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7 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Right.  People view D&D as simple for one of two reasons:

1) familiarity; its easy because you have been playing it for a long time and are very used to it

2) nostalgia to when it was actually a simple system back 40 years ago.

 

Hero is simple to play, if a bit crunchy to build a character.

Except that D&D5e is getting new players consistently. So if it is more complex than Hero, something else is helping to bring people in. I've always seem D&D/Pathfinder around the same complexity as Hero, just in different manners. For example, having conditions actually can make a game flow better... BUT players need to know and understand what those conditions are. In the same respect, having to mold an ability to emulate conditions can be a bit of a head scratcher from time to time. 

There's also Mighty Man and Yukk.

6 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

Didn't they recover that version of Bat-Cow from an illegal slaughterhouse or something?  Pretty sure the dietary conversion came from firsthand experience with an abattoir and the pet was a side effect.

 

Nowhere near as dangerous as the Tick's Man-Eating Cow, of course.  And the Chick Fil A super-cows from the promotional comics are nobody's pets.

While not really a pet, I always preferred Hellcow for my bovine supers fun.

Hawkeye has Pizza Dog, Power Girl has Stinky, Captain Marvel has Goose or Chewie, Falcon has Redwing, Batman has Ace and Bat-Cow (and Alfred the Cat), Mary Marvel has Hoppy, Kitty Pryde has Lockheed, the LSH had Proty, Superman also had Beppo the Super Monkey, Green Lantern had Itty, and Supergirl had Streaky and Comet (kind of). 

6 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

I'm still vaguely surprised the Deryni series didn't get an RPG back in the day, or at least a setting book for an existing one. 

There is a Deryni RPG that uses the Fudge system. It's been around for quite some time... over a decade at least.  

I really don't see using Summon as a problem if you define things right. Maybe you summon a "Storm Elemental" that does what you'd like it to do. 

Like LL, I tend to dive more into comics than anything, and much of it depends on the campaign I'm working on. To get a bit specific, the list I commonly give my groups is:

The Judas Contract, New Teen Titans

Dark Phoenix Saga, Uncanny X-Men

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Casting Call, Wildguard

Resurrection Day, WildCATS

Born Again, Daredevil

Fall From Grace, Daredevil

Guardian Devil, Daredevil

Longshot

Asgardian Wars, X-Men/New Mutants

The Target, Nightwing

X-cutioner's Song, X-Men

Mutant Genesis 2.0, X-Men

Kree/Skrull War, Avengers

Trial of Galactus, Fantastic Four

Man of Steel, Superman

Year One and Year Two, Batman

Year One, Nightwing

Court of Owls, Batman

There are many, MANY more. 

On 11/11/2023 at 1:04 AM, Gauntlet said:

There are a few things, though I am not sure if they are exactly what you are looking for. Two of them are the Advance Player's Guide I and II. They do have some interesting ways of utilizing the rules. I also like the Ultimate series of books. There also is the Hero Combat Manager but I kinda feel it is rather convoluted and confusing to easily utilize. 

Oh, yeah, I have those. I'm thinking something more like official GM Screens for the various types of genres that have the charts needed, and some extra sheets with added info for styles of games. Not character sheets or anything (those should always be downloads), but more like having a list of maneuvers, basics of the system (like damage rules), and even some advanced tables that the GM could use (like vehicle rules, or experience awards). Even having a magnetic speed chart that's wet erase would be pretty cool, and could help new and old GMs.  

In the official books, my group hated PSI. I ran Mind Games once, and then had them pop up here and there to haunt the heroes. It was a great time for all.

I think there could be some streamlining and modernization of the game, but I don't know how simpler it would make Hero. For me, I think the game could use better GM and Player tools beyond HeroDesigner. Like having more accessible sheets for maneuvers, or tables that make the  gamemaster's job a bit easier. 

I'm a fan of leaving the build points off the sheet. I've been toying with the idea myself, tbh. 

