Anaximander

Thanks! I keep forgetting that Hero allows players to cash in points to upgrade their abilities. Maybe, I am still thinking in AD&D where once it is written done it is almost like being written in stone.

I am in a similar boat. I would like to run a Hero System campaign but never have done so, and likely players have not done so either and are not as keen on my ideas as I am. I figure I have one shot to get it right. Though I have no actual experience running the game, I do like writing and have taken writing classes. With that in mind, one thing you need is a clear vision in your mind of what you want, and you seem to have that covered. This will help you in knowing when to say "yes" and "no" to character ideas that may run a little counter to what you have in mind. Also, like in other media of writing, you have to know your audience and find common ground with them where you can run the game you want while they can run the characters they want. I, for one, do not liking playing pre-gens. There has so far been only one pre-gen I remember fondly. He was a dwarf named Jhaefer in the first ever ADnD campaign I ever played in. Even then, I had a lot of freedom to develop him once he got into play. I, of course, do not know your players, but if it were me, I would try to find out what types of characters the players want to play and build their first characters for them using the players' ideas. This is another area where having clear vision can come in handy. What you want and what they want might be at odds and you may have to compromise a point or two. Having a clear vision will help you to know when to compromise and when not. Then comes the first game or two. Here is what I would like to do. I would like to have each character get a chance to go one-on-one against common thugs. This will allow them and me to get a fill for their relative power level to the common citizen as familiarity with basic play. After each character has had their chance with common thugs, I would device a scenario where all the characters happen upon a crime being committed by some sort VIPER-like super gang that would be impossible to thwart by any single hero but easy with the group working together. This will allow me to have a better gauge of group combat and how the players are likely to work out as a team and who will naturally take what roles. After the getting to know each other and system adventures, then, I would start introducing some of the grand arcs of my campaign setting. Also, recognizing that both I and the players are new to the system, I would create a few heroic and super-heroic NPCs at various levels to come in and save the day in case I horribly misjudged the power-levels of the bad guys relative to the PCs. If they do become necessary, I would gradually fade them out as I and the players gain real experience with the game. Also, after they had a chance to get to know the game and their characters, I would give the players a chance to redesign or replace their characters based on the new information or let those first character go into their stables in case the players need a ready backup character. As for the character stable idea, I have had similar ideas except I refer to mine as a character corral. I come from a cowboy state, and I like alliterations. I really like the idea and developed the idea when I was still planning a Star Trek campaign using the Last Unicorn Games system. I think this is an excellent way of dealing with characters who have limited usage. One of the intentions I have with mine is that depending on the next adventure I want to run I could either give soft hints when certain characters would be more or less advantageous in the next adventure or even lay down strict restrictions and requirements. Another thing I am working on is allowing non-played character to receive bonus XP based on a percentage earned by played characters. I have not determined what percentage I would use or if I would apply it evenly across all non-played characters or be divided among non-played characters at the player's choice. The idea is that they are taking part in recorded adventures at the same time.

I am not familiar with source, but his power levels should be dependent on the needs of the story. Let's face it. Comparing super heroes from different sources is often a comparison between apples and oranges making an accurate translation nearly impossible. For that matter, it can be difficult to determine real power levels for characters from the same universe. The same issue occurs when comparing sci fi universes, but that would be another subject.

I prefer traditional cape and tights for supers, but I mainly employ whatever I think best fits the character's theme. I do insist that a character's a'venturing clothes to be somewhat distinctive and different than their everyday clothes.

