Amorkca

Praying for you and your clan!

Uhm... I am not trying to be impolite, but sorry, I don't have to do that, all due respect, our group wants monetary system, we get one. Any given group can decide how their game is run and it doesn't have to adhere to anyone else's notion outside the group on how things should be done or not. A group is free to accept/disregard any rules/guidelines it wishes and agrees on, its their game after all and only affects them. Giving your opinions and views are always welcome, doesn't matter if we agree or not, trying to tell my group to do what you want us to do instead of what we want to do just doesn't help. What works for someone doesn't mean works for the person next to you. We as a group want a system to trade apart from CP that uses currency and are all in agreement, irregardless of what the system says. As long as we are in agreement and works for us and we have fun who cares if the system is supposed to work w/ CP only. I think even the creator of the book will tell you its dealers choice, he sells you the book, you use it however you want.
 

This guy had the best idea and its what we will end up using as a currency system. Open browser look up item and done, price tag available, even includes 2-day deliver in most cases, haha!

if you insist:  "it ain't so"

In City of Heroes, Rommy and Requiem are Archvillains (kind of the biggest of the big bads).
 
Cimerorans are citizens of Cimerora (a region patterned after ancient Greece). Nictii or the plural or Nictus, which are beings of dark energy.

Larceny instead of licentiousness?

This is the teenage android Mark O.N.E.. He was built to be able to generate and store incredible amounts of electricity, and to morph his hands/arms/legs/feat into various tools. Pictured here is his Lifter Hands (incresed Strength only for lifting and carring). He is still exploring the vast capabilities of his android body.
 
He is not exactly a superhero or a supervillain. He is still struggling to find his own place in the world, and the reason why he was built and programed the way he is. In fact, he has no memory of who created him. This, one moment he saves people from a burning building, another moment he is robbing a bank.

Jack Gadfrey was very proud of his father, who was an accomplished scientist and engineer. Unfortunately, his father felt he needed more than accolades and a comfy salary so sought out funding from VIPER for a couple of his more...ambitious projects.
 
When those projects didn't show rapid results, the leader of the local VIPER nest decided he'd been defrauded. Mark's father and mother were assassinated in an afternoon raid on his father's home lab, a lab which VIPER cleared out almost down to the bare floors.
 
However when Mark came home from school and found his parents' bodies, he also found a large crate in the kitchen which had been scheduled for a UPS pickup. Inside the crate, Mark found an over-sized pair of high tech gauntlet weapons, instructions on how to use them, and a large bottle of expensive liquor with an attached note of apology to the leader of the local VIPER nest for delivery taking much longer than expected.
 
Jack drank part of the bottle of liquor to boost his courage, donned the gauntlets, and went to the address on the package to avenge his parents' death.
 
The business at that address turned out to be little more than a VIPER front but that was more than enough for Jack to wring out the location of the actual nest from the survivor.
 
The nest never knew what hit them.
 
PowerJack was born.

Last night I was thinking of a group of supervillains that all wore skulls and related insignia on their costumes.

I was looking at the Black Terror (reimagined as a villain) as an example.
 
The obvious name for such a group would be SKULL. DC has a fairly minor villain group with this name, but I think this could be ignored.
 
Let's see: Society of the Kreative (oops!) Use of Lawlessness and Licentiousness?

Unfortunately, licentiousness, while amusing, isn't the right word here.
 
SKULL could be a bit Hellfire Club-ish, I suppose.

But you have to admit, "Space Nazis on the Moon" just has a special ring to it.

Having trouble coming up with an adventure for your next Star Hero game? Here's a list of plot hooks.

The Cloud

(With sincere apologies to Fred Hoyle and Gene L. Coon)

From the 1930s, mankind was aware of complex organic chemistry in deep space. From the discovery of methylidyne in 1937, to the confirmation of fullerenes in the century following, it was made clear that organic chemistry was not confined to planetary surfaces.

What mankind did not know was just how complex such chemistry could be.

