Lord Liaden

Champions Universe has some information about the new versions of VIPER, UNTIL and DEMON, as well as sample rank-and-file agents for each organization, and several gadgets used by each organization. Not really enough to make them central to your campaign, but probably enough for initial encounters with Hunteds. According to the publication schedule, a new VIPER Sourcebook is scheduled for release in August of this year, UNTIL in December, and DEMON tentatively for late 2004. If you don't mind using 4th Edition HERO System material (which really isn't hard to update to 5th): the original VIPER Sourcebook is an excellent resource, with scads of agents, villains, weapons and vehicles to flesh out the boys in green. Classic Organizations has quite a bit of detail on DEMON. UNTIL received its greatest detailing to date in the old Super Agents supplement, but that's hard to find nowadays; however, much of that info was updated to 4E in the HERO System Almanac II. If you don't want to wait for the 5E versions, those 4E books contain a lot of useful stuff. They show up with fair frequency on eBay, and there are online dealers who often have them - several of us could offer you suggestions of where to look if you like. Hope that's of some use to you.

Regarding Suppression of Characteristics, the new Champions and Champions Universe provide benchmarks for Characteristics verging into the superhuman. For Strength, for example, the maximum "human level" STR is 30; it is implicitly impossible for Homo Sapiens to exceed that without some extraordinary augmentation. So, you could say that a "suppress mutant characteristics" would not work below that level. I think that Tamashii2000's Transform suggestion would be the simplest way to achieve the effect you want. You could have the reversal condition for the Transform be "when victim leaves area of mutant suppression field."

You don't take your book with you wherever you go?! How can you call yourself a HERO-obsessed geek? (Oh, right... you didn't. ) Still, designing a character without FREd close to hand is like scuba-diving without oxygen tanks.

For those interested in a supers campaign, there's a lot of ideas to be mined from Gurps IST (International Super Teams). You may disagree with the geopolitical and timeline decisions that the writers made - and of course, some of the references are dated now - but IST pays a wealth of attention to how the presence of superbeings would affect the course of world events, the law, religion, etc. It also provides tons of examples and suggestions for superbeings from countries other than the USA, including foreign language names. In these areas it's superior even to Champions Universe. It's been out of print for some years now, but I've seen quite a few used game retailers who still have copies

Many thanks, Mr. President! I hope we never become complacent about the company brass reading and responding to the discussion boards like this. It's a rare consideration, and one of the really great perks of being a HERO gamer in the new millenium.

One suggestion I've found to be useful in adding value to every point applies to Skill vs. Skill rolls: there's no mechanism given in the core rules to resolve ties, so in that case you could give the win to the character with the higher applicable Characteristic.

I almost forgot this one... HERO System Background Skills: http://fcain.tripod.com/hero_system/background_skills.html Franklin W. Cain organized a host of Science, Professional and other background Skills in an easy-to-find format, giving you precise names and definitions, and notes on how different types of Skills should be handled in game. Slightly dated with the change to 5E, but if you want to fill in the fine shadings of your character's Skill list, this compendium is very useful.

Re: *sob* Take heart, SP: It's the quality of the work that counts, not the quantity. Besides, that designation's just referring to post count. If you haven't posted too much because you actually have a life outside of HERO, that would probably put you ahead of most of us.

Two for two; ever have one of those days? Correction noted, thanks for the catch. Point taken, although even a simple "Reduced END" Advantage has a different effect on lower base-point Powers with a single other Advantage applied to them. That's one of the things that needs to be considered with Armor Piercing, for example, when comparing it to another unmodified attack of the same Active Points and Damage Class.

Fair enough. That's an accurate analysis as far as average damage goes. What I think needs to be considered, though, is what this Advantage does to the minimum and maximum range for damage in each case. To use your example: 15D6 EB: Minimum 15, Maximum 90. 12D6 +1 Stun/DC: Minimum 24, Maximum 84. 10D6 +2 Stun/DC: Minimum 30, Maximum 80. Although the upper limit in these three cases is not that different, the lower limit increases rapidly. And because the extra Stun amounts to a set quantity added to each die roll, the range of possible results is actually fewer than with the higher base point Power. That might balance out the difference in Knockback and Body damage done. And I do think that the effect of other Advantages added on to this one needs to be taken into account; that applies to any Advantage IMO. Like I said, though, I appreciate the input, as I still haven't made up my mind.

Noted and edited for correction. Thanks.

Excellent thesis, MfH! You've obviously given this quite a bit of thought. Good points to keep in mind in the real world, too.

