Amorkca

What genre is your game? Time frame (Current year? war time 1940's? 1980's? before internet?) involved, could they have high tech ear gadgets for communicating back & forth when not all together. 
 
Anything that keeps the players attention on the game is good stuff!
 
I used to have a player who would goof off while we were going through phases, and when his turn came up, he'd inevitably say, "What's happening?"  I took it a couple times then started saying your holding your phase till you know what you want to do. And move on...

Just a comment
 
I had a player once who asked for other player input.  He basically said, "My Int is at best a 13.  I am playing a 23 Int character.  I could use the help."

Some villains are, how can I put this ?, rather precious or thin skinned. So when Megiddio was mocked by actor Neil Ripsworth on Howard Stern's show, the villain lost his rag completely. Instead of merely kidnapping the actor and torturing him before a slow gruesome death Meggido blew up a two block radius just to be sure that he got Neil. Neil surprisingly was found still alive among the rubble by rescue services and heroes who raced to the scene searching for survivors.
Neil was rushed to hospital but his situation was deteriorating. One of the heroes was able to bend reality just a bit but this would only postpone the inevitable. The heroes were able to come up with a solution but they put it to Neil's consciousness first. They could save his brain but nothing else. Neil who had been shocked by the devastation agreed and so it was that he was transferred into a new cyborg body. Calling himself Hamlet Neil has taken up heroing and is being trained by the heroes and will try to find out what happened and why. Neil has a tendency to quote from plays but Shakespeare's work is all most people recognise.
Meggido in the meantime is amazed that no-one knows he was responsible and has no idea that Neil still lives

In case anyone wants to know:
 
In 1985, the United States created the Sentinel program.  A civilian military unit which employs paranormals.  It is the premier super powered group in the United States.  It ranks supervillains/superheroes by category.  Category 1 is the weakest while the highest seen so far is a category 8 which killed several superheroes before being driven off.
Local Supers
Lodi Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (LOSERS)
The LOSERS are a group of third string supervillains who for one reason or another can’t make it in normal supervillain society.  The LOSERS are very open to supervillains joining their group and do not judge other supers for their disabilities.  They are a cat 3 group.
Lube – Lube is the primary leader of the group.  His power produces a sticky, slimy gel which constantly excretes from his body.  The gel is slippery, slimy, and gets everywhere.
Flat – Flat is the lieutenant of the group, primarily because he was the second person to join.  Lube was the first.  Flat wields the awesome U-Lance, a HTH device which channels Flat’s chemical gas generation.
Ruby Tuesday – Ruby has probably the most socially acceptable power in that she is a shape changer.  Unfortunately, she can not hold any shape more than a day and her base shape changes every time she sleeps.
Bludgeon – Ruby’s best friend.  Bludgeon is very strong and has huge forearm like clubs.  Unfortunately, this has the effect of not letting her grab or manipulate anything (no fine manipulation).  This makes her life pretty hard (has a hard time getting dressed, can’t eat using finger or utensils, etc).
Kafka – The cockroach powers super guy.
Postal – A postman with the superpower of sending a properly addressed package anywhere in the world.  Some restrictions do apply. (Can’t send live animals, no solvents, no contents under pressure, etc.)
??? – an unknown member not encountered by the PCs.  He funds the LOSER group.
Scylla
Scylla is the name of an eco-terrorist group and the ship they sail on.  They attack any ship they feel is polluting or exploiting the seas.
Kraken Joe – Leader of the group and Captain of the Scylla.  He is half octopus on his right shoulder and face.
Tsunami – a Japanese ecoterrorist who can control the water.
Mako – a supervillain who has the looks, powers and abilities of a Mako shark.
Seadawg – Members of the Scylla group.  They are eco terrorist pirates who can’t spell.  They man the Scylla and are cat 2 threats.  They have no powers but the Scylla ship is a heavily armed military vessel.
The Syclla – Is a ship stolen by the Seadawgs to replace the Flotsam, an armored tug boat/fire boat.  The Scylla was a fully armed vessel with light missiles, machine  guns, and a small recoiless.
??? – several other cat 3 members have not been met by PCs.
Zukünftiges Deutsches Reich (Future German Empire)
The ZDR are based on the moon and are planning to retake the Earth.  They have begun supporting existing groups with similar ideological viewpoints on Earth and secret missions to destroy those who might oppose their rule.
Ubermensch – “Superman”, a flying brick.  Considers himself an invulnerable, immovable brick.  Others consider him just a prick.
Die Gratin – “The Countess” is a 400-year-old blood mage/vampire.  Uses blood in interesting ways including magical blood spears and swords.  She’s a bitch but not really a Nazi.  She just works for them for her benefit.  She keeps a list of people who pisses her off but seldom remembers them after a while.
Blitzableiter – “Lightning Rod” is a relative newcomer to the ZDR group.  He’s good friends with his co-recruit Entzünden.  He turns temporarily into a living lightning bolt which he uses both to move and to attack but the drawback is that he needs to land after each move.
Der Überreder – “The Persuader” has the ability to make suggestions to people.  He is not well liked by his peers who do not like how he plays with people, enemies or not.  He seems to need to be close enough to his targets to tell them what to do.
Ein-Mann-Armee – “One Man Army” has the ability to summon clones.  The clones will pop if they take too much damage.  Taking out Ein-Man-Armee will take out his clones.
Entzünden – “Ignite” is a new recruit.  He has amazing control of fire and can even sheath himself in fire to protect himself and fly.  His fire requires oxygen to create the fire and was defeated by Sabre holding him in the cold water of the Monterey Bay.
Jägermeister – “Hunt master” is a master martial artist.  Technically, a normal, he is an expert in Kampfrigen both the tradition and new maneuvers he has added to the Lunar branch.  He has taught most of the ZDR’s military martial arts.
Überschallknall – “Sonic boom” A sonic energy master and former boxer. He’s a bit overconfident and thinks he’s a better soldier than he is.
 
