Christopher R Taylor

And its not just foci.  Any limitation, how do you work them into the game, do you plan on it or just apply them as the game goes along?  How often does that "no effect in strong magnetic fields" come up?  Some are self policing like Requires a Roll or x2 END Cost, but others the GM has some control over.

I forgot the Death Wish games, I was in one of those.  They were sadly tilted toward favorite players, though, whenever a judgment call came up.

The Hero system, being one of the first - and the best - generic gaming systems out there is incredibly flexible and can run just about anything very well.  What kind of campaigns and settings have you used it for?  Here's what I've done or played in over the decades:

Vietnam War

Fantasy of various types

Superhero settings (High powered, low powered, school for mutants, vigilantes, and much more)

Pulp era adventures

Wild West

Sci Fi (space opera)

Post Apocalyptic

The Viper sourcebook (4th ed) idea of superbeings running the world and the PCs rebelling by finding an old Viper base.  Only one session, sadly

Miami Vice

Terminator

Supernatural Western

Robin Hood setting

Japanese Fantasy variant

These are campaigns I want to run:

1) Continue my Golden Age Champions campaign, now on hold, at least up to Pearl Harbor.
2) Pirates! Based on the antics of Captain Morgan and set in that time period, still not sure how to handle the PCs and what their rank would be.
3) Super cops, police with low level superpowers who join the force and eventually others learn about their powers and a super-cop branch is established and built up around them
4) Colonial Defense Marines. Sci Fi game where PCs are grunts in low end military force to protect colonists on strange worlds.
5) Continue rebellion using Viper gear

6) Villains game where the PCs play viper agents and work their way up through the system to run their own Nest.

That's how I built my weapons chart for Fantasy Hero.

I'll take a look.  I like the idea of mass combat but no system I've tried so far really works well.

Yeah when I made the poll I figured any choice except the obvious long-connected ones to be single shot adventures but... since you can choose more than one, that doesn't work.

I've since added a one-off choice but its not going to be very helpful, since you can't go back and re-vote. :/

And now, for Halloween, something spooky.  This creature is a bit complex to run in a fight, because its defenses and attacks vary by presence attacks and rolls, but it can either be very terrifying and quite powerful.... or harmless and easily slaughtered.

Feral Haunt
 
Val Char Cost
  1  STR    -9
 14 DEX     8
 10 CON    0
  5  BOD   -5
  6  INT     -4
 10 EGO   0
 20 PRE   10
  3  PD      6
  3  ED      6
  4  SPD   20
  4  REC   0
 20 END   0
 
12m RUN 
4m SWIM 
4m LEAP 
14m FLY
Characteristics Cost: 55
 
Cost Power
 40    Undead: Life Support  (full)
 60    Undead: Takes No STUN
 15    Ghostly: Does Not Bleed
 10    Ghostly: No Hit Locations
 21    Float: Flight 14m, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (21 Active Points)
  5     Sense Life: Infrared Perception (Sight Group)
 20    Chilling Touch: Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/4), Limited Power -1d6 for each point opponent makes Presence Roll by (-1/4)
 13    Terror: Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Limited Power Only 1d6 for each level of highest presence attack vs opponents (-1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/4)
 20    Know Fears: Telepathy 4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Limited Power Only to learn name of targets and their fears (-1/2)

 12    Frightening: +5 PD (30 Active Points); Limited Power -3 for each point opponent makes presence roll by (-1/4)
 12    Frightening: +5 ED (30 Active Points); Limited Power -3 for each point opponent makes presence roll by (-1/4)
 48   Frightening: Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED) (72 Active Points); Limited Power -2 for each point opponent makes presence roll by (-1/4)
Powers Cost: 276
 
Cost Skill
  3     KS homes of children 12-
  2     KS common fears 11-
Skills Cost: 5
 
Total Character Cost: 336
 
Pts.  Complications
 10   Susceptibility:  from presence attacks that exceed their presence 1d6 damage/level of presence attack Instant (Uncommon) 
 30   Susceptibility:  Direct Sunlight 2d6 damage per Phase (Very Common)
 10   Vulnerability:  1 1/2 x BODY Holy Attacks (Common)
 10   Vulnerability:  1 1/2 x Effect Holy Attacks (Common)
 10   Vulnerability:  2 x Effect Presence Attacks by Holy Men (Uncommon)
Complication Points: 70

Yeah Super Agents is probably ideal, but Dark Champions would work.

