Best Pre-5th Edition Material?

[Agent Escafarc]

All good choice so far but the one pre-5th product that gets the most use in my game is: The Great Supervillain Contest it has grown so big that there is a underground following (Betting lines, Pay-per-views, Fantasy leagues, etc.)

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Well, I'm open to any of the earlier stuff, but pre-4th edition stuff is REALLY hard to find these days, so i mentioned 4th edition as I thought more people would be aware of it and and I'd be more likely to find them if I wanted them. Some of the old stuff I do have is: Alien Enemies(haven't used much), Challenges For Champions(using Dr. Megaton extensively), Shadows of The City(ran the entire thing as my first story arc, Champions in 3D(ran Nazi World and Backworld), and Classic Enemies(not used too much except a 5th edition revamp of Beamline). Now, I thought Strike Force was a campaign book. I have my own campaign and hero group...so I doubt that will be of much use to me. I'd love to get Voice of Doom, but again..pre 4th Edition is VERY hard to find. My players tend to enjoy epic storylines...where a lot is on the line..along with a fair amount of NPC interaction.

 

Rob

[Southern Cross]

Voice of Doom

 

Voice of Doom is well worth getting.It features a NPC team that has been targeted for death by a ruthless supervillain team (the V.O.I.C.E of the title).These varlets are as ruthless as Eurostar,and,unlke Fiacho & Co.,could pop up anywhere on the planet.(I should really update my 4th Edition revisions to FREd).

[Southern Cross]

Matilda May

 

I only know of Matilda May from Lifeforce.In it,she played the beautiful space vampire,and spent most of the film in the nude.

[Southern Cross]

Number of Posts

 

This is my 49th post.One more till I change my title to Competent Normal.And incidentally,I also have The Corolis Effect and the Champions mini-series.If you wish to update the Dr. Arcane write-up,the version in The Corolis Effect is missing the Computer Programming skill.(Which originally cost 5 points in Champions.)

Furthermore,if Dr. Arcane was accurately described in the comic,a Fifth Edition version would use the "Astral Form" type of Duplication, not conventional Desolidification.

[Southern Cross]

50th Post

 

Now lets see; once I send this message,my title should change to "Skilled Normal".

To keep this post on topic, I also have the Seven Horsemen,and 4th Edition conversions for all the main characters in that book,plus The Corolis Effect,the Champions mini-series, & The Voice Of Doom.Anyone interested?

[Bartman]

Re: 50th Post

 

Originally posted by Southern Cross

Now lets see; once I send this message,my title should change to "Skilled Normal".

To keep this post on topic, I also have the Seven Horsemen,and 4th Edition conversions for all the main characters in that book,plus The Corolis Effect,the Champions mini-series, & The Voice Of Doom.Anyone interested?

 

Actually I would. How did you deal with the Piercing power, which was so common among the Horsemen?

[Southern Cross]

Piercing Problems

 

In The Black Death writeup, I changed both KAs to 3d6 Double AP KAs at zero END.That was the only writeup with Piercing I could find in the book.

[Southern Cross]

Black Death

 

Incidentally,after looking over these old writeups,if I ever convert them to Fifth Edition,there will be changes made,especially to the monsters.(I think I'll change the Black Death's KA's to a single 2d6NND KA ,Does BODY, at 0 END,Half Damage at Range (-1/4)).

[Polaris]

Strike Force

 

Greetings,

 

I would recommend trying to get a hand on the book titled Strike Force. The book was written by Aaron Allston. I happened to pick it up at a used book store and have been very happy with it. Some of the other people here on the message boards have also commented highly about it.

 

Polaris

[Storn]

Strike Force is my fav.

 

followed up by Watcher of the Dragon, which unfortunately, my art printed too dark, but is an excellent book of martial artists and my GM has used some of the back story, incorporating into our own campaign.

 

3rd: Classic Enemies. Which probably got more use from me as a GM and my co-GM than any other support product. It is not my favorite due to the imagination in Strike Force and WotD is so much higher and influenced the way I build my worlds.

[Southern Cross]

I also think I should change the Destruction writeup as well.As written,everything within a 1" radius is attacked by a 1d6 Continuous RKA.As the effect applies as long as Destruction has transformed into her Aspect.it's bought to 0END,and is probably Persistent as well.She probably has bought it with Personal Immunity,or she would take damage if she lost her medallion.

Incidentally,after rechecking the book,Plague's Multipower attacks ARE bought with the Piercing advantage.In my 4th Edition writeup,I just converted them to AP attacks.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Re: 50th Post

 

Originally posted by Bartman

How did you deal with the Piercing power, which was so common among the Horsemen?

