Steve

Re: H-League Heh. I am reminded of the villainess that showed up in one of the first issues of DC's Young Justice comic book, called Mighty Endowed. After gaining her powers, she was apparently so well-endowed that she promptly fell on her face and couldn't get up.

If your character ever sat down and played an RPG, what sort of character would they want to play? Would they play fantasy, sci-fi, or something else? On a side note, have you ever had characters play games within the game? I'm not talking RPG's necessarily, but even something like Chess or Risk.

Re: Channeling Past Lives If its reasonable to the player to establish that the character has only a limited number of forms to work with, like 8, then the power could be built as Multiform with 8 forms, each with their own skills and abilities, then you could apply a cost divider such as used in Fantasy Hero, such as 3 or 5. If they have an unlimited number of past lives they can draw upon, then the VPP options for Multiforms would be your best bet.

Re: Adding value to COM This actually makes quite a bit of sense to me, and it follows along the lines of how Reputation works. Perhaps when 6th Edition comes out, COM can be reworked to have more of a game effect and perhaps could be broken down into some kind of effects categories. For example, a butterfly, a sports car, or a gemstone can be beautiful, but so can a supermodel. Better defining the traits of things in terms of what their beauty means would be an improvement over the current bland structure of COM. Can someone be beautiful without being sexually attractive? Would you give COM to a painting or a work of art? At what point does COM induce a fascination effect in others? It would give a richer feel to this characteristic to better define it in terms of categories, especially for those of us who are esthetically-challenged when it comes to describing things.

Re: Goofy hero names that you still love I once played a martial artist character I made up waaaayyyy back in 3rd Edition Champions. His name? Captain Karate (which should be said with a lot of pride, maybe with some reverb and echo for best effect) Well, I was only a teen at the time, but I still remember the name all these many years later.

Most often used in humor campaigns, but they also show up from time to time in regular campaigns and teen champions sorts of campaigns. Heck, even Gotham City had the Condiment King, and he fought Robin and Batgirl. So who are your campaign's most memorable goofy villains?

Re: Supers without costumes Thanks for the suggestions given. The group I am playing with has never done any sort of superhero gaming before or reads comics, so my thought was that taking the explorer/adventurer concept from other genres and bringing it over into the modern day might be a good way to introduce a world with superpowered people and adventuring possibilities amidst it. I will probably be making good use of both Champions and Dark Champions to a degree, and I anticipate a strong Bronze Age/Iron Age feel coming out in the playing.

I am putting together a campaign write-up to pitch to my group about doing a superhuman-based campaign, but one without them being 'superheroes' with costumes. The idea suggested itself to me while I was reading the comic Planetary. I like the idea of the Planetary Foundation as a basis for adventuring, and I was wondering if anyone else had ever done such a campaign. What are the advantages and disadvantages you have found in doing superhumans in a superhero world who aren't costumed heroes, just adventurers who happen to have superpowers?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... This didn't happen in one of my games, but I heard about it from one of the participants in the exchange. The group is trying to come up with a plan to deal with a problem. Player #1: I have a plan. Here's what we should do. Player #1 lays out his idea and Player #2 keeps shooting it down. Eventually, the two start talking at their end of the table, leaving the rest of the party to do other things in the meantime. Then the group suddenly hears... Player #2: I have a plan. Here's what we should do. Player #2 then lays out the exact same plan that Player #1 had. Player #1 wanted to kill him at that point.

Re: Social "Combat' and "Duels"

Re: Alien Wars: Before hyperdrive, there was... You know, that's not a bad idea. While it has the rubber science feel of Star Trek to it, it would be a fair way explain how you could have human colonies way off the beaten track and far beyond what the 21st-22nd century technology would allow for. I could see them as a real downside to hyperspace travel, since they could probably rip the guts out of a hyperdrive by creating some sort of subspace eddy or even a kind of gravitational riptide.

Re: Clarke's Third Law as basis for fantasy campaign All good suggestions. Before the war happened, everyone was able to communicate across the planet by sending intelligent avatars of themselves that were formed of masses of nanites or teleporting. Once the power went off, the only ones that could still do this were those on the council, when they could spare the power. Most of their power is tied up with trying to deal with the other faction, doing things like firing energy weapons from orbit on enemy positions or dropping satellites on them. Since they also have shielding technology, there is a stalemate going on. The rest of the world is basically low fantasy now that the power is off, but ancient proscriptions built into the system still prevent such things like gunpowder or explosives from working. You get a dull thump and that's about it, so it's back to sword and spear work to kill the enemy. One of the characters in the book is a reenactor of a 20th century marine gunnery sergeant, since he feels that the American marines were an improvement upon the discipline and lethality of the Roman legionaires, and he is one tough bastard. There are also semi-sentient creations known as homonculi, which can appear fully human, kind of like the replicants from Blade Runner in ability, in addition to changed humans. Before the Fall (when the power went off for most of the populace), people went in for all kinds of whims in changing themselves, so you could imagine if there were fantasy and science-fiction fans like those that exist today, can you imagine the variety of forms they would choose?

