Christopher R Taylor

Champions of War - playing superheroes in time of war, with various war settings and rules for being in military, etc. BE Captain America.

If you want, you can buy a small AVLD (all or nothing) with it, or buy that as a separate effect to indicate a more dense, choking effect The smoke would be a nice visual special effect, nothing you'd have to buy Sounds like Only in Hero Form with stats, defenses, etc. Plus a smoke-based costume. Other options: the Darkness (super dark smoke) effect - a smoke-based knockback blast, just a huge surge of it to knock people around - smoke to make images with so you can craft it into shapes and designs (Johnny Storm doing the Fantastic Four flare in the air), smoke to tag items and mark them or write with using soot (cosmetic transform), smoke to lift others off the ground (flight usable on others or telekinesis), smoke to block IR vision but not normal (darkness to sight, only vs IR), Smoke as a barrier to block sight (are effect darkness as a ring or "any" or a very weak barrier), etc.

That's a good basic solution. Some of those dials in the optional rules are great for controlling combat results. Want it gritty and rough? Turn them all up to 11. Want it more fun and 4-color? Turn em down!

Now I know for almost all GMs the active cost cap in a campaign is negotiable, based on the power. And I know that some don't even bother with an AC cap. But for power frameworks, it seems like you almost have to violate the AC cap to make them give equivalence. Consider: Campaign has a 60 Active Cost cap. If you want to have a multipower with the ability to use a 60 active cost power and anything else in it at the same time, that multipower must by definition exceed AC cap. To explain consider this: PTS POWERS AND SKILLS 90 Fire Powers: Multipower (90 pts) 6v Fire Blast: 12d6 blast (vs ED, fire) 4v Fire Shield: 20 PD, 20 ED Resistant protection, costs END every phase 6v Flight: 24m flight, x2 noncombat, 0 END Cost, no gravity penalty, no turn mode, combat acel/decel now, this build would allow Fire Girl to use some of her flight and fire shield and blast at the same time, or any of them up to 60 active points. But the Multipower its self shatters the AC Cap, even though no one power used at a time is more than 60 active points. And, of course, Power Pools bought with 60 max points have the same effect on cost. Yes, technically a multipower or a power pool is more powerful than a straight power but keeping them under AC means keeping them below everyone else's max power level in the game. Sorry Bob, you only get an 8d6 blast in your power pool, while everyone else gets 12d6. Now I've always allowed people to go above the AC limit in the campaign with frameworks because of this effect, as long as individual powers in the framework weren't over it. But I'm just curious what others have done or if the rules actually deal with this specifically.

Yeah as soon as I hit "post" I thought the same thing, Darkness belongs outside the multipower (and it all could be put into a Unified Power envelope).

And I should add, that's exactly what we're working on together for Champions in this thread right on this forum. If you want to be part of the solution, pitch in. Or start your own project. It has never been easier to write, design, publish, and sell products before in the history of mankind.

Right, that's been dealt with here over and over. The assumption is false, and that's what we're up against: changing that presumption. And easy-in front end stuff would change that significantly. Steve Long did a brilliant job setting up the rules as a core, and all that's needed are quick-in introductions to settings using that core.

It seems like a mix of flint and bronze was in use, suggesting either one side was richer/more advanced or the transition was going on between the two. Flint actually probably makes a better arrowhead than bronze but its darn hard to mass produce.

You could actually have just a smoke blast or two as well (multipower) PTS POWER/SKILL 60 Smoke Manipulation: Multipower (60 pts) 2v Smoke Cloud: Change Environment (-3 to sight perception), Area Effect Radius 6m 3v Dark Smoke: Darkness vs sight 6m 6f Flames: Blast 12d6 (vs ED, fire) 6f Choking Smoke: Blast 6d6 AVAD (need not breathe) etc

Most fantasy games, you're right, PD would be the most commonly encountered attack. And that means few people are going to build up their ED (in fact, much armor would have lower ED than PD, such as plate). For me, that's not a bug, that's a feature, because it lets magical attacks bypass people's best defenses and target lower defenses without even needing to pay a lot of points for it. Sure, your axe does good damage, but Mhyrddn uses lightning, and your ED is half your PD! It also makes special creature attacks more significant without needing to buy any special attacks.

