Lord Liaden

Re: Villain Teams in New Con Say, Hermit, is there any place on the Internet that you have info posted about your campaign that those of us on the fringes can view? You know, PC and/or NPC writeups, campaign logs, that sort of thing? I'm curious to see what elements from all these suggestions you decided to use, and how you've been using them. If you have reasons to keep that stuff just within your gaming circle, though, no problem.

Re: How would you create this power? There are some interesting options presented in the UNTIL Superpowers Database and USPD II under "Cyberkinesis Powers." The basic ability to manipulate unintelligent machines is covered by Telekinesis with Fine Manipulation, Only To Affect Machines And Machine Parts. However, another Cyberkinetic power construct, the ability to activate and direct weapons remotely, is used as the SFX for an Indirect EB or RKA. One power designed to allow remote control of a vehicle is built as Summon Vehicle with the Slavishly Loyal Advantage; apparently SL is intended to cover the character's capacity to control the vehicle remotely. Also, Steve Long's "HEROglyphs" column in Digital HERO #14 presents a new optional Power, "Activate," allowing someone to activate or deactivate a machine at range with a successful Attack Roll. I apologize for not giving more details about any of these constructs here, but I'm trying to stay within "fair use" guidelines for quoting Hero Games's IP.

Re: Vulnerability questions From the FAQ: Q: If a character has two or more Vulnerabilities that apply to a single attack, how should they be applied? A: If a character has two or more Vulnerabilities that apply to a single attack, add the multipliers together to get a final multiplier that affects the damage. For example, a x1.5 and a x2 become a x3.5 multiplier; two x2 multipliers become a x4 multiplier. So, the official answer is "yes." As for an "official" example for Vulnerability beyond x2, there is a suggestion in Galactic Champions p. 143 for increasing the destructiveness of superhumans vs inanimate objects (a common convention of the subgenre) by making such objects Vulnerable to the super's attacks: "You can set the Vulnerability level wherever he wants - 1 1/2 times BODY, 2 times BODY, 3x BODY, or more." (Emphasis mine.) No method for calculating that degree of Disadvantage was given, though; it's just a campaign groundrule. That's the closest that at a published book comes to the subject AFAIK.

Re: Super-sorcery Necromancer Ideas... Help! The website of the great Global Guardians PBeM shared superhero world includes a fairly sizeable grimoire of spells that are intended for "supermages." Spells listed that seem particularly suited to necromancers include: Age to Destruction Bleeding Touch The Immortality Jar Montero's Retaliation Ray of Fatigue Zala's Web of Shadows

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers* azato, since you have all those 2300 AD books, you might appreciate these HERO conversion notes for that game for Characteristics, Skills, and Weapons, plus professional Package Deals: http://users2.ev1.net/~redroach/ad2300/Hero.htm (Note that the "Space Military" Package Deal will have to be highlighted to be read.) I also recommend exploring the rest of that website, "2300 AD Collective." It has a great deal of quality fan-created material for the game and/or setting.

Re: Star Frontiers Conversion Indeed. There's quite a bit converting races, weapons and spaceships on this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814 Note that some of the more cluttered-looking posts early on the thread are reposted later in a clearer format.

Re: Campaign apocalypses: anyone ever done/been in one? My current group is breaking up this summer, so we've decided that we want to end the campaign with something world-devastating. I trust my players enough that I guess I can just warn them away from this thread: Since I'm running a modified version of the CU, I've decided to use Takofanes as the precipitator for this crisis. He finally succeeds in capturing the Crowns of Krim; but rather than simply taking their crowns or binding them to his service, Takofanes uses the Crowns (artifacts and wearers) as the foci of a great ritual for something even worse. Takofanes summons six of the most powerful and destructive demonic entities abiding on the Earth: Samhain (Champions Universe), the Murk (Hidden Lands), the Living Sphinx, Survalesh, Li Chun the Destroyer, and Eclipsar (from Champions Worldwide). Even with the Crowns Takofanes cannot wholly control such powerful demons, but he can direct their natural destructiveness when and where he wishes. The PCs will start hearing reports about these demons rampaging outside their normal areas of activity, then about two or three of them acting in concert. They'll encounter some of them, enough to give them a really tough fight but for neither side to have a clear victory. Then they'll learn of Takofanes enountering a major NPC superhero team; when several of these demons appear to support him the heroes are slaughtered. That's when the devastation begins in earnest. All these other activities were just trial runs - now Takofanes starts turning his hounds loose on anyone who might seriously oppose him, hero, villain, or nation. I've lined up a few sources for clues to let the PCs know that the key to breaking up this threat lies with finding and freeing the Crowns of Krim, which will require them to penetrate Takofanes' defenses surrounding them. I'll probably have a very p.o.'d Tak return to confront them at that point, and the heroes may be forced to team with the Crowns to defeat him. Depending on how that goes I might throw one more complication at them: the demons actually like working together since their goals are mostly compatible, and continue to do so even when free of Takofanes' influence. I'll try to make clear some of the weaknesses of their various opponents during play so that the PCs have a chance when directly confronting them. That includes the demons' collective personalities - they're unused to cooperating with anyone so their teamwork will be poor, and they all have monumental egos which the heroes may be able to use to turn them against each other. However, my whole group expects and wants a truly epic threat, and are quite prepared to confront the deaths of beloved NPCs, and probably some heroic PC deaths. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Re: Help with Islanders I didn't see mention of this on the thread, so in case it hasn't been, the Lua martial art style is detailed in The Ultimate Martial Artist, pp. 44-45. For a possibly useful RPG reference, you might want to take a look at a recent release, Atlantis: The Second Age by Morrigan Press. This is about the only book of its type that I've found that gives details of mythical/antediluvian Polynesia, to the degree that it's actually playable. There may be something there that you can use. If you'd like to see a review of the book, I recommend this one. I also suggest looking over the section on Polynesian Mythology from the Encyclopedia Mythica, here.

