DJ Blackrock

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

No real quotes from last session, though we did have some interesting suggestions for naming our new ship.

the S.S. NoI'mNotNamingItThat

the S.S. sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss (they only had an 's' stencil) (bonus points if you know the reference)

the Not So Swift Justice (the ship was... appropriated from a bounty hunter group called Swift Justice)

the Moderately Slow Vengeance

the S.S. ForTheLoveOfGodI'mNotCallingItThat

the It's Coming Right for Us!

the Oh God!

the I Hate You All

They eventually settled on the Morgan. Little disappointing, but hey, it works for me!

Re: Mental Institute name needed

Whispering Rocks Psychiatric Institute, on the peaceful shores of Lake Oblongata.

Thorney Towers home for the Disturbed.

The Massacusetts State Home For The Bewildered.

Re: Second Best Game System ?

I personally am a fan of Silver Age Sentinels, which uses the Tri-Stat System. Its not as detailed as HERO and a lot of it is left to interpretation and whatnot, but for my players it works out better. I love HERO, but I have more than a couple non-grognards in my group, and SAS makes more sense to them, and lets me play around with rules and story more.

It may not be everyones cup of tea, but I find it works for me.

EDIT: Also, the Cortex System, used for the Serenity RPG, as well as Buffy and a few others could easily be (and may already have been) modified for supers. Fairly simple to figure out too.

Note: There's no character stats attached, mainly because I'm bloody awful at making HERO characters, but I love world building. This character is for a home-brewed setting I plan to post eventually.

Criticism is welcome, if its constructive!

Fortress

Real Name: Jason Colt

Group Affiliation: The Justice Squadron

Morality/Alignment: Heroic

Background/History: Born to a wealthy upper middle class family, Jason never wanted for anything growing up. When he entered school, he would at times feel guilty. Some of his classmates didn’t have the wealth he and his family had, why should he be special? He did the best he could to help those in need, sharing his lunches at first, and once he got his first job, he began to donate to charities and volunteer, but it wasn’t enough for him. When he graduated top of his class, he applied for medical school, and passed with flying colors. Times were hard, he didn’t have much money, as most of it was used to pay for his loans, but Jason didn’t mind, if it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. Ultimately Jason found himself a surgical resident at a prestigious hospital. It was here that his life would change forever.

One night, while in surgery to save a young man with gunshot wounds, Jason was interrupted. It seems the gangbangers who had shot the boy got wind that he wasn’t dead, and came to finish the job. Jason managed to talk the gangers down for a time, but things went wrong, and they opened fire. Both Jason and the boy would have been dead had his metahuman abilities not manifested then and there, surrounding both of them with an impenetrable force field. Enraged, Jason suddenly grew giant, nearly bursting through the ceiling, and the then terrified gangbangers ran. When he tried to revert to his normal size, he found that he couldn’t anymore. The smallest he could manage was 10 feet tall.

The hospital lauded Jason as a hero, the papers even latched onto it, but Jason did his best to stay out of the spotlight. He did what any good person would in the situation. Well, any good person who just manifested superpowers anyway. After a short period of adjustment, and the ordering of larger handled scalpels and other equipment, Jason went back to surgery. He was happy, but wondered to himself if it wouldn’t be better to stop these injuries from taking place at all, rather than just patching them up. Donning a costume and calling himself Fortress after the protective nature of his abilities, he dedicated his life to saving others, both before and after disaster struck.

During this time, he met another young doctor, Megan Munro, and the two formed an instant connection, their opinions on duty and honor being very similar. Jason learned that Megan was a metahuman as well, a very long lived one, with the power to heal. The two formed a heroic duo, and worked together for many years, battling the likes of Avatar, the White King and even the Celtic god of the hunt Cerunnos. Over time, Jason fell deeply in love with Megan.

In 1999, when Cerunnos first tried to take over this realm, Megan and Jason fought alongside Center City’s other heroes to stop him. During the battle, Fortress sustained a serious injury, which left his neck broken. Before Megan could use her power to heal him, something happened, and all metahuman powers in Center City stopped working.

It was a long, arduous process, but Jason eventually recovered, however, the injury had caused nerve damage, which gave him tremors in his hands, rendering him unable to perform surgery anymore. Despondent, Jason fell into a bottle and didn’t emerge until Megan pulled him out. In an attempt to lift his sunken spirits, he took a course in Real Estate, and found it to his liking, eventually forming Colt Realty: “The BIGGEST name in local realty”.

