TheTemplar

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Missed a few from last several Defenders sessions. Woops!! Fantastic-Man wanting to see PRIMUS agents' IDs. FM: Are they real? GM: *rolls dice* As far as you can tell they are. FM: Crap!! Nighthawk & Fantastic-Man waiting inside the D-Jet while the rest of the team are doing recon: Nights: ......have any fours? In big combat against Dragon Branch: GM as Ripper to The Mac Bashtee: Grrraaaagh!!! I'm gonna RIP you inTWO!!! Players (OOC): *laughter* Seriously? His name is "RIPPER?" And the best he can come up with is THAT?! FM in Ripper Voice: I am RIPPER! Why am I not RIPPING MORE!! RIIIIIIIP!!!!!! GM as Heinous (VIPER Metahuman Nest Leader)to Fantastic-Man Maybe I'll kill you last... let you watch your friends DIE!" FM: And yet here you are... just talking to me.

Re: Champions Space Campaign Plot Ideas When I think of Psi-powered alien warriors, the first things that pop into mind are the Protoss of Starcraft. Finding images of them on the internet should be a snap if you don't know what they look like. You might be able to draw some inspiration from them. Their tech (ships, tanks, etc.) are pretty cool too. I've used their designs for a lot of stuff in my Champs campaign plans.

Re: Champions Space Campaign Plot Ideas Nothing like a great Intergalactic War to light up a GC game. Mix in some political intrigues, maybe some behind-the-scenes villain trying to manipulate the ages-long feud between two prominent races on the Galactic Federation to spark some infighting and line his/her/its pockets w/ credits (like the Ithorians and the...err... other guys whose names I embarassingly am drawing a blank on in some of the expanded universe SW books.) Or, maybe a group of dissident systems decide to secede from the Federation igniting a civil war. Space provides endless opportunities for gratuitous violence, after all.

Re: Good-by Speedster Excellent suggestion. Or, instead of leaving it up to the GM, just buy the Varying Combat Effects adder on your CE and figure out for yourself how best to create the desired in-game effect - be it a ice sheet or oil slick (DEX roll penalties, loss of CV's, loss of ground movement "s, etc.) or little cacti (Damage while in the AoE, loss of ground movement "s, etc) or anything else you can come up with.

Re: Cops, what would it take to run? Well... I guess it sorta depends on a lot of other factors. If your PCs already have sufficient PRE so as to not be affected, then you're fine. If they don't have sufficient PRE, then I suppose my question is why wouldn't they be affected? But, regardless, I'd say you have two reasonable choices of action: 1) Don't roll anything. Just have the cops run away, the PCs (hopefully) stay, and you don't have to worry about wonky dice rolls messing anything up. OR 2) Apply a limitation to the extra PRE bought for the attacker like +20 PRE, Only Works Against Non-Superhumans (-1 or -2 - depends on the # of supers in your universe and the percentage of time you see the attacker running into non-supers.) So against Supers, the attacker would only get his base PRE dice, but against normals, he/she would get the bonus dice, too. Increases the chances of the PCs being unaffected while increasing the chances of the normals running for the hills. Klunky and cheesy, but it fits the bill. Maybe their supernatural fear aura is just undetectable to those w/ the metahuman gene or something.

Re: Cops, what would it take to run? Yep. I'd say PRE, too. That way you don't have to worry as much about any particular psych lims. Their PRE is probably a bit higher than their EGO, and I think you'll definitely have to exceed their PRE by 20 - but that's not too hard against a 12-13 PRE, which is what I think an average Joe Beat-Cop probably has. Someone/ something w/ at least 30 presense (plus a few bonus drama dice for variables - an unknown source of the fear, middle of the night, any other "spooky" setting effects you deem appropriate) will probably fit the bill. (6d6 PRE +4d6 bonus = 10d6; 35 pts. of effect on average) And are we talking for PC Cops or NPC Cops? If NPC Cops, you could always just handwave them fleeing in terror, regardless of the PRE attack roll. Sure it's cheesier, but it keeps your story moving w/out interfering w/ PC actions.

