Christopher R Taylor

Hmm... well, those times I've seen "cosmic/primal energies" referred to in Champions SFX, or in the comics, it's usually for things comparable to the Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic, Darkseid's Omega Beams, Green Lantern's green energy, the Infinity Gems/Stones, and the like. Implicitly, something grander and more fundamental than even stellar plasma. But for your game, of course you can define it as you like.

More than a few younger sons of nobility went west to find their fortune, that's a possibility for some groundwork on an adventure.  Also it was a convenient way for really bad criminals to escape justice in Europe for them to flee to the west in the USA and disappear in the vast wilderness.  The British were, at first at least, super careful about the Maxim Gun and might have gone to great lengths to stop a copy or plans for one from getting into foreign hands (as in, US or even Confederacy).
 
Going in the opposite direction, Wild West shows would tour Europe, particularly Buffalo Bill's.  One of those could end up harboring a villain the PCs are chasing and end up in London.

Most of what magic feel magical in Hero is focusing on the special effects and description rather than mechanics.  I mean you can buid all the D&D spells with Hero, but there's a big difference between "8d6 blast vs ED (fire) Area Effect Radius Explosion -3 to Magic Skill roll" and "a spark of fire flies from his fingertips and erupts into a gigantic ball of flame!"

I sometimes chide people for ragging on D&D in ways I think are unfair. Nevertheless...
 
For me, magic in D&D feels utterly un-magical. One reason is that despite multiple sources and modes of magic, it all works exactly the same way. Another is that while great effort is made to describe the tactical effects of every spell, the game remains sketchy and incoherent about what magic is and why it works. (Maybe setting books go into this. I've only read the Forgotten Realms Gazetteer, which has some blither about a "Weave" that left me unimpressed.) Maybe I'm unusual, but I don't find resource management enhancing my sense of wonder. Well, what do you expect. D&D began as a wargame, and that remains written into thre game's DNA.
 
I hope I have at times achieved sense of wonder in my own D&D games, but it came from my work, not that of the game designers.
 
For me, at least, part of what makes magic feel magical is the context. Like, let's take Incantations. Fine: It's a -1/4 Limitation, because if something prevents you from talking you can't use the Power. But what are the incantations? For an example, let's say the mage is conjuring that stereotypical fireball.
 
The Hermetic or Kabbalistic magus uses secret names of God to invokes Gabriel, angel of fire, and Phaleg, angel of the fiery planet Mars, to burn his enemies.
 
The Satanic sorcerer calls on Xaphan, who fans the flames of Hell, commanding him by Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as divine names such as Elohim Sabaoth and the Tetragrammaton -- blasphemously treating names of God as arbitrary tokens of power that don't actually mean anything. Or he just uses "barbarous words" -- pure gibberish, void of meaning, but you have to speak it all letter-perfect anyway because you're embracing pure superstition.
 
The Hindu sadhu chants a short mantra that distills both a prayer to Agni,m god of fire, down to a few sacred syllables. He has told the prayer 100,000 times, and the force of his ascetic meditation and ritual is such that even a god cannot deny his will.
 
The shaman has met a spirit of fire in his visionary journeys and made a treaty with it. Tapping his drum, he chants an appeal to the spirit and reminds it of their bargain.
 
The Taoist mystic writes the name of Yan Di, the Blazing Lord and Minister of Fire, on a spip of paper and stamps it with his seal of authority. As he holds it up, he demands that a lesser spirit of fire work his will: "By imperial order, in accordance with the statutes and the protocols!"
 
The Finnish sorcerer sings the story of how fire came to be. Knowing its origin asserts his power to command it.
 
In Earthsea, the graduate of Roke knows the true name of fire. In fact, he knows the specific true name for an explosive ball of fire, and by saying that name he calls it into existence.
 
And so on. Whatever the system of magic, the magic words mean something. Not that the player and GM have to come up with anything. It's enough to extablish that that the mage character is indeed calling on some special knowledge to access something deep and powerful in the world.
 
Dean Shomshak

Between cowboys and Victorian inventors a Wild, Wild West adventure with a ridiculous baddie and implausible technology is ripe for an adventure. Perhaps a plot to electrify the entirety of the American rail system unless the villain can be stopped. 

