Normals Unbound!

[FenrisUlf]

Out of curiosity, did anyoine else ever buy/use this, or was I the only one? Cause man, but did I ever love this book. I especially remember the subplot we wound up using, where Stephen Harrington (wealthy philanthropist who sold his soul to the devil) tried getting some magical gewgaw away from us. It all wound up with a guy who we'd actually /liked/ turning into a supervillain (Hell Rider, if I remember the name right).

 

And of course there was Iggy the jerkwad vampire (we used Stalker and his spawn quite a bit).

 

While on the topic of normals, may I ask just what is this 'bluebooking' I keep hearing about?

[Hermit]

I used it. Some great characters in there. I even adapted some of them as Secret IDs for super heroes.

[TheQuestionMan]

A good buy if a little thin .

 

A great book . I got a lot of use out of the Police officers and a female Senator who was married to a Billionaire Buisnessman /Philanthropists ( their names escape me ) .

[Houston GM]

I liked it.

 

I've used several of these normals as recurring NPCs:

 

"Crystal" Claire Vosser

Kent Elfberg & Debbie

Dr Joan Armstrong

Steve "Sarge" Baker

Ian Rhine

 

A few others have put in brief cameos.

 

In my first campaign (as a rookie GM), one of my weaknesses was the lack of important NPCs. There were a couple recurring NPCs with powers, but normals had almost no impact on the team.

 

In my current campaign, I tried to correct that flaw. "Normal's Unbound" was a great starting point.

[Mark Rand]

I had it, too. Wish I still did.

[Bartman]

Normals Unbound was a great book for two reasons.

First - It filled a hole in a lot of the previous books. Up until that point there weren't a lot of normals in any Hero books. After it came out it seemed like most books started actually detailing some the regualr folk that populated the universe. Up until that point Hero had put out a couple hundred villians and a couple dozen normals. After that it seemed like for every villian or two there was a normal as well.

Second - It was well written with lots of plot hooks. You could run a campaign for years with all the plot hooks in there. Definately a good buy.

 

As to your second question, bluebooking is a popular way of taking care of some of the action that takes place off-screen so to speak. Basically the idea is that every character has a notepad that is regularly passed between the GM and the player. This notepad will detail the private adventures of the character. This allows the player to have some one-on-one time with the GM to cover things that are either not appropriate for the other players to hear or that they might find boring and uninteresting. For example if a character is having problems with their spouse that could be taken care of in a bluebook. The player could detail his attempts to placate and come to terms with a spouse that is frequently is at odds with the super lifestyle. It increases the depth of the characters without impinging at all on the main storylines.

 

It is called bluebooking because traditionally it was done in the little testing booklets that can be found at most US universities. These are generally called bluebooks. Now a-days I think most bluebooking is done through e-mail.

[Storn]

Not only was it my very first Hero assignment...

 

... it gets used in RDU Neil's campaign a lot. Armbruster is often a industrial player. That is the one that pops up to mind... but Green Dragon's kid sister got a lot of play recently and my PC is a bit sweet on her... much to chagrin of GD.

 

I think it is a brilliant concept. I just wish my art was as good as the writing. But it was my beginning and I've learned a bit since then. So its all good.

[BishopofB&W]

Mine's still in good condition. My favorites are Sarge and "Crystal" Vosser. Their quotes are irresistable.

[Chuckg]

In our current campaign, Lin Chow (Green Dragon's sister) has already showed up as an important part of the plot, and our team's billionaire has Rep. Shanna Armbruster as one of his Contacts.

[Steve Long]

NU was a fantastic book; I hope we can replicate its quality and utility when we do our own planned book of normals for Champions, Everyman.

 

When Hero first started advertisting NU, my gaming group and I (and I think lots of other people as well) got the idea that it was "a supplement for playing normal people in the HERO System." Naturally, that didn't sound like much fun; none of my friends was interested in it. As the biggest Hero fan in the group (imagine that!), I picked it up anyway.

 

I was hooked immediately; I read the book in almost one sitting, which is something I almost never do (esp. with game supplements). I took it to the game that week, tossed it on the table, and said, "Gentlemen, prepare to eat crow."

 

In the end, they all liked it so much it was one of the few supplements everyone in the group bought copies of.

[Steve Long]

And, I should add, it had great art, which is why we re-used some in 5E. I esp. like the Wendy Brooks illo.

[JmOz]

I especialy like the one of the female cop on the shooting range

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Originally posted by Steve Long

As the biggest Hero fan in the group (imagine that!), I picked it up anyway.

 

Anyone else scared by the thought of a group which had someone who *was* a bigger fan than Steve...

 

[Hermit]

Originally posted by WhammeWhamme

Anyone else scared by the thought of a group which had someone who *was* a bigger fan than Steve...

 

 

They liked it so much, they bought the company

[Enforcer84]

I loved NU. As a matter of fact, I might even still have it. I used it quite extensively, one of my character was the scientist in charge of the Mechanon Project for Armbruster. He had invited a colleague (Dr Amory) to the grand unveiling, (She was working as a consultant to Armbruster for a while) and it was his shining moment. Then the government stepped in and before his very eyes, his life's greatest achievement became the ultimate enemy to all organic life.

He developed a suit of armor (Mechanon Buster Armor basically) Dubbed himself Talos and spent much of his career as a superhero trying to find and eliminate Mechanon. He also had a very public feud with the Senator (what was his name) and an on again off again relationship with Dr. Amory.

I think I managed to used everyone in that book at least once.

