Steve

An alternative to the nation-conquering version of Deathstroke might be to have them be the “secret masters” of a large town or small city they took over in the intervening years since their last appearance. It would give them a base of operations and set them apart a bit from other villain teams with more grandiose plans.

They could have secret IDs as upstanding citizens and maybe even be raising their kids with powers as the future of their operation.

2 hours ago, Grailknight said:

I don't have anything to add to the damage and CV advice above. It's pretty thoroughly covered.

 

But you do need to also decide how super you want your supers to be.

 

Are the police and petty criminals a threat? Are conventional military forces?

 

If you want them to be, then you may need to stay lower than the 12 DC guideline given here. You can run a perfectly fine Supers campaign with DC's in the 8-10 range and lower CV and Def. That 400 starting points total will go further towards fleshing out characters with skills and side powers also.

I would also add to this that subtracting a point of SPD from all characters could also help stretch points. So 3 SPD Bricks and 4 SPD Energy Projectors. Agents could be built cheaper too.

In addition to Hugh’s analysis, there are also the defensive powers Damage Negation and Damage Reduction to consider.

Damage Negation should probably be limited to a third or a quarter of the DCs being thrown about. If a character has Damage Reduction, the odds of being stunned drop a lot and should be limited as well.

A character with both Damage Negation and Damage Reduction should have a pretty low PD/ED number or they would become functionally invulnerable.

There’s also growth in power to consider. Are characters fixed in their ability maximums or do those increase with time?

It’s easier to plan the campaign if you have fixed maximums as that forces characters to spend points on different things unrelated to combat, like buying skills, bases, vehicles, followers, etc.

Humble Bundle - Kobold Press and Friends

Just shy of twelve days remaining as of this posting.

Just seen this morning.

Champions 6E

Hero 6E

Three weeks remaining as of this posting.

I'm wondering what the purpose is for Inventor and the unnamed KS skill on the INT Skills list. Is that for Secret ID usage?

Maybe the above human ability amounts for CON, PD, ED, REC, END and STUN could also go under the Asguardian Strength list?

7 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/pathfinder-call-of-cthulhu-rpgs-sell-out-dnd-ogl-backlash

Well, that’s gotta sting quite a bit. After blowing their own faces off with their stupid attempt to bully the RPG industry into compliance, followed quickly by tens of thousands of D&D account cancellations happening, the fans then go and buy record amounts of other RPGs instead.

I wonder if someone’s getting fired over this? D&D is (was?) one of Hasbro’s biggest cash flow IPs.

2 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

And WotC blinks: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1439-ogl-1-0a-creative-commons

 

 

It will be interesting to see how the fans react. Lots of YouTube activity on this subject has been going on. On the OGL mess Hasbro had on their hands, I mean.

I wonder if anyone will be fired over this. They blew their own face off with this stunt.

8 hours ago, Opal said:

I wonder if Hasbro coughed up for product placement on Stranger Things?

Hasbro does Stranger Things merchandise, but they could also charge the show for using their trademarked stuff like Vecna. There is some sort of contractual arrangement going on between them, so it seems much more complicated than just product placement.

9 hours ago, Old Man said:

Been spending some time in D&D forums due to the OGL scandal, and that scandal has inspired a number of discussions about what people don't like about D&D.  The most (un)popular aspects seem to be:

 

- The power disparity between martials and casters

- The power disparity between subclasses--e.g. sorcerers and most rangers are underpowered while paladins and hexblade warlocks are OP, and so on

- Saving throws.  (Why this mechanic has persisted for almost fifty years is beyond me.)

- A very poorly defined skill system.

- Mundane combat is boring.

- "Vancian" magic.  It turns out almost no one likes the magic system(s) in D&D.  It's confusing for new players (spell level vs. character level), the memorization mechanic is likewise hard to understand, and it forces players to ignore 3/4 of the available spells which are too specialized or too underpowered.  Also, there is a large subset of players who want to play themed spellcasters, like ice mages, and of course this is impossible in D&D unless the DM lets them change the special effects on spells.

And yet I suspect the vast majority of them will continue using D&D rather than try another system (or maybe shift over to Pathfinder). Who knows? Maybe GURPS will experience a Renaissance or some new players will come here.

