Lord Liaden

Re: Patriotic Heroes Considering that there's already been a General Glory, why not?

Re: Space Wizards (character info) Essentially we're looking at immortals or legacy characters, then. Certainly Thalya and any of the Empyreans from Hidden Lands could have survived to this era. Sovereign from Galactic Champions could easily become one of the major master villains. And of course Istvatha V'han just never goes out of style. Teleios is a master of cloning, so he could still be around. Maybe this would be the era in which we finally learn who gave him his secrets of genetics. For that matter, Captain Chronos might very well have come from this era originally. How about continuing the succession of the Black Mask? We'd probably be up to #60 by then. You could also have the ring possessed by Meteor Man passed on to successive wearers, or someone in the future find a similar meteor fragment. Speaking of meteors, kelvarite should still be on hand unless it's all gone inert over the previous 1,500 years. Perhaps you could create heroic versions of Tachyon or Thunderbolt II? I should think that the Star*Guard would be pretty much mandatory. Non-magical immortals are a little scarcer than magical ones, though. I'll have to sift through my books and get back to you.

Re: Patriotic Heroes You're both right. DC used the name for a character before Marvel, but Marvel did give it to Vance Astro, probably after the death of DC's character freed up the name. Link To keep the theme of the characters that Major Freedom (heh!) has already devised, you'd just need to add nouns that reflect qualities popularly associated with the United States. "Liberty," "Justice" and "Unity" all come to mind, but there are undoubtedly other appropriate ones.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Well, let's assume for a moment that New Con is on the Oregon coast. (I have ulterior motives for that, which I'll get to in a bit.) The southwestern part of the state is a heavy mining region, including silver. Just because the mine in the immediate vicinity of the city is defunct doesn't mean the rest of the region is tapped out. Mines that contain undiluted silver ore are rare; most silver comes mixed in with deposits of lead, zinc and copper, all of which Oregon has in good supply. The state also produces gold, nickel and mercury. A major coastal city in the middle of a rich mining area would be the natural refining and distribution center for the region. That part of the state is pretty mountainous, so good agricultural land is fairly scarce. OTOH Oregon is rich in timber, one of the state's main products, so lumber and pulp-and-paper mills would be a natural here. Combine fishing, mining and wood products with an excellent port (New Con is based on one of the finest natural harbors in the Mediterranean), and you have a solid economic basis for settlement. Note that Oregon's rock formations have plenty of limestone in them, so it would be reasonable for there to be a quality marble quarry nearby, which could have led to the naming of Marble Beach. That's one of my aforementioned ulterior motives for putting New Con in Oregon. Here's the other: Oregon's first white explorer was Captain John Gray near the end of the eighteenth century. "Grayden" could have been the original name of the settlement here, in his honor (probably fur-trading since that was Gray's motivation for coming to the coast). You could even use Grayden as the name for the Old City part of New Con, if you wanted to swap.

Re: Working on New Constantinople You mean, like renaming it "Hamilton Bay?" Hermit, have you given thought to the demographics of New Con? Just how big/populous a city were you looking for? How about the local economy - fishing, tourism and filmmaking alone won't support a very large burg.

Re: Desolidification, Always On... Except When It's NOT... "On" was the first word I tried leaving off. It's "always" that the Search doesn't like - too common, apparently. Even if I just search Steve's posts, even in a single forum.

Re: Help with a Super Villain Well, since you say that you don't plan to use this character again, and since his capacity to go toe-to-toe with your PCs doesn't appear to be an issue, I'd say that whether or not you use an "official" CU vampire wouldn't make much difference. I would suggest just using the Bestiary stats for the Greater Vampire, strengthened or weakened depending on how tough your PCs are (assuming you'll have him face them in battle at all); then name him Baron Victor Heinrich, and run the game.

Re: Accidental Hero ID Well, how about listing the HERO books that you do have? Then perhaps one of them will ring a bell with someone.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Well, Greece has been associated with the Middle East for a long, long time. Heck, Alexander and his Greek followers conquered the entire Middle East, and spread Greek culture and science throughout the region, which had a huge impact on its development. Besides, the original Constantinople is now Istanbul, and is part of Turkey. Not to mention that it was Roman for many centuries, and capital of their Eastern Empire. A little cultural cross-pollenation in New Con wouldn't be completely out of line.

Re: Astro City: How to get the feel of the series in Champions? Sorry, Savinien, I wasn't blaming you for having two threads on the subject. Just wondering how it ended up this way. No offense intended. I realize that you're building your own city setting, but I recommended San Angelo as inspiration for how to develop and use such a setting, and I stand by that. I certainly get your point about dealing with the fallout of super-battles, and that's a good idea; but some character developments would probably be precipitated by other events, such as failed romances, lost jobs, children addicted to drugs, etc. OTOH you may involve your players in scenarios that still require the use of their powers or exceptional skills, but have nothing to do with combat: fighting a natural disaster and rescuing those threatened by it, delivering aid supplies to isolated areas, tracking down a lost or kidnapped child, helping the victims of an outbreak of disease, rebuilding destroyed neighborhoods... all of these things emphasizing interaction with normal people.

