Mark Rand

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor I'll be putting Voltron into Hero Designer version 1 soon, then typing up the results as a character for comment. A few questions, first. 1) How many points should I put into the weapons and systems VPP? 2) Should the changing into one or five lions be considered part of said VPP? Thanks in advance for your input.

Re: When Worlds Collide: ideas for universe crossovers I promised you some crossovers that would work in either the AVengers or IST campaigns that would be set in San Angelo, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here they are. Green Valley Ranch Resort, the hotel/casino from Discovery Channel's American Casion, occasionally has promotions with Bay Area horse tracks. Monster Garage held the challange for its tailgate SUV just before a 49ers football game. Mythbusters is taped at Bay Area special effects company M5 Industries and all over Northern California. The Montrey Bay Historical Museum has a display of items pertaining to the vigilanty known as The Queen of Swords, who protected the people from a tyranical Spanish governer in Santa Helena in Spanish California the 1820s and 1830s. Historians in Greece have found proof that Xena and Gabrielle did exist there over 2300 years ago. There is no proof, however, that all the stories about them in the TV series were true.

Re: When Worlds Collide: ideas for universe crossovers Another idea I had was to place the IST, or International Super Teams, from Steve Jackson's GURPS Supers into the San Angelo universe. (For those of you that don't know, GURPS is short for Generic Universal Role Playing System.) In our universe, since beings from outer space aren't known to exist, such things would have to be removed from the IST part. The International Super Teams are a superpowered version of UNTIL in a world where military super teams aren't permitted to nations that sign the treaty. The United States, through an executive order signed by President Jimmy Carter, signed the pact. Of course, they eventually created their own sanctioning body, the Department of Metahuman Information. One way the U.N. keeps the members in line is by owning the rights to a hot-fusion electrical power generating system. In the 1990s, according to the timeline on IST author Bob Schroeck's site, the America First movement began to take wing.In 1996, Singapour officials announce that the U.N.'s secret hot fusion process has been duplicated. In 1997, during his inaugration speech, President Patrick Buchanan denounces the U.N. ambitions to be a world government. Later in the same year, he announces that the United States wouldn't pay the nation's U.N. dues. The next year, when the UN threatens to cut the power from its plants, President Buchanan announces that the U.S. has its own hot-fusion plants. Later that same year, after the IST partially thwarted a U.S. bombing of Cuban military installations for that country's attempt to bring a Cold War-vintage i megaton nuclear weapon into Miami on a cigarette boat, President Buchanon threatened to evict the U.N. and IST Supreme Headquarters from New York. In 2002, as his second term as President was half over, he did so. After much debate, the United Nations began construction on a new complex for itself and the IST in San Angelo, California. Local developer and power broker Ben jamin Morgan, who hates metahumans, isn't happy.

Re: When Worlds Collide: ideas for universe crossovers I got a wild idea yesterday. The Avengers, from Marvel, in the San Angelo universe. We also bring in PRIMUS, UNTIL, VIPER, and DEMON from the CU. Additionally, a female Waterdeep City Guard, from D&D, crossed into the game world and is currently an Avengers reservist. Other crossovers are pending. Some will be very important, some will be slightly important, some won't be important at all, and some are only of historical value.

Re: The (Super) West Wing

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor I'm looking for a picture of what Allison looks like out of armor. Since she looks like the V3D Allura, who would you cast as her in a live-action version?

Re: PRIMUS Supers Two quick notes. Guardian, being very religious, doesn't approve of magic. Dispite her powers, he tried to accept Warder, but can't and has requested a transfer to another PRIMUS superhero team. That request has been granted. A new hero will replace him. When she's not working on an electronics project or a case, April can often be found working out either in the exersize rooms or the danger room.

