BTolputt

I cannot find a "The Tomorrow Man" by Philip K. Dick. Could you point me to what you are referring to?

I would argue Batman's super power is billions of dollars worth of research & technology behind vehicles, armour, and gadgets Frank Castle would give his front teeth to acquire. Not to mention his life of training he could afford cos... billionaire. Don't get me wrong, Frank Castle comes across as a psychopath... but the sympathy for him comes from those he fights being villains we don't need to imagine (they exist in the real world and they scare us). In our world, the crazy villains don't dress in costume and escape jail more regularly than I see the dentist. Frank Castle might live in Marvel's universe... but the sympathy for his actions stems from our living in the real one.

Depends on the normal, what they're carrying, and what kind of game I'm playing. In a supers game, the characters are pretty much untouchable. If a normal manages to pick-up one the OAF source of a power (energy rifles and the like), they can use and hurt heros with it... but they won't last a round of retaliation. In a mystery men or street-level heroes game - they players aren't that far up the ladder from normals. A knife in the guts is going to hurt them and it should. A mob of normals could easily take down my players in these games if they don't play it right.

Hero is a system that's somewhat "front-loaded" in complexity. Creating a character takes quite a bit more time than a lot of other systems and this happens before players get a chance to enjoy the game in play. This can appeal to gamers that enjoy the (relative) complexity and "solo play" of putting together their character within a campaign's limitations. Traveller is another game that appeals to this type of player - putting together spaceships, rolling new characters then creating a corresponding history, etc. Like finagling the best representation of your character concept from effects, frameworks, limitations, etc holds a similar thrill for that kind of problem-solving mindset. I'm a "character player" type myself. I love the flexibility Hero/Champions offers but most of the time, I just want to get the character into the game and play them. Most of the folks I've ever played with are the same. The few times we've played with "character builder" types, they've been able to overshadow the rest of the (ingame) team. They didn't do it to cause grief (i.e. not munchkins), they just got more out of the building exercise than the rest of us did and, unlike less flexible systems, this spilled over into gameplay quite strongly. These same players caused no problems in D&D & Storyteller games due to the inflexibility of character creation in those systems. Long story short, in my opinion, Champions appeals to the "builder" mindset and, due to the nature of needing to do this first, those that are less interested in building characters (instead wanting to roleplay characters) tend to get turned off. I was lucky in that I was introduced to Champions with a group that liked the playing more than the building, so I got to enjoy the flexibility of the system without being beaten over the head by the difference between tweaked and non-tweaked character builds.

The amusing thing is he got flicked by the RPGNet mod for his comments regarding the ongoing "edition wars" in D&D land, nothing to do with his list or the relative position of games therein. Whilst I actually agree with him (having played 4th Ed with the kids), it was a silly thing to take a stand on against a moderator. When a forum moderator says 'tone it down, son', you do so. Even when you think they're wrong For what it's worth, I find the list phoenix240 linked to MUCH closer to my view. I never got to play DC Heroes, so I'll withhold judgement about it's #1 position, but the order of all the other I played sites well with me.

The line about "needing a degree in Calculus" is obviously hyperbole and somewhat expected in a humorous blog piece. That said, whilst I would have put both Champions nearer to the top (alongside Mutants & Masterminds), one must admit to the fact character generation in Champions does involve a bit more math than many (most?) other RPG's in the genre. It's easy math (multiple steps of addition & multiplication), but that's still more than the others. With that in mind, the blog piece wasn't terrible if you took it as one man's opinion and not much more. He should have simply left his defence at his first post (light-hearted banter and admission/verification it's based purely on his own opinion). Arguments involving anonymous folks on the Internet never end well and that thread simply confirmed that law.

For me, the issue with Dr D is not so much that he's associated with the Nazis, it's that the whole "getting old and running out of time" idea doesn't work forever. Like the New 52 and Marvel's Ultimate line-up, new players are going to identify easier with villains & heroes that work in the world they know. I'm running games with my kids and even I never really knew much about the Nazi threat or recall much more than a fuzzy outline of the Cold War outside Rambo movies. For me to use the Champion's Universe with the kids I'm running games for/with - Dr D needs to either pass on the mantle or be updated to something they understand. I'm not going to jump on the Middle East bandwagon (sorry, but I won't use that stereotype with kids - period) and kids/teens today weren't exposed even to the Commie scare. The nationalist/racist angle just doesn't give the oomph to Destroyer's background it used to. Without something in his background players can identify with as ruthless evil, he simply comes across as a geriatric in a power-suit. That's a gag villian, not the image of CU's premier world conqueror.

