Polaris

Re: any chance for PDF for Terran Empire, Steve? Bob, Any chance of the Hero adaptation of the old empire building game Starfire coming out soon...?? Polaris

Hiya, What about having some information that would allow us to play in a law and order type game. What this would entail is advice on running mysteries and investigations. Polaris

Re: Romantic Space Pirates Michael, I think your idea seems like a real winner! For what it is worth, I would buy it (if it were written and put up for sale). Polaris

Greetings, In a superhero game I played in a while ago, our heroes were confronted by an alien that pointed out that our ambitious attempts at fighting 'crimes against humanity' was limited to the crimes being committed by other nations (not our own). One of the characters was European, so she did not have much difficulty accepting that our heroes ignored crimes done by the US. Please note that this thread is *not* meant to be about who is to blame or the politics of what happened at the Iraqi prison, but as I saw the news it reminded me of that game story. I am curious as to whether your characters would give more slack (allow the US to conduct its own investigation and trust that justice will be served, or to ignore it all together) because the acts were done by the US and/or UK compared to if the torture had been done by Saddam Hussein, or someone outside of the government (such as EuroStar or Dr. Destroyer)? For my part, prior to that game story, I would say my character would have 'given more slack' to the US. This is not because the character is nationalistic (he is of average patriotism I would say), but rather it is just so much easier to instinctively see acts of other governments as 'crimes', while the acts of the US as "necessary evils". It also seems that our group saw it as reasonable to have the US take care of investigating and punishing its own crimes (something we would have never done with Iraq, Iran or North Korea--the 'axis of evil'). As I *love* stories that cause characters to question their basic beliefs, that story was a very fun game to play in, and my character grew a lot as a hero (and I did as a role player). Polaris

Re: Publishing Fiction Greetings all! Thank you to everyone that has responded so far. I am compiling the responses and synthesizing them into a single document to include in my proposal to my boss. One idea that caught my eye was the idea of doing a superhero anthology independent for a first publication into the genre. This would allow us to demonstrate to the folks at DoJ that we can be trusted to do a good and fair representation of the genre. How many would be willing/interested in helping with an 'independent' superhero universe anthology? Regarding science fiction (TE): Our company originated with science fiction, so we are always looking for stories in science fiction. I would gladly talk to my boss about the possibility of discussing with DoJ a "Terran Empire/Star Hero" line. As I said, our company already has projects in the works dealing with similar matter, so it could be that TE/SH would fit in nicely (it could also be that it would be seen as an unnecessary redundancy). Please keep the discussion and ideas coming... Respectfully, Polaris

Re: Publishing Fiction Sorry, I had forgotten to subscribe to thread...

Greetings all! I am employed by a publisher of novels and short stories of fiction that follow a themed format. I have approached the powers that be at our company about the possibility of trying to license some of the characters from the Hero Universe to publish fiction about. Please note that we have not yet contacted Steve or Darren, nor has my boss agreed without knowing more specifics (although, she seems *very* open to the idea). I have a few questions for Herodom Assembled that would help me in preparing a proposal for my boss, which would lead to them contacting the powers that be at Hero: 1. How many people here would be willing to contribute stories (novel or short stories) set in a superhero world? 2. How many people here would be interested in adding such books to their "buy list" (realizing that Hero Games would not be the publisher, but would get their royalty payment from sales)? 3. Are there particular characters that would be of particular interest to readers? If so, which ones? 4. What kind of superhero stories would be of prime interest to you? 5. Any other suggestions? I have been playing within the Hero system for several years now, but realize that many of you know far more about the game world (and the superhero genre) than I do. Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Polaris uspolaris@comcast.net

Greetings all! I am writing to find out if anyone here writes superhero fiction (short stories or novel length). If so, do you post it on a website anywhere? Does anyone know of a website that has superhero stories? Polaris

Impressive... Wow, that site is really quite good! Polaris

Hiya all! Like many of you, I was VERY disappointed to learn of DoJ's decision to scale back the production schedule of Star Hero. I know that an idea was presented in another thread to have fans put up Star Hero (in particular TE) websites. Has anyone put up anything, or is anyone planning on doing so? I know that there are four sites in the links, and all the sites are still up (they are really quite good). Polaris

