Avengers #4-5 - "Confrontation with PRIMUS"
Avengers #4-5 - "Confrontation with PRIMUS"
Avengers #4 - "Aftermath"
Recap:
Note: The story picks up from the events of Avengers Annual #1.
Muskateer, Ms. Marvel, and Sunturian return to the base after the battle with Deathbird. Unknown to anyone, Deathbird had injected a posion into Ms. M and she collapses outside the base. While Sunturian helps Marv to her quarters, Musky is left to deal with the impeding arrival of PRIMUS agents. Someone looking like Flare committed a robbery and PRIMUS is coming to arrest him.
Flare shows up and tries to convince Muskateer that he's innocent, but Musky doesn't buy it. Sunturian returns just as Major Tom and his men arrive. Flare pleads his case, but Major Tom doesn't care. There's a 'swooshing sound' and one of Major Tom's men drops to the ground dead. Major Tom orders his men to attack!
Avengers #5 - "Confrontation with PRIMUS"
Recap:
A scuffle breaks out between the Avengers and PRIMUS. Muskateer easily holds his own, while Flare is put down by enegy weapons. Sunturian takes several hits and is in a foul mood. She lands among the agents and generates flames all around her, enveloping the men ending the fight.
While Musky & Sun survey the damage, they realize that Flare is now gone. Furthermore, Musky notes that Flare was hurt by the PRIMUS energy blasters-- such a thing shouldn't have bothered the real Flare. The man that was here was a fake.
While the pair try to figure out what to do next, they are fired upon snipers! The snipers are concealed across the street in a wooded area. Sunturian picks up Muskateer and flies him towards one of the snipers.
Sunturian tells Muskateer: "Wait until you get my bill for flying you around. I believe that this is your drop off point. Have a nice day and thank you for flying Sunturian airlines."
Muskateer quips back with: "Some airlines. No Coffee or inflight movie? At least TWA has stairs for disembarking. I have to land on this thug."
Recap:
Note: The story picks up from the events of Avengers Annual #1.
Muskateer, Ms. Marvel, and Sunturian return to the base after the battle with Deathbird. Unknown to anyone, Deathbird had injected a posion into Ms. M and she collapses outside the base. While Sunturian helps Marv to her quarters, Musky is left to deal with the impeding arrival of PRIMUS agents. Someone looking like Flare committed a robbery and PRIMUS is coming to arrest him.
Flare shows up and tries to convince Muskateer that he's innocent, but Musky doesn't buy it. Sunturian returns just as Major Tom and his men arrive. Flare pleads his case, but Major Tom doesn't care. There's a 'swooshing sound' and one of Major Tom's men drops to the ground dead. Major Tom orders his men to attack!
Avengers #5 - "Confrontation with PRIMUS"
Recap:
A scuffle breaks out between the Avengers and PRIMUS. Muskateer easily holds his own, while Flare is put down by enegy weapons. Sunturian takes several hits and is in a foul mood. She lands among the agents and generates flames all around her, enveloping the men ending the fight.
While Musky & Sun survey the damage, they realize that Flare is now gone. Furthermore, Musky notes that Flare was hurt by the PRIMUS energy blasters-- such a thing shouldn't have bothered the real Flare. The man that was here was a fake.
While the pair try to figure out what to do next, they are fired upon snipers! The snipers are concealed across the street in a wooded area. Sunturian picks up Muskateer and flies him towards one of the snipers.
Sunturian tells Muskateer: "Wait until you get my bill for flying you around. I believe that this is your drop off point. Have a nice day and thank you for flying Sunturian airlines."
Muskateer quips back with: "Some airlines. No Coffee or inflight movie? At least TWA has stairs for disembarking. I have to land on this thug."
Last edited by Spectrum on Mon Dec 23, 2002 5:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Have light, will illuminate!
Avengers #5 Continued...
Sunturian dive bombs one of the snipers using Muskateer. Musky barrels into the sniper and both are knocked out of the tree. Musky makes short work of the sniper and drags him back to Major Tom and his men. Likewise, Sunturian defeats the second sniper and returns with him.
