Chris Goodwin

I'd ask how you did that, but I'd never understand it or remember how. Cool.

Hey, look at what Google Docs can do!

It's close.  Just over $16K (out of $20K) with four three days to go.  I'd really like to see this succeed.

Continuing on with the Golden Age, a friend of Strike Force Liberty:
 

 
Snow Leopard
18 STR 08
26 DEX 48
18 CON 16
12 BDY 04
18 INT 08
12 EGO 04
18 PRE 08
16 COM 03
10  PD 06
10  ED 06
05 SPD 14
08 REC 00
36 END 00
30 STN 00
      -----------
           125
 
 
Powers/Skills
05 +1 All Perception (14-)
05 UV Vision
20 Regeneration, 2 Body
22 Instant Regeneration: Armor +6PD/+6ED, Hardened
10 Superleap, 2x Distance
08 +4" Running
10 +2 Levels with Close Combat
10 Acrobatics (14-)
05 Stealth (14-)
30 2d6 HKA (Claws)
--------
125
 
Char 125 + Powers/SKills 125 = 250 = 100 Base + 150 Disadvantages
 
Disadvantages:
-25 Hunted: Herr Gehirn, Individual, Superpowers, Ruinous
-30 Hunted: Russian Government, Organization, Superpowers, Manipulate
-15 Secret Id
-15 Unusual Looks 14-
-20 Berserk in Combat, Common 11-/11-
-20 Psych: Possessive of "Prey." Happens a Lot, Intense
-20 Psyc: Divided Loyalties between team and country, Happens a lot, Intense
-05 Unlucky 1d6
-----
150

Background:
Levka Lyalyushkin was abducted from the Russian Embassy in Berlin and experimented on by Herr Gehirn. She was rescued by Strike Force Liberty , and fought beside them for a short time before being returned to Mother Russia.
 
Powers/Tactics:
Levka is at this stage very feral. She has an issue with tunnel vision, often selecting a single target in combat (her "Prey") and pursues it with gusto. She also has a habit of toying with her opponents. This tends to limit her effectiveness. On the flip side, when she goes berserk, Libery Star has found it effective to toss her into the largest nearby group of Axis troops available.
 
Notes:
I originally wanted to write her up as a somewhat experienced operative with a small KA to represent claws, with a Martial Arts main attack and a couple of more skills. Unfortunately, KA has a minimum 15 buy in. An experienced version might gain Detective Work and buy down the Berserk to an Enraged.
 

I thought I'd adapt a character I first built for 4th edition, and started building for other systems I came across to help me understand them. This character is intended to be visible, famous, and inspiring.

 

 
Limelight


 
Disadvantages:

-15 Physical Limitation: Easily spotted in the dark, In certain situations, Debilitating/Negating
-10 Public ID
-15 Psych: Loves to be noticed, Happens a lot, Opinionated
-10 Dependent NPC, Whichever reporter(s) is underfoot this time Normal, Occasional
-10 Dependent NPC, Whichever member(s) of her fan club is covering this time Normal, Occasional
-05 Dependent NPC, Whichever employee (s) of her family is underfoot this time Normal, Occasional
-05 Dependent NPC, Whichever member(s) of her family is underfoot this time Normal, Occasional
-10 Susceptibility to Darkness Fields Uncommon
-15 Vulnerability to Darkness Attacks, Single Specific
-20 Hunted: Gloom, Individual, Superpowers, Manipulative
-20 Psych: Seeks Peaceful Resolution/Offers Parlay/Surrender to Opponents, Happens a lot, intense
-15 3d6 Unluck


 
Powers & Skills:

24 Pep Talk, 2d6 Recovery Transfer, 30 Active Points, Reversed Direction (Transfers from Limelight to target) (-1/4)

 [7 END]


 
30 Multipower, Lightray Form, 30 Active Points

06 15” Teleportation, 30 Active Points,  [6 END]

04 Missile Deflection, 20 Active Points,  [4 END]


 
15 Luck, 3 dice


---
79


 
Characteristics:

13 STR 3 [3 END]
11 DEX 3
18 CON 16
10 BDY 00
18 INT 08
17 EGO 14
60 PRE 50
20 COM 05
3 PD  00
4 ED  00
06 SPD 49
18 REC 22
36 END 00
26 STN 00
     -------------
       171


 
 Char 171 + Powers/Skills 79 = 250 = 100 Base + 150 Disadvantages


 
----
150


 

 



 

Presenting Greenstick! 
 
