Duke Bushido

Thank you, my friend, for trying. But you realize that "Bruce" is the only name in that sentence that has any meaning to me, right? And even then, I shot straight to that Monty Python "mind if call you Bruce just to keep things clear?" Thing before I actually clicked in Batman? Though sincerely: it was ectremely,kind of you to try, and I thank you for it.

So _that's_ where all those Robins are coming from.... Bruce the Playa......

Maximum: "well this sucks! How are people going to see this incredible jawline now?!" Panther will find her "other" job much more difficult: when you're looking for confidential information, people will just _give it to you_ once they start blogging. Jack Brass is going to have a much more difficult time with his social reform efforts. Martin Power: "oh, thank _God_!"

Why the child of heroes? It might prove amusing to have your parents rooting for you, giving advice, cheering you on, collecting news clippings of your exploits and hoping and praying that you never find out that they are retired and still-wanted supervillains. I mean honestly, if I were the GM, I could have so much fun with this....

I sont know if any bozed sets still exist complete on the open market (Chris Goodwin and I opened mine- forgotten in storage for a few decades until I stumbled across them- two Christmases ago), for all I know mine might have been the last surving complete sets. However, you can pick off individuals of the original metal Champions miniatures on eBay and other sites-- usually costume painted, but that's not too hard to fix. However, those are the Champions from first to third edition, so they might not suit your tastes. Well, that, and Grenadier were never thevminis you _really- wanted back then; you wanted Ral Partha and you knew it. As has been commented above, HERO Forge has diddly-squat options for creating supers unless you're either an "everyone in spandex and no details!" or "no one in spandex of any kind! A leather jacket is my costume!" Sort of person. I think most of us fall in between those two points.

You are quite right: it is true for every axe (or at least, every ine that I have ever had to use and maintain. The part of the question that I was addressing qas the "customized" axe: if it has been balanced and honed for person with a particular swing, technique, and size, then it becomes less useful for someone who differs in a category, and less useful still for each additional are in which they are not the ideal for which the custom work has been suited. And it doesn't take much: I spent the better part of a year working with a guy who was as useless with crooked handle as I am with a straight one.

Interestingly, this one is real-world explainable: An axe is extremely easy to dull when used incorrectly, and because of their mass and striking impact, must be sharpened differently from any other edged weapon: too dull and it becomes a club; too sharp and the edged will chip and /or roll and again- it becomes a club. Even the wrist-twist at the time of impact can cause the axe to strike more in the face of the grind than on the edge.

Oh- almost forgot! Mesmer: "Careful! It could be a cat dispenser!" (Mesmer inherited the mystical tools, books, etc- all the trappings of the family business, his great-great grandfather having been the original sorcerer protector of the turn of the last century. Fortunately, upon the death of his grandfather, the mystic artifacts sought out the next black-haired son in the bloodline, and presented him with themselves, the powers they grant, and the key to the Library (the great fire was a cover: the library was moved to an extradimensional space by the guardians of the seal-- the thing that prevents large-scale demonic invasions (smal ones are plot-relevant and somehow continue to this day) to control access to some of the more... "Interesting" works...) It took a a few years to find the heir. His mother had been a desperate college student in a bad situation, and put him up for adoption. He has absolutely no knowledge, and no training (his education should have begun at age four), so he does his best to project an air of authority and competence while usually panicking and winging it.

Oh how right you are! _so_ many corgis to a giraffe. So very, very many...

Decidedly! Supers miniatures arent something that you can usually,find in any great variety at your local shop.

