Lord Liaden

Re: Changing to Heroic identity As with so many things in HERO, it depends on how you envision the effect working. If the hero can change from schmoe to demigod instantly and with no effort, whenever he wants, then there's probably no need to account for it mechanically. It's equivalent to another hero changing into or out of costume. If the change poses some difficulties for the character, such that the change could be prevented - takes some time to fully change, has to speak a magic word, needs an artifact that can be stolen, etc. - then it would be reasonable for the character to purchase the abilities he gains as a super with the "Only In Hero ID" Limitation. OTOH if the normal and heroic form of your character are different in more than just appearance and abilities, i.e. have different personalities, Psychological Limitations, Vulnerabilities and the like, then you'd perhaps be better off buying one of them as a Multiform. You can put Limitations on the Multiform to represent any difficulties in changing that you may envision for your character. I hope that helps. If anything isn't clear feel free to post followup questions.

Re: Transformer's Spark Hmm... well, if you built the Transformers' bodies as Vehicles or Automatons, the the Spark could be designed as an Artificial Intelligence which controls the body when it occupies it. A basic AI is an impotent intelligence without some physical system for it to manipulate, which would match the source material. The AI doesn't have any BODY score, so it's intangible and not "killable" in any normal way; but the Fourth Edition Spirit Rules allowed for special attacks which destroyed EGO rather than BODY in order to kill spirits, so I would suggest BOECV attacks which do BODY damage to the EGO of the Spark.

Re: Cyberpunk resources? Hmm... frankly, what you're describing doesn't sound much like most variants of "cyberpunk" that I'm familiar with. The closest thing to it would probably be the Matrix film series, where cyberspace is a virtual world not that dissimilar from the physical world, but in which people's avatars have extraordinary abilities comparable to low-level superheroes. The dystopian tendencies of most cyberpunk settings wouldn't really suit the tone of your campaign. You say that cybertech or biotech augmentation isn't common; that's among the most substantial categories of free HERO material available, but I'm not sure how interested you'd be in using that. I'm also unclear as to how much of the traditional activities of cyberspace "netrunners" you want to incorporate, e.g. ferreting out secret information, covertly reprogramming computer systems, etc. Again, there are sources for that we can direct you to if desired.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN I thought for some time about whether Menton would leave his mental paddy-paws off his fellow conspirators, and came to the conclusion that it would be in his best interest to do so, at least for a while. First off, as I mentioned in my story, these villains are all very intelligent, and Menton guiding their thoughts too closely to his own way of thinking would stifle their creativity and initiative, which could be very valuable to RAVEN. Second, and perhaps more importantly, most of these villains are strong-willed and react badly to attempts to dominate them (high EGO and Psych Lims), so without constant supervision by Menton they could throw off his mental domination at any time. As soon as they realize they've been under Menton's control they'll likely inform their colleagues, and RAVEN will blow up in Menton's face. And even being Hunted by Dr. Destroyer wouldn't be worse than having these seven p!ssed-off masterminds on his trail. That said, I would expect one of the first acts by the non-mentalist villains would be to recruit mentalists of their own, to at least warn them of psionic intrusion. I figure Gravitar would look up her countryman Le Bouc, and Molnya his fellow Russian Slun (both from Champions Worldwide, and both with the right temperament to be part of RAVEN). Teleios probably has a brain in a jar to serve as his psychic watchdog. And thanks for the props.

Re: Cyberpunk resources? To offer any intelligent suggestion, I would need more information. What are the ground rules for the campaign? What's the overall tone - gritty? Humorous? To what degree will the action be divided between the physical world and the cyberworld? What abilities will characters have access to in the physical world? What are the characters' objectives in the campaign supposed to be? Who or what are the opponents or obstacles that they'll be facing? What you're describing seems a bit like a mixture of "cyberpunkish" settings and Palladium's Rifts, and there's certainly a lot of free material for both that I could direct you to; but the tone of the campaign sounds more upbeat than those settings.

Re: Which Villain Do You Want to Play?

Re: Which Villain Do You Want to Play? From Champions characters, I'd love to play Firewing. There is a streak of nobility in Ariax Thone that's eclipsed by his obsession with victory and glory, but I think that sufficiently dramatic events could cause him to reevaluate his purpose in life and turn his passion to a more positive cause. On top of that, he has a classic origin, great visuals and SFX, and I enjoy playing powerhouse characters.

