dougmacd

If used to buff NPCs, I probably wouldn't worry about it too much. Long-lasting Aids become a seed for plot lines where people seek out -- or villains try to force -- the use of said buffs on themselves. If used to buff PCs, I'd expect the grantor to take actions to Aid at least once a play session. If the delay rate was long enough that the buff persisted across sessions, that no longer feels like an Aid. I'd tell the "grantor" to use Boost instead, or tell the "targets" to buy the "aided" abilities themselves (possibly with a dispellable limitation to reflect that the power needs to be set up by the "grantor"). Doug

Bit of a jump in power level there, eh? Is https://www.herogames.com/store/product/257-gestalt-the-hero-within-pdf/ the setting you're referring to? I might grab a copy. Doug

Thanks for the feedback! I really like: Novice - A more appropriate term than rookie, for someone who's not part of a team. I'd use this term for a 0xp build of a character (equivalent to Rookie) Journeyman - Spot-on definition: "a worker or sports player who is reliable but not outstanding". I'd use this term for a 25xp build of a character. Seasoned - Perfect for my use (despite Greywind's efforts to ruin it with a pun): "accustomed to particular conditions; experienced". I'd use this term for a 50xp build of a character. Veteran - Someone with "long experience". I'd use this term for a 100xp build of a character. Renowned - Just throwing something in, to fill the geometric experience point ranges.... I'd use this term for a 200xp build of a character. Legendary - By now they've earned multiple epithets. Spidey, Wallcrawler, Webhead, Webslinger, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man I'd use this term for a 400xp build of a character. The geographic terms also look useful as a proxy for power level, but all the characters I'm building would count as "international" heroes. (Even at the starter level, they're the only superheroes in the campaign world.) Doug

I've seen a pretty consistent use of the term "rookie build" for starter superheroes (or existing supers built on a reduced budget). Are there similar terms for more experienced builds? Like 50, 100, 200 points in? I suppose "veteran build" would be obvious, but it doesn't have the same ring for me. I'd like to make pre-gen characters for my players at a few different levels of experience: Rookie is a simple build for the first play session, intended to introduce the players to the Hero System and some standard archetypes. Veteran? is the same character with a few years of experience. Used in the second play session to introduce players to the campaign world -- how has the world adapted to the emergence of supers. Mechanically, it would show there are multiple ways to improve characters when they're not locked into the idea of a D&D "level". GodAmongstMortals? is not for play. This is the Justice League-level final stage NPC build, showing the character at the height of their powers, recognized as a preeminent hero of the world. So I'm looking for terms to fill in the last two levels of experience. For example, as titles for the character sheets: Lamarckian, Rookie Hero Lamarckian, Veteran Hero Lamarckian, Unstoppable-Force-Sure-to-Doom-Us-All-Should-She-Ever-Stop-Being-a Hero So does the Hero community have any standard terms for this sort of thing? Or terms you personally use? Doug

In solidarity with my Baystate brethren, I felt compelled to look this up. It appears the correct pronunciation is "Wooster", both in British and American English. 😁 (Most interesting link I found explaining it was this one.) Doug Still liked the pic

Copyright infringement covers way more than plagiarism. What's being described is very clearly a derivative work, and only copyright owners have the exclusive right to produce derivative works based on their copyrighted materials. It may fall under fair use, but don't hold your breath. Looking at the four factors: Purpose and character of your use - 👎 Even though it's noncommercial (posted for free), it doesn't sound like you're adding anything new. Nature of the copyrighted work - 👎 You're deriving from a creative work rather than a factual one. Effect of the use upon the potential market - 👍 Even if every Hero player used your modules, I doubt that would reduce sales of the originals by even 1 module. Amount and substantiality of the portion taken - 👎 I doubt you can get around copying large portions of the original work (e.g., characters, locations, monsters, encounters, rewards, etc.), even if you're not copying text verbatim. You can always do what a lot of other people do: hope you're too small to be noticed, and post it anyway. :-j Doug

For example, a super-hacker writes a virus that crawls electronic databases and purges all data on supers (or subtly adjusts it so the biometrics no longer match the secret identities). This has no effect on physical records like photographs, but when was the last time you took a picture with anything other than a phone? (Alternatively, you may think Clark and Superman are the same person, but there's no facial recognition match. It's proof that it's just a superficial resemblance!) Doug

I'd slap Gestures on everything; all the bending styles are super kinetic. http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Earthbending has a pretty extensive list of abilities.

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?Let's pretend it's my name mashed to fit into eight characters. What was the first tabletop RPG you played?Who can remember? Probably AD&D for a few sessions, but I really got into RPGs after playing Champions (4e). What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?I think it was Champions, but it could have been Fantasy Hero. Something in the Hero System (4e). What are you currently playing/GMing?Playing: D&D (4e) and New World of Darkness GM'ing: D&D (4e) I have no motivation to move to the next edition of D&D, so when my current D&D campaign is over, I'm planning to run Champions again (6e this time). Watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Arrow/Flash has made me eager to return to my roots. Doug

I start with two documents: one for the players, and one for myself. The initial "player guide" contains: A page-long introduction to the campaign setting. This is a teaser, so I keep it brief. Character creation guidelines. House rules. My "GM guide" is a typically a stream of consciousness mess that parallels the "players guide", but focuses on information I need to know. Most of the initial information I give to players is incomplete or wrong, so this is where I detail the missing bits, misconceptions, plots, etc. I also create a Proper Nouns spreadsheet with people/places/things and a one-line blurb describing each. This serves as a Cliff's Notes to the players, and I helps me avoid creating NPCs with confusingly similar names. I update these documents as the campaign proceeds. The "player guide" usually hyperlinks off to additional documents with greater details. WHO: Who are the major players? (Individuals, Organizations, Nations) WHAT: What's special about my world? (Novel premises, weird rules, etc.) WHERE: Make a basic atlas! Players love maps, even crappy ones. WHY: Why is my world different? (Explain the WHAT) WHEN: What are some defining events? (How the World Came to Be, wars, etc.) Be wary of writing universes from scratch. The more you diverge from the "standard" campaign rules, the fewer pregenerated materials you can use/adapt. Where you do choose to diverge (e.g., custom magic rules) make it clear and compelling. Fortunately, Hero System makes this easier. Try changing the spell system in D&D.... Steal liberally from other sources: books, TV, movies, other games, your players. Only be as specific as you need to be. Locations far away or events far in the future (e.g., hidden plots) only need to be sketched out. This saves you from unnecessary effort detailing stuff the players may never encounter. It also makes it easier to change your mind as the distant locales/events come into focus. Stuff of immediate concern to the PCs should be fleshed out, at least to yourself. Be comfortable enough with your setting to answer questions from PCs on the fly. Doug "Wait, when you said [our contact] Anne killed them, did you mean Anise [the villain]?"