ThothAmon

Re: Seven unusual propeller-driven vehicles

The Bennie is well known here in Scotland

Re: Around the World With A New Character Each Week

This entire thread deserves some serious respect

Re: List of Forum Members - Super Teams & Members

FLASH (Federation of Los Angeles Super Heroes)

A very old Champions team that split up many moons ago:

Fairlight - lady mentallist / detective with light SFX, inheritor of 1930's pulp hero mantle

Magma - volcanic-tempered brick, serving time in Stronghold

Snowball AKA Mr Cool, Jack Chill, Jack Frost, Blizzard - happy-go-lucky cold energy projector (accident victim), star of numerous advertising campaigns and bad TV series

Gauntlet - noble brick, inheritor of a magical medieval gauntlet of power

Void - crashed-to-Earth future / transdimensional astronaut with a bad case of amnesia and darkness / gravitic / singularity powers

Mr Midnight - psionic / psychic vampire, wealthy horror fiction writer, psychologist, detective and all-round Victorian gentleman

Hunter - world-class martial-arts expert, retired LAPD SWAT team member turned bounty hunter

The Revengers (NYC)

Frank Miller era troubled anti-heroes:

Lightning - electromagnetic energy projector, a US military weapons researcher

Grimalkin - magical shapeshifting catwoman with sonic powers

Raven - Amerind special forces soldier, inheritor of pulp-era costume and powers

Shadowstalker - jewel thief turned nuclear teleporter / desolidifier / energy projector

Re: Ripping off the Late Roger Zelazny...

Minimum costs for a slot is wrong. I think it is 2 points, or 1 point? Slots need to be ultra to cover the fact that you can only do one thing at a time?

I'd suggest that OAF doesn't apply unless you need the whole deck - lose one card and the deck stops working.

Concentration may also need looking at, especialy with communication / movement powers.

Re: EMERGENCY HELP: I need an adventure idea STAT

Nazi / White Supremacist undead attacking the local negro populace. They're on a quest for vengeance. A boccor / houngan was paid by a racial assault victim to curse the local chapter of Stormfront or equivalent White Power group, and their chapter house collapsed mysteriously, killing everyone inside. Subsequent forensic investigation by dougnut-eating local police pinpointed shoddy construction by jackass amateurs, the chapter wouldn't hire the best local firms as they were racially mixed.

Lifting the curse is going to be tough. Lots of unhappy undead Nazis (villains to hate) vs the wronged locals (sympathetic villains) with the very unsympathetic corrupt cops in the middle. Covers most of the deep south / B movie cliches.

Re: Fighting Techniques of the Middle Ages: anyone read this?

FWIW' date=' I recently finished a biography of Tamerlame. It wasn't that good a book, unfortunately, with its best parts being the bits from the author's journey through that part of the world doing his research. But it had one fascinating thing that I'd never considered before. He invaded India, and the Indian princes had war elephants. He did not (the heart of his army was horse archers), and this was a serious issue. How he dealt with the war elephants at Delhi was fascinating.[/quote']

 

I believe the method of dealing with war elephants (assuming you had preparation time) was to tar / pitch live pigs then set them on fire and release them towards the enemy lines. The squealing, roasting pigs caused the elephants to bolt.

Re: Lands of Mystery

There are already the more up-to-date equivalents available from the HERO store - Thrilling Places and Inner Earth

Re: Victorian / Western HERO Firearms

I must concur with RPMiller. Much of the work I've done via 3G3 has not produced black powder handguns that do massive damage. And IMO that is in keeping with the HERO system ethos.

My usual approach for modelling "realistic" damage in HERO is to use mandatory hit locations, bleeding, wounding, impair/disable and double all killing damage body multipliers i.e. chest = x2, head = x4.

Muzzle velocity figures for cap-and-ball weapons have been nigh-impossible to find. After all my work I find myself looking again at the simplicity of Western HERO...

Re: Top Eleven Adversaries of Arnold

Bogus list as it does not contain Benedict (played by Charles Dance) from 'Last Action Hero' who delivers one of the greatest monologues of all time:

"Gentlemen. Since you are about to die anyway, I may as well tell you the entire plot. Think of villains Jack. You want Dracula? Dra-cool-la? Hang on, I'll fetch him. Dracula? Huh. I can get King Kong! We'll have a nightmare with Freddy Krueger, have a surprize party for Adolf Hitler, Hannibal Lecter can do the catering, and then we'll have christening for Rosemary's Baby! All I have to do is snap my fingers and they'll be here. They're lining up to get here, and do you know why Jack? Should I tell you why? Hmm? Because here, in this world, the bad guys can win!"

Re: Victorian / Western HERO Firearms

Period is 1886 onwards but any info I can get would be appreciated Toadmaster. Rep is on its way out to those who have replied so far.

I suspect I'll be using G3G to work up my own weapons table from 1840 onwards and comparing the results with whatever I can grokk from elsewhere.

Re: Requesting Assistance - Fencing Unbound

My thanks to all who responded. Now I'm doing a similar quest for Victorian-era firearms stats...

