humantorch101

I am going to start a 4th edition supers campaign within the next few months and have decided to use the big blue book of 4th edition as the rules mainly because my player base has never used the hero system or been involved in a supers campaign before so I wanted to ensure that the simpler 4th edition rules did not overwhelm them with options. My question to you guys is, those of you that still use 4th edition or know the hero system so well is this - What changes and amendments that took place in 5th and 6th edition (both of which I have) just scream out to be used in a superhero campaign? what would you 100 percent port over to 4th edition?

Re: Recommendations and Reviews of Superhero products both old and new "To Serve and Protect" This module contains for me one of the best rpg superhero teams in "The Protectors" that I have ever seen. Each character on the teams membership is a very usable compelling character and they all seem to fit together in a very nice "Avengers" type way. The module and story line itself is also veryy nice. But for me the NPC heroes of the Protectors are the icing on the cake. Very recommended.

I thought I would start this thread as a handy little place that people could post their reviews and recommendations on superhero products old and new from both champions and Hero games history and other games and companies. PLEASE - Do not derail the thread into edition or game wars, although base game reviews are welcome, even better would be supplement recommendations and reviews that get spoken about less and receive less spotlight. Also please feel free to talk about the older gems from your collection and why you love them so, Was your favourite scenario The Great Supervillain Contest? or did you prefer To Serve and Protect? Maybe you Loved Freedom City? or maybe San Angelo did it for you? Or maybe you love a particular scenario from the old Marvel or DC games? Whatever it is share it here, It can be as in depth as you like or as brief as a two liner. What products do you recommend and why?

I am currently thinking of doing a retro campaign using either 2nd or 3rd edition rules. I own all the rules sets from 2nd to 6th apart from 4th edition. Could anyone tell me what changed from 3rd to 4th. A list of the main changes would be great.

I am throwing a very broad question at you guys, what elements (heroes,villains,groups,places,items,organisations) should a great superhero universe/setting perhaps contain? I am looking for ideas and inspiration, are there certain hero or villain homages or archetypes that just have to be present? what type of superhero groups or support organisations? Alien races or strange places? fictional cities or powerful items? List one element per post and lets get creative!

While recently deciding to start a new face to face supers campaign I have had to make a final decision on both which game system to run it in and just as importantly which setting. I got some great feedback recently here on a thread to decide which edition of the Hero system to run (6th edition thanks guys). So with that major hurdle out of the way I now go to which setting and it was a pretty simple choice to make as i have always ran homage settings rather than direct DC/Marvel universes. I took a look at all my old material and thought it would be fun to re-imagine it as much as I could to take into account all the great new supers setting material that has been published over the last few years. Now I want to be very up front about this, the setting and the characters are very, very clear unambiguous homages to the original DC/Marvel/Image characters. Think of the setting as a large multiverse what if storyline where the names have been changed to protect the innocent. The New game will start in 1975 and will try as much as i can to only contain characters published up to that date and then run forwards in time as the campaign progresses. I have chosen 1975 as I wanted a start date in the campaigns time scale that ensured the setting was not to cluttered considering I am using a combined homage universe containing inspirations from both major comic companies. Also I wanted many of the hero's and villains to age normally and retire as well as die and legacies both good and evil to pass on, while other hero's and villains will age slower due to their powers or not at all. The vast majority of the characters will be very loosely based name and background wise of published rpg supers material seen through the blinding lens of the original comic published characters homage. Where I will need a lot of help from you guys is in that i do not know 6th edition well AT ALL! I am going to try to keep the builds quite simple at first and maybe then go back and complicate them a little as I get more versed with the new rules. But I would love as much help as possible with feedback both good and bad on the builds. For your information I will be using the advanced players guide eventually as well as the base books. Another area of help will be in ensuring I have enough links and connections however tenuous between the various DC-Marvel characters. I am going for a base rule of at least three connections between the characters but again would love some feedback and suggestions on this when you think of them and I will go back and add them into the background if I like the connection. Will be doing many supporting characters as well as super folks and will also try to keep a detailed timeline and adventure summery of the various characters. I have one big question for you, would you prefer me to stick to one area of the universe at a time (detail my fantastic four homage sourcebook, then on to batman's then the x men etc), or would you prefer a scattered approach bouncing between characters and teams?

