Lord Liaden

Somebody call Kurt Russel. I think the Thing made it off Antarctica.

In comic books being "gifted" with powers isn't common, and just being "really nice" and "physically capable" doesn't normally cut it. Origins tend to be much more dramatic, coming at a turning point in a person's life, or because said person has extraordinary qualities. Abin Sur searched for a fearless person to inherit his Power Ring, and found Hal Jordan. Norrin Radd pledged service to Galactus to save his planet. The Unipower creates a Captain Universe in response to a crisis, general or personal. The wizard Shazam sensed the inherent nobility in young Billy Batson. Jim Rhodes was Tony Stark's closest friend and inherited the Iron Man armor while Tony was incapacitated. Kent Nelson was orphaned as a child when his family stumbled into the temple of Nabu, who trained Kent to wield his power. Mjolnir grants the power of Thor to a worthy wielder, and the definition of "worthy" seems pretty strict. And so on. Also in the comics, almost no one is "festooned" with power gifts from multiple patrons. Almost always there's one origin and one power set. There are a very few exceptions, like Captain Mar-Vell who gained new powers periodically over the decades of the character's comic history. But in each case the new powers came as a result of major dramatic events in the character's life... in Champions terms, a series of "radiation accidents."

True, but it has to start somewhere. If you can't kick the door down, you have to at least get your foot in it.

And you and Darren added so much to that article. I couldn't have asked for any better, or more inspirational.

Well, if you're talking about uses for Prof. Muerte generally, I wrote a reboot of the character for Digital Hero #44, based on his official 5E Champions Universe status of having been murdered by Scorpia and Feur(macher). In the article he's found and revived by Takofanes for his own purposes, making him both better and worse than before. I also created several all-new minions for him. But I'm afraid the article doesn't include an actual adventure. (Perhaps ironically, I never used this version of Muerte in my own games. The whole article leans toward a horror style, which isn't my thing. I wrote it as a creative exercise, but I prefer classic Muerte.)

TBH, I shudder at how many people listen to them.

It's the end of the Apocalypse? Good, that means we survived. Drinks all around, on me!

Per Muerte's background in Classic Enemies, he aspires to conquer the world, but believes that if he causes enough terror the world will capitulate to him. Essentially, he's a terrorist with just about the broadest objective imaginable.

Oh, sorry, didn't mean to leave you out. Here's one for you.

Pariah, I just realized you might not have the app to shrink this picture down to forum avatar size, even if you might want to use it. Quite thoughtless of me. 😔 Here, let me try to correct that so you actually have a choice.

I experimented a little with a picture of Starburst I had, to crop it to a size acceptable to the forum and to aesthetics. I'll attach the original and the crop -- see what you think.

Well, I was infected by the metamorphosis trend, too. It took me a while to find something that fit my priorities: "lordly," classic, and looks decent in the tiny space the forums gives us. What do y'all think?

Nope, no write-up for Firefist in any of the NM books, I'm afraid.

Just to clarify, I did assume Steve was asking about Hero System material because he wrote that he wanted "to get a sense of public opinion from my fellow Hero fans." I didn't assume only using Champions as a base, though. The complaint of a lack of adventures in Hero crosses genres, with DnD and Pathfinder being the most common example of game systems thoroughly supported with a stream of published adventures. Back in the day Steve Long used to say that adventure modules didn't sell as well as other types of books in Hero -- maybe because Hero fans tend to be self-builders -- but various parties here keep expressing their opinion that general public gaming expectations and habits have changed; as well as pointing out that with growing life responsibilities they just don't have the time to design their own adventures any more.

That's harder to do if they all stand that wide.

While my personal preference is setting books because I love worlds, I chose adventures because that's what I read nearly everyone on this forum clamoring for.

The issue with official Champions characters for many sports is, their abilities are already quantified. We know exactly how much they can lift, how fast they can run, how far they can jump. In some cases there's a person commonly accepted as the strongest/fastest/etc. There might be some question where people rank within the "reality" of the Champions Universe, but in our reality there isn't.

Note that the Dark Sider is the only one not sporting shades.

It does look as though Scrooge McDuck should replace Mickey Mouse as the Disney mascot.

For my own medieval fantasy game settings, I normally set the cutoff for what the inhabitants would call a "city," as distinct from a "town," at around 10,000. Some scholars have estimated a very few pre-industrial cities throughout history as having populations of one million or more -- Rome, Baghdad, Chang'an, Angkor come to mind. These are almost always the capitals of major kingdoms or empires, so food would definitely be imported to support all the government officials and middle class drawn there. However, those estimates vary widely between individual scholars based on their interpretations of available sources, and over time as research uncovers new data.

Another factor would be access to a large body of water, the sea or a major lake. Fish would undoubtedly form a significant part of the inhabitants' diet. A city in the population range suggested in the OP, with a good port, may also import some of its food from elsewhere.

But... he doesn't look orange.

I'm seriously tempted to cross-post this to the "What does it mean to be Utterly Evil?" thread. (No, Dan, I'm not going to.)

Nobody should have to be told to feel common human compassion, especially toward their own children. But it seems that's where we are.