Reynard

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design First Actual Play Session! On Sunday night, BL and LS came over and we played the first session of the Fallout Brigade. The setup was simple: The PCs (uber-techie and mutant ranger/sniper) are on their way to Bunkertown -- home of the Fallout Brigade -- for the Brigade's annual meeting and information exchange. They have some time to get there (a month or so) and so they can continue their mandate of exploration, recovery and aid while they go. The setup here allows us to get a few sessions in before the other guys start school again and then everyone can meet in Bunkertown and the 'real' campaign can start. As the PCs walked a cracked and broken road in northern Texas, they saw a bright glimmer ahead. After some semi-paranoid creeping up, they saw a small town with two unusual features: 1) In what looked like a corral, there were giant worm like creatures undulkating in a deep, stinking muck, and 2) there was a squat, perfectly square building made of shining metal. Upon entering town (GS's character walked in while BL's covered him with the sniper rifle) they met the town's Sheriff Grey -- an older but very competent looking man that BL easily identified as a frmer (?) special forces type. He gave them a warm enough welcome, but a stern warning to stay out of trouble. While talking, they saw two men poke and prod one of the giant undulating worm things into the sliding doors of the metal building. After the doors closed it just started to hum. Sheriff Grey explained that the worms were Steakums -- giant boneless slabs of frankenbeef created near the end of the Resource Wars as a way to feed troops. the building -- which no one knew how to work, really -- was an Automated Meat Processing Facility. Steakum goes in -- cut and packaged beef comes out. The PCs explored for a little bit, meeting some of the locals (Mayor Lippitz the Used Car Salesman, Ma Rainey the owner of the converted Applebee's, and Bill the Mechanic with a conpiracy theorist side). They learned the town was called Cudchew (after the horrible slop the Steakum's ate) and had survived the Big Drop relatively unscathed. Cudchew did good trade in beef, but only locally: no one knew how to make the AMPF produce preserved stuff. Even the wasters and raider paid for the beef, lest some little war over the town ended up destroying it all. They also learned that the power for the AMPF -- and the town in general -- was somehwere to the west (some townsfolk had uncovered a conduit going to the facility but never followed it back far). Also, a raider army called The Steel Vipers from a military base about 25 miles east basically strongarmed Cudchew into feeding their troops. A lot of this was just laying ground work for future events. The next day, while GS is working on fixing a Scavbot for Bill the MEchanic -- now micro-fusion battery! -- BL heads out to hunt rabbit (everyone is town is damn tired of beef). That's when he sees the Recyclotron heading toward town. It is a robot on tracks the size of a dump truck with 6 arms covered in saws, laser torches and other implements, with a huge bin for "recycling" tech. The Recylcotron looks like it is pretty bad shape. Swarming around the Recyclotron like fish following a shark are a half dozen Scavbots (imagine a Segway with four similarly equipped arms and a UFO for a head). The PCs figure out pretty quickly that the thing is going for the AMPF. they try and delay it and distract it by having a Steakum drag a junk car to the edge of town. Both car and steakum get pukped. GS decides to turn on his radio, which does get the thing's attnetion, while BL takes shots at it that can't quite pentrate its armor. GS realizes he has to get close and deactivate it, so he convinces Sheriff Grey to take his blaster and irritate the thing. While BL gets in close with the Scavbots -- which view the locals' homes as a smorgasborg -- GS runs up to the Recyclotron and, after afew turns, manages to pop the control panel and shut the thing down. That's pretty much where we ended, with the following things happening in the "downtime" before the next time we play: 1) GS will finish fixing Bill's Scavbot and program it for him (spare parts and extra batteries galor) for a high end toolkit (+2). 2) GS will also examine the AMPF and figure out a way to get it to produce preserved meat and then both PCs, when they get to Bunkertown, will help negotiate a deal between Cudchew and the Brigade. 3) They'll work on turning the Recyclotron into their very own Armored Personelle Carrier.

