Shigeru

Well, in light of this thread I decided to run a Roll20 Hero game. In particular, because I really want to run a Champions game again and because I really want to make it work on Roll20 (where I play other games). I am not sure how well it will go, because of the poor match of Roll20 and Hero, but I am hopeful and think that the impetus to keep a game moving forward might motivate me to incorporate some macros or character sheet solutions into the game. I've seen a few "anybody playing Champions" posts in their forums, but not many people running anything. The Adventurer's Club looks interesting, but it is a format that doesn't suit me as a GM( fixed setting, episodic on-shots).

Let's face it, Hero is pretty crunchy in comparison to other, current games. I don't mind the crunch too much, but I also want to make the game go fast without losing some of the best parts (detailed, interesting combat being a big one). I hope I can get a game running to inspire others to try it.

As a note, this is true in every game, no matter how finely you try to tune it. What you should imagine is that the model is moving the whole time and its location is only measured at that one point. After all even if measuring speed in thirtieths of a second like a video game inevitably you will need an absolute stop point for mapping in a game if maps are used.

 

Imagination has to fill in those gaps (unless you are playing a video game). 

I can't claim I'm not obsessive. 

Nothing slows down combat more than segmented movement. However if the purpose of the battle is to simulate a highly detailed combat then it can add a lot to detail. 

I have a game (out of print now) call Starfleet Battles based of of the original Star Treck. It broke down combat and movements down in high detail. It was awesome and worked out to very tactical combat spooled around energy management.

 

With all that in mind I would suggest doing it with only one or two vehicles before trying to go into a full scale conflict.

Yeah, the slowdown is a definite concern.

I simply cannot appreciate the "vehicles only move on the segments associated with their SPD". It makes no sense to me. They sit stock still for 2-3 seconds and only move forward on their phases? With the velocity they built up on their previous phase? I hate it.

I am trying to adapt Autoduel Champions for 5th Edition for a Science Fiction game. Its so different. Vehicles had no DEX or SPD. They had a TURN value (not to be confused with Turn Mode) that established how well the vehicle handled. Movement was on a per-segment basis, with drivers/pilots able to take maneuvers on whatever segments they want (with penalties to control rolls if their velocity was greater than their vehicle's handling score, etc). It allows for constant motion and really feels more like a moving battle rather than the stop/start of standard HERO movement. 

Its all about the Segmented movement for me, in the end.

Very nice. I also used Coils of the Serpent as well as Eye for an Eye when I was making him.

HH - I like the extra PD and ED as "instant healing". Never thought of doing it that way, but it definitely helps with the "squishiness"

5th edition (but I wouldn't balk at 6th either)

Standard Superheroic campaign limits (2-10 SPD, 7-13 CV, 6-14 DC, 40-80 AP, 25-80 SKill Points, 11-15 Skill Rolls, 20 def/10 rDef)

200 Base, 150 Max Disads, 50 from one Disad category

He's something of a Punisher clone, with the added survivability of regeneration and a supersoldier quality. He is an amalgamation of a couple of characters I'd made in the past ("Revenant", a gun-toting villain who could not be killed but was a lethal problem for criminals, and "Deathwish" a martial artist who behaved in a very daring and suicidally selfless manner)

He is meant to be less of a player character and more of an NPC who could act with or against the heroes dependent on their conflicting (or concurrent) goals.

Ideally, he is a grey moral element in a silver age comic. And in a standard four color game, he would surely be more of a "redeemable villain" than a "misguided hero".

Deathwish is a vigilante. He, Darren Wilkes, was recruited into VIPER out of the military but realized they were not who they pretended to be after some training and indoctrination. He was dosed with an experimental super-serum along with his wife and a number of other recruits and their families. Most such guinea pigs died from the serum, but a few survived and escaped the laboratory. 

Wilkes, using his improved physiology (including a developing regenerative power) and training, has waged war on VIPER and organized crime in general. As a violent vigilante, he is a polarizing figure on the streets. Angel to some, demon to others. He will work with villains if the ends (HIS ends, that is) justify the means...but primarily he works with heroes in order to root out VIPER agents and foil their plans.

Deathwish uses a standard array of firearms and military-grade weaponry in combat and has some small degree of hand to hand training.

So...all that said...anybody want to build a character just with that? Oh, I'll answer questions if anybody has them I suppose. Stats, movement power, attack and defense powers? First prize in this challenge is...uh...an  atta boy/girl. Straight from Shigeru himself.

