Lord Liaden

Re: Leadership Powers Check out the description of Presence Attacks in the rulebook. Inspirational Presence Attacks directed at friendly/allied parties are tailor-made for this kind of effect. I could see buying extra Presence, Only To Inspire (probably -1). Oratory is pretty much a mandatory Skill for motivating people. A successful Skill roll can also add to the aforementioned Presence Attack.

Re: Any more Alien Wars? FWIW there are two adventure scenarios for the Alien Wars setting published in Digital Hero: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: Can three races that hate each other set aside their differences long enough to defend their planet in this Alien Wars adventure? DH #20, PAGE 33 YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR: CAPRICORN: This Alien Wars adventure lands your Star Hero characters on an icy lake world full of Xenovores. DH #21, PAGE 13

Re: Genre conventions I've spent time among both groups, and while the combination can exist in one person, it's rare - the average mindset is pretty different. When they do combine successfully, we tend to get people like Stephen Hawking.

Re: Genre conventions Having read this and other threads started by Robyn, I've come to believe that he (she?) is consciously or unconsciously striving to discover a Grand Unified Theory of Imagination: what it is, and how and why it manifests, particularly in story. Robyn seems to approach gaming issues from a different perspective than most of the rest of us here, so we often end up talking past each other. I suspect it's the nature of HEROdom; we're witnessing the frustration of a philosopher interacting with a community dominated by engineers.

Re: Need help with...The List... Well, if the heroes can eventually put it together, the villains can too. It might be interesting if Paragon doesn't always succeed in eliminating the competition - if in fact some of his rivals realize they're being targeted and start fighting back. Master villains often being geniuses, that's not unreasonable. The PCs could find themselves in the middle of a conflict between a known master villain and the still-unknown Paragon. One party or the other might even approach the heroes openly to attempt to recruit them to his side, which could make for some good roleplaying. It's also a good fallback position for you to identify Paragon if your players don't pick up on being manipulated; even smart players can sometimes astonish you with their obliviousness. And of course, there's always the ultimate Champions Universe deus ex machina maneuver: Dr. Destroyer knew about Paragon all along, and isn't really dead...

Re: Need help with...The List... As long as you don't fall into the temptation to make your villain the protagonist of the story, you should be fine. Some GMs enjoy their villainous creations so much, make them so capable and admirable and sympathetic, that they sometimes lose sight of the PCs as the heroes of the story, and that the villain exists to highlight their heroism and to ultimately be defeated by them. It's understandable, but IME nothing poisons a gaming group worse.

Re: Need help with...The List... Dr. MID-Nite, I apologize if this observation is off base, and I don't intend to offend... but from your remarks I feel I should caution you against becoming too enamored with Paragon. I've seen this with the pet characters of some GMs, and for that matter some comics creators *cough*StarlinThanos*cough* - they make their villains too perfect, without exploitable flaw or weakness, and have them effortlessly "deal with" other major villains just to demonstrate to the heroes (or in the case of RPGs, the PCs) just how bad@$$ they are. All too often said villain becomes the focus of the story rather than the heroes. I'm certainly not accusing you of Mary Sue-ism, especially since I don't have the details of how you intend to use Paragon. I just felt the point was worth raising, and having done so I will now shut up and let you run your own game.

Re: Wait, you mean 5ER doesn't have all the rules? Heck, imagine the HG staff's surprise when they found a bunch of hardcopies of the HERO System Resource Kit, many months after they thought they'd run out and dropped any plans to reprint it. There are still copies of that in the Online Store too BTW.

Re: Anywhere but your own country This Wikipedia article on the city highlights the vast campaign potential of Bombay, or as it's now officially called, Mumbai.

Re: Wait, you mean 5ER doesn't have all the rules? Personally I was very fond of the HERO System Almanac and HSA II that came out during the Fourth Edition era. I thought it was a great concept: an annual grab-bag of optional and/or expanded rules, treatments of different specific areas of genre gaming, more details on elements of the Hero Games worlds, updated reprints of older OOP material, all in a bound softcover book for a reasonable price. I would snatch up such a book for Fifth Edition in a second if it became available, but I don't think it's in Steve's game plan. Digital Hero appears to be the principle kitchen-sink option today, with elements from that going into more targeted books when Steve deems them appropriate.

Re: Anywhere but your own country

Re: Need help with...The List... I've used the pairing of Holocaust and Gravitar a few times since 5E came out. It was suggested in a plot seed in Conquerors, Killers And Crooks; IMO it's a very natural combo, given the remarkably similar backgrounds and worldviews they share. Mind you, these are two very volatile personalities, so they've been kind of the super Battling Bickersons of my campaign. They team up for awhile, then have a falling out over whose plan to follow or which one is to blame for their most recent failure, then get back together again. When they do cooperate, though, their vast combined power and wealth, Holocaust's political contacts, and Gravitar's scientific expertise can lead to devastating developments. As a result of an earlier discussion about this couple on the boards, I've been toying with introducing a character come from the future to the present day: the child of Gravitar and Holocaust, with all the power of both parents.

