Acroyear

Re: Acro is bored

Me' date=' ME!!![/quote']

 

Because I haven't had enough sleep, I'm stupid enough to queue up a second. So g'head.

Re: Acro is bored

Doh! I can quit anytime I want!

Decided you get a second chance. Shoot!

Re: Superhero Images

This one could have been better...

Odd that when she puts her legs together, there's a heart shaped cut-out in her leggings...

I dig on the pose, though. Rather natural, imo.

Re: Acro is bored

I tried to do that Ultron, George Perez bubbling energy in the mouth and eyes, but it didn't come out well at that size (which is why comic artists draw at like 2x the size... hehe).

Glad you liked it.

Re: Acro is bored

Drew this one during dinner.

I went with the old alchemical symbol for copper to replace the "Cu" instead of doing a marred version. Seemed sinister enough for me. Anywho, here it is...

Re: Acro is bored

Still bored' date=' Acro? Because if ya are.... [/quote']

 

Yeah, no response from Lemming. That's what the MMOG junkies get for not coming up for air

 

Go

Re: Acro is bored

I would like to see a reworked Crusader for the Dark Champions setting if at all possible. The only aspects of the old design I would keep are the shield and the Head piece.

Well, if you're gonna about it...

This is based off, like, a decade old memory. But this is whatcha get...

Re: Acro is bored

While we wait, somebody give me some ideas for using this costume design (partially ripped from the Ion design we worked out on the boards here long ago...)

Re: Acro is bored

I say you draw something for....um... arguably the fuzziest member of the board... Lemming!

 

Of course he's probably buried in City of Heroes right now and can't respond. So you may want to pass the election on to the next guy too.

Well, we'll send Lemming a PM and if he doesn't respond by, say, 5pm (because I am also impatient) we'll give it to the "next guy"... who seems to be Richard there...

Re: Acro is bored

Well, I thought it would be fun, anyway

Rawr!

Re: Acro is bored

I'm going to start kicking people in the shins.

Next poster here gets to pick someone else on the boards to get a doodle

Re: Acro is bored

Next poster here gets to pick someone else on the boards to get an doodle

Or we can just have a throwdown between Schir1964 and Magmarock...

(I've got a crappy job now, so I'm slowin' down)

Re: Visor Girl

She's Wonder (Who I Am) Woman.

Re: Who was the LAMEST?

Be fair. Wolverine didn't always suck. When he was written by Claremont' date=' he was cool.[/quote']

 

To be fair, when he was written by Claremonet but co-plotted by Byrne (shock) he was cool.

 

In fact, I remember at a comic con, Claremont mentioned he wanted to kill off Wolverine but, naturally, the bigwigs wouldn't allow it. His fave character, apparently, was Storm. During a panel, he went down the roster asking the audience who they'd like to see dead... he really lingered on Wolverine and gave the finger to the crowd when they cheered at the idea of Storm dying.

 

Not sure why he was named "Cable". Guess that's a question for Liefield. I've always liked him because he was Scott's boy.

 

He's named after the abundance of ropey/cable-like fibers in his neck visibile under his paper-thin skin.

 

 

I was going to vote 'Mazing Man... but, honestly, Bloodwulf takes the cake. Not only did he suck, not only did his space harley change shape every panel, but he was a rip-off of a nigh-equally sucky character (who isn['t as sucky because at least he was occasionally funny).

Re: Newbie Seeks Character Creation Help

Anaxphone' date=' do Champions squirrels come with Death Rays standard issue?[/quote']

 

Only when modeling them from real life.

 

 

I would assume squirrels cost more because of their dimunitive size (harder to see, harder to hit, etc) and impressive manual dexterity. I could go look... but I'm lazy. hehe.

Re: Appropriateness of "Automaton" advantages for a PC

We've never had a problem with it. Just as the cost is tripled for defenses, we triple the figure for checking "balance" with other defenses.

Oftentimes, players would have to build in some other effects to allow for the characetr to be taken out of action. Such as limited ability to escape entangles and such.

One idea I came up with after a discussion on the "intercept attacks with my mechanical limbs" type idea was (for a game without hit locations) was to remove the character's limbs and link extra limbs to the BDy score (so the character could be disabled - like Robotman) or add the limbs into the "loses powers as takes BDY damage" effect. The more punishment they take, they lose their forearm cannons, then the arm, then maybe the legs, etc.

In a group without healing powers, it's really no more crippling than many other combat effects (and no more crippling than some limitations I've seen. Like "all my powers come from this OAF Hammer man").

