Monolith

There was a time when I was very much looking forward to this product. But after a 5 month delay and a seeming apathy about it from both companies involved I'm afraid I have moved on in my thinking.

Re: Death The answer to your question depends on the genre of game you are playing. In a Fantasy Hero game it might not be uncommon for the player to be able to be raised from the dead through some type of "Raise Dead" spell. In a Champions game a character might have Regeneration or when he dies he might come back as another character (it is common in comics for the dead to return in some fashion, either as vengeful spirits or due to some sort of "radiation accident." Phoenix, Wonderman, Swordsman, and several other characters are examples of this). Whether someone comes back from the dead is entirely based on how the GM and player want to handle the situation. In many cases the character is just dead and the player creates a new character to play in the game.

Re: Strong Temptation We already have the Online Spacer's Toolkit for submitting various types of equipment. Everyone interested should feel free to submit material to Ben for posting to the website. One of my suggestions to Darren several months ago was to have the fans submit world material. Each fan would make a 750-1,500 word (1-2 published pages) write-up detailing a world/culture within the galaxy. The write-ups would be published in Digital Hero and then eventually make it in a "Spacer's Almanac." The same type of things could be done for organizations, plot threads, and other types of AW/TE/GF material of interest.

The main book needed to play "Champions" or any other HERO System genre is HERO System Fifth Edition (FREd). Champions is a genre book which gives examples of the superhero/comic book genre and tells you how to alter some of the rules from FREd to better suit the genre. If you are new to the system but not new to superhero gaming in general then I would recommend: HERO System Fifth Edition, UNTIL Superpowers Datebase (USPD), and Conquerors, Killers, & Crooks (CKC). FREd for the basic game system, USPD for the thousands of prewritten powers, and CKC for about 100 ready-to-use supervillains. If you are new to the superhero genre then I would also recommend you pick up Champions, as it will give you valuable advice on how to play within the comic book genre.

But the vehicle additional +2" Leaping with the Side Effect: -1/4 (10x fuel consumption). And then just keep track of how often you use the jump jets in regards to the 6 hours of fuel the hover craft has.

A drain does affect decimals, but you do not actually lose 1 point of SPD until the entire 10 is drained. So a 3 SPD drained to a 2.3 still goes on Phases 4, 8, 12 until the SPD is drained to 2 or lower.

Do you think Batman or Superman have gotten more powerful over the last decade? Does Batman now do 15d6 and Superman 30d6? Comic book characters' powers really change very little within the confines of their own timeframe. That is the fundamental difference between a game and the genre itself. In the comics Superman does not get 16 times stronger and Batman does not learn to punch with 8 times more force. In the games it is not uncommon for Supreme Man to get +20 STR over the course of his gaming career or for Nightwraith to get +3 DC with Martial Arts. And both will probably buy more DEX, DEF, and SPD in that same period of time.

Re: an observation I disagree with that statement. I think what 5E is attempting to show is that a 350 point hero is quite powerful, and that not every comic book superhero needs to be 1,000 points. As an example of this I would point you to the write-ups of Anubis, Lei Kung, and Guan Di in CKC. Those three characters are gods or god-avatars, and yet they only do 14d6 at most and are all built on less than 600 points. What that is saying is that a "god" does not need to be 2,000+ points in the new Champions Universe. I think it is our natural tendancy to want to make comic book characters more powerful than our game counterparts. If Nightwraith is doing 10d6 martial strikes then Batman must be doing 13d6 because he is Batman! The same for all the comic book characters. We get used to thinking that they are somehow more prolific then our characters. We need to take Dr. Destroyer out of the equation, because honestly he was designed to be cosmic now. But looking at Mechanon or Binder or Black Harlequin can we really say they are weaker than their Marvel/DC counterparts? In many respects I would say those characters are actually more powerful than their progenitors.

I personally get more use out of the world books then the enemies books. Coming up with bad-guy motivations has always been simple for me. What might be interesting though is to include a write-up for a "scourge" for each new world presented in the book. That would be almost like the best of both worlds.

I appreciate the kind words, but what takes me a week to write most other people can do in a day. Each word is a struggle to pull from my wrinkled brow.

Re: OCV & DCV extras for 4 Armed Sword Demons?!?! Remeber that Combat Skill Levels must cost a minimum of 5 points if they have a Limitation on them. So that +3 with Blades should have a base cost of 15, not 6. I doubt I would allow the Firearms Limitation on the DCV levels unless there was very good justification for it. I might give the OCV & DCV Levels the Lockout Limitation to represent that if they are being used for DCV or OCV they cannot be used at the same time. So if the character is using 2 additional arms to attack that only leaves 1 arm for a +1 OCV to hit. Since the OCV Levels cost 15 points and the DCV Levels cost 15 points you could also just purchase 3 Combat Levels with the -3/4 Limitation and then adjust them between OCV and DCV each phase depending on how many arms the character will attack or defend with.