I'm now torn on whether I want to see the upcoming movie or wait for it to hit streaming. While I’d like to see more D&D movies, I don’t want to reward Hasbro and WOTC for their bad behavior.

10 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

A lot of people played it as Vampions.  

 

Dean Shomshak wrote the Cabal of Flamboyant Justice, a Mage the Ascension chantry whose purpose was to perform magic openly by pretending to be superheroes.  It was awesome! 

That does sound awesome! I found the posting where it is linked, but the download link doesn’t work.

I could imagine insane Marauders warping reality to make a superhero paradigm around themselves wherever they go.

1 hour ago, Hugh Neilson said:

 

 

To me, the lesson of 4e was "slapping a D&D logo on it will not automatically cause gamers to change". If 4e had captured the gamers, and they all moved away from 3e, third party publishers would either have to stop publishing (not enough market for 3e material if 3e is obsolete) or move into 4e.

 

There's a chicken and egg element here.  AD&D 1e and 2e did quite all right with no OGL.  Many games did. But WOTC realized they needed adventures, and they did not want to publish them.  Meanwhile third party publishers just filed off the D&D serial numbers and published adventures. So OGL legitimized those 3rd party adventures - and hoped that this would be the focus of 3pp.

 

Then they moved to 4e and decided they wanted to publish more adventures (turns out older gamers have more money and less time, so buying rather than designing adventures is more popular - the market changed), so we'll shut down Dungeon Magazine (now licensed to Paizo anyway) and remove the OGL.  SURPRISE - Paizo did not lay down and die, but leveraged that OGL to publish Pathfinder and keep a version of 3e alive and well.  There were gamers who kept playing 2e, 1e and BECMI, but they didn't have a lot of published support.  Switch, or do it yourself.

 

Now there were gamers who liked 3e more than 4e and did not have to switch to keep access to other published resources.  If 4e had been recognized as a better game, a lot of gamers would have moved there, and Paizo would not have had the same market available.  But many gamers did not like the 4e model, so they stuck with "3e under a new publisher". Lack of an OGL for 4e did not hurt WOTC nearly as much as the existence of an OGL for 3e enabling their competitors.

 

5e brought back an OGL, but, although 5e did much better than 4e, it did not seem to hurt Paizo, who kept right on publishing 3e even when they had the option of moving to 5e.  It doesn't seem like any major 3pp would threaten to continue 5e when D&D moves into 6e.  And Paizo made a brilliant move saying "hey, come publish for our game instead of starting a 5e clone to compete against it".

 

What did Paizo have to lose?  If shutting down the OGL means other publishers can't keep producing 3e-based product, it means they can't either.  Their mechanics aren't really their IP anyway.

 

But now, of course, WOTC has a marketing problem.  Paizo has exacerbated that through their own shrewd marketing.
 

 

Like the webcomic Penny Arcade pointed out, D&D is a culture, not a brand. WOTC was already making money hand over fist thanks to MTG and D&D, but that wasn’t good enough. Oh no. The suits at the top (who aren’t gamers by the accounts I’ve read) wanted to have more money flowing into their coffers and boost their share price and annual bonuses.

Paizo: Come play with us! We support the gaming culture and want to keep going with what’s been working. Buy books from us and the other creators you like and keep on playing.

WOTC: We aren’t making enough money off this game system and want to charge everyone at every game table a monthly fee to play with our new VTT and access our digital libraries. If you don’t have a DM, we’ll even provide an AI to act as one. Oh, we’re also going to kill the OGL that brought us to the top of the TTRPG world and gave D20 mechanics about 85% of the TTRPG market because it isn’t bringing _us_ enough of the money being spent on gaming out there. All your dollars belong to us.

WOTC caused themselves a self-inflicted wound by deeply angering the RPG fandom and Paizo skillfully stabbed them in the face while they were down.

Well played, Paizo. Well played.

13 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

First off, while I accept that businesses exist to make money, I do not accept that they are made up of soulless corporate shills who care nothing for their customers or the quality of their products. There are ethical and unethical people in business, as there are throughout life.

 

 

 

If I accept that everyone in a corporation has no purpose other than to gouge the customers of that corporation, I must also accept that every person who accepts employment does so entirely for their own self-interest. No teacher cares one bit for a student, nor a nurse for a patient. And that their customers will make every possible effort to rip them off as well. Sadly, that is the Lawful Evil version of capitalism and, while it is all too common, I do not consider it to be universal.

