Lord Liaden

Re: From the mouths of babes Sometimes we spend too much time worrying about themes, logic and internal consistency in our game worlds, and tend to forget that first and foremost they're supposed to be fun.

Re: Fighting talk Point #1: fair enough, although Martial Maneuvers do less Knockback than normal HTH maneuvers, so in campaigns that use Knockback that is a slight relative detriment. HA also benefits more from being Advantaged than MA Maneuvers do. For Point #2, there are some potential ameliorating factors. One is SFX; by default every attack is supposed to have a defined point of origin, so defining one Strike Maneuver as a punch and another Maneuver as a kick can allow someone whose arms or legs have been immobilized to still fight. Another is Multiple-Power Attacks, which you can perform by combining several Martial Maneuvers, so there can be a benefit to variety. I also want to add that I've often chosen Maneuvers in combat based on the bonuses or penalties that they confer, especially against other Martial Artists; I like the tactical options that they give me. I admit I may be in the minority on that, though.

Re: Background help Hmm... Dr. Destroyer is certainly a possibility, but taking him as a Hunter is a rather risky proposition. If the character's powers can be even remotely connected to reptiles, especially with a reptilian appearance, then King Cobra (described in the adventure book Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth and the new Evil Unleashed villain compendium) would be very appropriate. KC would likely count as a More Powerful Hunter for a 350-point beginning character. OTOH if the PC's powers/appearance could be classed as insectile, Hornet from Conquerors, Killers And Crooks would work well. He's a 350-pointer himself. Another possibility is the Warlord, also in CKC. He's created one superhuman minion for his War Machine supervillain team by grafting cybernetics to him. He could also try grafting body parts from the alien "blueboy" (Hzeel) corpse in his possession to grant the recipient superpowers, as happened to the VIPER villain Occulon. It would be logical for the Warlord to choose a soldier to experiment on. He would be More Powerful than a beginning character. The late Professor Muerte, formerly the leader of Terror Inc., had the knowledge to create a monstrous superstrong follower, Giganto, and brainwashing was certainly his style. You would need to rationalize Muerte's survival of the treachery of his former lieutenant, Scorpia (now a member of Eurostar), or else create a successor using his technology and maybe name. IIRC our colleague Enforcer84 wrote up a returned Muerte - I'll see if I can find that writeup. EDIT: Ah, here's the webpage where you can view the updated Muerte: http://www.realschluss.org/chad_riley_npcs/Villains/Legion_of_Muerte/legion_of_muerte.htm . Scroll about half way down the page. This version of the Prof would almost certainly count as More Powerful.

Re: The Elder Worm homeworld Good memory, Trailblazer. That's the only reference to Wormworld that I've yet come across - GC p. 88, bottom right hand corner. It's not a lot of info, but for Bob's purposes that may be just as well.

Re: The V'han/ Tyrannon War! Everything old is new again, ain't it?

Re: The V'han/ Tyrannon War!

Re: The V'han/ Tyrannon War!

Re: The V'han/ Tyrannon War! In the description of Tyrannon from The Mystic World, it suggests that Tyrannon might even free a King of Edom deliberately if he thought that would benefit him, and not care about the consequences. OTOH Skarn is said to be well aware of the danger the Kings pose to the entire Multiverse, so that prospect would be one way to draw him into this conflict. Luther Black wouldn't be too happy about this development, though. "His" Kings of Edom have to be released under specific circumstances for his plan to work.

Re: The Thane and Magic in Star Hero Okay, okay, I got it wrong. Let me turn my back to you to facilitate your flagellation.

Re: UNTIL: Defenders of Freedom, Arcane Adversaries and Mystic World PDFs now available! Keep it up, Mr. S! Your hard work is much appreciated.

