The server has been through a number of upgrades – not new functions, just background and security stuff.

The search engine in the upper right corner of the site is not working at the moment, due to an odd JDK problem that popped up during the migration. Working on it.

In the meanwhile, remember the existence of the “Alpha” button on the left to list entries.

Another small, quick batch. Well, “quick” is relative given the amount of work that goes in this stuff, but you get the general idea. This time around it’s mostly new content rather than improvements and rewrites. Roll call :

• The Alpha Flight (Main Article) entry now covers everything up to the end of the “Classic” era (AF v1 #28) – which is the era covered by our current and future Alpha Flight entries.
• The octoshotgun has been added to our Modern Firearms / Small Arms article.
• ELSA BLOODSTONE. Speaking of shotguns… this entry has been rebuilt as a three-parters to keep things shorter and clearer – and the various takes are almost different characters anyway. The first two entries have been polished for style, and the third entry has been updated to be current as of this month – with suggestions to make sense of a continuity pile-up.
• The entry for Golddigger (Angela Golden) still quoted two paragraphs from Marvunapp – which means that it was about ten years old, so those were two good reasons to fully rewrite this useful character.
• EVERQUEST. An article about the Shissar – powerful serpent-men with a long history of evil.
• Small layout and art improvements to the entry for Sonic Wolves.
• HAYOTH. Gareth’s entry for the DC Universe Israeli super-group is the AI – Dybbuk.
• The article for the Mission X version of Suicide Squad has been overhauled to reflect the Suicide Squadron research and some recent Rick Flag research – and to keep the redundancy of information between articles at the target level.
• YOUNG JUSTICE. Bryan’s entry for the animated version of YJ in this batch is Robin. Heh ha ha ha ha !
• For DC Heroes players, we now have an article discussing the use of the game’s most delicate concept : Hero Points. Who loves ya ?
• Gareth has an article about the Intelligencia – including stats for hulked-out marines – stemming from recent Red Ghost research.
• WAR THAT TIME FORGOT. The Suicide Squadron-related entry for this batch is the Flying Boots, WWII Army Rangers who were also circus acrobats. No, really.

4,749 entries as of this writing. Excelsior !

Another round of calibration of DC Adventures stats.

In OMACS II, the approach to the Persuasion Skill has been redone based on experience, and the tables for Will, Fortitude and Toughness Defences now include a discussion of appropriate Ranks of Impervious ; some more material about Impervious is being hashed out for the FAQ. The OMACS description for Charisma has also been adjusted. All DCA stats on the site have been reviewed to align :

• Numerous decreases, increase and additions of Persuasion scores. These now correctly reflect the social power of the characters.
• Bane’s Will Defence is now partially Impervious
• No Imperviousness for Thundra, who’s often depicted as easier to hurt than her enormous strength would suggest
• Warhawk’s psychotronic shields are now Impervious
• Tiny adjustment to the Enforcer (Dan Kingdom)’s protective costume
• Smasher (the Death’s Head henchmen) had his Imperviousnesses fiddled with
• A touch of Impervious Fortitude for Nomad (Jack Monroe) and for Thump
• Sally Sonic is now as Impervious as she should have been all along
• Eviless’s Merciless Power is now Impervious
• Some Imperviousness to Beowulf’s Will Defence
• Grendel has some Impervious in everything
• 6 Ranks of Impervious Fortitude for Lemar Hoskins (both writeups).

There’s still at least one round of benchmarking work, though. As always, you check all the DCA content by selecting just “Dual-Stats” in the “Game System” menu in the search engine in the upper right corner of every writeups.org page, like this.

