Lemurion

Re: The Ultimate Skill (micro review) I keep fluctuating on whether to order this one immediately or not. It sounds great-- but the question I have is whether it will force more skill inflation into the game or not? Will GMs with TUS want people to take the narrower skills which will require more skills for the same effect and thus raise the point caps again? My current game is very pulp so I'm using fewer broad skills to define the characters, and I'm wondering how much this will apply. And most importantly, are there any skills dealing with Zeppelins?

Re: Underwater Pyramids. Not in a Pulp setting you don't-- this is a job for Zeppelin Bombers. Any Pulp situation can be improved by adding Zeppelins. (And/or Nazis).

Re: Your "2006" Pet Gaming Projects My project for this year is Hudson City 1938, a pulp supers campaign starring the Vigilance Society of America. The game is going great, I'm just finding that I don't have quite enough prep time to get everything going the way I want it. Still, things will come.

Re: Western Hero; advice please. I'm running a 275 point Pulp Supers game (see the Vigilance Society of America) and I use a very similar technique to Edsel's. At a very minimum I want to start the next thread before the players have finished up with the first one. This keeps them active and involved in the game because things never stop happening. Also it's important to know what the villain, or opponent's goals are, what their motivation is, and why they chose this method to achieve those goals. In a western setting, why is someone choosing to hire rustlers to run off your cattle while that one is poisoning the wells? It's all about creating the opposition as characters. You don't need to worry about stats so much as personalities. Once you have the PERSON generated you can run everything flexibly because you are going to know from your understanding of the character how they will act or re-act given the situation. It makes for a much more enjoyable and fluid gaming session.

Re: Published Character Variations If you want a guess-- I would say most if not all of us have. I'm in the process of recreating Black Harlequin for my Pulp Supers campaign, making him a member of one of the Mafia families in Hudson City back in 1938. I don't want to go into too much detail as it could come back to haunt me if one of the players hits the boards

Re: A question of getting into Fantasy Hero GM(s) and Player(s) I find it handles Fantasy well. It does retain its only real weakness, which is that it's such a front-loaded system that the GM has to do a fair amount of work to create monsters and NPCs and a magic system, but that's hardly enough to say that it doesn't handle the genre well. So the only thing I would say that it doesn't handle well is the pickup game where you spend 5-10 minutes creating characters and then play. You just can't build up a group that fast. For anything else it can't be beat. You just have to work the game around the fact that character generation is NOT quick and simple. The converse is that I find it's an easy game for newcomers to play, as everything except "damage" is handled by roll three dice against a target number. It's a simple mechanic and the players I've got (even non-HERO players from way back) can quickly get a handle on it.

Re: Tri-system experiment Interesting, I know that I'm finding things difficult training up new HERO GMs in my local group. I really enjoy the system but it is difficult for new players to pick up at least insofar as character generation goes. That may be the biggest issue. HERO is easy enough to play, but it's so front-loaded that people may bog down in character generation and never get into the actual game. That's a huge pity because it really is a good system (I still consider it the best of the 20+ I've tried over the years).

Re: The "Classic" Elements I like the Time - Space - Matter - Energy set because it also breaks down into two dualities-- Spacetime and Matter-Energy which gives yet another way to handle them.

Re: Handling the historical presence of Super beings I cheat. To start with I'm running my supers game in 1938, which is when the most recent boom in superheroes began. That way I don't have to worry as much about their effect on modern history. For earlier periods I can simply work on the principle that in many cases the myths were closer to truth than some historians would care to admit. Heroic individuals have always existed, but they were very rare. They've become more common in the twentieth century for a number of reasons, not least of which is a larger population allowing for more variations, and of course the Tunguska Event. I really like Oddhat's timeline and mine is fairly similar in conception. I still need to work on things like what's really going on in the layers of the history that no one sees. It will all come out later.

Re: A question of getting into Fantasy Hero GM(s) and Player(s) Yes, HERO is very front-loaded and a lot of people have difficulty getting into it because it's not as easy to just pick up and go. One thing that works for me is to use pregen characters. My current campaign (pulp supers) has a lot of players who have never played HERO before, so what I did was create the characters and then the players got to roll randomly for them. This may not work for all groups, but it's working well in this one. The point of it is that if you want to introduce people to HERO, you will need to do a lot of the work for them at first. Pre-generated characters, especially for the first few sessions, can really help.

