tancred

Ramalatus, I use "Real Technology" for any non-weapon power I use in my current TravellerHero game. It's the same value and effect as "Real Weapon" for anything that isn't actually a weapon, e.g., communication equipment, medical gear, sensor gear, and so on. If you use Hero Designer to build your equipment, the simplest way to do "Real Technology" is as a Custom Modifier, worth -1/4 just like "Real Weapon." So the short answer is, yes, you can use (the equivalent of) Real Weapon for other equipment.

I just came across this thread after the newest necromancy. The last time I ran Champions, some 15 years ago, I had a secret master-villain who somewhat resembled a much darker Adonis. He had cloned his original female minion, and granted both the original and all her clones super-powers. The game didn't continue long enough for the players to twig to what was going on or encounter the master villain. If I ever pick that game up again, Adonis will probably replace my much-less-fun villain. Brilliant work, all. Thanks for the fun read.

My last 2 Heroic-level games (PA and now TravellerHero) I have used 100+50. This is 5e because that's what my players know. 100+50 lets them be quite good at their specialties but also have some other flavor things to use. TravellerHero in particular is VERY skills-heavy. Only one player is playing an alien with any powers at all (I have one Aslan warrior/scout). One thing to watch out for, though. If you start at 100+50, don't be too generous with how much XP you give out. I was rather over-generous at first, and now things that should be hard for some characters are pretty routine. I have to keep coming up with more and more reasons why some particular task is either extra-difficult or doesn't apply at all. On the other hand, at least they're learning that combat in Traveller is dangerous even when you use Hero rules...

Re: Combat Armor that requires having a skill. You're very welcome. If there's anything more you need just post here; I'll keep checking back. BTW, I also like the idea of Penalty Skill Levels; I'm going to use that for my (hopefully starting-next-week) Traveller Hero game. I did require the players to take PS: Vacc Suit if they want to have the Traveller Vacc Suit skill, but I'm also going to use the PSL idea for Combat Armor or Battle Dress, especially since none of them are Army or Marine characters.

Re: Combat Armor that requires having a skill. FWIW, when we converted the Traveller weapons for Traveller Hero, a TL 12 Laser Rifle came out as 3½d6, AP, AF3. All of the lasers are Armor-Piercing, and the Rifles have Autofire where the pistols and carbines do not. TL10 Combat Armor is 7 rPD/rED Hardened, while Battle Dress starts at 8 PD/ED at TL 10 and goes up to 16 PD/ED at TL 12. Those were just our numbers; YMMV.

Re: Fins and Ray-Guns Third approval for the Lensmen. But while you're talking about Doc Smith, don't forget the Skylark of Space and its sequels. They're hard to find now, but good reads. Although the power level goes WAY up in the later books, as well of the scale of the whole thing.

Re: The Atlantis city-ship from Stargate:Atlantis -> vehicle or base? Reminds me of Harry Turtledove's alternate history series with the South winning the Civil War and becoming a separate country. When Tanks are invented in World War I (most of which takes place in Kentucky) they aren't called tanks except by the British; everyone in America (North and South) calls them barrels.

Re: Source for Comstar Traveller Hero books? I'm going to want another set; one of our group's co-GMs is a huge Traveller fun and these would make a great Christmas gift. Let me know when you need me to paypal you. Edit: Make that 2 sets; my other co-GM wants a set too. Any chance you can sign them before you ship them?

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy This is exactly the kind of project I would love to tackle. Except for the minor matter of having to work to support my gaming habit...

Re: d20 feats in .hdc format Here are two prefabs for 5th that I downloaded from somewhere. I've never used them so am not that familiar with them. Hopefully they'll give you a start.

Re: Post apocalyptic HERO I have a campaign that we have been playing off and on for several years. I actually started it well before Post-Apocalyptic Hero was published. I'll second all of what Christopher said, especially about the amount of prep time. Essentially what I did was get Glupii, the other Hero GM in our group, to help me brainstorm it, and then threw some twists into it so he would be surprised too. I picked a real-world place (Seeley Lake, Montana), looked up as much information as I could on it, and set the starting point there. The game was a Sleepers Awake scenario, and the first session involved the players finding out they were even in a PA game (I didn't tell anyone but Glupii). Our group had never run PA, but I was tired of all our games (d20 and Hero) being fantasy so decided to give it a try. After the first session, the players began to slowly explore their world. A lot of the early part of it could be described as Fantasy Hero with the players having guns (but VERY limited ammunition). My aim for the feel of the game was for mostly realistic, with a very few odd/paranormal touches thrown in just to keep the players guessing. Even yet, several real-world years (and about 3 years in the game world) later the players, even Glupii have no idea how the Apocalypse happened. It just isn't that relevant to day-to-day survival. The game is turning into something like a USA summer series; it goes in seasons. This last season, the game moved out of low fantasy/survival mode and acquired some steampunk/early 1800s touches. I have found that, because I don't want it to be TOO fantastic, I have to be careful about plots I use; I can't just throw in Fantasy Hero plots. I've had a couple of times I had to pause it to think up the next season/story arc, but I don't know if that's just me or just the style I picked. The hardest thing about running PA now is that I keep reading about ways an Apocalypse could happen. It gets harder and harder to stick to my original plan, because there's always one more cool thing to throw in. Anyway, long ramble. But the short version is that you do need a lot of prep time. You have to decide how long after the Apocalypse your game is set, and whether the player characters are from modern day or from the time period of your setting. You also have to decide whether to use a real-world setting or make up your own. Both work, they just entail different kinds of work to prepare. Hope some of that helps.

Re: Anyone have pre-made star ships??? Shadowcat is the grand master of Traveller starships. He did most of the conversions of them when we were working on Traveller Hero. If you have/can lay hands on a copy of that, there are over a dozen Traveller ships statted out in Hero terms, as well as starship components. Whether those are suitable for your game or not I couldn't say.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Unfortunately not. Only the second player and I are Laumer fans. Nobody else got it until I made the comment about 2 megatons/second firepower.

Re: Current Champions or will 4th Edition suffice? Corsair, the "character generator" you mention in your original post is the program known as Hero Designer. For $25, it makes it incredibly easy to create anything you can build with Hero. The very short version is that if you have the $25 in your gaming budget it's a terrific deal. HD is a terrific and easy-to-use program and makes my job as GM a LOT easier. You can get Hero Designer versions of an enormous number of characters, vehicles, monsters, enchanted items, you name it, for good prices. Especially with the 5th Edition stuff on sale. And the current version of HD fully supports both 5th and 6th Editions of the Hero rules. But I understand budget concerns; my gaming budget has dropped to practically nothing over the last couple of years too.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Our DC:TAS game from a couple of weeks ago. Several of our characters carry the mini-bolos found the in the 5th ed. Dark Champions Utility Belt. One player asks me, "So how many bolos do you have?" I replied, "Three." Another player responded, "If you have three Bolos, I think we can take anything." Knowing what he meant I said, "At 2 Megatons/second firepower per main battery per Bolo, yes I think we're good." The first player said, ""I don't think you did the points right if you have that kind of Bolo."