Tywyll

When I went to the OSR and started replaying B/X era D&D, I found this thought process (which I'd been guilty of) really funny. In the old days, early edition 1st level characters were actually quite tough, compared to the mundane world. A warrior could have twice (8) the hp of a commoner (4) before Con. A wizard could put down an entire village mob with a single spell. A cleric could restore a grieviously wounded individual to full health. A thief could...well, thieves still sucked. REgardless, 1st level characters weren't idiots. 
 
I think power creep and the constant influx of new, tougher monsters distorted the idea of what the characters represented. I suppose dungeons with instant kill death traps didn't help either. Later editions made it worse with every NPC having levels (wth is a 20th level commoner exactly?!?), but that became necessary because they tried to build NPCs the same way as PCs and for someone to be good at skills required high character levels. And such, 1st level characters became more and more bumbling morons. 
 
As much as I wasn't super fond of the Non Weapon Proficiencies in 1st and 2nd edition, the nice thing they accomplished was allowing a character to be skilled in a mundane task regardless of level. So a person could be an excellent blacksmith without having 10 levels, for example. 

Ahhh...I see.
 
No, I'd use a rolled up newspaper on a player who tried that. At best I'd let them activate it on their phase only. The benefit of the free reset is simply they wouldn't need to spend part of a phase to reuse it.

Corea made an ass out of himself on his website way before he started playing games with the Hugos.

Last I checked Both Game Kastle in Fremont CA, and Gator Games in San Mateo had the Hardcover in stock. They usually get stocked with other games because there's nothing on the spine to ID it as being Hero System compatable,

The MHI dice are just big D6's with the MHI Logo on one face. They are nowhere near as functional as the Blue and Black Hero System dice. Also the MHI dice are this shitty looking white and green speckle. UGLY. Probably should have sold my book to Half Price books. I don't think I opened it to look at it after I bought it. So Hero Games got my cash on that one, but I have never bought another book by Corea.

I've been running a HERO game on Saturdays for a couple of years now and ran a full campaign at the local gaming store Wednesday nights for a good while.
 
Admittedly, it's easiest to crush it as a DM for 5e and then show them a game system you like better.  At that point, though, you're selling your value as a DM and not the system.

For me, I always thought D&D characters were superheroes, especially at the higher levels.  When we started playing with ODD, a first level PC was a hardened veteran and could easily take on city guard and plain old warriors.  I never understood how the 1st level somehow became a bumbling novice.  But after a couple levels they are supers.  It is just they operate according to different rules of conduct and killing an enemy is OK.

Here's what I have so far, but full credit to Tasha.  I've just slightly modified her work.
 
 
ScottishFox.hde

Ok I am going to use my favorite project manager answer ... It depends 😀
 
For instance if the players are going to have big fight with a bunch of orcs (think 3 or 4 to 1 type odds) then the vast majority of the orcs are going to be pretty much like what is in the Bestiary.  I will treat them as one or two hit wonders.  I will probably throw in a few tougher orcs that will have a level or two and won't be one/two hit wonders and then I will probably toss in a leader plus a few lieutenants to make things interesting.  The leader will be very tough and skilled and the lieutenants will be almost as tough and skilled.
 
I personally like running a very cinematic game.  Let me use this scene from LOTR Fellowship of the Ring.  Up until the 1:15 or so point in this clip our heroes are killing everyone they hit with one shot.  When Aragorn fights the orc between 1:17 and 1:21 it take a few hits - that would be the orcs that are not one hit wonders.  Even when Pippin and Merry get into the fight they are killing orcs with one or two blows.  And at 2:55 to about 3:10 Aragorn seems to be fighting with what I would classify as a lieutenant.
And when it comes to fighting the leader of the orcs Aragorn has his hands full.
 

Sorry to derail...
 
My group has use the TTS for our hero campaign twice now and its worked pretty well. There have been some bugs (which I've told Brennall about) that have been frustrating, but that's mostly because we want to use ALL THE TOOLS!!! As a way of just playing as a vtt it works well. But the combat tracker and loading character sheets has been so cool and helpful.
 
My players, who are all HERO newbies (though we've been playing for about 6 months) and mostly have shown little interest in picking up HERO are much more interested now that we are using TTS. I don't know why though.

Sorry to derail...
 