When powers suddenly resurfaced last year, Jason was as surprised as anyone else, except perhaps the couple he was showing an open house to when his powers manifested again, and he put his whole head and shoulders through the roof. Taking it as a sign, Jason dug out his old costume, and proposed a new team to Megan. She agreed, and now with new teammates it looks like the old times are back!

Personality/Motivation: Fortress is a genuinely good person, compelled to help others, not because of loss, or entitlement, but simply because it’s the right thing to do. If he were to use his powers for his own gain, he reasons, that makes him no better than those he fights against. Jason still believes in the Hippocratic oath, and would prefer a peaceable solution as opposed to fisticuffs. Considering the things hes seen in his career, both as a surgeon and a superhero, he will still fight if need be. Jason loves a good joke, and, though he tries, hes awful at telling them, always giving the punchline away. He is also head over heels in love with Megan Munro, aka, The Medic, and will go out of his way to protect her. He understands why shes so against opening up to anyone, but still he tries. To her credit, Megan has real fondness for and truly cares about Jason, but so far has not shown any outward signs. His devotion to her is such that he will continually throw himself in harms way to protect her, something she finds simultaneously endearing and annoying.

Jason has a habit of absent-mindedly performing sleight of hand tricks or other acts of manual dexterity, a subconscious way of fighting his tremors. He has also taken a liking to origami, and has a real talent for it.

Quote: “The Hippocratic oath states ‘First, do no harm’… unfortunately for you, I’m not a doctor anymore.”

Powers/Tactics: Fortress has two distinct sets of powers, first, he can create nearly impenetrable force fields around himself and others. Over the years he’s learned many tricks, and can manipulate his fields to achieve many different effects. He can throw bolts of force, trap enemies in an inverted force field so they cannot escape or use his fields to pin enemies to walls. Secondly, Fortress can modify his height, growing generally to a height of 80 feet, but he has been known to push his power and grow to nearly 150 feet. He claims its a terrible strain on his system though. His strength and resistance to injury increase exponentially in accordance to his height.

Fortress is not your typical “brick”, he is cagey and tactically aware, always looking for a way to end a fight quickly and peaceably. He won’t wade in fists swinging unless that seems the most efficient way to end the fight. Usually he hangs back and uses his shields to protect his allies and set up his foes.

Campaign Use: Fortress has been at the hero thing for a long time, and had a lot of experience, making him a good choice for a mentor type role. Alternately, the PCs may encounter him as Jason Colt, he knows all about the needs of a super-team in need of an HQ. He also understands that sometimes heroes need to lay low, and could let the PCs in on an empty place that’s not up for inspection for a while.

Jasons feelings towards the Medic could also be explored, if the PCs are of a particularly romantic bent.

Appearance: Jason Colt is a moderately handsome man in his mid-40’s, stands 10 feet tall, and he would be more imposing if it weren’t for the infectious grin on his face and the mischievous glint in his brown eyes. Out of costume, Jason wears well tailored suits at work or comfortable jeans and t-shirts when at home. His costume covers his entire body save for his nose and mouth. The colors are a dull blue-green and a deep navy blue. The mask, chest, shoulders, gloves trunks and boots are green, with blue accents on the mask, the upper arms, legs, and sides of the torso. The belt is gunmetal grey, with a stylized F on the buckle and a large satchel attached at the left hip, containing medical supplies, food and assorted tools. His costume is made of "super-fabric" and grows along with Jason.

Re: A White Wolf aneurysm

I think that vamped werewolf you were talking about was Pariah, real name Harold. He had a REALLY sad backstory. Actually used him on one of my oWoD games, basically as an example that, hey, there is no happy ending.

He was in the Children of the Night sourcebook I think. I felt so sad after reading it.

I like the understanding canines thing, and the somewhat unreliable heightened senses. I want to give her an alternate form, but I'm still not sure what. Full werebeast is too much for the character concept, and bat doesn't really work. werebat, well, maybe...

Okay, so, one of my players is playing a dhampir character. Fair enough, but based on her backstory and a couple power choices (berzerk on a full moon, etc) I can't resist her father having been a werewolf. Now, my question to all of you is thus: What kind of powers, abilities and hybrid WTF-ery would you give a half-vampire lycanthrope?

