levi

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

Edited the above post

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

I really love the idea of a sweeping interdimensional plot line to get the campaign firing and unify these characters. I feel like the obstacles to making it work, may be too big and the consequences for the PCs may be too rough. I'm worried that stranding them in a new dimension will make them feel like they got the shaft for doing the right thing by saving the new dimension from V'Han. Especially if she strands them and abandons her D-Soldiers. It becomes basically...

PCs: "All right heroes! V'Han is winning in this dimension and we have to stop her. Who's in?"

5 heroes volunteer and procede through the gate.

V'Han: "Now I will simply close the gate behind them and simply abandon my inconsequential D-Soldiers, this Dimension and say Sionara suckers!"

PCs: "Man! We lost everything we ever loved to save a dimension she was willing to just abandon to be rid of us. We are suckers."

Re: Tattered Plot Threads

First, thanks for all the great ideas and feedback!

Well, first, thanks for the compliment, but second, I was thinking more along the lines of V'han attacking multiple dimensions at once from the same "launching pad."

 

The PC hero teams up with local heroes to form a plan to repel the invaders. The majority of grouped heroes are used to repel the invaders from their dimension, but there is a small group of volunteers (which naturally includeds the PC) who will go into the alien dimension to disable whatever contraption is being used to open the portals. When the volunteer groups go into the alien dimension, they succeed in closing thier portals, and discover the other PCs and their teams! After a brief introduction, it's discovered that while there are X amount of groups (one per PC), there are X+1 portals; the extra portal is to a dimension where V'han is succeeding, and will continue to do so unless our stalwart PCs intervene!

 

Once the PCs go through that portal (to repel the invaders), V'han closes the portal behind them, sacrificing her troops. Now, the PCs are in the same 'universe' and they decide to stay ('cause really, no one knows how to send them back home).

 

Well, that's what I was thinking more along the lines of, though in retrospect, it'd be pretty hard to figure that out off the bat.

 

Of course, whatever works best for the GM.

Great idea Kirby! I can't rep you right now, but I will try to get you later.

So what do these guys do now that they have left their home dimensions, their loved ones and their lives behind?

Do they...

...forge new lives in the new dimension?

...find out that their counterparts in this dimension were recently killed by V'han and replace them?

...find a way to jump back to their own dimension periodically and retain their Secret IDs in their home dimension with a interdimensional signaling device they can use to jump back through when their help is needed?

...anything else you guys & gals can come up with???

I have run or been involved in a number of Champions Campaigns over the 20 years or so I've been playing this game, as many of us here on the boards have. I would really like to get a regular game going again, but it seems like my players are each really attached to particular characters.

So why not just run a new campaign for those characters??? Duh, why is he wasting our time with this thread?

Well, the problem is that these characters are all from different campaigns, some of which I didn't run, some from alternate timelines and universes. So how do I pull all of these disparate characters together into a campaign where I know all of the players will get to play the characters they love?

Do I...

...just make up reasons why the other groups fell apart and these characters have come together as a new group?

...have some cosmic event pull these heroes together from their respective timelines / universes / tattered campaigns? (a la Avengers Forever or Exiles)

...write up slightly watered down versions of these beloved characters and have them wake up in an abandoned lab and discover that they are clones of the original programmed to be activated on the apparent death of the originals (I stole this idea from Villainy Amok, great book Scott! If you don't have it, get it!)

I am totally open to suggestions here and I know I can count on this group to help a hero out.

Re: Speedster Tactics

I like the idea of Speedster as support character (especially if you're in a group of heavy hitters like Bricks and EPs). Hold some Phases everyone else moves on. If you have an 8 SPD (2,3,5,6,8,9,11,12) and all the other characters have a 5 SPD (3,5,8,10,12) then you hold on 3,5,8 & 12 (only half your phases) and use you speed in a supporting role to Missile Deflect adjacent ranged attacks, Disarm Foci, Intercept/Interrupt an Enemy and even to catch a teammate before suffering some damaging knockback. These things can frustrate many villains and get them to focus on you with your high DCV so that your teammates can Recover or dogpile on the villain. Just another way to play Speedsters, as the combat support character instead of main tank.

Re: Euro-Villain Charater Challenge Thread

...I'll whip him out tonight.

I know this is going to end up in someone's signature for sure.

Re: Euro-Villain Charater Challenge Thread

Made it a Random Generator

Choose your character

Roll 1d6

1-3

Type A: Sneering, disdainful, urbane villain who wants to regain his degenerate aristocratic family's squandered fortune while grinding everyone else down into the dirt. (Examples: James Mason, Alan Rickman, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Scofield, Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List, Jason Isaacs in The Patriot.)

