Spence

Those are just the mooches. There are just more of them since they can be anonymous and have multiple accounts to whine with. We think there were less of them back in the day, but that is just because they had to be idiots in person and would usually find themselves banned from the FLGS after enough warnings. But today they can just make another account. Anyway, yes there are no loads that want everything for free. But most real gamers understand the concept that it takes time and resources to create gaming products and that they will cost $. As for the whiners always wanting free whatever, I never consider them "real gamers" and usually not "real people" either.

Well for those of you that liked it I hope it does well. But RT ceased to be a real source of info years ago. Now they hype whatever they are paid to hype.

Pretty much.

Bloodshot - Vin Diesel. An enjoyable popcorn flick. It might have been a better idea to skip the "origin movie", but that may be because I have come to dislike "origin stories". The 13th Warrior - Antonio Banderas. A fantastic adventure film. A band of chosen warriors take on an ancient evil. Great stuff and well made. Operation Petticoat - Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. WW2, a submarine and Army nurses. Classic 1959 era comedy. The Tower - Son Ye-Jin, Sol Kyung-Gu and Sang-kyung Kim. Korean disaster movie. If you like disaster movies this is easily on par with Towering Inferno, perhaps a little better with modern CGI.

No Rudy?

Nothing I saw in the Hall of Champions guidelines indicated you could use any of the published villains/NPC's. It is one of my big disappointments with HoC. In DM's Guild I can use any NPC or Creature in their books in an adventure/scenario as long as it listed in minimum stat block and minimum description (IE no copying the entire entry) as long as it is only published via their GM's Guild. The other CC programs I have read are variations on that theme. But HoC doesn't let you use existing villains. You have to use original material which defeats the purpose of building adventures to draw people into the Champions Universe. I have an intro adventure I called Crime Spree (I'd have to make a different name) where GRAB (Black Diamond, Bluejay, Cheshire Cat, Hummingbird version) are committing a series of robberies. It was designed for use as a stand alone series or it can be plugged into a greater campaign by GRAB being hired by one of your campaigns Master Villains. A good multi-session non-lethal crime story. I've actually used it several times in the past. But If I can't use GRAB, I'd have to create completely new villains and completely play-test it. But without an active Champion gaming group I can't do any of the needed play-testing. I was really hoping HoC would be like the others. Allow adventures firmly grounded in the CU using just enough of the CU Villainy to wet peoples appetite. I've bought several game supplements because I wanted the full write-ups of things and NPC's mentioned in a CC adventure or supplement I bought. My Crime Spree takes place in Hudson City and makes full use of both the HC Book and the awesome HC Map by describing street locations and landmarks shown on the map. I was going to embellish this version with more references to the CU, HC and GRAB with the intent of getting people to want the books for the full information and get a copy of the map. One of the reasons I use HC so much is I can lay a copy of the map on the table for the players, after all the PC's would know the layout of the city, they live there.

It included adventures? I need to go back and read it again. I remember it including adventure seeds, but not fully developed adventures.

Me too. Here goes. How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? Shortened version of my name. What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Original Dungeons & Dragons in 75. Then Tunnels & Trolls, Empire of the Petal Throne, Boot Hill, Top Secret. And so on. What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Dungeon crawls first, Original Dungeons & Dragons and Tunnels & Trolls. Then actual adventures with Top Secret. What are you currently playing/GMing? Nothing active at the moment, but my most recent games were Fear Itself, Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu.

Well, while I prefer the opposite, this is a good way to go if you want to make the distinctions. All one way or all the other.

Understand your point. But my point is that they are not different species. Differences are "cosmetic" or cultural. A human is a human. A elf is an elf. You could designate cultural or occupational packages to predesignate what and how well a "Wood Elf" performs in a skill from how a "Sea Elf" does, but they would not be "racial" differences, they would be cultural based on where they were raised and their occupations.

Far far far far more than you can guess....

This is not doing anything like an Easy Mode, nor is it removing any of the build rules. Just a re-order of presentation and adding the completely missing play part. Everything that you liked and preferred is still there. The only difference is that new players will have actual context on how the rules actually interact before trying to build. If a new player will not read the build chapter after playing the mini-campaign, then they will never have bothered to read it as is. But the current method of what is basically simply repeating the exact same thing and expecting a different result isn't working. There really isn't anything wrong with the rule system, which leaves changing presentation. Both information and visual. I am only referring to the information side based on what I have personally experienced. Most of the gamers that I know and have tried to sell on Hero simply don't read further than the first part of CharGen. But a player that plays a game is much more to likely to read the rest of it. This is mostly babble of course and I don't have any great magical insight. But I do know that people now approach things entirely different than we did. No computers, no internet and somewhere between 3 and 30 channels that you could only watch real time unless you recorded them on a tape. In the winter I can remember going to bed early because I'd finished my last book and there was nothing (as usual) interesting on TV. Wading through a textbook was nothing to stave off boredom. Today? There is no boredom, not like there was. You have access to thousands of informational feeds from a multitude of sources today. Either the difference is acknowledged and the method of delivery is adapted to the new realities or we just give up. But to be candid, having Hero types constantly falling back on "I didn't do it that way and anyone that isn't up to my personal vision is just not worth having as a gamer" doesn't help. We are at the point where there needs to be change. I had hoped that the creative commons would open that door, but instead it is a crippled version of creative commons that will not produce adventure material taking place in the actual Hero settings. I really don;t know why I keep returning for more self punishment.

