fredrik_nilsson Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Some time ago BobGreenwade started a thread about "useless supplements". A few of these ideas have actually made their way into being published, for example: Astral Champions: I guess The Mystic world partially covers the same ground Supers International: The upcoming Champions Worldwide Underwater Hero: The Atlantis chapter in the upcoming Hidden Lands AlHazred was kind enough to compile the entire thread here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11311&page=13&pp=15 Anyway, now have yet some time passed, and I think it would be fun to try to come up with new ideas (or improve those from the old thread). The main differences between this thread and the old thread are: Format: The original thread started out as a thread about new books, but I think we can start out this thread directly as a thread about both paper books and PDFs (for example, Digital Hero). Priority: Hopefully our ideas give Hero Games an opinion off what to produce on the next "free spot" in the release schedule. Useful: The old thread was based around the idea "useless books you'd buy", but my intention with this thread is to help Hero Games generate ideas for useful books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik_nilsson Posted March 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Re: Wish List I would really love a sequel on "Reality Storm: When Worlds Collide", done in the same vein as the Amalgam Universe (DC vs. Marvel). Call it "Collide Earth", or what ever. The Showdown had the following heroes and villains compete with each other, so I guess it would make most sense to make the composite characters out of them. Sapphire vs. Officer Prometheus Witchcraft vs. Mother Raven Kinetik vs. Slipstream Defender vs. Red Phoenix Nighthawk vs. Caliburn Ironclad vs. Sentinel Dr. Destroyer vs. Kreuzritter Firewing vs. General Winter Teleios vs. Mister Matthews Black Harlequin vs. Janus Mechanon vs. Iron Duke Thunderbird vs. Alice, Queen of Hearts Another (and more fun) way to handle a sequel could be to have new superhero showdown. Instead of having “X vs. Yâ€, we could vote for which Champions Universe character should be “combined†with which SAS Universe character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik_nilsson Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Re: Wish List Alternate Champions It would be interesting to see something like the Mystic World, but instead of giving examples of spirit worlds this book would give an just as through example of different alternate Champions Universes. I've never seen Champions In 3-D, but from what I've heard it seems like a good description of what I want. Another good example is Mutant & Mastermind's Time of Crisis. Since SAS Universe and Champions Universe are both parallell dimensions it would be nice with at least a sidebar mentioning Reality Storm, and adding a few more adventure seeds. My inital wish of Reality Storm Part II (a mixed SAS/Champions Universe) could also be a small chapter in this book, maybe the same amount of information as Millenium City got in the Champions Universe book. The Best Of Digital Hero Unless I've made an embarrising mathematical error, we should reach DH #50 by christmas 2007. Wouldn't 50 issues of DH be worth a "best of"? Maybe with some art? Champions Through The Ages This book could deal with super heroes in other historical periods than thse past WWII. The Galactic Bestiary The Terran Empire version of Monsters, Minions, And Marauders. The Galactic Martial Artist A book of fictional martial arts, done in the same style as UMA. Complete with Spock's famous neck grip, and ideas for how to handle Star Trek styled duels. HERO Universe The free PDF document with the "meta-setting" could get an own book. That book could go more to depth with the general constants of the world (magic, and so forth). It could spend quite some time on the offical time line, as well as interesting "what if"-scenarios. The book should also mention interesting NPCs during history. This book should be of great help for time travel campaigns. The Ultimate Environment Wizards of the Coast has managed to build an entire series (well, at least Frostburn and Sandstorm) around the way nature could effect the players. Naturally the scope of this book could be extended to include examples of a certain environment is commonly used in a given genre. The Ultimate Meta-Genre Horror Hero will be released some time during 2006, but I'm not so sure the other common meta-genres will be produced as separate books any time soon. It would be interesting to see all meta-genres (except Horror) in one book. That book could go to more depth on how to use meta-genres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Re: Wish List Alternate Champions It would be interesting to see something like the Mystic World, but instead of giving examples of spirit worlds this book would give an just as through example of different alternate Champions Universes. I've never seen Champions In 3-D, but from what I've heard it seems like a good description of what I want. Champions in 3D was a pretty good book. I wouldn't mind seeing a 5th edition take on it. The Best Of Digital Hero Unless I've