THartman

Re: Superhero Images Matthew Ensidhe, a hero-system fantasy character: http://www.thartman.com/newsimg/lao.gif Percival Clemens, Esquire (AD&D character - level 1 'charlatan' mage in a leve-20 campaign): http://www.thartman.com/newsimg/percival.gif Matt Jordan, a Fuzion Champions character: http://www.thartman.com/newsimg/crimsonknight.gif -T

Re: Speeding Up The Game Or get a PDA or programmable calculator and get/write a program that has all the xD6 rolls you need. I have an HP28s and when I was in college, I wrote a pair of champs die-roller programs for it. Just put in a number and then hit the '*KA' or the 'Blast' button and it would roll and total up stun and body. No counting. And then there was a quick button for the omnipresent 3D6 to-hits and action tests. There's a couple of die-rollers out there for PalmOS which, if memory servs, actually support Champions rolls. Rolling goes a lot faster when you can let an electronic device count for you. Dr. Rune's method is fairly close, in a way, to the way Dream Pod 9's Silhouette rules work. -T

Re: Guns, guns and more guns Let me suggest http://www.openoffice.org/, a free MS Office 2000 'works-alike'. Or the low-cost variant, StarOffice, available from SUN Micrososytems. I'd agree that Battletech was... far from spot on when you tried to incorporate Aerotech and their tanks were pitiful. If you're looking for tabletop mecha/tank/aircraft combat in a tactical sense, look at Heavy Gear. It's a very tight single-genre game, but the rules work very fluidly between tactical and RPG modes and tanks are definitely to be feared. I don't have any experience with their aircraft rules yet. It might be possible to incorporate somewhat similar vehicle combat rules into yoru HERO system games, though I'd have to sit down and do a lot of thinking on how to make it work. For those who want photos of firearms, I suggest http://www.wgcshop.com/ - a Hong-Kong based mailorder company dealing in Airsoft (non-lethal sport replica firearms) guns. They don't have EVERY weapon ever made, but they have a darned good sample of the current selection of modern firearms. You can at least show people different kinds of guns. (And yes, these things are very accurate replicas. I once saw a Vietname veteran gun-store owner snap an M-16 bayonette on a replica M4... Fit perfectly.) -Todd

Re: "You're not a REAL Hero!" Bah! A hero is simply someone who uses whatever abilities he or she has to do something for the betterment of society without any thought of reward or duty. I'm surprised nobody has brought up the dictionary definition yet. Pay attention to number three. 1: In mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods. 2: A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. 3: A person noted for special achievement in a particular field: the heroes of medicine. 4: The principal male character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation. As an aside... Whoever said Batman's not a hero obviously hasn't paid attention to all the times Batman gets the crap beat out of him... All the times he gets put in traps and whatnot. That's not risking life and limb? He's not invulnerable so he HAS to be smart. He's still donating his time, energy, MONEY and whatever else can be listed to try to keep Gotham clean. Edit: Okay, I conceed he's dark and whatnot, but he DOES save lives, stop robberies and so on. Perhaps revenge motivates him, but what he DOES helps people. Maybe he's not a four-color, upstanding, moral, perfect version of a hero, but he is still a hero. If nothing else, at least in the eyes of the people his actions help. To whomever said it was more noble to donate time than money, let me point out... The person who donates money likely does some kind of job to earn that money. Jobs take time. Therefor by donating money they ARE, in effect, donating their time - just not directly. Let me put forth a new moral quandry in a similar vein. Who would be more "heroic": A professional who puts in a 50 hour week, makes good money to support his family and then donates the recompense for the last 10 hours of work to charity... or A person who puts in a 40 hour week, makes enough money to support his family and then donates 10 hours of service to the same charity? Both have supported the charity. Both have spent the same number of hours away from their loved ones in the week. And in the end, the second example can't use their 10 hours of service to buy blankets or food, if those are needed. The tradeoff is that the first person's money will not represent them at a 1:1 rate. I personally fail to see the 'heroic' difference between someone who can absorb a shot from a pistol running around jumping in front of police in shootouts... and someone who donates a huge sum of money to buy ALL said police bulletproof vests. It's different means to the same end - officers are saved. Anyhow, that's my $0.027 (inflation ) -Todd

Re: historically correct simulation of armour "dent them to death" That's not too far from the truth. I've personally seen a badly-aimed lance cave in the armor just above the inside of the elbow, cutting off circulation to the point where the knight's arm was getting numb. A good blow to a weaker section of armor with a heavy sword /could/ have much the same effect. A mace would be much more effective at that, however. The real danger to someone in plate is arrows. A good longbowman can put thin-point arrows an inch or maybe two into a knight, causing bloodloss. Another good example of piercing weapons are skulls which have been found which have square holes in them - the same shape as the spiked back of warhammers and some axes. Maille armor is very good at protecting against cuts, but even with padding, it's not very good at protecting against blunt trauma, even that caused by a swung blade. It is little to no protection at all against piercing weapons. As someone said above, it's much better to go for unprotected spots, which there are plenty of on a suit of plate. Under the shoulder, inside of the elbow, backs of the knees, stiletto to the slits in the visor... Another interesting thought, the Scottish "shillely" almost always had a knobby end, not for gripping when using as a cane, but for wedging into helmets so that the 'club' could be yanked hard to the side, breaking the neck of the opponent. There are too many variances in armor and anti-armor technologies to acurately model it in a role playing game. I can't say I've ever seen any games that don't handle it to an acceptable level of reality (acceptable, not accurate). -Todd

Re: Must-Have Books of 2004? Yikes. That's quite a list (of changes). I think there's quite a lot of new stuff for me to get used to. Oh well. Guess I'll figure it out eventually. -T

After attending Nuke-Con and chatting a bit with Steve Long and a couple of current Champions Players, I've decided to get back in. I'm not terribly familiar with what changes have been made from 4th Edition to 5th (and I'm going to get 5ER when it's out.) So I'm wondering what people consider to be must-have books these days, beyond the rulebook. I'm also wondering how well 4th Ed source material will work with 5th (so it's a two part question.) For the record, still have my blue book, Fantasy Hero, Ninja Hero, Dark Champions, Mystic Masters, Classic Enemies and Alien Enemies. -Todd