Re: Astro City: How to get the feel of the series in Champions? I think that you'll need players who really enjoy the roleplaying part of the gaming experience, because to capture the character-development emphasis of Astro City will require a lot of it. External conflict is the focus of most supers comics, and of role-playing games generally, including HERO; but an AC-like setting would put greater emphasis on internal conflicts. You'll have to avoid the "fight of the week" mindset in your game sessions - many sessions would involve nothing but roleplaying. I hate to say it, but this isn't an area where HERO shines more brightly than lots of other games. In fact there are a few with "social interaction" mechanics, "life paths" and the like that might even be better suited to it. Still, some elements of the system should be given greater consideration. The players really need interesting NPCs to interact with and care about, so the GM would want to make extra effort to develop them and use them. That includes DNPCs; many of the PC heroes should have them, and the GM should carefully consider ways to use them other than just as hostages to draw the heroes into a trap. PCs should also have some Psychological or Social Limitations that will pose challenges to them in their personal lives, and that they can justify eventually "buying off" as personal growth. However, buying them off should not be the players' motivation; they should be willing to allow the GM to use them as inspiration for interesting character stories. I can make one other suggestion: if you haven't already, find a copy of San Angelo: City of Heroes. That setting book does a wonderful job of working the fabric of a city into the supers milieu, especially in presenting a "bottom-up" view of how normal people treat the supers in their midst. You really get the sense that the development of San Angelo has been shaped by the supers among them: business, advertising, government, law and law-enforcement, popular culture, and the way that people live their lives. In fact Kurt Busiek recommended San Angelo for people who wanted an AC-like setting. (BTW why do we have two threads on this subject?)

Re: Working on New Constantinople I hope you don't mind me continuing to drop in , but I did have a thought about Grayden that I wanted to share. A few of the unused warehouses in the neighborhood could have been converted to film sound stages, originally to serve the growing martial-arts film business in neighboring Kong Town; but the facilities are beginning to attract the attention of producers based in Los Angeles to the south, for whom New Constantinople is an increasingly attractive site for location shoots. (Oh, FWIW I personally would leave Terpsichore's in Grayden. Trendy clubs aren't built in trendy locations; they make trendy locations.) You're very welcome, and don't worry about it. I'll consider your hat having given blanket tippage.

Re: Sidekick Questions...

Re: Desolidification, Always On... Except When It's NOT... I don't know if the specific example for "Always On" is in 5ER since I don't own that yet; but Limiting the points that you use to buy off Limitations is given as a general principle in the FAQ, under "Power Limitations - General Questions." I know that I've seen Steve Long address the Always On build issue in particular here on the boards, but the Search function won't accept the word "always" no matter how I define the other parameters, so I've been unable to call up that example yet.

Re: Supernatural Special Forces Good points. The original, pre-"daywalker" comic version of Blade used knives made of sharpened teak, an extremely hard wood, against vampires rather than simple stakes. It would probably be logistically practical to carry blessed hand weapons, as well. They aren't expended as often as ranged ammunition.

Re: Working on New Constantinople I feel like I'm in a "zone" right now - I can't stop the ideas from coming. All of these are just suggestions, of course. New Constantinople is set on the shores of Bosporus Bay. The inlet that separates the rest of the city from North Way is officially named Glenn Inlet, but folks in Argo commonly call it "the Hellespont." Two large ferries regularly traverse Glenn Inlet between North Way and Argo, the Odysseus and the Europa. A scenic highway runs along the shore of Bosporus Bay from the Pallisades to Marble Beach, named Emperor's Way. Walking paths also line the shore at several points. A natural breakwater off the shore of City Center and the Downshores was reinforced and extended in recent years to create an enclosed area safe from Pacific waves. Called Safe Harbor, the area is a popular family attraction. Boating is a common pastime, and the small islands dotting Safe Harbor are sites for parks and picnic grounds, and a small amusement park. (I derived this directly from the map.) Another small island in Bosporus Bay bears an old defunct lighthouse. The island was understandably renamed Pharos Island for tourist purposes, although the lighthouse isn't remotely as grand as its namesake. Nonetheless regular boat tours run out to Pharos Island - the view from atop the lighthouse is quite good, and the island is popular with picnickers. New Constantinople and its suburbs are served by an integrated commuter rail service, which advertisers often describe as "the Occident Express."

Re: Desolidification, Always On... Except When It's NOT...

