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Re: Name Help: Super Patriot Minuteman

Re: [Help] A Villain and Four Followers Shaft? I can dig it. (Damn right!) That said, I'm not sure about signature weapons for these guys, though I love it. Really, they're all "mutants," nothing more. The Reaper only got a scythe as an afterthought (on my part) 'cause I thought it'd be cool. I'll keep brainstorming!

Re: [Help] A Villain and Four Followers Yeah, I hear you there, Serpent. I'm more looking for themes for individuals, rather than themes for the group. The theme for the group is already a sort of 'Brotherhood' similar to the Brotherhood that movie-Magneto had set up in the first two movies. The only unifying 'theme' connecting Sabretooth, Magneto, Mystique, Pyro, Toad, are the fact that they all use vowels, really. Oh, and they're mutants. Interesting thoughts on the individual powers, OddHat. I might use some of them. Hmmm.

In this thread I wrote about a supers game I'm starting. Three players, each with 350-point characters. All 'mutants' in the generic X-men style. The game world has no magic or other such stuff, just mutation. One of the players has a "more powerful" hunted that got rolled on the very first session of the game, when the players were basically looking at me, expecting to run the game. The two things that were established in that short session was that he had an 8d6 ego blast, and could fly. Established out of game was that he was an impressively powerful Psion with extensive non-combat influence and the like, and he was called the Reaper. I decided I didn't like the whole "telepathy always means telekinesis" BS, so I decided his flight actually came from a powered suit (which also gives several other abilities), and his only powers were a vast array of mental abilities. Already angling to be one of the major villains of the campaign, it seems obvious that he should have some sort of followers, so I paid 50 points for four 200+150 followers. Since The Reaper has a powered suit, I've got a vague idea that one of the followers is a gadgeteer-type individual, though not necessarily. The entire suit costs 91 points, and I've also thought it would give an interesting sense of unity to give all four followers the exact same suit, complete with nasty scythe. But would that be too limiting? I'm looking for ideas on themes for these followers, since I seem to have run into a blank wall. Below is The Reaper, without the perks that would make him truly an NCI threat ('cause I haven't figured out exactly what I want out of those). If you feel like nit-picking his build, feel free to do that too - it's been a long time since I've had to build a Champions character (my last HERO campaign was almost 4 years ago, and was Fantasy to boot). The Reaper Player: Val Char Cost 10/40 STR 0 18 DEX 24 13 CON 6 10 BODY 0 18 INT 8 20 EGO 20 15 PRE 5 8 COM -1 3/14 PD 1 3/14 ED 0 4 SPD 12 5 REC 0 26 END 0 22 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 2"/8" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 75 Cost Power 10 Suit Armor: Armor (5 PD/5 ED) (15 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 14 Suit Power: Endurance Reserve (30 END, 12 REC) Reserve: (15 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 53 Suit Power Suite: Multipower, 80-point reserve, (80 Active Points); all slots OIF (-1/2) 3u 1) Aid 2d6 (standard effect: 6 points), Can Add Maximum Of 24 Points, Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per 5 Minutes; +1/2), [four powers] simultaneously (+1) (65 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Self Only (-1/2), OIF (-1/2) 2u 2) Scythe: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 2d6 (2d6+1 / 3 1/2d6 w/STR), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF Unbreakable (Big Scythe; -1) 1u 3) Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing) (10 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), OIF (-1/2) 2u 4) Density Increase (6,400 kg mass, +30 STR, +6 PD/ED, -6" KB) (30 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 1u 5) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), OIF (-1/2) 1u 6) Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), OIF (-1/2) 4m 7) Flight 5", x32 Noncombat (30 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 40 Mind Tracker: Detect A Class Of Things 16- (Mental Group), Discriminatory, Analyze, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Sense, Targeting, Tracking Mental Shield 60 1) Mental Damage Reduction, Resistant, 75% 10 2) Mental Defense (14 points total) 50 Mind Link , Any Willing Target, Any distance, No LOS Needed, Number of Minds (x16) 250 Multipower, 100-point reserve, all slots Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Variable Advantage (+1/2 Advantages; +1) (250 Active Points) 9u 1) Drain 4d6, any Characteristic one at a time (+1/4), Based On EGO Combat Value (Standard Defenses apply; +1) (90 Active Points) 7u 2) Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6, Based On EGO Combat Value (Mental Defense applies; +1), Does BODY (+1) (90 Active Points); No Knockback (-1/4) 7u 3) Entangle 3d6, 3 DEF, Entangle And Character Both Take Damage (+1/4), Backlash (+1/2), Based On EGO Combat Value (Mental Defense applies; +1) (82 Active Points); Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4) 9u 4) Mental Illusions 10d6, Cumulative (120 points; +3/4) (87 Active Points) 9u 5) Telepathy 10d6, Cumulative (120 points; +3/4) (87 Active Points) 9u 6) Mind Control 9d6, Telepathic (+1/4), Cumulative (108 points; +3/4) (90 Active Points) 6u 7) Major Transform 3d6, Based On EGO Combat Value (Mental Defense applies; +1) (90 Active Points); Limited Target (Minds; -1/2) 8u 8) Ego Attack 8d6 (80 Active Points) 3u 9) Clairsentience (Sight And Mental Groups), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Mobile Perception Point (can move up to 6" per Phase) (40 Active Points); Only Through The Senses Of Others (-1/2) 8m 10) Mind Scan 2d6, +5 ECV, Cumulative (48 points; +1) (40 Active Points) 10m 11) Succor PRE 20d6 (standard effect: 60 points) (100 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2), Instant (-1/2) Powers Cost: 586 Cost Skill 30 +6 with Mental Combat Skills Cost: 30 Cost Perk 50 Follower Perks Cost: 50 Cost Talent 9 Lightning Reflexes: +6 DEX to act first with All Actions Talents Cost: 9 Total Character Cost: 750 Pts. Disadvantage 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 550 Villain Bonus Disadvantage Points: 550 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: One Bit Heroes and the Bay Area Disaster Zone And now, a bit of talk about the Reaper, since he's fast becoming one of the campaign's major villains. In the very first session of the game, I had no idea what to do (the players expected me to run it, and I wasn't ready, but I figured I could pull something out). So I rolled everyone's NPC-disadvantages. The ones that showed up? Aurora and the Reaper. Nate Gray's father, and daughter. Think of the Reaper as vaguely like the movie version of Magneto, but with Xavier's psychic powers. So, the Reaper kidnaps them - for reasons I'm not entirely sure about yet, but likely having a little bit to do with eugenics. Only one character managed to keep up with him so far, and now he's in a coma (yay mental entangles). Anyway, these are 350 point characters. The Reaper, it shames me to admit, wasn't built until after the first session was complete, and only two things had been decided: he had an 8d6 ego blast, and he could fly. I didn't want to make him a telekinetic like his son, so instead I gave him a power-suit. In the end, he's worth 750 points, 50 of those being four followers. One 750 point enemy vs. three 350 point heroes seems relatively fair to me, no? Technically a 700 point enemy, without the followers. I'm trying to decide exactly what The Reaper's four followers ARE, though. So far, all I've decided is: "One of them is a gadget-type guy, who built the Reaper's suit." That's it. I'm not sure if that guy has a suit himself (maybe all the Reaper's followers do?). So this is where I ask the peanut gallery: any ideas? Any unused character concepts out there, or heck even any pre-used ones that you think would go well with the Reaper, and fit on a 350 point budget? I know I don't need to create all of his followers right now this very second, but I'd like at least a rough sketch of who they are so, when the next session arrives, I can be more prepared.

