fiction game. Sometimes you really need a break from the usual. A change is definitely required if you're out of ideas on a topic. Sometimes you need some help to get over the rough spots in your creative drought. Don't be afraid to read and borrow stuff from others. Take ideas and add them together. Role playing magazines always have little things that help a GM, and they can be scoured for ideas you could use. Review your previous work. It might help to go looking through some of your old material. Look back at other things you have written, and try revising it to fit your current campaign. Update and modify it to fit your current tastes. Also, the players may react differently to a situation than another group of players. If they do, this will get you thinking on a different line. Try developing different parts of a campaign that you haven't already. See what the players could explore, be it physical, emotional or spiritual. Try a moral dilemma instead of your normal court intrigue or combat. Take the group to a new part of your world as yet unexplored. An invasion from space will always take a game in new directions. Ask a friend who is not involved in your current campaign read over your work. Talk about it and see what ideas he or she has that can be integrated. There is no such thing as bad constructive criticism. If the friend doesn't like something about it, change it or make it better. Listen to their comments and suggestions no matter how negative they are regarding your work. After all, you don’t have a better idea… at this time. If you can, try writing a little short story or stories. Make your brain work in a different way. Put something down, anything. Make it small. Start in the middle or write just a piece of it. Make an outline. Think creatively about something unrelated. Spend time just sitting quietly day dreaming. Take a break. Give up for awhile and do something different. Most likely you are burned out because you are overworked. Enjoy some down time to rest your brain. Curl up with a good book and let yourself drift to a different place. writing small pieces of information or creative thought. These could be one lines of scene description, three sentences describing the organization of a religion, the fast write up for an NPC, some game mechanics that when a piece of description added could be a new monster, or even a game tip. Once you can begin to write things down, they can inspire you to move on to other things. Sometimes there are physical reasons for why you are not feeling creative. Try to make sure you are getting enough quality sleep, taking in a little exercise, and limiting the amount of chemical modifiers you are taking (caffeine and nicotine being the biggest contributors). If you have any physical ailments, try to get them resolved. You can't do your best when you don't feel your best. The hardest part of being creative is "the starting". Try taking pieces of the middle of what you want to do, then go back and work on the beginning. Sometimes you just need a change of pace. Trying going someplace new, or just different, from where you normally go. The change of location may help you to dislodge the GM's block. As you are working through a case of GM block or GM burnout, make sure to inform your players that you are blocked. Sometimes this is in the form of an apology for the games you have been running. This way they know about your issue and can adjust. Sometimes they can even help. MoonHunter Sage, Gamer, Mystic, Wit "The road less traveled is less traveled for a reason." Now posting 1100+ RPG tips @ http://www.openroleplaying.org

Having my cake and eating it too. In my campaign, I had ancient and modern being of power. The source of all powers is Talent- the cosmic energy the empowers psionics and magik. Talent has been with mankind since the begining of time. It created the mythic heroes of old, and a few people who posed as Gods. Over the milienia, the paranormals had fought for their own agendas. Around 1066, something occured that "broke" the flow of talent in the world. Those that had powered, now had less, and were at risk of retribution from mundanes. A great spell was cast, hiding the existance of paranormals. The flow of talent being what it was, messed with the spell, not only causing people to ignore the existance of paranormals, but actually altering physical evidence of their existance. Only a few books in a few mystically protected libraries have the true history and event of humankind. Over the next few centuries, talent flows came and went, steadily getting stronger every time. The paranormals continued to hide their existance as it gave them an edge over the world (there is an advantage in people not believing that monsters or paranormal powers or magik). The mystic lodges and other cabals continued to fight the same old fights. The werewolves lived in the shadows of humankind. In the early 1960s, a few things happened. The Cabals began to ramp up for the Appocolypse, so they began to recuit actively. The various cabals began to fight with each other with renewed vigor. There was a massive population explosion comming of age, and there was a massive increase in the percentage of people who had some degree of talent. For the first time since before 1066, several metas were born. A meta is a creature with marked increase of potential and ability, in its early days it is as powerful as an aged adept paranormal. They various cabals recruited these younglings and trained them. In the 70s, the fights continued. The number of paranormals and metas increased. In 1980 (the 2000 year clock started at birth), the forces of Good and Evil, clashed for the last time. At the end of those years, "The end of the world" came and went, and because of 2000 years of meddling, very little happened except the Great Game was over... or so people thought. The conflict broke the flow of talent again, yet this time, people fixed it immediately. While the higher powers no longer were keeping score, their pawns on the board of the Earth kept fighting it out. In 84, one of the more active metas, one who was there in the Great Conflict, noted that there were more and more metas and more were coming. Knowing that people hated and feared that which they did not know and did not fit neatly into their world, slipped on some spandex and saved some people at a bad crash on the Golden Gate Bridge. He went on Nightline later that week and explained in a very abbridged and very "couched" manner, the existance of paranormals and metas. He explained the reason he wore the costume with the cape was people understood the concept of Super Hero while they were a bit fuzzy on the concept of mystic guardian. SuperHeroes in this world use magik, psionics, or paranormal mutations (Werewolves, Hawk People, etc). Metas have powerful innate abilities that they don't have to learn how to use. Even if they don't think of their super strength as magik, it is powered by magikal energy infused in their muscles. Paranormals have to study and learn their few abilities. Metas could learn magik or diversify their abilities by studying a few mystic techniques, but very few cabals wanted more powerful metas, so they try to prevent that. Metas start at 250 (100+150 disads), while a paranormal would start at 175 (75+100 disads). See. I can have my cake and eat it too. If you wanted to be "old school" you could be. If you wanted to be a modern meta, you could be that too. MoonHunter Sage, Gamer, Mystic, Wit "The road less traveled is less traveled for a reason." Now posting 1100+ RPG Tips @ http://www.openroleplaying.org

older game background material There are dozens of older games (and heck modern ones) that have difficult game mechanics or are just nearly obsolete. We played a number of them using hero 4th edition, a few of them will adapt nicely to 5th edition. Star Trek (Fasa) Blue Planet (Modern, but the 2nd edition mechanics suck) Lace and Steel (so we did not have to use the cards) Cidri (Fantasy Trip's, GURPs precursor, game world) and the list goes on....