Lord Liaden

Re: Ideas for a curcus/carnival themed villain team Jugglers, with gimmicked projectiles like balls or Indian clubs.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting Not the Karloff version, no. That Mummy was a classic pulp mastermind with a rather gruesome origin. Imhotep from the recent Mummy films would be a threat to a whole team of superheroes. Superhuman strength, true immortality, desolidification (sand form), life-draining, command of the Biblical plagues of Egypt, undead servants, large-scale mind control, massive mastery of the elements, and in the second film, psychokinesis. Throw in the army of Anubis and you have a challenge for most hero teams.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting The most fun I ever had with a vampire character in a supers setting was the leader of a VIPER nest in one of my past campaigns. "Seraphina" was patterned after the child in Interview With The Vampire: trapped for four hundred years in the body of a nine-year-old girl. Physically she was no stronger than an athletic adult male, but she had massive power over the minds of others, and centuries of experience in manipulating people, including exploiting her apparent helplessness. Seraphina had the self-centeredness, lack of empathy and casual cruelty of many children taken to the nth degree, and loved making adults suffer due to her envy of them. Her schemes often borrowed the themes of nursery rhymes or childhood games, with a deadly twist.

Re: [Game Idea] Beacons in the Night For that matter, the patron of the group could actually be Frankenstein's monster, the original. Since the end of Frankenstein never definitively showed the monster's death, he could still be alive in the modern day. With almost two hundred years in which to study and to accumulate wealth, his resources today could be very considerable. There are certainly plenty of classic monster archetypes that could be redefined as supers, many of which have already been used in comics: Vampire trying to control his bloodlust; Lycanthrope trying to control her bestial changes; Ghosts (great for stealth types and mentalist/psychics); Mummy cursed with eternal unlife; Free-willed golems; not just fleshly types like Frank's experiment, but magically animated statues (literal "bricks"); Moreau-style mutated humanoid animals; Robots or androids, experimental or from the future; Stranded aliens (shape-shifters, Predators with a conscience, and the like); Leftovers from the mythic eras (harpies, Rhinemaidens, tanuki, etc.); Escaped demons from Hell seeking redemption (possibly possessing someone).

Re: A bit of fun in an old Champions game. Actually, that party is still around, and is in fact currently the governing party of Canada (albeit in a minority government). However, they did change the name to "Conservative Party of Canada" pretty quickly after folks started pointing out the acronym.

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTY -- What Would You Like To See? Oh, BTW: according to p. 37 of Millennium City, one of the four major television networks in the United States is CBC (along with NBS, ABS and the Adair Network). You might want to keep that in mind when referring to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting There is an interesting 5E vampire writeup in Digital Hero #6 for a vampiric assassin called Angelina. Besides vampire powers she has considerable combat skill and employs pretty formidable weapons, so overall she's quite a dangerous customer. The article includes a template for a basic vampire of her type, which is available as a free sample from the article which you can read here. This template is clearly inspired by the vampires from White Wolf's Vampire game setting, and so features special powers derived from the vampire's recent consumption of blood. The most powerful "classic" vampire I've seen written up for Champions was Baron Jean De'Lear, from The Mutant File. The Baron was many centuries old and had acquired a diverse and formidable array of Skills and other abilities and assets (he came out to over 900 points IIRC). His abilities were those of the Stokeresque gothic vampire, and while he was stronger in most areas than the kind of vampire you describe the difference wasn't extreme: STR 50, SPD 6, 14d6 Mind Control, and the like. It's only when all his attributes are considered as a whole that he appears truly formidable.

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTY -- What Would You Like To See? Scott, I hope your surgical prospects turn out well. Quite apart from wanting good things for you, anything that impairs your ability to write game books deprives us all. As for what I'd like to see in this book, besides what you've mentioned: I agree with Supreme Serpent that the book should be written with an eye toward the visiting foreigner, particularly Americans. Canadian politics and law enforcement should be covered in fair detail, since these are probably the areas that foreign superheroes are likely to run afoul of the most often. Add lots of little details of how the culture of Canada differs from that of the United States, to give visitors a sense of local color. Emphasize features of the major Canadian cities and other areas which have potential for interesting encounters for visitors; that was one of the elements of the previous CotN that I particularly appreciated. At the same time, remember that a lot of Canadians are also likely to buy this book, and many of us are not familiar with all the elements of this huge land, so please delineate the potential of particular areas as bases for a campaign. That might even tempt a few Yanks to base a campaign up here. Please give some attention to Canadian folklore that provides adventure or character-origin possibilities, like aboriginal myths and regional "monsters." At the same time I'd also like to see some discussion of Canada around the world. This country has long been active internationally and is currently very hands-on in several regions, notably Afghanistan. It's quite possible to run into Canadian heroes or villains at work in other countries. Speaking of international Canadian supers, IMO this book would be an excellent place in which to develop Teleios further. He was raised in Canada, and his major laboratory facility is supposedly located here. I'd really appreciate seeing maps and descriptions of that laboratory, as well as more of his servant creations. I'll give this some more thought and get back to you. I just want to add that you are unquestionably the first person I would have tapped to write a new Champions Of The North, so I'm delighted you got the assignment and very much look forward to seeing it. You have at least one guaranteed sale here.

Re: [Game Idea] Beacons in the Night One thing you'd need to establish is a reason for these particular "monsters" to defend normal humanity, who presumably would fear and shun them if they encountered them, against other creatures like themselves. The campaign should feature one or more justifications for the "beacons" to act like this which the players can incorporate into their PC histories. That should also include some kind of support system, like an organization or at least a safe-house, in which the PCs would feel secure and accepted.

