PamelaIsley

Thank you for your thoughts.

Marissa is a fantastic character in many ways (the hedonism doesn't really fit with the rest of her biography, but that's easily ignored), but you are right that her reign seems a bit too stable for certain plot threads. If you set it a little further in the past, you could use the Civil War between the rival claimants. The rebellion section, as presented, isn't that interesting to me, but many people enjoy emulating Star Wars (or Traveller's less savory later books). I like the Terran Empire concept. It's a more interesting presentation of a Galactic Empire than the Third Imperium in Traveller. But lots of the details don't fit together in a great way. If I were going to use it, I would probably do at least some of the following things: 1. Fix the Senate. There are 1,000 planets in the Empire, but only 98 of them (from one "region") send senators, all of whom are selected in different ways. I don't understand what purpose this body could possibly serve. It isn't democratic, so it doesn't give the population a release valve to express discontent. It doesn't bring together representatives from all over the Empire to give the capital different perspectives (only 10% of planets even send someone). It doesn't seem to have any actual powers, so it isn't a check or balance on the Executive. You could go down a huge rabbit hole here trying to figure out how to make an Imperial Senate actually work, but the easiest thing that would make the Senate have some logical consistency would be to just do something like one senator per planet over a certain size, elected in some manageable way, with advisory powers only. If you wanted a more constitutional monarchy, it could have the power of the purse or approval power over ministers, but that doesn't fit the setting very well. 2. Fix the demographic issue. The Empire has 1 trillion inhabitants, slightly over half of which are aliens. But the setting book almost completely omits any discussion of the non-human residents of the Empire. Only a couple are discussed, with only the Fex ever really showing up as imperial officials or in other sections of the book. This is weird. I would just reduce the number of aliens in the Empire down to like 25% of the total population, with most of those being on worlds that hadn't yet achieved space flight when they were brought into the Empire. This would still keep alien rights an issue to be discussed (including any number of variations on a prime directive type law), but it would fit more with the human-centered presentation of the Empire in the book. Otherwise, you'd have to create a lot more subject aliens (not just the races that surround the empire) and explain how they fit into Imperial society. 3. There is absolutely zero discussion of how imperial worlds are governed. No talk of viceroys. Only passing references to governors. Do all 1,000 planets report directly to Marissa? When Marissa sets up a new colony, surely it doesn't get complete autonomy immediately. I don't see how a polity like the Empire could exist without some kind of sector-type organization and some formal imperial executive presence on each world (even if the planets govern themselves, you'd need a governor to just coordinate imperial assets; even Traveller's Third Imperium has this). There are other small things in the book that don't make a lot of sense, but those can just be ignored.

Well, that does get into one of my main problems with the book, though it's not really interesting to discuss: The Hero System's attempt to make a shared universe actually diminishes all of the settings. It's best to just have a superheroes game set in its own world, a sci-fi game in its own universe, etc. The idea that superheroes existed in the Terran Empire's past is a little silly. Plus, the book throws that ridiculous magic as the source for everything (even science) nonsense in your face over and over. But you guys didn't really get into the details of the universe, like the Senate, the emperors, governors (do they exist), and other parts of the Empire. I was thinking of rewriting the setting to make more sense (to me at least), but I wondered if people had any insights into why things are the way they are. In the other thread, it reads like not that many people really got into it enough to care about these details.

I've had the Terran Empire book for years and just now read it. I like the idea of the setting, but there are a lot of decisions made in the book that don't make a lot of sense. Does anyone actually use it or know about it, though? Would it be worth trying to have a discussion to hash them out?

Sorry for no new posts for a while. My interest has kind of waned. It's tough writing good backgrounds even when I'm super inspired. And to me, the backgrounds are the best part of new characters.

In News of the World, the character Diamond has 45 PD and ED, and 30 of each is resistant protection. His skin is described as being made of a shiny silicon that is as indestructible as diamond.

Your version is more efficient than mine.

Combat is definitely faster. Aren't there far less actions per round per player for a start? I'm not sure why he thinks movement is more complicated. Maybe movement powers are overpowered?

I didn't really like the Dark Champions villains that much. But I wasn't really saying that villains for this type of Rogue's Gallery didn't exist; I just think Hero 6E makes them into complicated builds. It just isn't that much fun to build them. Tatterdemalion and White Hare would be much easier to build with M&M.