Thanks! Weirdly enough, he was both the most intimidating and least lethal character in that campaign. I didn't just drop This guy onto the GM with an attempt to wreck or rearrange his plans for the campaign. We talked a few times: I told him I wasn't really happy playing a murderous super hero (though I was okay with doing a normals as murderous vigilantes kind of thing, but he was big in the super powers and spandex thing, and wanted to do it that way). So he asked how I was with violence and supers, and I laughed my butt off. Out of all genres of fiction, I have always found supers to be the single most violent type of "heroes:" they solve complex ciphers and riddles in two panels, then spend eighteen pages absolutely beating the _crap_ out of each other. If there is a barrier to breach or an obstacle to overcome, they will not sneak, skulk, hack, program, or otherwise work their way past it; they will beat it with fists and pelt it with energy blasts until the obstacle is destroyed! Why open a door when you can bash it down, _justicely_?! (Yes; I meant "justicely." You can stop wondering now. ) So yeah: incredible over-the-top violence unseen this side of the last few minutes of Alderan, but no killing, and stop the pummeling of at least the living things (property is always fair game) when it is clear that they can fight no longer, and get them medical treatment if they need it; don't just leave them bleeding to death with seventeen broken bones in a frozen ditch 80 miles from town while patting yourself on the back for not killing them (lookin' at you, Batman). Do not kill people or plant evidence. He capitulated that this was more accurate than he had stopped to consider before, and asked if I was okay with it (again). Yes; violence is not a problem. I just can't get behind self-styled heroes that sneak and murder, nor can I get behind a fan squad that loves them for it. I asked if he would prefer I not play, and assured him that I was prefectly okay with it (I had gotten in on an on-going Car Wars game with another group, so I was "getting my fix" pretty regularly.) He insisted that it was important to him that I play, and I insisted that it was important to me that he not have to compromise his vision for his first-ever campaign. He asked if there was a way that I could make a character who was okay with other "super heroes" doing the MDK thing while my character only "helped a little." Now it is important to know one thing about this group-- well, there was a lot about them important to _me_, but for this to provide you with any useful insight, you only need to know this one: Stupid Movie Night. I know thousands of other people in the 80s and 90s did it as well, but for those not familiar with the idea, it was homemade MST3K before there was an MST3K. Every third Friday was Stupid Movie Night: you, or you and a date (if you had a date, it was mandatory to attend. He or she might as well learn this about you before you got in too deep) would show up with a VHS of the worst, stupidest movie you could buy or rent, and we would watch them and tear them apart with vigor until we'd start dropping off or having to go to work. Leslie Nielson did (more than one) a science fiction movie that was _terrible_. Between the nine of us in the group, we owned four copies under two different titles. Strangely, I can't remember the title of my copy, but the other title was "the creature wasn't nice" or something like that. Someone had it playing in the background (we were at Sushi's place, and most of the moives ended up there) and some of the guys were watching it while Trevor and I talked. For those who have not seen this garbage gem staring Leslie Nielson and Penny Marshall, there is a scene where the terrified crew of the spaceship inches their way down the hallway, crowded up to the captain (who seems to have the only gun). There is a point where a world-darkening, blood-curdling inhuman scream _train horns_ its way through the corridors, the entire crew freaks and panics in place, coming completely unglued. Neilson never flinches. He puts on a serious look of concentration, cocks his and strains his ear forward. "I think I heard something...." That was the scene playing at that point in our conversation. Just as we both lulled in speech and began to ruminate on ideas, _that scene_ broke the silence, and the light came on. "Trev, I think i've got it." And I spilled the idea, and he giggled and laughed and said "can you have him ready for Saturday?" See you Saturday; no problem. Oh: the least actually lethal: He goes through the motions. He even enjoys stealing silver jewelry from werewolf-owned pawnshops and mall kiosks, and from the restaurants on werewolf-owned cruise ships and NASA-owned golf resorts. He enjoys melting the silver into weapons, too, even though he knows it's all a lie-- a lie spread by NASA to help their werewolf brethren, to strengthen them! _Never_ use a silver weapon on a werewolf, for it strengthens them and gives them power over your soul! He takes the silver to keep it out of the hands of the werewolves. He crafts the weapons to give them hope- to lure them to him with their hopes that he will use these weapons on them and thereby strengthen them. He keeps the weapons, though; they work well enough on NASA lackeys. But if you want to really vanquish a werewolf, the secret is neoprene. Now you know. Now you're a hunter, one of us. Neoprene. Pass it on.....