As for the Wasp, if this is mainline Marvel, shouldn't she have PS: Fashion Designer and the Van Dyne fortune?

11 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

My questions would be, what is it about this limitation that limits what you can do.  Personally, I dont think there is a huge limitiation on the fact that they are all armoured suits.  Possibly if that limitation meant that they are all (at least) IIF and that the focus is trashable if someone does enough damage, then I would be up for the limitation.

 

There would be some interest if the most relevant suit (the HulkBuster) got busted and then he had to go fight the Hulk with whatever suit happened to be available.  🙂

I guess that's what I'm wondering. If the VPP is an "Armor Pool", would there be a limitation connotating that? Since the only thing you could build within the pool are suits of armor, and nothing else. It'd be a specialized version of a Gadget Pool I guess. It'd be a limit on what you could create with the pool. 

6 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

Of course the multi-forms don't necessarily have to have the same skills or even memories. Plenty of individuals in comics who when they change they are a completely different individual. Even memories and personality being different. I have a character that I love that turns into a Bear, now while he might have some of the knowledge of his human self, friends and etc., he becomes a bear with the mindset of a bear.

But in relation to the topic, how would that work outside of the armor being a separate being?

I could see things like Reputation, Contacts, or even certain Fringe Benefits being specific in some cases. Continuing the Iron Man example, there have been times that Stark and Iron Man were perceived as different people, so they may have some different perks. Tony may have a "Millionaire Playboy" reputation, while Iron Man may have an "Armored Avenger" one. The same could be said about Avengers Membership, or access to certain Stark facilities. 

That said, I agree for the most part that the core character behind the armor should be relatively the same. Really, it should be "build the person in the suit first, then build the armors around them" kind of character. At least that was my initial idea...

Sorry for your loss, Chris. 

Oof... it's been a bit on this topic. But, once again, I have some questions on the idea. 

The basic idea is that the armors are various suits that a single hero would be using (Hulkbuster, Stealth, etc.). 

1. Looking at VPP to represent various armors. Would you put a "Only used to create armored suits" limitation on it? I would imagine it would be a -1/4. I also see it as taking extra time to switch out settings. What are your thoughts? 

2. Looking at vehicle rules as an option, wouldn't the 5 pts only make an exact duplicate?  

4 hours ago, AlHazred said:

Has anyone done writeups for modern pharmaceuticals, like aspirin and similar? Like, I could see "energy shot drink" be a 1d6 Aid END, Drain (5 points/6 Hours). I wonder what clever ideas people might have for others.

There are a few street drugs that I worked up a while back, but nothing OTC or commonplace. 

When making my second character, a "Batman with darkness powers" hero, I tossed caution to the wind and took as many hunteds that I could. Name the organization, he was hunted by them at 14-, both criminal and law enforcement! He had all the perks... a nice HQ, some cool powers, martial arts... and a secret identity. Then the GM decided that ALL of his hunteds showed up at once. Outside the HQ. Oof!

3 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Is it a power just used to control a fellow player character?  Like Marvel Girl using her telepathy to calm Wolverine?  Because then the rarity is much, much lower and it isn't worth as much of a limitation.

If it was "Just to Calm Wolverine"? I would see that as a -2 at least. It's VERY specific and only affects one being.

55 minutes ago, Gauntlet said:

But then Wolverine is a superhero from a comic book with pretty much means that reality is completely thrown out the window. So I guess it all depends on what type of game you wish to setup. I have run in a few Champions games where the GM makes sure that physics is still in the picture. Things like if you have parts of your body that are not actually parts of your body then they don't regenerate, or despite the fact that you have the STR to lift up a Destroyer, you can't as when you try to lift the sheer weight of it causes you to tear off the portion you are lifting, and so on and so forth.

