Steve

Re: Champions Universe

Re: Champions Universe Okay, so you basically want a complete, canned world spoonfed to you. You don't want to put any effort into customizing it to your own tastes because you don't have the time. That's understandable, and I know many gamers who are like that. Champions Universe could have been done this way, but it would have grown to the size of Fantasy Hero in the process and risen in price accordingly. A single volume, complete in itself, is not a practical way to publish gaming material, especially for a company like Hero that is coming back after a long silence and trying to get some cash flow going. I'm not aware of any of the gaming companies that produce a complete game world in a single tome. As part of their D&D line, TSR published the Forgotten Realms and statted out many characters in it, but the original hardbound book was still not complete. White Wolf produces endless sourcebooks on their World of Darkness stuff. I've lost track of the number of Rifts sourcebooks there are. Hero gave us the Champions Universe sourcebook and quite a large number of plot hooks in it and a decent skeleton to build on. You're mad that it didn't do more, mad that we are being "too forgiving" towards Hero for this product, and mad that that we seem to be picking on you and your opinions. A game world written without statting out a bunch of characters is not complete? That seems to be the entire point of your argument.

Re: Valdorian Characters I posted this back when Valdorian Age was first released, but I offer it again to anyone who is interested as well as the link to the HD files I have posted. Just scroll to the posting from me for the HD files. Page one has my export posting. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29472&page=2 It's my take on a Red Sonja sort of character, both a starting version and a more experienced one. The original posting doesn't show right to me anymore, and I'm not sure why. Did the boards change how HD exports show, or is my web browser messed up?

Re: Tomb Raider Hero Wealth does scale in the 11-15 point range, but the rulebook does not spell out specifically what they cover like it does with lower point values. Lara probably tops out at 10 points of Wealth anyway, since that is roughly $5 million in income a year.

Re: Tomb Raider Hero Resource Points are simply an off the character sheet method of accounting for a character's stuff. For example, 60 points in equipment, 10 points in vehicles and 5 points in other (such as Contacts). This is explained in much more detail in Dark Champions. They don't cost the character anything points-wise, but they are a method of limiting the amount of junk they can lug around in an adventure.

Re: Tomb Raider Hero 255 points does not seem too bad, but it all depends on how those points are spent. Dark Champions characters on 200 points (100+100) make for pretty potent heroes, and I would put Lara in there easily. At around 250 points, you are in the Very Powerful Hero range, but special abilities can eat up points quickly. Lara Croft comes across as a mix of modern-day action hero with some Pulp Hero added in. Running some quick numbers: 13 STR, 20 DEX, 15 CON, 15 BOD, 18 INT, 14 EGO, PRE 18, 22 COM , PD 6, ED 5, SPD 4, END 30, STUN 30 is 99 points already. I could imagine her skills easily eating up another 75-100 points, especially since Two-Weapon Fighting and at least two levels with guns seem necessary for the build, and she does have 5-10 points of Wealth and maybe Rank as a noblewoman in British society. As far as Contacts are concerned, she could use her Resource Points for those, as suggested in Dark Champions, especially for the throwaway ones she needs once an adventure, like an antique dealer in Morocco or the like.

Re: Tomb Raider Hero I would rate Lara as between 150 total points to perhaps 200 or 250 at most. If you create her based on just what you see in the games, I'd say a credible version could be done on 150-200 points. If you add in Contacts and the like, it pushes the points higher. I'd say she has maybe 90-100 points in stats. Beyond that, Acrobatics and Breakfall seem fairly obvious, maybe an inch or two of extra Leaping and Running. She does have Two-Weapon Fighting with her guns as well, as far as I can tell.

Re: Sexuality and the Silver Age Well, before he got married to Mary Jane, Peter did have a very physical relationship with Felicia Hardy (the Black Cat), but that was fully into the Bronze Age by then, since I recall it happened during the mid-80s. The only DC couple with a sexual relationship outside of marriage that I can recall from the Silver Age would be Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Re: Character: Valeria of the Red Brotherhood Sure, that's fine.

Re: Character: Valeria of the Red Brotherhood Just a few suggestions spring to mind, and they are pretty minor tweaks, suggested by the character write-up rules for Valdorian Age. 1) Since she is Heroic level, her DEX should actually cost 42 points. 2) Change her 22 DEX to a 20 DEX with +2 Lightning Reflexes. That avoids you needing to change the costing for her DEX and saves a point off her current total. If you give it a Limitation like "Not When Wearing Heavy Armor" at -1/2, it saves another point and explains why she never wears much. 3) Her Combat Luck could take the same Limitation, which drops the cost to 5 points (if you add the Limitation to the calculation for the original Talent from the Armor Power). 4) Her Levels in DCV could also use the same Limitation, which drops the cost to 5 points. The 5 points saved could be used to buy Combat Luck up to 6/6, with the above Limitation. Alternately, she could add 3 points to INT and a point to BOD. Or she could take a Counterstrike martial maneuver for 4 points and reduce her build to 175 points. All this means is that while lightly armored or unarmored, she is a quick-moving, light fighter, which seems to fit the build concept. If you don't like any of my suggestions, you just need to increase her total cost by 6 points to be legal.