Re: Which edition do you feel is best for JUST supers? Well that seems pretty unanimous! I will go back to 6th edition and give it a real thorough rereading and try converting some characters across and get a general feel for it. Thanks for giving me such good detailed advice. Once i start porting over characters will post them here to get some feedback if you don't mind.

I am about to start a new supers game and am very, very torn on which system to use for it. I am an old Champions gronard going all the way back to 2nd edition and probably had my most fun with it with 3rd and 4th edition. I used 5th edition for a while but started to find it both complex and way too much for a purely supers game. I have purchased 6th edition but it looks even less than the game i fondly remember! This is probably just rose tinted glasses looking back fondly on my youth but I am searching for something more......classic supers. I have played other supers games mainly marvel superheroes back in the day and more recently seriously flirted with mutants and masterminds and just purchased BASH. But they all seem to be lacking something as well and don't seem to have the solid crunch of Hero. Maybe what I should do is pare back to a more simple version of Hero and take out all the options of whats not needed for supers. my questions to you guys are these. 1. what edition is your preferred rule set for supers games and what are you currently playing? 2. Why does this particular edition work best for you for supers? 3. Are their any particular rules or features from other editions you have ported over and why? 4. Do you think it would be a valid project for me to try and mix and match from editions to get what I need? thks guys

Hey has anyone changed or mucked about with the hero system/champions game? I'm interested to find out about what changes you made and why. Big or small and also what edition was you running at the time. Tell me about your tinkering exploits!

re-imagining this campaign I am preparing to run this campaign world again in a new online game and am looking for players. In the meantime I will be re-imagining many of the games characters and elements and adding new ones here. Please feel free to comment and give me some feedback and also let me know if you are interested in being a player.

Has there ever been a compilation done of supers characters for the champions/ hero system game? I am thinking of a list which could be kept with the characters name, when they were published and which book and a quick description of the character, such as hero villain and power type etc. If there has not been one attempted would people be intrested in me compiling one? I think it could be very intresting and useful from a historical point of view for the game.

I have been away from the hero system, for a long while and would like a rundown on the changes between 5th and 6th and a bit of comment on why the changes were made (in your opinion). Im looking at purchasing the new edition and would like a heads up to make a decision. Also whats been put out for the new edition so far? whats the quality like? thanks guys in advance.

VOID (Venom homage) When the Hornet was caught up deeply in the Secret Crisis he found himself in a strange alien space ship which in fact belonged to the Devestator. Hopelessly lost within the ships huge interior he came across a strange alien uniform. Trying the clothing on because his own costume had been badly damaged in battle to his horror he found that the suit was in fact alive! forming a new pitch black shadow form from the kinetic energy of hornets body the evil shadow entity only known as Void was reborn. Battling Hornet throughout the ship until the hero finally managed to escape the alien entity decided to fight on behalf of the villians in the crisis and soon became a valuable ally due to its formidable shadow powers and ability to chnage its own density and to teleport in and out of shadows. Void soon realised however that due to him feeding on Hornets life essence in his rebirth he needed to take more of Hornets essence if he was to survive. This terrible fact has ensured that Void has become one of the Hornets deadliest enemies again and again attacking him to steal his life essence using a strange sense to locate Hornet with unerring accuracy time and time again. Although Hornet has managed until now to defeat or fend off the evil alien shadow being he has never beena ble to hold him for long and Void has come to beleive that only Hornets death at his hands will free him off the need to feed on his life essence. A evil plan he has no moral dilemma in carrying out.

Professor Psion (Professor X homage) Pilias Psion was born into a wealthy British family in the heart of the British establishment. He was given everything a boy could ask for, but from a very early age he knew he was different to his family and friends. Pilias was a mutant you see, maybe one of the most powerful mutants that had ever lived. This was brought home to him on his 8th birthday when he was kidnapped from his home by the mutant master villain Mastermind and spirited away to one of his giant remote bases to begin his "education". Over the next 15 years Pilias was educated, trained, prodded and poked by his abducter and went through many changes of personality and feelings. First of all he hated his captor but as the years went by this changed into affection and even a strange love for his new "father" Mastermind on his part truly came to love his young charge and saw his potential as maybe the greatest living mentalist alive. But slowly as Pilias mastered his vast mental powers he begain to see Masterminds obsession with making mutant kind control humanity as basically very morally wrong. The breaking point came when Mastermind begain to put together his team the Scions of Cane. Pilias saw that the individuals he gathered were sometimes no better than ruthless murderers. Vowing to stop his fathers plans Pilias escaped and now confident in his own mutant powers of the mind he begain to put together his own team of mutants to both combat Mastermind and other evil mutant threats and also to train and protect other young mutants against his corrupting influence. That day the Protectors were born and dubbing himself Professor Psion, Pilias has led the team ever since and saved the world on countless occasions form Mastermind and other evil mutant threats.

