薔薇語

Here are a couple more character ideas. Bakeneko-chan - 化け猫ちゃん Formally a Maneki-neko (Beckoning Cat Statue) brought to life. (S)he can perform a wide variety of magic tricks - Transformations, Enchanting, etc. She seeks to protect the girl that brought her to life. Kitsune (Fox). Long ago a man showed great mercy on the foxes and the associated fox spirits on his land. As a token of gratitude the foxes looked after him and his family. One day, one of the Fox spirits falls in love with a decedent of his. She and he get married and have a child. After the child grew up some, the father came to learn of his wife's true nature and of his ancestor's good deed. But knowing the truth the mother was no longer allowed to stay with them and had to leave. The father, grateful for the son/daughter he had and for the protection the kitsune had provided, decided to do all he could to raise his child in as just and good a way he could That child is now an adult human with extraordinary abilities. He now tries to put to good use all his abilities to help people and eventually try to re-unite with his mother. Okami / Makami - Wolf Spirit. This character is a stern deliver of justice. Blessed by the still hiding wolf spirits in the mountains of (some mountain name I do not know), the character seeks to protect the innocent. If anymore spring to mind, I will do my best to post them. La Rose.

Okay, here are some ideas for Japanese-esc characters. Some of them play on well founded tropes but I promise to take them in new angles. First, The Repentant Warrior - Long before Bushido and all the other Samurai traditions, there were warriors. Men charged with defending their families, their lords, and with the killing of all those who didn't concur with their clan. One such warrior went down into the annals of history as what was suppose to be a fictitious character. Little did everyone know that the story of his struggles was not a work of pure fantasy, but that the story itself only capture the start of his life. A life that began when he was near the end. There was a warrior who while on patrol one evening heard the sound of a beautiful flute off in the distance. As he approached it, he came to realize it was coming from the enemy's camp. he sat, waited, and listened to it into as the night sky set in. The next morning, the battle between the two forces started. The Heike (enemy) were scattered and forced to flea. It was then that the warrior sees a commander for the Heike fleeing and taunts him to return. A battle ensues. Before delivering the last blow, the commander's helmet is knocked off. The warrior notices then that the commander is but a boy; one not unlike his own son. He feels a sense of dread build up but he can not stop now. If he doesn't finish the boy now, his commades most certainly will take delight in his slaughter. Afterwards, the Warrior searches the boy and finds a flute. He knew then that he Just killed the very same boy he spent so long listening to the previous night. Decades later, the warrior is still heart broken over that decision and goes to a temple to seek forgiveness for his actions. It is then that he is confronted by the ghost of the boy. Upon seeing the warrior's overwhelming sense of remorse, the boy grants him forgiveness and passes on. It is then that the story is suppose to end. But the truth is, the man was never granted forgiveness. Rather he was condemned to wonder the land 10 years for ever life he and his men destroyed. It is now 1000 years later and the man still walks the Earth. His remorse has never abated. He still seeks forgiveness and has dedicated himself to saving the lives of as many people as he can - as an offering to the young man and the powers that be. The original story is "Taira no Atsumori" 平らの敦盛 (I think is right). Second: The Child of the Snow. This man must learn to abate his rage and control the powers at his disposal. He is in a constant struggle to do good and find a way to lift his curse while not succumbing to it. This is the story of a man who was out one winter's eve with his wife. In the full moon the softly snow packed land glistened beautifully. Curling up with his wife he recall a similar evening long ago. And begins to recant it to her. It was a beautiful night and the man was out when he heard the sound of a someone walking through the woods. He moved to have a better look. That is when he saw her, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was draped over two men laying motionless on the ground. As he watched her, a gust of white glittering snow wrapped the scene as the men's bodies lost all color and began to form ice all over them. The man let out a gasp as he looked on in dread. It was then the woman turned to him. She rushed to him but before unleashing herself upon him, she stops and remarks "you are the most beautiful man I have ever seen. Were it not for that, I would strike you down now. But be warned, if you ever speak of this moment again, I will not spare you." The man was terrified and what seemed but a moment he found himself waking up in the cold snow. He thought it all a dream and walked back home. That is when he learned that two men were found frozen to death in the same forest. He decided then to never talk. For fear that it wasn't just a dream froze him in his tracks. His wife listened to every word and seemed terrified and scared, "how dreadful!" she whispered. "But you needn't worry anymore" she said as she move out of his lover grasp. "You were given only one order and couldn't keep it. How dreadful of you." She raised up her hand as her skin softened in tone and her eyes went yellow. His wife was none other than the snow witch. As she started to bring down her arm upon him, their child steps outside to see them. At the sight of their son, she recoils. "Once more I shall spare you. But let your line forever be cursed!" Since then, that child became the symbol of his mother's powers and wrath. He and every son to follow would find themselves cursed as the child of the snow demon. The origin for this story is a general story often named Yuki-Onna - 雪女 - However her story normally just ends with her killing her husband. The cursed prodigy part is mine. Third The Priestess Mao. 真桜 A young woman with a mission to help where ever she can. She is armed with her knowledge of ancient Shinto and Buddhist magics and general drive to help. At tiny shrine out in the middle of nowhere there lived a young lady. Her father was a successful businessman and her grandfather was the caretaker for a local shrine. Her father, wanting her to experience the wonders of his childhood, let her spends countless days with her grandfather who would regale her with fantastic stories. She was enamored by the tales of young men and women coming to aid people and ward off dangerous creatures. So enamored was she that she asked her grandfather to teach her more about the shrine he kept. Then one night as she was cleaning the area, she came across a noise. A slimy sound that just made her back crawl. As she approached it, she found some vague and ill defined shape bent over a moss and dirt covered set of stones. Startled she immediately thought of the stories her grandfather taught her; and of the wards he showed her. Bracing herself to drive back this omninous creature she noticed just then that a solitary tear was rolling down what had to be this thing's face. It was then she saw the ghostly chains that bound the creature's head to the rock and the pain it was in. "Please don't harm me" it squeaked out." She approached the create and asked it about itself. She then learned that someone cursed this thing to forever be bound to this rock and to live off the sustenance of the dirt and moss that was on it. Calling for her grandpa, the two worked together to free the creature. From that day forward, Mao decided to make it her mission to help creatures like the one she found that day. To help them be free and to stop what ever forces would try to harm innocent people or creatures again. There is no origin for this story - it is original. --- So, those are three possible character ideas that try to use some Japanese elements. Granted, they might fit better in a modern fantasy game than a super's game, but that is the genre I tend to like to play so it is hard to not think in those terms when it comes to trying to do original characters. La Rose.

