Anaximander

I have been reading a Golden Age comic series online, some insights I have obtained is that Golden Age heroes can frequently get away with rather simplistic origins and secret IDs. They are also surprisingly nonchalant about taking non-adventuring women and children into dangerous circumstances, and they frequently employ interrogation techniques that would get them arrested if done today. They are also surprisingly easy to contact by troubled citizens needing their help but not by criminals trying to hunt them down.

I have found some sites that allows you to read PDFs of Golden Age comic books and pulp magazines for free, and I have started reading a series called Super-Mystery Comics by Ace Publishing. I am mainly reading it for ideas for my super hero campaign, but some of the stories is making me want to do a 30s to 40s era pulp style campaign.

One area is that Golden Age super heroes were all over the map regarding power levels while Silver Age supers are lot more comparable to one another. As far as what time periods represent Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, and such, I think you would have to look at it like Renaissance, Baroque, and such in art, philosophy, and literature movements where elements tend to overlap without a clear cutoff point of when one ends and the other begins.

Sorry it took so long to respond. Busy week. Thanks for all of the advice, and after reading it all and applying some of my own ideas and stuff I have learned from my management classes, I have reached a conclusion on how I think I should handle it. Taking the advice that since I control spending, I can minimize abuse from excessive reward. I will use the 1 pt participation reward per gaming session. I will reward a variable amount of points for plot forwarding as Spence suggests with a little more thrown in when completing an actual adventure. For the good sportsmanship reward, I am going to apply information from my business classes grant 1 pt per session that can be lost for bad sportsmanship. Experts explain that people fear loss more than they desire gain. And, if I decide to give rewards beyond that, I would do things like give HAPs, free contacts and favors, and resource points. Regarding for the allowance of creativity, I am strongly in favor of that idea. My campaign world is designed with a good deal of elasticity so as to make room for background choices with just enough restrictions to make my campaign world cohesive. I also don't mind players retconning in additional background skills in play if they have the points and it makes sense relative to their background. An example of that is, Now, I just I just need to re-write it; so, it doesn't read as sloppily as I just wrote it. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the help. The answers raise a problem for me, though. The rather 1 or 2 XP per session would upset the apple cart I want to use to reward behavior in the campaign. Basically, I want a reward system that has two reward tracts. One tract is completing campaign goals and using good sportsmanship to do it. The players I have to deal with aren't good team players in real life, and they are worse in game play, and I was hoping to establish a reward system that would reward good sportsmanship. I hate having to resort to such social engineering tactics in order to get a good game, but the small NE Oklahoma city that I live in isn't exactly burgeoning with roleplayers in general let alone good ones; so, I was thinking of reward system that 60% for winning and 40% for being good player, but with only 1 or 2 XP per session that would be difficult. As a possible solution, I have thought about instead of going with 1 experience point (XP) = 1 creation point (CP) I might try 100 XP = 1 CP and grant about enough to equal 1 or 2 CP a session but with options of being slightly over or under depending on player behavior. How does that sound as an idea?

I believe in the saying there is no such thing as a bad character, only bad writers, and poor Dick Grayson just seems to be victim of bad writers. Personally, I think Dick Grayson as either Robin or Nightwing has a lot potential interesting uses besides being a punching bag for uncreative writers, but I think that is problem with a lot of DC characters, which as a bigger fan of DC than Marvel, is one of my regrets.

I am in the process of writing up a kind of world book about the super heroic Champions campaign I am creating. I am planning to use the Hero System and am borrowing elements from the Champions. In cases where I think the rules are unclear or am using my own interpretations of the rules, I am planning to include systems mechanical explanations within my write-up in order to make character creation simpler and more reward and also to deflect any potential conflict caused by differing interpretations of the rules. For my part, when I am trying to learn a new RPG system, I like reading an explanation of a rule followed by an example or two of what is meant by that. Unfortunately, the core books don't really do well at targeting areas that could be better understood with an example or two. For the most part, I am fairly intelligent and creative and have worked out examples that work for me. I figure the most important part of a game isn't interpreting the rules accurately but interpreting them in a way that is fair, equitable, and understandable. I have never actually played or ran Hero. I have only fantasized about running and playing it, and there are some areas where I feel that my lack of practical experience hurts my understanding of how to run a Hero and, therefore, hurts my attempt at explaining. In particular, I have a fairly good idea of what I want to reward, but I am unsure how reward XP works practically. That is, I am not sure how much to reward for what level challenge. I would like to do a combination of fixed and bonus rewards, but I don't want to be so generous that my campaign becomes unbalanced in only an adventure or two. I would appreciate it if experienced Hero GM's would provide examples of what actions and activities they give rewards and examples of how much reward you would give. The request is not limited to those GM's who run super hero campaign. Thank you in advance. This would help me greatly.

