Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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Captain Beard
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Orga! MUTOs! Gamera! Pacific Rim! Gipsy Danger!)

Post by Captain Beard »

Shock wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 1:28 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 1:24 pm
Captain Beard wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 12:49 pm (And now I get to live with the fact that my first post was an anime boobs comparison, so I got that going for me...)
LOL- I was a bit curious that a poster with one comment chose to respond to that particular one :).
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greycrusader
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by greycrusader »

Yeah-I'm chagrined to admit a few of my early bios for superhero rpg work suffered from "Claremont Syndrome"-in Plain Brown Wrapper Games' Another 13 Shades of Darkness (a 3rd party M&M 2e/SW villain book), the background material for Professor Purgatory, the Penitent, the Cretin, and the Twisted Sisters all should have been cut by at least a third. I think I also may have been influenced by the (over)long back stories in the various Champions Enemies books.

The M&M source books mostly get it right in terms of balance, as did the old school Villains and Vigilantes stuff up to the point when Jeff Dee and Jack Herman left the line, then becoming far too sketchy ( it gets to the point of "...born with mutant powers, got bullied at school and decided to become a super-villain in retaliation!).

The thing with Peter Parker's mother and father just point up HOW far off the rails Spider-Man has gone. Steve Ditko sometimes comes off like a raving kook (though also a dead brilliant creator) but in the end he may have been right about how Spider-Man either had to grow up or become a dead end character whose stories would rely on nonsensical ideas in an attempt to avoid staleness.

All my best.
MacynSnow
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Gamera! Pacific Rim! Gipsy Danger! Goldar!)

Post by MacynSnow »

Batgirl III wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:20 pm
Davies wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:08 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Jun 24, 2018 9:56 pm Ah, Space Pirates... is there ANYTHING that screams "Late 1970s" more than SPACE PIRATES?
<looks up from his copy of E.E. Smith's Galactic Patrol, written in 1937 and featuring guess what, with a quizzical expression>
Looks up from her copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pirates of Venus, first serialized in 1932, and prepares a hearty "ACK-chu-ly!"
<Looks up from his copy of Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood Returns,first printed in 1938, looks around as he feeds his Parrot>
kirinke
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by kirinke »

I vaguely remember something called Ice Pirates from way back when. :lol:
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Kirinke's Conversions (D&D Items to M&M3E Rules)

Battle Init
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Ren:22
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MacynSnow
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by MacynSnow »

kirinke wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:16 am I vaguely remember something called Ice Pirates from way back when. :lol:
<Currently fixing Laser Cutlass that's in no way a rip-off of a Light Sabre>
I....might remember some of that Movie of which you speak. ;)
Jabroniville
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Raza Longknife

Post by Jabroniville »

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RAZA LONGKNIFE
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #107 (Oct. 1977)
Role: Team Filler
Group Affiliations: The Starjammers
PL 9 (152)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+10)
Athletics 3 (+9)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+12)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Space Pirate) 7 (+10)
Insight 4 (+6)
Intimidation 5 (+6)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 4 (+10)
Technology 4 (+7)
Vehicles 4 (+9)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Diehard, Great Endurance, Equipment 3 (Built-In Computer, Laser Guns), Improved Critical (Hand-Blade), Improved Disarm, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5, Set-Up, Startle, Takedown, Teamwork, Track

Powers:
"Cyborg Body"
"Morphing Hand-Blade" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Subtle) [3]
Protection 1 (Extras: Impervious 5) [6]
Senses (Infravision) [1]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation- Alien Worlds) [1]

Equipment:
"Blaster" Blast 6 (Extras: Multiattack) (18)

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Blade +10 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Blaster +10 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +6 (+3 Impervious), Fortitude +7, Will +7

Complications:
Enemy (The Shi'ar Empire)
Relationship (Son- Rion)- Raza's wife is long-dead, but his son Rion remains important to him.

Total: Abilities: 78 / Skills: 50--25 / Advantages: 21 / Powers: 14 / Defenses: 14 (152)

-Raza's probably the weakest overall member in terms of character, just being an intense '80s-looking cyborg instead of something cool like a giant lizard named after pubes or a hot furry Skunk-babe. He's got pointy ears, a ponytail, a hand-blade and some guns, but he's really nothing super-special, so he was given a "long-lost son" storyline and that's about it.

