Steve

Obviously some of the key characters are point hogs, but there are a bunch of others that aren't 
 
So while a write up for the Man of Steel will be over the top, there could also be a 1938 version of him and a cut down Maid of Might as well.
 
Teenage partner versions would be possible as well. There are useful analogues of most of the main characters, as well as others like Cybernetic Organism, Animal Shapeshifter and so on.
 
I wouldn't go out of my way to include bought in characters in Volume 3. If they fit,they fit, but I wouldn't make them a priority.
 

Scion of Anubis (Dr. Fate), Unkillable Man (Solomon Grundy) ,The Metallic Wonders (Metal Men), Time traveling Celebrity (Booster Gold), just off the top of my head, though Dr. Fate might be too many points. 

Humm...the possibilities. 
 
Doom Patrol: The original three might be doable. Size and Shape Altering Lass (Elastic Girl), Mechaman (Robotman), and Anti-Positive Alen Spector and Anti-Positive Alen Spector Holder (Negative Man) are doable. Multiple Personality Girl (Crazy Jane ) and Sentiant Roadway (Danny The Street) are not. One of my favorite Doom Patrol characters who I loved before he became a Doom Patrol member is Anoying Transdimentinal Insect Guy (Ambush Bug).
 
Justice League: Martian Manhunter is out because he might cost a lot of points (Superman + Mental Powers + Shapeshifting + Desolification), but out of all the characters I haven't listed are Sonic Songbird (Black Cannery ), Vibrating Breakdancer (Vibe), and of course Sea King (Aquaman).
 
Additional Villain Characters: If we have Sea King we must have Devilfish (Black Manta). With Vibrating Speedster comes Sargent Snow ([b]Captain Cold[/b]), Mister Reflection ([b]Mirror Master[/b]), Throwing Stick Guy ([b]Captain Boomarang[/b]), I could go on. There is also Silly Lady Clown ([b]Harlly Quinn[/b].
 
Who would you add?

Book of Templates 1 already has a version of Spiderman, and I am not writing the book. I'm predicting what may be in it.
 
And the writer is going to be the one to scrub the details out of them to make them generic enough. 
And talking about the writer...well it's his book. And yes Question and Hawkman are damm good substitutes. 

I'd probably swap out The Question for Captain Marvel (too powerful) and Hawkman for Martian Manhunter, just because of the vast point totals

This thread is a think of what would be in the third book of Templates. Christoph has voiced a desire to do one of DC Comics proxies. Here is my list of characters most likely to be included and whyish.
 
The Big Three
Basically it would be fully to do a book of DC Comics proxies without Flying Mammal Man (Batman), the Man of the Future (Superman), nor the Woman of Wonder (Wonder Woman). Because they are the big names, they should exist in the two cost range of all the big characters of the books.
 
Also I expect that they will have some of the support characters in the book. Bird Boy (Robin), Clownman (Joker), Science Buisnessman (Lex Luthor), Alien Android (Braniac), Wicked Cat (Cheetah), and Grow Woman (Gargantuala) might be included. That's nine already. 
 
The Silver Three 
One can't have a book of DC Comics proxies without the Wielder of an Alien Artifact (Green Lantern), Vibrating Speedster (The Flash), and Shapshifting Alien Detective (Martian Manhunter). That increases it to twelve.
 
The We Bought Them From Other Companies Three
DC Comics has a nasty habit of buying characters from failed comic book companies. Three of the biggest are Mystical Avatar (Captain Marvel aka Shazam), Plastfied Prankster (Plastic Man), and Blue Insect Man (Blue Beetle 2). Now we have fifteen.
 
The Vertigo Three
We can't exactly forget the adult branch of the DC Comics Universe.  We have the Sleep Inducing Detective (the original Sandman ), the Living Vegetation (Swamp Thing), and Mystical Detective (John Constine ). Now we have 18.
 
So...what would your list be?

One way I am considering doing fast, early growth in an upcoming campaign is to taper it off at different point totals. In 6th Edition starting characters at 50 points and 25 in Complications, then granting 20-25 XP per session for the first few sessions, then lowering that to 10 XP once characters reach 125 total points. Then to 5 at 175 and see how things go from there. Maybe stop to 2 points per session once characters reach 200 points. We play every other week, so quick initial growth followed by slower growth seems good to me.

It’s the end of 2021. Whatever happened with the IHA book? I read back through the thread and didn’t see any recent updates. Maybe I missed it?
 
Will there be a 2022 announcement thread next week/month?

