Critias

Depending on how certain you want it to be, you could maybe buy a Clairsentience (with retrocognition), requiring a skill or Perception roll, or maybe even requiring a Focus (OIF, 'clues,' requiring you to find two or three). The same way you sometimes see Ninjas done up with "invisibility (requires a Stealth roll)," you could do kind of...the opposite of that.

Nice! I dig the stacking Shouts.

To clarify, it's not a "make or break" thing for me, by a longshot. I certainly don't regret my purchases of the 6th edition villain books, or anything like that. It just never hit me how handy that chart was, until I didn't have it any more, y'know? For instance? My current character, he's got lots of "only vs. mutants" powers, a Detect Mutants, some stuff like that. Sure, we can search our pdfs for the word "mutant" and spot 'em that way, but that table really was really cool and handy to have, in order to check 'em all at once (like to get a rough headcount of what percentage of canon NPCs count as mutants, to gauge what sort of Limitation mutant-only powers should get, that sort of thing). Anyways, it's meant as praise to CKC, not a bash on the new books, sorry if I gave the other impression.

Is it weird that, in my new trilogy of bad guy books, I really, really, miss, CKC's big table, that lists folks by archetype, power source, point value, etc, etc? I loved that big table. If there's any change I dislike from the 5th to 6th edition villain books, it's that table no longer being a thing.

Villainy Amok has some similar stuff, with a chapter on super-drugs that temporarily grant powers. You could kit-bash those sort of disposable VIPER thugs together with that, I'd think (take a basic VIPER agent, up-gun them with some temporary super powers, and call it a day).

They're sometimes considered to be using a deadly weapon, yes (it can certainly play into the defense, at the very least), but the important distinction being made is that that's what happens if they attack someone. You aren't forced to register with the government (paying the associated fees, and with the implication of asking for permission, that comes with it!) just to take those boxing or martial arts classes, are you? You've got to do something wrong, first. And -- more importantly -- choosing to take martial arts or boxing classes is just that, a choice. Being born a mutant isn't. USING your mutant powers is something someone should be responsible for, absolutely, but merely HAVING them? That leads to unpleasant places. We've already got laws for murder, right? So why does it matter, prior to the crime, if you're gonna murder someone with slightly-above-human super strength versus being a normal dude with a baseball bat? Or with a gun, versus laser eyes? Up until the point a crime is committed, frankly, the quirks of someone's genetics are none of Uncle Sam's business. To me, one of the biggest problems with Civil War -- if not THE biggest problem -- was the inconsistency of it. In some titles, the situation was exactly what you just described. Even moreso, you got benefits! Insurance, training, access to other resources, etc, etc. So when you were reading from Iron Man's perspective, everything was cool and registration was gonna be awesome and someone just had to be stupid or stubborn to refuse it. When you were reading from Cap or Luke Cage's perspective, though, they sent cape-killers after you the moment the clock struck midnight and the law went into affect (or even earlier!), just because you hadn't, I dunno, magically pre-registered. So, so, inconsistent. It was a huge editorial issue, and a major SNAFU, in my opinion. I read somewhere that editorial didn't even HAVE the superhuman registration act all written up somewhere, for everyone to refer to, which is WHY it was all rainbows and lollipops in some titles, and just a step away from concentration camps (or, uh, an actual Negative Zone concentration camp!) in other monthlies. (I have no idea if that tag worked, we'll find out in a second, I guess) ETA: (yay, it worked!) In my current game, we're all playing mutants, and my character, Triumph, is a VERY serious mutant rights advocate (and the organizer/leader of the small superteam). He's got a strict "no registration" thing going, and has, pre-game, dedicated quite a bit of his considerable financial resources towards doing stuff like smuggling mutants out of America and into non-extradition countries (he's got small Bases, each with a few DNPCs, scattered all over the world, to go along with some Contacts and both a positive and negative reputation, depending on your point of view). I can't imagine Triumph ever registering, in part because giving up his secret identity will cause some issues with major canon NPCs, and a whole bunch of dominos might go falling down, but mostly because he firmly believes no one should be on a government weapon of mass destruction list just for hitting puberty. He's pretty hardcore about mutant rights, and it's fitting in well with what the GM has going so far (our first few stories were all about the government working on an anti-mutant weapon that depowered about 2/3 of targets, and killed the last 1/3, setting the tone for appropriate paranoia). No way I'm getting on a list until I know THAT project's off the table, y'know?