I do like that concept, and I'll probably work something like that into my Dearthwood aventure whenever I get back to working on it.  But I agree, environment is a major part of adventure and play that doesn't get touched on often and is an exciting part of play if handled right.

I do like that concept, and I'll probably work something like that into my Dearthwood aventure whenever I get back to working on it.  But I agree, environment is a major part of adventure and play that doesn't get touched on often and is an exciting part of play if handled right.

If the ghost cannot do anything other than look for things for the main character you could just do it as clairsentience with a lot of limitations.

Most of what magic feel magical in Hero is focusing on the special effects and description rather than mechanics.  I mean you can buid all the D&D spells with Hero, but there's a big difference between "8d6 blast vs ED (fire) Area Effect Radius Explosion -3 to Magic Skill roll" and "a spark of fire flies from his fingertips and erupts into a gigantic ball of flame!"

As for non-replicable, what I mean is less that you cannot do the same thing twice as that its not science, it cannot be broken down in a lab an analyzed.  So its not so systematic and well understood that you can break it down to its components, and sometimes it just doesn't work no matter how careful you were (skill roll, for instance).

Of all the games I have played,  Tunnels and Trolls has the most evocative spell names.  Immersion destroying, but evocative.  You can actually imagine a mage yelling "TAKE THAT YOU FIEND!!!" and blasting an enemy.

I think you'll want the spells to have evocative names, and even to an extent write down specifics of Gestures, Incantations, and Focus.  You'll want casters to describe the actions they're taking:  "With my right hand I wave my staff in a circle while with my left I reach into my pouch, pull out some dried mistletoe, and crumble it to fragments while scattering it in the wind.  I then beseech the wind to Destroy My Enemies!" with the latter three words being the name of the spell in question. 
 
 
Those are probably issues inherent to this style of magic, I'm thinking. 
 
Should a mage always pay a penalty for casting a spell?  You want the ability to know the secrets of the universe and wield powers beyond those of mortals?  There's always a cost for power.

Hero being an effects-based system helps here. 
 
I know I'm on record as pooh-poohing the idea, but I'm going to make a good faith suggestion. 
 
You'll want the following:
SFX decided by the GM. The spell is a Blast, let's say, but the GM decides what form it takes.  It takes some amount of Extra Time, either to cast or to strike.  Not so much that it would make a combat spell useless, but it might not hit in the Segment you cast it in.  But if your combat roll to hit succeeds, then the spell will hit them. The GM rolls your Magic Skill Roll behind the screen, and doesn't tell you whether it's objectively successful, instead describing the result in-character.  The time at which the spell would take effect is when the caster will know success or failure; the GM should describe what the caster senses about it on every Segment until it hits.  SFX would still happen: the winds might gather, maybe even kicking up dust, inflicting a minor OCV penalty on ranged attacks from friend and foe alike. Optionally, a Side Effect decided by the GM at casting time.  "All magic comes with a price!"  It might not be paid by the caster right then, but it will come due at some point, and if the caster can't pay it at that time then it will be extracted in some other way. How do these sound? 

Like Mental Blasts that effect the caster if he/she fails to hit their target.

Just rolling dice makes it inconsistent.
 
Some form of triggered side effect might make things interesting.
 
Example: Cast a fire spell defined as doing a certain number of damage classes, but side effect triggers if you rolled too low on the damage. The side effect is that the difference between the average of the damage classes and what you rolled affects the caster. Like a kind of rebound effect if you don’t project enough energy away (rolled too low on your damage dice).
 
Something like this would make a wizard less eager to hurl a fireball, as they could burn themselves up if they minimum out on their damage roll.
 
I’m sure creative minds can come up with other creative side effects for different spell effects.