First edition Fantasy Hero was really interesting the way the powers were set up, with alternate names and groupings. If it weren't for the effort to make characters transfer directly between settings as a generic system, it would be worth it to have a different set of powers and names like that. I do like the idea of an alternate "Magic" defense, covering mystical attacks (as well as perhaps defenses against supernatural attacks) though. Maybe Power Defense would cover that in a fantasy setting.

I do as well, although the art I can't cover. What could be done is a kickstarter to pay for the costs along those lines. I do really want to move forward on Astro City Hero, but that would require significant assistance from Hero Games and someone handling stuff like the publicity and crowdfunding. Depends on the print lot, but if you go Print on Demand, which is a better model anyway, it costs you... zero. They just take a large chunk of the cover price. The more you print, the less they charge.

Just out of curiosity, how tough was the kickstarter to run? Who did the video and ran it, was that your effort or did Hero set it up?

It is surprising to me that so many were gathered in that one area. I have to guess that it was a huge coalition of kings and warlords on either side meeting up for some catastrophic final clash that lasted for days if not weeks given the info in the article.

The problem is, what's the same? The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had no time to set up any sort of equilibrium whatsoever. Cap showed up briefly, then is lost. Iron man shows up and all hell breaks loose, with Manhattan being flattened by an alien invasion. Then SHIELD is wiped out. The only time "never be the same" really works is if there's ever been a reasonable time period where things were a certain way. Civil War is one of those ideas that people think is a terrific idea because they haven't thought through what it means to basic tropes and themes of comic book superheroes. MCU has done enough damage to that with basically nobody having a secret identity or code name, let alone really any sort of costume except Iron Man and Captain America. This deconstruction really undermines the wonder and fun of comics until all that's left are burly men and women beating the crap out of each other in a preview of Kingdom Come.

Actually, in fantasy (and a few other genres like Superheroes or Sci Fi) PD and ED make a lot of sense. You're going to face fire breathing dragons and lightning bolt hurling Wizards. in a spy game or a street level cop game? Not so much.

You don't see Arabs often as bad guys any longer but yeah Germans are the go-to bad guy. Its the accent I think. British sounds cultured and educated, but German sounds scary and mean to American ears. Like Southern US accents sound dumb to Hollywood types. In American TV, the go to bad guy is a white male over the age of 40, as Vondy noted though. Most advertising has the white guy as the cloddish idiot (although any adult male will do). Its just the way simple, limited minds with no creativity work: this is what I know and I don't have to think hard to figure it out! Besides, if I bash the white guy, nobody is going to boycott me or accuse me of terrible intentions.

THe idea of a modern city with a subway, sewers, old shut down unused subway, then ruins of previous cities beneath it in layers, that fascinates me. Imagine what could be down there?

This is pretty contrary to the very core concept of Hero and its precision, though. You could certainly do it, but that's definitely a move away from the basic ideas of Hero Games.

I even love the names from those time periods, long lost civilizations like the Hittites and the Etruscans. The longest-settled location that anyone knows of on earth is in Bulgaria, just built on the ruins of past cities over and over from far, far back into the distant past.

If I knew why or how, I'd definitely try to get the licensing from Busiek and work on the product. He's on Facebook and I could contact him there but that's probably not the ideal way to handle it.

I'm having zero success with Patreon, haven't cracked its secret yet

Astro City Hero Champions Down Under City of Heroes Hero

If there was any licensing to be done, I'd love to see Kurt Busiek's Astro City done in Champions. Such a great world.

Hopefully soon Diamond will have assignments for people. I'd like to see this ready for playtest by the end of next month and on the "shelf" before summer. Incidentally, that build of Brick is good but has some basic problems. Growth and Density Increase are temporary powers in 6th edition, they are not meant to represent bigger and denser. You use various powers that give the effects and physical complications for the drawbacks.