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design What's a post-apocalyptic game without the walking dead? Zomborg Val Char Cost Roll Notes 15 STR 5 12- Lift 200.0kg; 3d6 [1] 12 DEX 6 11- OCV: 4/DCV: 4 14 CON 8 12- 16 BODY 12 12- 6 INT -4 10- PER Roll 10- 0 EGO 0 9- ECV: 0 0 PRE -10 9- PRE Attack: 0d6 4 COM -3 10- 4 PD 9 Total: 4 PD (0 rPD) 4 ED 9 Total: 4 ED (0 rED) 2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12 0 REC -12 28 END 0 Total Characteristic Cost: 14 Movement: Running: 4"/8" Leaping: 3"/6" Cost Powers END 60 Automaton (Takes No STUN) 15 Life Sense: Detect Living Things A Large Class Of Things 15- (Unusual Group) 5 Nightvision Skills 24 +3 with All Combat 7 Breakfall 13- 7 Climbing 13- 7 Stealth 13- 9 Tracking 13- 2 WF: Small Arms Total Powers & Skill Cost: 136 Total Cost: 150 100+ Disadvantages 25 Distinctive Features: Shambling Corpse (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 15 Psychological Limitation: Only capable of killing. (Uncommon, Total) 10 Vulnerability: 2 x Effect Electro-Magnetic Attacks (Uncommon) Total Disadvantage Points: 150 Background/History: During the waning days of the Resource Wars, goverments were not just running out of food, fossil fuel;s and potable water. They were also running out of soldiers. While a number of research groups and governments experimented with stop gap measures -- genetically enginner and fast-grown clones, superior battefiled medical care, improvements in armor, advanced robotic drones, etc... -- one organization created the Zomborg. The dead littering the theaters of war were of no use to anyone, but those same dead reanimated and turned into unrelenting killers were the perfect weapons. Especially when it didn't matter whose side the deceased had been on, since zomborgs could be programmed with specific instructions regarding who was the enemy. The key to the zomborg wasn't the dead; there were so many of them that they hardly mattered at all. the key was the Necrobot -- a 2" diameter, disk shaped robot. The necrobot, using flexible tendril limbs, would seek out deceased or near-deceased victims on the battlefield and, after analyzing the bodies for suitability, would attach themselves to the back of the heads of the corpses. the tendrils would then enter the central nervous system and send out thousands of monfilament tendril throughout the entire nervous system. A quick spark later and the body was mobile again, a Zomborg under control of the Necrobot. Necrobots are still found in the wastelands, and whenever they get the chance, they reanimate the dead in an attempt to complete their programmed goal -- which is usually to kill every living thing with detectable distance (often during the end of the Resource Wars, living soldeiers were fitted with Transponder Chips that told allied Zomborg's to leave them be, as well as attracting Necrobots should the soldier perish in battle). Worse yet, Necrobots are self replicating -- given the right raw materials -- which can create "zomborg plagues" in entire communities given the right set of circumstances. Powers/Tactics: Zomborgs pick up whatever weapons are available to them and immediately seek out living targets to kill. They often "swarm", all targetting the same nearest living creature. This makes them very dangerous in large groups, but at the same time predictable and relatively easily fooled.

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design While creating characters last night, we discovered that among the prefabs for Hero Designer v2 I had downloaded there was little to nothing in the way of armor. So I decided to make some. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, but it is a start. A couple of notes: The "Piecemeal" armor listed below is your ty[pical Mad Max style tires/metal bits/leather/etc... stuff and all has an activation roll. You might also notice some of the the armor has a +1 Advantage called "Advanced technology". this is simply to increase the cost, because what I did was base the $ cost on Real Cost x 10 + Active Cost, since I really couldn't find any guidelines on how to set the $ cost for things in heroic games. I will determine how much money the PCs have at the start once I get a good idea of what things cost once I have a more complete equipment list. Without Further Ado -- Post Apocalyptic Armors Piecemeal Armor, Light Value: $39 Weight: 6.10kg Armor (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), OIF (-1/2), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Piecemeal Armor, Medium Value: $68 Weight: 17.50kg Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Piecemeal Armor, Heavy Value: $107 Weight: 49.00kg Armor (9 PD/9 ED) (27 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Combat Armor, Light Value: $49 Weight: 3.50kg Armor (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Combat Armor, Medium Value: $98 Weight: 10.00kg Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Combat Armor, Heavy Value: $147 Weight: 28.00kg Armor (9 PD/9 ED) (27 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Rad-Zone Trooper Armor Value: $362 Weight: 80.00kg (Total: 72 Active Cost, 29 Real Cost) Armor (8 PD/8 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (48 Active Points); Double Mass (-1 1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) (Real Cost: 15) plus Life Support (Safe in High Radiation), Advanced Technology (+1) (4 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 3) plus Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing), Advanced Technology (+1) (20 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), 1 Recoverable Continuing Charge lasting 1 Hour (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; Recovery requires extra oxygen tank; -1/4) (Real Cost: 11) Rad-Zone Trooper Armor, Advanced Value: $634 Weight: 80.00kg (Total: 104 Active Cost, 53 Real Cost) Armor (12 PD/12 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (72 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) (Real Cost: 32) plus Life Support (Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat), Advanced Technology (+1) (12 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 8) plus Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing), 1 Recoverable Continuing Charge lasting 6 Hours (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; Recovery requires extra oxygen tank; +0), Advanced Technology (+1) (20 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 13) HardShell Armor-in-a-can Value: $118 Weight: 20.00kg Armor (8 PD/8 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (48 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF (cannister; -1), Ablative BODY Only (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2)