I'm doing some prepwork for a Victorian HERO campaign. I have my copies of Horror Hero, Western Hero, Justice Inc, Danger International, Pulp Hero, Edge Of The Sword and the NRA Pistols manuals to hand.

Nevertheless, statting out firearms from 1850 onwards is proving to be a bit of a nightmare for a number of reasons.

1. Western Hero lacks variation in firearms types, although it does have a useful rule-of-thumb for differentiating between cap-and-ball and cartridge firearms.
   
2. Horror Hero Victorian firearms fall into line with the Justice Inc and 4th Edition stats in general but again lack certain types e.g. European weapons.
   
3. Pulp Hero and 5th Edition show an alarming tendency to raise weapon damages to seemingly extreme levels e.g. the .45 calibre Colt Single Action Army black powder cartridge pistol is given the same damage rating as a modern .45 ACP Colt M1911, completely contrary to the suggestions in Western Hero. Have any other long-term GMs noticed this issue with 5th Edition?

I've done a fair bit of web trawling and found some useful background articles but nothing for HERO. Is there a consistent reference for Victorian era firearms? Or will it be a DIY job?

Pointers to forum topics I may have missed or helpful discussion would be most appreciated. I'd be especially intererested to hear from anyone else who has GMed this genre and perhaps dealt with these issues.

Re: Requesting Assistance - Fencing Unbound

You realize there are fencing rules in The Ultimate Martial Artist, right?

 

Just ah sayin'....

Yes, I have all 3 versions of UMA / Ninja Hero / Martial Arts Porn. I'm a completist. That's why I'd like to take another look at Fencing Unbound. From what I can tell the Fencing material in UMA MkII is actually based on Fencing Unbound but is not as detailed.

Re: FH Gripes

I haven't experienced most of these gripes. The magic system one is valid but then magic, by it's nature, tends to upset the orthodox rules.

I'd suggest to the OP that he could do with revising his gaming style if these are real problems for him. Any heroic game PCs packing 5d6 KA are pretty much in munchkin territory. If players cough up the points for this level of combat ability then they will expect to use it. What happened to roleplaying and GM control of character design and character growth?

I have an old printout of HERO material called 'Fencing Unbound' by John Cunningham. Is there anyone out there who remembers this? My old-fart memory is hazy but I think it was a very early Digital Hero piece.

Unfortunately I am unable to find my original HTML copy of the material. And I could really do with it right now as my dead-tree version appears to be incomplete. I've tried a HERO forum search to no avail. Even a Google search has come up empty.

Is there anyone out there who still has a copy? Assuming there are no copyright issues, I'd be most grateful if someone could help me out

Re: What would your Master Villain do?

Helix (or more accurately one of his many multiform clone identities) would already have collected and analyzed examples of the New Pantheon members' DNA over a lengthy period. His response would in part be dependent upon the results of that analysis. Other factors would include the prevailing political climate and the results of his own very subtle psi-scanning from afar. Consider Helix to be a multiform version of Menton (and then some). More info please on both the New Pantheon and this sacrifical lamb Brother Normal?

I'll suggest tactics for the other campaign master villain in a future post.

Re: ONE power: what do you do with it?

I think a Healing schtick would work for me. With selective marketing of abilities I could make money and then me, the missus and the kids (and their kids) could live a healthy life.

I acutually see a plotline in that - what if someone really wants healing and will do anything to get it?

Re: Concept: The Clockwork Man

There's a Clockwork Man type character in one of the Digital Hero issues. And he's a really good concept, a clockwork AI/bot with time manipulation powers

Re: Top 20 Comic Weapons

Hmmm, I take their 'personal list' argument for what it's worth but they miss a lot.

And IMO no Lawgiver => narrow sampling.

Re: Pulp Adventure boardgame

Looks rather good

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy...

I think of three novels in quick succession:

'The Gnole' by Alan Aldridge

Fritz Leiber's novel 'Conjure Wife'

Mark Helprin's novel 'Winter's Tale'

The tag Urban Fantasy can apply to almost anything with an element of the fantastic. One of my fave comedy-horror novels, Needful Things, could easily fit the bill.

Re: What are your favourite Pulp cities?

Shanghai.

I've ran a lengthy pulp campaign (many years real time) all around the globe and Shangahi 1920s -> 1930's was the best locale by a looong way.

Re: Walking with Dinosaurs: Buidling Mechanical Dinos

And keep your eyes peeled for 'Primeval', the latest UK SF series, picthed as a competitor to Dr Who and Torchwood (it should have no problems outclassing the latter). It allegedly features dino FX from the same team that did 'Walking With Dinosaurs'.

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions?

Go with Cthulhu and Champions

You know it makes sense...

Re: 007 7.0

(I guess thechnically this really isn't "squeamishness" but it still annoyed the crap out of me when I read it. If I've misremembered any of the above please feel free to correct me. It's been a little while since I've read the books.)

Bond is sent after Scaramanga because M considers Bond to be 'washed up' after the SMERSH brainwashing events post- You Only Live Twice. In reality it's a suicide mission and Bond knows it. Bond wants to go face-to-face with Scaramanga rather than simply blow him away in order to validate his 00 rating. Getting info is an added extra.