Franklin W. Cain

What are some of the more exotic locations from your various (Champions) campaigns? I'm not talking about which real-world foreign cities and/or nations you've used; I'm talking about places most mundane people won't even necessarily know about or at least not be able to visit. What are the counterparts to Latveria, Themyscira, and Atlantis in your games? To help get this started, here are some of the ones I've used. CK: Heinlein Station, at Luna's South Pole AK: Luna, Earth's Moon CK: Port Olympus, on Mars AK: Mars AK: Jovian Space; Jupiter and its Moons AK: Cronian/Saturnian Space; Saturn and its Moons AK: Solar System AK: Near-Sol Astrography AK: Alternate Timelines CK: Caer Frigis of the Winter Court AK: Faerie Realms AK: Angelic/"High Celestial" Realms AK: Infernal/"Low Celestial" Realms AK: Astral Realms AK: Mindscapes/Dreamscapes (a Terrain Knowledge for mentalists, whether arcane or psionic) Have fun! 😉 Franklin

Based on the number of characters I've written up who have the Inventor skill, I would say that I usually use Labs (in a Base) as workshops, more so than as a research facility. I view Labs as a place for *doing* stuff just as much as a place for *learning* stuff. That is why I came up with the idea I posted in my original post above. As an addendum, I've also written up "Labs" for other Interaction skills (Conversation; Seduction) as "entertainment lounges." This feels (to me) as a way to better personalize a character's Base as his *home* (instead of just being a Headquarters). Thanks, Franklin

In "Ultimate Base" (if I recall correctly), the author wrote that having a Laboratory for certain Interaction skills would be problematic. One such specific skill he mentioned was High Society. For some of my own NPCs, I created "Labs" in their Lairs (i.e. Bases) for various Interaction Skills (primarily Conversation and High Society) by naming the "Lab" something appropriate to the character's concept and setting, such as a Great Hall (for a castle) or a Grand Salon and/or Ballroom (for a palace). Just thought I'd share this idea. Thanks, Franklin

Don't think I ever got around to letting you know that I "appropriated" your character concept, and posted a version of him (using a different games system) here: https://fcain.tripod.com/pdq/Lance_Lakermann.html Thanks for the montage and the NPC. 😉 Franklin

All vehicles start with a free 6" movement in Running, to represent its ground movement. How do y'all distinguish the write-up of your vehicles to distinguish between the easier movement on a paved road (reaching its ultimate in high-speed track racing) versus the low-speed, terrain-following movement of off-road vehicles (dune buggies mostly, in this case, but also could include tracked vehicles such as bulldozers and military armored vehicles). I'm looking for suggestions for modeling these different suspension systems (in Fifth Edition rules). Thanks, Franklin

In my own setting(s), I have an additional Sense Group: the Mystic Sense Group. There is some cross-over between the Mental and the Mystic Sense Groups (just as there is between the Sight and the Radio Sense Groups, at certain wavelengths of EMF), but they are still separate and distinct (to me, at least). The Mental deals with the Mind (i.e.: thoughts and dreams; the power of the brain); the Mystic deals with the Soul (and related cosmic levels of Reality). The Mystic Sense Group already includes Ranged (just as the Mental Sense Group does). For a traditional "D&D" style of "Detect Magic" (a la the 1st-level spell from that game franchise), I'd define that Detect as a Narrow Class within the Mystic Group, and a Passive Detect. I'd also want to give it Sense, Discriminatory, and/or Targeting. Hope this helps! ;-) Franklin

My thanks to all. For now, I'm thinking of renaming (in my campaigns) the "Romantic" Rivalry to "Personal" (or maybe "Personal/Social"). Just out of curiosity, since I don't have any 6th ed. docs, what did they name the non-Professional Rivalry in 6th edition? Thanks, Franklin

Actually, since "attending and graduating from school" functionally _IS_ the "profession" of such children, I'd still call that more of a professional Rivalry. ;-) But your mileage may vary. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! ;-) Franklin

The rules-as-written ("RAW") explain the disadvantage Rivalry as being either Professional and/or Romantic. I'd say that "Romantic" could be expanded to include issues such as custody battles and/or primacy of attention from one's children. This would fit into the penumbra of "love" but is certainly NOT within the penumbra of "romantic" (at least, not directly -- one's former romantic partner is the rival, but the focus of your rivalry [i.e. your child] is not a romantic interest, per se). In such a case, I would definitely insist that the term "romantic" be replaced with the word "love" when writing the actual Disadvantage on the character sheet. But I would permit this extrapolation of the RAW as being within the spirit of the rules. I just wanted to put this out there, and see what others thought about this idea. Thanks, Franklin

Here's an idea I had for a flag-suit for our friendly neighbors to the north. ;-) http://fcain.tripod.com/hero5/npc/polaris.html Franklin

Thank you. ;-) In my campaigns, Mental Defense ("MD") is a Figured Characteristic. Franklin

(Re: Max. Range) Checking the rule-book on Mind Scan, I find this. Per the Rules-as-Written (RAW): "Mind Scan is automatically considered to have Mega-Scale at the +1.25 level because it can search for minds on a planet." The +1.25 level of Mega-Scale corresponds to a size of "one hex equals one million kilometers." A million kilometers should adequately cover many planetary systems (not just one world), seeing as Sol (our Sun) is one million KM in diameter. For a gas giant's planetary system, however, you would need to bump up the max. range (i.e. buy more Mega-Scale); for example, Europa orbits Jupiter at around 670,000 KM, so the next higher increment of Mega-Scale (10,000,000 KM) should cover all of the Jovian moons at once. Franklin