Re: One Bit Heroes and the Bay Area Disaster Zone In 1906, the Tunguska event occurred. In addition to what it did in our world, it also sent out a... well, psychoactive wave of energy, that awakened in tens of thousands of people worldwide, mental powers (called Talents). They didn't know it then, but in those people, and others, a gene was awakened, or perhaps attached. Nobody can find evidence of this gene in human genetic material prior to 1900 or so, but it's there now, all across the world. Interesting fallout over the next few years includes a much stronger Tsarist Russia that manages to put down the Bolshevik revolution before it starts, thanks to the assistance of numerous Talented individuals. Of course, the Talents were only the beginning. Their children became the first Gifted, as they were called in those days - children with extraordinary powers, though many more didn't manifest until puberty or beyond. This new gene is recessive - one needs a gene from both parents to become Gifted. However, proper mental discipline and training can take people with just one of these genes - recessive carriers - and turn them into Talents like the first generation. Oddly enough, Gifteds cannot train in these mental disciplines, suggesting that everyone in 1906 only had one copy of this gene - an impossibility. Other interesting things of note in the history: World War I had an American front, as the US chose to help Pancho Villa against the corrupt Mexican Government, which Germany supported. World War I was also not started by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, so upon the death the Austrian Emperor, Franz was able to argue for peace. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not vivisected, and generally World War I did not end with quite as disastrous a defeat, which led to World War II not happening. In part due to the events of World War I with Mexico, it becomes a very prosperous nation. Interestingly, Canada does the exact opposite, falling to communism and becoming a very unpleasant place to live. So the US must deal with an influx of immigrants from the northern border more than the southern border (though florida keeps its share of hispanic immigrants from the majority of south america). Without Russian Communist support in China, the chinese communists enter a much more drawn-out war with Chiang Kai-Shek and others. This lasts upwards of 50 years. Hitler was one of the Talented. With the additional insights gained, he became the artist he wanted to be. A different person brought Germany out of the depression. Also a despotic dictator, Alfred Hugenberg didn't share Hitler's expansionistic ideals (nor his specific semitic hatred as something to rally around), and so poor Germany managed to suffer longer under Hugenberg's thumb due to the lack of a World War II. Also due to the lack of WWII, no resolution creates a Hebrew homeland where Israel would be. Eventually, the League of Nations winds up choosing Jerusalem as its home city, managing it directly and denying all sides "ownership" of this hotly-contested piece of land. Russia (Tsarist, remember) and the US both land on the moon before 1970. The first Martian landing happens in the 90s. A true 'World War' happened during the 70s. This involved China, and many of the European colonies, many of which weren't easily dissolved since there was no World War II. This particular World War ended with Japan using the very first nuclear bomb in war, on the United States, on San Francisco specifically. In response, the US nuked Tokyo. The feminist revolution didn't happen until the 80s, and happened directly as a result of this war. That's the big ones. It's the last one that's really interesting. San Francisco? No more. Kaboom. Nuked. It became the Bay Area Disaster Zone, and the federal government then moved in and claimed it, and the surrounding region, as part of the Federal District of Alameda (named after the military base that kept the order). Thanks to the existence of Gifted individuals, the BADZ got mostly cleaned up in only a decade (though there's still some efforts taking place even now), and there was a huge push by the federal government to get it restored and rebuilt as a population center. Tax advantages were offered to corporations who'd move a significant portion of their services there (and/or open new offices). Free housing given to ex-military personnel, etc. All sorts of things. One side effect is that the District of Alameda now boasts one of the largest collections of Gifted in the country, if not the world. Which of course makes it a very interesting place to set this group of heroes.

