Which older modules are worth running?

[Dr. MID-Nite]

I recently acquired a large number of older modules. To all the old Herophiles are there...which are worth updating and using....and why? Among the ones I got...

 

Great Supervillan Contest

Deathstroke

Wrath of the Seven Horsemen

Trouble For Havoc

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs

Island of Dr. Destroyer(though I'd use another master villain as I hate Destroyer)

Day of the Destroyer(same deal as above)

Circle and METE

Coriolis Effect

Wings of the Valkyrie

VOICE of Doom

Scourge From the Deep

To Serve and Protect

Mind Games

Atlas Unleashed

Zodiac Conspiracy

Invaders from Below

Demons Rule

 

My group is reasonably powerful, but the group is only four players....so trying to pick out the modules that might be appropriate.

[Stonubis73]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

(though I'd use another master villain as I hate Destroyer)

 

Just out of morbid curiosity, why dont you like destroyer?

Could it be because of how majorly insanly hard it is to even scratch his paint, only to have it be recovered in a second with his (if i remember correctly) 40 recovery.

Or is his army large enough to fill a dozen countries?

Or is it the fact that he has like 15 points in lack of weakness, and even if you could somehow manage to find weakness once, you come to realize that ALL of his defences are hardened?

Or the fact that he has an uber RKA with no ranged penilties and a gadget pool large enough to get some telescopic vision of a few thousand light years?

 

In case you couldnt tell, i dont like him to much either. But i would gladly do whatever it is that he wanted me to do lest i bring upon the wrath of his mind controll.

[McCoy]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Very fond memories of Coriolis Effect and To Serve and Protect. Circle and METE had some good ideas. Great Supervillan Contest would be very hard to run, but I always thought it could be fun if it could ever be pulled off.

[srvronsim1]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Great Supervillan Contest - Great premise, iffy characters... but I'd look at the concept. Plus Microwave... Va-va-voooom!

Deathstroke - Death Singer and Frost were updated in Stronghold for 5E, not sure of the module content.

Wrath of the Seven Horsemen - Didn't like it when I played it, but I don't remember the characters making any positive impressions.

Trouble For Havoc - Not familiar

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs - Not familiar.

Island of Dr. Destroyer(though I'd use another master villain as I hate Destroyer) - Good module.

Day of the Destroyer(same deal as above) - Good module with the introduction of Gigaton and Rakasha into cannon. Good times.

Circle and METE - Update! Good concepts and great characters.

Coriolis Effect - Good little adventure.

Wings of the Valkyrie - Not familiar.

VOICE of Doom - Good characters, although I'd imagine that they're rather dated by now.

Scourge From the Deep - Great maps is all I remember, the cliffside HQ is awesome.

To Serve and Protect - Seminal. Great concept, good allies and a nice female master villain, plus keen mappage.

Mind Games - Seminal introduction of PSI, all the (important) characters have been updated for 5E and soon for 6E.

Atlas Unleashed - Drek. Laughable characters and not that exciting of a story IIRC.

Zodiac Conspiracy - One of the best organizations in Hero Games history, makes me want to track Doug Shuler down and force him to sell the rights to Cryptic Studios. Simply awesome with the best. HQ. Maps. EVAR~!

Invaders from Below - Meh.

Demons Rule - To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, "This module should not be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown aside with great force." If not for European Enemies or Road Kill... this would be Plan 9 from Hero Games.

 

The Great Supervillain Contest would be the best one to play for 4 players, but look at characters from a lot of them for inspiration.

[assault]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Trouble For Havoc - would take a bit of work to update, but there are some interesting ideas. Don't be afraid to make changes. A four player group would be ideal. Basically a collection of three separate scenarios, with only very loose connections.

 

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs - a proto-Teen Champions scenario. Less suitable for adult characters, but could be hammered into a usable shape. The plot as written is a bit railroad-y. Some memorable characters, some duds.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

None of them ... they're all horrible and you should ditch them. Heck, send them to me and I'll make sure they're taken care of

 

Okay ... seriously ... the ones below are ones I've used and liked. The ones with a * were favorites of mine and I've used them a few times with different groups ... now if only I could find them again myself

 

Great Supervillan Contest*

Deathstroke*

Wrath of the Seven Horsemen

Circle and METE*

Coriolis Effect*

VOICE of Doom*

Scourge From the Deep

To Serve and Protect*

Mind Games*

Zodiac Conspiracy*

[Tasha]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

BTW Wings of the Valkyrie is one of the most Rare Hero Modules out there. From what I understand the subject matter was deemed to be so bad that all the publication was pulled from Store Shelves and destroyed. (Nazi's and time travel...)