I ask because she has set aside points to be used on powers she doesn't know about yet.

Points are unimportant, what crazy powers would you give her?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Fortunately' date=' yes. She only had about a 1 in 3 shot at eviscerating a team mate.[/quote']

 

Reminds me of a bit of banter between me and a friend during game a while back. BTW, I have posted this in this thread already, but it was over 100 pages ago.

 

"Time flies when you're getting eviscerated."

"So do entrails apparently."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

...

The police return with the apartment owner:

Shapeshifter: *searches the officers minds for information, then shape shifts into their superior*

Shapeshifter: As you can see my investigation is going well. Now, arrest that woman (the apartment owner) for assault and kidnapping. *Points around to several unconscious changelings* She has clearly been kidnapping people and abusing them. Oh, and call an ambulance.

Police: Yes, sir. *leaves with the now hysterical (and innocent) apartment owner*

Shapeshifter: *turns to party* Now, let’s get the f*** out of here.

Classic! I love it!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Got a couple from game tonight.

Enforcers Inc. try to spring one of their own from the heroes, things do not go well:

GM (ooc): "Well, it appears that my elite private superhuman merc army is, today at least, set to stooge."

Buntai-Kun (ooc): "Which one's curly? Bet it's Breakneck."

GM (ooc): "With his terrible rolls tonight, no. Tonight Breakneck is Shemp."

Panther has a very entangled Toxic slung over her shoulder:

GM: "In this room is a girl huddled in the fetus position, rocking back and forth muttering something incoherent. She's wearing the tattered remnants of a Center City High cheerleaders uniform (at this point, cue the Heroes references). It looks like Vivian, but she wasn't so... fuzzy last time you saw her. She's covered in a pelt of brown/grey fur, has a tail and claws. The walls of the room are covered in claw marks. She starts to the sound of your voice and mutters: "Tiffany?" she looks at her hands and arms, and half-screams half-sobs "This is YOUR FAULT!" and attacks."

Panther: "What the hell? I can't get OUT of combat today! I still have Toxic over my shoulder, I use her to smack some sense into Vivian."

GM: "When all you have is a hammer... Roll!"

Panther: ::rolls, hits, hard::

GM: "Well, for the sake of humor, we're gonna say Vivian is knocked out, and, Toxic, though not unconscious, is really wishing she was at this point."

rest of the table: ::raucous laughter::

Toxic: "I hate you all."

Best without context:

Joshua (ooc, I hope): "Cover Henry Winkler with Bees!"

Re: Describers

"lobo" is Spanish and Portuguese for "wolf."

Touché

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

One more quick one :

Harry, Red, Maiden and Dreamy (the PCs) have finally subdued Harker, and have her tied up in the room next door. They are discussing what to do with her.

 

Harry: Right, so at least she's still unconcious.

Red: For perhaps the next few minutes. She heals fast.

Harry: Right... Dreamy, what are the chances you can you know (makes wavey motions next to his head).

Dreamy: Harry, like I told you before, those changes aren't permanent. She'll remember eventually and anyway... it's just... wrong.

Harry (sighs): Right, right...

Maiden: Umm, did we just leave her in a locked room with Infernis? (Harry's demon girlfriend)

 

Everyone is about to stand up at this, when as if on cue, Sgt Superior (Harry's military-type rival) walks in through the hole Harry "made" earlier.

Sgt: Browncoat! Have you seen my daughter? She said she was coming this...

 

Muffled screams are heard from Harker's room.

Before anyone can act, the Sgt runs over, fearing the worst, and opens the door to see...

Infernis shapeshifted into a sexy looking woman wearing leather and carrying a whip. Harker is tied to a chair, gagged, bound and has her shirt torn off.

 

Infernis: Oh, Harry? She has another five minutes in the happy chair, now wait your turn...

 

The Sgt closes the door and looks at Harry.

Harry winces, expected to be pummeled as the other PCs wisely move away from him.

But, the Sgt walks over with a grim face and puts a hand on Harry's shoulder.

 

"Get help son. Just... Just get help."

 

He walks out the door.

 

Red (extra snarky): Now that's both dissatisfying... and disturbing.

Must spread rep, etc... etc... someone get this one for me?

Re: Describers

Okay, riddle me this - what would be an example of a superhero name that DOESN'T, in some way, describe the character?