What if, someone were to spread a false smear campaign indicating that Street Angel is a charlatan? "No one is a prophet in the own hometown," after all. Besides, what's sainthood without a little persecution? People might not seek him out if they think he is a fraud leaving him free to seek out those he wants to help.

What about an over-saturation of Life Energy causing cells to disrupt and/or disperse?

I've a had a similar idea for villain group. I went with the Wild Hotdoggers. Their symbol was an anthropomorphic hotdog in a fight stance. They weren't necessarily crazy or evil. I would describe them more as anarchists twisting the nose of society. I'm not planning on copyrighting the name if you would like to use it.

The Bestiary does have an ettin. To accommodate the extra head, the Bestiary gives it the Extra Limbs power with the inherent and limited modifiers, 360 degree vision, and a +1 to perception for the sight group.

Sorry about not giving a name. How about the Verdant Ranger?

Terrapin (6th ed.) Val Char Cost Roll Notes 50 STR 40 19- Lift 25.6tons; 10d6 [5] 12 DEX 4 11- OCV: 7/DCV: 7 18 CON 8 13- 18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13- 18 EGO 8 13- ECV: 3 - 6 18 PRE 8 13- PRE Attack: 3 ½d6 7 OCV 20 7 DCV 20 3 OMCV 0 6 DMCV 9 3 SPD 10 Phases: 4, 8, 12 12+10 PD 10 Total: 12/22 PD (0/10 rPD) 12+10 ED 10 Total: 12/22 ED (0/10 rED) 7 REC 3 40 END 4 16 BODY 6 40 STUN 10 Total Characteristic Cost: 171 Movement: Running: 6m/12m Leaping: 2m/4m Swimming: 4m/8m Cost Powers END 60 Slow Down!: Drain Speed and Body 4d6, Expanded Effect (x2 Speed and Running Simultaneausly) (+½) (60 Active Points) 6 45 Turtle Shell Armor: Resistant Protection (10 PD/10 ED), Hardened (+¼), Impenetrable (+¼) (45 Active Points) 0 6 Turtle Resilience: LS (Extended Breathing: 1 END per Turn; Immunity: All terrestrial diseases) 0 13 Can't Be Moved: Knockback Resistance -13m 0 Talents 15 Danger Sense (self only, in combat) 13- Skills 10 Defense Maneuver I-IV 15 CSL: +5 Block, Grab, & Strike 3 Streetwise 13- 3 Shadowing 13- 3 Sleight Of Hand 11- 3 Concealment 13- 3 Stealth 11- Total Powers & Skill Cost: 179 Total Cost: 350 350+ Matching Complications 15 Psychological Complication: Uses Sarcasm as a Defense Mechanism (Common; Strong) 10 Social Complication: Boring Frequently, Minor 10 Social Complication: Flunky Frequently, Minor 10 Social Complication: Easily Overlooked Frequently, Minor 15 Psychological Complication: Obdurate (Common; Strong) Total Complications Points: 350 Background/History: Personality/Motivation: Herbert Strom was just a petty criminal before the accident that gave him his powers occurred. One day while out plying his trade of picking pockets along the docks, a fantastic battle occurred between the super hero Mr. Fabulous and his archenemy Black Gestalt. The two super beings came dangerously close to Herbert's location. He immediately sought cover behind the barrels. Black Gestalt hurled one of his Ebon Blasts at Mr. Fabulous. Mr. Fabulous narrowly dodge. The blast tore into the barrels Hebert was hiding behind. The ebon energy mixed with the unknown chemicals that splattered over Herbert. Herbert quickly left to scene the scene but, fearing an arrest warrant, refused to seek treatment for the chemical burns he received. Miraculously, he woke up the next morning completely healed. Over time, he discovered he had acquired super strength, super resilience, and the power to slow opponents down. He has always been notoriously slow and used to be called names like turtle, tortoise and similar names as a boy. Strangely, he chose a turtle themed costume and started calling himself the Terrapin and began hiring himself out as a villain-for-hire.