 

Character - Greenstick
Secret ID - Mark Tilford
 
VAL
CHAR
BASE
  Cost X
Points
  18
STR
10
  1
8
  28
DEX
10
  3
54
  28
CON
10
  2
36
  10
BODY
10
  2
0
  13
INT
10
  1
3
  11
EGO
10
  2
2
  25
PRE
10
  1
15
  10
COM
10
  1/2
0
  8
PD
4
  1
4
  8
ED
6
  1
2
  5
SPD
3.8
  10
12
  12
REC
10
  2
4
  56
END
56
  1/2
0
  33
STUN
33
  1
0
                          140
Total Points
 
Cost
Powers and Skills
END
18
Martial Arts - 6d6 punch, 8d6 kick
  10
Acrobatics 15-
  10
Find Weakness w/Martial Arts 11-
  5
1d6 Luck
  5
Stealth 15-
  10
Precognitive Anticipation: Skill Levels, +1 Universal
        10
Danger Sense 11- (12- with levels)
        30
Multipower: Limb Strike, all slots Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
  6
1: Arm Snap - Power Drain STR, 2d6; Destructive (+1), Energy Strike (+1/4) (45 Active Points); Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
9
6
2: Legbreaker - Power Drain Running, 2d6; Destructive (+1), Energy Strike (+1/4) (45 Active Points); Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
9
      110
Powers & Skills
  140
+ Characteristics
  250
= Total Cost
 
 
Pts
Disadvantages
15
DNPC: Older sister Alyssa, who knows his secret (competent, constant)
20
Hunted: Random martial artists who think he disgraces their sport (sm. group, unusual, manipulative)
35
Hunted: Shining Fist of Nostradamus (org., supers, ruinous)
20
Psych: Code vs. Killing (a lot, irrational)
20
Psych: Jumps into a fight before fully thinking through the consequences (a lot, irrational)
15
Secret ID (Mark Tilford)
10
Susceptibility: 3d6 STUN from exposure to other precogs (uncommon)
5
Unluck 1d6
10
Unusual Looks 11- (rep as overly violent)
    150
Total Disadvantage Points
100
+Base Points
250
Total Points

 
As a child, Mark Tilford always had these little flashes of intuition; his mom always thought it came from his deceased father's side of the family.  His teachers always thought he was a smartass or a cheater; other kids, especially the bullying types, thought he was making fun of them, and he had a knack for finding trouble.  His older sister Alyssa was always pulling him out of scrapes. In middle school he discovered martial arts, and he took to it with a passion. This helped him focus and get healthy, but didn't do anything toward keeping him out of fights.  At age 19, he was expelled from competitive martial arts when, during a match, he accidently broke the legs of three competitors in a row. Leaving the match, he was jumped by a number of other competitors; a secretive organization known as the Shining Fist of Nostradamus chose that exact time to try to recruit him, claiming he had some sort of destiny or something, and it didn't go well; confrontations with the Shining Fist caused him unexplained nausea, dizziness, and headaches.  He managed to escape the ensuing chaos, thanks to his big sister being there for him yet again and showing up in her car at just the right time.  She sat him down and gave him a good stern talking to about what he can do, what he did in the big fight, and what he should do.  He agreed, and does what he always enjoyed and was good at: finding the bad guys, mixing it up with them, and breaking their legs.  

This, a thousand time. All the ability to make the charater you wanted, to me, intuitively meant better story telling, less "the rule book says that in this instance I do this particular thing" and the constrictions of levels, classes, etc. It was transformative.
 
