FTJoshua

Re: Big Question: How did superpowers come about in your campaign? We take the amalgamation approach. Most "fantasy" creatures really did exist and most do to some level today (elves, greek gods and heroes, etc.); aliens are out there and have been here; genetic experiements and tinkering; radiation accidents; magic; plain-old random mutation; cinema-quality heroic levels--you name it. We don't really have an all-encompasing rationale. This is just the world, there are some freaky things in it, and we deal. The majority of our PC's have been straigth-up mutants, but we do have one that's the result of experimentation on embryos and an alien. I will say though that the PC's, none of whom are magic-based, tend to give magic a wide berth and healthy respect. Give us technological agents and supermutants any day of the week over a magician. Or a mentalist. Hate those guys.

Re: Game Maps and Counters Exchange Great, thank you. I'd found only two of those. I appreciate the help!

Re: Game Maps and Counters Exchange Does anyone have or know where to get (esp. in any 4th Ed. Champs books) a good prison map? With hexes would be great, but just a floor plan will do. The one in "Escape From Stronghold" (c. 1981!) is more superheroic; I need a modern-day, Dark Champions style map or set of maps. Thanks!

Re: Killing Charachters/Villians in your games. Do you do it? We just found out about PC mortality in our last adventure, when we lost 3 PC's to death and a fourth to "unknown." Prior to that, we lost two PCs (by the same player) due to stupidity and a third we killed off when the player stopped showing up (he was resurrected later when the player came back.) Our campaign is very lethal on both sides, but our world is such that mutants are hated and feared above all things (at least in the U.S.). However, the PC's are also starting to scale back their lethality now that they realize they really are on top of the food chain. The guilt of all the death they've dealt has been slowly but surely coming to the fore over the last couple years. I for one am looking forward to the change in texture. There will still be death - we have at least one Casual Killer in the group - but the struggle with it will be very interesting, whereas years ago, it was just a matter of course.

Re: Favorite game Cliche' Superheroic clothing that cannot be damaged by anything in this world or out of it; we use that in our campaign. One PC has a pair of sunglasses that have never, ever been destroyed. Why we can't make Armor out of the same material, I don't know.

Re: Campaigns that you miss... Had a short-lived heroic level campaign that was a lot of fun; more guns n' blowing stuff up (although those PCs ultimately got absorbed into the regular campaign). Also had what ended up being a comic D&D campaign about an unfortunate barbarian named Zark; he's the one who tried to stare down the basilisk. We lost count of how many times Zark got killed. His luck and personality were good for laughs every session!

Re: Beginning of an Era Sorry. My oldest (longest-played) PC, Felix, lost his brother Decemitri, a PC who has been around about a year or two.

Re: Beginning of an Era That's one of our fears, too. Would you have done anything differently in hindsight?

For those of you still interested about our potentially campaign-ending fight, the battle and adventure ended last night. We won. But not without loss. The bad news is that we lost four PCs all together in the fights. They were legitimate and honorable deaths. One was my brother. The good news is that when all the dust settled, it occured to the PCs that this victory would lead to a paradigm shift in their world. Darius had literally blown up six major cities across the globe to the tune of more than 19 million deaths. Not long after, another demonic-sort of "villain" released hundreds of thousands of minions to Earth. So while the biggest threat to the world is now over, there remains a lot of housekeeping to do. Understand that these are PCs who never had a history of being altruistic in their motivations. Sure, they's save the world, but only because they still lived on it. There was a pointed speech by one of the lesser powered PCs earlier in the adventure where the high-powered PCs were essentially called out. Something like, "You all have all this mighty power and ooooo, 'I save the world every day' and whatever...but did any of you stop on the way to give someone CPR? Or rescue someone being crushed beneath the panicked feet of the public? No. Well until we do that, we're not very good heroes." That got the PCs thinking, so now instead of buying Even More Strength etc etc, they'll be spending points on things like Paramedics and other skills that will be useful in this society in chaos. It's a nice change of pace for the campaign, and it was worth four lives to get there - and to save the world, of course. Finally, another fundamental shift has occured: Death is now a reality where before it was sorta "yeah, yeah, death, blah blah." Now we know it really does happen, and that changes how everyone plays. Very cool. Thanks for everyone who chipped in on the previous thread, and sorry I didn't get back to it sooner.