Or is it simply "surprise"?

I’ve almost given up trying to explain my thoughts over the years. It is almost as if I speak a different language. I don’t understand the constant referral to the need to change the rules as they are written. 5th Ed, 6th Ed, Basic Rulebook (both rulesets), Fantasy Complete and Champions Complete. They are all fine as written. The rules are fine. I say again. THE RULES ARE FINE. The problem is not the rules themselves. The problem is that understanding how the rules actually work in play is not straight forward. They are easy, once they click. For some people that is not an issue, they get it just from reading the book. Some people get it from reading a super battle walk through. Some people get it from a detailed description of a power build. But the majority don’t. The issue is not another rewrite of the rules. The issue is the need to add the missing chapter. A short pre-generated micro-campaign with pre-generated PC’s, equipment, adversaries and so on. Initially presented with NO POINT BUILD TOTALS VISIBLE. Just the in-play stats. The idea is for the new to hero players to read through the playing rules, NOT THE BUILD RULES, and then play. I’ll expand using Fantasy Complete, mostly because I can crib off of D&D and everyone will get my meaning. Reorganize the rulebooks, not by rewriting, but by reordering. Or at least to limited editing to make the flow work. Basically move “Core Concepts And Game Basics” (page 7-10) and “Character Creation” (page 16-152)(not pages 153 & 154) behind “Combat” page 187. The book order would change from: · Table of Contents · Introduction · Core Concepts · Core Concepts and Game Basics · Character Creation o Results and Recognition o Heroic Action Points o Experience Points o Movement · Characters and the World · Combat · Equipment · Swords and Sorcery — Fantasy Roleplaying · Appendix 1: Playing Other Genres · Appendix 2: Summary & Reference Tables · Index To a the new order of: · Table of Contents · Introduction · Core Concepts · Core Concepts and Game Basics o Results and Recognition o Heroic Action Points o Experience Points o Movement · Characters and the World · Combat · Micro-Campaign · Character Creation · Equipment · Swords and Sorcery — Fantasy Roleplaying · Appendix 1: Playing Other Genres · Appendix 2: Summary & Reference Tables · Appendix 3: Micro Campaign Build sheets. · Index All of the chunking dice actual playing rules would be presented first and just before the “micro-campaign”. While all the “how we build characters and stuff” would fallow on the heels of the “micro-campaign”. The micro-campaign would have all of the setting, creatures, equipment and pregen characters plus prebuilt advancement abilities to allow the PC’s to advance on a loose equivalent of first through third “level”. All presented as end items with NO BUILD POINTS DISPLAYED. An added appendix would have all that for when the new players become curious. The idea is: · New players buy book. · They read the “rules”. · They PLAY the micro-campaign. · They then read the Build Rules and Campaign Build advice. · They then go on the either expand the micro-campaign or build their own unique world now that they actually can see how thing work in play. In my opinion this is why Hero is fading fast. It placed the cart before the horse and is too proud to admit everyone is driving cars. Anyway, my 2 cents. Again......

1000% on point!

Yeah, I kinda figured it would be YouTube. I miss the days of a concise written document. There are a lot of things I'd look into if I had hours of free time to watch videos and listen to pod babble. Darn those whippersnappers.....

Well I broke down and bought TTS. Didn't have time to do anything except install the basic system. Next I'll get to decipher all the other stuff.

Exactly. I'll sketch out a the battle ground as needed, but just when needed.

I was unclear, I love maps and use them all the time, for notes and handouts. I absolutely hate maps scaled specifically to support mini's on the table. They take up too much room and severely detract from the game because of all the side rummaging caused by trying to clear the area being used or people hunting the "right" mini. A map that can be looked at for reference is one thing. A big ass ungainly thing blotting out the table is another 😜

Discord is another chat thing right? Tried chat, both the typing version and the so called voice chat before. Not really TTRPG friendly. It caused more confusion than it helped. I tried to look up better info and everything was written by people wanting to impress with technobabble instead of simply explaining what it is. I had to draw my conclusions by reading between the lines of other posts. Anyway, please don't take this post as critical of your suggestion. I do appreciate the thought. The TTS thing being discussed looks interesting so when I get a chance I will look into it.

I'll be checking out TTS. But I'd also like to find something easy to use for GUMSHOE. Any ideas

How many cases were actual cases and how many are just people panicking and clogging up the facility? Triage is usually the initial assessment of possible patients who are then categorized by severity and then moved to treatment. It's a way to identify and filter not only patients in order of severity, but also to ID and turn away people who do not actually need medical care so that treatment assets (personnel, materials and time) are not wasted. From what I have read, youngsters are weathering this fairly easily and many of the younger children that have been identified as having it do not even show any symptoms. And yet parents are flocking to ER's everytime they see a sniffle. Before I get all concerned I'd like to know exactly how they are defining "reaching triage point".

Yep, and I am sure people will want any overtime they can get for a while.

Figures, I signed up for Dragonflight 41 this year. Supposedly still on for August. It has been a while since I ran something at a con and this was intended to be my restart.

Looks like someone was thinking it through.