Space Nazis from the Moon
February 16, 2020
Roll Call
Mayhem (played by James Kletzing) Doc Paladin (played by Vernon Putnam) Mr. Powersuit Guy (played by Brian Lienhart) The Human Torch (played by Tony Morreto) Cybrite (played by Isaac Bolmen) A-ko (played by Bruce Hahne) Freedom Belle (played by Barton Bolmen)      Space Nazis from the Moon are planning to destroy California by mind controlling a space monster sleeping in deepest part of the trench in the Monterrey Bay.  Their first step is to get the latest in mental control of giant lizards technology in Silicon Valley.  They outsource this task to Lodi’s Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (L.O.S.E.R.S.), a group of supervillains (cat 3) who for one reason or another could not cut it in Northern California’s super scene.
     The LOSERS strike a technical company working on high tech animal control techniques.  They get instructed to steal a mind control device which operates on reptilian brains.  They were able to disable the general alarms and security systems, but the restricted lab area was not disabled, and an alarm went off.  The sounds of the alarm, surprised Flat who released a toxic cloud in the company.  The LOSERS evacuate the building only to run into several superheroes on the street.  A quick fight occurs, and the LOSERS lose.  Only Kafka escapes capture but Mayhem allows both Ruby Tuesday and Bludgeon get away.  In exchange, they find out about the tech being stolen and the destination address for the stolen goods.
When they get to the destination address, they find out it’s a motel room.  Inside the room, a Nazi spy is taking pictures of the device and is sending the information in a narrow beam up to a cloaked Nazi saucer hovering 1 mile above.  The saucer, hidden from sight and radar, relays the information to the second saucer which is running the operation to capture Scylla.  The first couple of heroes who arrive at the motel decide to track the radio signal to its destination and accidentally crash into the cloaked saucer following the beam.  The saucer attempts to see what hit it and opens a hatch when Powersuit and Sabre, the two heroes, enter the saucer.  The Nazis fire assault rifles against the invaders but the guns are to no avail.  Ubermensch who is on board attempts to pull the heroes off the ship but also to no avail.  With reinforcements of the heroes on the way, he makes the decision to scuttle the UFO and drop its payload of bombs on the city of Santa Cruz.  Unable to use high explosives against the invading heroes because of the confined space being their saucer and the bullets being useless, they attempt to hold the invaders down with grappling holds and use shaped charges against the two heroes.  One hero gets grabbed and a shaped charge is set.  Meanwhile to protect the control center, they set up a 50 cal. Machine gun with AP bullets.  Powersuit Guy tosses off the grab and rips off the shaped charge.  With only seconds to spare, he throws the shape charge at the machine gun setup and on phase one, it explodes.  The explosion takes out most of the control center and the gun nest as well as most of the Nazi officers.  The saucer spins out of control and begins to fall to the Earth.  The Powersuit Guy, Sabre, and CyBrite, who joined them, push the saucer into the bay to prevent it from crashing into the beach.
     Meanwhile, the heroes at the motel quietly surround the room.  Mayhem sets himself up in the only possible escape route and meets Stan Lee walking the dog at night past the motel.  Doc Paladin knocks on the door to the room with the spy but Freedom Belle doesn’t want to wait and screams down the door, or at least attempts to.  The door is battered but is not knocked down.  The Human Torch purposely sets off the sprinklers which causes a big ruckus in the motel with people in other room screaming about the noise and unanticipated rain in their rooms.  CyBrite kicks in the door and the spy attempts to fight back.  Freedom Belle covers the spy, but given the spy’s orders, decides to take the damage and escape.  This fails, for while the damage doesn’t do much, the spy is knocked back into the room.  On the ground, Freedom Belle blasts the spy into the ground and into submission.  With nothing much else to do, CyBrite starts flying to where Powersuit Guy and Sabre are fighting.  The human torch soon follows afterwards.  After ensuring the spy is out, Doc Paladin and Freedom Belle join in the flight to the saucer.  They all come to the saucer after the saucer loses control and begins its plummet towards Santa Cruz.  As the saucer is falling, its bomb bay doors open, and Nazi soldiers and bombs drop out.  Everyone but Cybrite that are in flight deal with the bombs and Nazi soldiers.
The saucer crashes into the bay, its nuclear fuel cracked.  The water cools the small nuclear reactor, but the heroes lift the saucer out of the bay and onto the beach.  The fuel begins to heat but before it can begin to meltdown, Doc Paladin stabilizes the core and repairs the saucer to a semblance of stability.  They get the manual coordinates from the saucer and prepare to head out to the sea.
     Early the next morning, a call comes out from the Eiko Maru, a science vessel for NOA.  They are under attack from Scylla, eco terrorist/pirate group.  The call gets cutoff after the SOS is sent out and nothing is heard from them again.  The coast guard, already with the players because of the saucer on the beach, have asked the heroes for help dealing with the Scylla.  The players agree and they take the boat out in the early morning hours to meet up with the Eiko Maru.  About a half a mile way, they see smoke coming from one of the boats.  Using binoculars and supervision vision, they find out the Eiko Maru has been taken over with hostages by Nazis!  The boat on fire is the Scylla.  All its missiles have been fired and non-essential parts of the boat are on fire.
     The hero plans a surprise attack/rescue.  This is for the most part successful as half the villains (not counting the clones) do not see the heroes coming.  The fight is touch and go for a while, but the hero appears victorious. Die Gratin sees the writing on the wall and leaves combat.  Mako gets called back by the heroes and does not awaken the monster sleeping in the chasm at the bottom of the Monterey Bay.  The heroes find out that the only ones in the ZDR Nazi’s group that could survive at that depth is Ubermensch and Die Gratin.  Die Gratin refuses to do something so unseemly and Ubermensch could not go for a reason not disclosed.

Fantastic work, Sentry0.  Very much appreciated.

Looks good, sentry0! I appreciate the work you have done on this project a lot

Absorption applies after the damage from an attack is multiplied due to Vulnerability.

As a side note, this may have been a reaction to the constantly improving martial artist design villain I made.  Whenever he hit someone, he drained 2d6 of DCV.  This drain only benefited him for a -1/2 limitation.  Similarly, when he was hit, he would absorb 10 points into his own DCV.  The absorption wouldn't provide defense, but would make him harder and harder to hit.
 
To stop him, they dropped a mack truck on him.

Not everyone can remember things. Be proud of yourself

Okay Next Character.  This is my second Champions Character, and I played him nearly exclusively for about a decade. He had a LOT of experience, when I kind of gave up on 4 color play and slid almost exclusively into  FH.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Sgt. S. M A. S. H.* the U.S. Army Powered armored suit from the 1980's. 
 
SMASH.hdc
 
*Suit, Man Amplification, Standard, Heavy.

Oh no! Here we go again, right? I've followed and participated in lots of different discussions where people wish that HERO System would release complete games rather than genre books or campaign settings. But I'm a bit unclear what would be considered a "complete game," and what would make it appear to be "complete." I'm all for it, but I'm not entirely sure what it means. I know, I'm bringing up that same thing that routinely gets brought up, but I think it is valuable to at least be clear on some of the nomenclature that gets used so we can be clear on what people actually want to see from HERO System.
 
