MitchellS

Re: [Review] The Algernon Files 2.0 (Hero Edition) I agree it'd be nice if there was a more formal universe for the two Algernon books but it's not necessary. There's more then enough information within the two books to give the readers a strong idea of how it all fits together. I sometimes think players forget that there wasn't a formal Champions universe until 1992. Up till then the CU was nothing more then tidbits scattered throughout the various Enemies and Organization books character's backgrounds. TAF and TFOW are books full of good characters that allow us to go back to a time when the character was more important then the universe. I personally hope Blackwyrm puts out more books like that. Most of us have been gaming so long that we need good characters and concepts more then we need new universes, IMO.

Re: Alternatives to Megascale for movement I think my point was about finding a more granular way to hit the difference between the 30" per phase 1st gear, the 240" per phase 2nd gear, and the 7,500" per phase 3rd gear.

Re: Alternatives to Megascale for movement

Re: Alternatives to Megascale for movement I'll start by saying that I never bought into the 'double for +5 points' concept. I understand that it had to be done that way to make the strength chart work at a reasonable level but the way +1d6 more damage is handled against the environment does not indicate a doubling of power in any way, IMO. Hero's an old school game that's designed for tactical combats and battlemats. If you make movement powers too expansive you end up moving most combats off the map and into the mind [if your character has 500" of movement he's going to be off the table, out of the room, and probably out of the house let alone off the map ]. There's nothing wrong with having only contained combats on a map [the characters are fighting inside something where they can't use their full movement to their advantage] but I don't think a lot of Hero gamers are prepared to have battles taking place across the state rather then in front of Rosie's. By allowing non-combat speed in the game you're keeping the tactical tactical but allowing the imagination to soar when the situation is generally less critical. My issue with megascale is that it starts at 1 km per inch. I'd rather have seen it be a multiplier of combat movement with a progression of x10, x100, etc. That way the guy with 15" flight and a 5 speed goes from 45 KPH to 450 KPH, then 4,500 KPH, rather then directly to 22,500 KPH.

Re: Favorite lost villain group While there are a few exceptions [mostly in the master villains] I've found that most of the updated villains have been downgraded across the board [the opposite of your idea of them 'boosting virtually everyone else']. Maybe it's just the way we build characters but we found that most of the 350 point villains weren't a match for our 350 point heroes 1 on 1. That carried over to the teams. We walked all over the Ultimates, GRAB, War Machine, and even Eurostar. Mechanon, Mechassassin, and Grond easily fell before us. From the old villains only Firewing and Ripper managed to beat us [we never fought PSI but I'm sure all the mentalists would've beat us].

Re: Favorite lost villain group I'm sure Steve and Darren know. My guess would be that in the 13 years between the two publications of PSI [Mindgames in 89 and CKC and MC in 2002/03] the characters continued to be used and advance in Darren's game and what we see in 5e is the end result of that evolution. Of course I'm one of those consumers who'd rather see Hero Games spend time publishing new characters and ideas rather then constantly updating older ones. It's a fairly simple thing for me to take the 4E characters and update them to 5E rules. I really don't need Hero Games to do that for me [and when I do it myself it keeps continuity issues from creeping in like some preferring 4e PSI to 5e].

Re: Obvious/Inobvious The reason Obvious is only determined by use is because part of the equation is expectation and experience. If you've never seen a gun before then it's not obvious what it does until someone shoots it [we've all seen the movies where the primitive man or animal is playing with the pistol not knowing it's dangerous]. Once it's been shot you have an expectation of what will occur the next time the trigger is pulled. To put it another way, when you first encounter the Penguin his umbrella is just an umbrella [and not obviously a weapon] until you see him shoot electricity out of it an then glide off a building holding it. Once you know the Penguin uses trick umbrellas then you have an expectation that the umbrella is going to do something, even though you don't know what. So an obvious focus is always inobvious until your very first encounter with it when it's used. After that you have an expectation that the item is going to do something but that doesn't make it obvious to someone else who has no experience with the item.

