Zane_Marlowe

Re: Assigned Cities... and stuff. Start thinking about what kinds of crimes happen in big cities. Back in the Golden Age, bank robberies could get you a lot of cash, and you'd see these happen frequently enough to make the news, cf. John Dillinger, et al. What about nowadays? Here are some quick thoughts. 1. Industrial Espionage (e.g., stealing patents, prototypes, etc.) 2. Hostage Crises (e.g., premeditated terrorism, unpremeditated hostage-taking where other crimes go wrong) 3. Domestic Terrorism (e.g., foreign ideologues, domestic eco-terrorists, white supremacist militias, etc.) This is in addition to acts that specifically target the players' characters in order to remove a law enforcement obstacle. Also, don't forget that a staple of comic fiction is having heroes deal with environmental disasters of various kinds as well. But don't forget, never forget, your players are not allowed to fly around the world backward until they make time rewind to avert the disaster. It's just not allowed. I'm actually running a Champions game where the players are kind of like the JLA in that they all have different home cities, and they group to confront common threats that transcend their more local concerns. At present, it looks like an alternate reality is attempting to overwrite this one, and the culprit is that reality's alternate version of the smartest character in the PC group.

Re: Star Trek: Pathfinder class Light Cruiser Why yes, yes there has.

Re: Does Hero System have a Deities & Demigods equivalent? I think there's a bunch of material worth looking into in the Mystic World book. There aren't writeups for the gods you mention, but it does set out the framework of the mundane and higher dimensions, with attendant bad guys, locations, etc.

Re: Do you give differing accents to fantasy races? When running a post-apocalyptic game that included fantasy races, I self-consciously set out to "de-Scot" the dwarves. I basically made them artisan bikers, and stole the vocal inflections of the flamethrower troops from Starcraft. The elves I basically made very careful and reflective, but that's mainly because they're so attuned to nature, and nature's so out of whack that they're very defensive and careful about what they say and how they're feeling. This meant that even though they didn't have an accent per se, they did have a different kind of cadence and diction when they spoke, and that made it obvious who was speaking as well.

Re: Monsters, Minions, And Marauders Sadly it's not been made available yet. It's on a "get to it when they can" schedule. I actually think this would be one of the better books to get in PDF since Fantasy Hero and the Bestiary are both already in PDF form.

For you hard SF lovers, I thought this was interesting.

Re: Supervillains and Philosophy Added!

Re: Supervillains and Philosophy Amazon and Barnes and Noble now have reviews for the book, and I also found a little discussion in a blog called "Superhero Babylon." The Midwestern Book Review mentioned it briefly as well, though their review (just noticed) is one of those in the Amazon list. From what I can discern, people seem to be receiving it well, though not all topics interest everyone equally. EDIT: Links added for teh bunneh

Re: "wearable mecha" writeup question Just a quick plug for doing mecha (especially large mecha) as a vehicle writeup. If you want to get the feel of how different mecha is from wearing body armor (or heck, even using powered armor), building mecha as a vehicle is a great way to go. Vehicles have different speed ratings from characters, they have their own performance characteristics, and they don't experience STUN. Nothing says "I'm strapped into a high performance machine" like substituting your personal characteristics for the ones your mecha models. At least, so my experience has been. YMMV.

Re: "wearable mecha" writeup question I'd write it up as a vehicle with the limitation on the vehicle's resistant defense that it doesn't protect the driver (this limitation is already present in other vehicles). Then I'd attenuate the value of the incoming damage by adding 50% (or whatever %) resistant damage reduction to the vehicle, but with limited coverage so that it applies only to the pilot (i.e., only to the pilot). The other thing you could do (which may be a little simpler in some ways) is to write up the vehicle, and just add a major or extreme side effect that occurs whenever the vehicle is damaged.

Re: From THAC0 to HERO When I came to Hero System, I'd been playing Warhammer 40k most recently, and the to hit numbers were very intuitive in that light. Here's a simple rule you can teach new players if you're not obsessed with keeping DCV values secret. If OCV and DCV are equal, then the to hit number on 3d6 is 11. If they differ, adjust the target number in favor of the person who has the higher value by the amount of the difference. Bob has OCV 5 and Alice has DCV 5, so target is 11. If Alice dodges, increasing her DCV by 3, then Bob's target number is 8 instead. Super simple.

Re: And 6e print books start to arrive Got mine via UPS (I was a pre-order customer). Wow are they nice to handle. Bright as an angel's wing, heavy as a devil's sin, and as interesting as the world that lives in between.