 

All of those modules could be a ton of fun if you the GM really like their plotlines. Read though them and make you own decisions.

[Beast]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

it was deemed offensive because after going back in time to kill Hitler(and succeeding) the players find out that the change in time makes their world a 1000 times worse so the heroes must return to past and SAVE Hitler(here is where all the trouble began)

 

BTW Wings of the Valkyrie is one of the most Rare Hero Modules out there. From what I understand the subject matter was deemed to be so bad that all the publication was pulled from Store Shelves and destroyed. (Nazi's and time travel...)

 

All of those modules could be a ton of fun if you the GM really like their plotlines. Read though them and make you own decisions.

[Hermit]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

To Serve and Protect is wonderful. My players loved the adventure, and after getting the Protectors help, their characters became great friends with said NPC team thus allowing yet more stories to form up with them.

 

Mind Games was a fantastic introduction to PSI, and the scenarios there in seemed to entertain, though the PCs found them quite a challenge .

 

VOICE of Doom - Not as good as to Serve and Protect imo, but DARN close, and thus quite good. Using a 'membership drive' angle allowed a good reason to get new heroes together and right into the thick of things IIRC.

 

If you use any of those, given your small group, you might want to take a member off.

 

The Zodiac Conspiracy was nice, but I didn't have as much luck with it in delivery.

 

I'll try to remember how others went.

[Balabanto]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Voice of Doom is a broken module for 4 players. Those villains will chew up your PC's and spit them out if they're run with even a half-ounce of tactical sense. I loved that module, but the characters inside are quite simply too devastating for all but the most powerful hero groups. Le Maistre alone can turn an entire hero team into brain puppets. I love the module, but for the group size you're running for, I strongly advise you not to take that action.

 

Zodiac Conspiracy needs a LOT of help, because many of the villains are incorrectly built in the first place. The numbers, even in the edition they are in, don't work. You have to just assume that the effect works as listed. I would rewrite them verbatim if Mr. Shuler would give the rights to me or Blackwyrm, but at this point, it's been so many years (22), and I'd rather just create my own replacement Zodiac for publication. I think you guys will like them.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Just out of morbid curiosity, why dont you like destroyer?

Could it be because of how majorly insanly hard it is to even scratch his paint, only to have it be recovered in a second with his (if i remember correctly) 40 recovery.

Or is his army large enough to fill a dozen countries?

Or is it the fact that he has like 15 points in lack of weakness, and even if you could somehow manage to find weakness once, you come to realize that ALL of his defences are hardened?

Or the fact that he has an uber RKA with no ranged penilties and a gadget pool large enough to get some telescopic vision of a few thousand light years?

 

In case you couldnt tell, i dont like him to much either. But i would gladly do whatever it is that he wanted me to do lest i bring upon the wrath of his mind controll.

 

In a nutshell....he's boring as hell. He can basically do anything...outsmart anyoone....can defend against any attack. He's just plain ridiculous. The fact that he has spent more points in most editions than were spent on "gods"(like the Aztec one from Arcane Enemies) says more than anything else I could say.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Great Supervillan Contest - Great premise, iffy characters... but I'd look at the concept. Plus Microwave... Va-va-voooom!

Deathstroke - Death Singer and Frost were updated in Stronghold for 5E, not sure of the module content.

Wrath of the Seven Horsemen - Didn't like it when I played it, but I don't remember the characters making any positive impressions.

Trouble For Havoc - Not familiar

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs - Not familiar.

Island of Dr. Destroyer(though I'd use another master villain as I hate Destroyer) - Good module.

Day of the Destroyer(same deal as above) - Good module with the introduction of Gigaton and Rakasha into cannon. Good times.

Circle and METE - Update! Good concepts and great characters.

Coriolis Effect - Good little adventure.

Wings of the Valkyrie - Not familiar.

VOICE of Doom - Good characters, although I'd imagine that they're rather dated by now.

Scourge From the Deep - Great maps is all I remember, the cliffside HQ is awesome.

To Serve and Protect - Seminal. Great concept, good allies and a nice female master villain, plus keen mappage.

Mind Games - Seminal introduction of PSI, all the (important) characters have been updated for 5E and soon for 6E.

Atlas Unleashed - Drek. Laughable characters and not that exciting of a story IIRC.

Zodiac Conspiracy - One of the best organizations in Hero Games history, makes me want to track Doug Shuler down and force him to sell the rights to Cryptic Studios. Simply awesome with the best. HQ. Maps. EVAR~!