Let me start with a few definitions/categories:
Rulebooks and rules supplements: 5e, 6e, APG I & II, Champions Complete, Fantasy Hero Complete, Champions Now Genre books: Champions, Pulp HERO, Fantasy HERO, etc. Campaign settings: Hudson City, Turakian Age, etc. Enemy/organization/character/creature books: Enemies, VIPER, Champions Villains Vols. I, II, III, etc. Power/equipment books: Champions Powers, HERO System Grimoire, HERO System Equipment Guide, etc. Adventure books: Well, as everyone points out, there just aren't any of these anymore. There used to be.  
So, I'm going to try to summarize some recurring points, and ask some questions, I guess in a sort of scholastic way:
Proposition 1: The 6e (or 5e, depending on who you ask) rules are too big for beginners to learn, and too cumbersome for system mastery! 
Nearly 800 pages of rules, rulings, options, buttons, dials, etc. make for a monstrous toolbox. Is there a way to pare down that toolbox to the bare essentials that can be taught? Something other than Basic Rulebook? Proposition 2: HERO  System needs more complete games. 
Champions Complete and Fantasy HERO Complete are marketed as "complete" games, but they lack campaign settings and adventures. Without campaigns and adventures, players are left in the wild with these so-called "complete" yet unsupported games. Proposition 3: A complete game should be ready to play.
It should ideally be learnable in a weekend, and playable with new players in an evening (probably a pipe dream, but an honorable goal). It should have a setting and plenty of adventures, or at least a couple of adventures and plenty of seeds for homemade adventures. Proposition 4: The lengthy powers builds inhibit a streamlined game experience.
Several lines of a power build, with all the Advantages and Limitations, make the game too mathy for some people. The complex builds also make the character sheets sloppy and hard to read. There should be a simplified player interface for new players that doesn't scare them off with all the HERO jargon.  Proposition 5: What is the definitive, DOJ-supported edition anyway? 
Some people stick with 5e because it most resembles the original game(s), enough so that it's still supported in HERO Designer. Some people prefer 6e, but others can't stand it because it retools some fundamental HERO stuff. The new Complete books: aren't they just streamlined 6e? Champions Now: the rules have been so completely gutted, and powers even renamed in awfully confusing ways, why is this even supported by DOJ? Are any of these things actually supported by anything other than 3rd party efforts at this point? I know I'm forgetting some things, but I'm sure they'll come up! 
 
So here's what I'm a bit confused about: how can you get all these things together in one "complete game" without it also becoming 700 pages long?
The Complete books are around 250 pages long, but some would argue that they don't have complete settings and adventures. So are they even "complete games" in and of themselves? Perhaps there needs to be more Campaign and Adventure books? But then you're making the books INcomplete when you require other books to make the "complete" books playable. Hall of Champions offers some new content, but is any of it "complete" in the sense that they can be used with complete settings in an ongoing campaign? Should a "complete game" be depending on 3rd party content to be playable?  
I know there are economic considerations driving the actual content that DOJ offers. This is more about the "wish lists" that people keep submitting. What are people actually wishing for? What would an actual complete version of Champions Complete or Fantasy HERO Complete actually look like?
 
Here's what I'm wondering: Doesn't this end out making the idea of "complete games" start to look more and more like the toolbox model that 6e pursued in the first place? Couldn't there be a new kind of book category, maybe a catalog of Gamebooks, that act like genre/setting/campaign/adventure books all wrapped up into one, without having to rehash all the rules in each new game?
 
Let's say I'm going to try to revise Danger International. I'm going to rename it Action HERO just to fit in with the HERO title motif (not my idea, but I like it). What should I include in this project? 
I don't really need to reissue the rules, do I? They've already been done several times over. Perhaps a brief summary of the rules in 50 pages, with lots of references to the appropriate 6e1/6e2 volumes? Why should I reference the rules in Champions Complete as my resource, as seems to be the inclination promoted by DOJ these days? (50 pages) I can pretty much cut out the Powers section entirely. They're only really used to build weapons, gadgets, vehicles, and stuff like that anyway, so I can spend some space on those items without rehashing the entire Powers rules. I could offer a one or two page explanation of how the Powers are used to drive build all the items, perhaps even an appendix on how they're built, but I don't have to teach how to build a modern gun. Again, each Gamebook would set it's own dials, as people say, and render the extraneous material in sidebars referencing the Rulebook toolbox. Lists of equipment, weapons, vehicles, gadgets, etc. (5 pages, maybe) In this example of Action HERO I'm choosing a modern setting in a familiar world for a very specific reason: I don't have to include a setting. It's already out there in your everyday experience (I'm stealing this, by the way, from Ron Edwards's Champions Now, because it's a great idea). Perhaps instead of a specific setting, I'd offer a "state of the world" section, and offer some adventure seeds based on all the global hot-spots and crisis situations. (Let's say 50 really detailed pages to help foster new adventure ideas) There'd be an appendix with pre-gen characters ready to play. (10 pages) There'd also be an appendix with some interconnected adventures that can be played right away with the pre-gens. (25 pages?)  
This seems simple. 140 pages simple. But is it "complete"?
 
What's missing? Or does the entire idea miss the mark? Would other games (Pulp HERO, Star HERO, etc.) fit the same mold? Would each game just explain which dials and buttons are set and how? More importantly, unlike the genre books, would they simply make assumptions about the particular setting for the game? If that's the case, would there be perhaps a need for several different kinds of games in the same genre? Am I falling back into the Genre Book model if I offer too many setting options? Would Action HERO actually be better cast as several games: American Agents, Global Guerrillas, Mercenaries, and things like that, each with specific setting assumptions? 
 
These are just some of the things I've been thinking about. What do you see as making a "complete game," and what am I missing? 
 
Please, let's not get back into an edition war, or rules bloat debate. This is really just a brainstorming discussion, but I'd really like to hear from some of the regulars who have strong opinions about this stuff.
 
 

Love is in the air, seriously look out! Cupid has snuck out and is having some fun in the mortal world in today's free Adventure Seed. http://housedok.com/anteros-and-eros/
 

Vita
 
Olivia Combs was celebrating her 96th birthday at home alone when she heard a faint knock on her door. When she opened it no one was there, but a small white box was on the welcome mat. She brought it into her sitting room and opened it to reveal a golden necklace with a letter V pendant covered in odd markings. She felt an irrestible compulsion to put on the necklace and when she did she was instantly transformed into a younger woman wearing a costume. Her mind was suddenly full of vague broken memories but the name Vita kept coming up again and again. She felt vibrant and powerful and as she rose form her chair she ended up leaping up and through her roof and landing hundreds of feet away. She soon discovered she had vast strength and could resist a great deal of damage to her body. She also seemed to have a vitality force that she could generate that could heal herself and others through touch. She has begun acting as a superhero while attempting to piece together mystery of the origin of the necklace and what exactly the nature of her transformation is.

Debaculous Fiasco
 
He is a member of the Chaos Clowder also known as the Grim Glaring, a group of cats who possess superior intelligence and can wield bad luck magic that can cause all manner of calamity. They are countered by the Power Paws a collection of good luck cats who try to prevent the disasters and schemes initiated by the Clowder. His human familiar, Lucian Somerset, carries out mundane tasks and provides Fiasco with tasty yum yums and chin tickles.
 

The 1.5.0 version of the app was pushed into review on the app Android/iOS app stores today.
 
Patch notes:
Portraits now display when loading a  Hero Designer character It is now possible to load up to 5 characters at once All characters now have a "Notes" tab Combat State and notes will be preserved if importing a new version of your character They should be hitting your devices later today.

Powers of light, transform this weak form....
 
 
 
Seraph is actually from Powers Unlimited and uses one of the new Archetypes inside.  This is the person with a who transforms into a super powered form.  It is much like the Mystical Transformation type (See Storm Eagle) but without the magic.  And also this person specifically has an impairment that affects them physically, like blindness, or paralysis.  But then they transform, here we get anything from super guy to incredible bulk.
 