-Raza has an annoying "thee and thou" Faux-Shakespearean dialogue style, making him a bit of a nuisance. He was enslaved by the Shi'ar years ago, breaking out with the other Starjammers, becoming a melee combatant for the space pirate team. His entire race has apparently died, leaving him the sole survivor, though he later hears hints about his son Rion being spared- this leads him to nearly kill the Black Knight in battle, after the Kree dangle Rion's location in front of him, and order him to kill the hero. Nothing ever seems to come of this (it's the infamous "Bomber Jacket Era", which saw the team tank in sales), and so his entire history between 1993 and 2010 is basically nothing. He ends up becoming the host for the Symbiote ZZZXX and joins Vulcan's Imperial Guard, but is later freed.

-I figure most of the Starjammers as PL 9s. They're handy in a scrap, and very skilled, but one-on-one against a true-blue X-Man or Marvel Super-Hero, and they're gonna fall short. Raza should theoretically be a PL 10 given his accuracy AND Super-Strength, but I put him to more reasonable balanced +10/+8 in Attack & Damage to put him on the right level. They're just not capable enough to go higher, really. He's a pretty good PL 9 character, especially given his poinst cost. Oddly, my 2e Starjammers were balanced PL 9 (135) PC Builds, and near-direct translations to 3e bring them up almost a full 15 points each, showing you how the boost in cost for Skills really matters.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Jun 13, 2022 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Jabroniville »

What strikes me as odd about re-doing builds & bios this old, is just how much my "bio"-style has changed in the interim. Corsair literally only had one paragraph about him, and most of it was a diatribe about Claremont's oddities as a writer:
-Corsair was probably the most dated of the Starjammers in terms of appearance & concept (a roving space-pirate long-lost dad of the X-Men's leader), so of course he'd be the one to bite the bullet, killed by the fabled Third Summers Brother, Vulcan. His appearance in the X-Books is one of the more bizarre coincidences Claremont ever scripted, in that the otherwise-normal Mutant Scott Summers JUST HAPPENED to meet his long-lost father years later, while on a mission in outer space. Claremont tended to do that a LOT, giving many characters the most bizarre backstory possible, so that nobody was ever quite "normal". Nightcrawler was gonna be the son of Nightmare (sad to say that's a BETTER idea than what ended up happening), etc. I never quite got into the character, but the concept was alright, if (as I said) a little dated. Still, staying alive for years, on a ship with four other guys, fighting against the Shi'ar Empire? Most characters could only wish to replicate that feat.
Compare that to what I've written about him on the preceding page.

Here's Raza's:
-Raza's probably the weakest overall member in terms of character, just being an intense '80s-looking cyborg instead of something cool like a giant lizard named after pubes or a hot furry Skunk-babe. He's got pointy ears, a ponytail, a hand-blade and some guns, but he's really nothing super-special, so he was given a "long-lost son" storyline and that's about it.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:41 am Yeah-I'm chagrined to admit a few of my early bios for superhero rpg work suffered from "Claremont Syndrome"-in Plain Brown Wrapper Games' Another 13 Shades of Darkness (a 3rd party M&M 2e/SW villain book), the background material for Professor Purgatory, the Penitent, the Cretin, and the Twisted Sisters all should have been cut by at least a third. I think I also may have been influenced by the (over)long back stories in the various Champions Enemies books.

The M&M source books mostly get it right in terms of balance, as did the old school Villains and Vigilantes stuff up to the point when Jeff Dee and Jack Herman left the line, then becoming far too sketchy ( it gets to the point of "...born with mutant powers, got bullied at school and decided to become a super-villain in retaliation!).

The thing with Peter Parker's mother and father just point up HOW far off the rails Spider-Man has gone. Steve Ditko sometimes comes off like a raving kook (though also a dead brilliant creator) but in the end he may have been right about how Spider-Man either had to grow up or become a dead end character whose stories would rely on nonsensical ideas in an attempt to avoid staleness.

All my best.
Still blows my mind that it's STAN LEE writing that story. I mean, it was 1968, so he was nearing his end as a comic book writer and moving on to full-time Editing & trying to sell Marvel elsewhere, but holy cow. He really couldn't tell that it was too silly for Peter Parker to have super-spies for parents?

Though it really seems like that issue was more of a one-off that meant little for future stories- just a random thing dealing with the Red Skull and his parents' name and legacy. Everyone knew that May and Ben were his "real" parents anyway.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Hepzibah

Post by Jabroniville »

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This is the SAME CHARACTER. Further proof that no comic book company, anywhere, can ever seem to maintain consistency on an animal-person's appearance.

