Yeah!

Announced yesterday:

We're celebrating the recent launch of Issue 16: Power Spectrum in style by offering all our players a Double XP weekend! But that's not all, all inactive accounts in good standing will also be given access to City of Heroes and City of Villains® during the Double XP weekend!

Here are the dates and times:

• Starts: Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 8:59 a.m. Pacific Time (11:59 a.m. Eastern Time / 4:59 p.m. British Time / 17H59 Central European Time)
• Ends: Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (2:59 a.m. Eastern Time / 7:59 p.m. British Time / 8H59 Central European Time)

All participating Hero and Villain characters will receive double the XP, Influence, and Infamy for their accomplishments in game. Just log in to start playing and take advantage of this opportunity to level up your favorite Heroes and Villains twice as quickly as normal!

Favorite Moments - City of Heroes first 10 levels

Beginning the game with your very first character is a an exciting experience as everything is new and cool. My favorite moment was probably defeating Frostfire solo - it's a tough mission in the Hollows but it's a cool environment and it's tough enough to give a real sense of accomplishment when he is finally brought to justice.

Super-Systems - personal notes

When it comes to pen and paper Super RPG's I have played most of them:

- I began playing Champions in 1983 with the 2nd edition boxed set. I played the most during the 4th edition and I hope to start a new long-term campaign next year.

- I picked up Mutants and Masterminds during its 1st edition run and have recently picked up 2nd edition. I like it but have yet to run a long campaign with it.

- Marvel Super Heroes is a fine system and still works well. I find it especially handy for introducing new players as the system is fairly simple to learn and it comes with nice cards for a lot of well known heroes with pictures and stats.

- Necessary Evil is a great setting book and campaign for Savage Worlds. It's a lighter game mechanics-wise than most of the others, but it plays well and has a great premise.

- Villains and Vigilantes was fun years ago and I occasionally go back and mine some of the adventures for maps and ideas but the other systems are what I prefer to play.

- Heroes Unlimited is a workable system but it is not my favorite. I have used it mainly as a source of extra characters for the occasional Rifts game.

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was awesome when it came out and is still fun to play, especially with the younger set if Marvel isn't their thing. A lot of flavor and the system works fine for the scale of this particular game universe.

My Origin, Part 5

I awoke when I hit the ground. At some point the power had gone beyond my ability to manage and when I passed out it shut down, thank goodness. I stood up from a smoking crater, still quite disoriented and staggered home. When I looked in the mirror I realized the suit had not vaporized as I had assumed - I was still wearing it, only it had changed dramatically.

No longer was I wearing a crude armor prototype. No, the metal had liquefied and run along the contours of my body, held to me by some strange side effect of my runaway power. In the hellish energies of my awakening, the metal had bonded to me, becoming part of my living tissue. I could move normally and I felt no heavier than I had before. In truth I thought I was unclothed I felt so free yet in the mirror I looked like a shining metal statue.

Still adjusting to this new development I gingerly tested my powers and found them still working. Realizing my life had changed forever I quickly decided that I had to use these abilities as a force for good in the world. I fashioned a new helmet and found a way to bond it to myself and release it at will. I don't know that I need a secret identity but I decided to wait before revealing my true self. Plus it would maintain the illusion that I was a battle suited hero, hopefully giving me an advantage over potential enemies.

As I began  my new career I soon discovered I no longer needed to sleep. Perhaps it was due to my altered body, perhaps it was a constant subconscious drawing of energy from the world around me, but I found myself with much more time in a day than I had known previously, which has given me time to think and pursue many other interests, some of which I will share in the future.

My Origin, Part 4

I collected several thousand aluminum beverage cans, cleaned them, and began melting them down in my workshop. I made molds of my body. I sculpted foam rubber for the joints of my new suit. After months of work, everything was finally ready and one night I donned my suit for the first time.

I could feel energy moving through space all around me - in the air, in the power lines and buildings I could see, and and even in the underground conduits beneath my feet. The suit put a much larger amount of metal in direct contact with my skin than I had ever tried before, and I was exponentially more aware of the energy around me. That should have been a warning to me.

I found my newly amplified abilities allowed me to move against the earth's magnetic field -  I could hover in mid air with some concentration. As I did this I saw a thug attempting to steal a car and decided to see if I could project a shock, enough to dissuade him from his thievery. I opened my self up completely, thinking it would take a massive effort to project a spark that distance, and the world exploded.

It was easier to project with the new suit than I had anticipated. I unleashed a torrent of energy and I couldn't shut it off - I was like a switch stuck in an open position. The energy poured into me, through me, and shot out from my outstretched hand. My target had been blown into the air but he did survive and he quickly ran off. The car he had been attempting to steal was melting into a puddle as the pavement beneath it began to boil. I could see my suit glowing a bright blue-white. I felt the rubber joints hiss away into vapor. I felt the metal of the suit begin to liquefy and run and I couldn't stop it. Somehow though, I was not feeling any pain. I felt strange, light, alive, and out of control but I was exuberant with the power I felt running through my body, laughing maniacally until I passed out.

My Origin, Part 3

I began experimenting with various metals to determine what would give me the most power. Aluminum was lightweight and a fine conductor, so I decided to use it for the internal lining of the suit as well as some external emission points. It would also form some fixed and some retractable antennas and waveguides. For protection, most of the suit though would need to be made of one of those super-expensive exotic metals like adamantium or vibranium. Wow that stuff is expensive! I wasn't independently wealthy so I wasn't sure how I was going to afford that, so I decided to build a prototype suit completely from aluminum and use it to demonstrate my abilities in hopes of finding funding to build a real suit. As you may have guessed form my name this did not go entirely according to plan.

My Origin, Part 2

As I grew up my talent seemed like more of a parlor trick than any kind of truly useful ability. If your car battery died, I could get it started. If your cellphone ran out, I could power it up to make a call. It was occasionally handy but hardly life changing.

One day in school we learned a little about electricity and circuits and conductors and this started some wheels turning in my young head. Later that day while climbing on some monkey bars I tried to shock a buddy using the metal of the bars as a conduit. It was a major change for me as I realized that not only could I direct energy through the bars, I could also feel energy in the air around the bars and I could draw it into myself through them, like an antenna. Realizing that metal amplified my talent in a pretty incredible way, I began to wonder if I could do more with it.

Then one day I saw footage of Destroyer, one of the early battlesuit heroes, in action against Viper and everything clicked into place. I could build a suit of metal which would provide protection and enhance my powers - I could become a super hero.

My Origin, Part 1

I first realized I was different when as a child I stuck my finger into an electrical outlet. Now many children do this and it is typically a painful experience but it wasn't for me. Instead I felt the electricity flowing into me and through my body and I found that I could direct it to a given point on my body. As I secretly practiced my newfound talent I learned to perform tricks like lighting up a light bulb held in my hand or zapping the cat with a minor shock. Being a child I merely thought of of my ability as a kind of trick or odd talent and nothing more.

Wrapping up my business in Faultline

Today I finished my work in what was left of Overbrook. The damage from that earthquake is a shocking sight even today. I managed to stop an Arachnos member from escaping with a videotape that contained information on just what happened the day of the quake. Jim Temblor and I had been pursuing the tape and now we have finally recovered it. I left in in Jim's hands for safekeeping. Now it is time to move on, as a police contact in Telos Island has asked for my help in that neighborhood. It's a shame in a way - that Fusionette is quite the attractive young lady - ah, but she and Jim are a couple so I must move on.

Having reached a certain stage in my career I have decided to begin posting my thoughts online. More to come...