In our original High School group... 1981-85, we certainly embraced this, with a lot of copy cat characters that were only slightly different than Marvel and DC characters, but it was fully in the vein of the Bronze Age comics at the time... and NOBODY "ran the math."
 
When I got to college and taught friends there Champions, and later Hero 4th... I certainly influenced a certain playing style based on world building and characters and story telling, not "mastering the system."
 
No engineers, no programmers, no lawyers... but people who wanted to create cool superhero stories.
 
It has been a constant battle since them, for the past quarter century, to find the right playgroup, to avoid the Gamist mentality players, and realizing how Hero has become a system that ENCOURAGES that min-max, "run the math" bullsh!t (with 5th and 6th in particular). 
 
This is why I'm backing, but not too optimistic about, Champions Now. By returning to figured characteristics, and maintaining the labored point build aspect, it will just encourage the point shaving, n3 point breaks and all that crap. 
 
Like, I get, theoretically, why Edwards like END in the game (I dropped it 30 years ago and never looked back) as the idea of doing somehting big and splashy, but at an exhausting cost is cool... but too much damn math. I was hoping for something that focused on the in game of effect of exhausting the character (missed turns, vulnerable moments, dramatic decisions on whether to go "all out" or not) rather than going back to adding and subtracing incremental points over and over, calculating average END spend over a turn, etc.  BLEH!
 
And the fact that he is still using the Speed Chart. Something else I dumped decades ago, and it was a revelation how much more organically combats ran, while not making characters have to max their SPD or be left out of play much of the time, etc. 
 
Bringing characters back to an easy to read, simply built 250 points, etc, is really good. But bringing back a lot of the mechanics that led to the undermining of the play intent (we'll be back to mini-bricks with martial arts being the most efficient builds, and every character having their powers through 0IF and such) seems like a step backward into the bad stuff, not the good stuff.
 
Still, I backed it, and am interested in Ron's narrative set of rules for play, to see where he goes with that.

Healing is one of those self-inflicted problems that Fantasy Hero has always had.  First of all, it matters whether you're playing with hit locations and bleeding or not, and whether your healing spell is per-injury or not.  Then somewhere along the line it was decided to roll Healing into Aid, causing it to get caught up in all the efforts to fix Aid (which was admittedly broken).  At this point if it's 1st ed FH, I might know how Healing works, and if it's any other version, I definitely do not know how Healing works.
 
 

Ron and I had a video conversation via Discord over the weekend.  We talked a little about Endurance; that portion is here.  (I promise, in real life I do more than just go "yeah, yeah", and it was early Sunday for me so my resting grump face was in full force.)

Hi Chris!  I have backed Champions Now, not sure if it'll fund though... 
 
Rules question (I have downloaded and read through the playtest doc):  I didn't see anything specific in the playtest doc, but in Champs I-III the X1.5 and X2 damage for Martial Arts were done by multiplying the character's Strength.  By that method, I get 18*1.5 = 27 5d6 Martial Punch and 18*2 = 36 7d6 Martial Kick for Greenstick (like the name!).  How did you derive 6d6 and 8d6?  (Am I missing something?)
 
-SCUBA Hero

Here it is, blank!  Champions Now character sheet
 

Well, I don't think that's universal. But some fans are very passionate about the game, and their preferences for it. In some cases they also have strong opinions about what Hero Games should do to be more successful. When conflicting opinions and passions are expressed there's bound to be some sparks.
 
I'm sure that's why phoenix240, who started this thread, specified in his first post that it was "Just as personal preference, not as an attempt to 'save' it but just things you'd like to see. Dream as big as you like!" An expression of desires is a safer topic than a debate over strategies.

Oooh..yeah, licensed properties would be good!
 
An all-encompassing Disney license would bring Marvel and Star Wars, but also all the animated features and other properties. "Disney HERO," with a ruleset that's "fun for the whole family," perhaps? Heavy use of simple Templates, lots of pre-built characters from the movies and/or animated features, maybe a universal conflict resolution mechanic that's simple and dramatic, etc. Take a cue from Robot Warriors, and make a simple and fun game that's perfectly crafted to its purpose...and which could serve as a stepping-stone to the wider world of the HERO System. Take the 4e quote, "[HERO System] gives you the rules for creating a roleplaying game set anywhere in space and time" at face value. Use that sucker to create an awesome HERO RPG that will hook 'em young.