How do you handle situations when a character has more than one martial arts style that share maneuvers and CSLs for each martial arts style? Say for an instance, a character starts out with Generic Martial Arts. At the beginning of play, the player defines the character as primarily a passivist who happens to know how to fight; so, only buys a 2 OCV only CSLs in Block. After adventuring in Japan or some little Tokyo area, he decides to his character has developed an interest in learning Karate; so, he buys the necessary KS skills to apply his generic maneuvers into Karate and 3 CSLs in all Karate maneuvers. Later on, the player develops an interest in Muay Thai Kickboxing and decides his character follows suit. The player fulfills all the in-game requirements to learn Muay Thai and can now use many of the maneuvers he knows through Generic Martial Arts and Karate in Muay Thai mode. He also buys a couple Muay Thai maneuvers and 2 CSLs in all Muay Thai maneuvers. One day, while walking in the wrong part of town, a thug comes out, threatens him, and takes a swing. The player wants to start out with Block and then use a martial strike during his next available movement phase. Does he have to state which martial arts style he using, and how many CSLs would he get to use? My instincts are that he should be able to use the Block CSLs for either Generic, Karate, or Muay Thai Blocks, but the Karate and Muay Thai CSLs should dependent upon whether or not the character is using Karate, Muay Thai, or Generic fighting styles. I am curious as to how experienced GMs would handle this. For the record, so far I have not had a player suggest they wanted to play a martial artist, but since I like martial arts in real life, a lot of my NPCs know martial arts.

I would also go with the NPC plot thing. It's not like this a power I would allow a player to use, and I would only want to use it sparingly as a GM. Just make sure the NPC has both the motivation and means; so, it makes story sense. After all, a character like Brainiac might have both motivation, twisted programming, and means, super-science, but the same can not be said of the Penguin. Even Brainiac didn't try to steal cities every time he showed up. He was just the go-to villain when a story called for towns to get stolen.

Maybe, you can borrow the Unusual Background drawback from GURPS. It's basically for situations where a concept is rare but possible within a given campaign world. Life for example, you want magic to rare but you don't it to be nerfed. You might say that anyone with magic first has to buy the Unusual Background: Mage Blood for 15 pts; so, mages would have fewer points to be used in total, but if the rule is applied across all characters both PC and NPC, then the character would no advantage or disadvantage relative to other mages and would have access to powers and abilities not available to those who did not want to spend the points. Of course, GURPS also has the notion of different magic zones that could either advantage or disadvantage magic users that is useful in determining the real power level of magic once the initial cost is taken out.

The South also had a submarine called the Hunley, but I don't think that would be such a good name for either a hero or a villain.

I prefer to think it as dry humor than a flat joke. That way it makes the outcome seem more intentional.

Actually, I knew that "ja" wasn't German for you, but my way sounded funnier. Now, stop spoiling it.

You have to break the word down into its individual components. Nin which sounds like the first sound in nincompoop which is another way of saying stupid and ja which I think is the German word for you. Clearly, it is some kind German insult. How it got associated with the Japanese, I have no idea. Maybe, it has something to do with their alliance in WW2.

Someone mentions an aquatic character, here is an idea for one. The Gator - A Cajun from Louisiana who breathes underwater, swims fast and can control mind control over reptiles, fish, and amphibians. He is also a tough scrapper.

You might want to add some kind of defensive power to that attacks going through the field will lose velocity losing force in the process, but since the loss of velocity and force would work both ways, it would have to be a defense that is as much a disadvantage as an advantage, and I still think that adding Barrier to the mix might be the way to go. Of course, I have not been playing this game as long as you guys; so, I accept I may be totally off base.

That is something interesting to know. I was wondering how I could share information from the books without having to rewrite everything personally or sending my electronic copies to them and hoping they are honest enough to acquire them legally at a later point.

Steel Magnolia - a cyberneticly enhanced belle of the south. Rebel Yell - sonic powers Star and Bars - a detective/gadgateer and his kid sidekick Johnny Reb Other ideas could be more idealistic sounding names since they view themselves as noble and just. Also, ideas based around specific states that were apart of the South. Names borrowed from historical figures might also work. If they are specifically racist, concepts from the Klan could work. If they are purely political and not specifically racist, you could throw a little shock and awe by tossing in an African American into the crowd. I'm from Oklahoma. Oklahoma was still the Indian Territory at the time, but many of the Indian tribes were as divided over the North vs South sides especially the Choctaws and the Cherokees, my tribe. Also, I have known people in real life who consider themselves Confederate. I will try to recollect what I know and see if I can come up with more ideas.

With that in mind, you could expand by having it work on more movement categories and maybe some additional mutual Protective Resistance to simulate attacks being slowed down and losing their impact. In retrospect, maybe, making it a kind of Barrier built along the same principles as that Constant Entangle you mentioned.