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design We finally settled on The Fallout Brigade (yay!) and so BL and GS came over to create their characters -- with the help of HEro Designer. BL's Character: Jodiah Forelon Jodiah Forelon is a mutated human from Bunkertown, a community that managed to survive the Big Drop mostly intact and eventually became the birthplace of the Fallout Brigade as its citizens sought to determine what else had survived. Jodiah is a little funny looking with round black eyes and big mouse-like ears, but they afford him greater than normal human sight and hearing. Raised a hunter and town defender, he is a stealth sniper type armed with a long range -- though conventional -- rifle and scope. He isn't much good in a close up fight, but his motto is if you're that close, you've already lost. GS' Character: Thomas Edison Grey Thomas Edison grey was born in the Forge. Before the Big Drop, the Forge was a miltary research facility cranking out advanced weaponry for the Resource Wars. When the Drop came, the Forge sealed its doors and its miltary-scientist leaders continued their work so that they could one day open the doors and retake the world. Being a genius and near-savant with technology, Grey became one of the Forge's researchers at a very young age. As he studied the Pre-Drop world, however, he came to realize that the Forge was a threat to whatever civilization might still exist beyond the blast doors. He "defected", escaping one night through the ventilation system and wandering out into the broken world. The Forge doesn't take kindly to defectors, however, and is hunting him. In addition, Grey has become something of a scavenger of Pre-Drop technology and has accidentally crossed the Scavenger's Guild -- temporary name -- who are looking for him as well. The character is loaded with skills relating to technology, but isn't mcuh of a combatant (though he does carry a laser pistol with which he managed to escape). One thing I have always liked about table-top RPGs -- as opposed to the computer kind, even super cool ones like Fallout -- is that players often come up with ideas that inspire me, as the GM, to create setting elements that I might not have otherwise thought about. In the above, Bunkertown, the Forge and the Scavenger's Guild were all player-inspired and will all feature prominently in the campaign.

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design Thanks for the links. Some interesting reading there. Hmmm... I wonder if Steve would get mad if I wrote this up as a genre Book. it has been a couple years since I worked on game stuff for publication, and I got a hankering to flex those muscles. plus it is a solid excuse to watch entirely too many PA movies and delve into some books I have always meant to read.

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design Character Creation Guidelines Part I: Points and Backgrounds I figure I will use 75/75 for PCs in THE FALLOUT BRIGADE. The first thing in creating a PC will be choosing a "cultural" background. Each of the following cultural backgrounds provides a list of Everyman Skills, as well as 1 or 2 free Weapon and Transport familiarities. Cultural background is intended to describe, in very broad terms, the social and technological environment in which the character was raised, and may not have any bearing on where the character is right now. Survivor: Typical citizen scratching out a living in one of the towns and villages that dot the landscape of the ruined world. Everyman Skills: Animal Handler, Climbing, Mechanics, Navigation, Paramedics, Persuasion, Survival, Trading Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Small Arms Transport Familiarities: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Carts and Carriages Sheltered: One of the lucky few who was raised in a sheltered community – be it an underground Vault, and undersea dome or a mountaintop retreat – with access to pre-Fall technology and culture. Everyman Skills: Bureaucratics, Computer Programming, Electronics, KS: Pre-Fall History, KS: Pre-Fall Technology, Oratory, Paramedics, Systems Operation Weapon Familiarities: Small Arms Transport Familiarities: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles, Grav/Hovercraft Vehicles Primitive: Raised among the wasteland communities that have retreated back to hunter-gatherer and/or subsistence farming and have rejected or lost nearly all connection to pre-Fall technology and culture. Everyman Skills: Animal Handler, Breakfall, Concealment, Navigation, Riding, Stealth, Survival, Tracking Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons Transport Familiarities: Riding Animals, Carts and Carriages Outcast: Truly alone, the outcast is a wanderer, a hermit or an exile that has learned to survive on his or her own, but sacrificed the ability to live within civilized society in the process. Everyman Skills: Breakfall, Climbing, Concealment, Disguise, Shadowing, Streetwise, Survival, Trading Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Small Arms Transport Familiarities: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Riding Animal (any one) Next Up: "Professional" pack deals and "Racial" package deals.