So here we get a lady partially paralyzed (legs) who witnesses greatness.  So Barbra Gordon becomes Superwoman!
 
Power wise a FISS.  I seriously would not allow her strength to get much higher.  Move-bys already do 12d6 and a move-through tops out at 18d6.  She is nasty enough in HTH.  Instead some skill levels, more skills and maybe some extra senses.  
 
Personality wise, she's the forgotten person who now has a voice.  Lets face it, people with disabilities are ignored and treated as less capable.  Now she is very capable.  So we could get her becoming an advocate or spokesperson for various charities.  And reminding the heroes about those invisible people the make up the city they are in.  
 
 

Portraits will be available in the next build for the Hero Designer character viewer 
 

 
I'm still testing some scaling code I wrote but it looks like this one is a sure thing for next build.

I finally got my Mac VM to update to Catalina after 2 days of time consuming and boring install attempts and rollbacks.  
 
The good news is that I can now access files via iCloud again which means I can test the character viewers.  I already found and fixed some display issues and am continuing to test as I write this.
 
It all looks pretty promising for a release soon, probably tomorrow morning.

Did you hear about the guy who only believes in 12.5% of the Bible?
 
He's an eightheist. 

I'm currently running a Galactic Champions game, so our space battles also include flying spandex people punching spaceships. We mostly use standard Hero vehicle combat (6ed), but I wanted to use a vector-based movement system with at least a passing resemblance to how objects actually move in zero G instead of looking like the usual WWII dogfight. (Basic concept swiped from the minis game Full Thrust.) We've only had one space combat so far, but it worked really well: the players found it easy to understand after just a couple moves, it played quickly, and really gave the battle a unique feel.
 
No hexes: freeform movement measured using rulers or measuring tapes. The exact scale is handwaved, but 1 “movement unit” = 1cm on the map. (You could use 1m = 1” but you’ll need a big playing space!)

We ignored the Z axis and just did everything in 2D. In my experience/opinion, trying to simulate 3D on the tabletop is way more trouble than it's worth.
 
A ship’s Flight is how fast it can accelerate; there is no maximum velocity. (I mean theoretically there is, but I’m pretty sure you’ll run out of table long before you approach 1 C!) Ships can move NCM if they want, with the usual effects on CV.
 
For each ship you need to keep track of three things:
- FACING is the direction the ship is pointing – indicated by the miniature’s facing
- COURSE is the direction the ship is moving, which may not be the same as its facing – indicated by arrow on a disk or a counter
- VELOCITY is how fast the ship is currently moving – we tracked velocity using 2d10s (ie a velocity of 24 is reflected with a 2 on one die and a 4 on another)
 
Ships move and act on their Phases as normal. Movement is a 4-step process:
- The ship drifts in the direction of its current Course for its current Velocity in cm. Leave the Course arrow in place to mark the ship’s starting position.
- From its drift location, the ship can then move normally up to its full Flight move in cm. There is no Turn Mode, and rotation is “free” so basically they can move wherever they want up to their full movement. The new Facing is in line from the drift point to its final location, to reflect the direction the ship was applying thrust.
- Measure the distance from the starting position (the arrow) to the final location (the mini); the distance in cm is the new Velocity.
- The new Course is in line from the starting location to the final location; move the course arrow up to the final location.
 
Combat is handled normally after movement. For simplicity, I let ships & character do a full move and attack at one additional range band (ie -2 OCV).

Movement Example: A ship with 24m of Flight is currently moving towards the right, which we’ll call 3 o’clock; its current Facing and Course are the same and its current Velocity is 10. The ship wants to accelerate. First the ship’s mini drifts 10cm towards 3 o’clock, and the arrow is left in place. The ship then moves normally, and decides to move 24cm straight ahead. The distance from start to finish is 34cm, so that is the ship’s new Velocity. Its Facing and Course are unchanged. Move the arrow counter up to the final location. Note that for linear examples like this you could’ve just added 10+24 and moved the ship forward 34cm.
 
The next Phase I took pictures! Ship’s Course and Facing are both still towards 3 o'clock, Velocity 34. (The arrow is on the disk under the ship counter, but you don’t need to see it until you move anyway.)

 
Say the ship wants to turn to port/left. First, the mini drifts 34cm to 3 o'clock, leaving the arrow in place.

 
From there the ship moves its full 24cm to 12 o'clock. The ship’s facing is now towards 12 because it was applying thrust in that direction.
 

 
Measure the distance between the starting and end locations, which comes out to around 42cm – that’s the ship’s new Velocity. The angle from start location to finish is the new Course; move the arrow up. (I left the arrow on top so you could see it.) Looking at this pic it looks like the ship counter got bumped out of alignment, but it should still be facing straight towards 12 o'clock.

 
On it’s next Phase say the ship wants to stop. First the mini drifts 42cm along its current course (call it 2 o'clock). Then the ship moves 42cm (using NCM) back towards 8 o'clock, ending up where it started. Velocity is 0; new facing is towards 8 o'clock, and the Heading counter is removed (or ignored).
 
 

I am really enjoying mentoring a player, who is new to the Hero system, take his first steps into a larger world.

5
Logan enjoyed the time with his family. After dinner, they watched television until
it was time for Brady to go to bed. He snuggled with Gloria on the couch.
 
“We have to go to that ball tomorrow,” said Gloria. “You’re going to have to take
another night off from being Log Man.”
 
“I didn’t give a beating to my problem children tonight,” said Logan. “I don’t know
if I can skip two nights. They’ll forget me.”
 
“No, they won’t,” said Gloria. She smiled from her spot on top of him. She sipped a
small amount of wine she had poured when Brady went to bed. “If anything, they’ll
get more scared if you showed up randomly to wreck things and weren’t on a
schedule.”
 
“Creating fear through absence is a tried terror tactic,” said Logan. He hugged Gloria.
“I have Hillary trying to turn the testimony at the scene into something usable. He
said it would take a couple of days.”
 
“What do you think that will show?,” said Gloria.
 
“I’m hoping it will show who fired the fatal bullet so I can make whichever gang
responsible give up that member if they want some peace and quiet,” said Logan.
 
“And if none of them do?,” asked Gloria.
 
“Then it’s back to wrecking their stuff until I get something I can use,” said Logan.
“Such is the way of the power mad super vigilante.”
 
“The ball is a little more important than your street gang problem,” said Gloria.
“They’re setting up the display for that jewelry exhibit tonight.”
 
“They’re putting the jewelry in tonight?,” asked Logan. “I didn’t see any mention of
that in the coverage.”
 
“As far as I know only the people like me know,” said Gloria.
 
“I have to get over there,” said Logan. “When are they installing things?”
 
“They’re doing it right now,” said Gloria. She sat up and put her wine glass on the
table.
 
“So I have some time,” said Logan. He stood up. He bent down and kissed Gloria as
hard as he could.
 
“What’s going on?,” asked Gloria.
 