In dark nebulae, organic molecules cluster inside carbon fullerenes, shielding them from UV radiation and allowing electrical connectivity between self-replicating molecular structures. It is a short trip from there to animation. From animation to intelligence is a longer journey, but it is one the universe attained at least once. What I’m saying is the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex is alive. Not only is it alive, it is intelligent.

Energized by its proximity to several bright stars and churned by the shock front from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association of O- and B-type stars, intelligence arose in the Cloud Complex millions of years ago and in that time, largely sat and thought about things. After a time, on what to some lifeforms would be a Thursday afternoon in late autumn, it hit upon the idea of shaping ambient carbon in its own mass, creating gigantic diamond mirrors and lenses. It used these to view the universe and extend its understanding of itself.

It discovered tiny worlds, strange stars, other dark clouds and on another Thursday just two hundred years ago, life. A mis-jump brought Raymond Nix and his one-man hyper-pod into the nebula. His drive smashed and his life in grave peril, he faced death alone in the dark. Carbon nano-tubes, like soft fingers, ran over his tiny craft, understanding it to be a small self-contained world. Using spectral analysis, it formed a plan. Quickly spinning up a diamond sphere and filling it with free oxygen and other seemingly important gases, it pried open the pod and allowed Raymond Nix a second chance at life. Floating in a diamond bubble 132.5 parsecs from Earth is the last place Nix expected to be. Terrified yet hopeful, he spoke in his characteristic Lupus/Wauwatosa accent (one that always make the listener think you’re from somewhere near Milwaukee), politely requesting what the hell was happening.

More nanotubes extended from the inside surface of the diamond sphere and infiltrated deep into his body. They probed, queried, sent test signals that gave Raymond hallucinations and alien thoughts. Full communication followed, and understanding blossomed. The Cloud requested that Raymond take some portion of itself with him, to let the Cloud explore the universe.

“Your vacuum adapted form won’t survive in a gravity well.” Raymond explained, “You would collapse without a physical form like mine.”

“Not yours.” It spoke, “hers.”

The Cloud probed again and began copying memories and spinning up bones, organs and a functioning human brain. Within a few hours, a perfect copy of Raymond’s dead wife Riley stood in front of him. All of the Cloud’s millions of years of knowledge and observations flooded into the new being. A spark animated the body and she asked simply, “Can we go now?”

At first Raymond resisted, this form was perfect, at least as perfect as he remembered her. Thus, she was an idealized copy, a clone the Cloud designed to tempt him into acceptance.

“I could go without you. Spin up a pod of my own and venture across space for the next few million years.” It threatened, the implication that he would remain here, without hope of escape, for the hours his air supply would last.   

It hit him that this being, the cloud and its tempting avatar had no companionship, nothing to compare itself to, no instances of having to make rational or moral choices. This thing was a monster. A monster that was about to be inflicted upon the universe. It needs a balance.

“We’ll go together.” He stated flatly. Maybe he could prevent disaster.

So next time you’re at some seedy booze-pit on Remmick, or slumming with the Tribals at Collinz-Port, or even drifting through the cybernetic microcosm of the Quantum Jones Very Large Brain at Mercator University on Planet Clarke, and you see a couple laughing at the next table, and one of them looks very like long-lost Raymond Nix, just walk away.  

When we're shelling out eighty bucks a pop for all thirty-nine volumes of the Seventh Edition, you are _really_ going to regret having said that out loud....

Let me just step up there and fix that.
 
 
(bed)
 
 

Stygian Destroyer
 
Representing the Fifth Circle: Wrath is Tariq Nassar. Nassar was a occultist who after much effort acquired the Dagger of Thoth-Amon. He used it  to summon the waters of the River Styx and conduct a ritual of bathing in a mixture of the waters and blood of seven sacrificial souls. He sought god like power, but instead was transformed into a monstrous raging beast. He went on a rampage of destruction and slaughter only to return to the waters and go into an inert state where his mind continued to brim with hate until the next awakening. The Nine Circles managed to discover his location and used some mystic wards to gain control of the monster and now use it as a weapon to destroy their enemies and foster panic and mayhem in the world. The Destroyer is 20 feet tall, immensely powerful, seemingly indestructible and bleeds and can vomit poisonous stygian waters.