Invaders from Below - Meh.

Demons Rule - To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, "This module should not be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown aside with great force." If not for European Enemies or Road Kill... this would be Plan 9 from Hero Games.

 

The Great Supervillain Contest would be the best one to play for 4 players, but look at characters from a lot of them for inspiration.

 

Interestingly enough. I didn't mind Demons Rule from my initial read through of it. In fact, it's the first module I've completely updated for 6th. Not the best module Hero ever did, but with some modifications...I think it's be fun. Roadkill on the other hand...just doesn't make any sense.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Voice of Doom is a broken module for 4 players. Those villains will chew up your PC's and spit them out if they're run with even a half-ounce of tactical sense. I loved that module, but the characters inside are quite simply too devastating for all but the most powerful hero groups. Le Maistre alone can turn an entire hero team into brain puppets. I love the module, but for the group size you're running for, I strongly advise you not to take that action.

 

Zodiac Conspiracy needs a LOT of help, because many of the villains are incorrectly built in the first place. The numbers, even in the edition they are in, don't work. You have to just assume that the effect works as listed. I would rewrite them verbatim if Mr. Shuler would give the rights to me or Blackwyrm, but at this point, it's been so many years (22), and I'd rather just create my own replacement Zodiac for publication. I think you guys will like them.

 

 

 

Yeah...VOICE of Doom looked a bit too tough for my players...and had some cheese in the builds. Like why does Carrier have gloves as a focue for his powers when his background suggests his powers are natural? Oh...that's right because it saves points. Sheesh. But yes...there's lots of bad guys and they're all pretty tough from what i can see. The real question is....would it really have taken them any time at all to wipe out the Freedom Squad?

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Very fond memories of Coriolis Effect and To Serve and Protect. Circle and METE had some good ideas. Great Supervillan Contest would be very hard to run' date=' but I always thought it could be fun if it could ever be pulled off.[/quote']

 

Circle and METE look real good from my initial look at them, but I need to read a bit more. Coriolis Effect I read through. Ok story, but I didn't like the fact that the whole thing sort of just dissolves into plot device Coriolis. Your basic instructions at the end are to just wing it. The writeups for her are pretty weak. Black Enchantress was a decent villainess though..I'll give it that much. Serve and Protect..haven't read yet, but that supergroup is really large.

[Tasha]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Circle and METE look real good from my initial look at them' date=' but I need to read a bit more. Coriolis Effect I read through. Ok story, but I didn't like the fact that the whole thing sort of just dissolves into plot device Coriolis. Your basic instructions at the end are to just wing it. The writeups for her are pretty weak. Black Enchantress was a decent villainess though..I'll give it that much. Serve and Protect..haven't read yet, but that supergroup is really large.[/quote']

 

Well in Hero's defense, Coriolis was pretty much impossible to writeup in that edition. They would have really needed Mega-Scale to build her weather effects and those didn't exist till 5th ed. My players had fun with it, though I seem to remember that we went way off into left field during the investigation parts. The Adventure itself was fun for the players and I really don't remember how it all ended up.

 

Circle and METE are a sourcebook. They add some nice stuff to a campaign esp if you need a strong good guy Magical Org and a Good Guy organization that deals with Extra Terrestrials.

 

Day of the Destroyer was kind of fun. The version of him in that wasn't the OP version that we have seen recently in 5.x Champions.

 

To Serve and Protect was fun for my players, I don't remember much from it, but it was well written.

 

The Zodiac Conspiracy left me really cold. A couple of the characters were interesting, but the group never caught my fancy as a GM. It does have great artwork with those color plates, but it would have been better if those had been left out and cardboard standups were included for the characters instead.

[Escafarc]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

I'm still using The Great Supervillian Contest as a on-going campaign plot and when we need to change things up we run one-offs with the players playing villians. Lots of fun:)

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Great Supervillan Contest: I didn't care for it.

 

Deathstroke: Great adventure. You've need to tone down the supervillians if you only have 4 players.

 

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs: a ok to good concept, with some very poorly written npc's. I wouldn't touch the pre-written PCs either. Teen Champions as written.

 

Island of Dr. Destroyer: Monster adventure, not suited as written for a standard 6 person group, definete overkill for a 4 person.

 

Day of the Destroyer: Neat concept, with good twists.

 

Circle and METE: Not adventures but settings/organizations. Both useful add ons to campaigns.

 

VOICE of Doom: Neat adventure set, cool villian, obvious twist at the end. I mean, it was obvious to us in the early 1980's.