HEPZIBAH
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #107 (Oct. 1977)
Role: The Sexy Partial-Animal Lady, The Chick (from the Starjammers)
Group Affiliations: The Starjammers, The X-Men, X-Force
PL 9 (149)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+14)
Athletics 6 (+9)
Close Combat (Claws) 2 (+13)
Deception 2 (+5, +7 Attractive)
Expertise (Space Pirate) 7 (+8)
Intimidation 3 (+6)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 8 (+10)
Technology 5 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+10)
Vehicles 5 (+10)

Advantages:
Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Attractive, Defensive Roll, Diehard, Daze (Intimidation), Equipment 4, Evasion, Improved Critical (Claws), Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Ranged Attack 6, Takedown, Taunt

Powers:
"Mephitisoid Physiology"
"Claws" Strength-Damage +2 [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
"Tail" Extra Limb 1 [1]
Senses 3 (Low-Light Vision, Acute Scent, Tracking) [3]

"Mood-Altering Pheromones" Affliction 2 (Fort; Entranced/Compelled) (Extras: Reaction +3, Area- Scent Perception) (Flaws: Limited Degree) [8]

Equipment:
"Blaster" Blast 6 (Extras: Multiattack) (18)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Claws +11 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Pheromones +4 Area (+4 Affliction, DC 14)
Blaster +11 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +10

Defenses:
Dodge +14 (DC 24), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +3 (+4 D.Roll), Fortitude +6, Will +6

Complications:
Relationship (Corsair, Warpath)
Enemy (The Shi'ar Empire)

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 54--27 / Advantages: 22 / Powers: 13 / Defenses: 17 (149)

-The fanservicey character on the team, Hepzibah is named after the similarly-sexy anthropomorphic skunk lady in Walt Kelly's Pogo comic strip. This is back when you could show a somewhat animalistic lady with nice boobs and hips and people would get non-guilty boners over it- the popularization of Furries as an internet punching bag have ruined this, so aside from the ones guys usually get passes for (you can like Minerva Mink and not be a furry! It's in the rules!), you won't see things like that very often.

-Mam'zelle Hepzibah, though, was more "human with some fur", so she's more or less like Tigra in the "it doesn't count as Furry" thing, even today. A Mephitisoid, she was captured by the Shi'ar, and was doomed to be executed in a particularly gruesome fashion (eaten alive at a banquet!), so she was more than happy to be rescued by Corsair and his other Starjammers- she and he would eventually become lovers, with her trademark French-sounding accent (sure, why not?) making her more distinctive. 'Twas Corsair who gave her the name "Hepzibah", because Mephitisoids communicate by scent, and her actual name would be hard to express to other beings in a spoken language.

-Hepzibah usually had the least effect on the plot of her team, usually just kind of being a sounding board for the other characters (the "Sexy Lamp Test" is failed in this case- she's basically a prop). She was left alone when Corsair was killed by Vulcan, and was forced to stay on Earth with the X-Men after a point. This led to one of those "quick comic book relationships" with Warpath, as they bond over both being trackers, and she sort of joins his team. James becomes overprotective of her when their teammate Caliban is killed, resulting in him getting told off by both her and Wolverine, their team leader. Eventually they part, largely due to James's guilt over all the killing he's done while a part of X-Force (translation: The writer left, and his "canon relationships" left with him), and she turns into a Stereotypical Horny Alien over being single again.

-After all that (about 5-10 years worth of stuff, and her biggest push ever), she's shunted off back into space, getting back together with Corsair, now that he's been resurrected.

-Power-wise, Hepzibah is a Scrapper mixed with a Blaster, being good in combat, leaning more towards accuracy than damage output. She doesn't quite fit PL 9 caps very well, as it takes more than simple claws & reflexes to make an all-out X-Man, but she's still pretty good, and is quite expensive, as a Skillmonkey Space Pirate should be.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Jun 13, 2022 4:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
MacynSnow
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by MacynSnow »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:55 am
greycrusader wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:41 am Yeah-I'm chagrined to admit a few of my early bios for superhero rpg work suffered from "Claremont Syndrome"-in Plain Brown Wrapper Games' Another 13 Shades of Darkness (a 3rd party M&M 2e/SW villain book), the background material for Professor Purgatory, the Penitent, the Cretin, and the Twisted Sisters all should have been cut by at least a third. I think I also may have been influenced by the (over)long back stories in the various Champions Enemies books.

The M&M source books mostly get it right in terms of balance, as did the old school Villains and Vigilantes stuff up to the point when Jeff Dee and Jack Herman left the line, then becoming far too sketchy ( it gets to the point of "...born with mutant powers, got bullied at school and decided to become a super-villain in retaliation!).

