Monolith

In the Champions Universe it would be fairly difficult for a supervillain to take over a country. They might rule a country through birth or election, but taking one over would be a difficult thing. If the nation in question were an unimportant Third World country the UN might not ask for the Security Council to send in military troups, but you can bet that UNTIL troops, and probably UNITY as well, would be sent in to help deal with the problem. If the country were important, or had resources which the UN deemed important, you could probably bet the military intervention would be taken along with the UNTIL and UNITY forces. UNTIL is a major force around the world and I would imagine one of its prime directives would be to help maintain governmental stability in an unstable superhuman enviroment. If this were not the case every country in the Second and Third World would be rules by a superhuman of some type.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Where's Occulon? Back in the days before fire there were whispered rumors that Holocaust was a mature Oculon, but that was in the fictitious Champions Universe. Not the real one.

You might want to take a look at the character Stormfront from CKC. He is a weather control character and he is built on 350 points. A few tweaks on origin and Disadvantages and he could easily be turned into a hero for a player to use. That is one of the things I really liked about CKC. There are many 350 point examples, and they can all be easily used as superheroes for players who need a character on the fly.

Re: Re: Where's Occulon? No. Those Hzeel eyes keep him from growing older. He will forever be a thug.

Steve also mentioned that Halfjack and Ripper will also be in VIPER, but I do not remember him mentioning any other names.

Most teams divide the cost of the Base, Vehicle, and Computer between them. This is how it is recommended in Champions. My team's base, vehicle, and computer system were paid for by the base's DNPC. No one had to pay any points for the basic equipment, but if they want to do any upgrades they will have to shell out the character points for them.

Steve said that Oculon will be in the VIPER source book.

Re: thanks Area Effect attacks and Mentalists are always a good workaround. Shrinkers are supposed to be hard to hit though. That's why they do not take lots of defenses. If a player brought me a shrinking character with 25 PD/ED I would have to give that some serious thought and really delve into character concept before I would approve it. Area Effect is really the main power. Thinks like Darkness and other sense modifying powers that cover an area are also good attacks to use against shrinkers.

Dr. Destroyer's INT is the same as it was in 4th Edition, but he is not the smartest person in the Champions Universe. Teleios is vastly more intelligent than Dr. D. There might be some Empyreans and other entities which are far more intelligent that Destroyer too, but we are a long way from seeing many of those stats.

