Yes, this idea can work and work well. Giving everyone a common origin, makes it simpler to weave plots together. And it makes less work for the GM on organizations. Plus, single can still be pretty broad in scope.
It can also give some justification to fear by the population because these supers are different from the norm. All mages? They're after our souls! All cyborgs? They're going to turn us into spare parts! All mutants? We'll be replaced! Aliens? They'll enslave us and then eat us! It's much easier to fuel one strong conspiracy than lots of small ones.
Yeah my Golden Age game all powers came from a single source (magic and Asgardian fruit). Its very restrictive, in some ways, but in others it makes storytelling work better and the overall campaign has more cohesion and focus.
The "most grandiose crime" scenario I ever personally ran was back in my 4E Champions GM days. My group's penultimate encounter with Dr. Destroyer was over his attempt to blackmail the world with a universe-breaching weapon which could cast entire cities into alternate universes. Initially sneaking into, then fighting their way into DD's base, the PCs managed to reverse the weapon and bring back Cleveland, Ohio, before Destroyer arrived. DD had regained control of it and was kicking their butts, when one of the heroes shoved her whole belt of grenades through a rent that had been torn in one of the weapon's control panels. The resultant blast caused the weapon to dimensionally implode, and Destroyer appeared to be obliterated with it; but none of the players believed that.
About a year later (game-time), the PCs were contacted by the Bogeyman, the nightmare-creating monster from the Dreamzone, whom they'd previously fought. (See Champions in 3-D.) This time the Bogeyman had come to beg their help. It turned out Destroyer had been cast into the Dreamzone, enslaved its native Dreamshadows, and built them into an army per his twisted imagination. He was now on the verge of opening a portal for his army to enter the waking world.
The heroes had to trek across the Dreamzone, which DD had reshaped into a literal totalitarian nightmare, to confront him and his assembled army. Since awake beings physically in the Dreamzone have power to shape it to their will, the PCs focused their combined wills on taking control of the Doctor's portal device, using it to trap him in a pocket-Dreamzone in which he believed he'd succeeded in conquering the world.
I've seen and read various studies of the outcomes of these "catastrophic" events from man's leftovers. Virtually all of them will be healed in a few centuries at most, an eyeblink in the lifetime of this world.
We tend to overestimate our impact on the planet. Global warming, for example, will be devastating for us, and will cause mass extinctions... which have happened dozens of times to life on Earth. The planet will eventually stabilize, surviving life will diversify, and equilibrium will be restored. Probably too late to do us any good, but the world doesn't really care.
Perhaps start by NOT making Dr. Doom the villain and use one of the, I don't know, 100s of other villains in their pantheon? Its probably one of the most annoying thing about the last one with Kate and Mara is it would have been a perfect opportunity to use Blastaar as the villain from the Negative Zone, thereby setting a future Annihilus.
Indeed, I like Captain Carter. I do not understand why the Watcher cares about her more than the billions of humans (trillions?) who die in the course of the incidents he’s observing.
Here are the old articles of mine I could find -- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q-1oKphlwDWQe3LWZX2dt1DHB5S-iUq0?usp=sharing
I think the timeframe (for me, at least) was 95-ish to 2000-ish.
I'm pretty sure I lost my physical copies to some basement flooding many years ago.
The APA was part articles and part superhero fiction. The fiction eventually split off into a sister APA, The OmniVerse.
There were annual awards, called The Grimmies.
From memory, some of the contributors were: Ben Bellott, Will Geiger, Bill Jackson, Martin Maenza, John Moorman, Michael O'Connell (RIP), K.C. Ryan, Tim Watts
Clairsentience would work. It would let you put your sense point outside the Darkness. Note that if the Darkness affects any of the Clair- senses, then you won't be able to perceive into the Darkness area, but you'll still be able to perceive outside of it.
If they've bought Darkness vs. taste/smell, it would cover that sense group even if the group was bought with Targeting. The cost of the Darkness assumes the 'normal human suite' regardless of what extras (i.e. Targeting) the target might have bought.