The keys to making magic feel magical in my opinion are:
 
keep much of it mysterious -- we don't know exactly how it works
don't worry about consistency -- yes, you can turn beans into peas, but not peas into beans
make it inconsistent or untrustworthy -- yeah I can blow up those orcs but it might not go exactly as I planned
let it be whimsical -- I can make you stronger, but you have to tie this toad to your forehead
don't make it too systematic or scientific -- my magical experiments are not always replicable
put limits on it -- magic cannot make your hair blonde, I'm sorry
make it difficult -- I studied 18 years to transform this block of wood into stone
make it have a cost -- yes, I can bring him back from the dead but it ages me a year, and he will have no memory
focus more on flexibility and utility than power -- no I cannot blow the orc horde to pieces, but I can conjure up siege engines and food for your armies
Make sure it feels magical -- I cannot fly like Superman but I can sprout huge bat wings and fly at night during the full moon
 
This kind of thing makes magic feel set apart from science or superpowers or mutant abilities, etc.  Magic only feels magical if it is made to seem that way.  If you can do the same things with magic as a superhero, or vice versa, you've lost its special sense.

The keys to making magic feel magical in my opinion are:
 
keep much of it mysterious -- we don't know exactly how it works
don't worry about consistency -- yes, you can turn beans into peas, but not peas into beans
make it inconsistent or untrustworthy -- yeah I can blow up those orcs but it might not go exactly as I planned
let it be whimsical -- I can make you stronger, but you have to tie this toad to your forehead
don't make it too systematic or scientific -- my magical experiments are not always replicable
put limits on it -- magic cannot make your hair blonde, I'm sorry
make it difficult -- I studied 18 years to transform this block of wood into stone
make it have a cost -- yes, I can bring him back from the dead but it ages me a year, and he will have no memory
focus more on flexibility and utility than power -- no I cannot blow the orc horde to pieces, but I can conjure up siege engines and food for your armies
Make sure it feels magical -- I cannot fly like Superman but I can sprout huge bat wings and fly at night during the full moon
 
This kind of thing makes magic feel set apart from science or superpowers or mutant abilities, etc.  Magic only feels magical if it is made to seem that way.  If you can do the same things with magic as a superhero, or vice versa, you've lost its special sense.

We had a simple rule: How long does it take to beat your evil twin?
 
1 turn, you may be too damage heavy or defense light.
 
2 turns, just about right.
 
3 or more turns, you may be too defense heavy or attack light.
 
 

I have to disagree with DR 25% being useless.   It is less effective vs low dice attacks, but more effective against high dice attacks.  25% damage reduction and 3 DC’s of damage negation will both mean that a character with it will take a 13d6 attack to stun a character with a 23 CON, given 12 PD.  UP to about 16d6 the results are fairly similar, above 16d6 the damage reduction provides better defense. 
 
If we go up to 50% DR and -6 DC of damage negation the dynamics change.  The Damage Negation provides near absolute protection up to 9d6, but reaches the stun point at 16d6 vs 17d6 for the 50% DR.  Above that point the DR gives much better protection than the DN.
 

An alternative would be to make a revenant character that's corporeal by default, which would eliminate dealing with a lot of Affects Solid World Advantage. Most of the folklore surrounding revenants depicts them as reanimated corpses possessed by spirits of the deceased, either the body's original owner or another vengeful spirit. If you want to keep an intangible spirit form, perhaps the possessing spirit could leave its body temporarily, as the special effect of Desolid or Clairsentience which Leaves Body Behind.
 
The late great Scott Bennie took a different approach for a character in his Champions Of The North. That was also explicitly a revenant, one which had materialized a tangible form for itself, presumably by an act of will. In that case it would be easy to justify the character reverting back to an intangible spectral state, deliberately and/or accidentally.

Maybe even a poster for the adventure like a poster for a melodrama play or a cover for a penny dreadful novel also.

One adventure should be the rescue of an abducted woman. Possibly saving her from the train tracks (with options for other deathtraps).

He is risen!

I do like that idea, could do some crossover stuff: a mystery in London that ends up in Denver, that kind of thing

I usually buy automatons to 0 CON, REC, and END, then buy all their abilities to 0 END Cost.  You can't push then, but usually they're mindless anyway so they won't have the willpower to push.  Its a whopping savings of 18 points, so it doesn't exactly pay for any of their very expensive automaton abilities and life support but its a bit of a cost offset.