The squeal of tires alerts the heroes to the false Flare trying to escape. However all the noise has caused the Thing to arrive on the scene. He easily stops Flare's car, preventing his escape. Flare flees his vehicle and tries to escape on foot. Musky chases him down and captures him.
Returning with the bogus Flare, Musky reaches the PRIMUS agents just as they are starting to come around. Major Tom is his usual charming self until it is revealed that Flare is really the Chameleon in disguise! Futhermore, a message from PRIMUS HQ reveals that the base is under attack!
While Major Tom assembles his men and attempts to return to base, the entire group comes under mortar fire from further across the street. Sunturain and Muskateer do their dive bomb act again and take out a unit of armored DEMON Agents.
The next day, Ms. Marvel reveals that she had been poisoned at a team meeting. While it is not fatal to her, it has greatly weakened her to almost human state strength wise. So, she chooses Muskateer to act as temporary field leader for the team.
Ms. M also notes that there has been a change in the Enchantress. She has a new costume (the Clea one) and her hair has changed to silver. Gwen explains that she has completed her training and no longer requires the individual magic items that she used to use. Completing her training as changed her into a much nicer person. (Basically the Gwen you're all familar with.)
Sunturian also has an annoucement. She's changing her name to Firestar and changing her costume as well. (To the one you're all familar with.)
Continuing on with the meeting, Marv reports that DEMON did raid PRIMUS HQ while the Major Tom was at the Avengers base. The villains the Avengers just recently battled -- Thunderbolt, Power Crusher, Darkon, Sparkler, and Mechassassin-- were all freed in the process. Furthermore, DEMON stole something called the Helm of Krim, an item that used to belong to the Earthmaster.
Sunturian dive bombs one of the snipers using Muskateer. Musky barrels into the sniper and both are knocked out of the tree. Musky makes short work of the sniper and drags him back to Major Tom and his men. Likewise, Sunturian defeats the second sniper and returns with him.
The squeal of tires alerts the heroes to the false Flare trying to escape. However all the noise has caused the Thing to arrive on the scene. He easily stops Flare's car, preventing his escape. Flare flees his vehicle and tries to escape on foot. Musky chases him down and captures him.
Returning with the bogus Flare, Musky reaches the PRIMUS agents just as they are starting to come around. Major Tom is his usual charming self until it is revealed that Flare is really the Chameleon in disguise! Futhermore, a message from PRIMUS HQ reveals that the base is under attack!
While Major Tom assembles his men and attempts to return to base, the entire group comes under mortar fire from further across the street. Sunturain and Muskateer do their dive bomb act again and take out a unit of armored DEMON Agents.
The next day, Ms. Marvel reveals that she had been poisoned at a team meeting. While it is not fatal to her, it has greatly weakened her to almost human state strength wise. So, she chooses Muskateer to act as temporary field leader for the team.
Ms. M also notes that there has been a change in the Enchantress. She has a new costume (the Clea one) and her hair has changed to silver. Gwen explains that she has completed her training and no longer requires the individual magic items that she used to use. Completing her training as changed her into a much nicer person. (Basically the Gwen you're all familar with.)
Sunturian also has an annoucement. She's changing her name to Firestar and changing her costume as well. (To the one you're all familar with.)
Continuing on with the meeting, Marv reports that DEMON did raid PRIMUS HQ while the Major Tom was at the Avengers base. The villains the Avengers just recently battled -- Thunderbolt, Power Crusher, Darkon, Sparkler, and Mechassassin-- were all freed in the process. Furthermore, DEMON stole something called the Helm of Krim, an item that used to belong to the Earthmaster.
Last edited by Spectrum on Mon Dec 23, 2002 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Have light, will illuminate!
Avengers #5 Continued:
Muskateer brings up the subject of the old Crusaders base. The team had disbanded years ago and the Enchantress was a former member. Their old base sits in Manhattan and is currently empty. It was repossessed by the city a few years back.
The temporary base on King's Point is too far away from the city to be effecient. Ben misses the neighborhood feeling of the old Avengers Mansion. Marv notes that jet fuel storage could be a problem, but thinks its worth checking into.