Re: The Destroyers

There aren't a lot of names that might signify armor piercing that sound too great... and "Teflon Don" was taken . A lot of people equate "mafia" with doofus for some reason. Rocky was the "brightest" of this particular crime family's LTs, iirc. Not Reed Richards or anything, but I think he was 13+ wasn't he? This isn't a dim bulb who is gonna say "Hey yo, I'ma da Crushah! Da Cruhsinatah! I'ma bust up alla yous legs!" He's more of a "Mr. Spumoni, sir, it appears we're having a problem with deliveries at the docks. Too many feds crawling around and Tony said he saw some capes. Would you like me to handle it?"

Shockwave and Arrowhead are different guys. Shockwave is a physically enhanced guy - like Luke Cage. Arrowhead has an energized body, more akin to Wonder Man (who can also project this force). At least that's how we always played him. Obviously, with the one paragraph backgrounds of pre 4e stuff, there's a lot more interpreting going on (before Deathstroke came out, he was dressed in black and red in our game. heh).

Archery was pretty nasty against armor (think Europe when you consider the name... not american indians). Calling himself Arrowhead works for me. Obviously, ymmv

Re: The Destroyers

Heh... None taken. Truthfully' date=' I think most people agree with you. [/quote']

 

To be fair, I still consider them well done even if I didn't care for the direction. In my own rewrites I'm even sampling some of the good stuff from the CU versions as, at the very least, a tip of the hat to the published history of the characters.

 

Yeah, I've noticed that. Very serious. It's almost as if there was this lawyer behind it all, pulling the strings, setting the stage...

 

Well, we have a talking monkey in a hawaiin shirt... Thanks for the beachhead, Darren! hehe

Re: The Destroyers

P.S. I just have to say it. You may not agree with me, but you'd be wrong.

 

I think Arrowhead was a really, really, stupid character name and concept. It made absolutely no sense in the original adventure book. Even talking with folks involved in creating the original team offered no insight into the character concept. It needed to be changed.

Like I said, no offense, Scott. Deathstroke was a big part of our game (for nearly a decade), so naturally I didn't like my arch-enemies reduced to a joke (btw, they first appeared in Enemies II). Naturally, we chose to ignore the rewrites... just like we choose to ignore Highlander had any sequels and, should either be mentioned we scream "blasphemer!" hehe

I have to disagree with the "stupid character name and concept."

He was a mob "super soldier" who also had developed a pretty potent, armor piercing energy blast (Why? Who knows. It's not like characters of the time had tightly knit special effects in comics - how does Superman have freezing breath? etc). The name went with the premier power of the character (his energy blast, not his strength) - the armor punching property of his flashiest power. Makes sense just fine to me.

I say his main power because 3 of the 4 lines of "powers" he had were related to his energy blast and that's the power he had his levels with (the adventure text might be considered poor criteria. IIRC, the section detailing how to play the guys mentioned them doing things like using their find weakness skills when they didn't even have it, for example).

It would have been one thing to change the character to meet the concept, it was another to change the power from which he drew his name and then tease him for having a goofy name that didn't fit. Let's be honest, most superhero names are goofy. Even the icons of the genre.

I don't disagree that the costumes of most of the team needed some tweaking, though, especially as revisited over time You just have to remember they were born of a time when top-tier superheroes wore targets on their chests, short sleeves, bicycle pants and had jerry-curl hairdos. I didn't mind the costume changes (liked older Stinger, though). Of course, the unusual, er, crotch straps look of the CU versions suffer the same kind of hindsight shivers.

Anyway, what brought it up was I was trying to wrap my head around how the team "didn't fit the 5e Champions Universe." Which I might agree with if you never looked past the 4e versions (the 5e CU seems to disagree with the assement that humor is needed). Early versions of the characters seem to fit right in to the 5e CU

Re: The Destroyers

This was the guy I changed the most. In my campaign he was a mob hitman who used a signature Crossbow. He volunteered for a chemical metahuman upgrade treatment when the Feds busted in. There was an explosion during the incident that scarred his face' date=' but left him super strong and nigh invulnerable. He had new Ultra Crossbows built to take full advantage of his newfound strength and named himself Arrowhead, hitman for hire. In my campaign he usually serves as the wheelman and muscle for Deathstroke, but I definitely should have given him more Mob-related Knowledge Skills and Contacts.[/quote']

 

It was a nice pass at the character, if you ask me.

 

When we used to fight them, he operated primarily as a ranged fighter (with most of the team) and then was the reason you didn't want to get too close because he could mix it up in hand to hand, too (DC was a pretty nasty close combat fighter, as well). We both focused on powers that matched his namesake, too. So hurrah for us. haha.