4-6

Type B: Sneering, resentful working-class villain who rages against those who made his father a snivelling failure, his mother a whore, and generally kept him down in the dirt all his life. (Examples: Steven Berkoff, Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Robert Carlyle, currently Vinnie Jones in Gone in 60 Seconds.)

Now select your fashion statement

Roll 1d6

1 A brilliantly tailored suit.

2 Military uniform.

3 Leather and haute couture, rock-star style.

4 Leather, S&M-style neo-Nazi garb.

5 Modern, stylish, with vague suggestion of bisexuality.

6 National Flag / Costume

Now hone your physical appearance. (Note: pale complexion, cut-glass cheekbones and thin lips are mandatory equipment for the Euro-villain.)

Roll 2d6

2 A body that's scrawny, scrappy, and undernourished.

3 Very white, very sharp teeth.

4 Bad teeth (it hardly matters, since you rarely smile, except in thin-lipped disgust).

5 Bare chest with nipple ring.

6 Bare chest with scary tattoos.

7 Long hair (unwashed).

8 Long hair (silky, clean, conditioned).

9 Traditional skinhead.

10 Satanic little beard.

11 Pencil-thin moustache.

12 Prominent but not unattractive facial scar.

You may now choose your Euro-villain minions and henchmen

Roll 2d6

2-3 Two large steroid freaks (Are they brothers? Lovers? Robots? You decide!).

4 Silent black man with spectacles and a gun.

5-6 Viking goddess with vaguely lesbian aura and a gun.

7-8 Faceless Red Army drones.

9 The Third Reich.

10-11 The Green Dragoons.

12 A brutal, unappreciated lieutenant who'll eventually turn against you because you slighted him once too often.

Now choose your Euro-villain sex partner

Roll 2d6

2-3 European ****.

4 Eurasian ****.

5-6 Russian ****.

7 Cyberpunk ****.

8-9 Cute boy, nationality unspecified.

10 Your sister.

11 Your mother.

12 A magnificent horse, which you groom and console after your first run-in with the hero ("There, there, my lovely girl - you're nice and clean now, aren't you, Vanessa?").

When you're not killing, thieving and ****ing, what do you like to play with?

Roll 1d6

1-2 A pair of enormous hounds representing a nation that Americans find intimidating (German shepherd, doberman, Rhodesian ridgeback, Chow, Russian wolfhound, great Dane, French poodle) - which the hero will later shoot in self-defence or tempt away with treats.

3-4 Valuable art objects and fine home furnishings, which the hero will later smash to bits.

5-6 Your own long, silky, manageable hair, which you - at your toilette - like to see falling around your shoulders, so that you can gaze fondly at your reflection in the mirror as though it were some really hot chick looking back at you.

Now choose your Euro-villain weapon

Roll 4d6

4-7 Something small and silver with a clip.

8-10 Something big and black with a clip.

11-12 Silver-headed cane.

13-14 Scimitar.

15-16 Nuclear warhead.

17-18 Futuristic laser weapon.

19-20 Infernal armageddon device.

21-22 Unrelieved sarcasm.

23-24 The ability to leer at anything, at any time, even with your eyes closed.

Next, tell us what turns you on

Roll 2d6

2 Power, money.

3 More money.

4 More money than you could possibly imagine, you fool!

5 Violence.

6 Sex.

7 Violent sex.

8 Watching things go boom!

9 Bringing colonists with pitchforks to their knees.

10 Bringing the fascist US of A to its knees.

11 The possibility of a knighthood.

12 The mere fact that you, the Euro-villain, are just plain mean like a snake.

When you come face to face with the hero, get ready to say something clever

Roll 2d6

2 "So... we meet at last."

3 "You'll never get out of here alive."

4-5 "No one kills him but me."

6-7 "Foolish Americans, always believing that your ridiculous idealism will triumph over a superior culture!"

8 "Was that your son I killed? Stupid boy - just like his father."

(Indicating pile of corpses) "Friends of yours?"

9-10 "You and I are just alike, you know."

11 "I have waited for this moment as a bridegroom awaits his bride."

12 "Goodbye, Mr Bond."

Finally, it' s time for you to die like the cowardly Euro-villain dog that you are. You will be

Roll 4d6

4-5 Strangled or hanged.

6-7 Shot at close range, but not before you've gone a few rounds with the hero.

8-9 Shot from across the room, just as you're about to rape the hero's girlfriend.

10-12 Thrown from the roof of a tall building.

13-15 Shot, and as you stagger backwards into a vat of deadly acid, you realise, just for a moment, that you aren't going to be pretty any more.

16-18 Doused with gasoline and set on fire by the hero, who says something unkind just before he tosses the match.

19-20 Run through with a sword, leaving you just enough time to say something snotty and unkind before you expire.

