Vulcan

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others My next game looks like it's going to be a military game. Originally I was going to use Spycraft/Stargate rules, but I've gotten my players to agree to try using HEROS...

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others I rather liked 3.5...

Re: Your character's theme song would be? Kurgan had the best one. "Gimme the Prize" by Queen

Re: You Are President! Oh no! An evil overlord just got elected President!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my "Legends Reborn" D&D game: The PC's enter a prison dimension where the 'inmates' have been confined for many thousands of years. As they enter, the first two inmates look at each other in a quick wordless exchange of brief expressions and and raised eyebrows. Alkyr the wizard makes a knowledge roll to identify the half-snake inmates, and gives a quick briefing to the party. Leon, a thug fighter, asks, "Are these things telepathic or is that just meaningful glances?" Alkyr *gives Leon a meaninful glance.* Leon: "Right."

Re: Your character's theme song would be? Thread necromancy must be Bubba's primary hobby... Vigilwould either be 'Paint It Black' by the Rolling Stones or 'Du Hast' by Ramstein. Both fit him so well. Siberian Tigerwould appreciate the humor of using 'Stray Cat Strut.':D Or for a serious choice, 'Primal Scream' by Motley Crue. Redline would go with Motorhead's version of 'Cat Scratch Fever', 'cause he's got it pretty bad... For Dante it would be one of the the two songs that inspired me to make the character - Queen's 'The Show Must Go On.' For any villian: 'I Want It All' by Queen.

Re: You Are President! Too bad we can't get that passed in real life!

Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character I was idly playing with HeroDesigner making a speedster that I couldn't come up with a name for. Then Headlong by Queen came on the radio...

Re: US Government's reaction to superhumans Oh, yeah. With damage like that cropping up, the military is going to be called in. Although at such a high point level, I don't know how much good they're going to do. Bioweapons perhaps? Certainly if they ever nail one down they're going to study him to pieces - literally.

Re: Does your character keep a journal? I've done it once, with Vigil. Even took to tape-recording the sessions so I could get everyone's dialogue straight. It started as more of a 'keep track of the plots' thing (our GM likes to keep five plots hanging over our heads beyond the one we're actually working on), but somewhere it turned into a full-blown exploration of the character and his mentility. In the end, I think I played the character a lot better for it.

Re: Multitarget Abilities Two things about Beholders (at least the classic D&D variety). First, they can use all their eyes at once, any eyes that can bear on a target. So EC's & MP's are pretty much right out. It's a big MPA that, by special effect, can target multiple opponents. If you feel that is too much for the FX, add a +100 point power 'can target multiple opponents with MPA's.' This relates to my second point: They are almost always NPC's. So figuring out an efficient point build isn't necessary. Give it all of the powers you want it to have straight and let the points fall where they will. Just make sure not to overwhelm your PC's, Beholders are nasty in D&D. The HERO version could be nastier... keep it's OCV a point or two below the campaign average DCV to counter the large number of attacks it will make.

Re: Ship-Flipping for Evil Bricks Superhero genere, not superrealistic genre. We're talking about a normal-sized guy who can lift thousands of tons, for christ's sake!

Re: Martial Arts in Superheroic Games No, the amulet does not give martial arts. Just superpowers.

Re: What happens when a new GM doesn't understand game balance Obviously they are still relatively newlywed (within the first 5 years). After that, the husbands wise up and buy a more comfortable couch. Since the other benfits have dried up by then anyway in most cases.

Re: Super Transportation It's not as bad as you think. Sure, the experemental and developmental models had some pretty unplesant accidents, and some handling issues. But that is only to be expected when developing a whole new type of aircraft. How many early aircraft crashed in the first 20 years of powered flight? Thousands? How many helicopters crashed in the 30's as they were being developed. Hundreds, certainly. Loosing a dozen test aircraft (most due to mechanical failure in these same experemental models) ain't that bad. Look at it this way: There were 2 XB-70's built. One crashed. That was in a 2-year flight-test program (as I recall). The V-22's have been in development for nearly 20 years while they iron out kinks in the systems. The accident rate over that entire period isn't all that bad. It's become a matter of bad press more than anything else. Like when those F-117's crashed in the late 80's just after the Nighthawks went public. Suddenly "the whole program was riddled with flaws and bound to fail because the basic airframe was aerodynamically unsound." At least, that's what the press said at the time. I not the F-117 still serves today, and will only be phased out of service as the USAF version of the Joint Strike Fighter comes online. The current V-22 is a viable military aircraft, which means it meets a reasonable level of ruggedness, reliability, and simplicity.

Re: Songs that inspire(d) you to make a Champions Character "The Show Must Go On" by Queen and "I Would Do Anything For Love" by Meatloaf combined to inspire my demon-cursed mage Dante.

Re: Martial Arts in Superheroic Games Can't argue with that. Although I had defined the amulet as a 'personal' focus, at least in that it would only work for a student of Tiger style Kung Fu. Still, it would be a pretty hot item on the magic black market!

Re: The Addams Family I vaguely remember that... at least, that Gomez was a mortician, anyway. I don't recall the other bits though.

Re: No Horses For You I stand correced. GW just released a new line of Cold Ones, and they are indeed modeled on raptors. The figure in the picture is a great example of what they look like now. They look a heck of a lot cooler than the previous versions!

Re: You Are President! A character doesn't even have to be elected to become president. In our game, the president was killed in a big metahuman attack. The VP stepped up, and brought our resident social b*****d billionaire PC on to fill the VP slot. He agreed because he had dirt on her to get her to step down... So a (now retired) PC is set to become president without ever facing election. And since it's still late 2006 in our game, he's waiting for Feb. 2007 to make his move so he can run for two more terms.

Re: Ship-Flipping for Evil Bricks Why do people assume that to flip a ship over, you must push up from underneath? Two other types of forces flip ships in real life. First, lateral forces applied to the top of the ship push the top sideways. Once the center of gravity moves beyond the ability of the ship to right itself, it will flip itself over. Second, forces pushing down can flip a ship as well. That's why cargo ships are carefully balanced when they are loaded. If the weight (which is a measure of the force of gravity pulling down) of the cargo is all on one side, the ship is going to tilt to that side. In an extreme case, this can flip a ship all by itself. In practice, both these forces usually work together to flip real ships. Uneven lifting from below will (usually) only flip small boats that run up onto an obstacle. Large ships tend to crush obstacles long before they are flipped over. The 'bracing' issue is more problematic from a realism standpoint, but then again we're talking about super-powered beings. The very idea that a human-sized being could lift hundreds - or thousands - of tons in the first place is just as unlikely. So let the villian use his flight or swimming to do it, if it results in a more interesting story.

Re: No Horses For You That's not a standard GW Cold One, that's a raptor of some sort! The Cold Ones are a lot chubbyier and don't have the killing claw on the foot. I'd love to know who makes that mini! As far as the Totem Animal idea, I think that's really good. Of course, the Terror Bird tribe is going to have a rough time against the Rhinocerous Tribe...

Re: How flawed is your Super? That's the question being asked. "Just how flawed a character are your usual characters?"

Re: Ship-Flipping for Evil Bricks It all sounds reasonable to me.

Re: Ship-Flipping for Evil Bricks