GestaltBennie
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Posts posted by GestaltBennie
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Originally posted by Starlord
Finally, I think it's about time that Champions got it's friggin' act together and paid homage to the whole huge-worldwide-criminal-organization-with-snakelike-motif idea. Well?!?! When's that gonna happen, HeroGames?!?!
I'd love to work on a project like that!
Scott Bennie
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In a battle between Destroyer and Doom, Destroyer blows Doom to smithereens, only to discover that he destroyed Yet Another Doom-bot. The real Doom, watching on one of his millions of video monitors. chuckles and sets off the autodestruct device in the place where Destroyer and faux Doom just fought, making a pithy statement about "amateurs" as the button clicks.
But Zerstoiten isn't dead. Old Albert digs himself out of the rubble, and makes a vow to get revenge by laying waste to everything Doom loves (ie. Latveria), and marks it down on his calendar.
Thus the whole cycle starts over again. And somewhere out there, a pair of cosmic entities who've made a wager on the outcome, squabble over who really won that encounter.
They're all just a bunch of big, snarling children in tin suits. :-)
Scott Bennie
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I'd say Foxbat steals the ball and replaces it with a giant ping pong ball with Foxbat's picture on it, and tries to dron out "Auld Lang Syne" with the Foxbat theme song (use the old 1960s Batman theme, but replace "Batman" with "Foxbat").
Scott Bennie
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This is a case where genre and the real world have a distinct disconnect. The comics' vision of the UN is very Silver Age, it's a very 60s idealistic body, the bright shiny hope of humanity taking its natural next step toward unity and enlightenment.
George MacDonald's original UNTIL reflects this idealistic attitude. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, George's love for 60s and 70s Marvel is obvious in his work, and when he created UNTIL in the early 1980s, it predated a lot of the dissatisfaction that American nationalists have expressed toward the UN over the last few decades.
Scott Bennie
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Prior to becoming a diabetic, I would have said... Chocolate Hero!
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Re: Champions Genre Book worth the Cash?
Originally posted by GrooveD70Hi all!
Im trying to get a Champs game off the ground and Ive been using the FRed, Until SPD, CkC, and the UMA. While these give me a lot of material to work with, my biggest obstacle seems to be players new to the Superhero Genre and Hero in general. Character Generation is quite a hurdle to say the least. I was wondering if anyone who owns the Champions Genre book could comment on how this book might help me and any other benifits before a decide to shell out my hard earned Skrod.
Thanx
Lonnie
I like the Champions Genre book a lot, but from wha you're saying. I'd t ake a look at the UNTIL Superpowers Directory first.
Scott Bennie
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For those interested, one of the few VIPER reviews to date was recently published recently at the link below.
http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=797
An excerpt:
" ...VIPER doesn't waste any time on gravy; it just keeps on spooning out the main course like a grandmother who hasn't seen her grandkids since last Christmas, swearing the whole time that they're too skinny."
Scott Bennie
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Steve pretty much sums it up, but if you're looking for an example, the "Stars of Blood" scenario in Digital Hero #5 which deals with the classic "Superheroes Get Kidnapped And Are Forced To Fight In An Alien Arena" scenario, was written as a trial run. The Villainy Amok scenarios will be a little more generic than Stars of Blood, but that'll give you an idea of what to expect.
I've also been tinkering with a detailed random scenario generator, and if I (and Steve) are happy with it, you'll see it in the book too.
I'll also post a "What would you like to see..." thread for Villainy Amok when I'm getting ready to start the book. The suggestions that people gave on a similar thread for VIPER thread were invaluable, and I definitely want this to be as useful as possible.
Scott Bennie
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Originally posted by Lord Liaden
I'm pretty sure that Dennis Mallonee has the rights to Red Rapier (he's used the character in his "League of Champions" comic series), and Steve Long mentioned to me that Lionslayer is still Scott Bennie's character. Don't know about the others, I'm afraid.
If I remember correctly, rights to all characters in Villainy Unbound belong to their original creators.
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Why do I have the feeling this pageant would turn into a four way brawl between the exalted Ms. V'han, Gravitar, Scorpia, and Viperia? :-)
'Twould be amusing.
Scott Bennie
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Omega (foul mouthed 20-year-old uberbeing(w/magic powers variable pool)/brick): He goes to the building immediately, and shouts "why wait, let's do this now!", interspersed with an accusation that involves a less than euphemistic word for chicken droppings, until something happens.