Re: Tell me of your Hero Point/Dramatic Editing mechanics The approach that I've used in my games, pretty successfully IMHO , is essentially a synthesis of several other systems that fellow HEROphiles have described from their own campaigns. The core of my approach is based on Jesse Zwerling's "Action Points!" system (his exclamation point, not mine) which can grant automatic successes for certain rolls, which other HERO variants which I've seen don't. I follow Jesse's guidelines for what the points can be used for, and when/how often. You can read about Action Points! on Jesse's pulp campaign website, "Thrilling True Tales," here: http://www.armlesstigerman.com/intro/pulp/playersguide.html Action Points! do allow for "dramatic editing" of game continuity, but to a limited degree. I expanded the options for DE by using Donald Doepke's adaptation of "Inspiration Points" from White Wolf's Adventure! pulp game. It's the only circumstance under which I allow more than one point to be spent on a single action. Donald has a full DE chart on his own HERO pulp campaign website, "Amazing Adventures!" which you can scope out here: http://web.archive.org/web/20031216220545/home.earthlink.net/~ddoepke/amamechanics.html When I started using a points system I noticed the same kind of problems that Rapier, bigdamnhero and Ockham's Spoon have: some players hoard them and are afraid to spend them, and may even feel helpless without them; while others never bother to use them. Then I came across Scott Bennie's "Luck Pool" system, a variant on Luck dice. I adapted Scott's Luck Pool, which has a set maximum size based on the number of dice someone buys, and a method of renewing the points in the pool independent of the GM handing them out. Thus a person can buy as large a reserve of points as they (and the GM) are comfortable with, or none at all if they don't want to use them. IMO this fits the "pay for what you get" philosophy of HERO. Here's where you can read about Scott's Luck Pool, and (very cool) Luck-based Talents: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=440594

Re: Brainstorm: The Black Paladin Recruits! Say, how about a court bard? Someone to immortalize the deeds of the Paladin and his knights in song. BP has already pried Cloaca away from DEMON - you think he could pilfer Professor Samedi, too?

Re: Need help with...The List... More or less in terms of Special Effects of her powers, but not the actual Power, Extra-Dimensional Movement. With the proviso that I don't know whether these characters/groups exist in your campaign: Istvatha V'han would have to be considered one of the greatest threats Paragon could face. She can travel the dimensions and even time at will, her resources are unrivalled, and she's already demonstrated her intention to conquer the Earth. Dr. Yin Wu is probably second only to Takofanes as the premier occult master villain in the world, with his own plans for conquest, and is himself suspected of meddling in the plans of other villainous forces in the past. Don't forget Eclipsar, from Champions Worldwide. Tremendous raw power, coupled with the intention to destroy the Sun and end all life on Earth (and possibly the means to actually do it) makes her a fearsome wild card. If Paragon has any respect for the occult, DEMON would have to be dealt with. It's by far the largest and best-organized evil cult in the world, with serious magic power. As a psionic himself, I'd have to think Paragon would want to neutralize PSI as soon as possible. Their danger to his manipulations and secrets is second only to Menton's. ARGENT may be a group Paragon should take seriously. They have access to some of the most advanced technology on Earth, and looking over Champions Worldwide I was struck by how many pies they have their fingers in around the globe. On the heroic side, UNTIL is the premier law-enforcement agency dealing with paranormals in the world. Its resources are vast and diverse, and its influence globally pervasive. The most powerful, or at least prestigious superhero teams in the present-day CU would appear to be the Sentinels and the Justice Squadron, who have combatted threats around the world and beyond. However, while the two aforementioned teams may include some mightier members, China's Tiger Squad is a far larger team and perhaps the most formidable collectively (pun intended). Some solo heroes haven't been given writeups yet, but their backgrounds imply that they're heavyweights in their own right. I'm thinking specifically of Hyperion, and possibly Albion, of Britain; Albion appears confined to the British Isles, though, which would likely make him less of a threat. Andre Almeda, the current Earthly Star*Guard, might also be a problem for Paragon, particularly if you run him at the power level of the SG from Galactic Champions. In any case Almeda is closely connected to a vast interstellar network of peacekeepers, which could be a danger in itself. I would also expect Paragon to be watching for the rise of a new Archmage, an instant major obstacle. You mentioned some Fourth Edition characters. Do you have others in mind that exist in your campaign, or would you like suggestions as to ones you can use?

Re: Be the Spider! You might also want to check out the Spider's HERO character sheet: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/6532/spyder.html

Re: Hero Plus Adventure #18 -- The Tablets Of Destiny -- Now Available!

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members

Re: Could someone tell me about star hero?

Re: Worlds of Empire You're partly right, but it isn't the Arcane (from Alien Enemies), although Steve Long said that they were one inspiration for his version of the Thane. It's the Thane who will be given more detail in WOE, including a character sheet of a sample Thane. There will also be more information on the Elder Worm, including a few more of their occult artifacts. I'm afraid that's all I've seen about it beyond the promotional blurb.

Re: Hero Plus Adventure #18 -- The Tablets Of Destiny -- Now Available! Which is one reason why I love having it in PDF on my The Ultimate Ultimate Collection CD. Pages 159-160. The section of writeups for magical items starts from p. 157 to 164. Personally I'd boost the power level of most of them - the 5E Champs Universe is generally a heavier weight class than 4E.

Re: Transformer HERO? Also, don't overlook scrolling down Matt's page to his "Higher Point Writeups." Quite a few of those are classic Transformers, too.

Re: Could someone tell me about star hero? There are several detailed reviews of Star HERO on the RPGnet website; you can access them via the links on this webpage. For the first of those reviews, the followup discussion makes some comparisons with GURPS Space (albeit the GURPS Third Edition version).

Re: Hero Plus Adventure #18 -- The Tablets Of Destiny -- Now Available! Huh. That's a pity. The Tablet is described and statted in detail in the old Ultimate Supermage sourcebook. Mostly it has great powers to give the bearer mastery of others: Mind Controls, Transforms, big Presence boost, plus other abilities.

Re: Archimago I'd like him to possess Donald Trump, just to see if his powers are miraculous enough to fix that hair.