Lord Liaden

Re: CU question: See through super material? proditor, I was looking through Hidden Lands when a thought struck me. There is a super-strong transparent material in the current CU: crystallos, created by the Lemurians. Now, crystallos is the product of secret Lemurian alchemical processes, which may not work for your purposes; except that the Lemurians used it to create exactly the kind of underwater domes it sounds like you're looking for. As the Lemurian population diminished over time, many of their domed outposts were abandoned. According to HL, one could discover one of these outpost domes anywhere around the Indian Ocean. Someone using one of these domes to establish a new underwater base might at any time accidentally uncover an ancient Lemurian technomagic device, abandoned golem, or even a long-lost colony of Mole Men. Could make things interesting.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) Well, I am curious as what your position might be on alien gods/spiritual entities. The official CU sourcebooks seem to follow the usual mainstream comic tack, in that Earth is unusual in having real mythological gods who walk the contemporary world; but in an era of high magic it doesn't necessarily have to be unique in that regard. In fact Desert Dragon, of the Sword of Ackal in Galactic Champions, was apparently granted her powers by one such Ackalian spirit. I was thinking that certain alien religions might lend themselves to beings with "divine" origins, such as the Avatars of the Velarian Scomaru Shaan.

Re: Anyone combine Champs with Call of Cuthulu? In Champions In 3-D the adventure was called "Horror World," but Allen prefers the title "ANOPHELES: Atrocities From Beyond." IMHO this is the most successful merger of horror and supers that I've seen, and explicitly stated as inspired by Lovecraft. Mr. Varney has kindly put the entire text of the adventure up on his personal website (with Hero Games's kind permission): http://www.allenvarney.com/anopheles.html . I was also partial to the Champs adventure Demons Rule by Charles Brown. That one actually set part of the action in rural New England, with the writings of pulp horror author "Howard Pickman" playing a pivotal role in the action. BTW Mr. Brown has errata to DR, and a couple of characters cut from the final published version of the adventure, on his website devoted to the pre-5E incarnation of DEMON: http://members.aol.com/DEMONTh254/Driver.html . (Click on the link in the lefthand menu entitled "The Black Files.) If you did want to combine Champions with Call of Cthulhu, I'd suggest following the link in my signature, then scrolling down to the CoC listing. Lots of material from that game, and the Mythos in general, converted to HERO.

Re: Darkseid? But the HERO System is a really big box and one heck of a shoehorn.

Re: Space Wizards (character info) I know you'd prefer suggestions on how to mingle non-mystic characters into your Space Wizards setting; but it occurred to me that while Takofanes crumbled to dust went the magic went away, his Dragon Crown and Scepter of the Undying King probably didn't. They could make for a good villain origin, or MacGuffins in an adventure.

Re: A possibly dumb question I agree with Zeropoint; the changes between 4E and 5E are mostly small, and the ones that aren't are usually easy enough to figure out in context. For pre-4E Champions, though, the changes are more substantial. If you follow the link in my signature, below, and scroll down to the listing for "HERO SYSTEM (Pre-Fifth Edition)," you'll be able to find summaries of the differences between the current edition of the rules and earlier ones. You can also view fan-created updates of some of the older published material.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Perhaps the Asian percentage of the population, and therefrom the Other Religions, should be higher. For more than the past ten years, by far the highest percentage of immigration to West Coast port cities has been from Asian countries. Do you have a name for the river that runs through the city? I was thinking the Cox River, as the basis for the previously- and unfortunately-named "Cox Falls."

Re: Darkseid? John Desmarais's version of Darkseid and the Omega Effect from The Great Net Book Of Real Heroes is closer to what Steriaca and ChaosDrgn are talking about. It is for 4E HERO, but not much would change for it under 5E: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/text/Darkseid-jd.txt

Re: Space Wizards (character info) Plainly the palindromedary is not a poet. Just in case that was genuine incomprehension, you can check the second definition in these dictionary entries for each of those words: http://www.bartleby.com/61/91/A0239100.html http://www.bartleby.com/61/92/A0239200.html It's extrapolated from the fact that the flowers of the amaranth last an unusually long time before fading after being cut. Poets imagined an idealized version, as poets are wont to do. BTW did Lucius enjoy the flowers of the pigweed's cousin, the Love-Lies-Bleeding?

Re: Working on New Constantinople Why do you think I don't use my real name online?!

Re: Working on New Constantinople I think the sports teams are nicely thought out, especially the varying fortunes of New Con's franchises, and the personal stories around them. (I've been chuckling over "Achilles' heel" all day.) Thanks also for the hockey support - although I'm apparently one of the few Canadians who doesn't like hockey.

Re: Space Wizards (character info)

Re: Space Wizards (character info) So, I guess Arvad the Betrayer will be stuck on Earth too, unless he chose to give up rule of Lemuria before the barrier came down. I'm not sure I follow the rationale for cutting off these planets from the rest of the galaxy. It seems to limit the potential elements that GMs could bring into the setting, as well as familiar Earthly elements of the CU that folks could relate to. But I would be prepared to be schooled.

Re: Space Wizards (character info) Very interesting notion, but you'd have to come up with a good rationale as to why a particular hero was transported, probably having to do with his powers and/or origin. Dr. Destroyer's death ray wasn't really a time-travel device. And we wouldn't want to cheapen the Battle of Detroit by sparing too many of the heroes who supposedly died there.

Re: Patriotic Heroes Enola Gay! (Okay, maybe not.)

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.