Stuntman (handsome but pragmatic tough guy super in his early 30s, nearly impervious to pain). Helps the other Hollywood Knights infiltrate the alien craft just before the fight, getting Jerayla's spaceship ready to use as an escape vehicle in case the aliens kidnap the Terran champions.
Thundrax (teenaged boy scout teenaged boy scout brick). Shamus says this situation's too big for them. Thundrax rolls his eyes, but follows his team leader's lead and sits back to watch whatever happens on television.
Johnny (minor league superhero leader, marginally superhuman martial artist, a normal with a few luck powers). He contacts the appopriate big league groups to discuss the situation, probably comes to the conclusion that Dr. Destroyer or the bad guy equivalent is the best candidate, then goes off to persuade him to fight for humanity.
Pan (as in Peter Pan, exiled from Neverland), decides that the challenge sounds like a great adventure and flies off to meet it. Fortunately his teammates intercept him, grab him, and bring him back to the Academy.
Scott Bennie
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Re: What would your character do...#12?
Omega (foul mouthed 20-year-old uberbeing(w/magic powers variable pool)/brick): After the WTF moment, he'd ask her whether it was good for her. Given the strangeness of the situation, he might peer backwards in time to see how it happened. He always uses his powers as a painless spermicide in this situation. If she's a minor criminal, he might let her go, otherwise he'd arrest her on the spot.
Stuntman (handsome but pragmatic tough guy super in his early 30s, nearly impervious to pain). He puts on his pants, arrests the partner, calls Athena and asks her if she can figure out what happpened, then returns to the Hollywood Knights mansion to endure ribbing from teammates and gossip with Ricochet.
Thundrax (teenaged boy scout brick). He starts by freaking out at losing his virginity, then he starts looking for cameras, because he assumes this is almost certainly a set-up for a Brotherhood blackmail ploy. He immediately, informs Shamus (SUNDER's team leader) of the situation.
Johnny (minor league superhero leader, marginally superhuman martial artist, a normal with a few luck powers). First he'd see if there's any chance he can persuade the villainess to reform, or immediately attack if he slept withs an archenemy such as Scorpia. After that's resolved, he calls his faithful butler Alphonse for a discreet lift home.
We won't do (Peter) Pan on this particular dilemma.
Scott Bennie
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The Clutch was VIPER's psionic specialist development project, which didn't make the final cut into the book.
Scott Bennie
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The write-up probably reflects the earliest versions of Lung Hung; there weren't many skills in the first three editions of Champions.
And trying to model the skills of someone who's been active for centuries is almost invariably a nightmare.
Scott Bennie
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My old PC VIPER campaign group specialized in blackmail, but ran a bingo parlor on the side.
Boy were they mad when Black Harlequin replaced their bingo balls with his special exploding sleeping gas balls. :-)
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VF-1 is a victim of the Dragon Branch downsizing. It's a pity; I always loved throwing them up against my PCs in the old SUNDER campaign and they produced some memorable battles. If I hadn't wanted to get them into print, I would never have been involved with the original VIPER book.
As for VF-2, check out VIPER-X's writeup.
Scott Bennie
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After using Nighthawk in my games, I've begun to warm to him., and oddly enough the Nighthawk Agent Fantasy/Agent Reality sequence in VIPER also helped crystallize what I liked in him. (No one's going to make "Where's Dynomutt" jokes about the Nighthawk in the second picture.)
Much the same thing happened with me and Seeker. I was very cold on him initially, but when I had a chance to work on the improved version in the original Champions Universe, I found myself playing with his plot hooks and I came to like him very quickly when I had a chance to see what stories he could generate.
There *are* a finite number of names out there, but I've never bought into the argument that this is a license to be intellectually lazy. You don't want to "cross-thread" a character's identity with an established character. especially in work for publication (unless you're deliberately doing an homage). Published superhero RPGs should do their best to stay clear of the names and visuals of prominent comic characters; in fact, I changed Juggernaut and Cobra's names in Classic Enemies for this very reason.
For me, "Nighthawk" is o borderline case, the Squadron Supreme chsracter's prominent enough for me that it takes a little mental adjustment to disassociate him from the Champions character, and that's unfortunate. But Marvel's Nighthawk was never one of the big leaguers, and enough time has passed since his published heyday that most people probably won't have a problem with this.
Scott Bennie
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Well, I saw the Raven mirror episode and it was not too bad. Maybe it'll pick up from here..