Re: Vampires in Supers Setting Exactly so. This is a comics universe, after all - influences from many different sources cross-pollenate all the time. A vampire may have had superhuman powers before he was "turned." A master biologist or cyberneticist could have experimented on the vamp, augmenting his natural abilities or giving him new ones. And what benefits might accrue to a vampire who drinks the blood of a superhuman?

Re: CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE II - What Do You Want To See? I found a lot from the old DEMON (as described in Classic Organizations, Demons Rule and Target Hero) that works quite well with the new incarnation. Several of the mystic supervillains from those books can be in the employ of Demonhames, boosting their power against superheroes. The Demons from Demons Rule make powerful variant Demonbound. I used the Demonspawn Mechagents as the templates for Herr Doktor Pandemonium's Hartherzig Soldaten. If you don't like any of the leader characters in the current DEMON, Lord Thorne, Damon Harrington, Hieronomous or even Morgalis can replace them. And while the Dalang is IMO a great character, his powers and background aren't that well suited to running an intelligence network; so I made the Chameleon his second in command, but the one who actually managed the Bogeymen.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN As I said upthread, I'm considering turning it into an article for submission to DH; but I really don't think I have the writing chops yet to create a HPA. Even if I thought I did, I expect I'd have to convince Steve Long of it before he'd let me play with Hero Games's IP. Baby steps.

Re: How do you use Surbrook's Stuff? I use it most often as the first place I check in response to "Anyone have a HERO writeup for X?" requests.

Re: CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE II - What Do You Want To See? It's news to me that there's actually a component of the IHA that's called "Genocide." If that's what you meant could you please cite the book that that info appears in, hopefully with a page number?

Re: Thrilling Places!

Re: A bit of fun in an old Champions game. FART is always enough.

Re: A bit of fun in an old Champions game. Thank you.

Re: CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE II - What Do You Want To See? Welcome aboard, new guy! CLOWN does not exist in the current Champions Universe, and won't be reappearing as long as Steve Long is Line Developer. Steve considers a whole team of pranksters to be overkill, and has no intention of updating them. A lot of the classic villains have appeared in updated form, and some may appear in future; but Hero Games doesn't retain the rights to all of the characters from past publications.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN Here is a different type of component to the new RAVEN that I'm thinking of adding. I've used it in the past as part of a different conspiracy, but the nature of it makes it easy to add to just about any sizeable villainous group with money and access to advanced technology: Janus Security Systems (JSS): Although a fairly recent entrant into the "super-agency" game, Janus Security Systems has already built an enviable reputation and widespread recognition, due in large part to aggressive marketing and solid financial backing. JSS offers a range of services to its clients, from diverse defenses for physical property, to protection of computer and communication systems, to fully equipped and trained guards, all employing cutting-edge technology. The company's personnel requirements are rigorous, and all potential employees are subject to exhaustive background screening. Pay and perks are generous by the standards of the industry, so willing candidates are never lacking. JSS has numerous notable corporate clients, and has begun to be hired by the governments of several countries. Its membership is dedicated and professional, proud of giving their clients the best service available, and have no tolerance for illegal activities by their employees or their employers. What no one in Janus Security Systems knows is that their company was founded by RAVEN (or the GM's villains of choice), which continues to supply their funding and technology. All of their RAVEN-built communications equipment and data storage systems have sophisticated, virtually indetectable taps built into them. RAVEN is thus able to access all the sensitive information which JSS has acquired about their clients in order to better protect them: important installations, key personnel, secret projects. While RAVEN is cautious of using this information for fear of damaging Janus's credibility, it can provide them with a crucial edge when dealing with a particularly tempting or troublesome person or group. RAVEN members in the know point to the subversion of JSS as an example of the inferiority of technology compared to innate superpowers. A GM can introduce Janus Security Systems independent of its parent organization, as rivals, allies, even sponsors of the PCs. Ideally the heroes should develop a relationship with the agents or leaders of JSS, preferably including respect for the dedication and integrity of its personnel, before discovering its villainous backers. How to deal with those backers without ruining the good people of Janus should make for interesting roleplaying opportunities.

Re: PTOLUS Conversion Open Discussion AFAICT, Ptolus mechanically is almost wholly standard D&D/D20 - the setting is supposed to be the big selling point. KS, since there's already so much HERO stuff for that game extant (including your own), unless you have time to spare and interest in working on it, I would recommend expending your valuable conversion savvy on gaming roads less well travelled. IMHO that would be of greater value to the community.

Re: Wanted - Comprehensive Western Martial Arts Design Well, a lot of that symbolism had dissipated even before the sack of Rome. Rome had been in decline for some time before the Western Emperor Honorius moved his capital early in the Fifth Century, first to Milan and later to Ravenna. Ravenna remained the capital of Italy throughout Byzantine rule of the peninsula. Historical records make it clear that the people of the Eastern Empire considered themselves to be Romans, and their realm to be the continuation of the Roman Empire.

Re: Solomon Kane

Re: The Wisdom of Solomon? Not a bad idea. Maybe throw in a bunch of Overall Skill Levels that Require A Skill Roll. Or how about the infamous general "KS: Know Stuff" and "PS: Do Stuff" at 20- or higher?

Re: Using Stargate Command in a superhero game Wow. I never thought of conflating Stargate with MIB, but that could work.