Greetings all, I picked up a copy of Mutants and Masterminds, and, while OGL, it seems to have some similarity to the effects based character creation used by the Hero system. This would seem to make it rather easy to convert stuff made for one system into the other. Would others agree with this? Does anyone use anything produced for M&M for their Champions game (or vice versa.. since I think there is quite a bit more that has been produced for Champions)? Polaris

As explained in a long earlier post, my SH campaign uses TE with a few changes. In my game, the Terran Empire was born out of the immortality of Alexander the Great, whose death had been 'faked' to hide his ongoing rule. He used the centuries after his alleged 'death' to run a charade of 'independent' nations, but all governments were answerable to him and his "Council of 13". Around the 1800s, Alexander’s Terran Empire achieved interstellar travel. Given the limited technology to monitor space that was available to most humans of Earth at the time, the general population was oblivious to Terra's expansion to the stars. Slowly at first, then with remarkable speed and success, the Terran Empire (under the brilliant tactical mind of Alexander) expanded across the stars. At the time of the game, the Terran Empire now has a little over 1,000 planets. Fairly recently, one of the allies of Terra learned of the slavery and oppression committed by the Thorgans, and gained the assistance of another Terran ally to convince Terra to join with them in a war with the Thorgans. The Thorgans spread fear through virtually every government within Star League (and Gattica--an Interstellar Economic Association/Bank of sorts). It is largely believed if the heroes can demonstrate that the Thorgans truly are beatable, that other governments may join in the war effort. Within the last couple of gaming sessions, Terra and Tellaria (one of Terra's closest allies) were invaded by a 'new' species called Xenovore (I do not have AW yet, so my version is likely a bit different then the official version). In my game, the Xenovore are very reclusive/xenophobic, but will attack anything that gets their attention (in other words, they don't venture out looking for a fight, but if someone gets close enough to the them to get their attention, they strike with relentless brutality). Virtually nothing else is known about this new species, except horror stories TISS (Terran Imperial Security Services) has learned from populations close to the border the Xenovores crossed. Jesca Fei'lya, one of the PCs, went to an Oracle to speak to one of the Goddesses of her world (the Goddess of Nature) to learn what she could about the new threat. What she learned was startling. The 'Xenovore' is a defense of nature. To make a long story short, many species were being destroyed or oppressed by the military expansionism of a few species (such as humans and the Thorgans). Natural selection was ensuring the survival of the military strong, but at too great a loss of the contributions that other species could be making. The Xenovore were created to strike at the aggressive--the ones that would 'catch their attention'. Given the immediacy of the threat posed by the Xenovore, the Terrans and their allies have agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the Thorgans (who have also been invaded by the Xenovore). The Terrans and Chaos (two members of the Tripartite Alliance) have refused to cooperate or work with the Thorgans. The Tellarians, on the other hand, have agreed to cooperate with the Thorgans against their common foe (with the plan of betraying the alliance when the Xenovore appear doomed to defeat). So, I guess you could say that the Terrans, Thorgans and other ‘aggressive’ species are the ‘villains’ (creating an imbalance against nature). You could also say that the Xenovore are the enemy (since they are who the PCs are fighting right now). I would probably say that the Thorgans are the chief enemies right now (the PCs are itching to get back to fighting that war). Polaris

Thanks Bob... I just put a thread in the DH portion of the forum to see if it is possible to get a copy of the article, or to see if the article might get reprinted in Digital Hero. Thanks! Polaris

Bob, Using the Hero system to play Starfire is precisely what I was hoping to do! I clicked on the ezHero link, but it was broken. Is there any way I could get the article you wrote? Polaris

LOL.. some of those are funny! One supplement that I would seriously love to see, but would undoubtedly be in the minority is a 4X empire building game in Hero. Rather than playing members of the Terran military, a player could play the head of his/her own interstellar civilization (or fantasy kingdom). Polaris

I remember they had a Dallas RPG some time ago. I have seen it occasionally on Ebay, but haven't in a while. Does anyone have the game, or know of a site that may have RPG stats for the Dallas show (preferebly in Hero or a system that would be fairly easy to convert into Hero)? Polaris