Re: How would you use Takofanes? So it should be safe to use "Be Not!" against Kal-Turak, then? I sure would hate to implode. Man it's been a while since I read the Belgariad. I may have to take another trip through those.

Re: How would you use Takofanes? That's an AWESOME Tak/anon major plot hook, LL. Repped as soon as I can! I'd tell my players to be worried about this if I had introduced either Takofanes or Mechanon in the campaign to date.

Re: How would you use Takofanes? What do you need us for again? No, seriously, those are some great Tak ideas. Some that I've batted around but not used (nor have any intention of using at this time...) Tak has discovered DEMON's true End Game (I won't go into any details on this, so as to prevent spoilage, but if you have the DEMON book, you know what I'm talking about.) If they are allowed to succeed, Takofanes would be reduced to a mere pawn (if not destroyed outright,) hardly a fitting end for the greatest Archlich in history. He begins building an army to combat DEMON - an army of undead servitors loyal only to him. He starts slowly at first, so as not to attract the attention of those pesky heroes - a few dozen homeless people start disappearing each week... appearances of graverobbing on the rise... etc. But, as the hour grows later and Tak grows desperate, he may broaden his scope, hiring various supervillain mercs to steal WMD's (particularly of the chemical or biological kind that wouldn't affect him or his army - or if he wanted to be more subtle, a powerful explosive near an active fault line to create a horrible - but seemingly natural - earthquake) to create a major catastrophe in a heavily populated area, resulting in thousands upon thousands of new minions to lead into battle. Could the PCs discover what is happening in time to stop it? If not, how do they deal with the DEMON/ Takofanes War? If THEY somehow learn of DEMON's endgame.... do THEY join forces with Takofanes?

Congratulations to Mole from the HERO boards who plays Fantastic-Man in The Defenders campaign. He is herodom's newest dad! Zoey Sue (aka Fantasti-Girl) was born yesterday (06/12/06) at 4:52 PM. Dad, Mom & Baby are all just fine. Think she's too young for her first brick of d6s?

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Next Issue: "The Lemurian"

Re: Good-by Speedster Flash 'em. Drop a cloud of Darkness on 'em. Remove their ability to perceive incoming attacks and that monumental DCV that keeps them alive suddenly becomes no better than a well-trained agent's.

Re: Code vs Killing, in your group? Yeah... Bats (the REAL Bats) would've never left Ra's Al Ghul there to die, but Input.Jack is right. Considering who it is we're talking about, it's highly likely that he's somehow still alive (albeit barely... just alive enough to make it to the nearest Lazarus Pit.) As long as it's not something horribly cheesy like Storm Shadow's "Phoenix Trance" that prevented The Baroness's clip-and-a-half attack from killing him in the GI Joe comics back around issue 45 or so. Sheeeesh. Pardon the derail. Carry on.

Re: OK, so what makes an interesting villain? In addition to all the really excellent villain compenents that have been brought up so far (personality, schtick, motivation, etc.) I would also add that a really memorable villain needs a really great plan. Any villain worth his salt is going to have some sort of scheme. The really smart ones will plan feints or other deceptions or twists into their plans to keep the heroes off balance. I think it's safe to say that my all time favorite comic book villain is Lex Luthor. He's just the man. He's got plans upon plans upon plans, backups for his backups' backups, and as many multi-purpose contingencies as he has appendages. Defeating this sort of villain is almost never certain, as they're nearly always a step or two ahead of the heroes. Even when the heroes score a minor victory, it only furthers the Planner's Ultimate Endgame. Discovering one of The Planner's secret schemes should be just as exciting (if not moreso) than winning most combats. Even if his scheme is foiled, though, there never seems to be enough evidence to tie The Planner to it to take him down once and for all, and thus he keeps coming back, challenging players over and over again with his elaborate Machiavellian plots.