"Buy that special gift" sounds dubious. I wonder what you are watching... But yeah, gift buying is a major part of Japanese culture. If you take a trip anywhere, you are obliged to then buy some gift from that place and bring it back for everyone. I went 3 hours away by train to a famous shrine and thus had to buy some kind of treat from there for my co-workers. Some of my students feel the need to get me gifts from Tokyo Disneyland or Korea when they go. I really don't get it, but it is something that is ubiquitous. La Rose.

Well, the people here in Kyoto don't actually speak like they are from the old west, but they do speak in a different dialect of Japanese than is considered standard. Indeed, this area (Kansai - Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nara) is famous for being different. People translating Japanese Animes thus want to capture that different manner of speaking and thus sometimes opt for some strange American Accent types. La Rose.

Come to think of it, I have seen anime characters named that. But I wonder how many use 蛍 as their kanji. A quick look into my Japanese name dictionary (of sorts), tells me there are many ways to write that name that do not use that character. And it seems like it can be a boys name, too. Interesting stuff. ^^ La Rose.

Glad to be of service, E84. La Rose.

Firefly - 蛍 - Hotaru - Normally animal names do not use the traditional Chinese characters but I think in this instance it would be fitting. If not, ホタル is the alternate phonetically written one. Tower - No real idea. タワー is tawa- and that is the Japanized version of Tower. Swan - 白鳥 - Haku chou (Literally means "white bird"). スワン is also possible. How about 白鷺 - Shirasagi - White Egret. This bird is also known for being beautiful. Fury - 怒り - Ikari (means anger or rage). Angelus - エンジェル - Enjyeru - (the Japanized version of Angel) - or 天使 - Tenshi - The native word for Angel (servant from on high). Survivor - 生存者 - Seizonsha - It is the word used for people who survive a disaster or things like cancer survivors (癌生存者). La Rose.