I like the riding talent idea, it fits the genre well.  The trick is to allow impressive feats without them being too violent to the plausibility and feel of the setting.
 
Another idea for Western Hero: The casual presence attack.  The character doesn't have to say a word or do anything beyond a steely glare and causes the opponent to back down.  You see it all the time in movies.
 
By the way, Western Hero has a section on Showdowns, those "duels in the street" that were very rare in the real world but happen all the time in movies and books (and hence, should in a game).  Its basically a set of modifiers to DEX or Fast Draw roll based on circumstances, weapon size, holster, and so on.
 
Some fun: an example of a presence attack from a Western: Unforgiven
 
William Munny crouches by the door of the tavern and is worried about ambush from the men he chased out of the room earlier.  He does a Presence Attack to try to cow them: 
 
“Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife. All his friends. Burn his damn house down!”
 
OK so he’s being played by Clint Eastwood so he has a pretty high presence, we’ll say 18, so that’s a base of 3½d6.  William Munny has a pretty terrifying reputation already, so he’s probably riding that with a Very Frequent, Extreme Negative reputation; that’s +5d6 right off the bat.  He has just engaged in Extremely Violent Action by shooting down multiple armed men including the very capable Sheriff, that’s +3d6.  It’s an Excellent Soliloquy, so that’s +2d6.  The men who ran off are in partial retreat, so that’s +2d6.  The setting is appropriate, with a torrential storm, that’s +1d6.  On the other hand, Munny is outnumbered and at a disadvantage; that’s -1d6.
 
Still, he gets a roll of 15½d6, utterly terrifies the men, and they let him ride off without firing a single shot.
 

The classic Devil's Advocate plot is: Use it to power a big, reality warping spell that transforms campaign city to its mediaeval equivalent.
 
The Indian guy, whose name escapes me at the moment, could use it for something a bit more India specific. Basically the guy is all about reinstating the caste system in all it's mediaeval glory - there's plenty of Hindu nationalists who would welcome him. He might try to overthrow the government and replace Modi.  (Truth is, Modi is pretty Hindu nationalist himself and might welcome the guy as an ally to install a totalitarian regime, but we drift into real world politics at this point so I'll stop.)
 
Gyre would use the wand to do something... weird. How about building a huge multi-dimensional maze, all inter-locking, shining portals and strange geometries. Which might be fine and even beautiful if done in an empty desert somewhere, but she dropped it in the middle of campaign city in the middle of a busy work day. Now hundreds or thousands of people are lost and wandering in an effectively infinite maze. And maybe some things from elsewhere are wandering through to here.
 
Vlisindra (something like that, 🤔) might be interested in returning to Svartlheim and taking over her old clan. Which might kick off a conflict that spills over into our dimension. That , or just playing a HUGE practical joke on the world. She is an illusionist and trickster type after all.
 
Golem (again, not sure if that's the right name) is kinda dull and one dimensional. Which is fine, I think every villain group should have a member who's just kinda there. He'd use it to make a bigger golem.
 
Or how about something controversial - they use it to put out the fires in the Amazon and then kick out all the governments and mega-corps. Then they start re-growing the rain forest.

Here you go. Probably the word document has more of what Steriaca is interested in (background and whatnot).
 
- E
avis.pdf

The house was dark, the front door was unlocked. Kate slipped her keys back into her jacket pocket. Flipping a switch by the door turned a lamp on. Leah was still sitting on the couch where she had been. The wine bottle was laying on its side, empty. Leah's wine glass lay on the rug on the far side of the coffee table.
 
Kate went and picked it up, set it on the table and righted the wine bottle. “Hey, Sparky,” she said quietly. “Is everything okay?” Leah nodded. “Just wearing your robe?” Leah nodded again. “Give Jason a peep show?” she teased. Leah shook her head. Kate sat on the couch beside Leah. “Are you okay?”
 
