Lord Liaden

Re: Vibora Bay vs. Hudson City Good catch on the VB catalyst, MS. SS, it's interesting that you say you want to set this off in the "Champions Universe" rather than the general "Hero Universe." Does that mean you want the supers background to the setting to figure into the event on some level? If so I have to agree with MitchellS that Vibora Bay has a lot to recommend it.

Re: Best published adventure Yes, by Allen Thomas, author of DEMON: Servants Of Darkness, Teen Champions, The Valdorian Age and several other cool Fifth Edition books. It features the Black Paladin and greatly expands on his background as described in Conquerors, Killers And Crooks, as well as adding three new villains, some nice artwork and several very good color maps. Most people who have read it agree that it's some of Allen's best work. SOB is a 97-page PDF available for download from the e-books section of Hero Games's Online Store for a very reasonable $12.00 US, or $14.00 on CD. You can view some free samples from the book here. One of the maps alluded to in the text of the adventure was left out, but can be found for free here on the website; it's a good example of the general quality of maps in SOB. You can view that map via this webpage. BTW Herr Baron, it's very nice to have you contributing to the boards again. You were missed.

Re: Vibora Bay vs. Hudson City I love Vibora Bay because I love mystical supers, but if you're doing a heroic-level game where supers aren't a factor then Hudson City has it beat by a mile on the content front. This is the most detailed fictional modern-day city setting I've ever seen: places, people, culture, history all lovingly delineated, backed up by Keith Curtis's magnificent maps. There's even more stuff about it available for download in the "Free Stuff" section of the website. The overall tone of the book is pretty dark, but if you're doing an apocalypse that will most likely work well for you.

Re: JEFFVERSE - Jeff T's name quest For your supermage, I've always liked Umbra as a shadow-related name. If you look it up I think you'll find that it's pretty cool. Since we originally got that whole "superman" thing from Nietzche, and the German term is ubermensch which can also be translated "overman," I always thought that a logical name for a supers-monitoring organization would be Oversight. I would like a bit more info about your villainous org before I offer any name suggestions: history, goals, resources, modus operandi, etc.

Re: IK Hero? A while back, naturaltwenty posted a link to a small PDF he'd created for a HERO version of a warcaster - I'm assuming it's a conversion of a published Iron Kingdoms character, since he said he'd based it on some of the available preview downloads: http://www.naturaltwenty.com/downloads/iron_kingdoms_warcaster.pdf

Re: Disease examples? Well, there are writeups for Rabies and Bubonic Plague in the HERO System Bestiary, pp. 22-23. Might not be the best examples for your purposes though... they run from 112 to 187 Active Points.

Re: Dimension Brainstorming: The Dimension Of Lost Stuff Just to elaborate a bit on my earlier suggestion: Corvus the dimensional ruler may have many crow/raven manifestations in the mythologies of many cultures. As the Raven of the Americas he is a creative and transformative force, but also a trickster and master of deception and chaos. Other aspects are the messenger ravens of Odin, Hugin ("Thought") and Munin ("Memory"). It's his aspect as Munin that particularly prompts Corvus to gather up things and people that have been lost and forgotten by the world, bringing them to Limbo where they can be preserved. BTW Mayday, excellent suggestions and research for Mnemosyne. Rep for you.

Re: Best published adventure If the group already has a rationale for coming together as a team, I think that The Island of Dr. Destroyer makes a great one- or two-session adventure. It's pretty straightforward and can be used to introduce Dr. D to a campaign at a power level where even beginning heroes have a chance against him. If you want a good motivation to draw your heroes together, I favor VOICE of Doom. The plight of the Freedom Squad makes a fine team-forming rationale, and gives you an established basis to build your PC team on if desired. Both of these are for Third Edition Champions. IIRC TIODD is in the Online Store, as part of the 3E GM's Screen, and pretty cheap. OTOH there are very extensive 5E updates to VOICE right here on the discussion boards.

