Welcome to Hero Forum - Please Introduce yourself (especially Lurkers)

[RDU Neil]

3 hours ago, sentry0 said:

What are you currently playing/GMing?

• starting a new street level Champions game this weekend

 

Would like to hear more! Is there a thread in Champions about this?

[sentry0]

25 minutes ago, RDU Neil said:

 

Would like to hear more! Is there a thread in Champions about this?

 

Well, there's this thread I started in the Looking For Player section that has a bit of background info.

 

Essentially, I want to take Millennium City as it's currently written (circa 2003-ish) and darken it way up so that it's a cyberpunk-lite dystopian city in 2018.  I say lite because I don't want the emphasis to be on hacking and technology as much as a pure cyberpunk game would normally be but I still want the crime, gangs, and mega-corps though...that's just good fun

 

I think it'll be fun, in my head it's basically mashing Batman Begins and Blade Runner together or I suppose Batman Beyond would be an analogous setting just not as far into the future.

 

I have a couple of brand new players at the table so I'm just hoping I don't screw it up for them.  I know I'll need to be in teaching mode for the first little while so the kid gloves will need to be on but I fully expect to bloody them up once we get going.

 

[RDU Neil]

Sounds fun... and familiar. Back in the day, in my long running campaign, one of the spin-off campaigns (run by long term player and artist Storn Cook) did something similar. It jumped ahead a decade or so, using the Millennium City concept as an "alternative future" to the main campaign. We played supers trying to re-establish a tradition that had been gutted by the events that destroyed New York (not Detroit in this case) and most supers, etc. Lots of cyberpunk, mecha, corporate rule, concepts, with metas trying to re-establish the idea of "hero's who were descendents of characters in our main game.

Good times... so good luck with your game. And kid gloves aren't as necessary as truth... let players know that initial threats and challenges are simple and they are expected to win... and let the players know when the stakes increase and the chance for failure is real. Metagaming is not a bad thing. There are specific times when I say, "Ok... all die rolls are in the open, and if they go against you... them's the breaks. It is bad-things-happen time!" and everyone is good to go.

[grandmastergm]

On 10/15/2015 at 10:16 AM, bluesguy said:

It was suggested that maybe we create a thread for new people who are posting and especially for lurkers.

 

So here is what I would like to suggest everyone post as an introduction:

 

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
• What are you currently playing/GMing?

I hope this thread gets pinned.

 

 

1) I liked the chess title, even though I'm nowhere near that level but I think I'm that level in terms of GMing (maybe).

 

2) Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition (I played it as a youngster, about 12 years old or so)

 

3) Also D&D 2nd edition, although I had help from my friends.  We re-enacted the Battle for Helm's Deep 2-4 years before Peter Jackson did it on the big screen.

 

4) I'm currently GMing some games with a couple users on the forum and playing in games that they're running.  We're doing HERO System 6th edition.  I also GM a monthly Savage Worlds game (underrated system, but it's far more rules-light than HERO) and GM a monthly HERO game online for the Kerberos Club.

[Duke Bushido]

Thanks for bumping this, GMGM--

 

I never knew this thread existed, or I might have made a more "formal" return to the boards (I tend to come and go as 'real life' demands increase or relax).

 

So here we go:

 

 

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

I almost wish I used my actual name, like so many others, just so I could reply with "My parents picked it out."

 

I wasn't clever enough to invent a code or thematically-minded enough to do the clever thing and use a favorite character's name, though I really wished I had after seeing so many people doing it!).  My name actually is Duke, like every third bird dog around these parts.  The Bushido part comes from what I'd like to say is a really long story so let's skip it, but the fact is it's not a too-terribly long story, I'm just tired of telling it.   Suffice it to say that owing to a vast number of opinions my friends have held of me, combined with the conversations held while we consoled a (then) recently-divorced and (possibly still) drunken comrade, I got tagged with then name "Bushido."  It came and went, depending on how amusing it was for them to toss it out.  A few years later, we're playing Boot Hill, fairly straight to the genre.  As the campaign concludes, the GM pitches ideas for a new one, stating he'd like to do something a bit more cinematic, over-the-top-- something quirky, but still Western.  I figured this was yet _another_ chance for me to pitch HERO at them (well, it was still Champions then), and they were curious enough to bite this time.