Re: Total lack of ideas, clock is ticking down Courtesy of our board colleague Oddhat, here are a fine set of 350 heroes with a mystic background, based on the classic Champs org "The Circle," but usable without that background info: The New Circle. The webpage has links to both HTML character sheets and Hero Designer files.

Re: Total lack of ideas, clock is ticking down May I suggest going to this webpage from the "Free Stuff" section of the website, and dowloading the "Champions Random Hero Generator"? It's a conversion of the Quick Superhuman Generator from the Champions genre book to an application for a PC, which will randomly generate characters of all archetypes, to exactly the point standards for Starting Superheroes that you specified, using only standard HERO System rules. While random characters can sometimes come out a bit wonky, this will let you churn out a large number of samples in a very short time, giving you lots to choose from. And of course you can tweak any of the results to suit yourself. Even if you don't run them as generated, I believe you'll find them helpful to spark your own ideas.

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds I'm with BoneDaddy here. Did you want ideas for alternate worlds that have died, but parts of them were preserved by the Builders and are still "alive"? Did you want the PCs to encounter worlds that are dead, and just want rationales for what killed them? Or did you want the Builders to have preserved only the forces that had killed these worlds, like some kind of apocalyptic arsenal?

Re: Traveller for Hero... Someone on RPGnet raised the issue of what the new Traveller HERO would contain and what would be needed to use it for Traveller campaigns. If someone from the design team would like to address the original poster's questions, here's the thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=285587

Re: ideas for dead alternate worlds If you don't have it you ought to look for the 4E supplement Champions In 3-D. It has a bunch of suggestions for alternate worlds, and even a fairly decent random generator. Anyway, here are a few that are either favorites of mine from that book or are well-known classics: "The Enemy" (Nazi Germany/Imperial Japan/Soviet Union) defeated the United States and established an imperial branch of their own regime over America. The dinosaurs never became extinct, mammals didn't evolve to dominance, and sentient dinosaurs are the civilization of the planet. Magic is very strong and reliable, and took the place of technology: people commute on flying carpets, watch entertainment on crystal balls, heat their homes with captive fire elementals, etc. The Aztec priests commanded actual divine magic from their gods. When the Spaniards arrived they were easily defeated, and then the Aztecs crossed the Atlantic and conquered Europe. The rest of the West eventually followed, and now provides living sacrifices for Aztec altars. Alien invaders conquered the Earth and decimated the human populace. The few remaining humans are hunted by the aliens for slaves, experimental subjects, or food. The Earth has become toxically polluted, the ozone layer is gone, gene-tailored diseases got loose... whatever the reason, the surface of the world is inhospitable to Man, so the survivors hunker in underground shelters.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

Re: Interstellar Era Alien Races Sorry I missed this thread the first time around. You can definitely add the Mandaarians to your list, at least as far as humanity being aware of them. According to Champions Universe, the Mandaarians made peaceful contact with Earth on several occasions between 1973 and 1999. They sent parties to explore Earth and observe human cultures, and on at least one occasion exchanged gifts with an elected official of the United States. I have no further information as to later formal contacts between humans and Mandaarians, but it would certainly be reasonable to assume that they continued to observe human civilization as it expanded to the stars. Given the Mandaarian policy of non-intervention, any contact that they did make likely had little effect on the course of human development.

Re: Healing I tried using that same construct for a while when 5E came out. I noticed that if I applied a +1/2 Advantage to keep the Aid from fading below starting value, then applied the Costs Endurance Limitation (-1/2), I ended up with a construct with the same Real Points as 5E Aid, but mechanically the same function as 4E Aid. Since the biggest concern about 4E Aid was not its mechanics, but that it seemed to be too cheap for its benefits, I felt that this solved the whole issue nicely. The thing about Healing is that it has a built-in anti-abuse parameter in its maximum damage Healed. Whether that's good or bad would be up to the individual, particularly since so much else in the system does not guard against potential abuse in that way, leaving it up to individual GMs to decide what is or is not abusive.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? The question is more why the Midwest would not want to be allied with Canada. Those states already have very close ties to southern Ontario and Quebec, the most populous and among the most prosperous regions of Canada. Canada controls the rest of the Great Lakes, so cooperation on that front is unavoidable. Similarly, Alberta is a huge source of oil and natural gas to the US, and your Pacific Union would very much want secure access to them. Keep in mind that Canada is the largest trading partner of the United States, both for importing resources and as a market for your goods, so control of trade with Canada would be of considerable strategic value. As it stands the Pacific Union, Union of New England, and Midwest Union would be in a position to practically cut off the Union of Texas and Christian Coalition from that trade.