Does Regeneration (4th ed.) continue to work if the PC is in negative Body?

Re: End of an Era Please forgive me, Heroes. We've been engaged this entire time. We are now entering turn Three of the final battle, and here's the score: We have lost three PC's to legit deaths, and a fourth to unconsciousness and being teleported back to his home world. That leaves us with 6 PCs, all of whom are badly hurt but still swinging. The combat has been taking weeks because there were 10 PC's and 11 Demons total (so far); one fight was 10 PCs vs. 4 demons, which the PC's won after a long fight. Then they went to see where the others were, and it turns out they were outside Darius's lair waiting for us. Phase 12, turn 1...that was a couple of weeks ago. There are at least 4 demons still alive, maybe more. If we can keep our one PC who has Aid alive through this, we might have a chance. The best death goes to Phadrae, a transplant from a fantasy campaign, thrown into the regular campaign world against his will. His entire focus has been getting back to his own world, where he was trying to rescue not only his lost love, but his entire world as well. He and one of my PC's, Felix, a heavy-hitter who is 15 playing-years old, were standing over Felix's best friend, Pathos, another 15-year vet, who was unconscious. A demon was bearing down on them, and Felix needed to get Pathos out of immediate danger in the hopes our medic, Seb, could Aid Pathos. (Seb was also out at the time.) Felix turned to Phadrae - worth about 369 points - and said, "Can you handle this one?!" Phadrae glanced at the demon, then faced Felix, and said, "Yes." Felix grabbed Pathos and superleaped out of danger, trusting Phadrae to take care of himself. Except Phadrae knew - barring a terrible roll by the GM - that this was his last stand. Sure enough, the demon attacked Phadrae instead of Felix, and killed Phadrae instantly by a Killing Blow to the head. It turned out that Phadrae knew he didn't have a chance, but had to help Felix and Pathos survive (since they are two of the four heavy-hitters). He died to give Felix that one extra phase he needed to get to safety. It was truly an honorable, heroic death. I am proud to have witnessed it. And the tragic, weepy part of the story: One phase later, the demon who was the key to getting back to his own world was killed, instantly teleporting Phadrae and his friend, Axis, back to their fantasy dimension. Phadrae missed this event by one phase. Felix also lost his brother, Decemitri, to a demon's attack. It was, ironically, Decemitri's first legitimate "street fight." He had trained his entire life to be a martial artist like Felix, but this was the first application of his skills. He was a new addition to the team, and knew very little about the situation; all he knew was that the others believed in something good, and that he would help them to his last breath. Which he did. Another honorable exit. Finally, Pharaoh, a five-year vet, was also killed. He went down swinging like the others, but was overwhelmed. Still, like Phadrae, he bought the others time they needed to regroup and and make a second attack which is what ultimately turned the tide and dropped four demons. Pharaoh will be remembered. So the odds are still stacked against the PC's at the moment, but there is a slight ray of hope still gleaming. There's at least one more session of hardcore combat, plus probably another of storytelling/wrap-up. I will post the details when they occur. Sorry for the delay; none of us appreciated how long it would take to GM and play more than 20 high-powered Champions characters. Thanks, everyone.

Re: After the Ultimate Evil... what? Just want to say I like all those answers, and it was a good time to post them.

