KawangaKid

In our fourth exciting episode -->
 
Capt. Force explains to Solar that Narrai Prime and the other planets/moons/asteroids the Narrai have colonized in their system have 24 times Earth Gravity (25Gs) - which is why the Narrai species is so heavily muscled and dense; this requires Solar to use some of her VPP to increase her density in order to survive.
 
Our heroes fly to Narrai space, and go to a mining colony where Capt. Force's original mentor in the rebellion (from his backstory) lives.  They discuss what all is going on with the pending invasion and the artifact from Coullum The First (the Narrai hero from 7500 years ago, who had the "Earth" band).  The mentor does some electronic digging, and finds that the rebel cell that operates in the Great Go-Shibbi desert on Narrai Prime, have reported a recent expansion of an archeology site, where some of the Science Caste have recently erected barriers with military support, and that they heard it has something to do with Coullum The First.
 
Our heroes travel to the desert and are surprised to find a wall erected around an area, where the sand has been excavated from; in this area are ruins from long ago, dominated by a large arena with a large statue at one end.  Solar uses her VPP enhanced senses and sees the "Earth" band in the palm of the large statue.
 
The heroes land at a large tent erected near the arena, and encounter the lead scientist of the dig.  After speaking to him for a few moments, it is clear to the heroes that he is being affected by the band.  He describes how Narrai have come from all over the system, in order to attempt to claim the band - whenever anyone sets foot in the arena, another Narrai always steps in to fight them.  The scientist is super excited to study this phenomenon and admits he hasn't really reported everything to his superiors in the Science Caste, because he wants so badly to be here to study whomever actually can claim the band.  He further explains that every time there has been a victor, but every time that victor claims the band, they have gone insane, and have had to be killed by the military.
 
As they are discussing this, 3 Narrai assault ships land outside the enclosure.  Leading a squad of heavily armed and armored troops into the enclosure is Sgt. Roc-12, one of the most highly decorated Special Forces members in the entire Narrai military.  He is clearly making his way directly to the arena; and the scientist is almost giddy with anticipation.
 
Capt. Force steps in front of Sgt. Roc-12 and asks him why he is there.  Sgt. Roc-12 explains that he is there for the band.  Capt. Force asks if he is aware there will be a fight to claim it, and Sgt. Roc-12 simply says, "Of course there will be."  Capt. Force also asks if he is aware that if he does win, he may go insane if he claims it?  Sgt. Roc-12 acts almost insulted, claiming that will of course not happen to him, once he claims it.
 
After a quick conversation, the heroes realize that it may not be a good thing either way, so Capt. Force decides to follow Sgt. Roc-12 into the arena.  As Sgt. Roc-12 enters, a random Worker Caste Narrai in the stands gets up as if he was going to enter the arena as well, but when Capt. Force enters, he simply sits back down.
 
Once Capt. Force enters, a barrier springs up, encompassing the entire floor of the arena.  Immediately Sgt. Roc-12 draws a fighting knife, and prepares to fight.  Sgt. Roc-12 tries several  times, but never lands a blow - initially Capt. Force martial throws Sgt. Roc-12 into the barrier; when that doesn't do enough to slow him down, Capt. Force then does a nerve strike, which also only slightly injures Sgt. Roc-12.  Eventually, Capt. Force has to use his "Killer Laser" punch (his highest HTH attack), which knocks Sgt. Roc-12 across the arena and into the barrier, almost knocking him out.  Capt. Force finishes him off with another nerve strike.
 
As Sgt. Roc-12 falls, the barrier comes down.  His squad moves to take him to medical, and Solar flies down to meet with Capt. Force, who has taken the band from the statue.  As they are discussing their next move, several Narrai assault ships begin arriving, and the troops that arrived with Sgt. Roc-12 appear to get radio messages, and start to secure the perimeter around the arena; apparently the Narrai military isn't so good with Capt. Force just leaving with the band...
 
Capt. Force makes the hasty decision to slap the band on his wrist...  A massive influx of Z-Rad power courses through Capt. Force's veins, and he experiences the origins of the band, and their time they were together, then the rest of the entire history of the "Earth" band, up until now.  The band makes a mental attack, however, Solar remembered to provide mental defense to Capt. Force, and because of that, he was able to survive the bands assault, and keep his sanity (barely).
 
But, before anyone can do anything, a massive ship wormholes into low orbit, launching hundreds of fighter ships.  The ship then fires a beam to the ground, and something travels down the beam, landing with such impact, that the 3 assault ships that had landed are destroyed, as are several of the military members who were nearby.
 