This is in response to wcw43921's post. Sometimes google translate gets kind of lazy. ^^ I am going to add the Japanese characters for each name and try to suggest a slightly more accurate way of doing each name, too. Of note is that I am by no means Japanese and have to venture a "best guess" on some things. English - Google Translate - Japanese of Google translate - Alternate version - How to say the alternate version. The Determined man -　Kettei Dansei - 決定男性 - 決然者 - Ketsuzen Shya. White Moon - Howaito Mun - ホワイト　ムン - 白月 - Shira Zuki. Monster Man - Monsutaman - モンスターマン - 化け者 - Bakemon (of note, Bakemono is the word for Monster, but I have change the third character to be "man" but the reading is the same as before - Thus the image of a monstrous man should be conveyed). Super Commando - Supakomando - スーパーコマンド - 超騎兵 - chou kihei (Chou = super. Kihei = commando / cavalry) Space Champion - Supesu Chanpion - スペース・チャンピオン - 宇宙ファイタ - Uchu Faita (Space fighter) Red Baron - レッド　バロン - No clue. wcw's first idea is probably the absolute best. Mystery Man - nazo no otoko - 謎の男 - 怪人 - Kaijin (This is one way to say "Dr. Who" in Japanese, btw). If I come up with any, I will try post them. La Rose.

Re: Non-Phase Segments - what is happening then? Indeed, I am with Ockham's Spoon on this. You are vastly over analyzing this issue. The core feature that Speed brings to bear isn't cinematic but mechanical. It is there to inform us how to account for the various actions that any given player could perform inside a limited mark of time (12 seconds). Interior to that time, it is abstract and bear little resemblance to the cinematic features of your game. I have always been of two minds on exactly how the cinematics resolve and will show preference to one or the other based on my mood at the time. The first is that, kind of as you suggested, all things take place over the course of your gap time. You and others may declare your actions and resolve them on Seg 4, but I view it as being the culmination of the 3 seconds of planning you had before it (building up speed - determining targets - taking aim - etc). That isn't to say that I require people to tell me what they will do on the next phase at the end of the first - but that cinematicly that is what is happening. The other view I have had is that it really just does take the PC time to absorb information and give the order to his body to do something. And that gap in time is really why there exists the staggered speeds. The time inbetween is just the time it takes the character to think long enough to take another independently thought action. Hope that helps a little. La Rose.

Re: Do you consider Batman to be a Gadgeteer or something else? I think something people end up doing with the archetypes is to try and go against the HERO mandate. The mandate that we worry about the essentials of a power, ability, etc., and leave everything else to special effect. How does that apply in this situation, though? I think it applies because we are trying to too narrowly define what makes a gadgeteer a gadgeteer. What is essential to the type? I'd say that the most crucial aspect is that the character make primary use of various nick-knacks. This helping us understand that this class of character, unlike the kind archetypes of Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, or most others in the JLA. They may, from time to time, use some device to accomplish a goal, but it isn't the source of their influence on the world. It isn't SOP for them, as it were. But in the case of Batman, his main impact on the world comes from two large sources - super intellect and gadgets. Without those gadgets (everything from Util Belt to car to super comp), Batman's influence would be drastically reduced. It is to that end that I would classify Batman - in all incarnations that I am aware of - as a gadgeteer. Even in the movies, where he personally invents nothing, he still is aided dramatically by his gadgets. But I take the "creation of gadgets" to just be the special effect of one class of Gadgeteer - not a defining characteristic. It is to this end that I would consider a variety of Magic users (potion masters, ring bearers, etc) to be Gadgeteers. Their method of developing the gadget may vary, but the essence of who they are is in their access to varied trinkets of value. All else is fluff. All that said, though, I might consider the Batman of the modern movie franchise to be a weapon master simply because his gadget almost always focus on the action intense scenes (weapons, vehicles, etc). He is rarely using gadgets outside of that narrow arena. That accompanied by his primary focus as an ex-League of Shadow's Ninja does muddy the waters. Anyway, that is my 2 cents. La Rose.

Re: Help me populate a low level champs / pulpish / horror-mystery setting Been awhile since I could get around to writing anything up for this, but I finally got one more. The Forgotten Man *inspired by the other thread. Background / Quote / Motivations Character sheet Enjoy, La Rose.

Re: The Forgettable Man This was actually one of the character ideas used in an old show I really loved, Dark Angle. One of the super soldiers they designed was a super genius but he also had the unfortunate / fortunate power of never being kept in memory. If you want to know more about how they explored the character concept, I'm sure I can find the DVD set somewhere and track down the episode number. There are several ways to do this. Each with their own advantages and lims. Each needing needing GM scrutiny. The first and most obvious is to go with a mind control. Probably built with AOE and cumulative. This will help you achieve large effects while still being cost effective. The MC will then have a limited effect lim, always on, etc. The second way is a HERO standard - Transform. You can do a minor transform on people with AOE. The transform would end up being to remove memories. This can get quite expensive but seems rather straight forward. Perhaps my personal favorite build, though, is to just buy Invisibility vs memories. This is a very simple build with a strong effect. 23pts Invisibility to Mental Group (seems most apropos), No Fringe (to help ensure no trace come up), Persistent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (35 Active Points); Always On (-1/2). La Rose. PS: I'm steeling this character idea for my character thread. But if you would like to do a full write up of it instead, I'll gladly hold off.