Scott Bennie
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Mono, I was wondering about the Silver Age VIPER villains we mentioned (Cottonmouth, the original VIPER-X, Fatalla. etc.) Or is the doc meant to cover only contemporary villains?
Scott Bennie
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Whern I last ran the Champs U., my Champions were Defender, Nighthawk, Sapphire, Witchcraft, Kinetik, Ironclad, Seeker, and Doc Silverback.
Scott Bennie
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Well, I got my author's copies yesterday, and I'm very, very happy. Andy and Allen did a fantastic job with the layout - this looks as solid and professional as any Hero product I've ever seen. The artists did a fantastic job; some of the grey scale art didn't reproduce as well as I'd have liked, but for the most part, the illustrations are well above the standard of the 1993 book. Storn's grown tremendously as an artist since that book (I love the armory section, there's some really impressive pieces there), and I think I've gotten a lot better at asking for an art list that illustrates and supports the text. The chapter headers, the weapon and equipment illos, and the agent technical drawings go a long way toward supporting a serious mood for the agency.
My chief complaint? It's pretty silly, actually: too many of the pictured male VIPER personnel have goatees. Yeah, it's trivial, and understandable (it's the sort of thing that accidentally happens when you have a lot of artists working independently on the same project) but it can interfere with the individual brand of a character, and that's unfortunate. I guess subconsciously everyone's trying to look like the Supreme Serpent. You have to love those cults of personality. :-)
I think I hit about 90-95% of my goals for the project. The campaigning section looks a little small, (my fault), and it would have been nice of we had room for a few more agent templates. But overall, I wanted to do a book that was noticeably superior to the 1993 book and which meets the current Hero standard, and I?m confident we did that. Thanks go to everyone involved, especially to Steve, who was a pleasure to work with.
Scott Bennie
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Good luck QM. Come back anytime.
Scott Bennie
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Erik Roman's posted a few pieces of his VIPER art here, for those who are interested..
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75474
Nicely done, Erik!
Scott Bennie
1000 Point JLA Campaign
in Champions
Posted
Here's one that some may recognize from his PBeM. Edited to remove a dubious EC and fix a power
Scott Bennie
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Omega
Player: Scott Bennie
Total Character Cost: 999
Disadvantage Points: 115
Base Points: 200
Experience Required: 684
Total Experience Available: 685
Experience Unspent: 1
Background/History: Omega is the great grandson of David Champion, a being fabricated like a Frankenstein monster from pieces of angels, devils, and man by a mad scientist at the turn of the 20th Century. After terrorizing Europe for twenty years, the horrors of World War I prompted David to settle down, so he moved to America in 1920, eventually settling down on a farm in Milford, Nebraska. Three generations of farmers later, Tommy Champion was born in 1982 to Bradley and Rose Champion. Tommy's childhood was rocked with tragedy: his older brother died when he was two, and a sister died in infancy when he was five, and his parents' marriage was an unhappy one.
As a boy, Tommy was nearly uncontrollable. A smart student and a gifted student, he rarely took direction from an adult without a fight - the only people to whom he ever deferred were his grandfather Thomas (a retired World War II hero who inspired Tommy's trademark "potty mouth") and his dad. Neither were strong disiciplinarians; his dad felt that the best way to become a man was to sit back and let the world discipline you, while his grandfather enjoyed watching his namesake raise hell. And Tommy *was* a hellraiser, whether it was blowing up stuff around the farm with his cousin Buck, pulling practical jokes on his teachers, or terrorizing his other cousin, Steve Doerksen.
Tommy hit puberty early and hard. In seventh grade, he looked like a handsome tenth grader, and he'd already turned to his two favorite pursuits: amateur wrestling and womanizing. He excelled at both. It was a good distraction from home life, which had turned into a soap opera. In eighth grade, an auto accident resulted in the death of his aunt and uncle, and his cousin Buck suffered permanent brain damage. Buck and his two sisters were brought into Tommy's home to stay. Unfortunately. Tommy's cousin Cynthia developed a sick crush on him, and when Tommy rejected her, Cynthia cried rape to her brain damaged brother, who responded by nearly killing Tommy. Tommy's mother tried to have Buck committed, but Tommy sided with his cousin and protected him by pointing the accusing finger at his mother. This was the final straw for Tommy mother; she promptly abandoned the family and hasn't spoken with her son since.
