Beetle

Re: How does your Hero relax? Off Time Activities Sentry - spends some of her off-time casing jewelery stores and the homes of very rich people (just for old times sake) Rime - Spends her off-time training. She started working towards being a professional figure skater at a very young age, and that determination and competitiveness carries into her current work. She just doesn't know how to relax. Plasma - He wanders around the house looking for his missing personality...

Re: Have you ever built the same character more than once? I have created the same character more than once, but not unintentionally. Black Arrow (my original Champions character) has gone through about 4 different versions. In the Shadowrun game I'm in, I played back-to-back trolls with the exact same physical stats, but they were very different characters. One was a gang-banging muscle-head, the second wanted to be Hawk from the Spenser novels.

Re: The best Superpet? Before the character gets a superpet, she should learn about other superpets to make sure that she is able to take care of them. http://gone-and-forgotten.blogspot.com/search/label/character%3A%20Krypto (beware - there's a bit of bad language, but it's worth it)

Re: Live Free or Game Episode 4c – We need a snake charmer in the ER, stat! The heroes barely had time to catch their breath before learning that Viper was launching an assault against Mass. General Hospital. This was strange, because the Boston Viper nests had always preferred subtlety to outright carnage. Aurora’s great speed came in handy again as she flew the team back to Boston in a few seconds. The team split up when they arrived at the scene – Bladedancer to face the Viper agents on the ground, Sentry to secure the victims being treated (the likely targets of the attack) and Aurora to take out the Viper airships. Sentry reached the targets (who included Aurora’s mom) when the roof was ripped open and Ripper and Black Mamba dropped down. Sentry used a flash pellet on Ripper and (barely) fought of Black Mamba – while Oculon leaned down the hole in the roof and took occasional potshots. Once Mamba was down, Sentry kept dodging Ripper and using a flash pellet each time his vision cleared. Aurora, meanwhile, was disabling Viper equipment and crashing airships with glee, amazing all of the onlookers. As Viper began to fall back, Oculon and Black Mamba left as well. That left Ripper and Sentry on the roof of the hospital, when Sentry’s “sidekick” swung to her aid. He actually knocked Ripper down with a legsweep, after which Sentry ordered him off the roof. Ripper got up, saw his companions gone, and leaped away. Sentry didn’t chase because she was out of flash pellets and way out of her league. While this was going on, Bladedancer was having his usual bad luck against agents. He was knocked unconscious by Viper rifle fire and captured. He woke up in the back of a moving van, without his sword. He managed to overpower his captors and jump out of the van. Retracing its route, he eventually found his sword in a dumpster, where the Viper agents had tossed it after discovering they couldn’t use it. Coming Soon - Episode 5: "Coffee With the Rookies", or "I'm tired of these snakes in this campaign!" or "Is that a Grond in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?"

Re: Live Free or Game Episode 4b – Hey buddy, nuke this! Fresh off their victory against Dr. Blank’s flunkies, the team (still without a name) learns that Nanomancer is making a move against the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, NH. The team rushes to the rescue. Nanomancer is in full powered armor, and has robot backup. Sentry is completely unable to harm them (no killing attacks), so it falls to Aurora and Bladedancer to keep him from messing with the reactor. They accomplish this, but not before he fires an EMP pulse that fries the electrical circuits of (among other things) a plane flying overhead. While that was happening, a Japanese superhero arrived to give Bladedancer grief about being Amber Blaze’s brother (finally, Sentry’s basic knowledge of Japanese comes in handy). He agrees to put his complaining on hold to help Aurora safely land the crippled plane (Aurora was also holding on to a grabbed Nanomancer with her off hand). The plane was saved, and the villain was placed in Stronghold.