The subject of how to acquire the old Crusaders base comes up. The team decides to pool their money and see if they can put. Marv gets permission from the city to check out the old Crusaders base and Musky, Firestar and the Thing depart.
Meanwhile, Gwen and Linda will be checking out the financial angle of all of this. Linda Danvers owns an investiment company, Danvers Investments, and they might be able to help.
The Avengers arrive at the old Crusaders base. It was basically two warehouses side by side. One warehouse was converted into living areas, meeting rooms, and basic living quarters. The other warehouse served as a vehicle hanger.
The heroes enter via one of the hanger doors. They hear a crash off in the distance and Firestar goes to investigate. She flies off before anyone can stop her. Musky & Ben give chase. Musky pulls head of the Thing and is led by more noises and lights to the 3rd floor area of the living quarters.
There he comes to stop when he finds two women bound and gagged lying on the floor unconscious. One is Firestar. The other woman wears a magentna and gray costume with a cape. Hovering over them is a man in a white body suit outlined in orange and red.
"Now who dares to interfere with the White Dragon?!", the stranger demands.
Elsewhere, Linda and Gwen are enroute to NYC by car. Suddenly, Gwen remembers something about the Crusaders base. There was a hidden chamber where she stored some dangerous artifacts. Fearing that something terrible might happen, the Enchantress flies off to warn her teammates...
Muskateer brings up the subject of the old Crusaders base. The team had disbanded years ago and the Enchantress was a former member. Their old base sits in Manhattan and is currently empty. It was repossessed by the city a few years back.
The temporary base on King's Point is too far away from the city to be effecient. Ben misses the neighborhood feeling of the old Avengers Mansion. Marv notes that jet fuel storage could be a problem, but thinks its worth checking into.
The subject of how to acquire the old Crusaders base comes up. The team decides to pool their money and see if they can put. Marv gets permission from the city to check out the old Crusaders base and Musky, Firestar and the Thing depart.
Meanwhile, Gwen and Linda will be checking out the financial angle of all of this. Linda Danvers owns an investiment company, Danvers Investments, and they might be able to help.
The Avengers arrive at the old Crusaders base. It was basically two warehouses side by side. One warehouse was converted into living areas, meeting rooms, and basic living quarters. The other warehouse served as a vehicle hanger.
The heroes enter via one of the hanger doors. They hear a crash off in the distance and Firestar goes to investigate. She flies off before anyone can stop her. Musky & Ben give chase. Musky pulls head of the Thing and is led by more noises and lights to the 3rd floor area of the living quarters.
There he comes to stop when he finds two women bound and gagged lying on the floor unconscious. One is Firestar. The other woman wears a magentna and gray costume with a cape. Hovering over them is a man in a white body suit outlined in orange and red.
"Now who dares to interfere with the White Dragon?!", the stranger demands.
Elsewhere, Linda and Gwen are enroute to NYC by car. Suddenly, Gwen remembers something about the Crusaders base. There was a hidden chamber where she stored some dangerous artifacts. Fearing that something terrible might happen, the Enchantress flies off to warn her teammates...
Last edited by Spectrum on Mon Dec 23, 2002 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Have light, will illuminate!
Comments:
Okay, this was where the Enchantress and Firestar made their changes. I wasn't happy with the way Gwen was working out and so made some broad changes in her character, including re-writing her character sheet. The old version of the Enchantress, including her costume, ended up becoming the Sorceress in the old stuff.
In hindsight, I can't really say why I changed Sunturian into Firestar. Her character really didn't change all that much and her powers were change slightly. Sunturian was solar powered and was more powerful in full sunlight than in the dark. That bit was dropped and would later be used for Starshine AKA Molly Berkowizc in LH.
The confrontation with PRIMUS was redone in new Avengers #8, but without the snipers and DEMON Agents this time.
Realizing that placing the Avengers base so far out of the city was a problem, I set about trying to rectify it and so the Cruaders empty base was created.
This was indeed the original first appearance of the White Dragon, and yes, that was the Huntress at his feet. This was also her first official appearance as well. (Her cameo at the end of Avengers #2 being added during the re-write.)