More tinkering, polishing, improvements, new stuff, etc. :

• STOCK PROFILES. Our profiles for generic thugs, soldiers, cops are important for GMs and for benchmarking purposes, but they were getting long in the tooth. Now everything’s back with more detail, more explanations, more profiles, etc. – though the stats themselves have seen but negligible changes.
  All the content, new and old, has been reorganised in the following articles:
  • Stock thugs and criminals
  • Stock soldiers
  • Stock security personel
  • Stock police
  • Stock ninja
• Snapdragon‘s entry has been finalised-for-now with the release of Moon Knight #7.
• ALPHA FLIGHT. Continuing to ugrade those when possible, though there are competing priorities. In this batch, an actual writeup – finally – for Snowbird.
• HAYOTH. Gareth starts coverage for this Israeli super-team in the DC Universe. In this batch – Judith, the Sword of Zion.
• One of the Teeming Million reading writeups.org ran 100,000,000 simulated MEGS dice rolls. This was the occasion to enrich our Short Article About Probabilities in MEGS (and to realise that my table of results was shifted by one line up… oooooops…). To answer the next question that comes to mind : 111. See the article for more.
• Illustrations redone from a TPB for minor and somewhat embarassing assassin the Gael, and for most Kirigi shots.
• SPLIT ENTRIES. We’re experimenting with splitting certain entries (with multiple stats blocks reflecting the evolution of the character) into smaller entries with just one stats block. One impetus is M&M stats – two sets of stats in an entry is OK, but adding M&M stats result in four sets of numbers and that’s cumbersome. Plus, shorter and more focused entries are a good thing anyway. The tests so far are mostly OK :
  • Warhawk (Mitchell Tanner) split into three entries
  • First entry for Spitfire (Jacqueline Falsworth) split into three profiles – it was too long even with the layout improvements from the last batch. This means that Jac now has five (!) profiles in chronological order.
  • First entry for Kitty Pryde cut into three parts for clarity and brevity. A few illustrations may no longer fit the era of their new writeup.
  • Pistolera now has a separate entry for her career as Gunbunny
• Corrected a typo that prevented access to our old Equinox notes.
• Redid the entry for super-minor villain the Cossack (since three paragraphs were still quoting marvunapp.com). Illustrations entirely redone.
• YOUNG JUSTICE. More material from this anime, via Bryan – the TV version of Blockbuster (Mark Desmond).
• We’re on a plane. Ethan wrote up the E.D.I. stealth jet fighter/artificial intelligence from the movie Stealth.
• Credits added for the fan art used in the Red Arrow entry (albeit a few days late)
• ART. Shots from Marvel sourcebooks from the 2000s for these entries (several being a bit old, but eh) :
  • Agent X
  • Arsenic and Old Lace
  • Molly Hayes (also enhanced artwork for the best costume ever)
  • Collective Man
  • Cyclone (Pierre Fresson)
  • Antro
  • Fight-Man
  • Fixer (current era) aka Techno
  • Flag-Smasher
  • The Fabulous Frog-Man
  • The Fury (Marvel universe cybiote)
  • The Gibbon
  • Black Goliath aka Giant-Man
• The entry for Bedlam the Brain Blast has been overhauled and abridged now that the context is available in the Alpha Flight (Main article) profile.
• MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS. Another pass has been made through the entries to assign corrected Athletics ratings, and correct Deception ratings (I wasn’t happy with the previous version of the benchmark). The Athletics and revised Deception calculations have been added to OMACS II. Next step is to formalise Persuasion for characters with a DCH Charisma skill, and finalise usage about limited forms of Protection and Enhanced defenses.
• SOUL CALIBUR. Many of you were keeping an eye out for it – here’s the entry for Nightmare, by Tom.

4,741 entries so far.

The entries for Puck (Classic), Heather Hudson (Classic) and Groundhog and had some rework to properly align with our main Alpha Flight article – which was extended a bit. Everything else is either very old, characters from the Langkoswki version of the team, or both.

I’m not sure whether having a “rework” section in these messages makes sense anymore. The vast majority of the readers won’t have read those entries in the first place since there are too many profiles – so to them it’s irrelevant.

And the term “rework” may lead some to miss that, in some cases, the entry has essentially nothing in common with the previous version. Which is a shame.

Adieu, rework section in update messages. Adieu.