Those are all good wishes!*
*Bearing in mind that this is a "wishlist" thread, not a "is it practical to publish X​" thread.
 
Really the best ways I can think of to avoid 'supersizing' are to exclude the massive example excerpts Steve Long was (in)famous for, and fewer optional rules. However I kind of feel like Genre books generally deserve their larger page counts. Each of the genre books I've read (​Champions, Dark Champions, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero...) contained tons of invaluable research and advice, much of it relevant to any game engine capable of simulating multiple genres. We could cut some of the page count down by removing the excerpts from cinema and literature, but they give a lot of flavor to an otherwise somewhat dry read.
 
Other Wishlist items:
"Harry Potter" Hero as an urban fantasy campaign/setting with the students at Hogwarts as its cast.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra" Hero as a high fantasy campaign/setting featuring a party of warriors and benders.

I understand the intent, however I find the principle behind it inexcusable. It is foolish to publish a document that assumes the existence of documents you intend to publish in the future; precisely because no one is truly in control of their future. Any given publication might be your last, and the publication you think is your last might be the one that saves the company.
If I had been given a choice between Hero System Vehicle and say Fantasy Hero (July 2010) or the Advanced Players Guide II (August 2011), I'd have taken Hero System Vehicle... To be fair though, I don't really use either of the APGs, and I actually prefer my 5th edition copy of Fantasy Hero to the 6th edition version.
 
Regardless, we got what we got, and I can gripe about it all day long but that won't change it...
If wishes were fishes, I'd cast a net for a PDF edition of Hero System Vehicle​, and FHC compatible versions of the Iron Kingdoms* campaign setting sourcebooks and a nice series adventures to do with it.
*The Iron Kingdoms is one of my favorite settings, and the rules for the IK Wargame (and likely the RPG too) have a few noteworthy similarities to Hero.

Right, but it seems as though people are telling Centriped that it's wrong to want the book he wants, when the thread is explicitly about dreaming as big as you like.

So Tasha, you want to actually have a full game built upon the foundation of Hero, sans the part of Hero that is supposedly the big draw to the system? That is both bold and, coincidentally, sort of like the project I am working on. I admit that I never envisioned keeping the Power building rules out completely. I always figured a sort of mini-rules presentation, methods of pre-generating characters with a very D&D-esque Race/Class system (mechanically done for my project), and the support material to tweak interest in the system. After that, I thought about tutorials on how to do it yourself by starting simple and increasing complexity. The idea of expanding that idea to an entire product line and omitting the "here's how YOU do it" aspect did not occur to me. Interesting.
 
I really need to get some more information of Savage World's Plot Points. What book(s) would be a good place to start looking? 

I want Hero to make a fully realized fully built out Fantasy World. Including Spells, Fighting styles, History, Full color maps, Hero System rules. Everything but power building rules. Everything that a GM needs to run games in that fantasy world. It could be a Rulebook and a Gazetteer style book (ie Pathfinder Core and Inner Sea World Guide). I would also like to see the same thing done to Superheroes. the idea would be for the writeup to be minimal nothing extra and to keep things very simple. Self contained would be the watchword. GM's wanting more customization would be pointed at Champions Complete and Fantasy Hero Complete. Writeups of all equipment, spells etc with all of the costs in them would be available using Bits & Mortar service.

Also something that crosses Savage Worlds Plot point campaigns with Paizo's Adventure path. ie Something that has a strong plotline, but also has some side adventures/quests for variety. Because adventures actually drives sales of other books. GM's need adventures and campaigns. Making it easy for the GM to run will generate sales of the books because they will want to run the game.

I would also love to see more Champions Miniatures. Perhaps WizKids can do some HeroClix of the Champions Universe characters.

 

Hey, look at what Google Docs can do!

