Rune

DunDraCon 47 takes place on President's Day weekend (Feb. 16-19, 2024).  It will be located at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, CA.  This convention usually has a good selection of Hero Games offerings.  Worth attending if you are in the area.

In case anyone wants to know:
 
In 1985, the United States created the Sentinel program.  A civilian military unit which employs paranormals.  It is the premier super powered group in the United States.  It ranks supervillains/superheroes by category.  Category 1 is the weakest while the highest seen so far is a category 8 which killed several superheroes before being driven off.
Local Supers
Lodi Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (LOSERS)
The LOSERS are a group of third string supervillains who for one reason or another can’t make it in normal supervillain society.  The LOSERS are very open to supervillains joining their group and do not judge other supers for their disabilities.  They are a cat 3 group.
Lube – Lube is the primary leader of the group.  His power produces a sticky, slimy gel which constantly excretes from his body.  The gel is slippery, slimy, and gets everywhere.
Flat – Flat is the lieutenant of the group, primarily because he was the second person to join.  Lube was the first.  Flat wields the awesome U-Lance, a HTH device which channels Flat’s chemical gas generation.
Ruby Tuesday – Ruby has probably the most socially acceptable power in that she is a shape changer.  Unfortunately, she can not hold any shape more than a day and her base shape changes every time she sleeps.
Bludgeon – Ruby’s best friend.  Bludgeon is very strong and has huge forearm like clubs.  Unfortunately, this has the effect of not letting her grab or manipulate anything (no fine manipulation).  This makes her life pretty hard (has a hard time getting dressed, can’t eat using finger or utensils, etc).
Kafka – The cockroach powers super guy.
Postal – A postman with the superpower of sending a properly addressed package anywhere in the world.  Some restrictions do apply. (Can’t send live animals, no solvents, no contents under pressure, etc.)
??? – an unknown member not encountered by the PCs.  He funds the LOSER group.
Scylla
Scylla is the name of an eco-terrorist group and the ship they sail on.  They attack any ship they feel is polluting or exploiting the seas.
Kraken Joe – Leader of the group and Captain of the Scylla.  He is half octopus on his right shoulder and face.
Tsunami – a Japanese ecoterrorist who can control the water.
Mako – a supervillain who has the looks, powers and abilities of a Mako shark.
Seadawg – Members of the Scylla group.  They are eco terrorist pirates who can’t spell.  They man the Scylla and are cat 2 threats.  They have no powers but the Scylla ship is a heavily armed military vessel.
The Syclla – Is a ship stolen by the Seadawgs to replace the Flotsam, an armored tug boat/fire boat.  The Scylla was a fully armed vessel with light missiles, machine  guns, and a small recoiless.
??? – several other cat 3 members have not been met by PCs.
Zukünftiges Deutsches Reich (Future German Empire)
The ZDR are based on the moon and are planning to retake the Earth.  They have begun supporting existing groups with similar ideological viewpoints on Earth and secret missions to destroy those who might oppose their rule.
Ubermensch – “Superman”, a flying brick.  Considers himself an invulnerable, immovable brick.  Others consider him just a prick.
Die Gratin – “The Countess” is a 400-year-old blood mage/vampire.  Uses blood in interesting ways including magical blood spears and swords.  She’s a bitch but not really a Nazi.  She just works for them for her benefit.  She keeps a list of people who pisses her off but seldom remembers them after a while.
Blitzableiter – “Lightning Rod” is a relative newcomer to the ZDR group.  He’s good friends with his co-recruit Entzünden.  He turns temporarily into a living lightning bolt which he uses both to move and to attack but the drawback is that he needs to land after each move.
Der Überreder – “The Persuader” has the ability to make suggestions to people.  He is not well liked by his peers who do not like how he plays with people, enemies or not.  He seems to need to be close enough to his targets to tell them what to do.
Ein-Mann-Armee – “One Man Army” has the ability to summon clones.  The clones will pop if they take too much damage.  Taking out Ein-Man-Armee will take out his clones.
Entzünden – “Ignite” is a new recruit.  He has amazing control of fire and can even sheath himself in fire to protect himself and fly.  His fire requires oxygen to create the fire and was defeated by Sabre holding him in the cold water of the Monterey Bay.
Jägermeister – “Hunt master” is a master martial artist.  Technically, a normal, he is an expert in Kampfrigen both the tradition and new maneuvers he has added to the Lunar branch.  He has taught most of the ZDR’s military martial arts.
Überschallknall – “Sonic boom” A sonic energy master and former boxer. He’s a bit overconfident and thinks he’s a better soldier than he is.
 
