Tom McCarthy

I must admit that there are premises I like and dislike. For example, in '88 or '89, it seemed like every power any human had in the DC Universe arose from the 'metagene'. I found it an annoyingly constraining concept, and was glad that it eventually fell out of favour. I'm still not warmed up to Hero Universe's idea that superpowers and supergadgets can exist due to high levels of ambient magical flux, and I'm not wild about the concept that singularities allow magic to exist in the universe of San Angelo. I like training, magic, technology/science, genetics and aliens to be separate origins or sources of power. That wouldn't cause me to set the book back on the shelf; I'd just use what I like from San Angelo and loosen up the premises as I see fit.

Wouldn't an Entangle be the best power for the wall ? It creates barriers which persist after the multipower points are reallocated. The melting away of the wall would just be SFX.

Enemies ! When writing up a team, move the team leader out of alphabetical order and list them first. Thumbing through Enemies of San Angelo, I saw a few powers and writeups that deserved to be updated to Hero 5th style and rules. Other than that, my only complaint was insufficient contrast when a few pictures convert to grey-scale (mostly the Scions, but Blaze, Haze, and a few others, too). Conceptually, most of the villains stand up as original in either powers or motivation.

I think any 2nd edition has to stand on its own. You can't refer to other resources; finding a PDF on the web isn't too bad for most of your audience, but it's hard for a few, so don't do it. Finding the first edition book is right out for most. Specific things I'd hope to see: p11 - Relocating San Angelo: As indicated above, this deserves more attention. p163 - MHM Comics: Might as well see if you can drop a note on their competitors, the comic book publishers from CU and M&M. In a similar vein, Champions Battlegrounds may provide a good generic map/design for a mall, park, construction site, and theme park. p177 - Ren Westlake was 50 in '98, 40 in '88, so he was born around 2023. That means his parents have probably already been born in 2003. And if "conditions had slid too far before he was even born", Westlake must be feeling that he's running out of time to implement his plans. Of course, Westlake might be inspired by the unifying effect of 9/11. Perhaps, as a twist, he feels he doesn't need to succeed in conquest if he can just make a big enough splash to change the world ? p187 - Sadly, Clockwork is probably dead. Hopefully he has passed on his timepieces to someone worthy, but no guarantees. p226 - Are the characters going to change from 100+150 to 200+150 ? I rather like the idea of the Justice Foundation being presented as a group of mixed power level. Perhaps 2 veterans built on 200+150, and some 5 or 6 optional characters who could fit as junior or new members, perhaps with 200+100, 200+50, or even 200+150, but with mystery powers. Let GMs pick how to round out the roster if they're NPCs, or let players pick the heroes to use. Azteca - Deserves to have a bonafide origin beyond "discovered that he was actually superhuman in some ways." Cavalier - His secret might be blown by now, or Dr. Clay may have died. A new generation suit was probably built, but in true Marvel fashion, stolen by a rival pilot. Perhaps a passing reference to Quinn having been grounded briefly by the military and another officer trying to fly the suit, but acting out of character and consequently losing the confidence of some teammates. Corona - Outed ? Tricked into accidentally killing a soft target ? The law firm Dalton works for should be named. Lotus - More on who Lotus is, less of her conversation with her father. Has 5 years of action changed her attitude ? Who are her college friends ? Has she graduated ? Savant - He doesn't need much tweaking at all. He's steady, and probably little changed. He probably deserves a sidebar box on the Brain Trust membership. Paragon - Giving him NCM stats doesn't impress me at all. Give him encyclopedic skills (like Harbinger or the like) and then he'll impress me. Bloodsport - Dangerous only because of his combat focus, I think Bloodsport's story may be over and done with by '03. he'll only be threat to heroes if powered up or armed. Photon - While unrealistic, don't give Photon a team yet. Building his team is part of the fun. Siren - Another character who looks like she may be gone after 5 years.