Hey, look at what Google Docs can do!

That's just a loss of face
 

And now I must ste...ahmm appropriate it!
 

Wow, the things you can still learn.  I never realized that was there. 
I'll have to give it a try.
Thanks ?

It's possible to view a transcript taken from the automatically generated captioning that YouTube does.  If you look under the video frame, at the thumbs-up/thumbs-down/share/add-to/three-dots menu, click the three dots, then Open Transcript.  It's for sure not a real transcript; it doesn't track the speaker, and you get occasional homophones that are pretty easy to figure out from context.  
 
I can have a better transcript up sometime this weekend, if someone else doesn't get to it first.

Presenting Greenstick! 
 
 

Character - Greenstick
Secret ID - Mark Tilford
 
VAL
CHAR
BASE
  Cost X
Points
  18
STR
10
  1
8
  28
DEX
10
  3
54
  28
CON
10
  2
36
  10
BODY
10
  2
0
  13
INT
10
  1
3
  11
EGO
10
  2
2
  25
PRE
10
  1
15
  10
COM
10
  1/2
0
  8
PD
4
  1
4
  8
ED
6
  1
2
  5
SPD
3.8
  10
12
  12
REC
10
  2
4
  56
END
56
  1/2
0
  33
STUN
33
  1
0
                          140
Total Points
 
Cost
Powers and Skills
END
18
Martial Arts - 6d6 punch, 8d6 kick
  10
Acrobatics 15-
  10
Find Weakness w/Martial Arts 11-
  5
1d6 Luck
  5
Stealth 15-
  10
Precognitive Anticipation: Skill Levels, +1 Universal
        10
Danger Sense 11- (12- with levels)
        30
Multipower: Limb Strike, all slots Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
  6
1: Arm Snap - Power Drain STR, 2d6; Destructive (+1), Energy Strike (+1/4) (45 Active Points); Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
9
6
2: Legbreaker - Power Drain Running, 2d6; Destructive (+1), Energy Strike (+1/4) (45 Active Points); Goes Vs. Normal PD (-1/2)
9
      110
Powers & Skills
  140
+ Characteristics
  250
= Total Cost
 
 
Pts
Disadvantages
15
DNPC: Older sister Alyssa, who knows his secret (competent, constant)
20
Hunted: Random martial artists who think he disgraces their sport (sm. group, unusual, manipulative)
35
Hunted: Shining Fist of Nostradamus (org., supers, ruinous)
20
Psych: Code vs. Killing (a lot, irrational)
20
Psych: Jumps into a fight before fully thinking through the consequences (a lot, irrational)
15
Secret ID (Mark Tilford)
10
Susceptibility: 3d6 STUN from exposure to other precogs (uncommon)
5
Unluck 1d6
10
Unusual Looks 11- (rep as overly violent)
    150
Total Disadvantage Points
100
+Base Points
250
Total Points

 
As a child, Mark Tilford always had these little flashes of intuition; his mom always thought it came from his deceased father's side of the family.  His teachers always thought he was a smartass or a cheater; other kids, especially the bullying types, thought he was making fun of them, and he had a knack for finding trouble.  His older sister Alyssa was always pulling him out of scrapes. In middle school he discovered martial arts, and he took to it with a passion. This helped him focus and get healthy, but didn't do anything toward keeping him out of fights.  At age 19, he was expelled from competitive martial arts when, during a match, he accidently broke the legs of three competitors in a row. Leaving the match, he was jumped by a number of other competitors; a secretive organization known as the Shining Fist of Nostradamus chose that exact time to try to recruit him, claiming he had some sort of destiny or something, and it didn't go well; confrontations with the Shining Fist caused him unexplained nausea, dizziness, and headaches.  He managed to escape the ensuing chaos, thanks to his big sister being there for him yet again and showing up in her car at just the right time.  She sat him down and gave him a good stern talking to about what he can do, what he did in the big fight, and what he should do.  He agreed, and does what he always enjoyed and was good at: finding the bad guys, mixing it up with them, and breaking their legs.