 

In his original story, he was like a top mob lieutenant, iirc. His group role, to me, was the criminal side of things. How to grease the wheels, how to fence the loot, what lawyers to hire, how to find and motivate mooks, etc.

 

DC, on the other hand, was the hardcore tactics guy who trained the agents, actually did a lot of the dirtier work (sometimes at the direction of Arrowhead's keen eye for crime and how to deal with "dese guys").

 

I alwas felt they were quite complimentary.

Re: Character Build Question - How Would You Do It?

At first glance, I'd do them as followers with physical disads like "non-functional without mind link with operator."

Using the follower power, you can have a few "spare bodies" at the lab (wasn't it Noman from Thunder Agents who had something like this?), but with the physical disad, he can only use one at a time (which means, you DO NOT buy more than "single other mind" for the Mind Link).

Similarly, you can apply limitations or disads to the controller that makes him unattentive or whatever while controlling the robot (he has a big goofy helmet on that provides all his sensory input, his consciousness has left his body, whatever)

This also allows the robot to have skills the operator might not (most likely physical skills... he just says "do a backflip" and the robot executes a program).

A second option I might play with is a "vehicle" (humanoid shaped) that is piloted by remote control.

Re: The Destroyers

I like Death Commando as THE guy you have to worry most about... the most unpredictable. He's a highly trained military nutjob. He knows a thing or two about UNTIL (and, thus, probably about most other tech groups). He's got no problem adding weapons to his arsenal (from almost any source).

He's going to set up the ambushes. He's going to snipe your sorry backside. He's going to run off with your polar blast gauntlets (or just hit a few banks and pay a super duper thief to steal 'em or the designs) and use them against you. He's going to give your secretary a briefcase bomb and tell her to bring it back to your base or both her little kids are "going to get it."

Viper's new super weapon you want to stop? He's planning on stealing it. It's a race. Bad scientist? Good scientist? Don't matter... he's grabbing you and dragging you back to the base and you are now a servent of Deathstroke. You think you can resist? Let ol' DC show you how things were done in 'Nam...

Meanwhile, the other members of Deathstroke just think he's the boy-howdy. Thanks for bringing me the cyberneticist and the entomologist. Thanks for assassinating that mob hitman that picked up Rocky's contract. Now, help us plan a good bank heist with multiple escape routes for when the cops/PRIMUS shows up - hey, these UNTIL disguises are damn good, show us the procedures...

Arrowhead (named for his armor piercing blasts) was also a top LT in the mob, iirc. He's got contacts, he's streetwise, he's got "bidness skills." He knows how the cops and the lousy feds do their things (he's probably the second most skilled on the team). He knows guys who can launder that stolen money. He knows a crooked cop, judge, etc (or many of them).

Re: The Destroyers

They had agents, they used disguises, they had giant cyborg ants. I liked 'em. I don't see how a terrorist group of money grabbing, scientist kidnapping villains don't fit the tone of the Champs U.

Unless you limit yourself to those presented in 4e Champs U (the jokes). I wouldn't even count that blasphemy, myself (apologies to the author if he's around). Maybe it's because 4 out of 5 were ranged fighters and it didn't fit into the brick/ma/blaster/mentalist cookie cutters or something.

I mean, they ragged on Arrowhead about his name, saying it didn't fit... but also changed his powers so that the name wouldn't fit. That's like teasing the handicapped.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to write up a new version of them. What point totals do you guys think they should be? I'm thinking a range of 350-450 or so since a lot of them are rather skill heavy, based on their backgrounds (prior to the BBB, the skills didn't exist to handle it).

Re: The Destroyers

The Ultimates and Deathstroke were two of the major villain teams in our campaign long ago. They eventually combined forces... which was nasty (they also had an older model mechanon and a couple minutemen)

Personally, I'd love to do a modern take on Deathstroke. Maybe I will.

Re: Heat seeker

I remember a cool build I once saw that just bought it as levels with some use of the delayed effect modifier.

It went kind of like this (I don't know the actual construct, it played this way):

The guy had +5 levels with the attack. So if he hit with his normal OCV, it happened right away. If it hit with his OCV +1 (one level needed) it hit the next phase. If it hit OCV +2, two phases. Etc.

Then there was some lim on it, too, that it could be knocked out of action (attacked/destroyed) during that "seeking" time frame. Also, it would "peter out" if the target left the attack power's maximum range while it homed in.

Not the way I'd do it, myself, but it may be an elegent and/or fun reproduction of the effect if you work out the modifiers as an alternate build method.