KA.

Okay, I just found this thread and feel the need to speak up! 1) PDF Format: I am no fan of PDF's. I find them annoying to read and slow to download. However, I am much LESS of a fan of Hero NEVER PUBLISHING ANOTHER MODULE! We are not privy to the financial realities, but I am pretty sure that the DOJ investors could have found a better place to put their cash if they were trying to get rich. So, if they say that it is not currently feasible to print modules, I can believe them without any suspicion. That being the case, and since I would like to see modules published (and perhaps, someday, try to GET one published), I am willing to accept PDF's. 2) Art: I like a pretty picture as much as the next guy, but I don't really see them as necessary for the PDF format, especially if excluding them would help to lower the price. Since many people do not want to take the time/expense to print the PDF's anyway, it seems that the interior art/cover art, is something that the purchaser is likely to look at once, and pass over from then on. While the maps are essential, other art seems to be a costly option. 3) Cost: I don't see how you can reasonably compare any product from DOJ with a product from other, larger, companies. They have ways to save costs, and a guarantee of higher volume, that makes comparison unfair. That does not mean that every consumer does not have the right to look at any product and say, "I don't think this is worth the cost." (but if the only standard is word count vs. price, then the only printed matter sold would be the Sunday newspaper.) BUT! I can also see that people who really want printed modules, might be more likely to "settle" for PDF's if the price is low enough. Any way to do that, including paying the writers a bit less, or reducing the art, seems like a good idea. 4) Playtesting: I don't think that playtesting is causing people not to buy products. The only way I can imagine not buying something that I playtested, is if I was unhappy with the product itself. I don't think DOJ is looking for unsatisfied customers, so they wouldn't miss those sales anyway. 5) Questions/Conclusions/Suggestions: A) Is it possible to move beyond the PDF format? If all that a module contains is text and maps, is it possible to zip it as .txt and .jpeg files? That would get us around all the Adobe complaints, and possibly lead to faster downloads. (PDF files always seem like resource hogs to me.) Are there ways to allow for "Non Profit" modules? For example, could some space be set aside for fans to create and post their own modules? (perhaps in the "Free Stuff" section) If DOJ was not charging for them, it seems like there would be fewer complaints about download times, etc., and the cost would be minimal. I am not talking about DOJ "editing" them, or even "packaging" them as PDF's, just allocating the space and figuring out some way to get the right text with the right maps. You could even require that the files had to be zipped together in advance. On the plus side for DOJ, after the "demand" for material is created, there might be a higher level of interest in "professional" modules. You could also require that all the characters involved had to be original, and that the authors were giving up all rights to them by posting them on your board, then you would not have to worry about DOJ's intellectual property. Just some ideas, KA

Re: help Hi there Golden Knight. Look near the top of the screen for a green button that says PROFILE. Click that, and then you will go to a screen with some black "buttons" near the top. The second one will say EDIT OPTIONS. At the bottom of that screen you can click on Change Avatar (Those little pictures are called avatars.) You can put just about any kind of picture you want as long as it is small enough. It can even be animated. Good luck, and just ask if you have more questions. KA

Hi There, JSenecal. I have several comments on this topic. 1) In a Golden Age campaign, "heroes" should not be doing things like hitting downed opponents "just to make sure" or attacking thugs that have given up. However, especially when innocents are being threatened, they do have the right to beat the living crap out of them. (As long as they are not at risk of killing them.) This is totally within the genre, and part of the fun of the game. I am not talking about torture and maiming, just a good old-fashioned butt-whooping. 2) Thugs are thugs for a reason. Especially in a world with supers, I do not think most thugs would be "normal". One of the first things I add when building a Thug is a couple of extra BODY. After all, a thug should be fairly durable, or they would probably be dead already from gang fights, jumping out of windows to escape the cops, etc. And most thugs are big and threatening, or tough and wiry, either of these could be represented by a couple of extra BODY. Shouldn't there be a difference between a thug, and say, a guy that works in a bookstore? 3) Also remember that in the "Golden Age", thugs would often throw down their guns and surrender, or turn tail and run, when faced with superior force, especially if the hero had kicked their butts before. That means that sometimes your heroes shouldn't have to pulp the thugs, they should get to win some "by default". This may not apply in hostage situations, but things like bank robberies etc. can end in "All right! Give yourselves up, or I'm going to have to get tough!" A good Presence attack does not BODY at all, and can work wonders. Let your players know how tough they really are compared to thugs, by having the thugs be scared of them once in a while. 4) Remember that your job as GM is to help the players have a good time. That does not mean you have to let them rip the arms off of thugs for fun, but it does mean that you do not need to constantly think of ways to "confound' or "confuse" them. Let them get a good clean "win" most of the time. They are supposed to be the heroes, after all. You can't expect them to act heroically when you cause them to doubt and question every decision they make. The least heroic thing I can think of is a character who constantly worries about: Who is watching? Will there be any legal ramifications if I punch this thug? Should I call my lawyer before I attempt to defuse this bomb? What is my level of liability if I fail? Many people play RPG's to escape that kind of stress, why bring it into your game? Now if you and your players want a gritty, dark, angsty, adventure, with lots of shades of gray, more power to you! But if you are attempting to run a Golden Age Superhero Campaign, then no one should be worried if a thug gets a broken nose once in a while. Not you, not the cops, not the players, and certainly not the hero that was trying to save a bus full of nuns! KA

