HeroGM

I'm doing 225pts at the moment, The Known World from the early days of TSR. 175 for base characters, the last 50 for flavor and D&D style "class" stuff. On one case I cut 20pts off one character for "mystery abilities) [ala Strike Force]

When Wolfman/Perez was doing New Teen Titans he was 19-20. 

Sometimes it's about adding something to the character, nor rpg crunch. 

Yeah another one. This one by Steven Jay Ruben. I honestly have to give it 4 out of 5. And the only reason it looses the star is even some of the newer material is dated, though you can't blame the writer on that part.
 
The book covers all the movies up to the latest (No Time to Die). It covers the movies themselves in detail, all the actors who played Bond in the official films (so no Woody Allen guys). Not only does it cover the characters but has some info on the actors themselves (even if it's a short blurb on one actor who later appeared in Die Hard). A full listing of all the Bond women by film. There is a nice mix of b/w and color photos (including some beautiful color ones of movie posters/boards).
 
Softbound, $35 US/$48 Can. 412 pages.
 
Unless you're a true Bond-head you may not want to put down the $$. For a Dark Champions game going for a Bond type feel I'd suggest it, or at least seeing if the local library has it (where I've borrowed mine).  They could have dropped a few things and covered the equipment more. Another reason it lost the *. 
 
Oh, looking at the author's credits he's written a few others. One called "Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010". I'd like to find that to see what it says, especially for a Dark Champions or even Golden Age look at things
 
[My mistake, it does include the spoof Casino Royale, as well as the 1954 CBS version with Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre. Mea Culpa]
 
 

http://davidwoolsey.com/asmrb/hitlocations.html
 
 

Happy Birthday

Yeah another one. This one by Steven Jay Ruben. I honestly have to give it 4 out of 5. And the only reason it looses the star is even some of the newer material is dated, though you can't blame the writer on that part.
 
The book covers all the movies up to the latest (No Time to Die). It covers the movies themselves in detail, all the actors who played Bond in the official films (so no Woody Allen guys). Not only does it cover the characters but has some info on the actors themselves (even if it's a short blurb on one actor who later appeared in Die Hard). A full listing of all the Bond women by film. There is a nice mix of b/w and color photos (including some beautiful color ones of movie posters/boards).
 
Softbound, $35 US/$48 Can. 412 pages.
 
Unless you're a true Bond-head you may not want to put down the $$. For a Dark Champions game going for a Bond type feel I'd suggest it, or at least seeing if the local library has it (where I've borrowed mine).  They could have dropped a few things and covered the equipment more. Another reason it lost the *. 
 
Oh, looking at the author's credits he's written a few others. One called "Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010". I'd like to find that to see what it says, especially for a Dark Champions or even Golden Age look at things
 
[My mistake, it does include the spoof Casino Royale, as well as the 1954 CBS version with Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre. Mea Culpa]
 
 

I like how they did it in Superman/Batman Generations.

Hero Games wouldn't have been what it was and is without Aaron Allston. His Strike Force was certainly seminal, but he co-wrote Justice Inc. which opened the pulp role-playing genre. He also gave us the first "lost world" setting tailored for gaming in that era, Lands of Mystery. Aaron created the first "organization book" for Champions, The Circle and M.E.T.E., introducing a new sub-category for supers gaming. His Ninja Hero invented the modular martial-arts system still used in Hero System. Aaron wrote the first Campaign Classic, Mythic Greece: The Age of Heroes, demonstrating how to tailor Hero System to fit a distinctive setting. And of course he edited Adventurers Club for several years.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Interplanet Janet; she's a galaxy girl...

Typically, to determine the point cost of a single clip, you'd figure out the cost of the weapon with two clips, and subtract the cost of the weapon with a single clip.  While the guidance on HSEG p. 70 refers to different ammunition types, this is the same method, applied to a single type.  The GM can if they wish, following the HSEG guidance, set a standard cost for an additional clip.  I would suggest looking in the Dark Champions supplement if you have it; I apologize that I don't have it with me at the moment and can't check there, but it's likely that that book addresses the point cost for additional clips.
 