I decided that I was going to play HERO, and that my second favorite genre -- post-apocalyptic science fantasy goodness -- was going to be where it is at. This thread will detail my trials and tribulations as I attempt to piece together a campaign and force it on my poor players. I look forward to comments and suggestions on how to get the most out of the HERO system in this. THE FALLOUT BRIGADE Campaign Pitch BACKGROUND The century of conflict known collectively as the Resource Wars that precipitated The Big Drop fueled an unprecedented period of technological advancement. Robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology, genetic engineering, near-Earth space travel and artificial intelligence all saw massive leaps undreamed of by those who lived in the Unquiet Time between the second and third World Wars. Al of these advancements, however, were directed toward one purpose: war. By the time The Big Drop came to be, the world was ravaged by war and depleted of resources. Tens of millions had died in convention, biological, chemical and nuclear conflicts around the globe. The billions that lived were scarred not only by the trauma of constant battle, but by the ever increasing techno-shock . In the end, super-powers had broken down into private fiefdoms struggling for the last remaining deposits of fossil fuels and tracts of arable land, with everyone else caught in the crossfire. Some few saw the end coming, moving families and sometimes entire towns to the most desolate places they could find to escape the chaos. Others, knowing their massive wealth was soon to become useless, built subterranean vaults, undersea domes and mountaintop refuges in which to wait out Armageddon. There were even some who, seeing no way to survive, collected themselves and all their experiences into time capsules and digital fortresses, in the hope that someday the descendents of the survivors might learn something of what the world had been. Despite all preparations and plans, all hopes and prayers, the end did come. The asteroid known as Mjolnir, captured as it passed close by the earth some years before and meant to be mined for precious ore to continue the construction of the machines of war, was pushed into the atmosphere by a faulty control program. It struck the mid-Atlantic, first drowning the east coast of the Americas and Europe and west Africa. The seismic trauma caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the world over. Madmen with their fingers on button, in last ditch efforts to be declared “winner” before the end of all things, launched their deadliest weapons. When the roar of the fires and the shaking of the earth stopped, there was quiet for a long time. The, a mere 50 years ago, the world woke. Survivors crawled out of their distant communities and their secured shelters to see what man had wrought in his quest for resources and power. And sadly, the quest started up again almost immediately. THE CAMPAIGN The Fallout Brigade is a post-apocalyptic campaign inspired by the likes of Gamma World, Fallout, and Mad Max (with shades of everything from Cherry 2000 to Hell Comes to Frogtown to Six String Samurai). Rather than being simply survivors and scavengers scrounging to survive, the PCs will be members of the Fallout Brigade, a loose affiliation of activists that share the common goals of 1) bringing law and order to the ruined world, 2) uncovering the lost wonders of the former age and 3) helping those in need in whatever fashion that takes. It isn’t a powerful organization (yet) and can provide only the most modest support to its members. But as those members garner both respect and treasures for the Brigade, it may one day serve as the foundation upon which a new world is built. In the meantime, however, there are mutant raiders, would-be warlords, and uncontrolled war machines out there that need stopping, caches of old world technology and history that need recovering and struggling survivors that need protecting. As a post-apocalyptic campaign, the Fallout Brigade will resemble traditional RPG-style adventuring in many respects, with touches from the Western, Sci-Fi Horror and Pulp gaming genres. The PCs are adventurers and heroes in equal measure. The typical PC will be capable and, while filling a party niche, self-sufficient. Some characters may be more-than-human in some respect, but only marginally. The big mutations, psionic powers and mega-tech will be more commonly encountered in enemies and possibly allies. At least in the beginning, the characters will be wanderers, but may find a place to call home as a base of operations relatively early on. They will have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of survivors, even as they defeat enemies and uncover lost technology and weapons. And while there will certainly be powerful forces at work against the PCs, the only ‘big story’ is that of the PCs and what they build or tear down. Next Up: PC Generation Guidelines.

Re: Google Images + Photoshop = Fake Covers for PCs I am not sure how PhotoBucket works, but ImageShack will allow you to link directly to the thumbs.

