PamelaIsley

I'm back with yet another power construction question. Is there a way to build the Avada Kedavra Killing Curse from Harry Potter using a ranged killing attack (presumably with beam, no knockback limitations), but also having it be all or nothing? As in, it either kills you or does nothing to you? I see the all or nothing can be used for Transform powers, but (at least in Hero Designer), it is not available for a killing attack. What do people think?

Saying all of them would be facetious. All of the Master Villains are unusable. The one in particular that I would like to use is Gravitar (14 OCV[!!] and 20DCs on some powers) . She would need rebuilt totally from scratch. She's more like the goddess / embodiment of gravity than a supervillain as constructed. From the solo book, Anubis (13 OCV, 16 DCs), Cateran (13 OCV, 15 DCs), Green Dragon (13 OCV, 15 DCs), Howler (just needs characteristics fixed), Jade Phoenix (15 OCV), Lady Blue (15 DCs), Mechassassin (12 OCV), Photon (12 OCV), Talisman (characteristics only), and Utility (12 OCV) are all characters I could see using but wouldn't until they were scaled down more reasonably. Honestly, the point of the thread wasn't to nitpick individual stat blocks. It was to kind of address the issue that almost all published villains are being built with 400+ points, while heroes are presented as 300 or 400 point characters. Edit: By the way, a big shout out to Foxbat, Tachyon, and Pulsar for being constructed according to the rules and scaling reasonably. Their characteristics need work, of course, but I really appreciate the attempt that was made with their sheets.

I think the characters in 6E are largely what appeared in either News of the World or the 5E books. I am sure that some are different that didn't appear in News of the World, but I haven't done a line by line comparison.

I almost put something in my notes, but I figured people would get it without a nudge. One of my favorite superhero shows growing up.

Maybe. Although the villains are still more powerful than the 400 point standard 6E hero. Leaving aside points, villains OCVs and DCs are just out and out outrageous in many cases. The number of them that just casually have +3 bonuses to their main attacks hidden in the skill section is astonishing.