I am just go8ng to throw rhis out there, because apparently in all the years since Naked Advantages became officially endorsed, only my players are the kind of creative jerks to try this:
Personal Immunity, Ranger, useable as attack.
Suddenly you are untouchable by at least one opponent's favorite attack.
I didn't allow it, obviously, but it was fiendishly clever.
There’s a balance to be struck in how easy it is to escape. Make it too easy, and prisons get laughable. Too hard and there are no repeat visits from a supervillain. Both setups affect the setting feel.
It also matters who is getting out. Scorpia escaping means people are going to die in Eurostar’s next scheme. Foxbat escaping means something silly is going to happen with his next caper.
If things are on the harder side for escaping, then a mass breakout event seems like the more dramatic option. If easier, then very few get out at a time and are sent back soon after.
If a mass breakout event of multiple terrorist types happens, that’s scary as they are the type to wreak havoc on a city or country. If Pulsar or Bluejay escapes, a bank or jewelry store is going to be robbed.
Some villains may also be a masked identity that gets passed on to new owners. The Green Goblin is an example of this with all the different goblin types that have shown up since Norman Osborn’s first outing.
It looks like I completely failed to answer this; my apologies!
The main differences are intent and implied special effects. Delayed Effect was intended to replicate a Vancian, early edition D&D style magic system with prepared spells. You would prepare the spell and then release it at will later. Trigger was intended more to replicate things like land mines, or other weapons or items that you might place somewhere, with a strong implication that it would be Triggered by someone else, and affect the target where they Triggered it. You need to set up a condition that sets off the Triggered power, which you define at the time you build the power unless you pay extra.
The mechanical differences are:
A Delayed Effect power can't be Drained or Dispelled, while a Triggered power can.
A Delayed Effect power is always activated by the character while a Triggered power is activated by an external condition (even if the Triggered power is activated at the character's location). Further, a Triggered power can't rely on any senses for activation that the character doesn't possess, though they can buy Enhanced Senses that are Limited to only activate a Triggered power.
A Delayed Effect power requires the GM to determine how many total "slots" a character can prepare, while Trigger doesn't (though the GM can set limits in the latter case).
The differences are pretty subtle, and took me a while to figure out myself.
BTW the 4E version of Stronghold was a less humane place. There were no supertech "power negators" shutting down the prisoners' powers. Consequently, each prisoner spent nearly all their time in their cell, specifically tailored to counter any attempt to escape using their known powers. They had no access to recreational or social space.
FWIW had I ever gotten to run scenarios using any of the other nations' super-prisons mentioned in 5E Stronghold, I'd have used that as the map/template for the Chinese and Russian facilities.
Honestly? I prefer to just not think about what happens to supervillains after they are caught. The multiple types of prison in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes was cool, but I just don't even wanna know. They are defeated, and that's enough. They come back eventually, and need to be defeated again. Anything else results in some really depressing, awful stuff like putting villains into an enforced coma or locking them in an energy field at the bottom of the ocean, etc.
That said I am looking closely at Stronghold to redo the Escape from Stronghold module, so it does come up. As I understand it there are multiple layers of security where bad guys are kept. If you are just Johnny Gadget, you can put them in general population in a normal prison. If they have powers, they are put in the prison with the power dampers, and treated like regular guys. And the worst are put into the super high security area.
Pursuant to my reference to Lovecraftian monsters, Hero Universe has its own source for such creatures, the Qliphoth, a concept that author Dean Shomshak adapted from Kabbalah for the setting (from his own games). Following are descriptions of a score of horrors which either hale from various Qliphothic universes, or were warped by contact with those universes. The list doesn't include unique, godlike monsters such as the Kings of Edom, unless a particular type of creature is closely identified with one; nor any of the individual humans who have been altered by the touch of Qliphothic forces. Those could support discussion threads of their own.