21-22 Shot, then stabbed, hanged, run through with a sword, set on fire and then you fall off a tall building, screaming all the way down - until you are impaled, horribly, on some giant spike that just happens to be there.

23-24 Blown up by your own infernal armageddon device.

For your efforts, you will be rewarded with the following: fantastic reviews, which rave about how you stole the movie from under the nose of the boring US movie star; hundreds of Hollywood offers to play characters like the one you just played; the enduring enmity of British journalists, who will chastise you for disgracing your country; a brief, scandalous affair with the US actress who plays the hero's simpering girlfriend; an Academy award nomination for best supporting actor; the possibility of a knighthood, somewhere down the line. It may take a while to make your mark, Euro-villain, so keep practising that sneer. But in the meantime, nobody can say you haven' t got style.

Re: Ben 10

Hell if Static Shock can cross universes, then as long as WB is the ultimate parent company, let the crossovers begin! BTW, I still love this show.

Re: Another Character

This is true. It is also not necessarily relevant to every character concept to be an olympic level weightlifter just because it's cost-efficient...

True enough, I apologize for my momentary lapse of munchkinism. Thanks BNakagawa.

Re: Another Character

I like this CHAR very much!

Just from a cost efficiency standpoint...

VAL CHA

20 STR

23 DEX

20 CON

13 BODY

23 INT

18 EGO

18 PRE

16 COM

10 PD

10 ED

5 SPD

10 REC

47 END

43 STUN

CHA Cost: 161 Still

So she could be a bit stronger and get stunned less for the same points.

Re: First serious character

Well he started out as being my Firestorm writeup, but I modified him to my own character when the chance came up in the group.

 

Distinctive Features .... how is being a bright glowing firey guy not a distinctive feature?

 

The voices he hears when he's not OIHID, but he can only understand them IHID.

 

On top of the fact that the GM said those worked.

 

Any other suggestions?

Andrew

I would say that an OIHID DF is not a Disadvantage. Marvel's Beast would have DF because he is like that all the time and it causes him problems in his daily life. Unless he was a bright glowing fiery guy all the time I don't see getting points for it. But I'm a hardass.

So the voices are distracting in his daily life, but not in Hero ID? His Hero ID is the fused minds of multiple characters right? That makes sense, but only warrants a Very Common bonus if your group does a ton of out of Hero ID RPing. I would give it a Common instead. But I'm...see above.

Also you didn't address the cold / fire extinguisher issues.

Some GMs couldn't care less about the Disads. I'm one who requires that they make sense and limit the character to get points for them. So I figured I would bring them to your attention because you seem like you genuinely want to make a solid character. Remember, you asked for this feedback, I'm just trying to help.

Re: First serious character

For a "first serious character", great job! Way better than my first serious character. My only additional advice would be in the disadvantages...

How are the following Disads?

Distinctive Features & Psych Lim: Voices.

Isn't his fire not really fire? If so, why the Fire Extinguisher/Cold Lims?

Susc & Vuln.

Re: Essential Champions Books?

Another great city book is San Angelo: City of Heroes by Gold Rush Games. This is one of the few Champions supplements not made by DOJ, but a great book none the less.

USPD is on sale this month through the online store for half price, got my Villainy Amok book that way a few months back too, so keep an eye on the main page for those deals.

VIPER is a great villain org book no matter if you and your players decide on Champions or Dark Champions. I would put it on equal usefulness with the CKC (Conquerors, Killers, Crooks).

Hope that helps and welcome to the boards.

Re: Need help with CoH crossover

Why don't you put up what you have about each of them and we can help fill in the rest.

Re: Ben 10

...I personally think Grandpa Max might be some kind of retired government agent' date=' but he could well be a retired superhero too....[/quote']

 

I agree. My kids and I were talking about this over lunch yesterday after watching the show. In Episode #1 Grandpa Max explains to Ben how to use a backfire to stop a fire and also identifies the HEatblast form as "an alien". The kids say "what?" and Max stutters out, "well of course he is, look at him" Plus the guy drives that winnebago like a pro and eats exotic foods from around the world. Max is definitely more than a normal old grandpa.

 

Also it might be that the Omnitrix recognized Max's DNA in Ben and that was why it chose him as a suitable host...OK that might be reaching, but who knows.

 

In any event a cool show so far.

Re: Ben 10

...

I like the show quite a bit myself...I especially enjoyed at least one sly

reference to popular culture with the sea captain character being named

Shaw...As in Robert Shaw who played Quint, the shark hunter, in the movie

'Jaws'.

 

I look forward to both more episodes and your updates.

Holy guacamole! I enjoy an inside joke or reference as much as the next guy, bit I would never have made that connection. Nice catch!

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

I love imageshack!! Chuckg, would you post your entire IF collection for us to read? Please, please, please?

