Balabanto

When a new family moves into her home, she taunts their liberal members from another dimension beyond!

Ann Coultergeist!

Game of Empire of the Petal Thrones

That background took a long time, on to Typhoon, a much simpler sheet.

We're down to 16 pictures. That's it.

As a side note, I'd like to point out that all of my products contain adaptation sections.

I see an evil Queen, living on the moon!

Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the fandango?

Sailor Freddie Mercury!!!!

1. GMing is a lot of work. GMing superheroes is even more work: higher power level, juggling multiple character identities/lives, etc. GMing Hero System is even more work on top of that (or at least it can be). So yeah, that's a big ask for people with jobs, lives, relationships, etc. I enjoy it myself, but I can understand why others may not be able to to throw themselves on it.

 

2. Most RPGers are most familiar with fantasy gaming, and the fantasy tropes they're most familiar with don't translate well into the superhero genre. Plus in my experience a lot of fantasy GMs really like to punish their players for being good guys, which makes those players understandably reluctant to play in a game where the whole point is to be good guys. Or they don't want to GM, because they don't understand how to reward players for being moral. (Which is really kindof sad when you put it like that...)

 

3. For players/GMs who really enjoy roleplaying, there's sometimes the perception that superhero games are just one big combat after another. Ironically, for those who just want to dungeon crawl, I've heard the complaint that superhero games have too much roleplaying and focus on Secret Identities and so forth. [shrug]

 

4. I've heard some players say they don't want to play superheroes because comics are too grim & gritty and no fun now. Simultaneously, they feel 4-color games are old fashioned kid stuff. Or they don't want the focus on "realism" of Iron Age games, but find Silver/Bronze Age games unrealistic. So that can be a tough needle to thread.

 

Prior to my last 4-color Champions game, I sat down with all my prospective players and we talked through what comics tropes they likes and which ones they hated. The one that topped the most-hated list was something I hadn't thought of: the futility of catching supervillains and sending them to Arkham or wherever, knowing they'll have escaped by next Tuesday. Once I swore not to do that - or at least not often - everyone got a lot more interested.

If the players are sensing that level of futility, then you need to have them deal with breakouts. Let them recapture a couple of those guys when the escape attempt happens, unless something happens where everyone gets out. And YES, this happened, for a variety of reasons, mostly not paying attention to who was imprisoned, how they were imprisoned, what they did with their free time, and an unlucky accident. This triggered an incident where the entire prison burrowed away. Well, most of the villains escaped. Literally, this had never happened before, although they were really mad, they couldn't dispute the logic of what happened. Always point out in these situations that things might have worked out differently if someone in the group had said something. If not, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Yeah, now all we need is the actual adventure!

Cherry Blossom's Sheet is done. On to the background. (Pant, pant, pant.)

(House of) Sex, Lies, Cards, and Videotape

Die Hard with a Kama Sutra

One campaign. 28 years. No reused adventures.

It can be done. The key things to remember are these:

1) Let the chips fall where they may. WHAT? Is he crazy? Did he just say that heroism doesn't come from heroic action points? If you want your game to last a long time, your heroes have to have the ability to lose, and lose badly.

2) Think in four dimensions. Remember that superhero gaming isn't just about level battlemap strategies. Elevation matters. Cover matters, distance matters. Other dimensions and planes of reality matter.

3) But not too much. (See above) Keep your campaign relatively Earth-Centric, because it limits the above-mentioned workload.

4) Let your players do some of your work for you. When a player has an archenemy, let HIM come up with it. Then he can't say "You totally screwed me" when you do something bad with the guy.

5) Let teamwork do your work for you. Remember, a well run team of agents and a single supervillain can give the players fits. The key is making that guy interesting enough to keep the players engaged.

6) Don't forget to use things they forgot against them. "Do you remember ten years ago when you decided it was a better idea to separate Galvros and Lox from their child? Well, now he's an adult, and he's not too happy with you!"

7) Turn things on their side to keep things interesting. Sometimes, a subtle twist in what they're expecting is better than what they actually expected.

8) Don't be afraid to be make strange noises and sound effects. This keeps people engaged.

Anybody knows if there is a P.A.R.T. version with the HERO stats in???

what is that ?

It's the 70's and the X-Men have been drafted into the Vietnam war in:

 

X-Men: Apocalypse Now

Stuck in a horrible form, the world's greatest villain labors in slavery under Farmer Brown. X-Men: Apocalypse, the Cow

Imperial Wind is done, on to Cherry Blossom. This sheet is weird. It may take a little extra time.

In Xanadu, did Sweeney Todd a stately pleasure dome decree....

And our first Force Awakens Genre Crossover Nightmare is...

He betrayed the light and turned to the dark...but what ees it, man?

Kylo Ren and Stimpy!

War of Worldcraft, which I wrote as an intro 6th edition adventure, is available on Amazon and through the Hero store.

Zoom is Earth 2 Henry Allen. Oliver Queen died on the island and his father became the hood. That means Barry died and his father became Zoom.

In Earth 2 reality, Wells helped Barry break the time barrier. But in this one, he refuses to help Henry do the same.

You have to buy a punch through barrier power that consists of hand to hand attack equal to the damage level, stretching that does not cross intervening space, and indirect on both.

Dentist! Gunslinger! But he ate too much Eggs Benedict!

Doc Hollandaise!

Imperial Wind's character sheet is finished. I apologize for the slowness, but it's the core of the Christmas Season crunch right now, and I have to work 60 to 70 hours a week. Background is next.

That leaves 3 more Imperial Thone bad guys, a robot, eight non throne bad guys, some agents, and the secret master.

Of course, I was thinking something completely different.

Hulk Help!

Hulk Smash puny Cybernation! Hulk is the strongest one there is!

It has sections for a whole bunch of different stuff. Pulp, Champions Universe, and Widening Gyre among them.

All right. We have a draft. It is not a final version and we aren't ready to launch, but I will give everyone 24 hours to make additional suggestions for the kickstarter before it goes down to just me and Jason.