seneschal

Even the dog-sized ones would be dangerous. I had to ask because my old dinosaur books showed Dimetrodons in the swamp with no sense of scale and Saturday morning cartoons usually made them at least as big as a Chevy sedan. Crocodiles and lions are a good benchmark for the threat. Hope if my PCs encounter one it'll be early one rather chilly morning.

I like the write-up. How big were the things?

Well, those kitchen redecoration ads popping up in the Cthulhu boards did generate some interesting campaign ideas ... Potency pills? Eek! I try to keep my campaigns G- or at least PG-rated.

But one man breaks his bonds to pit his courage, his strength, and his fabulous sun-sword against the forces of evil... "Ariel! Ookla! RIDE!!!"

Finished reading two volumes of vintage Batman. I was wrong. Batman does have his utility belt by 1944 but he uses it only once in a blue moon. Punches, kicks, head butts and flying tackles are the order of the day. The Batmobile is fast (and has a giant bat head on the front bumper) but no trick gadgets yet. Alfred the battling butler made his debut in 1943. He was the son of Bruce Wayne's father's butler honoring a bedside promise to his dying Dad to go to America and care for the Wayne family. Alfred -- at his debut a short, portly, comic figure -- was determined to do so whether Bruce Wayne and his ward wanted the help or not. The Dynamic Duo had been living on their own for four years but their new butler took over the household in short order. Alfred was reading a book on how to be a detective and, in bumbling fashion, managed to help the Caped Crusaders on several occasions before accidentally discovering the Batcave when burglars attempted to rob Wayne Manor. It was after a vacation in 1944 that the butler acquired his more familiar look -- slim and mustached. He'd spent his time off at a health resort. Somehow, the exercise added several inches to his height as well. For the time being, however, he remained the comic but occasionally helpful sidekick. He wouldn't become the cool, super-competent, sarcastic servant for a few more years. Modern snarky questions about Batman and Robin's relationship are answered by a 1944 story in which scheming relatives take Dick Grayson away from Bruce Wayne. The pair really are Dick's aunt and uncle, but their intentions are dishonest. The tale makes it clear that Wayne and his ward share a deep father-son affection -- unlike more modern interpretations where a cold, emotionless Batman specifically tells Robin, "I'm not your Dad." In the Forties, however, they're going on recreational outings together as any loving father and son would -- in addition to fighting crime.

After reading some reprints of Batman stories from 1943 and 1944 -- possibly the darkest days of WW2 -- I'm struck at how much more like Adam West the tone is than Frank Miller. Yes, the crooks really are doing their best to kill the Dynamic Duo, Batman is sans armor and utility belt (the latter didn't come along until the late 1950s or early '60s), Robin is 8 or 10 years old rather than a 20-something Adonis. Yet the fights are gleeful, Batman and Robin exchange quips with each other and the crooks, fisticuffs rule over bullets, and goons run away after managing to knock down the heroes rather than callously slaughtering them. Classic adversaries such as the Joker and the Penguin make periodic appearances. The Joker certainly wants to kill Batman but he doesn't casually assassinate everyone in his path and (sorry, Heath Ledger) he really does care about the money. The Penguin, likewise, is capable of murder but given the chance would prefer to shoot the gun out of a pursuing policeman's hand than kill him. He already has his trick umbrellas but not the crazy gadgets we'll see in later decades. But there are plenty of other smart crooks to challenge Batman: a vaudeville performer with photographic memory used to steal intellectual property, a brilliant surgeon who offers gangsters a "crime clinic" to improve their success rate, a dairy mogul who uses his ubiquitous milkmen to commit early morning burglaries.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8453751-Macavity-The-Mystery-Cat-by-T-S--Eliot