Re: Blood-Fueled Magic/Powers I just had another idea come to mind. Why not buy the power with charges like you normally would. This way the power is self contained to describe what the character can do at the time. Then you could buy additional charges (namely clips) as a naked advantage that can apply to the powers she has. The naked advantage would have the requirement of sucking blood, etc. And if it is set as clips, then she isn't increasing the number of spells she can cast before recharge, rather just getting a recharge. For example, if she has the ability to cast 2 more of the 10 she had originally and switches clips, she losses those two but gains the ten. Thus, she will never go over her 10 max (amount her body can hold), but has a way of getting back up to it. This was a quick thought, so it would need a bit of tweaking in the built, and some GM hand waving, but it is a potential idea. La Rose.

Re: Blood-Fueled Magic/Powers Good catch, Christopher. I hadn't thought of those two points. My method, unless the power is bought to be no-end (or already is natively), it will also cost end. The solution is to just buy 'no end' on the power if that is an issue in the first place. And to the second issue of "who's" blood, I must have overlooked that she couldn't tap her own. I just read it as using blood. It strikes me that since vampires are always taking blood, that they don't have any that is truly theirs. But if that is a distinction this player and GM want, then my method is not good. It most certainly demands that the PC be using their own lifeforce. If they aren't, then a END Reserve is probably the best way to go. La Rose.

Re: Blood-Fueled Magic/Powers Another way to simulate this, if you want, is with a side effect. I was writing up a anime-ish martial artist that channeled his personal life energy into various abilities. Each time he did so, he would have a side effect go off. The side effect was always written as a drain vs body. Now, although I liked this method for that specific character - it is a slightly different special effect and thus has other challenges. Reason I liked the above method: It was clean. I didn't have any secondary powers to worry about. Everything was inclusive in the one power. I was running it through a bunch of powers in an MP, so I was able to place the lim on the MP itself and thus lower the cost of it, too. Fairly cost effective. I never think a drain vs body as a minor side effect. I listed it at least a a moderate and normally major side effect. Thus it helped to discount the powers quite a bit. Temporary. Drains are by their nature temporary. You can define how long it takes to recover with just a little adjusting. And since I was doing generic lifeforce, I didn't have to appeal to any concerns about drinking blood, etc. Obviousness of effect. The more extravagant the build (end reserve, etc), the less connected with it the player becomes. A drain vs body side effect has obvious repercussions for the player to see. It is much easier to make the emotional connection to what is happening that way. I think this would work to increase the role play nature of the character. Things to consider for you character if you adopt this method. Because it is a side effect, you have lots of free room to decide exactly how the 'drain' works. Having a drain that says "effect lasts until they feed again" may be too abusive as a power, but not as a side effect lim. This means you can avoid some of the complication of having a secondary "restoration through consumption" power. But if you want to have such a thing, it is easy to do so as a drain/aid link that removes the victims body and applies it to your own. This means that the character isn't using the ability to suck blood to fuel their powers, but to fuel their lifeforce. Thus it stays mechanically more true to the special effect. Bad thing is that, unless you have the drains do a static damage, the character can very easily over do it and hurt themselves very badly (oops, just drained 6 body!). It also means that the characters can be much more easily killed by random NPCs. Anyway, that is my 2 cents on the subject. La Rose.

Re: Snake Sisters Matt: Transform is naturally cumulative like a Killing attack is. The more you attack, the more you damage. Once you hit the magic number (double EGO, in this case), you get your effect. La Rose.

Re: Help me populate a low level champs / pulpish / horror-mystery setting The following a prelim of a skilled Hunter. I need to work more on this character's background and motivations. Once I get that, I can tweak the character to fit. General image currently is a of a man who has made hunting that which goes bump in the night a career. Although he isn't a mage or anything like it, he has learned a few tricks for stopping or weakening the various 'things' out there. Of course every demon is different, so he has to keep his options open. I represented this with a VPP that is dedicated to only drains and dispels. He can switch them up as the situation call, but it is hard for him to have the readied supplies or ability to do more than one at a time. This is why I like setting his personal quote to "Sometimes a Colt 45 is the best way to get rid of a Demon." The Power and Mental defense are just showing off that he has experienced a lot and his mind and body is starting to get the hang of countering the stuff that comes at him. The Danger sense is more of a "something doesn't feel right" thing that is informed with experience than a Spidy Sense. Any thoughts? La Rose.