 

 

 

To the WOTC issue, I am very curious what the actual legalities are.  Contracts at law, as I understand the law, require consideration by both sides. WOTC did not contract with anyone using the OGL.  Users provided no consideration.  They did, however, leverage WOTC’s IP, which WOTC had invited them to do.

 

 

 

As I saw the original OGL, WOTC wanted to see others take on the low ROI production of adventure modules which would support their game, and the higher ROI products (like splatbooks) that they would produce.  As I recall, a lot of early OGL products were adventures, and WOTC produced few outside Dungeon magazine.

 

 

 

With hindsight, the OGL stagnated gaming. How many innovative new games have been produced since its inception?  Have we seen interesting new game mechanics and task resolution systems, or have we simply seen “I’ll just use d20”?

 

 

 

What I have seen is people come to the Hero boards and ask where the free SRD is so they can play the game without paying one red cent to its developers. That is just as entitled and selfish as any unethical businessperson. Why would anyone develop new game systems and mechanics if that is the likely end result?

 

 

 

I don’t think WOTC went about this the right way. However, I also don’t think believing they have a right to generate income with the IP they created, building on the IP they paid for, is immoral or unethical.

 

 

 

In fact, much of the outrage seems directed at the suggestion that WOTC can just TAKE what I CREATED and use it to make money WITHOUT PAYING ME – how could anyone think that is right?  And the rest is that WOTC wants me to PAY for the use of what THEY CREATED – how could anyone think that is right?

 

The problems going on with WOTC right now are due to decisions made by their upper management, which _is_ a who’s who of soulless corporate shills hired from Microsoft and other such companies, where the bottom line and stock valuations are the be all and end all of their existence. One of them admitted she doesn’t even play D&D and seems to view it like a video game franchise. In contrast, the creative types working for the company were hired from third-party creators and are aghast at what is going on now, and they are the sources of leaks being revealed to the public.

One important thing to remember about the OGL is that it was a brilliant bit of viral marketing. You mentioned that the OGL stagnated gaming. This is true. Why come up with a new system when you could use d20 mechanics? So their share of the TTRPG industry went from around 50% in 2000 to around 85% today, and helped earn WOTC a BILLION DOLLARS in revenues per their public reports. They earned Hasbro MORE revenues and net earnings then their toy lines did.

The consideration WOTC earned from enacting the OGL was gaining them an army of third-party publishers and the legions of rabid fans of those companies acting as their advertisers and proselytizers for the d20 system and helping people play the game using those mechanics. These creators took a chance and invested their own money to publish their works, print and online, each of which contributed to ever growing numbers of D&D core books sold. Sales of the core books were driven through the roof by this. Rather than paying for the uncertainty of advertising, they instead gave third-party publishers some crumbs of the pie without spending a dime of their own money.

Now that its grown so large thanks to those independent efforts, they want the whole pie, and they have an army of lawyers ready to do their bidding in court to see that they get it.

Will they win? Maybe. But it seems like it will be a Pyrrhic victory that fractures the gaming community into a myriad of competing d20-like systems, and other mechanics selling what books they can in the margins.

The d20 OGL changed expectations of how a company publishing game mechanics can operate these past two decades. Those that don’t follow this model are in danger of being marginalized and left on the ash heap of gaming history. Gaming culture works on a principle of proselytizing by fans, and that is a big part of what enabled D&D to be where it is now, the most well-known TTRPG in the world.

I do what I can to support Hero, buying books and using the mechanics in the games I run, as I’m sure other fans of the system do, but it seems to be a losing battle in the face of what the d20 OGL culture has wrought.

58 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

Then there really appears to,be no reason to keep them as separate beings in the game, unless,YATRO is important to the group.

 

 

YATRO?

43 minutes ago, Old Man said:

“Armchair gamers”? How is that different from, like, …gamers?  Is there some kind of hardcore crossfit gaming I’m unaware of?

I've seen some people at conventions get quite physical at the gaming table. Even rolling dice while standing up and acting like they're at a Las Vegas craps table when they roll well.

In all my years of gaming, I don’t think I have ever played a halfling.