Re: PRIMUS Supers The next day, Warder arrived with information. "The new gateway will arrive tonight at 6:30 pm," she said. "It'll be a road with a cenetery that has a crematorium on one side and seven structures on the other. The gate will be in one structure. Like the past one, all bodies will be in stasis until they're touched." "April, Christine, you're going through the gate tonight," Terry said. "I want a full report." "Understood," April said. They left at 8 pm and returned three hours later. When everyone was seated at the table, Christine said, "The gate's in a large hotel in Dallas, Texas in 1960. According to the hotel's board showing the events that were going on, a waltz demonstration by a club devoted to them was in the main ballroom, a blood drive was going on in the Drawing Room, a display of bridal and evening gowns and accessories, all for sale, was in the Adam Room and a regional conference of Islamic women was going on in the mezzanine level meeting rooms. Meeting Room One had a display of clothes for sale while the others were set up for discussions." "To the right of the hotel, as you face the cenetery from the entrance are a water tower, a bar and a church," April said. "There's nothing special about the water tower or bar. The church, however, was a food bank distribution site and two student nurses from a local university were giving blood pressure checks, an Intermediate Girl Scout troop was getting a tour of the church, and the church's female custodian sings Country-Western, is a Patsy Cline fan, and has a wardrobe of Western clothes." "How do you know they were getting a tour of the church?" Beth asked. "They could've been a troop sponsored by the church." "They were wearing gloves," April replied. "An aunt of mine was a girl scout back then. From what she told me, they never wore gloves during meetings." "I didn't know that," Beth said. "No problem," April said. "To the left of the hotel were a community center, a restaraunt, and a dental office," Christine said. "A flu shot clinic was being held in one of the community center's first floor rooms and a belly dance class was going on in a sceond floor room. A group of high school cheerleaders were in the restaraunt. There was nothing unusual about the dental office." "Any restaraunts or bars in the hotel?" Terry asked. "Both," April replied. "They, a beauty salon, a barber shop, a travel agency, a news stand and a tobacco shop were all on the ground floor. The house physician's office was on the mezzanine level." "Anything else?" Terry asked. After both women shook their heads, she said, "That wraps things up here. Good night, all."

Re: PRIMUS Supers That night, April attended the meeting of race officials, then, the next morning, appeared in court for the Lamborghini case. The judge ruled that the car's owner had the right to take it because the dealer violated the contract (actually a bailment) by letting his 17-year old son drive it instead of having someone like April drive it and because he wanted to have it there Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday morning at 7 am, when the track would be inspected by the pace car driver and other race officials and corner workers.

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor Good news. I finally have my notes on the suit's available weapons. There are three forms, a human form, a single lion and five lions. When all 5 lions are in use, Allison is in black lion and controls the blue, green, red and yellow lions by remote. The commands Allison sends are in bold and a * is before any weapon that Allison has manafested under any conditions. This group is for the human form. *Eye Beams, the stats for these are equal to that of a PRIMUS blaster rifle. *Electrosaber, this appears as two sabers, joined at the handles. They're snapped together and used like a two-bladed sword. This weapon has never been used in combat. Wing Attack, the wings on Voltron's back can be used like a boomarang. Form Blazing Bow, damage equals that of a hunting arrow. *Form Blazing Sword, the sword is the energy equivlent of a hand and one half cut and thrust broadsword. *Electroforce Cross, the beam is a 20 STR TK beam inly to push targets away. *Solar Stars, are thrown from the hands and have the same range and do the same damage as a shuriken. (Allison uses the Vehicle Voltron name instead of the Lion Voltron name, spinning laser blades.) Ignite Lion Torches, thermal energy blasts from red and green lion. Lionhead Attack, kenitic energy blasts that punch through items or knock them back. Detach Royal Shield, the shield on Voltron's chest generates a force wall that can deflect attacks. Lion Form, Voltron converts from human to lion form This group is for the lion form. Tail Laser, damage and range are equivlent to a PRIMUS energy pistol. Roar, a presence attack. Ion Knife, the knife appears in the lion's mouth and can inflict damage equal to a short sword. Bite, the lion's teath do the same damage as a leopard's. Claws, the lion's claws do as much damage as a leopard's. Five Lions, blue, green, red and yellow lions appear near Allison's lion, which becomes black. She operates the others telepathically.