Snowball Quote: “Aaaachk! Curses! Why do I always get a hairball just as I’m about to complete my master plan?” The world’s most sinister master villain isn’t one of the colorful criminals opposed by James Bond, Batman, or Dick Tracy. In fact, she isn’t even human. Snowball, a gorgeous white Persian cat, has worn many faces, always working through a mind-controlled human proxy, manipulating events and people from the anonymity of her “master’s” lap. She controls a vast criminal empire, devoting most of her wakening hours to keeping it running smoothly. When her current “owner” is killed or incarcerated, she takes control of another suitable subject, who acquires the same goals, schemes, and abilities as the previous one. Snowball also usually has four to six goons nearby to help protect her proxy and herself. Although she has no inherent loyalty to her human stooges, she tries to shield them both for her own safety and because it is such an inconvenience to start over with a new puppet. In the meantime, the good guys can’t figure out how her organization (the Felonious Enclave for Larceny, Information, Narcotics and Espionage – FELINE) keeps going when so many of its leaders and projects have been defeated. Snowball wouldn’t mind actually taking over the world, but at heart she’s a businesswoman. She wants to keep her various enterprises running profitably with as little interruption as possible. Wars, political and social unrest, coups, etc., are expensive and bad for business. She tries to keep her activities beneath the radar of world authorities and moderates her practices accordingly. She doesn’t murder underperforming minions and tries to deflect or misdirect opponents (such as the player-characters) rather than killing them outright. Humans are so sentimental about death, it generates too much attention. And mind games are her specialty, after all. If push comes to shove, however, she’ll do whatever it takes to protect herself and her property. STR 3 CON 12 SIZ 1 INT 30 POW 40 DEX 36 APP 16 Move: 10 Hit Points: 7 (13 CON+SIZ) Damage Bonus: -1D6 Armor: None Attacks: Bite 30%, 1d4-db; Claw 40%, 1d3-db; Rip 80%, 2d3-db Skills: Climb 70%, Command 35%, Craft (Super Weapon) 35%, Dodge 72%, Fast Talk 35%, Fine Manipulation 35%, Heavy Machine 31%, Hide 40%, Insight 35%, Jump 55%, Knowledge (Current Events) 35%, Knowledge (Politics) 35%, Knowledge (World Leaders) 35%, Language (Cat) 150%, Language (English) 50%, Listen 55%, Perform (Acting) 35%, Persuade 45%, Repair (Mechanical) 45%, Repair (Electrical) 45%, Research 55%, Science (Physics) 31%, Science (Robotics) 31%, Sense 40%, Spot 55%, Stealth 40%, Technical (Computer Use) 35%, Track 40% Psychic Abilities: Danger Sense, Eidetic Memory, Emotion Control, Empathy, Mind Control, Mind Shield, Telepathy Failings: Megalomania (3), Noxious Personal Habit (Cleans Self) (1), Dependent “Friend” (Human Proxy, Significant Involvement) (3), Responsibility to Organization (Her Criminal Empire, Significant Involvement) (3), Member of Socially Excluded Group (Cat) (1) Notes: I used the Dreamlands cats write-up posted in a recent discussion as the basis for Snowball, assuming maximum cat stats. Per the Super Powers rules, Snowball had 500 skill points plus 300 personal skill points for INT (total 800). She had 87 starting power points, plus 11 for Failings, total 98, which paid for her enhanced INT and POW. The Dreamlands blurb said there was no SAN penalty for seeing a cat. But what if you're in the "real" world and the cat suddenly speaks to you in condescending tones?

Silvana is the classic Big Bad, but my favorite Captain Marvel villain has to be Mr. Mind, a would-be conqueror with mind control and other mental abilities. Oh, and he's an alien worm, approximately 2 inches long, wearing horn rimmed glasses. It was "Pinky and the Brain" fifty years before Animaniacs, and without the goofy sidekick. I'd like to pull that on a group of player-characters: the master villain they've been battling throughout the campaign is actually a small animal who has been in their midst all along. Other examples of this type of villain are Mr. Tinkles from the 2001 movie Cats & Dogs and the extra-dimensional mice from The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy. Mr. Tinkles is great especially, since you could present a Ernst Stavro Blofeld type character -- but his ever-present cat is the real adversary. There's also a potential Lovecraftian tie-in, since cats from The Dreamlands are super-powered, sentient beings capable of traveling among dimensions (like Doctor Who, only furrier).