Darkwing Total: 400 STR 20, 13-, 4d6 DEX 18, 13- CON 18, 13- INT 18, 13- EGO 18, 13- PRE 25, 14-, 5d6 OCV 7 DCV 7 OMCV 3 DMCV 3 SPD 5 PD 6 11+6 (5r+6) ED 6 11+6 (5r+6) REC 8 END 55 BODY 10 STUN 40 Total Cost: 164 Skills & Talents Overall +1 (12) Acrobatics, 13- (3) Breakfall, 13- (3) Climbing, 13- (3) Combat Driving, 13- (3) Computer Programming, 13- (3) Concealment, 13- (3) Criminology, 13- (3) Deduction, 13- (3) Electronics, 13- (3) Fast Draw, 13- (3) Forensic Medicine, 13- (3) High Society, 14- (3) Interrogation, 14- (3) Inventor, 13- (3) KS: ARGENT, 12- (3) KS: Superhuman World, 13- (4) KS: New York Underworld, 12- (3) CK: New York City, 11- (2) Lockpicking, 13- (3) Stealth, 13- (3) Streetwise, 14- (3) +2 HTH Combat (16) Filthy Rich (11) Contact: Crime Reporter (Useful Skills, Good Relationship) (4) Contact: Police Detective (Major Institutions, Useful Skills, Good Relationship) (8) Combat Luck (6PD / 6ED) (12) Martial Arts OCV DCV Notes Block +2 +2 ½ Phase, Block, Abort (4) Disarm -1 +1 ½ Phase, Disarm, 50 STR (4) Reversal -1 -2 Var Phase, 55 STR to Escape Grab (4) Strike -2 +1 ½ Phase, 10d6 Strike (4) R. Disarm +1 -1 ½ Phase, Range +2, Disarm +3 DC +4 HTH DCs (16) Total Cost: 163 Powers Athletic (Running +3m, 15m total); (3) Athletic (Swimming +2m, 6m total); (1) Athletic (Leaping +4m, 8m forward, 4m upward); (2) Armored Costume (Resistant Protection 5PD / 5ED (15 Active Points), OIF -½); (10) Armored Gauntlets (Deflection (20 Active Points), No Range -½, OIF -½); (10) Shock Gauntlets (HTH +2d6 (10 Active Points), OIF -½, HTH -¼); (6) Mask (Sight Group Flash Defense 8 points (8 Active Points), OIF -½); (5) Swingline (Swinging 15m (8 Active Points), OAF -1); (4) Gliding Cape (Flight 10m (10 Active Points), Gliding -1, OIF -½); (4) Utility Belt Multipower (30 point reserve (30 Active Points), OIF -½, Range Based on STR -¼); (17) 1. Winged Shurikens (Blast 6d6 (30 Active Points)); 2f 2. Draining Darts (Drain STR 3d6 (30 Active Points)); 2f 3. Caltrops (Entangle 3d6, 3PD / 3ED (30 Active Points)); 2f 4. Sleeping Pellets (Blast 4d6, AVAD (Life Support Breathing) +½ (30 Active Points)); 2f 5. Smoke Pellets (Darkness to Sight group 4m radius (20 Active Points); 1f 6. Flash Pellets (Sight Group Flash 6d6 (30 Active Points); 2f Total Cost: 73 Matching Complications Hunted (New York Mafia, Infrequent, Mo Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish); (20) Hunted (Sentinels, Infrequent, Mo Pow, Watching); (5) Psychological Complication (Committed to Justice, Common, Strong); (15) Psychological Complication (Vengeful, Common, Moderate); (10) Social Complication (Secret Identity: Daniel Burke, Frequent, Major); (15) Rivalry (Profesional: Sentinels, Mo Pow, Outdo Rival, Rival Aware); (10) Total: 75 points Background: Daniel Burke had it all. As the only child of parents who united two of New York’s largest idle fortunes, the young man never wanted for anything. He attended the best private schools, summered in Europe, and seemed well on his way to a life of leisure. Burke grew up charming, but arrogant and elitist to an almost cartoonish degree. He looked down on the poor and those who had less than himself, including people who simply weren’t as handsome or well dressed. All of that changed during his last year at NYU. After a particularly out-of-control party, an inebriated Burke got lost walking home and passed out among some drifters. The group was rounded up by agents of ARGENT working with organized crime. The most healthy of them (including Burke) were going to be trained as unwilling thugs. The least healthy were given to ARGENT, never to be seen again. Burke, being slightly more aware of what was going on than his compatriots, managed to slip away during the transfer. Shocked into finally developing a social conscious, Daniel went to the police. They noted his story, but the young man could tell they weren’t going to do anything. His parents were only concerned about their son’s safety, and showed little interest in the fate of the others. Daniel Burke decided to change his life. He told his parents he wanted to tour the world after graduation, and they allowed him. But this wasn’t a pleasure trip. Burke spent the next three years undergoing intense physical training from whoever would teach him. At the same time, he taught himself basic gadgeteering, and began to develop his investigative skills. Burke was so engrossed in his training that he didn’t take his parents’ messages about declining health seriously. When he finally travelled back, he was too late to see his father before his death, and was only able to attend to his mother during her final weeks. Now in possession of an enormous fortune, Burke could finally proceed to the last phase of his plan. He created the costumed identity of Darkwing, intending to strike fear in the low level criminals of New York. His initial adventures, although clumsy, were valuable building blocks as he gradually destroyed the operations of the mob group responsible for his kidnapping. Using his financial connections, he was also able to deduce the identity of two ARGENT subsidiaries, exposing them to the press and official investigators. Darkwing is now a constant on the streets of New York. His crusade against the mafia and ARGENT has morphed into a battle against all crime. He has run into numerous supervillains and hasn’t backed down. The fact that supervillains still exist in New York City has caused friction between Darkwing and the local superhero community. Burke believes that if heroes like the Sentinels were doing their jobs, he wouldn’t have to take on supercrime. This attitude hasn’t won him any friends among other heroes, but even his critics can’t doubt Darkwing’s successes. Personality: Darkwing is almost nothing like the Daniel Burke that existed before his kidnapping. Although he continues to be arrogant, particularly toward other heroes and crimefighters, Darkwing is committed to protecting the innocent, strongly driven by the desire to see justice served (although it is his interpretation of justice), and intolerant of all kinds of criminals. He is also brooding, obsessive, and almost completely withdrawn from a normal life. He occasionally tries to behave as Daniel Burke, attending charity events or high society parties, but these appearances are usually designed to gather information or build contacts for Darkwing’s work. Burke spends almost all of his time as Darkwing or planning his patrols or operations. Burke originally was only concerned with the mafia and criminal organizations like ARGENT, but as he gained experience he became more focused on supercriminals. Darkwing has a low opinion of many superheroes, viewing them as overprivileged dilentattes (partly as a reaction to his own past), but he has a particular rivalry with the New York-based superteam the Sentinels. Darkwing has helped the Sentinels with information or even to directly take down several villains, but he always does so with a desire to show up the superheroes. Burke does have a grudging respect for heroes he thinks take their job as seriously as he does. This includes the Champions’ Nighthawk and Hudson City's DarkAngel. Powers: Darkwing has no superpowers, but he has trained himself to virtually peak human levels of performance. He is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, and uses a variety of devices from his belt in ranged combat. His costume provides decent armored protection, allows him to glide, and can deflect incoming fire (including energy blasts). He has built small shockwave generators into his gauntlets to help when fighting more powerful foes. He has an uncanny sense of when to dodge during combat. Darkwing is an excellent planner, and frequently rigs traps to help reduce enemies’ numbers during the initial parts of any encounter. He has incredible financial resources to call upon, and has built up a network of contacts in the police department and local news organizations. In the long run, Burke is likely to use his wealth to build supervehicles and a more advanced lair. Appearance: Daniel Burke is an extremely fit, handsome man in his late 20s. He has dark hair and eyes, and seems to always have a grim expression on his face. He dresses in very expensive suits and evening wear when appearing in public. As Darkwing, he wears a full body costume and mask that covers everything but his jaw. The cape, mask, upper body, gloves, and boots are dark gray, while the chest and legs are a brownish orange. His eyes are concealed behind panes that provide flash defense. Darkwing speaks with a much deeper, gruffer tone of voice than Daniel uses during normal conversation, something which either strikes fear in criminals during interrogations or annoys fellow heroes trying to cooperate with him. Notes: Yeah, so it's Batman on a budget. I originally tried to use only 300 points, but that didn't work very well. Costumed avengers are my favorite comic characters (Batman, Batgirl, Huntress, Spoiler, Batwoman, Nightwing, and Robin in particular). They are very easy to build in M&M. They are not so much fun in Hero. Martial arts are annoying. Utility belts are even more so. I almost gave Darkwing some kind of VPP to reflect other small, 1 point type gadgets, but what's the point? If he needs a camera or binoculars or whatever, then it's all too commonly used in the world to worry about. His build is based heavily on Nighthawk and DarkAngel (DC:TAS book). Darkwing.hdc