Space Nazis from the Moon
February 16, 2020
Roll Call
Mayhem (played by James Kletzing) Doc Paladin (played by Vernon Putnam) Mr. Powersuit Guy (played by Brian Lienhart) The Human Torch (played by Tony Morreto) Cybrite (played by Isaac Bolmen) A-ko (played by Bruce Hahne) Freedom Belle (played by Barton Bolmen)      Space Nazis from the Moon are planning to destroy California by mind controlling a space monster sleeping in deepest part of the trench in the Monterrey Bay.  Their first step is to get the latest in mental control of giant lizards technology in Silicon Valley.  They outsource this task to Lodi’s Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (L.O.S.E.R.S.), a group of supervillains (cat 3) who for one reason or another could not cut it in Northern California’s super scene.
     The LOSERS strike a technical company working on high tech animal control techniques.  They get instructed to steal a mind control device which operates on reptilian brains.  They were able to disable the general alarms and security systems, but the restricted lab area was not disabled, and an alarm went off.  The sounds of the alarm, surprised Flat who released a toxic cloud in the company.  The LOSERS evacuate the building only to run into several superheroes on the street.  A quick fight occurs, and the LOSERS lose.  Only Kafka escapes capture but Mayhem allows both Ruby Tuesday and Bludgeon get away.  In exchange, they find out about the tech being stolen and the destination address for the stolen goods.
When they get to the destination address, they find out it’s a motel room.  Inside the room, a Nazi spy is taking pictures of the device and is sending the information in a narrow beam up to a cloaked Nazi saucer hovering 1 mile above.  The saucer, hidden from sight and radar, relays the information to the second saucer which is running the operation to capture Scylla.  The first couple of heroes who arrive at the motel decide to track the radio signal to its destination and accidentally crash into the cloaked saucer following the beam.  The saucer attempts to see what hit it and opens a hatch when Powersuit and Sabre, the two heroes, enter the saucer.  The Nazis fire assault rifles against the invaders but the guns are to no avail.  Ubermensch who is on board attempts to pull the heroes off the ship but also to no avail.  With reinforcements of the heroes on the way, he makes the decision to scuttle the UFO and drop its payload of bombs on the city of Santa Cruz.  Unable to use high explosives against the invading heroes because of the confined space being their saucer and the bullets being useless, they attempt to hold the invaders down with grappling holds and use shaped charges against the two heroes.  One hero gets grabbed and a shaped charge is set.  Meanwhile to protect the control center, they set up a 50 cal. Machine gun with AP bullets.  Powersuit Guy tosses off the grab and rips off the shaped charge.  With only seconds to spare, he throws the shape charge at the machine gun setup and on phase one, it explodes.  The explosion takes out most of the control center and the gun nest as well as most of the Nazi officers.  The saucer spins out of control and begins to fall to the Earth.  The Powersuit Guy, Sabre, and CyBrite, who joined them, push the saucer into the bay to prevent it from crashing into the beach.
     Meanwhile, the heroes at the motel quietly surround the room.  Mayhem sets himself up in the only possible escape route and meets Stan Lee walking the dog at night past the motel.  Doc Paladin knocks on the door to the room with the spy but Freedom Belle doesn’t want to wait and screams down the door, or at least attempts to.  The door is battered but is not knocked down.  The Human Torch purposely sets off the sprinklers which causes a big ruckus in the motel with people in other room screaming about the noise and unanticipated rain in their rooms.  CyBrite kicks in the door and the spy attempts to fight back.  Freedom Belle covers the spy, but given the spy’s orders, decides to take the damage and escape.  This fails, for while the damage doesn’t do much, the spy is knocked back into the room.  On the ground, Freedom Belle blasts the spy into the ground and into submission.  With nothing much else to do, CyBrite starts flying to where Powersuit Guy and Sabre are fighting.  The human torch soon follows afterwards.  After ensuring the spy is out, Doc Paladin and Freedom Belle join in the flight to the saucer.  They all come to the saucer after the saucer loses control and begins its plummet towards Santa Cruz.  As the saucer is falling, its bomb bay doors open, and Nazi soldiers and bombs drop out.  Everyone but Cybrite that are in flight deal with the bombs and Nazi soldiers.
The saucer crashes into the bay, its nuclear fuel cracked.  The water cools the small nuclear reactor, but the heroes lift the saucer out of the bay and onto the beach.  The fuel begins to heat but before it can begin to meltdown, Doc Paladin stabilizes the core and repairs the saucer to a semblance of stability.  They get the manual coordinates from the saucer and prepare to head out to the sea.
     Early the next morning, a call comes out from the Eiko Maru, a science vessel for NOA.  They are under attack from Scylla, eco terrorist/pirate group.  The call gets cutoff after the SOS is sent out and nothing is heard from them again.  The coast guard, already with the players because of the saucer on the beach, have asked the heroes for help dealing with the Scylla.  The players agree and they take the boat out in the early morning hours to meet up with the Eiko Maru.  About a half a mile way, they see smoke coming from one of the boats.  Using binoculars and supervision vision, they find out the Eiko Maru has been taken over with hostages by Nazis!  The boat on fire is the Scylla.  All its missiles have been fired and non-essential parts of the boat are on fire.
     The hero plans a surprise attack/rescue.  This is for the most part successful as half the villains (not counting the clones) do not see the heroes coming.  The fight is touch and go for a while, but the hero appears victorious. Die Gratin sees the writing on the wall and leaves combat.  Mako gets called back by the heroes and does not awaken the monster sleeping in the chasm at the bottom of the Monterey Bay.  The heroes find out that the only ones in the ZDR Nazi’s group that could survive at that depth is Ubermensch and Die Gratin.  Die Gratin refuses to do something so unseemly and Ubermensch could not go for a reason not disclosed.

Had a great time at the convention.

I think they should look into doing more kickstarters for updated versions of the 6e books and/or Champions Complete. 
 
I think Paizo has the correct model for the business.  HERO should do the same for Champions but not Fantasy Hero (as most fantasy supplements from other games can and will undermine FH sales).  I think the Champions line has such a strong following and presence in the market place as to dominate the market place.
Create and publish the core books then add supplemental books to drive the market and keep the game relevant and alive.   Publish Core books with corrections as need demands.  Keep stock low but available or possibly only print once every 10 years or so after older used stock gets beaten up by their owners. Publish modules in an overall arc, then bind the arc to make an adventure path with some new material. Create a pre-painted miniatures line for the adventure path.  Random blisters pack can include well known existing Champions villains and NPCs. Create printed poster sized maps for the adventures. Support a community of gamers to keep games being played and standardized. (i.e. Pathfinder society)

DunDracon is at the San Ramon Marriott in California and goes from 2/16-2/19/18.  Traditionally, the Hero Games community makes a strong showing at this role playing heavy convention.  Who is going?