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19 hours ago, JmOz said:

Got to thinking about how DNPC, Follower, and contacts interplay....

 

Then got to thinking about Batman...

Now I think we can all agree Batman is the poster child to the idea that the same character can be different characters depending on their setting

 

So, my question is, WHILE in the JLA would Robin be Batman's (useful) DNPC or a follower? 

Hmmm....that's an interesting question. My frames of reference from Batman's time in the Justice League comics are a few issues from the late 1970s to early 1980s (before the "Justice League Detroit" era), Justice League International/America in the 1990s, and JLA in the late 1990s/early 2000s (Grant Morrison era, if I remember right). While Batman's portrayal and power level varied at times, Robin had no virtually no role in the several dozen or so issues I read and collected at one point, so I'm inclined to say that he would be a follower, not a Dependent NPC.

Off hand, I really can't recall Robin even being mentioned, either, even though throughout that span of time Batman had undergone Dick Grayson moving onto the Teen Titans and becoming Nightwing, getting Jason Todd, then Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and so on.

I mostly use HeroClix and occasionally HorrorClix figures, along with Reaper miniatures for foes/minions. Since the Champions games I run are at conventions, players arrive and use the pre-generated characters for the scenario from the DC and Marvel Universe. At times I will also customize the figures by taking them apart and re-assembling with special modeling superglue, following by priming and then custom painting them.

Here are some villain figures I custom-created:

Here's the link for my old write-ups for Champions 4th Edition that I recently updated: DC Heroes (4th Edition)

They're in Microsoft Word format to easily edit and print. They are the following characters:

Aquaman

Batgirl

Batman

Black Canary

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)

Booster Gold

Captain Atom

Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond)

Flash (Barry Allen)

Flash (Wally West/1990s)

Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)

Green Lantern (John Stewart)

Hawkgirl

Huntress

Martian Manhunter

Maxima

Power Girl

Shazam

Supergirl

Superman

Wonder Woman

Enjoy! 😀

Here's the link to my write-ups for various DC Heroes for 6th Edition. They are in Excel format with supporting HDC files for the following characters: Aquaman, Batman, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Firestorm, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan and Arisia Rrab), Maxima, Power Girl, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

Enjoy! 🙂

DC Heroes 6th Edition

On 10/31/2020 at 9:29 PM, unclevlad said:

You could do it, I'm sure, but it'd be horribly expensive.  If nothing else:  a WHOLE lot of stuff would have to be bought to 0 END, and that gets to be seriously expensive in this system.  You'd be moving far, far outside the system's design targets.

Thanks for the insight. I didn't know that Champions Now is a system focused on playing low-powered heroes and villains. Off hand, what you described sort of reminds me of the first edition of Palladium's Heroes Unlimited, where one could design a Spider-Man or Daredevil type of character, but would be somewhat hard-pressed to develop a hero on the same level as Hulk or Thor and a villain like Ultron or Dr. Doom within the rules framework.

On 7/11/2020 at 4:35 PM, Steve said:

Has anyone converted Foxbat to this edition?

Along that same line, has anyone using Champions Now designed high-powered heroes or converted powerful villains such as Mechanon or Dr. Destroyer?

8 hours ago, grandmastergm said:

 

Did you look at the version of her from 5th edition? She's in one of the books- I think the Ultimate Mentalist or Ultimate Mystic but can't remember exactly.

No, I have not. The 5th Edition books were hard to come by for me where they were first released and by the time they became affordable from various internet vendors, and I had already jumped from 4th to 6th Edition through Champions Complete for the most part.

I simply increased the power levels from her 4th Edition/New Millennium versions by spending Hero points on those powers.

6 hours ago, Amorkca said:

Nice write-ups!

 

For The Elaine King version, does Widget have stats? (asking for a friend)...

Thanks for the kind words. As for the Widget that Elaine King has, I don't remember seeing stats for it in the original Champions 4th Edition, so I would probably have to generate a write-up as a separate entity or look in the forum to see if another contributor has already completed one.