Re: Supernatural Special Forces That's a very clever idea. Sometimes, though, you need projectiles with penetrating power to put the toxic substances past the target's tough hide and into its bloodstream. A few pop culture sources have suggested stuffing the tips of standard hollow-point bullets with garlic, wolfsbane and the like. Particularly nasty with automatic weapons. Rock salt is sometimes considered to be effective against zombies, ghosts and other things, so shotguns loaded with that would also be good to have in the arsenal. Given recent advances in the development of man-portable, chemically powered laser weapons, it wouldn't be a big technological leap to arm some of your troops with ultraviolet lasers. UV is a common pop rationale for the traditional vulnerability of various supernatural creatures to sunlight. The UV lasers wouldn't have to be powerful enough to seriously harm creatures without that vulnerability, so they'd be practical with today's tech.

Re: Working on New Constantinople A few more thoughts: I think it would be helpful to consider what kind of "expansion" was encouraged in Benneford: Commercial? Residential? Industrial? Middle class housing, or perhaps affordable housing for the less prosperous? If residential, a lot of the locals would probably work at the businesses in nearby Marble Beach. I'm guessing that City Central would be the location of City Hall and other municipal buildings, and perhaps the principle corporate offices in the city. My suggestion would be to have the municipal buildings grouped around a central plaza designed to accomodate tourists (green space, fountains, open courts etc.), and call the whole complex "Delphi Plaza." It's up to you as to whether these buildings are modern-style architecture, or faux classical to emphasize the city's Greek heritage. If you go for modern, though, you might want to make the original City Hall be the classically styled one, to make it a tourist attraction. (That city hall would probably be located in Old City; see my suggestions below for the Old City district.) Whether or not City Central is the city's business center (you describe North Way as the currently favored district for "corporate expansion"), this might be a good place to put some of the city's recreational facilities, such as parks, gardens, stadia for professional sports teams and the like. BTW what pro sports teams does New Con have? I noticed that you said some of the buildings in Old City have been "recently renovated." A lot of major cities have revamped their older sections into "historic" neighborhoods to appeal to tourists: clean everything up, restore the older period buildings, add monuments and museums to specific eras or people, and allow in gift and souvenir shops and other businesses which cater to the tourist trade.

Re: New to game whcih books do I buy?? As you can see, HERO gamers are such a diverse and independently creative bunch that getting a concensus from us on almost anything related to the game can be tough hoeing. When you get right down to it, though, the HERO System Fifth Edition, Revised core rulebook is all you really need to start playing in any genre. It has all the core rules and most of the options published for the line, plus examples of characters, weapons, vehicles, superpowers, magic spells, tech etc., plus character creation and combat tutorials, plus advice on running particular genres such as supers or fantasy. The many support books published by Hero Games go into far greater depth on all of these subjects, offering you more options and in many cases providing tons of prebuilt material to save you the effort of designing your own; but these things are really optional in the end, adding fairly little in the way of actual new rules. If you intend to be the Game Master for this game, the core rulebook would be your essential starting investment. If you just intend to play in a game where someone else is the GM and has experience with HERO, IME you'd be better off learning the game by reading HERO System Sidekick, the simplified (and far cheaper) introductory version of the rules. Sidekick alone would be enough for a player to start playing, but even if you do plan to GM, being new to the system Sidekick might still be the best thing to start with. Since Sidekick is so cheap ($10.00 for a bound copy, or $7.00 for a PDF), you could probably afford to also get the main rulebook if and when you're ready to upgrade. If you decide that HERO isn't for you after reading SK, you're not out much. Beyond that it's really a matter of deciding what you're interested in exploring further. You're welcome to come back here then if you'd like more advice. Hope you enjoy HERO!

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Bob, I was wondering if you'd given any thought to using DEMON in your setting? There's virtually nothing said about it following the Edomite's master plan, but it would be a shame to waste such a rich evil occult organization if they could be useful. I have a few thoughts and suggestions, if you'd be interested.

Re: So I found this site I haven't seen before...many Champs write-ups! Moochers grass seeds! Man, that is a lot of sheets. I agree with Sketchpad that they look really good for .doc files. And the "Hero Filebank" link right next to the Vault looks pretty interesting, too. This is going to take a while to sort through, but it looks like I get to update my RPG conversions list this month. And rep to proditor for bringing this to our attention.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Well, you mention some of the old warehouses being converted to dance clubs. Given that the neighborhood isn't high-end these probably aren't the trendiest clubs, but probably inexpensive enough to be popular with many young people. The "hottest" club would just have to be Terpsichore's, after the Muse of Dance. You could add a bit about the cutting-edge tech firms based in Grayden - that's always useful to a supers setting, particularly if other old warehouses were being used by them, or even converted to laboratory or manufacturing space. I can suggest a few names, in keeping with the Greek theme of New Constantinople: "Zeus Electronics," "Hermes Telecom," "Archimedes Engineering," or "Asclepius Biotech."

Re: So I found this site I haven't seen before...many Champs write-ups! proditor, or anyone else: I'm not clear on whether that website includes character sheets for the characters in question. Up to now all I've been able to call up are larger images of the characters. If there are character sheets, could someone explain to this numbskull how to get at them?