“Teflon Billy is going to hit the exhibit tonight as soon as they are done setting things
up,” said Logan. “He has someone inside telling him things.”
 
“I think you’re trying to get out of date night,” said Gloria.
 
“I need you to call the committee and see if you can find out who’s in charge of
things,” Logan said. “Call me when you know.”
 
“It’s ten at night,” said Gloria. “Everyone else has gone to bed by now.”
 
“Everyone?,” asked Logan.
 
“Maybe Lois Carstairs is still up,” said Gloria. “Are you really serious about this?”
 
“If he doesn’t hit tonight, he’ll hit tomorrow around the ball,” said Logan. “This guy
is slick. I wish I had thought of this earlier. I could use some help if I’m right.”
 
“Let me make my call,” said Gloria. “I’ll go out with you.”
 
“Are you sure?,” asked Logan.
 
“He better show up is all I’m saying,” said Gloria. She pulled out her phone as she
walked from the living room.
 
Logan wrapped himself in his wooden body and leaf cape as he waited. He hoped he
was right about this. He had been a hero for a while, and Gloria had supported him,
but ruining date night would put him in the doghouse for a while.
 
He didn’t want to work his way out of the doghouse while trying to take care of his
other business.
 
Gloria returned. She had exchanged her clothes for the leather suit she wore as
Diamond Spear. She fitted her mask in place with gloved hands.
 
“Lois said that Lane Gentry is in charge of the setup,” said Gloria. “He should be
there watching things for the committee.”
 
“Let me make a call,” Logan said. He pulled his own phone out of his wooden body.
He looked up Ken’s number and pushed the contact button.
 
“What does Lane Gentry have to do with anything?,” asked Gloria.
 
“I don’t know, but I would be interested in finding out,” said Logan. He waited for
an answer as he thought about the name. He didn’t know Gentry, so he was interested
in what he did for the Committee.
 
“What you want?,” asked Ken after a moment of the phone ringing. He sounded
irritable at being disturbed while trying to get the paper together for the night.
 
“I need you to call Phillips and ask him to dig into a guy named Lane Gentry,” said
Logan. “Can do?”
 
“Why the interest?,” asked Ken.
 
“He’s setting up the exhibit for the ball tomorrow,” said Logan. “I just want to make
sure there’s no skeletons in the closet.”
 
“This is about Teflon Billy, isn’t it?,” asked Ken.
 
“I don’t know, but it never hurts to verify someone’s credentials,” said Logan. “And
if everything goes right, we can turn it into a puff piece on the organizer of the Grand
Charity Ball and the charity itself.”
 
“But you think Teflon Billy is going to hit the exhibit,” said Ken.
 
“I don’t know, but it would be great to see if there are any leaks we can plug before
things go south,” said Logan.
 
“I’ll call Phillips and put him on it,” said Ken.
 
“Thanks, Ken,” said Logan. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
 
Logan put the phone back under his bark skin after he hung up. Gloria pulled on her
gloves to make sure they wouldn’t come off while she was in action.
 
“You think Gentry is giving your thief inside information?,” asked Gloria.
 
“Don’t know,” said Logan. “Maybe there’s a connection. Maybe there isn’t. I can see
Billy hitting the exhibit tonight instead of after the ball tomorrow. So we’re going to
take a look around first.”
 
“I haven’t been on a stake out in forever,” said Gloria.
 
“It’s just like riding a bicycle,” said Logan. “You never forget.”
 
“All right,” said Gloria. “Let’s do this before the wine wears off.”
 
“At least I’m the one driving,” said Logan. “To the Log Mobile.”
 
“That’s hilarious,” said Gloria. “I hope Teflon Billy does show up. I want to pay him
back for ruining my night.”
 
“Don’t worry,” said Log Man. “If he doesn’t show up tonight, he’ll be there
tomorrow.”
 
“How do you know?,” asked Gloria. They walked to the garage where Logan created
his wooden vehicle to carry them.
 
“Because the value of the collection is in the millions and it’s only going to be
together for the next few days,” said Logan. “We’ve been covering it for a while.
Billy likes to hit stationary targets. He’s not going to try for an armored car, or
courier. He’ll go for the showroom.”
 
“And he only has the next three days to do the job,” said Gloria.
 
“When you reminded me about the ball, that made me think of the coverage of the
ball,” said Logan.
 
“So you had a Poole moment,” said Gloria.
 
“Exactly,” said Logan. “The problem is what if I am wrong, and he’s hitting some
other jewel collection while we’re looking for him at the showroom.”
 
“If that happens, you owe me another date night,” said Gloria.
 
“I will gladly pay that,” said Logan. “I know a place that has the best hamburgers in
the world.”
 
“I’m not talking about hamburgers, mister,” said Gloria. She swatted him on the arm.
“You know darn well what I’m talking about.”
 
“I will do whatever I can to make you happy,” said Logan. He smiled.
 
“You will,” said Gloria. She nodded her head. “Now, I have to start making plans for
something grandiose and complicated.”
 
“Can’t we stay home and cuddle on the couch,” asked Logan.
 
“That’s what we were going to do tonight,” said Gloria. “Not anymore.”
 
“That’s fair, I guess,” said Logan.
 
“There’s the Hoxton,” said Gloria. She pointed at an almost triangle of a building.
“The show room is at the rear, facing out on the parking lot and pool area.”
 
Logan pulled the Log Mobile to the curb as he looked around. How would Billy get
into the hotel? He probably checked in as a guest. The hotel would not give him the
names of everyone that had checked in. That would be against the law.
 
Billy would probably violate the door somehow. His power should allow him
to take out the hinges and drop the door to the ground.
 
Did he have a room in the Hoxton was the bigger question. If he did, he could just
hide the jewels, go back to his room, and pretend like he didn’t know what had
happened and walk away. The police wouldn’t be able to hold him without proof
that he had taken the merchandise.
 
Had some kind of guard been hired to watch things? Would he be able to stop Billy?
How did he and Gloria want to set up so they could watch things? If he had his
brainstorm earlier, they could have taken a room and walked down to watch the room
from the inside of the hotel themselves.
 
“Let’s see how the other side looks,” said Log Man. “Maybe we’ll have a better view
of things.”
 
He pulled away from the curb and circled the hotel to enter the parking lot.
 

6
“Are you sure he’s going to go tonight?,” asked Gloria. Her black costume let her
hide in shadows cast by the dim security lights in the exhibit room.
 
Logan hid on the other side of the room. He stood as motionless as a tree. Only his
eyes moved as he watched the room.
 
If Billy didn’t show up, they would go to the ball and stake things out afterwards. The
third night would have a crew come in and take everything back to their vaults under
armed guard.
 
Somewhere in those three days, Logan expected the thief to take action. His only
other chance was during the transportation phase of things. So far he hadn’t done
anything like that.
 
He liked motionless targets he could sneak in and out of without anyone seeing him.
 
“I hear something,” said Gloria. “I think it’s the window to my right. Can you see
anything at my four?”
 