7 hours ago, Badger said:

For some reason, I thought this would be the Jane Seymour character from Live and Let Die with tarot card powers.😪

Sorry for the disappointment, but the Solitaire characters featured in Champions are definitely different from the Jane Seymour character that would be better suited for Danger International.

1 hour ago, Amorkca said:

Where did you get the output file?  Is it just a Word document? or somesuch?

 

 

I think you've given her German language as her freebie, shouldn't she have to pay for English?

The output file was a Microsoft Word document that I created and then converted to an Adobe PDF. When I previously printed off the Adobe PDF output from Hero Designer, the character sheets were difficult to read for the players, so I went with a more simplified format.

Yes, since German is a freebie because it's her native language, Hero points should have been spent for English, an error on my part. The Hero Designer File was included in case others wanted to modify it further.

14 hours ago, steriaca said:

Looks ok. You forgotten her flaw of rapid aging unless they cured it somehow. 

I wasn't aware of a rapid aging complication. Based on the few issues of Flare that I was able to find, there was no mention of that flaw. The issues I had tended to be more lighthearted in tone such as featuring Flare showing off her new costume (dark blue and white) to the paparazzi at a public event. From there, she experienced wardrobe malfunctions against the Dash where her ample cleavage kept spilling out with the cleverly illustrated "poit" sound effect covering the sensitive areas that kept it in the main comics display and not the adults only section. 🙂

Off hand, my guess is that it was cured in a previous story arc in the League of Champions series.

The Hero Designer File is included, so anyone using it is more than welcome to modify it to suit their campaign by increasing or decreasing her power levels, add additional complications, and so on.

This is my interpretation/updated version of the character Flare introduced in the League of Champions comic book series decades ago and featured in the cover art of various early Champions RPG books. Special thanks to Hero forum members pblemguy for referring me to the post where fan contributors worked on the character write-ups of these "old-school" characters and Cassandra, since her write-up of Flare served as my starting point. 🙂

She is at 425 points, which is the equivalent of what I would refer to as an, "Experienced" version in terms of the HeroClix frame of reference (i.e. Rookie, Experienced, Veteran).

Flare for Hero System 6th Edition

13 hours ago, pbemguy said:

I have these comics...in storage, unfortunately.

 

Does this thread help? Link:

https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/83329-the-guardians-project-lets-build-the-original-champions/

Yes, the link helps out a lot to give me a basic idea. Thanks!!!

12 hours ago, steriaca said:

The Guardians, as they were known, were only available as a playtest group and for the covers of 1st edition to 3rd edition. Stats were never published till Eclipse Comics did so. Once the split happened with Dennis Mahoney the stats were never published ever again. At least not Hero System stats 

Thanks! That clarifies a lot. I remember seeing those characters featured on the cover and even some interior art, but I wasn't sure who was who at first.

Many years ago, I remember Eclipse Comics publishing Champions comic book series that featured Marksman, Flare, Icestar, Giant, Rose a.k.a. Psyche, and a small host of other heroes and villains featured in the early RPG versions. I recall one the interesting features was that at the end of the issue, a character writeup was featured with complete stats of a character from the series. 

Were these character stats ever published in a Hero Games product? If so, are they available as a PDF for purchase and download? I first got into Champions with third edition, and even though I picked up an old Champions sourcebook here and there from second edition (e.g. Champions II and III), I never came across a consolidated list of character writeups for them. By fourth edition and beyond, a different set of characters had been established (e.g. Defender, Quantum, Seeker, etc.)

New versions of Defender and Quantum

Two possible names for your consideration:

Magpie - Inspired by the myth that magpie birds are attracted to (and steal) shiny objects and Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra ("The Thieving Magpie")

Mirage - Since she can teleport in and out to steal with the infamous, "Now you see me, now you don't..."

Unfortunately, my access to Champions sourcebooks were limited to only the main books for Third and Fourth Edition, New Millennium, more recently Champions Complete along with the occasional Adventurers Club issue that came sporadically in the early to mid-1990s. As a result, I didn't really use VIPER or other major villain organizations published by Hero Games and had to adapt or create my own. Since most of the players I had were relatively new to the superhero genre, name recognition mattered so I incorporated villains they were familiar with from mainstream media or comics (e.g. Joker,  Dr. Doom, etc.)