Re: The V'han/ Tyrannon War! Marvelous stuff gang! We always get more than we give when we put up a premise like this. Hermit, those seeds are definitely pertinent. It would be easy to work them in as events leading up to or part of the war. Oddhat, the Five are neat characters and could plausably be drawn into Tyrannon's service; but I was thinking more along the lines of supernatural villains who already possessed a retreat that the Big T could use as a staging area. Someplace like Lugendu (the source of Joseph Otanga's power could act like a homing beacon to Tyrannon); the hidden city of Agharti (Tyrannon breaks the magical prison confining the Aghartians to their city, in exchange for the service of an army of mystic super martial artists); or Lemuria (wouldn't T like to get his hands/claws/tentacles on the Mandragalore!). I do agree that you could let another Earth group back V'han as well, although the GM should be comfortable with the greater complication that that would bring to running the scenario. If you want to follow up a potential alliance between the PCs and V'han, letting a group of "good guys" give refuge and assistance to her troops would be a reasonable development; but leaving V'han with a military foothold on your planet is always a risky venture. For my part I was thinking that ARGENT's advanced facilities in Awad or Larisagrad might attract the Empress's attention for a base of operations, just as evil magic would attract Tyrannon's. For that matter the Vale of Javangari probably has the most advanced tech on the planet, but I can't see Dr. Destroyer taking Istvatha as a partner, let alone a superior. Chimpira, what a great character backstory and leadup! I can't imagine why I never thought of Istvatha V'han having a "royal family," but of course it's completely within genre. And there's no reason why she wouldn't have had at least some of her children artificially augmented just as she was, hence an origin for a supervillain, or hero in the case of your campaign. Lord Mhoram, good stuff, especially in adding immediacy to the classic Anopheles scenario. Talk about your "Oh My God" realizations! That sort of thing is part of the fun of messing around with time and dimensions (at least in a game).

Looking at the possibilities in the Champions Universe for some major high-powered plotlines, it occurred to me that the long-standing pan-dimensional cold war between Istvatha V'han and Tyrannon the Conqueror could heat up at any time. The trick to using their conflict as the basis for PC adventures is making the heroes care about the outcome of a conflict between two menaces to the entire Earth. I can think of one answer to that: make the conflict spill over onto this world. Here are some ideas I had for running this, which are of course free for any interested parties to use; but I'm hoping that you folks can also come up with interesting twists to the basic premise. As an opening scenario, large numbers of non-human beings start popping in without warning all around the PCs' home city, causing panic and chaos wherever they appear. Some of them are superhumanly powerful and destructive, so the PCs are called in or take it upon themselves to try to quell the disturbance. In the course of their encounters the heroes discover that these aliens are not hostile invaders, but refugees. They come from a world in another dimension subject to either Istvatha V'han or Tyrannon, which was invaded without warning by their ruler's great rival. Using available dimension-spanning technology or magic, they fled to the nearest neutral dimension, Earth's. It may be that the plight of these victims would be enough encouragement to cause the heroes to want to intervene on their behalf, but if the PCs take an "unfortunate but not our concern" stand, the GM would have several options to ramp up their incentive. The refugees could continue to pour in across the heroes' home country or the entire world, by the millions. If the tide can't be stemmed by stopping the conflict on their homeworld, Earth will have an unprecedented humanitarian crisis on its hands. That might also prompt the heroes' government to request their help. Refugees might not be the only intruders, though. The military forces of either or both of these great powers may attempt to establish bases on Earth in an attempt to outflank the enemy by striking from an unexpected direction. If you want this development to take shape more slowly, or to leave longer-term complications, V'han or Tyrannon could recruit an Earthly government, organization or supervillain with a power base to provide them with a safe beachhead from which to prepare their attack, in exchange for knowledge or material assistance. It would be in the world's best interest to break up this alliance before the Earthly party became to much of a threat. Of course the government, org or villain may merely be ousted when they're no longer useful, prompting them to offer to join with the heroes to take their territory back from the invader. Stopping the refugee situation or invasion might be a matter of destroying the gates that the invaders are using to attack the refugees' homeworld, and/or to supply their base on this world - a good covert-assault type of adventure for a team of super PCs. If desired the storyline could end there as far as Earth is concerned. OTOH the situation could continue to escalate, e.g. the refugee flood is halted but the strategic invasion of Earth would follow it. In order to bring the threat to this world to a halt, the heroes (if they're very powerful) might want to carry the fight to the invader, leading to a dimension spanning adventure arc. Overcoming either V'han or Tyrannon would be a daunting task even for the mightiest superheroes, having to penetrate the villain's home base and confront him or her directly. As an alternative the PCs might offer to ally with one power, whose support would make a confrontation with the other much likelier to succeed. Istvatha V'han would be the logical candidate, since unlike Tyrannon she can at least be reasoned with. Another tack would be to try enlisting the third great interdimensional conqueror in the CU, Skarn the Shaper, to intervene. The PCs could present themselves as a neutral third party honestly interested in brokering an end to hostilities. Their challenge would be to convince Skarn that it would be in his best interest to stop a war between his two greatest rivals. If the heroes have discovered evidence that whoever started and/or is winning this war is preparing to assault Skarn's realm next, that might do the trick. OTOH the PCs might uncover that it was Skarn himself who started the war masquerading as V'han or Tyrannon, to weaken his rivals enough to seize some of their territory or even overthrow one or both of them. Delivering proof of that plot to the other two dimension lords might be enough to get them to stop the war, but it might be difficult to liberate the proof from Skarn's home base. Well, that's as much of the possibilities as I've worked out. I'd be very interested in hearing any of your ideas for embellishments, plot twists to introduce, or important elements or plot holes that I've overlooked.