Visions of the Zookeeper* just flashed through my mind. *Futurama is awesome.

Possession does give you access to their memories. That's the purpose of the Telepathy points spent on the power. The feedback from original body is another limitation that you can put on possession (see the power writeup in the first post). Switching minds is a specifically discussed type of possession. Possession is a very awesome thematic power (underused in Champions adventures I think). It's also very complicated. PCs should never have it, but in the hands of villains and monsters, it's quite cool. I'm pushing ahead with my Shadow, using the possession power I statted out a few posts ago. I'm not going to implement the Drain Body or whatever, because I want the effects to be too gradual to matter mechanically. But I will come up with some reason she can't possess Superman and just stay in the body forever.

I'm fond of the Champions in the CU (which is why I want to use the CU) and some of the villains (Gravitar, Howler, GRAB, Utility & Mirage, and a few others in particular). So I want to use CU villains when I can. I am going to completely revamp the sheets of some of them, though. I want to drop basically everyone back into a 300-400 point range and get the DCs and Combat Values under control (some villains have unbelievable OCVs with their main powers). I love creating new heroes and villains, though. I have enough ideas, I think, to completely fill up dozens of adventures with NPC heroes and villains.

There are a few others that were "promoted" in the 6E books, making them less usable. Talisman has grown and grown, as an example.

I don't know that I agree the ratios are the same in comics (at least most DC settings that I know) and the CU. The CU has a LOT of 400+ point villains. There are very few villains suitable for one on one use.

Very few Champions villains are built this way. Most are built using more points than a standard hero and have a ton of different powers and skills. I do think that focusing on points is sometimes misguided (it's why I like M&M's Power Level, which is a good short hand; Hero has nothing comparable, you have to look at a ton of different numbers). But most CU villains in the 6E solo book are more powerful than a standard 400-point hero in every way (DCs, total point value, OCV/DCV). It's that aspect that I think is off. I don't think the average villain in a setting should be more powerful than the average hero (in fact, I like the opposite construction). I don't like it in practice and I don't like it conceptually. But that's just my opinion. On a side note, I spent years converting DC characters into M&M 2E format to have a consistent universe. I won't repeat that work for Hero, but it's a lot of fun.

