Brian Stanfield

Here is part one of a two part article about, essentially, racism in depictions of orcs, and how signifiers often used to describe them (savage, primitive, warlike, and so on) are the same ones used by colonialist cultures to describe non-whites.  (TLDR: In Tolkien's case, specifically Asians.)
 
I'm not comfortable with things like "orcs represent evil", or any "evil" races (goblins, kobolds, etc.) whose purpose it is for PCs to go out and slaughter.  Especially in contrast with the "enlightened" (and, unexaminedly white) elves.  I would like for all of them to be depicted as people, suitable for use as player characters, or dropped entirely.

I found it!
 
It was called Wildstrike!
 
Obviously too simple and narrow in focus, but I wish I had it.

There have been countless attempts to overturn D&D's nomenclature for everything from "class" to "level" and everything in between, and they've all pretty much failed. I think the whole "race" vs. "species" windmill is simply not worth tilting.
 
I feel that fantasy races, along with magic and fantastical beasts are what make a fantasy setting feel like fantasy. Without those elements, the game merely feels like alt-history.

For the record, I learned to play chess from a picture book.
 
I don't have it any more. My mother gave it away to one or another of my cousins. I can't therefore give a page count for a book capable of teaching a kid to play chess.
 
But that's the level of complexity that is possible.

When the late great Aaron Alston started writing modules and supplements for Rules Cyclopedia D&D (the white hardcover rule book and Mystara campaign setting), he instituted an optional Characteristic-based Skill system reminiscent of Hero System. That made it easier to build more rounded PCs, as well as NPCs with useful abilities who didn't also have to be "high-level."

I'm working on an adventure module that will hit the shelves about the same time as Western Hero.  There's a full campaign and two adventures plus tons of scenario ideas in the WH book, but I wanted to have something extra for people to run as well.  Its long been my position that products suffer for lack of support; its not enough to just have rules out there.
 
This one is a "town taming" scenario where the PCs are hired on to try to deal with a town gone wild, but there's a lot more going on under the surface and a valley area they can continue to do adventures in after the job is done if they wish.

EQUIPMENT
 
Here is a first draft of equipment sent to me by Henry's player:
 
 
GM note: I told him that the flashlight is free, the flares are free, the scuba gear is free, the spade is free (the collapsible trenching tool), but that he has to pay for the wrist cam because it is 1981 and that it definitely qualifies as spy equipment. So he still has 19 points to spend!

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. 

You know, there is a book that sorta does this. Champions in 3-D is a dimension-jumping resource book, and shows the versatility and strength of the HERO System by offering a brief chapter on each of several different dimensions. Each chapter gives an overview, gives the rationale for how the dimension works, and offers some specific builds for that dimension, followed by some adventures. 
 
This could work very well in the Hall of Champions. Make each chapter a separate document. In each document, offer some guidelines for that particular scenario, set the parameters for the characters, offer some advice, show some builds, and then offer a series of adventures to put that scenario into action. Simple enough! This would be a most excellent model for "beginning adventures," and really should be the emphasis of the Hall of Champions. More settings? Meh. More villains? What for? New adventures? Now you're talkin'! Advice on how to set up those adventures, wrapped right into the adventures themselves? Holy cow, take my money, please!
 
Unfortunately, we're the ones who are expected to do this legwork. I think maybe some creative folks need to start shaping this new model and promoting it to the point that DOJ can no longer ignore how imperative it is for the survival of HERO System.

So, I have my first online faculty meeting scheduled tomorrow morning via Zoom.
 
I'm considering wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses.

Don't forget to leave your pants hanging off the side of your chair.

Yes, there is a characteristics maxima, but you don't get the 20 points for it.
The first character bought 25 STR and it cost double for the 5 points above 20.
 
Oops, Duke caught that! I noticed just before I hit "Submit Reply".

So no Normal Characteristic Maxima?

I know there are a crap ton of things being tossed about in this thread, design-wise, that are way, way, _way_ over my head, so I'm probably missing something, but my big take away from the last several pages is that "modern gamers prefer colorful picture books."
 
