Lady America - MSH

So I've decided that I will post the occasional member of the Zenith Universe fir my Mighty Super Heroes hack of Marvel Super Heroes (FASERIP).  The reason I am doing this is because first I make (very little) money by selling heroes and villains for other systems and secondly because I cannot sell characters for MSH legally but I REALLY want to share these characters with you!

Note these characters will be build using my House Rules which you might want to take a look at them to understand the differences.

So without further ado, let's get down to business!

Let's start with the character sheet.

Art by Oliver Castaneda

Name: Lady America
Secret Identity: Amanda Reese

Attributes
F: Am(50) A: In(40)    S: Ex(20)   E: Rm(30)
R: Gd(10)  I: Rm(30)  P: Ex(20)

Statistics
Popularity: Uy(80) Resources: Ex(20)
Health: 140 Karma: 60 Initiative: +7 (+12 in Melee)

Powers & Equipment
Armour Cloth Suit – Ex(20) protection vs. FORCE and Ty(06) vs. ENERGY

Talents
Acrobatics
Guns
Martial Arts A – Slam & Stun regardless of comparative STR/END
Martial Arts B – +1CS Fighting Unarmed
Martial Arts C – +1CS STR for Grappling & Escaping, +1CS Agility for Dodging
Martial Arts D – Ignore Body Armor for Slam & Stun
Martial Arts E – +1 to Initiative
Martial Arts F – +1CS damage, HTH can be Edged
Martial Arts G – +1CS Dodge, -1CS Damage
Martial Arts H – +1 Attack after 1 Round
Martial Arts I – +1CS to Recovery FEATs and +1CS vs. Slam & Stun
Martial Arts J – +1CS to Evasion FEATs
Martial Arts K – +1CS to Blocking and vs. Slams & Stuns
Master of the Martial Arts
Military
Quick Striking – +1CS on Multiple Action FEATs and +1 Initiative
Thrown Objects
Thrown Weapons
Tumbling
Wrestling

Positive Quirks                 Negative Quirks
Benefactor                         Attitude: Hard Ass
Fame                                  Duty
Fighting Logistics              Enemy: Überfrau
Reputation                         Nightmares
Static                                  Personal Code: No Man Left Behind
Quick Learning                  Zealot: America

So there she is, in all her glory, though there are a few things that need to be explained as well.

She has a Negative Quirk called Nightmares (which I made up) and it requires her to make a Psyche FEAT, Yellow result or better, with a -2CS each night.  If she fails this roll, she does not sleep well and suffers a blanket -1CS to everything the next day.

Her Duty is to the Government of the United States of America and specifically to the Oval Office from where she takes her marching orders.

Her enemy is Überfrau, whom she has sworn to one day bring before the courts to be held accountable for her atrocities.

This ties into her No Man Left Behind code, which requires her to make a Psyche FEAT to leave an injured ally on the field of battle.

Lastly she is a Zealot for the ideal of America and American values.  She is no fan of corporations and bankers, but she would require a Psyche FEAT to go against the orders of the President.

Roleplaying Lady America is essentially 1 part John Rambo, 1 part Ellen Ripley and 1 part John Wayne.  She is not a hokey icon like Captain America is so often portrayed.  Unlike him she lived through the years and changed with the times.

She is a relentless hard-ass who treats everyone like they are in the military primarily because she has been for over 70 years, but she is loyal as hell and will never give up on an ally.

Well there she is, maybe next time I'll bust out a piece about the one time she had powers.  In the meantime please let me know what you think in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Whimsy Cards and Mighty Super Heroes!

Okay I refuse to let the only writing I do today be that self-indulgence from earlier, so here is something I have been working on since last week and wanted to get done.

As recent readers know I am going to run a heavily house ruled version of Marvel Super Heroes from TSR that I have rebranded Might Super Heroes, because I am oh-so clever and MSH.

On top of creating my own Colour Chart for use in the game, since I changed the ranks a wee bit and use the Blue Result after years of resisting it, I wanted to add in something that has been a staple of my gaming for years.

Whimsy Cards.

I first encountered Whimsy Cards in TORG, a game I loathed, but the cards really sang to me.  Years later I saw an article in an RPG APA I was part of on how to adapt these cards to WEG's Star Wars game (remember how much I love D6?).  Well that just showed me that I could adapt them to MSH easily as well.

So I did.

Over the decades (literally) these cards have mutated and changed.  I've added, removed and adjusted cards until I got the set I now use for MSH, though I've made them for almost every system I have ever run.

Without further ado here is how they work.

• Each player has a hand of 5 cards.
• Only 1 card per player can be played per round.
• Instead of playing a card into action, the player can choose to play it into their pool.
• Pool cards can be played at one time, breaking the 1 card per 1 round rule.
• Cards are only replenished at the beginning of a new scene, though do not replenish unplayed cards in a pool, they count towards the player's hand.

Pretty simple right?

The cards themselves are an eclectic mix of adding bonuses here and there, giving a karma boost or the all-powerful subplot cards that allow for very specific in game effects.

Without going into too much detail, the cards are pretty much self explanatory, though there are a couple of Subplot Cards that have a * on them which means there is more than what is written on the card, due to space limits.

The Mano-A-Mano card says; "You and a single foe gain +2CS vs. each other until the end of the fight." but more so there are 2 more rules that you can choose to add.  The first is that if anyone attacks either of you, other than each other, the bonus ends, breaking the one-on-one dynamic.  The other rule is that if the opponent you've played this card on also happens to be your Nemesis (from the Quirks) the bonus is raised to +3CS.

The Master Plan card says; "Pick up the last card played." but a more practical rule is to limit the Rally card from being allowed to be picked up.  The Rally card lets the players discard as many cards as they want and draw new hands.  I have seen Master Plan, Rally, Master Plan, Rally events happen and it is a tad abusive.  Your mileage may vary.

