Supreme

All fantastic posts, guys. Thanks!

Yeah, heard about that a while ago. Not feeling like dressing up in tights for the American public right now, thanks.

You should also have some form of Universal Translator as angels are able to speak all the languages of man. You should also do some internet research on the subject. There's a vast mythology and folklore surrounding angels. There are several orders of angels which vary greatly in ability and function within God's kingdom.

Nothing worse than being beaten by a cuddly little animal in a a costume. Ask me about "Squeak, the Mouse Supreme" sometime. For some time I have been considering a campaign in which the main villain is an alternate Earth version of Kang. Instead of being able to move backwards and forwards through time, this Kang is able to move sideways, and has studied the martial techniques and weapons technology of a thousand Earths. He's conquered a few Earths, but they're nothing to write home-prime about. So he'd like to conquer the really challenging Earths: the ones with super-humans. He's seen a few, including the ones the PCs are in. The thing is that they're a little too much for him right now. So what he does is arrange a few "accidental" crossovers where the PCs meets villainous versions of themselves. Naturally, they will fight. The challenge will be to: a) keep the villains from doing damage, not just to the population, but to their reputations and personal lives find out who's behind it c) track Kang back to his base of operations and defeat him There's also the option that the heroes could try to team up with their evil selves (since Kang plans to conquer both Earths) to defeat Kang.

The stuff that the best comics are made from.

A friend of mine maintained that a city can only "support" one hero per million population. Though super-heroes can come from such an un-urban setting as Kansas, they are drawn to large cities to combat crime and other evils. If a city has too many heroes some of the heroes will get bored having no crime left to beat and move on to another city. Going by that math, most of California has no supers for most of the 20th Century.

I wrote an article about this for Digital HERO called "Classic Bits." I defined three basic types of "Alternate Earths." 1. Divergent Earth. This is an Earth created by some change in a historically significant event. This Earth exists in a timestream divergent from ours, which is effectively like a parallel dimension. The main difference is that, as time passes from the historical pivot-point, the Divergent Earths become increasingly different from each other. Example: The Aztech Empire from "Tom Strong" 2. Parallel Earth. This is an Earth that exists in another dimension. There isn't a specific historical pivot-point in which this Earth diverges from ours. Its a world where there may be differences that are minor, or radical. Either way the amount of difference is generally static and stays the same (hence their "parallel" nature). Example: DC's pre-Crisis multiple Earths. 3. Other Earth. This is another planet in the same universe that has had a highly similar, but never exact duplicate, of our Earth. Example: Marvel's Counter-Earth from "Adam Warlock", Mirror Earth also from "Tom Strong", the Earth ruled by a modern Roman Empire from "Star Trek"

For me, the definition of Horror as a genre necessarily includes a relative helplessness on the part of the intended victim(s). Think about Janet Leigh in the shower in "Psycho." Okay, that's enough. You could also think about virtually every character in an HP Lovecraft story. So, how do you go about this in a HERO campaign? How do you run a game wherein the monsters are far and away more powerful than the PCs? Maybe I just play too much Champions.

There was a very similar storyline in "Tom Strong" involving the Aztech (sic) Cross-Dimensional Empire. They have a massively powerful AI named Quetzcoatl-9 that Tom frees, in exchange for being freed himself. You know, it occurs to me that if these alternate dimensions are created, as many stories stipulate, by the branching in time of certain pivotal events (i.e., in this timeline the Axis wins the war) then there would be one, true timeline from which everything else was derived from. It would be a dimension in which life evolved the earliest, either on Earth or not. Or maybe it would be the cardinal belief of the conquerors from that dimension. The basis for their manifest destiny. So the players wouldn't have to conquer the whole dimension to stop them. They'd just have to dig up contradictory evidence.

I was just wondering if anyone ever ran or played in a game with a multiple Earths setting and how it played out.

This is the best "naming system" I've ever seen! My Compliments Supreme! I'm definitely going to steal some of these. I especially like "Miracles" (a reference to "Marvels" no doubt) and the use of the Geneva convention. "Cuppies" are also great, though there weren't a lot of capes on super-heroes by the 80s, so you might want to think about "Puppies": Powered Urban Professionals.

What's the problem with having all the characters having resistant defenses? Heck, I practically require all of my PCs to have resistant defenses. I don't literally require them. I just point out that in my game the average thug is armed with 2-3D6 RKA (either a handgun or a shotgun). Be warned. The last time I played a character with no resistant defenses was in a game back in 1987. He was a Spider-Man clone named, "The Arachnid". So when the thugs point their shotguns at me I laugh. "Haha! I've got a 35 DEX, you stupid bastards will never hit me." One of the stupid bastards rolled a 4. That was that.

Re: Page 253 No. As a GM I consider any and all desires that players have about rolling dice to be something of a sacred cow. If they want to roll all their damage dice, fine. If they want to pre-generate them instead, also fine. The only dice-idiosyncracies I have any problem with are the ones that slow down the game. I will not let a player with a 12+D6 attack roll each die individually. I myself indulge in a lot of dice idiosyncracies/superstitions and feel it is only right to respect the same in others.