made an embarrising mathematical error, we should reach DH #50 by christmas 2007. Wouldn't 50 issues of DH be worth a "best of"? Maybe with some art? Oh hell yizzle! Champions Through The Ages This book could deal with super heroes in other historical periods than thse past WWII. The Galactic Bestiary The Terran Empire version of Monsters, Minions, And Marauders. HERO Universe The free PDF document with the "meta-setting" could get an own book. That book could go more to depth with the general constants of the world (magic, and so forth). It could spend quite some time on the offical time line, as well as interesting "what if"-scenarios. The book should also mention interesting NPCs during history. This book should be of great help for time travel campaigns. I could see any of these. Good ideas fredrik! Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silbeg Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Re: Wish List The Best Of Digital Hero Unless I've made an embarrising mathematical error, we should reach DH #50 by christmas 2007. Wouldn't 50 issues of DH be worth a "best of"? Maybe with some art? I could see this as being worth a non-digital issue... wouldn't you? Especially since they can reuse the artwork, information, etc. Granted, not everything is valuable to me in DH, but some is. Maybe even do genre best-ofs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List I'd like to see Hero create an alternate universe for Champions ... I think one of my biggest problems is that 95% of the hero products are within the same timeline. in all honesty, I'd rather see the genres seperated into worlds of their own ... As for additional books: The Ultimate Package: A book of packages and archetypes for any setting The Ultimate Starship: Expanded rules for starships and starbases. IHA/Genocide Group: I'd love to see this group fleshed out quite a bit and of course Strikeforce: The Next Generation and some other updated material from Aaron Allston's campaign (like the Blood, Dr. McQuark, etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperPheemy Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List I'll second the Ultimate Starship! Or perhaps more specifically, I'd like to see an Ultimate Starship Reference with armadas of starships from every SF era (starting with Hard SF "Near Space" vessels up to Space Operatic "Super-Duper Dreadnoughts". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik_nilsson Posted March 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List Thanks for those kind words keyes_bill, but not all the ideas were initially mine. BobGreenwade came up with the idea of "The Galactic Bestiary", and JmOz came up with the idea of "Western Champions" (which later on in the old thread became "Champions Through The Ages"). Personally I don't think the Ultimate Starship should be that high up on the priority list. There are both recommendations on how to build starships in TUV, and the Spacer's Toolkit has plenty of them. Still, am not against the idea of a starship book. I just want to see other books first. Sketchpad what do you think of combining "Alternate Champions" and "Champions Through The Ages" into one book? In that why we both get a chance to see examples of alternate takes on the Champions Universe, and we get the ideas on how to play in them instead of the original version. would that solve the 95% problem? It was just a thought. We could even combine my wish for an "Amalgam Universe" in the same book, but instead of a "Champions vs. SAS" meld the book could meld old and new Champions character. For example, wouldn't a "Captain Patriot / Defender"-mix end up something like "Super-Soldier"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List Sketchpad what do you think of combining "Alternate Champions" and "Champions Through The Ages" into one book? In that why we both get a chance to see examples of alternate takes on the Champions Universe, and we get the ideas on how to play in them instead of the original version. would that solve the 95% problem? It was just a thought. We could even combine my wish for an "Amalgam Universe" in the same book, but instead of a "Champions vs. SAS" meld the book could meld old and new Champions character. For example, wouldn't a "Captain Patriot / Defender"-mix end up something like "Super-Soldier"? The only problem with combining the two books into one would be size. What I'd like to see with an alternate universe is something more akin to a DC Universe in opposition of the Marvel universe ... or, kind of like the differences between Freedom City and Meta 4 settings. It'd be hard to fold both books into one really ... The Amalgam idea, however, would be quite cool ... especially after a second setting gained some steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List I'd like to see Hero create an alternate universe for Champions ... I think one of my biggest problems is that 95% of the hero products are within the same timeline. in all honesty' date=' I'd rather see the genres seperated into worlds of their own ...