All of these were dramatic developments in a teenager's life, but the most dramatic was yet to come. When Tommy was In 11th grade, his entire world changed. One day before school, while finishing up school, he was hit by a bolt of lightning. He was in a coma for weeks, but when he awoke, he had powers. He was superhumanly strong and tough, and had the ability to alter reality with a thought.
It was also (though he was not to discover the truth for years) one hundred years to the day that David Champion was born.
The idea of becoming a superhero never occured to Tommy, he'd never much cared for the "capeboys" growing up, and it was more fun to make peoples' lives miserable by using his powers to make them miseranble. After six months of terrorizing the locals, a supervillain called Soulkeeper appeared in Omaha, attacking City Hall and demanding a huge ransom for the mayor's daughter. When Tommy told his friends - the few he hadn't driven away - that he could kick Soulkeeper's butt, they dared him to do it. So Tommy flew to Omaha and did it. This public victory garnered him national attention and a contract as a Nike spokesman. Tommy's attitude immediately gave him a reputation as a "bad boy", but after seeing in action, no one could deny his ability or determination, and over time the values that his father had quietly instilled into him began to show. He became dedicated to protecting innocents, even though he still enjoyed fighting villains and tormenting petty criminals. He fought the worst villains that the world had to offer: the Black Priest, Autocrat, Mindshadow, Echelon. He sired an illegitimate son when he coerced sex from the supervillainess Bandita, watched a demon-possessed vampire murder his high school sweetheart, was trapped for months in an extra-dimensional prison, had his casual drug use exposed on national television, and lost his powers for a few months and tried to reinvent himself as a vigilante.
Omega's life has been nothing if not interesting or tumultuous.
Presently, Omega's adjusting to the restoration of his powers and a new position with the world's premier superhero team, the Protectorate. He also has to deal with the revelation that his archenemy, an immortal 2000-year old sorcerer known as the Black Priest, helped to create David Champion a hundred years ago as part of a master plan to invoke A rmaggeddon - and Tommy's existence is somehow critical to his master plan.
Personality: To put it bluntly, Tommy's an egotistical jerk who experiences occasional borderline psychotic episodes. Having said that, there is a heroic heart at his core, and he likes to do the right thing. But he also likes to have a good time, and that involves woman and violence. As some football players put it "IU get to hurt people and it's legal." Tommy has a simiular motivation, though he'd rather terrify and humiliate an opponent than cripple them. He's a barely repetent schoolyard bully who's found an appropriate venue for his favorite pastime.
Nonetheless, there are limits to what Tommy will do under normal circumstances. The idea of killing troubles him, though he has no Code vs. Killing. Tommy is firmly on the side of the angels; with powers such as his, he's finding that he doesn't need a lot of wealth (not when you can create your heart's desire with a whim), but he still likes his fat Nike contract. Tommy's got an insecure side, and tends to bond with others - both male and female - a bit more strongly than is healthy for him. He's extremely protective of family and friends, and many villains know this and have tried to use this weakness against him.
Quote: Hi gang, Omega's in town. I'll let you know when you can stop gaping in %$#@#$% awe and start breathing again."
Powers/Tactics: Tommy's the magically supercharged superhuman great grandson of one of the most potent (and portentious) mystical beings in human history. Like the other descendents of David Champion, Tommy was at the peak of human potential even before his powers kicked in; now he's one of the most powerful superhumans on Earth, a living magical battery of almost unmatched magical strength. The angelic portion of the Champions family line affords him special protections against black magic. The diabolic portion manifests itself in the tragedy that often besets the Champions family line. The Champions family genetics is extremely strong (most recessive genetic traits are dominant) and any offspring of a Champion who reaches superhuman levels (as at least two others have done) is virtually a clone.
Tommy's a physical powerhouse, and knows it. and enjoys it. Against bricks he likes to use his magic pool to boost his strength (typically by about 20 points of Density Increase) and slug it out. A gainst less macho opponents, he likes to use his Magic Pool to see if he can't win by subterfuge or cleverness.
Campaign Use: Tommy's a PC in the Titans of Tomorrow campaign. http://members.cox.net/titansoftomorrow/all.html
Appearance: One of the world's most famous - and familiar - supers, Tommy is a strapping twenty-one year old cornfed Nebraskan powerhouse who's been bronzed by the California sun. His costume is a form-fitting spandex bodysuit, red with gold trim. He's been compared to a lot of people, but the one that's stuck in the popular media is "Brad Pitt in tights".