Re: Open or hidden dice The GM's dice are usually "hidden" and the player's are usually "open," but the GM never asks to see the player's dice and the players never ask to see the GMs...although on those really sweetheart rolls, GM's often back away from the table and say something like, "I rolled a 4, you can see it if you want to." We never do. I, too, enjoy randomly rolling dice; it gets everyone's attention even if it doesn't mean anything. Another favorite use of dice by the GM is to say, "I need more dice." That never fails to make the players' faces drop. One GM in particular has a habit of randomly having his PC roll dice "just in case something goes wrong," and sure enough, the roll gets blown. And every time, it makes for a much better adventure. I've noticed our GMs like to be kept on their toes as much as the players do. Doesn't cooperative storytelling ROCK?

Re: Archetype teams I used PSI for a couple of years with great success; they ended up being blown to bits and almost killing a PC. Good fun. I've also used a traditional Yakuza family quite a bit as a Hunted for one of the PC's. And all of our GMs have used International Mutant Police (IMPs...is that from a comic book?) Which were all normals with high tech weaponry, most notably a high level entangle gun for snaring even the most powerful mutants. But reading the thread, I realize I was lax, and must create a supervillainous female team!

Re: End of an Era Thank you all for the posts. I just had to share the immensity of the situation with someone outside the game who could understand how we, the players, feel about the upcoming fight. And I guess there was a part of me too that wanted to see if I'd be alone feeling as strongly as I do, and I see that I'm not. Very much thanks, and I'll post back Sunday night or Monday morning with the results! One last caveat I don't think I mentioned yet: Since all the players are also GMs, and we all have our own personal cache of NPCs and Bad Guys that are solely ours, it technically is entirely feasible for one of us to come back later and use some sort of NPC influence to undo any damage done (deaths, for example), because it has been done before. But this time around, the situation is so utterly, entirely legitimate and believable, undoing whatever happens would really cheapen the fight. So we're all going into this knowing it's for keeps. It's really the only way. As a matter of personal taste, for example: for as much as I love the Indiana Jones trilogy, I really don't want to see a fourth installment - not because I don't love the characters and stories, but because, dammit, Indy rode into the sunset! Story over. The best stories are the best because they end so perfectly. Thanks again.

Re: End of an Era Right, good point. Condensed version: Darius is a demon who has many other lieutenant demons; he is in the PC game world because he was forced out of his own world. He thrives on suffering, and has always had plans to destroy the world because he is a Bad Guy. He first appeared in the campaign about three or four years ago as a little boy. Two PC's (one was mine) were asked by Darius's archenemy (a Good Guy) to kill this demon...only we didn't know it was in the shape of a little boy at the time. We left without killing him (because we're Good Guys). The GM was fully expecting this to be a one-shot deal, was fully expecting us to kill him. So when we didn't he just started expanding the story and NPCs. Woulda, shoulda, coulda...it's too late now. At the time - because the PC's made one simple, wrong choice - there were two options: kill the kid, then face certain doom at the hands of a horde of ogre-demons (but save the world, in theory); or let the kid live, and we walk out alive. Now seriously, we didn't think this kid posed THAT big a threat. We were just told he was evil! He didn't look evil, I swear. So we decided that maybe we shouldn't necessarily trust this "good guy" we just met, so we decided to stay alive. Now it turns out he was right, and that was our last best chance to kill him. Both these PCs, by the way, are here for this final epic battle. We've run into Darius or his minions from time to time ever since. He has never made any move to kill us before, but he excels at psychological torment. This time, he's apparently decided to enact his master plan and destroy the whole world. The PC's were warned about this for years, but since Daris never physically attacked us (though some of his footsoldiers have) the heroes got lackadaisical and even cocky about it, assuming he was all talk. He's not. The PC's - which number 10 - are inside a cave in Antarctica, where we've discovered a pool of magic that Darius can use to melt the continent's ice and flood the planet, more or less. Darius's minions, which number about 12 right now not counting the lesser powered foot soldiers, are outside this cave and are on their way in. The PC's have defeated a few of these lieutant demons in the past, but never in one-for-one combat. As far as we know, we are entirely outclassed. There is of course a much longer, more detailed back story, but since it goes back so long, it'd be tough to recount here. Ultimately, the PC's somewhat brought this on themselves and they know it. They also know no one in the world is equipped to handle this threat the way they are. They were virtually hand-picked by Darius's enemy (the Good Guy) to fend him off. ROSTER 12 or 13 high powered demons 10 Heroes, ranging from as many as 700+ points to as little as 300 or so. One has Aid, so we're keeping him in the background so we can toss unconscious comrades to him when necessary. He's pretty much our only ace. We have a martial artist who has Regeneration, but his Body is 24 and his best PD is 36. Even with his 50% Reduction, a solid enough hit might do him in. Our heaviest hitter rolls with 100 STR physically (he's outside right now taking on ALL the demons...it's a character thing he can't avoid); another rolls about 22d6 energy. One has a 4d6 HKA, but his total points are only in the 250 to 300 range; not chunky enough to sustain a long fight. There are some nice AP KA's and high SPDs and whatnot, a very tough group that is very, very near the top of the mutant food chain; but previous fights with these minions have shown we can't beat them in man-to-man fights. If you have any other questions I'll be happy to answer them!

