kjandreano

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter

I've got an idea (uh oh)

This would sort of tie into Mythic Hero. In the many dimensions Istvatha comes across, she finds a way to become a goddess.

Then she would have the Holy V'han Empire ruled by herself as the Goddess Istvatha! She could have her hair in it's natural platinum blonde and wear fantasy style outfits like a bejeweled metal bikini, etc.

Her people could build temples to her and worship her as their benevolent goddess!

Re: Damage Negation!

Like: A "the damage didn't get to me" / "I can ignore the little stuff" / etc. type of power in the system, it does that very well.

No Like: Having to calculate it / adjust dice rolled for attack / extra work for the GM to do (and remember about) before the attack is rolled, etc.

I like the idea of Damage Negation, but the game mechanics make using it in play a big [CENSORED].

Does anyone have an idea to help with this?

Re: Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You?

Howdy folx! As I promised over on the "Changes At Hero" thread' date=' I figured I'd toss up a brief thread discussing [i']HERO System[/i] supplements I'm considering doing as Kickstarters (see www.kickstarter.com if you're unfamiliar with the "crowdfunding" concept of Kickstarter and would like to know more). This isn't a formal poll or anything, but it never hurts to test the wind, so to speak.

 

...

 

Mythic Hero

I've already gotten some work done on this book, and it's a topic I love and a book I'd dearly love to finish. However, it's likely to be pretty big, and thus to require a lot of my time.

 

Do you like this idea? Would you be willing to pledge $25 to see it done? $50? $100? Some other amount?

 

...

Quick answer: Yes, do it just like "Book of the Empress" (same price levels and bundles) and I think it would work fine. I would really like Mythic Hero!

Villain: "Are you a god?"

PC Hero: "Actually, yes. Yes I am!"

Re: MYTHIC HERO: What Do *You* Want To See?

This may have been mentioned, but how about a section on building god/demigod characters for NPC deities in a game world and even as PCs (such as in a Champions setting).

What makes a god a god? Do they have a similar source of power? Options for that in a game world? Package deals? Etc.

Re: Istvatha V'han - why can't she conquer Earth?

How about this: all of those (really evil) guys are trying to invade/conquer the Earth, so the heroes have to get help from the Empress to stop them!

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter

If I remember correctly' date=' a comment in either her or Skarn's write up [i']did[/i] indicate she might not be averse to some anthropomorphic animal lovin'...

This brings up some interesting ideas for interior art. Lingerie, swimsuit, etc.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

They should put the book on Kickstarter, with bundle options for PDF and with the other CV books!

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter

I know why this is! She often colors it black to give an impression of intelligence, since everyone knows that blondes are dumb!

It's a universal constant across all universes that blondes are perceived as being stupid.

So since she is a platinum blonde and it would not fit for her to be seen as dumb, she usually colors it black!

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter

Quick question: In a write up the Empress is said to have white hair (and lavender eyes), but in the art I've seen she has black hair. What will it "officially" be?

Re: Istvatha V'han - why can't she conquer Earth?

No, you guys have it all wrong.

The reason she hasn't conquered the Earth is because she is actually a good person and she will come to Earth when its people are ready to accept her benevolence.

If only those misguided "heroes" could understand that she just wants to make the Earth a better place. Really, that's the reason, just ask her!

Maybe the problem is this Steve Long guy who keeps spreading lies about her. I bet he is really a super villain!

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

I still want a "Mega-Evil" bundle that has all three enemies books and their PDFs together for a discount! Do it Steve!

Re: Cheerleader martial arts?

Cheerleader + martial arts = Kim Possible!

Her style was very acrobatic with all fluid motions.

How to build that in Hero System? Maybe CV and Damage bonuses that require an acrobatics roll.

Re: Champions Villains, Volume 3: Solo Villains

It was moved back in the queue to ensure that Star Hero was ready for Gen Con.

Hopefully it will be out by Fall!

What I really want to see is a mega "Bundle Of Evil" : All 3 villain books and their PDFs, at a nice discount of course!

Re: CON: Over-Nerfed?

I do something like that in my games.

 

Knocked out characters normally takes recoveries on every available Phase as long as they are -1-10 STUN. That rate drops down the Time Chart for every -10 STUN. This interestingly correlates with a standard character having 10 CON, so my house rule makes it so that the initial range of which a character can take recoveries every Phase is equal to a character's negative CON number.

 

So a 10 CON character gets their normal recovery rate anywhere from -1-10 STUN while a 15 CON character can make recoveries every phase from -1-15 STUN - At -16-25 STUN it drops to a recovery every minute, and so on every -10 STUN as normal.

That sounds good, I'll have to try that. It makes CON worth more without going too far.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

How about a situation where the Empress wins and things stay the same (or just get better in some ways) without the "loss of freedom" that was expected. The heroes are left thinking "why were we fighting?". Or how about a scenario where the heroes get attacked by an infinite number of Eliza Dushkus, and the Empress is the only one that can save them!