The story here: Years ago, I had a player who was going to PCS in six months. He wanted to "learn how to GM" before he left so that if he couldn't find a Champions group, he could start his own. He co-GMed with me for a few weeks and when he felt he had it down pat (and had bought _three copies_ of the rules: 2e boxed sets. I mentioned "years ago," right?), I stepped down and played in a campaign of his devising. Unfortunately, he was really big on "anti-heroes" like Punisher and, under certain writers (I am told), Wolverine and Batman. He liked the "I am a good guy! You can tell because I only beat /cripple / murder "the bad guys." I love westerns, where in-genre, that's the norm, but while those people might be the heroes of the story, they are not necessarily "good guys." While I am not the biggest fan that the superhero genre ever had, I still feel that no matter how angsty or obnoxius they are, they should still be at least making clear efforts to be "good guys," heavy on decency, or at least wrestling with the attempt to be. In short: I don't care for anti-heroes in the supers genre. I have nothing _against_ anti-heroes, right up until they put on spandex and become hyper-macho gun-toting stereotypes. To reconcile what I thought spandex supers should be with what anti-heroes are, I came up with the Good Guy. He is unquestionably "touched." Like periodically out of synch with reality. "This city is in pain. Only I can hear its cries of agony, and its whimpers of fear. For too long have too many done too little. For too long have her so-called protectors carved comfortable reputations for themselves by taking from her in a more insidious way. For too long have the werewolves roamed free. This city needs a face it can believe in. This city needs a face it can trust. This city needs the face of an undeniable good guy [puts orange fishbowl with spray painted smilie face over his head]. That's me. This city will immediately know it finally has a champion [puts bandolier of shotgun shells across chest]. This city will know it has a defender. [Slings shotgun across back] This city will know it has all the help [drops pistols into holsters] and all the support [buckles belt of grenades] and all the love it will ever need. [Secures a dozen throwing knives to various bits of his black-and-orange costume]. This city will know the instant it sees me [hefts barbed wire "whip" over shoulder] that I, (secures throwing forks to other bits of his costume) and I alone [hangs grappling gun /autofire crossbow from grenade belt] am undeniably a Good Guy." [Leaps out of window firing grappling gun in random direction (Swinging: No Conscious Control).] "I trust this city; and this city trust me. Fate will carry me to where I am needed. [Randomly fires grappling gun again, snagging the skid of a medical transport chopper (2d6 Luck) and gets jerked onto a different path] quiver in fear, evil. Quiver in fear, werewolves. Too long have you infested this city. But I can see clearly now. I can see you for who you are. I am coming for you, werewolves. I will _get_ you, werewolves, and your little dog NASA, too.... [Randomly fires grappling gun again] but first, I have to pee...." So yeah: it is entirely likely he could open a dimensional door, step through, fall into a chimney, surface through a toilet, and announce "There has to be some other way; this is getting boring...."

Oh cool! I know who one of those people are!

Martin Power: "Nope. Sorry. Not magic. No; I distinctly,heard you say 'magic;' I'm sitting this one out. No. Seriously, Rags; I don't care! Look, I can't punch magic, okay? You'll be fine. (He shies away from anything involving 'magic' after an incident years ago involved a magic-wielding illusionist that presented himself as insanely powerful (he wasn't), and Power thought 'at last! Someone I can just unload on!" And hit him for so much Knockback he sailed completely off aircraft carrier (again, illusion) he was levitating beneath him. If it weren't for a flying teammate from another planet who was both telepathic and very resistant to the illusion, Power would have had way more issues with his CVK than he did for the "nearly" his teammate managed to salvage) Maximum: I don't know, guys. I mean, I will if you will. Who knows? Could be fun! The Good Guy: What?! _Another_ one?!

Vargr. Vargr is what happens.

Thanks, Hugh. There are one or two things there I want to ask about, but they will have to wait till later.