Re: Want your ideas for a Villain Campaign-wise, I'd opine that it depends on fear factor. One dude who can handle 'em all is more frightening than a semi-big dude with X amount of flunkies. On the other hand, it lessens the liklihood of stumbling upon his weakness if there are disposable underlings. So I'd say it depends on the story.

I just needed to vent a little, or rant, or ... talk. This coming Sunday, our 4-man group which has essentially been campaigning together for 15 years, faces a physical/combat challenge that almost certainly is going to result in some, many, or all PC deaths. It's all for a good cause - saving the world, naturally - and everyone, including all PCs and their players, know the risks. We have known for a couple of years that this day may come. We knew the ultimate evil would have to be faced, and that the costs might be dear. But now it's starting to sink in; we may not win. Then again, maybe we will. Only the dice and how well we fight will determine the outcome. There cannot be any GM intervention, no miraculous saves. We either fight and defeat the bad guys, or we fight and die. It's an interesting feeling. We've faced death before, but really, for as brutal a campaign as we run, there have only been a few deaths, and even many those have been legitimately (in-game) reversed. That won't happen this time around. It's empowering in its fearfulness. We have always valued character and story over rules and powers. Our best sessions have been those where not a punch was thrown. I am amazed that, over the course of all these years, we've come to know these PCs so well that we know they are doing exactly what they would do - meaning, they are fully prepared to die to save this pale blue dot. And the kicker: if we win, there won't be crowds of happy normals there to thank us. Quite the opposite; they'll go on hating us mutants no matter what happens next weekend. Yet our PCs will fight to the bitter end believing that their cause is just, that any sacrifices made will not be in vain. That, as one PC put it years ago, "Maybe what counts is that two men faced insurmountable odds to fight for a world that had turned its back on them; maybe in that, we will finally find our place." Yeah, it's just a game ultimately. And if we lose, naturally we'll build a new campaign and keep on keepin' on. I just marvel sometimes what this game has taught us all about ourselves as we've played it. How it's shown where our hearts really are sometimes, how we define right and wrong. How it makes us ask, "What would I do?" I honestly don't know if I, a player, could do what my PCs are about to do. And hopefully I never will. This is a post about a game, nothing else, otherwise I'd post it in the non-gaming forum. I just wanted to say that it's been fun, no matter what happens; that win or lose, this will be a climactic ending to an epic that literally spans half our lives. That whatever the result, somehow, it will be what had to happen. That this cooperative story will, for us, be one of the best ever spun because we lived it, not just read it. So thanks to all the players, writers, and designers who made it all possible. And thanks to the various players, GMs, and PCs who've come and gone over the years, enriching our campaign and giving us something to do with our Sunday afternoons. And finally, if I ever did have to face anything even remotely similar to what our PCs face, there aren't any other people I'd rather face it with than those who will be there Sunday. It'll be great. Thanks for listening. Comments or stories from anyone whose been there always appreciated. "Phase 12..."

