Joe Walsh

Cool. If you never played Champions before, the 400 pt starting level can be a bit overwhelming. So a quick introductory scenario to get the feel for the system might be to have your players use agents taking down a Supervillain. CC doesn’t have agents per se and that’s fine. Use competent normals and use the sample weapons and armor too.  The scenario could be a simple stop the villain whose broke into a warehouse. I think the best villain for this is Arrowhead but feel free to swipe and rename a hero if you want. This should get you some feel of the system. 

I saw this today and thought it good enough to share.  Source is:  'Freedom Cafe' description is a perfect response to arguments against mask requirements - Upworthy 
 
"Welcome to the Freedom Cafe!  We trust you to make your own choices if you want to wear a face mask. And, in the same spirit of individual liberty, we allow our staff to make their own choices about the safety procedures they prefer to follow as they prepare and serve your food."
 
"We encourage employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom, but understand that some people may be allergic to certain soaps or may simply prefer not to wash their hands. It is not our place to tell them what to do."
 
"We understand that you may be used to chicken that has been cooked to 165 degrees. We do have to respect that some of our cooks may have seen a meme or a YouTube video saying that 100 degrees is sufficient, and we do not want to encroach on their beliefs."
 
"Some of our cooks may prefer to use the same utensils for multiple ingredients, including ingredients some customers are allergic to. That is a cook's right to do so."
 
"Some servers may wish to touch your food as they serve it. There is no reason that a healthy person with clean hands can't touch your food. We will take their word for it that they are healthy and clean."
 
"Water temperature and detergent are highly personal choices, and we allow our dishwashing team to decide how they'd prefer to wash the silverware you will put in your mouth.
 
"Some of you may get sick, but almost everyone survives food poisoning. We think you'll agree that it's a small price to pay for the sweet freedom of no one ever being told what to do - and especially not for the silly reason of keeping strangers healthy."
 

I don't know if it's what you're looking for, but I find that the layouts in The HERO System Book of Templates are the best-laid-out "Character Sheets" in a couple of decades.  That whole book is great: possibly the best NPC book ever published under the HERO umbrella.

"Need" is a strong word, and the answer is "it's going to vary from group to group."  Some people just like them for their own sake; some people kind of need them to properly visualize what's going on.  I tend to _prefer_ them, but I don't _need_ them per se.  It's been my experience that a map of _any_ sort, even just a rough sketch, done reasonably to scale (not necessarily "compatible with miniatures" scale, but the various distances and objects on the map roughly to scale with each other) is helpful to pretty much everyone, simply because it gives a clear picture of what is where, what environmental items are where, who is positioned where, what actions are viable in any scenario, etc.  
 
Not only is it helpful for preventing and resolving disagreements about viable combat choices, it helps reinforce the scenario and the story: when the GM describes the wispy tendrils of the vines that curtain the pathway ahead, the Players can see the location of the tree from which they hang and if there is actually a path around them before deciding "I go around them" and the GM stating "there is no way around them" and the Players firing back with "you didn't say that; you said "hanging from a tree; you didn't mention that there is no way around the tree!  Why is there no way around the tree?!" etc, etc, etc.
 
Early on, in my Traveller days (let's just dig back to the seventies here....), our "maps" were "this die is you; that die is you; that die over there is you, Tommy.  These black dice are the spaceport guards, and this jar of French Onion Dip is the comptroller's guardshack.  The eraser on top of it is the communications array.  This handful of chess pieces are crew members from other ships and civilians shopping in the port.  That 8-track over there-- that's the Freetrader C.W. McCall.  That other one is the courier ship Skynyrd.  Over there, guarded by those two batteries, is the luxury liner Stratego....."
 
They slowly evolved from there. 
 
Now as Nekkidcarpenter said, not using a map is perfectly fine.  But again, even that is going to vary from group to group: some people need more help with immersion than do others.
 
 
 
For what aspects of the game?  the 5e GM screen has a nifty booklet that condenses a lot of things, and there are a lot of options for combat flowcharts.  Character creation is a mixed bag--  Frankly, I find the older characters sheets helpful for the charts of maneuvers and their penalties / bonuses, and I like to have a Speed Chart available-- I have a few index cards with the Speed Chart and I give the players a couple of markers the can use to note their own SPD and what Segment we are on.   What is it that you think a cheat sheet would help with?  If you're not careful, you'll end up with a miniature rulebook you'll be thumbing through, even when you only need a small part of that information: you don't need a lot of Character Creation info in the heat of combat, for example.
 
 
 
I know it's a schlep, and it doesn't seem to be terribly applicable at first, but pay attention to the Players and their reactions, etc.  Drop anything that is clearly detracting from their fun or creating a real problem.  Once they grasp the basics, you can work in other stuff and see who it goes then.
 