Hugh- in addition to being a cool head and a helpful conspirator- is something of a math and rules savant, meaning he can see things playing out in-game as soon as he starts to think about the subject at hand. The eest of have to stop and,thin a minute; we get nice "loading" screens while Hugh doubles his RAM and keeps going. The point he is making refers to the rules about "maximizing damage" that give clear limits on how much "extra" or "free" damage can be added to a weapon before the weapon breaks, malfunctions, or just is physically incapable of delivering more damage. Typically (though I do not recall for 6e if this has changed) double the listed amount of damage for the weapon. So lets look at three weapons: A dagger, a sword, and a Warhammer. Let"s randomly assign some damage values and STR minimums: The dagger does 1/2 D6 K and has a STR Min of 0. The sword does 2d6 K and has a STR Min of 5. The warhammer does 2.5d6 K and has a STR Min of 7. A character with a 10 STR Over the STR Minimum qualifies for another 1\2 D6 K with a weapon that does Killing Damage; if he exceeds the Min by 15, he can add a full die, and can add an additional full die for every 15 STR he has above that STR min. Additionally, Skill Levels can be exchanged for extra damage, presumably the character is so skilled with the weapon that he can plunge it more deeply, or slide it between armored plates, or otherwise get more damage from that same weapon than can a lesser-skilled individual. This is a good thing, because to get an extra die from STR alone when wielding the war hammer above is going to challenging- you'd need STR 22, which isnt going to found amongst the rank and file of the town guard too terribly often. But with an STR 17, he can get that half-die, and a couple of Skill Levels allocated to damage, he can round that up to a full die of extra damage. This can keep going, of course: more STR and more Skill Levels will continue to stack and add die after die (ilor half-die or pip or whatever), right up until you hit the weapon' maximum potential. That maximum potential for mundane weapons is typically double the listed damage for the weapon. So if you have built your Deadly Blow as a collection of dedicated Skill Levels to grant you an extra 3 (or four, or whatever) Damage Classes, you have a decision to make. Let's say your GM is running a "mid-level DnD" facsimile, and has allowed you to build a Deadly Blow that can add up to 2d6 Killing. Now it is time to go shopping. Which weapon do you buy? Either the sword or the war hammer can handle your ability, but the dagger is going to cap at twice its listed value, or 1d6K. It doesn't matter if your Deadly Blow adds (or rather, _can_ add) 2d6 and your STR: 27 or so can add another die-and-a-half; that dagger will only deliver a maximum of 1d6K. The sword will deliver a maximum of 4d6. Now it does 2d6 just by having STR: 5 and swinging it around. Your STR:27 or so let's you add 1.5 more Killing Dice. That means you can really only get 1/2 half a die out od your awesome deadly blow maneuver. (Alternatively, you could use 2d6 from Deadly Blow and only the minimum (5) STR and save yourself some END expenditure, but this isn't that discussion). Now the war hammer abive can be doubled up to 5 killing dice! It's base of 2.5 can accomodate both of your Deadly Blow dice, and you can still squeeze a bit of STR bonus in there to boot! Hugh's suggestion of an enchanted weapon is, I believe, pointing out the waste of points that Deadly Blow is when purchased for a small weapon, at least under the current rules, and it also points out that there is and always has been a work around via non-mundane weapons: a magic weapon does the damage it says it does, even if it is ludicrous: behold: the Thimble of Internal Bleeding, which deals 4d6 KA and 1d6 Drain:Recovery! I laugh mercilessly at your Deadly-deadly daggers! (What Hugh points out here is the biggest- not the only, but the biggest- reason when my Players want a super-smite maneuver, I build it as +damage instead of any kind of skill, maneuver, or talent. _Mechanically_, +damage is _in addition to_ what you can do with the weapon already. It is now a quasi-magical level of ability and not tied to the limits of the weapon. I just like to avoid headaches and keep things rolling).

So you see, that is one way to limit a power source, which brings us right back on topic.

And for the last two nights (and all of today, and the next two nights) we have been so fog-bound that we are running out of Silent Hill jokes.

No rules DAD; a very old gentlemen's agreement from 1st to 4th edition that this was how primary Characterisitcs worked: dive more DEX mesnt you were "twice as agile" while 5 more INT meant you were twice as quick-witted. For what it is worth, considering the way the bell curve applied to Characteristic checks and Characteristics-based skills, I could never really buy into it, but it is a long-established thing that in general, diehard HERO fans do not like abstracts in general, so I suppose this idea was maybe comforting to some people? SPD and defenses were clear indicators that figured stats didn't work that way, and honestly, it has been so long since anyone brought up the "5 equals x2" thing that I just assumed 5e laid out some kind of ruling on this.

Not trting to be funny here, but while I can see some curiosity here for those using rhe eukws to run a large scan tactical,skirmish game,oe a space battle, I would think that for a lot of us, 1050 AP is somewhere considerably north of the "plot device" line, isn't it?

Mandatory "Extra Time: 8 days" should so it.

You guys are good at this. I took a serious whack at it, and everything I could come up with had a serious Scooby Doo vibe...

