Community Content Program: Hall of Champions

[Michael Hopcroft]

I have a quick question: when doing a villain book, is it all right to include Champions Now statistics in addition to stats for the other editions you are using? I'm kind of torn on this creatively, since Ron says in CN that villains need to be created with specific heroes in mind as opposed to throwing in a villain who might not fit the campaign concept.

 

In other words, is Champions Now off-limits to the Hall of Champions, at least for now?

[Brian Stanfield]

6 minutes ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

In other words, is Champions Now off-limits to the Hall of Champions, at least for now?

I seem to remember reading something about Champions Now being included in the Hall. But as you say, it goes pretty much against everything Ron is concerned with in his game.

[assault]

My attitude to Champions Now is that once you buy it, it's yours.

 

So while it's nice to acknowledge Ron's vision, it's not necessary.

 

I can think of a couple of products that wouldn't be too much of a contradiction with Ron's vision.

 

Some ideas:

A villains book aimed at easy conversion to a particular game's needs. The idea that I would work with would be the Shell Book idea, used in schools in Papua New Guinea.

 

A bunch of different sets of Situations. Since, in my experience, defining a character's situations takes up roughly half the time spent designing a character, tools for making this quicker and easier would be a good idea.

 

And a bunch of others that I can't elaborate on after having woken up way too early after having stayed up way too late.

The main issue, of course, is that you need to have played the game for a while before you can come up with stuff that is actually useful.

[Michael Hopcroft]

There was a recent release of layout templates to be used with Word, InDesign, and -- I'm not sure what.

 

What about Affinity?

[mallet]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:39 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

What about Affinity?

 

I agree. Templates in Affinity would be fantastic. 

[Spence]

Well something would be nice considering inDesign is no longer available.  I never liked MS Publisher and guess I need to find a program that will work if I plan on actually getting a adventure or two out.

[Michael Hopcroft]

5 hours ago, Spence said:

Well something would be nice considering inDesign is no longer available.  I never liked MS Publisher and guess I need to find a program that will work if I plan on actually getting a adventure or two out.

What happened to InDesign? The progrtam that's been an industry standard for such a long time?

[Spence]

10 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

What happened to InDesign? The progrtam that's been an industry standard for such a long time?

It went from a program you can purchase to a rip off subscription. I could justify buying a program for intermittent use over 3 or 4 years.  But i cannot justify paying that amount for a 1 year access. 

 

I'll need to shop around for a similar program that is still on the market

[zslane]

I kinda agree with Spence on this. Adobe has effectively priced the hobbyist out of their product suite.

[Spence]

1 hour ago, zslane said:

I kinda agree with Spence on this. Adobe has effectively priced the hobbyist out of their product suite.

Pretty much spot on.

 

I'll have to tinker and see what I can do  with MS Publisher I guess

[zslane]

Why not give Affinity Publisher a try?

[Asperion]

I have been using Libreoffice. It is a medium quality totally free substitute for MS Office that will accept MS Office doc and works the same.

[Spence]

1 hour ago, zslane said:

Why not give Affinity Publisher a try?

 

I have MS Publisher on my computer already. 

I literally just heard about Affinity in this thread.

 

[JmOz]

Coming in late, can someone update me on what is going on?

 

[pawsplay]

On 5/6/2020 at 7:46 PM, Asperion said:

I have been using Libreoffice. It is a medium quality totally free substitute for MS Office that will accept MS Office doc and works the same.

 

I will accept this description if you consider MS Office to be a below-medium app.

[Spence]

On 5/6/2020 at 6:25 PM, zslane said:

Why not give Affinity Publisher a try?

 

So I picked up the Affinity publisher a little while ago.  It has a really reasonable price plus it was on sale. 

 

I haven't had time to do much with it yet though.

[Asperion]

On 6/1/2020 at 10:01 PM, pawsplay said:

 

I will accept this description if you consider MS Office to be a below-medium app.

 

I agree with your statement. Problem with MSOffice is that it has become such a powerhouse that regardless of how bad it is it sets the bar for everyone to go by.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

3 hours ago, Asperion said:

I agree with your statement. Problem with MSOffice is that it has become such a powerhouse that regardless of how bad it is it sets the bar for everyone to go by.

