phydaux

Plot outline as written by OP sounds more like a Dark Champions plot - Low level street crime. More Daredevil & Black Widow than Thor and Iron Man. Cassandra takes it up a notch to true Supers level. Faulty version of the Super Soldier Serum which are both HIGHLY addictive and have MASSIVE physical & psychological side effects are a classic supers trope, and IMO every supers world needs 3-4 variants. Trapping the heroes in a giant coffee pot to have them peculated to death is very DC Silver Age. The GM will need to decide if he's running a Silver Age campaign or not. I usually don't like silver age gimmicks, but damn if I just can't get the image of Adam West & Burt Ward, tied up and trying to escape from a giant coffee pot, out of my head. "Holy Donuts, Batman!" "Yes, that was quite the coffee conundrum. old chum. Fortunately I always carry an extra large Bat-Coffee Filter in my Utility Belt." "That would be a Vinti Coffee Filter, Batman." "Shut up, Bert."

Umbrella is an OAF 60 point Multipower, slots to include: Whump! 12d6 Hand Attack 0 End Spike Tip 3d6 HtH KA Blaster 12 EB Lazer 8d6 AP EB Kinetic Blast 3d6 RKA Electrolazer NND EB Gas Attack AOE NND Grapnel Swinging Helicopter Blades Flying/Gliding I must be slipping, because I can usually figure out how to fit in a Flash, AOE Flash, Entangle, and AOE Entangle.

I ran a Legion of Doom campaign where all the PCs were villains. Each of the PCs got a message from one of their trusted contacts telling them than an anonymous person wanted to meet them in an abandon warehouse down by the docks. They get there, see a few other B-list villains, and then find out that their contact is a well-known arch villain who goes by the name The Horror (think Green Goblin meets Phantom of the Oprah, built on roughly 600 points). He tells the PCs that he has declared war on Campaign City and the heroes that protect it. First mission, he sends the PCs to destroy every fire truck in the city. They do, very publicly. That night an unknown arsonist sets a series of fires at various industrial, manufacturing, and research facilities around the city. With no fire fighting apparatus the facilities are all total losses. Damages approach a billion dollars. The PCs get the blame. Second mission, the PCs are sent to rob a black tie fund raiser being held at the Metropolitan Art Museum. They manage to collect some Rolex watches & pearl necklaces, but a fight starts between the PCs and the security forces, and somehow a fire breaks out. The PCs escape. Millions of dollars of art receive horrible smoke and water damage, most ruined beyond repair. And several master pieces are inexplicably missing entirely. Again, the PCs get the blame. Third mission, the arch villain points the PCs at an underground facility that turns out to be the local Viper's Nest. They clean it out and set up shop in it as their new secret HQ. Simple mission, no complications. During the down time, one of the PCs notices that all of the research and manufacturing facilities destroyed by the unknown arsonist were owned by the same parent company. Rumor is they may need to declare bankruptcy, leading to massive drops in their various stock prices. A different PC gets jumped by the local independent vigilante The Shadowhunter (think Batman meets The Punisher, but much less sane and built on about 100 more points than the PCs). The PC is beaten nearly to death "as a warning to the others." The PC makes it back to the Nest and is healed up by the team Mystic. Fourth mission is a hit on the local Federal Reserve Bank. Local forces in Turtle Armor hold off the PCs until the local hero team can arrive, and then it's a free for all. The heroes all have the Teamwork skill, and most have some kind of Flash, NND, or/and Entangle. One PC goes down fast to multiple NNDs, and another gets layered in Entangles the next action phase. But there are five PCs and only three heroes. One hero, Bobbi Sock (a 19 year old pocket Brick only recently promoted from Teen Hero status) gets gang tackled by the PCs and punched into a coma. The other two are quickly overpowered and defeated. The PCs grab their fallen teammate and, narrowly, escape. Additionally research shows that the insurance company that protected the art at the Metropolitan Art Museum had to declare bankruptcy because of the losses, leading to a massive drop in the stock price of its parent corporation. It turns out that Turtle Armor comes stock with an Armor Cam . The security forces managed to film the PCs brutally beating an already defeated Bobbi Sock into near death from several angles, and the news is running the footage 24/7. Tearful candle light vigils are held for her recovery outside of Hero HQ, lead by the team PR Spokesperson, who denies the "unfounded rumor" that Bobbi Sock was healed by team mates at the scene and was recently spotted at a rave in suburban Chicago. Team leader The Fist of Justice announces "This will not stand. This is personal. We are tracking those villains down and bringing them in, in pieces if necessary!" Primus announces that a General Arrest Warrant has been issued for the PCs. The PCs know that "General Arrest Warrant" is simply a politically correct euphemism for "Wanted Dead or Alive." Additional Primus Strike Teams are being dispatched to Campaign City for this mission, lead personally by the Silver Avenger. And in other news, local wealth bachelor, playboy, industrialist, and philanthropist Peter Lord has announced that his company, PelCo, has secured a controlling interest several local financial, research, and manufacturing companies, made possible due to sudden drops in their stock prices and making them all vulnerable to hostile takeovers. That turns him from a multi-millionaire to a billionaire literally overnight. At this point the PCs decided that they were being played for saps and were tired of it. They set about putting their plan in motion to take down Peter Lord, a.k.a The Horror! It will be easy. All they have to do is avoid The Fist of Justice and the rest of the local super hero team, avoid Primus and the Silver Avenger, and gain the trust and assistance of the notoriously psychotic vigilante The Shadowhunter...

