Lord Liaden

Some of these designs are actually really cool IMHO. Especially when you consider their context.

"Worry is like paying interest on a debt you may never owe." -- Will Rogers

A couple of things I want to add to Christopher's fine list above: First, magic should be wondrous. A lot of games, and gamers, treat the SFX of a spell like a fireball as something as natural and straightforward as firing a gun. Magic SFX should be distinctively beautiful, or distinctively horrible, but something clearly beyond the mundane world. For example, the spells of cinematic Dr. Strange, forming rings and discs of light with mystic symbols floating amidst them. Second, magic should be grand. Even if the system mechanics produce a fairly direct result, the concepts and philosophy behind it, and the rationale as to how it works, should imply greater profundity. As an example, a lightning bolt spell should not just shoot electricity, but draw upon the power of the sky itself. Some of my favorite examples of magic are the "arcane hunter tools" from the video game Bloodborne, which embody both of those points, as well as the mystery highlighted by Christopher. Note that the video below is somewhat spoilerish for the game, if you haven't played it but think you might.

Turkey’s Erdogan dealt major election blow as opposition party wins big cities

An alternative would be to make a revenant character that's corporeal by default, which would eliminate dealing with a lot of Affects Solid World Advantage. Most of the folklore surrounding revenants depicts them as reanimated corpses possessed by spirits of the deceased, either the body's original owner or another vengeful spirit. If you want to keep an intangible spirit form, perhaps the possessing spirit could leave its body temporarily, as the special effect of Desolid or Clairsentience which Leaves Body Behind. The late great Scott Bennie took a different approach for a character in his Champions Of The North. That was also explicitly a revenant, one which had materialized a tangible form for itself, presumably by an act of will. In that case it would be easy to justify the character reverting back to an intangible spectral state, deliberately and/or accidentally.

Hmm... well, those times I've seen "cosmic/primal energies" referred to in Champions SFX, or in the comics, it's usually for things comparable to the Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic, Darkseid's Omega Beams, Green Lantern's green energy, the Infinity Gems/Stones, and the like. Implicitly, something grander and more fundamental than even stellar plasma. But for your game, of course you can define it as you like.

The picture and caption makes me want to laugh, but that 12 cent cover price makes me want to cry. 😢

All the Republicans in the House who are acting like a-holes are in deep red districts, so they don't have to worry about their reelection. And are apparently unconcerned with how they impact the GOP nationally. In the Senate they have to satisfy voters in their whole state, so they have to at least appear to be more reasonable.

"In wine there is truth. In water there is health." - Pliny the Elder

Well, at the time he said it, things looked pretty good for them. It was not an unreasonable expectation, all things considered.

I've been so busy this week, I completely forgot what day this is. I went out this evening to pick up some milk and bread, only to find my neighborhood grocers closed. Luckily there was an open convenience store -- stuff was more expensive, but at least I have it. I hope everyone else's Easter was pleasant, whether you had to work or not. 🐰

Thing is, the trial Trump is mouthing off about now is a criminal trial, not civil. Penalties for violating those orders, and/or contempt of court, is not fines. It's jail time.

There's a, for want of a better word, bias toward balance in most mainstream media when it comes to political reporting, even today. It's a legacy of the days when they really did want to inform the public and let them make up their own minds. And in America, a legacy of the days when political parties just had different policy positions, but were otherwise relatively rational and responsible. It's a pretty new thing in the US for one of the major parties to be -- and I know I'm risking the Wrath of Dan for saying this, but I can't express it any other way -- actively promoting evil and insanity. I imagine it takes most decent reporters a while to wrap their heads around that also being something the public needs to be informed of. They're doing that a lot more often recently, though.

Generally speaking, the best way to start building a character in Hero System is to decide what you want the character to be able to do, e.g. its physical and mental Characteristics, Powers, etc., then find what in the system matches those specs best. In your case, you should also consider what you want the character to be like in the powered armor suit, and outside it. Is the suit a part of him, like a modular add-on to his body? Or is it a completely separate, self-contained thing? Does the suit have any independent volition? Is he ever without it? Any difficulties putting it on or off? If you could describe how you want all that to work, it'll be easier for us to suggest appropriate ways to model it.

I knew that clown would get mentioned before long. I'll just point out that he became powerless when people stopped being afraid of him.

Anybody else ever feel like giggling when you hear, "jumbo shrimp?"

Oh yeah, there's parent of the year material...

I'm truly saddened to hear that. For my part, if there's a choice between laughing or crying, laughing generally leaves me feeling more positive. American right-wing politics is a clown show right now, but not all clowns have to be Emmet Kelly.

I don't normally put up videos by Trae Crowder the "Liberal Redneck" because his language is usually NSFW in spots, but this one is relatively tame, and I think we could all use a little leavening of American politics with unique humor. (2:52 - 5:04 is sponsorship.)

Sadly, a little too large to use as a hockey puck. Curling rock, though...

I don't think you have to have steroids to cross that 20-point line. They only give someone the endurance and energy to push themselves to train harder. You can already get closer to your inborn potential if you have the motivation to train that hard. Hero players often question super characters like bricks with DEX above 20, "more than an Olympic gymnast." For one thing, I would say the way a gymnast trains could reasonably raise their own DEX higher than 20. OTOH gymnasts train for a narrow range of athletic Skills, and one could argue that their feats are the result of achieving high Skill rolls, rather than making themselves excessively agile. Along the lines of power sources, the manga/anime character Saitama, known as "One-Punch Man," has an interesting origin. He was an ordinary guy who wanted to be a superhero, and began training himself obsessively. In so doing he somehow broke his "limiter," the boundary of what any living being can physically achieve. Thereafter Saitama's strength, speed, durability, and endurance began increasing exponentially, eventually reaching astronomical, terrifying, ludicrous levels. It's not so much that he stopped being human, as that being human stopped being a restriction to his potential power.

Of course. And I was just responding to your questions with one guideline for what Characteristics should go above 20, and by how much.