Re: Code vs Killing, in your group? I don't think it's uncommon at all, Levi. I think players sorta naturally assume that Superhuman criminals are inherently more durable than normal thugs, henchmen and lackeys. And, to a point, they're right to do so. Most superhuman heroes, even the lightweights like speedsters and mentalists, are still tougher than normal police officers or whatever. With the exception of our 90 STR Brick, most of the players in our group don't pull punches against any superhuman villains. They just haven't seen reason to. They can hit a lightweight supervillain w/ their full power shot (most have at least a 12d6 attack, some upwards of 15d6) and see no visible effects of any BODY damage. On RARE occasion, one might roll enough sixes to do 1 or 2 BODY on a 15-18 PD/ED supervillain (most non-bricks are in the 15-24 range in our campaign) but that's about the equivalent of a nosebleed or a black eye and, unless they're fighting Hemophilio or the above mentioned Mr. Glass (who needs a good beating so that he'll stop screwing up my Royals... but that's a rant for another day,) isn't really a potentially fatal scenario.

Re: Code vs Killing, in your group? Yeah, I think Greywind and ghost-angel are right on about starting low and gradually increasing the power of the attack against an unknown lightweight antagonist. You want to end whatever threat the perp is posing, obviously, but if we're talking a 4-color CvK super, you don't want to resort to brutality (or the appearance of it.) But, if your character knows what they're up against, then I think it's ok to use however much force is necessary for a non-lethal takedown. Personally, I don't think it's necessarily metagame if the character has had run ins with a particular gang or agency and is familiar with what sort of gear they have, or can tell from looking at them that they're armored enough to shrug off the minimum attack the PC can do, so they better kick it up a notch.

Re: Code vs Killing, in your group? Ah. Depends on the situation then, in that case. If we're talking about totally unarmored thug/ bank robber types, then I think anything over 4-5d6 N isn't necessary. I figure most normals have a natural PD/ED of 2-5 & will be able to take the 18 STUN & 5 BODY (on average) that a 20-25 STR punch (or whatever) would cause, and yet still be bruised & KO'ed or at the very least stunned by the attack. Maybe a broken limb at the worst, but nothing life threatening. Now, a VIPER agent wearing full BCU's (particularly at the elite level) is a different fish altogether. I'm pretty confident they can take a 8-10d6 N attack (no advantages) w/out losing any body. Maybe on an EXCEPTIONAL roll I might break a nose or partially fracture a radius or ulna. But for the most part, they can take that much.

Re: Code vs Killing, in your group? It's expected in my group that all PC's have a Psych Lim related to killing - either a Common/ Total CvK or a Common/ Strong Aversion to Killing, where the PC wouldn't kill unless absolutely necessary (like to save a bunch of innocents in impending danger or something, or if NOT killing would conflict w/ a stronger Psych Lim in a given situation.) Even if PC's DON'T have a Psych Lim related to killing, the players know that they are still expected to play as if they do due to the conventions of the genre my campaign is set in (that being Champions w/ a strong Silver Age tone, but set in the modern day - like Justice League, for instance.) All that said, what does it mean? We take it as a character w/ CvK won't deliberately perform a potentially lethal action against any other character - be it a KA or not. Our brick w/ CvK wouldn't do a full move-through on a VIPER agent, or even on a super who didn't look like they could take that much damage, or hadn't already demonstrated the ability to withstand a lot of punishment. Our Mystic w/ a RP'ed Aversion to Killing wouldn't use his potentially lethal Lightning Strike RKA against a target not strong enough to be sure to survive it unless no other option remained. Likewise, if a CvK PC's actions accidentally cause the death of another character (which happened a few sessions ago in our campaign) then it's going to haunt him/her for a while. In our case, the player himself imposed his own lims on himself related to the use of that power again, adding an Activation Roll to it to determine whether he had overcome his uncertainty about using the power again. An accidental death would probably haunt an AvK PC too, but would probably just be RP'ed as opposed to something that actually translated into game terms, and the effect probably wouldn't linger as long either. The AvK character realizes that however unpleasant it may be, the reality is that sometimes lethal force is the only viable option, and that when you're throwing around superpowers the magnitude of most superheroes, the eventual death of someone is inevitable.

