DavidV

I was a Top Secret GM back in the 80s. Never really got to play because no one else was into spy-fi enough to be the GM (I was also reading Fleming, Le Carre, Deighton, etc. and watching a lot of spy stuff during that era). When SI came out, I was starting to find the system lacking and some players who were also into Champions pointed out the existence of Danger International (or maybe it was the ever-helpful owner of my FLGS) so I picked up a copy. That was my gateway drug to Hero and I subsequently started using an early edition of Fantasy Hero as my go-to fantasy game as well. As for using TS stuff in DI, I don't really recall now. I owned a lot of the TS modules and other supplements, so I probably did. There was some good material for Top Secret that could be repurposed fairly easily. Oriental Express had some nice train floorplans and such. Operation Fastpass was a good, classic Cold War mission set in Budapest.

Depends on the genre of fantasy. I long ago ran an ancient Greek FH campaign set in the Hellenistic period but with Homeric and mythological deities and monsters (e.g. the first adventure involved centaurs). The deities' presence was very much felt explicitly as they interfered with the PCs adventures much as they do in the Trojan War in Homer.

Or you could do what I used to do and just bash out a spreadsheet for character creation in your favorite office package. 😎 Since I wasn't running Champions, I didn't need to worry much about powers, though I did have a sheet for those, too, so I could do spells, psychic powers, etc. for campaigns that required them. Alas, the last one I built (for Excel 2003, IIRC) is long gone.

That and Danger International were the games that pretty much got me into Hero back in the day. Even used the FH magic system when I needed some kind of weird powers for DI (e.g. horror campaigns). I tended to run fantasy campaigns that don't fit the D&D mold very well (heroic fantasy based on Classical mythology and such) so I loved it. Haven't played anything later than 4th ed., though.

Michael Surbrook has some Victorian characters on his book-derived characters page. That's probably a start for you. http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationsbook/bookchar.html

It was the game that got me started on Hero. I mostly ran spy campaigns at the time it came out and wasn't totally happy with Top Secret S.I. so a friend who had Champions pointed it out to me. So, yeah, nice to see it may finally be coming back.

Re: Teen Spy Campaigns Let's not forget Charlie Higson's Young Bond series covering James' adventures while a student at Eton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Bond

Re: Kong needs boots?

Re: Necroscope Hero

Re: Necroscope Hero He continued with (as I already said, I haven't read them, but I'm an ex-librarian so got to watch them roll in through our cataloguing department): Vampire World series (trilogy) - adventures of Harry's twin sons on the Vampire World (kind of what you're suggesting for an RPG) The Lost Years series (2 books) - Not sure, but I think this fills in Harry's adventures while searching for his wife and son between Wamphyri and The Source. E-Branch (trilogy) - New vampires and a new generation of E-branch agents. I think Harry may show up as a "ghost" in this one. Plus some short stories/novellas in various collections, and possibly some other novels. Here's the Necroscope page on Lumley's website: http://www.brianlumley.com/books/necroscope/ On the RPG side, I agree that a Starside campaign would be fun. Actually, a high level fantasy campaign with the PCs as a faction of Wamphyri lords battling for supremacy over various rivals might be a blast. I've also contemplated using the Wamphyri in a modern horror campaign, esp. if my players weren't familiar with the novels. Nice twist on vampires that might just be the ticket to put Buffy wannabes in their place. David

Re: Necroscope Hero Loved the first five books (up to Deadspawn) but felt he had pretty much wrapped it up in book 5, so never bothered with the subsequent sequels. Lumley has a really bad habit of flogging dead horses and I felt he was already getting into that mode after The Source (book 3) so had no inclination to continue beyond the original series. By "flogging dead horses", I mean that he comes up with good ideas and interesting settings then uses them until it hurts (hurts the reader's brain, that is). His Lovecraft-inspired pulp adventures (the Titus Crowe/De Marigny series and various offshoots) suffered from the same thing. Interesting ideas and universe to start, but stretched to and beyond its limits by the end. Never actually RP'ed in the Necroscope universe, but have felt that most of Lumley's universes, from the Crowe "war against the Old Ones", to the pulp heroic fantasy of the Borea and Dreamlands novels, to Necroscope would all work well as RPG settings. They are fairly straightforward, lots of opportunities for adventure, and at least 1 or 2 cool ideas in each setting for the GM to have a ball with. David

Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs If I have time, I may take a swing at Tom Sawyer by Rush ("Today's Tom Sawyer/Mean mean guy") or maybe the Eurythmics Missionary Man ("Don't mess with a Missionary Man"). I don't actively game, so my Hero fun mostly comes from messing with characters in my head. David

Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs Seconded. Wouldn't touch the Walrus with a 10' pole unless you want to stat up John Lennon for some reason. As for Boris, surely that are stats for spiders in the Bestiary or something that would cover it. David

Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs Ah, Stan Rogers. Glad to hear he's known "down there". I've always had the impression he was more of a Canadian thing. It's hard to say that a folkie like him rocked, but he did. As for Barret's Privateers, you've probably got a whole campaign there in that song. A bunch of 18th century sailor types from Nova Scotia in a rundown schooner taking on the Yankees. Regency Hero? Pirate Hero? What would cover the War of Independence anyhow? Of course, you could always "update" it, by having space privateers or something like that. David

Re: Religion Hero?? Amen to that. I'm a Unitarian from Canada and see it in my church (and in myself, since I was raised Christian and became a UU later in life, I'm still not always the most knowledgeable and orthodox of Unitarians). As for the whole topic of "Religion Hero", the only solution that would adequately deal with the whole problem of using real world religions in an RPG supplement would be to have each section written by a knowledgeable practitioner of that religion. Since that's probably not practical (and there may be non-gaming books that cover off the type of information that would be included just as well), perhaps something written a higher level (i.e. not addressing specific faiths) that covers themes in the culture of religion (rituals, lifestyle issues, etc.) would allow GMs to more knowledgeably model the role of religion in their campaigns while leaving GMs and players to work out which, if any, real world religions to include and to do the necessary homework to make sure they do it right. Personally, I agonize over creating religions for my fantasy worlds, since I (a) want to make them "fell" like a religion, not some abstract creation and ( want to ensure that if I am modeling them on a real world relgion, they actually live up what is good and positive about that religion. The simple D&D approach of throwing together a bunch of gods and goddesses and calling that a religion doesn't cut it for me. The bottom line is that any handling of a given faith in an RPG, esp. a published one, needs to be respectful and (as much as possible) free of serious errors or prejudices. If you can't achieve that, better to deal with religion on a broader level and leave specific faiths to those who follow thm. David