You could also do a successful Captain America or '40s Blue Beetle campaign where heroes are stronger, tougher and more agile than ordinary men -- but not outrageously so. Cap carries that shield because he needs it. Villains who can tear through walls or zap you with Zetron beams exist, but they'd be the exceptions. Most opponents are ordinary mortals, though perhaps armed with pulp science gadgetry. It's instructive that well into the Fifties Superman was still primarily pitted against gangsters, con men, and mad scientists -- foes even non-super BRP PCs might tackle.

To be fair, though, I can't think of any player-character in any superhero game I've played who could lift 7.5 kilotons. Seninel is an icon the PCs are intended to emulate but perhaps never match. To come down to perhaps more achievable levels, a 96 STR in BRP would (almost) enable a character to dead lift a locomotive and to hoist a tank with ease. A 6-foot-tall hero (SIZ 13 or 14) with that STR would have a damage bonus of +6D6. If his STR were 110, he could lift a 747 airliner and do +7D6 damage. More modest still, a character with STR 60 would be able to lift sedans, tear open vault doors, and do +4D6 damage. Not as impressive as lifting an airliner but equivalent to George Reeves' portrayal of Superman on TV in the 1950s. Give him that CON 30 (if you can afford it) and some armor and he's not invincible but still pretty darn tough. Since most of his foes are common gangsters, it'll work out OK. Super senses and heat ray vision will have to wait on experience points. Speaking of adjusted expectations, in 3rd and 4th edition Champions it was easy for a superhero to wade through a squad of normal opponents (gangsters, VIPER agents) without taking a scratch. Unless he was surrounded by dozens of highly skilled foes armed with extrodanary weapons, it was unlikely that they'd even hit him, much less hurt him. In BRP, however, heroes aren't necessarily more agile and harder to hit than the Average Joe. As any of our RuneQuest grognards can tell you, a character who allows himself to be surrounded by supposedly inferior foes is asking for one or more of them to get a lucky shot at his back.

OK, find out the weight a +43 STR bonus gives you the ability to lift in SAS. Then check it against the object SIZ chart in the Big Gold Book. It'll give you a feel for the STR your BRP character will need to lift an equivalent amount. That's how I figured the lifting and damage equivalents between BRP and Champions. In both systems, my sample villain could lift a missle but not a car and did damage equivalent to that of a halberd. The scaling was different, but by focusing on the end result I was able to come up with compatible stats. Superworld fans have discussed this a lot in several threads here. It isn't that BRP can't do supers. It's just that it handles them best at middle to low-level power ranges. When you get up to Justice League (or Thor/Hulk) power levels, things can get a little tricky (although at least one of our fellow posters said he successfully ran a Superman homage using Superworld). Each supers RPG has its own little quirks. I'll use Champions as a benchmark since that's what I'm most familiar with. In Hero System, super strength is cheap, and characters who can toss automobiles around are fairly common. In BRP, super characteristics are comparatively expensive, so a hero who can lift a car (much less throw it) is something special. Meanwhile, the damage bonus for a character who can barely lift a vehicle and one who can chuck it at a foe may be the same. On the other hand, energy projection is reasonably affordable in BRP, so you'll tend to have more guys who can zap you with shotgun or elephant rifle-level damage. The way BRP handles damage is a challenge. Some superhero RPGs assume characters can soak up massive amounts of punishment without getting seriously hurt. Others, such as Villains and Vigilantes and Heroes Unlimited, assume characters aren't necessarily more durable than anyone else unless they specifically have that power. In BRP -- originally written to model fantasy swordplay in a realistic fashion -- all attacks, no matter how small, are lethal ones. Unless you have armor or some other defense, that +6D6 punch is really gonna hurt. Again, though, Defense (which makes a hero harder to hit) is relatively inexpensive in BRP. So you may have fewer Hulk types who can casually shrug off damage and more Spider-Man types who are good at getting out of the way (but if they don't, ouch!).