Let's agree that you're a privacy concern for others -- for the sake of conversation -- but how does the government go about regulating/restricting that? Aren't there already existing laws on the books that cover trespassing, for instance? If there's already a law that covers the activity, why does the method matter enough that a quirk of someone's birth (being a mutant, let's say), justifies an additional level of regulation?

Cool. Wasn't sure! I know lots of wargamers that don't play RPGs, and vice versa, so I didn't know if y'all had access to brushes, paints, yadda yadda yadda.

Do you have any wargamer buddies? Someone could probably whip out the ol' paint brush and change some of the mostly-naked superheroines into someone with a bit more clothes on, really pretty easily, if it would make her more comfortable. She's still a work in progress, but I'm doing something similar to a Dawnstar miniature that we're using for "Feather," a recurring NPC in our campaign. We needed a female model with wings, so Dawnstar was the beset we had, but as any quick Google Image search for "Dawnstar" will show you, her costume is...hardly modest. A quick coat of paint, though, and we've got her all covered up and she'll be matching the team colors (several of us are going for a navy blue look) in no time! Especially if you're just going for some basic "color over the flesh tone with something else," it's just a couple minute's work, really. Anyways, just a thought! I'd hate for a young gamer to be unhappy!

We're a few weeks into a new campaign, so I decided to have some fun with my old box o' HeroClix, and see what I could put together for models to use on your hex map. First up is Triumph, a mutant energy manipulator (Aid, Drain, Detect Mutants) and also a mutant mimic (big ol' VPP, and a few lower-key multipowers, representing stuff he's internalized after long-term copying from his big brother, Holocaust). For the first few sessions I was using a HeroClix "Justice" figure for him, when he was operating as Nemesis, Holocaust's semi-sidekick. After his heel-face turn, however, he's got his own costume going, as Triumph! He's got "Perceivable" on just about every single power he's got, representing him constantly kind of leaking mutant energy all over, not yet as precise (and Endurance efficient!) as he might someday be; so lost energy from all the energy transfers flares around him all the time...hence the light show, thanks to snipping a few energy signatures from the Marvel Ultimates version of Electro. Most of the rest of the mini was easy, just a Cyclops repaint, and then arranging/snipping/gluing the power trail stuff into place. Triumph doesn't need his visor the way Cyclops does, but it gives him some Penalty Skill Levels against range (plus works as a mask, y'know?), because I just had to work up a reason to have a cool visor, since I've got eyebeams. And then we've got my wife's character, Chrome. Chrome's got some a whole bunch of unified powers tied to "chroming up," a Density Increase that also comes with some extra strength boosts, extra knockback resistance, extra rPD/rED, etc, etc. She's an accountant by day and a brawling super-strong mutant made of super-shiny metal (so much so she has Reflection and some Flash Protection, too!) by night. Chrome's mini was a simple repaint of a She-Hulk, so nothing too exciting. Aside from these two, we're using "stock" miniatures (Titanium Man for our mutant inventor's powered armor, named Prototype, and a Multiple Man in a trenchcoat for our street-savy psionicist/teleporter, Fade) so far. Our GM recently got a big old pile of HeroClix off eBay (advertised 200+, he got over 550!), which, combined with my own humble collection, has given us all plenty to choose from for inspiration and stuff. What about you? What's your favorite for on-table representation in superheroic throw-downs?

It makes sense to merge them (and for practical purposes they already kind of are, since UNTIL's allowed to operate in the US, etc)...but on the other hand, it also opens up some story opportunities, as-is. Just like there are different organizations of bad guys out there, it makes sense to have different, even overlapping, organizations of good guys. There are chances for stories where one agency withholds information from the other, a long-simmering campaign with differences between PRIMUS and UNTIL that maybe turns into a sort of "Civil War" type thing (and then bad guys running amok in the background), all kinds of stuff. So I don't mind the status quo right now. They're effectively one group if you want them to be, but there's room for friction and differences, if you want that, instead. I dig it.