 

Someone asked an unrelated question once, which led me to recreate (accidentally) the Piercing advantage. For 1 point of Piercing, add 1 die of attack, give it the standard effect (ie 3 points), limit it to doing only 1 point of effect (ie losing 2/3 effect...-1 1/2 limitation per FREd p 194), and give it a further limitation only to pierce defenses (probably worth -1/2 in my opinion). Voila.

 

For 2 pts Piercing, the only 2 pts of effect limitation is worth -1/2 instead of -1 1/2. For 3 points of piercing, no limitation is needed on points of effect (obviously). For 4 or more, build it up in blocks of 3, 2, and 1....

[Captain Obvious]

Oh yeah, to reply to the main thread...

 

I think Champs in 3-D has to be one of the better supplements for 4th ed. Too awesome. Horror World obviously has a following, but I liked Backworld just as well, where Dr Zerstoiten aka Professor Preserver and Mechanon ("I do not understand why life is so important and special; nonetheless, I am programmed to abandon my existence to protect it") fought against the evils of the Golden Avenger (President for life of the US) and the Champions of Evil.

 

Pre-4th, StrikeForce is an excellent reference, even if you don't plan on using the campaign material as is. Lots of good ideas in there, and good stuff to blatently rip off.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Super-Agents, though. At once a Champions supplement and a genre book on its own. At one point, I had plans on running a simultaneous Champions and Super-Agents campaign, where events from one directly affected events in the other.

[Brandi]

Matilda May comments: Gotcha. I bet I know just which High-Tech Villain character you meant, too.

 

The game I ran Irving in ran up against that group and also Destruction Crew. I think we found DC more interesting on several levels, and I always had this image of Irving meeting Jackhammer (whose weapons he busted) when Jackhammer was on parole (or an escapee) and out of the suit:

 

'Hey, I remembah yew! Yer that great big f*ckin' *line* who broke my hammers, man...'

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Shadows of the City went over very well with my group. I actually ran all three parts as the first story arc in my campaign. The Disciples gave my group a hard time....and none of my players could forget their loathing of...The Pack. There was enough noncombat stuff to bring the scenario to life. Reverend M currently rests in Newkirk City Sanitarium. Most of the Disciples are in Stronghold....as is The Pack. The Pack was especially hated as they viciously beat up the hero group's police contact.

What did people think of the Invaders From Below adventure? It looked interesting as a large scale adventure...where the stakes are high.

[Jhamin]

Re: Strike Force

 

Originally posted by Polaris

Greetings,

 

I would recommend trying to get a hand on the book titled Strike Force. The book was written by Aaron Allston. I happened to pick it up at a used book store and have been very happy with it. Some of the other people here on the message boards have also commented highly about it.

 

Polaris

 

Strike Force is rapidly approaching "Holy Grail" status for alot of Hero Games fans. If you were playing when it came out or found it used somewhere it is a treasured part of your collection.

 

But good luck finding it. I know I have been searching for about 6 years.

[Chris Goodwin]

I thought SuperAgents was pretty redundant.

 

I would have said Champions 3-D, but for an issue. It was a great book for what it was... but it wasn't the book I wanted it to be.

 

Oh yeah. I want to add Autoduel Champions to the list, even though it's somewhat redundant and way out of date.

[mrswing]

For Strikeforce, keep hounding the ebay boards. I got my copy at $40 or thereabouts BUT it's signed by Aaron Allston (sigh... RPGing greatness in my grasp).

The specific excellence of this book is that he actually details how his campaign went, what the big storylines were, what mistakes he made and how he corrected them - in short, excellent stuff. The many PCs and NPCs are very good as well, of course.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

I remember looking at The Mutant File, but not picking it up. What was so bad about it? I remember really liking the Minuteman writeups. The 5th edition versions are far too weak as written...they'd be the equivalent of the Sentinels....when they first appeared maybe, but too weak for your average team of 350pt characters. I don't remember the villains too well, but high point costs don't necessarily make a villain powerful(e.g. Slick). What was so tough about these mutant villains?

 

Rob

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Dr. MID-Nite

Well, I'm open to any of the earlier stuff, but pre-4th edition stuff is REALLY hard to find these days, so i mentioned 4th edition as I thought more people would be aware of it and and I'd be more likely to find them if I wanted them. Some of the old stuff I do have is: Alien Enemies(haven't used much), Challenges For Champions(using Dr. Megaton extensively), Shadows of The City(ran the entire thing as my first story arc, Champions in 3D(ran Nazi World and Backworld), and Classic Enemies(not used too much except a 5th edition revamp of Beamline). Now, I thought Strike Force was a campaign book. I have my own campaign and hero group...so I doubt that will be of much use to me. I'd love to get Voice of Doom, but again..pre 4th Edition is VERY hard to find. My players tend to enjoy epic storylines...where a lot is on the line..along with a fair amount of NPC interaction.

