USPD

[rayoman]

I picked my copy of USPD on Friday. I have read a little, but so far I LOVE this product. This product was a long, long time coming. I plan on running a Champions game as soon as my group wraps up our DnD 3rd edition version of the old G-series modules. The USPD will make this transition easier because only 1 of the players has any familiarity with Champions and the Hero System.

Thanks for such a wonderful product. Btw, is there errata for it? The Mist Control Power has a discrepancy with how much TK Str the power supplies. The "EFFECT" heading lists the Tk STR at 24. The game stats list an 8 TK STR. which is it?

[Nucleon]

Errmmh, what is USPD, Rayoman?

[rayoman]

UNTIL Superpowers Database



Originally posted by Nucleon
Errmmh, what is USPD, Rayoman?

[Monolith]

Originally posted by rayoman
Thanks for such a wonderful product. Btw, is there errata for it? The Mist Control Power has a discrepancy with how much TK Str the power supplies. The "EFFECT" heading lists the Tk STR at 24. The game stats list an 8 TK STR. which is it?
I imagine the errata will be made available on the website shortly after people start sending the things they catch to Steve.

As far as the power itself, the 8 STR is correct for the active points of the power. The 24 STR is incorrect.

[keithcurtis]

I don't have my book yet, but I had to design a Vampire-esque animal controller for my wife the other night. I just whipped open the playtest and turned to "animal powers" Poof! Right there was all I needed with options to fine-tune it, to boot. Excellent! Saved me a ton of time and brainpower.

Keith "I can hardly wait to see the book!" Curtis

[Steve Long]

Glad to hear the good reports, guys!

There's no errata yet because no one's reported any -- until now. The answer to your question, Rayoman, is that it should be 8 STR. When in doubt, just run the math yourself real quick and that'll tell you which one is correct.

Hopefully we'll have relatively few errata in this book. Some are inevitable, given the thousands of calculations involved, but between my work and the playtesters' work, hopefully most of 'em were rooted out and squashed. Monolith and Tom McCarthy between the two of 'em checked every power in the book at least once, and some of them twice.

As mentioned in other threads, stay tuned for the rolling-out tomorrow of our UNTIL SUPERPOWERS DATABASE webpage, with even more powers! And better still, there's a way for you to contribute if you find a power we've missed!

[Lord Liaden]

Books like USPD, the upcoming Spacer's Toolkit and Fantasy Hero Grimoire are going to go a long way to answering the complaints of all the math-phobes who whine about Hero character creation taking too long. I look forward to being able to say, "You want your character to do what? Okay, read this, then get back to me."

When we can finally add the HERO System Sidekick to our arsenal, we'll have all the tools we need to convert the ignorant masses. ;)

[rayoman]

Steve,

As one of the original Calculator Commando's I could have done that if I would have made my EGO roll to overcome my Disadvantage: Lazy (Frequent, Strong). :)

This product is great! I can't wait to see the UNTIL Super Powers Database webpage. When I saw the layout of the book, I thought it reminded me of the WEG book put out for the DC Universe game. Then I got all warm and fuzzy inside when I saw the dedications page and Nikki's name was there.

Good Job, HG!


Originally posted by Steve Long
Glad to hear the good reports, guys!

There's no errata yet because no one's reported any -- until now. The answer to your question, Rayoman, is that it should be 8 STR. When in doubt, just run the math yourself real quick and that'll tell you which one is correct.

[rayoman]

I was wondering if there are stats for many of the heros and villains used as examples in USPD? I have everything that is currently available from HG. There are some cool names and pictures in the USPD. I haven't had a chance to cross reference those names with stats from Champions, Champions Universe, Millennium City, and Conquerors, Killers and Crooks, but I was curious if there were stats already printed or will be printed in future products.

[Steve Long]

The "new" guys mentioned in the flavor text -- baddies like Fleshtone, the Curse, Morph, Dreamwitch, and such -- will make it into an enemies book the next time we do one for Champions. That'd probably be 2005, but it depends on all sorts of factors. I already have partial stats for a couple of 'em.

A couple of the villains mentioned -- Diamondback and Freon -- will show up in The VIPER Sourcebook.

[5 Sided D6]

Got mine in the mail today - Chalk up another vote for it Rocks!!

I was surprised how big it was. I'am sure Steve posted the page count sometime in the past but I never saw it and was surprised how large the page count was.

[Mastermind]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
When we can finally add the HERO System Sidekick to our arsenal, we'll have all the tools we need to convert the ignorant masses. ;)

Exactly!

Can't wait to get mine!

[Space Cadet]

YESSS!! At last -- at long last -- I have my own copy of the USPD.
Now I can give free rein to the diabolical r** b******* side of myself
and come up with some really fiendish baddies.

Heh-heh-heh...

Space Cadet
:D

[Jomster]

A very positive review has popped up on rpg.net for the USPD. Well worth a read!

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9367.phtml

[Celtic Cowboy]

Finally got mine last night in the mail. WOW. This is a great book, heck this should have been the book released right after Champions. This book will go a long ways in pulling some holdouts over to the hero side of life I think (hope).

[death tribble]

I got it today and I love some of the artwork and a few of the ideas that I saw as I browsed.

More soon.

[tiger]

I get mine today!!!! I get mine today!!!! I get mine today!!!!

My FLAG finally manage to get one. Guess I'll have to take back some of the things I've said about them :D

[TheEmerged]

Ding! Still perusing it but, I agree with the sentiment that this book is overdue and possibly the best supplement DOJ's put out to date.

[Monolith]

I just got mine yesterday, but I think it is one of the best books DOJ has put out so far. I loved the UNTIL webpage examples in the book. The pictures and words in those examples really gave the book a "living" feel. The pictures just were not static, unknown individuals. The narrative brought it all to life.