I posted this on the old message boards, but I'll post it here again: Anarchy (from Enemies of San Angelo) Members: Blight (L), Blaze, Harpy, Haze, Quartz Children of Islam Little was known about this group before its joint assaults in New York City and Washington D.C., but since that time a great deal has been made about the actions of this extremist group and its terrorist activities in the US and Canada. The Children appear to want the utter down-fall of Western society, and the United States in particular. The Children work from the shad-ows, seldom performing a terrorist attack on camera or during the day unless there is a chance of humiliating one of America’s patriotic heroes in the public’s eye. Members: Aladdin (L), Dervish, Inferno, Jihad, Killraven, Roc, Sandstorm, Scimitar, Tu-roo Crowns of Krim (from CKC) Members: Dark Seraph (L), Bloodstone, Eclipse, Force, Phoenix, Temblor Deathstroke (modified from Enemies) Deathstroke is one of the oldest villain groups still in existence in the United States, but sur-prisingly still consists of the same five members it has had from the very beginning. Over the years Deathstroke has mellowed somewhat as the membership has aged. Where once con-quest and power were of the utmost importance to the group, now Deathstroke is content to perform mid-sized robberies to supplement the group’s income, allowing them to continue liv-ing in the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Members: Deathsinger (L), Arrowhead, Death Commando, Frost, Stinger Destroyers The Destroyers can best be described as mercenaries-for-hire. The team will work for any criminal mastermind or organization which is willing to pay its price. When not under contract the Destroyers will usually be encountered committing petty-crimes in order to maintain their cash flow. Wedge, the leader and only female member of the team, has been working hard to change the group’s image in order to gain new clients, but the personalities of the member-ship sometimes works against Wedge’s plans. Members: Wedge (L), Arc, Blowtorch, Buzz Saw, Sledge, Piledriver Eurostar (from CKC) Members: Fiacho (L), Durak, Feuermacher, Mentalla, Scorpia, Ultrasonique Factor 4 (modified from Freedom City) Factor 4 started as a popular discovery-style television program in the mid-nineteen eighties. The show followed the adventures of Professor Adam Horton and his three assistants as they traveled around the world exploring hidden ruins and discovering long-forgotten relics. Little did they know that one of their trips would forever transform them into the elemental beings they are today and lead them down their path of crime. Factor 4’s crimes are always flamboy-ant and play to the news and onlookers. Style is the keyword in any Factor 4 crime. Members: Professor Fathom (L), Granite, Pyre, Slyph Four Sons of the Dragon (modified from Watchers of the Dragon) Once limited to operating in mainland China, the Fours Sons have now moved their base of operation to the United States. The Four Sons are under the employ of the wizard Dr. Wu, and it is said they are actually the children of the master villain. The crimes committed by the group almost always have a mystical bent, but occasionally the Four Sons step out on their own and commit some petty crime in the hopes of attracting the attention of costume crime fighters. In many Asian areas the Four Sons are seen as folk heroes rather than criminals. Members: Copper Spear (L), Golden Axe, Iron Whirlwind, Silverhand GRAB (from CKC) Members: Black Diamond (L), Bluejay, Cheshire Cat, Hummingbird Kindred (modified from the Psikin) Members: Magenta (L), Alabaster, Crimson, Emerald, Violet Menace As with most other villain groups, Menace’s primary purpose seems to the making of money. This is accomplished by both working as a mercenary band and by performing private rob-bery and blackmail schemes. A favored tactic of the group is to kidnap someone of impor-tance and then hold them for six to seven figure ransoms. Because of the choice of kidnap targets Menace has been put somewhat higher on PRIMUS’ “to capture†list than many other groups of greater power or threat to national security. Members: Brainwraith (L), Counterstrike, Dragon Tooth, Green Phantom, Mass-Pain PSI (from CKC and Millennium City) Members: Psimon (L), Bodyjacker, Deuce, Hypnos, Inquisitor, Lancer, Medusa, Mind Slayer, Soulfire, Teke, Torment, Trace The Sisterhood The Sisterhood is a villain group made up of strongly-feministic females whose primary goal seems to be to liberate women from their “lot†in life. The group’s secondary goal seems to be the destruction of female-oppressive corporations, businesses, and institutions before any-more harm can be done to its female employees. If the villainess group has a third goal it would have to be the utter humiliation of male hero and villain superhumans. To date only Foxbat seems impervious to the Sisterhood’s schemes. Members: Crow (L), Amazon, Landslide, Starlight, Ward Ultimates (from CKC) Members: Binder (L), Blackstar, Cyclone, Radium, Slick, Thunderbolt II War Machine (from CKC) The War Machine is the strike force of the Warlord, almost always doing the master villain’s bidding in every assignment. Periodically the War Machine will do extra-curricular crimes in an attempt to impress the Warlord. In most cases this succeeds, as Warlord has only minimal use for his supervillain group and feels that live trials keep his henchmen in tip-top shape. Any crime the War Machine is involved in is always meticulously planned and executed. War-bird knows that his master relies on him and will not take undue chances for his team. Members: Warbird (L), Warcry, Warhead, Warmonger, Warpath

You might want to try sending an email directy to Ben then, rather than just the DHadmin address. This is assuming you are a yearly subscriber to Digital Hero. The playtest list is only for people who have purchased a 10 issue subscription to the pdf magazine.

It is an adventure module set in Millennium City; and I should add that it is a well-written adventure module too. The adventure is for 5-6 350 point heroes. It is designed to be played over 3-4 game sessions. Shades of Black is the first of Hero Games' Hero Plus line of books. These books will be sold as pdf downloads. The Hero Plus line is not part of the regular schedule, and can appear at odd times. Other Hero Plus products coming up will be Scott's Gestault source book and Derek's book on everyday items. Apparently Allen has put in a proposal for another module which looks very interesting as well. There might be more forthcoming, but those are the ones I remember hearing about.

If you did this over the weekend I am sure Ben will get you access when he comes into the office today.

Powered armor is best of bought as either OIF or Only In Hero Id. The OIF armor would represent one which can be removed from the character while he is unconscious or restrained in some fashion. The Only In Hero Id armor would represent one which cannot be removed the the character except under the most unusual conditions. For examples, a VIPER agent, given some time, can find a way to remove, or at the very least disable enough of Defender's armor to make it virtually useless to the superhero. On the other hand, only someone with vast powered armor experience and knowledge (along the lines of Dr. Destroyer) might have a chance of removing a hero's powed-armor which was built as Only In Hero Id. While most powered armors should be built as either OIF or Only In Hero ID, there are occassions where certain components could be bought as OAF. An example of this might be a Neutron Blast which attaches to the armor and can be pulled off.

Re: Rules Q (not in the FAQ) Shrinking effects all PER Modifiers except for Mental Groups. So someone who is -10 PER is -10 to Sight, Hearing, Smell/Taste, Touch, and unusual senses such as Radar. So the character with the Targeting Hearing has just as hard a time finding the character as someone with Targeting Sight.