It seems like a reasonable way to do it. In terms of minor game mechanics, it may even be cleaner than 'Regenerate from death (SFX: duplicate awakens in tower at home), prevented by destroying duplicate first'.

I do believe the Hero System still makes it a bit too expensive for a character to do some things, like attacks that only do knockback, attacks that make characters waste a phase, etc. Size scaling feels off or unrealistic, but all the coherent systems seem quite complex. 'Incomplete' characters are also a complicated issue when one delves into it; the author of the Digital Hero article did a good job keeping it clear. Damage scales can be a problem; in Star Hero and Terran Empire, I find the space phenomena are just outrageously large and powerful. Steve does a decent job of attacking some of these in Digital Hero (object creation, for example).

Battlegrounds and Shades of Black are a bit more involved than the average adventure. Both are good fun, though. Battlegrounds works well if its chapters are interspersed with other, unrelated adventures. Of course, that's what PCs' hunteds and DNPCs are for.

Have you got an idea for your first adventure ? If not, Battlegrounds or Shades of Black. Or maybe VIPER. If you've got a plot already, Ultimate Martial Artist is probably a good choice. It's got broad applicability (players always want their characters to fight, and fight well).

I keep thinking a big Mental Illusion ("You are not in combat") will net you the DCV reduction and cause them to lose a phase, so long as they don't make their breakout roll. Alternatively, an NND Flash vs. all senses might have the right in game effect [Defence is having CON greater than X, or CON plus Power Defnce greater than X]. Alternatively, and with GM's permission, a 5D6 Drain SPD, causes them to lose next phase, then fades immediately (-0), will do half the job. Multi-power attack using this with a BOECV Entangle and you may get the effect you want.

So, how long ago did you guys see 'Only a dream' ? Part I just aired last night for me, with Tabula Rasa the last two weeks.

We started as 100+150 but with generous XP. We're now at 200+150, and 50-100 XP. I'm considering going to 300+X+30, where X is any number of free points for background skills, contacts, favours, etc., so long as they're no more than 11- and have no obvious game effect, and the 30 is up to 150 in disads, but worth only 1/5th of book price. Most characters would still have 50-100 XP, too. I'm also toying in my head with 'pointless', but with the GM having to track 'efficiency ratings', etc.

I've only seen a few episodes, but the only surprise I've seen out of Hawkgirl is that she throws the mace and can use it for illumination. The mace also seems like it might provide some missile deflecting power (missile deflection, force wall, or DCV levels). In flight, she probably has an enhanced DCV. I've been mildly surprised by how much bashing damage she can take, but she hasn't shrugged off any blatant killing attacks. I'd be inclined to give her decent PRE and some serious minded psych lims, of course.

The player definitely sounds like he needs a virtually unkillable character. Regeneration from death or invisible long range sniping are probably good ideas for this player.

I've seen a few duplication concepts based on 'nickel and dime' damage. One was a horde of duplicates with low OCV, DCV, but penetrating STR and levels with co-ordinated attacks. I think Dave Mattingly first described "One Thousand Screaming Chinamen" to me. They all have a 2D6 sonic NND attack.

Wimpy numbers Here's some thoroughly unimpressive numbers. The sun generates about 3.9 x 10^26 Joules per second. The sun's diameter is about 1.392 x 10^9 metres. That pegs the surface area at about 2 x 10^18 metres squared. For my hero, floating near the surface and exposing 1 metre squared, I get about 192 MW of radiant energy every second. According to "The Flavor of the Game" (http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/dharchives/flavor.htm), that's only 23 DCs. Of course, I've over-simplified. I'm ignoring the fact that he's immersed in super-heated gases (5500 degrees Celsius or 9900 degrees F, ballpark), subjected to gravitational stresses, and sucking vacuum. But 23 DCs is a long way from the agreed upon 60 DCs for a nuclear explosion. Admittedly, this is the corona. The core is about 25% that radius, 1/16th the surface area, and if it's the source of the energy, radiates at a rate closer to 27 or 28 DCs. The temperature's a killer (15.6 million Celsius ?), but it's all hydrogen and helium (no oxygen), so we can safely assume it's a 'dry' heat. Obviously, there's something drastically wrong with my calculations, since I'm orders of orders of magnitude off from Jim Cambias's numbers in Star Hero.