You'll also have to consider whether you are going to cover ground, air, marine and/or space troops/engagements/etc.

Rlyeh Rising

In Search of the Unknown

Unveiled Kadath

Lucifer.

The Luminary.

Dawnstar.

If you can find it, I'd recommend a look at SuperAgents. Yes, it's old school...

 

Admittedly, one of my favorite supplements.

 

-Carl-

Of course its fantastic. Its Aaron Allston!

One of my many regrets is not being able to get a Super Agents campaign going back in the day. I tried to do something similar on Hero Central until I got a job with uncompromising time commitments.

Re: Official Hero Boards Super Team And Chat Channel!

Anybody willing to extend a SG invite to me and my characters? Been an on-and-off player (as time and money allows) since launch, with four 40's and a bunch of 30's going on. Have not joined a SG because I'm not always available to play for any appreciable length of time (work, family and beer). But I feel like this is a group I have reason to be a part of.

Re: Cyber Hero (4thEd) any good?

I liked it for its archetypes, and general character creations stuff( skills, disadvantages, etc). Not that I couldn't come up with that stuff on my own, I justr liked the ease of it. Never used its "Decking" component, however.

I used its equipment and cybernetics extensively, but I have to give the nod to Kazei 5 for those elements. Its just an overall better book for what I would use it for, which was not anime but was definitely cyberpunk.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

I finaly got aroudn to watching the first CRIMSON BAT film. As expected, it drew a lot of inspiration (and stole some specific scenes) from ZATOICHI. But it was fun anyway.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

The Cramps: Live at Napa State Mental Hospital

Wow. I watched thet video years ago. Its awesome and I believe it was a very, very early show of theirs.

Re: Need a name for a windy character

Turbulence

Blowhard

Re: Empathic Character with no Damaging powers

I think you were lookign for a way to post that pic and get away with it.

Pretty cool idea. I especially like "crippling depression".

Re: Bushido Hero

I ran a couple of feudal Japanese campaigns back in the day. Some of the things that made the games successful were to incorporate genre staples. Watch some jidai-geki films, even the modern ones, and just steal the hell out of the stuff you want to see in your game. Types of people, locations and set-pieces, situations you want your characters to be put into in order to make decisions and create the drama and long-standing feuds/relationships. Yeah, I realize that this is kind of GM-ing 101, but it was key to evoking the genre in players who were only peripherally aware of the elements.

Sengoku was a big resource for me. And if the Asian bestiaries were available I woudl have incorporated more of that. As it stood, it was strictly no-magic chanbara type action-adventure. But you can do it a number of ways.

Re: Matt the Bruins' character art thread

These are great

Re: Where is your campaign based?

Our campaign is set in Boston. We have used a lot of local flavor in the game, as well.

Re: Cyberpunk: how did it change?

From Twitter: "The worst part of the 80s was waiting for someone to invent the Web."

 

There's a reason Gibson started setting his novels in the present instead of the future.

That's a very good point. I think a lot of the reason that cyberpunk, in its pure form, is considered a retro genre, is that in the 80's things were right around the corner. And today, they are already in your home, or assumed to be in a lab somewhere ready to burst forth.

I felt a lot of it was about how human nature (at its basest) didn't really change. But the interests, ideas, perversions and visions of people would broaden with the advent of higher technoloigies. Gibson cited it in Neuromancer when describing Chiba City : "like an experiment in social Darwinism, with one finer permanently on the fast-forward button". Paraphrased, but that was the gist.

Re: The Certified Serpent Lantern Review

I thought it was pretty great for a scalable, solo-able mission. It probably could have been longer or, at the very least, made to feel longer by having more varied checkpoint/bunker setpieces. Overall, though...I'm happy to see a higher difficulty level and free expansion of content, especially VIPER.

Re: Hit Locations in Super-Hero Game?

I like Hit Locations for flavor, but itn a superheroic game I find that its just one more die roll.I normally assume hit locations based on damage unless a character wants to aim for a specific spot for a reason (to hit a focus, etc).

Re: Characters from the Max Max Trilogy of films

We remember the Night Rider!

Re: Supernatural Martial Artists

Watch the classic kung-fu flick FIVE DEADLY VENOMS and use that as an animal-based inspiration for martial artists with semi-unique kung-fu styles.