Nato

I was wondering what was in the old Champions GM screen, besides the obvious. I saw it recently available and was wondering if it was worth paying around 20 bucks for? It says that it comes with dozens of color game pieces? Anyone seen these? If so, what exactly are they and how is the quality? Thanks.

Oh, pic attached.

Or we could just reinforce the stereotype that all fantasy art should be painted. I don't understand why so many people complain about comic-style art on non-superhero Hero books. Comic books cover more genres the superheroes, so why can't our fantasy or sci-fi books have comic-style covers.

The fact of the matter is Chris Stevens does great work, and his work on a cover is striking and helps sell books.

Yay! Someone said the pictures are pretty! Woohoo!

I think Chris Stevens really outdid himself on that one! Great cover.

Originally posted by keithcurtis

Are you kidding? Nato is the Unstoppable Art Machine of Hero Games. I think he must be the Steve Long of illustration.

 

Keith "Credit where credit is due" Curtis

*Chuckles*

Thanks! That's quite a compliment. I had to stop this week though, due to the birth of my first child, Allison Paige. But I shall now resume my normal routine of drawing until my hands fall off.

Cool map Keith. Looks awesome in color!

Good points.

Yeah, it's not unreasonable, as there is just so much published continuity - you can't reprint everything. But maybe a condensed write-up of the character may make it more useful to someone who doesn't have all the books. It doesn't bother me, because I have everything I need.

Yeah, that would be the only criticism I would have of this book, is the fact that almost every character used in the adventure is published somewhere else, and not printed in this book. I know one of the frustrations I had with many previously published adventures was that they would reference other books. Yes, you can always substitute characters, but one of the main reason I buy published adventures is that all the work is done for me. Perhaps in the future, adventure books can have just the stats for the characters. Leave out all the background info, and anything else not absolutely needed.

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson

I find M & M much "coarser" than Champions - the gradations aren't as fine. I also find a lot of powers are just combinations of other powers.

I agree.

I agree that some new mechanic should be in place for this type of running. It's one of the most common powers in the genre, yet there isn't one clear-cut, or superclean way to do it in the game. A +1/2 advantage (or whatever value it would ultimately make sense to be) would simplify the creation of speedsters greatly. I hate it when a really simple power concept isn't a simple write-up. I think I'll adopt a new advantage for this, when the simplest way presents itself.

FWIW, I really like how easy it is to build a speedster in Mutants & Masterminds (even if they do all tend to end up looking the same.) Just get the appropriate ranks in the Super Speed power, buy whatever extras or stunts you'd like and you're done. Nice and easy.

I love my Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer. Has an AWESOME option to make poster-sized prints out of a one-page file. I just say how many pages wide and long i want it and it scales it for me. I do that with any map I can use. Scale it so the hexes are 1". Too much fun.

Again, nice work Keith. I'll be blowing your maps up for sure.

Me too. I love looking at the art when I get my books!

Since this is Storn's thread, I'll have to say that there were a few really great pieces by him as well. I love the fantasy styling on them, such as the messager at the woman's door. Great trim around the door and on the clothes. Pretty cool.

Heh. Ego-stroking is one things that keeps a lot of us artists happy doing what we do!

I enjoy seeing your character designs Storn. Keep up the good work. I've been wanting to share some of my characters too, but my life has been super busy now that I have a baby on the way. In three weeks actually! YIKES! Back to work!

LOTS of maps! More maps in an adventure supplement then I've ever seen.

A very large park complex, with a nice hex map of a baseball diamond.

A two-story hex map of a large mall.

A huge amusement park map. A hex map of one of the attractions.

A nice 3D map overlooking several city blocks.

Several colnstruction site maps.

Several maps of a master villain's lair.

Oh I forgot to mention, the book goes as far as providing combat record sheets for each major encounter in each adventure. Has all the characters' stats on them, with blanks for the PCs stats as well. VERY cool.

Many maps are in the back on a full page by themselves for ease of photocopying.

Great stuff.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying this book as well. Only have read the first couple of adventures, and while they are relatively straighforward I think they're extremely well written. In addition to great flavor text like you mentioned, there are plenty of GM "Coaching" bits, especially helpful to a someone who has never run a HERO and/or supehero game before. The maps in the book are excellent; a big thanks to Keith Curtis. I'm a map junky. The maps are also accompanied by thurough descriptions of the settings, with DEF and BODY and other stats for just about any object you could need. Gadget pools for the gadgety villains have been thoughtfully written up to show all the tools they will use on the adventure - not just mearly suggested. I loved the art in the book. The wraparound cover is loads of fun, and there's plenty of goodness from guys such as Storn, Greg Smith, and Eric Lofgren and Bob Cram. Oh, fans of Scott Heine will enjoy his work in a humourous chapter of the book. The adventures tie seemlessly together for those that wish to use them as a continous story arc.

Not only is this a solid adventure book, it's a great tool for novice GMs or GMs wishing for plenty of great settings, maps, and ideas for their own games. Highly recommended book. I hope sales are strong and Hero continues to produce adventure supplements in this format.

Grade: A

Yeah, I have to highly recommend microtactix for their paper models. Specifically, their "Twilight Street" sets are both excellent for most modern building needs. Definitely get the basic set. The price may seem a bit steep at $20 but I felt I got my money's worth as soon as I opened the PDF. There's several different building types, a bunch of different signs to glue on the buildings, plenty of street objects, nice inch-grid tiles for pavement, and all kinds of cool stuff. The expansion set is very nice as well, but keep in mind that it doesn't have the pavement and stuff.

Talisman is in the Champions genre book.

I'm definitely going to be using BP in my game as soon as I can. I'm now a big fan!

Cool, that does look a lot better. Right on.

Great job on the map Keith.

Great news! I'm a big fan of San Angelo and have swiped stuff regularly from it for my own games. Can't wait to see what comes out for it.

Wow, I just saw this book at my local gaming store. Huge! Too bad it was shrinkwrapped and I can't take a look at it. (Did I mention how much I hate that All Star Games in Diamond Bar, California shrink wraps everything but D&D products!!!) Anyway, I didn't pick it up because I get comp copies for my artwork - but I can't wait to get it!

Everyone DOES realize that I started this thread as a joke right? I have no problem whatsoever with cleavage. I think there should be MORE in the world.

*chuckles*

Aren't we all?

You know, I've been trying to work more breasts into my assignments too.

I don't understand how Spacer's Toolkit isn't generic enough. Yes, it is descriptively set in the TE universe, but isn't it easy enough to use in whatever setting you've adopted?

Thanks nHammer! I've sent a private message your way! Much appreciated!