Re: Rarity of Magic? I just ordered Valdorian age, so my next FH game is likely to have pretty rare magic. However I'm setting up the Pulp Supers I'm running now for the long haul so it may have to just be something for one-offs.

Re: How hard is your science ficiton? Right now the science in my fiction is pretty soft. I'm doing Pulp Supers with Zeppelins that carry "Martian" Tripods. It's seriously cool and a lot of fun, but the science is pretty arbitrary. What it does do is completely fit the tone of the late thirties over the top pulps.

Re: Vigilance Society of America --- See Champions Forum for Pulp Supers It's been updated, more thrills, chills and now detective action.

Re: The Vigilance Society of America: Pulp Supers Last night I ran the third session. A new player joined, as Oceanus, an Aquaman homage character. This was more of a role-play than combat sesson though it did start off with a bang. As Captain Lightning and the Mastermind plummetted towards the ground, the good Captain discovered that what he was fighting was a robot as a maniacal laugh started issuing from its speakers. Red Lensman dove after them, but rolled a natural 18 on his PER and lost them completely against the city below. Dr. Faidon and Devilcat's players hadn't arrived (Devilcat's didn't arrive at all though Dr. Faidon's did later) so those two characters simply bailed out of the Zeppelin. Below, Oceanus saw the two falling from the Zeppelin (did NOT roll an 18 on his PER) and moved to try to catch them. As the sirens went off in the Zeppelin, Elasto the Rubberman once again realized that he had been left alone with a Tripod that was about to blow up. (He's just lucky that way I guess). The crew bailed out of the Zeppelin, and Elasto (seeing that the Tripod was attached by one of Red Lensman's Entangles) tried to steer it out to sea before it exploded. (Yes it was a hydrogen filled dirigible) Captain Lightning leapt off the robot just before they hit the ground (hoping to avoid a terminal velocity impact) but only succeeded in making it harder for Oceanus to catch him. The characters regrouped on the docks of Pierpoint, only to leave as the police approached. Captain Lightning tried to find the mastermind's robot, but it had vanished by the time he thought of checking. A couple of days later, the city was rocked by the news of a gangland style killing where some of the Torccones had walked into Mama Luisa's ristorante and gunned down some of the Veronteses in cold blood; leaving only a set of mechanical teeth at the scene and saying it was for Joey. Oceanus went undercover at the Torccone section of the docks in Bayside, while the rest investigated. Red Lensman looked for clues as to what had been able to shut down all radio when the Tripods attacked, and Captain Lightning searced for the robot that had escaped them. Oceanus was able to discover that the Torccones had attacked the Verontese because Joey Torccone had been foully murdered at his wedding by a set of mechanical teeth that had leapt out of a box that was a gift from the Verontese falmily. Captain Lightning was able to get into the evidence room and take a photograph of the teeth, which he brought to the group's next meeting. After a bit of thinking, Red Lensman, Captain Lightning, Doctor Faidon (invisible) and Elasto all went to the precinct to see if they could find out about the teeth. Doctor Faidon was able to find them (invisibility and telepathy can be a powerful combo) and memorized their appearance for future images. They then confronted a police lieutenant about Joey Turccone's death, only to discover it had not been reported, and the police did NOT have the body. Back at square one, they did some more research and were able to discover that the Zeppelin had been designed by Dr. Victor Thone (an HCSU grad from ten years before) who had since dropped out of sight. As to the robot, it had been picked up by a cab, taken to the airport and boarded an autogyro. After some more research they were able to discover that Joey had indeed been murdered right after his marriage to Maria Maretti (her family runs another section of the docks) and she was sent back to the old country while his body went in the river in an attempt to keep it quiet. By the end of the session they had retrieved his body, and discovered that the only person who had been opposed to the wedding was the bride's brother: Rinaldo Maretti. Everyone had a blast and they're looking forwards to the next session. Lots of good roleplaying.

Re: The use of accents/voices in your game I was using voices and accents in the game I ran last night. Lots of mock-Italian for the Pulp-Era mobsters (low end) the players were investigating. It helped the game. Anything that personalizes NPCs does.