I think it does. "Unified" by definition means all in one. If you have an "event trigger" that explains some powers, but then you also have magical beings who came to be what they are by a separate magical process, then you have an un-unified -- or multiple -- origins campaign. This is what I do. Since in the real world what we wind up with when we debate the big (and not so big) questions is a bunch of people debating various theories, none of which fit quite right. So in my campaign I present the various theories, about ten of them, which range from the religious-based, to the scientific, to the cuckoo-based. I present the theories in simplified form, and give the summary arguments for and against. Theories include: An unidentified xeno-virus An unidentified capacity for all living things to subtly alter the fabric of reality A race of mysterious aliens who implanted the super-potential in Homo sapiens for reasons unknown, but ominous The will of (insert deity of choice here) No such thing as supers, it's all a Jewish-Zionist Hollywood-made conspiracy like the Moon landing and the Holocaust

If everyone is at the same level, then there is no real difference. You're just rolling more dice and applying them against larger defenses. What I'd been doing before 5th Ed came out was increasing the point base, but keeping the total point limit the same. This is simply because, as the GM, I don't want to have to keep track of so many disads.

I see what you're saying, LL. That certainly works for me. Though that is an unusual form of the "unified origin" scenario. Most usually state some kind of energy field or incident of genetic manipulation.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but StormWatch/Authority uses the best word I've heard yet: "Post-Human". I think its key to understand that in any such world, there would probably be two terms. The first is the term used by the scientific community. The second is the term used by the public, which would probably be based upon the term from the scientific community. For example, the scientific community might come up with "exo-species" meaning an organism (not necessarily human) with abilities and/or morphology that exceed the normal limits for that species. Then the media catches on and calls them "exo" for short. There are other possible permutations of course. One is that, in a world where super-humans have been around for millenia, then there would be a common term (like "nova") which is eventually incorporated by the scientific community when they get around to the taxonomy of supers (like "Homo sapiens novensis"). Of course the scientific community would lump aliens and super-humans and androids and so on into one group. The media would do that and either misuse the term for super-humans to the entire group, or come up with a larger suitcase term for all of them.

In general, I was talking about people new to RPGs as a whole. However, people old to gaming, but new to Champs will still have a problem because they will have a whole new system to learn. Their experience with the previous system(s) can work against them. Especially, when it comes to things like damage. They might have a really hard time understanding when fewer dice means more damage because of other effects (like AP) or not.

Thanks, Prodical.

My problem with the "X-Effect that makes super-powers possible" idea is this: If the x-effect is scientific in nature, then all the magical characters are not actually magical. They are people who are using ritualism to manipulate some kind of scientifically-based energy. This effectively means that they are deluded. True, for some mystics this means that they just know the energy by a different name. But the Christian mystic who believes that his powers come from God is wrong on a very fundamental level (no pun intended, I swear). It also means that you can't play a thunder-god-turned-super-hero. If the x-effect is magical in nature, then all the technologically-based characters (i.e., the powered-armor types) are using wild-card-type tech. This means that their tech does not actually work, they just have a super-power which makes their pseudo-tech work. In effect, they are deluded.

The speed of combat in Champions is probably its greatest problem. These are the things I do to speed things up: Make up the speed chart. Do not waste time getting everyone's attention, asking them what their DEX and SPD are (new players will check their sheets every time). Tell them to go. Don't let players spend a lot of time deciding what to do. Don't rush them either, that makes it worse - and less fun. If I have a new player, I will give them a quick summary of their options. "You can attack, save your phase, or move." The newer the player, the less complicated their character must be. This seems a little meddlesome in the character creation process, but it really works. You can't have someone new to the game have to decide which of 12 powers is the best to attack with every phase. This is also why, for new players, I always recommend playing a very simplistic brick. Pre-generate the damage rolls for your villain. There are a bunch of web-sites out there with javascipt applets which will pre-generate all the die rolls you want. Some of them are even geared to give you STUN and BODY rolls. I usually pre-generate a staggeringly huge sheet (8pt Arial Narrow font) with 30+ rolls for 6d6, 7d6, 8d6, 9d6, etc. on up to 20d6. Don't have a lot of combats with a lot of villains. Large teams of moderately-powered villains might be more effective, but one super-collossal villain plays faster. Crits & fumbles. This is a house rule of mine. Make your attack roll by ten or more and you do a "crit" which means max damage (it also usually means whatever you're shooting at goes down for the count). Missing your roll by ten or more means that you hit a friend or yourself (people making HTH attacks do damage to themselves by wrenching their limbs/tripping over their own feet). Play with knockback. More damage means people go unconscious faster. Don't have so many combats.

I had a thread going for a long time on the previous board (is that the "pre-Crisis" board?). It was a long, long, LONG discussion of whether it was better to have a unified explanation for super-powers or not. It all really boiled down to personal taste. The unified origins option means that the campaign can be more consistent, and that has certain advantages to it. The un-unified origins allows more freedom for character generation, and allows you to simulate classic comics better.

ten dee six energy blast, oh eye eff rad blaster pistol

Well, when it comes to sub-genres, I like the Silver Age/Atomic Age. It's got all the cool stuff without the depressing cynicism.

Thanks, AE!