Re: PRIMUS Supers As they were about to go through, there was a burst of energy and the agent currently doing the cremations was sent through before the gateway vanished in a puff of smoke. "Want me to carr Warder and find out if she knows anything about what happened?" Betyh asked. "Please," Terry said. Beth did so. After finishing her conversation, she said, "Warder was informed by "The Powers That Be" that we weren't meant to have that gate. They will, however, find one for us." "Noted," Terry said.;

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor A few notes. Allison lives in her parents' home and has her studio in the attic. She thinks the armor is mystical in nature, but her father, a physicist who collects swords, and her mother, a computer expert, think it uses nanotechnology. The suit's hands look like the ones on the lions, but have regular gloves inside. When Allison needs to use her fingers, or fists, , the lion-headed hands will vanish. The suit has sensors that pick up Allison's neural signals and contacts that can feed audio and visual information into her brain. This enables it to assist her muscles and weapon-targeting systems. The suit responds to her mental commands for weapons. When she calls for the eye beams or electroforce cross, the system shows her where it'll hit. Once she's satisfied, the system will fire the beam for her. As they are handheld, the blazing sword and solar stars will come when summoned. As before, the system shows her what she's going to hit. Allison can remove the suit's gloves and mask (which lays on her back like a sweatshirt hood). When she does so, the suit powers down.

Re: PRIMUS Supers "The team handling the cremations reported another burst of light in the area north of the bus," Terry told April, Beth, Christine, Denise, Mariko and Rhonda when the group got together." "April and I will check it out," Christine said. "Agreed," April returned. "Next thing, in case anyone wants them, the clothes from the medical office and church are ready for use," Terry said. "Old style white uniforms, right?" Denise asked. "Probably," Rhonda replied. "Look at that article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. White uniforms are comming back. They'll give nurses the respect they diserve and help people identify them." "Last thing, April, did you get the email you were expecting?" "Yeah. I printed it out and put it on the board." "Fine. April, Christine, good luck."

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor It might be. Since Allison doesn't know everything the suit can do, it's easy to add powers that seem reasonable. I suspect that when, and if, she ever does that, all five lions will look like the V3D lion-spirits. Some of you know that I'm working on a PRIMUS supers thread. Voltron will replace Guardian as the team's armored hero and she'll start learning more tricks. Allison has manifested the electrosaber once. One day, while practing, she called for it and it appeared as two sabers, on her back. When she joined it together, she had a sword with two blades emerging from a central hilt. Not being a good swordswoman, she decided not to use it. Look for a complete, as far as I know, list of weapons Allison should be able to use soon.

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor While Allison was asleep, the armor, which still had't completely keyed to her, finished doing so by modeling itself as the Lion Force Voltron. It can summon up any Voltron weapon in either human or lion form, but the wearer must be able to use it. (For this, I'm treating the Royal Scheld force wall as a weapon). Since Allison has had the suit for only 6 weeks and has been a heroine for 2 weeks, she can use only four weapons, blazing sword, electroforce cross, solar stars (Vehicle Voltron name for spinning laser blades), and eye beams. Although the suit is capable of converting to lion form, Allison hasn't, yet.

Re: PRIMUS Supers "There are bodies in the Japanese garden and villa," Christine said. "We'll take care of them the agent handling the cremators said. "Has the team working here cremated 63 bodies yet?" April asked. "No. The figure is a rough estimate based on the information in the manuals we've looked through," he replied. "Understood," April said. "Good night." "Good night." April and Christine left the building, went to the bus and gated home. "Think we'll see more stuff on that road?" Christine asked. "Probably," April replied.

Re: Mystical Voltron-Inspired Powered Armor The lady in the armor is Allison Harris, Ally to her friends. She's a freelance graphic artist and painter as well as a die-hard Voltron fan. The basic fabric of the suit only provides 5PD/5ED. Think of it as stasis cloth, like Shelvestra's flightsuit on the 4E Strikeforce book. Most of the protection, 20PD/20ED, all resistant and hardened comes from the suit's forcefield. If Voltron is knocked out, the force field will still proect Allison. It comes up when she calls the suit. She has to will it off, then back on.

