GestaltBennie
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Re: Champions Of The North
Canadian Tv series featuring a wandering German shepherd doing good deeds. Wiki says:
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Re: Sad News
Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at http://adamsfuneralhome.caThanks for the information.
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Re: Champions Of The North
Naturally' date=' Rex should have a spiritual successor in the form of the Littlest Hobo. Perhaps the torch was passed from wonder dog to wonder dog, a la Black Mask 1-10?[/quote']I like this. And the Littlest Hobo is definitely an inspiration.
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Re: Sad News
I'm so sorry to learn of this. As Hermit said, condolences to his family and friends.Any word on CoD? (Just morbidly curious.)
I don't know. I learned of his passing n this thread:
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Dean Edgell, author of Atlas's adventure "Blood Fury" and a co-aiuhor of Champions Presents #1, has passed away.
I remember him from running with the Hero Auxiliary crowd at Gen Con in the late 1980s. Those were great years and a great time to be a Hero. Dean will be missed.
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Re: Red Ensign
This is one of the sad things about books like Champions of the North coming out: in my campaign world, the supers in Canada were already all fleshed out, and now my vision of the super world in Canada is out of synch with the official Champions Universe. Do I recton my campaign to be "in continuity" with the newer books, or do I keep on my merry way with telling stories on Earth-BCH instead of Earth-SB?In my world, Red Ensign was one of the two WWII Canadian supers (the other being The Great Canadian Shield). He was a top soldier -- recruited because he was the best of the best, but had no powers.
In my world, Celestar was, essentially, Celine Dion: media darling, stylish, scarily skinny, and with a charming Quebecois accent. And commands cosmic powers.
In my world, COMET, StarForce and all versions of the Northern Guard have all played significant (although supporting) roles in stories.
All those years of reading comics have fueled, in me, a dislike for continuity problems. But now, there's a potential for a major continuity change, and I've got all these characters wandering around like the '60s version of Animal Man saying, "hey, what about me? What happens to me?"
Sad now. But I'll still get the book.
BC
My advice is: don't change a thing. If it's easier to accept, make the new CotN material an "Earth II" (Earth-SB, heh) and keep what you're doing the same. Do what you need to do to keep what's special about your campaign intact.
I don't blame you for being soured on continuity, especially after the literally eye-hemmoraging experience of Civil War.
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Re: Red Ensign
I'm reading Champions of the North' date=' and Iam reading about this character Red Ensign, has anyone else read the book, if so does it say what his powers are, ive tried to find it but I cant. There were 3 versions of the character im just trying to find out what his abilities are[/quote']Red Ensign was cut from the book because Steve was concerned with the number of NPC heroes. I'll submit him to Digital Hero after I get my author's copy of CotN and see what needs to be included.
In brief though, all incarnatioms of the Red Ensign (as well as the Black Banner) were well-trained martial artists who wielded the Canada Staff, which was created by the Golden Age hero Doctor Cerebro from the melted remains of King Vultok's crown, itself an alen artifact of unknown origin.
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Those of you who enjoyed Chris Avellone's DC work in 4th edition and his Stick Figure theater may be interested in a short piece with Chris (and me) on a Fallout 10th Anniversary retrospective.
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Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
Scott' date=' I have Bone White Queen as a separate pic as well. If that would be helpful for you, shoot me an email and I will send you a copy of that.[/quote']That'd be much appreciated, Storn. Is it okay to link these on the BlackWyrm site?
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Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.
These look great! Thanks Storn (and DT. I'll never say anything bad about tribbles again).
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Re: I am so, so old...
We're all getting old.
Some of us are just getting old more gracefully than others. I'm very glad you're getting a chance to share the things you love with the people you love. Enjoy it. :-)
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Re: Is your character religious?
My oldest character, Thundrax, got into a scenario where the PCs had to go to a place that looked a lot like Hell to rescue children from a demonic being.
He became a regular Church-goer after that adventure. :-)
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Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?
Simonson's Thor.
Miller's Daredevil.
Byrne's Alpha Flight and FF.
The early issues of Claremont's X-Men run during the swcade (uo to 175 or so) and New Mutants.
Stern's run on Avengers amd Stern/Paul Smith on Dr. Strange.
The Gene Day issues of Master of Kung-fu.
Abd probably many others I'm forgetting.