Okay; let me go a little deeper. I dont play 6e for the same,reason I don't play 5e: I very much appreciate that Steve Long kept the game alive and spearheaded the revitalization of HERO games. Don't ever believe that I do not think that, emphatically. I also disagree with almost every word rules-wise he has ever written going all the way back to 4e's Dark Champions. There. That's out in the open now. Again: I dont bag on him because out of the at-one-time thousands of Champions fans who could have potentially scraped some investors together and done something with the game, he is the one who actually did it, and I am grateful to him for it. Plus, I have it on reasonable authority that he is a great guy and a terrific human being, and there aren't enough of those. So let no one even even try to twist to twist my disagreement with his take on the rules into anythng remotely anti-Steve. We all good? What I do for this "Deadly Blow" knockoff is exactly what I said I do: Plus damage, with matching advantages "for free." That plus damage us usually 1d killing. That's it. It doesn't double; it doesnt triple. It _does_ cost double END to use. It doesnt apply to every type of weapon, or SFX, either. Thundar's Sun Sword in Hugh's example, for instance, doesn't get it. That is a unique weapon ("magic," perhaps?) With a unique build and its own damage structure. The deadly blow pastiche I put together represents someone so competent with this one particular type of mundane weapon that he has found a way to add up to 3 more damage classes without resorting to upgraded weapons, or arrows, or magical blessings, or whatever, which tend to add one or more damage classes anyway. Nothing here strikes as terribly out of line. As for giving away a couple of AP of advantages every now and again, well, there are those times (reduced Penetration, for example) when it takes a couple of limitations without rebate as well. And if overall it comes out that some people consistently get two or three points "free" or get two or three less "free points" than someone else, well ultimately, 40 years of playtesting have- at least for us- conclusively proven that about a half-million words of new hyper-specific rules to ensure all maths are perfect so as to not endanger the game are completely unnecessary.

Look, Deadly Blow isnt my,thing, either, but playing a game is something of a give-and-take. I have an on-again, off-again again fantasy group that likes it for whatever reason; I dont care for it, but we worked out a thing based on how they saw it working (almost all of: "I jump up in the air and bring my weapon crashing down in a mighty arc--") Okay, fine. I can work with that. How about +1 die, full-phase, x2 END, based on what your description. A little back-and-forth, and,they have something they like, and I have something that doesn't warp the game (the x2 END and full-phase resteictions stop them from using it with every swing). Now the archers feel left out. How about +1drka, x2 END, full-phase, with a burn out and you pay END for your full STR? (They had decided the move worked by severely over-drawing their bows). A little back and forth, and we drop x2 END (still have to use full STR) and add a burn out (bow cracks or string snaps) on the weapon when this is used. And again, we end up with somerhing agreeable to everyone (one archer did not want extra damage, so his "amazing ability" is +4 Of what is now called PSLs, to demonstrate his ability to make amazing long ranged shots. Oh- before shooting that down as obnoxious, remember I play 2e, where range penalties occur much sooner, and accrue quickly. As far as what does or does not belong in a fantasy game... I think it is fair to say that in the same way that Hugh is often considered by many of us to be the most objective person on these boards, I may well be one of the most opinionated. even knowing that, though, I won't say what does or doesn't belong in a particular genre. I may not like it in my game, which is perfectly understandable, I think. I mean, evryone hates elves, right? no? just me? well, I can say that they dont belong in fantasy- and especially don't belong in science fiction (looking at you, Darrians of Traveller), but just because _I_ hated it from start to finish, I have to accept that Lord od the Rings is _the_ example of source material for mosr fantasy fans. there are still no eleves in my games. Or in Talislanta, so there is at least one other guy agrees with me. as another example, I absolutely positively _detest_ combat-oriented magic. It's just so... Tawdry to me: "I can bend the fabric of reality to my will; I know the secrets of reshaping the universe to my liking. It is within my grasp to mould a world where all are fed, and none have want of anything. Today, though, I just want to set this one guy on fire." _I_ don"t like it in Fantasy HERO, but at the end of the day, I have go admit that this is not one, but a major trope of the genre: spendinf a life of of studious seclusion so that I can walk through a damp and dingy stone maze setting my opponents on fire and taking their stuff.