Within the past few years, I was able to pick up a copy of Classic Enemies, Enemies III, and International Enemies and made an ad-hoc villain mercenary team that comprised of updated versions of Binder, Goldbug, Demonfire, Armadillo, and a couple others that were featured when I ran Champions for game conventions.

Hi, everyone! I just posted Hero Designer files and PDF writeups for King Arthur Pendragon, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot of the Lake in the downloads section from British legends. If there's sufficient interest, I may come up with writeups for some of the Knights of the Round Table and assorted villain knights they faced such as Mordred, Turquine, etc.

https://www.herogames.com/files/file/526-king-arthur-queen-guinevere-and-sir-lancelot/

A concept for your consideration is that the "villain" is really just an ordinary-looking guy or gal who's a bit naive and tags along with a villain that indirectly taps into that person's luck to accomplish his or her criminal goals or avoid trouble from the heroes. Basically, he or she is a "living lucky charm" for that villain. Some examples:

1) The villain breaks into a sophisticated vault storing some type of invaluable artifact and because of the luck of the other, all of the alarms, backups, and fail safes all mysteriously malfunction at the same time. Police cars that pursue afterwards stall due to engine failure from a rare malfunction, and so on.

2) Heroes' devices mysteriously malfunction or spoken spells invoked aloud are misspoken from a fly that slips into his or her mouth at the critical moment and cause problems ("Klatuu....barada...niktooooo....uh-oh...!")

3) The "luck" causes small misfortunes around them to happen (car accidents, hotdog carts that malfunction and explode, etc.), drawing the heroes' attention away to rescue and save lives and enable the villains to escape.

Some occupation ideas that allow player independence to come and go, not necessarily financial stability, with some possible story arc seeds:

1. Personal trainer - Helps explain the enhanced physique 😉

2. Private practice physician or physical therapist

3. Substitute teacher since they work part-time, which can be connected to a complication of being financially strapped 🙃

4. Independent web blogger or designer, having a similar complication to the substitute teacher

5. Game designer (Mayfair Games listed this occupation in the DC Heroes RPG as an example where the players wealth would be 1 or 2, meaning struggling financially)

6. Consultant (Financial, Business, Marketing, Analytical, Military, etc.)

7. Explorer/Adventurer/Treasure Seeker (think Indiana Jones)

8. Social Worker - This would be especially good for a street-level player character, similar to how Marvel's Daredevil/Matt Murdoch is a lawyer representing working class/lower working class people

9. Private Detective - Imagine if the members of Charlie's Angels had some form of super-powers. Even at street-level, there's a lot of potential.

10. General/Semi-skilled Laborer - Blue collar "jack of all trades" who works short-term construction and repair jobs.

Some thematic ideas for your consideration:

- Dependent NPC: One of her adoptive family members who she's close to, like a younger or older sibling or adoptive parent(s).

- Professional Rivalry: Hope is young, powerful, and relatively new to her home city, and inadvertently rubs an existing hero (or heroine) who is less powerful than she is the wrong way to where he or she is now jealous of her. This creates problems where the rival now ignores his or her better judgment in an attempt to outdo Hope. An example would be the rival hero taking on a significantly more powerful villain alone when he or she would have normally worked with his or her teammates.

- Social Complication: Unfamiliar with Earth culture. She may not understand Earth culture aspects like social media, paparazzi, etc.

- Social Complication: Excessive popularity where fans swarm towards her when she's in action, distracting her since the fans are now targets or hostages to be used (or exploited) by the villain(s) she's fighting. The frequency of this happening would impact the number of points.

Some names for your consideration:

Hagane No Ken, which is Japanese for "Steel Fist"

Dian Xue, which is Chinese for "Vital Attack Point"

Tiěpí, pronounced, "Tee-yeh-pea", which is Chinese for "Iron Skin"

Doragonken, which is Japanese for "Dragon Fist"

Hope that they help. Good luck!