John Desmarais

Re: Marvel Character Hero System Writeups And we're always willing to accept more (I hit a time period for a while when I went back to school where I simply didn't have time to keep it updated, but I'm through with that).

Re: "To Protect and Annoy" [web-fu poker] I'll see your historial article and raise you five write-ups. [[/web-fu]

Re: Hero Wikipedia Entry!

Re: Old School Hero Newsletters Pre-1999? I assume you mean the "weekly" freebie articles that ran on the Hero Games website from Jan 1999 until Jan 2001. I have all but six of these (accidents happen) - what are you looking for? Here's what I have: 19990107 Arcane Avenues - Jaster's Dust and Powder Emporium (Rob Bose).htm 19990121 Arimite Knife-Fighting (Rolans Volz).htm 19990121 College of Air Magic (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990121 It's Not The Fall That Kills You (Kevin Wiley).htm 19990128 College of Animal Powers (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990128 Translational Fantasy Not Just Another Fantasy Campaign (Curtis Gibson).htm 19990218 Crimson Skies A Game of Aerial Combat (Molotov).htm 19990218 Fencing Unbound (John Cunningham).htm 19990310 Converting Spell Colleges to Multipowers (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990319 Unknown Eagles Fuzion and Crimson Skies (Brian Isikoff).htm 19990401 College of Animation (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990401 I'll Stop The World (John R. Jacobs).htm 19990415 Digest of Magical Armor (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990427 Arcane Avenues - Jurzon's Jars (Robert Bose).htm 19990427 Conjuration Multipower Framework (Robert J. Hall).htm 19990511 College of Illusionists (Bobert J. Hall).htm 19990511 McQuark's Corner - Going On a Trip (Patrick E. Bradley).htm 19990813 Gestalt (Scott Bennie).htm 19990817 Computers and Netrunning (Brian King, Robert Kown, Steve Deutsch Jr., Gary Townsend, and Chris Lincon).htm 19990824 Shou Zhan Chaun Temple (Bryan Salois).htm 19991107 Shou Zhan Knight Training (Bryan Salois).htm 19991127 Force Fields Enhanced (W. Jason Allen).htm 19991210 Setting Our Sights On Aiming (Dwayne L. Leonard).htm 20000129 Weapons Training in the Martial Arts (Bryan Salois).htm 20000226 Scenario Design for Champions (John Stevens).htm 20000325 Stun Multiples Refigured (W. Jason Allen).htm 20000401 Absorption Modified (Dallas Earl).htm 20000415 Elemental Damage Reduction (W. Jason Allen).htm 20000430 On Killing Attacks and STUN Multiples (Michael Kirkley).htm 20000508 Power Versatility in the Hero System and Fuzion (Don).htm 20000521 Arcane Avenues - The Point and Shaft (Bob Rose).htm 20000604 A Power Pool-Based Magic System for Fantasy Hero 1 (Keith Curtis & Paul Clark).htm 20000611 A Power Pool-Based Magic System for Fantasy Hero 2 (Keith Curtis & Paul Clark).htm 20000618 A Power Pool-Based Magic System for Fantasy Hero 3 (Keith Curtis & Paul Clark).htm 20000625 Arcane Avenues - Zifern's Fine Furnishing (Bob Rose).htm 20000806 The Flavor of the Game (John Stevens).htm 20001023 Broken Kingdoms Map (Jason Tondro).bmp 20010102 Presence The New Multipower Slot Every Mentalist Needs.htm Here's what I'm missing: 04/15/99: Dr. McQuark: Out of the Vault (Patrick Bradley) 03/10/99: Arcane Avenues: The Red Gryphon (Rob Bose) 01/17/99: Creation Workshop/Creator Help Files 01/17/99: Magical Rings (Bob Hall) 01/07/99: Kanquan (Roland Volz) 01/07/99:College of Dueling Wizards (Bob Hall) With appropriate permission (from the Hero folks) I'd post these up on web site. Alternatively, if the Hero folks would post them themselves I'd gladly forward copies to Ben.

Re: Old School Hero Newsletters A surreal stroll down memory lane.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? Not bad. I generally enjoy Geoff Johns, although he may have bitten off more than any writer can chew with Power Girl's history.

