carmachu

On 11/11/2023 at 3:46 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Now you make me think of Black Harlequin gathering a team of other psychopathic villains to enhance the destruction and suffering from his "escapades." Say, Blowtorch, Freakshow, Plague, and if you want to be really nasty, Fleshtone. Black Harlequin sometimes regrets that he has no "playmates" with him, and all of these villains are socially isolated and might respond positively to the company of others who would accept them and share in their madness. Also, none of them are really stand-up fighters, more effective striking at a distance or by surprise; so they would work best for horror scenarios, something that's normally difficult to pull of in a supers game.

Or you could have him take over C.L.O.W.N. and turn them into sadistic villains group and have "pranks" from the old group turn twisted and deadly

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That's sad. The sword was destroyed for living up to the purpose for which it was created. That's like putting down a dog that was bred and trained to attack.

Who says the powers that be actually destroyed the sword? Sure they gave assurance s, but unless you saw it destroyed personally....

8 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Burnt out on Supers? I might run a Solo game for myself at some point. Just to see if a Sandbox would work in a Supers game.

It can but you need a larger sandbox. My current game is multiple realties invaded earth to steal its energy, earth itself used it to fight back and created supers. Different countries/continents have different realties. A “governing” body coordinates efforts and the PCs can go anywhere.

however my players are in reactive mode rather then proactive mode. So I’m about to force the issue

On 6/10/2023 at 1:57 AM, Mr. R said:

I have an idea for a villain team.  At the top is Singularity, who has bequeathed power to four people who act as his minions and agents in the world.

 

We have:

(name): Electromagnetics.  Electric blasts, Flight, FF.

Mass Driver: Gravity.  Similar to above, but also some TK

Brute: Strongman.  Brick, flight.

(name): Radioactive decay.  So a lot of drains.  And flight.

 

Singularity: good Str, PD ED, flight and a large VPP which allows him to use any power his minions have.

 

I need some names and a few ideas for some powers. Also ideas for plots and such!

(Yes this is cribbed from a VERY old White Wolf Magazine article)

Which White dwarf issue?

4 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

This is important to remember, especially the last bit.  D&D has this reputation of being simple and easy to play and run, and all ready to go!  Which is somewhat true, but there is a lot of heavy lifting for GMs, particularly working out challenges and experience.  There's a lot of math.  Nearly all of the math of Hero is front-loaded: making characters and abilities.  Once that work is done its pretty simple and straight forward.

 5th is very player friendly and easy to get into. But as a DM for 5th it’s the opposite. And Wotc doesn’t make it easy for DMs. And the CR system doesn’t always work.

but hero system math, once you the parameters it holds up every time once you learn it. So when I set say 40 active points and DCV at 8 I know exactly what the average is( outside killing attack roulette) and can balance encounters so much easier and know what my players handle

I was introduced to hero back in the 1990s in college But stopped playing around 2000 and picked D&D back up mid2000s after a couple years wargaming.

But picked hero back up recently and running a game. I still like D&D including different editions and types like pathfinder or various OSR types(nd other RPGs) . but yeah I think hero is getting to be my go to system. The fact I can do anything with it and the math is easier balancing then say the CR system helps slot in making it my preferred go to system

Session one is in the books. I decided I was tired of dnd and got my brother and our friends interested in a champions game.( they too were tiring of dnd and everyone had played champions 20 years ago ).

Had session zero last month, let them rework the kinks out of their characters in that test session.

A decade ago I had an idea- there was this old game called Torg which last couple years got rereleased as Torg Eternity and reading both made me realize that it would make an awesome Champions game- why wouldn’t earth tap into its own possibility energy and create superheroes to fight back against reality raiders?

Cast ( forgot to write down their real names, they haven’t come up with super names )

undead brick, tough as nails and can take a hit.

Alien battle suit wearer with blaster and stealth field

Teleporting darkness welder, blasts of darkness and strength drains

Regenerating knife and gun assassin. Not much defense, but rapidly heals.