It’s the end of 2021. Whatever happened with the IHA book? I read back through the thread and didn’t see any recent updates. Maybe I missed it?
 
Will there be a 2022 announcement thread next week/month?

One way I am considering doing fast, early growth in an upcoming campaign is to taper it off at different point totals. In 6th Edition starting characters at 50 points and 25 in Complications, then granting 20-25 XP per session for the first few sessions, then lowering that to 10 XP once characters reach 125 total points. Then to 5 at 175 and see how things go from there. Maybe stop to 2 points per session once characters reach 200 points. We play every other week, so quick initial growth followed by slower growth seems good to me.

Yeah unless I am doing a Con game or a one-off, I very much prefer starting a campaign at low points.  The last FH campaign I ran started at 25+25 and grew as time went on.  People gained complications as well as abilities (they started as teens in an academy who had just graduated).  This gives more focus on personality and character and less on points and power, in my experience.

He said What I was going to say.  What niche do elves play in your mind, and construct a human kingdom that mirrors that.  You could do the same with dwarves, a human kingdom of hardy human miners who are expert craftsman and fierce warriors.  (If anyone scoffs at that, point to Switzerland).

Personally, I prefer to have fantasy character start off with as few points as possible and allow circumstances and need drive development - say 50 to 75 pts plus 50 complications. Otherwise, you get power-designed characters who have a backstory just to explain how they got so perfect. This way, they have almost no back-story as they have no heroic history, just a pretty normal upbringing with perhaps some personal struggles, advantages and achievements. You can be generous with experience points at the start and make skills learning not too difficult (e.g. friendly mentors are available) and they can decide how to develop their characters in response.
 
I would also expect a minimum points spend on background skills and talents since you can't logically develop these quickly later. 50 pts of complications can seem a lot at that early stage, but you can go soft on those at first until they get more powerful (eg their hunters are rumored to be near, but they never actually show up in force until much later).
 
If they start off weak and grow fast, they will develop according to what you throw at them and in ways that fit the campaign setting. If there are lots of combat tasks, they will naturally spend point on combat. If there is more talking, sneaking, travelling or mysteries, they will naturally spend points on skills to be better at those things. They will then work out that they don't need everyone to be good at everything, so strategic decisions about who specialises in each area of ability naturally occur and everyone feels they have an important individual role in the party.
 
This is particularly useful for starting players, but it's also an interesting challenge for experienced players who may have a "road map / master plan" in place but can then adapt their concept to fit the campaign and work with other party members more effectively.
 

The most Golden of Girls has passed. Only weeks away from her 100th birthday. 
 
Damn you, 2021. 
 
RIP
 

This illustrated the problem of our current situation. The push of the Hero System as a "work book", and forgetting than many of us don't have the time to build our own worlds and build our own adventures. We need supplements and adventures and pre-built settings, not a "here are all the options, put them together however you wish".
 
I miss the days of once a week adventures, and once per month supplements, and once per season settings book.

A Hero Patreon account is something that I've supported for a long time. It's a way to produce new Hero material on a regular basis, without too much speculative expense, and with the potential for follow up sales (as you noted).

I'm really torn over this, because I want more Champions Universe stuff, and I want to help Hero Games, and I'm afraid the collection may be scrapped if the chapters don't sell; but artificially inflating sales of what I consider a substandard product strikes me as sending the wrong message. Particularly galling in that I gave some editorial input and suggestions to Steve Long over the first drafts of his chapters, and I'd love to see whether he did anything with them.
 
I've never thought like that about any Hero product since DOJ bought the company, and it makes me sad.

Never forget what happened one Christmas at Nakatomi Tower...
 

 

Indeed, I recall my excitement back in the day when this came to pass. I have many fond memories of the materials you guys produced over the years and the purposes I put them to. Make mine Hero! and happy holidays.

I have to thank all of the above-mentioned people for giving us Herophiles a Golden Age of Hero Games. DOJ Inc. came in when the game appeared all but dead, and produced more and more diverse Hero material than ever before, most of it of high quality. It's a tragedy that many of the company's plans for further publications were unable to be realized, and that new production slowed so dramatically over the second decade compared to the first. But I for one will always be deeply grateful for the many great hours of gaming, and heck, just reading, that DOJ provided me. You all should be very proud of what you accomplished.    
 

Believe it or not, it was 20 years ago today that Darren Watts, Jason Walters, the Secret Masters, and myself bought the HERO System (and its related IPs)!
 
It's been a wonderful, amazing journey ever since -- one with its ups and downs, like any journey -- but still an awesome one. My deepest thanks to all the HERO fans out there who have made it possible!