Re: Snake Sisters I agree. Actually, I set it as a plus 1/2 for the character above. ^^ La Rose.

Re: Snake Sisters Good catches, Christopher. I will have to go back and edit the transform. You were generally correct. It is suppose to be an Ego transform. But it isn't from "normal person to slave". I kept it at major so that that option wouldn't be there. Rather it is to add other limitations that might lead to that social complication. Things like become "gambler" / "Drug addict" / "other". Things that the girls can then exploit. Total slave I think is too strong for this level of setting. And the Major is really suppose to just be there to bring out the inner ID in a target. La Rose.

Re: Help me populate a low level champs / pulpish / horror-mystery setting Thanks for the Post, Lucius. Good as always. Let me go ahead and make another contribution: Tim the Ghost! Quote: Tim is who I am and who I am is Tim! Background: Motivation / Personality Write Up: Tim has skills that a thief or street urchin would because my view of him is that he probably was one, once upon a time. He doesn't know how he developed the skills and doesn't think about it much (not that they come in all that handy now), but his body still remembers. La Rose.

Re: Help me populate a low level champs / pulpish / horror-mystery setting Please do. My biggest interest is in concepts and back stories. I like write ups as much as the next person, too. So please indulge yourself as much as you wants. La Rose.

Re: Jeremiah - the Watcher As to the Universal Translator thing: It was based on a detect. Indeed, all talents are based on a power that gets edited. Combat Luck is just a uniquely built armor (Well, back when it was called armor). Universal Translator really was just a detect for "meaning of all observed language" and A telepathy build for communicating to anyone. It resembles something like this: Detect A Large Class Of Things 11- (Hearing Group), Discriminatory, Analyze (20 Active Points); Requires A Roll (11- roll; -1/2), Unified Power (-1/4) Telepathy 4d6, Sense Affected As Another Sense (Hearing; +0), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; -1/2), Broadcast Only (-1/2), Requires A Roll (11- roll; -1/2), Unified Power (-1/4) Now, UT is older than this edition, so the exact mechanics are slightly different, but that is the root of it (as best as I recall). The ability to communicate with the Watchers is only 5pts (voice to the voiceless). That alone would be able to give me the ability, but I want it to have more utility so I bought the Contacts as a complimentary cost for 12 pts (12- isn't a bad roll, IMO - better than even odds that I'll be able to make contact). In total, that is only 20pts. All in all, a good pt cost. I highly doubt I could get a clairvoyance that works in a similar fashion for less than 20pts. Just the sheer variety of information that I could gather from the Watchers is going to make any comparable Clairsentience rush up in Active point costs to an extreme degree. I can collect the info on what a every single sense a watcher has. I can communicate with multiple watcher through a single source (using one watcher to talk to the rest). I can get relevant info without having to sift through the noise of irrelevant down time that also occurs in life. I can do this while using an invisible power (well, as invisible as normal speech is). And with the added bonus of only having it take up a couple lines of text to express. No super complicated HERO jargon to define a clairsentience. Now, of course this is all a YMMV issue. Each person having their own design philosophies. But I'm glad to hear the contrary side because I never know when someone might propose something I hadn't thought of before. La Rose.

Re: Jeremiah - the Watcher Well, I don't think it is a matter of twisting things. Generally speaking Clairvoyance will cost more and take a bit more thought. I tend to take the phrase "twist the rules around" as to mean "munchkiny". Transform and EDM are most certainly Munchkiny, but not so much with Clairvoyance, IMO. Rather, my way of doing the power is much more stream lined and cost effective - munchkin-esc. And again, I wasn't trying to be all that harsh. Just pointing out what has been, of late, an odd trend in HERO builds I've noticed. Nothing wrong with the build. It most certainly gets the job done. I just think that it does so in a way that is more expensive and time consuming than needed. Simplicity is your friend, IMO. ^^ La Rose.