Avengers #4-7 ended up being written on a Apple computer my aunt had lent me for a few months. I didn't have a word processing program for it, and so ended up write the files like computer programs with print statements. Fortunately, she had included the printer and so I just printed up multiple copies of the files! Years later I re-typed the printouts into the C64, so in affect these two issues were re-written, but there were no wholesale additions like in Avengers #1 & 2.
This particular story isn't finished until Avengers #7, but both those issues are huge and will be covered in the next thread. Stay tuned!
Okay, this was where the Enchantress and Firestar made their changes. I wasn't happy with the way Gwen was working out and so made some broad changes in her character, including re-writing her character sheet. The old version of the Enchantress, including her costume, ended up becoming the Sorceress in the old stuff.
In hindsight, I can't really say why I changed Sunturian into Firestar. Her character really didn't change all that much and her powers were change slightly. Sunturian was solar powered and was more powerful in full sunlight than in the dark. That bit was dropped and would later be used for Starshine AKA Molly Berkowizc in LH.
The confrontation with PRIMUS was redone in new Avengers #8, but without the snipers and DEMON Agents this time.
Realizing that placing the Avengers base so far out of the city was a problem, I set about trying to rectify it and so the Cruaders empty base was created.
This was indeed the original first appearance of the White Dragon, and yes, that was the Huntress at his feet. This was also her first official appearance as well. (Her cameo at the end of Avengers #2 being added during the re-write.)
Avengers #4-7 ended up being written on a Apple computer my aunt had lent me for a few months. I didn't have a word processing program for it, and so ended up write the files like computer programs with print statements. Fortunately, she had included the printer and so I just printed up multiple copies of the files! Years later I re-typed the printouts into the C64, so in affect these two issues were re-written, but there were no wholesale additions like in Avengers #1 & 2.
This particular story isn't finished until Avengers #7, but both those issues are huge and will be covered in the next thread. Stay tuned!
Have light, will illuminate!
Isn't this essentially the adventure that appears in the back of the original PRIMUS & DEMON source book? I can still see in my head the picture that goes with it. You know, I always found it hard to figure how idiots like Major Tom made it to the top of an organization like PRIMUS. Go figure.
A unique explanation for the changes in the Enchantress. "The magic training made me a nicer person." Hee hee. It is cool that Sorceress spun out of the old Enchantress, but without the same personality 'issues'.
Finding a decent base is always an issue for teams. Nice intro for White Dragon, though. Looking forward to the conclusion in #7. It will be fun to see how it differs from what happened here on the 'official' site.
I always like the changing power level schtick, and am glad you found a home for it, though I think Firestar would be more interesting if she had kept it.
A unique explanation for the changes in the Enchantress. "The magic training made me a nicer person." Hee hee. It is cool that Sorceress spun out of the old Enchantress, but without the same personality 'issues'.
Finding a decent base is always an issue for teams. Nice intro for White Dragon, though. Looking forward to the conclusion in #7. It will be fun to see how it differs from what happened here on the 'official' site.
I always like the changing power level schtick, and am glad you found a home for it, though I think Firestar would be more interesting if she had kept it.
Yep, it is indeed the adventure at the back of the PRIMUS/DEMON Organization Book. It's also in Classic Organizations as well. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this scenario!
By this point the Sorceress had already appeared elsewhere. X-Factor was much further along then the Avengers at this point. Muskateer typically didn't write up minor characters. Minor in this sense being the Guardians, Superior Seven, or the Freedom League. He had an idea what each could do, but wasn't big on write ups.
So when after we merged and I started to use some of those characters, that's when the old Enchantress sheet became the Sorceress write up. Her personnality had already been established in her other apperances. So there were no personality issues there.
Yeah, a good decent base is hard to come by. Many of the mistakes I was making were simply due to me not having run much stuff in Champions. So I was always tinkering with things to make them better. At least I got the constant character rewrites out of my system. You won't believe just how many different versions of Spectrum there are!
The conclusion to all of this is totally different than what we did on the website, but we'll be getting to that soon enough. The power levels changing did get transfered to another character as well in the old stuff, but one that'll never be seen in the new stuff. That character will be introduced in the next thread as well. Always the tease!