The thing with Peter Parker's mother and father just point up HOW far off the rails Spider-Man has gone. Steve Ditko sometimes comes off like a raving kook (though also a dead brilliant creator) but in the end he may have been right about how Spider-Man either had to grow up or become a dead end character whose stories would rely on nonsensical ideas in an attempt to avoid staleness.

All my best.
Still blows my mind that it's STAN LEE writing that story. I mean, it was 1968, so he was nearing his end as a comic book writer and moving on to full-time Editing & trying to sell Marvel elsewhere, but holy cow. He really couldn't tell that it was too silly for Peter Parker to have super-spies for parents?

Though it really seems like that issue was more of a one-off that meant little for future stories- just a random thing dealing with the Red Skull and his parents' name and legacy. Everyone knew that May and Ben were his "real" parents anyway.
That was the thing about Peter's Bio-Parents(hey,it's more polite than 'Sperm&Egg Donor',so shaddup!),Stan purposely kept it Vague for years what they did,leaving only the hint that they "tended to Travel a lot" and couldn't take him with them due to Pete's young Age.The fact that one of Stan's last writing bits was that story was a nice touch on Marvel's part...

Also,(Spoken in Pirate Voice)how dare ye not give fair Hepzibah Attractive!Why,i've half a mind to have you cleaning Barnacles off the Starboard.... :x
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Jabroniville »

heh, I meant to bring this up, but kept forgetting.

When I first posted Kuvira from The Legend or Korra, and included the Giant Metal Suit, I placed it at PL 18, largely due to an Area Attack that demolished anything in its path: https://roninarmy.com/threads/149-Jab-s ... post122608

Poster Squirrelly-Sama made the comment: "Wow, PL 18! That thing could wipe the floor with Godzilla!"

To which I pointed out that was unlikely, due to the way they two statted out. YES, that thing was PL 18, but it was only by virtue of a +18 Damage Area Attack, which could therefore not be Power Attacked. +18 is small potatoes to any of my Godzillas- even the Showa Era one has a +22 Blast, never mind its strength. The Metal Suit also has only +17 Toughness- Godzilla would damage it almost every single time it hit, unarmed or with the Atomic Fire. Godzilla has almost a 50% chance of saving damage from the Spirit Energy Beam by contrast, and is a much better in-close fighter.

It's an interesting look at how "PL isn't everything"- Godzilla would probably trounce that thing in only a handful of rounds (it could even one-hit KO it!), despite being FOUR POWER LEVELS LOWER.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Batgirl III »

People also tend to forget how important Power Point budget is, sometimes being even more important than Power Level. A PL 10 character with a lot more than the standard 15PP:PL ratio can often “punch above their weight,” and a PL 18 character with less will often be “over-specialized.”
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:45 am People also tend to forget how important Power Point budget is, sometimes being even more important than Power Level. A PL 10 character with a lot more than the standard 15PP:PL ratio can often “punch above their weight,” and a PL 18 character with less will often be “over-specialized.”
Yup- it's a PL 11.5 defensive Construct with one solitary weapon and +13 Strength-Damage. Godzilla is PL 14 in the Showa Era, both with unarmed AND his Breath Weapon, and has Defenses to match. He can also Power Attack, All-Out Attack, etc.- the Metal Suit has no Advantages at all.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Jabroniville »

MacynSnow wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:23 am
Though it really seems like that issue was more of a one-off that meant little for future stories- just a random thing dealing with the Red Skull and his parents' name and legacy. Everyone knew that May and Ben were his "real" parents anyway.
That was the thing about Peter's Bio-Parents(hey,it's more polite than 'Sperm&Egg Donor',so shaddup!),Stan purposely kept it Vague for years what they did,leaving only the hint that they "tended to Travel a lot" and couldn't take him with them due to Pete's young Age.The fact that one of Stan's last writing bits was that story was a nice touch on Marvel's part...

Also,(Spoken in Pirate Voice)how dare ye not give fair Hepzibah Attractive!Why,i've half a mind to have you cleaning Barnacles off the Starboard.... :x
You were too busy making terrible Pirate Jokes to check properly, ya goof :P.
Shock
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Pacific Rim! The Space Giants! The Starjammers!)

Post by Shock »

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla was on some back end cable channel last night. I let my boys stay up late to watch it and they were howling through the fight scenes. The "human" scenes had them bored to tears. And the odd Japanese pronunciation of "Caesar" had them calling the monster "King Seesaw" and there was nothing I could say to convince them otherwise.
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