An 8 STR Minimum would be 2 END per use, and a 13 STR Min would be 3 END (8 divided by 5 = 1.6 which rounds to 2 End). The best way to work it is to calculate how much STR you are using at the time and then base the END usage from that. So if you have an 8 STR Min weapon and are going to use 14.25 STR (due to the 6.25 additional in your example) the then END usage would be 3.

Another way to spark some interest is to write some reviews of the 4 Star Hero books and post them to RPG.net and GamingReport.com. I am not a very good writer or I would tackle it myself, but for those who do have the gift getting some reviews out there could be helpful.

You take into account the STR Minimum and any additional STR you use. So if you are using a weapon which requires 15 STR it costs you 3 END to use it. If you use it with your 20 STR it costs you 4 END per strike.

I think that Pulp Hero is going to be an even larger flop than the Star Hero line. Scifi has a much broader appeal to gamers than pulp material (most gamers today do not even know what pulp is). I think the Pulp Hero genre book will sell well in the same way that Star Hero sold well, but I don't think an actual sub-genre book or line will do well.

My guess is that they will probably not be reprinted unless a huge upswing is made at some point in the future. So if you are wanting them you should buy them while they are avialable. Don't wait until they run out like with the Resource Kit.

It would be interesting to see Aaron Allston write a Terran Empire novel or two. He has a degree of fan appeal outside of the Hero community, meaning the noves would not just be limited to a few thousand die-hard fanatics.

In the Monday chat Darren stated he thought Galactic Federation might make it into the 2005 schedule. Some of the GF material will be added to Galactic Champions. He also said that Worlds Of Empire might become more generic, I assume to capture a wider fanbase. Personally I would rather see them publish within their continuity and let the fans add or subtract whatever they need to make the product more generic. I am hoping if DOJ is only going to publish one SF book a year that they make it a large book. I would prefer to see a 250-300 page book published over another 160-200 page book. As much as I have enjoyed Terran Empire there is just so much information left for the GM to create that it is almost too much work to make a proper campaign. I would much rather see books which deemphasize the "crunch" factor of the game (meaning less information on package deals and vehicles/equipment) and give us more "cream." As fans I do not think there is a lot we can do broaden the appeal of TE or AW. My personal opinion is that gamers are growing older and have less free time, and thus they need more support material and less work for them to do themselves. None of the Star Hero lines would ever be product supported enough to really appeal to new gamers. There are just far too many other scifi games in the market with broader appeal and better support, IMO.

The process seems fairly fool-proof. When you first login you will see a list of all the avialable DH issues in the right-hand column. You left click the ones you want to buy and it asks you if that is what you want. When you confirm it moves the issue to the left column. In the left column you can do a right-click save as and download it to your computer. That always works.

I believe that Rashindar and Ushas are two of the most powerful heroes in the CU. I would imagine that there are many others as well who are powerful also, such as Albion. Unfortunately it will be a long time before we ever see write-ups for most them. There just are not that many superhero write-ups for the CU yet.

Re: I have to agree with Liaden No one said the Hulk had a 60 STR. I do not convert characters using the Marvel scale into the HERO System. But I do use those numbers listed as a baseline for who is stronger than who. Anyone who thinks Thor has a 60 STR would be foolish in my eyes.

Digital Hero #13, 14, & 16 have had write-ups for past members of the Sentinels and Darren is slowing working his way to the modern members.

I personally don't think the Hulk is that strong. In his calm state many "lessor" bricks like Doc Samson (60 STR), Ironman (65), and Submariner (70 STR) have no trouble going toe-to-toe with him. It is when the rage starts to kick in that tougher bricks such as the Thing (80), Silver Surfer (90), or Thor (95) are needed to hold him off, imo. The numbers within ( ) are what I would rate those character's STR as.

I generally do not even worry about it. Skills are already very cheap. You can get a lot more mileage out of a 3 point Streetwise skill than you can a 1/2d6 Energy Blast, even a 4d6 Energy Blast that costs 7 times more.

I do not think anyone is underestimating the power levels of the FF or of Dr. Doom. If you look at the "official" DOJ write-up for the Hulk I think you see a pretty good understanding of the power level of the characters. Dr. Destroyer is based off of Dr. Doom, but I think the 3E or 4E version are much closer to Dr. Doom than the 5E version is. The 5E version is over the top and basically cosmic power level.