 

So I introduced one group of three to our Champions group of four and pitched the idea to my then-GM (Jim), who loved it.  My Boot Hill compatriots, though, needed convincing.  How would changing systems make the game any different?  "Well," I began, you can just go nuts: you can make _anything_ you want, so long as it's cool with Jim.  You want a different old west?  You could make a samurai gunman!"  to which someone instantly quipped: "Yeah!  And you could call him Duke Bushido!"

 

And that was the end of that.  "Bushido" had occasional comedic properties.  But that one quip....  Well, "Duke Bushido" stuck, and it stuck real good....

So good, that the avatar on my posts was made by a friend some years later.  I no longer have the original large image, but it's something of a merger of a stylized Japanese flag and a sunrise over a western clay desert, with a figure dressed in what appears to be jeans, a buckskin jacket, and a cowboy hat, holding a drawn katana.  That's one of my bikes in the background (I still have that one, actually.  I really like it).  Now you know. Well, enough, anyway.  

 

• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

Like so many other people, I started at some point in the mid-seventies.  I can't tell you which was first, though.  I can tell you it was either Traveller or D&D, as we did both pretty heavily.  (The only way to know for certain would be to look up which came out first, but honestly, it doesn't matter to me enough to do it: who cares when a memory was made, so long as you get to keep it?).  We did both back and forth.  Not being a Tolkien guy and _really_ not liking the way D&D worked, I was always happiest with Traveller games.  We tried other games as they caught our eyes and wallets, and fortunately, did not stick with D&D too long after some real variety started to pop up.

 

 

 

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

Metamorphosis Alpha.  I had to actually _buy_ it, but I was willing to do _anything_ to give D&D a smaller slot in our rotation.    Terrible game, by the way; I don't get the nostalgia associated with it.  Sure, it was pretty much D&D, mechanics-wise, but at least there wasn't any Tolkien in it.  Tried Gamma World when it came out, but it was straight-up Dungeons and Mutants; couldn't even pretend otherwise.  Stumbled across Daredevils and had a great time running that.  Bought a boxed set of Champions 2e (my GM picked up 1e when it hit the shelves, but the game store never got another one), which my GM devoured and we promptly upgraded.  When he was ready to split GM responsibilities, I became a Champions GM, but even then, I didn't consider myself one: I was just helping Jim, ya know?  I _loved_ the system Champions was using, and it wasn't too long before we were using it for Daredevils and made a stab at Traveller.  

 

I didn't _dislike_ supers as a genre; I just didn't have a lot of appreciation for it.  I mean, it's easy to be a brave hero when you're bullet-proof, right?  And there were no comic books in my childhood, nor televised cartoons (you'd need to have had a TV, which would have been useless without electricity).  Besides, Sci-Fi was my addiction at that time, and we were all familiar with Traveller, even though we hadn't played it in a couple of years at that point.'  The Traveller HERO failure wasn't the system; by that point, it was just the wrong setting / theme for our group of players (which by then had swollen to nine players, hence Jim needing some relief).  Best of all, though, it proved our theory that Champions was universal!  Found a boxed set of Justice Inc, noticed the HERO Games tag, and immediately thought "They know it, too!"    From that point on, any game I like enough to start an actual campaign in found it's guts replaced with the Champions drive train.

 

And while it's not relevant, I'd like to add, specifically to you Super Hero fans, that I have, in the last few years, developed an appreciation for the genre.  You can blame my kids for that.   They got into super heroes, and I'm into spending time with them.  Supers make more sense, looking at them through the kid's eyes.

• What are you currently playing/GMing?