Re: Speedster Tactics

Re: Speedster Tactics I know it was mentioned somewhere that Speedsters make great support members of a team. We discovered this to be very true in The Defenders. rburroughs (who plays Nighthawk) and I, being the only 2 ground bound members of the team at the time created a few anti-flyer tactics that worked pretty well for us. 1. Hookline and Sinker Nighthawk starts by using his Swingline to hook the aerial target. The Tornado! would then run up the line and do a move-through/ move-by on the target. This worked for relatively low flying targets (5-8" range.) Anything higher than that resulted in T! taking too much damage from falling after the hit. Powers Needed: A swingline/ grappling hook type gadget (a focus w/ streching or some other ranged grabbing ability - or, just built for Swinging & useable this way if the GM allows it based on SFX) & a Speedster w/ Flight (only on surfaces) or sufficient Clinging linked to Running if the GM would allow you to run up a rather thin cable w/ that. OR 2. Kitehawk Nighthawk uses his grappling hook to latch onto The Tornado!, who begins running at full speed. Using the Gliding ability in his cape to achieve lift at that high velocity, Nighthawk goes into the air and can attack targets as The Tornado! runs past them. Powers needed: A speedster w/ high movement "'s (but then, what speedster ISN'T going to have high movement "s?) A grappling device as above, and a cape or some way to create a kite like effect. Our GM allowed us to use Night's Gliding cape to create this combo.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! ...Must Come Down!! The Defenders Season IV, Issue 8 Cast Fantastic-Man: Team leader/ Flight Brick w/ Density Alteration powers Nighthawk: Martial Artists/ Gadgeteer/ Detective/ Mega-Bajillionaire The Mac Bashtee: Avatar of a divine Celtic being with Nature Mystic powers Tomorrow Boy: Teenage Gadgeteer/ Telekenetic from the future La Espijisma: Metamorph with Power Mimicry abilities Warforge: Big mystic-style construct brick. "He's just a metal man." The Tornado! (NPC): Speedster ____________________ Act I: A nervous Fantastic-Man waited outside the medical wing of Stronghold. His 2 other former sidekicks - Wonderboy and Judo Girl - had also arrived to be there with Fantastic-Man when their one-time companion Kyle, who had been tranformed into the evil cyborg Heinous by VIPER, was brought out of surgery. After several hours, a doctor entered the waiting area. "He's in stable condition," the doctor told Fantastic-Man, "but he's in a coma. Ironically, the blast that Despite intended to kill him with saved his life." He held up a small, badly damaged circuit board. "This contained a cybernetic kill switch. Knowing what we do of VIPER's operating procedures, I have little doubt that they would've triggered this device and disposed of Hei... err.. Kyle to keep him from giving up any information. We found and removed an identical one from Despite. She's in recovery now. If anything changes with Kyle, I'll let you know." The doctor turned and went back into the OR. ____________________ Act II: Jack Kirby sat in his office at Omnitech's world headquarters in Paragon City, deeply immersed in his own thoughts... and those of his superheroic alter-ego, Nighthawk. "So... Dr. Destroyer has some sort of orbital weapon - a weapon powerful enough to destroy VIPER's Jormungandr. That explains why he destroyed the satellites we launched last month... he doesn't want to be found. VIPER most likely had something on Jormungandr capable of finding him, too, & that drew him out. There has to be some way to find him without him knowing..." His phone began to ring - a direct call from Omnitech's Anthropology & Archaeology Division. Moments later, Jack Kirby was in the Vaults in the lowest basements of the Omnitech building, staring at the most remarkable thing he had seen in a long time. The dark stone cube stood twenty-feet tall. It was covered in strange, foreign symbols and carving, as well as hollow, dark red cylinders set into carved, angular niches along the faces of the cube. "Any idea what this is?" Kirby asked his chief lab technician. "No idea, sir," the tech replied. "None that make sense, at any rate." "Where did you say this was found?" Jack asked. "In a glacial drift off the Antarctic coast, South of Cape Horn and the Magellan Straits." "Any hypotheses as to what those cylinders are for?" Kirby asked. The technician's face scrunched. "No OFFICIAL hypotheses, Mr. Kirby, but..." he made a dismissive hand gesture toward a younger tech who was scanning the object with a small device, "Jones over there thinks he's figured something out." "And what's that, Mr. Jones?" Kirby inquired of the nervous, younger man. "Well... sir... I think this whole piece is some sort of... conduit... for a larger object. You see these cylinders here? I think they were used to conduct some sort of energy." "How old is this thing?" Jack asked. "Near as we can tell, it originates somewhere around 40000 yrs BC... give or take a millenium." "Electricity?" "No sir. The material the cylinders are made of isn't capable of conducting a charge... not an electric one at any rate." "Water? Some sort of primitive hydro-electric device?" "That was my thought at first too, Mr. Kirby. But look inside the cylinders... there aren't any gears or wheels for the flowing water to turn and X-Rays into the interior of the cube don't show any moving parts either - just more cylinders. There doesn't