Christopher R Taylor

The big difference between a dagger, say, and a longbow is that a longbow properly used is at its maximum power already when properly used.  A dagger properly used is very rarely at maximum effort, and becomes wildly inaccurate when you attack with its maximum damage (from you at least), which means that haymaker perfectly represents that maneuver.  That's why I don't allow ranged attacks of any kind to be haymakered (or energy blasts from StarKing, or mental illusions from the egoist, etc.  Pushing can represent giving it your all but haymaker is an all-out, wild, swing-for-the fences punch or swing.

Golden Age is characterized by superheroes being invented and developed, they were new and the ideas of costumes, patterns of behavior, bad guys, even the idea of how to draw and write a comic were being developed.  Heroes were usually very good guys with very clear morality, but sometimes would kill -- or just let people die they might have saved -- because they were such bad guys.  Batman let someone fall into a vat of chemicals and die "he had it coming".  Superman literally threw a general over a forest at the horizon in one early comic.  Nazis are often the bad guys, or mobsters.
 
Silver Age is more kid friendly stuff, following the early Comics Code Authority and usually with kids involved (sidekicks, a gang of kids who get into trouble that the hero saves, etc).  Stories were absolutely wild and without any connection: the world gets turned into a cube of swiss cheese then back again, and the next issue, no mention or repercussions of that.  Science is more the focus, magic is about gone.  Commies are usually the bad guys, along with a bizarre variety of evil scientists, aliens, etc.  Zero continuity.
 
Bronze Age starts pushing the boundaries of the comics code, making things more edgy and reintroducing banned themes like undead and drugs and crime.  Heroes are flawed and have human characteristics, are more limited in power, and focus more on what they do when not saving the world in stories.  Continuity is king, carefully crafted universes start to be the norm for comic books.  More ripped from the headlines type bad guys and events.
 
Iron Age is EXTREME!!!!1!1!! with huge muscles and guns, and lots of violence and little heroism going on.  Characters are exaggerated versions of themselves, where a lean, fit superman becomes a monstrous body builder that is as huge as the hulk.  Stories are more driven by the LEET artwork with huge splash pages rather than the story. Continuity takes a back seat to what is cool.  Everyone seems angry, or at least constipated.  Dark, violent, and angry.
 
Modern Age has kind of abandoned almost all of the established patterns of superheroes.  Few have any real secret identity they care about any longer.  Few have any sort of code of ethics or nobility.  Many don't even really have costumes as such.  They're more just people with powers doing stuff with powers in action adventures or stories about how they hang out with their ethnically diverse cast of buddies and once in a while do something involving superpowers.  Continuity is irrelevant.  Often heavily partisan or political in tone.
 
I highly recommend the Explain This Comics Guys podcast for history on all this and a lot more.

Golden Age is characterized by superheroes being invented and developed, they were new and the ideas of costumes, patterns of behavior, bad guys, even the idea of how to draw and write a comic were being developed.  Heroes were usually very good guys with very clear morality, but sometimes would kill -- or just let people die they might have saved -- because they were such bad guys.  Batman let someone fall into a vat of chemicals and die "he had it coming".  Superman literally threw a general over a forest at the horizon in one early comic.  Nazis are often the bad guys, or mobsters.
 
Silver Age is more kid friendly stuff, following the early Comics Code Authority and usually with kids involved (sidekicks, a gang of kids who get into trouble that the hero saves, etc).  Stories were absolutely wild and without any connection: the world gets turned into a cube of swiss cheese then back again, and the next issue, no mention or repercussions of that.  Science is more the focus, magic is about gone.  Commies are usually the bad guys, along with a bizarre variety of evil scientists, aliens, etc.  Zero continuity.
 
Bronze Age starts pushing the boundaries of the comics code, making things more edgy and reintroducing banned themes like undead and drugs and crime.  Heroes are flawed and have human characteristics, are more limited in power, and focus more on what they do when not saving the world in stories.  Continuity is king, carefully crafted universes start to be the norm for comic books.  More ripped from the headlines type bad guys and events.
 
Iron Age is EXTREME!!!!1!1!! with huge muscles and guns, and lots of violence and little heroism going on.  Characters are exaggerated versions of themselves, where a lean, fit superman becomes a monstrous body builder that is as huge as the hulk.  Stories are more driven by the LEET artwork with huge splash pages rather than the story. Continuity takes a back seat to what is cool.  Everyone seems angry, or at least constipated.  Dark, violent, and angry.
 