Re: What do I need to start GMing with?

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Sorry about the thread necromancy, but Bob's recent mention of his Space Wizards setting on another thread prompted me to go back over a few thoughts. My personal favorite character from the 4E Champions Universe was Nuada of the Silver Hand, from Kingdom of Champions. The inspiration for the legendary Irish god, Nuada was rebuilt as an incredibly advanced immortal cyborg warrior through the actions of the Progenitors. Seeing as the Progenitors existed in the 5E CU, and that some of their techology has been mentioned as still existing in this galaxy, it wouldn't be unreasonable for characters to have origins based on discovering it. This would have the advantage of adding another technological element to the SW setting so that it isn't completely dominated by magic, which is something that Bob suggested he wanted. I posited just such an origin for a character that Mike Surbrook wrote up for the Galactic Champions era, Nina Corovic.

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers Essentially, we're talking Captain America.

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers Well, I can't say that I've seen any specific medical studies of the phenomenon. I've simply come across references to such notable ability regarding various individuals renowned for their physical accomplishments. For example, the WW I Allied air ace William Avery "Billy" Bishop had always had remarkable eye-hand coordination with guns, from the time he was a boy hunting squirrels; he was said to have "one shot, one squirrel" accuracy. NBA star John "Hondo" Havlicek possessed legendary endurance, and I remember reading an article pointing out that one contributing factor was his efficient cardiovascular system represented by his low heart rate. Similarly, Muhammed Ali was examined while in his prime and found to have exceptional lung capacity and oxygen utilization. I'm just extrapolating from examples like these.

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers Well, there are certainly plenty of popular programs these days featuring low-level psychics: clairvoyants, precognitives, mediums. Some of this stuff is taken seriously by reputable authorities and organizations in the real world, so I'd say there's enough justification to include at least one. There's also real-world precedent for the "organic computer mind" character: eidetic memory, able to pull up obscure facts related to almost any subject on demand; can perform complex computations and statistical analyses in his head. Current procedural crime dramas on television have more than one of these. There have been quite a few cases of people who, for one reason or another, have had their ability to feel pain diminished or eliminated. Since pain is one of the limiting factors in human physical performance, such a person could in theory push him or herself beyond normal capabilities. (Combine that with your regenerating character, and she'd be nearly unstoppable.) Some individuals are simply born with extraordinary physical ability in a particular area: exceptionally fast reflexes, remarkable eye-hand coordination making them extremely accurate shots, naturally low heart rate and/or efficient respiratory system giving them unusual stamina, notable coordination and balance so that they can perform acrobatic stunts easily. Why not one rare individual who was born with all of those, and who for whatever reason has had access to the training to make the most of them? There's always the classic pheromone tactic. As a result of natural mutation or some experiment, a person has begun to produce various pheromones far beyond normal human capacity, which can dramatically affect any nearby humans. As a result of therapies and biofeedback training to learn to control his/her production, this person can now consciously and selectively release pheromones to cause particular effects.

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers* I don't recall any description of the physical attributes of the precursor race in the Xenovore origin story, but I don't have access to Alien Wars right now; maybe it's mentioned somewhere else. IMO that is an interesting notion for an AW scenario. Humans stumble across a surviving pocket of the Xenovore precursors, hiding on some backwater planet. They're reasonable, peaceful people, who bear an unfortunate resemblance to their more aggressive descendants.

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers* I had the Daleks in mind when I read Nolgroth's topic, too. Mind you, Doctor Who isn't always the most logical scifi show around. Besides, Nolgroth pointed out that it sounded like the Xenovores would have to have been created by psychopaths; I think Davros would fit.