 
A bit more specifically: don't split the party, at least not until you find out just what Players are cool sitting out for a few minutes.  Make sure every scene has _something_, no matter how minor, for each Player Character to do, and try to incorporate one or two scenes into every session where a particular Character can strut his stuff-- spotlight moments, as it were.  Pay attention to Player reaction during those spotlight moments-- do _not_ ask for feedback on the moments, because the Players will lie to you: "Oh, yeah; that was cool.  I liked that" and they will do it because they like you, and they don't want to GM.     Pay attention to their reactions in the moment, and just after.  Just because they _did_ get to shine in the moment and the situation was tailor-built to their specific Character doesn't mean that it's something that the Player himself enjoyed.  
 
A specific example from a game a few months ago from the youth group:
 
Kinetica has a medical doctorate, and has "medicine: General Practitioner" at 15-.  I included an explosive prison break scene that featured several civilian casualties scattered over the area.  This scene was specifically created for her: they were gravely wounded,  but they were spread out and it would be impossible for a non-speedster to access all of them in time; there were sufficient supplies to be located on-site at the prison clinic, which had been conveniently opened via the removal of a wall during the escape.  It also kept her-- a decided non-brick who would have been a liability during the combat in that scene, and likely hurt very badly-- doing something useful and not just sitting one out or being killed (I had to use very powerful villains to pull off the level of destruction required for the scene, I'm afraid).
 
The Player _hated_ it!  Not because it was perfect for her Character, but because she (the Player) had become so deeply invested in the game-- because she had suspended her disbelief to a point that she was totally immersed in the situation, she literally _agonized_ over every die roll, absolutely, and without hyperbole-- shedding literal tears that her dice might run cold and one of these people might die.  No; I am not kidding.  "The perfect scene" that I had planned was absolute torture for the Player.  I don't want to scare you away, but it happens this way sometimes.     Yet when asked about it after the game, "Oh, it was fine.  I mean, it was something that only Kinetica could do, and it had to be done, right....?"
 
I saw her reactions _during_ the scene, however, and it was very clear that it was _not_ fine.  Even all these months later, when the Players do that "ooh!  You remember that thing--?" jabbering, that scene-- the scene where she saved the lives of fourteen critically-injured prison guards and convicts-- _never_ comes up.  It's a bad memory for the Player.  I haven't done anything like that for her since.
 
 
Let's be honest: the list of "tips for GMs" could go on and on and on for pages and pages and _never_ be complete.  So I am going to stick with what I said, and add only one more item:
 
Be prepared ahead of the game.  Make sure you know what the villains are doing, always, and when and how they will do it.  What they will do if they are victorious; what they will do if they lose.  Be prepared for both eventualities in every scenario.  Know who your NPCs are, why they are on scene, and what they know and do.  Know your locations.
 
Drop anything that is negatively impacting the Players.  No: you don't have to make everything nice-nice and ice cream; the more familiar the Players become with your style, the more they will accept challenge and tolerate new and more difficult challenges; I promise.  But from the get-go, if they aren't liking it, find a way to resolve it quickly or drop it completely  ("Okay, this isn't working out like I thought; let's back up to the scene where....") and move on.
 
 

Best tips I can give for running Champions are these:
 
1) The purpose of playing a game is entertainment; don't let rules or your story get in the way of fun
2) Try to make the game feel as much like the source material your players are used to as possible -- movies, comics, animated etc, whatever.
3) Ham it up, be over the top, role play and be goofy and bring the NPCs to life
 
If you and the payers are new to the system, try the Champions Begins rough draft as a tutorial!  So far all the people who offered to playtest it have not followed through yet.  Its tough these days to run an RPG though, I understand the challenges.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/ed-asner-television-legend-dead-at-91/ar-AANSnX0
 
 
 
 
 
 
RIP to one of the great ones. And according to anecdotal evidence, one of the nicest.

Story in the NYT this morning...the Federation of State Medical Boards is suggesting their member states to consider penalties, including revoking licenses, for doctors who spread disinformation and lies about Covid-19.  The AMA calls doing so a violation of medical ethics.
 
The damage has already been done, but hopefully this'll happen.  I'd rather it went further, but it'd be hard to charge these scammers (and they are profiting from it) with the serious charges I think they deserve.

https://stephensemler.substack.com/p/the-top-5-military-contractors-ate
 
Just for the Afghan war.

FYI, I recently created a character sheet (in MS Word format) for HERO System 6th Edition, but done in the 3-Column style of the HERO System 4E character sheets.  It's available in the site files section if you're interested.   
 