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

I also have left the CoH fold, for the foreseeable future. My main reason for returning this time was to fight villains and build bases, neither of which is much fun in CoH (for me).

DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) comes out in February and I will be checking that one out.

Re: Power Construction: Spreadable Plague

I agree, the Sticky Advantage is the way to go here.

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

> Well from the point that Cap remarks that IF is holding back, Cap has

> the thought in his head that something is definitely wrong here and at

> that point may no longer fighting with all he's got.

 

Which is an odd thing to say, 'cause Cap does better in the second half of the fight than he does in the first. .

What I'm saying is that at that point in the fight, Cap is trying to end it quickly and sort things out. You had stated earlier that part of the reason you held this fight as a watermark for their comparative ability was that Cap was fighting with all he had against the man he suspected of killing Jarvis (Not an exact quote, I'm paraphrasing a bit and don't feel like searching back to get an exact quote, so I guess I'm also lazy. Yes, lazy praraphraser you could call me and I would have to accept it )

> > Also you may be misinterpreting Cap's use of the shield as the

> only thing that keeps him from being pulp. Cap used the shield

> because he had it in hand, Cap had already blocked IF's previous blow

> with his bare hand and may well have been able to dodge the Iron Fist

> Punch.

 

IF's previous blow != Iron Fist. And you are purely speculating.

 

> If I'm Cap in this situation and a guy's hand starts crackling with

> energy, my first instinct is to get behind my trusty indestructable

> shield. Just because it is the option he chose, doesn't make it his only

> option in this case.

 

What else can Cap do, Abort to Desolid? You can't block the Iron Fist the same way Cap blocked Danny's backhand a couple panels ago, you'd simply shatter your arm. The full force of the Iron Fist has sent Iron Man flying completely off the page, and could kill Luke Cage with a single shot. They're fighting in a hallway, besides, so Cap doesn't even have room to jump too high.

I'm only saying that we don't know what else Cap might have done, just not to assume that what he did chose was his only choice.

In comparison, we have both chosen to have a civil discussion about out respective opinions of the pages you were nice enough to share with us. We could have chosen to go throwing names around and insulting each other like two-year olds. Really that lazy paraphraser thing would sting a bit.

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

Scans of a section of the Cap/Iron Fist fight (to which I am referring):...they're stalemating... until the end' date=' where only the Mighty Shield keeps Cap from being pulp.[/quote']

 

Well from the point that Cap remarks that IF is holding back, Cap has the thought in his head that something is definitely wrong here and at that point may no longer fighting with all he's got.

 

Also you may be misinterpreting Cap's use of the shield as the only thing that keeps him from being pulp. Cap used the shield because he had it in hand, Cap had already blocked IF's previous blow with his bare hand and may well have been able to dodge the Iron Fist Punch. If I'm Cap in this situation and a guy's hand starts crackling with energy, my first instinct is to get behind my trusty indestructable shield. Just because it is the option he chose, doesn't make it his only option in this case.

 

--seperate point--

I think this is one of the things that makes Cap such a pure fighter. While Kung Fu artists go out of their way to make their art as flashy as it is deadly, Cap looks for the quickest and most effective way to end a fight. For being such an amazing fighter and having seen the horrors of war first hand, without carrying so much as a pistol, Cap has developed a style that is all about economy of motion and effectiveness of action. This is why Cap places as #1 on so many lists.

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

Now Emerald Mask brings up a cool idea. Beast, like the other X-Men studies martial arts, mostly Ju-Jitsu and Aikido from what I've seen of the Beast. But I see him as relying more on his Strength, Agility and Intelligence than his martial skill in a fight.

Of course, who is to say where Intelligence ends and Skill begins. Still, I think he definitely qualifies more so than Spidey who hasn't had any formal martial training.

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

...Crossbones is a sneaky bastich' date=' but I don't think he would make the top 10 in an arena match...[/quote']

 

In the Captain America series called Ice, Crossbones lays a beating on Daredevil. Now this is before Daredevil's rise to popularity and after having fought Cap earlier the same day, but between this and him giving Cap all he could handle more than once, I think it qualifies him as Top Ten material. The only reason I could see giving him a lower rating is that he was named Crossbones only because he worked for the Red SKULL. >< >< BLECH!!>< ><

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

Maybe she kicked him out of bed once?

Re: Marvel's Best Martial Artists

...

I have to put Mantis as #1, as far as purely human martial artists go. She was trained by the Priests of Pama in Kree martial arts refined for hundreds of thousands of years. In her "audition" for Avengers membership she hit Thor hard and precisely enough to floor him, and her "mantis grip" rendered Captain America unconscious in less than a minute....

I had no idea Mantis was so tough / capable. Can I change my list Enforcer? If so, I would tie her with Karnak. Thanks for the education LL