Okay, I hope these aren't too silly for you, but if you wanted to take the French and push it in the direction of Cajun, you could make him from Louisiana and call him Molasses. The southern accent, the football, the whole package. And if you wanted to make him female, you could call him Praline. KA

I agree that a list might be: a) confusing confining. Perhaps a better approach would be discussing combat during the character creation process. Make sure that the player is with you when you are writing up the character, so that when you have to make choices like EB/RKA, Flight/Gliding, etc., that you can take their ideas into account. At the same time, you can let the player know, that while any character can do almost any maneuver, and that the maneuvers themselves can represent several different actual "moves", since they are a beginning hero, they will most likely stick to a somewhat basic set of moves at the start. Since you are basically creating the characters for them, they will most likely want to rewrite them at some point in the future, after they have learned the system. I would encourage this, and even let them bring along earned experience, since the characters will never "belong" to the players until they write them up themselves. So, let the players know that you are creating "starter characters" for them, and that they will be able to expand on them in the future. Also, I would steer the players, at the beginning anyway, to types that do not have thousands of combat options. Most characters in comics began this way. Early Superman: Punch, Move By, Throw Object. Early Batman: Punch, Kick, Batarang, Gas Pellet. Early Spiderman: Punch, Kick, Dodge, Entangle. The evolution of these characters into walking combat machines with thousands of options has taken years and years. Also, in the beginning, steer your players toward concepts like Brick or Energy Blaster, not things like "The Taskmaster" or "Variable Power Pool-Man". While the latter two can be fun exercises for an experienced player, they will often bring a newbie nothing but unhappiness and confusion. Next, while creating the character, figure out with the player the character's "favorite maneuvers". Explain that the character is not permanently limited to this small set of moves, but that these represent the most likely things he may do in combat. This can also help with creating the character. If it turns out that the player wants their "brick" to hang back and throw things, they might actually want more of and Energy Blaster, perhaps with Physical rather than Energy based attacks. If they keep wanting their EB'er to do Move Throughs, they might be happier with a "Flying Brick". As far as the more experienced players, just set something like a "Campaign Limit" on starting maneuvers, since these are brand new heroes. But let them know that all the characters will be moving forward by gaining new maneuvers, and that everyone will gain a new maneuvers (NOT the same ones, necessarily) every session or so. One good way to do this without rancor, might be to give the group a common origin. A group of strangers (or some friends) that all are suddenly given powers by some event. That will help to explain why all the characters are "newbies", they just got their powers, and they are learning to use them. No "intensely-trained, combat-hardened, battle-machines" but regular guys who suddenly can shoot laser beams out of their eyes! As the new guys learn the system, their characters will get better and have more options. You can have "danger room" scenarios where they actually learn the maneuvers (the characters AND the players) so that they can use them in "real" combat later. Since you have let them know that the group will move forward as a whole, it will give the experienced players an incentive to help the new ones, rather than just "show off" what they know. KA

This may be a little off the mark, but if you want to do "painful" damage that causes temporary disability, how about a small RKA combined with some type of Entangle? I am thinking of something like the "nerve strikes" that disable people in kung-fu films and Xena, except done with a sharp blade. I am sure one of the rules gurus can suggest the proper Advantages/Limitations for the Entangle, but this would give you an attack that "disables" temporarily without doing massive, gruesome, damage. KA