[RPMiller]

Oh reeeeeaaaaallllly?

 

So did any of you see Denizens of San Angelo????

It is the normals book for the San Angelo line. If you did, what did you think of it? Would you all like to see something like that again, or would you rather than be thrown into the various other books?

[Enforcer84]

Got that too. While I never got a chance to Game in San Angelo, I appreciated the approach and liked it very much. Denziens was good. I liked the approach of combining the superhuman with the normals.

[Lord Liaden]

Interesting that you should mention Denizens of San Angelo, RP, because while it was certainly an interesting and useful book, I found the way it was layed out to be a bit disappointing when compared to Normals Unbound. Many of the entries for characters in Denizens contained closely crammed-together game stat blocks without artwork. To me the book felt as though much of the character info had been hastily stuffed in. In contrast every character in NU featured a character illustration and cleanly laid-out game statistics that were easy to read, and quite a few had full character sheets in standard format. That approach may have taken up more space, but it helped give each character recognizability and a sense that thought and care had been put into them. Not that the characters in Denizens hadn't, but it probably wouldn't look that way to the casual browser.

 

BTW for the updated San Angelo sourcebook, I'd definitely include Doctor Megalo in the main book. I know he's not himself superhuman, but he's such a mover and shaker in the SA superhuman scene that he should be prominently featured IMHO.

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Interesting that you should mention Denizens of San Angelo, RP, because while it was certainly an interesting and useful book, I found the way it was layed out to be a bit disappointing

 

BTW for the updated San Angelo sourcebook, I'd definitely include Doctor Megalo in the main book. I know he's not himself superhuman, but he's such a mover and shaker in the SA superhuman scene that he should be prominently featured IMHO.

That was great feed back LL. I'll definitely keep everything you said in mind as I go forward.

[FenrisUlf]

Originally posted by Storn

Not only was it my very first Hero assignment...

 

I think it is a brilliant concept. I just wish my art was as good as the writing. But it was my beginning and I've learned a bit since then. So its all good.

 

You're right. It is indeed brilliant, and I extend my deepest thanks to you for what you did. Great, great piece of work.

 

BTW, just who's idea was the cute markswoman hillbilly cop-chick? She and her rather more loused-up partner were two of the best characters in the entire book.

[Storn]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

You're right. It is indeed brilliant, and I extend my deepest thanks to you for what you did. Great, great piece of work.

 

BTW, just who's idea was the cute markswoman hillbilly cop-chick? She and her rather more loused-up partner were two of the best characters in the entire book.

 

This was one of those rare times that I had the write ups of every single character. Stats, description, background, the whole enchilada. All the characters were the work of Brannon Boren and Patrick Bradley (with a few characters created in their respective gaming groups from what i understand). I just doodled the illos.

 

Usually, just so you know, I get a sentence or two for a new character to draw... so everything depends on interperting what is needed. Unfortunately, this is because writing and illustrating a book are going on simutaneously. There isn't a really easy logistic way around that. If you have a manuscript sitting and ready to go and it is then being illustrated, that is time wasted that manuscript could be making money.

[Dr. McQuark]

Originally posted by Storn

This was one of those rare times that I had the write ups of every single character. Stats, description, background, the whole enchilada. All the characters were the work of Brannon Boren and Patrick Bradley (with a few characters created in their respective gaming groups from what i understand). I just doodled the illos.

 

Usually, just so you know, I get a sentence or two for a new character to draw... so everything depends on interperting what is needed. Unfortunately, this is because writing and illustrating a book are going on simutaneously. There isn't a really easy logistic way around that. If you have a manuscript sitting and ready to go and it is then being illustrated, that is time wasted that manuscript could be making money.

 

The man says "doodled the illos"! Don't make me slap you around Storn!

 

While Brannon and I had the characters firmly planted in our minds, we still couldn't wait until we saw them brought to life by the masterful pencils and inks of Storm Cook. We were delighted as well as surprised by Storn's work. I still have the originals of Shanna and Matt Armbruster proudly hanging on our wall.

[Beetle]

NU is easily my favorite supplement for Champions. The characters were three dimensional, and came with great story hooks. They art was very good (don't be so self-critical, Storn!). It still is the supplement I get the most use out of. Many of the characters have shown up in multiple campaigns, and some have even been DNPCs of characters.

 

Also, the section in the beginning on how to make NPCs interesting was (and is) a very good thing for GMs to read. It opened my eyes to the importance of making NPCs "real".

[FenrisUlf]

Originally posted by Steve Long

NU was a fantastic book; I hope we can replicate its quality and utility when we do our own planned book of normals for Champions, Everyman.

 

OOh, and any idea on when that's coming out?

 

I will add, what i really appreciated about the book aisde from all the great characters was how so many of them had subplots going on that involved several other characters as well. The whole Ananias Topps and the cops deal (and I loved pounding on him when the time came.. that yuppie scum was EXACTLY like the boss at my old job) is one example, and I seem to recall one featuring Mister Rapentap, the priest at the orphanage, and the old ex-Golden Age hero?

 

Really showed what there is to appreciate in those 'boring' subplots!

[Bartman]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

Originally posted by Steve Long

NU was a fantastic book; I hope we can replicate its quality and utility when we do our own planned book of normals for Champions, Everyman.

 

OOh, and any idea on when that's coming out?

It is currently listed under "Other Tentatively Planned Products." That almost certainly means 2005 or later, if ever. And as Steve puts it anything that far out is nothing more than an "exercise in speculation."