Re: My Superhero Homage Setting That was my first post on the thread for a longggggggggg time lol. I hope I can post much more often in the near future.

Midnight Angel (angel homage) William Warren the third was born into a live of total privalege. His family being one of the most wealthy and oldest and well connected in Boston. Young William looked set for a life of luxury and boredom, until his 14th birthday when his boredom was shattered forever when during a fight with another local romeo over the affections of a very pretty local girl, William suddenly sprouted huge powerful jet black angelic wings from his back and his skin turned a deep shiny ebony. Frightened and startled by his transformation William fled and soon found himself on the run deeply ashamed of what he had become and scared of his family reaction. They did in fact soon disown him but he was found and rescued from starvation by Professor Psion who made William one of the young founding members of his new group of young mutants the Protectors. Naming him Midnight Angel, the professor taught William on the use of his powerful wings and he also found he had other strange abilities such as the abilty to see in the dark, and detect evil. He was also far stronger than a human being and his wings were so powerful that at full flight he could reach almost superhuman speeds. Coupled with his natural agility and ever increasing flight experiance, William became a valued and long term member of the group only rarely having leaves of absence from active duty. Recently William inherited his family fortune. With this good news and the revelation from the professor of a new strange ability to influence and seduce women that he previously only suspected off. Williams life is set to become even more intresting.

BROTHER BASILISK (Grey Gargoyle homage) Jean-Paul Renoir was a prominent scholar from France who specialised in Greek history and religion. He was widely seen as the world expert on the subject and delved deeply into ancient texts and scrolls dealing with the ancient Greek gods. After discovering an ancient text about the god Hades Renoir went public with his discovery angering the still active god in the process. Hades decided to teach Renoir a lesson and appeared to him and to his horror changed him into a living Basilisk of stone and cursed him to ever more battle the foes of Hades such as Dadaelus, Ragnarak and Heracles. He gave him the potent magical ability to turn people to stone for a day with magical eye beams and his body of stone gave him great super strength, density and resistance to injury. Renoir was unhinged by his transfomation into this magical man of stone and soon went on a rampage against Dadaelus until the armored hero defeated him in combat. Since then he has often bedeviled Hades foes and has become a long term foe of the Sentinels as an individual and a powerful long term member of the Sinister Circle.

ANNIHILATOR (Scourge homage) the deadly super killer known only as the Annihilator burst on to the Freedom city scrime scene only two years ago, announcing himself by killing 7 minor costumed villians and telling the super human community he was declaring outright war on them. First of all he only preyed on supers he considred on the wrong side of the law but after coming into contact with the Silencer, The Patriot and the Raven and they repeatedly foiled his murderous attacks he widened his net to include all supers. He contuined a very nasty feud with the Silencer which continues to this day with both men attempting to eliminate the other. However it is the Patriot who has been his number one nemesis and despite avoiding capture the Patriot has speculated that the Annihilator may be in fact more than one individual and his grudge against superhumans stems from a deep seated hatred from a family incident maybe as far back as childhood. This is all mere speculation however as the Annihilator remians at large and as deadly as ever.

CRIMSON CLAW (Crimson Cowl homage) Thr mysterious villain called the Crimson Claw first appeared years ago when he announced to the supervillain world he was the poccessor of the powerful artefact the Eye of Azog. He told the villains of a strange contest to see who was the most powerful and who deserved the eyes power. This became known as the Great Supervillain contest and it continued for nearly a year before it was stopped by the combined forces of the Sentinels, Freedom League and Atom Family. But the contest turned out to be a total ruse as the Claw only wanted to evaluate and test the villain population so he could cherry pick the candidates he wanted for a new villain team which would become almost an unstoppable army of supervillains called the Sinister Circle. The Claw has lead the team against the Sentinels time and time again and he seems to have a special hatred for both Daedelus and the Patriot which predates the formation of the team. The sinsiter circle has become one of the Sentinels more dangerous and persistent foes and almost succeded in destroying the team and their base on one occasion.