Alternatively, you could just use a Fantastic Four picture of Sue Storm and blot out the "4". The costume and look is very similar.

White Hare Total: 300 STR 13, 12-, 2 ½ d6 DEX 18, 13- CON 13, 12- INT 18, 13- EGO 13, 12- PRE 18, 13-, 3 ½ d6 OCV 6 DCV 7 OMCV 3 DMCV 3 SPD 4 PD 4 / 13 ED 4 / 13 REC 9 END 50 BODY 10 STUN 30 Total Cost: 116 Skills & Talents +1 with all Agility Skills (6) CS: Gadget Attacks +2 (6) Acrobatics, 13- (3) Breakfall, 13- (3) Climbing, 13- (3) Computer Programming, 13- (3) Disguise, 13- (3) Electronics, 13- (3) High Society, 13- (3) Inventor, 13- (3) KS: Electronics, 12- (3) KS: English Literature, 11- (2) KS: Millennium City Underworld, 11- (2) CK: Millennium City, 11- (2) Lockpicking, 14- (5) Persuasion, 13- (3) Security Systems, 13- (3) Sleight of Hand, 13- (3) Stealth, 13- (3) Weaponsmith (Energy Weapons, Firearms), 14- (5) Wealthy (6) Combat Luck (9 PD / 9 ED) (18) Watch (Absolute Time Sense (3 Active Points), OIF -½); (2) Striking Appearance +1 (+1d6); (3) Total Cost: 96 Powers Goggles (Sight Group Flash Defense (6 Active Points), OIF -½); (4) Rabbit Boots (Leaping +100m (104m forwad, 52m up) (50 Active Points), OAF -1, 12 Charges -¼); (22) Cloaking Vest (Invisibility to Sight Group, 0 End +½ (30 Active Points), OAF -1); (15) Rabbit Gadget Jacket Multipower (60 Active Points, OIF -½); (40) 1. Umbrella Blast (Blast 8d6 (40 Active Points), OAF -1, 12 Charges -¼); 2f 2. Umbrella Bullets (RKA 2d6, Armor Piercing +¼ (37 Active Points), OAF -1, 12 Charges -¼, Beam -¼); 1f 3. Glue Bomb (Entangle 6d6, 6 PD / 6 ED (60 Active Points), OAF -1, 8 Charges -½, Range Based on STR -¼); 2f 4. Flash Bomb (Sight Group Flash 8d6, AoE (8M Radius) +½ (60 Active Points), OAF -1, 8 Charges -½, Range based on STR -¼); 2f Total Cost: 88 Matching Complications Hunted (Darkwing or other crimefighter, Infrequent, Mo Pow, Limited Area, Harshly Punish); (10) Psychological Complication (Unstable and Erratic, Common, Strong); (15) Psychological Complication (Must Commit Themed Crimes, Common, Strong); (15) Social Complication (Secret Identity: Charlotte Dodge, Frequent, Major); (15) Unluck (1d6); (5) Total: 60 points Background: Bored, bored, bored. For almost her entire life, Charlotte Dodge was bored. She was bored growing up as the spoiled daughter of wealthy parents. She was bored during college, even though she amused herself playing lots of nasty pranks on her sorority sisters and social circle. And she was bored after she graduated, helping her mother with charity work and being a sought after heiress. When her parents both passed away unexpectedly, Charlotte expected to have more fun. But she found even spending lots of money on parties, traveling, and debauchery didn’t thrill her. What did excite the young woman, though, was watching the exploits of superheroes, particularly when they fought supervillains. And the more she watched the highlights on the news, the more obsessed she became. Charlotte became resentful that she didn’t have superpowers. Then one day it occurred to her that she could have powers of a sort, if she put her mind to it. Charlotte dedicated herself to learning about gadgets, electronics, computers, and other things that could help her build devices to mimic superpowers. She found new purpose. Dressing up as a mix of a Lewis Carroll character and a stage magician, Charlotte debuted her gadgets when she ostensibly tried to steal