Re: PRIMUS Supers April parked the Corvette in its garage and walked to Stephanie's shop, where the Lamborghini was taken. After making sure the controls were where they should be, April started theLamborghini and drove it to its parking space. Once that was done, they returned to PRIMUS's Pittsburgh base. April and Christine readied themselves, then went through the gate and walked to the villa. "These are Virginia plates," April said, looking at a car. The year is 1973. "Let's look around," Christine said. They entered the living room and noticed men in tuxedos and woman in evening gowns and long gloves. "The owners are having a party," April said. "They might not be the owners," Christine said. "There are rental villas." "I didn't know that," April said. She finished taking photos and visited the crematorium before returning to the bus. "Who's it going?" Christine asked the agent tending the equipment. "Not too bad," the agent replied. "We can cremate 63 bodies each day here. Right now, we're cremating the bodies from the church. See the bags on the floor?" "I see them," April replied. "Those bags contain clothing that can be washed. Another bag contains shoes, purses, and other stuff that needs spacial attention."

Re: PRIMUS Supers The arguement over the pace cars continued until a high-powered local lawyer entered the fray and passed Terry some papers. "According to this, you own this Lamborghini," she said. "Correct, Ma'am," he said. "Assuming that someone like Ms. Curtis was going to drive the pace car, I agreed to pick it up after the event. Since, in my opinion, the dealer violated our agreement, I'm removing it from his control." "I won't let you," the dealer snarled. "You don't have any choice in the matter," the lawyer said. Turning to April, he asked, "Is there a reliable place on the track to keep my Lamborghini?" "There are two places," April replied. "The track has garages for its vehicles and Conlan Racing and Engineering, a race shop, is in the track's industrial area. Stephanie Conlan, the shop's owner, is the region's chief technical inspector." "Will she let us keep my Lamborghini at her shop?" "Yes, I will," said the soft-spoken woman that had staged the Corvette. "I'm Stephanie Conlan. Want me to have one of my flatbed tow trucks take your car to my garage?" "Please," the lawyer said. "Fine," April said. "I have a Corvette to put to bed."

Re: PRIMUS Supers "You shall not," the boy's father, who owned the dealership that supplied the pace car, said. "It'll be loaded onto the transporter, then taken to my dealership, where it'll be examined by my technicians. There it'll stay until next Sunday, when we bring it to the track to pace the one event out of all of them that's the Pittsburgh Vintage Car Grand Prix." "The whole weekend is the Vintage," Terry, who was on the race committee, said. "You'll have at the track, ready for April to drive, by 6:30 am on Saturday, or April will drive the region's Corvette pace car and your son'll be pacing the patron parade behind it." "You don't have any right to speak for the committee," the kid's father snarled at Terry. "If this Lamborghini isn't the only pace car and my son isn't driving it, the charaties the race supports won't get my check for $1,000,000.00." "Are you trying to blackmail a federal officer?" Terry asked, showing her PRIMUS ID. As the dealer sputtered, Terry said to April, "Guess he didn't read the information on me the race committee made public." "You wouldn't dare arrest me, you (cuss words deleted). I have connections." "I don't have to," Terry said. "There are other PRIMUS agents here, as well as local police officers." "Avenger Kestler is correct about your son not driving the pace car," said a man from the side. "I should know. I'm the Chief Steward the Vintage Sports Car Club of America assigned to this race." He turned to April, noted the name on her racing suit, and said, "Ms. Curtis, there's a meeting of race officials this Saturday night. Since you're the pace car driver, you're a race official. Will you join us?" "I'd be happy to," April replied. "Thank you. I'll make sure the time and place are emailed to you tonight."