Character Debut Issues I am going to go back and edit in at the bottom of each character post which comic title and issue in my fictional universe they made there debut in. I hope this is will be a fun little add on for the campaign. I hope their are still people reading this thread lol.

IRON DUKE II (Robotman 1 / Arsenal homage) One of the worst threats the Sentinels have ever faced was when Mechanon and Istvatha V'Han decided to combine their evil power to destroy them. One of their plots was for Mechanon to gather to him various machine like entities to build himself a team of totally loyal individuals in his conquest to destroy all organic life. For that purpose Istvatha V'han sent him back in time to just after cliff became Iron Duke. In this alternate time line the two villains kidnapped the robot and replaced Cliff's brain with that of a serial killer Mark Steele. Repogramming the robot to be both totally loyal to Mechanon and to have a total disregard for organic life the villians returned to the present day. Although their plots at teh time were defeated by the Sentinels, Iron Duke II has remained to be a threat to humans everywhere and still totally under the control of his robotic master. Iron Duke II has clashed repeatedly with the sentinels since often causing bloodshed to innocent people and gaining a reputation for utter chaos. The original Iron Duke has yet to meet his namesake and doppelganger and both the Sentinels and the Protectors fear the day when he will.

IRON DUKE 1 (Robotman 2 homage) Cliff Crain was just a nomral every day joe in the wrong place at the wrong time. He just happened to be in his car driving during a huge battle between a mind controlled Atom Family and the Protectors. After receiving nearly fatal injuries to his body after his car was destroyed, after both teams regained their senses Amazing Man and Professor Psion combined to save what they could of the man. All they were able to do is save his brain which they transformed into a powerful robot body that Amazing Man had previously built years before. Amazingly the process worked and Cliff awoke to find himself in a completley new body a nine foot tall crimson iron robotic body with a whole host of robotic powers such as great super strength and endurance and toughness to injury and super senses. This made Cliff spiral off into a terrible depression for his lost humanity and it took him many years to come to terms with his new "self" with much help from the Monster and Dr Silverback. Calling himself Iron Duke and feeling now like an outcast from humanity he decided to join the Protectors as he now understood their mutant crusade for understanding and acceptance. Iron Duke has become over the years a staunch member of the Protectors and being an older more experianced man he has become almost a father figure to the group of young mutants and is almost unique in being one of the very few non mutant members of the group.

Re: Vvv Hey guys, any chance of a character list and when should this one be in the UK?

GENERAL WINTER (Winter homage) The mysterious being only known as General Winter was been active since at least world war 2 and maybe even earlier. Very little is known about him, he is known in the west as a giant super humanly strong man with many powers over ice and snow. In fact his powers are mystical in nature and it was been suggested that he is in fact the mystical spirit of Russia as his powers seem to wax and wane with the fortunes of that country. He has often been seen as the patriotic defender of Russia to its citizens but to foriegners and those of the west he has often been a cruel heartless foe. He has most often clashed with both Dadelus and Lady Liberty and most recently he has emerged as the leader of a new international super group called Red Doom which seems to be made up mostly of Russian and ex Soviet super criminals and have the goal of ensuring Russia's re emergence on the world stage as the premier super power. They have recently clashed repeatedly with the Liberty League and General Winter has vowed that they must be crushed to further his goals.

BLOODY MARY (Typhoid Mary homage) The woman only known as Bloody Mary turned up in Freedom City many years ago. At first she appeared to only be a rival for Alice Queen of Hearts as an assassin for the mob families and was drawn into conflict with Foreshadow. But Foreshadow soon found out she was much more than she seemed. She was a shapechanger able to turn into loathsome creatures such as snakes, spiders and rats and despite her martial skill and cunning she seemed mystically powered in some way. When he uncovered a plot to sacrifice a 100 children in the sewers of Freedom City he called in Pan and Belle and the Circle for help they soon realised she was in fact an ancient demon who had stalked and killed children over thousands of years. the combined might of the heroes srove her back but she has been back many times since always stalking children or seeking her revenge on her foes Foreshadow, Pan and Belle and the Circle.