Once the beam stops, and the dust settles, there is a huge Narrai-like warrior standing there.  He yells above the din of destruction, "I am an Outrider, of the Black Order; The Empress demands the band, hand it over barbarians, you don't even know what you're dealing with…"
 
The Narrai military begins attacking this new fleet, while Outrider calmly stalks into the enclosure.  Capt. Force scans Outrider, and discovers he is massively powerful, and will likely be a difficult fight for both our heroes.
 
Capt. Force orders the military nearby to evacuate the enclosure, and tells Solar not to hold back.  Solar is the fastest of the three, so she flies up to Outrider.  After much discussion of various options by the players, it is decided that Solar will use her VPP to increase her density to maximum, and then put the remaining point in a straight increase to her STR; this gives her a total punch of 55D6!  Solar rolls her punch, and hits.  She then rolls her damage; doing substantial damage with the punch alone - then we calculate the knockback, in which Outrider crashes through several vehicles and other structures, before eventually hitting the enclosure wall, almost 90 yards away.  This damage results in knocking Outrider out completely!
 
Capt. Force then uses the "Earth" (solid matter) band (which has a massive VPP of 500 points, restricted to only work on solid matter), to Transform 2 meters of all the alien fighter ships, into bubble wrap...  Causing all 500 ships to crash at once.
 
With this, the massive ship beams the unconscious Outrider back aboard, and wormholes out of Narrai space.
 
Having survived the battle, the heroes grab one of the enemy pilots (a lizard like alien), and take him with them, to the capital city of Narrai Prime - there they speak to the ambassador they originally warned about the Empress' return.  After explaining that now everyone can see what the threat is, they call for a video conference with Col. Rage from Earth, and the ambassador from Lyrissi as well.  Once they have them on holo-vid, Capt. Force plays a replay of the battle to the group, then explains that everyone should now see how they need to work together.
 
Col. Rage agrees and says they will continue to prepare and keep the two bands on Earth safe.  The Lyrissi ambassador explains that they do not know where the "Air" band is...  Though they agree they will search for it.
 
The heroes discuss their next move; Capt. Force decides he wants to ask Golden Girl to accompany them back to Europa, returning the drone that was left on Earth and see if he can convince the Europaites to join cause.  They then figure they will need to follow-up with the Lyrissi, to determine what the status is of the "Air" band.
 
And that is where this exciting episode ends!
 

I played in a game we called the Black Band Brigade. Here are the three posts on my blog from years back that approximates what it was like.
 
In essence, think of a bunch of normal folks (I'm talking 2 SPD, MAYBE 3 SPD, and normal-ish defenses, etc.) who get Power Rings. We just went Black Band because all of us wore Black Watches in real life, and the band would camouflage itself as such when in Normal ID.
 
From the blog: "Players are asked to build PCs with Skilled Normals (50 CP, 30 pts in Complications), but will be playing characters worthy enough to play in the Standard Superheroic (400 CP, 75 pts in Complications) range. This is because the 300 CP in powers and abilities and 45 pts. In Complications will be a mandatory package assigned to all the PCs."
 
It was fun because you got to roleplay freaking out, keeping a secret with everyone else, and trying not to get killed by a number of hunters after the black bands (think of those guys in Ben10 always after the Omnitrix -- but this was waaaaaay before Ben10) and these tended to be villains from any of the books out at the time with the numbers filed off.

Being really powerful, but having only 2 or 3 SPD, made teamwork MANDATORY when going up against the 3, 4, and 5 SPD "weaker" foes who could take your head off if you didn't have your Force Field up...

There was a a gathering at a Steve Petersen’s house for the old Hero Games employees. He told the story of how Champions came the be, and the mad rush to hand collate 1500 copies of that first book, and of what a disaster con registration was for Pacific Origins, and how they turned it into an opportunity, but sending their booth babe, dressed as Wonder Woman down the the lines to hand out flyers. How the had Bruce Harlick squat on the only open gaming tables inside the hotel (the rest of the open gaming was in sweaty tents around behind the Hotel.) the game was a success People would play the demo, then get up from the table and walk into the dealers room and buy their copy for $10.  From there , the rest is history. The distributors that picked up whole boxes at Origins would start selling by August. And the Distrubutors asked, so when are the supplements coming out?”  So upon their return from the con, they wrote Enemies, and The Island of Dr. Destroyer. 
 
Here are some artifacts from that first weekend:
https://imgur.com/a/0E72NAX
 
40 years later it’s still going. 
 
Scott
 

Happy 40th to Champions! Here's to many more decades!

It's hard for me to believe I'm saying this but come this June, our campaign will be 40 years old, along with the 40th Anniversary of the game Champions. It's actually mind-boggling to me, that any campaign could be that long. The campaign is older than my friend's marriage as well as some people in the campaign. I'm planning on buying some plastic award medals that you can put your own emblem inside of and giving them out in June. By the way, this is the same continuous campaign - never stopped or retconned. It's gone through changes over the decades and has seen players & characters come and go, but the core players are still playing some of the same characters that the campaign started with.
 