I have GM'd relatively few characters with OIF foci (strange, yes). With OAFs, I usually let disarms and out of combat theft make up most of the limitation value, but for the OIF, damageing and breaking the focus becomes a significant part of making it worth the points. But, I'm a bit unclear on just how quickly this focus will be destroyed. The focus is OIF power amour, so it has many powers. For simplification, I'll make an abbreviated list, ordered by active points with defense powers at the bottom. 50 Attack multipower 35 Movement power 25 Absorption 20 END reserve 16 Combat skill levels 15 Enhanced sense 1 14 Life support 5 Enhanced sense 2 36 12/12 armor 16 8/8 forcefield 10 Mental 9 Flash sight 7 Flash hearing 6 KB resistance While the focus arguably has 12 DEF (armor), I've allowed it to have 20 (armor plus forcefield). Is this the intended interpretation of the rules as written ? It then has 8 non-defense powers and 6 defence powers. Reading the focus rules, it reads like the focus is destroyed when it has lost all 8 non-defense powers to penetrating hits or when it is hit with a 40 BODY attack. Is this correct, or does it take a 9th penetrating hit ?

I'd probably buy an activation roll based on how frequently the head is hit on a typical hit location chart, or ask the GM to let me make a location roll for the purpose of that armor only. If you really want it only against the high end damage rolls, I'd base the limitation on how frequent that level of damage is rolled on the campaign's typical attacks. 5/5 Armor, "only vs. attacks over 10 BODY and 35 STUN" is going to be common in a 10 DC campaign and not in an 8 DC campaign.

I thought the duplication option was a good extension of the Astral Form Duplication example in the 5e rulebook. There's usually more than one way to build something in Hero, and I'd be inclined to build the brain-driving-the-robot as the character, and give him No manipulatory limbs when disconnected (Infrequent, Fully) and Accidental Change to disconnected (when damaged, etc.). Multiform and Duplication both appear to be other valid ways to build it, and the vehicle idea should work, but have interesting effects (I seem to recall vehicles and foci have slightly different damage/destruction rules).

My first thought on a 'magical creation' for a Shadow crown was limiting it to blind craftsmen (or the craftsmen willingly being blinded during the creation process). Gold is harder to link to force. I was thinking of ancient 'forces', and gravity or tides are obvious ones. Still, erecting a building, bridge, or tower is better. Perhaps the thrustingof tectonic plates ? But that would better fit a stone/granite/basalt crown. I also thought of gold as a great electrical conductor, but again that's off topic (and players with non-tech backgrounds would choose copper). Bone, fog, coral, thorns are all characterful crowns. 'Stars' would also be a fine theme, but I'd lean towards a white metal like silver or platinum for that crown. An ice crown carved from diamond might work, or a crown of frozen quicksilver which allowed the bearer to form any metal tool or weapon in his hands.

I've got some very slow moving background plots, as the adventure du jour effectively hides the slower moving stroy arcs. Dystopia's been running over 2 years now, GSVC for one year now, and I hesitate to think how long Champions Battlegrounds and the run up to Day of the Destroyer will run. I had a serious/dramatic subplot regarding a trio of heroes with a common origin (two of them amnesiacs), but it took so long to unfold that one retired and another died before they got more than a whiff of the truth.

I played out AVAR-7's arrival on Earth, and prior to 5th edition, dark Seraph's attempts to take the Earth Crown from Earth master and the stone crown from Slug (7 Horsemen).