The main in-print source for Qliphothic creatures -- with detailed descriptions, Fifth Edition Hero System character sheets, and illustrations -- is Arcane Adversaries, by Dean Shomshak. Dean created much of the magic cosmology for the Champions Universe, including the Qliphoth. Most of the current material was transcribed verbatim from two earlier (Fourth Edition) Champions books by Dean, The Ultimate Super Mage and The Super Mage Bestiary. Those books offered an even wider selection of monsters from the Qliphoth, and since the lore from the two editions matches so closely, I feel justified in adding the descriptions of the ones which weren't reprinted. Other creatures were taken from the Hero System Bestiary; from Tatterdemalion Terrors which describes monsters associated with that particular dimension of the Qliphoth; from Book Of The Empress which deals with other dimensions in the CU "multiverse"; and from a book for the sci-fi future of the official Champions Universe timeline, Scourges Of The Galaxy.
Angler: Anglers are one of the strangest servants of the Kings of Edom. They appear as tangles of zigzagging, shimmering lines extending in more than three dimensions. They are completely colorless. At any given moment, an angler will have 3-6 “legs” of interlacing, crooked lines extending from its body. This is the closest they have to recognizable limbs or organs. Unlike most Edomites, the Anglers are not grotesquely hideous — just incomprehensible.
Although anglers fill a volume of space equal to a man or large dog, their open structure makes them very hard to hit and almost massless. An angler’s one-dimensional body cuts through anything made of matter, sliding between the very atoms.
Anglers can walk on any flat or angled surface regardless of gravity, but cannot cross a curved line or surface. If an angler stands at an angled surface (such as the corner of a room) it can instantly travel to any other angle within 30 meters. The angler seems to stretch out like lazy-tongs and re-compress at the other angle in a split second. Finally, anglers can move between dimensions: they can go to any dimension in which anglers already exist. If one does not destroy or exorcise an angler quickly, other anglers may appear on their own.
Brain Beast: A cunning predator with psionic abilities, the brain beast resembles a massive grey bulldog whose head has been replaced with a huge human brain. This "brain" opens vertically to reveal a mouth filled with razor-sharp, needle-like black teeth. Though it lacks any visible sensory apparatus, a brain beast can see, hear, and smell using alien senses beyond science's comprehension.
When not actively moving from one place to another, a brain beast clings to a wall or ceiling using its long, black claws. It then merges into the substance it's adhering to, becoming effectively invisible as long as it doesn't move. An incredibly patient hunter, it can remain motionless for weeks at a time while it waits for prey.
When a target finally presents itself, the brain beast unleashes a powerful "cerebral stun" that usually leaves its victim unconscious, or at least dazed and unable to move quickly. It then pounces with incredible accuracy, knocking its prey to the ground where it can rend and devour its flesh at leisure.
Carrionite: Carrionites are semi-undead, roughly humanoid creatures whose appearance is something of a “patchwork”; a strange, mystical melding of a living being and an undead being whose form possesses attributes of both but is never entirely fixed. Their melding of living and unliving flesh frequently shifts, changing the creature’s size, rough shape, color, and other attributes. A carrionite’s unusual body also makes it difficult to hurt, allows it to heal with great speed, and lets it walk on walls by molding its flesh to the surface.
A carrionite looks something like a hairless, paleskinned, sharp-toothed humanoid — most of the time. Its body frequently shifts shape in disturbing ways, making it taller, shorter, huskier, longer-limbed, differently colored, or the like. Most disturbingly, it grows and then loses various natural weapons such as fangs, claws, horns, and spikes on its body. Just looking at one is enough to make most humans faintly nauseated.
Claynull: The claynull is one of the more powerful and dangerous Qliphothic monsters. Its touch drains away the energies which hold matter together. That is how it feeds. Anything it touches is reduced to a heavy, frictionless fluid—the atoms have lost their ability to combine in molecules or interact with anything else. It isn’t even really matter in the normal sense anymore.
While a claynull can feed off any matter, it is especially attracted to energy rich forms such as radioactives, explosives and corrosive chemicals. This may include superbeings with energy manipulation powers. It will pursue such matter even into harmful situations, although it will then try to grab the matter and retreat to safety as it eats.
This creature is nothing but a big flowing blob of clear, pale silvery ooze, with no internal structure. Actually, the creature itself is invisible, but it's covered with a very thin layer of transmuted air. It forms pseudopods with which to attack. Anything touched by it starts dissolving. The claynull is highly resistant to nearly all forms of damage and wounds seal up almost instantly.
