Solomon

Re: Delete me please Look! An abandoned, neglected thread! We should adopt it and give it a new purpose.

Re: Kill Bill Nah, not more than your average mother. Just with better martial arts training.

Re: Latin for thumb Uh, they're the fingers! I hadn't made the connection.

Re: Latin for thumb Shoudn't that be Tertius?

Re: HELP from Italy! Lira? Come on, Steve, we don't have those anymore! Welcome aboard, Logan. I'm another Italian HERO player - from Modena, to be exact. I was going to reply to your post earlier, but my PC froze and I had to reboot - I suspect that was Steve Long using his evil powers. As others have said, the first thing you need is a rulebook - either 5th Edition Revised, or Sidekick. If you're willing to do some work on your own and don't plan on running your game in the Champions Universe, you can try and start gaming with only that. Or, you could get some other book to make your life easier. I would suggest, in no partcular order: Champions Universe. A setting book. Background info, some sample characters and an introductory adventure. UNTIL Superpowers Database. A collection of pre-made Superpowers. Not strictly necessary, as you can build all of that from the rulebooks, but it will spare you a lot of time as well as providing some cool ideas. Champions. A Game-mastering advice book basically. Not strictly necessary either but an excellent read. Conquerors, Killers and Crooks. A collection of villains and opponents. Of the pre-made adventures, I (heart) "Shades of Black" especially, but "Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth" is cool too. The "Ultimate" line of HERO books is excellent too, but those are "crunchy" rulebooks and maybe you'd best wet your feet with the basic rulebook first. (Scusa se ti scrivo in inglese, ma gli utenti del forum sono in gran parte anglofoni. Se preferisci che ti risponda in italiano, naturalmente, non hai che da dirlo).

Re: D & D Diatribe

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? Wow, that's interesting - I had never heard of Benandanti being credited the ability to assume animal shape. Thanks for the info! And yes, a Benandante would make for a wonderful concept.

Re: D & D Diatribe

Re: D & D Diatribe I once played a Rogue with a Spiked Chain, so I could sneak attack with a 10' reach. And I got to use Weapon Finesse too! How could one apply precision-based damage with a 10' length of chain is beyond me, but then a Rogue could technically sneak attack with a pike, an halberd, or even a knight's lance from horseback...

Re: The Champions Do they suck? I'm happy they're not a world-spanning superteam like the Avengers of the JLA. The game's supposed to be about the PCs, so all-important NPCs are rarely an esset, and often a liability. That being said, I think tey're a good example group. Of course they would be much better with Seeker.

Re: D & D Diatribe

Re: D & D Diatribe Ok, I said I grew more tolerant of D&D's features over time - actually there's one feature that I grew to dislike: it's the artificial distinction between "arcane" wizardry and "divine" spells. Most fantasy literature only has a single source for magic, and historically magic and religion have been closely tied more often than not. The distinction grew even more absurd with the introduction of Sorcerers in D&D3, so now we have a divinely granted magic, a quasi-science arcane magic, and... an innate magic that still counts as arcane magic? Why? Next time I run a D&D campaign I'll probably try out Monte Cook's Arcana Unhearted.

Re: D & D Diatribe Heh! When I try to explain what's so special about HERO's character creation to someone who has never played it, I tend to use this metaphore: D&D chargen is like ordering a menu at McDonalds - you don't have that many options, but you'll get your meal quick. HERO chargen is like a well-stocked kitchen, but you have to do the cooking by yourself. You can't just randomly mix ingredients or you'll make a mess, but given time and a clear idea of what you're trying to do, you can cook anything.

Re: D & D Diatribe Re: the "ham sandwich" issue, I think Curufea has a point. Nothing does D&D like D&D. I know it sounds like a circular statement, but it makes sense if you think of D&D as its own fantasy genre. Admittedly, the feel of any D&D setting is largely set by the rules of the game, and it feels quite unlike any other fantasy setting. Ever tried running a Tolkien-esque setting with D&D? Ever tried an Howard-ian setting? D&D is not "high fantasy", it's not "sword & sorcery", it's... "D&D fantasy". You can use HERO to capture the feel of most of D&D settings' narrative source material better than D&D does, but no system can convey the feel of a D&D game. Except D&D of course.