Everything is on HERO guts, regardless of genre.  Mostly it's 2e, modified with a few things from 4e, and a ruling or two-- a couple of Power Modifiers, anyway-- from 5e.  I am currently running a Supers game for some kids that I've been referring to as "my youth group."  I also run space opera weekly-- or, _mostly_ weekly, on the far end of ninety miles from here.  Once a month, I play in an occult-themed thriller, but that's about to wind down, freeing me up a bit of time.

 

 

And that's it.  That's the overly-informative basics.

 

 

[Joe Walsh]

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How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

 

Well, I GM a lot and my first name is Joe. Plus, back in the early 70s, I loved playing with my GI Joes -- especially the one with Kung Fu grip and the one with the grappling hook!  

 

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What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

 

I GM'd before I played. The first tabletop RPG I played was AD&D 1e.

 

But, really, we were playing RPGs without knowing it back when we would play with Micronaughts, Star Wars figures, etc.

 

Before that, we were RPGing with Hot Wheels. My friends and I would build elaborate cities for them out back during summer, giving the cars' occupants personalities and acting out stories. In the winter, we'd use Lego to build the cities indoors.

 

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What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

 

B/X D&D (the Moldvay/Cook Basic and Expert sets).

 

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What are you currently playing/GMing?

 

I'm GMing a street-level supers campaign using HERO System 4e.
 

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When did you start to play HERO?

 

 

I picked up Champions 2e at my FLGS in 1983, brought it home, read it, and it blew my mind.  I began running it the next weekend. HERO has been my favorite game system ever since.

[Toxxus]

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

Around 1995 I made a Shadow Knight in Everquest roughly themed after the god of disease (Bertoxxulus) so I shortened it to Toxxus.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
D&D when it still came in pastel colored cardboard boxes (Basic and Expert)
 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

D&D basic followed shortly by Boot Hill
 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

I'm playing Fantasy Hero using Pathfinder adventure paths for content.  My Saturday group (mostly D&D 5e'ers) is enjoying the new system though I admit I'm enjoying it more as it comes with 30 years of nostalgia for me.

 

When did you start to play Hero?
Right around 1980 when I picked up a softcover edition that came in a cardboard box (they all did back then).  Played Fantasy Hero extensively in high school and college.

[Scott Ruggels]

On 5/16/2018 at 12:44 PM, RDU Neil said:

Good times... so good luck with your game. And kid gloves aren't as necessary as truth... let players know that initial threats and challenges are simple and they are expected to win... and let the players know when the stakes increase and the chance for failure is real. Metagaming is not a bad thing. There are specific times when I say, "Ok... all die rolls are in the open, and if they go against you... them's the breaks. It is bad-things-happen time!" and everyone is good to go.

 

Yes, be up front with things.  In Bob Simpson's champions campaign we learneed that sometimes we would rup up against foes to powerful to take down, and we learned that once we figured that out, we should probably leave, lest one of us gets captured.  Getting captured by certain foes was really bad. So, we would rather flee a fight in good order, than get captured, and then figure out a way to use what we learned the next time we ran across them. Bob was up front  about it. so we took him seriously. 

[mallachain]

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

It's the name of one of my D&D characters.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
AD&D 1st edition.
 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

AD&D 1st Edition, then Gamma World.
 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

I run my current group with AD&D 2nd edition. We've been doing it for over 20 years. A few players looked at 3rd edition, but never made the jump.

 

When did you start to play Hero?

With the first Champions boxed set. I was talking with a friend at DunDraCon last year and it got me interested in Hero again. For the past year I've been grabbing the books and soaking up the expertise here.

[jlc3721]

So....I’m an egregious lurker. I lurked for 6 months before I made an account. And, this is my second post in two months since creation.  I’m honestly mostly here browsing as I learn the game and try to find a group. 

 

How did you come up with your handle?

It’s a very old email ID that I use for all gaming web sites, forums, meetups, etc. 