I don't care if we see her as Dark Phoenix, I want to see her as The Black Queen! KA

Re: Suggest the Limitation level, please Okay, I am just throwing this out here, but isn't this more of a Force Wall? It seems like he wants a sort of "bubble" to protect him while he does his stuff, but if he is knocked out of the bubble, or has to run away from the bubble, it no longer protects him. I'm just sayin' . . . KA

You know, the effect of CON on catching normal (not attack power based) diseases would be a great topic for Steve Long to cover in Fantasy Hero. The Fantasy genre is a place where disease (plague, infection, etc.) is quite likely to show up. I don't think we would need huge lists of diseases and their effects, but some 'official' rules about how to do this would be nice, and Fantasy Hero would be a nice place to put them. My brief thoughts (just throwing out numbers) would be: 1) Exposure to bad conditions (In prison, trapped in a damp cave, etc.) - Make a CON roll at +2 to avoid catching something relatively annoying (A 'cold', mild food poisoning, etc.) 2) Exposure to an actual disease that is relatively contagious - make a CON roll to avoid it. 3) Exposure to a highly contagious disease - make a CON roll at -2 to avoid it. Of course Life Support - Immunity to X would override this, but for the rest of us it would break down to something like: Alec the Average (CON 10) is travelling with Steve the Stout (CON 18). They attempt to steal their evening meal and wind up in the King's Dungeon. After a cold, wet, couple of days, Alec checks for ill effects ( 13 or less, rolls 11, he is okay). Steve also checks ( 15 or less, rolls 9, okay). On the third day another prisoner is tossed in with them, Philo the Phlegmy. Philo is nursing a bad cold, as usual. To see if they catch it: Alec checks ( 11 or less, rolls 10, he is okay). Steve also checks ( 13 or less, rolls 11, also okay). As they are released the next day, they celebrate by seeking the charms of Typhoid Terri, the local 'hostess'. She is carrying something a bit worse than a cold. Steve also checks ( 11 or less, rolls 11, okay). Alec checks ( 9 or less, rolls 12, oops). Alec may have some explaining to do when he visits his local cleric. We would also need a few examples of everyday diseases and their effects and duration, but the whole thing should not take up more than a sidebar or two. By the way, if Steve Long has already done this, sorry for wasting everyone's time. KA

Oh, don't worry about Grond. Once they finish covering his bones with Adamantium, his healing factor will kick in and he will be fine. Gronderine Lives! KA

Well, MacBean, sorry that no one has been able to help you so far, but now my heroes are now going to have to face a ninja named: Murakage - Blood Shadow KA

Oh, now you've done it! Wait until everyone's favorite Super Genius Ape takes over the body of Grond! Yikes! (Time to start the write up. ) KA

Here is the question: "How limiting are limitations in your campaign?" Before giving a knee-jerk answer, consider this: "How many players in your campaign have the majority of their powers bought with no limitations at all?" I know that some limitations may be "required" for a certain concept (Iron Man, Green Lantern), but, if limitations are being enforced correctly, and are not just "free points" then why don't many, if not most, players prefer their characters "unlimited"? After all, if the limitations are enforced the way they should be, it should be just as effective, overall, to build a character without them. I am not bringing this topic up to give justification for "player abuse", but I do find it interesting that the players I see never seem to even consider building characters without limitations on nearly every power they have. Why? KA

I am absolutely positive you can find a picture like this on the internet. I am also absolutely sure you will find thousands of pornographic pictures of women in bondage if you try to search for one. I know this from some of my searches for pictures of the most seemingly innocent things possible for games. My advice: 1) Do NOT do the search at work, or in a public place. 2) Be ready for a bunch of pornographic pop-ups. 3) Do your best to limit the search by saying both what you want and what you don't want. Ex. +woman +picture +chair +tied -sex -bondage You will eventually find something. Good luck! I will take a look myself and if I find anything I will let you know. KA

