fdw3773

I briefly owned Silver Age Sentinels (Tri-Stat) a long while ago. While a good system in its own right, the Mind/Body/Soul stat system never really clicked with me along with its power caps that would later see resurface in ICONS since it was written by the same author, Steve Kenson. I would later own Silver Age Sentinels (d20) for a short time in the hopes of attracting D&D and Pathfinder players since it followed the same system for a potential crossover. I got the idea from a reading a Spider-Man/Red Sonja crossover years ago where Red Sonja magically emerged in modern day New York City and more recently, the DC Injustice crossover with the Masters of the Universe. Unfortunately, it never developed so I never really had a chance to run it to see how it played. Has anyone here had any experience with Silver Age Sentinels? If so, how did it go?

You have some interesting villain ideas. Here's my feedback for your consideration: Piper: The idea of bagpipes instead of the wooden pipe from the Pied Piper of Hamelin or a flute used by DC's villain of the same moniker is interesting. Granted, I'm a little biased because of love the bagpipe music used in the soundtrack for the 1995 film Braveheart. A challenge may be in terms of describing the special effects since the pipes where the sound comes out are oriented to the rear of the user and not the front like the traditional pipe instrument, so it may be producing some type of aura (e.g. force field) or a generated shock wave of some kind from the entire body when the instrument is used. Red Devil: The concept/origin story is unique, but the name doesn't seem to fit. An idea for your consideration is, "Maestrul Flăcării," which loosely translates to "Flame Master" in Romani, a language used by Gypsies. Or, maybe "Sfiato Fiamma," that loosely translates to "Flame Breather" in Italian. It could be a stage name that he used in the circus to become his villain name. Warlock: It's a good overall concept and the name fits.

Since my sessions have been at local game conventions that involve pre-generated DC and Marvel heroes that players select, the memorable moments come from the players themselves during the scenarios that involve crossovers between the DC and Marvel heroes in their interactions. Some notable lines from the players with one another over the years: Hulk (to Iron Man after meeting Batman and Superman): "Hey, Tony, what's with these guys here? They're wearing their underwear on the OUTSIDE!" Iron Man (upon meeting Huntress and later Wonder Woman): "Hey, how you doin'? I'm Tony..." Batman: "I'm BAT-MANNNN!!!" Iron Man (in response): "And...?" Power Girl (to Iron Man): "EYES UP HERE!!!!"

True, which is why I kept it to quick phrases and one-liners and not the long monologues and soliloquies featured in the cartoons back then. 😉 "Behold...the Sword of Plundarrrrr!!!!" "Oh-ho....you dare challenge Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!?" "Bwah-ahahaha!!!!" "Oh-ho...what is this!?"

Defender and Quantum automatically come to mind when I think of iconic heroic characters that represent Champions. Defender has endured since 4th Edition as mentioned earlier by others and Quantum was featured in a various 4th Edition source book and adventure covers, along with a new incarnation for the short-lived Champions: The New Millennium. For iconic villains, Mechanon and Doctor Destroyer come to mind for me automatically, along with Grond and Foxbat since they've been around for so long. 😀

Yes, I've employed some wacky elements in Champions that are a shout-out to nostalgia and allows me to use the voices as a GM. Two immediately come to mind: 1) Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living from the ThunderCats cartoon, especially for lower-powered heroes like Batgirl and Booster Gold where a sarcophagus is unveiled at a museum and it opens to reveal Mumm-Ra. 2) Pinky Pie from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon as a supporting character to the players who serves as the "voice" of the GM as needed. If you read her profile on Death Battle featured on YouTube, her power level is surprisingly high. 🙃

Unfortunately, no, I don't know how to export Hero Designer into a Microsoft Word template, either. I export the Hero Designer file as a PDF and then manually type the information into the Microsoft Word template and print off as needed. This is why the character point values for each Characteristic, Skill, etc. are omitted to make it easy to read for the players when they show up to play at my table during the convention. They see the overall point total as a general benchmark of how powerful the character is before selection (e.g. seeing if it's better to be DC's Booster Gold or Marvel's Wolverine). I did try printing off Aldo Regalado's character sheet and the font came out really small for me, about the equivalent of printing the Hero Designer PDF which is hard to read.