Anyway, roll call :

• SUICIDE SQUADRON / WAR THAT TIME FORGOT. A large and heavily illustrated entry that is essentially a sourcebook about a setting that is only hinted at for a few pages in the earliest Suicide Squad stories. Take a deep breath and get ready to see a lot of 1960s G.I.s vs. dinosaurs comic book stories getting shoehorned into the post-Crisis DC Universe. Note that this entry makes references to profiles that are not online yet.
• Spitfire (writeup 1). Layout extensively re-jiggered for clarity, in part to accomodate the DC Adventures stats.
• Thundra. Numerous improvements in presentation and writing, which is good since it’s a huge (but very cool) profile.
• FRENCH GENDARMERIE. A brand new gendarme from this popular series – le Bedeau, aka the Sexton.
• Porcupine has been split into two entries and the texts have been reworked for brevity and style. Nothing thunderous, but every bit helps. The two entries : writeup 1 (Porcupine Mk1 suit), writeup 2 (Porcupine Mk2 suit).
• Gog (Owen Llewelyn) – texts rewritten
• TRON: GENESIS. A profile for a generic warrior ISO from Bryan V’s Tron setting.
• Misty Kilgore (Princess Rhiannon of Summer’s End) – texts rewritten
• Snapdragon (Sheoke Sanada) – texts and illustrations completely redone. This entry will probably be revisited again soon, since as typical she’s featured in a new story just as an update occurred after 15 years in comic books limbo.
• TASK FORCE X. Two more laconic assassins from this team of hitmen, by Gareth :
  • Kaliber
  • Sidewinder. She gets to be published early because she goes well with the site’s colour scheme. We like green people.
• All three Razor-Fists (William Young, Douglas Scott, William Scott) have had their texts and illustrations extensively reworked until a higher stage of coolness was achieved. Razor-Fist II’s entry has also been updated since it dated back to early 2008 – you wouldn’t believe how much there’s to say about Razor-Fist II.
• The entry for Xantia, warrior princess of the Savage Land, has had its texts improved and upgraded, and the pictures completely redone.
• The joke writeup (…or is it ?) for Count Danté – Deadliest Man Alive ! – based on the famous 1970s “red ad” in comics has had its texts and illustrations polished.
• YOUNG JUSTICE (TV). Bryan’s entry for this popular series in this batch is Red Arrow (Roy Harper).
• New Alpha Flight TPB, so the entries for Puck and Heather Hudson have had quite a few illustrations replaced with much better versions thereof thanks to the reprinting.
• Our Alpha Flight timeline has been reworked since it wasn’t working like we wanted it to. Furthermore, the article is being expanded and is now titled Alpha Flight (Main article). New content will facilitate future v2s and lighten current v2 profiles.
• DC ADVENTURES. Another round of small modifications to many writeups as we have hammered out benchmarks for Insight and Deception scores. See the discussion over at the ATT thread.. The new benchmarks have been integrated in the OMACS II document, in a new section called “Everyman Skills”.

4,736 entries, apparently.

Continuing to make headways to have all the M&M stats in one place as we finish the missing benchmarks:

• Ookla the Mok
• Spitfire (writeup 1) – plus further adjustments to Spitfire (writeup 2).
• Cheetah (pre-Crisis Earth-2)
• Asano Nitobe
• Jack Monroe (writeup 3 – Early Nomad)
• Thundra
• Enforcer (Dan Kingdom)
• Christine St. Clair
• Kolu M’Beya
• Manhunter (resurrected Paul Kirk)
• Paula Brooks (both as Tigress and as Huntress)

A few more entries are almost ready, but we need to hammer out our usage about partial Protection effects so as to have a coherent practice. Meanwhile the very nice ATT thread finishes hashing out benchmarks for nigh-mandatory Skills such as Perception and Insight.