Modern Age has kind of abandoned almost all of the established patterns of superheroes.  Few have any real secret identity they care about any longer.  Few have any sort of code of ethics or nobility.  Many don't even really have costumes as such.  They're more just people with powers doing stuff with powers in action adventures or stories about how they hang out with their ethnically diverse cast of buddies and once in a while do something involving superpowers.  Continuity is irrelevant.  Often heavily partisan or political in tone.
 
I highly recommend the Explain This Comics Guys podcast for history on all this and a lot more.

I only allow haymaker for melee weapons or fists, but I allow a variant that lets you take all the same penalties but then get a +4 bonus to called shot attacks.  A super-careful aim rather than a super-strong attack.
 
Bows have an absolute limit on how much you can "draw" them and how much power you can get out of them.  No amount of extra effort will make them suddenly hit harder than proper use.  If you can make a bow hit harder by drawing it more, then you've not been using it correctly before.

I'd buy the raw land as a base. Significant villagers could be DNPC's for the base.
 
And have the ability to tax the inhabitants as a special effect of the wealth perk.
 
The buildings which the villagers place on the land are generally of negligible value in game or wealth terms. If you're planning on having the whole game take place in the fiefdom and having the PC defend his land though, you'd have to define every building and decide whether the character is going to pay for that building. I wouldn't really worry about it unless the PC starts improving the land or making it a mecca by doing such things as building a grain mill.
 
If there's a significant church or abbey on the land, that's typically going to be owned by the religious organization rather than the lord but it will be his obligation to the organization to defend that site and/or the worshippers. Conversely, it will be the lord's obligation to make sure no rival churches and worshippers are established within his fiefdom.

I only allow haymaker for melee weapons or fists, but I allow a variant that lets you take all the same penalties but then get a +4 bonus to called shot attacks.  A super-careful aim rather than a super-strong attack.
 
Bows have an absolute limit on how much you can "draw" them and how much power you can get out of them.  No amount of extra effort will make them suddenly hit harder than proper use.  If you can make a bow hit harder by drawing it more, then you've not been using it correctly before.

Over on TVTropes they call it Flanderization.  "The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character."

Named after Ned Flanders from the Simpsons.  In early seasons he was a basically nice, ordinary, prosperous guy who went to church and had a family that loved each other, in contrast to the Simpsons.  A few seasons later he was a Christian Zealot that didn't insure his house because that was like gambling.  He has gotten much worse sense then.

Mr. Drysdale definitely got more and more cartoonish over time, but so did most everyone else on that show.

I try not to look too deeply and try break down the ramifications of using the Infinity Gauntlet.  Things tend to fall apart quickly.  For example, Earth's human population has risen approximately 1 billion every 12 years for last 50 years ago.  So, using Earth as an example, humanity will be back to its original population in 50 years with exponentially far less life to help sustain it.  Pretty stupid.  Also, if you REALLY wanted to help and you can basically do anything, why not just double or triple all available resources on inhabited planets or turn all moons into massive resource-laden Gardens of Eden and double all planets that can sustain life, etc.
 
I just focus on Thanos = INSANE!!!  This is the choice a psychopathic mass murderer with a brilliant, yet incredibly disturbed mind would make and the heroes must stop him at all costs.

Viperia was a great character, I really liked the 4th edition VIPER book.  They took it less seriously and more classic comic bad guy agency.

This one is actually from me, a few tactical call outs from a Champions campaign in days past that I posted.  In Strike Force, Allston listed a few of the moves that the team had as well as their shout outs to announce it or call for it; these are the ones the team in my campaign used:
 
Birdglass: throw/teleport a flier into a surface combining their momentum with the throw.
Blind Swing: start a haymaker, then teleport/throw/carry a victim into its path.
Disrupt: knock down/throw in the air/stun/blind a target so they are reduced DCV for special low-OCV attacks.
Fastball: Throw a slower melee ally at a target for extra impact damage.
Piledriver: fly straight down at the ground with target as a move through and at last moment teleport away, leaving target to hit
Sandwich: two attackers hit the same target at the same time from opposite sides to stack knockback and coordinate for stun.
Unleash Hell: Use AE attacks even though they will hit me.

I'm not seeing a need for the entourage in this case. Sounds like the PCs have enough oomph to deal with low level encounters.
 
Remember you run the risk of overshadowing the PCs and the players if you give them a bunch of much more competent NPCs to hang out with.

Viperia was a great character, I really liked the 4th edition VIPER book.  They took it less seriously and more classic comic bad guy agency.

For the current official Hero Universe, Vanguard was very clearly the setting's analogue to Superman, in both the magnitude of his power and the respect in which he was held. However, Vanguard died during the Battle of Detroit in 1992, destroying the asteroid Dr. Destroyer had pulled into a collision course with the United States. Vanguard has never been given a published write-up, but his origin is detailed in Champions Beyond (he wasn't an alien, but his origin is connected to them), and a couple of stories involving him appear in Book Of The Destroyer, including his death and a B&W drawing. (Dr. Destroyer considered Vanguard one of his greatest foes.)
 
