Spence

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? Leigh Brackett wrote them. Vol 1: The Ginger Star Vol 2: The Hounds Of Skaith Vol 3: The Reavers Of Skaith Hard to findout of print books. But a great read if you can.

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero?

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? The Mageworlds series by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald. The Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

Re: Getting Started

Re: Why must humans rule? This strikes me as strange. I was working on a FH campaign were there were no non-humans at all. At least in the beginning. The overview had the kingdom embroiled in a distant war, similer to the Crusades. The majority of the Fighting Nobility and their retainers/armies are gone. The PC's are among those left behind to patrol the borders and maintain the peace. Of course being the PC's they get sent to BFE out on the border marches and it just so happens "things" are stirring across the river. I had done something along this idea years ago with old D&D. Everyone had made their characters (humans all) and understood there was no magic. The Cleric was a Holy Warrior with prayers, but nothing would actually happen. We played for several sessions (very successful ones) against mundane threats and then I threw a few newly risen undead. The magic was returing you see. The Cleric's player had developed a very extensive and thought out repartee based on his "god" which he had gotten used to using as we played. Imagine his surprise when he invoked his god, and got an answer. I was a great game. The players really didn't have any idea of what was around the corner. There was no "thats a 5HD Thingamagig, but my PC wouldn't know that so I won't buy up a lot of garlic" type playing. Instead they really were playing in the dark.

Re: Truely Alien Races After a while I have started to consider Lovecraft as one of the first SciFi masters, rather than horror. I use his stuff extensively for plot seeds in all of my games.

Re: What cities could Batman call home? It's kinda sick. But this just gave me an idea for a Villian and gang to use when the PC's are getting uppity. Hmmm... the ideas....

Re: Pulp Hero No argument from me. I have one set I use and one complete boxed set still in shrink wrap.

Re: Firefly I class Deadzone as a metaphysical knockoff more than scifi. Like that idiotic Crossing over with what's his name. But the rest of the shows are good scifi. I do think that Firefly was better written and acted. All just my opinion though.

Re: Pulp Sci-Fi Outstanding article. Tor myself Pulp/Space Opera is more fun than hard science based games. Less "how things work" and more PC roleplaying....

Re: Firefly I read the AICN's article and all I can say is OUTSTANDING!! It didn't give any real spoilers and I for one don't want any. All of the original cast is in it which is good. I am of the opinion that "Firefly" was one of the best sciFi series ever made for TV and I am really glad it has a chance to restart if the movie does well.

Re: Firefly A request Thanks...

Re: Firefly They have! Link me, link me.....

Re: Origins Award Voting Now Open! Hey! This stinks. I went to vote and selected the write in option and was ignored. It never gave me the option to actually write in my choices and there wasn't any kind of alternative method on the site. I really think there is something amiss when voting is limited to a very few predetermined choices. Of course I could have missed something important? But I don't think so.

I thought I'd ask this here. I've been away from the number crunching side of Hero for a bit so I wanted to make sure I haven't totally lost the bubble. I am working on the starship part of my campaign and plan on using the Optional Realistic Acceleration rules (SH page 187). I want to go with the flat cost option with no upper limit. As I see it, if your base acceleration is "cumulative" the is no need for "cumulative flight multipliers". The rules suggest creating flat cost for the option. Has anyone seen an example of what the the flat cost might be? Or do you have a suggestion of what a reasonable cost would be? I realize that I can pretty much assign it as i want, but I try to stay as close to official rules/guidelines as possible.

Re: Villains versus Villains I was GMing a game once were the PC's got tired of taking a beating without any lucrative reward (they were all borderline vigilante types) and decided to "go villian". Things were interesting for a while. Until my newly made "hero group" arrived to save the city. My over all plot line was effectively shot, but I think the whole game turnmed out to be pretty good.

Re: Dark Champions in Champs Universe? It's easier to bring them on board if you offer both. Spandex Super Brick: Egad! If "Badly Dressed Evil MasterMind" is successful he will destroy the world! Mega Understatment Man: We can't let that happen! Mysterious Spandex Clad with tradmark Cowl Man: First we must find "beautiful innocent daughter" of "brilliant captive scientist" to find out what he was working on before "Badly Dressed Evil MasterMind" kidnapped him. Mega Understatment Man: Can you do it "Mysterious Spandex Clad with tradmark Cowl Man"? Mysterious Spandex Clad with tradmark Cowl Man: Yes, I will contact my sources in the city. If she can be found they will do it. Enter the DarkChamps PC's. If the players keep two separate sets of PC's they can move from the super side to the DC side as the plot calls for it. Fun for all.