I disagree to an extent. Like Champions, comic universes have some limits. Or at least used to. Uncanny X-Men #141/142, as example, saw Wolverine obliterated by a plasma blast from a Sentinel. Flesh was seared off his bones, leaving only the metal-bonded skeleton to land on the ground. Charles Xavier had to give up being with the X-Men after a massive cardiac attack in Uncanny X-Men #200. The only saving grace was being beamed aboard a ship that had alien medical procedures. Hence why Magneto took over the school and was working with his one-time foes. 

Yes, comics bend physics at times. Really, most of the time. As does any superhero game or setting. Folks don't fly, people don't launch energy beams from their hands, etc. But there are limits in many of these settings, and when events began to bend them, that's when folks start questioning the settings and its characters.

29 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

I am more curious about how he can regrow an arm and it will have metal bones and claws already installed.

That is indeed a head-scratcher. My favorite was in Annual #11 (image below), when he regenerates from a DROP OF BLOOD. A single drop hits a cosmagic crystal and he's restored. Adamantium still weaved in. I think that was the issue that I started getting tired of the "Wolverine saves the day" trend. 

On 10/5/2023 at 8:17 PM, Gauntlet said:

Problem I have seen when many people make Wolverine is that he really has problems taking attacks. He may have a good con but with a lower PD/ED he has a tendency to be knocked out rather quickly. One thing that I believe is a definite requirement for Wolverine is Damage Resistance (at least for the STUN of the attack). You also may want to include Resurrection with his regeneration as I have seen in comics plenty of times where he is seen dead, but still manages to come back. 

I've always seen Wolverine with a decent PD, but not the greatest rPD. He can take a punch and some weapons, but bullets tend to shred him a bit. In the same matter, I could also see him having some HA/HtH DCs due to the metal skeleton. 

3 hours ago, Grailknight said:

Damage Negation is the easiest way to grant immunity to a specific level of DC's that exists in the game. Its utility was diminished somewhat because the STUN Multiplier was fixed. It might be a tad overpriced (I'd set it at 4 points per DC stopped.) but it has plenty of utility.

I agree with Grailknight here. I mainly use Damage Negation for Immunity Effects, like being Immune to Fire and such. Maybe having to specialize might curb the cost issue a bit? 

20 hours ago, Cloppy Clip said:

In practice what I tend to do with VPPs is have a list of example powers written up before the game (ideally the player can do this, but if not there's always good old me), and then while the player can theoretically improvise any power in combat, if they start to slow down working out specifics it just defaults to one of the example powers. The option to make literally anything is there for players who are more confident with the rules, but we have a backup in case something goes wrong.

That's what I've always done as well. Often times, I ask the player to create a "spell" list (it's not always spells) that they can draw from, and those are the powers and abilities they can use in a session. They don't feel like working on stuff, they're stuck with what they have.

I've always enjoyed the "evil cult" trope that could lead into a necromancer-style villain, or the Elder Worm kind of being. One of the games I ran had a Blood God that appeared in the session as a massive, sentient blood monster. What about having a dragon with a dragon lord that commands it? Or maybe something like a corrupted druid that has monsters like Shambling Mounds at their disposal?

On 9/27/2023 at 6:17 PM, DShomshak said:

Does anybody want this? Did you ever use them, back in the day? Would you use them if they were revised?

I think any new material for Hero would be nice to see.

22 hours ago, DShomshak said:

I'm not settled on the form this will take: whether a complete book, or broken into smaller units about the same size as my old "Shared Origins" pdfs.

Why not sell the chapters as separate PDFs, and then compile them into a larger POD book?

On 9/21/2023 at 6:54 AM, Pattern Ghost said:

I'd just use abridged character sheets with the minions' combat stats and not worry about points. If they're true cannon-fodder level, I'd also use the "they go down in one shot from a PC" option.

So along those lines, when building Henchmen, do folks give them low STUN, such as STUN 1, just so they're a one-hit drop? Is this more of a rule in a book? Or more of a house rule?