GestaltBennie

Re: Who's still playing and when? I'm going to try to run the last couple legs of Demonflame this week, possibly Wednesday night at 10 pm PST. Final details on SG calendar.

Re: More City Books I'm hoping one day for a Babylon sourcebook.

Re: Would your hero register his Secret ID with Primus? Thundrax is Canadian, so no. Though he's registered under the Canadian system and works with and for the RCMP and UNTIL. (He's also helped provide sponsorship and sanctuary for a few Americans and French escaping the more draconian aspects of their countries's reg systems).

Re: VIPER help needed. I would expect the Serpent Lantern info to be superceded by what happened in Champions Online. In al likelihood, it's safe to treat it as destroyed in canon, though if you wish to ignore it (or have Nama make a replacement), that's certainly reasonable. There's no VIPER for 6th edition. If we go by the "new VIPER book every ten years" paradigm established in 4th and 5th edition, expect one in 2013.

Re: Champions Villains for 6th - help me decide. Tilingkoot is original to CotN. Kigatilik is mentioned in CotN, but fleshed out in CO, and Steve's added his own take on the character.

Re: Champions Villains Volume 3: Solo Villains PDF In Store Well. That's a *lot* of villains. And I remember back in the old days when Rob Bell had qualms about the page count on Classic Enemies.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See? I'd like to see info on the various galactic "worlds" such as the Galactic Martial World, the Galactic Mercenary World, the Galactic Religious world, etc. What races are likely to become mercenaries? Are there any infamous mercenary companies that might come to earth and wreak havoc? Alien arms traders who'd be happy to help those snazzy green-clad insurgents with their "small local conflict", as long as VIPER pays their price? Any weird galactic cults eager to send missionaries to earth to convert us (with a telepathic nudge, of course) to their true faith? I'm expecting to see info on what the man on the street knows about each of the major races, and how alien contact in general has impacted us as a species.I'm also interested in seeing whether superhumans know more than the general public, and also what the aliens think of *us*. It's possible that the Malvan broadcasts of earth superhumans have done *interesting* things to our reputation.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See? Okay. A preliminary list of questions. EARTH SPACE TECH 1. How far has manned spaceflight proceeded? Have we landed on Mars? 2. How extensive has exploration by unmanned spacecraft? Have we gotten any unmanned bases set up on other moons, asteroids, plutoids or planets? Have we gotten to any other solar systems? 3. How extensive is space industry? Is there private industry in orbit yet? Have we gotten any solar power collection stations in orbit? Are we mining the moon or asteroids? What companies are the major players? Is Franklin Stone trying to become king of earth's orbit? If so, what's stopping him? 4. How close are we to building a beanstalk to orbit? Or launch cannons that shoot payloiads from earth surface to orbit? 5. What does a current earth rocket or spacecraft look like? How many space stations/labs are there in orbit? 6. What work is there for a superhuman in space development? Are there any superhumans closely associated with the space program? Any super space hermits/mountain men who took off for a lifw away from earth? ALIEN PHYSIOLOGY 1. Are the species compatible with humans for the purposes of producing offspring? Naturally? No, but with minor gene splicing? No, but with major gene splicing? Never under any circumstances? 2. How compatible are the species with human medicine? What penalties to skills would a human doctor need to treat them? What are the side effects of a failed roll? 3. Physiology. If they have blood, what color is it? Do they have special diseases they're vulnerable to? ALIEN CULTURE 1. How advanced are they in robotics/cybernetic inteegration? Computers? Biotech/nanotechnology? 2. What are their plans regarding eatth? 3. What aspect of their culture would humans probably consider the weirdest or most disturbing? What aspects of our culture do they consider weirdest and/or most disturbing? 4. What reasons would a member of that culture have for becoming a superhero on earth? A supervillain? 5. What rivals do they have on the galactic scene? Allies? Enemies? 6. How would you conduct trade with this species? What items or services do we have that they would consider valuable? 7. What are considered virtues in the culture? Vices? What's the profile of an ideal person in their culture? Who are their renegades? What are the crimes of their culture? Do they have slavery? Piracy? 8. How much do they know about magic? Extra-dimensions? 9. What does a typical human know about them? What is their reputation in the superhuman community? If they're unknown (I'm looking at you, Hzeel) why hasn't ironclad spilled the beans about them? GENERAL 1. What are good areasof the known galaxy for a GM or player to come up with homebrew cultures? What are questions that anyone creating a homebrew should be able to answer to integrate it into other cultures of Champions Beyond? Looking foeward to this a lot. Kann Karoth needs more background on the Star*Guard!