Re: Learning Hero The best illustrative example of HERO combat that I've seen online is this tutorial by Pattern Ghost posted to the discussion boards, with detailed narration of both heroic and superheroic combat: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3210

Re: Is it just me? (Or does this mini look like Ripper?) A supervillain in the employ of VIPER. Big, strong, tough, with a really bad temper and a mean streak a mile wide. Mostly a basic brick without much subtlety, but with two distinctive gimmicks: a special attack that involves grabbing an opponent and literally ripping him limb from limb; and a short-term strength augmentation that pumps his STR into the stratosphere.

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members The Arrow belongs to all of Canada. The Canadian flag suit is fine for her. BTW I should mention that the way you composed the three elements of the Ontario flag (red background, the Union Jack and the trillium shield) on Big Nickel was brilliant. I can't wait to see what you do with the others. This may turn out to be the coolest Canadian national superhero team ever!

Re: What does OMEN stand for? I'm reminded of another naming tactic that I've seen suggested on the boards: the letters in OMEN are actually the first letters of the names of persons connected to the group in some way. Perhaps they're the four founders of the organization, living or dead; perhaps they're four demons or gods that the group is dedicated to.

Re: What do I need to start GMing with? HERO System Combat Handbook makes a great reference if you're new to the combat system, especially if you want to make use of all the available options. However, you should probably keep combat simple to start with. IMO this should be prioritized as an important later purchase, but not immediately necessary. Fantasy HERO Grimoire has lots of great prebuilt spells, but they're best suited to a "high fantasy" setting with fairly common and powerful magic, a la D&D. If your campaign is of that type this could save you and your players a lot of work; otherwise it's good for inspiration and examples, but not a priority purchase IMO. Ultimate Martial Artist is pretty much required for any campaign in any genre that makes significant use of martial arts. If you don't anticipate a lot of MA action in your games, I'd also put it in the "important but can wait" category. My recommendation for the next important book to pick up would be HERO System Bestiary. It has full writeups for scads of beasties from the real world (living or extinct), myth and fantasy, and sci-fi, with guidelines for using them and easily customizable templates to let you quickly build your own. There's lots there to use for fantasy as well as any other genre, so it makes a good long-term investment. IMO this is one of the most broadly useful books that Hero Games has published.

Re: Disad help Is there any magic in this campaign world? If so, the characters could be victims of some sort of minor curse or geas from the smuggler they're indebted to, that affects them with misfortune until they pay off their debts, or at least make an effort to do so whenever they come into any wealth. In practical terms this wouldn't need to be run much differently than the example above, except that the apparent causes would be different: the player with a fat purse of coins taken from the giant's horde runs into a clever cutpurse; his horse is spooked by a dog in the street and runs off; the room at the inn where he's staying catches fire and burns his goods; etc.

Re: Sidekick (only) with Fantasy ? If you have all those books plus Fantasy HERO, I'd say you're pretty much set. I agree with Derek; the players don't need to have access to the core Fifth rulebook or FH to play, as long as you have them. SK has more than enough stuff to keep beginning players happy, and anything that they want to do that's not covered in the smaller book, you can provide them with from the big one. FH itself is really more for the GM than the players, aside from things like character archetype Package Deals, weapons, or pregen spells, which you can also just let them look at when and if they need them. If you think that even Sidekick would be too much for them to start, how about copying some of the introductory documents here on the "Free Stuff" part of the website and handing them out? That would give them the basics.

Re: Double Knockback too pricey? Hmm... I think I see your point, oh Freaked-out One; but that holds true for every Advantage that you apply to a Hand-To-Hand Attack, not just Increased Knockback. I don't really think that it helps when comparing the cost of Increased Knockback to that of other Advantages.

Re: What does OMEN stand for? It would help to have a few more details about the group: motivation and objectives, organization, methods and style, etc. The name OMEN itself is "mystical" enough to be applicable to an occult group without being an acronym. Perhaps the group is following various omens or portents that they believe will lead to achieving their goals. They may even be trying to stage said omens themselves in the belief that this will bring about some prophecy. This can be a good way to allow the PCs to figure out what they're trying to do, and when and how to stop them.

Re: Power Stunts Power Skill is the route I go in my campaign, too; but I also allow a Familiarity: Power as an "Everysuper" Skill, so that any super character can do something like this on an 8- roll. There are guidelines in the UNTIL Superpowers Database for how much of the Active Points in your Power you can manipulate with an unmodified Power Skill roll; beyond that there are suggested penalties. Personally I tend to just go with a straight roll (with optional penalties or bonuses based only on situation) for the whole shebang. That promotes more creative power improvisations IME.