fdw3773

It's been a mixed bag of everything the past few days (trailers included): A Very British Scandal on Amazon (Season 1) Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (I just finished this last night with a friend 🙂) Thinner Secret Window

Yes, since they were planned to be supporting cast for stand-alone scenarios at a game convention, I made them more along the lines of, "a couple with unwanted power who made some bad choices early on, but at their core are still decent" instead of making them much darker like Martin and Wendy Byrde from Netflix's Ozark, but you always have that option.😉

I finished another side project which is a re-imagined version of the classic villain duet Thunder & Lightning (Margaret and John Harrington, respectively) as Assault & Battery for 6th Edition. Assault (Margaret Westfeld) is inspired by Thunder as a physical powerhouse and Battery (John Westfeld) is an electrical energy projector based off of Lightning. One of the scenarios I developed had them working for a government sponsored team known as Task Force Sentinel that is responsible for protecting the families of superheroes in their civilian identities from threats like VIPER. Enjoy! 😉

Thunder & Lightning reimagined as...Assault & Battery View File This is a re-imagined version of the classic villain duet Thunder & Lightning (Margaret and John Harrington, respectively) as Assault & Battery. Assault (Margaret Westfeld) is inspired by Thunder as a physical powerhouse and Battery (John Westfeld) is an electrical energy projector based off of Lightning. One of the scenarios I developed had them working for a government sponsored team known as Task Force Sentinel that is responsible for protecting the families of superheroes in their civilian identities from threats like VIPER. Submitter fdw3773 Submitted 05/02/2022 Category Characters Rules Version HERO System 6th Edition  

Given licensing and how DC is owned by Warner Brothers, it is not likely to occur. As others have mentioned, there have been previous DC-licensed RPGs by Mayfair Games, West End Games, and a brief licensing agreement with Green Ronin Publishing that used the Mutants & Masterminds system, so if it was going to occur, it would have happened many, many years ago. There are plenty of fan sources/write-ups in the downloads section here on the website, along with other fan-sites (https://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/index.html) that offer a variety of different versions of the same characters. It's up to you to use as-is or modify to better suit your campaign, just as some comic series writers made their character nearly god-like (Grant Morrison/Batman) or a bit of an inexperienced punching-bag (e.g. Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner).😉

I finally finished my on-again/off-again project...re-imagining the paranoid and trigger-happy Exterminators from the Champions 4th Edition source book Alien Enemies that are posted in the downloads area. Included are Microsoft Word and Hero Files of the characters. Here's a quick snapshot of the re-imagined characters: Slick a.k.a. Stan Sneiderwind is now Dagger a.k.a. Pierce Fairchild, the narcissistic public face of the team Specs a.k.a. Dr. Maxwell Sanders is now Mentor a.k.a. Dr. Gregory Murdock, a brilliant but paranoid scientist Bruiser a.k.a. Jud Hogan is now Barricade a.k.a. Leon Jackson, a former mixed martial arts fighter using this to launch his action movie career Trekkie a.k.a. Silvia Briggs is now Starbright a.k.a. Silvia Rodriguez, a geeky astronomer and sci-fi afficianado Gizmo a.k.a. Dwight Brinkley is now Hardware a.k.a. Dwight Aoki, their weapons engineer who loves to tinker Here is the link: Exterminators Enjoy! 😉

The Exterminators Reimagined View File Here's the final product of an on-again/off-again project...re-imagining the paranoid and trigger-happy Exterminators from the Champions 4th Edition source book Alien Enemies. Included are Microsoft Word and Hero Files of the characters. Here's a quick snapshot of the re-imagined characters: Slick a.k.a. Stan Sneiderwind is now Dagger a.k.a. Preston Fairchild, the narcissistic public face of the team Specs a.k.a. Dr. Maxwell Sanders is now Mentor a.k.a. Dr. Gregory Murdock, a brilliant but paranoid scientist Bruiser a.k.a. Jud Hogan is now Barricade a.k.a. Leon Jackson, a former mixed martial arts fighter using this to launch his action movie career Trekkie a.k.a. Silvia Briggs is now Starbright a.k.a. Silvia Rodriguez, a geeky astronomer and sci-fi afficianado Gizmo a.k.a. Dwight Brinkley is now Hardware a.k.a. Dwight Aoki, their weapons engineer who loves to tinker Enjoy! 😉 Submitter fdw3773 Submitted 04/16/2022 Category Characters Rules Version HERO System 6th Edition  