Edit:  Dark Champions (for 5e) p. 214 discusses buying additional clips, but essentially is the same as what I said above, and is the same text as in HSEG.

Gun muscle. Now my brain works as I go back to the cold

Sometimes it's about adding something to the character, nor rpg crunch. 

Getting back to working on my website, specifically the generic hero section.  Adding a new generic, but also thinking of adding more notes to the other generic heroes, things like common personality traits, inspiration heroes (ie the Brick is based on Superman, Mighty Mouse, etc...).  Would this make things more interesting to you? 
 
Here is a link to the site Kountry Gaming Generic Heroes

Something I liked about the old books?
"Just the facts ma'am"
What killed me.over a lot of the 6th ed (and strike force) is it had so much sidebar commentary text. 
 
I don't need every quote from lord of the rings or star wars to get what your talking about and if I don't get it well that's what the source material section is for. Some is nice, some is pleasent even. 
 
If Christopher gives us the meat of the Western genre, what it takes to make a game and run characters I'm happy. You don't need to bloat a book or over-explain to make it good. I still look at Boot Hill [TSR] and enjoyed it for what it was.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ah; well then: my apologies for the confusion; let me see if I can make a bit more sense out of it:
 
The idea that the "good guy" can't draw first because he is the good guy is a romantic fictionalization: that is to say, it's a fond remembrance of a time that never was.  It doesn't even hold up to scrutiny: in even a legal duel (those few places that actually allowed them, mind you), _someone_ is going to draw first, whether it's the good guy or the bad guy.  The rules even state that when X thing happens, you fire / turn and fire / whatever the rules for that duel happen to be.
 
Moving outside of duels, a bad guy looking to get the jump on someone will have his weapon out first.  We except that.  But a good guy looking to get the drop on someone will have his gun out first, lawman, hero, or no.  In general, we accept that, too, but for some reason, there was an era in our fiction where "that just wasn't done."   Fortunately, it was not pervasive in our fiction-- even for those genres where it was periodically done.
 
How many times in Gunsmoke did Matt Dillon stiff-walk out into the open to meet a bad guy, or to stall a bad guy, yet someone else was covering him with a rifle?  That is to say, aiming at the bad guy.  We never once thought "why, that dirty Matt Dillon!  And he calls himself a lawman!"   We knew that it made sense, and that it was solid plan to give himself every advantage he could.   For what it's worth, I was never a big Gunsmoke fan, in spite of being a huge fan of westerns.
 
I will say I won't judge the way your play your games.  Seriously: have fun the way you want; that's why you bought it, right?  It makes no nevermind to me if someone absolutely _mandates_ that whoever shot first is the bad guy (in fact, you might come up with some interesting mechanic for sliding reputation up and down from "hero" to "scoundrel" based on who shot who and when.  If so, I'd actually kind of like to hear about it).
 
Defining a genre by one TV show and two movies is a bit bold though  (Particularly considering that someone else doing the same thing may have picked Wagon Train, and that was....   well, it's not one I'd pick myself).  As far as what does that leave?  Well, all the other Clint Eastwood movies, including those where he shoot pretty much _everyone_ by drawing first or walking around with his guns already drawn.  Is he the good guy?  Yes; in most of them, he is.  Is he a good _person_?  No; not at all.  Still, the town is glad he has cleaned out the villains, thanks him, asks him to move on because he might be worse in the long run, and he rides off into what ever quaint Italian villa is just over the next rise.
 
What does removing any three examples of the genre leave?   American history, fairly-well documented, and biased in almost any direction you want, depending on what does or doesn't get included, thirty years of television, fifty years of movies, an untold number of dime adventures, pulps, editorials, wild west shows, comic book series, real tales of real heroes (few) and real outlaws (who tended to found in both camps) that lived and died in places we can still visit, and novels that started printing during the era and continued to be published until this day (though to be fair, about half the newer ones are borderline pornography).  Louis L'Amor is not the only person to have built his writing career around the western genre.
 
As painful as this is to say, Little House on the Prairie was a Western, and, while I haven't thought deeply about it, I can't remember a single gunfight.
 