seem to be any power source in the device though, either. That's why I think it just served to conduct something through these tubes." After carefully examining the carvings on the faces of the cube, Jack realized where they looked familiar from. He had seen them as Nighthawk when he and The Defenders in the tomb chamber of a powerful mystic entity identifying itself as "Ra" - the Egyptian Sun God and patriarch of their ancient pantheon. "If you find anything else about this, let me know. I'm going to have a representative from Cleanpeace come by just to inspect it for any environmental hazards." "Of course, sir," the chief technician replied. "We've made arrangements for one of our field experts to be brought in to examine this as well. She's currently on assignment in Nepal." "Who is she?" Jack asked. "Dr. Daniella Jackson. If anyone can figure out what this thing is, it's probably her." "Send my jet & lets get her here as soon as possible." "Of course, Mr. Kirby." Once back in his office, Jack closed his eyes and let his mind wander upon a single thought... "Mac Bashtee"... "You rang?" the mental reply from Sebastian Grey, environmental lobbyist, director of the Environmental Protection Organization known as "Cleanpeace", and secret identity of Fendeleigh Gei, The Mac Bashtee. "I've got something here that I think you need to look at... a mystical artifact from about 40000 yrs BC." "40000 BC..." The Defender's marvelous mystic replied. "That predates the height of Atlantean civilization. Let me take a look..." Grey reviewed the images of the artifact in Jack's mind. "Wait a minute... that's Lemurian." "That's What?" Jack asked... almost out loud. "Lemurian... from the Lost Continent of Lemuria. They were a race of sorcerers and artisans whose society predates the rise and fall of Atlantis. They destroyed their own homeland when they tried to use a magic too powerful for them to control. The Mandragalore. That was about... let's see... 37000 years ago.. more or less. They're most well known for their powerful magic constructs - golems, artifacts, that sort of thing. Why do you have that in your basement?" Jack explained the whole story to Sebastian as he read the email he had just received from the chief tech downstairs. The plane would be on its way to pick up Dr. Jackson within the hour and she would be in Omnitech's World HQ by Saturday mid-morning. "Come by on Saturday," Jack said to Sebastian. "Maybe between you and our Ancient Civs expert we can figure out what this thing does." ___________________ Act III: Warforge sat in the Headless Cross comm center, monitoring various global news channels with The Tornado!. International news reported a superfight had broken out in Amsterdam between the meta-terrorist group Eurostar and an as of yet unknown female. Photos of the woman taken by observers as she left the scene after thoroughly dismantling Eurostar showed a young woman with long blonde hair, wearing a long black gown and a deep purple cape with a purple mask covering her face. After causing extensive property damage in the battle, both the mysterious woman and all 6 members of Eurostar escaped before Interpol and UNTIL agents arrived to apprehend them. Another local broadcast announced that in honor of their resoundingly successful adventures of late, the mayor was declaring this saturday "Defender Day." The day's festivities would include a fair and ceremony at Paragon Park, where the team would be presented with the key to the city. "Nice of them to ask us first, eh?" Warforge growled to the speedy hero. "Eh... politicians. What can you do? We shoulda seen this coming... it is a re-election year, after all," Tornado! replied. "You just gotta..." The ring of the telephone interruped him. At the front reception desk, Noelle Peterson - girlfriend of The Tornado! and the team's receptionist - answered the phone. After her greeting she put the caller on hold and buzzed Warforge and Tornado! over the intercom. "Is it just you two here?" "Yep!" Tornado! replied. "Just you, me, and Metal Man makes three, babe." "Great. Are you sure no one else is here? The mayor's office is on line 1." "Hey, It's me!" The Tornado! replied, somewhat defensively. "I'm the Fastest Man on Earth. I can handle a press secretary!" Seconds later, after The Tornado! had agreed that he would absolutely be able to have the whole team assembled for the ceremony at Paragon Park Saturday at 1:00 PM, Warforge turned to him, "You realize Nights is NEVER going to go along with a public appearance in the middle of the day." "Right." The Tornado! grinned. "That's why YOU get to tell him." Saturday morning came and Jack Kirby met with Sebastian Grey outside the Omnitech building, as they waited for Dr. Jackson to arrive. The long, black limo Jack had sent to the airport to pick her up pulled up right on time. Dr. Jackson appeared to be in her late twenties-early thirties, with her blonde hair pulled up. The subtlety of her beauty stood out in stark contrast to her readily apparent irritation. "This better be important.." she steamed. "I was in the middle of unlocking the secrets of one of the oldest Nepalese secret societies on record and..." her voice trailed off as she marched past the two men and into the building. "Sassy," said Sebastian. "Your employees always talk to you like that?" "No..." Jack replied, "But I think I like it!" The three of them examined the artifact for some time. Dr. Jackson's conclusions were no different than what Jack and