We're about 70% RP, 30% combat. Usually no more than 1 combat per session, and often only every other session or more, sometimes. The youngest player to the game is about 2 or 3 years old now, the rest of us have 10 to 15 years of Hero System.

By heroes, do you mean the PC's? I want to put a smiley face next to that question, but I can't bring myself to do it. (I can after the SECOND sentence though.) Current Status Of Adventure: UNPLAYED but coming up, maybe this weekend. I am currently planning to have Sen. Bradley (the mutant), after doing some research, leak info and evidence to the press about what the Governor has done. She and everyone else responsible will be brought to legitimate justice. Hopefully this will at least stall the PC's for a bit. Before all this DC stuff even came up, I was planning on an alien kidnapping sort of thing, wherein an alien race travels the galaxy looking for warriors to fight on their behalf as a second race colonizes and destroys them. It would take the highest-powered PC's off earth for a little while, provided the PC's agreed to do it (I won't force them to go).

Anyone have writeups or can point to a 4th Ed. book with write ups of VX, mustard, and/or sarin gas? Thanks! (If you're following the DC Assault thread, you know where this is going.)

DAMAGE INC: 700+ pts. Barbaric; attracted to evil; casual killer; wants to be feared; becomes enraged if disrespected; all enemies of his friends are his own. Very powerful brick, very few powers. 100 STR, 60 or more PD/ED, 16 Damage Resistance Hardened, that sort of thing. PATHOS: 700+ pts. Streetwise alcoholic torn between doing the right thing and obeying his killing instincts. 20+d6 Energy Blast, but primarily also a brick. His love interest, Perdida, had her brother kidnapped to lure Pathos to the trap launched by the Ariz. governor. FELIX: 724 pts Based on Vincent from "Beauty and the Beast." Normally a pacifist, still posseses animal/feral instincts. High enhanced senses, superleap, 10d6 PRE attack Roar. A brick/martial artist. His sensei and nephew were killed in the trap. Would rather spend his time meditating, but believes he must use his strength to better the world. JOSHUA: 408 pts Quiet, reclusive near-vampire. Is trying to redeem himself for a former life of murder and debauchery. Flight, a kick-ass sword with variable special effects, but still another brick. He is trying to prove to his dead father that he is of 'good heart.' Closest thing to a love interest in his life, Pagan, was killed in the trap. TRACY: 485 pts. Loudmouth cocky martial artist, overconfident, is beginning to lose respect for himself and life in general. Fears nothing, even death, which will probably get him killed. The other PC's tolerate him, but they have to shut him up on occassion. Low powered brick/martial artist. He owns a dojo, and one of his top students was killed in the trap. PHARAOH: 600+ pts Bar owner with a 3d6 HKA AFx5 AP punch and shapeshift. Also trying to "do the right thing." Another high power brick, primarily, who isn't quick to fight but has shown no hesitancy to kill in some circumstances. SEBASTIAN: 400+ pts Former Special Ops soldier responsible for that whole Kennedy thing (he was the "second shooter"). Gave up the Ops after that. Totally distrusts the government. Very low power, primary abilities include darkness and teleport, and he can pull guns up out of thin air. NPCS: REP. GEORGE DALTON, D-Ariz. A messenger boy apparently, who first got the PC's to take the bait and go to the trap. Only conversed over secure internet video conference. FORTITUDE Ultrapowerful Mentalist who says he "nudged" the Gov. to set this trap, but claims he cannot control minds. He said if the PC's gave up Pharaoh and Damage -- Damage, dead that is -- he would rescue the hostages and foil the trap. The PC's didn't buy it, so Fortitude left them to their fate. He knows where the PC's base is, but apparently did not share that info with the government. In fact, as far as the PC's know, the government has no knowledge of Fortitude whatsoever. SENATOR BRADLEY, R-Texas Known to be a mutant to the PC's but who has concealed his identity to the public and government. At one point, he tried to get some of the PC's to help him topple REX, a criminal organization. Pathos called him just before the trap to get information, which Bradley gave him willingly. Some of the PC's trust him at least a little; his words have always held true. That's pretty much everyone. It was Damage's idea to walk in on Congress. Even he wants it to be bloodless; the problem is, with his disads, he'll almost certainly become enraged and blow the whole thing. He is looking for a challenge, since his Hunteds have proven to be mere nuisances. PS: If it's not clear, "F"elix, "T"racy, and "Joshua" are all mine.