a collection of first edition children’s books on display at the New York City Library. Her real purpose was to cause as much mayhem as possible to attract a superhero. And she did. The costumed avenger Darkwing thwarted her scheme, but Charlotte Dodge had never had more fun. And her gadgets took even the crimefighter by surprise, allowing her to escape. Calling herself White Hare (or sometimes Spellbunny or March Rabbit or any of a variety of bizarre nicknames), Charlotte now considers herself a supervillain. While her capers can seem whimsical, many have caused quite a bit of destruction or death. She has yet to actually succeed (usually, she thinks, because of some ill-timed bad luck), but she shows no signs of slowing down. Personality: Charlotte Dodge is no longer quite sane. Her extreme boredom and her spoiled life caused her to never fully mature emotionally. And the thrill of being a costumed villain has only exacerbated her negative character traits. She enjoys matching herself against superheroes, planning elaborate themed crimes, and devising new strange gadgets to unleash upon unsuspecting victims. She enjoys these things so much, that she really can’t stop, even if she sometimes thinks that what she is doing is wrong. White Hare doesn’t care if her schemes hurt innocents or other people because she hardly thinks about other people at all. All she thinks about is how to steal as many faberge eggs as possible, break up an Easter Parade, or kill a Lewis Carroll detractor in as public and ridiculous way as possible. Her schemes seem random, but White Hare actually only plans crimes built around what she considers an appropriate theme. It isn’t always clear what her overarching theme is (and it can shift), but it usually involves rabbits, literature (particularly children's literature), or stage magic in some way. Powers: White Hare is a skilled thief, above average athlete, and self-made gadgeteer. All of the weapons and tools she uses to commit crimes are designed and made by her (usually even her hirelings use weapons she has created). Her favorite gadgets are a trick umbrella that shoots bullets or energy beams, bombs that glue people to the floor, or a vest that allows her to turn herself invisible. She also has created a pair of boots that allow her to leap great distances (just like a rabbit, she says). She is quite wealthy and could conceivably find ways to make an unlimited variety of gadgets as she gains more experience as a villain. Appearance: Charlotte Dodge is a very attractive, fit young woman in her 20s with reddish blonde hair, light skin, and bright blue eyes. As White Hare, she has worn a variety of costumes, ranging from a mix of rabbit and stage magician elements, to Alice in Wonderland dresses, to just a revealing bunny leotard. Her most common outfit is a white leotard and vest with a blue jacket, white boots, white bunny ears and tail, a big pink bowtie, and white makeup just on her face. Notes: A slightly different take on the Marvel villain White Rabbit (enough that I changed her name, although I'm happy to admit this is a very derivative idea). Creating crazy Batman-like villains isn't that much fun in this system because of how complicated even relatively simple gadgets are to make, so I tried to spice her up some by making her more of an adaptation of the Gadgeteer archetype in the Champions book. white hare.hdc

