Along time back to HERO/Champions.

[Quizznak442]

A little background on me: Been playing Champions since 1984 while in the USAF. Been playing from Version 1 upto 3. Revision 5 looks awesome. Just broke down and bought all I need to get a champain going.

 

With the recent onslaught of Spider-Man, Catwomen, X-Men movies, are there any resources out there (that don't infringe upons anyones copyrights / trademarks) that I can suck into a game I have in mind.

 

I've been away from HERO for almost 9 years now and want to get back into it now that my son is 16 plus alot of my friends have never played a RPG *AND* have seen X-MEN and/or Spider-Man. Sounds like a good time to Atomic Batteries to Power.

 

My champaign in mind. NYC. Need Hero stats for:

 

* P. Parker / Spider-Man;

* O. Octavius / Dr. Oct.;

* H. Osborne / Hobgoblin;

* N. Osborne / Green Goblin;

* M.J. Wattson

* M. Murdock / Daredevil

* King Pin

* Fantasic Four

 

Might include some of my favorites from Marvel Universe later (Valkerie, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Hulk (original Defenders), Beast, Thor, Captain America, and others...)

 

Any resources for premade char sheets would help kick start my champaign.

[Edsel]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

The Great Netbook of Real Heros might be a good place to start. It has an exhaustive list of various people's adaptations of comic book characters. Many of the write-ups are still 4th edition copies but they are still compatible with 5th edition (or can be made so with a little work).

 

Oh, and by the way, welcome back to the world of Hero System.

I'm 42, have been playing since 1st Edition and never left (or grew up).

[Steve Long]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Welcome back to Hero!

 

If you haven't picked 'em up already, I suggest The UNTIL Superpowers Database and Gadgets And Gear. They include writeups for just about every power and gadget you can imagine, which makes it a snap to create your own versions of the characters you mention. For example, in G&G you'll find Hero versions of web-shooters, steel tentacles, billy clubs, pumpkin grenades, indestructible shields, and other gadgets whose comic book antecedents you'll easily recognize.

 

As always, if you have any questions, post them here on the boards. The Hero fan community (not to mention owners and employees!) is friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and ever-ready to help.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Don't forget Rhino Helmets...its got Rhino helmets too.

[Steve Long]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Yeah, any book with a Rhino Helmet is definitely worth buyin'.

[proditor]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Abso-freaking-lutely. Rhino helmets rule. Also, if you happen to like to make urban heroes who used to be pimps/pushers but then became Superhero/Social Workers, there is a nifty arms attached wing harness in there as well. You might say that making that character would be a "Snap". (I slay me...)

[Dust Raven]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Welcome Quizznak442!

 

If you haven't already got it, I'd highly suggest Hero Designer. Its easily customizable (if you aren't afraid of HTML coding).

[Acroyear]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

If you haven't already got it' date=' I'd highly suggest Hero Designer. Its easily customizable (if you aren't afraid of HTML coding).

 

Except it can be slow, often inconveniently laid out/designed, and prints like total aaaaaaasssssss (even with all the little templates out there). The printing part is an unforgivable nigh-fatal flaw.

[KA.]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Except it can be slow' date=' often inconveniently laid out/designed, and prints like total aaaaaaasssssss (even with all the little templates out there). The printing part is an unforgivable nigh-fatal flaw.[/quote']

 

Acroyear,

I just can't agree with this. Especially since version 2, I haven't had any problems with speed.

Some of the design stuff can seem weird, but it is usually just because it is following the rules as closely as possible.

If you have to make a power "Constant" before you can add a certain Advantage, then you have to actually add "Constant" to the power before that Advantage can be purchased.

But that makes more sense to me, than if it let you buy whatever you wanted, and then went through some kind of "audit" process at the end, and started throwing out a lot of powers because they weren't legal.

 

With the templates, I really don't have any problem printing.

And I can go in and edit anything I need to customize in the HTML, before it goes to the printer, and save those changes in the HTML, so I can print another copy whenever I want.