Canadian federal team disbands I thought it might be a poke at the Canadian unity question, but quite oblique, since I imagine the issue gets (at best) tertiary coverage outside Canada. The only real nod I've given to it in my campaign is to make it clear that the PCs (Canada's current federally organized team) may be subject to some political wrangling. The mysterious founder has suddenly been replaced by a more military-oriented government liaison, and the team's being assigned some politically charged missions. As to that comment about the "best", it's probably a reference to the state of the Canadian Armed Forces (widely regarded as underequipped and overtrained, with a lot of misinformation regarding just how much or little they do; for example, Canada is seen as a wishy washy ally for not aiding the invasion (liberation or conquest depending on your particular flavour of rhetoric) of Iraq, yet the Canadian Navy has sent around 95% of its sea-going sailors for at least one tour in the Persian Gulf since Sept. 2001, and at times as many as 5 of our 12 best warships have been there). Australia (who manage to do a lot more fighting with about the same budget) goes out of its way to recruit Canadians to emigrate and join their forces since the Canadian training is so well recognized.

Trying to GM a campaign in Ottawa, I see the following issues: Ottawa is a natural centre for a federally funded team. It's the national capital and within quick commute range of Montreal, Quebec City, and most of southern Ontario. For drawbacks, the city's only about 1 million people and light on the potential story hooks from homeless people, drug wars, street crime, etc. The feel of the city is that a hero team would congregate there because it is the capital, but I don't think you can cram a team full of super-origins into Ottawa. Toronto is a natural centre for a provincially affiliated team in Ontario. Toronto is the provincial capital, the largest and most diverse city, and sprawls into adjacent cities. It sometimes seems like half of southern Ontario is one contiguous urban mass connected to Toronto. Sizewise, it's large enough and busy enough to feel like it not only should support a team, but a couple of independents, too. It even feels large enough for all the heroes to be homegrown. Unfortunately, that means small cities like Kingston, Windsor, London, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, etc., all fall back into the demographic of having no more than one to three heroes and no formal team per se. Over the broder in Quebec, I see a similar problem with no more than about 7 heroes between Montreal and Quebec City. I imagine maybe 4 or 5 for all the Atlantic provinces, maybe 1 or none for Saskatchewan and Manitoba, maybe 2 to 3 in Calgary and one rival hero in Edmonton, and a smallish team of 5 or 6 based in Vancouver. Anyway, that's some of the logic behind the super-populations in my campaign.

He could summon slavishly loyal shadows who are exactly like him but only have 1 STUN (and maybe low defences) and take a 30 point physical limitation that they disappear when hit. Just one way to skin a cat; others exist. Another might be Duplicates with an Accidental Recombine at Range result; when hit they automatically recombine at range as a 0 phase action.

My PC team is a bit brick-heavy. Bricks tend toward 12-18 rPD and a total of 23-26 PD. The others tend to 8-10 rPD and 15-20 PD. Hardened defences are rare to unheard of. In that campaign, a 4D6 KA is a major KA. One hit is lethal to most targets, but superheroes can usually take a hit or two and fall from the second or third. Bricks can take three hits, maybe even 4. On the other hand, even the bricks fear things like demon hounds from the Bestiary. A 2D6 penetrating KA will eventually do serious damage to even a brick, and a 2.5D6 armour piercing KA is also quite scary. I ran my players through Shades of Black, and every point of BODY (a little used stat in most of my adventures) became critically important to the players. The KA dice weren't huge, but penetrating and armour piercing advantages made them effective, and players had genuine fear of character death. I usually set KAs so an average roll does o-2 BODY against a typical PC. Good rolls then are really noticeable, bad rolls don't do lasting BODY damage. I also don't use 1D6-1 STUN multipliers, but roll 3D6 on the Hit Location table and use that bell curve for multipliers. I had the luxury of writing a little program to print up about 200 rolls a page for different attacks (a page of 10D6 normal, 9D6 normal, 8D6 normal, 4D6 KA, etc.)