Logan focused on the window. He spotted someone crouching outside. He couldn’t
tell what was going on, but it looked like he had been right about Billy hitting the
show.
 
“I see someone outside,” said Logan. “It looks like he’s taking the window apart to
get inside.”
 
“Do you think he can see me?,” asked Gloria.
 
“I’m not sure,” said Logan. “You might want to move so the stand is between you and
the window.”
 
“Right,” said Gloria. She waited until the person at the window looked down. She
flipped back around a display counter and dropped down. “I think we’re good.”
 
“I don’t think he saw you,” said Logan. He frowned as the thief kept working. “Either
that, or he isn’t concerned.”
 
“He will be,” said Gloria.
 
After a few more minutes of working, the infiltrator pulled the window out of its
frame. He looked around before entering the room. He reached up and turned on a
small light attached to his helmet as soon as he was inside the room. He turned his
head to look at the jewelry on display.
 
“Hey, buddy,” said Log Man, stepping into view. “You know you’re not supposed to
be in here, right?”
 
The thief headed for the empty window frame. He skated along the floor, sliding on
goo dropping from his boots. He saw a figure in black flying through the air. He
raised his arms to brace for impact. Diamond Spear slid off of him and hit the floor.
He slid across the room, towards a wall. He caught himself and used a hand to change
his direction of travel toward a door to the inside of the hotel.
 
“No,” said Log Man. He flicked his wrist. A staff hit the door with one end while he
held the other end in his hands. “We’re not chasing you all over the city. Give up and
we’ll turn you over to the cops so you can hand over the loot you haven’t got rid of
yet. Take the easy way out.”
 
The thief turned to look at Log Man across the room. He glanced at Diamond Spear,
blocking his entry point with the crystalline weapon that was her namesake in hand.
He seemed to be judging his chances.
 
He lunged for Diamond Spear, pushing off the staff holding the door shut. He slid
across the room like an ice skater. At the last second, he dove to the floor and slid
right at his living barrier.
 
The spear came down to block him. It was too late as he knocked her feet out from
under her. She hit and rolled across the slippery floor.
 
The thief hit the frame, stopped by the raised edge. He grabbed the sill to pull himself
through the empty space. Once outside, he was faster than either of his opponents.
A weight dropped on his legs. He tried to yank them free of whatever had seized
them. His power should make it impossible to grab him.
 
Teflon Billy looked at his legs. A giant log had fallen on them. He tried to pull his
legs free. A frictionless surface should allow that.
 
“Go to sleep, Billy,” said Diamond Spear. She slammed the butt of her spear into his
face. She stepped back when he stopped moving.
 
“All right,” said Logan. “Time to call in the police and have our culprit turned over
to the proper authorities.”
 
“How did you pin him in place?,” asked Gloria. She dismissed her weapon with a
movement of her hand.
 
“Billy can slip out of any grip,” said Logan. He pulled his phone out of his wooden
skin. “He can’t slip out of a bunch of hooks in his clothes.”
 
“You didn’t,” said Gloria.
 
“I pinned him to the floor through his boots and pants,” said Logan. He dialed the
number for the central police station’s front desk. “If he wants to get out of that, he’ll
have to leave his clothes behind.”
 
“That is kind of brilliant, and crazy, at the same time,” said Gloria.
 
“I have been doing a lot of reading the last few days,” said Logan. “How’s it going,
O’Toole? This is Log Man, masked man of mystery. Guess what I have for you if you
hurry.”
 
“No, I don’t have scoliosis,” said Logan. “I have Teflon Billy, or his imposter, pinned
down at the jewelry exhibit. Do you want him, or do I toss him back?”
 
“I will be waiting for you to pick him up,” said Logan. “You better bring something
that can’t be slipped out of as soon as he wakes up.”
 
“I’m going to head home,” said Gloria. “You better get home before the night is over,
or we will have words, mister.”
 
“As soon as O’Toole’s pack of law dogs show up, I will be glad to come home and
snuggle,” said Logan. He put his phone away.
 
“You better,” said Gloria. “You can beat up your gangs tomorrow.”
 
“The ball?,” said Logan.
 
“It’s not going to be held now, is it?,” said Gloria. “If I didn’t know better, I would
say you planned this on purpose to get out of wearing a tux.”
 
“You know I’m not that smart,” said Logan. He smiled under his wooden mask.
 
“Okay,” said Gloria. “I agree with that.”
 
“I don’t think you’re supposed to agree with that,” said Logan.
 
“It’s better this way,” said Gloria. “I’ll see you when you get home.”
 
“All I have to do is hand this guy over,” said Logan. “How hard could that be?”
 
Gloria smiled. She slipped through the empty window frame and headed into the
night. She was still mad, but not as much now with one of the city’s problems under
control.
 
Logan looked down at Teflon Billy. He shook his head. It was true he hadn’t wanted
to go to the ball, but he hadn’t wanted to ruin it either.
 
A lot of the charity mavens would be screaming for their heads. Logan frowned.
Maybe he could get Gloria to reschedule things, and set up some new exhibit.
 
Blue and red lights appeared outside the window. Policemen arrived. They looked at
the mess that used to be a ballroom.
 
“How’s it going, officers?,” said Log Man. He smiled under his wooden mask. “This
one’s slippery.”
 
“The Robbery guys are going to want to talk to you about this,” said the senior man,
Crookshanks. He waved a hand at the mess. “What happened?”
 
“I caught this guy breaking in and then I caught him,” said Log Man. “The problem
is that once I unpin him, he’s slippery enough to get out of anything that isn’t a solid
barricade.”
 
“Let’s get the mask off,” said Crookshanks. “Then we’ll have to get something to cart
him around in until we can get him processed.”
 
The police tried to maneuver the mask off. They gave up when they realized it was
attached to the neckpiece forming a collar around Billy’s neck. They couldn’t
disconnect what looked like a gas mask that covered the bottom of his face.
 
“We’re not getting that off without a cutting tool of some kind,” said Crookshanks.
He brushed his hands off.
 
“I could get it off, but I think it would violate his rights,” said Log Man. “And I think
it would hurt a lot.”
 
“We’ll have to get a warrant,” said Crookshanks. “Letting him remove it himself will
go a lot better than putting him in the hospital.”
 
“I can see that,” said Log Man. “How do you want to get him out of here?”
 
“I don’t know,” said Crookshanks. “If we had a cage, we could put him in that.”
 
“I can make a cage,” said Log Man. “Maybe put some wheels on it so you can roll
him around. You wouldn’t be able to take it anywhere.”
 
“Do that,” said Crookshanks. “Then we’ll get down to taking a statement. You will
probably have to come to court to testify.”
 
“I can’t testify,” said Log Man. “That’s out. You have cameras here in the ballroom.
You’re going to have to use that for evidence.”
 
“A prosecutor is going to want a witness to show the jury what happened,” said
Crookshanks. “You’re going to have to make a statement, and testify in court.”
 
