Christopher R Taylor

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
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It was a science fiction game
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It assumed that you knew what Star Trek was, which was bad.
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The game did not have much combat
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They didn't like it because it was hard to decide what to do
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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.
 

Humm...back to what I think for HERO (thank god I'm not the CEO.)
 
What I see in the HERO System Psionic book:
 
1) First chapter should be about how to run a heroic level psionic campaign. From what extra stats to add (Mental Defense [MD], Mental Speed [MSPD], and Mental Endurance [MEND], for example), to exactly what an heroic level psionic campaign means.
 
2) Of course chapter two is the meat of this proposed book. A list of mental powers divided by both obvious categories (Telepathy, Mind Control, Telekinesis, etc.) but also in obvious categories (Pyrokinesis, Tempralkinesis, Electrokinesis, etc.). Everything is priced for a Heroic Campaign (30 points maximum), but can easily be upscaled to fit a Superhero Campaign if needed.

He once was asked at the time why he was playing a Nazi since he was Jewish he replied "I'm an actor. If I can play Richard III, I can play a Nazi" He also insisted that Klink never won against Hogan or he was out the door.
 
I have not seen Operation Eichmann, but it's hard to believe that four years later he would be Klink after playing that bastard in Judgement at Nuremburg.

The print version of The Island of Dr Destroyer is available in print-on-demand now, on Drive Thru RPG.  I hadn't noticed the announcement so I figured I would post it here

Yes, I have just the adventure in mind, something I ran in a convention once.  And yes, it involves an actual escape

Eh, current trends come and go, gaming is long term.

Eh, current trends come and go, gaming is long term.

Super Agents at two levels would do this: a UNTIL/Man from Uncle/SHIELD kind of game, and then a low level/street hero game setting and tips.  One of my long-term dream campaigns I never got to run was super cops: police officers with powers.  Just one low power, just something that sets them apart, and dealing with street crime and low end villains

The print version of The Island of Dr Destroyer is available in print-on-demand now, on Drive Thru RPG.  I hadn't noticed the announcement so I figured I would post it here

Eh, current trends come and go, gaming is long term.

"I don't want to cure cancer! I want to turn people into dinosaurs!"

I go further than the original poster.  Rather than going in % of heroes I like to build agents for end results:

- The agents should have about a 20-30% chance to hit the hero.
- A hit from an agent should do about 1/5 the Hero's stun after defenses.
- Regular Agents should go down after 1 hit from a hero (their Stun + Def should be equal to or less than an average damage roll)
- Elite Agents should go down after 2 hits from a hero

Nobody is excited that an agent just got con-stunned and has 3 stun left and will be back in the fight in 6 phases.  Just let them go down.

The official Viper agents are *way* too tough for a satisfying Captain America vs 20 Agents type of fight.  (Although I maintain that the old Kirby version of Cap had skill levels only to offset Sweep Penalties vs multiple attackers)