There are two other characters joining next session. A mentality and a martial artist.

On 7/23/2022 at 10:08 AM, Mark Rand said:

Washington,. D.C., or New York City would be better.

Why not all three?

Starting a new campaign this Saturday  with 4th.

Mega scale for large areas or out of combat movement

On 7/5/2022 at 10:48 PM, steriaca said:

Then what can be done to tell management to change? Also, even if the management wants to change, how can they afford to change?

 

The older we get, the closer we go to retirement age, where a lot of time opens up. I'm 51 myself and looking forward to retirement in 15 years. But we are creeping into death. And new people entering our favorite rpg system? It doesn't look promising. 

 

We can say "do this" and "do that" till our faces are blue. That won't change anything till management decides to do it. And they have to balance attracting new players with not upsetting old players. I personally say screw it...we are litterly dieting, focus on attracting new players.

 

But I can't say how. I don't know how. I've been without a gaming group for so long.

I'm just going to do my own thing, honestly. Yes the focus is on attaching newer players because otherwise, to put coldly? Its a dead game in the eyes of the public and way harder to go anywhere.

I buy whatever title folks publish as long as I can get it pod, but otherwise I don't expect much anymore

11 hours ago, steriaca said:

You say you want adventures. Look in the mirror. Are you writing adventures? No. Your complaining that HERO isn't giving you what you need. Why are you not writing any adventures?

 

I don't mean any hate, butbwhen you see the lack of something, some people view problems, others view opportunities. 

Maybe perhaps most of us don’t have them the time like we did in HS and college to do more heavy writing. A job. Spouse. Kids. Other responsibilities eating up most of the time and we want to enjoy our hobby rather then it being a second job.

whichbis why things like pathfinder, 5e, M&M and other games take off because a lot of that work is done. Hell even the OSR community has tons of support.

you might not mean to hate, but that attitude is one of the reasons hero sinks. Unwillingness to see what others do right and blame the base

On 7/4/2022 at 9:15 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

Hero is publishing.  They have several more books planned for this year, hopefully with some kickstarter action.  They already put out several already.  Its just all POD and pdf because they don't have the ready capital to put books in stores.  And... I mean, books don't sell much these days, sadly

what newer pod titles do they have?

21 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

For my sake and trying to design more desirable products, could someone with specific examples, illustrations and very exact explanation show what they mean by "modern" and "interesting" and "up to date" layouts?   Pretend I'm an idiot and need to have it explained as if to a child.

 Look at M&M for example. Each villain has multiple plot hooks. Side bars to explain things rules wise.

Add in no support for said game- no adventures. 

contrast that with 6th edition champions. It’s dry, boring. More a text book. None of the fun of day the big blue book of 4th

On 6/22/2022 at 3:06 PM, fdw3773 said:

When I first introduced superhero RPGs to a friend who's coming with me to a local game convention in late July, they were Champions and ICONS. She easily picked up on the rules-light ICONS within a few minutes and Champions (5th or 6th) made her head spin from all the number crunching and variations of game mechanics. Later on, she took one of my comments to heart about how 5th and 6th Edition books often read more like textbooks versus an actual game book. She then asked me something along the lines of, "Well, when was the last time Champions was fun for you?" My answer was 3rd Edition. 🤔

 

Has anyone else experienced that awkward realization? I remember a few members of this forum using much earlier editions like second while incorporating some of the mechanics from later editions like MegaScale or Unified Power, and am curious if there are more who experienced that moment.

Your friend is correct. Biggest turn off in the 6th edition is it is like a text book. It feels like it sucked all the fun out that say the 4th Ed big blue book had in it. 
 

frankly the game doesn’t need another edition. It really needs SUPPORT. Adventures. Scenarios. Settings. Games like pathfinder have the adventure paths. 5e has adventure campaigns

beyond 4th I don’t see much in that same support. I’m restarting a campaign using the BBB because it’s what folks know. But beyond battlegrounds and anarchy there are no senarios to support the game

we need more support items to run games. Not a new edition. Each edition is a toolbox. But nothing really to support that toolbox

Depends on when you ask this at what age.