There's quite a lot written on Chiquador in the 4E Dark Champions supplement Justice, Not Law. Since Steve Long wrote both books, and almost all the given details about Chiquador are the same in both, I feel safe in saying that the background given in JNL applies to the new CU as well. To quote: "Chiquadoraos (as the people are known) use several languages. The principal language is Portuguese, but Spanish, French, and English are also spoken by many people." (JNL p. 57)

There are a few vocal CLOWN supporters who have posted to the boards in the past, but for the majority of those who have expressed an opinion on them, that opinion has ranged from dislike to outright loathing. Sadly for the 5th Ed. future of CLOWN, Steve Long seems to be in the latter camp. But JmOz is right: they're easy enough to update to 5E if you want to continue to use them. I do think that the characters themselves are unique and diverse enough that using one or two at a time could make for interesting change-of-pace game sessions, but more than that at once is too much for me, too. Then again, I don't have the highest tolerance for gonzo gaming.

The +1 STUN/DC was given as an optional +1/2 Advantage for Normal Damage attacks in Adventurers Club #27, and I've used it since then. With the changeover to +1/4 for Increased Stun Multiplier in 5E, I've debated making this optional Adv. into +1/4 as well. My current thinking is to leave it at +1/2, because with Normal Damage there's no randomness of result as with the KA Stun Multiplier; you're adding +1 for each die of damage you roll, increasing the damage your attack can do by a significant and reliable amount. I'd welcome other opinions on this, though. Mind you, I'm one of those people who has applied a "fix" to the Stun Multiplier for KA: I roll 3D6 rather than 1D6, and divide the result by 3 before subtracting 1to get the result (I have a small chart handy with the roundings for all the possible results). This creates a pronounced bell curve with the average centering around 2.75, with the result that a KA reliably does more Body but less Stun than a normal-damage attack of the same DC, which is supposed to be the difference between them.

Don't have the new Champions handy so I can't check if there were any changes, but in the old BBB the last incarnation of the Champions paid for their base and team vehicle just as Mr. Vimes describes. I've always followed that pattern in my own games; since everyone on the team shares in the benefit of these things together, it seems fair.

Well, the +1 Variable Effect is not a small Advantage, certainly, but Change Environment is a relatively inexpensive Power, primarily because its effects on combat are limited. It's more intended to add color and to fill in useful but not highly damaging effects that aren't well simulated by some of the other, more combat-effective Powers. One of the more popular examples since the current CE rules came up is to create an icy or oily surface that makes movement on it more treacherous (penalties to DEX rolls, etc). Trying to do that with Drains, Entangles etc. always proved clumsy, and very costly in Active Points for what you get. For the kind of multiple simultaneous storm effects you're looking for, you might consider a Multipower large enough to use two or more of these Power slots simutaneously, or an Elemental Control. You could fit the main Change Environment into the Framework to bring down the cost. Still expensive, I know, but the kind of multi-power attack you're discussing can be pretty potent.

Mechanically, I like the suggestion by The Mad GM (and aren't they all? ) As far as running one character controlled by five players, how about giving each player a successive Phase during which they decide the character's actions? If you have territorial or blame-laying players that might cause a problem, but if everyone is a decent role player who's willing to share the spotlight, I could see that being a lot of fun.

Do you mean, excluding the "HERO Links" at the top of the page? Here are a few of my favorites that aren't listed there: The Master Lists of Limitations: http://www.globalguardians.com/master%20lists/ Hosted by the Global Guardians PBEM, this is a vast archive of custom Physical, Mental and Social Limitations created by HERO gamers. If you've wanted to give your character an unusual Disadvantage but weren't sure how it should work or what it would cost, chances are you'll find something useful here. Hero Games Product List: http://rhinobunny.com/derek/champions/herogameslist.html Derek Hiemforth has compiled this virtually complete list of all books, modules, and e-books that contain HERO System material, from every edition, by every publisher. Thorough and well-organized, this list is a must for the completist collector. Random Character Generator: http://www.trimira.com/hero_stuff/hero_stuff.html Fellow board member niakki has created this wonderful generator for Champions and FH characters. Very flexible and customizable, just the thing for whipping up an NPC on short notice, or givng a design-challenged player a PC to work with. The Great Net Book of Real Heroes: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/index.html A huge but coherently organized collection of comic-book and other characters from multiple sources, converted to HERO System stats. Submitted by many authors, often resulting in multiple interpretations of the same character. Many of these are still in 4E HERO, but are easy enough to update.