Re: Golden Age Champions They became more common in "after the fact" golden-age stories (stories set in that period but written many years after). In particular, Roy Thomas introduced a slew of them in both his Invaders stories and his All-Star Squadron/Young All-Stars stories. But yes, in the comics actually published during that time costumed, super-powered villains were almsot unheard of.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? The canonical explanation: The Earth-2 Superman came to Earth as a baby, while the Earth-1 Superman came to Earth as a toddler. Having spent more actual time on Krypton, the Earth-1 Superman was more adapted to his native environment. Eh! The real reason: Like most old comic book characters, Superman became more powerful over time as writers alternated between throwing larger challenges at him and then increasing his powers to cope with those challenges. In Pre-Crisis continuity, the early stories (1938 – 195?) feature the Earth-2 Superman, while the later (195?-Crisis) feature the Earth-1 Superman. Since in the later stories Superman is more powerful, the Earth-1 Superman was rated as being more powerful. The canonical explanation was (after the fact) bolted on to justify this. Action Comics # 1 (1938), the first comic book in which Superman appeared, claimed only that its hero could "leap 1/8th of a mile; hurdle a twenty-story building... raise tremendous weights... run faster than an express train... and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!" By the time his radio show aired, he was "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!" Shortly thereafter (with the first cartoon series) he could fly. By the end of WWII even battleship guns could not get through Superman's hide. Then we get to the Silver Age and he gets new powers: X-ray vision, heat vision, super hearing, and so on (a later retcon gave these powers to the Earth-2 Superman as well). And forget about bursting shells, he's sloughing off atomic bomb blasts! After DC starting publishing Earth-1/Earth-2 crossover stories, the Earth-2 Superman was beefed up to be close in power level to the Earth-2 Superman, but the official line remained that the "modern era" Superman was the more powerful. I vaguely recall an issue of All-Star Comics in the 70s, around issue 64, where Paul Levitz implied that Superman (Earth-2) still lacked true flight (but I may be mis-remembering)

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? People fight differently when they aren't concerned about surviving the conflict.

Re: Who would be in this group? OMG - Mighty Heroes! I had forgotten about them entirely.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? Minor quibble. Prior to Crisis, she was roughly on par with the Earth-2 Superman - who was noticably less "super" than his earth-2 counterpart.

Re: Who would be in this group? Were it me, I'd keep the anthropomorphics out of it (or in their own game).

Re: Who would be in this group? (I'm skipping the obviously out of context ones like the Dino Boy, the Herculoids and The Mighty Mightor). Birdman The Impossibles (Coil-Man, Fluid-Man, Multi-Man) Frankenstein, Jr. The Galaxy Trio (Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Gravity Girl ) The Mighty Hercules Shazzan! Spy Shadow Inch High Private Eye Young Samson (& Goliath) The Teen Force (Kid Comet, Moleculelad, Elektra) Not Cartoons, but still Saturday morning superheroes: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl Isis

Re: Master and Commander, Star Hero style. More fun stuff...

Re: Master and Commander, Star Hero style. Have you read any of David Weber's "Honor Harrington" novels? It's a science fiction story set in and around a naval force that operates on similar rules. (Not unexpected as the author very much based his premise on some well known Napoleonic-era naval fiction.)

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? I never promised it would be less confusing, just more illuminated. First orgin. Cousin of the Earth-2 Superman (basically, Supergirl). Then came Crisis. Second Orgin. Granddaughter of Arion (of Atlantis) shunted 45000 years forward in time and magically given power. Poo-pooed by Doctor Mid-Nite in recent JSA story. Next: I'm thinking time displaced Daxamite.

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? Pickup the forthcoming JSA Classified whereing Geoff Johns will be shedding light on the origin of the mysterious Power Girl! (Apparently it has something to do with the Legion of Superheroes).

Re: I'm considering Hero... One thing to keep in mind regarding powers: Except for magic you don't usually end up using Powers much in Fantasy Hero. Sometime you'll use them for the odd racial ability, but if you are using the races in the Fantasy Hero book (which I highly recommend, at least for your first campaign) the racial packages written up in there have already picked and priced the appropriate powers. So, for the most part, the players can ignore than whole chapter of the rule book for a while.

Re: Spacecraft and END

Re: Spacecraft and END [HOUSERULE] For the sake of perpetual systems (like life support) assume that all vehicles have a SPD of 12. FOr non-perpetual system, such as those that only get used in comabt, assume that all vehicles have an effective SPD equal to the SPD of the pilot. [/HOUSERULE]

Re: Traveller Hero is ready for Download Makes you wanna start up a Traveller Hero game, doesn't it?

Re: I'm considering Hero...

Re: Straight up easy question . . . I believe you have found an error. You are correct that the book lists 34 as the active cost. With a base cost of 25, it would take a +9/25 advantage to bring the cost up to 34. Use 31.

Re: Traveller Hero questions

Re: I'm considering Hero...