That is a lot nicer than having to manually correct something, or remembering to write it in, each time I print my character sheet.

 

Just my opinion,

 

KA.

[Acroyear]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

I just can't agree with this. Especially since version 2' date=' I haven't had any problems with speed.[/quote']

 

I don't like the pause bouncing between tabs. Especially when you have to bounce between tabs to do just about everything. Maybe you have much shorter characters than I do. I have no idea. My computer is not a POS by any means.

 

Some of the design stuff can seem weird, but it is usually just because it is following the rules as closely as possible.

If you have to make a power "Constant" before you can add a certain Advantage, then you have to actually add "Constant" to the power before that Advantage can be purchased.

 

This doesn't really bother me and wasn't one of my points, but since you brought it up, I don't particularly care for it, but it's easy to workaround. Although sometimes the roadblocks you run into are mind boggling (remember the old issue of naked advantages on characteristics which we were told repeatedly we couldn't do, was illegal, and all that... that now exists in the software?)

 

My problem with the "inconvenient" layout/design is that the lists do not offer up any hints to the point structure making it nigh-useless for point shopping. "Ok, I have 5 points... what else can I get?" Secondly, the totals and such can only be viewed on one tab meaning you constantly have to bounce back and forth to check your budget as you go... things like that. You design in an information void in most of the proccess.

 

With the templates, I really don't have any problem printing.

And I can go in and edit anything I need to customize in the HTML, before it goes to the printer, and save those changes in the HTML, so I can print another copy whenever I want.

 

On one page? On multiple pages without, say, 2 lines from a previous printing on its own page? HA! I laugh at your blatant lies

 

Maybe you just have real short characters, I don't know. I, personally, don't want 4 page character sheets just to make it look halfway nice. I've wasted more time fiddling with those templates than I care to think about. Ok, that one almost looks good! Great, I'll just settle for that. Next character? Argh it's all fubar, because his list of skills/powers/whatever is a different length! You almost have to start from scratch. Printing is total ass with that thing. You shouldn't have to monkey with the thing for more time than it took to enter the character to make it look right.

 

That is a lot nicer than having to manually correct something, or remembering to write it in, each time I print my character sheet.

 

I disagree. I can change a 12d6 to a 13d6 on a handwritten character with great ease. I can hand-write out most of my characters faster than I can get a nice printed version of a sheet from Hero Designer and, as past discussion has shown, I even have characters topping 2k points (with, like, 120+ skills and all the bells and whistles). I can't imagine fiddling with the HTML every time you make a correction or adding something every time you print your character sheet.

 

Just offering up a counter point here. Designer is, imo, way too expensive for what it does (which has been done better) and for what it fails to do. It's only true advantage is Mac compatibility and I couldn't give a flying fig about that.

 

I suggest to a new person more books before I suggest designer.

 

YMMV

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Welcome back to the fold fellow HEROphile . These folks are the most helpful bunch in town. Conversions abound. For more Marvel HEROes try the Wild Hunt website.

 

The Search function will connect you with various boards topics on how to create Captain America, Spiderman, etc...

 

HERO members are really the most helpful crew around. They also have conversions for just about every RPG, Movie, and TV series around.

 

Cheers

 

QM

[BlackSword]

Re: Along time back to HERO/Champions.

 

Welcome, glad to hear that you are beginning to convert a new generation.

 

A fair warning, all of the products are good, so you might find yourself buying lots. I have used the Until Superpowers Database and it is great. After I brought it to a few sessions everyone went out and picked it up. It makes building powers and recreating comics characters much easier. The Speedster section is like a how to for Wally West.

 

There are quite a few web-pages out there with people having built characters using Hero. Don't have any handy, too many bookmark files have been deleted for me to remember where they are. Also Hero has put a lot of (very good) work into building references to make Hero more multi-genre. If LotR piques their interest then Hero works great for fantasy storytelling as well. And as one of the Star Hero fans, buy lots of sci fi stuff so they publish more.