 

First tabletop RPG?

Red box D&D circa 1985.

 

First tabletop RPG to GM?

Talislanta, circa 1992. Early college. I was tired of DND franchise, and even the alternatives we explored were thematically similar like Earthdawn, Rolemaster, and Runequest. Both Rolemaster and Runequest did that genre very well, but still elves and dwarves. Very lucky at this point to have a big group that explored dozens of systems, with 6+ GMs. 

 

What at are you currently playing or GMing?

I GM a Deadlands Reloaded game in Savage Worlds. I play a regular DND 5e game and some sporadic Call of Cthulhu and Dungeon Crawl Classics. I move often (military), and often end up with what I can find rather than what I want to play. 

 

When end did you start to play Hero?

My college group used Champions for our superhero games and GURPS as our generic engine for our home brew that didn’t work with an existing system. I re-discovered Hero a few years ago when I was yet again frustrated with the limits and lack of crunch from other games. I haven’t played it since ‘96 or so, but I’ve a 1/2 dozen 6e books I read when I daydream about playing a real game again.

 

My next move to the greater Seattle area this summer, 2019, is my last. I don’t want to settle again and would like to find a good group to play with. 

[dazhbog]

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

Back in the days of IRC I got frustrated because my nicknames were always taken so I decided to pick something more exotic. Back then I was teased with sun-related names because of my bright red hair... so I ended up with Dazhbog, old Slavic sun god.
 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
RuneQuest, 3rd edition I think

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

RQ as well.

 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

I've been playing Shadowrun 5th ed and started to GM a Savage Worlds Deadlands game but it died off because I grew to dislike the SW system.. and my players didn't love it either. So, I began the long hunt for a good generic system.. and ended up here

 

When did you start to play Hero?

I have yet to play/GM it but I've been reading furiously and will start to flesh out a fantasy hero campaign soon. Hope to start GMing within a month or so

[jlc3721]

7 hours ago, dazhbog said:

 I've been reading furiously and

Me too brother, between work and kids I'm lucky if I can put in more than five hours a week to learning the rules and there are over 2000 pages sitting on my shelf.  Nothing is hard to understand, they are really quite well written for RPG materials.  It's the volume of rules and trying to remember how this modifier here will affect all the other possibilities.  I like a challenge though.

 

I've seen several people suggest one of the Completes (Fantasy/Champions), but they're not complete to my OCD laden soul.  They leave out all the 'toolkitting' info and some examples etc.  6E1 and 6E2 are my current lite-reading projects.  Not to mention the Completes don't come with all the page references that Core does, (nor the really good index), so when I have a question I can quickly find it.  But if you haven't seen those comments, many people endorse that path.

[jlc3721]

8 hours ago, dazhbog said:

When did you start to play Hero?

I have yet to play/GM it but

Also, not to be too presumptuous as some fledgling newbie, but Chris Goodwin has some great stuff in his signature block including a thread of useful links and his 10 page system intro.

[Chris Goodwin]

If it helps, a relatively small amount of the rules in the 6e core volumes are procedures and how-to.  Most of it is reference material.

[dazhbog]

1 hour ago, jlc3721 said:

I've seen several people suggest one of the Completes (Fantasy/Champions), but they're not complete to my OCD laden soul.  They leave out all the 'toolkitting' info and some examples etc.  6E1 and 6E2 are my current lite-reading projects.  Not to mention the Completes don't come with all the page references that Core does, (nor the really good index), so when I have a question I can quickly find it.  But if you haven't seen those comments, many people endorse that path.

Well, we all have our complications, mine is ADHD I got the big books first (6E1&6E2&FH) because someone said that Fantasy Hero Complete is an awful place to start... and tried to power through them... three times.. but I always ran out of steam. So this time, a couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to purchase FHC and it was much better fit for me. Yes, it's very dense (they managed to fit almost all the rules in there) but it didn't give me the drowning sensation like the big tomes did. Having read it I think I now have a decent overview of the system and how the parts fit together and I can use the big rulebooks when I want deeper explanation/examples. I got Turakian Age next and started sketching characters and playing with the power system. I still feel a bit overwhelmed but I think I'm finally over the largest hurdle and on my way to finally getting to play(GM) the game ?