This is very true. And Master Villains and Villain Teams fit in well when you need more serious combat challenges. (As an aside, when I look at many of the 5E/6E master villain writeups, I just laugh. These people aren't supervillains. They are gods. It's just way out of whack with how I would build a world.) But in terms of universe construction, if you tell players "the average hero and villain are about the same", and then they only fight 400+ point villains over and over because you're trying to make it a challenge for a team in terms of that final fight, then people might start to look askance at how you've created your setting.

As I create more 6E characters, I've been looking a lot more closely at villain stats in the 6E books, specifically the three volume set (Master Villlains, Teams, and Solo Villains). I also have the 5E books, so the issue I'm going to discuss isn't just related to 6E. When you look at the solo villain book, most villains in it are built to take on a team of superheroes. Most of their writeups even talk about this fact. There are a few that aren't built using 400 or more points, but those are really the exceptions. First off, from a gaming standpoint, I can understand why they are doing this. Hero seems designed for a group to play and Champions deliberately makes superheroes so powerful that henchmen aren't a plausible threat (there is even an entire section on how to make sure agent fights go fast and aren't boring). So that means the big bad guy for an adventure needs to take on multiple heroes at once. But from a universe building standpoint, I'm not sure this makes much sense. Champions Universe says there are roughly three supervillains for every two superheroes. So there are more villains in the world than heroes. So we have a conceptual problem almost immediately. If the villains are not only more numerous than the heroes, but also more powerful, then the world seems in trouble (you can always make the case that their divided, selfish nature keeps everyone safe -- evil eats evil and all that -- but that's a pretty unsatisfying answer). Does the idea that individual villains are more powerful than individual heroes fit with other comic universes? It certainly doesn't with the Batman and Superman settings. With very few exceptions, Batman as an individual is significantly more capable than almost all of his Rogues Gallery, especially if you look at the era around TAS and the 1990s and 2000s (the time period I'm most familiar with). Superman, of course, goes without saying. The X-Men face a lot of villains that are threats to their entire team, but I'm not sure the average X-Men villain is more capable than the main team members. Same goes for Spider-Man. Is he weaker than each member of his Rogue's Gallery? I will concede that I know very little about other Marvel rogues galleries. I'm a lot more familiar with Batman and the JLA than with any other comic setting. So a lot of my biases come from that universe. It seems to me that the tenor of most adventures is that heroes have to figure out what the villain is doing, unwind the villain's plot, and then confront them. Is the last part supposed to be the most challenging? If a villain is more powerful than a hero or a team of heroes straight up, then I'm not really understanding why a lot of them go to such trouble to have elaborate plots. Anyway, my own thoughts are a little rambling. I'm mostly interested in people's opinions. Should the average supervillain be more powerful than the average superhero? Is raw combat power the best way to balance a supervillain against a superteam? Does the Champions Universe go a little too far in making so many 400+ point villains? My own opinion is that villains should be roughly equal to heroes (if not a little weaker), that most adventures are more fun when they are more about the villain's plot than the villain's stats, and that henchmen / agents / normal people should be more lethal than presented in CU. Thanks all!

I have added an index in the first post and some HDC files.

Oh I remember that. I'm just saying the origin of the blaster as uncivilized was ANH.

The original line is from ANH where he calls a lightsaber "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age." This, of course, was not really borne out by the Prequels, where blasters were just as common (if not more so) and lightsabers almost as rare.

Definitely will fix the Photon Burst. I felt a normal 10 Body wasn't really thematically right for someone who is a Brick.

Not bad ideas, but exactly the opposite of what I prefer. I want no blasters because I find them silly. And I want real world weapons to hurt superheroes. I definitely think all but the mightiest bricks should be hurt by a missile!

You make a good point, but the Hero 6E Bestiary definitely says the Linked is worth -1/2. That's the only way I was able to figure out how much the limitation is worth. I don't really see how it's limiting either since the Ghost (in bestiary) is always desolidified. I guess it's because they aren't always possessing someone? I'm really shocked that APG specifically mentions this use of Possession (ghost merging with someone) and does not help you build it at all.

Just 5 and 6. I would say my backstory preference is strongly for 5E (keep Nighthawk in the Champions).