Villains for us come in all colours and flavours. You've got your run of the mill mooks-turned-villain just looking for their "big score" like the Sandman & Rhino from Spectacular Spiderman Animated. These make up just over ½ of the villains I run. They're humorous, great fodder for a beat-down, and can be as fun for the GM to play as it is for the players to fight. Then you got your ruthless villains like Deathstroke, Lex Luthor, Mandarin, Magneto, etc who are more than willing to kill those opposing them but death not being their goal. They're the story-arc villains in our games. Whereas the "mooks-turned-villain" guys are simply going to beat on the player characters until they're unconscious, these guys are the ones that will work to find out & exploit a PC's advantages. Got a dependent girlfriend or mother - these guys are going to find that out and make use of the fact. Secret identity? They're going to try exposing it. Powerless without your focus / armour / whatever? They're going to be the ones that catch you without them. They'll kill you if they have to and without too much concern over getting away with it. They're probably about ⅓ of the villains I run Then there is the occasional psycho killer. The Joker, Carnage, & Sin City's Kevin are examples of this rare treat/fright for the players. They aren't motivated by understandable urges like the previous villains. It's easy to understand and work with folks motivated by greed and power. I use these guys are the scary villains you don't understand (and don't want to). They're evil incarnate and killing isn't a means to an end - it's the end itself.

Favourite Hero: JLA Flash, hands down. Favourite Team: Probably Ellis/Hitch Era 'The Authority' Favourite Villian: Probably Doom, though I'll admit to laugh-out-loud moments from Deadpool

Whilst I haven't played in the Champions Universe much, I'm running a game with my children that works better with the "corny tropes" prevalent in the material. With that said, my kids only know of Nazis as "the bad guys from the Capt America movie". My eldest is dealing with them (briefly) in high school history, but none of them know the true nature of the atrocity that made Nazis the "go to bad guy organisation" that makes up Dr D's history. For them, I'd probably mix up his history a little but for others & the CU in general, I'd see it as an opportunity to move the world on in general. Dr D is aware of his impending demise, knows that even if he should take over the world - he's not going to rule it for long as he is, and (as a fan of the whole genetic purity thing) wouldn't consider someone other than his direct progeny worthy of the throne. There is a good campaign waiting adventure there with multiple clones/children of a Dr D theme trying to prove themselves, another worldwide threat needing to be taken on, and the one candidate that steps up to help his/her old man save the world being the new bearer of the mantle Destroyer. Hell, you can even steal cheesy lines from movies with the heroes coming on the dying Dr D having made his last sacrifice for the world he deemed his to rule looking up into the sky to see a new Dr D taking on the enemy whispering "Though this may be the death of my body, my will is done regardless"​. Later adventures can be had using stories like the new Dr D having to crush opposition to their rule both inside & outside the ranks of the Destroyer organisation, having one of the other candidates begging the Champions for asylum, and even having the new Dr D going through an identity crisis as they find the soul of the old guy coming back to take back what his is... by possessing the new Dr D whenever he wears the armour the old man died in

Early Iron & Modern Ages for me. I like the early iron age because that was when heroes were still the good guys, but they had an edge to them that stopped them from being "camp". Adam West is funny to watch as the Batman on TV, but in the comics Batman was far cooler as The Dark Knight. The art was pretty good too, but that remained a constant throughout the Iron Age & into today. Of course, Image & (most of) Wildstorm kind of killed the storyline in the middle with awesome looking art & action scenes, but with all the depth of a Brady Bunch episode. I like the modern age because the "necessity" of characters having a dark side is removed, but the edge still remains. Though I have to say that DC's recent efforts are not terribly exciting in this regard. Only so many times you can kill everyone in an orgy of violence & death, bring them back, then reset the universe before that schtick gets old.

Depends on the campaign to be honest. I introduced my sons to Champions using characters I wrote up as an Avengers team analogue. They bought into the whole movie style heroism so they love turning aliens into paste but will only go so far as beating thugs, mooks, and "human" villains into unconsciousness. So standard comic serial violence. In another campaign I played in some years back, the GM was exploring the concept of super-heroes in a more realistic world. He'd been reading The Ultimates, so funnily enough the Avengers played into that too. Anyway, when putting the characters together, one of the recurring elements was that folks with super powers are from all walks of life, not just from people who'd have a code vs killing. So some of the characters were against hard violence of all forms as you'd expect from a middle-aged mother of three & a university student pothead, but others were quite fine with the idea of killing those they need to (soldier & gang banger).