Re: Assumptions within HERO It can be argued that death is nothing more than a minor transform. Living human to dead human. Having said that, I've never been comfortable with using Transform to any great degree. I limit myself (and by extension most of our group's HERO play) to rules that I feel comfortable using and running. To me it's all part of the fundamental premise that HERO System is a gamer's toolkit. I have a whole bunch of tools in the kit, but that doesn't mean that I use all of them all the time. I use the ones I need to tell the story that keeps the players and myself entertained so that we have a good gaming experience. That's another fundamental premise of the HERO system: That you use it to create an entertaining experience for the game group. We play because we want to, to have fun and enjoy ourselves. (I also think that's why most of us get into debates like this).

Re: Comic Book Physics This is why I set my supers game in 1938. I get to rely on Pulp-Era super assumptions. Much more fun.

Re: Champions universe created by magic? I don't care for it; which is why I use my own Universe rather than the CU. Essentially what I'm doing is taking Hudson City (both 4E and 5E versions) and grafting in NPCs from Millenium City, Everyman, Vibora Bay, and previous editions to make a single Pulp-Era setting. That's what works for me. Some people may find that the official CU does work for them. Those of us who don't, don't have to use it. I would have thought it would have made more sense to split the timeline, running Galactic Champions off from Millennium City's future while Star Hero grew out of the future of Hudson City. That's not going to happen. I can understand the "super-tech stops working" argument if you take the idea that what it means is that while the technology would work, we don't possess the ability to create functional components, and it's the components that fail. The theory is right, but the manufacturing process isn't and the "high magic" loosens the requirements enough that something that shouldn't quite be able to work does. Once things become dependent on real physics we have to make components that work. What I don't like is the fact it is going to require a reboot of the Universe if we're still going to have a Champions game in 15 years. I don't think it makes sense to limit things that way. Otherwise it seems to work well enough for what they want to do. I don't use it because it's not what I want to do.

Re: Help request with new power Well if you go to your handy 5ER you you will see that on page 364 it states that you can use 2" of Flight for 1pt of additional STR when you need to lift something that is over your weigh limit. This indicates that the maximum force that a flying character can exert is equal to their STR + Flight/2 in STR. So that's the number to beat. Eg. to stop a character with 25 STR and 20" of Flight you would need to be able to hold 35 STR. That's my two cents, Canadian.

I posted the first couple of sessions of my Pulp Supers game (Hudson City 1938) to the Champions forum, and it was suggested I mention it here. Check it out. I'd link to the thread but I don't know how.

Re: Assumptions within HERO The default assumption is (IMHO) that the default character is functionally equivalent in HERO terms to an adult human in the real world. Which is to say that insofar as HERO models the Universe, the default character models an adult human and so has equivalent capabilities. Having said that I would more consider most of what has been discussed to be premises, whether stated or unstated, rather than assumptions. But that may be semantics.

