Mike W

Re: How do you write a campaign log? A buddy of mine came up with the idea of doing a "newspaper" after each session. If the PC group's adventure took place in public, they get a story. Of course, the media perception of what happened(or even who is in charge of the team) might be a bit different from reality. Other stories give you an idea of what other heroes are up to. Some are plot hooks. It works good. It also lets you keep a general running timeline. In the last campaign, I also kept a separate "comic book" synopsis. Since I was taking over for a friend, my first session was labeled Vol. 2 Issue 1. Each one had a title and gave a short 3 paragraph or so summary written in "high comic style"(and I'm thinking Bronze age or early Iron age 70s-80s).

Re: is having DNPC as follower legal I'd need more details to be sure, but generally no. A DNPC is generally someone who depends on you and is "just a regular person". Anyone you pay points for - follower, contact, whatever, - has useful abilities to you. A DNPC generally doesn't. DNPCs are disadvantages because they are a hinderance. Followers cost you points because they are generally a help. While there might be an occasional case where both would apply(like buying Reputation as both a Perk and a Disadvantage), as a general rule I have a hard time seeing this one.

Re: Balancing various challenges. Sgt. who can routinely stun PCs? Pretty bloody. Run it right with 3 goons who can routinely do decent damage and a sergeant who can routinely stun and the PCs are gonna have a heck of a time winning, especially novice PCs.

Re: Balancing various challenges. Most goons are built on 75-150 points. On 150, they can be pretty effective as unit, especially with the right weaponry so choose your goons to match the situation and tone. Keep in mind that a 4 level swing(4 CVs, 4 Damage Classes, etc.) is pretty overwhelming. So ask your self how tough the encounter should be then build based off of that. Easy fights, the "bad guys" are 3-4 ranks below them. A world class guy and give them a run for his money if all his stats are 3-4 levels higher than everyone elses. if all else fails, test run it. Set up the scenario and play it out to get an idea of how it could go.

Re: How would you use a true name as a vulnerability? A lot of possibilities, I think it would depend on the campaign: 1. True Name counts as a Susceptibility or Vulnerability. 2. True Name adds "x" dice or percent to any effect rolled. 3. True Name serves as a "free" modifier like Armor Piercing that ignores all rules such as END cost and power point limits. 4. True Name lets you bypass defenses entirely. But it only works once. 5. True Name gives you a huge aid to Mind Conttrol or any other type of domination.

Re: Disadvantage Point Limits. I think that part of the reason is to force people to take things they might otherwise avoid(not everyone wants a Hunted. Or Unluck. Or a Physical Limit). Most players have certain categories that they try to avoid. Limiting how many points you can get from one category makes you spread it out more. It also helps the Gm get more plot hooks(since now almost everyone ends up with a Hunted, a Rival, a DNPC, some other character for the GM to cause trouble with) and tends to make for more well rounded characters. That being said, I'm not a slave to it as a GM. But if somone tries to stack all their points into Psych Lims or something else where they seem to be trying to either "double dip" with two very similar Disads or where they are trying to stack everything in one, maybe two categories, I'm going to get annoyed and tell them "no". But if they want 4 15 point Psych Lims, for 60 points, I probably won't care that the Campaign limit is normally 50 points. I generally go more by "no more than 4 from one category" than a specific point total(for Champs anyway). It makes it a little easier on the player and lets them take the bigger disads without having to find a little one to "average it out" or "fill up" the category.

Re: Mechanical Summon To throw out another idea. Buy Robotics and add Requires a Skill Roll as a limit. If you make the roll, you build it successfully and it functions correctly. Miss the roll, sorry didn't build it quite right. You might also consider a limit(generally -1/4) that you "must have raw material available". In other words, you need a big hunk of metal(like a car) lying around for you to make your mechanical buddy out of. So if you're stuck in a forest or even the middle of a park, you're probably out of luck.

Re: Do you have players justify experience points expenditure? Since I'm generally running Champions - as long as it fits the concept, I'm cool with it.

Re: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Proteus: beer, ballgames, country music, redneck TV(grade B movies, Jerry Springer, etc.)

Re: Is combat in HERO strategic? Combat is very strategic, even in supers(Champions). Proper battlefield control is essential, especially against a well-organized group of opponents.

Re: Looking for a good name Constructor is a bit bland. Endeavor's not bad. Innovator I'm kind of on the fense, Not bad, but doesn't really grab me either. What about something more scientific sounding? Thinking out loud here, no guarantee that any of these are good(in fact, most of them probably won't be. When I name stuff, I tend to list a lot of names, weed out the awful ones and then see if anything is left.): Combinant, Chemistro, Physic, Imagineer, Imaginaut, Cosmo, Tehcnologist, Maven, Boffin(an obscure synonym for scientist) The Architect,

Re: Campaign Start - Character Questionairre I use a version of a questionaire that breaks down something like this: 1. origin/background at least 10 years or since you turned 16, whichever is longer cursory details are enough for things that won't come up in game but be specific about anyone/anything that will actually show up in game or on your character sheet in some way(e.g. - justification for skills) 2. general personality/values/beliefs 3. physical description 4. character abilities NO numbers allowed. Describe in words only. 5. who do you know? who likes you? who doesn't? Why? 6. Motivation Why does your character run around in spandex and beat up bad guys? 7. Goals What are your character's plans for the next few months? the next few years? By the time they finish this, they have 3-5 pages of stuff to work with and building characters is easy. We know who their hunteds are, who their contacts are, their obvious psych lims, and have a general idea of what their character can do, so it's a matter of taking the written out power descriptions and the campaign power scale and slotting them in. This also tends to help them feel like they are as powerful as they should be - provided of course that they aren't trying to build a 700 point beast on 350 or something like that. As a GM, this also gives me chance to immediately start plotting how I'm going to use their enemies and what I intend to put them through.