CON and DEX are probably equivalent (although CON 30 is pretty awesome in a BRP game since even massive real and fantasy critters easily have CONs half or a third of that). STR is trickier, since we don't know how it scales in SAS. I'd take the lifting ability in SAS and see what STR level would be required in BRP to match it. A +6D6 damage bonus sounds about right for a Superman homage, though. Such a hero would easily do Godzilla-level damage. On the powers, I wouldn't try to do a direct conversion but seek out BRP abilities that provide similar effects. But yeah, STR 96 would be almost unthinkable in Superworld. In another thread I built a sample villain with STR 40 -- which seemed impressive until I realized the equivalent STR in Champions would be a mere 28, enough to lift a missile but not a car. Powerful enough to slap around thugs and punch through some walls, but not the building-crushing strongman I imagined. A starting character would have to get really good stat rolls, spend all his build points on heightened STR, and max out Failings to get anywhere near 96.

They're like cockroaches. No matter how many times you stamp them out or erase them from existence, Daleks always manage to come back. There's always some forgotten bunker or buried complex somewhere where a handful of them are dozing in stasis, waiting their chance for freedom and conquest.

Quite true. But Daleks so rarely leave their suits that the point is almost moot, at least in terms of their confronting the PCs in your campaign. They're like hermit crabs in that respect. We know that a hermit crab is not the shell -- or Coke can, or coffee mug -- it dwells in. But since it abandons its armor only to molt and then immediately finds a larger "house" as soon as it is strong enough, stats would almost always include its armor. Dalek Sans Shell (without butter) STR 3 CON 8 SIZ 1 INT 16 POW 8 DEX 10 APP 0 Move: 4 Hit Points: 2 Damage Bonus: -1D6 Armor: None (but see above write-up) Attacks: Bite or Claw (old series vs. new series) 45%, 1D8-1D6 Skills: As above but add Climb 40%, Dodge 25%, Fine Manipulation 35%

OK, here it is. Based on our discussion, a prototypical, non-specialized Dalek soldier. Feel free to throw suggestions, rocks, neutrino beams or whatever else you think appropriate. Classic Dalek Warrior STR 18 CON 15 SIZ 21 INT 16 POW 8 DEX 10 APP 5 Move: 8 Hit Points: 18 Damage Bonus: +1D6 Armor: 20 (kinetic); 10 (electric, heat, magnetic, radiation) Attacks: Grapple 35%, 1D3+1D6; Energy Gun 60%, 3D6+4 Skills: Drive (Air Sled) 30%, Hide 40%, Listen 35%, Repair (Mechanical) 40%, Repair (Electronic) 40%, Spot 35%, Stealth 45% Notes: As per discussion in the Doctor Who thread, I figured STR, CON, INT would be better than average human level but not incredibly so. APP, POW and DEX are a little low, since alien cyborgs aren’t generally known for their charisma and spirituality and the Daleks tend to be slow and deliberate. I figured the tough alien alloy their battle suits are made of would lower Dalek mass a bit, settling on a SIZ around 400 pounds. Movement I lowered to 8 since Daleks tend to be steady and inexorable rather than fast. I drew their skills from the Soldier package, avoiding ones that were physically impossible for their robotic body type such as Jump, Climb, and Dodge. I didn't express their stats as die rolls since mass production would made members of a specific model type very much alike. Their lack of individuality is one of the traits that makes Daleks creepy. Obviously in Doctor Who’s 51-year history there have been a lot of variations and upgrades in Dalek abilities, especially in the new series as special effects and show budgets have increased. However, what strikes me after seeing them in the new series and then in their original, first appearance is how much the same Daleks have stayed over the decades. The Doctor himself has gone through multiple personalities, skill sets, and levels of competence, as have his assorted Companions. But his implacable bio-mechanical foes are pretty much the sinister would-be conquerors they’ve always been.

It strikes me that the best Dalek defense might not be a brawny action hero but the Three Stooges. Blind those eye stalks with cream pies and the brutes would be helpless. And the excess cream couldn't do their circuits and casters/thrusters any good, either.