Horror On The Orient Express - London - Dancers In An Evening Fog
 
IN WHICH THE INVESTIGATORS EMBARK ON A INTERNATIONAL SCAVENGER HUNT AND ARE PUT OFF BARBEQUE FOR LIFE
 
The investigators have learned that their friend Professor Smith, and his manservant Beddows, are missing under highly suspicious circumstances. It’s not the only shocking news in the paper today either - another article (front page in the tabloids, naturally) claims ‘Man Dies Three Times In One Night!’. 
 
It’s a man they know, too - the Turkish antiques dealer Mehmet Makryat, or at least three similar-looking but younger men with the same name.
 
Florence Braxton-Hicks: Triplets? With very unimaginative parents?
 
The mysterious Mehmets were all found in a room at the Chelsea Arms Hotel, and according to the newspaper all had passports in the same name, had been travelling the Continent for the last few years, and had all been stabbed in the heart. Sub-lieutenant Huxley speculates wildly about the case, despite an almost total lack of actual information. Certainly the Professor seemed perturbed by every meeting with Makryat, but why was Beddows seen fleeing the house fire? He certainly appeared to be content in his position.
 
Sub-lieutenant Huxley: And how does a grievance with the Professor lead to the death of Makryat’s three identical triplet sons?
 
It becomes even more bizarre when a fourth Makyrat, presumably the original, is found burned to a crisp in the ruins of Smith’s house, only identifiable by the keys to his Islington shop and the ostentatious gold wristwatch he was wearing at Smith’s lecture the previous evening. 
 
Huxley: So we have a fourth dead Makryat.
Florence: Big family.
Huxley: This is getting well beyond weird trains. We’ve got a dead Turk who is apparently multiplying. 
 
Huxley and Flo scurry around London, attempting to keep ahead of the police, whoever killed the Makryats, and rival newspaper reporters. Using the reasonable excuse that they have to determine which books and documents were lost with the fire, Huxley and Smith’s colleagues start itemising everything left in Smith’s college office. His 1922 diary includes a lot of cryptic references such as ‘dare I return to Turkey?’ and speculation whether whatever expedition he was planning in 1923 is connected to his brush with some exceedingly unpleasant cultists thirty years ago. Huxley’s paranoia is rising fast, not least because Smith’s assistant at the University has also vanished, with signs of a struggle. Florence tells Huxley off for not reporting that last discovery to the police, before she and Alex head off to break into Makryat’s shop.
 
GM: Having just told off Huxley for not reporting a crime, you and your cousin head off to commit one. 
 
Florence manages to drag herself away from the pretty things in the antique store long enough to thoroughly search the place.
 
Alex: Do this sort of thing often?
Florence: I did tell you what I got up to at school, didn’t I? I broke out of there three nights a week, and didn’t get caught once.
 
They also pocket a few of the smaller, more portable items, while they’re there.
 
GM: Breaking and entering, and now theft
Florence: Oh darling, why stop there? If he’s cleared out, we may as well help ourselves.
 
It certainly looks like Makryat had abandoned the shop, taking his clothes, any books, and luggage with him. The only remaining documents in the store are his account books, which are tedious enough but do include an odd reference to the purchase and later sale of a custom-built toy train. The purchaser of the train apparently vanishes in a cloud of smoke shortly thereafter, but by that point Huxley is so paranoid he insists on getting out of London as swiftly as possible, and refuses to investigate.
 
Huxley and Florence do get an unexpected visitor that evening - a cabbie dropping off a desperate message from the Professor (confirmed by his use of a Macedonian ring to mark the sealing wax of the envelope). He and Beddows are in hiding at a bedsit in Cheapside, and Smith has been horribly burned in the house fire. 
 
Huxley OoC: Do I need to make a Sanity Check here? I did see burn victims during the war.
GM: And that just means you’re getting flashbacks now.
 
Beddows has apparently done what he can, and intends to smuggle his master out to a war clinic as soon as possible. But first Smith has to croak out his tale, and his warning. His home was attacked by Turkish madmen, because he and Makryat had been seeking out the pieces of something called the Sedefkar Simulacrum, last in the possession of one Comte Fenalik in pre-Revolutionary Paris. The pieces need to be gathered together and destroyed in their original location, in Constantinople, and between them they’d found some clues to their whereabouts. And evidently these madmen heard about it.
 
GM: Admittedly some of the clues are a bit thin - ‘One of the pieces might be buried somewhere in Bulgaria - bring a shovel’.
 