Re: Why do we have skills? All right, you guys make a good point. If you use the writeups for Super Skills as just the mechanical way that their cost is derived, you could otherwise treat most of them as Talents. I am somewhat mollified, and my blood pressure thanks you.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? You might also consider the possibility that as the situation deteriorated, some of the northern states might consider some sort of union with Canada. Ties between Canada and various cross-border states are often close, and if times became that uncertain they might feel that Canada would be a more stable option. OTOH Canada might have fractured too, even joining with some of your American unions. The early '80's were a particularly fractious period in Canada's history: powerful independence movement in Quebec, disaffection with federal policies in the Western provinces, perennial economic problems in the Atlantic provinces. With Canada so interconnected with the States, some provinces may have felt they had to choose sides.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? Big event, huh? Well, let's consider some of the legacy of Reagan's tenure as President. His economic policies, while socially divisive to a sizeable degree, largely benefited the industrial power block in the United States, cementing their support. He was definitely sympathetic to the more conservative elements of American society, as well: "family values," Christian ethics, etc. His massive spending on defense put pressure on the Soviet Union's economy which contributed to its collapse. While Reagan ultimately accepted the moderating world political trend and made overtures to the USSR, his earlier stand was far more confrontational. So, let's say the Reagan influence gets terminated far earlier, as I suggested. A more left-leaning Democratic candidate is elected with a radical (for the time and society) social program, more populist but not at all accomodating to big business. The new President is much less concerned with defense and more with accomodation, working for closer ties with the Soviet Union and even opening relations with Cuba. The Soviets, emboldened, embark on a new imperialistic expansion, perhaps in the Middle East to secure oil fields there. They are also accused of direct involvement in Grenada, threatening American territory. The United States government attempts negotiation, perhaps even appeasement, but in the meantime oil prices soar, damaging the country's economic health. Accusations fly that the President is collaborating with the Communists, perhaps even a Communist himself. Evidence is presented to that effect (which may be trumped up, but might even be real), leading to impeachment proceedings. Oil prices and political instability drag the economy down, and protests by supporters and opponents of the President lead to riots. A rogue element of the American military attempts a preemptive invasion of Grenada without the President's approval, prompting other military leaders to challenge the President's legitimacy to lead. A military coup attempt fails, but its leaders garner sizeable public sympathy. The situation could certainly spiral out of control from there.

Re: Ultimate Skill - Good for new groups? Purely from the viewpoint of players, they might benefit from this quality fan-created website by Franklin W. Cain: a huge list of Background Skills for any genre or time period. Although Franklin's House Rules for Skill use are not official, you can easily ignore them and just use the name and definition of the Skills to flesh out your characters. OTOH Franklin's system does address some of the issues you raise, so you might like to adopt elements of it.

Re: Ultimate Skill - Good for new groups? As in "lots and lots of detailed descriptions, explanations and options." The whole Ultimate line really tries to expand a particular area of the system, so while if you're a real "system head" it can be fascinating to delve into, a lot of newcomers find the sheer volume and variety of material intimidating. And Ultimate Skill is one of the more voluminous of the series.

Re: Ultimate Skill - Good for new groups? It would help to have a little more detail about what it is that you feel is lacking in the core rules for Skills that you would like to add. Also, is this something you'd like as a GM tool to help you adjudicate certain situations, or as something that your players can delve into on their own to flesh out their characters? The book may be a little dense for the latter if they're all newbies.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? Here's another thought: With a name like "Christian Coalition," that state sounds ripe for some type of fundamentalist regime to have taken power. It's certainly stereotyping of the "bible belt," which might offend some people; but I have to admit that I would enjoy the balance of a portrayal of Christian extremism for a change. It's not like it's never happened before in history.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? Hmm... I think you're going to need some radical political developments from the top down to justify such a massive shift. For starters, I'd recommend having VP Bush's tenure as President after Reagan's assassination run only to the end of Reagan's first term, to clear the way for a more radical (from whatever end of the political spectrum) successor. You'll also need to define issues for each region that would be profound enough for them to separate. These will probably be defining elements of the character of each "nation" in your new world order. There could have been some influence on these regions from their nearest neighboring major countries. I'm thinking that Canada, Mexico and Cuba could have been contributors politically and/or economically, and will probably be major allies or enemies of one or another of the new countries. I'll have to give this more thought and get back to you.