I am going to try and link an image of the patriotic power armor flyer Technaught. Here goes. EDIT: Yay, it worked. Now here's his stats: Technaught Val Char Cost 35 STR 5 23 DEX 39 15 CON 10 14 BODY 8 16 INT 6 14 EGO 8 20 PRE 10 18 COM 4 3/18 PD 0 3/18 ED 0 4 SPD 7 8 REC 4 30 END 0 36 STUN 6 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 7" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 107 Cost Power 30 Armor (15 PD/15 ED) (45 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 7 Sight Group Flash Defense (10 points) (10 Active Points); OIF (Goggles; -1/2) 50 Flight 20", x8 Noncombat, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (75 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 15 +20 STR, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 7 Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing) (10 Active Points); OIF (Rebreather; -1/2) 50 Technaught Battlesuit on-board weaponry: Multipower, 50-point reserve, all slots Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (75 Active Points); all slots OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 3u 1) Force Bolt: Energy Blast 10d6 (50 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 3u 2) Force Wall Generator: Force Wall (12 PD/6 ED/1 Flash Defense: Sight Group; 2" long and 2" tall) (50 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 3u 3) Force Bomb: Energy Blast 5d6, Area Of Effect (3" Radius; +1) (50 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) 3u 4) Force Bands: Entangle 4d6, 6 DEF (50 Active Points); OIF (Technaught Battlesuit; -1/2) Powers Cost: 171 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 5 Defensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +3 DCV, 7d6 Strike 4 Martial Dodge: 1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort 4 Martial Strike: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, 9d6 Strike 5 Offensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 11d6 Strike 3 Martial Throw: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +1 DCV, 7d6 +v/5, Target Falls Martial Arts Cost: 21 Cost Skill 12 +4 with Technaught Battlesuit multipower 10 +2 with HTH Combat 3 Breakfall 14- 3 Bureaucratics 13- 5 Combat Piloting 15- 3 Electronics 12- 3 KS 12- 2 Navigation (Air) 12- 3 Security Systems 12- 3 Tactics 12- Skills Cost: 47 Cost Perk 4 Fringe Benefit: Captain Perks Cost: 4 Total Character Cost: 350 Pts. Disadvantage 10 Psychological Limitation: Overconfidance (Common, Moderate) 15 Psychological Limitation: Bound By Duty (Common, Strong) 10 Psychological Limitation: Code Against Killing (Common, Moderate) 20 Hunted: The Anti-Tech League 11- (As Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish) 15 Social Limitation: Secret ID (Frequently, Major) 10 Reputation: Patriotic Hero, 11- 25 Hunted: The Shadow Cabinet 11- (Mo Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish) 5 Rivalry: Professional (Mr. Patriot), Rival is As Powerful, Seek to Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival, Rival Aware of Rivalry 20 Dependent NPC: Mom 8- (Incompetent; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID) 20 Social Limitation: Must act within the law or by government approval. (Very Frequently, Major) Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Got an idea at work today. I wonder, could you take a naked Limitation as a disad? In this case, perhaps Side Effect, w/ the effect being a Dispel on tech? I am not sure how many base points you would "base" the lim on, but it might be feasible.

Hey all Here's the deal. I decided to run a FREd (Sidekick) game at a local "mini-con/gameday" but since I have a new baby (yay!) I have a lot less time that I would like. And it is this weekend! So, help me out. Point me to a free, downloadable adventure that I can run for 4-6 players in 4-6 hours, please! Genre doesn't matter, though I would like to do a Heroic game rather than a superheroic one. Once I got the aventure, I'll use HD to created the pre-gens (or do it by hand after my character gets killed in the annual D&D Game of Death). Help me, Herodom, you're my only hope. Thanks.

Re: Generic Power Nullifiers

Re: Sidekick for PA one shot So, I picked up the Hero System Bestiary yesterday and am very pleased with the purchase. between the regular animals, the templates, and the robots, I should be able to populate my Fallout-style one shot pretty easily. The only porblem is that I have only run Hero a few times, and not recently (and not 5th Ed.) so I am a little wary on how to balance encounters. Assuming a group of a half dozen 100+50 Heroic characters, how many points makesa good challenge? How "big" should a single monster be, versus a pack of them? And what kind of heavy weaponry can I have the PCs discover before the climactic battle. Basically, I would like an intro scene, a role-play scene, and skill based scene, 2 short combat scenes, and one big fight scene, and I want to do it all in 4 to 6 hours. Can this be done? Thanks, all. Reynard aka Ian Eller Game Writer Type Guy

Hey all I am planning on running a Post Apocalyptic one shot adventure (more Fallout than Gamma World) for a super small con/game day in a couple of weeks. After considering d20 Modern (and GW that goes with it -- which I worked on), Darwin's World, Tri-Stat dX, and Adventure, I decided on using HERO becuase I want to introduce my group to the system without forcing them to swallow the whole supers level HERO system (which can be a bit daunting for newbies). So, my question(s): Does anyone have extensive experience using HERO for PA games? Any advice on character and/or villain generation? Does anyone have any general advice for using Sidekick with HERO newbies? Should I pick up a couple extra copies and have them cretae characters? Should I use pre-gens? Any snags or wonkiness I should be aware of? Thanks all.