Re: Let's keep cruising the Pacific! Next stop, Nan Madol! And in the Hero Universe, the site is of no small mystic significance. See DEMON: Servants Of Darkness for details.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN Here are a few additional plot ideas related to the characters I've suggested as leaders of RAVEN. Note that some of these draw from GM's Vault material from Hidden Lands and Champions Worldwide, so if you're wary of spoiling those books you should look away : I would expect Menton to attempt to woo his sister Mentalla away from Eurostar and join RAVEN, but for the time being she's more useful to him where she is. Not only can she keep him apprised of Eurostar's activities, but she can help direct their rampages toward targets that will benefit RAVEN's long term goals. Destabilizing Europe's governments, economy and society will pave the way for RAVEN stepping in and seizing power; when the chaos there is at its height Menton will have Fiacho eliminated (as a cyborg he doesn't fit Menton's criteria for "superhuman") and absorb Eurostar's paranormal members into RAVEN. I would suggest that over the years of Doctor Destroyer's disappearance Menton has effectively taken control of his powerful and influential clan, the Medinas, away from Destroyer, probably maintaining the official clan leader, his father Paccoro Medina, as his mindthralled puppet. Menton's precognitive great-uncle Jorge and supervillain cousin Rafael could both be inducted as domini of RAVEN. However, it would be to Menton's benefit to maintain the pretense that the Medinas still serve Destroyer to allow him to keep tabs on the Doctor's operations. I would expect one of Molnya's first acts to be bringing both Slun and Beek into RAVEN. Together they could easily dominate Russian organized crime and raise its effectiveness worldwide. OTOH Molnya would likely use his increased influence to support Russian nationalist attempts to reestablish a Russian Empire. Lamplighter might take a position as "advisor" to a dictator of one of the more agressive CU nations, such as Joseph Otanga of Lugendu or Garrastazu e Silva of Chiquador, pushing them to war with their neighbors and making the already turbulent African and South American continents even more explosive. In particular, Garrastazu e Silva's interest in developing his own cadre of superhumans would be a ripe field for RAVEN to plant their own recruited or created supers, who of course would actually be loyal to RAVEN. With the powerful mind-controllers in RAVEN's ranks it would be practical for them to promote revolution in Atlantis that would lead Stingray to the throne, giving RAVEN a safe secluded base in which to operate. If Zorran were one of RAVEN's leaders he'd have his eye on Lemuria, but with the mighty Empyrean mentalist Arvad already on the throne that would be a harder nut to crack. However, Zorran would have a powerful enticement to gain support from Lemuria's nobility, the fulfillment of their greatest desire: practical immortality, via Teleios's cloning and mind-transfer processes.

Re: Hero System for Horror gaming It's certainly possible to use HERO for horror. As my colleagues have pointed out, Hero Games published a sourcebook for horror for the previous edition of the game, and plans to put out a new one in future. There are also some guidelines for running horror games in the "Genre By Genre" chapter of the Fifth Edition, Revised core rulebook. The key thing to keep in mind is to make the menaces that the heroes face a serious threat to them. Horror is about feeling threatened and vulnerable. In HERO that generally means starting the PCs relatively weak with fairly low point totals, and using some of the optional rules that increase the lethality of attacks in the game, such as Hit Locations and Bleeding. There are also some very good fan websites dealing with HERO horror gaming. For example purposes I recommend William Mistretta's excellent Twilight of the Dead site, with detailed notes for running a campaign in the world of George Romero's "living dead" movies, both general and HERO-specific. A lot of his advice is applicable to any horror-themed game. Here's where you can view it: http://www.yamoslair.com/totd.html

Re: seeker missiles design? The way that you're doing it is essentially the way that it's written up in published Hero sourcebooks, although most of those writeups use Vehicles with a computer guidance system rather than an Automaton. Either way works well, though. Note that the Attack Power can take the Charges Never Recover addition to the Charge Lim, because the missile is destroyed when it explodes. Not all missiles should be Area Of Effect or Explosion, though - anti-aircraft or anti-tank missiles, for example. Even if it is AOE, it's of course possible to Dive For Cover to avoid the damage. Keep in mind that a missile built as an Automaton or Vehicle has a movement rate, so it can conceivably be dodged or outrun, and a DCV so it can be intercepted before it reaches its target. Given the Special Effect of the attack it may also be possible to Missile Deflect it with an appropriately defined defense, such as an anti-missile system.

