Tech

Last week, my friends and I were having a game with mysterious going-ons. The group arrives at the building of what is probably the place where whoever is behind it is. Somehow, the subject of one of the players eating Cheerios while coming came up and someone replied, "it might be a little noisy eating it". The player rolls dice and says "I rolled a perfect 3. I eat the Cheerios stealthfully." The whole room burst out in laughing for awhile. The GM agreed after he could talk. "Ok, you eat your Cheerios stealthfully." So, has anyone used a perfect 3 for something frivilous or useless?

Re: adventure ideas? 1) Have the team outside their armor in a formal party, perhaps one of their friends is having a big social event. Normal thugs break in and the team has to stop these normals thugs. Suddenly, these thugs with a Speed of 2 aren't so slow and their PD of 2-5 isn't so wimpy.. 2) A normal but brilliant scientist infects half of the team's armor with a virus. At a crucial time when this brilliant scientist's thugs are about to be stopped from stealing something, half the team finds out the other half is unwillingly having to fight their friends.

Re: Vertigo The cost was 5 pts per 1d6.

Re: Vertigo Ah yes, the Vertigo power. I had created a supervillainess based on this power called... Vertigo! Surprise, surprise. Throwing points and caution to this wind, I reworked it to my satisfaction. I came up with this before USPD came out. This isn't necessarily the most cost effectiant but when you're GM and no one sees the villain's stats, who cares? Here's how I built it: 5d6 Dex Drain (Max effect +1 advantage - house rule- Effect: 30 pts Drained), BOECV, Versus Mental Defense instead of Power Defense (+0), at Range (+1/2), can't use any other power or entire effect fades (-1/4), Ego Roll at -6 to break entire effect (-1/4), not vs opponents with no mind (-1/4). To make it more effective (and complicated for me), I added: BOECV is at 0 END, the rest of the power is at 1/2 End Total Cost: 114 real points, assuming I didn't goof on my math. Ok, yes, this is exceedingly complicated for the effect but it works for now. Now, if I saw another write-up which I thought worked just as well and was cheaper, I'll use it.

Re: Worth his weight in Diamond This is a hoot! Where else can you ask about a character concept in real physics terms and get answers quickly?

Re: Smelly Bob A loooong time ago, I took a concept (and picture) from a different system and created: Scuz. Yep, that was his name and the picture was kinda gross. He smelled like huge mounds of festering limburger cheese. No one wanted to be around him, hit him, or for that matter be near him. The effect was so strong that even people at range had difficulty attacking him because of the smell. Very simple to build: +4 DCV levels with a Physical Limitation: Smells like huge mounds of festering limburger cheese.

Re: Building a Giant: the Checklist Ultimately, it's up to the GM and the campaign rules. If the GM allows the older way of levels of Growth, always on, etc., go for it. If the GM wants it done 5th edition style, abide by that.

Re: The Vehicle Books And thanks to you all for giving me an understanding of the books. At least now I can consider buying the correct book.

Simple question: what's the difference between the books 'Hero System Vehicle Sourcebook' and 'The Ultimate Vehicle'?

Re: Running jokes in your campaign First, a couple of old running jokes that ran their courses: A superheroine in her civilian ID was a nurse. During her nursing career, a crazy old man in one of the hospital rooms would call out, "Nurse! Nurse!" This happened repeatedly for many sessions until finally one of the players finally said, 'Hey, isn't that guy out of the hospital yet??' A couple episodes later, he got hurt because he was too close to a supervillain/superhero battle and ended up back in the hospital. Now, as the player was getting a little tired of this NPC, I let him fade away. However, a few years later in an episode run by a different GM, a different player running a detective character has someone come into his office. The guy asks the detective, "Can you find people?" to which the player responds, "It depends on what you mean." The GM pulls out his trump card and the guy responds to the player character, "I need your help. I'm looking for a nurse!" The player running the superheroine groans and puts her head on the table while everyone laughs. A relatively well-to-do PC has a chef named Jacque that cooks for him. However, he's french and refers to everyone and anyone that he doesn't like with this line (in a bad french accent): "You must be a slum-mah!" Even when he shows up a couple times near the scene of a battle, he insults the villains with: "You ah all super slum-mahs!" The chef never got creamed or attacked interestingly enough. More recent: Before Multiform existed, my brother created a multiple-formed character. However, the character was always green colored. Every few episodes, he would be walking along when he sees a woman with her son. The son points at the hero and says, "Mommy, is that a spaz!?" To which the character said, "You'll get yours, kid." Even in the most unlikely of places, that kid would show up and point at him, always referring to him as a spaz. Even more recent: A nameless boy asks a few heroes for their signatures, to which the heroes were more than willing to give out to a fan. One hero has this same boy ask for not 1 but 3 signatures. The hero gives his hero signature to this seemingly superfan but mere seconds later, runs over to another boy and loudly has this conversation: "Hey, hey! I'll give you 3 of his signatures for one of Lee's!" (Lee is a different hero) The hero, standing nearby, is superbly deflated while all the players get a good laugh.