But assuming he survives his injuries, Professor Smith fully intends to help as best he can, using his long list of academic contacts across Europe. More practically, he also has Beddows provide a small suitcase containing hundreds of five pound notes. 
 
GM: Allowing for inflation, this is what we call a metric f***ton of cash.
 
Huxley: But why do these Turks want the statue anyway?
Prof. Smith: *seizing Huxley’s wrist with a hand greasy from the burns and the emollient cream* To possess the Simulacrum is to possess immortality… I’ve always considered myself a man of science, my friend… but the Simulacrum is evil! Evil! God help you... God help us all...
 
The Professor lapses back into unconsciousness, and Beddows explains that the Professor had chosen the investigators to accompany him on the search, and intended to explain all. Naturally, he’d planned to travel on the Orient Express, the fastest and most luxurious way to travel the distances involved. 
 
It will take a few days to arrange visas, drop points for telegraph messages, and the purchase of top-quality clothing and luggage for the trip. Florence will need to persuade her Editor to let her go, too. 
 
GM: Nellie Bly IS one of your heroes after all - it might not be Around The World in 80 Days but it’ll still be a trip to remember, and write about.
 
Her uncle is a bit reluctant to see her go off by herself, but agrees readily enough when Florence suggests Alexandria come along too. 
 
Uncle: I mean what trouble could you get into if there’s two of you?
 
The Professor’s extensive notes for the trip probably went up in smoke (or, perhaps, ended up in the hands of their attackers) so Huxley spends much of the next week at the British Museum’s Reading Room, confirming what he can about Sedefkar, his Simulacrum, and the whereabouts of any documents about same. He’s too paranoid to return to his home, too. 
 
GM: On Friday you’re left a series of increasingly anxious messages from Huxley - he’s no longer at the Library and there’s a reason for that.
Florence: Have you done anything about your clothes yet, or are you going to embarrass us on the train?
 
Formal clothes for dinner on the train had not been a priority in Huxley’s mind, because somebody left a skinned human corpse at the library, propped up where it could watch whatever he was doing. It was carrying a note, too, written in Turkish on flayed human skin. 
 
THE SKINLESS ONE WILL NOT BE DENIED
 
Naturally, medical students get the blame. Huxley thinks otherwise.
 
Huxley: I think they’re onto us.
Florence: So did you inform the police this time? Or are we going to have the police after us as well?
 
Huxley has no intention of going out by himself now, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Alex is STILL packing for the trip, would prefer to get out of London that night.
 
Florence: The Sub-lieutenant can always hide in the attic until we leave - maybe he just needs a quiet place to calm his nerves.
Huxley OoC: Probably true - I’ve already lost 5 Sanity in the last two days.
 
Huxley, Florence, and Alex depart for Paris, to discover what they can about the Comte, and whether any parts of, or documents about, the Simulacrum remain in the city. Antonio intends to travel ahead to his native Italy, to do preliminary legwork in Milan, Venice, and Trieste, all apparently destinations for parts of the statue. Hopefully he can uncover clues - the party will need all the help they can get...

Went to a funeral today (that "fun" part is really misleading, by the way, though it _was_ a genuine circus   ).  Did some reminiscing with friends and was reminded of this gem:
 
In this world, Monstrous are wild cards (fantasy world).  People who have dabbled "too deeply" in magic and have become twisted, deformed soulless-- and often mindless- beasts.  They are physically dangerous, spiritually dangerous, and often times magically dangerous.
 
The PCs have stumbled upon a keep inhabited by a very old dabbler in magic (which is very unusual in this world; most blow it and become Monstrous).  As they are interacting with him in his study, one of the Monstrous shambles into the room, carrying a tray with a flask of wine and several goblets.  The PCs immediately ready their weapons and position themselves for combat.  The Monstrous does not move.  It simply holds the tray out, its mouth partly agape and its unfocused eyes staring blindly ahead.  The PCs wait and wait.  Finally the start to relax.  The old spell caster is amused, chuckling softly to himself.
 
"is....  Is this thing _safe_?"
 
"From what?"
 
"I mean is it safe to have around?"
 
"To have around you?  Most definitely.  It's far stronger than you will ever be."
 
 

Dean Stockwell, Quantum Leap and Blue Velvet actor, dies aged 85
In 2015, he retired from acting following a stroke. Saying he died of "natural causes."
 
Goodbye to my favorite hologram, Al. 

And HSMA discusses using powers as martial arts.
 
Always more then one way to skin that cat