From Champions Complete: The body text was set in 10 pt. Minion Pro Condensed and the headers were set in 24, 18, 14, and 12 pt. Gil Sans Bold Condensed. Skill and Power headers were set in 12 pt. Minion Pro Bold Condensed. The index was set in 8 pt. Minion Pro Regular and 14 pt. Gil Sans Bold Condensed. The various core Hero System 6th Edition rule books (e.g. Hero System Bestiary, Hero Basic) use a variety of fonts such as Comic Sans for Character names, Arial (or something very similar) for character write-ups, and Minion Pro for body text, so it's a bit beyond my knowledge base to list every type of font and size for the headings, sideboard information, and sample characters. Good luck! 😉

Batman and Robin in 1997 that featured George Clooney as Batman quickly comes to mind for this topic. The portrayals by Chris O'Donnell as Robin, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl just added to the silly campiness and mediocre story-telling. Clooney to his credit would later admit that it was a bad film overall. It wouldn't be until 2005 when the Batman film franchise restarted featuring Christian Bale.

It was a philosophical question about gaming and using the D20 system. 😉 I run Champions for those who prefer a highly-detailed character and rules system and ICONS for those who prefer a more rules-light approach to superhero gaming and also brand-new players. The first superhero RPG I ever bought was Villains & Vigilantes and I have a digital copy of Mighty Protectors, so I'm familiar with that system as well (granted, I never fully considered it a D20 system since it wasn't marketed as such like Silver Age Sentinels D20, Vigilance, or other fantasy supplements like Sword & Sorcery). My preference is also Champions also because of the depth of play available. 😀 Thanks!

I'm asking this question because my experience with the D20 system is minimal (I briefly owned Silver Age Sentinels D20 but never played it) and never played D&D or Pathfinder. However, I know the basic mechanics involved with that use the D20 to roll for an action's success or failure based on bonuses versus a difficulty rating or opposed roll from reading a rules book or two. There's been published superhero RPGs that use the D20 system (Silver Age Sentinels D20, Vigilance) and the reviews have been mixed. On the positive note, the rules were fairly consistent with the D20 system, but the impression I got was that D20 in the superhero genre has a "square peg/round hole" feeling to it. I remember way, way, back reading the old Deities & Demigods for D&D (1st Edition) that featured mythical gods (e.g. Zeus, Odin) and epic heroes/demigods (e.g. Heracles, Gilgamesh, Sir Lancelot of the Lake), which really aren't that different from superheroes when you think about it in terms of power levels as depicted in Hero Games' The Olympians published for 4th Edition. If D&D enabled mythical gods slugging it out on the D20 system, could it really be that far-fetched to adapt it for the superhero genre? Or, is the D20 system really that incompatible with superhero RPGs? 🤔

The more that I read 5th Edition materials and rules-heavy/textbook nature of the writing style in recent days, the more inclined I become to retrofitting and simplifying my 5th Edition materials to 3rd Edition (my sentimental favorite), especially to have pre-generated characters that are easy to read for brand new players with some of the mechanics from 5th and 6th Edition such as MegaScale and Unified Power, respectively. Thanks for the advice!!! 🙂

I've seen that both Amazon and DriveThruRPG offer Champions 4th Edition in softcover format as a print on demand. I also remember someone posting that one version is better than the one in terms of readability from the digital scan, but was unable to find the original thread posted well over a year ago. Has anyone purchased a copy? If so, which vendor provides the better reprinted Champions 4th Edition? Amazon or DriveThruRPG? Thanks for your help (in advance). 🙂

In terms of sentimental reasons, it's 3rd edition for me. It was my first introduction to Champions and the Hero System in general, and I ran my first Fantasy Hero and Champions campaigns under those rules systems with many happy memories throughout high school and college. The Adventurer's Club Quarterly publications were also a real treat for me since they were hard to come by back then...as I get older nostalgia seems to be more important to me than the latest rules edition, it seems. 🙂

Update: the figures have been claimed. Thanks!!! 🙂

Hello, Everyone! As mentioned previously, I customized and used various HeroClix figures as my miniatures for Champions. Over time, I've collected an excess of figures that I don't need anymore and am willing to send free of charge to someone who'll put them to good use for his or her campaign or general figure collection. Attached is a photo of what's in the lot. If interested, please send me a PM. It will be first come, first serve. Thanks!