Re: Shapeshift: Still having trouble adjusting from 4th to 5th. My playing group dislikes the 5th edition Shapeshift. I will not disagree that Lord Liaden brings up some good points. However, the simpler 4th edition is greatly preferred by my group and that's what we use.

Re: Ummm...Where's Mechanon? Thinking on this for a moment: how many scenarios have been written up for our robot nemesis Mechanon? We've had some for Foxbat, Deathstroke, Dr Destroyer, etc etc but I can't think of any published scenarios for the metal guy. I'm not referring to scenario suggestions but actual published scenarios (paper, pdf, etc) by Hero Games. Just a thought there. Fortunately, there are plenty of fan-suggested scenarios for Mechanon.

Re: Ummm...Where's Mechanon? In case no one said it: Welcome back.

Re: The Genesis of +5 = 2x power? The quote is merely to show where the doubling rule first appeared.

Re: The Genesis of +5 = 2x power? Here's the original first reference for everyone: Champions 1st edition, copyright 1981. (not 1e Edition), page 49 "The standard rule is that each extra die of damage or 5 pts. of STR is twice as powerful as the die before it. This geometric scale should be considered when attempting to add damage or STR together." ..wow, did that binding creak when I opened Champions to read it!

Re: What's with all the points Normals, by the name itself, refers to your average, ordinary guy/girl in the world. As people become skilled, extremely skilled, top best trained people in their field, they are still normals but skilled, not superpowered. For myself in my campaign, many bankrobbers or thugs the heroes meet are at 11 or 12 Dex with 2 or 3 speed tops, some still at base stats of 10 Dex with 2 SPD. However, this digresses from the forum topic.

Re: What's with all the points I also have a copy of the very 1st edition and yes, I keep my doors locked.

Re: Twas The Night Before Christmas - Champions Style! Um, 31 views and no replies. Doest not anyone like my tale of Foxbat?

On Wednesday, I ran my second 'Annual Champions Christmas Episode'. Last year, the hero group fought Santa's Elves stealing toys from a toy shop, Foxbat himself dressed up as the 'head' elf. This year, the heroes discovered that all the cookies in the city had been stolen, except from one company. The heroes decided to check it out and ran across more of Santa's Elves (even more sour than last year). Foxbat was there, dressed as an elf again and had his group of villains with. It turns out Foxbat's Master Plan was to steal all the cookies in the city so that when Santa came to deliver presents, he'd miss all the cookies he usually eats and when Santa came to look for those cookies, Foxbat would bag him and take the remaining presents. The villains that were with Foxbat were all sick from trying to eat the cookies that had been stolen, so the heroes fought the elves again. Before the game, I recited a Christmas poem: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'.... Foxbat style! Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In the hopes that Foxbat would not soon be there; The heroes were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And Roger in his bed, and I in my room, hoping that Roger would not snore like a goon. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters.., which fell off with a crash! The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, than a man on a sleigh, and eight plastic reindeer, What a silly-looking driver, agile like a cat, I knew in a moment, it must be Foxbat. More rapid than eagles his followers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now Speedster, now Airhammer, now Exo-skeleton Man! On Rocketboard, on Scarecrow! It's nice to have fans! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! Jump away! Fly away all!" As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the villains they flew, with the sleigh full of bags, and of course Foxbat too. And then, in a racket, I heard on the roof the stomping! Oh Foxbat, you are such a goof! As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, down the chimney Foxbat came, and crashed to the ground. He was dressed all in costume, from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of tools he had flung on his back, And he looked like a thief just opening his pack. His legs how they shivered, his smile so merry! His nose red like roses, his eyes were so bleary! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the top of his hood was white with the snow; He tripped on the carpet, which got in his teeth, The falling tools encircled his head like a wreath; He put on a smile as he rubbed his hurt belly, He sneezed and he shook like a bowlful of jelly. I thought 'This is year 2' that he acts like an elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; As he sneezed in his gloves, with a cold in his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, tried to get to his work, And steal all the stockings; Oh Foxbat you jerk! He threw his tools down, security systems opposed, and giving a nod, up the chimney he froze; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all scattered like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night." That was the end of the poem. I hope this poem warms you and puts you in the Christmas spirit.

