Comic Book Style!

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:48 am

I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Scooter the Outlaw · Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:02 am

If I wanted to do something realistic, I'd just go to work.

I'm fine with having my hero throw a guy through a wall, have him get up and dust it off, and come back and punch me in the face with some kind of super-gizmo. It's meant to be fun, off-the-wall, and over the top, especially in Heroes Unlimited.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:37 am

If I wanted to do something realistic, I'd just go to work.

I try to make work as four-colour as possible.

Zenvis · Unread post by **Zenvis** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:59 am

Sentinel wrote:I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Dont forget Mystery Men... Ok thats a bit far.

Sir_Spirit · Unread post by **Sir_Spirit** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:35 am

Zenvis wrote:
Sentinel wrote:I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Dont forget Mystery Men... Ok thats a bit far.

What's Ironic is tha the Mystery men could make fo r arather good super team is you just give them the right twist.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:46 am

Zenvis wrote:
Sentinel wrote:I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Dont forget Mystery Men... Ok thats a bit far.

Not at all.
Granted the film was played for laughs, but if you played the story as a straight and serious one, it would work wonderfully. Especially for players and GMs who like characters of low power levels.

Sir_Spirit · Unread post by **Sir_Spirit** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:54 am

Sentinel wrote:
Zenvis wrote:
Sentinel wrote:I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Dont forget Mystery Men... Ok thats a bit far.

Not at all.
Granted the film was played for laughs, but if you played the story as a straight and serious one, it would work wonderfully. Especially for players and GMs who like characters of low power levels.

That's what I meant to say, only you said it better.

Uncle Servo · Unread post by **Uncle Servo** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:36 pm

Sentinel wrote:I far and away prefer a cinematic, Four Colour approach to all my RPGing, whether it's HU, N&SS, Rifts, or Nightbane. If I wanted realistic, I'd play a 100% realistic game like Recon, where there is no magic, no psionics, no monsters.
I want all the hi-energy, off-the-wall, over-the-top level of action I read in comics, see in movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Matrix, etc. included in my games.

Let's be honest here -- we're dealing with a setting (HU) in which it's pretty much standard fare to see human beings fly through the air, juggle SUVs, and project streams of flame from their hands/eyes/whatever.

There's no way you're going to get complete 100% realism in a setting like that.

I prefer the four-color, cinematic style but within the plausible confines of comic book convention.

I do however know of other GMs who do prefer 'gritty realism' and do strive for as close to complete reality as they can get. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it's just not what I look for in a campaign.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:38 pm

ok the title is misleading there are a LOT of different comic book styles and to say Four Color is the primary representation is, I think, unfair.

Punisher, Spawn, X-Men, Case Files of Sam and Twitch, Sandman are hardly four color. Those are the kinds of games I like to run/play in

Headshots all the time is wrong though if that's what he is doing. I like my heroes with feet of clay

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:47 pm

Mr. Montague wrote:ok the title is misleading there are a LOT of different comic book styles and to say Four Color is the primary representation is, I think, unfair.

Punisher, Spawn, X-Men, Case Files of Sam and Twitch, Sandman are hardly four color. Those are the kinds of games I like to run/play in

Headshots all the time is wrong though if that's what he is doing. I like my heroes with feet of clay

I can see the Punisher in a four colour context, if only for the Hong Kong style of shoot-em-ups. Punisher directed by John Woo.

Spawn is definitely four colour to me: the level of action, and the level of power Spawn faces makes it more than 'realistic'.

Sandman has interacted with all sorts of characters which go beyond the confines of realism.

The tone doesn't have to be light, or cheery, or even optimistic: the action just has to be more than what you could see on the news. The Killer is hardly a feel-good up-beat film: but the gunplay is definitely cinematic.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:40 pm

I guess I got my definitions confused
Four Color to me speaks of simplicity and optimism. Golden and Silver age comics. Or more currently Avengers and JLA

Punisher as far as I've seen in the most recent series isn't anything you coldn't see on the news (or more like HBO News)

Scooter the Outlaw · Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:47 pm

Mr. Montague wrote:I guess I got my definitions confused
Four Color to me speaks of simplicity and optimism. Golden and Silver age comics. Or more currently Avengers and JLA

Heh, that's the kind of stuff I like. Next time I get an 'edgy anti-hero walking the tightrope between good and evil' shoved down my throat in an otherwise good movie I swear I'm going to eat glass or something similarly painful. In the '90s, the anti-heroes were cool, fresh, and different.

Today, they're just annoying.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:56 pm

Mr. Montague wrote:I guess I got my definitions confused
Four Color to me speaks of simplicity and optimism. Golden and Silver age comics. Or more currently Avengers and JLA

Punisher as far as I've seen in the most recent series isn't anything you coldn't see on the news (or more like HBO News)

There's no reason why Punisher couldn't be done in a higher calibre of action though, without changing the character fundamentally.
A film like Hard Boiled would suit the Punisher in terms of action and tone.

