allen

errr... forgot one... It also uses Talisman from Champions

It uses the Black Paladin presented in Conquerors, Killers, And Crooks. For minions, so the GM can increase the difficulty of some of the encounters if necessary to challenge his players, it uses Demon Hounds and Lesser Demons, both of which are presented in HERO System Bestiary.

thanks for the kind words, guys.

Shades of Black... the preview copy is here: http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/ebooksamples.htm

Re: Character Creation You can check out the FAQ (there's a link at the top of this page). The information here: http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/general.htm or here: http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/effects.htm pertains to your question (i think). There's also "Intro to the HERO system, essentially a "rules primer," in the Free Stuff section of the web page. Again, the link to Free Stuff is at the top of the page.

hmmm... i think i'd rather see Alfred and Jarvis duking it out while wearing two piece swimsuits.

only in a comic book would it be reasonable for Batman's butler to have formerly been a british commando... there was an issue of the Avengers, where Jarvis defeated a robot (or something) with an umbrella... i believe this was back when he also wore an eyepatch (result of the Mr. Hyde beating). but seeing as how they're both British, it's probably safe to assume that, in the tradition of John Steed and other exemplars of merry ol', they are equals when the weapon of choice is an umbrella. anyway, my money's on alfred.

6 pages of responses for master villains... 3 or 4 responses for super-thugs... the poor lugs just can't catch a break... anyway, some of the ones i'm fond of... The Abomination. Big and ugly. Sometimes the writer even remembered he was supposed to be a Russian agent or some such. Killer Shrike. Just thought the name and costume were cool when I was a kid. Dr. Doom... just kidding... The Blob. Look at that name. It doesn't get much better than that. There's a guy who's come to terms with both his appearance and his mutant power. Batroc. Just for the sheer absurdity. He thought he could go up against Captain America. Worth a laugh everytime. Plus he was a fashion disaster. (To mention that he was French would be a low blow.) To make it even better: Batroc the Leaper. The Wrecker. He had a magical crowbar. He went up against Thor. So tell me, you've got a magical crowbar... do you fight Thor? Boomerang. 'Cause everyone from Australia walks around with boomerangs attached to their clothes. Heck, I would.

The Midwich Cuckoos i think that's it... can't remember how to spell the author's name, but it sounds like John Wyndham...

i think comics will survive (heck, if they still print gaming books on paper, comics have a long way to fall in readership, before they are forced to go the internet). i do, however, think the recent success of movies based on Marvel comic book characters is the beginning of the end for Marvel comics. movies make more money. Marvel will shift its focus to cash in, and comics will definitely play second fiddle (third fiddle after merchandise and all that). anyway the intellectual property will become multimedia with film as the emphasis; one comic title per IP will exist to occupy that particular facet of multimedia (maybe) and it's point will be to push the IP, not to be a 'cool comic book.' i expect DC to follow soon thereafter. of course, the whole movie thing could be a fad i suppose. (i don't think so though. personal opinion time, but i think the success of the movies is predicated on advancements in SFX; not that the movie-going population is suddenly keen on comics.) anyway, as Marvel and DC exit the comic book industry, third party publishers will fill the gap to a certain extent, so fans of the medium still have comics to read; just that those fans more concerned with continuity and following the adventures of [their favorite character here] will be alienated and leave the market (those still left after the mid-nineties that is). basically to fill in RL examples... CrossGen would still be around, so those who like comic stories about superheroes have something to read. Those who have been reading Fantastic Four or Superman or whatever since the beginning of time will leave the market, as the characters change to resemble the movie versions of these characters and become farther and farther removed from what they originally read. anyway, enough rambling... hopefully something made sense in there somewhere...

Re: Uptown actually when i lived there (Lakeview, just north Clark and Diversey) i knew several artists who kept studios in Uptown (rent was cheap; not much worth stealing in a studio)... anyway... i have to admit I have never heard of the Deep Tunnel project... the last thing I recall hearing about tunnels was in '92 (maybe; somewhere in there at least) abandoned tunnels flooded from the Chicago River (i think) and the flooding shut down the Red and Blue Lines (these two El trains are underground from the near-north side (actually northwest side for the Blue line) to just south of the Loop) and are major commuter lines. the Blue line runs from O'Hare to downtown (in neighborhood terms, downtown is the Loop although stretches into the Gold Coast (alternately called Streeterville)). afterward, they attempted to close up those abandoned tunnels. to bring this back around to superheroes, the flooding tunnels phenomena always sounded like a good plot for an invasion by an aquatic race... Atlanteans or what have you...

one of the first (if not the first; can't recall) atomic piles was under the UofC football field (Stagg Field). i think.