Yes, coming up with a character sheet format that works for you and the players for Hero System is more difficult than it seems. I remember printing off the character sheets from Hero Designer directly and it was a hot mess of font that was difficult for the players to read unless they had a magnifying glass. 🤪I later developed a character template that I liked for 6th Edition that was adapted from what I saw on Killer Shrike's website. It's attached as a reference and is in Microsoft Word format for easy input. If you like it, please let me know and I'll post it in the downloads section. WonderWoman.pdf

Yes, that's the problem I'm running into in terms of format. I really like the 5th Edition format also, but it may be confusing for new players when I resume the game event scene down the road. I don't want to print different formats of the same character if I can avoid it, other than maybe having a 5th and 6th Edition of the same one since there are some distinct differences (and some really do prefer 6th over 5th 😉). I think I may end up featuring the option of 3rd Edition characters of the "popular three" for Marvel and DC since brand new players won't likely be familiar with characters like Power Girl or Captain Atom, but likely Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman from DC and Captain America, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) from Marvel. The removal of the point annotations was because the players didn't care for them at all. They were just excessive numbers that were confusing, especially for the new players. I kept the point totals as a reference for myself as a basic idea of power level/benchmarking so I kept some type of balance going into the scenario I ran for the event. If the players chose low level characters like Huntress, Batgirl, and Booster Gold, I made sure that they didn't face the equivalent of Marvel's Dr. Doom or DC's Doomsday on their own.

Yes, the question I'm asking is which formatting appears easier to read for a new (or even not-so-new) player. Is it the Third or Fifth Edition format?

Hi. In-person gaming at conventions will someday resume, and in the interim I've been updating various Champions characters and materials. In between all of the number crunching and balancing CPs for 5th Edition, I came across a digital copy of 3rd Edition that I had in my archives. After skimming through it, it made me feel even more nostalgic for the game since it seemed much simpler and in terms of writing style, read like a game book to be played instead of a textbook to be studied. I can really relate to a previous thread describing a Third Edition Renaissance. Previously, I remember using 5th Edition to introduce two people to superhero roleplaying a few years ago at a local event and they were a bit overwhelmed by everything. In hindsight, I'm wondering if the 3rd Edition character template is better to use, especially for new players. An example of each are attached for your feedback to see which seems more player friendly to read....the 3rd Edition or 5th Edition format? Thanks for your help!!! 😉 Superman_3rdEd.pdf Superman_5thEd.pdf

The Champions sessions I run have been at local game events and conventions that involve stand-alone scenarios in recent years. Players that attend vary in experience level where some have played Hero System for decades, while for others it is their first time ever participating in a RPG. They select a pre-constructed character from the DC or Marvel Universe, and the scenario is designed to enable the crossover. As a result, yes, a wide range of power-levels are used: 400 (or lower), 500, 600, and as high as 750. Some attendees really do choose a character like Booster Gold over Batman or Superman, or prefer using Batgirl or the Huntress over Wonder Woman or Power Girl. 🙂 If I ran a campaign with players similar to the ones I played ICONS with previously using 6th Edition rules, they would probably start at around the 500 CP level and work their way up from there.

I used to play ICONS a lot at the local game conventions and even had a campaign that lasted for several months, which is about as rules light as it gets while still being a quality RPG, but it definitely had a ceiling that hindered it. After playing other games in the superhero genre, I also find myself going back to Hero System. 😉

Thank you, Ninja-Bear, and so many others in this forum for sharing your gaming experiences and insights about Savage Worlds. While a good system in its own right as explained by those in this board, it would not be a good fit for me. Thank you all again for saving me a nice bit of $$$ and even more time from the likely aggravation I would experience trying to convert my 5th and 6th Edition write-ups to this system.

I recently came across Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) and was fairly impressed by the style and substance of this universal game system. However, reading some sample excerpts and reviews are a lot different than actual game play. Has anyone played a superhero themed campaign for Savage Worlds? If so, how was it? I've been playing Champions on and off for around 20+ years now, and while it will always have a special place in my heart, the number-crunching of 5th and 6th has gotten old and other rules-light games like ICONS is a little too rules-light for me. Thanks in advance! 😀

Simple builds that reflects the main idea that is understandable for the players is definitely my preference. Previously, I ran Champions at the local game conventions for the past few years where players would select pre-generated characters that I created across the DC and Marvel Universe. Some had played Champions before, and some were brand new to roleplaying in general. If I had attempted to use overly detailed character write-ups, the players would be turned off immediately and move on before they even started.

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

DC Heroes 6th Edition View File These are my writeups for DC Heroes in 6th Edition Hero System. They are in Excel format with supporting HDC files. They are the following: 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! 🙂 Submitter fdw3773 Submitted 11/21/2020 Category Characters Rules Version HERO System 6th Edition  

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.

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