Sebastian had already figured out. "I'm too jet lagged to make any sense of it now," Dr. Jackson stated. "I'm going to head over to the Omnitech suite at the Ritz to get some rest. I'll come back and examine this thing once I've rested a bit, and I'll call you if I uncover anything." As she left, Jack turned to Sebastian, "You said these Lemurians made Constructs? What kind of construct would need a conduit that big?" "The 400-foot tall variety, I suppose," replied Sebastian. "Unfortunately, that meeting didn't take nearly long enough to get us out of this PR show for the Mayor this afternoon. Let's get going." The Defenders arrived at the park, and 6 of them were brought up on the small grandstand that had been constructed for the day's events. Warforge, concerned that the structure wouldn't be able to support him, elected to stay on terra firma. The mayor had presented the key, and Fantastic-Man had pumped up the crowd with a speech of sincere appreciation for the fine people of Paragon City when the PA system squawked horribly. The microphone crumpled into a ball of steel as the mysterious woman Warforge had seen in the BBC newscast descended toward the podium. "Earth's mightiest heroes..." she sneered as she gently floated toward them, the boughs and branches of the nearby trees bending down at her approach, and the grass flattened as if being pressed upon by an invisible force. She spoke with a light French accent in her soft but cool voice. "I am... unimpressed." "Unimpressed? Hey, you see the key to the city we've got here?" Tomorrow Boy fired back. "That's for beating DR. DESTROYER. If we can handle Dr. D, I think we shouldn't have a problem with you, sister." "Bah... Destroyer is a hack!" The woman exclaimed, her temper rising. "A coward who hides in shadows and sends toys and pawns to do his dirty work. Defeating him proves NOTHING. Today.... you will BOW before GRAVITAR!!" A force like nothing The Defenders had felt before pressed down upon them, driving each of them to their knees... except Fantastic-Man. The Earth's Greatest Hero flew up through the air to meet Gravitar as the crowds fled in terror. "Do not fear for them, Fantastique-Man," thought Gravitar as Fantastic-Man charged toward the invisible barrier of gravity she had placed between her and The Defenders. "Today, I am here only for you and your pitiful friends. The people of your city will be spared.... for now." Fantastic-Man realized the gravitic force wall was there seconds before slamming into it. But when he tried to shift his mass structure to desolidified to pass through it, nothing happened! His powers had failed him somehow! With all his strength, he punched the barrier, shattering the force wall as down below, the other Defenders continued to resist the force of Gravitar's power, holding them down. Warforge was the first to break free, firing rocks at Gravitar from his Gatling-Gun arm. La Espijisma morphed into Fantastic-Man, giving her both the ability to fly and greatly improved strength, and flew up to join the real Fantastic Man in combat with Gravitar. Gravitar, meanwhile, had lifted Warforge off the ground and was crushing him with unspeakable pressure when Nighthawk threw one of his flashbang bombs at her, temporarily blinding and deafening the supervillainess. As she recovered, she surrounded herself with the gravitic barrier again, waiting to regain her senses and regaining her power as the Defenders regrouped and tried to break through to her. The Mac Bashtee began attacking with his awesome mental powers, which were obviously having much more impact on Gravitar than the fists of his colleagues. Finally, after a harrowing battle, Gravitar seemed weakened. "This is NOT over," she spat at The Defenders as she soared upward. Fantastic-Man and The Mac Bashtee both flew after her, but soon realized that they could not match her incredible air speed. A perplexed Fantastic-Man left The Defenders to return to Stronghold to see if Kyle had made any improvements with Wonderboy and Judo Girl watching over him. En route, he contacted the group's PRIMUS liason, Cromwell, to report the bizarre turn in the events of this Defender Day. ____________________ GM Notes: Another excellent session. Quite a bit slower paced than the one before, but an important one nonetheless. A lot of things were put in motion in this one (obviously) that will become more important as seasons IV and V progress. Greatest moment of the night was when the group finally overcame Gravitar's 20" of Knockback resistance when Warforge smashed her good with his Hammerhand power, which had a nice, high BODY roll and a 1 on the KB subtractor. She moved 5". Everyone cheered. This also marked The Defenders first scuffle with a published Master Level Villain (they've had run ins with Destroyer's forces in the past, but never The Good Dr. himself.) Quite a fight. A (slightly) improved version of Gravitar ran 2 1/2 full turns against a 7-man team ranging from 400-600 pts. The EGO Attacks from Mac Bashtee and Tomorrow Boy finally started wearing her down, and being flashed twice over the course of the fight kept her from flexing too much offensive muscle - I think most of the team went unconcious - or darn close to it - at some point or another. It was a good knucklebuster. (Not quite a slobberknocker like the VIPER Dragon Branch fight was... I really should develop some sort of fight rating scale: ranging from Slobberknocker all the way down to Moderate Inconvenience... oh well. )