By this point the Sorceress had already appeared elsewhere. X-Factor was much further along then the Avengers at this point. Muskateer typically didn't write up minor characters. Minor in this sense being the Guardians, Superior Seven, or the Freedom League. He had an idea what each could do, but wasn't big on write ups.
So when after we merged and I started to use some of those characters, that's when the old Enchantress sheet became the Sorceress write up. Her personnality had already been established in her other apperances. So there were no personality issues there.
Yeah, a good decent base is hard to come by. Many of the mistakes I was making were simply due to me not having run much stuff in Champions. So I was always tinkering with things to make them better. At least I got the constant character rewrites out of my system. You won't believe just how many different versions of Spectrum there are!
The conclusion to all of this is totally different than what we did on the website, but we'll be getting to that soon enough. The power levels changing did get transfered to another character as well in the old stuff, but one that'll never be seen in the new stuff. That character will be introduced in the next thread as well. Always the tease!

Have light, will illuminate!
You know, I've always thought that that was the way to go. Unfortunately, I'm so anal, I have a hard time functioning that way. I certainly respect people like Musky that can pull it off, though.Muskateer typically didn't write up minor characters. Minor in this sense being the Guardians, Superior Seven, or the Freedom League. He had an idea what each could do, but wasn't big on write ups.
Yeah, I know what you mean. One time back when I was playing regularly, the GM decided to start a new campaign and I didn't hear about it in advance. So after showing up, finding out and hurriedly digging through a bunch of books, I went with Victrix from the Freedom Squad. In the course of that short campaign (probably less than a dozen adventures), she went through 3 distinct phases. While I started with her as written, I had her go through the classic 'radiation accident' schtick to become a living energy being named Energon (Transformers, anyone?You won't believe just how many different versions of Spectrum there are!

As always, looking forward to more good stuff...
Gordon
These days I'm about halfway in between those two extremes. Most of the characters I use I have written up. There are exceptions of course. Off the top of my head, characters such as Starguard and Vindicator do not have compelte write ups.
None of the characters adventuring with Captain Valor have write ups. That would include Lyndah, Kristen, Sargon, Friza, Captain Jess, Katrina and the rest. Having done so much D&D I have a rough equivilent level in mind for them, but nothing's written down.
That's an interesting turn for Victrix! In fact, one of my other characters was dating her in the old stuff and both of them were in X-Factor! Or rather a version of XF that you guys won't be seeing. It's a long and complicated story that'll be explained around when I do the recap for XF #55 or so.
None of the characters adventuring with Captain Valor have write ups. That would include Lyndah, Kristen, Sargon, Friza, Captain Jess, Katrina and the rest. Having done so much D&D I have a rough equivilent level in mind for them, but nothing's written down.
That's an interesting turn for Victrix! In fact, one of my other characters was dating her in the old stuff and both of them were in X-Factor! Or rather a version of XF that you guys won't be seeing. It's a long and complicated story that'll be explained around when I do the recap for XF #55 or so.

Have light, will illuminate!
#55, huh? So we'll be - what - in our 60s by then???when I do the recap for XF #55 or so

So you're winging it with Terra Nova? Seems to be working so far. At first, the series didn't much work for me (may have been largely distaste for CV himself). However, the story has been growing on me as it has progressed. So I guess the lack of write-ups isn't really hurting anything.
Gordon
Okay, okay, here's a brief recap of what I was talking about. Near the end of the Old Stuff there was a very grand Spectrum arc taking place in several different titles that wasn't completely resolved.
It all started in Spectrum's solo series and I'll cover it more indepth there. Basically, Hexmaster gained control of Spectrum again and did turn him bad. By this time Spec & Mstar were an item. Hex had Spec do something to Mstar in an effort to break them up for good. (What exact he did was never completely ironed out. It was one of those bits that didn't get written.) Later on Spectrum showed up in the Avengers and much of the story was resolved there.
While Spec's was off going bonkers, X-Factor sort of fell apart and the team was reformed by the Tarantula. He was another character I created and was basically a MA with gadgets. Victrix was on the team and the two were an item. (VOICE of Doom had been run by this point and the Freedom Squad had disbanded.) Rounding out the team was Powershift, Nova, and Revenant. Powershift was from the Target: Hero modual, Nova you know better as Impact, and Rev was Rev.