Re: FLOTSAM - character background idea Is this an origin/history or a novelette?

Re: Superhero Images I have to say: this thread has been most successful. I remember so many threads attempting to start something like this, only to have them shot down or people not interested in them. Glad to see this one still around.

Re: WIYCT: What is your character's theme? Here's the list of the music themes for our campaign's Champions CDs: DISC 1 1. The A-Team theme (from A-Team series. For brick spokesman) 2. Why Should I Worry? (from Disney's Oliver & Company. For cool brick) 3. Aquarium (classical music piece. For psychic heroine) 4. I-Spy theme (from I-Spy series. For detective bio-energy heroine) 5. Flashback (from Tenchi Universe. For swordwielding heroine's gentler side) 6. Wild Arms theme (from Wild Arms Game. For extreme gunwielding marksman) 7. Final Fantasy Tactics theme (game of same title. For a 'chemist' character) 8. Kit's Fight (music from Tail Spin series. For agile brick heroine) 9. Dance Away (from a cartoon series. For wind-using professional singer heroine. Might change this theme later) 10. Skating (from A Charlie Brown Christmas. For water-using skating heroine) 11. Voltron theme (from Voltron cartoon. For large armored hero) 12. Peaceful Day (from Tenchi Univ. For team leader radiation-using heroine) 13. a sci-fi theme (some movie. Hi-tech gadgets heroine) 14. Three Stooges theme (from Three Stooges. For shrinking hero who often puts foot in mouth when talking to villains) 15. Victor's Escape (from Suikoden II soundtrack. For ice hero) 16. Banner Town (from Suikoden II soundtrack. For time-wielding heroine with 10 SPD) 17. Batman TAS theme (from Batman The Animated Series. For martial artist) 18. Our Time Has Come (from Cats Don't Dance movie. For fun toon hero) 19. short funny commercial from 'Sister Sister' tv show (for same toon hero) 20. Ashton (from Michael W Smith CD. For detective leader of group) 21. Wildcat's Wild Ride (music from Tail Spin series. For superspeedster heroine) 22. I'm A Pioneer (from Tenchi Muyo OAV. For martial artist - you'd have to know the hero's origin to realize this perfectly fits) 23. Boss Battle (from SegaCD Lunar Silver Star game soundtrack. Steel brick) 24. Morning Light (from a cartoon series. Single theme for 2 NPC's: toon hero's girlfriend and detective leader's love interest at City Hall) 25. Cook Off! (music from Suikoden II. For energy projector - although not a cook, the theme is fun.) 26. Aviary (classical music piece. For song-powers heroine) 27. Enchanted Dreams (from Lineage 2. For young shapechanger heroine) 28. bumper (from Sailor Moon soundtrack. For toon hero as detective) 29. Superpowers Team theme (from Superpowers Team cartoon. Armored hero) 30. Electric de Chocobo (from FF7 soundtrack. for goofy martial artist) 31. Battle vs Ghaleon (from SegaCD Lunar Silver Star game. Mega brick) 32. REBOOT season 4 theme (from REBOOT series. For robotic heroine) 33. Moon Crystal Power (from Sailor Moon soundtrack. For NPC group leader) 34. A Girl's Heart in Love (from S.M. series. For weapon-wielding hero) 35. Ordinary Girl (from S.M. series. For NPC group #2 heroine) 36. Scout of Destiny (from S.M. series. For NPC group #3 heroine) 37. Mysterious Starlit Sky (from S.M. series. For NPC group #4 heroine) 38. Sailor Scout Reunion (from S.M. series. For NPC group #5 heroine) DISC 2 1. The Prince & The Pauper theme (from Disney's movie. For NPC princess) 2. Cloudsurfing (from Tail Spin series. For wind-using heroine) 3. Arise, My Muse (English classical piece. For British detective hero) 4. Matilda Knights (from Suikoden II soundtrack. For heroic gravitic hero) 5. Supermotorcycle (from AMG soundtrack. For sword-wielding hero who's part of a college motorcycle club) 6. Descent (from AMG soundtrack. For beautiful & powerful, not-from-earth heroine) 7. The 15th Squadron (from Robotech soundtrack. For mecha hero) 8. Under The Bigtop (from live circus music. For stretching hero) 9. Pini Di Roma music (classical piece. For prismatic heroine) 10. Quiet Morning (from Tenchi Univ. For quiet staff-wielding heroine) 11. Prelude to Battle (from Tenchi Univ. for powerful team leader hero) 12. Still More Fighting (from FF7 soundtrack. For dwarf brick who likes to fight) 13. Morning Light Type A (from cartoon series. For superspeedster) 14. harp music (classical music piece. For harp-playing, winged heroine) 15. Uutai Ruins (from FF7 soundtrack. for martial artist) 16. Highwind Take to the Sky (from FF7 soundtrack. For wind user heroine) 17. Shining Force 3 theme (from same game. For bow-wielding hero) 18. Justice League Unlimited (from same cartoon. For supergirl type heroine) 19. Ascension of the Lion (from Lineage 2. For lion-tamer brick hero) 20. Life Stream (from FF7 soundtrack. For minor-powered martial heroine) 21. Final Crisis (from Lineage 2. From mega energy wielder. Will probably change theme later) VILLAIN THEMES 22. Tripods theme (from Tripods series. For alien villain) 23. It's Difficult to Stand (from FF7 soundtrack. For Darkon - Enemies 3 villain) 24. Final Battle vs. Luca Blight theme (from Suikoden II game. Firewing's theme) 25. bridge (from Sailor Moon soundtrack. short funny piece for Foxbat) 26. Ruid (from SegaCD Lunar game. For Juggernaut/Dreadnaught villain) 27. Dwarven Drinking Song (from Lineage 2 game. For Shamrock villain) 28. Skullkeep theme (from same game. From megapowerful illusion-using supervillainess. Arch-enemy of one of our hero teams) 29. Borg Engaged (from Star Trek Next Generation soundtrack. Mechanon's theme) 30. Mars, Bringer of War (from The Planets cd. Doctor Destroyer's theme) Although it's two CD's in size, it's an on-going project but a fun one!