Greetings, I have been gradually introducing an NPC in my Champions/Star Hero game that is a lot like JR Ewing from the old Dallas TV show. I places his Business skill at 20 (which, is probably too high, but his ability in business is meant to be 'legendary'). Any tips from anyone that might have a memory of this very memorable TV character from the 1980s? Thanks in advance for any help!!! Polaris

Hiya all, I just picked up HeartQuest and upon first look through, it looks like a pretty good book. It got me thinking about the anime genre, and was curious if anyone out there uses the Hero system to RP in anime? I know that Guardians of Order has an anime game (Big Eyes, Small Mouth), but have not tried it yet. Polaris

I wrote to the folks at Pro Fantasy and was told that the space map program is going to be coming out, but is not yet. They said they added me to their list to send information to as it becomes available... as I get information, I will post it to the boards. Polaris

Alcampter, I think the FHG (which I am going to be calling my FLGS to see if it is in this afternoon) and the USPD (my favorite supplement for 5th edition) are a GREAT help. My group is made up of some experienced Hero system players, and some that are beginners. It takes about one evening of play for the beginners to want to go to d20 and leave Hero. The experienced players are able to make any power they want, the beginners are left to try to answer "what do you want", and having to try to explain in, while being interrupted by people listing the 150 ways to do each little thing. Then we throw in the mathematics, and the game seems like even more fun to the new players. Sometimes we get the occasional experienced player that says "just tell me EXACTLY what you want, and I will make your character for you". It is soooo much easier to make a character in d20, and it has some built in balance (the benefit of not allowing players to build anything they want). The USPD brought in a whole different situation for our beginning players. We can teach them how to build powers through modifying the powers in the book. They are beginning to rely upon just modifying the powers in the USPD less and less, and instead have developed more ability to make their own. Our experienced players sometimes can use the USPD for reference, but certainly tend to build what they want themselves. I have not found the existence of those books to hinder their creativity and imagination. The beginning players gain a better understanding of powerbuilding, and have some good powers to choose from to make their characters. I plan on getting FHG, and am hopeful it will help convince some of our players to consider FH over d20. Polaris

Liberator, I got the book a few weeks ago, and I agree that it is an awesome book! Polaris

Villains Amok sounds like a great book... something for those that like the adventures, and for those of us that are looking for the source information/ideas within some adventures. I am not sure if it would be "responding to their customers" when DoJ came up with the idea before the customers. <<??>> Polaris

Steve, Thank you for the response. I agree that adventures are probably not a key issue for most customers, but it seems to be of big importance to some customers. While I would rather have all the information in a setting book be dedicated to setting material (or genre book dedicated to genre material), it would seem like a reasonable idea to ADD on 32 pages if it will help the book sell (of course, that leads to whether any NEW/MORE people would buy it as a result of the adventure that would not buy it anyway). Polaris

Shadowlance, I think your idea is a very good one, but perhaps it should be made into a new thread. I am unsure if the Powers that Be of DoJ are still reading the thread. Polaris

In my Star Hero game, the Terran Empire recently concluded a long running war with a major nemesis (the Orion). During the war, a Terran warship intercepted a vessel from the Gemini carrying 'contraband' to the Orion. This 'contraband' included an unfinished project, which as come to be called "The Gemini Project". Basically, the project involves injecting a nano-bot (part organic) into the target's body. The nanite (is that the word for it?) is designed to alter the attitude(s) of the target about a particular topic. For example, if a target were anti-Terran, then a nanite could be programmed and injected into the target to react to positive and negative thoughts about Terra. When the target had positive thoughts about Terra, the nanite would cause the brain to release endorphines (not a lot... perhaps not even enough to fully realize consciously) and to inspire pleasure. If the target had a negative thought about Terra, the nanite would induce pain. Basically, it would GRADUALLY condition the brain to favor positive thoughts about Terra (since the human brain is a pleasure-seeker and pain-avoider). I believe in game terms, this would be a transformation attack, low powered that is cumulative, only usable to transform the brain to have positive attitudes toward Terra (or whatever the particular attitude adjustment the nanite is programmed to manufacture). Am I on the right track?? Polaris