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Re: Gestalt - An awful thought
Still waiting to pick up a copy of Gestalt (buying a house really does get in the way of other purchases), but reading through a few of the articles and interviews I was struck by a terrible thought:The Village People.
The Gestalt of construction workers? Motorcycle cops? The rest?
I think I have an adventure idea to horrify my players
Many evil things are possible in Champions, provided that your mind is false, foul, and vile. I know of one GM who ran (though not in Gestalt) a supervillain team called the Pillage People. Yep, you guessed who they were based on. :-)
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Re: [Review] Gestalt: The Hero Within
I was reading Firefighters - Enemies of Urban Blight, Idle Poverty (and Compassion) p.275-280 and in Deissenter p.226-228 and recognized in his description a part of my dark side. Self righteous, reactionary, and knee jerk responses to local and world events.That's deep Scott
QM
Yeah. In the words of Walt Kelly (as said by Pogo), "we have met the enemy and he is us."
Let me know when your review is finished (if it isn't already).
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Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color
I really couldn't be doing with starting a brand new campaign on a brand new world after all the work I've put into building my own world over the past couple of decades, however I have frequent adventures to other dimensions and alternate Earths. This is why I was wondering if the Gestalt characters could translate well into a Champions campaign.Thank you.
They're quirky, but if you traat "psionically empowered by the human collective iunconscious" as just another origin in your campaign, they'd translate well to a traditional game. Some of the odder archetypes (Food, Commerce) may be a little off-putting in a standard supers game, but they're easily ignored.
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Re: Billy Deighton
Sounds cool Scott. Do you know Mallet by chance?Nope. To my knowledge, we've never met.
Of course, with my hazy memory, it's quite possible he was at the old Abby gaming club or we gamed togather at CONSpiracy and I'm simply not recognizing him.
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Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color
Well mine came in today
I'm a little biased, but it's BEE-YOU-TIFUL. :-)
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Re: Billy Deighton
The campaign's continued, but I haven't had time to do extensive write-ups on what's happened. In part because Chiba Bob has had to relocate across town and hasn't been able to GM. I've been filling in for him, but I've been reluctant to touch a lot of the main plots (the Jade Emperor, the Countess, the Lady Rose, etc,) Nonetheless, some of you folks might be interested in hearing what's happened since the last writeup so long ago, so here we go:
The Specialists teamed up with their archrivals to defeat Skymaster and his Armada. Skymaster's raids were curtailed, and the stolen Balaclava hasn't been seen in a year.
Skymaster had allied with Dr. Ohara, a Japanese sorcerer, in an attempt to gain control of a Haida nexus to the land of the dead. The Specialists defeated the plot, but Ohara, who had an ancestral grudge against the family which had founded Vancouver's Japantown, was far from finished. Determined to destroy everything his enemy had created, Ohara incited the Asian Exclusion League to violence, and Vancouver nearly tore itself apart. However, the Specialists managed to keep a lid on the situation and eventually, with the help of a mysterious crimefighter named the Ronin, they confronted Ohara at the Japanese war memorial in Stanley Park. Meant to commemorate the Japanese who died fighting for Canada in the Great War, Ohara used it as another spirit nexus. He summoned the ghosts of the war dead and tried to persuade them to wipe out the Japanese population of Vancouver, however Kando Rimi, managed to argue persuasively against this, and swore an oath to protect the city's nisei and issei population. This turned the ghosts against Ohara, who swallowed him up and sucked him into the memorial for all time.
Crusher's purchase of the local wrestling promotion met a wrong turn as, Dr. Queller, tired of Crusher constantly being hypnotized and turned against the Specialists, performed surgery on him to make him immune to hypnosis -- which ended up nearly destroying his brain. Crusher wandered into the wilderness, where the spirits arranged for him to meet three opponents in the mythical Golden Ring, the arena of the Platonic ideal of wrestling. Crusher won the bouts, and was restored to full health. Reinvigorated by his exposure to perfect wrestling, the agreeable Quebecker left on a world tour and has become one of the biggest wrestling stars in the world.
Kando Rimi fought a final battle against her enemy Yukio, only to discover it was an illusion planted in her mind by the Japanese psychic girl, Mai. Recently she's become more involved with the Wraith, who's become more active in Specialist affairs, and she's also concerned by the appearance of Major General Yoshiro's son, who's out to avenge his dad.
