Monolith

I always thought Genocide was a stupid name as well, but then again how many people would want to join something called DEMON or VIPER? I like the direction Genocide has taken in 5E. Many people would sign up to be members in the IHA without even realizing that it has a secret 'Project Genocide" side of the organization. I'm currently using the IHA as a political hate group who works through the media to turn people's attention to the dangers of superhumans. Narrow-minded people always have a reason to hate an IHA fuels that. My IHA has four main projects: Project Looking Glass is involved with bringing media attention to the evil exploits of superhumans, especially mutants, through print, television, and website media. Project America is involved with changing the Government and laws within the US to make them less superhuman friendly. This is done through lobbying, campaign donations, and even political blackmail. Project Mankind is a scientific endeavor to prove that the mutantions in humans over the last 60 years have been caused by criminal masterminds in the hopes of changing humanity's genetic destiny. Project Genocide is the covert militant branch of the organizations who hunts down and either captures or exterminates mutants whenever they are found.

Re: Re: Re: Genocide? My understanding of the Aryan Nation was that it is an organized group of individuals preaching and upholding racial purity, and doing various criminal acts against those who they consider to be sub-human. So from that standpoint the IHA is basically the same as the IHA only directing their anger toward supehumans, and mutant superhumans in particular. What little information I have on the Aryan Nation all seems to indicate it's involvement in hate crimes. I have no idea about its dealings with organized crime. I was just speaking from a philosophy standpoint.

Re: Genocide? Since it doesn't appear as though there will be any information on the IHA until at least 2006 you would probably be better off just using the 4E material in your game, if you're not inclined to make it up yourself. In the CU the IHA is a political lobby group dealing with the threat of all superhumans, but most importantly mutants. Think of them as the Aryan Nation taken to the next level. I assume they are secretly funding a "Project Genocide" to deal with the mutant threat since the government appears to not want to deal with it directly.

Actually it's Institute for Human Advancement.

That's just Disadvantages. Limitations reduce the cost of the powers they are applied to.

The quiet I provided came directly from my compy of the BBB, page 81.

I don't know why you don't like Steve, and I don't really care, but in 4E the rules stated "Missile Deflection cannot usually be used against Entangles" and in 5E the books says "Characters cannot usually Missile Deflect Entangles," so Steve changed nothing. It always, and still is a GM's call based on SFX. Get your facts straight. It is. It's called Can Be Missile Deflected: -1/4.

Campaign limits are the charts on page 15 of Fifth Edition. Many different games have different limits. Standard Champions, for example, uses 350 points to build characters with the limits from page 15. A Galactic Champions game might use 500+ points to build the characters. A Teen Champions game might use 200 points to build the characters. It's important in the beginning that all characters be built within the same limits. It's generally not wise to allow one character to have a 15d6 attack while everyone else is using a 8d6 attack. Things along those lines are important for first-time playing because players have a tendency to take advantage of things. Keep everyone close at the beginning, and then once everyone is comfortable with the game system then you can allow players to branch out more.

Yeah, a summoned Base would be a good way to do a cage as well.

First off, I don't like exceptions to rules, so anything purchased as an exception (regen, etc) doesn't make sense to me. Second, can they make adding damage any more complicated? I've been playing 5E since it came out and I still don't completely understand all the rules for Advantages on STR, or on HTH Attacks, or on Martial Arts. One rule, one way should be the slogan here. Third, mental powers and the break out roll. I also hate the fact that everyone always talks about taking Cumulative on Mental Powers to make it more powerful. Cumulate should be for certain SFX, not to make a power useful. Fourth, damage shields for many reasons, such as HKA getting to take the NO STR ADDs Lim but RKA not getting to take the No Range Lim. I also think that Continuous needs to be redefined for Damage Shields, as there is a difference between the attack staying on and one which keeps attack someone after they have been hit with it. Fifth, megascale because the leaps for Advantages are too great. Sixth, I hate the fact that there are not more examples for Perks with differing costs such as Access, or Computer Link, or Membership. Seventh, I don't care for the inherent Advantage, mostly because it's seldom taken. How many creatures have Nightvision Inherent? I mean it's their eyes, it's not something you can dispel. If you're not going to enforce the use of Advantages then you might as well not have them. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Area Effect Entangle or Force Wall 0 END Persistant Uncontrolled.

You can buy books directly from DOJ by sending them a check or money order. When the check clears they ship your book. Even with shipping Sidekick would not be too expensive.

In my game Teleios, being the clone master, has already replaced a vast number of people in powerful positions with clones. He couldn't care less if lesser scientists were working or not because to him all other scientists are like ants. The only reason he would do something "good" is if he could benefit from it in some fashion, as in the cancer-cured army.

It's not really that complicated, it's just a great deal of reading and a slightly different way of thinking about things from the effects-based idea. As long as you have 5th Edition I'd say just go with that. Just skip over many of the optional rules in 5E and focus your time on the basics of the game. What I'd suggest you do before building any characters is read the combat sections of 5E and then take some of the sample characters from Champions and run a few mock combats. Only read the powers sections for the powers the sample characters have. Once you get an idea of how the system works you can start delving into the hard part of the game: character creation.

I think each area of the CU would react differently. Some countries would immediately allow genetic research, others would not. I don't see the US making any major changes due to such a statement. I could definately seem some third-world countries doing whatever they could whatever they could to get their hands on the cure. I can see Mexico, for example, opening up more cancer clinics along the US border to try and draw more American money into the country. Of course I don't see Teleios making such an offer without an alternate plan; something along the lines of the cancer serum changing the patient's genetic structure making it possible for Teleios to control or command them from afar. So basically Teleios ends up with an million-person army of followers at his beck and call. One of the things I would have liked to have seen in the new CU would have been more information on the advances in the society due to the technology and scientific ability of the people at this time. I would have like to have seen a slight utopia effect to the CU because of this. I think one of the interesting points of the JLA/Avengers series has been how each group of heroes views the other's world. The DCU is more advanced and seems to have a better standard of living then the MU. I would have liked to have seen more information on that about the CU.