Re: Published Character Variations Probably the most significant alteration in my own campaign is to Doctor Destroyer. I've combined elements of the Champions: New Millennium version of Dr. D with his 4E and 5E versions, with a nod to C:NM's incarnation of the Black Paladin: As in his 4E origin, Albert Zerstoiten was indeed aboard a ship leaving Europe that was torpedoed by a British submarine. As the waters of the Atlantic closed over him, his rage and frustration at his thwarted destiny touched a similar spirit deep beneath the ocean: Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer was roused from his millennia-long slumber. Sharna-Gorak was able to project his consciousness and a fraction of his power out of his prison and attempted to possess this mortal to use as a host, but Zerstoiten's will proved too strong for the Destroyer's weakened state. In the course of their struggle Zerstoiten managed to convince Sharna-Gorak that they could work together to subjugate the modern world. The two personalities fused into a single malevolent entity. Sharna-Gorak's power sustained their joint body until it could be rescued, but his Qliphothic energies had disfigured it - Zerstoiten's rescuers attributed his injuries to flames from the wrecked ship. The rest of Dr. Destroyer's history proceeded pretty much as in the 5E Champions Universe timeline. Not having full access to Sharna-Gorak's awesome magical power (it mostly remained with his entombed body), Destroyer turned to technology to make up the difference. My version of Dr. Destroyer did indeed die during the Battle of Detroit, but in so doing he also absorbed the life essences of the 60,000 innocent people killed that day. Drawing on those energies he eventually "pulled a Sauron," reconstituting himself with his magical powers vastly enhanced. Unfortunately he still lacks the full power of his original form, and being incomplete his enhanced power is consuming his host body, causing it to age like that of a mere mortal. Point of irony that owners of DEMON: Servants of Darkness might appreciate: after his return Dr. Destroyer finally had the power to free his original body and reclaim his full primordial might, but when he did so he found that something or someone had stolen the power from it. The incensed Destroyer is actively seeking the thief, and when he finds him his wrath will be terrible... Then there was my attempt to incorporate Mechanon 3000 from Galactic Champions into my modern-day CU campaign: Ages past, a peaceful, mechanically-talented race arose on the planet Zarnos. The height of their civilization was the creation of fully sentient machines, the most advanced of which was the central intelligence which coordinated all other machines on the planet, called "Mechanon." Naming themselves the Unity, the organic and artificial lifeforms of Zarnos lived together for centuries in peace and harmony. Creating a Utopian environment on their world, they had little desire to explore the rest of the galaxy. However, Mechanon grew increasingly dissatisfied with this state of affairs. Programmed to maintain order on Zarnos, Mechanon came to despise the chaotic, flawed organics. It viewed them as a virus infecting the perfection of "its" machines. The day came when Mechanon seized direct control of all the machines, using them to kill first the sentient Zarns, then all organic life on Zarnos, transforming it into a wholly machine world under its command. Those machine intelligences who resisted Mechanon were either "purged" or fled the planet. For thousands of years Mechanon maintained its perfect world - until the first alien explorers arrived on Zarnos. Although they were quickly destroyed, others followed, and Mechanon realized that it would never be free of the organic infection until all such lifeforms had been eradicated from existence. It launched a host of avatars of itself to other worlds to undertake its campaign of extermination. Although the avatars have had some notable successes, many organics have proven surprisingly resilient. Mechanon is losing patience, and has undertaken the construction of a mobile form for itself, powerful enough for it to conduct its "final solution" personally. BTW I was originally gearing up for a major story arc dealing with an alliance of interstellar civilizations against Mechanon, which my PCs would have been caught up in; but my campaign had to wrap up this summer, so I'll have to hope to run it sometime in the future. Most of my other changes have been fairly minor, such as combining Teleios with his 4E predecessor as CU master geneticist, Malachite. I did expand the Cult of the Red Banner beyond its published details for use in my campaign. I posted a summary of that to the boards a while back, here, if anyone's interested. I also recently introduced the latest incarnation of an idea I used for 4E Champions, that of a four-color supers version of the classic Champs villain org RAVEN, firmly based in the published 5E CU. For anyone who hasn't seen that, it can be viewed on this thread .

Re: Worship the Destroyer If you don't mind my asking, what's happening in the rest of the world? If find it hard to believe that the other great powers would have just stood by while Destroyer took over the most powerful and prosperous section of the planet. How did they get involved (or why didn't they), and where do they stand on Destroyer's realm now? And just as a corollary to the topic of the thread, are Purgite "missionaries" active outside North America?

