Steve Long

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? I think that over here in the U.S., most of us associate the name "Milano" with (a) a really delicious cookie from Pepperidge Farms, and ( a good-looking TV actress.

Re: Blood powered Check out the "Rune Magic" section in FHG2. Many of the spells have a "Blood Rune" option that does just what you're talking about.

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? I'm not sure how many of 'em are on the boards (or if so, how active they are), but I know I've been contacted by several Italian fans in the past. IIRC, there was a pretty active group in Ravenna.

Re: 5ER errata found. Please don't post possible errata here -- just send 'em to me at SteveL@herogames.com. Thanx!

Re: Confirming -- Damage with weapons and Martial Strike That looks correct to me.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS I considered that, but frankly I think a decent military base would be too big. If I'm going to do something like that, it's going to be one on the order of Lejeune, Bragg, or Dover AFB, and I think any of them could probably qualify for their own book!

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS A prison... that's not a bad idea. A tenement building I could probably do as one of the lesser locations. I even have some floorplans for 'em somewhere that I ran across while writing HC -- maybe in The Encyclopedia Of New York City, I don't recall.

Re: Is the Cat Burglar template in the DC book suitable for a spy? It's definitely a feasible option. You could also tweak the Cinematic Spy Package Deal to angle it more toward B&E-type work.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS Already did that once in Hudson City. And I agree, no need to re-do such sites; otherwise the third location would definitely be a mall.

Re: Looking for a Symbol I say, exploit the situation for its humor value! Every time someone asks what the character's symbol is, tell them it's right there on the costume -- just invisible. When they exasperatedly ask you to describe it, do so... just describe it differently every time.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS I'd say PA lets you use just about anything, depending on your take on it. Just ruin to taste, serve hot with a tasteful garnish of mutants, and voila!

Re: Urban gang warfare There's a good article on current gang problems in last week's U.S. News And World Report.

Re: Hero Universe/Timeline question The only time periods that are further defined are the ones for which we've published setting books. Ideally we want to cover the entire timeline and publish all the setting books indicated in the document, but it remains to be seen whether that'll be feasible.

Re: Force Field over weapons No. Nothing about that Adder negates the effects of the Focus Limitation, or the like, except insofar as it allows an Accessible Focus to be protected by the FF where it otherwise would not be.

Re: Thanks - brief comment NP -- always glad to help! There's an awful lot squeezed in 'tween those two covers.

Re: Dark Galactic Champions Well, I imagine you and I were two of the few. It wasn't perfect, but as Chuck Dixon's earliest work that I know of (he was still signing his name "Charles Dixon," IIRC), it definitely shows his promise.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS The hotel-casino is definitely becoming a more attractive idea the more I think about it. The only nuisance of it is that I can't put such a building in Hudson City, since gambling isn't legal there (and isn't likely to ever be, for reasons explained in the book;)). Sure, I could call it a "test project" or some such nonsense, but it just doesn't ring true. I shall have to cogitate some more. Police station's a good idea, but I think I can make it one of the lesser locations rather than the focus of the major scenario.

Re: Dark Galactic Champions Hmmm. Let's see. How about: --psionic smuggling of information by telepathically planting it in the heads of unknowing travelers --using replicator tech to "transform" contraband into innocuous items in such a way that the item can be transferred back with another properly wired and programmed replicator --murder by reprogramming a replicator to produce minor variations in a food that aren't apparent to taste, but render the food poisonous (or at least fatal disease-causing) to a particular alien species --white slavery via the smuggling of genetic material that can then be quickly "regrown" into a full, exploitable, human being --borrowing an idea from the excellent comic EVANGELINE, the illegal growing of the clones of an idiot-savant who is an expert hyper-navigator Hope those help!

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS Thanx for the suggestions, folx! Please remember, at this stage I'm mostly looking for location suggestions for one of the major scenarios. Ideas for smaller locations and for how the overall product should be written/developed can wait until later.

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? Good to see you here, Mencelus! Actually, I think you'll find that the folx on this board are some of the friendliest to "newbies" that you'll encounter in gaming. The very existence of this thread shows how interested we are in newbies. So, dive on in, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Re: Can you spread an AoE? No -- see the Rules FAQ or 5ER 380.

As you probably already know, we took Dark Champions Battlegrounds off the 2005 schedule because the Battlegrounds books have generally had lackluster sales. Nevertheless, I still hope someday to do DCB. For fun tonight I'm fiddling around with some ideas, and I figured I'd solicit peoples' opinions. My currently plan would be to make the book something similar to FHB, in that it would have three main scenarios, followed by a section of a dozen or so lesser locations/scenarios. It's the main scenarios I'm interested in at this point; we can talk about the other stuff later. One of the main scenarios will definitely be a reworking of Harpcor Towers, the main adventure from the old DC. It's the scenario I've run the most in my career as a GM, and it'll be nice to revisit it. Lots of re-use potential. The second scenario I pretty much expect will involve a Boeing 747. It could be used for in-flight hijacking scenarios, on-the-ground hostage situations, police training exercises, all kinds of cool stuff. With all those plane movies out there (e.g., Executive Decision, Air Force One), there are sure to be lots of uses for a good set of plane maps. The third main scenario I haven't decided on yet, and that's what I'd like to hear peoples' thoughts on. Ideally it should be a location that a GM could use repeatedly in his games, and one that requires some major description. Some possibilities include: 1. A hospital. I have a great hospital scenario in mind, and the Web is lousy with detailed hospital floorplans I can draw on for inspiration. Not sure how much repeat usage it might see, though. 2. A cruise ship. Again, not sure about repeat usage. 3. A large hotel, probably a relatively luxurious one like a Hyatt. I can see more repeat usage here, but as a tall building this is probably too similar to Harpcor Towers. Possibly I could spread it out, maybe even connect it with a convention center, but somehow that doesn't seem as cool. OTOH, since the upper floors of a hotel would all be pretty much identical, we could get away with one map for all of them, focus on the outlying/attached buildings, and have our cake while still eatin' it. 4. A luxury combat ranch. Read about one of these a few months ago. As with the hospital, I've got a great scenario idea, but repeat usage concerns me. 5. A casino. Definitely useful for those James Bond-style espionage scenarios. Maybe could be connected with the luxury hotel. 6. A museum. Again, I see some concern about repeat usage, though probably less than with a hospital, combat ranch, or cruise ship. Note that I'm excluding smaller locations (e.g., apartment, nightclub, bar, warehouse) because those would go in the "lesser locations" section. What I'm looking for here are big locations suitable for a major scenario. I'm also excluding ideas already covered in CB, such as a mall or amusement park. So, what ideas and suggestions do you have?

Re: Casual Effectiveness UB power Yes, that's how it works -- it increases the character's STR for purposes of calculating Casual STR. Your example is correct. The Limitation's not the same thing as No Figured Characteristics, but the issue is essentially irrelevant. A character only uses his Casual STR for a fraction of a second. The fact that his PD is higher during that fraction of a second means nothing. Applying No Figured Characteristics would be too much like double-dipping, since even if the character gains Figureds, they do him no good.

Re: Absorption and Personal Immunity No.

Re: Holy Poker Card Shuriken! Cool. I'll have to go back to that site the next time I try to teach myself card-throwing. Unfortunately, most of my attempts to teach myself neat card-handling tricks haven't worked so well; it's hard to learn from pictures. I can do a pretty nice one-handed cut with either hand, but that's all I got. The riffle shuffle and the card throw as yet elude me.