Re: Character: Bêlit Try this webpage Bookfinder.com There is a ton of Fritz Leiber's stuff out there.

Re: Character: Bêlit

Re: At what point does a character become unrecognizable due to XP?

Re: At what point does a character become unrecognizable due to XP? Well, the impression I get is something of a cross between a martial artist of Bruce Lee caliber, the Flash and maybe a creature of Faerie. The first two give plenty of room to offer growth ideas without warping concept, and the last one could warp things. I agree with earlier posters that a heightened Intelligence might seem like a good investment, since it represents speed of thought in some ways. Cramming, Speed Reading and Penalty Skill Levels to offset time modifiers are great places to pour points and show heightened speedster ability. For example, with nine levels to offset time modifiers, she could do something that normally takes five minutes in a single phase. She could take 360-Degree Perception for Sight to show that she's always looking around, making it pretty difficult to attack her unawares. Or maybe she has learned how to run so fast that she can run across water using a form of ground gliding. Even Ambidesterity and maybe Two-Weapon Fighting can show her agility in new ways. Her martial arts can also offer areas of expansion in ability. Perhaps she's so good at working with her teammates that she is a better fighter when she is with one of them, which suggest an Aid Array build from UMA. Or maybe she is so skilled that she can fake out an opponent with her speed and agility, so she can buy the Feint ability from UMA. A latent connection to Faerie would probably start to warp the concept, so I would stick with speedster tricks, martial arts stunts, and expanding her skill list. She could start pouring points into all kinds of skills very quickly and justify it as a form of hyper-learning. Consider this sort of exchange with an NPC: Defender: "When did you learn how to speak Gaelic?" Zl'f: "I was bored yesterday, so I read a few dozen books on it during lunch." Just as an example.

Re: At what point does a character become unrecognizable due to XP?

Re: Marna the Manslayer - Valdorian Age Warrior Woman Here they are. Both the beginner and experienced versions were done using the template I created, so the costs will change in a standard template.

Re: Shapeshift accuracy

Re: Sin City Well, someone earlier mentioned "Son Of A Bitch Must Pay", and I would second that. I would also suggest "Necksnapper", "It Looks Worse Than It Is" (due to the incredible abuse he suffered and survived, including a certain scene with him in a chair), and "Brawler" too. I could also definitely see "Unimpressed" on his character sheet. Marv was just one scary tough SOB.

Re: Sin City Marv would also have the "Tell Me What I Want To Know" ability. He also seemed like he had "Tough In A Fight" at 1/2 Damage Reduction and Combat Luck. He was just damn near unstoppable unless hit from behind.

Re: Valdorian Age I asked on the HD board a while back, and it is apparently not possible to set up a skill maxima into a template. When I wrote up Marna the Manslayer, I just added in a custom adder for the extra cost and then deleted the text. When designing a sorcerer, I've just been putting in a custom limitation for Valdorian Age magic.

Re: Mythology and Superhumanity Speaking of archetypes, what is the current status of Scott Bennie's Gestalt campaign? I haven't agitated for it in a number of months. It seems it is time to do so again.

Re: The Fan Boy Brigade Actually, in Champions Battlegrounds there are writeups for not one but two fans of Foxbat: Foxbatboy and Foxbatgirl.

Re: Mythology and Superhumanity Well, not every myth is going to use this theme. It was just one given as an example. The Power of Myth and other works by Joseph Campbell are good resources for others.

Re: Mythology and Superhumanity Well, one theme from mythology is that a hero discovers something about himself in the course of the adventure/journey and grows as a person. A player who enjoys plumbing their character's personality and background would watch for elements in the adventures that relate to their character, especially those that cause them to question why they do what they do. Peter Parker is an example of a heroic myth along these lines. Through a great tragedy in his life brought about by a choice he made, he learned that "With great power, there comes an equally great responsibility." So the boy became a man, became the hero Spider-Man, instead of using his gifts selfishly.

The life and adventures of superheroes are, in a sense, modern mythology, larger-than-life characters in fantastic situations. In roleplaying we tell stories together as a group, sometimes even learning something about ourselves and our friends in the process. I was wondering if anyone has ever explored that mythological element at all in a campaign. I don't mean using the outward trappings of mythology, like a superhero based on Thor or Apollo, but using myth to deepen a campaign and enrich it for everyone who participates.