 
 

The BBB was great for its time. Many books appeared in a similar fashion back in the late 80s and early 90s. But the bar has been risen from a few companies, and not all of them use the techniques you've noted. Keep in mind, however, that most of your books out these days are being sold on two markets: physical and digital.
 
[WARNING - Design Geek Rant] Speaking primarily as a digital publisher, I've found that having a solid typeface like Arial around 10-11 points makes a simple compromise between the two formats. I've found books from Green Ronin to be clean for the most part and easy to read.  That said, there is something eloquent about Paizo's books.I like how they organize their stat blocks, and some of the borders they use around their pages. But the textures they use on some of their pages can make the text difficult. What's worse is when someone tries to do the same thing on a black and white product. The times I've seen this, the designer either hasn't made the white of the "readable section" opaque enough, or  the text isn't bled correctly on the page. In any case, it makes it hard to read. Another company that I recommend for their design is Modiphius. Their Conan line is gorgeous! The stat blocks are easy to read, and the books just look great. Unfortunately their STA line suffers a bit for folks that don't like white text on black backgrounds. But it does emulate some of the Trek style nicely. [End Design Geek Rant]
 
I've stated this before. Hero books should look less like text books and more like game books. This requires a few things to complete, however. First, its time to update the stat block. Sure it's nice to keep using a familiar stat block from the 80s, but it's time for a face-lift that is cleaner. I remember when I was starting out as a designer and I begged Dave Mattingly to let me re-do the stat blocks in Unkindness. Man, did I ever learn a lesson there. Second, lean into color more. 6th ed was nice because of the color, but it needs to be a standard these days. Most game books have at least some subtle color elements on glossy paper, and almost all modern PDFs are in color. Lastly, decrease the book sizes a bit. This goes back to the text book appearance. The main books should be a good size, but not necessarily "bullet stopping" in nature. Heck, a nice Champions Hero Guide and Champions Masters Guide would be great, but make them the around same size as the PHB and DMG. Need more powers? That's what a powers book is for. Need bad guys? Enemies. Wash, rinse, add some detergent, and repeat. 
 
 

TTS Stands for Tabletop Simulator. It was originally a Kickstarter project that successfully funded, and is now available for purchase on Steam.  What it is is a Physics enabled, VR capable (but not necessary), simulation of a  Gaming Table top  for up to 8 individuals to play. It is $19.99 on Steam, and has a large amount of games implemented on it.  It requires all participants to have a copy of the application, but is a one time purchase. 

One navigates their POV using WASD to move the camera around, and the Arrow Keys to re-orient one's camera.  One uses their mouse to pick up, manipulate, and drop objects onto the table. Each participant picks a "color" which corresponds to their seat position at the table with  the host, or GM being black. By Default the table comes with a chessboard and decks of cards and some other items. but users have made multiple Modules for it, for Card and dice games, Classic and current board games (such as Settlers of Catan. or Monopoly, though I think within the last month, Steam has removed some of the games at the copyright holder's request), and Tabletop RPGs, such as D&D 5th Edition, and now, Herosystem 6th edition (and fifth is currently being implemented). All of the modules are available on TTS's Steam Workshop as Downloadable Modules, most of which are free.

The Herosystem Module was coded in Lua (the native programming language for TTS), by user Brennall, who is publishing not only YouTube tutorials on how to play, but has also published video play throughs on his 1935 London campaign, with some of his players having no experience with Herosystem picking it up fairly quickly using the module. Brennall's purpose in publishing the module was his attempt at bringing new players to Hero, and making it much easier to play.  He, and the community over on the Herosystem Discord Server are very much interested and following along as Brennall posts his adventures and tutorials. The Module supplies a free  HDE plugin for Hero Designer that will convert characters into JSON files that are read by the module and import the character into it's "combat controller", and also suppies areas at the player's seat to load PDF files for in app reading and reference.
 
