Lord Liaden

Re: Sidekick Questions... #1) The book's price is a bit of a Catch-22. DoJ pitched it at $10.00 US for a deadtree version to make it appealing to people wanting to try out HERO, and to allow game groups to buy multiple copies for everyone in the group. From all reports that's worked very effectively. OTOH the minimal profit on Sidekick has as you say been a disincentive for the company to reprint it. I believe that Hero Games could charge $12.00 a copy for a bound SK, and up to $9.00 for the PDF, without losing many of the casual and group buyers they're targeting with it. Beyond that, though, I think they'd risk alienating their target customers. #2) To be honest, I believe that the presentation of Sidekick is about as genre-neutral as you can get, matching what the company was trying to achieve with the core Fifth Edition rulebook. You could perhaps create a more visually striking package, in both cover and internal art and layout, to try to catch a browser's eye; but anyone with the impression that HERO equals Champions couldn't get that from either 5ER or SK IMHO. #3) I don't have a copy of Sidekick handy, but there is a sidebar early in the book which lists everything from 5ER which was completely removed from SK. Dust Angel covers some of the major things above, but there are others. Frankly I'm not certain why a few elements, such as Missile Deflection, were left out. Only Steve Long is privy to his full reasoning, and we all know how likely he is to discuss that on a public forum. This can be limiting to someone who attempts to run a full campaign with SK alone (although we've seen posts here from a few GMs who are doing just that). You would occasionally run into an effect that would be difficult to model with the more limited ruleset; but IMO that's more likely to be a factor for someone who wants to use the system to its full potential, rather than just work with what's given. OTOH I don't see this as being a problem for a GM who has 5ER, plus the list from SK of what's missing - he can easily fill in the blanks for his players as the issues arise. From my experience and what I've heard from others, Sidekick works excellently for most people as a HERO teaching tool. It has all the core concepts and most of the system rules, minus some of the optional elements and detailed clarifications. It explains things clearly and simply, with lots of examples and ease-of-use features like handy tables. Once you have this under your belt it's vastly easier to upgrade to the full ruleset, so even aspiring HERO GMs new to the system can benefit from it; and at the price it's not a terrible burden to buy SK and then follow it with 5ER (and you can always resell your SK to one of your players). I'd say the most beneficial thing Hero Games could do with Sidekick now is get it back in print. This is a request/complaint that I've heard often over the past half-year or so. The PDF is great, but many players just prefer a bound book. You're also more likely to have people purchase something if they can thumb through it at a retailer first, and it just makes for better advertising when the book is already sitting on a shelf. If raising the price a couple of bucks would make the difference to HG deciding to reprint it, I'd say go for it.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Don't mind at all, it's pleasure enough for me to see a familiar turn of phrase.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) It's almost a shame that you're using the official Champions Universe as the basis for Space Wizards, because the Bedwyr and the Maylor from the universe of The Kandris Seal would be absolutely tailor-made for it. If you're trying to publish this I guess that would be a no-no , but they'd be very easy for anyone to introduce to a SW campaign of their own.

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

Re: Working on New Constantinople The old silver mines of the Argo region can be a great place to set any number of hidden things, from gangs of street children to supervillain (or hero) bases, to lurking monsters. Perhaps they were originally closed not because the silver ran out, but because the miners uncovered something better left buried... The Athens district really ought to have a prominent hill, nicknamed "the Acropolis." Since this is a predominantly university/college area, the Acropolis would be a great setting for a museum, library, art gallery and similar showcase institutions likely to contain rare and valuable antiquities. BTW Hermit, you're shaping this to be a very interesting and distinctive town.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Yes, the Nagas are described and statted in The Mystic World. Wherever the Dragon appears, they're sure to follow.

Re: 5ER to 5E Page Numbering Well, we do have a direct link to this thread on the "Hero Links" section of the website, under "Miscellaneous." Maybe that's how Ben decided was the best way to do it. But I agree that a free document would be very handy. In fact I copied all the page numbering notes into a DOC file for my own reference. Perhaps that will help you, Ghost Raven, so I'll attach it below. (BTW GR, you and "Dust Angel" have been freaking me out with your juxtaposed avatars. I don't know who used to be who... were you "Ghost Angel" or "Dust Raven?")

