BigJackBrass

Re: Introducing player to the HERO System I'd suggest concentrating on running the game in a smooth and easy fashion. Avoid lots of optional rules and details unless you are very confident with them, and let the actual rules take the backseat to the adventure. D&D is a very good system at telling you what you cannot do, whereas a key strength of HERO is that it allows players to create the character they want and then play that character in the manner they desire. Once your players get a taste of that sort of freedom I suspect that they will have trouble going back to a restrictive class and level system, but don't overwhelm them at first. Package Deals are an excellent way of bridging that chasm between character classes and totally free design, since they offer something familiar to D&D players - "I'm playing a Ranger" and so forth - but don't straitjacket the characters, and likewise picking powers from the UNTIL book or spells from the Grimoire instead of creating each one speeds up character generation and simplifies things for the players. Let them dip their toes in the water before showing them how vast the ocean is.

Re: Resistance is futile Back from town... rolls against "Sneak book into house without girlfriend noticing" skill...

Re: Resistance is futile Links, threats, persuasion... I curse you all, from the bottom of my credit card. Shopkeep! a little service here, if you please!

With half a ton of Champions books bowing my shelving I was absolutely, positively not going to be buying Dark Champions. No need, not my style, it'd never get used and so forth. And then this evening I snagged a free ticket to the preview of the "Sin City" movie and, like half of the characters, I was blown away. My resolve is weakening...

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Bit of a lengthy quote, but this one comes from a "Golden Heroes" game back in my pre-HERO days. In GH players have to justify their randomly rolled superpowers in order to keep them, so my friend Steve was attempting to explain how his character - originally called "Hotpants" and then changed to "The Very Fast Man" (I could tell from the start that GMing this one was going to be a lot of work) - was capable of running fast enough to break the sound barrier: Steve: Okay, I've got three options for you... [shudders from assembled group] Steve: I woke up one morning and found that I could run very quickly. GM: Errm, seven hundred and odd mph? Steve: Okay then, both of my parents were really fast runners. GM: Not getting any better is it? Go on, let's hear the last choice. Steve, entirely straight-faced: Everyone else runs slowly...

Re: The best of Other Pulp RPGs Most of the pulp RPGs have something to offer, especially as you can find many of them going for a song on eBay. The best supported was certainly "Daredevils," and despite the slightly clunky rules the adventures at least are worth pinching. TSR's "Agent 13 Sourcebook" has a specific background and is fairly brief in its coverage of the era, but there is enough non-system information there to mine for hints and adventure ideas. Likewise, the pulp setting for Rolemaster is detailed and chock full of events and timeline information tailored to pulp games, although it's a bit dry in comparison to "Cliffhangers" and other related and highly useful GURPS books ("Warehouse 23" alone should keep you in adventures for a year, and the harder to find "Places of Mystery" sparks so many ideas from every paragraph that it's worth a shelf of supplements from many publishers). I never had much time for White Wolf's offering, which puts a unique spin on the pulp era and manages to seem both padded and full of uninteresting information at the same time. Much better is "Terra Incognita," which has a supporting website chock full of handy pulp links and is itself a delightful game presented with tongue in cheek and gadgets in every pocket. Since it's written for the descriptive Fudge system it also has the benefit of being easily adapted to other games. "Savage Worlds" is also easy to adapt, but the supplements are a bit pricey for the information they offer if you're not using that system (It's a very enjoyable game in its own right, however). This is often the case with D20 supplements too, which have a tendency to focus on new rules above all else. Finally, FBI's "Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes" managed better than most to cover a wide range of pulp styles, be superbly playable, well written and brimming with wonderful advice for the GM. New Hero players might not be aware that several supplements for that game also sport Hero statistics (and it's written by "Justice, Inc" co-author Michael Stackpole. Even the best game can benefit from the ideas found in other products, and although I shall be adding to "Justice, Inc" with the information from "Pulp Hero" when it comes out I fully expect to keep casting an eye over new pulp games as they come out: "Pulp Era" is next on my list. There is more than one reason to pick up another game, if you choose carefully.