 
First:  What are you having problems with? Basic camera Navigation?  Manipulation?  General complexity?  Remember that TTS can be used in three levels.  The first level , with the Herosystem mod loaded as a simple hex grid display, and Dice roller.  The second it can be used to load characters, and prepared map images, and the third level can be used as a fully functional combat manager, with miniatures inside of fully 3D terrain with weather and lighting effects (which the 5e, and pathfinder guys seem to use to great effect as well), with a wide array of miniatures, scenery and terrain available for free, but will have to be pre-prepared and loaded for your scenarios.  Like most computer assisted tasks these days,  the time is spent in set up to make the actual play experience rather smooth and quick.  So far, it seems that for TTS it's sublime to be a player, but a lot of work to be a GM.
 
Second, have you looked at the video tutorials?
 
 
 These are what is posted right now.

To get a new User's  perspective on TTS, you may want to DM User Lensman here onthe forums, as he is the GM for the above mentioned  Turakian Age campaign, and we are going through this together, figuring out how to make maps, and pre load things.
 
I really hope this helps.

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 will post some reports. It will also be using the TTS Hero Mod as the players are widely geographically separated. Lots of stuff to report. 

It would be easy to assume that, for example, the experiments on the ancestors of homo sapiens by the alien Progenitors didn't just produce us and the Empyreans. They could have tested the flexibility of the genome by spawning other variant races, such as the Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and maybe the likes of Orcs and Trolls -- which could be one reason why those species are interfertile. So human "mongrelization," which in the real world we know occurred between homo sapiens and neanderthals, could have crossed even more branches of the family tree.
 
I was also thinking that something similar could have led to the rise of the several reptilian sapient races on Earth during TA, although not necessarily due to Progenitor actions. Champions Beyond notes that, while the Selenites inhabiting Luna have almost no memory of their origins, they were actually created by would-be rivals of the Progenitors, the reptilian Sleynu, to tend the observatory-city the Sleynu built to monitor the Progenitors' experiment on Earth, hoping to learn something to their benefit. It wouldn't be unreasonable for the Sleynu to have attempted to emulate the Progenitors by conducting their own genetic tampering on Terrestrial life forms; nor for them to choose reptiles/lizards as their subjects.
 
Now, here's where my obsession with finding probably-unintentional connections in game settings comes into full play.   Aside from being reptilian, the Sleynu aren't specifically described. However, the oldest surviving Selenite, and the only one with any memory of the time of their creation, can recall "a large, green, multilimbed being yelling at him" (Champions Beyond p. 54), that most likely being a Sleynu. I also noticed that the descriptions of S'taa'sha, the god of Talarshand and some Seshurma during the TA; and the deity of the Serpent-Men/Ssujala, Sha-tael, as presented in The Atlantean Age, are both reptilian humanoids with six arms. And while it's more of a stretch, it need not be a coincidence that the pantheon of the Drakine consists of six gods. It's my theory that all of those divine manifestations could be the product of these species' memories/legends/race memories of their Sleynu creators.
 
It was actually from this point that I leapt to making Krim an aspect or avatar of The Dragon, as I mentioned earlier on this thread; because there were initially six Crowns of Krim, and the seventh, which Kal-Turak fashioned to control the others, is known as "the Dragon Crown." My rationale is that the six Crowns were "gifts" from Krim to the Drakine gods, for their favored followers, but were actually intended to corrupt them and enslave them to Krim's will.
 
I even built a "myth" around the Dragon and the Drakine gods. As I developed it, Krim was the creator of the gods, but also the ultimate evil in Drakine religion -- kind of a combination of Satan and Tiamat. He formed the gods out of each of his own shed skins and his blood. Ultimately the war-god Terrut-Seh led the other gods in rebellion against Krim's tyranny. The battle was terrible, with grievous wounds dealt on both sides, but the gods finally bested him. Terrut-Seh even tore off one of Krim's wings. Yet they were unable to kill Krim, and so they bound him for eternity.
 
From Krim's teeth torn from his mouth during the fight, the gods made their mightiest servants, the sorraga. From his broken-off claws they fashioned the first dragons, and from his scales they made the Drakine (and the Seshurma, according to them). But out of the blood shed by Krim, and the venom spilled from his fangs, demons arose; and his torn-off wing morphed into Krim's "sister," who would be called the Dark Mother after giving birth to Kal-Turak.