So, I recently started a new supers game. It's supposed to be at least somewhat gritty - I'm trying to go for a Wild Cards or maybe Watchmen feel. On the other hand, these are 350 point heroes, built on 250+100. (I was going to do 200+150, but somewhere along the line the 50 switched places and I just decided to allow it). There are no active point caps in this game or any other restrictions. The game is set in the Federal District of Alameda, a portion of California run directly by the federal government and containing the entirety of the Bay Area Disaster Zone. More on that later, along with a brief history of the setting. I will say this much though: powers mainly come from one source: mutation in almost a Wild Cards sense, though without immense amounts of Black Queens. In this post will be a description of the heroes (not including Hero Designer extracts 'cause that just seems excessive). ----- Heartstorm, a.k.a. Josephine White, a.k.a. the famous supermodel 'Joey' who also plays Heartstorm in a series of movies based on her. A single mother, her daughter Aurora is her only dependent. Her primary ability is power over the weather - she fires lightning bolts from her fingertips, uses the wind to both carry her around, and protect her from attacks, and with concentration, can change the weather for a significant radius around herself. In fact, thinking about it, I might suggest to her reducing the weather control radius in order to add Indirect to her lightning attacks. Hmmm. Anyway, the other part of Heartstorm is her Emotional abilities. Right now this amounts to two things - she has a Detect Emotions ability that's both discriminatory and has Analyze. Basically, she can get an idea of WHY a person is feeling a particular emotion, along with the emotion itself. She also has a mindlink that connects her to people with whom she's shared previous emotional experiences. A permanent link connects her to her daughter, and other links sort of come and go (though she can purposefully make one if she wishes). Heartstorm has no mental defenses at all, and takes damage from being around strong emotions. She's registered with the appropriate federal agencies as Heartstorm, allowing her effectively two IDs. In return, she works sort of 'on call' as a Hero, helping with law enforcement in the District of Alameda. Ebon, a.k.a. Jonathan Black, is the second character. He's a closet cyberkinetic who'd duped himself into believing he was a genius in developing certain technologies. Which isn't entirely false - he has sold enough patents that WORK to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Unfortunately for him, his biggest breakthrough, the one that caught a whole lot of media attention and whatnot, turned out to be fake. He was disgraced as a hoax. After that, he figured out what was really going on. He's since created a 'suit' using the knowledge that he thought would work for everyone, but really only worked for him. He can run incredibly quickly (and otherwise boost his speed in his suit - +SPD bonuses, +DEX bonuses), turn himself both invisible and desolid, has razor-sharp claws, and his suit also gives him protection (armor, damage reduction) and strength (oh, and a nifty spatial-detection sensor suite). Due to his cyberkinetic abilities, he also has a very minor bit of mental defense (1 pt). He's not registered anywhere. For whatever reason, he wants to keep himself hidden. He's still a believer in the 'great power, great responsibility' motif and so has been running around foiling crimes and whatnot more-or-less willy-nilly. He's in trouble with law enforcement, since he's not registered or sanctioned, and has a habit of leaving behind an 'Ebon was here' signature wherever he makes a mark. Ebon is too new to really be liked or disliked by the populace. He also hasn't introduced himself to the other heroes yet. Nate Gray, a.k.a., well, Nate Gray. He's a telepath/telekinetic, much like Jean Gray, but that's about where the similarities end. Nate's a bit like a young Magneto, thinking that he's superior to the (g)nat(ural)s out there, since he's got his special gene with its nifty powers. He's got a targeting 'detect minds' sense, and besides that just controls things with his mind. He got into quite a bit of trouble when he was younger, including slaughtering quite a few members of a local crime family, which got him put in jail. After finding out he was the father of Heartstorm's baby Aurora, he's started to turn his life around. He's on probation, and one of the conditions of his probation is 'community service' as law enforcement, with Heartstorm sort of as his mentor Hero. Nate's the source of the biggest enemy of the group so far - the More Powerful 'Reaper', a powerful mentalist currently clocking in at 700 points (+50 points worth of followers), is his personal Hunted and also? His father. In theory, his father is the reason he's telepathic (but not telekinetic, the Reaper is ONLY a mentalist), and Nate's clumsy use of telepathy during sex is the reason Heartstorm's emotional powers are around, and so incredibly raw. ---- White, Gray, Black, can you see why they're '1 bit heroes'? Okay, next post will be about the setting, so you have some idea of where these guys come from.