“I’m an unlicensed vigilante, Jerry,” said Log Man. “I can’t testify before a court.
There would be demands on who I am. I can’t give up my identity. That’s just not
going to happen.”
 
“Just hold on until we get the camera footage,” said Crookshanks. “Then we can talk
about what the prosecution is going to want.”
 
“Go ahead,” said Log Man.
 
He shouldn’t have hung around. The police were going to want him to answer
questions about what happened. He wasn’t sure that would be in his interest.
He couldn’t afford to have his family become known to the enemies he had made,
and would make if he kept chasing bad guys.
 
Crookshanks left the scene with another uniform. They looked enough alike to be
brothers. He wondered if the police academy tried to do that on purpose.
 
Logan waited in place. He had to be there to let Billy loose when the police was ready
to take him away. He didn’t want them having to call a tree surgeon to cut the pin
log apart so they could put Billy in cuffs.
 
He stood in the shadow as the technicians went over the scene. Pictures were taken
of the damage. He winced at the fact that he couldn’t get any for his paper. That
would throw the secret identity in trouble there.
 
“All right,” said Crookshanks. He waved Log Man over. “There’s a full documentary
of what happened on the security footage. We’re going to need you to get rid of the
log.”
 
“All right,” said Log Man. “Be careful with him. He’s slippery.”

7
Logan returned to check on the animation he had commissioned. Teflon Billy had
gone through his arraignment calmly. His trial was in a couple of months according
to the court calender.
 
His lawyer had filed a motion to keep them from cutting off his mask because it
would endanger his face.
 
Logan understood the desire to keep anonymous. Fingerprints had been taken in case
he had been arrested earlier so they could identify him from criminal records and to
compare to other crimes around the country. If that came out, the paper would cover
it.
 
Hillary stood at the front counter and gestured for him to enter the school. The
animation teacher smiled.
 
“What does it look like?,” asked Logan.
 
“Let me show you,” said Hillary, gesturing for the publisher to follow him. “It’s all
stick figures right now, but I think we have a clear picture of what happened from the
reports and things.”
 
Hillary led the way into a classroom set up as a viewing room. He went to the
computers set up on one side and called up the animation file. The loading ring
started on the big screen.
 
“The first thing we did was assemble a model of the crime scene,” said Hillary.
Models of the houses appeared on the screen. “I sent a couple of students down to
take measurements and pictures. I put their footage in the computer so I could add in
what we needed to do with the physical evidence.”
 
“Then we took the crime scene photos and marked in where the bullets hit,” said
Hillary. Red spots assembled on the houses. “We also put in bystander cars with their
bullet damage.”
 
Models of the cars in the pictures appeared. Bullet damage marked one side of them
from the attack.
 
“I went over the accounts with my students,” said Hillary. “There was a lot of
confusion, but the gist is that a lot of the one gang was here in front of the target
house. Two cars drive up. Words were exchanged. Then they started shooting at each
other.”
 
Two cars rolled to the middle of the street. More stick men appeared. Red lines
connected each of the stick men to bullet holes in the environment.
 
“How do you know who shot what?,” asked Logan. He peered at the stick men as if
trying to see who they really were.
 
“We don’t know really,” said Hillary. He froze the footage after rewinding it back to
where the stick men first started shooting. “We made guesses based on the pictures
and the information the police gathered. The boy you’re interested in was shot with
a rifle. Most of the aggressive shooting was done with pistols and submachine guns.
The only rifle bullets the police found were behind the two cars.”
 
Logan processed the information as he stared at the frozen scene on the screen. He
felt that Hillary had a theory. If he was right, it changed everything for the case.
He also didn’t know how to use it to his advantage.
 
“What do you think happened, Hillary?,” Logan asked. He already had a fair idea, but
he wanted it confirmed beyond a doubt.
 
“I think the rifle started out being pointed at the cars on the street,” said Hillary. He
rolled the footage forward slowly. He pointed to one shooter on the defenders’ side
that was in front of the murder house. The stick man turned in a circle and shot
through the house. “I don’t know why that happened, but I think that’s what
happened.”
 
“Do you know which shooter this was?,” asked Logan.
 
“No,” said Hillary. He made a face. “The police didn’t really know who did the
shooting. We just put it together from the reports you provided.”
 
“Can you get me a copy of this?,” said Logan. “If we can identify that guy, we can try
to get the police to find him. You said he was the only one with a rifle out there?”
 
“According to the police reports, most of the casings recovered were pistol and
submachine gun rounds in nearly the same calibers,” said Hillary. He went to the
provided information and looked through it. “The round that killed the boy was a rifle
round from what they think was an Ay Kay.”
 
Logan nodded. It meant that one of the Razorbacks had done the deed. He already
knew how to find that person from the animation. How did he get the gangs to send
that person forward? That was his first real hurdle he had to jump.
 
He decided the best thing to do was see if any of the Razorbacks had been hurt during
the shooting. That would give him his prime suspect. Then he could think about
separating him out from his gang so he could take the consequences of his deed.
Maybe he could get the Aardvarks on his side by telling them he knew who had killed
the boy. He doubted Clinton would stand knowing that he was being pressured
because of another gang’s mistake.
 
On the other hand, Clinton might decide to take things into his own hands.
 
Logan wondered if a misleading story in the paper could put pressure on things for
the gangs so they would step back from the violence. He doubted it. If there wasn’t
this, there would be something else. He was better off escorting them to rented planes
and shipping them to other countries so they couldn’t mix together again.
 
“Thanks for your help, Hillary,” said Logan. He pulled out his phone. “I know this
will never stand up in court but it might have given me an idea on how to shut things
down.”
 
“What are you going to do?,” asked Hillary. He shut his computer down.
 
“I’m going to find out who the shooter is and then I’m going to try to pressure him
to come clean,” said Logan. “If I can do that, I can let the gangs go back to a slow
boil where they aren’t hurting anyone. Right now, they are close to open warfare. Log
Man has been on the scene, and having a vigilante actively in your business might
slow things down, but he can’t watch them forever. And the police aren’t doing that
great either. More attention will help hurt their business as far as I can tell.”
 
“And hurting their businesses will make them go elsewhere to earn their money,” said
Hillary.
 
“It might drive them out of business if the paper can keep the pressure on,” said
Logan. He called Phillips on his phone.
 
“This is Phillips,” said the reporter.
 
“This is Logan Major,” said Logan. “I asked a computer animation teacher to go
through the crime reports and put together an animation for me about the shooting.
We think one of the Razorbacks shot the Garret boy accidentally. I need to know if
any of the Razorbacks were wounded in the shooting.”
 
“Paul Winfrey was shot,” said Phillips. “He claimed to be an innocent bystander.
Everyone I know in the neighborhood said he was one of the ‘Backs. The police let
him go because they couldn’t find a weapon on him. And everyone on the street was
covered with gunpowder residue, so that wasn’t a good reason to hold him at the
time.”
 
“Is Winfrey in the hospital?,” Logan asked.
 
“I don’t know, but I can find out,” said Phillips.
 