[bluesguy]

Bump since it the last post was almost a year ago.

[pbemguy]

I'm pbemguy. I have a background in publishing and copy writing. I am intimately familiar with InDesign, Photoshop, and even Microsoft Publisher when I'm stuck without InDesign.

 

I have played Champions since around 1986. I got the boxed set of 2e and then collected all the softcovers (Champions II etc.) then bought the 3e softcover. When the 4e hardcover came out I was thrilled. I played hundreds of hours in 4e, tabletop. I quit Champions in the mid-nineties and picked it up again around 2011 for my PBEM. There I chose 5e, because it was handy.

 

Currently I GM a long-running PBEM that is purely by email (no forums etc.).

 

I'm 50 years old, just like Marksman (a.k.a Donald Henderson).

[segerge]

Been here a while; lurk more than I post.

 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

Last name + first initial + middle initial.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
Original D&D

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

Traveller

 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

Champions, especially when I have to game battles that I write for TASK FORCE stories.

 

When did you start to play Hero?

May 1982, between the end of my sophomore year at college and reporting to USAF field training.

• I

[BoloOfEarth]

I'm surprised to see that I never posted in this thread.

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

One of my first Champions characters was Bolo, who was Hunted by Firewing.  (And Bolo had Vulnerabilities to Fire and Explosions.  Not my brightest move.)  Firewing often referred to him as Bolo of Earth.  So when I tried to create my forum name and Bolo was already taken, I fell back onto BoloOfEarth.

• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

D&D, followed by Top Secret and Traveler, starting back in 1978 or so.  I got in to Champions my freshman year of college (1982-3)

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

My brother and I alternated between GMing D&D, though to be honest they were only dungeon crawls.  The first game I consider me truly GMing was Top Secret.

• What are you currently playing/GMing?

I'm playing Pathfinder and am GMing a Fellowship of the White Rose game.  I ended a 4-5 year-long Champions campaign a few months ago and planned to start a new one, but half of the players have yet to create their characters for the new campaign.  To be honest, I'm not even all that excited about the new campaign myself now. 

[pbemguy]

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

D&D, followed by Top Secret and Traveler, starting back in 1978 or so.  I got in to Champions my freshman year of college (1982-3)

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

 

 

I love Top Secret! I'd love to play that again!

[Spence]

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

I'm surprised to see that I never posted in this thread.

 

Me too.  Here goes.

 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?  Shortened version of my name.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Original Dungeons & Dragons in 75.  Then Tunnels & Trolls, Empire of the Petal Throne, Boot Hill, Top Secret.  And so on.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Dungeon crawls first, Original Dungeons & Dragons and Tunnels & Trolls.  Then actual adventures with Top Secret.

 

What are you currently playing/GMing? Nothing active at the moment, but my most recent games were Fear Itself, Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.

[pbemguy]

1 hour ago, Spence said:

 

Me too.  Here goes.

 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?  Shortened version of my name.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Original Dungeons & Dragons in 75.  Then Tunnels & Trolls, Empire of the Petal Throne, Boot Hill, Top Secret.  And so on.

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Dungeon crawls first, Original Dungeons & Dragons and Tunnels & Trolls.  Then actual adventures with Top Secret.

 

What are you currently playing/GMing? Nothing active at the moment, but my most recent games were Fear Itself, Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.

 

I played a *lot* of Boot Hill. I loved the lethality of it. I remember multiple times there was a shoot-out and we'd roll new characters just to get back into the battle.

[sinanju]

4 hours ago, segerge said:

 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

I was (am, I suppose) a big fan of the Destroyer novels. They're about the adventures of Chiun, Master of Sinanju (Emeritus), and Remo Williams, reigning master of Sinanju as they murder trainloads of bad guys over the course of well over 100 novels...