The HERO System has been around for 23 years so obviously it must work fairly well. As others have said, the easiest way to learn about the HERO System is to purchase Sidekick for $10.00 and spend a couple of hours reading about the game. Then run a couple of combats with a friend using the example characters in the book. The complex aspect of the HERO System is character creation (due to the math involved during creation and having limitless possibilities), but once that's done game play itself is very straight forward and simple. The HERO System is more for gamers who like to create, and who like to tinker, and who don't like to be limited by game system constraints (no wizards wearing armor, for example). The ability to do whatever you want is sometimes difficult for new gamers who are more used to restricted formats such as classes and levels. Most of us enjoy the freedom that the HERO System allows us. I really suggest you give Sidekick a read and the if you have any questions there are many of us here willing to try and answer them.

I'd consider taking someone's soul to be, as mr-azrad stated, a spirit transformation. It's hard to define what a soul really is, but for game terms I think the transform would make the character the same, but with a 0 EGO, meaning that without a soul the character finds it nearly impossible to have purpose and direction. If the person getting the soul also gets the memories and skills of the character then I'd hook Telepathy into the attack, and then make sure the receiver had enough EXP available at all times to easily add 20-50 points of new skills and memories. The SFX would be that the Telepathy allows the character to immediately buy all the additional new skills, etc. Another route instead of Telepathy skills would be to have a VPP which only allowed Summon. The character transforms his target as above, and then can Summon the soul to impart the character's knowledge and abilities to him if needed. I'd probably go with the Transform/Summon.

You can do it with a Trigger and Steve's optional 0-Phase to reset Advantage from his Digital Hero article.

I agree with him too. That's why I went with Lazer and Shamrock. I wouldn't use Mechassassin because working in a group long-term does not seem to be his style, no matter how good the money is. I envision him more along the lines of Deathstroke (the Terminator), working from job to job, usually alone, and only very temporarily working with established groups. I don't care for the Esper choices because her loathing for humanity would seem to make it difficult for her to work with other human villains long-term. Masquerade is a good choice. You get that Mystique feel from the X-men. She might be a little under powered to run with Holocaust though. As far as infiltration she'd be great, but in raw power she'd get toasted. I don't think Cybermind would hang with Holocaust or any mercenary villains. His total Code Against Killing wouldn't allow it. Gargantua would be a good choice. I just like Shamrock better.

Not really so differently. I use DEX -10 to determine each additional attack time.

I've done it. I just allow 2 full actions on the double Phases. So a SPD 14 gets 1 action each Phase and 2 actions on Phases 6 and 12. It's just simple to do it that way.

I chose not to go with Giganto as I have other plans for him in the future. My idea of Terror, Inc. is that it will be a revolving membership type of group along the lines of Marvel's Masters of Evil. I don't think anyone outside of terrorists/mercenaries would be willing to work with Holocaust for long periods of time due to his killer attitudes. That's why I went with Shamrock and Lazer. They are both mercenary/terriorst bent and have similar ideologies. Frizbee is just in there to be the "weak link" of the team when my players encounter them. I see TI as having: Holocaust, Shamrock, Lazer, Frizbee and ocasionally Gravitar when she's in town to see her boyfriend. Eventually Frizbee will betray TI and either be killed by Holocaust (to make a profound effect on the player(s) who "converted" her) or she will escape him and be on the run from him (and then hating the heroes for making her life so miserable) for the rest of her life. I'm later envisioning some type of Gravitar/Shamrock relationship that will rip the organization apart even farther. At that time a "new" Terror, Inc will appear with Holocaust again at the helm.

I always played it that it cost END every Phase. I just assumed the Continuous effect of it was free and offset by the lack of range on the power.

Digital Hero #11 has an 8-9 page Terran Empire adventure in it written by Allen Thomas. It looked very interesting, though I never had the chance to play it, and it also introduces Marco Redd, an interesting NPC for any TE game.

Hello and welcome to the mad house. As others have said I'd suggest you buy either HERO System Fifth Edition, called FREd around here, if you want he full rules (but be warned it is a big book and quite intimidating) or buy Sidekick to get the basic rules. Both sets of rules will work for you. FREd has more options but for starting players you really don't need all those options. Now since you want to play a superhero campaign I'd recommend the following: Champions if you are new to the comic book genre itself. Champions is full of information telling you different ways of playing a superhero campaign. If you're already familiar with the genre then I'd suggest you buy: Champions Universe and Millennium City. These two books give you a pre-made superhero world and city to game in. The Champions Universe is four-color so if that style of gaming appeals to you then you should pick up those books. Conquerors, Killers & Crooks is a villain book with nearly 100 supervillains that you can immediately use in your game. All the characters were designed for the Champions Universe but you'll have no problem easily adapting them to your own game world if you so choose. Having 100 villains, plus the ones listed in Champions Universe and Millennium City, makes a GM's job much easier, as creating characters is the most difficult aspect of the HERO System. One final suggestion would be the UNTIL Superpowers Database. This book has several thousand pre-made superpowers in several different SFX groups. You can see samples of this here: http://www.herogames.com/USPD/thedatabase.htm At the bare minimum I'd suggest Sidekick and Conquerors, Killers & Crooks. That will get you started quickly and fairly cheaply.