Re: Live Free or Game Mega Update To commemorate the change in GMs from Shigeru to yours truly, it’s time to update everybody with what’s been happening with “Live Free or Game” – this is to the best of my recollection, some details or sequences may be off. It will be Sentry/Plasma specific, because those are the parts I remember best. Episode titles (after the next one) are mine. Do not use heavy machinery while reading. Your mileage may vary. Offer void in New Mexico. Maine residents must add sales tax. Episode 4a – Call me a Doctor Soon after the subway fight, Ankylosaur blows up a local supermarket. Sentry and Aurora investigate and learn that the villain apparently targeted a specific cashier with his grenade. While investigating the crime scene, Sentry is confronted by a teenaged boy in a costumer similar to hers who declares himself her sidekick. She tries to discourage him nicely, but when that fails brings him back to UNTIL to let John Barkley deal with the kid (who is eventually returned to his mom) The full team (still without a name) assembles to research the “werewolf” victims (now thought to be the work of Fenris) and see if they share any similarities with each other and with Ankylosaur’s victim. It turns out they had all been to the same health clinic recently. The first one to visit was the first killed, the second was next to die and so on. The heroes go to the clinic to discover that the doctor who treated those, Dr. Timothy Blank, was not a regular staffer and hadn’t been seen in some time. They got a list of other patients who had been seen by the doctor, and Aurora was horrified to see her mom’s name on the list. The team decided to split up and bring the former patients in for protective custody before Viper could have them killed. When Sentry visited the person who was likely next on the hit list, she was shocked to discover that he was undergoing a transformation into a snake like being. Suddenly, the reason why Viper was killing these people was clear – they were covering their tracks. Rather than being placed in protective custody, the patients were sent Massachusetts General Hospital for observation. The doctors there were able to slow the transformation, but couldn’t reverse it. In order to get a lead on Dr. Blank, Sentry used her knowledge of the criminal world to establish contact with a Viper agent. She was tipped off that Blank had a headquarters in the New Hampshire woods that was staffed by a few Viper agents. They also learned that Blank was hiring mercenary supervillains. The entire team went to New Hampshire and converged on the headquarters. The Viper agents were subdued, although they did manage to knock Bladedancer unconscious before the were beaten. Blank wasn’t there, but the captured agents said he was due back with some superpowered muscle. Soon afterwards, an aircar descended and Pulsar and Morningstar emerged (along with a third villain, but I don’t remember who that was). Bladedancer fought Morningstar in a sideroom. Since he was away from his squeamish (code v. killing) comrades, he attacked the demonic Morningstar with the full power of his sword, easily defeating him. Sentry defeated the unknown villain, while Aurora dealt with Pulsar. He was finished off just in time, as he was just starting to notice similarities between Sentry and the vanished supervillain Lynx (they worked together a couple of times and dated once – he rolled a 3 on his Int/Per roll). Unfortunately, Dr. Blank was not with his newly hired thugs.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished The Vondish Ambassador by Lawrence Watt Evans. It's the latest of the Ethshar series - which is now being serialized on line (on a pay-per-chapter basis) before being independently printed. It's a fairly standard Ethshar book which answers some questions left over from The Unwilling Warlord and explains some more about warlocks. If you've been reading Ethshar novels all along, I recommend picking it up. If you haven't read any Ethshar before, you probably won't understand anything that is happening (or at least why any of it matters). Go pick up a copy of The Misenchanted Sword (it's back in print) and see if you like it.

Re: The Brick Hall Of Fame Comic Books: Captain Marvel - he is "earth's mightiest mortal" after all Best Supporting: The Thing Most Overlooked: Hercules (Avengers) - about as powerful as Thor, but a whole lot more fun!

Re: Biggest Shock! They were able to escape from the sorcerer's tower without the stone. Eventually they got the remaining two stones and successfully defeated the big bad in a suitably epic battle - although a couple of party members didn't live to see the end of it.