If the intent of the power is to slow things down, would some kind of entangle combined with area effect resistance be a way to go?

I think I would go with the Change Environments approach and use the space-time continuum (STC) manipulation aspect as just an FX. On a similar note, I once created a character that used STC to enhance his movements. I gave the character two Flight powers. One was a surface only Flight and the other was a gliding only Flight with the affect that he wasn't truly going faster but the universe was going slower FX.

You could give him various aid powers based on Persuasion or some similar skill that enhances attributes like OCV, DCV, Ego, Con, and Presence to cause them to fight better and make them more able to stand up to physical and psychological pressure.

Bernie McSquashbottoms, but seriously, just about any military or weapons sounding name would. Here are some ideas: The Armsmaster, Colonel Commando, the Expert, Doctor Howitzer are possibilities. Of course if you have a theme in mind or a particular service that he was in maybe you could some research for some names.

I think it comes down to magnitude. How much fire can Pyro control vs how much fire Human Torch can produce? I am not really a fan of the X-Men; so, I don't know Pyro's levels of control, but I was huge fan of the Fantastic Four, and the Human Torch is pretty much one of the Earth's most powerful heroes even if he doesn't get much credit. I don't think Pyro even comes close to being of Earth's most powerful villains; so, it seems to me that the Human Torch should win in the end.

The size would also depend on who is actually showing up. If everyone are friends and team players who are careful not to step on each others toes, a large group might not be so bad, but I would want to use some sort of rule of order. I wouldn't want to go full Robert's, but I would place a lot of importance on keeping things orderly, but for me, I would prefer 4-6 as optimal under most circumstances.

You could just put something in the character's backstory that whatever event gave the character his powers hasn't finished it transformation yet. Perhaps, you could choose to wait to buy adjustments after dramatic events in the overall adventure such being exposed to strange energies and/or chemicals, after humiliating defeats, or victories by the skin of his teeth type activities. If the campaign uses a lot of subplots, stressors from both good and bad emotional events could trigger a power spurt or something.

I am working as a substitute teacher while finishing college and do a lot of work in special needs children and may be getting a promotion to teaching assistant in a special needs classroom this upcoming school year. This makes me no expert in dealing with special needs or even a great champion of special needs, but I am knowledgeable of special needs and sympathetic towards those who have special needs, and I am wondering how a special needs super hero might be built. It seems to be more than just simply giving a character a low Intelligence besides since Intelligence as I understand it per Hero is an indication of how perceptive and quick on the uptake a character is not necessarily a reflection of smarts, some special needs might technically have a high Intelligence but may be limited in its usage. It seems to me that special needs should be physical complication in most cases to reflect it being an actual brain impairment, but in some cases, it might be a social complication also. An example might be a higher function MR with slurred speech and a dull expression being mistaken for being drunk or high. I have notice that many children with signs of learning disabilities (LD) and mental retardation (MR) also come from highly dysfunctional backgrounds sometimes having experienced negligence and abuse at extreme levels, and I hypothesize that some LD and MR might a psychological response to trauma. In which case, a psychological complication might be more relevant. (If anyone has come across any research regarding the issue, I would appreciate letting me know about.) Does anyone have any ideas on how they might create a special needs character.

As far as taking a point away, I wouldn't take it away from the players as a group. Usually, disruption is only being done by one or two players at a time, while other players are quietly simmering on the side so as to not cause trouble. I would not take away the point from the group but only from the individuals causing the disruption. Further, I tend to be a softy at heart; so, I am unlikely to take points away at the first infraction, but I just don't like players who use gaming as an excuse for social bullying and overall piggishness. As a player, I have wanted to leave games where such things happened, and for my part, I prefer GMs that simply allow such shenanigans to continue without them doing something, and as a GM, I would like to run my game the way I would it it ran as a player. That is, I want it ran a where players who want to play are actively encouraged and players who only want show their asses at the expense of everyone else are actively discouraged. I suppose I could just simply disinvite the asses, but I like to give people a chance to change before I kick them to curb. After all, someone of the asses might simply not know any better and creating an environment that promotes change could be good for them in the long run.