Like Scooter the Outlaw, I too, am sick of the edgy anti-hero, and call for a return to the glory days of the Justice League, and the Avengers.

acreRake · Unread post by **acreRake** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:05 pm

It's one thing to play a "comic book style" hero, and another to play in a "comic book style" setting. Sounds like a lack of cooperation between GM and player than anything to do with the value of the character.

I'm with you on invulnerable=boring

I like a comic book feel to most everything in my HU games, but guns seem to come into it fairly often, and are very scary things (to players and NPC alike!)

There was one character with lycanthropy (wolf) and Animal Abilities: Bird who had this turf war with a color gang or poser-ninjas. At one point she was getting hacked up by a single big guy with a sword, just because the rolls weren't going her way. So she surprised the guy (and me, the GM) by pulling a gun on the guy. She realized that it's fun and all to run around playing "superhero," but sometimes a gun is the only way to get the job done.

Anyway i use point blank rules only rarely (it has to be undeniably closer than 10 feet), and players can parry or entangle a gun at that range anyway (just like in the comics), and hey, if it's just SDC damage any HU character can just shake it off. At least until they have time to realize they're bleeding to death

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:18 pm

edgy heroes are just another demo like the avengers. No reason to down on it. I like personal turmoil and refelction. And Punisher is a GREAT brea away from all this "I know he's killed many including your family and spot, but Tony if you kill him you will only be sinking to his level, he will win"
no he won't put a bullet in his head and he loses. He only wins if he gets you to regret killing him

and if you do just try to go play catch with pa and fetch with the dog it all goes away, you dig him up to shoot him again

Life is great. Quality is is also important

I don't even know if wolverine has taken anyone's head off lately,....

and so I am guess by the four color FEVAH no one liked Sin City which is full of dark anti heroes,......

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:52 pm

I haven't seen Sin City yet, but I plan on it.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with the gim and gritty street level approach...just that I was feeling there was too much of it.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:57 pm

too much? I don't think there was a time when the grit was 75% of the shelves. Maybe I was going to the wrong shops but it seemed pretty diverse back when. Maybe there were plenty of books but I didn't think too many. I mean Bone meets Punisher to clean the streets would be too much. HEMAN and the MASTERS OF MACHINE GUN ENIMAS would be too much. Cap America has always been himself as well as (even if painfully so) superman and batman

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:07 pm

The shops out here (East Coast, D.C. area) all support the independant comic market.
Sin City, Preacher, and a whole host of others, were all over the place. Perhaps not as much as 75%, but a lot all the same.

Sir_Spirit · Unread post by **Sir_Spirit** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:06 pm

Mr. Montague wrote:
I don't even know if wolverine has taken anyone's head off lately,....

I can personally vouch for Wolverine doing htis, his own comic is always having him doing that sort of hting. He even had Nightcrawler guest star in it just to talk about if killing was bad and stuff....

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:08 pm

but has he done it in the main book?

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:10 pm

I don't follow Wolvies' main book, but in every guest appearance he's made, he's come off as pretty viscious.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:04 pm

well really I was referrign to the X-Books which seem kind of soft handed

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:10 pm

Phoenix:Endsong shows a rough side to Wolvie. Age Of Apocalypse also has a fairly savage Wolvie. The Enemy of the State crossovers looked pretty Brutal.

Zenvis · Unread post by **Zenvis** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:51 pm

Sentinel wrote:Phoenix:Endsong shows a rough side to Wolvie. Age Of Apocalypse also has a fairly savage Wolvie. The Enemy of the State crossovers looked pretty Brutal.

I always loved the feral Wolvie from the time that he lost his "metal". The tusks, claws, fangs, fore-arm claws. It was all good.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:04 pm

While I didn't care for the way it was done, I did like the way Wolvies' bone claws looked too.
Adamantium was cool when only a couple of characters had it, but then it got overused and then had to be down played big time.
When Caps' shield was adamantium/vibranium, it was made clear that while Magneto could sieze control of it, he couldn't alter it's shape: only someone like Molecule Man could that. Maggie should never have been able to remove the adamantium from Wolverines' skeleton in the first place.
A full strength blow from Thors' Hammer will not deform adamantium (just ask Ultron).
But again, the look of the bone claws were cool.