Re: Dimension Brainstorming: The Dimension Of Lost Stuff Well, the most literal term for this kind of realm would be Limbo. While the name has a strict theological definition, according to my Oxford Dictionary it more generally applies to "A place or condition for the relegation of unwanted or forgotten persons, things, etc." As for a ruler of the dimension, I'm going to suggest Corvus, Latin for "crow." Besides its ominous connotations, crows, ravens and other corvids are well known for stealing and hoarding attractive objects that catch their eye. There's also an association with tricks and deception, through the Raven of Amerindian myth.

Re: Works Well in the Source Material, not so Well in the Game

Re: Works Well in the Source Material, not so Well in the Game Regarding the disparate power levels of characters in team comics, Theron Bretz wrote a thoughtful and practical article in Digital Hero #3, "Pointless Champions," on how to make this function in a game format. There's a substantial free sample from the article here on the website: http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh03pointlesschampions.htm

Re: Golden Age Champions Quite understandable, but hopefully a little bit of info about the Russian Front, the French Resistance and the Axis-occupied countries, as well as a few NPCs from the other Allied nations, will also find their way in there.

Re: Help with Werewolves And here's another: http://members.tripod.com/~HRClark333/Wrules.html

Re: Perils On Planet X That grand old pulp HERO campaign website, The Empire Club, features extensive and entertaining campaign logs covering several different pulp subgenres. One extended story arc dealt with this kind of "planetary romance" story - very cool: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/2687/ad23-29.html

Re: Silver Age Villains? I recall a Saturday-morning cartoon series from the 1980's featuring a 30-foot purple gorilla: The Great Grape Ape.

Re: Silver Age Villains? Villains with a recurring identifying motif, something that's a signature of their crime and often the clue that leads to their capture: always leaving riddles or puzzles pointing to their next crime; crimes involving toys, jokes and gag items, articles of clothing or the like; animal-themed or -powered villains whose activities revolve around similar animals. Old-world aristocratic villains with castles or manor houses and various minions, and titles such as Lord, Baron or Count. Villains who use high-tech or magical gadgets - often a gun-like device - with a single Special Effect, such as light, sound, adhesives, alchemical transmutations, etc. And of course, Nazis. Usually super-scientists who are WW II refugees or their descendants, or the product of experiments by same.

Re: Mystic Masters campaign (old vs. new) Never said I wouldn't do that; just that since it would be a house rule, I can't recommend it to others over the official version.

Re: Mystic Masters campaign (old vs. new) Although I have a great deal of respect for Allan Varney, I never really agreed with the double-effect Mental Powers premise from Mystic Masters. I can't recall seeing MP being portrayed as more innately effective in that supers subgenre than any other, except for supermages' ability to make normal people forget having seen manifestations of the supernatural. Then again, at the power level where most of those characters operate, they can usually rustle up the points to make that happen even with standard MP rules. OTOH I greatly prefer the Clairsentience-based Astral Form from Mystic Masters to the later Duplication/ Desolid designs. IMHO it perfectly captured how Astral Forms are depicted in comics, particularly Dr. Strange (the king of AF), without having to modify how the base Power works. If not for the default rule in 5E that Mental Powers can't be targeted via Clairsentience, I would recommend the MM approach for this type of campaign.

Re: Villian Relocation Good call on Morningstar, and I forgot about Zorran. Black Paladin is French, not British, but that works even better for twshulz's purposes. It occurs to me that since no one knows the origins or motivations of the Monster, it could appear in Europe as easily as America. And who better to haunt Notre Dame Cathedral or the caverns beneath the Paris Opera?

Re: Using Supervillain Psych Lims Another way to look at it is that, if the villain is presented with an opportunity to perform a truly evil deed he will be compelled to do so, even if it's not in his best interests. For example, if the villain is in secret ID or working on a covert scheme, he can't resist causing suffering for the sheer joy of it, which may reveal his identity or draw attention to his scheme before he's ready.