Re: Help with a Super Villain You know, I can think of one other possibility. "Baron Von Darien" is a PC created by one of our boardmates, who posted his 5E writeup and background here some time back. Although not an official CU character, his history does fit into the official timeline. Also, he's actually a hero rather than a villain, but it wouldn't be hard to change his history so that the villainous act that he maintains for centuries was in fact his real personality. He's also an old and powerful vampire, and might have to be toned down for your purposes. Anyway, here is where you can look up Baron Von Darien.

Re: Help with a Super Villain

Re: Fantasy Hero 4e Companions

Re: Fantasy Hero Exalted Very nice work, UltraRob! In particular, I'd say your "combat bonus rubrick" is very much in the spirit of "Appropriate Unlikely Actions" as described in the Champions genre book, if not actually matching the suggestions there. Have you considered putting your last two posts on the "Exalted HERO Conversion" thread on RPGnet? I think it would really stimulate the conversation there for all those Exalted boosters to see more examples of how their stuff would translate into HERO.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) This just occurred to me tonight as an element that might fit into your setting: how about the Nagas, the enemies of the Dragon from The Mystic World? We know almost nothing about their origins, other than they're an ancient mystical race that's somehow connected to the Dragon. AFAICT there's nothing to say that the Nagas don't originate from another planet in this galaxy. Given that they seem to be on Humanity's side against the Dragon, they would probably become involved as mankind moved out to the stars, as long as magic is still potent.

Re: Super vehicles Okay, I'll just pull out the best of the working ones : http://www.up-ship.com/ptm/dropstuff.htm http://jpcolliat.free.fr/xfv12/xfv12-1.htm http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/database/aircraft/getimage.htm?id=982 http://prototypes.free.fr/vtol/nouv1/hawkerP.1214-3_03.jpg http://www.abo.fi/~mlindroo/SpaceLVs/Slides/sld047.htm http://www.luft46.com/misc/wes1003.html http://www.luft46.com/luftart.html http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/LockheedL-133Page.htm http://www.unrealaircraft.com/wings/ccf_liftbody.php http://www.aero-web.org/specs/grumman/f7f-3.htm And of course, proditor's webpage is functioning again: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/champsstuff/index.html

Re: Help with a Super Villain Hmm... I'm not familiar with Terror by Night, so I don't know what role Baron Victor Heinrich plays in it. There are vampires, and there are vampires. The most formidable "super-class" vampire that I've seen under Fifth Edition is the assassin Angelina, from Digital Hero #6. She's a scion of an old Mafia family, a highly-trained hitwoman, and has been a vampire for many years. She's a pure mercenary, killing anyone if the money's right; but you could certainly change her motivation if that doesn't work for the adventure. She is noted as Hunting those that she feels have wronged her. Angelina is built on 600 Character Points, and is much more efficiently designed than the Greater Vampire from the Bestiary. She's very formidable in a physical confrontation, but has substantial mental powers and stealth abilities as well. Besides her supernatural abilities and considerable combat training, she typically carries a silvered katana and an advanced needler pistol, and "ballistic cloth" armor. These things are said to bear some resemblance to VIPER and UNTIL equipment, so the character has at least a slight tie to the mainstream Champions Universe. BTW the DH article featuring her also provides a "basic vampire" template, and describes various abilities that vampires might possess which you could use to customize that template. They come across as similar to the abilities of vampires from White Wolf's RPG of the same name, which I suspect is deliberate. I hope that's helpful.

Re: Super vehicles True, but most of the other links on those threads still work.

Re: Super vehicles I think you'll find interesting stuff below: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35453 http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22106

The following was posted on the RPGnet discussion forums. It looked too good not to share.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Hmm... nope, not in the Enemies books. Even the Slug didn't look much like a Mind Flayer in his first incarnation. Could you possibly be thinking of the Prime, leader of the "Old Ones," from Wrath of the Seven Horsemen? The look of the character is bang-on Flayer, and his main schtick is various mental powers. Aside from being another ancient alien occult horror, though, he and his minions have no connection to the Thane. They're much more similar to the Elder Worms in both origin and their relation to Lovecraftian "elder gods."