 

Rob

Strike Force has villains too.

[L.Craig]

Re: Best Pre-5th Edition Material?

 

i bought strike force a while ago, its an excellent book

[FireTiger]

Re: 50th Post

 

Actually I would. How did you deal with the Piercing power' date=' which was so common among the Horsemen?[/quote']

 

Piercing (from Champions III) used to be a power that subtracted the Piercing value from a target's defense (and Piercing had to be bought against a specific defense, like non-resistant PD) before the effects of the attack power that Piercing was associated for.

 

Hmmm... these days, I'd probably write it up as a Suppress, and use the Standard Effect rule (though there is probably a better way to design it, if I look closer).

[FireTiger]

Re: Best Pre-5th Edition Material?

 

Hmmm... well, let's see if I can add a few items without going back over covered ground...

 

The Island of Dr. Destroyer adventure (originally 1st ed., revised for 3rd, included with the 3rd ed. GM's screen) is still one of my favorites. This was his introductory scenario, and jumped right into a Destroyer-vs-The-World plot.

 

Okay, this was mentioned, but I like it too: Champions in 3-D (4th ed.), along with the Flawed Mirrorsarticle that spawned the book from Adventurers Club #6.

 

Normals Unbound (4th ed.) was useful in that it included examples from Incompetent Normal up through Slightly Less powerful. The characters were built with plenty of story ideas could be worked into a campaign.

 

Again, already mentioned, but... the Day of the Detroyer adventure (4th ed.), is another of my favorites, and showcase's Destroyer's return as a global threat. (The plot given with his entry in Classic Enemies isn't as grand, but it is in character for Destroyer.)

 

The Circle and M.E.T.E. organization book (2nd ed.) is another favorite of mine. (M.E.T.E. was revised for 4th ed. in Alien Enemies.) The Circle makes a good starting point for a Mystics game without leaping directly into Mystic Masters.

 

The Escape from Stronghold adventure (2nd ed.) is still useful, as is the super-prision itself. This was revised for 4th ed. in Classic Enemies.

 

The adventure Deathstroke (2nd ed.) is a good one for presenting the Heroes with a global threat that isn't Dr. Destroyer.

 

Here's another already mentioned that I'm partial to (possibly because I still have and play both games it has write-ups for, Champions and Superworld) is The Great Super Villain Contest adventure (3rd ed.). Villains from everywhere competing to win the "Emerald Eye of Azog."

 

The genre book Cyber Hero (4th ed.) I like for its presentation of using cyberspace in the Hero System.

 

I saw mention of the Golden Age of Champions book, but I think that was for the later version from Hero Games, I have the old one for 2nd & 3rd ed. from Firebird Ltd.

 

Which reminds me... The Armory Volume 1 also from firebird Ltd.contains a lot of information on firearms which can still be useful. It will likely require a fair bit of work from a 5th ed. GM, though. The Hero System stats for the weapons were presented in Espionage! format.

 

I also still have use for the original Enemies, Enemies II, and Enemies III books (1st & revised for 2d ed., 2nd ed., and 3rd ed. respectively), as there are villains in them I like that haven't been officially brought into newer rules yet.

 

The genre book Horror Hero (4th ed.) has some parts I like more than others, but as a whole I have uses for it yet. (Portions of this one were 4th ed. revisions of Justice, Inc. material, and some of it has been revised for 5th ed. in Pulp Hero.)

 

A Companion to Superworld (includes 3rd ed. material) contains the write-up for Project Superhero, a superhero training facility, complete with two danger rooms.

 

The Trouble fo HAVOC adventure book (includes 3rd ed. material) includes a good number of supervillains, and some superheroes that could be used as handouts to new players. There are 3 adventures: A raid on an experimental fast-breeder reactor, the discovery of a lost segment of humanity that had moved underground after being influenced by a being fro mthe stars, and a race to recover a crashed alien ship before everyone else who is expected to try for it.

 

Woof, that ran longer than I thought, anyone still reading by now, I thank you for your time.

[Vann the Red]

Re: Best Pre-5th Edition Material?

 

There is a wealth of worthwhile Pre-5th Edition material out there. My personal favorites were Strike Force (as has been mentioned) and Ninja Hero.

 

VtR