It sounds like you're mostly looking for UNTIL -- the United Nations Tribunal on International Law -- here, yup. About a decade back there was even a pretty great book about 'em, UNTIL, Defenders of Freedom, that gives you all kinds of SHIELD-esque details about the various sub-agencies, stats for all kinds of cool gear they've got, sheets for NPC agents, all that fun stuff. You may have even noticed UNTIL (without quite recognizing them) in a few other sourcebooks, lots of the Champions powers database books are presented in character as UNTIL files, for instance. PRIMUS is the United States federal agency that's very similar in style and feel, but I'm less familiar with their sourcebooks, etc.

As a fan of Champions and a US History professor, it amuses me to see an archetypical Brick's super-strength measured in accordance with the Three-Fifth's Compromise. Sadly, I don't know enough about the Dr. Horrible universe and the rest of these characters to contribute to a discussion very meaningfully. They look awesome (and entertaining) so far, though, and give me a solid Venture Brothers sort of vibe, which is fun. Nice work!

One problem (or perk, depending on how you see it?) with emulating comic books with an RPG is that the comics themselves are so often inconsistent. There are times Iron Man's suit or even Thor's hammer could be done as a focus, times they should be done as a heroic ID, and times they're basically just effects (when was the last time Thor lost his hammer in a big team magazine, versus how often his Norse-specific enemies mess with his hammer in his solo title?). I think there's a tendency to gloss over the disads in big team titles, and focus on them a bit more in a character's personal monthly comic. Batman getting rocked by a lucky punch from a street-level thug, Superman running into some wacky kryptonite, Tony's armor (or alcoholism!) screwing up his day, Thor being separated from his hammer, Spidey running out of webbing fluid...they're all things that seem to come up more often in a personal story where their personal foibles/flaws/weaknesses are an issue, and less likely (as a general trend) to come up to interrupt the flow of action in a big, group, comic. So sometimes the same character can seem to have his armor busting apart and falling off all the time, and other times the same sweet suit of power armor is nigh-indestructable, making multiple interpretations (for Champions, for instance) both perfectly legit. How often do you, the player, want it to come up? Pick the right one that fits, and it's gonna be just as 'canon' as someone else and their interpretation.

Which is why it's normally on a powered armor type of guy. It's Obvious to everyone that Iron Man's stuff comes from his armor (a Focus) instead of him just shooting repulsor bolts from his hands or flying on his own, but it's pretty Inaccesible because good luck gettin' him outta it!

If someone's basically trying to create "turn living create into dead thing scattered everywhere," yeah, Transform isn't really the most elegant, to say nothing of the most balanced, way to do that.

I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're after, but here's a list of drugs in the DC universe -- some of them (like Gingold, Venom, and Miraclo) might be examples of "selling" superpowers, albeit temporarily: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comic_book_drugs#DC_Comics I can't think of any established supervillains who regularly sell the stuff, but I've always been more of a Marvel guy, so maybe a fan with more DC lore will get their memory jogged loose.

Glad to hear y'all had fun with it. Much like SR (which I'm also pretty well acquainted with), one thing I think helps with HERO is to maybe not look things up mid-fight unless you really need to -- I prefer to scribble questions down in my GM notes (or have the party bookkeeper do it), handwave an answer for the moment, and keep the dice rolling and adventure moving. If you're running these specifically as "test sessions," though, I can see why you'd rather hit the brakes and find out the right answer right now. Also, high-five to your daughter for the awesome usage of a badass teleport/gate ability. Even if it hadn't come with a tremendous clobbering at the end, just hanging up a bad guy for several actions like that is a good way to get your money's worth (much like using Telekinesis to just lift an enemy brick, and then safely ignore 'em for a while). On the topic of campaign limitations, what my own home group does is stick by the suggested ones...except. If someone's hell-bent on being really crazy strong, we let 'em pick that one thing to override the starting limitation over. If someone really wants to be a one-trick pony with a really strong eyeblast, fine, if they want to really run or fly at ridiculous speed, fine, yadda yadda yadda. Everyone stays in the mid-range of the campaign limitations, but then is allowed to campaign for their one awesome thing where they can sink a ton of points if they want to. We've never had a problem with everyone feeling samey-samey, or feeling like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs, or anything like that. It's what worked for us, at least!