The rotation has come round to my turn again, and I've started a Pulp Supers game set in Hudson City. We often play semi-convention style, so I built a handful of characters which the players selected at random. All the characters are designed as essentially homages to Golden Age characters. The roster for Episode 1: Captain Lightning: Speedster with a shield (defense during those move-throughs) Red Lensman: Alan Scott Green Lantern type, energy projector with TK Doctor Faidon: Mystic/Mentalist (invisibility/mental attacks) Devilcat: Blind boxer (a cross between Wildcat and Daredevil) Elasto the Rubberman: A Plastic Man type. The session opened with a disturbance downtown. Captain Lightning (in his reporter secret ID) was hustled out of the precinct, all radio in the city was shut off, and a giant tripod war machine landed downtown, crushing Gacy's department store. Very shortly thereafter the heroes arrived. (Elasto the Rubberman had a front page view as his newsstand that he runs in his secret ID was right across the street). Devilcat (with no real movement powers) was on the ground and the only one to notice that people were moving in to the bank across the street that the Tripod had just blasted. (I used the probe from Villainy Amok). Elasto and Captain Lightning jumped aboard the Tripod while Doctor Faidon tried to block it with force walls and Red Lensman blasted it with force-bolts. Meanwhile, Devilcat followed the people into the bank. Elasto tried to wrap around the Tripod's legs, but that had no effect save a searing pain in his side as he wasn't strong enough to hold it. Captain Lightning, realizing he was useless against it jumped back down and tried to enter the bank. Meanwhile Red Lensman and Doctor Faidon tried to contain the creature with force walls and entangles. Elasto finally found a way in, but when he tried to wreck it from the inside, all he did was shock himself silly (and force a DEX roll from the Tripod, which failed). Back in the Bank, Captain Lightning made a sweeping entrance, tripping on the wet floor from when the janitor dropped her bucket, and went slamming into the vault door. Devilcat then apprehended the four robbers (which is what the were) and retrieved the burn ray they were using on the vault. Outside the characters were dealing with the now grounded menace. It no longer had access to its own ray-gun but it was still dangerous. Elasto recovered and slithered out, while Red Lensman tried to dome it over with force walls. Devilcat turned the burn ray on the downed robot, and Doctor Faidon, seeing the similarity headed inside for a telepathic interrogation. It soon became obvious that Devilcat was the only one able to damage the Tripod, and that its self destruct device was armed. Devilcat almost completely destroyed it, draining every last erg from the burn ray. With seconds to go, Elasto went back in searching for the plug that had eluded him (stretching only his body and eyes inside while Captain Lightning held the rest of his body for a high speed escape). He disarmed the device in the nick of time (Phase 3, on his DEX, the explosion would have gone off on the Tripod's DEX in the same phase). Doctor Faidon returned and picked up Devilcat, telekinetically, broadcasting telepathically that the Tripod had been dropped by the bank robbers' employer. Red Lensman gathered up the other two characters and followed a few moments later. Moments later, their target came into sight: the Z100 a Zeppelin the size of Hindenburg with a rack beneath it holding a second Tripod. End of session 1. The second session was short because I had gone out of town for the weekend and was still 150 miles away three hours before we were due to start. (For those who know Vancouver Island I was in Campbell River and the game was in Victoria-- I also had to make a stop in Qualicum to see my parents). So this session turned into the assault on the Z100. This was pretty much a combat session like the first (most of my players aren't that familiar with the genre or with HERO) but again they had a great time. They entered the Zeppelin from a rear landing stage and defeated the guards there-- only to be asked to come forwards by the mastermind who was in the forward compartment. Red Lensman went forwards outside, and attempted to talk to the mastermind that way, but he would have none of it. Meanwhile, the rest of the group worked their way up inside the Zeppelin to the rear door of the bridge compartment. When the mastermind issued an ultimatum, Red Lensman tried to blast him, but failed to shatter (though he did weaken) the armored glass. The villain pushed "the black button" and fired the ray gun from the Tripod below the Zeppelin. It staggered Red Lensman, but didn't quite knock him out, though it did shatter the armored glass at the front of the cockpit. Grabbing his shield, Captain Lightning went after the villain, attempting a multiple move-through on the door and then the mastermind. (I gave the player two options, he could treat the door like a force wall and add its DEF/BODY to the villain's defenses or he could try to break it with "casual move-through damage" which would be roll half his dice and if he went through he got to apply his full damage to the villain. If he didn't he got to apply his full damage to himself). He shattered the door and slammed through into the villain. Then he had to stop himself, and didn't. Both Captain Lightning and the villain went flying out through the hole in the gondola. End of Session 2. I get to run Session 3 on Sunday night

Re: Help request with new power I'm going to agree with everyone who said TK.

Re: presence attack I've always done them that way too. For me it's a 0-phase action that can be done on your phase either before, during or after an attack, but only on your phase. I look at it this way, a character's phases represent the opportunities that character has to interact/interfere with other characters. Therefore a PRE attack is treated like any other attack/interaction.

Re: Battleship? Sub? Naw....BATTLESUB!!! I took the time to give it a quick read through and it will be very useful once I get up to about 1940 in the game. Among other things I'm running a lot of 4 SPD characters so they fit my game that way as well. I'll probably happily take them and modify them a little then dump them in. Thanks it's a very good sourcebook, and very close to the kind of thing I'm doing. There's a lot of fun in pre-war Supers.