The Self-Sacrifice card says; "Your hero dies so your allies can escape." which is great, but I also give that player's next character 200 bonus starting Karma, just 'cause.

Again the rest of the cards are pretty self-explanatory so I encourage you to give them a read.

I have put a zip file of them here in sheet form for your usage, with a card back that has my custom colour chart values, but these cards can be used as is with rules-as-written MSH, so no worries there.

Cheers!

System Mania!

So as those of you who have been following this blog know I plan to release villain roster books for BASH Ultimate Edition, ICONS and Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition.

I had hoped to do Villains & Vigilantes, Champions and a couple of others, but in the end they either never got back to my request, or I didn't like their licensing deals.

But...

You also know that I plan to post up Zenith Universe heroes for free on the website, so there need be no licensing issues as I believe it falls under the provisions of "fair use".  Please correct me if I am wrong on this one.

So what systems would you like to see heroes statted up in?  The above three are a given, plus V&V and Champions.  I was also thinking 4C and SAGA as well.

Any others?

Cheers!

Mighty Super Heroes! or Excelsior! ?

This is the question.

I have promised to do a retro-clone this year of MSH Classic (FASERIP for those who remember) in response to my feelings on 4C. Yes I wasn't very impressed.

Now over on Grognardia there was some talk about MSH Classic today and I posted about this. Naturally I posted about my plan to do this and how I wanted to call it "Mighty Super Heroes!" Get it? M-S-H?

Anywho, an upright citizen named Delta reminded me and everyone that Marvel and DC hold the trademark on the term "super hero". Now while I don't fear that they would come after me for a "free" project, nonetheless anarchist (yes I see the delicious irony in that) suggested calling it "Excelsior!" instead. I like that too.

So what do you think folks? What are you thoughts on title?

Comment please :)

To Public Domain or Not to Public Domain.

In my preparation for this campaign, I have managed to score permission to publish roster books or heros and villains using the BASH! system (I also intend to make versions for Superlink M&M and possibly 4C). This has allowed me the freedom to pour over the volumes of old campaign documents I have collected this past 25 years, as well as scour the internet (what did I do without it for all those years?) for inspirations as well.

Imagine my surprise to find this;

Public Domain Superheroes!

Yes a public domain heroes (and villains) wiki.

This site is fantastic and it focuses on the concept of heroes & villains who have not had their original copyrights renewed and as such have lapsed into the public domain.

Many are surprising, such as the original Blue Beetle (no not the Charlton one that DC now owns) as well as interesting characters like the original Wonder Man (and Wonder Boy) and such luminaries as Captain Atom (again a very specific early version).

For those who have read Project Superpowers or Terra Obscura, you have seen how these characters can be used, updated and even modernized a wee bit.

The tricky part is the trademark stuff. You have to be careful not to seem like you are trying to confuse people into thinking yours is the same one being published by DC or Marvel or whomever. That said, it seems to me that despite the fact that a lot of the modern copyright laws were modified to protect Mickey Mouse, the end result is not that DC or Marvel would think I am trying to pass off my Blue Beetle as their Blue Beetle, but instead that they simply have large law firms and I don't.

Still with some cleverness it can be done. For example on the original Blue Beetle;

"After his father was killed by a gangster's bullet, young Dan Garret joined the New York Police Department, but he soon tired of the slow pace and red tape of police work. He donned a blue three-piece suit and a white mask and established a costumed identity, fighting crime as the Blue Beetle. He had no powers, but he used a gun and a wrist-mounted mini-radio to get an edge on the criminals he was fighting. His calling card was a small beetle-shaped marker that he left in conspicuous places to alert criminals to his presence, using their fear of his crime-fighting reputation as a weapon against them."

See the a comic page here!

Now to me that is a much more interesting Blue Beetle than yet another spandex clown with super powers. I like the Dick Tracy aspects of this guy. Your mileage may vary, of course.

So I continue to ponder this topic and see where it takes me, but I must say that I am intrigued. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the matter.

Zenith Comics Presents: Ultimate Guardians

Well the die is cast and I am underway working on my Ultimate Guardians campaign. There has been a lot of enjoyment in my mind of working out various things and such.

The question of system is still up for debate (my declaration of BASH as a winner earlier may have been a bit premature) and it seems the old FASERIPer is in the running, but maybe as 4C. I will know as soon as I start to write stats down.

I have also teamed up with my buddy Longbow from the Super Buddies forums and he has started doing some art for me in the Bruce Timm style from the DCAU.

The first piece up is my old favourite, Lady America;

This is an old costume of hers and not her final look for sure, but it was nice to see her come to life in the first costume I ever designed for her!

While she isn't a Guardian at the start of the campaign, she will be an ally of them team.

The characters (no art yet) are as follows;

Galvanos - A Japanese Robot in the Shogun Warrior style controlled by a handicapped Japanese youth.

Max Plastic - A smart mouthed former-crook-turned-hero who can stretch and shape himself into almost anything.

Kestrel - An angry young mutant with the looks of an angel. His temper is legendary.

Traxx - A speedster who embraces all the traditional stereotypes about speedsters.

Zero-G - An ex astronaut turned superhero with power over gravity itself. A southern gentleman.

Arrow - A soldier/archery expert with hand-to-hand skills to match. He is secretive about his past.

Cascade - A mutant aquatic woman form Australia who studies marine biology and is at best a relunctant hero.

Now the game will be set in Capitol City, which I am going to do an big overhaul of. I am going to make it sort of a Chicago of the East, more on that later.

The big trick to the game is this. All the characters are from the older campaigns I have run, but this time it won't be the player who made them playing it. For example, Galvanos' player won't be playing Galvanos, etc... Really shaking it up.

More as it develops