AlHazred

The first time I met Darren Watts, I was in the middle of a game at Gen Con. He gave me his DOJ business card and wanted to talk to me after. He respected my work on fanzines such as Haymaker, Rogues Gallery, and The Clobberin' Times. He and Steven S. Long later offered me a job writing and editing at Hero Games. The timing wasn't right for me, sadly, but I did get to manage/edit the in-house magazine Digital Hero for its full run. 
 
We always had a blast together, hanging out at the booth, running or playing games together, or otherwise just shooting the breeze. I usually acted as the GM Assistant in Darren's "Build & Brawl" Champions games, in which players started with a blank character sheet and dozens of books spread around the table, with Darren and I as rules experts to help players get going. I was surprised at how many first-timers we'd get, and they'd always come up with great ideas:
a first-time player made a superhero who would push her opponents into a different dimension with no way back the planet Earth, who apparently had a secret ID, and would occasionally fight other superbeings a brain in a jar who wore a domino mask to protect his secret identity as another brain in a different jar  
I helped run the special Champions 30th anniversary game along with Rod Currie, in which Foxbat had somehow changed the timeline and made himself an honest-to-gosh superhero, admired by millions (Foxbat and His Amazing Friends). Darren, Steven, and Jason Walters were the VIP players, along with several lucky other gamers, who went back in time to prevent him from kidnapping Steve Peterson, George MacDonald, Raymond Greer, and Bruce Harlick and forcing them to change his character origin in the original source material.
 
For the past three years, I've loved listening to his Explain This, Comics Guys podcast, where he'd take us all on a behind-the-scenes tour of the early days of the comic book industry. Every episode I'd learn a dozen things that I didn't know, despite being a lifelong nerd myself. 
 
Darren's passing will leave a hole in the industry and in my circle of friends. Darren was a hero.
 

Wow. Talk about your blasts from the past. I'd have to check my desktop, as it has my archive on it. Next time I'm on it, I'll try to remember to look for it.

A little thread necromancy here, but I was trying to find my Hero Designer file for this, and came up short. I looked in the Files section and didn't find it, so I probably never uploaded it. I wanted it for a Traveller Hero game I'm running, as an example of Tech Level 7 space technology. So, I rebuilt it from this description, and uploaded it.
 
 

Touchdown in the UK! That’s pretty quick shipping and the books look wonderful.
 

I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁

A little thread necromancy here, but I was trying to find my Hero Designer file for this, and came up short. I looked in the Files section and didn't find it, so I probably never uploaded it. I wanted it for a Traveller Hero game I'm running, as an example of Tech Level 7 space technology. So, I rebuilt it from this description, and uploaded it.
 
 

Did my own update. Linkrot has infected a lot of the links in the OP, here's what's salvageable, with a few additions that came up as I was googling around:
 
Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures (2003) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006FD8S/103-4498404-4964630?v=glance
 
Horatio Hornblower(1951) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043379/
 
Horatio Hornblower - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
 
Victorian Roleplaying Themes (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20071009211046/http://www.codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/
 
Napoleonic Wars (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
 
Napoleonic Era (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_era
 
Age of Sail - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Sail
 
"Nelson's Navy" (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/
 
Bryan Lavery's Books (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.napoleonguide.com/books_nelsonnavy.htm
 
GURPS Victorian Archetypes in a Steampunk World - Pyramid Online July 19, 2002
https://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2892
 
19th Century - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century
 
Alternate History - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history#19th_century
 
Boer War - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
 
Castle Falkenstein - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game)
 
Deadlands - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands
 
Discworld - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#Role-playing_games
 
English Regency - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Regency
 
20 novels that shaped the Victorian era
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/08/best-victorian-books-era-novels-classics
 
Gothic Novel - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
 
GURPS 1793: The League of Adventurers (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
GURPS 1793 is a face-to-face and PBEM roleplaying campaign set in the England of Horatio Hornblower, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack Aubrey, and Jane Austen's novels. It is both historical and fantastic.
https://mactyre.net/archives/1793/
 
GURPS by Gaslight (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://bill-barton-games.iwarp.com/custom4.html
 
GURPS Discworld (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.byenighte.com/
 
Victorian RPG Resources (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/links/linksandsuch.html#Gaming
 
Edo Period (1603 - 1868) - Japanese History (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2128.html
 
The Meiji Constitution - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Constitution
 
Lord Darcy (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy
 
Regency HERO (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
https://www.mactyre.net/archives/regency/
 
Metropolitan Railway (Victorian British Railways Resources)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway
 
Metropolitan & Great Central Railway Joint Committee Survey
https://www.rickmansworthherts.com/metro-link.htm
 
Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides - Metropolitan Line
http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/metropolitan.html
 
The Ottoman Empire - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
 
Romilly's Castle Falkenstein
http://castlefalkensteinfan.blogspot.com/p/castle-falkenstein-links.html
 
Scientific Romance - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_romance
 
Sherlock Holmes - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes
 
Space 1889 (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ (Heliograph's Space 1889 Resource Site)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889
 
Steampunk (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
 
Voyages Extraordinaires - Steampunk Victorian Adventure
https://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/
 
The Great Game - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
 
Victorian Society in the Americas (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.victoriansociety.org/ (Check out their magazine, Nineteenth Century)
 
Sid Meier's Pirates (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://www.piratesahoy.net/
 
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins
http://jessnevins.com/victoriana/introduction.html
 
Myths for the Modern Age:Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (Thanks @Agent 13)
http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Myths_for_the_Modern_Age.html
 
THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES By SABINE BARING-GOULD (Thanks @yamamura)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324
 
Swashbuckling Women of Movies, TV, Theatre, etc. (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/Maupin-Like.html
 
The Mask of Zorro (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20091018194230/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4072/zorro.html
 
The Lady Cavaliers (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20050830123052/http://www.ladycavaliers.com/gallery.htm
 
The Art of Terese Neilson (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://tnielsen.com/gallery/
 
The Century That Made Us (Thanks @BigJackBrass)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/25/four_century.shtml
 
HMS Surprise - a frigate* simulator for Windows (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20090720081900/home.wxs.nl/~pdavis/ (.ZIP file link still works!)
 
Gaelen Foley - Historical and Dress Novelist (Thanks @Vondy)
https://www.gaelenfoley.com/history-buffs.html

No problem! Now, how about Regency Hero? Huh, nudge, nudge...

No problem! Now, how about Regency Hero? Huh, nudge, nudge...

@AlHazred
Thanks for the plug on Victorian Hero. In the back in the resources section is a pile of links for Victorian Era info. 

To add to the list some important additions:
 
Victorian Web (this should maybe be your first stop when building your campaign, it has a lot of resources!)
https://victorianweb.org/victorian/vn/index.html
 
English Heritage - Victorians
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/victorian/
 
Leagues of Adventure - Triple Ace Games (a roleplaying game of thrilling exploration and fantastic feats of derring-do set in the late Victorian Age, using UBIQUITY engine from Hollow Earth Expedition)
https://tripleacegames.net/en-us/collections/leagues-of-adventure
 
Baker Street: Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes - Fearlight Games (a Role Playing Game in which the players attempt to solve some of the most baffling crimes in history)
http://www.fearlightgames.com/bakerstreet.html
 
Victorian Hero: Heroic Roleplaying in the Victorian Era - Hero Games
www.herogames.com/store/product/1074-victorian-hero-heroic-roleplaying-in-the-victorian-era-bookpdfcp
 

Pretty sure Calvin and Hobbes had a transmogrifying box on a few occasions.

True, but originally it was a two way wrist radio.

Even earlier, Dick Tracy carried his on his wrist!

My engineering students loved projects where they could design shoes with multiple uses.
Jumping shoes, flying shoes, shoes that walk themselves to your destination so you can think about other things, shoes that always run the correct wide receiver patterns, shoes that vibrate when danger is near, shoes that give you inspiration, …
 
side note:
They became very excited when I told them about the Maxwell Smart shoe-phone. They wanted to know where the screen was.
 
 

I blame @Susano! He shared this video on Bluesky, which is a stop-motion animation done by Kevin Parry; it took 440 photos over 10 days. That inspired me to make this vehicle:
Then I got to thinking about a character whose power is to transform mundane item into more useful items: an office chair into a racing vehicle, for example, to get away from the bad guys. Or the good guys, I don't judge, whatever makes the best story. What would be more transformations such a character could do, following the constraint introduced in the video: the item doesn't actually change shape, just gains additional functions, relevant to the item itself. Potted houseplants into animated vegetable minions? I mean, the quintessential example is the paper-towel tube that is actually a sword or lightsaber...

I blame @Susano! He shared this video on Bluesky, which is a stop-motion animation done by Kevin Parry; it took 440 photos over 10 days. That inspired me to make this vehicle:
Then I got to thinking about a character whose power is to transform mundane item into more useful items: an office chair into a racing vehicle, for example, to get away from the bad guys. Or the good guys, I don't judge, whatever makes the best story. What would be more transformations such a character could do, following the constraint introduced in the video: the item doesn't actually change shape, just gains additional functions, relevant to the item itself. Potted houseplants into animated vegetable minions? I mean, the quintessential example is the paper-towel tube that is actually a sword or lightsaber...

The TV remote that controls other things. 
 