“No,” Leah answered quietly.
 
“What's wrong?”
 
Leah looked at Kate. She was crying. “I want my life back.”
 
* * * * *
“HR sent a memo and wanted me to remind you that threatening to feed an employee to a customer is not acceptable.”
 
Jason looked at Jessica. “It wasn't a threat. It was a promise. Inquire as to why those parts were sitting on the dock two days after they were supposed to have been shipped.”
 
“Already done. The response was 'clerical error',” Jessica told him.
 
“Damned expensive clerical error. Mentor, do we have an ETA when Brianna can expect delivery?”
 
“Yes, sir. In fact, she already queried and I gave her the answer. She should have them around one her time.”
 
“So roughly sometime in the next three to four hours.”
 
“Yes, sir.”
 
“Thank you, Mentor.”
 
Beth walked in wearing her red blouse, dark skirt, heels with straps, and sheer dark nylons.
 
“I'm just about ready to go,” Jess said.
 
“That's fine,” Beth responded. With her back to Jason, she shimmied up on his desk. Turning sideways, she brought her legs up on it and struck a pose. “What position do you want me in?” She settled back on her elbows and raised her chin. “Like this?” She turned to face him resting her head on one upraised palm. Her legs were flexed with her knees pointing at him. “Or like this?”
 
Jason laughed. “Jessica, would you mind getting my camera for me?”
 
Jessica was grinning and trying not to laugh as well. “Yes, sir.”
 
“Thanks, Beth. I needed that,” he said gently.
 
“What? You needed to see me rolling around on your desk?”
 
“I needed the laugh.”
 
“I know,” she said quietly. “Can I ask you... Have you figured out what happened?”
 
“Not yet. I have been looking. Believe me, I've been looking. You don't want to know the rocks I've turned over and the people I've talked to looking for information,” he explained.
 
“I miss her,” Beth said.
 
“Me, too. Something on your mind?” he asked.
 
Beth frowned. “That transparent, am I?”
 
“We've been together ten years, more or less living together,” he explained.
 
Smiling, Beth said, “Not really. We met, you hired me, you met Kris and Ash, started your little gang, and moved to New York while I stayed here, minded your appointments, and went to school.” She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling. “Did you know about the rumors that went around the office about how I got my job?”
 
“I never heard a peep. Your buckle is broken.”
 
Beth lifted her leg and looked at her shoe. “I know. I snagged it on something between my place and here.”
 
“May I?” Jason asked, indicating her shoe. Beth moved her foot closer and Jason undid the strap.
 
“Even with you in New York, in a relationship with Ash, people swore up and down we were sleeping together.”
 
Attention on the shoe, Jason said, “Funny. I only recall the one time you were ever in my bed and that was because I wouldn't let you sleep on the couch.”
 
Beth smiled. “Chivalry noted. Your dad came down pretty hard on anyone that implied my sexual prowess had to do with the job.”
 
“You were an excellent assistant, Beth. You're an excellent office manager. I've never regretted hiring you. Buckle is fixed.” Beth sat up and put her foot on his knee.
 
“I've never regretted coming to work for you, either. Sometimes you made so angry I wanted to kill you, but I never regretted.” Jason slipped her shoe on and fastened the strap around her ankle. “I'm just glad that helping you get dressed was never part of the job.”
 
Jason smiled and nodded. “How are things with Boyd?”
 
Beth dropped her gaze to the buckle. “Like new.” She smiled at Jason. “Thanks. I don't know how things are with Boyd. How do you do it?”
 
“Do what?”
 
“Well, with Ash, the two of you were together almost constantly. And with Kris and Warren in the mix. You and Leah spent a lot of time apart with her modeling schedule. And now with Marlene missing, how do you do deal with the separations?”
 