I don't believe those benchmarks are listed in FREd, but yes, INT 51+ is the boundary of "superhuman". Same thing for EGO and PRE, but all the other Primary Char. are at 30+ for superhuman. It's worth noting that in Champions "superhuman" refers to those levels that humans cannot achieve without some extraordinary augmentation. I believe that the high upper levels in those three categories were put in place to allow for those fictional (or perhaps in some cases, historical) individuals with extraordinary insight or perceptiveness, unbreakable will, or incredible ability to sway crowds or intimidate opponents, but who are otherwise human with human limits. Considering all the Normal Characteristic Maxima debates these boards have seen, that was probably a prudent move. I think the upper limits in those three are a little high myself, but it's the sort of thing that's easy to house-rule, so I'm not concerned by it.

As I've understood the HERO Universe metasetting and subsequent discussions of it on the boards, the possibility of people achieving truly "superhuman abilities" of any form, including mutations, "radiation accidents", and radical techno breakthroughs, is predicated on the amount of probability-altering ambient magical energy, which tends to wax and wane periodically. A waxing period started on Earth just before WW II, but is supposed to wane again by the middle of the 21st Century. So, there are no superhumans in the HERO Universe right through the Terran Empire period. However, by the time of the Galactic Federation a millenium from now, magic will be on the rise again, allowing for the creation of Galactic Champions.

I know where you're coming from. I guess it's a question of whether you define "super-intelligent" as simply being far superior to the human average, or "superhuman" i.e. beyond the achievement of Homo Sapiens without augmentation. HERO seems to take the former view. The only character I've yet seen with an INT of 50 is Teleios, in Champions Universe. His other stats are at the upper limit of Legendary as well, since he's supposed to be "the Perfect Man". The next closest I ever saw was the Ultimate Master Mind (Binder of the Ultimates, accidentally boosted in Enemies Assemble), with a 43 INT. Reed Richards would probably be close to 50, though, and maybe Bruce Wayne.

Ahh, I see what you're getting at: you're looking for the benchmarks as to how characters' abilities compare to each other. Well, that I may be able to help you with. There are a couple of ways to deal with this. One would be to compare the Skill Rolls that characters can have, according to the "Degrees of Skill" sidebars beginning on FREd p. 28. That describes how each level of Skill Roll relates to the character's ability with that Skill, from basic Familiarity up to Incredibly Skilled (20- or more), which is the realm of the superhuman. Of course, a particular Skill Roll can be affected by Levels as well as raw Characteristics, so it's not a perfect method. OTOH, both Champions and Champions Universe lists categories for all Characteristics, going from Weak up to Legendary (the greatest figures from myth or history), and into Superhuman. Champions describes what these categories mean relative to each other. For Intelligence for example, the range is Weak 1-2, Challenged 3-5, Average 6-10, Skilled 11-13, Competent 14-20, Legendary 21-50, and Superhuman 51+. I know that you aren't fond of looking for data in other than the core rulebook, but if you want relative comparisons for Characteristics, that's where you'll find them.

Speaking of luck... I picked up the now ultra-rare Champions adventure Wings of the Valkyrie when it was first released, but foolishly sold it a couple of years later. I was under extreme emotional stress at the time and not thinking clearly. After I came to my senses I tried to find another copy, but of course they'd all been recalled by that time due to the infamous controversy. I finally wrote to Wings author Rob Bell, who had become HERO line editor for ICE by that time, to ask him if he knew where I could find a copy. Rob sent me one of his own, signed, free of charge. IIRC Rob Bell was the first one to use that "Be a Hero" tag line, which is how he signed my book.

I've seen this question raised on the boards before, and the short answer is that there hasn't been any official quantification of other Characteristics in that way in any HERO book to this point. I have to ask, though: in the real world, how would your measure multiples of Smartness, for example? IQ scores? Processing speed? Memory capacity? Creativity? IQ is the only one of those that pretends to provide a scale ranking, and it's been rather thoroughly discredited as being too tied to class-based assumptions. I couldn't imagine how to measure Charisma in the real world, and Comeliness is a whole 'nother argument in itself. Strength is really the only Characteristic that readily lends itself to a quantification within game terms, since the amount of force a person can exert can be objectively measured and a number assigned to it. Other physical abilities are far more nebulous. It's tempting to raise this question since HERO assigns a numerical value to those abilities for gaming purposes, but trying to figure out how many points it takes to be "twice as smart" is a meta-gaming concept that doesn't have a lot of relevance to reality. If you really want such a measure, you'd probably be as well off assigning a number that seems reasonable to you.