That version of X-Factor had a short adventure that was recapped in XF#55 &56. It was something we did live, but didn't put into an annual.
XF#57 picks up much, much later. Spec is back to normal and he and Mstar are engaged. Tarantual and Victrix bow out of XF and are replaced by Specs & Mstar.
There's the Reader's Digest version of something much, much larger. Oh, and Tarantula's SI was TJ Lawerence and he was reworked into Vindicator.
There seems to be only two opinions when it comes to Captain Valor. People either love him or they hate him. I'm of the former, Muskateer is of the later. I had actually considered making Cap its own series, until Musky threatened me with bodily harm.
I also ran D&D games on Qlink as well. My Frontier game also ran over 200 posts, so I'm also quite comfortable in that setting. We did sort of talk about character write ups. I did wonder if I should do them in Champions or 3rd Edition D&D...
Not having write ups is like anything else in running a game. As long as you're consistent with what they do, then there's not any problems. Its when you start to contradict yourself that troubles arise!
It all started in Spectrum's solo series and I'll cover it more indepth there. Basically, Hexmaster gained control of Spectrum again and did turn him bad. By this time Spec & Mstar were an item. Hex had Spec do something to Mstar in an effort to break them up for good. (What exact he did was never completely ironed out. It was one of those bits that didn't get written.) Later on Spectrum showed up in the Avengers and much of the story was resolved there.
While Spec's was off going bonkers, X-Factor sort of fell apart and the team was reformed by the Tarantula. He was another character I created and was basically a MA with gadgets. Victrix was on the team and the two were an item. (VOICE of Doom had been run by this point and the Freedom Squad had disbanded.) Rounding out the team was Powershift, Nova, and Revenant. Powershift was from the Target: Hero modual, Nova you know better as Impact, and Rev was Rev.
That version of X-Factor had a short adventure that was recapped in XF#55 &56. It was something we did live, but didn't put into an annual.
XF#57 picks up much, much later. Spec is back to normal and he and Mstar are engaged. Tarantual and Victrix bow out of XF and are replaced by Specs & Mstar.
There's the Reader's Digest version of something much, much larger. Oh, and Tarantula's SI was TJ Lawerence and he was reworked into Vindicator.

There seems to be only two opinions when it comes to Captain Valor. People either love him or they hate him. I'm of the former, Muskateer is of the later. I had actually considered making Cap its own series, until Musky threatened me with bodily harm.

I also ran D&D games on Qlink as well. My Frontier game also ran over 200 posts, so I'm also quite comfortable in that setting. We did sort of talk about character write ups. I did wonder if I should do them in Champions or 3rd Edition D&D...
Not having write ups is like anything else in running a game. As long as you're consistent with what they do, then there's not any problems. Its when you start to contradict yourself that troubles arise!
Have light, will illuminate!
Sounds like your Victrix was a little different than I played her. I tended to play up the spoiled, vacuous "valley girl" idea; the thought of dating someone called Tarantula would have made her go, "eewww!"
She did, however, end up in a relationship with an immortal black hero named Moses who had deep government connections.
Powershift I recognise, though I'm not familiar with Revenant. Was he published somewhere, or is he one of your/Musky's characters?
I must admit that I'm one of those staunch anti-D&D/D20 zealots. Hate class and level systems with a passion; I'd much rather use Champions or GURPS for fantasy gaming. They have put out some decent fantasy worlds, though.
My problem with using character who haven't been written up is deciding success and failure, particularly in combat. When does an attack hit and when does it miss? Drama provides the answer sometimes, but I like the randomness of dice and being surprised. Oh well...
Gordon (in danger of overtaking Musky on posts here
)

Powershift I recognise, though I'm not familiar with Revenant. Was he published somewhere, or is he one of your/Musky's characters?
I must admit that I'm one of those staunch anti-D&D/D20 zealots. Hate class and level systems with a passion; I'd much rather use Champions or GURPS for fantasy gaming. They have put out some decent fantasy worlds, though.
