Ninja-Bear

I’m not sure if Vampire the Masquerade was directly influenced by Interview with a Vampire but those novels were a hit. The. The movie a hit. You got to play an “evil” race and it was totally different from typical fantasy.  So I’m going to say a lucky confluence of different ideas.

I’m not sure if Vampire the Masquerade was directly influenced by Interview with a Vampire but those novels were a hit. The. The movie a hit. You got to play an “evil” race and it was totally different from typical fantasy.  So I’m going to say a lucky confluence of different ideas.

I’m not sure if Vampire the Masquerade was directly influenced by Interview with a Vampire but those novels were a hit. The. The movie a hit. You got to play an “evil” race and it was totally different from typical fantasy.  So I’m going to say a lucky confluence of different ideas.

There is another origin concept which I derived from the history of the current Champions Universe, but didn't want to put it in the main list on this thread because it's never been officially published. But I do think it has intriguing potential, so is worth at least bringing up.
 
In the mid-1980s Dr. Sebastian Poe, founder of the villain group PSI, inventor of the Psi Serum, and father of Kevin Poe of the New Purple Gang, began his criminal career using his Psi Serum to create superhumans serving organized crime, in exchange for funding for his research into psionic mutations. In 1995 Poe was betrayed to law enforcement by his underlings Psimon and Medusa, who took control of PSI; and was sentenced to twenty years in Stronghold. Sebastian Poe was officially not one of the prisoners who escaped Stronghold in the major breakout of 2009, and remained in prison. Obviously, though, his sentence was up in 2015, so barring other unrevealed circumstances he should have been released.

A few years ago I asked Steve Long what he would have done with Dr. Poe in that situation if he was still making those decisions for Champions. He suggested that Poe would return to his original line of creating superhumans for pay, becoming a sort of "psionic Power Broker" (to reference a character from Marvel Comics). Only this time he would use refinements to his treatments devised over his years in prison (and not disclosed to new clients) to enable him to take mental control of the supers he creates, and/or build in ways for him to negate their powers. His ultimate goal would be to build an "army" of supers with which to destroy Medusa and Psimon and regain control of PSI.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Psi Serum amplifies even the smallest amount of latent psionic potential in a person, sometimes to a significant level of superhuman power. (The serum gives no benefit to the majority of human beings, who lack that potential.) The range of possible powers extends far beyond just some variation of telepathy. For example, Psimon can surround his body with powerful psychokinetic force in the shape of a translucent humanoid "giant." Current PSI member Soulfire has the power of "pyrokinesis," mentally exciting air molecules until they combust. He can also resist the effects of extreme heat and "see" gradations of heat. The possibilities are only limited by what someone can logically justify using "psionic energy" as its Special Effect.
 
The history of PSI is most recently written up in Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but what state is Hero Games in right now?  
 
It's hard to argue that WotC did anything but benefit immensely from the OGL.  It did so in two eras: the D&D 3.0/3.5 era and the D&D 5e era.  In the D&D 4e era it tanked; in the D&D 4e era it had the onerous "Game System License" which, among other things, said that if you published anything under the GSL you could never, ever publish anything under the OGL.  
 
Look what happened to D&D 4e.  
 
Someone is inevitably going to say something about D&D 4e's rules.  I'm going to call that a red herring right now.  Every new edition of every game will have someone saying something about its rules.  People were saying how bad D&D 3's rules were when it first came out.  People were saying how bad D&D 5's rules were when it first came out.  (People were saying how bad Champions 4e's rules were when it came out!)  

4e died on the vine because it wasn't able to attract 3pp support, and WotC wouldn't or couldn't provide it with the level of support on its own that an entire ecosystem sprung up to provide for 3e.  Now WotC are repeating the mistake with D&D 6e.  Doing the same thing, expecting a different result?  
 
Anyone remember "T$R" and "They Sue Regularly"?  At least two companies went under directly as a result of TSR suing them over providing third party support for AD&D 1e.  I believe I've recently read that Game Designers Workshop went under not as a result of being sued, but as a result of the potential that they might be sued, over Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys game.  (When one is sued, and one has to provide discovery, one has to pay staff to go through one's documents...)  
 
I've seen -- not here, that I can recall, but definitely elsewhere -- the idea that "lol u can just re-rite theyre roolz in youre own wurdz lol" and -- really?  Has anyone ever tried that?  I have.  It sucks.  Never going to again, until the next time.  Yes, copyright law allows you to do that -- but it doesn't say that the litigious large corporation can't sue you anyway for doing it, or for any other reason they want, and bankrupt you anyway.  "They Sue Regularly", remember?  

The thing about the OGL (did I post this here?  I can't remember if I did, and I've been talking about this in more than one place...) is that it was a promise of a "safe harbor": that they wouldn't sue you over things they couldn't sue you over, in exchange for doing this, that, and the other thing.  Respecting rights to certain things, voluntarily choosing not to exercise rights that you might otherwise be permitted to...  That right there is, honestly, what built WotC into the billion dollar corporation it is now.  
 
Sure, corporations are not your friend.  They can pretend all they want, and it's not people's fault for believing them.  It's not people's fault for believing them.  
 
It's not people's fault for believing them.
People liked D&D, and a lot of people build up an identity around things they like.  There's nothing wrong with that; we all do it.  Our house is a Honda household; others are Toyota households, or Ford households, or Chevy households.  I'm a Champions and Hero player from 1985.  
 