 

To Serve and Protect: Interesting adventure, but I never ran it.

 

Mind Games: Organization book for PSI. Useful.

 

Demons Rule: Good one.

[Tom]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

I'm fond of both Coriolis Effect and To Serve and Protect, and have run/used both. I like VOICE of Doom, but have never had a group I was comfortable using it against (though I have used elements of it in my games from time to time).

[hfergus]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Really liked To serve and protect and Day of the Destroyer. Never played any of the others.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Great Supervillan Contest

 

Island of Dr. Destroyer(though I'd use another master villain as I hate Destroyer)

 

Coriolis Effect

 

VOICE of Doom

 

To Serve and Protect

 

Zodiac Conspiracy

 

 

 

All great books.

 

 

QM

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Great Supervillan Contest: I didn't care for it.

 

Deathstroke: Great adventure. You've need to tone down the supervillians if you only have 4 players.

 

Bad Medicine For Dr. Drugs: a ok to good concept, with some very poorly written npc's. I wouldn't touch the pre-written PCs either. Teen Champions as written.

 

Island of Dr. Destroyer: Monster adventure, not suited as written for a standard 6 person group, definete overkill for a 4 person.

 

Day of the Destroyer: Neat concept, with good twists.

 

Circle and METE: Not adventures but settings/organizations. Both useful add ons to campaigns.

 

VOICE of Doom: Neat adventure set, cool villian, obvious twist at the end. I mean, it was obvious to us in the early 1980's.

 

To Serve and Protect: Interesting adventure, but I never ran it.

 

Mind Games: Organization book for PSI. Useful.

 

Demons Rule: Good one.

 

My only real problem with Mind Games...as a GM...is...how the hell would you beat them(PSI)? Unless you have mental powers yourself(my PC group has no mentalists), they're essentially unstoppable if they use even a minimum of tactics.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

My only real problem with Mind Games...as a GM...is...how the hell would you beat them(PSI)? Unless you have mental powers yourself(my PC group has no mentalists)' date=' they're essentially unstoppable if they use even a minimum of tactics.[/quote']

 

There are ways around that. When I originally ran Mind Games for my 4th ed group back in the day, they didn't have any mentalists either but managed to beat them. The key is to not attack them head-on and to use different tactics. For my group, PSI was the first of many groups where they used tactics, targeting the bigger threats and running down the list until they had the group scattered. But mind you, this was after they got smacked around a few times

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

There are ways around that. When I originally ran Mind Games for my 4th ed group back in the day' date=' they didn't have any mentalists either but managed to beat them. The key is to not attack them head-on and to use different tactics. For my group, PSI was the first of many groups where they used tactics, targeting the bigger threats and running down the list until they had the group scattered. But mind you, this was after they got smacked around a few times [/quote']

 

Yes, this is how it worked in my campaign way back when. We did have a mentalist (telepath), but the usual tactics of 'capture one minion and telepathically interrogate' didn't work. It required real police work, and a gadgeteer making ego defense gadgets, and remembering that you don't beat a mentalist in ego combat, you beat him by putting your fist in his face.

 

Mentalists don't fear other mentalists, after all they have high egos and ego defense... they fear martial artists, mystics, and gadgeteers.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

My only real problem with Mind Games...as a GM...is...how the hell would you beat them(PSI)? Unless you have mental powers yourself(my PC group has no mentalists)' date=' they're essentially unstoppable if they use even a minimum of tactics.[/quote']

 

In my campaign, I introduced a revamped PSI... and my players were completely afraid to face them. Their characters have defeated alien invasions, stopped the Subterran threat, taken out Mechanon, beaten the Ultimates, etc. My version of PSI was all-new characters, the heroes hadn't faced them before, and the PCs were not without Mental Defense. (In fact, one hero has Force Fields Usable by 4 others that included Mental Defense.) When I finally forced the issue, it was a tough fight but the heroes won fairly decisively. I still can't figure out why they were trying to wuss out of a confrontation.

[pinecone]

Re: Which older modules are worth running?

 

Yes, this is how it worked in my campaign way back when. We did have a mentalist (telepath), but the usual tactics of 'capture one minion and telepathically interrogate' didn't work. It required real police work, and a gadgeteer making ego defense gadgets, and remembering that you don't beat a mentalist in ego combat, you beat him by putting your fist in his face.

 

Mentalists don't fear other mentalists, after all they have high egos and ego defense... they fear martial artists, mystics, and gadgeteers.

 

Yep I remember a quote by the Vigilante "Gee you have awesome psychic powers, and all I have is this shotgun"...