Re: Jeremiah - the Watcher Yes, this power would allow him to communicate with the "watchers" if they are there. It doesn't guarantee that they will help or be useful, just that he can communicate. That is the goal with this power. The "generally useful" nature of his relationship is reflected with the contacts. To be honest, I think far too much is given to Clairvoyance. It is kind of like all the focus on EDM and Transform. Yes, a lot of things can be modeled with Clairvoyance. But the desire to default to them is weird to me. Ivan the interrogator could, for example, build his "interrogation techniques" as a clairvoyance with a variety of bonus and lims. OR he could just buy a skill for Interrogation. A smart bomb could have it direct satnav system built as a Clairvoyance so that operators could control it in the last few moments. OR, it could just built a good Radio COM system with enhanced senses. OR, and my favorite, just buy extra levels of OCV with the attack and slap on a 'special effect' of having operators. Now it may seem like I'm being really harsh on Clairvoyance, and I am a bit, but I do think it is a useful power and has its place. For things like "seeing into the past / future" and a wizards "clairvoyance" spell, it is a great way to go. But I think maybe it is trumped up a bit too much when used in other arenas - especially when cheaper and streamline options are available. As a general rule of thumb, if there is ever an intermediary for the information gained from clairvoyance, then clairvoyance isn't the right approach, IMO. If I must talk to the dead and listen to what they have to say (assuming they posses animacy and will), then powers that give me THAT ability are what I need - not the one that gives me info. Now, if there were no two way communications or if the dead (or what have you) lacked any will / animacy, then clairvoyance with a kind of focus lim would seem best. Ranxerox, I apologize if I have some off a bit too strong on this. It isn't my goal. I really and truly do appreciate the comments. They were the kinds of things I was looking for (alternate build ideas - points for clarification, etc). La Rose.

Re: Help me populate a low level champs / pulpish / horror-mystery setting Well, to be honest, I was trying to not add on too much in the way on constraints because I don't want it to stunt any creativity. So, take everything that follows with a grain of salt because if I every run a campaign with the characters here, I am more than capable of 'adjusting to taste'. But my generally preferred style of campaign in these regards is generally something akin to Rifts: Beyond the Supernatural. The creeping darkness of fear and dispare looms everywhere. And while many of come to know of it, it is forcibly denied in the public realm by the authorities that be. But no amount of denial can erase the existence of demons and dark lords, sorcerers and psychics, etc. And while magic and such exist in the world, strong traditions and robust foes hold users at bay; at least on its flamboyant usage. The PCs come to learn of the world around them; be it from a horrible encounter that leaves them scared (Cthulu - horror) or from a personal awakening (Beyond the Supernatural, Urban Fantasy). I would generally expect any kind of strong magic to be hard to get 100% right and take time to do. Street magic being available, but not impossible to overcome. And while Demons and Devils exist, their impact on the world is still in the shadows because concerns about reprisals. Ancients knew such things exist - our legends are really accounts of reality. But it was precisely because they knew that they were able to muster up forces against such foes. Magic users - at least those of considerable strength also keep an internal balance. Some try to keep their existence a secret to protect their personal ambitions, while others do it to protect humanity from the wretchedness of the real world. And psychics are more likely to be tormented than treasured. Mechanically I would imagine something in lines with KillerShrike's HERE THERE BE MONSTERS, RIFTS: Beyond the Supernatural, and the variety of Cthulu games. Likewise, I think that ShadowRun is far to High Fantasy. General schematics for HERO: PC HEROes can run a large gamut from standard humans to probably the top end of HEROic of 300pts (300/50comp). Jeremiah, for example, is sitting at 225 - and that is where I would imagine starting PCs at if I ran such a game. Keeping to that, I think the following ranges wold be in keeping with the setting in my mind: Char - Normal Characteristic Maximum and Normal Skill Maximum being used. CHAR are probably from 10-20. Speed would be around the 2-4 range. OCV and DCV in the 4-9 range (even after accounting for Martial Arts n' such). Damage values probably not getting much above 9 or 10 (in this case, I would probably have to lower Jeremiah's Defenses to keep in character with the setting). Active point caps probably wouldn't exist, but trying to keep a sense of scale would be good. Low Magic: 1-20 active points Mediocre Magic: 20-35 pts Moderately Strong Magic: 35-50 Strong Magic: 50-70 Upper bounds: 70-90. But we all know that some things can have generally low effect but high Active point costs and vice versa. I hope that gives people a better foundation for what is going on in my head. But everything can change if people have a good idea that doesn't quite fit. And it isn't like I'm a GM looking for PC submissions, I'm not going to grade your work for game balance. I'm just looking forward to see creative people be creative. ^^ La Rose.