Of course the fact that I get mentioned in the special thanks section is cool too! I told Steve I would be doing some gloating. :)

[tiger]

Great price too! Even the sales clerk at my FLAG was surprised by the price considering the thickness of it :D

[Steve Long]

Ordinarily we'd've increased the price a couple bucks, but since we'd solicited it at its printed price, we decided to stick with that rather than mess with the hassles of re-soliciting it.

[Lord Liaden]

We'll do our best to buy enough copies to make up the difference. ;)

[Celtic Cowboy]

From the looks of things it's been on the #1 spot at FRP games (where I ordered mine) since its release.

[bcholmes]

<p>I echo all the positive comments everyone has said. This is a great resource (and the online database is great too).

<p>Oddly, my local game store got this one in quickly but they still haven't gotten <cite>Millenium City</cite>. Weird.

[Ndreare]

Well I have had the book for about a week now but did not want to post until I have read the whole thing.

This book is awesome!

Any editing problems people notice are more easily over looked than focused on. And because they build the power for you, you can easily see any game mechanic that is wrong and fix.


Thank You Steve

[SirViss]

Originally posted by bcholmes
[B...
<p>Oddly, my local game store got this one in quickly but they still haven't gotten <cite>Millenium City</cite>. Weird. [/B]

Must be a Canada thing. I have the same problem in Mtl.

An as an aside, I also love this book. Will be very helpful with my crop of Hero-Beginners...

[Barghest]

This is exactly the sort of book that we've needed ever since 5E came out and probably for many years before. A great job and a great price, Steve. Thank you.

[Steve Long]

Glad to hear y'all are enjoying the book!

[Allensh]

Let me add my voice to those singing the praises of this amazimg tome. It is absolutely wonderful, and I am so happy with it that I am running some Champions this very week just to get to use it :) Great job, guys :)

Allen

[Mutant for Hire]

I agree with others. In some ways this book should have come out immediately after Champions, or possibly even after FRed came out.

[TheQuestionMan]

All my Questions have been Answered !

I do not have the words to express properly how much I appreciate this book . It's everything everybody says and more . It's also Incredible , Spectacular , Amazing , Fantastic , Uncanny , etc... etc...

I was surprised and pleased to see how closely some of the Superpowers matched my own creations .

Thanks E.

[misterdeath]

I got my copy on Saturday. It's absolutely amazing.

Until...

I was reading the cool sidebars, explaining the picture (an amazing idea) when I got to the first one.

After spending some time decribing this nasty acid, we get, "Agents expecting to encounter Diamondback should carry small vials of vinegar, which neutralizes the acid."

:eek: I spent entirely too much time teaching acid base chemistry to let that one fly.

Um, vinegar is a 5% Acetic Acid solution. Adding vinegar to any acid will make a smelly acid, and have almost no other effect. Maybe a little dilution, but you'd be better off with a gallon or two of water.

Now, if they were to carry Baking Soda, that would be sweet.

Assuming that the text is correct, then apparently Diamondback's "acid" is in actuality a Strong Base (like lye--Sodium Hydroxide). Corrosive, yes. Fits within the section of the book, yes.

AFAIR, while strong Bases dissolve flesh really nicely, probably better than strong Acids (which is why they're used for drain cleaners), they don't do as much to steel.

Aluminum, sure. But, not Steel.

So, is the text in error (possible, how much chemistry does the agent writing the text know), or is the Corrosive spit actually a base?

And, wow, that's a pretty minor quibble.

Darn Good Job guys.

D

[Monolith]

Originally posted by TheQuestionMan
It's also Incredible , Spectacular , Amazing , Fantastic , Uncanny , etc... etc...
Are you sure you did not buy an old copy of the Marvel Superheroes game by accident? Incredible... Amazing... etc. :)

[Monolith]

Originally posted by misterdeath
So, is the text in error (possible, how much chemistry does the agent writing the text know), or is the Corrosive spit actually a base?
Well... in the Champions Universe the mystic nature of everything has altered the laws of physics when dealing with acidic venoms. So instead of them being neutralized by baking soda it requires another acidic substance to counteract its own acidic nature.

Do I get the CU Prize? :)

[Rigel]

I just noticed that the cover of the USPD in my grubby paws does not match the picture of the USPD cover in the "Our Products" section of the HERO web site (here (http://www.herogames.com/Products/USPD.htm)). Did the more UN-like design go away out of fear of copyright infringements or did Andy/Steve decide they like the triangle look better?

Inquiring minds want to know....

[Steve Long]

We couldn't find a sufficiently high-resolution UN logo to satisfy ourselves. It looks fine in a tiny thumbnail; try to blow it up to the size we need for the actual cover and it just looks awful. Hence, the triangle was substituted.

[WalkerGrae]

Got to say I am very pleased with the USPD, just picked mine up at the local shop today. After reading the intro and flipping through a few pages randomly, I paged over to the section where I expected to answer a few questions I've had on building a shapeshifter character. I had been using the Shapeshift power vs. all sense groups for a base with a Variable Power Pool to simulate the effects and working hard to shoehorn everything into the point total. Now I flip to page 174 of the USPD and start scanning down and there I fine the True Form Alteration version under Form Alteration and I feel like somebody had to remind me that 2+2=4. Talk about your elegants solutions. Just add a few limitations and I get what I want and it actually looks like there'll be enough points to work with and round out the character with a decent amount of skills.

Definitely a great book and much appreciated.

[lemming]

Page 271: Upper Left
I don't think that's supposed to say "Terran Empire" :)