My problem with using character who haven't been written up is deciding success and failure, particularly in combat. When does an attack hit and when does it miss? Drama provides the answer sometimes, but I like the randomness of dice and being surprised. Oh well...
Gordon (in danger of overtaking Musky on posts here

It's not your fault, Gordon. Turns out I never changed any of the settings for this particular forum. They are now changed, so the program won't let that happen again.
Our version of Victrix was pretty much the same as we should here on the site, what little there was of her appearances. Tarantula was handsome and rich too, so I supposed that smoothed things over a bit.
Someone named Moses with deep goverment connection? Does that mean he was good at parting red tape? (I couldn't resist that! I know, try harder next time!)
Revenant or Rev for short was the chick in green on the old champions Birthday Card. She was just introduced in the last few issues of XF here on the site.
Both Muskateer & I started out with D&D before Champions came along, so it's never really been a problem. Same basic idea, just different ways of going about them.
As far as rolling dice goes, I'll let you in on a little secret. Sometimes I do roll out the combat, sometimes I run only part of the fighting, and at other times I do it all off the top of my head. The trick with that is to make sure that the reader can't tell the difference. So, any guess as to where fights were actually ran or just made up as we go along?
Of course we're writing stories here and have complete control over all the characters. It's not like a real game where you have to deal with PC's. Running a game with players is easier since you don't have to make decisions for the players. Just let them do their thing and see where the dice leads you. A tad different when writing stories.
Not only are you in danger of catching Muskateer, but you're on the verge of another rank increase! Just 1 more post to go!

Our version of Victrix was pretty much the same as we should here on the site, what little there was of her appearances. Tarantula was handsome and rich too, so I supposed that smoothed things over a bit.
Someone named Moses with deep goverment connection? Does that mean he was good at parting red tape? (I couldn't resist that! I know, try harder next time!)

Revenant or Rev for short was the chick in green on the old champions Birthday Card. She was just introduced in the last few issues of XF here on the site.
Both Muskateer & I started out with D&D before Champions came along, so it's never really been a problem. Same basic idea, just different ways of going about them.
As far as rolling dice goes, I'll let you in on a little secret. Sometimes I do roll out the combat, sometimes I run only part of the fighting, and at other times I do it all off the top of my head. The trick with that is to make sure that the reader can't tell the difference. So, any guess as to where fights were actually ran or just made up as we go along?

Of course we're writing stories here and have complete control over all the characters. It's not like a real game where you have to deal with PC's. Running a game with players is easier since you don't have to make decisions for the players. Just let them do their thing and see where the dice leads you. A tad different when writing stories.
Not only are you in danger of catching Muskateer, but you're on the verge of another rank increase! Just 1 more post to go!
Have light, will illuminate!
"Rich and handsome", huh? Yeah, I suspect that might have helped Victrix get over that whole 'hairy spider' thing...
As corny as your suggestion sounds, Moses did pull strings for the group a couple times, and was even able to get some good inside info for them (us).
This may sound really strange, but somehow Revenant just doesn't stick in my head. Was that in the recaps or the current issues?
Gordon the SuperHero! <blaring fanfare>
As corny as your suggestion sounds, Moses did pull strings for the group a couple times, and was even able to get some good inside info for them (us).
This may sound really strange, but somehow Revenant just doesn't stick in my head. Was that in the recaps or the current issues?
No way am I gonna make a fool of myself trying to guess something like that! Of course, that's because I have no farking idea. For me, the hard part for that is in actual play rather than just writing. Even in games played online, too many people have too much invested for me to feel comfortable making it up as I go.So, any guess as to where fights were actually ran or just made up as we go along?
Gordon the SuperHero! <blaring fanfare>
Well, Tarantula wasn't particularly hairy either. Just a normal guy in a costume with sticky boots and gadgets. 
The new version of Revenant was introduced in X-Factor #21 as one of the new recruits for the Thugmaster's Elite, along with Powerhouse and Rainbow. So, she's had very brief appearances in XF #21 & #22. We haven't gotten to her yet in the old stuff recaps.
