Pól Ruadh

Re: Lucha Libre Hero Plot Threads Unfortunately, as I understand it, the guys who manage El Santo's estate are extremely cautious about licensing due to some bad experiences early on, and if anything, Blue Demon's representatives are even moreso. For mine, I'd like to see a good range of luchadors and menaces across a wide variety of power levels and genres, but I'd also like to see a legacy of masked justice, skill and honour as well.

Re: The Mentalist Wrestler Priceless. This character is an awesome idea and would be great in a LLH game. For one thing, it's an entirely new spin on the traditional brick/martial artist wrestling hero.

Re: Lucha Libre Hero Plot Threads Ah, looks like the word of the nefarious, El Typo. I hat that guy. HAT? DAMN YOU, EL TYPO!!!

Re: The Mentalist Wrestler ...or a Sleeper Hold.

Re: Lucha Libre Hero Plot Threads I'm pretty sure what the LL stands for, but what's the C?

Re: "Hull? I can't be in Hull!" El Aguila Azul isn't averse to hard work, and he'd certainly have no problem getting labouring jobs (until the depression hits... gotta sock away money for Black Friday). As a former professional wrestler, he'd be able to work the carny circuit, if nothing else, doubling as a strong-man and acrobat and working the wrestling tent. "Who amongst you can survive five minutes with the IN-credible MASKED MAR-vel! Step right up, gents, c'mon y'don't wanna look like a sissy in front of your girlfriend there..." Of course, in those days, pro wrestling was still seen as a legitimate sport, and the top ranking guys like Ed 'Strangler' Lewis and Frank Gotch were making good money out of it. Of course, working a travelling carnival is great cover as it allows him to move from place to place, scope out the locals and put paid to any ne'er-do-wells he meets along the way before moving out the next morning.

Re: Advice on building a brick character Nicely played, that man. heheheheh. I like the idea that in his nonpowered form, he's a suave, stealthy catburglar type, and, when he's powered-up, he's this unstoppable juggernaut with all the subtlety of a rock through your window. Unfortunately, this had led me to the thought that the best way to do this would be to rebuild the character from the ground up with a multiform. That way, you're not doing a lot of minor tweaking which, if you're looking for something easier for new players to wrap their heads around, would probably work better. Does mean a bit more work, though.

Re: Campaign/Character Hook Twenty years ago, Professor Genome, a mad geneticist, hatched upon a plan. Every time, every damn time, they stopped him... those 'heroes'... couldn't they see that he and they are on the same side. I mean, sure they FIGHT crime, but he was looking at destroying the SOURCE of crime... anomalies inside the human brain. THEY claimed he was trying to make people into mindless zombies... HAH! What do THEY know? He was trying to set humanity FREE! Free of their petty jealousies and hatred! Free of their prejudices and distrust! A clean, pure humanity, a race of superhumans! So he decided to show them. Show them exactly what they were 'protecting'. Following his last successful jailbreak, the Professor went into hiding. There was evidence that he was gathering an incredible array of materials and ingredients, but all trails led to dead ends... finally... less than a month later, the Professor appeared on the front steps of Police Headquarters, asking that he be taken back into custody. When asked what he had been doing and where he had been, he replied, "We'll see, shan't we?" He refused to say any more. From then on, he'd been a model prisoner. Waiting. Biding his time. What he had been doing was building a slow-acting mutagen which would give a person superhuman powers... a mutagen he then introduced to a number of maternity wards around The City. If society deserved saving, then those babies born twenty years ago would have grown up in peaceful, happy surroundings. They would be noble, cheerful, well-adjusted. If society was inherently good, then surely, it would produce 'good people', who would use their powers for the benefit of their fellow humans. If, however, the Professor's theory was RIGHT, and there WAS something horribly wrong with society, then these superhumans... their abilities keyed to activated twenty years after their initial exposure... would be cruel, arrogant, vengeful, greedy, self-involved. If they became a plague upon humanity, well then, humanity had only itself to blame. Genetics may load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.

Re: Pulparize It!

Re: Help me Flesh Out Shutterbug Shutterbug is a great name, but really, I'd theme him up less as an independently wealthy man of leisure and more as a crusader type. Basically, he uses his powers to expose the villainy that hides itself behind a veneer of respectability. Maybe the military group which built the suit took kickbacks from contractors who cut corners resulting in the accident which created him. You go from a character who's a pretty straight up crimethumper to a superhuman investigative photojournalist/snoop, dedicated to exposing corruption. I'd increase his sneaking abilities and add a bunch of recording devices which he can use to record incriminating evidence. Maybe add a suite of powers which allows him wireless access to nearby security cameras, and jamming devices to defeat security systems. This specializes him as a guy who's more of an investigator/prowler type.

Re: Scott Heine - Protectors Nice to see the new designs. I always liked The Protectors, and kudos to Scott for his design sense. Some excellent costume designs there. When I used him, I always had Silverfist wear pants to hide his cybernetic shame. Just my thing, I guess.

Re: New team on the evening news Winning the war on evil isn't anything any one person can do. If these guys want to help, then good on them. They get the benefit of the doubt. Of course, if they turn out to be shady, well, they give everyone a bad name.