White Hattery _did_ happen in westerns, and predominantly in westerns of a particular production period, and targeted for a particular audience (television usually, but not always).  But it did not define the genre.   Well, actually, it pretty much defined the entire Singing Cowboy sub-genre, which started with white hats (and clothes festooned with rhinestone wagon wheels) and just sort of stayed there.  The Lone Ranger (not that thing with Johnny Depp; the old novels and movie serials, and even the 70s Saturday Morning Cartoon) was _definitely_ White Hat stuff, and while it was part of the fiction and thus part of the culture, it didn't define the entire genre anymore than did Gunsmoke, Fistful of Dollars, and True Grit (frankly, I liked Rooster Cogburn better), but even in True Grit, there was not White Hattery.  Remember the final showdown?  Ned makes Rooster lose his temper and he charges into the outlaws, killing the Parmalee (sp?) brothers and a couple of others?  Rooster shot first.  Remember that LeBeouf had Ned covered with a rifle the entire fight?  When Ned drew down on Rooster, pinned under his own horse, was it noble White Hat Rooster Cogburn that saved the day, with his own incredible skills and his True Grit?
 
No.  It was LeBeof, a sniper stationed in the hills above.  A sniper, and a U.S. Marshall, if I recall correctly.  For what it's worth, even as crotchety a curmudgeon as Cogburn was in the movie, he was still a much higher-caliber human being than he was presented as in the novel upon which it was based.  So who is the "right Rooster?"
 
 
Anyway-- the point I was making was that one or two tropes cannot define _any_ genre, and in particular, three examples from what was, for decades, the single largest genre of fiction in this nation, cannot hope to fare any better as being defining pieces of what the genre is all about, and should or should not contain.
 
 
Christopher's got his hands full with this project-- not because of everything that this book "should contain," but in just making sure he can present it without a poison bias in any particular direction.  That's not going to be easy.  If I wore a hat more often, I'd take it off to him. 
 
Same with my hair.
 
 
D
 
 

Welcome back to the Silver age people.
 

Hence Knockback vs. Knockdown. In my games you don't HAVE to buy Martial Arts to swing a sword, you can get CSLs or PSLs to help you with that. I use the Dex/DCV penalty while wearing armor (depending on weight of armor). I've been using the suggestions in FH6/HSEG to allow people to buy "feats" to offset those penalties along with the movement within limits. I also allow them to buy "Sword Muscle" which like Gun Muscle allows them to get past the Str min on certain weapons. You want that little girl swinging the big @$$ sword? No problem. While I play and run my games intelligently it's still a game in the end. If I want to  introduce a few tropes in the game I will. 
 
AS to the topic. This is what DC's website has to say about Black Canary
 
 
So instead of buying all of that [Unless you're running a die-hard Dark Champion's or Martial Arts game], buy some skill levels and extra HTH damage. Maybe some extra STR. Not everything has to be apparent. For example I played a Vietnamese character in Dark Champions. When I built him he had  a base PRE of 10..that's it. I put some points into Conversation and Charm, some in PRE defense. Here is a guy who  looks like he could blend into the woodwork, but once you start talking to him he captures your attention. HIs partner was a 6"10 african-american that you notice as soon as he comes into the room, Tranh? He comes in and blends in and looks and notices what's going on. That scrawny rogue with 12m movement? He may have +12m movement, only to make half moves (giving him the full 12m). 
 
IIRC you can skip buying the same Maneuvers if they  are in different M.Arts as long as you have the knowledge skill for both, a big cost cutter I know. Tere is still a point of diminishing returns where that becomes crazy to keep up with. Just as HSMA even says, you can do this, or create Martial Arts as powers. While I admit S. Long can be...longwinded(?) in his writing he does make some very good suggestions to the game. But to talk about my opinions of him vs the game, DM me. 
 