Teen years in the 80s? The old marvel superhero game.

College years In the 90s? Probably V&V

Now? Mutants and masterminds

Just let us know when pod is ready

On 3/6/2022 at 2:50 PM, Spence said:

on the other hand believe that one of the key reasons Hero is dying on the vine is NOT having pre-built PC's designed to compliment a pre-built adventure.

The end design is for everyone to understand the game enough to play it.

So I'm going to add a bit if my 2 cents from a different perspective. Played champions 20 years ago, but moved back to D&D once the group Broke up. I'm pausing D&D because I'm a but bored with it and having like its direction and what products the put out. I've had a Champions campaign idea for years so now I felt was time to jump back in for something different. So I started building characters and villains I needed.

Hero/champions is not user friendly to novices. Its been slow going building what I need. Spencers quote above is just a symptom. Not just no examples of characters, but adventures, creatures and Villians. Traps or mooks.  When I played D&D its easy to get some monsters, basic adventure, a village or dungeon and go. No so with champions

Sure I had the ability to dig out some other books to make comparisons or power examples and other things. But I have those resources. I couldn't imagine someone grabbing a 6th, 5th, or 4th edition book and just going forth. Not without some resources to help them.

On 2/21/2022 at 8:06 PM, SCUBA Hero said:

I've said this before and I stand behind it; character creation is complex, the actual play of the game is not

 This is 100% true. Prepping for a new game it’s taking me forever to get everything built. But game play will be easy once done

On 1/17/2022 at 3:00 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

I agree overall but I think that properly designed and written supplements and adventures for 6th can bring the fun back.  The presentation is too much toolkit and not enough game, but that can be solved with lots of game

 You are asking a lot of heavy lifting from supplements and adventures. And where are these going to come from?

the BBB read like fun, 6th reads like a textbook. And I’m not trying to start edition war, 6th cleans up a few things( other things cleaned up I don’t care for)

4th was the fun edition. The BBB was slot of fun, we played the heck out of it. for years and years til life got in the way.

Collected 5th and 6th. But when we go back its going back, it will be 4th with 5th and 6th rules mixed in. 6th might have cleaned up slot of rules, but it feels dry and lacks the fun factor 4th had.

14 hours ago, tiger said:

TPP VC III is up for sale at DriveThruRPG and soon Jason will have it up in the Hero Games Webstore as well

Ordered. Thanks

I would have loved to see reboot of the Zodiac Conspiracy. That has a lot of potential, but the villains need reworking plus so more plot points

20 hours ago, steriaca said:

In general, yes.

 

Once I finalize my team Orochi, they have reasons to leave Japan much like Eurostar has reasons to leave Europe. To harm outside businesses from foreign countries from doing business in Japan. To discourage Japanese businesses from looking outside the country. To wind up the people to go against the government, to eventually tear it down and replace it with the Tekkage Shogun. To make Japan ready for their hi-teck shogunate. To return the Emperor back into an religious figurehead (Shinto religion). To prove the divinity of the emperor...darn, I need a new thread for the Orochi and stop hijacking this one.

Yeah. I've been reading a lot of older products and while they are still interesting, all the information is just so dated. Eurostar's goals really need an update. It was great 20 or 30 years ago, but doesn't make a lot of sense today

On 4/29/2021 at 9:30 AM, Tech said:

Fiacho's goal is, as AlgaeN said, a united and ideally preeminent Europe. He is not out to destroy Europe. 

If that's the case, wouldnt he and eurostar attack chinese, Russian and United states items and interests both within Europe and abroad? If it strengthens it furthers europe?