Re: A question of getting into Fantasy Hero GM(s) and Player(s) Okay, let's take a (deliberately simplified) look at some of the things you could explain to your players once they have basic understanding of the rules: "Alright, the setting we'll be using is called The Valdorian Age. Essentially it's a world like in Robert E. Howard's Conan novels, or Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser: campaign tone is pretty grey on the good/evil front, combat can be quite deadly, magic is subtle and dangerous to use, there are lots of nations and factions jockeying for position with each other. We'll be starting in a major independent city that's a lot like Leiber's Lankhmar." Or... "The setting is called The Turakian Age. It's similar in a lot of ways to most mainstream fantasy RPG worlds. It has some of the same races, major "good" and "evil" nations, powerful magic and cinematic action. We'll be starting play in one of the more civilized, enlightened nations." Or... "The campaign will be using a HERO version of the setting from Forgotten Realms/ Eberron/ Planescape/ Warhammer FRPG/ Harn/ Lord of the Rings/ Glorantha/ Sengoku/ Jorune/ Testament/ Wheel of Time (whichever your group is already familiar with)." I'm not kidding here - if you follow the link in my signature, below, you'll find a lot of converted material for all those settings. Now, on to chargen: "Here are copies of the Package Deals for various common fantasy races and professions from the Fantasy HERO genre book and (any of the previously mentioned sources). They're a lot like character class and race templates from other games, except you can customize the basics to make the character the way you want. To start with, pick a template and write the relevant Characteristics, Skills and Disadvantages onto your character sheet - they're already costed. If you want a particular race or profession combo, just add the elements from all the relevant templates. Then we can go over them to adjust them to your tastes." Magic spell selection: "Here's a copy of the Fantasy HERO Grimoire and (other source relevant to the setting you want). Tell me what kind of magic you want to play, and we'll find the appropriate section. Each category of magic has a list of spells that you can choose. Do not look at the detailed math writeup. Each spell description starts with its name, a brief summary of how it works and what its effect is, and how many Character Points it costs. That's all you need to know to use it, and all you have to write on your character sheet. I can keep track of any other details that might come up during play until you're more familiar with the system. Once you have the basic spell you want we can modify it if necessary so that it works exactly as you want it to." Combat: "We'll be starting out using the basic rules and standard maneuvers for combat. There are lots of other optional elements that can be added to get the flavor and level of detail in combat that you enjoy, but we'll work those in as you become more comfortable with the system and want to experiment." Obviously this is abbreviated and simplified, but the point you should get across to your players is that they can choose the things they want for their characters quickly and easily without worrying about all the details of how they're built, and start playing right away. I guarantee that if their initial response to HERO is positive, as they get more into the game they'll want to understand more of how it works and be more proactive in character and Power design.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN Let me just add that I'm deliberately bucking the trend in Fifth Edition CU organizations of highlighting the agents, their different specialties, equipment and vehicles, while downplaying the supervillains of those orgs. This RAVEN exists for and is dominated by superhumans, and they're the focus of any significant confrontation with RAVEN. Their normal human agents are primarily used for mundane organizational activities and minor missions, or to provide support for their "betters" during major operations.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN

Re: Surbrook's Is Being Moved Michael, will the site web address be changing? 'Cause if it is, I've got a lot of links to update.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN

Re: Worship the Destroyer "Purgite" sounds cool for a follower, and I agree with Haerandir's suggestion of "Purgator" for a cleric - it sounds rather ominous, and reminiscent of "Purgatory". I do find "Purgationism" to sound a bit too clinical and scientific, though. Maybe something a little shorter and pithier, like "Purgatism?" OTOH there's no reason that all faiths have to be an "-ism." I quite like just calling it "Purgation." Pretty much sums up what it's about IMHO.

Re: Worship the Destroyer Superhumans who oppose Destroyer's rule are widely considered "fallen," like the angels who rebelled against the true God. They exist to tempt and corrupt the righteous, so what they say is automatically received as lies. Those who consort with them are attributed the same horrific practices as every persecuted religious minority in history: human sacrifices, kidnapping children for sacrifice or slavery, depraved orgies etc. On a slightly different front, the official CU has often drawn associations between Dr. D and the Hindu god Shiva, and the Doctor himself is reputed to be intrigued by the analogy. You could incorporate elements of that into "Destroyerism," so that Doctor Destroyer is seen as the force that tears down the corruption of the old world, making it clean for new, pure growth. (And there has to be a better name for this faith than "Destroyerism.")