BigJackBrass

Re: Hero Magazines Oh absolutely, but since folks like myself who enjoy digging around for odd articles in old magazines might look into this thread it seemed a good place to add a link, particularly as Different Worlds had already been mentioned. I'm the door-to-door salesman of RPG threads, wedging my size elevens in the door the moment I see an opening I've been doing a bit of hunting for Hero fanzines, but surprisingly I'm not finding a lot. The British fanzine "industry" was madly active in the eighties, but either Hero got missed or else there seems to be little record on the Internet.

Re: Hero Magazines

Re: Learning Via Audio *ahem* Uh... a bit like that, yes! I've not had time to listen to that specific audio, mind you, but it probably does the job. I'm really wondering if a podcast-like recording could make life easier for new and prospective Hero players, maybe as a sort of accompaniment to Sidekick. Clearly the game has a rather skewed image as being wholly impenetrable (fuelled by the inevitable threads on a certain popular forum) and something other than a straight print product might help. Just a thought, anyway.

Recently I've been getting into podcasting, both listening to a wide range of shows and also having some recordings of my games appear on the Web. Nothing fancy, just a group of us playing Truth & Justice and making execrable puns. The increasing spread of podcasting has me wondering whether an "actual play" session might make an excellent learning tool for the Hero System. Either a staged session, or a simple introductory adventure with editorial comments added could make the system more accessible for people who find the apparent complexity of Hero initially overwhelming. It's not a new idea (I seem to recall that Standard Games' DragonRoar system - the one with the Battle Hedgehogs - came with an audio cassette back in the mid-eighties) but these days it's something that could be done for little cost and achieve wide distribution. It might also do something to counter the endless arguments about Hero on the likes of RPGnet. So, does this sound workable to anyone else? I have to say, I'm not in a position to produce such a thing myself, I'm afraid.

Re: Astounding Arrival! My copy arrived in the post yesterday (good old Leisure Games, reliable as ever) and I spent far too much time last night reading the book. Is "unputdownable" a word? An absolutely cracking read and a very handsome volume. The stalling of the pulp line is my only real disappointment with Hero at the moment (understandable, of course, but regrettable nonetheless) but when something like this comes along it makes up for a lot! Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved with the project. Hopefully there will be more Hero story collections in the future.

Re: Future Knowledge I use the same method, although in my case it's not deliberate...

Re: Cap is dead!!!! In all honesty I was more upset when Captain Britain died, not least because I much preferred the look of him a la Herb Trimpe than the revamp. Since then I've added a few years, gained some cynicism and seen too many potentially bold and engaging comicbook plots handled poorly to be anything other than mildly interested by this latest development. It's a pity, really. And I do very much like Cap as a character, even though I may be just slightly behind the times with my view that nobody has topped Steranko when it comes to the definitive version. Still, I'm content to wait and see how things turn out. Maybe Marvel will actually surprise us all in a good way.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From tonight's session: "If you'd given me a gun I wouldn't have had to stampede the elephants!" The game was set in Edinburgh, 1927...

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Only a hard-drinking brother who plays trumpet. I can ask if he's available, if you like...

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Good grief... First I persuade my girlfriend to try RPGs and she turns out to be rather more impressive at it than I am (her recent InSpectres character was a hoot), now she's become a CoH addict and has taken over the computer! Ah well, at least I don't need to explain my hobbies any longer.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Nope, Broadband! And the really annoying part was that only the CoH download was running at that speed. I tried other sites and they zipped along as normal. But... eventually I made it! and the game promptly disabled the sound on my machine... So, after a less than encouraging start, with sound fixed and program installed, I'm finally back in the game, generally as a Victorian-style strongman named Mr Biceps. The game itself runs beautifully, the only speed problem was the initial download. Very odd, but hopefully all that's in the past. They've made a few interesting tweaks to CoH since I was last there and I'm glad to see that Atlas is still pretty busy.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Spent all of yesterday trying to download the update for CoH so I could get on, but no joy. Trying again tonight... and the download estimate is over seven hours! Sigh...

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Thanks for the info. A pity about my old Tanker, Major Carnage, but maybe it's time I flexed the old creative muscles again, anyway.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Well, I finally have the game! Both CoH and CoV in a combined edition I found for £6.95, which is pretty good for a new copy including a month of gameplay. It's currently downloading some info so that I can log into my account... and boy is it taking its time. Hopefully things aren't normally this slow. I've not played the game for nearly two years, so I guess that waiting another day won't kill me... but I was really hoping to get over to Atlas Park tonight! One query: Does anyone know if it's possible to transfer a character from one person's account to another one? My old character is still on my friend's account (he kindly kept him, just in case) but I suspect that he's stuck there.

It's an oldie, and I'm sure it's appeared here before, but for those who have missed it follow the link to Lee's Useless Super-Hero Generator: http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/herogen/

Re: Older Gamers, Older Characters? Seems like anything and everything goes, then. Cool stuff! Thanks for your replies.

Re: Older Gamers, Older Characters?

I've noticed that many of us here at the Secret Hero HQ are of a certain vintage... the more mature gamer, one might say. Old, frankly, compared to the target market for, say, Exalted. Does this mean that we tend to be playing older characters? Is your idea of a hero now a slightly past-it character, approaching middle age and seeing a new wave of criminals emerge? or can you recall the naivety and enthusiasm you had a couple of decades ago and enjoy playing the fresh-faced new super in town? Generally, I rarely played young characters even when I was one. My most memorable Traveller character was about seventy; and although I've never designed Captain Zimmerframe for Champions there's a terrific Astro City story that often makes me consider it. Perhaps I should be asking a slightly different question, though: Does the age of your character affect the way you play him at all? or are your characters caught in that comicbook zone of agelessness that saw Peter Parker take about thirty years to get through college?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... At GenCon a few years ago I met a girl who immediately launched into what I'm guessing was her favourite gaming story: It involved Champions, extra prehensile limbs, a gymnast; and me making my excusing and getting the hell away from her... Americans can be so forward

Re: Arrrrghhh..Pulp resource Guide It is a shame, but pulp gaming has always been this way. Game designers love pulp, but the general market seems to merely dabble and the result tends to be a wave of pulp games, then a drought, then another wave a few years later. Frankly I was just thrilled that Pulp Hero happened at all (and was such a superb piece of work). Everything else has been just exceptionally good icing on the cake... but you know, I never tire of good icing

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... A gem of a line from one player in my group, who has just allowed his character to be captured despite the clear warnings from his danger sense in order that he can continue his investigation: "I am unsure, sir, as to why you want me to get in the cage."

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Of course we care! This is the caringest forum on the 'net!

Re: Pulp miniatures Not terribly local for you, but Bob Murch has a fine selection here: http://www.pulpfigures.com/main.php

Re: Web sticky - Your help appreciated I guess that "Ask the Moderator to make it a sticky" doesn't work in this instance...

Re: Traveller: Jump Drive Your avatar might be a good look for it