Re: D & D Diatribe When I was younger, I used to have a strong dislike of D&D and its "signature" mechanichs - hit points, Armor Class, classes and levels, etc. Now I can see they each have a purpose. The AC system is a very abstract way to represent armor, but it's easy to learn and plays fast. The ablative hit points system leads to those "realism" disconnects we all love to hate: high-level characters casually brushing off falls from a 100' cliff, and the like. However, it does make it very easy for a GM to gauge the effects of a potential combat encounter. It's very easy to gauge how much "hit points attrition" a given encounter will have on your group. The class and level system is very inflexible and makes it hard to customize characters, but it provides unparaleled PC niche protection. As with many other cultural products, I feel that the main reason for D&D's succes is just that it came first to an empty market. It created the market in fact. Do I like HERO above D&D? Sure, you can bet it. But I suspect that without D&D there would have been no HERO either. So please give D&D some credit - it deserves it.

Re: Arabian Nights Of course not! I posted to the wrong thread, and I'm now off to correct my error. EDIT: The posts have now been moved.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? That's no joking matter, after all Joseph Ratzinger might actually be the next Pope...

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? LOL! Well, that would be fun in a cheesy sort of way. Maybe Darren could work that in a DH article.

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? : looks around : Uh? Who.. what? That's my RL name...

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? If there's going to be an Italian character, I hope he isn't Roman-themed or Mafia-themed. I agree some small degree of stereotyping is fitting for the superheroic genre, but look, I already got two copies of European Enemies... Thankfully, Fortuna is a good, convincing name for an Italian superheroine (assuming she's a lady), so that's a good start. Oh, and please bring back Pantera! I loved that character. You might want to save Bora for the Champions Swimsuit Special. Well, that would actually have been an improvement. Unlike Das Wall, Potato Masher makes sense in at least one language.

Re: Dolls The tallest robot from the '80s I can recall was Daitarn 3, at just under 400 feet. I'd guess its sword was roughy 180' long. Occasionally it also carried an halberd that was about as long as Daitarn was tall. However, he was an exceptionally huge robot. Most Anime robot from that era clocked in at about 120'-200', so 80' swords were more or less the rule. Earlier robots were much smaller, though... Gundam and Mazinger about 30', and poor Jeeg was only 20'.

Re: If Champions didn't exist...

Re: If Champions didn't exist...

Re: If Champions didn't exist... I woudn't be playing supers regularly. I'd probably play short scenarios of V&V, Tri-stat SAS (assuming it would exist without Champions) and/or MSH, but no campaigns.

Re: Should the 5th CU have a "Euro Guard"? About the issue of who should be in such a team: I feel some posters here are overthinking it. There's no need to have an hero from each country, for instance. This would cause one helluva problems. For starters, that would be 25 characters - too many for a single team. Not to mention that some countries would feel entitled to more than one entry. If Cyprus gets to send one super (or more likely, his only super), why should Germany or the UK send only one? Point is, issues of representation only pertain political entities, and are largely misplaced inside what would effectively be a law enforcement agency. You don't pick servicemen trying to fill representative quotas - you set some physical and psychological specification, and hire the ones that qualify, period. Also, I feel that in a joint European superteam there'd be no place for super-patriot archetypes. Team members would be required to act as supra-national agents, and keep nationalistic flag-weaving to a minimum. I'd also like to object to the notion that national governments will "choose" to send their best/worst heroes. That seems to imply that most heroes belong to national teams, and that would be inappropriate in many campaigns. "A team in every nation" in Europe doesn't make any more sense than "a team in every state" would make in the USA. As national states range widely in size and population, different teams could operate on different scales, ranging from a single city to a trans-national geographical area. A single team could cover the Belgium-Netherland-Louxembourg area quite well for instance. That doesn't imply that there's no place for politics inside an EU-team. I'm just saying that we should distinguish between politicians and heroes - it's not that hard. An EU superteam's funding and budget would be most likely overseen by some political entity, and that's where the actual politicking would happen. There will be conflicting interests, some counties will want a stronger/weaker team, some counties will want a tighter/looser EU control on the team, and those attitudes might shift as national governments change.