Looking for James Bond types, but a merc would work for this, or a Special Forces soldier.
 
The setting for this game is 1981. For Your Eyes Only is the perfect reference if you're unsure. Plus Carole Bouquet!
 
I'm going to make it 50 points of characteristics/skills, 50 points of guns & gadgets, and 50 points of disadvantages, having had a back-and-forth with the first player.

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. 

For those using Tabletop Simulator with the Hero System Mod who have not yet looked at the Workshop for free game assets. Here is a list of thousands of free assets for different RPG Genre

Here is also a Link for everyone on TTS to all the free models and figures for each Genre. Please note there a thousands more than there to find, these are just a some good examples.
Modern Scenery & figures
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1940563574
 
Fantasy
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006028577
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1571686567
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2034472108
 
Post Apocalytpic
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2037709585&searchtext= General
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2037476160&searchtext=
 
Superheroes
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1988734350

As you can see, assets for Tabletop Simulator cost nothing and there are literally thousands available.
 

Dean Shomshak wrote a relevant passage referencing Takofanes in The Mystic World p. 55: "The “King of the Throne of Human Ivory” terrifies other mystics. Sorcerers have gleaned some information about the Archlich’s identity, power, and goals through potent divinations and queries to spirits of knowledge — that’s how anyone even knows Takofanes’s name and self-assumed titles. The Undying Lord’s origin lies so far in the past, however, that even the gods can’t find much information about him." That indicates that concrete knowledge about such antediluvian eras is hard to come by, and not widely accessible. However, some sources do exist. TMW p. 36 notes that the closed stacks of the Library of Babylon host collections of written works lost to the modern world, even as far back as the Turakian Age; although those collections are far from complete. Some modern immortals were alive back then, such as a few Empyreans, and the mysterious mystic called the Witness. But none of those are sources the vast majority of people can just look up out of curiosity.
 
Once you start looking at the various gaps left in the "history" of the Hero Universe, they usually evoke interesting conjecture and suggest possible connections. Let's take Lawnmower Boy's mention of the Basilisk Orb as one example. The earliest era one can trace it to is that of Tuala Morn, Hero's proto-Celtic fantasy setting. Near the beginning of that age, some time after 28,000 BCE, the Orb was in the possession of the great wizard Coruch Crotha, counselor to and protector of the early Tualans. Pp. 207-08 of the Tuala Morn source book describes its appearance and powers, but gives no suggestion of the malevolent influence it exerts on people who found it closer to the modern era. TM p. 265 asserts that the legendary Wild Huntsman survived until the present day, but somehow became the corrupted fear-demon moderns call Samhain (Champions Villains Volume Three). It's certainly tempting to suspect some common force or agency of having tainted both survivors...
 
BTW LB,  when you mention CU "space elves," rather than "Martians and Mandalorians," I suspect you may be thinking of Malvans and Mandaarians. Those other two are different franchises.
 

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 seen some variations, but this is how mine go:
 
You enter the bank and see a masked gunman holding an old man hostage (see attached pic).  The gunman sees you, and says
 
GUNMAN: "Get on the floor or Orville Redenbacher dies."
(The voice comes through a vocoder, overblown, sounding demonic.)
 
It's all playing out like your dream. The gunman seems quite surprised that you're here, since no alarms have sounded and the robbery has just begun.
 
There are about a dozen people on the floor: nine are patrons of the bank, but there is also one female security guard lying face down. She doesn't have her gun. 
 
Phase 12
The gunman is 6" away, standing at the teller counter--the old man is beside him, but not being held, though the gun is pointed at him. There is a male teller on the other side of the desk, hands up, looking terrified.
 
And what do you do?
 
(Then you declare your action, I do all the rolls, say what happened. But sometimes we switch to an online dice roller and slow things down a bit to get into the nitty-gritty.)
 
(We usually post dialog in screenplay format: name of character and then statement. We tried a number of ways but the screenplay format keeps everything running the smoothest.)