Re: Skills a True Hero Must Have Ignoring powers, these are all the skills, perks, etc that my most experienced character has (in no particular order): Although not a skill, I'll mention some stats: 14 INT, 17 EG0, PRE 30 Computer Programming 15 or less Systems Operations 15 or less Security Systems 13 or less Tactics 13 or less Persuasion 15 or less TF & Piloting 14 or less (All planes, military planes, helicopters, space shuttle) Combat Driving 15 or less (cars) Mechanics 13 or less (cars, boats, planes) Weaponsmith 14 or less (All small arms, energy weapons) Linguist (English - native) Languages: Russian (idiomatic), French German & Chinese (very fluent) Streetwise 15 or less Oratory 15 or less Contact: US Pentagon CK: New York, Washington DC 12 or less PS: Skiing 14 or less TF: Skiing KS: Cars, boats, planes 12 or less KS: Supervillains 14 or less KS: Viper 12 or less KS: World Politics 12 or less KS: Government Officials 14 or less KS: Environmental Dangers 12 or less KS: Geography - Russia 12 or less WF: Swords I won't mention the gobs of various Levels he has, Martial Arts or Powers. I might have missed 1 or 2 skills. He is not Russian, in case you're wondering but with enough sneaking into Russia for the U.S., you pick up a few things. The variety of skills he has allows an incredible amount of versatiliy and a wide range of episodes to dive into with competence and confidence. It also gives your teammates confidence that you're entering into heroic situations they have no idea of what to do but that your team leader does.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From a long time ago, my villain yells at the brick of the group "You incompetent worm!" In a slip of the tongue, the hero yells back, "Hey, no one calls me an incontinent word!"