Re: Ways to manage a huge team with a lot of characters?

I've done stuff similar to this, and the sub-team method (as has been mentioned) works well. Also, the NPC add on (even if it's occasionally a PC) works too as long as the overall number of heroes doesn't get too large. I've had as many as 8 PCs, but 4-6 is a better number, with a max of +50% NPCs. YMMV though. EXP was awarded to those heroes in play (even as NPCs), with occasional bonuses to others so they don't get too far behind the active PCs & NPCs (they are expected to be doing things after all).

CON (the Constitution stat) just doesn't seem worth the same as other 1 point per point stats such as STR or INT in 6th edition. I'm toying with the idea of a house rule for it where the cost is reduced, or I give CON other uses. Has anyone else made such rules for CON?

CON (the Constitution stat) just doesn't seem worth the same as other 1 point per point stats such as STR or INT in 6th edition. I'm toying with the idea of a house rule for it where the cost is reduced, or I give CON other uses. Has anyone else made such rules for CON?

Re: Superhumans and their families

The main problems I have had with this are:

1) the plot focuses on the character with the NPC and the other players don't get to do much.

2) it just devolves into "kidnapped again" etc. if you do try to tie in the other PCs and the plot.

3) most of my players just want to hunt down and smash the villains. They have as much social interaction as the Hulk.

I think the last one is the clincher, it all depends on what the players want in the game.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

She already is -- that's touched on briefly in CV1 and will certainly be discussed further in BotE. V'han often improves life in many, many ways for her subjects. All she asks in return is obedience. If you're willing to give up your freedom she's great to have around. That's what makes her an interesting villain, IMO, rather than just some comic book multi-dimensional version of Sauron.*

 

I think it's safe to say that many people welcome her for just this reason -- life is so bad for them they're happy to trade liberty for security and prosperity. As you will see, there are even people on Earth who are in favor of letting her take over.

 

 

 

*: Not that there's anything wrong with Sauron. Everything in its place, and a place for every thing.

Don't have CV1 (yet)

How about for her origin (or an alternate one) that she started out as a superhero. Maybe part of a group like the PCs. She fought evil and let the elected government rule just like the PCs do. But that government turned out to really be no better than the supervillains and the "freedom and liberty" they thought they had really didn't exist, it was just an illusion made by the media and politicians. When the heroes found out, the government teamed up with the supervillains and had them all killed. Only V'han survived and led the resistance movement that saved her world from tyranny. The people nominated her as Empress. She herself worries about going too far, but has seen what not doing enough causes. When the heroes look at her, they see themselves, or what they could become. They are left to wonder "where did she go wrong", or did she? Is their world really "free" at all, or does it just have less ethical rulers?

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

So she is running what amounts to the ultimate nanny state.

That means she is really the good guy, and those who stand against her are like radical right-wing conservative paranoid conspiracy theory nuts!

I'm not biased, really! I'm just a normal human game player like the rest of you, it's not like I'm the Empress posting under a pseudonym or something!

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Her reign is not "black and white". In fact she does solves most potential for internal conflict and all those nations (wich only lead wars and waste resuources on a global scale) would be the first to be abolished and be replaced with one central government.

Sure, she needs to infringe on personality rights (mostly the privacy thing) in a way not even Stalin could pull it off, but overall her goverment is better than what we have right now in every single aspect.

If humans wouldn't cling to freedom that much, the CU would have welcommed her already.

Who said she'd need Stalin-style surveillance, etc. Stalin was a horrific butcher that slaughtered more people than Hitler, not the most popular guy. The Empress is a basically benevolent ruler that is loved by her people (most of them at least). Paranoid monitoring of the population wouldn't be necessary (unlike for a malevolent ruler like Stalin).

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Weeks? You're Steve Long' date=' it'll take two days at most...[/quote']

 

And if you can still fit it in: How about variants where the Empress is basically the good guy and the "heroes" aren't as heroic as they think they are (eg. stooges for a corrupt government that doesn't want V'han to clean things up, etc). She could actually be a force for good bringing justice to dimensions filled with corruption and evil. Of course that's what she'd say anyway, but what if it was true? Maybe she is going to the heroes' dimension to save it from a threat that she sees coming? The Empress saves dimensions, then moves on and returns if evil rises again. Something like that could put an interesting twist on an otherwise morally black-and-white situation!

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

I'd like to see some details about her origin and even her childhood. Who is she as a person? Any good bad guy is three (or more) dimensional, not a cardboard cut out. I want depth to the character as a person, not just a villain. Note: I consider Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon to be a prime examples of cardboard cut out villains. They have as much personality as a doorknob. If you are doing a whole book on her, I want far more than a generic megalomaniac. I know a lot of others will disagree and think Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon are great, but their personalities don't seem any more complex than a spoiled 4 year old to me. If someone rules as vast an empire as she does, there has to be much more to them than that. Also, she's a woman, so she should have more depth to her persona than any guy (Mechanon counts as a guy !