Lord Mhoram

Re: Where are the Big Dumb Objects in your campaign?

This is not to say I have don't have "large structures built by the ancients' date='" or things designed to induce wonder, but they aren't anywhere near the "big dumb object" level. Nor do they need to be. [/quote']

 

Absolutely - The visuals of the guardian statues in the LoTR movies is one of the most wonder inducing bits, and they aren't dyson spheres or ringworlds.

Re: Where are the Big Dumb Objects in your campaign?

(I'm not saying you need them or something is wrong if you don't have them, I'm wondering what you do to invoke the sense of wonder in your game.)

I tend to have "the city carved from the mountain" a la' Minis Tirith or Revelstone.

I also tend to have fantasy space (think D&D Spelljammer) and pulp style inner earth/hollow world. Those quite often cover the awe-inducing things in a fantasy game.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

But Hero sales depend on what Hero players as a whole want. If most play homebrew settings, settings will sell poorly. That was viewed as the issue with Star Hero supplements, wasn't it? The genre book sold great, but nothing else did. Gamers seemed to want either homebrew settings or licensed settings, not game company settings,

It has seemed that way. Hero, I think, tends to attract homebrewers that way - the system is designed to let us do what we want, so we tend to do the same with settings. Part of the toolkit attitude I surmise.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

Selling books that are mainly rules creates a vicious circle. If there are not enough setting supplements' date=' there isn't a good background to place those rules into. [/quote']

 

I tend to look at it the other way. Rules don't go into a setting, the setting is there to show what can be done with the rules. Rules first, setting second has always been my motto. The fact that I have never played a published setting (just homebrew) probably colors my view on such things.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

heh. I intend to put in the back' date=' a little tribute to David Brin's "Thor Meets Captain America" [/quote']

 

One of my favorite stories of all time.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

Was a good time, Seeker blew, but the current Defender, is worse. In the end though the Champions will always be this lineup to me: Marksman, Gargoyle, Rose, Flare, Icestar, Goliath/Giant ......everyone else is a placeholder.

 

~Rex

In my last Champions game I did an "old and new" Avengers kind of thing - Marksman, Rose, Icestar, Defender, Seeker and Obsidian - and a couple of campaign specific NPCs.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

As for Defender (having never looked at the 6E version of the character before) I don't mind the look.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

I miss Seeker

I always figured his origin came from someone staying up too late one night and watching the Last Dragon and Crocodile Dundee back to back.

Re: "Summon Staff"

If she can instantly summon it to her location no matter matter where it is' date=' then it's not a focus at all.[/quote']

 

That is pretty much how I handle this in my Fantasy Hero game - the player pays the amount equal to buying off the focus lim on the special powers of the staff, and it's summon -able. (Being heroic, the staff itself is free equipment)

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

No one else has high mental strength as a character trademark ?

not usually - it all depends on the character. My Martial artist (Black Cat) is almost mentally invulnerable, my two mages have fairley strong ego and defence. The speedster is okay, and Meeb has no mental defence and strength to speak of.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

I was joking.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

Not even the occasional Fade To Black and "bow-wakka-chikka-wakka-chikka" background music?

Not in the group.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

Clark Kent doesn't exist to protect Superman from us, he exists to keep Superman sane and able to relate to us mere mortals.

 

However with that said, despite being born on another planet, Superman never really came across to me as repersenting being an "alien", after all he looks exactly like us and has no memories of Krypton, ect. Hell, other then some meaningless fluff the character would be the same if Papa Kent was biten by a radioactive snake and Mama Kent stumbled into a crater and had her genes twisted by the strange influence of Energy Z.

 

Actual "true aliens" remain just as scary post Superman as then were pre Superman.

There was an elseworlds with Jon Jonzz as one of the bad guys who said to Superman "You are like me, and Alien, an outsider..." To which Superman replied "You are an alien, I'm an adopted son" - Which I think sums up that whole issue.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

I guess I somewhat miss-spoke. I'll try to tell it better:

I was just noting that while there is the occasional romance in our games, the conversations may be played, but the romance (other than a kiss here or an "I love you dear, be back after I take on Firewing" is about as far as it goes. Not saying that you were more so, just that it is a plot/character aspect that really doesn't come up a whole bunch.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

I tend to play a character on the path of redemption. Someone who has either intentionally or unintentionally caused serious harm in the past and who is in his or her own way' date=' marginally crazier than any opponent. They also tend to be highly intelligent folks who fight way above their weight class.[/quote']

 

Paging Harry Dresden....