VIPER's most powerful staff supervillain, Viperia, receives a full write-up with character sheet and illo in VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent. Although her origin is mystical, her power set is classic Supergirl. This version of the character is an update of her from the 4E VIPER book in which she was a mutant, and her style was more "evil Supergirl."
 
Speaking of 4E, Hero System Almanac 1 gave us Australian twins who sequentially used the code-name, Captain Australia. Children of a cosmic being by a human woman, they both have a Superman/girl style, although they aren't as powerful in magnitude or scope of powers. They aren't part of the current official setting, though (at least not yet).

And I liked his Sandman in the third one. Just everything to do with Venom was a problem. He seemed to really understand Peter/Spidey AND the villains (Doc Ock (who was fabulous), Sandman (who probably would have been very good if he had been given his own film) and I thought his Goblin was pretty good).

Raimi is a good choice for director, he made terrific spider-man films until the studio messed with his third film too much

2 m side to side, as that is the direction you move through a hes, thus that is what determines movement

I should have put a Western campaign on there too, like Oregon Trail or Range War

I should have put a Western campaign on there too, like Oregon Trail or Range War

Well, there are a LOT of none sword swingers out there these days. 
One of my major issues with any of the so called RPG Review Podcasts is they don't actually review anything. 
After they get done blathering all you really know is that they liked it or they did not.  One of the recent ones I suffered through was for Star Trek Adventures by Modiphious.  After about 45 minutes I will never get back I gained the following information.
 
It was about role playing Star Trek
Be sure to give to their Patron
It was a science fiction game
Be sure to give to their Patron
It assumed that you knew what Star Trek was, which was bad.
Be sure to give to their Patron
The game did not have much combat
Be sure to give to their Patron
They didn't like it because it was hard to decide what to do
Be sure to give to their Patron
It was HARD.
 
It never mention the actual game system or any descriptions of how the game played.
 
I have never been a supported of government bureaucracy, but I would support public flogging if a Podcast lies about its subject. 
 
Gahhhhh!!!!
 
But anyway, Image Part 2 was great and engaging.  Made my commute fly by.  6 star's out of 5 
 

If I could have, I'd have released the book with a soundtrack.  That can't happen so I did the next best thing; I put bits of song lyrics at the beginning of each main section and put together a playlist on Youtube

Yesterday I listened to Big Iron from Marty Robbins. That song makes you want to play Western Hero.

I think that it must be looked at in the context of other -1/4 limitations.  Yes, "magic only" is very versatile.  Remove the -1/4 limitation and it is fully versatile - it can do absolutely anything.  If the VPP could only be used when in alternate ID, or when the character is wearing a very nondescript token, or would fail in an intense magnetic field, would it be less useful than being limited to magic only?
 
The value of the limitation does not vary with the base utility of the underlying ability it limits.  It varies with the extent to which it limits that underlying ability.  "Magic only" does not limit what the VPP can do by very much.  If it limited what the VPP could do by a lot, it would not be a -1/4 limitation.
 
How much of "absolutely any power that could possibly be achieved, with any SFX" has been removed?  Certainly not "most" or "half" of its effectiveness.  But slightly limited.  Well, that "slightly limited" is what a -1/4 limitation is.

A significant challenge of recurring villains is maintaining the perception that they are a credible and dangerous threat, despite the fact that they continuously lose.  The more popular the villain, the more the character appears (sells the books) so the more losses they rack up.

By locking in the special effect of magic can cause it to be affected by some advantages and limitations.  If a character has defenses that only work vs magic he gets those on anything in the pool.  In some cases a power will have multiple special effects.  For example a fire spell will count as both fire and magic.  It also should exclude certain special effects.  I for one would not allow lasers or other scientific special effects in a VPP with the limitation magic only.  You could do a light spell but that would not count as a laser.  

Well, it doesn't have to limit itself to just Heroic levels of psionics. I do want the book to be accessible to a vast majority of people as possible. Some chapters on Superheroic and Star Hero levels of mental powers are welcome also. But would it make for a expensive book?
 
And I have always been in favor of new editions equal to new books. Even if things don't change much. I hate when things are not updated to the new editions, primarily because I don't own any of the past editions right now, and would rather have things point to the current edition than have "here is a past edition supplement, update it yourself'. I'm lasy about stuff like that. But that apparently is just me and everyone not buying the 6ed because of lack of updated books.