Darque: Darques are strange creatures from the Qliphothic plane called The Shining Darkness. (Hero Universe lore often refers to all the Qliphoth by this name, but it properly belongs only to one cosmos among the Qliphothic universes.) They appear as large knots of shimmering black streamers floating in the air. They feel ice cold and filmy.
Darques attack by wrapping around victims and absorbing their life force, leaving the victim weak. They can also project an aura of darkness around themselves. They can see through this darkness just fine, and so can people they’ve wrapped around. Such a person will also see the world as darques see it: dark areas seem lit with silvery radiance, while well illuminated areas seem dark. Light sources are cores of blackness radiating obscurity.
Being insubstantial, darques are unusually resistant to normal sorts of damage, but bright light shocks and evaporates their substance. Naturally they try to stay in dark surroundings as much as possible.
Foul-Skinned Man: A Foul-Skinned Man is a humanoid being whose body, mind, and soul have been warped by its time and experiences in the Qliphoth, the touch of one of its kind when it was still normal, or some combination of the two. It “eats” by corrupting other humanoids — or, in a pinch, consuming raw flesh. Its very touch corrupts an ordinary humanoid both physically and spiritually. It emits a digusting stench that may weaken its foes.
A Foul-Skinned Man is horrifying to look at or be near. Its flesh looks something like that of a dead, rotting body, though when touched it’s as firm and strong as living tissue. A sickly, dark green light shines in its eyes, signalling its evil and hunger.
Hand of Deizzhorath: Among the mightiest and most alien of the Kings of Edom, Deizzhorath is also called "the Dissolver" because its touch utterly annihilates all matter, and it appears to desire to do so. The Dissolver isn't made of matter even in the Qliphothic sense, but of energy and mathematics; but when it was defeated its essence was spread across space and time, so it can't focus its consciousness on any one point.
Some servants of the Kings of Edom use magic to conjure small bits of the Dissolver to attack their enemies. These "Hands of Deizzhorath" look like a swirling globe of colorless filigree fronds erupting from a bright point hanging in space. A Hand exists in more than three spatial dimensions, and is intangible without extraordinary means; but anything touched by one of its fronds dissolves into inert golden flakes which eventually vanish into nothingness.
Hands of Deizzhorath sometimes take seemingly random actions, despite what a summoner wants them to do: pursue a random person, trace elaborate geometric designs in the street, demolish a building, anything. An attack which actually harms a Hand has a good chance of causing it to try to kill the attacker.
Mind Thief: Mind Thieves are one of the most insidious of the Edomite horrors. A mind thief looks a bit like a very large spider and a bit like a crab, but with the addition of a huge, fanged mouth. A mind thief is physically weak, but has the ability to desolidify, crawl into a victim’s brain, and take control of him. A mind thief can call on all its victim’s skills, knowledge, and powers, although because of its alien mentality it isn't very good at pretending to be a human being.
Ultraviolet light, X-rays, and other forms of energetic radiation are the greatest weakness of mind thieves. A mind thief can take damage from irradiation despite hiding in a victim’s skull. Even the ultraviolet light in sunlight irritates a mind thief, although it cannot cause actual harm. Intense UV light or radiation can drive a mind thief out of its victim’s brain. The treatment had better be quick, strong, and a complete and terrifying surprise to the mind thief. If a mind thief has the time before it leaves, it will eat the victim’s brain completely, leaving a corpse with no external sign of damage.
Necheshiron: The necheshiron (Hebrew, “Snaky”) are hardly the most powerful of Qliphothic entities, but they are among the most feared and hated by magicians. Necheshiron “eat” magic, either gulping down spells aimed at them or siphoning away the enchantment from magic items and continuous spells. When necheshiron feed, they make more necheshiron, who go looking for more magic. An out-of-control population of necheshiron can strip an entire world of magic.
Necheshiron are not very intelligent, but they do follow some simple pack tactics. Some will guard the others by interposing themselves and deflecting spells cast at their fellows. Others try to grab and squeeze any opponent who has found some way to hurt them. A few might wait to bite grabbed opponents, but would prefer a chance to eat spells.