My group has use the TTS for our hero campaign twice now and its worked pretty well. There have been some bugs (which I've told Brennall about) that have been frustrating, but that's mostly because we want to use ALL THE TOOLS!!! As a way of just playing as a vtt it works well. But the combat tracker and loading character sheets has been so cool and helpful.
 
My players, who are all HERO newbies (though we've been playing for about 6 months) and mostly have shown little interest in picking up HERO are much more interested now that we are using TTS. I don't know why though.

This is why I never got into MMOs...

I was, at one time, interested in InDesign for doing covers and layout for my books, but that was before they went to a subscription model. To hell with that. If I can't *own* the software, I'm not interested. I ended up learning GIMP for doing book covers, and I used Jutoh for formatting ebooks for a long while. Now I'm using Draft2Digital's website to format my ebooks. They have a pretty decent system, it's free, and Amazon accepts them. I might eventually look into Vellum, but not yet. I'm not sure I'm really interested in publishing anymore.

Ugh! I HATE subscription models! It's a scam. I don't want to keep paying to use the program that I payed for to use. 

You know, there is a book that sorta does this. Champions in 3-D is a dimension-jumping resource book, and shows the versatility and strength of the HERO System by offering a brief chapter on each of several different dimensions. Each chapter gives an overview, gives the rationale for how the dimension works, and offers some specific builds for that dimension, followed by some adventures. 
 
This could work very well in the Hall of Champions. Make each chapter a separate document. In each document, offer some guidelines for that particular scenario, set the parameters for the characters, offer some advice, show some builds, and then offer a series of adventures to put that scenario into action. Simple enough! This would be a most excellent model for "beginning adventures," and really should be the emphasis of the Hall of Champions. More settings? Meh. More villains? What for? New adventures? Now you're talkin'! Advice on how to set up those adventures, wrapped right into the adventures themselves? Holy cow, take my money, please!
 
Unfortunately, we're the ones who are expected to do this legwork. I think maybe some creative folks need to start shaping this new model and promoting it to the point that DOJ can no longer ignore how imperative it is for the survival of HERO System.

This is not doing anything like an Easy Mode, nor is it removing any of the build rules.  Just a re-order of presentation and adding the completely missing play part. 
 
Everything that you liked and preferred is still there. The only difference is that new players will have actual context on how the rules actually interact before trying to build. If a new player will not read the build chapter after playing the mini-campaign, then they will never have bothered to read it as is. 
 
But the current method of what is basically simply repeating the exact same thing and expecting a different result isn't working.  There really isn't anything wrong with the rule system, which leaves changing presentation.  Both information and visual.  I am only referring to the information side based on what I have personally experienced.
 
Most of the gamers that I know and have tried to sell on Hero simply don't read further than the first part of CharGen. 
But a player that plays a game is much more to likely to read the rest of it.
 
This is mostly babble of course and I don't have any great magical insight.  But I do know that people now approach things entirely different than we did. No computers, no internet and somewhere between 3 and 30 channels that you could only watch real time unless you recorded them on a tape.  In the winter I can remember going to bed early because I'd finished my last book and there was nothing (as usual) interesting on TV.  Wading through a textbook was nothing to stave off boredom.  Today?  There is no boredom, not like there was.  You have access to thousands of informational feeds from a multitude of sources today.  
 
Either the difference is acknowledged and the method of delivery is adapted to the new realities or we just give up. But to be candid, having Hero types constantly falling back on "I didn't do it that way and anyone that isn't up to my personal vision is just not worth having as a gamer" doesn't help.  We are at the point where there needs to be change.  I had hoped that the creative commons would open that door, but instead it is a crippled version of creative commons that will not produce adventure material taking place in the actual Hero settings. 
 
I really don;t know why I keep returning for more self punishment.

If you ever get happy with it, I'd love a copy. It looks great!

While The Valdorian Age source book does provide some of those answers (which I'll get to momentarily), overall the process Dean describes is very logical and seems likely. During epochs of low ambient magic on Earth the creatures who were fundamentally supernatural would probably have withdrawn to Faerie if they could. In fact in the future of the official CU timeline, before the enchantment which changed the Atlanteans into water-breathers failed with the diminishing of ambient magic, they crafted a great spell to translate their entire city to the Land of Legends (see Galactic Champions p. 25); so the precedent is clear.
 