Yes. Can you guess his inspiration? Well, at least for the name. My character is a Russian scientist with a superspeed suit who is the enemy of Accelerate and a thief. He's all statted up, but I haven't done his full bio yet.

I changed that sentence to make it more clear he is a hero.

Accelerate Total: 400 STR 10, 11-, 2d6 DEX 23, 14- CON 13, 12- INT 13, 12- EGO 13, 12- PRE 18, 13-, 3 ½ d6 OCV 8 DCV 8 / 16 OMCV 3 DMCV 3 SPD 8 PD 10 15 (5r) ED 10 15 (5r) REC 12 END 60 BODY 10 STUN 30 Total Cost: 190 Skills & Talents PS: Speed Tricks, 12- (5) Acrobatics, 14- (3) Computer Programming, 12- (3) Contortionist, 14- (3) Deduction, 12- (3) Electronics, 12- (3) KS: Superhuman World, 11- (2) PS: Software Engineer, 11- (2) SS: Electrical Engineering, 11- (2) Security Systems, 12- (3) Speed Reading x 1000 (8) Lightning Reflexes (+20 Dex to Act First) (20) Total Cost: 57 Powers Speedster Running (Flight 45m, Megascale (1m = 1km) +1 (90 Active Points), Only in Contact with a surface -¼, Unified -¼); (60) Padded Costume (Resistant Protection 5 PD / 5 ED (15 Active Points), OIF -½); (10) Mask (Sight Group Flash Defense (5 Active Points), OIF -½); (3) Dodging Bullets (+8 DCV (40 Active Points), Costs End -½, Unified -¼); (23) Impact Resistance (+20 PD (20 Active Points), Only Works Against Move By Attacks -1, Unified -¼); (9) Speedster Attack Multipower (50 Active Points, All Slots Unified -¼); (40) 1. Compressed Air Punch (Blast 6d6 (30 Active Points), Limited Range (20m) -¼); 2f 2. Dizzying Spin (Drain DEX 5d6 (50 Active Points), No Range -½); 3f 3. Rapid Fire Punch (HTH +9d6 (45 Active Points), HTH -¼); 3f Total Cost: 153 Matching Complications Hunted (DEMON, Infrequent, MoPow, NCI, Harshly Punish); (20) Hunted (Yellowflash or other speedster, Infrequent, As Pow, Harshly Punish); (10) Psychological Complication (Code v. Killing, Common, Total); (20) Psychological Complication (Impatient Showoff, Common, Moderate); (10) Social Complication (Secret Identity: Curt Swift, Frequent, Major); (15) Total: 75 points Background: Curt Swift has no idea how he gained superpowers. Growing up in the suburbs of New York, no one ever really noticed anything that special about the boy. Sure, he was a fast reader and super energetic, but he wasn’t particularly athletic and he was only an average student. He graduated from college and took a job as a software engineer on Long Island. He seemed destined for an unremarkable life until a fateful day when DEMON launched a major attack on his office building. Rather than panic, Curt decided to try to warn his coworkers and get as many people out as he could. He suddenly found that he was moving super fast from floor to floor. In fact, he was zipping around at breakneck speeds. His efforts that day astounded him (and saved more than a few lives). Later Curt began to test the limits of these new abilities. Over the next few weeks, his speed increased more and more, until he was definitely moving at superhuman velocities. He was familiar enough with superhero achievements to know that his powers were those of a speedster. Once he had felt he had practiced enough, Curt didn’t hesitate to don a costume and become Accelerate. Accelerate has become something of a small phenomenon in the New York area. He has fought with DEMON, the evil speedster bandit Yellowflash, and several other prominent New York supervillains. He also patrols the streets of the city, challenging street crime and more mundane wrongdoing. He is quite eager to become more, and would definitely jump at the opportunity to join a true superteam to take the next step as a hero. Personality: Curt Swift is an intelligent, energetic personality, who always radiates an aura of impatience. He is absolutely thrilled at his new powers, even if he doesn’t understand where they came from (he has tested negative as a mutant). He enjoys showing off when fighting criminals or just for the TV cameras that show up at some of his larger encounters. Swift is an avid reader and his powers have made him an incredible speed reader, meaning he can consume entire novels or technical manuals in what seems like no time at all. Accelerate would never kill in his pursuit of justice, but he is capable of holding a grudge. He would like nothing better than to bring down DEMON and Yellowflash in any way possible short of lethal violence. Powers: Accelerate is a classic speedster. He has high dexterity (particularly for the purposes of going first in combat) and speed, and is capable of extreme velocities when running. He can dodge to the point of avoiding bullets. In combat, he relies on lightning fast punches, a dizzying spin move, and the ability to create a compressed air blast at range. Mostly Accelerate likes to use his speed to confuse and misdirect his opponents. He is well aware that is power set would work even better as part of a balanced team. Appearance: Curt Swift is a tall, fit young man in his late 20s. He has brown hair and eyes and an infectious, if sometimes wry, smile. He always seems to be in motion, even if it’s just playing with his fingers or hair. As Accelerate, he wears a black bodysuit that turns white at the neck, along with a partial mask that exposes his hair and face. His goggles are yellow, and there are small lightning designs on his chest and near both feet. Notes: I am not that fond of speedsters. I've never really understood how to make their powers work in a PnP game (either this one or M&M). I used a lot of Champions Power and Champions suggestions for Accelerate. He is another hero intended as part of the New Sentinels that I've written up. I also created a nemesis for him, referenced in his Complications. Accelerate.hdc

I see what you mean. A continuing effect mental power that uses charges is complicated. It looks like a modifier like (Continuing Charges, Dispersed by Wind or Rain) would actually be appropriate for the entire gun. Interestingly, continuing charges do not seem to be modeled by Hero Designer at all.