Necheshiron are absolutely black. From every angle, a necheshiron looks like a flat silhouette of a huge snake with a spiny crest on its head that runs down its back. They radiate invisible waves of negative energy and sense their surroundings from the reflections.
Oron: Orons are invisible to most senses, but to those who can perceive them they seem to be composed almost entirely of fanged mouths, although their bodies are dotted with many eyes allowing them to see in all directions at once. Their bodies are semi-corporeal, part matter and part something else, making them very resistant to damage. They move by some form of levitation.
Orons tend to be solitary, but as they're very intelligent, they sometimes join forces in groups of up to a dozen to accomplish a common objective, which could be hunting for food, or some inscrutable grander purpose. Their preferred food is the flesh of sapient beings, but if necessary they’ll eat any sort of meat.
Pthaarkin: The King of Edom named Pthaar is also called "the Phantast" due to its great facility at projecting mind-warping illusions, even up to materialzing quasi-solid minions out of psychic force. These "Pthaarkin" normally look like a fusion of snake and toad, with batlike wings and a nest of tentacles around the mouth, suggesting this may reflect Pthaar's true appearance; but the Phantast can project avatars that look like anything.
Pthaar was imprisoned at the core of a planet, now called Sinnuris, in a dimension much like Earth's. The Sinnurians, a sapient race not too different from Humanity, worship Pthaar, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of their fellows to it every year. They construct weirdly-shaped stone fanes whose non-Euclidean geometry allow the Phantast to materialize Pthaarkin outside its prison.
It's conceivable some of Pthaar's followers might travel to a world or dimension potentially holding a key to freeing their god from its confinement -- Earth, for instance.
Qliphothic Hound: So called because it's usually conjured to track down and slay someone, a qliphothic hound is a man-sized, vaguely dodecahedral-shaped being, but on which none of the sides are quite the same size or shape. It has no apparent eyes or sensory organs, but is somehow able to "see" in all directions around it at once, including in spectra not visible to humans. Four flattened tentacles with sharp, bony ridges on the tips project from its body at odd angles, able to reach up to four meters. It moves by a form of levitation faster than most humans can run.
The ecology of these creatures is a mystery. No one knows what they eat, or even how, as they lack any external orifices. Their behavior demonstrates high intelligence, but their motivations are inscrutable to humans.
Thanks to its heightened senses (including the ability to track victims by sight or smell), a qliphothic hound is a superb hunter and scout. Once it catches up to its prey it swoops in to attack with its bone-edged tentacles. If badly injured it flees, but may return to attack again after it heals, weeks or even months later. A summoned qliphothic hound will remain until it performs all the services required of it by the summoning spell.
Qliphothic Hunter: The true appearance of these creatures is unknown. They're always invisible; in fact they cannot be perceived by any commonly-available means, even magical ones. Even when they die and their invisibility fades, all that can be seen is a mass of rapidly deliquescing greenish-yellow slime with no limbs or features of any sort. They do appear to have some form of "claws" with which to attack, strong enough to rend most sorts of protective armor.
Evil spellcasters summon qliphothic hunters to serve them as assassins. Once unleashed against a victim, a qliphothic hunter pursues him without stopping until the victim dies, it dies, or someone banishes it back to the Qliphothic planes. It's anyone's guess what they might do if they entered this universe on their own.
Raven of Dispersion: The Harab Serapel (Hebrew for “Ravens of Dispersion” or “Ravens of Death”) are among the more powerful and mysterious of the Qliphothic entities. Their dimension, the Pale Cathedral, is the last stop for aging, decaying universes before the final abyss and total annihilation. The Ravens are older than anyone can imagine. They know from whence the Kings of Edom came, for they were already ancient when the home dimensions of the Kings were born.
By rights the Pale Cathedral should have fallen to oblivion eons ago. The Ravens of Dispersion, however, learned how to stave off that final plunge by stealing energy from other planes, pulling the other dimension a little closer to destruction in the process. Stealing small amounts of energy is easy, but each theft only sustains the Pale Cathedral for a short time. To gain whole ages of extra time, the Ravens must pull entire worlds into oblivion — which they do.