“Let me know,” said Logan. “I have to do some things, but maybe we can put this
story to bed tonight, or tomorrow if we get lucky.”
 
“It shouldn’t be that hard to find out,” said Phillips. “I’ll call you back as soon as I
can.”
 
Logan cut the connection and put his phone away. All he needed was a way to force
a confession. He wasn’t seeing all of a plan for that yet.
 
“Hillary,” said Logan. “We might have to do this for a bigger crowd. I think you have
had the key to this in these reports the whole time. I just need to get some things
together.”
 
“Let me know, and I will be ready to roll,” said Hillary. “I’ll put everything in the safe
until you need it back.”
 
“Thanks,” said Logan. He headed out of the school. He needed to make another call,
but he didn’t want Hillary to hear who he was calling. That would make things
complicated for maintaining his secret.
 
He climbed into his Datsun and pulled out on the road. He dialed the number for
O’Toole. He needed some official backing for what he wanted to do.
 
“O’Toole here,” said the detective. “Who’s calling?”
 
“This is Log Man,” said Logan. “There was a rifle at the Garret shooting. Did you
guys find it?”
 
“No, and we looked everywhere around the scene,” said O’Toole. “What’s this
about?”
 
“I think the wounded Razorback shot the boy by accident then got rid of the weapon
before he could be taken to the hospital,” said Logan. “I’m going down to look for it.”
 
“Where do you get this?,” said O’Toole.
 
“One of my contacts hired an animator to put the scene back together. He just called
me with the news of what it looked like from the reports,” said Logan. “That rifle has
to be there at the scene of the shooting.”
 
“All right,” said O’Toole. “It’s possible that it has been retrieved. It’s been a while
since the shooting.”
 
“I think it’s still there,” said Logan. “We just have to find it.”
 
“I’ll get a crew to come down, and we’ll help you look for it,” said O’Toole. “Good
job on Teflon Billy. The hotel put your fight on Youtube.”
 
“Great,” said Logan. “I’ll see you at the scene of the crime.”

If you'll allow it, I'm going to need to sort of re-arrange the answers and bundle them up a bit.  My apologies, but the answers are so closely related as to nearly duplicate themselves in places.
 
What does a character get for that spent point?
 
To be fair, recall that I said "might consider" charging a single point for the "bundle o' citizenship."  As a general rule, I don't.  I didn't read a lot of comics growing up, before, during or after.  I read a few, here and there, as friends had them or players deposited them around my house, but not much.  One thing that I recall, though, was that super teams-- at least, those with global reputations, could move about pretty much freely: they'd just jump into the team jet and a panel later they are talking to the police commissioner of Zambia, in his office, about the super-criminal hiding out in the whatever Zambia has to hide out in.  No one even _considered_ asking for their names or passports, or whatever.  A few panels later, and they've split into teams-- one group searching the sketchy parts of town while the other part has rented a car and gone to look out into the rest of the land.  Passports?  Driver's licenses?  Real names?  It just didn't freakin' come up.  Now maybe it does in comics today; I don't know.  I _do_ know that comics of today _suck_, and that's because they're the soap operas we were avoiding by reading comics, and filled with pages and pages of introspection, arguing, distrust, and getting your passports stamped.  Readers just eat that stuff up, I guess.  People complaining about the horrible dialogue in the Flash TV show?  Read a modern comic.  It's so authentic it's kind of spooky.....
 
 
Anyway-- my personal thought is that it doesn't, as a general rule, come up because over-all it adds _nothing_ to the story.  Nada.  bumpkiss.  In fact, I personally think it would seriously _detract_ from the story.  I want to play (or run) an adventurer, a hero, a two-fisted knight of justice.  I don't want to role play luggage claim at the airport or reading projections for social security or remembering the due dates on my library books  (except as a minor, trivial diversion for humor or plot-hooking, of course).
 
Just assuming everyone has it (or doesn't need it) doesn't detract from your story: it helps keep it on track and avoids the bogging down that this reply is moving dangerously close to.      The airport or the DMV or whatever-- that's a _setting_ where story and conversation can occur, but its entirely acceptable to just _assume_ that all the standing in line and getting things stamped have already happened or are happening in the background.  Take a survey of your players, of course; they need to be on the same page you are.  Still, I'm willing to bet if you asked them if they felt that roleplaying talking your way out of a seatbelt ticket (you know-- my power armor's so bulky or whatever) or replacing yet lost Social Security card or whatever sounds _really exciting_ and seems to be just the kick your story needs, the answer is probably something along the lines of "if you have any of that left, I'd like a hit, too."  
 
Anyway-- what does he get for that point?  As far as I'm concerned, kinda screwed out of a point, _but_----  there are tiny little things you can add here and there for the guy who spent that one point when no one else did:
 
Maybe he _has_ to drive the team bus, because Razor Hawk has a license to drive as Razor Hawk instead of Timmothy Blaine.  Maybe he's the only one from whom the police will take a statement for the same reason, or perhaps the only one who won't be told "you can't testify because you have to give your real name and show your face, and since you were wearing a mask at the time, we can't prove it was really you in the first place."  Need to rent a vehicle?  No problem: Cheetah Man has Cheetah Man's driver's license and credit card.  Mark Parson's gonna have to provide Mark Parson's ID and use Mark Paron's credit card, and you can bet that knowing that Firefight is really Mark Parson is the sort of information that will spread fast-- or at least threaten to do so.  Let's not forget, no one gets police powers or other perks without actually being a real person.  So....  well, you know....  if you insist on it as the GM, then buying that costumed personhood might be a prerequisite to certain Perks (which I'm a bit opposed to doing, honestly: you've just raised the cost of certain Perks.  If that's your goal, just do that).
 
It's all tiny, inconsequential stuff, and in complete honesty, I'm perfectly happy letting a player decide if he is a legally-recognized person in costume or if he is not, but-- and this is a _big_ but-- _IF_ a player specifies that he wants to pay a single point to buy that personhood-- or perhaps you have decided to assume that's it's just free stuff for this campaign, and he wants to buy it for a _second_ or _third_ country-- or maybe you can spend that point to be a global person, ala Superman or whoever in Marvel has that kind of world-wide clout  (notice I didn't say "Reputation;" that's a different thing)---
 
if you have a guy who wants to go out of his way to buy it and someone else doesn't-- well, you've got to come up with some way it advantages him above the other players.  However, if you go with the suggestion, you've only got to give him a single point's worth of advantage.  That's not terribly hard-- I did it three times two paragraphs ago.  I'll even go you one more--
 
suppose his secret ID has some truly amazing professional skills-- he's the only surgeon in the world who has perfected the procedure for repairing a kidney or removing tonsils rectally or whatever--- perhaps that one point can include similar things for the costumed persona as well:  "You'll be okay, Jeff!  Doctor Speedster is here!"  And of course, 
Doc Speed could transport a critical patient to a hospital in the blink of an eye and yell "I need this man prepped for surgery!" and he would have access to the OR, etc.
 
 
Just thoughts, but only if you really want to charge for this sort of thing.