This is what I've come up with for my possessing Shadow. Honestly, I should have just treated this power like a plot device. Shadow Form Possession: (Total: 245 Active Cost, 119 Real Cost) Shadow Form (Desolidification , Persistent (+1/4), Inherent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (80 Active Points); Always On (-1/2), Unified Power (-1/4) (Real Cost: 46)) PLUS Shadow Possession (Possession (Mind Control Effect Roll 100; Telepathy Effect Roll 70), Merging (+0), Projection (+0), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (165 Active Points); Linked (Shadow Form; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; -1/2), No Range (-1/2), Unified Power (-1/4) (Real Cost: 73))

Miss Photon Total: 400 STR 50, 19-, 10d6 DEX 18, 13- CON 23, 14- INT 13, 12- EGO 13, 12- PRE 18, 13-, 3 ½ d6 OCV 8 DCV 7 OMCV 3 DMCV 3 SPD 5 PD 10 23 (13r) ED 10 23 (13r) REC 10 END 70 BODY 15 STUN 40 Total Cost: 205 Skills & Talents Acrobatics, 13- (3) Criminology, 13- (3) Charm, 13- (3) Deduction, 12- (3) Security Systems, 12- (3) CK: Millennium City, 11- (2) KS: Millennium City Underworld, 12- (3) PS: Weather Reporter, 12- (3) Science Skill: Meteorology, 11- (2) Contact (Crime Reporter, Useful Skills, Good Relationship) (3) Striking Appearance +1 (+1d6) (3) Total Cost: 34 Powers Tough Skin (Resistant Protection 13PD / 13ED (39 active points), Unified -¼); (31) Mask (Sight Group Flash Defense 8 points (8 active points), OIF -½); (5) Photon Flight (Flight 25m (25 active points), Unified -¼); (20) Quick Healing (Regeneration, 1 body per turn); (16) Life Support (Safe in High Pressure, Intense Cold, High Radiation, Intense Heat); (7) Photon Powers (Multipower, 75 point reserve (75 active points), Unified -¼); (60) 1. Photon Blast (Blast 12d6, ½ End +¼ (75 active points)); 6f 2. Wide Photon Blast (Blast 12d6, AOE 8M cone +¼ (75 active points); 6f 3. Photon Line Blast (Blast 12d6, AOE 16M line +¼ (75 active points); 6f 4. Photon Burst (Sight Group Flash 8d6, AOE 8M Radius +½, Personal Immunity +¼ (70 active points), No Range -½); 4f Total Cost: 161 Matching Complications DNPC (Melissa Bright, nosy sister, Infrequently, Normal, Unaware); (15) Psychological Complication (Code v. Killing, Common, Strong); (15) Psychological Complication (Lack of Confidence, Uncommon, Strong); (15) Social Complication (Secret Identity: Susan Bright, Frequently, Major); (15) Vulnerability (1.5 Stun v. Darkness or Shadow Powers, Common); (10) Vulnerability (1.5 Body v. Darkness or Shadow Powers, Common); (10) Total: 75 points Background: Susan Bright loved the sun growing up. She enjoyed being outdoors, and looked forward to each sunny day. She began to follow the weather -- at first just to plan her next day’s adventure, but later she developed an interest in predicting it and following patterns. She attended Millennium City University and was one of the school’s first meteorology graduates. This distinction, along with an attractive appearance and pleasant speaking voice, landed her a job as a roving TV weather reporter. Susan loved her job, even when she found herself covering dangerous storms. During one assignment, Susan attended the opening of a state-of-the-art solar power plant. Unfortunately for her (and others), the plant also attracted the attention of Madame Mayhem, one of the many self-proclaimed heirs to Dr. Destroyer. Mayhem and her robots attacked the plant, attempting to steal one of its capacitors (the size of which showed that the villain had not planned her caper very well). While pushing several shocked bystanders out of the way of danger, Susan was trapped under some debris, making her helpless when Mayhem’s robots inadvertently destroyed a capacitor. The villain fled and several workers were killed. But Susan miraculously survived. After being discharged from the hospital with only minor injuries, Susan quickly discovered that the blast had changed her. She grew stronger and stronger over the next few weeks. And she found that she could now generate and discharge photonic energy from her body. The young reporter was a superhuman! At first she wanted to keep this development a secret. She didn’t want to lose her job or become notorious. But then she remembered how helpless she felt during the attack and it made her angry that other superhumans were using their powers to hurt innocents. Miss Photon appeared after months of secret intense training. Susan wanted to take her new role seriously, and not just rely on her powers. She taught herself basic hand-to-hand combat, criminology, and other detective skills. She debuted her Miss Photon identity by taking on the New Purple Gang and the remnants of PSI, who were openly clashing in the streets. After a run of successes, the new heroine has decided she is ready for a bigger challenge. Personality: In her secret identity, Susan is outgoing, confident, and fun-loving. She is a rising star as a television reporter, and actually enjoys dangerous, high-profile assignments. As Miss Photon, however, Susan is a lot more careful. The Battle of Detroit taught her what can happen to superheroes. They aren’t invincible. Miss Photon takes her role as a heroine very seriously, and has studied hard to learn skills that she feels are necessary. Susan spends a lot of her free time either training to be Miss Photon or as Miss Photon. She has learned a great deal about the Millennium City underworld from a crime reporter colleague (who she, unfortunately has to had to lead on romantically to cover up the reasons for her new interest). Susan’s caution can sometimes cause her to lose confidence if a situation doesn’t develop as expected, which has affected her performance from time to time, even against heavily overmatched street criminals. Powers: Miss Photon is a combination of a minor Brick and energy projector. She has low-level super strength, tough resistant defenses, very fast healing, and can survive in most environments. She also can generate and project photonic energy, which she usually does in a variety of blasts. Intense training has made her a competent hand-to-hand combatant, although she lacks formal martial arts training. Miss Photon sometimes struggles to decide which powerset to use, something that she will improve on as she gains tactical experience. In general, she opens with her blasts when there is little danger of harming bystanders or infrastructure, and uses her super strength when closer in fighting is required. Appearance: Susan Bright is a slim, attractive brunette with a figure that has benefitted from intense exercise while remaining shapely. As a reporter, she dresses in bright, sunny colors and has an infectious, made-for-television smile. As Miss Photon, her demeanor is considerably more grim. Her costume is a white, sleeveless leotard, with matching thigh-high boots and opera gloves. She wears a red mask and either dyes her long hair blonde or wears a wig to help conceal her identity. Notes: A Miss Marvel clone. After finishing Aetheria, I was tempted to try to create a hybrid energy projector / brick, like Carol Danvers. I hadn't originally planned to call her "Miss Photon" because that was too on the nose, but then I remembered that there is already a CU villain called Photon. I'm trying to get better about calculating what END a character will actually need, but it's hard. Many CU characters specifically say they are built with too little END (Photon is actually one of them), so it's hard to use them as guides. Miss Photon.hdc