Although the Harab Serapel have great power, even they cannot destroy an entire world all by themselves. They can, however, achieve such a feat with the help of other beings. The Ravens of Death mentally search the Multiverse for sorcerers who are corrupt, insane, or foolish enough to call on the powers of the Qliphothic planes. They teach such wizards through dreams and visions, increasing their power and madness until the mage can open a Gate to the Final Abyss. Unless such a Gate is closed quickly, it can expand out of control as the world’s energies pour away.
A Raven of Dispersion looks like a human skeleton topped with a bird’s skull. Their obsidian wings wrap around them like the husks of dead, dried-out beetles. They mutter and squawk to themselves in querulous voices as they shuffle about the Pale Cathedral and conduct their deadly rituals.
Interestingly, the most ancient occult lore names the Ravens as part of the alliance of great powers which defeated and imprisoned the Kings of Edom. Why they chose to do so is unknown; perhaps they simply didn't want the world-destroying competition.
Skeinripper: Skeinrippers are strange humanoid beings of unknown origin; some scholars speculate that they’re the creation of a powerful mystic entity, but no one’s found any proof of this. They feed on the destinies of sentient beings, sucking away the beneficial aspects of fate for them, leaving them to live miserable lives.
Skeinrippers look like emaciated humanoids with ochre-colored skin (though their forms tend to fill out, and even become plump, after they “feed” enough). Their arms and legs are long and have two main joints. Oddly mis-shapen claws tip the ends of their long fingers. Their eyes are large, black, and pupilless; they have no external nasal structure; and their mouths seem far too large for their heads (but they have no teeth).
Space-Eater: These Qliphothic creatures feed on the integrity of space itself. Their mere presence in an area causes space to warp until it rips, opening spontaneous wormholes to other dimensions. The space-eaters themselves are not especially dangerous, but their wormholes can cause terrible harm. Even if no horrible things come through from the other side, a wormhole might open to an environment that is poisonous, superheated, in vacuum (sucking away a world’s air), or worse.
These irritable creatures cannot do a great deal of damage all at once to an opponent in combat, but they always do at least a little damage when they hit. Their claws cut space itself. They only fear fire: even if they are getting massacred by some other form of attack, space-eaters will not retreat.
Space-Eaters look something like large crabs or spiders made of shards and tendrils of black and silver mirrors, shimmering as they scuttle along the floor, walls, or ceiling. They have no visible eyes, but quite visible claws. Slender spines jut from their bodies. Space-Eater bodies are about a foot across, not counting their spindly legs.
Spawn of Vulshoth: Also known as "the Eye of the Void," Vulshoth is one of the more powerful and infamous Kings of Edom. It appears as a globular mass of hundreds of slimy, greenish-black tentacles over four hundred feet across. Five huge ruby-red eyes surround an enormous parrot-like beak.
Vulshoth can create smaller copies of itself (six to ten feet in diameter) to further its interests. These Spawn of Vulshoth are physically powerful, have formidable mind-affecting abilities, and their touch can drain the life-force of beings from positive universes. They move by levitation in disregard for gravity. A Spawn's tentacles can extend over great distances to seize prey, by reaching through holes in space.
The Void's Eye can guide its worshipers to build special non-Euclidian structures to amplify its power so it can materialize a Spawn of Vulshoth. Alternatively, a dozen or more worshipers of Vulshoth who willingly surrender their will to it can be merged and transformed into a Spawn.
Spined Horror: This Edomite monstrosity looks a little bit like a gigantic, spiky crab, only it has no claws, or eyes, or even a front or back. It does have eleven legs scattered around the rim of its carapace, and a huge, constantly chewing, three-lobed mouth set in its bottom shell. Its chitinous armor bends into countless rigid spines over the creature’s entire body. It is possible to punch the creature, but if the attacker isn’t careful he or she will hit a spine. Anyone who strikes the creature with their entire body will surely impale themselves on several spikes.