[/quote'] You can easily play a TE game and never need to know that there were once superheroes living on the earth or that at one time Kal-Turak was the most feared sorcerer in the world. If the timelines don't actually interfere with each other what's the difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik_nilsson Posted March 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List Galactic Champions and the upcoming Golden Age Champions both provide separate setting, but they are both in the same universe. Still, the time line difference could be used as a base for an Amalgam idea. Didn't DC's Infinite Crisis start out as a way to handle the time gap (and the way old heroes were redefined)? If you look at the Mystic World, it covers a lot of ground without an overwhelming amount of pages. This book would be sort of like a companion to that book, but with alternate universes instead of mystic dimensions. Obviously the amount of pages sets the level of detail. I don't see that as a problem. Just look at Millennium City. In the Champions Universe it only had a few pages. Just enough so that you could use, but after some time a separate book was released. The same happened to Vibora Bay. I think that if an Alternate CU book will be released, the size of the Mystic World or Champions Universe will be enough to start with. If some alternate dimension gains a following, I guess Hero Games can make a separate book about that one, just like they did with Millennium City and Vibora Bay. The next question would be which dimension to include. I think the following are so common in the comics, that they "must" be included: A world where intelligent apes are the dominate species A world where WWII is still being fought, or maybe had a different ending A world where every superhuman have a reversed alignment A world looking exactly like Champions Universe, but with different superhumans A world where the Roman Empire never fell A world where every superhuman have a reversed alignment A Wild West superhero world A fantasy world Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List On later reflection, the Galactic Bestiary and Galactic Martial Artist might be more constructive as The Encyclopedia Galactica, to include not only animals and martial arts styles but also a few new gadgets, artifacts, NPCs, and miscellaneous other stuff. As for The Ultimate Environment, as the one to first mention it, let's not forget that this would include not only stuff on natural environments and expansions of Change Environment, but also expansions and refinements on Life Support, Enhanced Senses, and similarly related stuff. It's a pretty broad category.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik_nilsson Posted March 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List On later reflection' date=' the Galactic Bestiary and Galactic Martial Artist might be more constructive as [i']The Encyclopedia Galactica[/i], to include not only animals and martial arts styles but also a few new gadgets, artifacts, NPCs, and miscellaneous other stuff. Doesn't that sound a bit like Worlds Of Empire? Worlds Of Empire: The Terran Empire contains thousands of intriguing, exotic, and dangerous worlds. From Earth itself, the seat of the Empire, to the distant worlds of the Frontier, to the strange planets located near the Galactic Rim, its worlds contain thousands of opportunities for adventure and profit — and this is your guide to them. The similarity is a good thing, since the author (Allen Thomas) hopefully could modify the books concept a little to become more like the one you suggested. As for The Ultimate Environment' date=' as the one to first mention it, let's not forget that this would include not only stuff on natural environments and expansions of Change Environment, but also expansions and refinements on Life Support, Enhanced Senses, and similarly related stuff. It's a pretty broad category....[/quote'] That would only make it more buyable, wouldn't it? I guess some package deals found in other books could be included here too, like underwater dweller (Atlantean) and the environment package deals in Fantasy Hero and Star Hero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List You can easily play a TE game and never need to know that there were once superheroes living on the earth or that at one time Kal-Turak was the most feared sorcerer in the world. If the timelines don't actually interfere with each other what's the difference? Well ... it's really a cosmetic gripe of mine. I just prefer my peanut butter and chocolate seperate, that's all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List Galactic Champions and the upcoming Golden Age Champions both provide separate setting, but they are both in the same universe. Still, the time line difference could be used as a base for an Amalgam idea. Didn't DC's Infinite Crisis start out as a way to handle the time gap (and the way old heroes were redefined)? If you look at the Mystic World, it covers a lot of ground without an overwhelming amount of pages. This book would be sort of like a companion to that book, but with alternate universes instead of mystic dimensions. Obviously the amount of pages sets the level of detail. I don't see that as a problem. Just look at Millennium City. In the Champions Universe it only had a few pages. Just enough so that you could use, but after some time a separate book was released. The