Well put. The "military strike" against the PC's was done covertly, not with the blessing of the Pentagon, for example, and it was executed by national guardsmen if I remember correctly. Right out of the gate, that in itself probably isn't realistic, I suppose, so it may seem silly to be disussing realism in the first place. Also, the government has been played as answering the call of the people, who appear to want protection from mutants. But the Brass took it too far and hurt as many if not more innocents in their pursuit of the "mutant threat," which is how the PC's were able to knock out the IMPs. And, no, I don't think they appreciate the might of the military if brought to bear. One player seemed to think that the loss of X amount of helicopters in Iraq is a perfect example of how technology always fails, has too many kinks, and in short, can't take out a mutant. I personally disagree with that. Let me also say that all of these opinions are extraordinarily helpful to me in shaping both the coming adventure sessions and the campaign as a whole.

I don't know about an official ruling, but we always played that it was pretty much always on, although a PC could probably "turn it off" if he had to. That's assuming it was a natural ability of course. I'm not sure, but it sounds like something we would debate for an hour after a session.

The initial attack was authorized by the State of Arizona, which used Federal resources. Due to the small scale of the operation, it didn't really hit much radar in Washington. Little ops like this are probably fairly common in our campaign if threats are big enough. Esp. with the downfall of the IMPs, the military has had to step up its internal presence to deter mutants. The Feds are NEVER allies; they are following the will of the people, and so far, it seems a majority do not want mutants around, period. The PC's hope to change that. Using force might not be the best way. That is one of the reasons for their planned "Assault." They are confident if they can prove to the public that they mean to do good, then the Feds will have no choice but to follow along. The assault team did underestimate the heroes a little -- so did the GM. (Plus Pathos's energy blast was pretty well aimed at the jets meant to do the heavy damage...) But the PC's played well, too and worked as a team. The "attack" on DC may not necessarily be an attack; it's still up in the air exactly what the PC's will do. They appear tired of the fight always coming to them. They've been kicked around by Senators and Congressmen doing shady things for a couple of years now. They seem to feel they can do a better job running the country, and be sure everyone is "truly free," mutants and humans alike. That's the main goal; they're really fighting for true equality. However, they are fully aware they can't go in guns blazing. If they can get in without actually killing anyone (which would be miraculous with this bunch), then maybe--maybe--some people will listen. But I still think the approach is all wrong. (Sidebar: There is a Texas senator who the PC's know for a fact is a mutant, who has been organizing mutants behind the scenes to fight major threats to security, like REX [our "Viper"]. But they refuse so far to divulge their plans to him because he's a senator, and can't be trusted. Cripes, what's a GM got to do?) The in-game issue is that these PC's have been kicked while they were down for years now. There has also of late been a spate of "higher powers" trying to "teach" the PC's about being good guys. That works once in awhile, but lately it got out of hand (heavy-handed GMing; everyone who plays in our groups also GMs). In turn, the PC's have become frustrated, since they HAVE saved the world time and time again, only nobody knows or cares. (Similar to X-Men I think in that way.) So now they figure (some of them, anyway, the rest are just along for the ride) that they can do the most good at the seat of power because, hey, what's ever stopped them?! I hope that clears some things up; let me know if there is more I can add. Also, I'm not sure when the adventure will happen; it looks like it's in my lap at the moment, and pulling together all these ideas and figuring out what's best for A) Fun and the campaign is going to take some doing!