Re: The Secret History of BlackWyrm Revealed I can assure people my fixation with Elvis is quite healthy.

Re: The move to FTP Personally, I think it's happening too soon and this spells the death for significant new content in the game. I also wonder how hard it was for players to deal with the power structure, as "I'm confused on how to make a character", for all of the complexity of its character scheme, was never high on the list of complaints I heard. However, I'm looking forward to the zone revamps, and I know, with Cata., SWTOR, DCUO and GW2 on the horizon, that 2011 would be a hard year for existing MMOs to compete.

Re: Hey Kids -- Comics! And... I did a couple of my own. They're my first attempt to do comics since I was a kid, so be gentle. Warning, major Demonflame spoilers. https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzHmfdC4jXPpYTNkMzY1YmUtMWJlYy00MDY3LWFjY2YtMWI4YjhhZmU2Yzdl&hl=en&authkey=COmCqc4B https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzHmfdC4jXPpZDhjMjNmMGEtOGQxNi00ZmRhLTk0YzItNzI2MDA0NmM4Y2M4&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Re: Demonflame Info is Up Thanks Hermit. The actual AP is out now. And it's pretty good. Vibora Bay Crisis levels of quality. They put a lot more care and polish into the storytelling (and decent voice acting!), unlike Serpent Lantern, and the boss battles are more challenging than usual at the higher settings. Now they just need to get the content out a little faster. And hopefully give us an updated Bloodmoon next week.

Ur, *is* up. Sorry. http://www.champions-online.com/demonflame Triailer looks nice. And the adventure pack is finally on PTS (play test server).

Re: Gestalt: Architects of Change: What Would *You* Like to See At this point, still waiting on art. It's also increasingly looking like we'll need to convert over to 6e, as Hero understandably wants third-party books to be compatible with the current edition.