To me, it's the armor that would be the problem. Daleks would be stronger than an average man (STR 16-21?) but not outrageously so. The First Doctor and his granddaughter together were able to shove a warrior around in "The Seven Doctors." Daleks are slow and deliberate as Christmas, DEX 10. CON in BRP is low even for massive critters, so 15-18? But that armor! 20 kinetic, plus similar protection for 3-4 energy types at least. It takes a hand-placed shaped charge to pierce it, requiring opponents to get up close and personal in order to succeed. The assorted energy rifles sported by humans and humanoids in Doctor Who don't seem to be able to do much against Dalek armor (even the Cybermen get clobbered), and of course the conventional rifles used by UNIT are even more useless. The show's writing is spotty on how Daleks will react to non-combatants. In some story lines, you can talk and trick your way out of encounters, as The Doctor (or Captain Kirk) might tend to do. In others, if you halt when the Dalek guards command you to, they shoot you anyways. So you might as well go down swinging like Flash Gordon, or better, use some sort of sneaky, stealthy offense like Buck Rogers. The actual weapon installed on Dalek warriors has varied quite a bit. In the original "The Daleks" story arc, it was a sort of nerve disruptor that could cause temporary paralysis in low doses, kill on higher power. In other tales, it is assorted types of ray gun, all equally nasty to unarmored freedom fighters and Time Lord companions. I'm thinking that in BRP terms it doesn't matter most of the time since on the show, characters rarely have energy-resistant armor. Player-characters, on the other hand, might well be able to get their grubby paws on some sort of armor that does them a bit of protection. It'll be Elephant Gun level energy damage.

"Take your stinkin' hooves off of me, you darn dirty SWINE!"

Star Trek's Tellarites were also pig-men, but less werewolf-y. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tellarite Shorter than humans, higher body temperature, stubborn, love to argue (they consider it fun). An early star-faring race, they were one of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets. Their gift for debate tended to lend them success as politicians.

Pigs, wild or normal livestock, are bigger (or more massive) and stronger than humans, are fierce omnivores. Wild boars are just as eager to eat the humans as the human hunters are to eat them. They have formidable dental equipment. They are close enough biologically to humans to use some of the same medicines and suffer from similar diseases. Their eyesight is poor but their hearing and sense of smell are excellent. They don't sweat and so have to adopt other means (e.g., wallowing) to cool their bodies in hot temperatures. They are highly intelligent, perhaps smarter than dogs, maybe enough to realize their ultimate fate once they leave the barnyard. They reproduce faster than humans. Pig-men, then, would be tough, scary opponents: Smart, brawny, touchy, excellent trackers, able to work together in squad-level groups at least, perhaps possessing nasty natural weapons (tusks). They could recognize individual humans at a distance by scent, and possibly human moods as well by the same means. Would they eat other sentient species? Hmmm, tough call.

Bah! That never discouraged Launchpad McQuack. Any landing you can walk away from .... And it guarantees that Duck explorers will have to settle, conquer and dominate. No option to just visit.

See, that's part of the problem. Never send a human to do a duck's job. Ducks cut their cultural teeth eradicating zombies and worse things. Got xenomorphs in your space station? Send in the waterfowl!

You could have the flying sharks be mere heralds for a shark god (Megalodon-ish?) and served by amphibious shark-men. Wherever the PCs look -- on land, sea. or air -- they'll be confronted by a toothy avatar of the deity until they figure out how to placate it or beat it.

And it begs the question, if most of your opponents are mere mortals like yourselves, how much firepower do you actually need to defend yourself? Star Trek foes tend to be either humanoids (Klingons, Romulans, etc.) or nigh indestructible phenomena (alien space probes, giant space amoebas, planet slayers, intangible entities). Against the latter, phasers are pretty much useless anyway, so you might as well stick with the pop-guns for the enemies you can handle and invest the money and effort into faster ships that can outrun the critters you can't beat. But it explains the practices that gradually were revealed in the various Star Trek movies. Crewmen didn't casually wear weapons on board ship. These were kept locked up and were issued only when absolutely needed. Another thought. Some space operas have crewmen regularly sporting sidearms while on duty. And in Star Trek TOS, an armed security team seemed always on hand. But those of you who've actually served in the military -- do shipboard personnel really carry sidearms when there is no imminent threat? And how many guards/MPs do you really need to maintain order on a military vessel? After all, crew members were carefully screened before being admitted to service and have been thoroughly trained. They're presumably disciplined, stable, obedient types, not inclined to criminality.