Steve

Just as a side note, there is also the issue of Long Term Endurance to consider in campaigns that use it when looking at END Regeneration.

I’ve been reading recently about sleepwalking and related syndromes and wondering how it might be presented in Hero System. A Physical Complication? A Psychological Complication? Something else? For one thing, it might make it difficult to maintain a secret ID if one goes sleep-flying without their mask and costume. A fantasy world thief could fall off a building while sleep climbing. Since you can be mind controlled while asleep and made to do things easier than when you’re awake, there’s also that to consider as a source of sleepwalking issues.

For the infiltration option, maybe only one PC is an actual infiltrator. The con works best if most of the PC supers involved are actually sincere and only one (or maybe two) are playing a different game.

Turncape sounded the most interesting to me. However, the hunt and chase could end pretty quickly if there are too many DNPCs to manage and they start getting captured, so that may encourage a bunch of orphan PCs who never got married or had any children. It could also be one massive scam to infiltrate Russian heroes into the American superhero subculture and gain access to secrets, something like the Thunderbolts idea.

The movie is finally released this week. What do you think of it?

I briefly played in a Zen Team-inspired game and have been considering running one as well, so that is one of my motivations in asking about theme teams. The Champions genre book has some mention of this as well, I believe. I think a single archetype theme like an all-Brick team or an all-martial artist team could be doable.

Most superhero teams seem to be a mishmash of origins and themes. You have the space alien brick, the young goddess martial artist, the wielder of an ancient weapon of power, etc. Has anyone ever run or participated in a more unified theme team campaign? Like an all-brick mutant team or everyone is a powered armor type. How did it work out?

Electronics and Systems Operation don't display any categories in Hero Designer when I open up the skills, so do they need to be updated to have categories?

As far as prices go, you also get the wonders of inflation to deal with, which can be a broad or localized effect. Maybe a sword cost 100 silver pieces last year and the year before that, but some adventurers found a dragon hoard and dumped a bunch of gold into the local economy in a buying frenzy. Now that same sword costs 150 silver pieces today but could be 200 next year. Especially since the country is talking about going to war against the goblins again, so the king is buying up swords by the bushel.

I'm using build 20210301. If I buy the Electronics or Systems Operation skills and then add a Custom Adder to either of them of 1 or 2, then the cost of the skill drops to 2 from the default cost of 3. At higher Custom Adder numbers, the cost of these two skills just becomes the Custom Adder value instead of the base cost plus the Custom Adder value. For example, I buy Electronics then add a Custom Adder of 1 or 2, the active points and real cost drops to 2. If I change the Custom Adder value to 8, then the active points and real cost becomes 8 instead of 11. I haven't noticed this on any other skills. Mechanics functions normally in its calculation, for example. Just these two skills doing the weird math.

There is an article by Lewis Pulsipher in Dragon Magazine #74 entitled "A player character and his money..." that touches on this in one section of the article called "The silver standard." The article was mainly about ways to keep money flowing out of a character's hands, but it also had some ideas on managing currencies. He suggests you leave the prices of goods and services as-is, but replace descriptions in treasure hoards with the word "silver" wherever it has "gold." When it comes to coin weight, he also suggests changing coins to the size and weight of a modern dime (35 grains/about 219 coins per pound). British half-pennies (new pence) were apparently pretty small. This makes silver the wealthy man's mode of exchange and gold a truly rare and wondrous thing. You also won't break your back carrying a personal fortune around or need magic bags or mules to carry a decent sum away from an adventure (or theft). Your average longsword costing 15gp in D&D would now require 150sp to buy, which becomes a more proper value when characters are earning silver instead of gold on adventures. A sword was a treasure in and of itself in days past.

I guess you could have something like True Steel, like the previously-mentioned Damascus Steel, which then has the stats in the equipment books and is very expensive, but most smiths can only make a kind of weak imitation of steel which is basically about as tough and strong as Bronze.

Wetchley? That name must have quite a history to it. I presume it’s a family name?