It depends on what you want to play. If you plan on playing superhero/comic book games then I would suggest Champions. If you are familiar with the superhero genre and want a superhero world to play in, I would buy Champions Universe. If you do not plan on playing superheroes, but do plan on playing character who use martial arts quite a bit, then I would suggest The Ultimate Martial Artist. What the Ultimate Martial Artist has is lists of dozens of martial arts styles which add to the very small list that is in the core book. The rules expansions in UMA are basically about how to use martial arts in your game, how to make martial arts styles, how to create powers which simulate martial arts, and other things along those lines. What UMA does is expand on the martial arts rules in the core book. There are not a lot of additional combat rules in UMA, though there are many additional types of martial arts maneuvers. Really all the combat rules are in the core book. UMA just expands on styles of martial arts and how they can increase a character's effectiveness in combat. If you plan on playing games where characters will be using a lot of hand-to-hand or martial arts fighing styles then I would definately recommend it.

Of late I primarily only play Hero for superhero games, though we did just start a Terran Empire game yesterday, but Hero can handle deadly realism very well. But to get this realism you need to use the combat options, not just the basic system. The most important combat option is Hit Location for lethality. Using the hit location rules a medium powered weapon can hit a vital area and kill the character (or at the very least put him at death's door) with a single hit. Here is a basic example: An M-1 Garand does 2d6+1 damage. This means it does damage between 3-13 BODY per hit. Using the Hit Location rules, if someone is hit in the head or vitals the character takes x2 BODY; meaning the character will take between 6-26 BODY from the attack. This means a glancing blow will do 6, and a full-on hit will do 26. The average character has 10 BODY and if it goes to -10 BODY he is dead. So using the HERO System rules it is easy possible to kill someone with one good hit. Out of 16 possible Hit Locations 4 of them have a x2 BODY modifier. That means there are pretty good odds of getting a major hit on someone during a combat. Using the Hit Location, Impairing, Disabling and Bleeding rules can make the HERO System a very bloody affair. I do not play much Fantasy Hero (because I am not fond of the fantasy genre) but on my first adventure I played an elven ranger-type. We stormed an ogre's cave. My character runs through the door and the ogre flings his axe at her. The axe hits; the axe hits in location 3 (the face); the GM rolls 3d6 for damage and gets 15 BODY; my character takes x2 BODY from the head hit; my character is dead before I even had a chance to swing at someone a first time; I go and get pizza. That is how quickly a character can die using all the Heroic Level rules.

Sometimes the STR chart and STR Minimums do not always agree. Very few people can pick up a piano, but almost anyone can shoot the M-1 Garand. When dealing with ranged weapons STR Minimum is more an affront to accuracy than brute STR required to use it. The average, 10 STR character can shoot the M-1 but the character will have to deal with the inaccuracy modifiers due to his below minimum STR. As the character continues using the weapon he learns to get better with it. This would best be portrayed by the character buying Penalty Skill Levels with the M-1 to show that his accuracy has increased even though his STR has not.

I have been meaning to comment on how good looking you are, but I thought it might be rude in this forum.

Once and a while my Lightning Reflexes and extra Speed backfire (they have a Activation 17- -0 Limitation), but most of the time I get them in pretty quickly. It is the gift of the ancient gods who watch over The Living Titan during his trials to make New Cairo a safe place for all humanity.

I only went with OAF because his example says he can be disarmed and have it taken away from him. Restrainable will accomplish the same effect for the same Limitation value as an OIF.

What you said is true, but you have missed the entire section on Naked Power Advantages on page 157.. You have apparently also missed all of the character examples published to date which have the power written as I have described it above. If you have CKC take a look at the Combat Knife write-up for Destroyer Agents as a single example. If you do not want the spear to be a Focus, then I suggest you look at the Restrainable Limitation on page 200.

Here is the Chapter in question: In the playtest manuscript this chapter runs from page 26 to 84. And his has information on all the races mentioned in CU plus many, many, many more. I love that chapter!

The pdf which Winterhawk mentioned has a list of all the alien species who have been mention in Champions, Champions Universe, CKC, Bestiary, and Digital Hero. The list is fairly long. My game is set in the CU, and there, many people are suspicious of aliens. My rewrite of Ironclad gives him a Social Limitation Disads for that. The humans remember the historical alien invasions (especially the Gadroon invasion which took several months to repel) and have no love for non-humans in general. Some of this agression and prejudice was removed by Brin Rei Tarn, but now that Earth has a human Star*Guard the old prejudices are creeping back up. It also does not help the alien's cause that virtually every one of them on the planet is a villain.

Technically you are correct. The power should be bought as: 9 Plasma Spear: (Total: 22 Active Cost, 9 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6 (plus STR) (vs. PD) (15 Active Points); OAF (-1) (Real Cost: 7) plus Ranged (7 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Charges (-1 1/4), OAF (-1), Ranged Based On STR (-1/4) (Real Cost: 2) I went with the OAF because he said it can be disarmed and taken away. And the damage listed is just an example. The damage would be whatever the player wanted it to be.