Re: You don't have to be crazy to work here I could see myself having loads of fun. I hope you can get enough of your players to give it a shot.

Re: Spacer's Toolkit Online updated 06/11/04 Under the Alien Starship menu, when I select Mon'dabi link, it sends me to the Terran Starship list. ? Just thought I throw that out there. I've been having a few browser problems so it might be me.

Re: Dark Champions in Champs Universe? It never occured to me that there would be a problem. In all the games I have been involved in, it was assumed both did exist. It was just a matter of focus. Just like the local population interacts with the local Sheriffs department all the time but never really hears about the FBI or CIA except on TV. The FBI would definitely assist in stopping an assualt or mugging if they happened to be there, but they have bigger fish to fry and won't be looking for lower crimes. Not every city in Champs has a resident Super. The "Good" guys tend to gravitate to where the "Bad" guys operate. If there are no "Big bads" there, the "Big Goods" would be more than willing to let the DC style "Little Goods" take care of things. To explain the difference in perspective from Black and White to Grey. It isn't really that difficult. When you are impervious to "normal" damage you can afford to be a squeaky clean good guy. If the local thug can kill you dead with a .38, well you will tend to be a little more pragmatic. Hence the Dark Champs outlook. Hudson Bay may not have any of the "Big Guys" because none of the major Villians has decided to move in. I have been waiting for Hudson City to come out. I intend to use it for all of my "official universe" campaigns. Super, DC or normals. A city designed for DC or less tends to have a more realistic "feel", at least to me. And it can easily be stepped up by just having a Super Villian or two check in.

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns There was an old science fiction series based on the concept. Starlost or something. I can't really remember the name, but the people living on it had forgotten that it was a ship. They lived in villages in the agri-domes (?). They heros had somehow gotten into the ship proper and discovered that the crew had died hundreds of years before and the ship was on course to fly into a star. So the quest was to find someone who could figure out how to fly the ship. Old scifi but pretty good.

Re: Some timeline help It's a really developed campaign world. Really well done. But is has more non-human sentients than you can shake a stick at. It also is placed way to the left of center, if industrial tech is right of center. It's based on a uneverse like they had in the book "Bloom". I'm thinking of a more Star Wars/Mageworlds/Honor Harrington type universe. I am planning to use "first contact" with an actual alien species as a major plot item. But I do want to thank you for the link. I lost a few hours just browsing through the site. It's a really well done campaign world. Really well done. Spence

Re: Some timeline help Thanks. That was a quick reply, 3 minutes.... I knew there was more than one reason I liked Hero.

Well the creation bug has finally sunk it's mandables firmly into me and settled me down to one campaign idea. I have finally decided that I will run a StarHero campaign. I currently own SH, TE, ST and have just ordered my copy of AW. In a nutshell my campaign will take place just prior to AW. What I am looking for is a more detailed timeline for that period. I am hoping to blend my game into the existing timeline if possible. My current concept will have humanity alone in the universe, and while they have found trace remains that show alien intellegence exists, there has been no contact. At the time of the campaign the known human worlds are in the middle of civil war as the various "core" worlds attempt to bring the "colony" worlds under control. At the fringes of human expansion there is the Explorer Corps. Originally they existed to explore and expand human knowledge of the universe. But as the crisis escalates they have expanded their role to that of assisting the far flung settlements as well. As the various navies pull back to better defend more strategic positions, this new role has suddenly intensified from just helping, to being the only assistance or overall law many of the out-settlements have. Resources are thin. Piracy has returned. Petty despots are setting up shop. Free Merchanters are disappearing on the fringe. As are entire colonies. Rumor whispers that there may be more out there than just pirates... The item that I think will be the biggest stumbling block is the lack of alien contact at the time of my campaign. I beleive that the Hero timeline has contact occuring much earlier than I do. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? Looks like I've got to go hunting for yet another thread. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can spend the time to keep up. Never read anything about the change. I'm not much worried about it in the end. Hero makes it easy to step the action back up to street-level supers. I does tend to explain the direction of the DC threads though. Spence