Acroyear

The idea looks fine to me. Might want to tone down on the frequency (like "Subject to Orders") because unless the character is actually in situations "very frequently" where he would be pushing his luck, tempted to break the rules of his powers, etc then it's not "very frequent." Secondly, if it's so totally against the character's psychological make-up to act against those rules, then, again, it's not something that can be considered "very frequent." I mean, how often is he going to break the rules if he knows he loses his powers... and for how long? Does he have to go around doing good deeds to get them back? Or does he just have to go pray to his god for a couple hours? (the former being more difficult than the latter). If he can be easily tricked into breaking the rules and people know this, then you might get frequent... but if it's very frequent it pretty much has to happen every game session or so, imo.

Oh, one other tidbit... The GM nearly admitted his intention was to kill everyone/most everyone off and start a new team to try to fill their shoes... but after that event he decided not to.

We did. One of my characters, Omega Man, was part of a team that went to a "death world" in orbit over earth. Set Up: The bad guys, just called "Bones" are like the Green Lantern Corps of Judge Deaths. They are out to wipe out all life in the universe because life leads to evil, crime, bad checks, whatever. After years of defeating the various Bones assigned to our area of space, they whole Bones World (like Oa... we called it BOa as a joke) came to earth and got ready to wipe it out for good. The Action: The team goes to the world to take it out. It's a rough battle because these things normally give us a run for the money 1 vs all of us. When the heroes manages to get close to the center of their power, the "Hal Jordan" of the Bones shows up and starts kicking ass. Now these things have a death touch that worked over time as their big hit, but we had figured out that it took time for them to get it going... it rarely landed on anyone because the Bones had plenty of other powers to mess most everyone up. This one was even more powerful and could have probably slaughtered most of the group. Omega Man was basically Captain Marvel (Shazam) with the powers of the entire egyptian pantheon at his command. Omega Man squared off with the Master Bones, knee deep in an acid pit (which hurt) and knowing that such a prolonged combat would certainly result in the death touch, just basically buying time for the others to do their thing and take out the power source. It was one hell of a fight. It was downright epic. With attacks vs vulnerabilities and attacks that went around high defenses... it was nearly frightening as body totals were ticked off little by little... Bones finally fell, thanks to his vulnerability to holy things (Omega Man was basicaly considered a god) and Omega Man staggered up out of the acid. The device was planted and everyone was rushing back to help... and Omega Man fell. The Bones world was defeated. There was a small memorial erected in his home city. ... Months later a new Omega Man appeared. He looked like the same guy, but it wasn't him (and lacked the experience points). The artifacts which granted him the power found their way into another's hands. Everyone assumed that he found a way back & he never explained himself...but he did enjoy some of the benefits of being known as the hero who gave his all in the ultimate sacrifice, a legacy he would strive never to taint. Other Bones from other areas of space began working their way to earth... and Omega Man was always there to face them.

Nope, you don't need it, at all. You might want to still look at "Champions" (not "Champions Universe") which is a genre book which discusses the superhero genre, time periods, typical archetypes, ways to handle the impact of superhumans on the world, bases/HQs, and various GM advice. Most of it is pretty basic stuff, imo, but a lot of people are finding it quite useful.

Definitely an AID called "anger absorption" I'd do it kind of like this: 2d6 Aid to whatever when in the presense of anger/anger-like emotion. +2d6 more Aid when in the presense of someone under the effects of enraged or berserk. +2d6 more Aid when in the presense of someone under the effects of berserk. So that's 2d6 near someone angry, 4d6 near someone Enraged and 6d6 near someone Berserk. Adjust dice amounts to preference, of course. If there are one/few powers that get boosted, I'd buy it as more points of those powers with lims (-1/4 near someone angry, -1/2 near someone enraged, etc). Remember, don't get "caught up" in mechanics names compared to special effects names. An energy blast can be thrown rocks and slippery aura could be missile deflection, extra DCV, or just a force field (that makes the brunt of an attack "slip off target"). Desolid doesn't have to be "intangibility" but built properly can just mean you are 2d and can't be hit from the side or are made of super pliable rubber and can squeeze through cracks.

Re: BW has CKC!!! An enlightened gentleman and scholar Acroyear - sticks alkaseltzer into people's open wounds

Another workaround is the "homage" which is a superheroic/comic tradition. For example... I want Deathstroke back. Here, I introduce the team "Killing Strike" with its members Screech, Blizzard, Impact, Red Sting, and Doom Commando even though in my personal campaign the names aren't changed to these examples.

I wish I had an artist friend. It would save me so much work!

I believe the official line is "keep it to yourself." This is entirely for purposes of IP and DOJ showing an "effort" to protect it, even if they have no intention of ever using it again (which protects all of their properties) as I understood Steve's explanation.

Just buy the nuke as 50 points of PRE for threatening purposes. Does almost the same job because, really, I can't imagine very many times when it would be used at times other than a bluff (and you're GM will be happier) You can further bring the cost down by putting it on 1 charge so you don't go around threatening everyone with a nuke (even if you're not tempted to be a monger like that, it should be reserved for special circumstances).