So along with saying it's been 40 years, I also want to say that it is the Champions game that is so durable and flexible that made this happen. My hat off to you, Hero Games and more specifically, to Champions.

Good catch!

Goatbusters: We ain't afraid of no goats!

It's a long shot -- but that tuft of hair, plus short height and shape of head BEHIND Hercule Poirot screams Tintin to me.

For the longest time, I've been toying with a Champions campaign that was NOT super-villain / crime-fighting centric. Instead, it would've been a Thunderbirds (as in, "Thunderbirds are Go!") type of campaign.
 
Saving people from natural disasters, building failures, accidents (pre-, during, post-) and real 'support the police & firefighters' work in a grey area of the law. Sure, there'd be some occasions for brawling, but it'd be an even share with investigation, rescue, and exploration.
 
I remember that the character builds would be very different for a team, because the non-combat focus would require greater emphasis on different powers to rescue people trapped in buildings, lost underwater, etc...

speaking of tintin would the recent movie make this list?

I didn't see it mentioned, but the old Johnny Quest cartoon was very much Pulp.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, starring Ron Ely: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Savage:_The_Man_of_Bronze . Rather campy, but visually faithful, and many of the gimmicks from the Doc Savage novels were translated to it,

While it has some issues I'd still recommend The Phantom, with Billy Zane, Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Kristy Swanson.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_%281996_film%29
 
-Carl-

Was thinking of getting motivated to run a Pulp campaign and was wondering what good Pulp films are out there to watch. This is what I've come up with so far:
 
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Temple of Doom
3. The Last Crusade
4. King Kong (2005)
5. The Mummy (1999)
6. The Mummy Returns (2001)
 
I left kingdom of the Crystal Skull out intentionally since it takes place in the 50's but it still might fit because of the story. I know there are more Pulp films out there. I googled pulp movies but the only thing that comes up is Quentin Tarentino's very unpulp movie.

The Shadow, with Alec Baldwin and Tim Curry.

For me, while I enjoyed the rich detail of the Terran Empire setting, I have a related, similar response to the 'maps' comment.
 
Some of this falls on the 'art', but it's a bigger thing than that -- setting design. I think I was looking for something in the setting that gave the Terran Empire its character visually, perhaps:

- ship designs broken down by manufacturer or major factions;
- uniforms, clothing, and space suit design
- interior layouts of ships, arrangements of space stations, and yes maps of settlements, towns, and cities.
 
Sadly, I seem to have misplaced my paper copy (or it got discarded in one of the flooded storage incidents, and I didn't notice). I'll have to pick up a digital copy.

the easiest way to do this is to create modern day pulp characters or danger international characters, I feel. Asking someone to build a full on super-hero may be a bit too much.
 
In a way, this is similar to DCC which tends to start off people with 0-level characters, making character creation even easier than the classic roll 3d6 x 6 times approach and choose a class.
 
Another approach: a campaign with a random power roll-up for low powered characters, then slowly award points to build up their characters. 

You've kind of hit one of my pet peeves, that being the notion that fantasy has to equal medieval (which I disagree with).  I went back through my copy of GURPS Fantasy, and the world there is in fact pretty medieval, with Catholic canon law, Islamic law, and Jewish law, among others.  Which kind of bothered me some, as the Banestorm was around 990 to the 1200's, with occasional aftershocks, and the "now" of Yrth is... I guess whatever now is IRL, so probably 2019?  They've had over a thousand years of development, but they're still working with a medieval system?  I'm interested in things that are not just default "generic medieval"; I know also that we don't get a lot of that in fantasy.  
 
Note that IRL, the Code of Hammurabi dates back to 1754 BC.  Athenian law dates to 621 BC; Roman law was in effect from 449 BC to 529 CE, and Rome had its own judiciary.  English Common Law got its start with approximately the court of William the Conqueror (1066).  The English Parliament's House of Lords got its start in 1215 with the Magna Carta, and the House of Commons was first elected in 1265.  None of these are exactly modern.  
 
(Also, why are all fantasy worlds not only generically medieval and feudal, but always with a generic "council"?  Never a parliament and never any political parties?)

Fantasy Hero Complete in fact includes, electronically at least, 18 sample PCs (in PDF, RTF, and HDC formats!), a starter adventure (the Val of Stalla), 24 monsters, the Kingdom of Grishun setting, and five maps (kingdom, city, town, countryside, and dungeon).  So we pretty much have the Fantasy Hero starter set!  The only thing it doesn't include is the dice.  $20 for book + PDF, $10 for PDF only; both of those include the adventure, setting, PCs, monsters, etc.
 
We pretty much have the Fantasy Hero starter set! 