As for all the other sapient beings who were the products of magical accidents or deliberate tampering by gods and wizards, or genetic experiments by advanced aliens, or originally extraterrestrial themselves: it's my theory that they ultimately proved not as adaptable to Earth's changing environment and recurrent global cataclysms as the planet's naturally-occurring native sapient species, and died out over time. (Pursuant to Dean's point above, I often wonder how much evidence Champions Earth's scientists actually possess of their planet's prehistoric past, and how they interpret it.)
 
Now, as to your question, just keep in mind that the region of Earth described during the Valdorian Age, called "Il-Ryveras," is only that portion of the planet where civilization first re-emerged after the cataclysm. We have precious few clues as to what was going on elsewhere at that time.
 
According to VA, a group of Elves fled Ambrethel to escape the tyranny of Takofanes, establishing a colony on the island of Drindria in Il-Ryveras. Fifteen millennia of learning to survive in the harsh post-cataclysmic world changed this people now called the Drindrish, making them harder and more ruthless. When they discovered primitive Men proliferating in nearby lands, they used their still-potent magic, technologically superior weapons, and a group of dragons they allied with, to subjugate them. Their original intent was to "civilize" these Men, but over time they grew tyrannical and cruel. In other words, they went from Tolkien's Eldar to Moorcock's Melniboneans.
 
But with magic continuing to fade on Earth, the Drindrish were overthrown by the revolution of Men led by the champion Valdor. The remainder of them left Drindria to seek another home and better destiny, but disappear from history. (VA p. 161 mentions another small island colony of Elves which retained most of their original culture, separate from Drindria, but not what happened to them.)
 
A remnant of Dwarves continued to inhabit the mountain range known as the Cold Peaks. In the early post-cataclysm period they were friendly with Men, who called them the Gronard, and taught those Men some of their smith-craft; but conflicts between the races prompted the Gronard to withdraw underground. By their ongoing tunneling and mining they killed the great spirit which inhabited the Cold Peaks, known as "Old Widow Ice," and that seemed to precipitate a physical and mental change in them. The Gronard grew more wizened and ugly; they became devious, greedy, and spiteful, and lost much of their metalworking knowledge. (VA p. 160)
 
The Nightlurk Mountains were the home of a physically small, cruel and vicious cavern-dwelling race whom Men call the Night People, who were descendants of Turakian Age Goblins. Their shamans were known to be powerful necromancers; some of their magic was derived from the magically-polluted Lake Tah'nees, which lay directly above the deep underground prison of Takofanes. His influence corrupted the Night People physically as well as mentally, making them look more grotesque and decayed.
 
A few other non-human races are mentioned and briefly described in VA, scattered and few in number, of uncertain origin but who don't seem directly connected to peoples of Ambrethel. They either originated from elsewhere on Earth, or arose over the intervening millennia. But one other Ambrethelan survival is notable: the island nation of Ureth-Kalai kept alive the traditions of ancient Thun. The Urethi worshiped the Thunese gods, and were also ruled by sorcerer-priests. But they had lost knowledge of the locations of their gods' prisons, and lacked the skills and artifacts to commune with and draw power from them as the Thunese did. They often sent secret agents across Il-Ryveras seeking those things.
 

Without reading how the specific Trigger was defined, it's impossible to say. But unless the trigger is responding to another trigger, I cannot see how a loop would be set up. And if you are worried about loops, you can simply declare that the trigger doesn't respond to a response which seems fairly common sense. Resetting the trigger as a 0 phase action doesn't allow it to respond to the same stimuli twice, at least I wouldn't allow it to.
 