What a similar coincidence...I play what I refer to as "Hero System 5.5" where I pull stuff from 6th Edition to 5th (e.g. Unified Power instead of Elemental Control). 🙂

Over the past couple of years I have been updating characters and resources from earlier editions to 6th Edition while also picking up various 5th Edition publications in physical hard copy and digital format. After intermittent breaks in the editing and converting, I find myself drawn to simply updating older character versions to 5th Edition over 6th Edition...although I'm not really sure why. Is it the artwork and layout? Possibly. Although close to a couple decades old, the exterior and interior artwork for the 5th Edition Hero System still hold up well compared to products published by other companies. The Book of Dragons remains one of my favorite sourcebooks, even though I haven't run a fantasy themed game in over a decade. By contrast, I wasn't a fan of the textbook approach to the 6th Edition Hero System rulebooks and while the Champions Complete cover was okay, the Fantasy Hero Complete cover remains a visual eyesore for me, especially when compared to the quality of the 6th Edition Fantasy Hero cover published as a sourcebook. Is the nostalgic memories? Unlikely. I was introduced into Champions with 3rd Edition in the late 1980s, had 4th Edition (Big Blue Book) in the mid to late 1990s, ran a mix of Fantasy Hero and Champions my senior year in college (early to mid 1990s), and only played sparingly since then. It would not be until around 2016 or so when I ran Champions again at the local game conventions which used a mix of 4th, 5th, and 6th Edition characters. Maybe it's just a "je ne sais quoi" sort of feeling, and was wondering if other people on this forum felt the same way regarding a previous edition that they are playing or using versus 6th Edition. In the meantime, I'm preparing my materials for a game convention that will hopefully occur in April 2022 (Pretzcon here in Omaha, NE), using Hero System 5th Edition as my own form of a 5th Edition Renaissance.

Ah, yes, I remember reading about them and adapting them for ICONS as a team called Ultraforce. I've since adapted them for ICONS as part of the Champions Conversions section that can be located here. They were a xenophobic and trigger-happy team dedicated to protecting the Earth from alien invaders. The Exterminators were armed with powerful but dangerously unreliable weapons and challenged by their lousy aim. One of my side projects is to adapt them into a 6th Edition version with some subtle character changes that I had incorporated when I converted them for ICONS. They're the following: Slick - No major change from his original Champions version (Stan Sneiderwind). He's your stereotypical narcissistic, fast-talking conman who's gained success through his smooth-talking and charm. I depict him like Ben Stiller's White Goodman character from the film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Specs - No major change from his original Champions version (Maxwell Sanders). An intelligent but xenophobically paranoid scientist. Bruiser - My change is that I made him African American in ethnicity and named him Me'Shell Lister over the original character named Judd. He's still big, strong, and kind of dimwitted but loyal to Slick. I based him off of the character Me'Shell Jones from Ben Stiller's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Gizmo - My change is that I made him Asian American and named him Dwight Aoki. His skills and role on the team is still the same as his original Champions version, but I portrayed him as a wannabe action hero. Trekkie - My change is that I made her Latino and named her Silvia Vasquez. Other than that subtle change, she's basically the same as her original Champions version.

Well, I went out and purchased the core rules of FATE as a pdf from DriveThruRpg.com and read through the rules. While an interesting read and providing some ideas on how to design powers for the superhero genre, it didn't generate enough interest for me to purchase the follow-on rules expansion kit(s) about magic and super powers or Wearing the Cape. 😉 Thanks again for everyone's comments about this topic!

You mean like Champions: The New Millennium? It used a three-column format. Or, what I would refer to as the "Classic Champions" format...that was something I tinkered with once. The draft is attached for you to download and modify as you see fit. 🙂 ClassicCharacterTemplate6E.docx

Another version I've toyed with was to adapt the character sheet template from how Silver Age Sentinels formatted its characters where one column was the image and background and all of the statistics were on the other column. I had done it previously for 5th Edition, and it came pretty well for 6th Edition also. If there's interest, I will post it as a download. 🙂

Even without the COVID-19 restrictions in place, my Champions playing was limited to the two major game conventions held here in Omaha, NE. They are Nuke-Con in the fall and PretzCon in the spring. While many RPGers I met enjoyed Champions and Hero System in general, none (myself included) had a strong desire to meet to play on a regular basis (e.g. monthly). Based on their feedback and my own reflections from playing Champions since third edition in the late 1980s, the rules-heavy nature was definitely a factor, especially when trying to recruit new players. Right now I haven't been playing and been simply updating 6th Edition write-ups. ICONS is a fun, rules-light superhero RPG that I also used, which was okay for the conventions, especially for brand-new players, but after running a campaign for several months back in 2019, its limitations emerged. I guess that's why I'm looking for another rules-light superhero RPG system and posted questions about Wearing the Cape RPG that uses the FATE system as a possible alternative to Champions.