Re: Villian Relocation Welcome aboard, twshulz. I think you're going to enjoy your time spent here - it's a pretty lively place, and we're a generally friendly and helpful bunch. As you say, a number of the master villains in CKC could readily be active in Europe, since most of them operate internationally and some have their roots in that continent. Dr. Destroyer, Gravitar, Menton and the Warlord could all plausibly be working there. So too could the villains with well established reputations and m.o.'s as international mercenaries: Lazer, Masquerade, Mechassassin, Shadowdragon, and Utility. Although the majority of the Crowns of Krim are from the Americas, Dark Seraph himself is British and maintains an estate in England, so it would be reasonable for all the Crowns to be assembled there from time to time. From there a short jaunt across the Channel to steal mystic artifacts, perform obscene rituals, or cause general suffering and mayhem, would be easy to justify. Speaking of mystic artifacts, any villains with a background in archaeology and/or secret ID as an archaeologist might arrive to investigate a new find or purloin a special exhibit or collection. From CKC that would include Black Paladin (a natural to return to France), Anubis and Howler. If such a discovery had something to do with the Elder Worms, it would surely attract the interest of the Slug. And let's not forget Cateran. Although she's spent many decades in the United States, she's travelled the world extensively over the centuries and may get a yen to visit the Old World. In their attempts to recruit impressionable young mentalists, PSI might well open a "branch office" in Europe, probably under the cover of their self-help group Mind Incorporated. Firewing will go anywhere in the world he thinks he can find a challenging fight - not much need for justification there. Holocaust has ambitions of ruling the entire Earth, and his wealth and Contacts mean he could have interests anywhere.

Re: Tremors 4 "The legend Begins" And if you want to run this in HERO, here's the beastie itself: http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionscreatures/fiction/graboids.html

Re: Space Master by ICE Iron Crown Enterprises. Also publishers of Rolemaster (fantasy game), Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP, the first licensed Lord of the Rings RPG)... oh, and most of the Fourth Edition Hero Games.

Re: Custom Mechanon I agree with Sketchpad. Mechanon as designed in the genre book would make an excellent climactic confrontation for the group you suggest. He's more powerful and far more versatile than any previous version - fourteen offensive Multipower slots in two separate Multipowers, plus wide-spectrum Defenses and lots of other neat Skills and abilities - but his Defense level is such that a team of lower-powered heroes can still beat him with luck and good tactics. As for "Mechanon 3000" from Galactic Champions, your PCs will want to stay away from him for a long, long time. Try to picture the Death Star as Mechanon's head.

Re: Custom Mechanon Do you have the Fifth Edition Champions genre book with the latest incarnation of Mechanon? Because that book leaves Mechanon's true origin a mystery, there have been a couple of discussion board threads here exploring various origin concepts for him, with quite a few plot seeds implicit in them: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12908 http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37502 If you do have the Champs genre book, you'll notice that Mechanon has the power to Summon servant robots, assembling them from nearby technology. You can download the stats for his baseline robots as a PDF from this page in the "Free Stuff" part of the website: http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/writeups.htm As far as servants go, Digital Hero #12 features an adventure, "Unearthed Mechana," which besides being a good introductory scenario to a campaign, includes a less powerful "feminine" version of Mechanon. There was an IMO very good adventure for Fourth Edition Champions, Blood Fury, published under license by Atlas Games, which presents a mutli-session story arc featuring Mechanon, and which also details several robotic minions for him. It would take little work to prepare it for a Fifth Edition game. I can suggest online sources to buy it from if you're interested. Finally, if you haven't seen it yet Galactic Champions describes a massively upgraded future incarnation of Mechanon with plenty of lesser robots at his command. One of the origins in the discussion board threads above suggests how to incorporate that version into a modern-day Champions campaign using Mechanon. I hope some of that is of use to you.