Mystique
 
Val Char Cost
15 STR 5
20 DEX 30
18 CON 16
11 BODY 2
18 INT 8
14 EGO 8
20 PRE 10
18 COM 4
7 PD 4
7 ED 3
4 SPD 10
7 REC 0
36 END 0
28 STUN 0
Total Characteristics Cost: 100 Points
 
Cost Skills
3 Acrobatics 13-
3 Acting 13-
3 Breakfall 13-
4 CSL: Offensive Strike +2
5 Cramming
2 Deep Cover
3 Lockpicking 13-
8 Martial Arts DC +2
4 Martial Block
4 Martial Dodge
2 Navigation [Ground] 13-
3 Security Systems 13-
3 Stealth 13-
Total Skills Cost: 50 Points
 
Cost Powers
24 Armor +8 rPD +8 rED
50 Multipower (50 Points)
5 u) EB 10d6
3 u) HKA 2d6 [3d6 w/STR]
2 u) Leaping +10", 8x NCM
3 u) Missile Deflection [All Ranged Attacks] +5
2 u) Running +5", 8x NCM
4 u) Shape Shift [Sight/Hearing/Touch], Limited Group of Shapes, Imitation, Cost END Only To Change Shape (+1/4)
2 Running +1"
5 Transform: Instant Change [Any], Linked [Shape Shift] (-1/2)
Total Powers Cost: 100 Points
 
Total Cost: 250 Points
 
150+ Disadvantages
5 DF: Mutant (Concealable/Prejudice/Technology)
10 Hunted: Rogue (As Powerful) 8-
15 Hunted: The X-Men (More Powerful) 8-
20 Normal Characteristics Maxima
10 PsyL: Overprotective Of Mutants (Uncommon/Strong)
20 PsyL: Racist (Very Common/Strong)
10 Rivalry: Magneto (Professional/Superior)
10 SocL: Secret Identity [Raven Darkholme] (Occasionally/Major)
Total Disadvantages Cost:
 
 
 

Swamp Thing
 
Val Char Cost 
50 STR 40
15 DEX 15
25 CON 30
14 BODY 8
13 INT 3
10 EGO 0
20 PRE 10
18 COM 4
25 PD 15
15 ED 10
4 SPD 15
15 REC 0
50 END 0
52 STUN 0
Total Characteristics Cost: 150 Points
 
Cost Skills
3 Breakfall 12-
5 CSL: HTH Combat +1
3 Climbing 12-
3 Concealment 12-
2 Navigation [Ground] 12-
3 SS[INT]: Botany 12-
3 Shadowing 12-
3 Stealth 12-
Total Skills Cost: 25 Points
 
Cost Powers
20 Damage Resistance 25 rPD 15 rED
8 Healing: Regeneration 1 BODY/Turn
20 Multipower (20 Ponts)
2 u) Leaping +10", 8x NCM
2 u) Running +5", 8x NCM
3 LS: Does Not Eat
20 Mind Control 8d6, Only Against Plant Live (-1)
Total Powers Cost:  75 Points
 
Total Cost: 250 Points
 
150+ Disadvantages
15 DF: Humanoid Plant (Concealable/Major Reaction)
10 Hunted: Floronic Man (As Powerful) 8-
10 Hunted: Mr E (As Powerful) 8-
15 PsyL: Protective Of Plant Life (Common/Strong)
30 Vuln: Fire Attacks, 1 1/2x STUN/BODY (Very Common)
20 Vuln: Herbicides, 1 1/2x STUN/BODY (Uncommon)
Total Disadvantages Cost: 250 Points

Well, it's not that Hero is completely devoid of adventures. For 6E Champions there's actually a pretty good selection:
 
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/506-evilution-unchained-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/111-sands-of-time-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/87-imaginary-friends-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/94-king-of-the-mountain-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/107-pretty-hate-machines-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/53-the-crossroads-blues/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/28-unkindness-pdf/
https://www.herogames.com/store/product/23-war-of-worldcraft-pdf/
 
For the pulp genre there are even more separate adventures, although most of those are for 5E. It does get thinner for fantasy, modern day, or sci-fi, but if you're willing to look at adapting adventures for older editions, or lift items from Digital Hero, there's a fair bit to work with.
 
Speaking of the latter, I might as well attach the list of the adventures from DH, broken down by genre, provided by our forum colleague JmOz. Note that most of these include maps, pregen NPCs, and in several cases PCs.
 
DH Adventures .doc

Trying to do my part introducing new players to HERO.  Running on Roll20:  Cthulhu HERO (Pulp), Hyborian HERO (Fantasy), Traveller HERO (Star Hero), Cyber HERO (Kazei 5), and Post-Apocalypse HERO (Using Danger International). Only 3 marathon sessions per year, but 3>0!