 

I still don't get why a title is a descriptor, but if you count the Doctor in Doctor Strange as descriptive, surely you also have to count Strange (yes, I know it was supposed to be the character's actual surname, but you and I and the dog all know the reason for the name is to make you think of a Strange character having Strange adventures.) Same for Doctor Doom, Mister Fantastic, Professor X, etc.

 

In the name of the first superhero of all, Superman, "Super" is modifying, i.e. "describing," "man."

 

How many superheroes can you name whose names aren't descriptive, or at least evocative?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Having been bitten by a radioactive palindromedary, Lucius Alexander becomes - The Amazing Palindromedary Man!

The first thing that came to my mind was Lobo... but Lobo is close to Loco, and if any comic book character is Loco... Hmm. Now I need to do some research and find some. To Google! AWAY!!

Re: Who is your favourite Champions Character Background/History?

Myself, Here's my list, in no particular order

1. Grond (CKC)

2. Foxbat (CKC)

3. Black Harlequin (so dark and just flat out ----ing frightening, CKC)

4. Pulsar (poor guy just can't win)

5. Warmonger

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

When this feeling comes upon you, do you experience a sudden urge to sing

for Spam ?

 

 

Major Tom 2009

Occasionally, but I've learned to stop doing such in public. It scares the mundanes.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Ah, I see. Fnord.

I prefer Fjord myself. Makes me feel like a viking.

Re: Describers

One of my epic level villains is a powersuited fellow by the name of Demolition Jackal. The naming convention follows Metal Gear Solid to a certain extent, but thinking on it, I guess that makes Demolition a descriptor. Sort of. Other than that, I don't think I've done it before. Unless using Black Harlequin counts.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

...

 

 

Basil would use a loaded Bacandforth, instead. The Bacandforth is loaded because it's celebrating the reversibility of the date 9/01/09, and forgot to decide which end was supposed to drink and which end not. The supersonic telepathic mechanical penguins with laser eyes did rather egg it on, too.

 

The S.T.M.P.w/L.E.'s, the Bacandforth, but not today's date, are products of Basil's Twisted Imagination, Lqf. Patience pent-up.

Maybe it's just late, maybe I'm tired, or maybe I'm just thick, but...

"Whaaa?"

Did I miss something?

Re: I killed a PC.

I had a PC die kind of accidentally a while back. His name was Concussion, and he was a Teen Titans Cyborg clone. The PCs had found a previously hidden villain HQ on the 35th floor of an office building. An ally named Frostbite (a different version than the one I'm currently GMPCing) had led them into a trap because the VIPER Shadow Strike Team had set Frostbite up.

Either way, they burst in, and the leader of the team, Demolition Jackal, a power-suited very bad man, turns dramatically and begins monologueing, Concussion said "To hell with this" and Super-Leaped at Jackal.

He rolled to hit.

Got an 18.

Jackal simply stepped to the side, Concussion smashed through the window, and, even though I tried to catch him with another hero who was in the area, math won out, and we realized this particular hero wasn't strong enough to catch a terminal velocity DI Brick/Blaster.

He survived the impact with the pavement. The Storm sewer sent him into GM's discretion, the subway knocked him down to Zero body, and my randomly rolled for subway train reduced him to a greasy smear on the tracks. All they found was an arm.

The player wanted to have the "Concussion Memorial Hole" immortalized. It was a no go. Since he was a government licencsed hero, there was a huge televised funeral with full 21 gun salute and all that. And, of course it was raining, because http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals

Basically, what I'm trying to say is don't freak out about killing a PC, it happens in RPGs. Just add a kill counter to your GM screen (you DO have a kill counter, right?) and move on. It sounds like your player is perfectly fine with it. The player of Concussion is the one who talked me into killing him off. Sometimes your players can surprise you.

(P.S. I apologize for the TvTropes link, for whoever gets stuck, I am very sorry)

Re: Toxic

I personally love this character, and it can work quite well in my campaign as a hired merc for IHA. (Note, Toxic will not know that IHA is a front for Genocide. Yet.) She'd basically be working to better understand the mutant gene, and thinks that the IHA is a beneficial organization.

You wouldn't happen to have the hero designer file wouldjya? :-D I'll be your best friend!

Re: My Demonic Housewife??

I like the idea of a demonic June Cleaver... possibly with a cleaver....