Re: Its all about the points To add to what has already been said. Sinister Villains need to have powers that are creepy, powerful, or creepy and powerful. When I was designing a demonic, overbearing type villain, I gave him the ultimate nasty villain power: Desolid with Invisible Power Effects! You can make them 'vulnerable' to Magic or Holy Items, etc. etc., but until the players figure out what is going on they will be awed. "Nothing we do seems to stop this guy!" It also allows the villain to just appear inside places. Unless someone is watching to see that he phased through the wall, they will be redoing the locks, adding new security systems, etc. etc. and none of it will do any good! Another great power for a Sinister Villain is Mind Control with creepy special effects. If you can find any, try reading some of the reprints of the Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer. There would usually be a female character that had been under Fu Manchu's control at some point in the past. Suddenly, in the middle of the story, the female character would stare into a fire and see Fu Manchu's face staring at her. In moments she would be hypnotized and doing Fu's bidding. Really creepy stuff! More later, KA

Super Squirrel: You haven't told us the tone of your campaign, and that would help, but here are some general guidelines for what (I think) you are looking for. 1) Sinister Villains do not just rob banks, kidnap the wealthy, and try to take over the world. A truly sinister villain has some agenda that is too evil to comprehend. Example: The Demon King (a truly Sinister Villain should be impressive enough for a "The" at the start of his name) is collecting souls through the portal on his chest. Even while stealing some ancient artifact, he is collecting souls toward some goal. When he reaches the correct number (100, 1000, 666?) the portal will expand and release an army of demons or some major mystic power, etc. The scary part is, he doesn't have a counter floating over his head like on a video game. Who knows how many souls he has already taken? Or what the 'magic number' is? Any time he takes someone, all he says is "Soon. Soon." Any given soul could be The One that will release the end of the world. 2) A Sinister Villain does not just pop out of the box every session or two, get in a fight, and get sent to Stronghold. A Sinister Villain gets away more often than he gets caught, and even when he is not the center of the adventure, he is always in the background. As the players are wrapping things up at the end of a session, drop something in like: "The newspaper reported that a shipment was stolen from the Museum of Natural History. The Museum is still trying to determine what exactly was stolen, but the two guards on duty disappeared without a trace. The security camera showed a figure that resembled The Demon King. 3) A Sinister Villain is not content to wait for the Hero to show up and punch him. The Hero may find that it appears that someone is trying to find out his Secret ID (if any) by whatever means are appropriate for that villain. In the case of The Demon King, the team mystic or an mystic type NPC could warn the Hero that dark magic was being used to probe his 'aura'. 4) Once the Secret ID is uncovered, the Sinister Villain will never be so crude as to leak it to the press or expose it publicly. The Sinister Villain will now take the opportunity to harass/frighten/endanger the Hero while in his Secret ID. 5) The Sinister Villain always manages to gain control of someone close to the Hero/s. Through Mind Control, Cloning, Impersonation, or deliberately planting an agent. Once this occurs, the GM has the chance to let the SV use information that the hero thinks no one else knows. And then there is always "The Betrayal!" The SV's agent slips something into the Hero's food or drink that causes him to: a) sleep through a team meeting that he was supposed to attend, causing suspicion to fall on the Hero, since the group knows someone is out to get them lose his powers during a critical fight (can have same side effects as 'a'. "Hey Mighty Man, why were you holding back when we fought The Demon King? Are you working for him now?") c) lose control of his powers in ways that make him appear to be going 'rogue' (see Red Kryptonite) or The Betrayal takes the form of helping to kidnap, seduce, or otherwise harm another NPC or better yet DNPC. "Where's Lois?" "I don't know. She went out for a walk with Jimmy Olsen, but that was hours ago!" In conclusion, the Sinister Villain takes away the hero's sense of security. He makes the hero worry about what he might be up to, even when the villain isn't doing anything. KA

Mmmm! Mmmm! My favorite GM snack. DNPC Twists Ingredients: 2 Large (or 3 Medium) DNPC's 16 Cups Parmesean Cheese 100 Gallons of Peanut Oil 1) Place DNPC's feet in large vice. 2) Have Brutish Hulking Assistant grab DNPC's shoulders, and twist until they take on a corkscrew shape (or until rescued ) 3) Coat liberally in Parmesean Cheese, shaking off excess. 4) Deep Fry in Peanut Oil, until crispy. I can't personally vouch for this recipe, they always seem to get rescued during Step 2. KA