Re: PRIMUS Supers That evening, April and Terry spent 30-minutes running laps in the SCCA region's Corvette pace car. As she came onto the main straight of the 3.19-mile road course for the last time, April pushed the accelerator to the floorboard. When she came close to the Lamborghini Murcielago she was going up against, she pulled the Corvette into a bootlegger's turn, then guided the car to a stop beside the Lamborghini in the lane closest to the grandstand. The Lamborghini's driver did his first burnout. Then, April did her first before deciding to stage. Forced, by regulations, to the same thing, the Lamborghini's driver staged, too. When the green light came on, April took off. At the end, after popping her parachutes, and easing the Corvette to a stop, April noticed that the Lamborghini was standing still. After the parachutes were removed, April drove to the Lamborghini and asked, "Did you stall it?" "I put it into drive, and it wouldn't go," the driver, a 17-year old kid, replied. "This has a manual transmission, not an automatic one," April said. "You start out in first gear. What kind of car do you usually drive?" "A Toyota Tercel." "It was an automatic transmission," April said. "This doesn't. Did you remember to use the clutch?" "What clutch?" "I hope you didn't ruin it," April said. "Get out and let me see how badly you damaged it." "Girls can't drive Lamborghinis," the kid snarled. "I'm not a girl, I'm a woman," April retorted. "Since I drive a Lamborghini Diablo in SCCA-sanctioned races, I can drive this car with ease."

Re: PRIMUS Supers "Let's see if the garden's a public place," Christine suggested. "We should also see what we can of the villa from the road." "Agreed." The garden was to be open to the public. The two women entered, looked around and took photographs. April then picked up a flyer and said, "We're in Springfield, Missouri, in 1973. This is an advertisement for a concert by a Japanese string group on August 23." "Let's check the villa out," Christine suggested. "Right." When they looked through the gate in the wall surrounding the villa, they saw 20 luxury cars. "Looks like a party to me. Why don't we crash it tonight, after the rase." "Sounds like fun," April returned. "Let's check in at the crematorium, then report to Terry." "Wouldn't hurt to get some photos from the top of the switchbacks." "True."

Re: PRIMUS Supers As they arrived, they weremet by a fellow Intelligence Agent. "Terry wants the bodies cremated," he said. "The clothing. however, is to be removed and cleaned. I've also made an interesting discovery about the bodies. Most of them glow." "Can we see?" Christine asked. "Sure," he replied. After he showed them several glowing bodies, April asked, "Why didn't we see it last night?" "Our goggles must've filtered the glow out," Christine replied. "What do you think it is?" "I don't know," the male agent replied. "Thank you for your time," April said. "You're welcome," he said. They then left and began examining the cliff areas. Finding them, at least, 40-feet from the buildings and the graveyard fence, they examined the road. The part they were on was straight, but it curved right and slightly downhill at the ends. The tunnels went 10-feet into the cliff face before ending. As they left the second side street, a bright blue glow came from what they were calling the north side of the street. "What was that?" Christine asked. "Don't know," April replied. "Let's find out." They walked to the north side and saw a downhill switchback with a straight road that connected to suspension bridge beyond it. On the eastern side of the road was a Japanese garden. A villa was on the western side. They walked to the bridge and looked down. The bottom was 10-feet below the bridge deck.

Re: PRIMUS Supers After reporting in, the two agents stayed overnight in the team's base. The next morning, they reported in, wearing navy-blue Nomex flightsuits with PRIMUS patches, grey-leather palmed navy blue Nomes flight gloves, combat boots, and carrying PRIMUS-issue gear on their webbing. "Good morning, ladies," Terry said as she greated them. "What are your plans for today?" "We're going to look at the road and cliff areas," Christine replied, adjusting her gloves. "Remember that drag race I told you about?" April asked. Terry nodded. "It's tonight. I have to have a passanger. Want to ride with me?" "Sure," Terry replied. "Do I need any special gear?" "Regulations require you to wear a crash helmet," April replied. "No problem. What time does it start?" "Our race is the first one tonight and we report to the staging area at 8 pm. Since I want to run laps in the car before the race, we should roll out at 7:30." "I'll be there," Terry said as the two agents went through the gate.

Re: PRIMUS Supers "You're right, April. I forgot." They entered, looked around, took pictures and left. "Let's tour the cemetery." "Why not. That's all that's left." They crossed the road, entered through an open gate and looked around. "This is a crematorium," Christine said. "We can cremate the bodies here," April returned. "Do we keep the clothes or leave them on the bodies?" "I'll let Terry decide that," Christine replied. They looked through the office and found instruction manuals for the equipment and a list of what bodies were in the building awating cremation. As they left for the bus and PRIMUS Pittsburgh, April grabbed a copy of the local newspaper, The Denver Post, from the lobby.