Geeky SKAturday: More love for Pokémon, with upbeats

Today's intersection of ska and geekdom comes courtesy of Jeremy at Skatune Network...who has to be one of the most musically talented individuals I've ever paid attention to.  They've done some outstanding work on the channel, but this one is just top-notch.

And in me-related news, quite a while back I picked up a couple of miniature Pokemon figures that looked to be roughly in scale with the HeroClix I've been planning to rebase and play with for forever.  One is one of my all-time favorites, Electabuzz:

It's a little big...the average Electabuzz is 3'07" (1.1 m), so especially considering that Bats is a little on the tall side for the minis I'm collecting...anyway, I'm gonna go with it.

Way back when, I played around a bit on this blog with converting old school Pokemon cards to old school RPG monsters using a quick and dirty formula:

HD = Level/10 (round up)

HP = TCG HP/5

Attack bonus = HD + 2 - [attack cost in energy]

Attack damage becomes damage in d6 (divide by 30 and treat remainders as modifiers)

AC = 14 - Retreat Cost (related to DEX...?)

Resistance halves damage; weakness doubles it.

Specials will hopefully be obvious.

So, this card...

...becomes this monster:

Electabuzz
HD 4 (14 HP), AC 12
Attacks:  Thundershock +5 (d6-2, 3 in 6 chance of causing paralysis for one round), Thunderpunch +4 (d6, 3 in 6 chance of +1 damage, otherwise deals 1 damage to itself)
Weakness:  Fighting

Electabuzz and Batman will hopefully meet on the field of battle before long.  I should probably put Buzz on a washer.

Stacking up Bricks: The Hulk

Continuing my experimentation with the Brick class for Light City...here's another important one to take into consideration that also matches one of my haphazardly rebased HeroClix that will (hopefully) soon find a place on my tabletop.

The Hulk is really one of the most classic of all superheroic Bricks, I think.  He's also fairly straightforward as far as Bricks go; he's big, strong, and tough.  I'm thinking his accelerated healing should maybe be taken into account.  He can also jump really high and far, but that's covered at least slightly in the base Brick class.  And while I don't follow Hulk comics very closely, he's apparently immortal these days.  I won't worry about that one.

As for drawbacks?  I don't know that a transformation into superheroic form is a drawback in itself; I should probably do a little survey of other supers RPGs to see how that's treated in general.

The uncontrollable rage, though...that's probably a hindrance.  Let's see...

The Hulk

Real name:  Bruce Banner

Level 5 Brick

AC 6[13]    HD 6d6+12 (34 HP)

Saving throw: 12

Move 12 ft. (leap 12 ft.)

STR 36(+5)    DEX 12    CON 24(+2)    INT 10    WIS 4    CHA 10

(All stats in Hulk form.)

Attacks:  Melee - Punch +2 (1d6+5 damage)

Special:  Regeneration 1 (heal 1 at the beginning of each round); 5 in 6 chance for a Feat of Strength

Hindrance:  Rage 1 (Before taking an action, roll 1d6; on a roll of 1, the action is lost to blind rage.)

Brick bonuses: Enhanced STR x1, Enhanced CON x1, Regeneration 1.

Musical Monday: Superman's Best Songs (Part III) + Sunshine Superman for Light City

There are a lot of Superman songs out there.  Here's another one I like.

Well...I'm pretty sure I like it. It has a certain resonance with me.  I had a phase long ago in which I listened to a lot of popular music from the '60s, and this eventually became a familiar tune that had the added bonus of name-dropping not only Superman, but also Green Lantern...!

Whatever your take on it, I think it's hard to deny that this one sounds very Sixties...

Sunshine Superman is also the name of the Man of Steel hailing from Earth 47 (or, in his earliest appearance, Dreamworld), the psychedelic superhero universe that can owe its groovy existence to Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.

He's in a pretty happenin' version of the Justice League, too...

Without any evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume Sunshine Superman has access to all of the standard Supes powers...and I'll take this opportunity to stat him up for Light City in such a way that I can use the basics for any old Superman in a tabletop superhero skirmish.  Maybe I can even figure out a way to reconcile these numbers and abilities with a rational way of having the Brick class play out over several levels...

Sunshine Superman

Level 5 Brick

AC 6[13]    HD 6d6+6 (28 HP)

Saving throw: 12

Move 24 ft. (flight 24 ft.)

STR 30(+4)    DEX 12    CON 18(+1)    INT 14    WIS 12    CHA 14

Attacks:  Melee - Punch +2 (1d6+4 damage); Ranged - Heat Vision +2 (1d6 damage), medium range

Vulnerability:  Kryptonite

Brick bonuses: Super Speed x1, Flight, Energy Blast.  Thanks to Justin Isaac and his Super-Pet class for helping me visualize this method of building a hero in a Light City context, and to soner du for confirmation that "exaltations" to build a hero isn't a terrible idea...

Because it just seems like a good week to think about Captain America

So much division.  At least we have this guy that I think most of us can get behind in one way or another.

Captain America
Real name:  Steve Rogers

Level 5 Supersoldier

AC 3[16] (light body armor, shield)    HD 5d6+10 (28 HP)

Saving throw: 11

STR 20(+2)    DEX 20(+2)    CON 20(+2)    INT 12    WIS 15(+1)    CHA 16(+1)

Attacks:  Melee - Shield +6 (1d6+2 damage); Ranged - Shield +6 (1d6+2 damage), medium range

(A few notes:  1. The Supersoldier class is found in The Assembly and expanded upon in L'Assemblee.  2. Justin previously posted Sam Wilson as Captain America for Light City over at the Halls of the Nephilim...I definitely used that to cheat and check my work over here. And, who doesn't love Falcon?  3. There's a big argument to be made that Steve Rogers should make it past level 5 pretty early in his avenging career, but I'm scaling back some of these Light/White Box characters in order to stat them out for a miniatures skirmish, where I want to keep their numbers a little more under control.  4. Be kind to each other out there, please.)

Happy New Year! + Joey Ramone for White Box

And now, I finally get around to wishing a happy and healthy new year to all of the good people who stop by this blog!  (I actually wish it for everyone else, too, but I'll need some help passing the message on to them.) 

To celebrate, here's something I never really get tired of...the Ramones' New Year's Eve 1977 show in London, which was later released as the live album It's Alive.

Johnny would later say:  “I think our peak, our greatest moment, is that New Year’s Eve show of 1977 into 1978. I think that’s our greatest moment as a band.”  Strong words!

And here's Joey for White Box/Light/Continual Light gaming.  Man, I really need to find a miniature of him.

This pic is actually released under a CC-BY-SA license...

Joey Ramone
Level 3 Bard

AC 8[11] (Leather Jacket)    HD 2d6+1 (8 HP)

STR 11    DEX 10    CON 14    INT 14    WIS 14    CHA 16

Attack bonus +1, damage by weapon

Charm Person 1x/day, Detect Magic 1x/day

Inspiring song:  Once per combat, may give all allies +1 to attack rolls for five rounds

(I went to Swords & Wizardry Continual Light for this one and basically just replaced the Thief's attributes with those of the Bard, rather than adding them on and extending advancement...)