When I introduced the half-orc warrior into the game, the other players were confused with what style she was using because it seemed to be a mix of everything. You later find out that King Thar got ahold of a "Roman" Legionnaires manual and had taken stuff from that and she had learned things not just from her warrior family but from people that were taken prisoner.  This resulted in a very confusing Martial Art for those around her. Instead of quantifying it all in game terms I went to the GM and pointed out HSMA and said "can I do it like this?" with his full permission. As I got a few XP under my (her) belt we discussed extra damage...Will I can't do the extra DC for Martial Arts since I don't have any. BUT I can do extra HTH damage for +4 points the same thing that the extra DC does.  Really freak someone out when you have a half-orc female that can put all 8 lvls into either OCV or DCV. And yes, he did pay heed to the fact that I could put the CSl's into damage as well and limited the # of +HTH levels I could get. 
 

First and foremost:
 
I know Ninja-Bear gets it, because this is fast becoming our "favorite" chestnut (the value of the martial arts rules, I mean)   .    I want to take just a minute to point out that the following questions and illustrations are _not_ sarcastic, _not_ meant to be barbs, jabs, or pokes, and are _not_ meant to be insulting.  Bear with me; I have reasons:  
 
1) the degradation of the way humans-- at least in english-speaking countries; I don't know enough of any other language to evaluate what I see from them-- treat and interact with each other has made all of those things so common as cause a real, honest-to-God ache in my heart.
 
2) the degradation of social values that has reached the point that sarcasm has come to be considered a mark of intelligence, and is reached for above all other conversational comments.  Frankly, this disgusts me.  Sarcasm has done a lot of damage to a lot of people over the years, yet the offenders will continue to do it, oblivious to the damage, because society rewards them "he's _so_ intelligent!"  Yes: insulting things has become a sign of intelligence.  Want to look smart?  Read celebrity gossip, watch fictional TV shows and make constant references, and insult everything.  I can't express how much this saddens me, and I want to state that what you read below may seem to be sarcastic in places (I don't know yet; I haven't written it.        )   many years ago, I destroyed a relationship that was very valuable to me simply by being "funny:" that is, sarcastic.  I have never been able to regain fully the trust or the warmth of that person and that relationship, respectively.  From that point on, I have gone to great lengths to eliminate sarcasm from my conversational repertoire, and reserve it only for those moments non-targeted, obvious jokes.  Still, I work at not doing that, either.
 
3) Perhaps most importantly:
there is at least one member of this board who is held in extremely high regard whose entire disagreement "technique" is to sarcastically insult the person or people with whom he disagrees.  He gets away with it constantly, as his visits are rare in recent years, and as I said, he is, for whatever reason, held in high standing.  I suspect it's a combination of "Sarcasm = Intelligence" combined with "if I cheer for him, I won't be next."  Either way, he turned the insult gun toward me for the-- fourth?  Tenth?  No matter-- time some while back, and I got myself a demerit for refusing to accept being insulted.   I do _not_ want anyone else to feel that they are in the position of being insulted by me, or being motivated to speak out against me as a bully or overtly disrespectful.  That is to say, I don't want anyone here getting their own demerit because they felt they had to speak up against a slight that I am now promising you _will not be there_. 
 
 
 
To the meat of things:
 
From Ninja HERO 4e:
 
Flying Tackle:......... 3 pts.......... 0/-1............  +v/5, You fall, Target falls, Full Move
Grappling Throw.....3 pts............0/+2........... +v/5, Target Falls, Must Follow Grab
Killing Throw:..........5 pts..........-2/0............. Strike +2d6, Target falls
Legsweep: ..............3 pts.........+2/-1.............Strike +1d6, Target falls
Martial Throw..........3 pts...........0/+1.............+v/5, Target falls
 
 
Sacrifice Throw.......3 pts..........+2/+1...........Strike, You fall, Target falls
Takedown................3 pts...........+1/+1...........Strike, Target falls
 
Those last two in particular:
 
Remove "You fall" and one skill level, and it's become Takedown.  It's become Takedown right to the cost, demonstrating that "you fall" is worth one bonus 3pt Skill level.  Strike is free to anyone with STR.  Takedown has no time penalty (it's a half-phase, like the other Strike-based maneuvers).
 