That's a great writeup. You make a good case and you have some well-thought out examples for each decade. I have a few issues with it. I'll nitpick first and then give a broader impression. 4. The 1980s is what I originally envisioned as the beginning of the "Modern Era" for the BCU, but then I realized that 1980 was a very long time ago at this point. I always have in my head that things are taking place around the year 2000 or 2010, but that just dates me in terms of when I was most active with these games. I am now very fond of non-specific dates. So I came up with Vanguard appearing 12 years before the Battle of Detroit and the Battle of Detroit taking place eight years before "today." This actually makes the modern era in my setting over 20 years old. Which nowadays seems like forever. 5. The villains are too old if you do this. If Gravitar starts being active in 1990 at about age 22, then she would be 50 "today." That's just one example. Without tying myself down, I like the idea of just saying "basically" all villains in the published works started about the time of the Champions (or maybe a few years before). Pretty much all the villains that were active before the Battle of Detroit are gone. That can be a setting mystery (although I like your explanation too). This lets me use whatever setting villains I want, without worrying about them being unrealistically old. 7. This is exactly what I had in mind. I don't want superheroes to be quite as much of a part of the popular culture and everyday life in the BCU as in the main CU. Some things in the CU are just a little too much for me (I've mentioned most all of them one point, but I don't like superheroes being cops in capes or testifying in court or being parts of paramilitary groups, etc.). If Superheroes have been super active for 90 years then they seem too commonplace. I like my "most everything super happened in the last 20 years" approach. That doesn't meant that there weren't costumed avengers and such in WWII or a few superhumans or super technology users in the intervening decades (maybe a Fantastic Four-like group or the agents you describe). It just means they aren't really part of the popular culture yet. Most of my changes are designed to de-age many of the published setting heroes and villains to make them usable in a campaign that starts "today."

I love discussions and I started the thread so people could speak up for things that I might not like, but might be perfectly reasonable. Sometimes I'm biased against something that might make more sense than I realize (or be more necessary to other threads in a comic universe). I might not be convinced, of course. Past ages don't interest me much (or at all), and active Lemurian and Atlantian civilizations just seem an excuse for water-based heroes (and how often do you really need those), but I certainly admit that they are a part of DC and Marvel (and other) comic universe. CU likes to have all the tropes, so there they are. The only thing I'm absolutely dead-set against including (for sure) are alien and extradimensional invasions and polities.