Re: Favorite lost villain group I'm a huge fan of most of the villains in Enemies and Enemies II. Enemies III was hit and miss for me and seemed to reflect that "outsiders" were now writing Champions material [Enemies III feels like the Fiend Folio to me]. I'm currently using most of the characters in E and E2 in their original forms converted to M&M. I love the oldies.

Re: Favorite lost villain group

Re: Omlevex by Z-Man Games, Inc. - Who else has purchased it? I've used a little of it for back history in my M&M campaign. Omlevex has a very early silver age feel that isn't my cup of tea. It's a fun book for reminiscing about one particular point of time in comics [some of the art really takes me back to Ditko and Kirby] but I'm more of a late silver to early bronze guy. I also didn't care for the Hero write ups. They had a very converted feel to them [guys with 19 strengths or 17 intelligence] that seemed to take away from the soul of what the character was about.

Re: question reguarding "The Dragon Mandarin" Yin Wu is now over 2100 points and fits into the Dr. Destroyer, Takofanes, Luther Black category of master villains. The Sons have all been increased to 350 points to go along with 5E's new starting points. Their powers seem about the same. Most of the points were spent on more stun, combat luck, and the like. The pdf has the Chinese magic spells from Watchers and some alternate versions of Yin Wu for using him in a fantasy, pulp, or dark champions game. Be warned that there's no art in the pdf. It's just characters.

Re: [Review] The Algernon Files 2.0 (Hero Edition) I think there's a big difference between the M&M and Champs versions of the two books. Most of the M&M write ups are in the PL 10-13 range. That makes them tough starting level threats but nothing extraordinary. Our group [average PL 11] had a great knockdown drag-out fight against The Sinister Circle just a couple of weeks ago [captured 5 of them]. I'm not sure if there's a conversion snafu or if you need to look past the points to see what the character's power level really is in the Hero version.

Re: Multiple Power attacks????

Re: Mutants and Materminds

Re: Mutants and Materminds

Re: Mutants and Materminds Have you looked much at the Champions universe? If Dr. Destroyer wasn't a Dr. Doom copy do you think anyone would still be talking about him 25 years later? Same for Grond and so many others. Copycat characters are what make 4 color gaming [which is what the CU is] interesting.

Re: Mutants and Materminds Mark has been dead for 10-15 years now. I miss his artwork.

Re: Luthor-type villian There's an interesting M&M product out on pdf from Reality Blurs called Powers and Perils #1: Orwell Industries. This product would be very easy to convert to Champions and covers a great deal of what you're asking about.

Re: Coriolis Effect - Color Pic of Coriolis? Nice color job freakboy6117. Now I've got a new villain for my M&M games. Thanks!

Re: VILLAINS, VANDALS, AND VERMIN -- What Would *You* Like To See?

Re: Mutants and Materminds If you're interested you can download some samples from the books you've got coming from here: http://mutantsandmasterminds.com/gimmicks_gadgets/

Re: Mutants and Materminds The source material's excellent. Freedom City's probably one of the best superhero city books ever written. Crooks and Foes of Freedom are both full of fascinating characters [many from Foes are Marvel and DC homages. Crooks has more of an Image feel to me]. The Annual is just full of various things. I personally enjoyed the material on Legacies coving the golden age and silver age characters from the Freedom city universe. And Freedom City 2525 is a great Legion of Superheroes homage section. Noir is about gaming during the film noir period of the late 40/early 50s. Not really my cup of tea. All of those books are for the 1st edition of the game. I didn't care for that edition [too d&d for my tastes]. I started a conversion thread here but never finished it because I got involved with M&M 2nd edition [the gamer are different enough that my 2e conversion system won't work easily for 1e]. If you have USPD you can spot-create the characters just based on what you can make out from their character sheets.

Re: Is it me.... I've long considered this to be one of the best books to come out for the Champions line. Villainy Amok is one book every superhero game fan should have in their collection [no matter what system they use].

Re: Coriolis Effect - Color Pic of Coriolis? You can probably find several of them on the Heroic Publications website [google can give you the address]. That is Dennis' comic book company and he uses the character there.

Re: VILLAINS, VANDALS, AND VERMIN -- What Would *You* Like To See? I think you're thinking about John Wesley Harden.