I mean, I wouldn't think it needs to be said, but "The GM can allow characters to set other Triggers multiple times, if desired, or forbid multiple setting if appropriate."  6e1 p.351

Ting is, I've learned that the first idea is often not the best idea, and sometimes the best worldbuilding strategy is just to throw things out and see what connections develop on their own. Let me give an example:
 
As part of my Mystic World playtest campaign, I ran a story arc set on my Jack Vance "Dying Earth" homage, the world of Loezen. I'd already decided that saving Loezen would involve time travel: The PCs would need to go back in time to obtain the lost artifact they needed. (Lost, in Vancian irony, because they stole it.) So I dashed off a list of fruity-sounding past ages for Loezen: Before the modern age (not yet named because it's still happening) was the Age of the Road Builder. Before that, the Age of the Cloud Lords. Before that, the horrible Age of Red Shadows. And before that, a mishmash of Ages that were often nothing but names: the Arcuate Age, when people wrote in characters made of short, curving lines; the Age of Towers, inferred from certain massive ruins; the Anaglyphic Age, for the picture-writing carved on buildings; the Trilunar Age, when Loezen apparently had three moons (it presently has two); and the one that mattered for the plot, the Age of Six Sovereigns, when six immortal and ultra-powerful wizard-tyrants contended for rule of the world.
 
Okay, so one of the PCs already had a time travel spel... with a control roll. Which the player blew. Badly. Instead of 8,000 years into the past, they went 8 million! No problem, I'm good at improvising. The players enjoyed an hour seeing the very strange world Loezen had been before its sun began dying. They obtained help from the;;; mages?... of that time. Not wanting to trust another time-jump, they sought other ways of reaching the Age of Six Sovereigns. I had one of their new allies suggest placing them in suspended animation, packing them into a ball and launching them into orbit, to descend and wake up at the proper time. (IIRC I'd recently read one of Cordwainer Smith's stories that had a person who'd awakened in the future this way.) The PCs agreed. Then one player's eyes widened. ""It's us," he exclaimed. "We're causing the Trilunar Age." And they all wondered how I'd set it up.
 
Well, either my unconscious mind is a genius, and possibly precognitive... or I just got lucky, because the PCs did something that could tie into the blither I tossed out before. And the more of these fragments of information you provide, the greater the odds that something will later become useful in ways you never expected.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

To me the decreasing returns were what made the Disadvantages worthwhile.  You have a reason to not always hit the campaign maximum, and in fact the "maximum" in those days was usually a range.  
 
Without them, you're pretty much always guaranteed to hit your 50 points per category, 150 max points worth of Disads; every player character I've ever seen, always always always, without exception, under 4th through 6th editions always takes the maximum needed.  There's no reason not to, because you're leaving money on the table if you don't.  

Nothing special to recharging. Charges recover at dawn, with the rising of Lensae.
 
Penetrating when added to a weapon, isn't too bad. Penetrating can be used to create effects that are possibly overpowered at the heroic level (e.g. 1 pip, continuous, penetrating damage). Other than that, no issue with it.

1. p361. I don't recommend penetrating, but it would follow the same lines.
2. +1 Energy
3. Scrolls are consumable and do not require attunement. Rods, Staffs, and Wands do require attunement as they recharge.
 

It was helped by the fact that girls in Nashville were FASCINATED by my accent.  I was exotic and I got WAY more attention than I ever did back home.  Gives a place a kind of shine in the memory.  🙂

Yep.  Sorry, Hugh: it's actually a real name-- slightly more common in the UK than North America, but its a real name.  When I was like a _little_ kid-- like first grade-- I had a little puppy crush on the little girl a couple miles down the road.  She was a Hermione.
 
 
 
 
KWEE-vin or KEE-veen, depending on wether or not you spelled it with an "L" in the middle.
 
(gotta love Gaelic and Celtic.   Welsh, though....   they just took it too far....    )
 
 
 

Maybe this is a niche for someone to fill for the Hall of Champions.
 
It would be good to have benchmarks.  If you have the ability to control wind (as seen through a variety of powers) then you might have a difficulty number to block a light breeze, another to block a strong wind, more for a tornado and something much larger for a hurricane.   As a HERO GM I can see several ways to approach this but it would be useful to have something that everyone can point to and say "this needs to be lower/higher/more flexible" and to decide to use it because it is easy to use the published benchmark or use it to make your own....

And if they're not relegated to plot device, then there is a pressing need to have a write-up. The players' character conception has to be compatible with the stories the GM wants to tell; but the GM's stories also have to be compatible with what the players want to play.
 
Some fantasy, super, and sci-fi stories, and role-playing games, feature protagonists of godlike power, able to affect the world on a force-of-nature scale. If a particular game group wants that experience, they aren't wrong to want it, and their game should be able to stat out forces of that magnitude, which Hero is robust enough to do.