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
Original D&D...by about about four months. I discovered D&D (and role-playing games) as a college freshman in 1977. After Christmas break, I came back ready to explore more dungeons...only to discover that the group had moved on to Traveller (and we never looked back).

 

What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

D&D

 

What are you currently playing/GMing?

GM: Champions (Hudson City Wild Cards), Player: Champions (rotating GM/campaigns set in Gotham, Evergreen City, Zion City (FL), and elsewhere.)

 

• I

 

4 hours ago, segerge said:

When did you start to play Hero?

May 1982, between the end of my sophomore year at college and reporting to USAF field training.

 

[pbemguy]

19 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

My brother and I alternated between GMing D&D, though to be honest they were only dungeon crawls.  The first game I consider me truly GMing was Top Secret.

 

 

This would be cool, especially give the current world situation:

We make characters in Hero, play some Top Secret modules, all by email. We set the game in the era the modules were created (The Eighties!!).

Message me if anyone is interested--I can GM.

 

PS: This won't work for Boot Hill--the original game system is too cool in Boot Hill to justify this approach!

[Shoug]

On 10/15/2015 at 9:11 AM, Casanova Frankenstein said:

 

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

 

Just a joke based on the movie "Mystery Men"

 

• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

 

D&D back in Junior High... maybe 1990?

 

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

 

The first game I ever GMed was a verbal-only storytelling game (no dice or paper) in a fantasy setting that my best friend and I called "Megaventure" when we were in the fifth or sixth grade. I DMed D&D 3.5 in Iraq during OIF 3 and have had semi-regular groups for D&D since then with a friend who's also a veteran and his kids and their friends (mid 20's, most of them).

 

• What are you currently playing/GMing?

 

I'm home brewing a Fantasy Hero setting which I'm at least currently thinking of "Hero Legends" With a home brew framework for granting powers depending on the individuals' "Legendary Accomplishments". Basically in this world public opinion has for the last ten or so years had the power to change reality. If you were Xerxes the great in my world, you'd be granted additional power from... well, the universe. If your actions have enough impact on reality, reality grants you magical power. I'm working on "Legendary Exp" as a second framework on top of standard exp which is only for the advancement of "Legendary Levels" which grant increasingly large fixed AP cap powers at a rate determined by a table that I'll admit isn''t yet complete.

 

Now this is one interesting guy. Can you say more about "Megaventure"? Me and my brother did something very similar, but to us it wasn't a game. It was just "play". It was pretending.

EDIT: Forgot to admire that game concept you just mentioned. It's very similar to a magic system I once dabbled with (but couldn't figure out how to build: I should give it a shot now that I know Hero). In the system, a "magic" was any one of the Patterns of thought that causes magic. Basically, various specific configurations of consciousness have very specific metaphysical consequences. So, the way I set it up was that, "Cantrips" were any Pattern which could be accessed instantaneously at any time under almost any conditions, like Telekinesis, which requires years of training to become proficient in, but is merely a way of thinking that lets you move things by thought alone. 

Anyway, more advanced magic required more advanced Patterns, such as ones which could only be achieved while experiencing a specific taste (potions), engaging in some specific musical experience, dancing some specific dance, yadayada. The most advanced patterns were Gods and Nephilim. Nephilim are those that are chosen by a people. It is caused by a population scale Pattern, requiring cooperation from many people for extended periods of time. People like super-athletes, shaman/priests/The Pope, high profile criminals, etc. These people become empowered in some way proportionate and reflective of the specific type of attention they receive. Gods are basically these Patterns which protect you against demons (which are spirits that infect you and are bad). They demand highly specific thought patterns related to sacrifice, worship, and general religiosity, and can empower you so much that you are able to conquer demons (thereby transforming them into a kind of supernatural Virtue spirit, and turning you into a Paladin).