“There were nights Ash and I slept in our own rooms. With Leah, there were lots of phone calls. Afterward, there was a lot of anger. Anger that I took out on a lot of people.”
 
“What about Angelique?”
 
“Stress relief. Enemy with benefits at the time, I guess.”
 
Beth cocked her head and looked at him. “But why?”
 
“There was an attraction involved. The forbidden fruit. But it turned out that the man that arranged for Leah and I to get together was also involved in Leah leaving. And he manipulated events so that Angelique and I might turn to one another,” Jason explained. “In light of what I know now, his reasoning was that if someone might actually care about her, not being forced to, but naturally care and have concern for her, she might broaden her own empathy, if that makes sense. Let her see there is more to life beyond selfish reasons.”
 
“How are you dealing with Marlene?”
 
“Aside from looking for her?” Beth nodded. “Lack of sleep. Lots of coffee. A lot of violence in the gym. Entirely too much thinking.”
 
“Got it!” Jessica announced. “Where do you want to start?”
 
“Oh, lets take a few hundred of Beth being inappropriate on the desk so we can post them up on her MyFaceSpaceBook and maybe sell her on the internet.”
 
“Working back around to wanting to kill you,” Beth said. “Seriously, how do you want me?”
 
Jason came around his desk and held his hand out to Beth. She slipped off the desk with his help and straightened her skirt. Jason took the camera from Jessica. “Lean back against the desk.” Looking back, Beth did as he asked, gripping the side of the desktop. “Put your heel up against the desk. Yes, like that.” Jason knelt a little distance away.
 
“Did it work with Angelique?” Beth asked.
 
Jason glanced at Jessica before answering. “I think so. She made some apologies where appropriate. She disappeared at the same time. I think she was trying to save her.” Beth nodded. “Need to do something with your arms.” Beth gave him a questioning look. “Jessica, hand her a book off the shelf, please.” Jessica did. “Hold it close to your chest. No, look straight ahead.” Jason lay on his side and snapped a picture. Lost in thought, Beth gently bit the tip of her thumb. Jason snapped again. “I think that will do,” he declared.
 
“You're working on something,” Beth realized. Jason smiled at her. “I want to see it.”
 
“When it's done.”
 
Jason handed her the camera. Beth flipped through the images. “I look pensive.”
 
“And beautiful,” Jason said quietly to her. Beth smiled. Jason pulled open a drawer in the desk and handed two cards to her. “Here.”
 
“What's this?” One card was Jason's credit card. The other was an appointment card.
 
“After clothes shopping and lunch, the four of you have an appointment. Full spa treatment.” Jessica squealed. Beth only nodded.
 
“I need to change,” Beth said.
 
“I will see if Jen and Mrs. Anderson are ready,” Jessica announced and walked out.
 
Walking slowly towards the door, Beth stopped when Jason spoke. “Where it comes to Boyd, do what feels right.”
 
“Can I ask you something?” Jason nodded. “Why did you keep your distance from Marlene for so long?”
 
“To keep her safe and to protect myself. I didn't want to see what I might be if she weren't in this world and knowing that it might be my fault,” he said quietly.
 
“And?”
 
“And I've made some questionable decisions since she's been gone.”
 
Beth nodded. “I need to get changed.” Beth walked out.
 
“And I'm not done making them,” he said to himself.

Well, Saturday,  I GMed my very first time 
  It was challenging,  but fun.  
 
First I established the one with magic,  was contacted by the head of the University paranormal studies. 
 
The man's name was Drake Shelton,  and he was expecting a potentially magical artifact from the ruins of Pompeii 
 
So, I had one character driving with his DNPC, one in his secret ID, driving and one flying over a bridge that was partially under construction 
 
While heading over the bridge,  they saw a vortex about the size of a football stadium appear in the sky.   
 
12 giant, car sized,  spiders fall out, but 3 fall into the water.  (Or so it seems)  3 fell onto the tower that spans over the bridge,  and the other 6, land on the bridge. 
 
A fight ensued.   A worker got bit and a driver got hurt.  The spiders were relatively easy to stun and knock out. 
 