Re: Champions Villians Book I pdf now available in hero online store Steve mentioned a pair of Cryptic created villains in the Futurists, LL. Unless my fuzzy brain is betraying me again.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker? This was a rewrite of Seeker's background that I did on the forums about five years ago, which kept most of the core of the character while jettisoning some of the things that I thought were dated and inconsistent. Add a bit of combat Luck to his sheet and he's good to go: ---- His name was Don Morgan and he was Melbourne's own best boy, a cocky, athletic Australian who was one of the superstars of Aussie rules football. Handsome, rugged, and flamboyant, his meteoric rise to fame and wealth had come in his late teens, before he was ready to handle it. He had everything: the house, the women, the friends, the bank account, the fame, and (after a few years of sowing his wild oats), a beautiful wife and a handsome baby boy whom he always figured would grow up to be a dead ringer for his old man. Everything. Then a series of misfortunes struck, and they struck him hard. His father died of cancer. His high school best mate, an accountant whom he trusted more than anyone else in the world, embezzled most of his fortune. His house burnt to the ground. His club traded away many of their best players, and Don was blamed for their subsequent decline. The press made unfounded allegations about an affair. Finally - worst of all - Don's wife and child were killed in a fluke car accident. All within the span of six months. Don, the golden boy's golden boy, discovered that his Midas touch now turned everything to ashes. He experienced a nervous breakdown and spent a month in a mental hospital. The therapists did their best to help him put the pieces of his life back together, but they concluded that he was too much of a perfectionist. He was used to everything being perfect. He couldn't cope with less than perfection. Don ignored their conclusions. The problem wasn't that life wasn't perfect, it was that life was a cruel, incomprehensible joke. After leaving the sanitarium, Don found himself unable to return to his old life as an athlete. Perhaps he could have gotten a menial job and survived in the working world, but that didn't appeal to him either. For a man like Don, even after being battered to the point of becoming a near automaton, the everyday world was not for him. Don left Australia to wander Southeast Asia, doing odd jobs to survive. First he worked as a sailor, then bought his own boat and hired out as a smuggler. Don didn't much care what happened to him. In Singapore, he made the wrong enemy, and it nearly cost him his life. A gang of Malaysian thugs were sent to kill him. However, one of the people that Don had worked for was Lin Woo, a displaced Shaolin monk. Something in Don's spirit had impressed the monk, and when he heard through the grapevine about Don's imminent demise, he decided to intervene, and he jumped into the fray and defended him from the killers. "Why?" Don asked the monk after the fight. "Why waste your time on me?" "Show me one man who is so perfect that he does not waste a few hours of his life," the monk answered. "And I believe the appropriate response is 'you're welcome'." The monk felt that it was his duty to mend Don's spirit as well as his body. Lin took Don in as his pupil, and did his best to teach Don Morgan the ways of the Shaolin. Despite his initial resistance, Don slowly grew to like the man, and over time he finally accepted him wholeheartedly as his mentor. Some say that a Westerner cannot master the ways of the shaolin. Lin always believed that belief was arrogant hogwash. Don became the living rebuttal of that argument. Don was strong, he was fast, he was tough, and as his training disciplined him, he became more determined. After two years of intense training and travel, Lin Woo and Don Morgan finally sealed their friendship with an evening of confession. Lin spoke of a forbidden love with the sister of the master of the Green Dragon order that forced him to flee from China. Don related the death of his wife and son, and his subsequent breakdown. He asked his mentor to explain why the tragedy had happened, why had his family had been taken away, and "what good is life if life can be so bloody short and uncertain?" "I don't know," Lin Woo answered. "No one knows the answer to that question. However, the difference between those who are alive and those who are walking dead is that the living seeks the solutions to life's most challenging mysteries, the hard questions. At that moment. Don Morgan vowed that he would no longer be counted among the ranks of the walking dead. He would be a Seeker. Having mastered his mentor's shaolin style of martial arts, Don wandered the globe, searching for his answer. Believing that he would best find it in martial philosophy, he studied many other forms of martial arts, from Japanese karate to West African sub-styles of capoeira to Icelandic glika. He also studied history, philosophy, fine arts, religion: Don was a driven man. However, study did not bring Don any closer to his answer. Two years after leaving the monk's care, Don landed in North America for the first time, Under the skyskrapers of Manhattan, Don became a bystander in a fight between the Justice Squadron and Mechanon. For the other bystanders, the fight between these modern day gods was a nightmare, but for Don, it was an epiphany. Surely, in a world of superheroes, the mysteries of life and death would best be explored by participating in the conflict between superhumans, would they not? The meaning of life might be a mystery beyond the ability of humans to grasp... but what about superhumans? He had to become one of them. With his typical flamboyance (like many jocks, Don had always been somewhat lacking in modesty), Don put on a bandana and some karate pants, and called himself "The Seeker". He fought petty criminals and a few martial arts supervillains. He learned about the importance of dodging gunfire. And he discovered that helping those in need felt *very* good; it was a better feeling than anything he'd ever known, except for the love of his family. He could have kicked himself for not becoming a hero sooner. When the villains began to take notice of him, Don realized that it'd probably be a good idea if he joined forces with a capable team of heroes. After a chance encounter (accidentally slugging each other in a bar fight) with James Harmon, Seeker was inducted into the fledgeling Champions superhero team, where the Seeker soon became a valuable and respected member (although the media quickly shaved off the "The" from his name. Lazy bastards). Don still seeks the answer to his question, he's still learning new fighting styles, and he's still training mind and body to endure trials yet to come - he's determined that no tragedy will ever break his spirit again. In the meantime he fights crime (including the star pupil of his mentor's old order, the modern Green Dragon) and helps those who need a champion. It's a bloody wonderful life.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. That's beautiful Storn. Thank you.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker? If one goes by the game mechanics, particularly compared to 5e Destroyer, it's hard to think of any of the Champions who are a physical threat to Dr. D. Fiortunately, heroism doesn't always pay attention to game stats.

