Dr. Confoundo

I'm just leaving for my first session of trying to teach a bunch of die-hard D&D players the wonders of the Hero System. Most of them seem pretty eager to play Superheroes, and I got some very cool character ideas that, assuming they can stomach the system, should make for some fun adventures in the future.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who can't get through these books. I have tried to read the first book three times, and can never get more than half-way through before I give up in apathy. As for me, I spent most of my christmas vacation re-reading the George R.R. Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire', but since much has already been said about that, I'll just say that it is most impressive, and I look forward to the next one. The last new book I read was Aaron Allston's Sidhe Devil, his second book of pulp adventure set in a fantasy New York-analogue: Doc Sidhe (Doc Savage with pointy elf-ears) and his trusty band of assistants fight crime with guns and magic. Fun and lightweight, but really feels like someone's RPG campaign put on paper.

I'm putting together characters for a group of new players, and I've run into an effect that I'm not quite sure how to model. The character wants a computer installed in his gauntlet, which allows him access to various databases (like KS: Superheroes, and other stuff like that). He also wants it to be able to pilot his hoversled either when he is blazing away with his guns, or when he is not on it (by remote control). It's this remote control that I'm unsure of. How would you buy that ability?

I'm still putting together the ghostly cowboy (from the Attacking while Desolid thread) for one of my players, and I ran into another question. As this player has never played before, I am writing up his character from a series of email conversations we've had about the character. The player wants the attacks that this character makes with his ghostly sixguns to only do stun damage against living creatures, but to do regular damage vs. supernatural creatures and objects. The character already has the ability to Sense Life Force (at range), so he can tell if something is alive or dead just by looking at it. Would you allow "Stun only vs. living creatures" as a +0 advantage, or should this cost some extra points? Or should he have two separate attacks in a multipower, one vs. the living and "Stun Only" and one vs. everything else, doing normal damage?

As I thought. I just couldn't find it until someone pointed me to the FAQ.

I'm starting a campaign for some people who have never played Champions before, and I haven't run it in over five years, so I'm a bit rusty (not to mention using a new edition). One of my guys wants to play a ghostly cowboy, and of course, one of his main powers will be Desolid. Now, in putting together his character, I am puzzled by something that I thought was in the rules, but now can't seem to find: Since someone who is Desolid is affected normally by Mental Attacks, Flash Attacks, etc., do they need to purchase the Affects Real World advantage for their own powers of these types? Does the Desolid mentalist have to buy Affects Real World on his Ego Attack, or is it automatically able to do that?

I've been wanting to run this type of campaign for a long time as well. My name for the group was 'Chain Gang'.

A little, but not much. Then again, I've been in the Hero Games world for a lot longer than my measly threadcount would imply, and I've often seen you put forth ideas on products that seem awfully narrow in scope. Not bad, mind you, just too narrow in scope for me to want. Doc

I'm not so sure I see the reason to have these as two separate books. Once you have a huge list of various gadgets a character can use (in G&G), what are you going to put in Ultimate Gadgeteer? Some rules on how to make them, and a bunch of 'See G&G page x' references? Don't get me wrong... I love the new direction that you have sent Hero Games. However, I'm a little concerned that you might be contracting the dreaded game company disease of splat-bookitis. Is there really enough material here to justify these being two separate books? Ultimate Vehicle and the Champions specific vehicle you mentioned? An Ultimate Automaton book? Doc

I remember seeing that someone had compiled a list of what was different in fifth edition from previous editions, but now I can't seem to find it. Can anyone give me a pointer? Doc

It wasn't Crisis that caused the problems with Hawkman. It was when editorial decided to make the Tim Truman/John Ostrander 'Hawkworld' series happen in the present. Had they gone with what they initially intended, and had it shown Katar and Shiera's adventures on Thanagar which took place before the two of them showed up on Earth, it would have been fine. Instead, editors thought the readers would be confused by the time difference, and placed in (then) current continuity. Unfortunately, that meant that the Hawkman and Hawkgirl in early JLA stories couldn't be the pair from Thanagar, and everything unraveled from there. So it was actually editorial shenanigans that are to blame, not he Crisis.