About the only time I didn't roll dice while running an actual game was for the 'live' game I ran on Q-Link. It was how Young Champions started and everyone was in a chat room. In that sort of situation rolling massive amounts of dice just slowed things down. So, I wrote a program that generated random dice roll results and had a print out. Simply picked the first one from the appropriate column, say a 10d6 column, and then crossed off. Sped things up considerably.
As for what was rolled out and what was written for the site, some of it might surprise you. I'll go with some of the more recent files for examples.
XF#22: the fights were all rolled out, but I broken them down into smaller chunks as opposed to having every single character act at the same time. It sped the process up considerably and, in spite of the way things do appear, its all little fights as opposed to big ones.
XF#20: the fight with Foxbat & Shadow Queen vs Heroes for Hire vs Thugmaster's Elite was about halfway rolled out. Mainly the beginning part. Having the Thugs capture everyone was part of the plan, so I only needed the stuff before the thugs arrived.
Muskateer #25: Every fight in that issue was made up on the fly. No dice rolling was involved.
Muskateer #24: The entire fight was rolled out, BUT when I started to write it all out I ended up changing things as I went. Basically I came to a point where a better tactic for the heroes to use emerged and went with that instead. I salvaged what I could from what I rolled once past that point, but had some things I had to make up on the fly.
So, its always a combination of things. Muskateer tends to make up all the fights that he writes out. For examples of this, check out Lost Heroes #1-5. I wrote #6 and all the fighting was written on the fly there as well.
On the other hand, there are times where I do roll out the combat to get the unexpected. That's how Dragonfly got killed. It came out of the dice rolling. And then I had to send an E-mail to Muskateer asking if he had any long range plans for Dragonfly...

The new version of Revenant was introduced in X-Factor #21 as one of the new recruits for the Thugmaster's Elite, along with Powerhouse and Rainbow. So, she's had very brief appearances in XF #21 & #22. We haven't gotten to her yet in the old stuff recaps.
About the only time I didn't roll dice while running an actual game was for the 'live' game I ran on Q-Link. It was how Young Champions started and everyone was in a chat room. In that sort of situation rolling massive amounts of dice just slowed things down. So, I wrote a program that generated random dice roll results and had a print out. Simply picked the first one from the appropriate column, say a 10d6 column, and then crossed off. Sped things up considerably.
As for what was rolled out and what was written for the site, some of it might surprise you. I'll go with some of the more recent files for examples.
XF#22: the fights were all rolled out, but I broken them down into smaller chunks as opposed to having every single character act at the same time. It sped the process up considerably and, in spite of the way things do appear, its all little fights as opposed to big ones.
XF#20: the fight with Foxbat & Shadow Queen vs Heroes for Hire vs Thugmaster's Elite was about halfway rolled out. Mainly the beginning part. Having the Thugs capture everyone was part of the plan, so I only needed the stuff before the thugs arrived.
Muskateer #25: Every fight in that issue was made up on the fly. No dice rolling was involved.
Muskateer #24: The entire fight was rolled out, BUT when I started to write it all out I ended up changing things as I went. Basically I came to a point where a better tactic for the heroes to use emerged and went with that instead. I salvaged what I could from what I rolled once past that point, but had some things I had to make up on the fly.
So, its always a combination of things. Muskateer tends to make up all the fights that he writes out. For examples of this, check out Lost Heroes #1-5. I wrote #6 and all the fighting was written on the fly there as well.
On the other hand, there are times where I do roll out the combat to get the unexpected. That's how Dragonfly got killed. It came out of the dice rolling. And then I had to send an E-mail to Muskateer asking if he had any long range plans for Dragonfly...

Have light, will illuminate!
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- Swashbuckler
- Posts: 138
- Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2002 12:29 pm
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
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I like to roll out a fight now and again to see something unusual happen, but I do tend to just write my own fights to fit what I think should happen. I think it's too much to do all the time, but is necessary.
The important thing is that none of it is too hokey and if no one was able to tell the difference then we're doing our job!
The important thing is that none of it is too hokey and if no one was able to tell the difference then we're doing our job!

The Daring, Swash-Buckling Avenger!