Toy versions of vehicles, weapons, animals, and so on, that act like the real things.
 
A cardboard box into a transmogrifying box.

Did my own update. Linkrot has infected a lot of the links in the OP, here's what's salvageable, with a few additions that came up as I was googling around:
 
Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures (2003) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006FD8S/103-4498404-4964630?v=glance
 
Horatio Hornblower(1951) (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043379/
 
Horatio Hornblower - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
 
Victorian Roleplaying Themes (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20071009211046/http://www.codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/
 
Napoleonic Wars (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars
 
Napoleonic Era (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_era
 
Age of Sail - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Sail
 
"Nelson's Navy" (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/
 
Bryan Lavery's Books (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.napoleonguide.com/books_nelsonnavy.htm
 
GURPS Victorian Archetypes in a Steampunk World - Pyramid Online July 19, 2002
https://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2892
 
19th Century - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century
 
Alternate History - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history#19th_century
 
Boer War - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
 
Castle Falkenstein - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game)
 
Deadlands - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands
 
Discworld - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#Role-playing_games
 
English Regency - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Regency
 
20 novels that shaped the Victorian era
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/08/best-victorian-books-era-novels-classics
 
Gothic Novel - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
 
GURPS 1793: The League of Adventurers (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
GURPS 1793 is a face-to-face and PBEM roleplaying campaign set in the England of Horatio Hornblower, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack Aubrey, and Jane Austen's novels. It is both historical and fantastic.
https://mactyre.net/archives/1793/
 
GURPS by Gaslight (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://bill-barton-games.iwarp.com/custom4.html
 
GURPS Discworld (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.byenighte.com/
 
Victorian RPG Resources (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/links/linksandsuch.html#Gaming
 
Edo Period (1603 - 1868) - Japanese History (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2128.html
 
The Meiji Constitution - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Constitution
 
Lord Darcy (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy
 
Regency HERO (Thanks @ShelleyCM)
https://www.mactyre.net/archives/regency/
 
Metropolitan Railway (Victorian British Railways Resources)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway
 
Metropolitan & Great Central Railway Joint Committee Survey
https://www.rickmansworthherts.com/metro-link.htm
 
Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides - Metropolitan Line
http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/metropolitan.html
 
The Ottoman Empire - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
 
Romilly's Castle Falkenstein
http://castlefalkensteinfan.blogspot.com/p/castle-falkenstein-links.html
 
Scientific Romance - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_romance
 
Sherlock Holmes - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes
 
Space 1889 (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ (Heliograph's Space 1889 Resource Site)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889
 
Steampunk (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
 
Voyages Extraordinaires - Steampunk Victorian Adventure
https://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/
 
The Great Game - Wikipedia (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game
 
Victorian Society in the Americas (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
http://www.victoriansociety.org/ (Check out their magazine, Nineteenth Century)
 
Sid Meier's Pirates (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://www.piratesahoy.net/
 
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins
http://jessnevins.com/victoriana/introduction.html
 
Myths for the Modern Age:Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (Thanks @Agent 13)
http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Myths_for_the_Modern_Age.html
 
THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES By SABINE BARING-GOULD (Thanks @yamamura)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324
 
Swashbuckling Women of Movies, TV, Theatre, etc. (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/Maupin-Like.html
 
The Mask of Zorro (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20091018194230/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4072/zorro.html
 
The Lady Cavaliers (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20050830123052/http://www.ladycavaliers.com/gallery.htm
 
The Art of Terese Neilson (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://tnielsen.com/gallery/
 
The Century That Made Us (Thanks @BigJackBrass)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/25/four_century.shtml
 
HMS Surprise - a frigate* simulator for Windows (Thanks @TheQuestionMan)
https://web.archive.org/web/20090720081900/home.wxs.nl/~pdavis/ (.ZIP file link still works!)
 
Gaelen Foley - Historical and Dress Novelist (Thanks @Vondy)
https://www.gaelenfoley.com/history-buffs.html

I'm sorry about this, Alhazred.
CES

Hello from the ether.  I don't visit the boards all that much anymore but I remember all of you, including Lisa.  I felt a disturbance in the force.  Sad news.

Some people you remember by their avatar. Lisa used Stephanie from Lazytown. So if you recall the picture of the girl with pink hair, that was Lisa

Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.

Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.

Long-time posters will remember @Lisa Nadazdy who often started threads that provoked interesting conversations. I regret to report that Lisa left us just after Christmas last year, after a difficult battle with cancer. The world seems a little quieter and less interesting today. If you wish to do so, in lieu of flowers, their spouse requests donations to the Cancer Society, the Heart Society, to your local food bank, or to any organization that works with abused children.