 
 

Since the vast majority of hospitalized COVID patients haven't been vaccinated, I see this as a moot point.  Here's the actual memo text:
 
 

side note: was highly amused that one of the concerns was with people that may argue the mask mandate in the building. My response:  we're blacksmiths.  We have 2000 degree steel and hammers, there is no argument.  Also, if they try to say that they have a medical condition that prevents them from wearing  a mask, they definitely should not be in a forge with coal smoke.  

Was glad to see that come through -- on a local level, I _just_ managed to get the historic society to say that we're going to require masks at the forge and museum starting tomorrow, so this was good timing.

Lots of things suck right now, but I'm happy my state is re-instituting the indoor mask mandate.
 
Too bad the Dem governor waited until a 20-county region was at 3% ICU capacity, but at least it got done.

A recent discussion on the public radio program On the Media suggested all the voter suppression is just Plan A, or even a smoke screen to keep Democrats distracted. As Plan B to control elections -- or perhaps the real plan -- is all the laws giving state legislatures the power to annul elections that they deem "marred by fraud." Which, as we have seen, is any election whose outcome goes against Republicans. But On the Media is not the most reliable source,as its guests may be, hm, excitable or biased in scholarship.
 
One of my friends suggests that many Republicans may think that all this maneuvering to control election outcomes is "just part of the game." Dems try to manipulate elections by increasing voter turnout in their reliable constituencies; so Republicans are justified in trying to reduce that turnout. This line of reasoning makes several ugly assumptions; of which perhaps the most honest is that Republican policies are hostile to large segments of the population, and always will be. If there was any chance that young people, minorities, the poor, etc. might look at a Republican candidate's platform and say, "Yeah, that's good for me and my country" -- why, the more voters, the better, right?
 
I also hear claims that blue states are generally adopting nonpartisan means of redrawing voting districts while red states go all in for gerrymandering, which if true puts the lie to the both-sidesism. One party wants to win elections by getting votes; one party does not.
 
Dean Shomshak

I recall there being some call for moving to fewer Powers at one time, but with more modifiers. Powers would be Attack, Defend, Move, Sense, and (if I recall) Transform. Modifiers would be used to derive the rest.
 
It'd be interesting to develop a HERO variant that way. I'm not sure it'd be an improvement, though.

The lies, incompetence, and corruption of the current presidential administration and Republican roster of legislators has been on display so many times, I'm no longer inclined to pretend impartiality or give them the benefit of the doubt. They had their chance to show their quality, and they blew it spectacularly. They have no credibility left.

Homemade English Muffin Toasting bread
 

Transsexual Satanist Anarchist Wins Republican Nomination
 
https://www.the-sun.com/news/1463548/transsexual-satanist-anarchist-wins-nomination-new-hampshire-sheriff/
 
DiMezzo is the High Priestess of the Reformed Satanic Church. Her campaign slogan was "F*** the Police".
 
She attributes her win to voter stupidity in not researching the candidates and what they stand for.

If you can get ahold of Jason and let him know you're buying it as a gift, he will send it to them, if it's something you wish to do anonymously. 

This work started it in the early 1990’s with the goal of using Robot Warriors mecha construction and combat rules with 4th edition Champions and the HERO System Rulesbook. It has been updated and enhanced to help you do the same—with any current edition of HERO!
Convert Robot Warriors characters to the 4th, 5th, or 6th editions of the HERO System! Use Robot Warriors robot writeups—as is—in current editions! Build new robots using the old rules and take advantage of new rules! Convert robots from Robot Warriors to the Vehicle rules of the HERO edition of your choice!  
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/327714/Robot-Warriors-to-HERO-System-Current-Editions
 
Now available as Pay What You Want through DriveThruRPG!

I just hope people are aware that there's more to this election than "get rid of Trump". He's a consequence of the problem...not the problem itself. We can't go back to "the way things were before Trump" because that is what got us Trump to begin with. Establishment control of the country....lack of awareness or concern for the issues of most of the populace....and a feeling that the system is rigged (because it is).

I'm not an epidemiologist and don't play one on TV, so definitely do what you think is right!
 
That said, I was just relaying what a segment on our local NBC TV news was saying last night. Unfortunately I can't find that segment on their crappy website, and most google search results on the topic seem to be from back in the beginning of the pandemic when we didn't know as much.
 
Personally, I've been treating surface transmission with a lot less fear than I did at the beginning. I don't wipe down my groceries or delivered packages any more. I still wash my hands after being out, and I don't touch my face while I'm out, tho. Heck, I still use hand sanitizer before I get in my car in the parking lot, so I don't contaminate its surfaces. So I'm not exactly being consistent!
 
But I am trying to be less paranoid than I used to be, since epidemiologists have been saying surface transmission is possible but appears to be somewhat rare.