Woo-hoo! I’m finally published! (Happy dance follows -- given my lack of coordination, consider yourself lucky you can't see me.)
Well, between real life issues and my delay renewing my Digital Hero subscription, I missed reviewing last issue, but here’s my take on DH #12:
Cover Art: Great picture by Bill Jackson! I know some people have mentioned DH has an over-abundance of Champions-style cover art, but this really comes alive. The realistic background and interacting special effects are very cool. And I would like to know who the cosmic caped female is. Very nice.
When Last We Left Our Heroes: I admit, I downloaded the Champions Battleground playtest but was so busy that I never got to look at it. This makes me regret that, since it sounds like HERO’s re-entry into the adventure products market will be a lot of fun. Personally, the fact that it provides detailed maps of common adventure locations is a major selling point for me.
HEROglyphs: While people have proposed many alternate ways to handle the SPD chart on these lists, it’s nice to see some of them grouped together with pros and cons. I have been frustrated at times with players tracking supervillain speeds and using the standard SPD chart to time their actions and I may adopt one of these ideas (if I can alter my speedsheet database to accommodate it).
Hero Universe: First off, I loved the show transcript. This was a very nice touch and brought the Fab Five a bit more to life. Derrick’s pictures are good, especially Green Grenadier. (He looks like a very 1970s-1980s character.)
Draco and Dart round out the team nicely, and the character writeups are done well. Green Grenadier makes a nice armored thug, though I had some minor issues with his writeup. IMO, his multipower should be OIF like the grenades, both for consistency and to free up some points for other cool stuff. At first, I thought the choice of IIF for the senses, life support, and flash defense seemed odd, but I like the idea of the players not realizing he has those things until its too late.
You Gotta Have Character (Eleanor of Aquitaine): The more I read these articles, the more I think that I must have slept through every history class I ever took, since historical figures never seemed this interesting before YGHC. My teachers could have used some tips from Jason on bringing history to life.
Your Horoscope For: Leo: This makes me wonder if Allen convinced Darren to include Leo’s Bar in the Millennium City sourcebook merely so he could write this article. I mean, could the name fit any better?
The original Leo’s Bar info from the MC book started me rounding out my campaign’s henchmen a bit, and this is sure to further that process. Some of these characters will probably make an appearance in my game. I’d have liked to see more on Ryan, the bartender, but his views on the Leo’s Bar regulars were great.
Normally I don’t like this style of character art (just personal preference, YYMV), but for these characters it’s a perfect fit. My favorite was Lyle Sparks.
Miniature Hero, Part One: One of the first convention games I played was seriously harmed by a lack of maps and miniatures of some sort, so I agree with what William is saying here. We use cardboard figures in my game, but this article makes me consider upgrading.
Also, I saw Part Two and can second what Dave said in another thread: if you liked this, you’re gonna love the next part.
The Bayside Blimp: Well, this is my article, so the only thing I’ll say here is that Blaine’s artwork rocks! The billboard-type ad at the beginning was great, and the character artwork was perfect. The detail on the different decks in the cutaway was also great.
Unearthed Mechana: This looks to be a really fun adventure (which I’m planning to run tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this later).
In addition to the adventure itself, I thought the GM Notes and other bits of advice were very good. The potential resolutions were a good touch, too.
The maps were really great – I’m a sucker for details on maps – and Mechana’s picture was the best of the bunch. Jeff does a good job on facial details, revealing personality nicely (well, except for Mechana, naturally) but a few things like Sly’s hands or Speed Pounder’s boots seem overly plain in comparison. Then again, I’m probably being nit-picky again.
Purple Review
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