A spined horror normally attacks by stabbing with its pointed legs. If it can maneuver so it stands over an opponent, it will squat and bite; it will certainly try to do this to a knocked down opponent.
Spined Horrors have two main uses. One is as a simple juggernaut of destruction. The other is as an assassin: a spined horror can track designated victims both by mundane clues and by mental emissions. There are few places it cannot go, and few barriers it cannot smash down, given time.
Squrm: This oozing horror looks like a huge squid flying on slimy, membranous wings. Squrms are black, streaked with putrid yellow, green, and brown. They have a single, twin-pupiled eye. Despite a squrm’s bulk, their constant looping, twitching, twirling movement means they are no easier to hit. Squrms never move in straight lines in any way.
Squrms are one of the more intelligent sorts of Edomite. They have formidable quasi-psychic powers. By waving their tentacles in complex designs, squrms can move objects through space, make solid matter crumble, create entangling webs from thin air, or hypnotize unfortunate humans. They can also simply grab at people — several at a time — and bite with a parrotlike beak nestled amid the tentacles.
Since squrms have no legs, on the ground they can only wriggle. They have an entirely rational fear and hatred of anything that can keep them from flying. They also stay away from wide, smooth, flat surfaces such as glass-sheathed skyscrapers or flat, level roads and parking lots; touching such surfaces causes a squrm pain and can eventually kill it.
Zodiac Beast: Zodiac beasts are predators said to be made of the stuff between constellations, who inhabit dark places (including, legend has it, “the darkness between the stars”). They have animal intelligence and motivations, but with a sinister tinge. They seem to yearn to spread their darkness into the minds, eyes, and hearts of sapient beings, who sometimes seem to become a little like them after their attacks.
A zodiac beast looks approximately like some sort of predatory animal (most often an ursine or feline one) made of blue-black shadow, with lines of blue-white light inside its body like a skeleton and “stars” of the same light at the joints and other important places — almost as if it were a living, sinister, constellation from an artistic astrology book. Their claws, fangs, and eyes are the same blue-white color. When they move they can run through the air as easily as over the ground.
Zodiac beasts hunt alone or in packs, using their weird “constellation eyes” to follow the auric traces left by living beings (particularly sapients, their preferred prey). When they find a victim they prefer to torment them with their darkness powers, sometimes even letting them go after that. But usually when they’re done enjoying themselves they rip the hapless being apart with their claws and fangs, in the process devouring their auric essence.
Star Hero complete sounds good but my sense is that we need more adventures. Many, many more adventures. dozens of them for every genre. Tons of support.
Gone through all of 1e, 2e, and all but four books of 3e-- now this includes various write-ups from gaming magazines that I have managed to keep track of, third-party material (like the dual- and triple- statted adventures from other systems that includes Champions write-ups--
And So far, no dice except for Atlas Unleashed. The most common use for Stretching so far has been 1 or 2 inches to represent a long weapon or a prehensile tail.
I dont know that I have ever noticed that. Worse yet! I have found like ten Aquaman clones! In what twisted universe is a fish guy cooler than a plastic man?!
Agreed. I enjoy adventures and even if I don’t use them wholecloth I can usually reskin them to save myself time on game prep. I wonder how many Hero fans would be interested in more adventures and for what genres?
Victorian Hero was a lot of delving into some dark things for me, so I personally kicked around some Mad Max/Chassis and Crossbow kind of silliness, with auto duel leagues in the cities, heavy on vehicles. Also Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers/Star Wars style fun. Also a street level martial arts type with some Adolescent Evolved Samurai Salamander with a sort of Dark Champions the Animated Series kind of tone.
Christopher R Taylor reacted to Grailknight in Restricted power origins campaigns
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Scott Ruggels in Restricted power origins campaigns
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Use of Naked Advantage for Mental Powers to push through Opponent's Magic or Mental Defenses
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Jujitsuguy in Use of Naked Advantage for Mental Powers to push through Opponent's Magic or Mental Defenses
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Grailknight in Stronghold Prison Populations
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Lord Liaden in Stronghold Prison Populations
Christopher R Taylor got a reaction from Steve in After Victorian Hero...