When I saw shape-shifting, my first thought was one or more other PCs get a girl/boyfriend, who somehow never seems to be around to meet Infernis and vice-versa... If you're following me. Could lead to a wonderful "mexican standoff" where one PC threatens to throw another out, possibly with the threat of using powers to do it. Roommate fights are nasty. Imagine then, roommates that can throw fireballs.

I leave you now to muse on this.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Had a gathering of nerds that was supposed to be a Space Opera game, but one of the players is being a complete dram queen, so we just hung out and played Smugglers of the Galaxy

I keep accidentally moving the board:

Ben: "Damn it! Stop splitting the universe in two!"

Pat, playing Greenbeard, keeps getting shut down in piracy:

Me: "Worst. Pirate. Ever."

Best without context:

Ben: "Oh, STARPORT. I was looking at it upside down, I thought it said strapon!"

Me: "Mine is the manly blue butt-plug."

Me: "Two male characters, three female, and I'm the only one in a dress!" (For those familiar with the game, I was Mikk Staygo, foppiest fop ever)

Joke of the evening. Think along the lines of "smacked in the 13's"

"Damn it! You shot me right in the cargo pods!"

Re: Superheores with Disabilites, a thought experiememnt

That doesn't sound like one of mine. My only two permanently-oversized characters are a villain (Wall) and a recently-created cop (Officer Brick).

Hmm. Okay, not one of yours, but I still don't think I came up with him on my own. I'll be [censored] if I can remember where I found him though. Name was Fortress if that helps at all.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

A couple from my Teen Champions game yesterday:

A ruckus erupts on the football field during class:

Gemini (team liason, calling on team commlink): "Everyone, there's a disturbance at the school!"

Maria (already there, along with rest of team): "No? Really?" ::dodges a blow from a monster::

Gemini: "Right. Judging from the ambient level of snark and violent noises, seems your already there. Stay the course! Call me when it's over!"

The rival team of teens are trying to violently persuade a rock monster to join them. Good guys understandably try to stop this:

GM(ooc): "Okay, Psychotronic is down, the rock monster freaks out and..." ::rolls dice:: "starts stomping in Psychotronic's direction."

Maria(ooc): "Wait, he's gonna get trampled? I dash out and pull him out of the way."

GM (a little misty eyed): "You're going out of your way to keep a villain from getting killed! Finally, someone gets the super-HERO genre! This is--"

Maria(ooc): "Hey, hold the praise. I'm half-vampire. I'm gonna drain him!"

GM: "Oh, right, silly me. Roll your dice."

The teasing of Frostbite continues:

Lisa(ooc): ::rolls dice, misses horribly:: "Damn it! You swapped my dice for Frostbites! Give em back!"

While we're on the topic, Panther's player said something similar when she rolled boxcars

Psychotronic is unable to shake Maria, who's latched on to him much like a lamprey. He ultimately decides to just grab her, take to the air, and try to scrape her off on traffic. Meanwhile, the team managed to take out the other two enemies and calm the rock monster, which turned out to be one of the linebacks from the football team. Later, Lisa wants to find Maria and Psychotronic. I have her roll Perception:

Lisa(ooc): "Okay, made it by 4, do I find her?"

GM(ooc): "Well, you don't see her per-se, but about a block away, you hear the sounds of metal scraping metal, loud booms, car-alarms and shouting. Evidence suggests your team mate is in that direction."

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Alright, so I'm in a Serenity campaign

>clip<

Ah, I miss my Serenity game. I had all my notes and my book and my laptop stolen, so my game had to stop short.

Fair warning for your GM: Ten Pound Mining Charges are NOT self-defense, anyone from St. Albans should talk like they're from Fargo (because it's awesome), and be very careful about introducing characters from the show. It can be dangerous...

I'm jealous! I want my game back!

[/pout]

Re: Superheores with Disabilites, a thought experiememnt

And mine is absolutely filthy. But I'll be nice and leave my praise in the rep box.

I have an NPC (which I think I ripped off from Bob Greenwade actually) who is 10 feet tall in his smallest form. Doorways, small cars and non-custom chairs are always an issue.

When he retired from Heroing, he got into real estate, and called himself "The Biggest Name in Real Estate"

Hey, he thinks it's funny.

Also, I had a Weather controlling character who's legs were paralyzed, but he used a similar tactic to the telekinetic mentioned earlier. Never did get around to writing him up though.