same happened to Vibora Bay. I think that if an Alternate CU book will be released, the size of the Mystic World or Champions Universe will be enough to start with. If some alternate dimension gains a following, I guess Hero Games can make a separate book about that one, just like they did with Millennium City and Vibora Bay. Okay ... when I say a sperate setting, I mean completely different world. Setting means to me a world in which you play ... thus GAC or GC are just tiers off the Champions default setting. I'd like to see something different ... The next question would be which dimension to include. I think the following are so common in the comics, that they "must" be included: A world where intelligent apes are the dominate species A world where WWII is still being fought, or maybe had a different ending A world where every superhuman have a reversed alignment A world looking exactly like Champions Universe, but with different superhumans A world where the Roman Empire never fell A world where every superhuman have a reversed alignment A Wild West superhero world A fantasy world Don't forget the various futures, magical worlds and darker varients of the usual heroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Re: Wish List Re: The Encyclopedia Galactica Doesn't that sound a bit like Worlds Of Empire? Worlds Of Empire: The Terran Empire contains thousands of intriguing, exotic, and dangerous worlds. From Earth itself, the seat of the Empire, to the distant worlds of the Frontier, to the strange planets located near the Galactic Rim, its worlds contain thousands of opportunities for adventure and profit — and this is your guide to them. The similarity is a good thing, since the author (Allen Thomas) hopefully could modify the books concept a little to become more like the one you suggested. Similarity, yes and no. Allan's thinking up planets. EG would supplement that by adding different details: animals, martial arts styles, suites of special alien abilities (like the Rigellian Code-Talkers thing I had in the recent DH), new gadgets, and such things. Re: The Ultimate Environment: That would only make it more buyable, wouldn't it? I guess some package deals found in other books could be included here too, like underwater dweller (Atlantean) and the environment package deals in Fantasy Hero and Star Hero. About the buyability... yes, I think it would. That's actually what I was getting at. About the environment-related package deals, yes, I think the book probably would include such things. I'd also want to include some of the movement and combat penalties from TUV and other books, selected portions of the object DEF/BODY/mass information from TUB, and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtFool Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 The Ultimate Skill is the new FrED If DOJ does not publish The Ultimate Skill soon I will send a squad of black death ninja robots to Steve's house and have him torn limb from limb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 Re: The Ultimate Skill is the new FrED If DOJ does not publish The Ultimate Skill soon I will send a squad of black death ninja robots to Steve's house and have him torn limb from limb.It's already on the schedule as one of the GenCon releases for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtFool Posted March 31, 2005 Report Share Posted March 31, 2005 Re: The Ultimate Skill is the new FrED It's already on the schedule as one of the GenCon releases for next year. Not soon enough. The robots have been dispatched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Re: The Ultimate Skill is the new FrED The HERO Annual Compendium - the best of all tweaks and tinkering from the various books and DH articles from the prior year, including a list of "Offical Rules Candidates" - book and PDF formats; it will give more insight into the ongoing changes to HERO and become a sort of appendix to the official rules. Priority - Very high, because I bet that the HERO core will buy it (so sales $$s) every year, it will be useful, it will increase communication on the direction of HERO, it will be relatively low effort to put together (at least after the first one, once DOJ puts into place an ongoing selection process), and it will just be damn cool. The Exhaustive HERO Construction Kit - A book with PDF purchasable that chronicles how HERO was/is built, devolving entirely to the underlying axioms, why the mechanics are what they are, and how decisions "should" be made in extending or changing the toolkit. Priority - admittedly not that great, it won't generate much in sales, but it should become the true HERO gospel, spelling out things we don't know and can't know right now. It will be VERY useful to GMs and even more to tinkerers/designers, and can help to move some valuable page space out of 5ER/6th/whatever and into this book. This is the kind of book you put a higher price tag on and sell at a high enough margin because you won't sell that many of these, but the audience that wants them will probably pay a high price (I would pay $60 without thinking about it, up to $100 without objecting). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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