Gomen_Nagai · Unread post by **Gomen_Nagai** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:27 pm

when I ran my fuzion game the lethality of Head shots became such a nuissance all the players bought up Regeneration to Recover from Head shots and decapitation ( some sessions decapitations happened 3 or 4 times a night) and they removed their brains to their chest cavities because head shots were so often. well .. One had removed his brain into his butt...

wolfsgrin · Unread post by **wolfsgrin** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:16 am

My personal rule for gming is that I don't do headshots unless I'm out to kill players. Which is rare. I'm more into debilitating them and demeaning them. Really push there characters to the breaking point. I like to run goody goodies in an dark seedy street style of world. Basically for all the filth the heroes still stay above it. Sometimes they don't and that gets interesting but then it just turns into a hack and slash without any creativity in capturing the bad guys. Headshots to all the NPC'c gets old. So I pefer the golden age with more vicious baddies twisted into the plot here and there. I just think its more interesting to see the golden boy do everything but kill the baddies to bring them to justice. Makes for a more intricate character. But the Punisher does rock. Anybody reading the current Max series. Wow! Ennis rules. A sick and twisted fellow.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:04 am

I don't get a lot of headshots: very few of my HU players use guns, those that do aren't likely to take a shot that has a greater degree of difficulty than a regular body shot, characters that have energy blasts are content with main body shots, I don't use the (optional) Random hit location tables for damage purposes although I do if the character is making a called shot or says " I power-kick his left leg", and most importantly, no one wants to give the villains a logical reason for armouring up and becoming even nastier and more viscious.

Sir_Spirit · Unread post by **Sir_Spirit** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:59 pm

IN the latest return of Magneto("I'm taking over NYNY") story Wolverine was the one that killed him(beheading) as the other X-men watched on.
It turned out to be a "fake" magneto(which has yet to be explained to me)though.
And that was in the X-men or Uncanny X-men.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:20 pm

I believe that ersatz Magneto turned out to be Xorn, but I don't know how he survived that. He has since turned up in Uncanny X-Men (I have some catching up to do: I need to make a determination which X-titles I am going to follow).

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:21 pm

I looked that one over in the store when it came out, but I wasn't that thrilled with it.
I'm sticking for sure with Ultimate X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and Excalibur, for now. If Juggernaut comes back, I'll read whichever book he's in.
Uncanny and X-Men are both going to have to get rreally good for me to stick around past the current stories.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:32 pm

what they did with Jug is dispicable
(I can never say that word without daffys voice in my head)

I AM STRONG with the Gem of Cytorrak
I beat the controlling entity in the Gem for control
Now I am weaker now that I have full control

sigh

I would have lied to see J take on the xmen and then have some tea as he was dabbing the corners of his mouth with wolvies bloodied uniform

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:45 pm

Well, when the Jugg became a hero, they had to scale his power back, or else he'd raise the bar on the villains. That would lead to a lot of stupid stories or pointless deaths, neither of which would be good.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:19 pm

what do you mean pointless? why do it in the first place? I hate in-contenence (yes that's what I meant because it pisses all over continuuity)

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:52 pm

I rather liked the Trail of The Juggernaut two parter. The She Hulk guest appearance was priceless.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:59 am

Of course, now She-Hulk wants to pretend she doesn't remember sleeping with Juggy...

Daniel Stoker · Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:30 am

Considering her 'track' record she might have a bit of a problem pulling that one off.

Daniel Stoker

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:05 pm

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that one writer has "written out" what another had done previously.

13 issues later..."What a terrible dream!"

VR Dragon · Unread post by **VR Dragon** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:35 pm

one of my favorite characters,

He is an Experiment guy. 3 majors.

A.P.S. Metal (Super Steel Alloy)
A Modified Version of A.P.S. Electricity (Flight Wingless instead of the Electro flight thing)
And Magnetizum.

Armored, Energy Blasts, and ranged manipulation.

And then my Tribute to a for colors hero. (Not a copy)

APS Plasma and Fire Linked ( for a varied selection of attack power lvls) And Rocket Fists.

Or....

My alien from AU Book, (Arismal)

Create Force Fields
Create Force Constructs
Force Aura

Flight Wingless
Power Channeling

I am not for the (low) powered stuff, I only play "Super" Heroes Unlimited.

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:47 pm

I am not for the (low) powered stuff, I only play "Super" Heroes Unlimited.

No Batmans? No Daredevils? No Green Arrows? No Captain Americas?

There are a wealth of great characters to be developed form the catagories of Physical Training, Special Training, Super Soldiers and Minor Heroes.

Gomen_Nagai · Unread post by **Gomen_Nagai** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:35 am

speaking of minor heroes, I had a Minor hero rolled up who was better then all the other character types to play, mainly cause his powers allowed him to act in a superhero fashion without getting in trouble... and had skills that allowed him to go on his own.. The other characters I had made, were very powerful or very skilled, but couldn't take on your average VU team.

KillWatch · Unread post by **KillWatch** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:25 pm

Personally I like starting small and ending big
like maybe with 1 minor power that developes into a major or soemthing like that

I reserve my 6 Minrs and 3 majors for Mega Beings

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:26 pm

I ususally go with (at most) 3 Majors and 2 Minors for Megas, plus one Mega Ability: Two Mega Abilities if an Achilles' Heel is chosen. If 2 Achilles heels are chosen (and some players want more weakness believe it or not) then I allow an additional Minor Power.
For truely cosmic campaign, I follow the template of the Blahyze Aliens, and allow for that number of Major and Minor powers.

Forums of the Megaverse®

Comic Book Style!

Are comic book style character good?

Re: Comic Book Style!