if you really want the difference between Chicago and NYC, IMHO, people in Chicago are less abrupt (more friendly is how some would put it, but i think it's more a politeness thing than a friendliness thing). here, to stray a little off topic, is an example. if you stop a Chicagoan to ask for directions. he will stop and listen. if he doesn't have time to give direction, he shrugs and says, "Sorry don't know how to get there." and continues on his way without pausing. EVEN IF HE KNOWS HOW TO GET THERE. New Yorker just shrugs while he keeps walking. he doesn't stop, doesn't say sorry. see how polite the Chicagoan is when he blows you off? (should also add: my experience though is it's more an East Coast/Midwestern difference. people from Boston and Philadelphia are just as... ummm... brusque as folk from New York.) concerning LA: no one in Chicago really cares. everyone knows LA isn't a real city. concerning 'second city' status to New York: it isn't that chicagoans have a chip on their shoulders. it's that New Yorker's insist the world revolves around New York. (haha)

none of these are ancient... mortared into the wall of the Tribune Building are chunks of other famous buildings and sites. for some reason, this always struck me as vaguely occult. some of the skyscrapers have vaguely gothic architecture, ie the Wrigley Building, (i can't recall the name of the school of design right now)... easy to apply the occult properties attributed to cathedrals to those buildings. also there's a proliferation of five points on the north side... mainly where Clark Street intersects with main North-South and East-West roads, ie Clark-Broadway-Diversey. (there's another street, west of Clark, that does a similar thing -- for the life of me, i can't remember the name right now -- but it runs through Bucktown.) i've always thought if you stared long enough at a map you could find a pattern to the five points.

Re: Oriental i definitely consider Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fantasy... has sword fights and a magic sword. has a bar fight. conflict is settled via violence. romantic love, love at first sight stuff going on. set in an historical never-was (at least, as far as my limited knowledge of Asian history goes). *shrug* i think it's certainly more akin to fantasy than some historical adventure movies, like Gladiator, The Three Musketeers, etc. haven't seen Iron Monkey... allen

hmmm... I think BBC did an adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels too.

throw in Jason and the Argonauts and you can have a Harryhausen film fest (Jason and the Argonauts also has a neat set for Hecate's temple). Also Clash of the Titans. The Kull movie (not to be confused with Krull) with Kevin Sorbo... don't pay to see it, but not bad if you catch it on TV and don't have anything else to do and can't even think of anything else worth doing.

well, i'd recommend having a turning-template-making party then... lol...

How are doing turns? Set the tape measure = Total Distance/5. Put down a die to mark original position. From the front of mini's base, rotate the tape measure. Move the mini along the arc. (This should look like a bicycle wheel sorta: Mini is on the rim, tape measure is a spoke.) When mini stops moving or at the apex of the arc (whichever comes first) measure distance from start along a straight line. It's much easier than it sounds. [EDIT: I don't think it does turn modes exactly as presented in FREd -- not positive -- but it should be really close and capture the feel.]

These two sound like a great pair to have in a PC group, so long as the players are friends and/or good roleplayers. I have two rules about VPPs in games I run (I am, admittedly, accused of being 'iron-fisted' at times). First, no VPPs unless the player submits a list (at least 8 - 10) "sample powers" including a mix of offense/defense stuff, AND a default point-allocation for the VPP -- basically if a villain ambushes you when you aren't prepared for combat where are your VPP points at. Second, I don't allow players unfamilar with HERO to have VPPs at the start of the campaign. I allow them a Multipower at first; after four game sessions (or so), the player may re-write his character to have a VPP. I do relax this restriction depending on the player and the group. If we're talking a SPD range of 3 - 5, I don't think it's that big of a deal. If we're talking 3 - 6, the person(s) with 3... I'd force them to raise it to a 4. Obviously, you know your players better than I, but the great Allendini foresees discontent SPD 3 player(s) sitting around stacking dice. As a rule, I allow players to re-build characters after the first four or so sessions My advice is to stick to one-night adventures for the first few game sessions with a variety of structure and challenges (straight-forward super-criminals rob bank; investigation-heavy scenario; whatever) until you get a sense of where the players' heads are at -- I'd do this before you decide on a particular campaign tone or theme or whatnot; or at least don't fall too in love with a particular campaign tone or theme until after the first few adventures-- square pegs, round holes, and all that.

I hear he can crank out a green like you wouldn't believe... In fairness to Superfigs, they are well-posed and paint up nicely. The Rackham stuff is great; very big though... also whoever paints them is probably (IMHO) the best painter(s?) in the industry... they also shoot the photos so the mini only shows 'its best side' (of course, right?) and some are kind of 2-D... and I'll stop totally nit-picking now... yeah, they are tre' good.

I *think* the superfigs are sculpted by Bob Naismith, who also sculpted for GW circa the eighties...

is it that the movie where a comet goes by the earth, people start turning into zombies, and the survivors take over a radio station? tre' eighties, rigth? if so, i love that movie. (i know, i know... no accounting for taste...)

Re: Closest I could get Yes, indeedy he was... he melted clothes off people or some other, equally ridiculous power.

In light of this... Post Nuclear Holocaust The Horseclans Series, Robert Adams. Definitely slap a warning label on that one. (Although I admit I've read something like 16 of them.) There's also a GURPS supplement. Also Six-String Samurai, movie It's a parody made by someone who likely loved the genre (and Buddy Holly too).