Re: 6E1 & 6E2 help The Hero Designer software helps with character generation as well. Keeps the math in the background and lets you concentrate on concept. I highly recommend picking that up as well.

Re: Hero Skirmish That is interesting, and I will study it. I can imagine it being interesting to take my warhammer 40k stuff and try generating battles with a different ruleset. When I've had a look, and can offer something worthwhile, I'll bump that thread. Thanks for the reference! The proposal in this thread is more of a skirmish-level thing, and not necessarily connected to an ongoing RPG campaign. Imagine just getting together to play something like D&D minis or Heroclix, but with Hero System mechanics. Would you use the whole ruleset? What would you abbreviate or simplify? I may borrow some of the simplifications from the mass rules you've proposed, but I'm sure others will have interesting views on this as well.

Hi everyone, I actually dusted off some material I worked up a while back for a kind of miniatures skirmish game using a restricted Hero System ruleset. Basically, I took the D&D miniatures battles starter pack and a couple boosters and created "stat cards" for them with Hero Designer and a custom export format. I basically used the minis as the sources for the Hero build in the same way that you'd use a character concept as the source for a More information and a zip file with examples are here. I never worked up a final rules document for this, but I'm thinking about revisiting the project for 6th edition, with an eye toward the tons of Heroclix miniatures I have sitting around. Besides using standard effect, artificially restricting SPD, Defenses, and CVs, and keeping overall points totals relatively low (e.g., 75-150 points in general, if memory serves). Are there other rules you'd recommend adjusting for this kind of tactical combat game?

Re: Technical: Game Controller I've got an XBox wireless controller, and connected it to the PC via a $20 wireless receiver for PCs that you'll find wherever XBox accessories are found. If you don't either of those things, the whole setup is about $60.

Re: Hero Podcast: What Would You Like To Hear? One question you might want to ask yourself as a way of making format choices is: does this podcast presume people are already forum and website readers? If not, then some of the choices about content could include things like: announcements about upcoming products, general news and company announcements, upcoming convention appearances, and other company stuff. If that's all repetitive for the target audience, I'd skip it. I think a monthly Q&A feature where you respond to email questions directed specifically to the podcast would capture a lot of the variety and odd ideas. I think Dave Mattingly's game session idea is cool as a one-off, but not as a regular feature. It might be interesting to have highlights of an ongoing campaign and how the GM and players are handling certain in-game and out-of-game challenges. I think it would be cool to have segments directed specifically at new players getting to know the system, and segments for toolkitters (because really, the APG is never finished, right?). I don't know how much value I see in talking about the publishing business, except maybe as part of the Q&A. You want people to play games with the system, and I don't see that discussion as advancing that goal. (This could also be the stuff of announcements and/or particular Q&A.)

Re: Supervillains and Philosophy You know, I'll confess that I don't think we had a really great essay on Lex Luthor, or on the Kingpin, or on any of the other "supernormal" type villains. I kind of think that might have something to do with the fact that for someone like the Kingpin, there are already books out there that study the mafia, or the ethical bounds of science and industry if it's Lex Luthor. I think those characters as specific characters deserve better, but as an editor, I'll tell you, much of the shape of the book depends on what submissions you get. So has anyone read it yet? I actually geeked out a few days ago when I discovered the book on the shelves of a Borders recently. Seriously, this must be what Steve Long feels like every day of his life!

Re: Post "gotchas" here Good catch Joe! The new rules here are very interesting. I'm going to start pre-calculating weapon PD/ED stats so I can see how likely breakage is.

Re: Supervillains and Philosophy Hey Friends, a quick bump just to let you know the book's out now (as of a week ago I think). If anyone's had a chance to look at it, I'd love to hear what you guys think!

Re: Post "gotchas" here If one of you knows better I'd be interested to hear it, but I can't find the 2x base DCs maximum for STR adds to DCs in the "Taking Damage" section. That's a BIG change from 5e if so.

Re: Things you've noticed I saw that in MC there's a sign for a restaurant called "Darren's Pizza," and wondered if it wasn't a not-so-veiled reference to the esteemed Mr. Watts.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! I've got a Patriot-type character called National Guard. Can we set a time to meet online and get the supergroup created?

Re: 6th Edition Hero System Totally! What a tease!

Re: One Last 6E Preview: The Covers! Gah, I cannot rep Sean Waters again! Someone take care of this for me? Slipcovers is a great idea, and I too thought the electric blue cover would jump out at, but not necessarily draw in new readers. I'd pay for an official slipcover if it came in at the $5-10 range and had great art on it.