cjudisch

Erp! I shoulda said, "For smoking in a non-smoking area". Which is something that I personally never do (it's the rude smokers that've gotten us to the point where you can't smoke anywhere anymore anyway), but I frequently have the urge to do so out of sheer perversity. Kinda like the desperate desire to walk on any grassy area where there's a "Keep of the Grass" sign.

It wasn't anything major. After one of the uglier flame wars on the old LUG-Trek ML where I (for want of a better phrase) "went off" on the offending parties (basically, I told them to "Go #$@! yourselves"), you sent me a wonderful email expressing thanks and encouragement (and you still hold the title as the nicest game designer I've ever "met"). I replied with a comment about how much I'd enjoyed your work on Champions (J,NL in particular) and you started telling me about Hudson City: The Urban Abyss (which you were just starting work on at the time, this was before the whole LUG/WotC/Decipher thing and obviously way before you saved Hero from financial ruin) and i asked (in my charmingly impish way :-D ) if you could insert my name (Carl Judisch) into the manuscript as one of the Harbinger of Justice's victims.. Gunned down for smoking in a public place. You said you'd try. It's not a promise that I'd try to hold you to or anything, I was just curious if you remembered the incident.

I've found the two free documents listing the Heroes and Villains of the Champions Universe extremely helpful in designing and running my Champions Universe Campaign. What I would find even more helpful would be a pdf copy of the Champions Universe Timeline (from the CU Book) that I could print out and give to my players as a handout (not to mention cut and past into Word so I can add my own "historical" events of the past and entries from our campaign). Just a Suggestion/Request.

Which makes me wonder if you remember the promise you made to me on the old LUGTrek Mailing List...

As much as I loved Dark Champions (and I really loved DC), the book that I think was even better was The Hudson City sourcebook, Justice, Not Law. I remain to this day mystified why JNL didn't win an Origin Award. It's simply the best modern-day RPG supplement ever produced.

For Campaigns that simulate universes akin to the "mainstream" comic continuities (DC, Marvel), I find that a ratio of one Superhuman (of whatever persuasion) per one-million Normal Human works really well. I generally add the caveat that Superhumans tend to gravitate towards the "First World" of industrialized/Post-Industrial nations and areas where personal liberty is held in high esteem (otherwise, China has a VAST number of superhumans that dwarfs the rest of the world's superhuman population).

While I'm not positive, I think that's why it's called "Opinion"...

D'oh! I can't believe I forgot Dark Pheonix! Such a tragic end... (Before Marvel FUBAR'd continuity and brought Jean Grey Back )

My four favorite comic-book villains devide evenly between DC & Marvel (Which is weird, because I've always favored DC over Marvel by a fairly large margin). DC: The Joker - Although it depends largely on how he's written. I've always liked the joker portrayed as the psychopath as opposed to the cheeful mayhem-causing joker from the silver age. Lex Luthor - A gotta second the earlier comments about he post-crisis revamp. Lex Luthor as the ultimate power-player, the Above-the-law reflection of the darker side of human nature and a walking commercial for the idea the "Power Corrupts". Marvel: The Red Skull - I mean, the guy was Hitler's personal Do-Boy, what's more evil than that? Perhaps less relevant today than he was in his silver-age career, I always liked that he was sort of the evil reflection of Captain America. Where Cap embodied the spirit of America, the Red Skull embodied the spirit of Nazi Germany (a terrifing prospect for a young kid whose last name means "Of The Jews"). Doctor Doom - Doom is the man. Complicated and, with a background out of a Greek Tradgedy, at times almost sympathetic. If William Shakespeare had written comic books, he would've creatd Doctor Doom.

While I agree with you that, were the stakes high enough, Supes would kill Darkseid, I gotta disagree with you regarding the lack of remorse. He'd tear himself up inside. That's what makes him great. The fact that he'd feel guilty about not being able to control his anger or find a non-lethal solution is what makes him Superman (and provides the moral authority for him to take the law into his own hands). Superman would also probably (Like John Stewart in "In Blackest Night") surrender to an authority that wanted to try him for regicide.

The Super League opperates out of its Orbital Space Station "The Lighthouse" located at the L-5 Lagrange point. The group has a global sphere of operations facing threats to life and freedom on a world-wide scale. Almost all of the group's heroes fight crime in their home cities when not on League buisness. Paragon - patrols Africa from his Secret Fortress atop Mount Kilamenjaro. Dark Knight - Prowls the back alleys of his native Chicago. The Amazon - Defends all of Greece from her island home in the Aegean. The shapeshiting alien dubbed Proteus has no set home and resides in the Lighthouse full time. Lightbringer - protects his home on the island of New Los Angeles (Earthquake Caused by Dr. Desrtoyer) from both Crime and Natural Disaster. Raptor - the genetically-engineered Human/Avian hybrid patrolls the American Northwest from his Aviary in Seattle. Speed - Spends his time cleaning up his home town of Phildelphia (when he's not on the verge of getting fired from his job as an English Teacher in an Inner City high school).