23 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

Considering all the furor surrounding D&D and the new OGL, this is probably a good time for other game companies to plug their system. Are there any content creators who are interested in the HERO system? I haven't seen too many of them, but maybe a few would be willing to give the game a look.

Unfortunately, Hero seems to be the game system that the RPG community has mostly forgotten about. Like “Hero’s still around? They did Champions, right?” While its peers like Chaosium and Steve Jackson Games will probably enjoy a surge as a result of Hasbro’s epic display of stupidity, I don’t think Hero Games will get to see much of that, sadly.

Joining the ORC community that is forming might help, as Hero is one of the elder statesmen of gaming. More people just need to be made aware it still exists.

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

How about a nice blend of Conan, Dune, and John Carter's Barsoom?

 

Just-  just _think_ of the lawsuits we couls have with such a glorious setting!

 

 

The John Carter and Tarzan books are in the public domain, but “John Carter” and “Tarzan” are both trademarked.

It does sound like it would be a battle royale of lawsuits.

1 hour ago, Ninja-Bear said:

And why is it better to you? What specially does 2D6 do that you like besides, well not really a curve, but a peak?  

The bell curve follows my understanding of real world statistics of probability whereas a d20 does not. So 3d6 and 2d6 yields a certain measure of predictability that a d20 does not, and I prefer 3d6 for this reason. As a GM, this helps me in tailoring campaigns and requires far more bad die rolls than a d20 setup does.

It’s rarer to see a TPK of heroes using 3d6 than I’ve ever seen using d20 resolution mechanics. This is not to say I’ve never seen them, but they seem to happen far more frequently with a d20 resolution mechanic in my experience, especially when dealing with the lower levels of power.

I just don’t find d20 to be statistically reasonable in its outcomes.

6 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

The "single die" aspect is the part you left out though.  No bell curve.  Every result is equally possible,  This is a weakness.  Honestly if you cannot work out the differences between AC and defenses, and Hit points and STN/BOD/END I dunno what to say.  Generally Hero players see the superiority of the system over D&D ancient and weak mechanics.

Even Traveller has better mechanics, using 2d6 for combat and skill resolution and varying amounts of d6s for damage. If I wasn’t playing Hero, I’d prefer Traveller’s system over d20 mechanics.

Mongoose has some wonderful reference materials to add to any collection. I’ve been enjoying their books quite a lot once I started diving back into Traveller.

Far Future Enterpises, mentioned earlier in this thread, is a wonderful resource for any Traveller fan, old or new. They’ve got almost all of the old stuff from the early days, GURPS Traveller and even Traveller Hero. It’s all digitized, but I far prefer bringing my laptop to a game session than lugging a bunch of books around.

They also ran a special when I bought from them, buy three discs and get a fourth one free.

One of the big things that Hasbro seems to be missing and that some posters have commented on is that starting to play the game requires a support network, a little bit of teaching from others to get started.

In the Ancient Days of the early 1980s, I had just played AD&D, and that was after a friend taught me how to play. I could have learned from the books, but it’s not easy to learn that way. I had to learn how to play Champions from the old blue box set I picked up at a game convention.

Habsro is expecting people to just jump into playing OneDnD and throw money at them after the movie comes out, I think. But they’re nuking the support network with this OGL fiasco they’ve stepped in. They’re already having a shortage of DMs, and the crash is coming.

They may think they’ve dodged a bullet by backtracking and semi-apologizing, but people now know that the suits hired from Microsoft are going to try squeezing every last dollar from them now. RPGs are big business and Wall Street wants to see revenue growth.

A D&D implosion seems to be happening, but I hope the other game systems out there can grow to fill the void instead of the hobby dwindling.

I’d really like Hero to join the ORC alliance. They’ve been around a long time, a senior member of the gaming community, and I don’t see how it could hurt the brand to become part of the Rebel Alliance now forming.

I’m only running two games now: Traveller (which has an official conversion) and Delta Green (which is basically a Dark Champions type of game hunting monsters). I’ve been using the Hero engine for all my games for the past many years.

I enjoy using the Third Imperium with Hero and wish I’d started earlier, given how rich the setting is. I bought everything for Traveller Hero when it first came out but never used it then. Of course, what makes it easier is highly limiting psionics. No PC has a whiff of psionics, and I only recently introduced an NPC with psionics to start gradually introducing it to my campaign.

One of my PCs referred to said psionic as their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.