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

and are generally "not shy' date=' but also not outgoing" with their sexuality.[/quote']

 

That is something that doesn't often come up in our games. The most we have seen onscreen is a kiss or a hug. Anything else is implied. Fairly PG that way.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

 

And, if female, very often large breasts...

 

*hangs head*

Of my three active/semi active female characters one has very modest bustline (Black Cat, very athletic, and sorta lowish body fat), one is in the middle of superhero range (i.e. no reason for either small or large) and one is a 90's balloon bust (she is a rock star who is also half succubus - so it sort of comes with the territory)

That brings up another thing - I don't tend any leaning towards one gender or another. Of my active/semi active characters I have 3 females (listed above) 3 males (a powered armor/supermage, a speedster and a FH fighter mage) and one that is non-gendered (A man sized Amoeba from another galaxy that reproduces by mitosis). So the count is 3/3/1

The next character I want to play is an artificial life form, but is not in any way a humanoid - three softball sized spheres and a force field connecting them. I think it would be a blast.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

Went all tactical mechanical on the last post -Style and personality this one.

The character has to be a hero. With a moral compass no worse than Han Solo's (from movies on) if not better. I play Captain America, I play Superman, I play Paladins, and Jedi. The big shining light that is an example to everyone about what Goodness and The Right Thing are all about. Code Vs Killing. Code of Honor. Protection of Innocents - those disads appear a LOT on my characters (and I don't play 6E so they are still Disads to me )

The character will have a history. Tied to the game world. A personal hunted (usually an archnemesis that ties into the characters origin or early career). I tend to have a character history that looks like the write up of a character in an Enemies book - chunk on history, then some on personality and a bit on tactics.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)?

I tend to have Martial arts for any character I play, even if it isn't their focus. Black Cat - martial artist. Terminal Velocity - Speedster Arts. Sift - a ranged MA package to use with her spells. Ballistic (powered armor supermage) - Started with Boxing and added Kung Fu from his Mystic Trainer. My FH mage has a staff based Martial Art. My last Star Hero character was a Jedi-esque character.

I tend to prefer high dex, high speed high CV type characters - Of the above - Martial Artists, Speedster and Sift is the second fastest in her group (behind the martial artist who's shtick that is).

I also tend to like versatility - Martial arts special moves pool for Cat, multipower of speedster tricks for the speedster, magic mp for Sift with an added little (15 pt) cosmic pool. Ballistic has a spell pool as well. FH character has a spell multipower.

Many characters have KS Supers and approach superheroing seriously - doing research, learning about the bad guys that sort of thing.

So fast, versatile and knowledgeable - but not necessarily the hardest hitter.

Playing basic bricks bore me to tears.

Re: Need some ideas for powers in a cyber eye...

 

Clairsentience:

Something from "Dark Project" and I think shadowrun has it to: Eyeball cameras.

Either she plugs out her own eye and rolls it into a room. Or it is a seperate, small drone with limited movement and weak radio. Roll it into a room or maybe place it in some point with a view. Then remotely view the video feed either in your bionic eye or on the interface of your eye (if you took it out). The drone could inlcude audio transmission.

This makes me think off G'Kar in Babylon 5

Re: Need some ideas for powers in a cyber eye...

Sorta color things, but Absolute Time sense and Bump of Direction - the eye has a clock and a compass, with a little display.

As mentioned - different kinds of levels as a heads up display, as well as justification for lots of enhanced sense.

Re: I made the GM cry....

- and kudos to LM's GM for rolling with it and keeping the game fun.

He's really good at that - we have a creative bunch of players (the fact that all of us GM at some point or another is a big part of that) and he has to adjust to our wonky ideas all the time. He does it better than I do when I GM.

Re: I made the GM cry....