Jack's life has largely been unchanged, except for the presence of his ex-wife, and by Sylvia Flute, the secretary of their old enemy Culpepper, who (having been freed from the sanitarium) is now running for the office of the mayor of Vancouver. Sylvia's revealed that Culpepper is a front for Baldwin aviation and Garnett Enterprises; if he becomes mayor, he'll arrange for sweetheart deals that will give the Specialists' American rivals control over much of the city's waterfront real estate and industrial parks.
Knuckles was finally executed, only to be revived by the necrullytic process and its mysterious Egyptian doctor. Knuckles left the city to take control of the doctor's East Asian crime network. Knuckles left another necrullitic lieutenant behind to do his dirty work -- Dr. Hell, once Canada's leading criminal psychiatrist, now a necrullitic fiend who has been developing gasses that cause people to experience intense emotions.
One of these gasses triggered a freak use of Jack's powers that mentally projected Jack and the Wraith into the nightmare world of 1947, where Canada was occupied by the armies of the Continental Republic, a fascist America that, under President Charles Lindbergh and Vice President Ted Garnett Sr., had allied with Japan and the Nazis. Jack learned that it was the murder of Billy's rival, Ted Garnett Jr., that had hardened a hatred of Canada in Ted Sr., leading him to found an anti-Canada movement that led to America's conquest of the entire North American continent in the Second World War. Armed with this knowledge, Jack prevented the Clockmaker from murdering Ted, which would have set off this terrible timeline.
However, Dr. Hell is still at large, obsessed with destroying the Specialists, especially Jack Roscoe.
The Wraith has been very active lately, fighting bizarre criminals like the Ghoul, the Tarantula Woman, and his archenemy, the Scream. His personal life was disrupted by an old army buddy who discovered his secret. Stealing the Wraith's suit as part of a scam, the phony Wraith was captured by Vancouver's criminal underworld, who held an auction to assorted parties for the right to kill him. Fortunately the Specialists freed the Wraith's friend and recovered the suit.
Billy regained his boxing license and returned to the ring. His pugilism comeback has been successful, while (in the absence of Skymaster), the Rocket Brigade has been largely inactive. Billy finally got his long-awaited boxing rematch with Ted Garnett and beat him, however the arrogant American rocketeer accused Billy of cheating; in the ninth round, Ted was knocked down after he was distracted by a young girl who appeared at ringside - a girl who was a dead ringer for his long dead sister, Ivy Garnett.
A Haida spirit elder has declared that the fate of the world depends on Billy and Ted being able to reconcile their differences and strike up a friendship, unfortunately their mutual dislike is extremely strong.
Most recently, the Specialists received an SOS from their friend Kristina requesting help. A journey to Japan seems quite likely, however Dr. Hell on the loose, Culpepper may soon become mayor, and one of these days, a certain German countess is certain to reappear.
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Re: Underworld Enemies
Welcome to the wonderful world of Chris Avellone (who went on to write little things like the computer games Fallout 2, Planescape Torment, and KOTOR2).
If you liked Underworld Enemies, go to the online store *NOW* and order the PDFs of New Bedlam Asylum and Widows and Otphans.
And, you're welcome. :-)
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Re: Native American Supers: Post Your's Here
Just as an aside, there's a reasonably hefty section on Canadian First Nations in the 5e Champions of the North, including a couple of chartacters inspired by folk stories.
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Re: Gestalt of the Week
A new Halloween-friendly Gestalt of the Week is now up. Enjoy!
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Re: Why do you like to play Super Hero Games?
Where can I find this?It'sa famous quote. When asked what jazz is, Armstrong said: "Man if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
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Re: Why do you like to play Super Hero Games?
I loved superhero comics, and when the opportunity came to play a game where I got to create siuperheroes and live out their lives, I couldn't wait to sign up.
Beyond that, see Louis Armstrong's answer to the queston "what is jazz".
Champions Of The North
in Champions
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Re: Champions Of The North
Which is up there now.
I'm not especially comfortable talking about reviews -- I've seen too many authors go stupidly ballistic over them -- however I do appreciate both of you sharing your opinions in a public forum. (Whether I'd be less appreciative if the reviews were more negative is a hypothetical question that I'll weaselly avoid answering. :-)