Sarah from Knights of the Dinner Table

Mechanon Ogre Pulsar Takofanes Grond Gigaton Menton & Mentalla

Yeah but the original Teen Titans was much better.

How about every Penguin episode of Batman '66?

Liberty Belle - A mid-level pocket brick with standard brick powers and a "normal" STR of 40, but she has an OAF bell-shaped maul that gives her +20 STR 0 END.

Yeah, that's the classic problem with Space Opera. Last month Flash Gordon saved the planet. Last week he saved the solar system. This week he fended off a threat to the whole galaxy. "Whacha gonna do next week, Flash?"

DC had a better Silver Age Marvel had a better Bronze Age Indy Pubs had a better Iron Age Today DC has better animation and Marvel has better movies. But some of DCs animation is MUCH better than Marvel's movies (Superman TAS, Batman TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Young Justice).

What point level do you start your PCs and, and why? My gaming group starts PCs at 125+25. At that level the PCs are good at their jobs, but they aren't UNSTOPPABLE. Not every fighter has Deadly Blow, not every PC has Combat Luck. An ork with a spear or a city guard with a short sword is still a threat. I've been kicking around ramping the campaign up to Heroic, 150+25. At this level the PCs will be more epic, and common peasants with daggers will not be a hazard. But the PCs will have to adjust to the idea that nearly every "bad guy" NPC will have Deadly Blow & Combat Luck, and they will have to build their PCs and play accordingly. What levels do you play at?

Also, the sample characters can spark discussion. "Why does every sample character have Combat Luck?" "Why do all the fighters have Deadly Blow?" "I get that the mage has a Multipower called Magic Spells, and the Slots are his spell list. What if I want to have different spells?" "How many spells total can I have? Is there a limit?"

When I made the list I just ran with the fantasy races that appeal to me personally. When I used to run games at Cons I would make up full character sheets for each of the demo characters, with a three paragraph character description & history and a picture (stolen shamelessly from the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale PC games). I found that that really helped players get the feel for the character and added to the fun. I don't see this as ever becoming any kind of "product" for Hero Games. Hero Games already has exactly the product GMs need. It's called Hero Designer. I have spent, literally and without exaggeration, hundreds of hours noodeling around with Hero Designer making NPCs, perspective PCs, and demo game handout characters. I consider it a meta-game in and of itself for when I'm not playing in a regular campaign.

Sure. WE make the characters. So what do we need? Human melee type Dwarf melee type Elf fighter/archer Human archer/ranger Half-elf archer/ranger Human rogue Elf rogue Half-elf rogue Halfling rogue Human arcane/healer Elf arcane/healer Half-elf arcane/healer Half-ork melee That's actually 13, not 12 (if we keep the Half-ork). Ideally each of those except the Dwarf (and the Half-ork) will also need a female variant. So if we do a full list then that's 24 characters. Stats, Skills, Talents, Perks, Powers, Complications, Gear, Name, and a one paragraph character description/history. Are we doing 150+25? Are we doing 5th or 6th? Yeah, this will take a few hours to crank out. But once it's done then your whole fantasy world is populated. Plus you'll have hand-out characters so you can run one-off games & demo games to your heart's content.

My standard question whenever I sit down at the table with a new group is "What does the party NOT HAVE yet?" Then I make and play that character. And like I said, in my regular group we each make a point of making characters as different as possible from the other PCs, so that each of us gets a chance to be "The best there is at what I do ."

You need a few melee types, a couple ranged damage types (archer or mage will work), a healer, and someone to scout and find & disarm traps. The "problem," if there is one, is that Hero system blurs the lines between classes. Often a rogue can be as effective in melee as a dedicated melee type. Or change just a few things around and the rogue is also a highly effective archer. And the mages are usually the healers, since there's no real distinction between arcane and divine magic. In my regular group, when we create characters we each try to pick a "stchick" and then we each go with that - "I'll be the melee guy." "I'll be the archer guy." " I'll be the sneaky guy." "I'll be the spell caster." And then we try not to step on the other player's stchick. But one thing never changes, D&D, Rolemaster, GURPS, or Hero, PnP or on-line - "Keep the mobs off the healer! For God sake, keep the mobs off the healer!"

Anyone remember this: 128 pages. Dead tree version is no longer available, but the PDF is in the on-line store.