The idea that for three points and yelling "Hi-yah!" I can get two Skill Levels _and_ "Target Falls" suggests to me that "Target Falls" is _not_ something that has to be bought.  I know: the Throw element is listed as costing one point.  One point.  Is that even a Skill Level?
 
Go to Grappling Throw.  Three points again, two Skill Levels, and  the one-point Target Falls.  "Must Follow Grab" is a limitation that rebates 2 pts; I'd suggest that not only does it wash the 1-pt cost of the bonus damage (which makes this thing a Move-By: STR damage plus velocity/5 damage is a Move-By), but spends the unaccounted-for remaining point on a mystery defense that protects you from the blowback of your move-by maneuver.
 
I know: it doesn't say Move By in the text, but +v/5 is a move-by, which suffers from a total of -4 Skill levels, yet those four skill levels are just given away when the move becomes "Martial."
 
So Martial Throw is, in reality, a Move By with +2 Skill Levels set into OCV and +3 Skill Levels set into DCV, the impossible-without-Martial-Arts Target Falls element, and the mysterious unnamed on-point element that protects the user from taking a piece of that damage as with any other Move By.  Five Skill levels, a downed opponent, and a defense totally worth looking into for your favorite speedster or brick, all for 3 pts.
 
We can skip picking them apart, though, and go right to the roll-your-own section, where we see that +v/5 costs 1pt and +1 DCV costs 1 pts. and Target Falls is a mere point.  One point.
 
"Takedown backs this up:   Well, bonus OCV isn't listed directly, but "NND OCV" is (I have always assumed that's a typo; I accept that I may be wrong, and that "NND OCV" is something that I just can't figure out) listed at +1 pt, DCV is listed at +1 pt.  That leaves both one point and Target Falls, is in line with what we've seen so far.
 
Sacrifice Throw is three points, contains three points worth of CV, but it still has Target Falls.  It also has You Fall, which rebates two points, and the two wash each other out. Except that they don't.  Look at Grappling Throw:
 
Grappling Throw gets weird, though: for three points you get two points of DCV and the one-point v/5.  You still get Target Falls, which must wash with Must Follow Grab....   which is _two_ "rebated" points, so now "Target Falls" is worth _two_ points?
 
 
We can do this over and over (well, we can't.  I wanted to go through all three editions, but the wife says I've ten minutes to finish up and help her in the kitchen, so let me skip right to the other problem with the idea that you have to buy Martial Arts to knock someone down)
 
 
The biggest problem I have with the idea that you must buy a Martial Maneuver to knock someone over is Ninja HERO was a 4e book.  We had to go back and re-play an entire _decade_ worth of adventures because until then we had been playing wrong, not realizing that we were completely unable to knock people down!     
 
No; seriously, though:  does anyone actually play the game this way?  Is it impossible in anyone's game to knock someone over without buying the element?  If I direct a 3d6 kick at an opponent's knee and succeed, will he simply not fall?  If I direct a 2-1/2d6 KA: sword with an STR Bonus of 1D6 at his knee, is there a GM who will seriously rule that he just Black Knights me, standing there on his one remaining leg, taunting me?  Or will he _fall down_?  If I declare that my STR 17 grappling goon has opted to take his grabbed hundred-and-thirty pound opponent and do a Body Slam, is there a GM-- not just on the board, but on the planet-- who is going to rule that my goon will _miss the floor_ because he does not have Martial Arts?  If my teammate has successfully CON-Stunned an opponent, and for whatever reason he is still standing, is it impossible for me to knock him down?  I don't have any martial arts.
 
 
Anyway, I'd love to break this down for the next two editions-- we know that there were some changes here and there-- but my time is nearly up.
 
 
Point is, "Strategic value" or no, people can be knocked down.  Hell, they fall down all the time without help from anything but a smart phone.
 
 
 

For tomorrow:
 
"God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"
-----
"In my world we keep people in chains and ride them like ponies."
 
"Hi, my name is George, and this isn't about my life, but my death."

Hearldry could also be a language or a knowledge skill. High Society as a complimentary roll.