Re: Luck Options One version of Vampire, back when 1s cancelled successes, has a merit that works thusly: You get to ignore the first 1 rolled. This makes you "luckier" since you need more 1s to lose successes. It wasn't called Luck, which was something more conscious, but it was a luck-typed thing. Charmed Existence, maybe, they called it. In Rolemaster Standard System, rolls are open-ended high from 96-00 and open-ended low from 01-05. Taking Luck meant extending the open-ended high value by 1 (so 95-00 for the lowest level of luck) and Unluck means extending the open-ended low value (so 01-06). Thus increasing your critical chance. Some percentile-based system out there, that I can't remember, used "Luck" to say "you roll percentile, then you pick which is the tens and which is the ones." I know UA does this in a more conscious basis - when your certain triggers go off, or on your obsession skill. In UnderWorld by Gareth-Michael Skarka, you flip coins and count the heads. Luck means you flip an extra coin, then drop a tail (so you can still get the same # of maximum successes, but you're more "lucky", i.e. you have a greater chance of heads). Unlucky means flipping an extra coin, then dropping a head. The great thing is, you could have both, so you'd flip two extra coins, then drop one tail AND one head. This was originally a house rule by me, but it was going to go into the never-published supplement. In Fastlane, you choose 'lucky number'. It uses a roulette wheel instead of dice; so every time you used it, you'd get a free bid on the lucky number. So when it came up, wham, things were awesome. But you couldn't count on it because, woot, lucky number. I just can't figure out how to get a similar effect in HERO, so that you never have to utter the words, "I am using my Luck for this." With a 3d6 system, rolling an extra die for each die of luck, then dropping the lowest, is way too powerful. So that can't be it.

Re: Luck Options I think I'm nailing down part of why these various Luck systems don't appeal to me (and why none of the ones I found in a search for Luck Rules appealed either). They require too much conscious choice on the part of the player and GM. I'd much prefer a luck system that, somehow, managed to be somewhat transparent, showing up at unexpected times for everyone at the table. I've seen games that successfully do this, and have managed to house-rule lucky advantages in a few games that do this too. So far I can't come up with a way it might work in Hero. Like, I don't know, maybe every skill/attack/etc roll, you also roll a # of extra dice, a different color, equal to your Luck, and look at the sixes. Or something. But that might be a bit too overpowering, unless you change how much each six is worth... Anyway, now that I think I've nailed down why I don't like these Luck systems, I can maybe make some progress. Anyone have any ideas?

So, I'm somewhat unsatisfied with the way Luck works in the game. All of the optional handling of Luck spelled out in FRED (not revised) I'm not liking, and I can't quite put my finger on why. So, I ask you all: What other ways to handle Luck have you tried, or heard of, or thought about, and for those you have tried, what pitfalls have you encountered?

I always say that racially-acquired disadvantages dont' count against the disadvantage limit. It's worked perfectly so far. We have suffered no balance issues. All you have to do when making the races is make sure the disadvantages are worth the points, and then ENFORCE them...

Thank you very much. I now have a copy. Not that I'm likely to use such an aberration, but I hate losing the work that I've done.

A while back (on the old boards) there was a thread about this, and I did some work on such a thing. The "Old Threads" forum has this thread (http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/Rules/000030.html) but what I posted was on the third page, and it doesn't seem to be able to bring up page 2 or 3. Did anyone save this? I know I emailed it off to a few peopel as well. I'd like a copy. Thank you!

I'm certainly curious, though I've yet to pick up the book itself. How did you manage to wrangle publishing a HERO product? I'd love to be able to do that!