Lots of background work and art work in this one, which has just a few new-new entries. Roll call:

• LEGION OF SUPER-VILLAINS. Another set of pre-reboot entries got a more solid set of illustrations, namely :
  • Chameleon Chief
  • Cosmic King
  • Esper Lass
  • Lightning Lord
  • Ol-Vir
  • Titania
  • Silver Slasher
  • Radiation Roy
• Isaiah Bradley. Clarified our notes as to whom (Bradley or Rogers) was active first.
• One more sweep has been done throghout the modern firearms articles to kill typos and style issues. A number of special applications (that is, fictional) grenades have also been added to fill one of the very few missing bits.
• YOUNG JUSTICE. Bryan continues to cover the popular TV animated series. It’s now Kid Flash‘s turn !
• Our entry for the Atom (Ray Palmer) now has a piece of refurbished vintage Gil Kane art at the top of the column.
• More pictorial additions, this time in Tom’s video fighting games entries. Namely:
  • Takuma Sakazaki aka Mister Karate
  • Ryuji Yamazaki (also fixed a puzzling layout issue)
  • Kula Diamond
  • Benimaru Nikaido
  • Guile (Alternate take)
  • Cammy White (Alternate take)
  • Mitsurugi Heishiro
  • Taki
  • Siegfried Schtauffen
• M&M 3RD EDITION. The New Rules File for DC Adventures has been updated.
• The expanded Ammunition Restriction (covering Drawbacks such as Slow Reload) has been added to the Drawbacks section of the New Rules Files for DC Heroes.
• TRON. Bryan V’s Tron entry for this batch is Sam Flynn.
• Corrected the Cottonmouth entry to put an end to the old Burchell Clemens/Quincy McIver confusion.
• The photos for the Scott James (Chuck Norris) entry have been reprocessed since they were too dark.
• The bow of Ookla the Mok has had its stats standardised, as were some layout elements. In a prepared statement about the changes, Ookla declared : “Rah rah rawr rahawwr.”
• Art improvements using new or refreshed pictures from recent Marvel sourcebooks:
  • Volstagg
  • Halloween Jack
  • Box IV
  • Magneto
  • Mountjoy
  • Mystique
  • Professor X (plus minor improvements to other illustrations)
  • Oddball
  • Porcupine
  • Sidewinder
• Minor art improvements (mostly replacing art scanned from floppies by art scanned from a TPB) for the following entries – Baron Strucker, Dragon Man, the first Spitfire (Jacqueline Falsworth) entry and Batroc… zee leepair !
• Similar minor improvements, plus sub-section titles to facilitate reading and clarified titles, for the Young Avengers — Patriot (Elijah Bradley), Stature, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Wiccan, Hulkling, Iron Lad.
• Our entry for Sidewinder has been reworked (better texts, updates, improved images, etc.). As a consequence the entry for Anaconda has been upgraded a bit (mention of a flashback that occured after the writeup was done, better modelisation of her bones, etc.)
• There’s now a ‘base camp’ entry for the Death-Throws – criminal jugglers in the Marvel Universe. This main article allowed for simplifying and improving the individual entries, namely:
  • Ringleader
  • Tenpin
  • Knickknack
  • Oddball
  • Bombshell
• ULTRAVERSE. No project to redo these very old entries for now, but the Topaz Queen randomly came up and, well… Entry completely redone, with much more material and much better writing and art.
• Carrie Kelley from Dark Knight Returns had her stats as Robin – now Ethan added her stats a few years later, as Catgirl.
• Layout changes in the Batwoman (Katherine Rebecca Kane) and Starfire (swords-and-planets heroine) entries so both DCH and DCA players have the information presented in a logical manner.
• RONNIETHUNDERBOLTS ART. Another shot of this material, since it’s a/ nice and b/ a good motivation to review some older entries.
  • Quicksilver (Early and Generic)
  • Radioactive Man
  • Red Guardian (Lebedev) (also updated, various enhancements to art and texts, upversioned)
  • Red Guardian (Shostakov) (also redid the rest of the illustrations. The entry is tentatively scheduled for a v2, not sure yet).

Like, wow. Revised entries for the Death-Throws ! How awesome is that ? Okay, not very. Anyway, 4729 entries.