Regardless of the motivations, WotC did something that really upset a lot of people.  They took away that safe harbor.  (Honestly, I'm kinda pissed over that, because I wrote some OGL stuff, and "published" it in forum posts here and there and occasionally on my Google drive.  Nothing to do with any WotC intellectual property directly, but I'm not sure of its status now.)
 
It might not actually be legal for them to have done so, in fact, but until and unless that's tested in court any given person's opinions on that depends on what lawyer they're listening to.  
 
Anyway, WotC will either succeed or fail, and the ORC license coalition will either succeed or fail, and the world will go on turning...

I’m going (surprise) disagree. Look at super heroes, the rarity of people having powers yet you can have a team and no one bats an eye. The world still treats them as being rare. Which now if I ever get the boys to play again, I think that’s what I’ll do. 

Yes but you meed to know how to yes the tools. I’ m not bashing Hero but everytime some one points out the flaws of (especially) D&D and say Hero is better never really look at the issue and see if Hero really is easier or does Hero just have the issue but from another angle or a different set? Like Ild man upthread was saying how much easier is it to build a character you want than searching multi classes and feats. Probably depending on what you want. If Hero is so easy why are there so many How do I? Question are on this site? 

@Duke Bushido, I believe the movie is called Monster Squad.
 
Professor Dungeon Master has an interesting take on the OGL mess. Hasboro is doing this so that the new OGL is a poison pill. Hasboro wants to be the sole creator of D&D and this maximize its ownership and money from it. 

@Duke Bushido, I believe the movie is called Monster Squad.
 
Professor Dungeon Master has an interesting take on the OGL mess. Hasboro is doing this so that the new OGL is a poison pill. Hasboro wants to be the sole creator of D&D and this maximize its ownership and money from it. 

There's nothing innate about elves that should make them rare.  They might be the dominant species on a planet, with a few oppressed humans (my fantasy campaign's history).  After all if you live 2000 years, chances are you're gonna have a lot of offspring unless something biological or external prevents it.  There shouldn't be very many of a species who by definition are hidden, secret, unknown, and rare (like a hobbit) but elves?  Eh, its up to the campaign really, and how people define elves.

I mean, elves might even be the secret fae peoples of the world, little critters like 4 feet tall who hide in trees. Or they might be super common and control everything.

Oh and another point about rare races. I think that its a good idea! Sometimes in game its hard to pull off. I’m thinking like Star Wars and particularly Mando and Space Wizards. Some people seem to not be able to fathom that in universe seeing a Force User would he rather rare unless for some reason you are around them. The viewers know about Force Users.  
 
Making characters unique to the players isn’t limited to any particular  game system.

Ok, (and this is a point but not everyone agrees, which is fine). What makes these Halflings unique now? As Syndrom said “If everyone has super powers then no one is special”.

2d6 is the most damage I would see from a racquetball. Maybe less if it's being thrown instead of being struck with a racket. There's no way it would do any more damage than a punch.

Halflings are the threat they don't see coming, the ones they never expect to be dangerous. And 90% of the time, they're right. But that other 10%...
 
That could be fun to roleplay. Act harmless, get your enemy to underestimate you. Probably won't keep working if it's overused or you develop a reputation.

Ok, (and this is a point but not everyone agrees, which is fine). What makes these Halflings unique now? As Syndrom said “If everyone has super powers then no one is special”.

Ok, (and this is a point but not everyone agrees, which is fine). What makes these Halflings unique now? As Syndrom said “If everyone has super powers then no one is special”.

Ok, (and this is a point but not everyone agrees, which is fine). What makes these Halflings unique now? As Syndrom said “If everyone has super powers then no one is special”.

Also I have some cool miniatures. Is that valid reason? 😁

In my gaming career I've played halflings exactly twice: once in AD&Dv1 and once in MERP.  The MERP one was an unbelievably lethal archer, I still have parts of that critical hit table memorized.
 
The issue with the various little people races is that they're all based on mythological beings that themselves were very fuzzily defined.  In folklore there is very little daylight between the categories of elves, dwarves, dark elves, fairies, gnomes, goblins, trolls, and kobolds--it's almost a spectrum rather than a set of cut and dried separate species.  Tolkien probably had the same problem--his elves, orcs, and halflings are all kind of his own inventions, very loosely based on folklore.  Only his dwarves strongly resemble a specific race of mythological beings (the ones from Norse legends).
 
My own solution was to take the various races and make them more distinct by ramping them up to 11--or to be more specific, ramping their characteristic maxima up to 25-28.  Elves were incredibly agile but their light build and failing bloodlines made them highly susceptible to damage.  Halflings were incredibly agile, sneaky, and tough, but were weak and not too bright.  Gnomes were just extremely magically gifted and useless and anything physical--rather like shrunken old men.  Dwarves were incredibly strong and tough, but slow as hell.  This all was back in the days of package deals and figure characteristics though; I'm not sure how I'd handle it in 6e.

Didn’t Hero start that with the Core Books? You kig them around? 😁

@assault, I’ve mention on another thread of treating Halflings as Elves. Then get rid of the Elves.

Assault, do any of your players want to play halflings? If they don't, then those can just be around in the background, or NPCs at most. You don't even have to bring them into your stories at all if you don't want to. If someone does want to play a halfling, let them tell you what they want the character to be, what makes it distinctive and interesting to them. Then build from that as needed.

“Armchair gamers”? How is that different from, like, …gamers?  Is there some kind of hardcore crossfit gaming I’m unaware of?