Re: Raptured If the balance between good and evil is shifted, then El Aguila Azul must do what he can to right that balance. If that means tracing the scoundrels behind the event, something he's not really equipped to do, but hey, if some sorcerous type or superscientist wants to recruit him, that's fine by him. If not, he'll keep the fight going, helping the innocent and soundly trouncing the wicked, providing an example to the good people of the city that, while evil may look as though it's winning, good isn't done fighting yet!

Re: Change of Fortune El Aguila Azul is used to living on the cheap, however, as he was raised in an orphanage, they could probably expect a sizable anonymous donation in the near future. He'd probably also put a passel of cash into local projects to improve the neighbourhood he's currently living in - Homeless shelters, local clinics, youth centres. There's lots of people who need money more than he does.

Re: Is this Dark Champions or Regular Champions? Both. It's also 'Saturday Morning Cartoon Hero'. One of the nice things about universal systems is the ability to take bits and pieces from different genres. "Dangit, Thundarr, you got fantasy hero in my post-apocalyptic hero!" "Dangit, Ookla, you got post-apocalyptic hero in my fantasy hero!" Thundarr the Barbarian. Two great tastes that go well together.

Re: Is this Dark Champions or Regular Champions? I don't see a hard and fast dividing line. I tend to run a Champions game, but I have always found Dark Champions to be a tremendously useful resource as it allows me to mix up the tones and themes of adventures a lot. It's neat to be able to go from fighting aliens to biffing the mob, and it's nice to remind the capes 'n' tights crowd that there's a world full of normal people who have problems of their own which don't involve giant radioactive dinosaurs. For example, issues of Spider-Man where our hero stops kicking the hell out of Doc Ock or hanging out with the Avengers to help deal with a gang war between rival organized crime groups. Alternately, you can have a gun-toting vigilante who normally only sees superheroes from a distance as they fly overhead interrupt a weapons deal only to discover the weapons in question are armoured battlesuits, or alien slime molds, or killer robots. This is neat in the the hero has to use his head to defeat an opponent which he can't just take out by filling it fulla holes. For example, the issue of Batman where he interrupts a weapons buy only to end up having to take on Amazo, the android with all the powers of the Justice League. With a character like Batman, I can't just say yeah or nay on where he stands. Because one of the strengths of Batman is his versatility. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love stories where Batman's all dark and urban vigilante, but I also love the stories where he's pulling the ol' James Bond gag and doing the international man of mystery thing - jet-setting and dealing with global terrorism and intrigue, and I love the stories where he teams up with his league buddies, Green Arrow, The Flash or the Atom to deal with an arch-villain's diabolical scheme to (dun dun dah) TAKE OVER THE WOOOOORLD!!!! So yeah, when it comes down to it, I gotta go with my man, Zippy the Pinhead. The question isn't, "Is this Champions or Dark Champions?" But "Are we having fun yet?" And if the answer is Hell Yeah, then great.

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation) El Aguila Azul was raised in an orphanage run by the Catholic Church. He would contact his mentor, Father Ruiz, formerly the crimefighting luchador El Aguila Sagredo and arrange to join the nearby mission. If, by chance, a mysterious, superstrong and bulletproof masked man should happen to show up the next time the soldiers are in town, well... who knew?

Re: A montage of El Santo clips I love the story from 'Mondo Lucha-a-go-go', one of the best resources on lucha libre as a phenomenon ever where the writer is talking to a Southern California-based local wrestling promoter. He asks the promoter who his favourite ever is and the guy answers "El Santo" without hesitation. "So how often did you see him wrestle?" "Never, he was retired by the time I was watching wrestling." "So, your favourite luchador is a guy you've never actually seen live?" "Dude... It's SANTO!" Oh yes indeed, El Santo is The Man.

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? You'll have to remember, though, that Jean also had that whole TK/Force wall Backlash thingie that had Sue Storm fainting anytime a fly landed on one of her force fields (not that she had them by 1963, but you get my drift).

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Yep. Like every single martial arts or action movie you've ever seen. And while we're at it, I should mention that Jackie Chan and Jet Li's fights are choreographed, too, and the outcomes are predetermined. Oh yeah, and those bullets that John McClane uses in 'Die Hard', totally fake. And you know those robots in Star Wars... guys in suits. Hate to have to break this to ya.

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Speedsters. Because so much of their powerset tends to rely on game mechanics. It doesn't HAVE to, but as someone who doesn't tend to quantify distance in a game except for the whole "He's standing about 20 feet away" general description, speedsters usually end up being a little dull.

Re: Help me get into Bricks.

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever?

Re: Campaign: Classic Champions Universe

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? Honestly, this is the kind of idea that really comes from a lack of creativity. There's a lot more to a memorable and interesting character than a power-set, or looking at them as a bunch of stats. One of my favourite characters ever is Wildcat... whose superpower is that he's a boxer. So Angel can fly and buy stuff, so that means he'd be useless as a character in a superhero RPG? Yeah, 'cos the short hairy Canadian reeking of sweat and cigar smoke is gonna get you into the swanky party at the Latverian Embassy. 'Cos the guy with exploding playing cards is gonna catch the DNPC falling out of the helicopter. A great RPG character is more than just an anonymous bunch of stats, and a great comic character is more than just the sum of his superpowers. A bit of creativity goes a long way.