One thing that threw me off was the DNPC knew the hero's identity.   I was hoping to play that out a little. 
 
The heroes found a box in the back of the UPS truck that was magical and headed to Drake Shelton 
 
They opened the box with Drake and it was a very powerful magic wand.  It radiates magic and basically they just let everyone who can detect magic know that they had a very powerful magic artifact. 
 
Even after closing the box, they could feel the magic.  
 
Of course,  this is a very abbreviated version of what happened,  but you get the idea 
 

Another ability for your list might be: 
 
Ride Like Hell: +Xm Running Usable by other (only the Horse the character is riding). Player can spur his/her horse to run faster then normal in and out of combat. Perfect for catching up to bad guys or reaching the bank in time to stop the robbery. 
 
A spin off of this would be to also increase the horse you are riding's Leap, allowing it to jump further and higher (over wider ravines, washed out bridges, etc...) 
 
 

Spinster

Here's the skill screen...I assigned a skill some miscellaneous Advantages/Limitations just for testing.  The Martial Arts, Perks, Talents, and Powers screens will likely be quite similar... a lot of the work at this point is foundational as I build out classes and components to process and display the character.
 
Points to whoever spots the easter egg Simon put in
 
Note that the math doesn't work right now so ignore the Cost.
 

One of my favorite aspects of running D&D and Pathfinder adventurers using HERO system is customization.
 
A few weeks ago one of my friends stepped up to take the GM reigns for a few weeks so I could avoid burnout (been DM'ing that table for over a year straight).
 
In comes my Autolycus inspired rogue - Dirk Daggerman.
 
Pretty standard rogue fare with a few HERO system tweaks that caught the players offguard.
 
Character Defining "powers":
+7 rPD - hardened/inpenetrable - only against sharp metal objects.  No blade would willingly hurt Dirk Daggerman.
Major Transform - Dagger from thin air - No matter how well you've disarmed Dirk Daggerman - there's always one more knife on him.
Major Transform - Restraints (ropes, shackles, etc.) into open/untied restraints - No lock can hold Dirk Daggerman.
 
At one point in the adventure the party finds a lich-like entity that is stuck in some gruesome torture device where golems mindlessly stab it over and over for all time.
 
The responsible party members wander off to get a quest item we hadn't recognized was important earlier.  The lich thing begs for the freedom of death.
 
Dirk transforms the creatures bonds into unlocked restraints and says, "There you go, buddy.  Die however you like.".
 
Party member1:  You can do that!!??
Party member2:  Why would you do that!?
Lich:  Die puny mortals!
 
In games with hard rails you just can't get the level of spontaneity nor fear of villains that comes along with not knowing what they're capable of doing.

///A.T.L.A.S Intelligence Document Clearance Level Amber///
 
RE: Transcript Of Conversation Between Subjects Tanner And Patel
 
ACTIONS:
 
1.  Transfer of Subject Tanner to Ice Box facility is disapproved.  Director One, however, believes Subject Tanner may be "susceptible."  Blue-Level surveillance of Subject is authorized along with a thorough examination of his financial                           transactions.  Further actions may be necessary upon completion of investigation.
2.  Appointment of Subject Patel to project head is approved, along with a 7.3 percent increase in salary and an invitation to "Steak Night" in the executive dining room.
3.  The wings stay.  Director One likes the wings.  Director One requests the Creative Department to develop some concept designs for chest emblems.  Two dozen should be sufficient to start.  Deadline is Thursday.
4.  Subjects archer and death tribble will have their Reward Room privileges suspended until further notice due to extreme facetiousness.  ("Captain Flashpants?"  Really?)
5.  Authorization of Subject Quackhell to post the next image is approved, along with restoration of ice cream privileges in the employee commissary.
 
///A.T.L.A.S Intelligence Document Clearance Level Amber///

My brief write-up of this year's Gen Con is here.
 
https://davemattingly.net/2019/08/07/gen-con-2019/