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) BTW Bob, if you have easy access to it you might look up the Fourth Edition Champs book Alien Enemies for characters and concepts you could use. I can think of a couple that might fit with the campaign you have in mind. One is the Arcane, a race of pseudo-Lovecraftian creatures dwelling on an dying planet. These creatures are skilled sorcerors, but have almost exhausted the magic on their world, so they seek to conquer another with more potential. They bear obvious similarities to the Thane and could be used to add more details to your version of them. I was always intrigued by their creation of the Midnight Society, humans enthralled by an alien artifact the Arcane sent to Earth, who are working to summon the Arcane themselves to this planet. Another appropriate concept from Alien Enemies is the Pantheon. This is a group of immortal energy beings (which the 4E Champions Universe book calls "the Alpha") who interact with the physical world by bonding with organic beings, creating a blended personality and granting their "hosts" formidable superhuman powers. They often masquerade as the gods of any planet they visit, Roman gods in the case of Earth. I've used the Alpha in my own campaigns; while the Pantheon from AE were mostly what we'd now call "standard superhero" level, I decided that they were relatively young members of their species, and that ancient Alpha could be far more powerful.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Well, according to Classic Enemies, Avar-7 was vulnerable to magic due to the actions of the Thane, who were enemies of Avar-7's civilization, the Unity (an ancient culture of sentient machines, according to 4E Champions Universe). 4E CU also describes the Thane as a fantastically ancient race of malevolent sorcerors, now existing as undead beings animated through sorcery. I imagine Takofanes would feel right at home amongst them.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) I think I may be able to help you a bit, Bob. 1. There hasn't been much more mention of the Thane in official Hero Games books. However, in Digital Hero #5 Scott Bennie wrote an adventure, "Stars Of Blood," which includes a writeup for a Thane necromancer and his undead minions. As he points out, though, this isn't an official writeup; the stats were based on the Thane as he used them in his own campaign. Scott provides a few more details about "his" Thane in this post. There was also some info about the Thane in the first edition of Champions Universe, for the Fourth Edition CU. To me it looks like that was part of the inspiration for Scott's stuff. 2. I'd say that the real-world magical traditions detailed in The Ultimate Mystic, such as Voodoo and Hermetic Theurgy, would be reasonable to use in a human-occupied future world where magic worked. If you plan to allow low-level supers in your setting, you might also consider the numerous "supermagic" spells from The Mystic World. IIRC TMW also includes Technomancy. Of course there are several excellent HERO fan websites with writeups for magic spells, artifacts and the like, e.g. the ones by Killer Shrike, Markdoc and Robert Hall, that I could direct you to if you like. 3. For other CU aliens, your best resource would be Digital Hero. For example, DH #8 includes more detailed information about the Osathri, the Shiseki, and the Az'arc'a, including game stats. There's a substantial free sample from that article here. In DH #9 there are additional tidbits about the various aliens from Terran Empire that were cut from the main book. Again, some of that article is in a free sample. There's also an adventure revolving around the Shiseki in DH #11. Now if you'd like to include true superpowered aliens in your setting, you might want to check out Mike Surbrook's expansion of the Nehkojin (from Ninja HERO) in the upcoming DH #35. This isn't official HU material, but Mike has provided a background that integrates the Nehkojin into the HU. If you'd just like HERO stats for interesting aliens from various sources, you could always check my RPG conversion list. There you can find detailed stats for aliens from Traveller, GURPS Aliens, and Star Frontiers, among others. 4. You probably have these books already, but just in case : there might be useful campaign guidelines for the kind of game you describe in Ninja HERO, while the various characters in Galactic Champions could be adapted with a power reduction and name change. I hope that helps.

Re: Terrible Thoughts -- Simple Concept, Expensive Build 'Fraid not, presti. Continuing Charges can only be used with Powers that are Constant or Persistent. (FREd p. 182/ 5ER p. 284) You'd have to make an Instant Power Constant before you could slap Continuing Charges on it, and that still requires Continuous.

Re: !SPOILER! Vibora Bay You're all very kind. This outline would still require some work to prepare for alternative actions that the players might choose to take (contrary little devils that they are). Perhaps I'll flesh out some that I can anticipate later when I have more time, if anyone's interested.

Re: Hindu-themed hero And there are three more fully written up in Champions Worldwide; but I get the impression than Vanguard00 would like a rationale for creating his own original characters.

Re: CU question: See through super material? I also found this section of the article very pertinent to the conventions of a supers campaign: All those "cost-effectiveness" reasons for supertech not penetrating to wider society may not be so far-fetched after all.