Brian Stanfield

True enough. I've never gotten into an argument about it with anyone, but I don't see how "race" is really defensible, especially if "It's always been done that way." This is a wall I'm not going to bang my head against, but it's becoming more blatantly ugly each time I turn to look at it again.

I don't know about a specific "combat game" (is there one that I don't know about?), but the Champions: New Millennium RPG was something like 200 pages, but with a whole lot of fluff material like a comic book introduction, lots of mocked up newspaper articles about the world and stuff like that. The most striking feature (to me at least, at this particular moment) is that page 1 very explicitly sets all the dials for the game setting, and explains which options are and aren't used. It's very clear and visual, and incredibly relevant to what we've been discussing here in this thread.

3) My pet peeve is not the "races" themselves, but the fact that they're even called races at all! Race is not genetic, but games treat them as such. It's a leftover assumption from older games like D&D, and just won't go away! What I can't stand is that "races" seem to smuggle in all kinds of horrible and antiquated notions about genetics that just aren't true. "Species" I can get behind, and that would be scientifically defensible. Sustaining some sort of vestigial eugenic notion like "race" is just loathsome, especially when the humans are considered the "standard normal" race. I'm not pointing my finger at anyone on this thread, so please don't be offended. I'm just saying "Shame" on D&D and other games that depend on this sort of racism. Ok, I'll come down from my soapbox and go back into quarantine.

Got it. It makes sense, except that picture books expect a younger audience and HERO System, as a game, is probably way beyond that attention span. Be that as it may, I totally grok your point. When I first learned D&D (first Basic, then Expert, then Advanced), I remember vividly the pictures even to this day. When I pop open old game books, I immediately see the pictures that I remember seeing as if it's the first time again. Something about the art always drew me in and locked me in sync with the text. That alone is such an important part of gaming, and it should be respected more as a useful tool. I love the full-color layout of the 6e rulebooks, and especially the 6e Fantasy HERO. But the problem with all those books is that the art appears as random clip-art rather than as images that are integral to reading and understanding the rules. This was a missed opportunity. I'd have to say, the New Millenium books at least got this point, and did a good job of integrating everything into a single reinforced experience. I don't like the rules, but that's a different issue. I'm tired of DOJ rebooting or re-releasing stuff with no effort to update it. New art, new sketches, new anything would help immensely. There is so much competition out there right now, and they're getting left behind. I mean, Kids On Bikes is as simple as it gets, with only a smattering of artwork, but it's so incredibly effective that the book is irresistible. And their array of supplemental adventure books have great comic-themed covers that draw the eye. All the PBTA games are popular as well, and Fate games, and the list goes on. Champions Now is another example of this trend: unfortunately Ron isn't doing HERO System any favors by re-writing the rules in his own image. Compare any of those to Champions Complete or Fantasy HERO Complete, and I'm pretty sure an unbiased audience will never even pick up the HERO books. Agh! I said I wouldn't go down the artwork rabbit hole in this thread, but it's become the elephant in the room, hasn't it? I like that Hall of Champions makes the stock DOJ artwork available for writers to use. It seems like this would be a good opportunity to use this as a sort of guerrilla movement to adapt and reorganize their own art in more thoughtful ways to drive home the point that thoughtful presentation matters. Ok, so I think it's impossible to condense a HERO book to 24 pages of text (even the 1e photocopies that everyone shared). 48 of text is pushing it. I think 96 pages (it doesn't really need to be multiples of 12 . . .) total is more doable for a "one book game" "powered by the HERO System," with artwork integrated into and around the text, some good plates before each chapter, etc. Hell, I know a lot of college artists who do computer design all the time, and who'd love to buy into a project like this for a modest compensation. That's just me, but this really can't be that hard! Can it?

Why the 24-page limit? Is there a standard I’m not aware of? Or is that comic book length?

They also want it all to be easy to learn, short while still being detailed, and free to download. Simple, really.

So no Normal Characteristic Maxima?

It seems to me that the edition used will make a difference on the points expended. I'm a full-blown 6e guy, but I get the feeling you're a 4e fan, correct? Is it better to use those rules?

I'm really interested in hearing how TTS works with he HERO Mod. Keep us posted! I'm still trying to get my head around everything there--I feel like an angry ape with a stick when I try to figure out how to use it! Advice and suggestions would be a great help.

What kind of characters are you looking for? Super-spies, mercenaries, private eyes? I know nothing about Top Secret so I can't get a feel for what's expected.

You know, this is really interesting. I can’t remember who brought up the idea a few pages back about the humans being the mongrelized version of the other “pure” races, but this fits well with that idea. Pure bloods are in red and don’t have the same resistance that mongrels do, so the humans ended out eliminating the other species (I can’t use “race” in this context: it makes no sense) through disease and whatnot. Maybe not intentionally, but hey would have been the ones to survive any post-magical pandemics.

No need. I got a notification for this thread anyway. Thanks for the description. I might be interested in trying something like this out if it's a short-term commitment.

I've never done play-by-email before. How does it work?

Ugh! I HATE subscription models! It's a scam. I don't want to keep paying to use the program that I payed for to use.

I had a girlfriend two girlfriends now that I think of it (not at the same time, God help me!) who did layout for newspapers using Quark. I also worked in a print shop and they used Quark. This was all 15 years ago or more, so things have probably changed. I don't hear people talking about it much anymore. Adobe has pretty much got a stranglehold on everyone's computer these days with Acrobat auto-updater taking over every 15 days or so, so I figure it's probably the new standard, whether we actually like it or not.