To put a supernatural twist on it, salvation requires a soul to be saved, otherwise what are we talking about? In Tolkien’s works, Melkor created Orcs by perverting Elves (and maybe Men) to create a servant race for himself since he could not make such a thing from scratch. I’m not a Tolkien scholar, but, as I recall, Dwarves were also not a creation meant to be either. Even so, they were accepted by the Creator when the Dwarves’ patron asked for his blessing on them. Melkor didn’t do that for Orcs. They were part of his whole rebellion thing. Orcs exist as perverse mockeries of the races that were supposed to be part of creation. They’re beings rejected by God, so they wouldn’t have a soul, I would guess, just some kind of withered spirit that animates them. With no part of the Creator’s light and goodness in them, I can’t see a Tolkien Orc ever wanting salvation. They simply go about their miserable existences eking out whatever small enjoyments they can by looting and plundering. When they die, I think Tolkien described their end as their spirits simply snuffing out like a candle. They don’t go to the halls of the dead or whatever Tolkien called the afterlife. There is no heaven for them, nor hell, just an ending.

I guess if you want to put it in terms of psychology, Orcs have always seemed to me to be creatures driven by their id and ego, and they don’t seem to have much (if any) superego holding them back. They do what they want, when they want and are only really constrained by something bigger and stronger than them. They like food, fighting and sex. They’re basically a race of violent sociopaths. if someone doesn’t have a conscience urging them to do better, you end up with a monster of some sort or another. Orcs are that sort of monster.

Slavery does not necessarily have to be of other humans. It can cross species. What if Orcs were the slaves? Or golems? If those Orcs are the descendants of a savage, rampaging horde that looted and ransacked the human nations before being conquered and enslaved instead of being exterminated, is that still wrong to do? If they were initially enslaved to help rebuild what they destroyed, is that less wrong? If they are still enslaved two or three generations later because they would go back to being raiders and looters if left on their own, is it wrong then?

For more publicity-minded types, I could picture many superhumans becoming a big part of the online media culture, especially since that subculture seems to contain elements of Hollywood, professional wrestling and sports megastars. Even those that are not directly involved in such things, I'm sure they would have followers who would be. Some supervillains might enjoy having huge online fan clubs rivaling those of superheroes. In the CU, I could see Foxbat livestreaming his crimes for the notoriety even if he doesn't get to monetize his crimes. He would probably even be a very active participant in the forums discussing his activities. I imagine him also being quite active in the comic book forums. And can you imagine how he might react if he was ever banned from one? Who might have a Twitter account in the CU? While I couldn't see Dr. Destroyer having one, perhaps Fiacho could broadcast his manifestos that way? He has the sort of self-centered ego that might enjoy having an online presence, especially if he develops fans of his team's work. Facebook could have webpages devoted to superteams, both heroes and villains. What else might show up when you mix superheroics and online media?

Regular rats and termites are already annoying enough, but what might it be like to have an enhanced infestation of some kind? They don’t necessarily have to have full-on bulletproof superpowers. How about a hive of termites with a sentient Queen controlling them, or rats with minor gremlin abilities to disrupt things? Dealing with a sentient termite swarm might not need Mighty Man to solve it, but it would seem like PRIMUS of UNTIL might need to be called in, or someone with a bit more ability than the local exterminator. Does this sort of thing get mentioned in the CU anywhere? Pest control might make for an interesting super agents or low-level superhero campaign. Ghostbusters or maybe Men In Black would be examples, I suppose.

How about if their Hunteds team up together? Their evil doppelgängers from Dimension X show up? The most famous superteam on the planet offers them a try-out? Firewing shows up and offers a challenge?

This is one of the aspects of playing a noble character in the Birthright setting that I liked, where you have characters who rule but also go on adventures.

Given that not every major disaster that happens in the world (earthquake, typhoon, hurricane, flooding, etc) will be stopped by superheroes, what resources might exist at the government or NGO level to deal with the aftermath that don’t exist in the real world? For example, what exists in the CU?

I’ve had both doses of Pfizer now because I’m over fifty and overweight. After over a year of this, I only know one person in my circle of associates who has had COVID, one of my doctors.

Sloop Dogg

Since this is Gotham City, the Joker’s death at the hands of a cop would probably incite a horde of his “fans” to carry on his craziness. It could be like BLM on steroids in that city.

There are many synonyms for sailors that might be good: gob, hearty, jack, jack-tar, mariner, navigator, salt, sea dog, seafarer, seaman, shipman, swab, swabbie (also swabby), tar. Salt and tar seem to be pretty common in fiction. Here were some other related terms that also seemed interesting: coxswain, lubber and limey.