My overriding thought in this regard is "different strokes for different folks." Some games are heavy into combat' date=' some heavy into investigation, and others heavy into personal interaction. What works for me and my players will most likely not work for, say, Hugh's players or Mike's players. But, the important thing is, i[u']t works for us[/u].

Exactamundo.

I have my preferred playstyle. I know what it is. I know what approaches to play support it. I know which systems support it. That is what I do.

I built my fantasy hero game to give me what I want out of an fantasy thing. I loved most of Rolemaster's spell system. I duplicated it in champions. One of the things I really liked about D&D (3rd specifically) was poring over the books finding feats and abilities for my character so I created 40 pages worth of fantasy talents, so I can do that. I love the idea that a bar in a major metropolitan fantasy city would like like the cantina from star wars - so I use virtually every racial template in FH and converted 10 or 15 races over from Other fantasy games. All because I know what I like by analyzing myself and style.

I pitched it to my players - I said "I am putting together a fantasy game with a lot of elements of fantasy that I like - here they are, are you interested?" They were.

There are RPGs I've never played because of what kind of play they bring to the table - it may be great for others, but not for me (most White wolf games for instance). There are others I've stolen the bits I like for Hero - the examples above. There are games that I cannot mimic in Hero, but am interested in how they play as it brings a different experience - my liking the Dresden Files RPG for instance.

The important thing to do if figure out what you like, find a group that is similarly minded and play together.

The fact that my current game group had been together for nearly 20 years (with some minor changes due to moving and such things) tells me that this approach has worked well for us.

There is no right way or wrong way to play the game - just what fits your style and tone and what doesn't. Doubly true for a toolkit game like Hero.

Re: I made the GM cry....

As an aside, the other Champions game that GM runs is much more like what you describe. Lots of follow-up, action having serious consequences that sort of thing. The GM didn't want the same kind of tone. One is lighthearted, and one much more serious.

The light hearted one is set in M&M's Freedom City, and the darker one (whic is mystic) is in Vibora Bay.

Re: I made the GM cry....

Are you kidding? And you were okay with this? I would be furious if I hadn't managed to even see my opponent and get a roleplaying scene with my enemy after seven years of continuous play. How does that even function? Enemies are characters' date=' too. The way that you make a nemesis non-nebulous is by allowing the characters to actually encounter him/her, etc, and develop a rivalry/adversarial in-character relationship/etc with them. Villains should be characters you LOVE to hate, not a blank slate with a bunch of really broken mind control abilities.[/quote']

 

But the argument can also be made that these people will simply get their drugs elsewhere. This is why this argument falls down. Because they do. It's one thing to make a major drug bust if it leads somewhere. But apparently, there's been no ability to locate this guy for seven years. SEVEN YEARS! I would be furious if I had to investigate a villain for seven years JUST TO KNOW HIS VILLAIN NAME! That would really tick me off. Who cares about figuring out who the villain really is. That's not really important here, as far as I'm concerned.

 

One - yes we are okay with that. While we don't run into him we get his right hand man all the time (the number two guy). Ogre, only with smarts. A tactical Ogre is scary. He's not a blank slate though - we know a lot about his approach, and how he thinks; just by the plans of his we stop. He's more of an excuse/maguffin for adventures - and we are cool with that. It's almost a joke to us how paranoid the guy is - he shows up to recruit henchmen in his full costume (which includes a full face mask).

 

As for the drugs, they were a designer drug that could not be replicated- and when we were done with the adventure, it couldn't be made anymore. And it wasn't just "feel good / addictive" type drugs it was a "superdrug" which was just getting started. By doing what we did, it would never be made again. The Mentalist just moved on to other plans - which we then stopped.

 

And play isn't fully continuous. We have 2 1/2 games we rotate through. So that campaign has probably got 4 years of play.

 

As for non-nebulous enemies - we have each of our hunted (arch rivals in most cases, mine is my half brother that ties into my origin), Genocide, Foxbat and Clown make the occasional appearance (to be honest my character is a speedster and gone out with Skate Kate a couple of times). So having a mastermind out there we haven't directly faced is not a problem. Just a different flavor of villain.