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Thanks everyone! Glad to know you are enjoying these.

Re: Super-sorcery Necromancer Ideas... Help! That is a very important point to consider. Depends on the level of her delusion, I suppose. Perhaps she feels that it is the weight of one's mortality that causes suffering, and by removing that weight and granting a form (albeit a traditionally frowned-upon form) of immortality, without disease or pain or the worries of mortal man, they are "at rest" - even if their bodies and/or spirits aren't "physically" at rest. Perhaps she views that compelling the dead to aid her is nothing more than fair payment for releasing them from the burden of life, taking a very mercantile view of life and death. Or, if she does solemnly revere the dead and their rest, perhaps she comes equipped with a few moderate to strong psych lims pertaining to the use of using her powers that require the dead to be disturbed (IE: Summons or the Force Wall of spirits mentioned earlier) to give her a reluctance to use such abillities unless absolutely necessary.

Re: What I learned playing a blaster! Nothing says "Target Me NOW!!" like a dude who bursts into flames and then soars up to the frontlines. When fighting in a shopping mall, should you miss your opponent, please ask your GM for an odds/evens roll to determine whether your missed shot scorched any mannequins. If you destroy mannequins, your teammates will never let you live it down. Alas, poor Crucible. We learned so much from thee.

Re: Super-sorcery Necromancer Ideas... Help!