Re: Did the CCA create the Silver Age?

Re: The Essential Bad Silver Age Batman in the 1970s took on a bit of the campy feel of the 1960s television show and villains like "The Squid" - a fishy version of the Penguin but not nearly as smart who liked to dangle Batman over tanks of killer aquatic creatures. Not the best period in the Caped Crusaders history.

Re: The Essential *Good* Siler Age The Avengers were pretty good. Dr. Strange (the first full series, technically vol. 2) Iron Man had his moments

Re: Did the CCA create the Silver Age? I think they kind of created each other...you couldn't have had the Silver Age without the CCA but the CCA came about because Congress was wanting to censor comic books, so the comic publishers beat them to the punch. And I never really minded the CCA. OK, so you can't show lots of gore and you can't show nudity/sex if you wanted the CCA stamp. Oh well. I'll live. Yeah, I know it was more complicated than that. They didn't do certain plot lines either but really, the Silver Age CCA code wasn't any more restrictive than the television I grew up on.

Re: You know the GM has it in for you when... This is a huuuuge inside joke but I'll explain in a moment*: You know the GM has it in for you when....you're playing Ravenloft for Breakfast. * When I was in college a guy had a "campaign" called Ravenloft for Breakfast. Everyone brought a character, ordered breakfast and tried to surivive long enough to bring the character next week. No one ever did. Death was generally arbitrary and amusing. For instance, two people showed up with very similar characters so the GM ruled that they were too much alike and created a reality paradox which caused them both to wink out of existence. The record length for character survival was 45 minutes.

Re: You know the GM has it in for you when... You tell the GM your character's name and he says "Oh, whatever. It's not that important - as long as you know you're the one taking damage, that's enough."

Re: You know the GM has it in for you when... When the GM decides that your 250 point gadgeteer needs a few "Free" hunteds to liven up the character: Mechanon, Mechassassin, and Dr. Destroyer.

Re: This is Stupid... And Peter believed him. This is another reason why we blocked out the Clone Saga. Too bad Spidey hasn't been good for any decent stretch since.

Re: This is Stupid... Probably because she's a remnant from the Clone Saga. If I remember right, MJ was pregnant, had the girl, Jackal or someone kidnapper her...and the next thing we know, Spidergirl, never mind that Peter and MJ basically ignored the fact that their daughter had been kidnapped and made no effort to try and find her.

Re: This is Stupid... Spiderman Clone Saga - have a hero who, every week, meets a different clone of himself, including a guy who claims to be the "real" X Iron Man 2000s- this week he's a hero, next week he's gonna sic the government on you Illuminati - after playing the campaign for years, the PCs suddenly discover that a group of NPC "heroes" not only knew about all the important stuff all along but were actually allowing it to happen because they thought it would be "good for humanity". There will be no backlash or repurcussions allowed from anyone about this. If any PC should dare to complain, the Illuminati will simply ruin his life - after taking over his home state/country as a way to show how much better they would be at ruling the world Mutant Hating Extraordinaires - you have lots of well known mutant characters but no matter how many times they save the world from who knows what in plain view of the press, the general public still tries to stone them every time they go out in public. "just because you've saved everyone I love 16 times this month doesn't mean I don't hate your freaky, scumbag butt" scream the protestors outside their headquarters while calling for registration acts and detention centers to control the "mutant menace"

Re: What was Marvel's best decade? The 80s were really good but I like a lot of the early to mid 1970s stuff too, especially the Jack Kirby art. One thing I like about the 1970s is that they used a lot of characters and didn't feel the need to re-use a lot of people because the universe wasn't so crowded. If someone was popular, they used them but they had plenty of room to try new characters. And in both decades they had a willingness to run long plot lines/subplots and if it took a year or two to sort out, oh well. We had plenty of other things going on in the mean time.

Re: Must use villains VIPER is a big one for me. Grond is as well. Firewing is good. Zodiac. Cheshire Cat.

Re: What was Marvel's WORST decade? Marvel hasn't been good for much of the last 15+ years. Basically, from the Clone Saga forward. They come up with something good from time to time(or maybe I should say, they let Kurt Busiek write some good stories from time to time) but I haven't consistently collected any Marvel title in a decade, which is sad because that's what I grew up on. I grew up on classic Avengers stories, Capt. America, Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman, and Dr. Strange. I picked up a DC book now and then, but the comics that meant the most to me were always Marvel books. Now, I spend a lot of time in comic stores but basically ignore the new comic racks. I'd rather buy 3 old ones than one new one, especially when the old ones take longer to read and have both more story and better stories.