A new pack of DC Adventures stats, mostly to get the Thing stuff and the Carol Danvers stuff out. Roll call :

• The series of four Thing (Benjamin Jacob Grimm) benchmarking entries – Early, Classic, Spiked, Modern – by Pawsplay
• The third benchmarking entry for the Invisible Woman, by Pawsplay
• Cammi (Drax’s former sidekick)
• Rampage (Stuart Clarke)
• Steel (John Henry Irons)
• The Daredevil benchmarking entry, by Mister O.
• Snapdragon (Sheoke Sanada)
• Onyx (pre-Crisis)
• Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel — entry 1, entry 2, entry 3

Here we go again, with plenty of cool stuff :

• MASS EFFECT. Three entries this time since I’m drowning in the material:
  • Kaidan Alenko during the first two games
  • Mandala Shepard during the prologue of Mass Effect 2
  • Dr. Liara T’Soni during the first game
  • Also added a note to the ME1 singularity that I kept forgetting, and continuing to take notes on ME2.
• Gareth has a big, detailed entry about Vixen. Because Vixen is cool, damnit ! Go, foxy lady !
• James Woo’s pre-Agents of Atlas entry was extensively rewritten for style, clarity and concision – then split in two so it’s an even quicker read and more illustrations could be fitted in. Part 1 is the Yellow Claw era, part 2 is scattered appearances from 1967 to 2005. Part 3 (Agents of Atlas) saw some cosmetic modernisation, but has not been updated yet.
• DISCWORLD. Yes, we’re that cool – or at least Gareth is : we do have a Granny Weatherwax entry now.
• It’s been a while since we’ve had a New Universe entry so Pufnstuff pitches in with an article about Mastodon.
• CADRE. More rewrites for style, and pictorial improvements, for these handy villains. Since the last batch:
  • Fastball
  • Nightfall
  • Shrike
  • Devastator
  • Starshrike
  • Backlash (slight update, too)
  • Blind Faith
  • The recently-revised Crowbar and Shatterfist I now also have better illustrations
• RUNAWAYS. Gareth’s Runaways entry for this batch is Klara Prast, a young chlorokinetic from 1907.
• THE RED STAR. The entry for Alexandra Goncharova has been thoroughly rewritten for style, clarity and accessibility.
• In our “hey, why not” department, Pur_See_i8 has an entry for Riot, from the intensely 80s Jem and the Holograms cartoon.
• Ethan wrote up the cartoon version of Spider-Man – specifically the 1981 Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends version (the one with Firestar and Iceman).
• NEW POWERS. The Shockwave Power for DC Heroes has been finalised and added to the document, since there are several characters using it on the site.
• ART. What remained from this OHOTMU series :
  • Chase Stein (Talkback)
  • Taskmaster
  • Tombstone
  • Jimmy Woo (writeup 3)
  • Wild Thing (MC2)
  • Warhawk (writeup 2)
  • T-Ray
  • Vulcan
  • Super-Skrull
  • Furthermore, shots from reprints of old Avengers issues now adorn :
    • The iconic (at least for me) Quicksilver shot now heads the column
    • Black Widow (writeup 2) entry, though it’ll have to be reillustrated at some point
    • The Split-Second Squad
• SOUL CALIBUR. ¡Arrr! Tom throws in ye Cervantes de Leòn ! ¡Avast!
• It’s been a while since I used a Mitch Foust illustration for a super-heroine, so let’s add one to the Lady Blackhawk entry since Zinda is fitting for (not too cheesecakey !) pin-up illustration. Again, Mr. Foust’s gallery is here.

That’s a total of 4,862 entries, given the emphasis on improving existing entries (which, the reasoning goes, most people will probably be reading for the first time given the amount of material).

I missed a comment from John that was made to an older post – just caught it whilst cleaning the spam filters (you wouldn’t believed how much spam comments areas attract. Thanks for filters.)

The three main answers are:

• Writeups.org usually assume a DEX of 10 for Superman, based on the version of the character that has been active for most of the 1990s and 2000s. This is explained in the FAQ, but I’m going to explain it a bit further since I’m planning to reorganise the FAQ soon so it looks less… large. Some writeups assume the DEX of 15 for Supes – for instance the Universe AZ one – usually because they have a more Silver Age Superman in mind, but this is normally noted in the Reasons section. Thus, Diana’s DEX 12/Martial Artist 13 for the Gail Simone era assume that Clark has a DEX of 10.
• Likewise, almost all writeups use the interpretation of INT as perceptiveness/mental nimbleness and WIL as analytical/deductive power, which isn’t how official writeups work but is the way the actual rolls are made in the game. Why it’s not covered in the FAQ is inexplicable and will be fixed soon-ish.
• For conversations (as opposed to comments) the group is the best place. It is possible to registrer then not receive any e-mail, so there’s no downside – and no risk of your messages being missed.

Excelsior ! Now to catch up with the backlog that accumulated whilst I was sick.

More things. Amazing, eh ? Roll call :

• EXCEL CHARACTER CREATION SHEET. This sort of thing is usually popular – Erik has built an Excel 2007 spreadsheet that computes characters and gadgets. The entry includes the file and instructions.
• MASS EFFECT. Now’s the time for a big profile of the protagonist, Commander Shepard — or rather a Commander Shepard, since most players have their own version of them. Shepard’s kinda good at saving the galaxy.
• The Gypsy (Early) profile by Gareth covers Gypsy’s vintage Justice League career.
• The entry for Jillian Woods was split in two for clarity and brevity, and both halves completely rewritten. She thus now has an entry for her career as Shadowoman and one for her career as Sepulcre.
• SPIDER-MAN CARTOON. Ethan wrote up the version of Swarm who appears in the vintage Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon – the space alien one.
• ART. More illustrations from the 2008 run of the OHOTMU – though in some cases it’s just higher-quality versions of the shots we already had. Several of the entries receiving better illustrations really need to be redone, though. Roll call :
  • Radioactive Man
  • Razorback
  • Red Wolf
  • Rocket Racer
  • Sasquatch
  • Nicholas Scratch
  • Shatterstar
  • Speed Demon
  • Sphinx
  • Spot
  • Stegron
  • Strong Guy
• The Bug-Eyed Bandit is an Atom villain from the 1960s, who has since made some vague appearances. He’s very Silver Age, but he could actually be useful.
• RUNAWAYS. Don’t be Skrull to a heart that’s true – Gareth now introduces Xavin to WORG.
• The entry for Steel Raven was rewritten for style and concision, and has a new OHOTMU illustration.
• STAR TREK. Doug wrote up no less than Q – stats-wise that’s easier in DC Heroes than in most systems.
• CADRE. More of the Cadre DCU jobbers got streamlined, improved profiles. In this batch:
  • Shatterfist II
  • Black Mass
  • Crowbar

And that’s 4,851 entries.

We’ve done fewer stats since old entries were being upgraded instead, but here’s a not-so-small pack of entries who received DC Adventures stats:

• Heather Hudson (Classic)
• Amanda Waller (Classic)
• Firebrand (Danette Reilly)
• Pagan (Marian Mercer)
• Johnny Too Bad
• Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (gisted)
• Zombie Sergeant (DooM II)
• Basilisk (Basil Elks)
• Synth
• Mister Fantastic (gisted)
• Nemesis (Soseh Mykros)
• The Fury (Lyta Hall) — Entry 1, entry 2, entry 3
• Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)