Re: Biggest Shock! I ran an FH campaign where the PCs were attempting to stop an unidentified evil sorcerer from gaining 5 powerful magical stones and using them to ascend to godhood. After acquiring one of the stones (the bad guy already had 2), the party went to the hidden city of wizards to consult with them, only to find it destroyed (yes, I ripped off Barbara Hambly…). The only clue was badge of a rearing gryphon that one of the city guards had ripped from an attacker’s clothing (the attackers had taken their dead with them) The PC wizard of the group knew that not all the powerful wizards lived in the hidden city. After thinking about things, he decided the most powerful wizard left was the court wizard of the neighboring kingdom who was old and reputed to be senile. But they figure he's their best bet for getting help, so the party travels to the capital city of that nation to seek an audience with the guy, show him the stone they had. When they arrived a couple of sessions later, I described his tower in great detail, including the coat of arms of the wizard’s personal guards – a rearing gryphon. Nobody blinked. I followed with the obligatory “make an INT roll” – they all failed. So the party is standing at the entrance to the tower for 20 minutes, chatting with the guards while waiting to be admitted. Finally, one of the players turns pale and asks “what did you say their badges looked like?” Mr. Evil Sorcerer was very thankful that they brought one of the artifacts right to his front door.

Re: Live Free or Game That was a painful combat. I don't think I've ever had a character take that many consecutive recoveries (missed the deflect roll by *1* - aaarrrgghh!). Maybe Sentry should've taken Foxbat as a hunted instead. Fortunately Aurora was more than up to the challenge.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Magic Man - Heart

Re: Live Free or Game Since Shigeru hasn't gotten around to posting the official update, here's the unofficial one - The as-of-yet-unnamed hero group was called upon to capture Ankylosaur and later to prevent villains from messing with a nuclear power plant. As usual, the lovely and talented Sentry did all the work herself, getting no help at all from the other two so-called heroes, who frankly just take up space. If it wasn't for Sentry carrying them, the entire public would know how useless they are. But fortunately for us all, Sentry is there to unselfishly save the day and allow the unworthy to take the credit. At least that's how I remember it...

Re: Live Free or Game Mind control is evil. Especially since Aurora and Sentry were pulling their punches on her because she looked so fragile, only to discover she's much tougher than she looks. We won't make that mistake the next time we see her. Still, it wasn't as painful as the "foul tip" Sentry made on Ankylosaur's grenade (missed the missile deflect roll by one...)

Re: Live Free or Game The just rewards of testifying against her former teammates. Your tax dollars at work! I think it was just something like "don't you ever learn?" said in a very patronizing voice. Calling him "Amber Waves" should've bothered him more, but unfortunately he never saw "Boogie Nights" Poor Sentry. She quits being a supervillain after her old team foolishly engages in combat in a crowded area (Pike Place Market, for you Seattle people), resulting in the deaths of innocents, and on one of her first outings as a good guy, the same thing happens. Not a good day for the psych lims. Here's a pic of Sentry (also in DC Hero Machine Thread)

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Here's Sentry, my current Champions character. The Buckyish quasi-patriotic costume is a deliberate attempt to gain people's sympathy - here's hoping the public never discovers her past as the supervillain Lynx. (the campaign is currently being chronicled in the Live Free or Game thread by the GM)

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The unabridged audiobook of Sharpe's Rifles

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Move on Down the Line - Roy Orbison

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Draw My Life - Fauxliage

Re: What were the best Superhero comics of the 90's? Jerry Ordway's Power of Shazam - a great example of how to update something without destroying everything that made it special.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our Shadowrun Game: Troll (holding a piece of cyberware) - "What's this do?" Shaman - "It allows a person to move at the speed of thought" Troll - "That's not really going to help me go faster."

Re: WWCYD: Lethal Force is Authorized Most of my characters follow the "Cop Code of Conduct" so they wouldn't have a problem killing in a time of war. Some would be much more disturbed by it then others though.

Re: Favorite Tactics against High DCV? Volkswagons (if I'm playing a brick). Area of effect meets German engineering.

Re: Adventuring in Heaven I've always been very wary of "Adventuring in Heaven" (and other overly spiritual plot lines), both when I was an evangelical and now that I'm not. It just seemed to risky. To run such a scenario, you have to decide absolutely what God/the afterlife/Hell is in your campaign, and it's probably not going to line up with what at least some of your players believe. It's easier to get away with that in a fantasy world (which bears little resemblance to the actual world) than in Champions, which is usually "real world with super powers"

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Rush - Snakes & Arrows