I wasn't quoting you for any particular reason. Your statement just merely had stuff I wanted to respond to, and I was too lazy to write out the argument in my own voice. Sorry about any unintended confusion.

Why not buy the belt and gauntlets as different foci? The gauntlets could have a power blast with 8 charges that only works in conjunction with an operable belt. I would think that would be an additional limitation on top of the foci limitation. The belt could have its own blast with 1 charge and is consumed by use. I don't have my books in front of me. It something I have been thinking through for a similar problem I have with a character concept I have been working on where a hero can make nano-fibers offering additional PD/ED from a power belt that has a power reserve. The additional protection wouldn't require a charge of energy from the belt but would not work with the belt as a power source. I am assuming it requires negligible power to run but not enough to stat out the cost. Since the belt was designed as an IIF and would not likely be attacked, I decided to make it a -1/4 limitation on the PD/ED. I might give the limitation a higher value in the case of a more obvious foci or one that a player might be willing to weaponize such as the power belt in your example.

This is common for many heroes not just super heroes like Superman. Most super heroes have been forced to choose between saving lives or capturing the bad guy. How many times have James Bond and Captain Kirk been thwarted in stopping the bad guy by stopping to engage in some act of mercy?

Thanks! I didn't know these existed but coming up with new complications can be a little tiresome.

Depends on how negative or positive you want the trait to be, the issue could range from lack of self-worth to self sacrificing if you want it as a psychological complication, or if you want to create a new class of drawbacks called Spiritual/Psychic complications that imbue certain kinds of happenstances upon characters that don't relate to psychological, social, or physical complications.

Perhaps some kind of mind control that replaces Con with Ego for resistance purposes.

Probably, finding an entertaining shtick that would be fun to play depending on what part of his concept you want to emphasize. If you want to empathize his glider, any flight themed concept should work. Sky Commander, Air Lord, the Hummingbird. If he has a military background, any militaristic concept would work. Green Grenadier, Captain Commando. If you are feeling creative while listening to the Beatles, name him the Eggman, give him egg themed gadgets, and a sidekick called the Walrus.

As an alternative to Lord Liaden's idea, just because Moreaus can breed with normal animals doesn't mean they necessarily would want to. If Moreaus have human level intelligence, wouldn't they prefer mates capable of human level conversation?

I also play the MMORPG and am amazed at the number of players who effectively play villains and monsters as heroes, but that is a bit off topic.

These speculative questions regarding rights and laws are tough questions. They would probably be the source of strong debate in real life with no real certainty of who would take what side. Basically, you have to start with the difference between human rights and civil rights. Human rights are those rights that are granted by virtue of being human. For the most part, people agree on what counts as rights, but they disagree on how human individuals are, and therefore, the disagree to what extent human rights are valid for the individual. As to civil rights, those are the rights accorded to those who are classified as citizens of a particular principality. There can also be divisions regarding who is counted as a citizen. The first issue to be resolved is are Moreaus sufficiently human to be classified as human, and the second is do they qualify as citizens of the United States. I would not make that determination based on my real world views. My real world views are if they are sapient they are sufficiently human to be accorded human rights, and if they were created in America by Americans, citizenship should be conferred to them. In my game world though, I would make that determination based on the underlying philosophies, opinions, and prejudices of the game world determine the outcome. In a game world that is more Silver Age and Golden Age in scope, I am inclined to believe that Americans would be inclusive enough to afford them human rights, and would either accord them with citizenship either en mass or on an individual-by-individual basis. In a Bronze Age or Iron Age game world, they would probably be on the receiving end of a lot prejudice, hatred, and possibly violence by the masses.

What if Shrinker started pulling pranks on other heroes and important NPCs like police commissioners and such and made it look like there were being pulled by the offending character?

What about some kind of VPP with the shape changing just being a special effect of the power she is using?