I have two, and since I am opposed to post-padding, I will include them both. First I must say that my campaigns are usually strictly four-color, so even if the heroes screw up a little, they aren't going to die, maybe just suffer a little humiliation. Also the players involved were beginners, so don't think too harshly of them. The first concerns the classic hostage situation. Five Viper-type agents had kidnapped an heiress, and were holding her in a small house. The player in question was playing his version of "Earth's Sorcerer Supreme". Using a Gadget Pool (the closest thing to a spell-book we could come up with at the time) he conjured up the equivalent of a Flash Grenade. The player said: "Okay, This phase I'm going to toss the Flash Grenade through the small window in the door. Next phase I am going to do a half-move to the door, open it, and survey the situation." Now I do my best to GM fairly, but when I built these guys I gave them helmets that included a few points of Flash Defense. (You see where this is going...) Phase 12 - Combat Begins Mr. Magic tosses a Flash Grenade through the door. Five Viper agents look at the source of the noise, but are not Flashed at all. Phase 3 - Earth's Sorcerer Supreme runs to the door and flings it open to "survey the situation". Five Viper Blast Rifles fire as one, send the Sorcerer into a state of deep meditation (and across the steet)! The Second one is a little shorter. A group of heroes is ambushed by Viper. The Heroes are surrounded, but fighting. Actually, because they were literally at the center of a circle, only some of the Viper agents were able to fire at them. Until one hero remedied that. There were several Viper Agents on the perimeter, basically out of the fight and longing for someone to shoot at. Alconox Man was the only one in the group with Flight, and he decided that, rather than soiling his hands with close combat, he would "fly above the fight and see what was going on". He flew straight up, and then decided to: "Hover there and take a good look around." Viper Agent 13 lifted his Autofire Blaster and Rolled a 3. Alconox Man was KO'd before he hit the ground (leaving a 12 foot long divot.) The player was a bit surprised to say the least. I explained: "These guys are standing around the edge of a fight with nothing to do. They are looking for something to shoot at. You fly straight up in the air, and then hover there looking around. You know what it's like when you go skeet shooting, and someone yells "Pull!" and there's this target, just floating there waiting to be shot. That was you.":D KA

I am Henery the Eighth, I am! KA.

Okay, first let me say that I am out of my depth here, because I am more of a Champions and Justice Inc. player than a Star Hero player, so maybe I am missing something basic. However, it seems to me that, in space, every weapon is the equivalent of a torpedo in the water. In other words, you don't have to vaporize your enemy, you just have to put a hole or two in him, and let the environment do the rest. A spaceship with a few holes in it is in a completely different set of circumstances from a building with a few holes. On land you have to knock something to rubble if you want to destroy it, in space, or deep water, you don't. Now I have not read enough of the Star Hero rules to know if the spaceships are built with an eye toward things like explosive decompression, but if they are, or the rules for space combat include such things, it could be that even in the future considerations like weight and cargo space make weapons that punch small holes more efficient overall. Okay, feel free to rip this apart now. KA

Re: ...Three Men In A Tub... Just a comment. Crazy as it may sound, I actually did this years ago. Can't remember what I called the group, but I will put a few concepts on the table. My Butcher was pretty close to what you describe. My Baker was made of living dough, sort of like an evil Pillsbury Doughboy (and could take the place of your "living wax" Candlestick Maker). My Candlestick Maker was sort of like Diablo (Marvel's evil alchemist) Instead of potions for everything, he made things in the form of candles. Candles that gave off poison gas, candles that were explosives, candles that produced fog, candles that released hypnotic fumes . . . Along with the Martial Arts guy and the Doughey Brick, it made for a pretty tough team. Just throwing ideas out there, feel free to ignore them. KA

How about Swift? I have always wanted to use it for a Champions character. Don't worry about it though, my S.W.I.F.T. is going to be like a heroic version of The Vulture. A scientist who constructs the Single-Wing In-Flight Trainer, a winged suit, intended to give military pilots a better grasp on aerodynamics by "being the plane". The plan gets scrubbed, corrupted, etc. (you know how origin stories go) and the scientist is forced to don the suit himself and seek justice. Anyway, no chance of these two characters being mistaken for each other, so feel free to use the name if you like it. By the way, in nature, a Swift is not just a small bird, it is also a fast moving lizard, so just because your character doesn't fly, does not mean the name can't fit. KA

Re: champions hardcover By the way, that is often referred to on the boards as The BBB (Big Blue Book). Just thought I would tell you in case you saw a reference to it. KA

Glad we could help. Try not to get any hostages killed. KA

And just to back up Gary's post, here is a link to the Errata section: http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/erratahome.htm KA