FWIW, I look upon characters (or any portion of a published setting) that i don't like as an opportunity. When I first picked up Champions Universe and read through it, I took note of the characters, places, and things that didn't jibe with my personal gaming style/tastes/what-have-you and put them into a list (CU is pretty good, so the list is relatively short). Now, as I'm constructing adventures & plot-arcs for my campaign, the list of people, places, and things that i don't like is turning into a Hit List of things that are going to be destroyed. For example (and I know I'm going to get hammered for this one), I'm not terribly fond of Foxbat. So after a few encounters with the PCs... ol' Freddie's gonna die. It allows me to turn something I don't like about the setting into something i do. Same thing with the members of the Champions team I don't like. Actually, the death's of Ironclad & Sapphire are going to form the central plot of the campaign's first adventure and the PCs will step up and flesh out the remainder of the team (swelling the groups total membership to seven as well). I find that judicious use of the in-game deaths of established NPCs makes the campaign more dramatic and exciting.

Also in the "resources" category is the website: >The Pulp.Net< a website devoted to the fiction of the pulp era. It's got some pretty sweet stuff.

If I were you (and of course, feel free to disregard this, it's all subjective opinion)... If they're going to focus on Combat and make every single power with the OIHID limitation, I'd make a "Batman" style character whose Secret ID has almost as much going for him as his Hero ID. Then I'd take the GM aside and say, "Hey could we have one of those moments like you see in the comics where the characters are stuck in a position where they are forced to deal with bad guys in their Secret IDs" If he's the comic-book fan you say he is, he's sure to recognize that it's a genre bit as old as the genre itself. Ex: The PCs are all guests at a swanky party when bad guys show up and take the entire place hostage. Suddenly all the "Must transform into Super ID" characters are STUCK, while the crafty PC who didn't buy all his powers that way is free to act. As i Said, a genre classic. Just a suggestion.

Bearing in mind that this is my opinion and therefore utterly subjective... I absolutely love the book. I think that CU is the best Comic Book setting (that wasn't based on an established Comic-Book Company's continuity) I've ever seen for an RPG (and, considering how much I loved the "IST" setting for SJ Games' GUPRS Supers, that's saying something). I mean, sure there are a few characters and setting ideas that I don't care for (they just don't jibe with my personal tastes or what have you), but even those are useful... the characters provide me with a ready-made "Hit List" of characters for supervillains to kill during plot moments and the setting parts I don't care for provide me with plot ideas (i.e. "Hmm... I'm not real crazy about the Emperyans, I know! I'll do an adventure where Dr. Destroyer wipes them all out and takes over their hidden valley as his new headquarters!"). As I said though, that's just my opinion. YMMV of course.

Re: Just bought the FRED, a couple of questions VIPER & UNTIL are each getting their own books. Some of the Champions Universe villains will be there. I'm not sure if DEMON is getting it's own book or not, but there's some information on it in Champions Universe & I imagine it'll get covered more thoroughly down the road a bit. I'm not confident enough in my knowledge of hero 5th to try and answer the rules question (I'm sure there are others on these boards that are however). Another possibility would be to post this question on the Hero System 5th Edition Rules Questions forum.

I have a character who's rationale for powers is his mutant physiology and several of his/her powers are represented by an EC: Mutant Physiology (In this case the powers are Flight, Strength, and an energy blast - represented as "Power Vision"). However, the character also has a number of powers that stem from his mutant physiology but are not in the EC (Characteristics, Damage Resistance, Damage Reduction, etc...) for one reason or another (Because they're special powers or because they don't cost END, primarily). Now, how do I simulate that these powers are suceptible to the same Drain, Suppress, and other powers that would reduce the effectiveness of the EC?

Well, I for one would be very interested in such a book.

The Chosen - This hero has been chosen by some mysterious agency or individual (for reasons that may or may not be explained to him/her) to recieve some superhuman power/equipment/whatnot and fight on the agency/individual's behalf. (Examples: Green Lantern, The Star Brand)

While I realize that the Dark Champions releases are a ways in the future, are there any plans for including any of Chris Avelone's outstanding characters from the 4e "Underworld Enemies" book? The Idiot King in particular was a favorite (in my opinion, he was as excellent a villain in his own way as Dr. Destroyer or Mechanon).

Coolness. Glad to know I'm not going crazy. Thanks!

Am I missing something? I've got: Conquerers Killers & Crooks, Champions, & Champions Universe but i can't seem to find stats for Oculon anywhere. Are they in one of these books and I'm just not seeing it? Are they in a yet to be released book? Is the youth I misspent following the Greatful Dead around the contry finally catching up to me? Just wondering...