Re: The Certified Serpent Lantern Review Freon's been nerfed, and Draconis is now the hard boss of the AP, though the Serpent gave us a pretty good whomping when Albert and I did the final section a few days ago. SL is repetitive, but if you play it in chunks, that's easy to live with. And it really shines with a 5 man team on the higher difficulty settings. It's great that it's versatile enough to be soloed and teamed, and feels iike very different playing experiences when done both ways. The writing and story set-up could be a lot stronger -- which is true of CO in general -- but even with the grind, I find it's a lot of fun.

Re: How do you use The Champions in your campaign? I generally use them as Millennium City's big team. They've been minor players, except in the VIPER playtest campaign, where one of the PC agents was Sapphirre's stalker.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! They are. The new tights pack is easily my favorite DLC that Cryptic's yet produced. Hope we get more like it. Nifty designs, especially Supreme. Nice to see some traditional looking heroes who aren't rip offs.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! They are. The new tights pack is easily my favorite DLC that Cryptic's yet produced. Hope we get more like it.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker? My Champions would be a six person team consisting of: Defender (6) Ironclad (5/6) (I finally came around to liking the big lug.) Solitaire (4) (I like Witchcraft's power set more) Sapphirre (5/6) Seeker (4) Nighthawk (5) with Kinetik and Dr. Silverback as reservists, and Quantum as an ex-member who occasionally makes guest appearances. There would also be Gauntlet, a young hero that uses the Team Defender gimmick from CNM, as I really liked that too.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! Thundrax's new costume: Other views:

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker? I'm going to be the voice of dissent here and say that I thought there was absolutely nothing memorable in the character designs of Defender in 4th or 5th ed. Despite the talent of the artists involved, he always visually came across as a 3rd rate Iron Man clone. Even Marvel's Guardsman had a better design. This is one of those cases where I say "screw common sense". If a more tights oriented design worked for Jim Hudson's power armor, it can work for James Harmon. The 6th edition design of Defender looks far more iconic without being a blatant copy of an established hero. Sure, he looks more like "superhero leader" than "power armor hero", but given he *is* a leader, the visuals are telling the appropriate story. Now whether Defender's elevation to "leader of the world's greatest hero team" is appropriate and whether his treatment in the MMO appropriately reflects that status is a much different debate, because I don't think it does. However, I do think his visuals are much improved over past editions in reflecting the most important role of his character. It's true that his personality of "stalwart leader who's driven by a sense of duty and family tradition" is pretty stock. but there are enough quirky characters in the Champions that Harmon's personality provides a good contrast with the other members of his team and explains the Champions' longevity -- Harmon's the glue that holds the team together. Not everyone *should* be the quirky guy. And not every character needs to strike that special chord with you. Harmon would normally develop in play, as a character in a comic, or in game by a player. I certainly wouldn't mind playing him, but I often enjoy playing characters that other people have ridiculed -- playing both Seeker and Nighthawk at cons were great fun and far from one dimensional once I got my teeth into the characters and brought them to life. Some characters do need actual play to bring them to their full potential, and others that are amusing on paper fall a little flat on the gaming table, especially when their quirks have hemmed in their development and people have gotten tired of their schtick. The play's the thing.