This idea came to me as I was reading a new book called There Will Be Dragons by John Ringo (who I picked up because I've read some of his military SF stories). Good stuff. Basically, in this story, it is some two thousand years in the future, and mankind is free from want, living in a post-economic society, where nanotechnology, advanced bioscience, weather control and teleportation technology enable it all to function. The only form of 'government' left is a council of thirteen people who essentially control the mostly autonymous system, each possessing a Key that enables them to vote for any changes done to the world. Such is their power that they can send self-aware avatars of themselves out into the world to speak to others and gather information. Most are content to let humanity play and dream, since humanity is able to rewrite themselves as well as the world around them. There are even 'elves' in existence, remnants of much earlier genetic work, immortal and beautiful. However, there is a factions in the council that sees work as being necessary to the human condition, and that it should be forced on humanity instead of them freely receiving the bounty that these advanced technolgoies offers, so a war breaks out between the two factions on the council. One of the things that happens is the power gets shut off to most of humanity, forcing people who have depended on this advanced technology to survive. The story actually focuses on a group of people who do historical reenactments of medieval times (basically RenFaire), who find their little community and skills vital to survival and rebuilding the world, since the war among the council's factions is keeping them busy. The faction that started the war is even using bioscience to resculpt any refugees they come across into loyal, less intelligent forms, for use as laborers and soldiers (orcs?). I am considering using this world as a template for a 'fantasy' world, and I was wondering if anyone else had used a high technology world as the basis for one. With genetic modifications, elves, dwarves, merpeople and even dragons can exist, AIs can function as 'gods' and local spirits, and 'wizards' are essentially programmers who use coding shortforms and passwords to coax changes to the world using the computer network that controls the planet, even the weather. I am looking for suggestions on how to set this up so that it really is different than just being a fantasy campaign with the underlying engine renamed from magic to technology.

Re: Sex as a skill Uh, Breakfall? That's an interesting choice for the list.

Re: Sex as a skill

Re: GateCrasher Hero Well, not that I am an expert in IP law, but you made a request that you be contacted to obtain a license (like you did in the message I commented on), and it seems reasonable that would imply a fee of some sort in the transaction. I have no connection at all with either the game or the site in question, so I was simply commenting on the words you used in your message and the general tone of it. I had no idea what you were asking for beyond that, since I could only go by what you actually said. If you consider that presumptuous, then so be it.

Re: Sex as a skill Susano, you used a KS: "Arts of Pleasure" on your Escort Synthetics in Kazei Five. Isn't that what you are describing here?

Well, UNTIL watches over the whole world, PRIMUS is American, and the Tiger Squad covers China. What other countries have their own super agencies? Has anyone created a regional PRIMUS counterpart for a country like Japan or Russia? What are they like?

Re: Stargate Hero Speaking of Stargate stuff, is there a Hero write-up anywhere of how to do a Replicator? I figure they are all built with a form of Summon - another Replicator, built using available materials. A creature with Summon that can call forth more creatures with Summon as well would seem to fit their setup. Anyone written them up in Hero?

Re: Magic-Noir (Pulp?) Hero You might want to check out the movie Cast a Deadly Spell.

Re: What Do You Want To See?: DC: The Animated Series I would like to see suggestions for how a DC:TAS GM can use powers and disadvantages to replicate the genre, how it differs from straight Dark Champions in the inclusion of more four-color elements and low-end powers. I would like to see detailed suggestions for how to establish a colorful rogues gallery for a costumed hero, creating memorable costumed villains with plenty of repeatable use. The new edition of Dark Champions mentioned a few new names, such as Anagram and Serpentine, and I hope to see write-ups for those as examples. But I would also like to see the return of old favorites such as Penny Dreadful. But even more than that, I would like to see DarkAngel return, and for her to be used as the example for a DC:TAS sort of character and campaign. Perhaps a FRED write-up for her as a starting heroine at 250 and then a more experienced version at 350 or maybe even 450, to show ways in which she has grown and changed as a crimefighter over her career. By using her as an example, I would like to see how to weave a hero and their rogues gallery into a city's urban mythology. Does DarkAngel stick to the shadows and get treated as some kind of urban myth? Or is she more open in her crimefighting? Does she have fans, and how does fandom affect a vigilante crimefighter? Are there webpages or fan clubs for such heroes? How does the press treat her?

Re: Odd Champions campaigns I've always been interested in trying one of the "super societies" sorts of campaigns, like with everyone from Asgard or Mount Olympus. Anyone ever been in a campaign like that?

Re: Your father is WHO?! Well, the pairing of Firewing and Viperia was certainly an interesting notion. It's kind of funny to think of the arrogant Firewing as Viperia's boytoy, since she could pretty much bounce him around the planet with one hand tied behind her back.

This thread was originally inspired by my reading through Arcane Adversaries, specifically the write-up for Adrian Vandaleur. Now, knowing he has an eye for the ladies, I was wondering what sort of child would be produced with him getting together with another immortal, such as Cateran from CKC. After all, she's been around for over 350 years, so perhaps they bumped into each other somewhere in the world. However, I started to think about other possible parentages out there. For example, does Dr. Destroyer have any children? The man's been around for decades, and he's likely had a few mistresses in that time. Would he want to kill any children of his, so they could never threaten him? Use them as pawns in his plans? If they showed great talent, would he treat them as his heir apparent? Or Menton. He picks up and discards beautiful women like they were kleenex. So he probably has more than one child out there in the world. So what sort of surprising father (or mother) figures have been used in other campaigns?

Re: GateCrasher Hero I'd love to hear more follow-up on how the campaign is going. One thing that might be interesting for a long-term issue for the campaign is Istvatha V'Han, the Empress of a Billion Dimensions from the Champions sourcebook Conquerors, Killers and Crooks. She seems to have her intertemporal empire arranged in a feudal setup, so perhaps the PCs could run across some of the very lowest rungs of her sprawling empire. Admittedly, the concept borrows a bit from the tv series Stargate SG-1 in a few ways, but it could make for an interesting long-term enemy organization. Alternately, perhaps you could combine the idea of the System Lords from the SG-1 series and lower powered versions of Istvatha, to form this competing hierarchy of interdimensional conquerors. It could be interesting.