You got Coriolis Effect?  Been looking for that for a while but I can't find it anywhere.

DC started in a very good direction when they did Crisis on Infinite Earths, it allowed them a reboot while keeping the continuity they liked, but they threw that all away in short order.

Its interesting, and I could see it being a useful device.  Since most combats only last 2-3 turns anyway, getting that extra phase the next turn would be almost like an Aid based on watching combat: you just get better at it.

I've done it with images before, a perception roll to even notice him.  When he's active and speaking the roll is easy, when not he just blends into the background and nobody can see where he went.

The Invisible Power Effects on Mental Illusion is superior though, because it would make people just forget he was there and not remember the illusion when it wore off.  Its an elegant build.

Yeah you can build a lot of the X-Men really cheap.  I could even argue that you overbuilt his stats a bit, could convert those into his armored uniform (yeah, their suits have armor).  Also, I'd built his "eyes blast everything in sight" as a complication, not a power.  He's almost never used that offensively because its so uncontrollably destructive.  10d6 sounds low but that's probably campaign based.  And he should have a considerable amount of mental defense, depending on when you built him - Professor X trained all of them in shielding their minds.  He's really REALLY accurate with that blast, so definitely lots of levels and CV, including bonuses for sweep and bounce maneuvers.

Dark Champions supposedly covers that but I agree that an espionage book would be a good direction to go.

Champions in 3d had some of that, but a  time travel supplement could be fun, just a series of different adventures set through time and a story that could be used to connect them all like Fantasy Battlegrounds had, if the GM wants to use that option for a story.

A tougher question is how do you balance limitations with story?  OAF is worth -1 limitation but how often do you remove peoples' foci?  Do you use a formula like 1/play session for -1?

I'm trying to think of good ways that could be written though.  What would that evolution look like?  I guess you could start at the ground level with the formation of a team, then gaining backers and a base, a few vehicles, some more popularity and status.  Respect and support of existing law enforcement and world community, and finally the orbital satellite base with teleporters?

My Golden Age Champions game could easily have that kind of arc, but it would take a while.  In the game it took 2 years to get real support from Roosevelt and the NYC government.

Its interesting to me because it seems that people here are less interested in one-off adventures they can drop into their campaign so much as wanting a structured campaign setting with a chain of adventures in it they can play.  People must be running short on time

It took a bit of thought to work out the practical aspects of summoning bases and vehicles, which I wrote up in the Codex, but here's an example of a spell that does just that

I've done something like that before, given players blank points to be filled in as the campaign progresses, giving them hunteds, etc

Depends which Dr Fate.  The original one, probably, although he seemed to have more limitations to his magic.  But some of his incarnations have been pretty questionable.

Probably AVAD is better yeah, it doesn't seem to do more, it just hurts more.

I like the 'extended breathing' thing for guys like Superman or the Hulk: they can just hold their breath ridiculously long periods of time

Yeah I was just thinking it would be an easy device she could use at will (defense being "no openings large enough for Wasp to fly into") which would include things like ear holes.  She's blasted more than one big bad guy right in the ear, for bonus damage.

Mostly though, her blasts bounce off even moderately tough guys.  She uses indirect attacks like collapsing things on them and cutting electrical wires, etc.  That's something I wish I could get players to try more often but they seem to lose all creativity when their powers don't work well.

If it ended up some kind of fight, Dr Strange alone could take out the DC universe, except maybe Specter.  But then, if they caught him by surprise he'd have a harder time.