Wow. That's a tall order. Actually, not really. That other points based universal role playing game does exactly this in a 32 page PDF. In fact, it's a free download from their web site.

Also, OP referenced Keep on the Borderlands as an excellent starting tool. It was, and whoever did the Hero conversion Bless You. But one of the things that was included in the original TSR product was sample characters. And that's something that's lacking in a lot of other "modern" products (Champions excluded). If you're introducing people who have never plated Hero System to Fantasy Hero, then your first night should NOT be character creation night. You should make up 8-12 175-point characters of different types for them to choose from, with Stats, Skills, Talents, Magic, weapons & armor. They all end up in a seedy tavern down by the docks late one night. A couple of the locals have a few too many drinks, one of them tells one of the PCs "You been eyeballin' me" and it's phase 12. The PCs should have no trouble with a few drunks, but when Hodor the Bouncer (and retired gladiator) steps in things should get interesting. After that, they should have some idea how Stats, Skills, Talents, and Powers work together. Then on the second night they can make the characters they want for the campaign. Yes, making 12 "throwaway" characters is a lot of work. That's what being a Gm is about. Plus, once you've made them, guess what? You've just populated your world with ass-kicking NPCs you can reuse over and over. So the work isn't wasted.

Here's how I present it to new players: You've got 150 points for free, plus up to another 25 points from complications. That's 175 points to build your character. Those should be spent, roughly, like so: 60 points on Stats. 60 points on Skills at 3 points per skill 60 points on Other Cool Stuff Other Cool Stuff can be more Stats up to maximums, Talents, Perks, magic ability, or more Skills including Combat Skills. A character that spends 60 points on Stats, 60 points on skills, and 60 points on a Magic Multipower will be a fireballin', lightnin' callin' M-A-G-E of the first order. A character that spends 60 points on Stats, 60 points on Skills, and 60 points on Deadly Blow, Combat Luck, and the rest on Combat Skill Levels, and invests their starting gold in a good sword and decent armor, will be a walking Cuisinart. A character that ignores Other Cool Stuff and puts 90 points in Stats and 90 points in Skills will be the smoothest Rogue to ever glide through the shadows. And then, if they've ever played an RPG before, they should be able to hash out a decent first character on their own.

OMG, I am bookmarking the hell out of that.

Thanks for all the great replies. I guess i should have stipulated that I was looking for a more metagame answer. For example, in fantasy campaigns I run, the characters are suppose to be HEROES. That means that they deal with "nobodies" without a second thought - They brush them aside like flies as the nobodies are no real threat to them. In game terms that means that all my melee types have some form of Deadly Blow, and a few levels of Combat Luck. Nobodies don't have either of those, but "Bad Guys" all do. Now a sword plus SRT plus Deadly Blow and a few CSLs means that my melee types are swinging 3d6 HtH KAs. That's 45 active points. So I have my spell user players make their mage PCs with a 45 active point Magic multipower. I was wondering how to fit a hybrid melee & magic PC into these campaign guidelines. I was thinking of having Palis have a 30 point multipower. They could have slots like 6d6 simplified healing or a 2d6 RKA "Smite" Demons & Undead Only. And for melee he could run three 10 point powers, +10 STR, 5PD/5ED Armor, and something else like 5 pip Power Defense / 5 pip Mental Defense or +10" Running "Holy Speed" or something.

Does anyone play a pali, or have any one of your players in a campaign you ran played a paladin? Or any other "hybrid" class that used both skill at arms AND magic? What did the character look like? How was the PC built?

Yes but you forget that, at least in older versions of D&D, monsters above level 12 begin to gain magic resistance. That tips the scales back in the favor of the sword swingers. Like I've said before, a well constructed 175 point melee oriented fantasy PC should be expected to swing with 9 Damage Classes. So I allow my mages to construct spells that can do 9 Damage Classes. And I build my NPSc with the expectation that they will get hit with 9 Damage Classes (so a peasant will go SPLAT with one hit, a Town Watchman will get grievously wounded with one hit, and a someone who makes a living as a ruffian will have the CV, armor, and Combat Luck to get hit and keep hitting back). And if my players have any sense at all, they build their PCs with the expectation that experienced ruffians will regularly be swinging 9 DCs at them. Also, in my experience with point-buy RPGs like GURPS & Hero system, there isn't a lot of "growth" after character creation when it comes to over all power level of the PCs. The characters "mature," but they don't become all that much more powerful in the sense of throwing around more damage classes. The Archer will still be shooting 2d6 RKAs, but he'll have skill levels to offset range & hit location penalties. Instead of only knowing 3-4 spells (having four slots in his Magic multipower) he will have 8-10 spells. The Rogue will have several levels of Enhanced Perception for spotting traps & overhearing conversations. That sort of thing.

I set my campaign in Boston because I live in the suburbs. And it's cool because there ISN'T any official source book, so things are the way I say they are.