That's not a problem, that's just setting everyone else up for success! 

[Greywind]

Jason Walters, most likely.

[Lord Liaden]

Yes. IME a Private Message to Jason Walters on this subject will get the promptest response.

 

[eepjr24]

Hi, fellow Herophiles! I am not looking to design and publish something solo at this time, but in the spirit of helping out a community that I quite enjoy I'd like to offer assistance if someone has need of my skills. 

 

I can read for comprehension, grammar and spelling (things a spell checker misses like the versus they, etc.).

I can check math calculations for powers, etc.

I can create basic encounter maps with hexes at appropriate size for VTT or printing. I can provide an example or two if needed. I am not a professional, just a hobbyist with GIMP.

I can sounding board ideas, concepts, contribute power ideas, for plot, characters, organizations, and so forth. 

I am most comfortable in 6th Edition at the moment since that is what I GM right now, but I played and GM'd basically all of them.

 

I have the next two weeks off from work so that is a good window of opportunity. After that my time is more sporadic, but I will still have some spare time. You can contact me on here or email me at eepjr24  at gmail D0T com.

 

 

- Ernie

[Jim Thomson]

Coming soon, from Jim Thomson and Plain Brown Wrapper Games:  A brand-new full-length Champions Adventure.  Are you ready for..., RED COBRA?

 

Here's the setup for the first scene.

 

It's a beautiful day in Justice Park.  A beautiful day... for murder!

 

A funny-looking old man comes staggering across the park, wandering in a crooked zig-zag toward the Player Characters.  His face is painted like a mime. 

 

And then he falls down.  When the PCs rush over to see what is wrong he clutches at them and gasps the words "Red Cobra!"  And then he dies.  Someone has handcuffed a very sturdy looking briefcase to the dead man’s wrist.

 

“Maybe I hit him too hard, that last time?” asks a female voice.  She has a French accent.  When they look up, the PCs see notorious French supervillain Madame Ultra walking across the park toward them.  

 

“Yes, I thought I did,” she adds, sounding just slightly regretful.  “This is not such a good day for me, you know.”  Then she attempts to blow a hole through the nearest Player Character.  “Getting better though,” she adds.

 

The first battle of the scenario is on!

[Jim Thomson]

But what is this book, really?

 

Red Cobra is a 101 page Champions adventure, in nine parts.  It contains six entirely new supervillains, one extremely crooked new superhero (so bad that he might as well be a seventh villain) eight battlemaps and six knock-down, drag-out superbattles.  

 

It also features a plot that your PCs can complete in a number of different ways and a flowchart to keep track of them.

 

Here's the book's cover (see the attached file).

[Jim Thomson]

Red Cobra has arrived!  Is no one safe?!

 

You can pick up a copy over at: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/343476/Red-Cobra

 

In the meantime, here's the premise.

 

A notorious Cold War supervillain from the 1980s, who came to seem a little ridiculous after Communism fell, the Red Cobra hasn't been seen since 1992.  She led bank robberies and armored car hijackings all across America, in an effort to soften the country up for the Soviets.  Or that's what she said about herself, anyway.  She was a champion gloater and monologist, in love with the sound of her own voice and she was completely open about her motives.  She was here to weaken America, to shake its faith in its own superiority and destroy its morale.  To rob its banks and loot its treasures, in preparation for the glorious red dawn of Communism.

 

After the Iron Curtain fell, she continued her reign of crime.  She stopped talking about Marxism and now claimed to vaguely represent "terrorism."  Ten years later, that would have been a successful shtick.  But the early '90s weren't really the golden age of terrorism.  She looked silly and dated and soon retired from the supervillain game.  They never caught her. 

 

Now she is writing a tell-all book about her days as a supervillain.  This is a foolhardy move.  Old foes and former allies will be coming out of the woodwork to kill her before the book sees print.

 

Enter the Player Characters.  Can the stop the ensuing chaos before the streets of their city run red?

[archer]

A mime is a beautiful thing to waste.