I don't know why it didn't occur to me when the 25th Anniversary Special Editions of Champions popped up and was talked about. Pesky real life - heh. However, I am glad to be able to say that my group's campaign has reached it's 25th anniversary and is still going strong. Wow, it's hard to believe that! The original and first hero group has changed eight times now. Groups have come and gone, and some of those heroes from those lost hero groups have joined other groups. Heroes have come and gone. Villains have come and gone and in some cases come back again. There was originally just me, my twin brother and a friend GM'ing each other in solo and dual hero games until we dared to show Champions to our other friends and older brother, and as the saying goes, 'They were never the same'. Since then, our friends have have four children and three of them have joined our campaign - don't worry, the youngest is already interested in making up a hero once she's old enough and has even created some heroes by using heromachine2. We've all learned the do's and don'ts of GM'ing, what makes a good game fun and a terrible game lousy. We've done our fair sure of games we wish we'd done better.. and continue to run into that here and there. We also earned that long-lasting friendship to enables us to go along with the GM when we hear 'You're surrounded and taken captive' or something like that because it moves the story along into something really interesting that the players will be talking about for days or weeks later. Over the course of one or two years, we run an episode or two of possibly campaign-altering results should the heroes fail. This year alone, we did three! We often run episodes where events in heroes personal lives are affected by what's going on as heroes or vice-versa. What is likely our most favorite type of Champions episode? Episodes where heroes face heroes in a fight or heroes from different teams fight side by side. These are the ones where you get to see the different team styles in action. Incredible fun! We've also had those new players who tried Champions once and twice, then never came back and we were glad for some of those. Therefore, we welcome you to our 'Hero Flops of the Worst Kind!' - Our first infamous Amoeba Man hero is a joke now - O thank you that the power Duplication didn't exist at the time of Amoeba Man's creation! How'd he make his first showing up? He was a taxicab driver with a passenger in the back. He sees a bank robbery through a huge glass window and what's he do? He drives the cab through the bank window, changes/splurps into a man-sized amoeba and levitates/splurp-floats at the villains hitting a villain with an Ego attack. Ummmmmm..... - Oh, let's not forget Photogen - the original concept was that the guy had every single Enhanced Sense there was dealing with sight: he'd take a picture from his eyes and pull the picture from his stomach. That never took but my older brother managed to change the concept into something palatable. - Mr. Pain. Yes, a hero (if you can call him one) with a 50 Strength. He loved to do haymakers on everyone. I recently dug him up, recreated him and made him a villain. 'Mr. Pain found he enjoyed inflicting pain so much he became a villain. Yeah, that works.' - Moriah (made by the same guy who made Mr. Pain). He used wind-powers and thought himself to be a Sheik prince (but wasn't). He kept telling every heroine he met to join his harem (which he didn't have). He thought he was the best looking guy around (which he wasn't). And every.. single.. time he attacked, the player would sing out in a terrible singing voice 'They call the wind Moriah!' So many times heroes and villains would tell him to shut up! He fortunately only lasted 3 or 4 games. We have, of course, heroes which become our favorites and those favorites can change from time to time. Some of our favorites heroes, which were in a team were retired. We as players thought 'Let's retired them. We don't have anywhere else to go with these characters. I have 100 experience I haven't used yet.' Less than one year later, the team in it's entirety came out of retirement and reclaimed their place in our campaign history. One of our groups, The Protectors, was composed of.. shall we say unusual characters. It wasn't planned that way but that's the way they turned out - all of them. They killed so many villains and monsters. For example, we killed off Mumm-ra from The Thundercats series. We got rid of Lord Dread from 'Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future' series. They ran up against the weirdos and monsters that we wouldn't throw at any other group and made the world safe by making sure no one would ever run into them again. The group was permanently retired when everyone either got cured, went home, got married or whatever. So many old memories to talk stories about and many more new stories are being added. I could go on and on but I won't.. unless you start asking questions or want to hear more. On Friday tomorrow, we have another game. Still, this campaign would not have come around unless HeroGames had published the very first Champions book, which I pulled out an hour ago to look at again.