Somehow I don't think the Hero crew would appreciate me posting nekkid pictures on their boards. Here's one of the PCs from our current game. I like the way the wings came out, but might fiddle with the rest of it some more.

In our low power game, which was essentially the introduction of supers to a "real world" (with lots of annoying more realistic physics that you had to work around, too) one player intentionally made himself a fire sheath/ice sheath guy so he didn't have to worry. One guy had to wear a tarp (he grew) and another guy used a scarf like a bandana and one relied on super speed blurring (me) until an unfortunate jacket snag at 60mph busted me up. Then I started wearing spandex running suits and a helmet which eventually got fancier and fancier until it turned into an actual super-hero esque costume. Then as PR came into play, everyone started wearing costumes for identification and PR purposes... but the trend actually started out as wearing "something form fitting with the least chance to snag on something."

I think that was DNAgents. Justice Machine was a Heroes Unlimited sourcebook, though.

This is Thundergal from an old campaign discussion... I have to fix the thing on the leg... and yes, it's a "homage" (that sounds better than rip off... and worked well for the Image dudes) of the old Lightning Lad suit... I play around with photo manipulations sometimes. I'm not real good at it, but it's fun. I think I did ok on the few wrinkles I added to the original nude.

I just have a memory of the panels with the grasshopper jumping many times its body length as an example of why Superman could. That and the needles breaking on his skin and that smug look as he said "Try again, Doc."

That would require foresight.

I have no problems pointing out my source material. My favorite Bolt suits (2 of them) are based 1) On the female Zentraedi flight suit from the Macross movie and 2) a variation on Jay Garrick's from the Cobalt Blue storyline... just an example. So you, me, and Kawanga Kid... the other two must be Kevin Seimbedia and... hell, I forget the creator's name. Mike Gustovich?

Try using layers of "multiply" if your software has that setting ont he paint tool. I use that one almost exclusively. I used to have those character templates.... I appear to have lost them, though That's one reason why I hate electronic purchases like that....if it were an actual book, I'd have it for 2 decades and never not know where it was.

Funny that the Justice Machine is mentioned so soon after I ripped off their leader's name for my DD clone in that thread. heh heh. Our low powered team was the "Champions of Righteousness" if that isn't terrible I don't know what is. The saving grace was being referred to as the "Cor" (core or corps... dunno) most of the time. It still stunk like a week old skunk roadkill, though.

That's not a bad choice, at all. Coming up with a decent team name is often a difficult task for those who don't want the usual Guardians, Protectors, Justice Crew sounding names. Just remember, it's "Avatars" not "Avatar's"

Many thanks, Storn

Here's one I don't think I've shared yet. This the Nth Man. He's an escaped Viper Super Soldier experiment fighting the good fight. He's essentally a "human paragon" with some mid-level mental abilities. He kept the Viper color scheme to rub their nose in it, essentially.

I think it would be useful for newer players to have a bunch of more standard powers like the Torch's Nova Flame or Sandman's "sandy body" that aren't the plain ol' "Flame Blast: 10d6 EB" and "desolid" but work-ups of good ways to simulate things with the modifiers. The energy build up to a big blast and the tk/grab damage shield thing might not be too obvious to many people. Sort of a showcase of how those modifiers can be applied to straight powers to make something totally new. I also think it should include a decent number of "odd" powers. For example: Tendril has the ability to project whip-like limbs from his wrists. A lot more can be done with that than just stretching - like various grab bonuses due to leverage or being able to wrap up more limbs along the lines of extra strength for grab maneuvers (like grab & control), NND choke holds or Flashes (covers up the eyes) etc. Another example might be the "goo body" guys who can be splatted and then pull themselves together over time without really suffering ill effects from being in pieces... or who can send puddles of themselves limping away to reform and fight another day. The hard part, of course, is thinking up these more unusual abilities. I think that would make it more useful to the experienced player, too. I'll be honest here and say I don't see a whole lot of personal usefulness in this particular book, but I think if there is a balance of simple and advanced concepts it will be attractive to the widest possible audience. While "web shooters" might best fit a gadgets book, the web powers idea could still fit here (eg: movie version of Spider Man). Of course, you have to save some stuff for a gadgets book, I guess (handcuffs to lightsabers to Judge Dredd lawgivers). It might be a good place to discuss older themes like "mystery powers" and provide more examples of/expand on SFX alterations to mechanics due to environment (like lightning bolts or ice blasts in the water) as there was a lot of call for such a thing before. The Powerpoint/Haymaker articles might be a good example of expanding on concepts like growth and such, too. I know I found those articles to be lots of fun once upon a time.

Actually, many claim Superman was an attempted "one-up" of Doc Savage (Man of Bronze vs Man of Steel). He just got more and more super as time went on since his background didn't include a lifetime of training & detective skills, but being an alien from a heavy gravity world.... which also changed as they needed more powers (heavy worlder to altered by the light of the yellow sun).

Re: No, No, no... You're not supposed to chew them (trust me on this). Ciprofloaxin (sp?) and vicadin taste awful.