Same in 5th Ed. ;-) Yeah. :-( Hence my need for this topic. Good point. Between that and lots of PSLs, that should help tremendously! ;-) Class of Minds would help..._if_ the scanner already knows the target's species / race. I'm looking for a more generic situation. Thank you for the feedback! :-) Franklin

Mind Scan vs. the Cosmos AKA "Where in the Multiverse is Carmen Sandiego?" AKA "Where's Waldo? The Trans-Dimensional Edition" Per the 5th Edition rules-as-written (RAW), Mind Scan has an effective maximum range of an entire world, specifically, the world that the scanner is currently on. Also, the combat roll to use Mind Scan takes a penalty based on the size of the population being scanned. Since I want characters to be (theoretically) able to use Mind Scan on a more cosmic scale, I need to be able to expand these criteria accordingly. Part 1 - Max. Range Since Mind Scan is a Mental Power, it doesn't have a true (i.e. quantifiable, measurable) max. range. Furthermore, because it operates indirectly (i.e. not requiring visual contact), it isn't limited to line-of-sight. Thinking about the "base" max. range of "current world" with regards to the presumed setting of superhero comics, this gives me some questions. What if the target mind is in low Earth orbit (for ex.: aboard the International Space Station)? I'd argue that low orbit is "close enough" to the world in question to be included into the default max. range. But what about on a moon? If the scanner is on Earth (Terra), and the target is actually on the Moon (Luna), would that still be considered "close enough"? If not, then this would be the most logical first step "upwards" for the max. range: from "Current World (Only)" to "Planetary System" (i.e. a planet and all of its moons). Another example where this increase to max. range would be very applicable is Jovian Space (i.e. Jupiter and its moons). If our psychic is on Ganymede and the unknown target he's looking for is actually on Europa, this would still enable him to scan for the target. Obviously, the next higher increment from "Planetary System" would be "Star System" (i.e. an entire solar system). However, from here it would be a tremendously huge step upwards to cover an entire galaxy! And from "Galaxy" you'd next have "Galactic Cluster" and then "Super-Cluster of Galaxies" and then finally "Entire Universe". Logically, there probably ought to be some sort of mid-way position between "Star System" and "galaxy", but I'm not certain what atronomical term would be appropriate. If I were using the background from GDW's Traveller game, I'd consider using "Sector" or "Domain", but those would be a more political-based designation, instead of an astronomy-based one... For reference, here is the scale of max. ranges I've defined: (0) - Current World +1 - Planetary System +2 - Star System ?? - (add anything here?) +3 - Galaxy +4 - Galactic Cluster +5 - Super-Cluster of Galaxies +6 - Entire Universe The "Trans-Dimensional" Advantage in RAW already discusses how to add the ability to include alternate universes (i.e. other dimensions) to Mind Scan. (However, please see below for how this affects the Population Size of the search...) Part 2 - Pop. Size Given the premise of searching for a specific mind, somewhere within just our own galaxy, how big of a population would we be scanning? As an example, I'd like to refer to an established setting for another game. In the Third Imperium setting for GDW's Traveller, Charted Space covered a tiny fraction of the Milky Way galaxy. And yet the Third Imperium itself had 11,000 worlds, with a small percentage of those worlds having populations in the _trillions_ (and _tens_ of trillions for many of that percentage). This gave _quadrillions_ of people to just that one empire. This does not include the population of the other empires and other societies in Traveller's Charted Space. I could easily see the population of Charted Space being in the quintillions, and the (theoretical) population of the entire galaxy being in the _septillions_ (never mind the sextillions)! Now, given that our galaxy isn't one of the larger ones, and given that there are clusters of galaxies, and that these clusters form super-clusters, just imagine the size of the population to be scanned for a specific mind hidden somewhere within the vast cosmos of an entire universe! Obviously, a smart player will capitalize on Penalty Skill Levels to fight this, using the 1.5-point PSL (+2 w/ Mind Scan vs. Population penalty, cost 3 pts.) to an extreme degree. But even with this legal munchkinism, being able to search an entire cosmos will be exceedingly prohibitive. And given that a trans-dimensional scan will be searching _many_ such universes (i.e. dimensions) at once, this will be even worse! Part 3 - Solicitation of Feedback How would you recommend I expand the "max. range" of Mind Scan, for those characters wanting a more cosmic scale? Is there any (legal) way to work around the extreme Pop.-based penalty, without having to spend over a hundred points just on PSLs? Have these issues been covered in any previously published HERO Games sourcebooks? How did they work around these issues? (I want to say there was once a "Galactic Champions" sourcebook of some sort, but I could be mistaken. Also, I can't check my own library, as all my hardcopy books are currently in storage.) Thanks, Franklin Footnotes: 1) Since I'm an American, I'm using the "short scale" of large numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers

Storn, a follow-up question (or two), if I may. ;-) Per your website, you state that one of your personal commissions (as opposed to a more formal "for publication"/business commission) does not include any rights for printing, (etc.). However, what is your stance on using commissioned art on a personal webpage (for ex.: on the PC write-up page for the character illustrated)? I'd presume you'd be OK with that, especially if the buyer includes the appropriate attribution with a link back to your art webpage, but I wondered what your take on this would be. Also, do you have any standard attribution verbiage you'd prefer to be used by your customers, when they post such? Thanks, again! ;-) Franklin

Storn, I have some questions about your work, if you don't mind. From your website (URL from your signature), I see that a "basic" work (one figure, no background) is $70. About how many hours does this usually take you? I'm just wondering what your per-hour rate would calculate as (again, if this isn't too personal). I read the blogs of a few other artists, and try to get a "feel" for their respective price ranges.) I've always liked your work, and I certainly hope you're able to support yourself by doing what you enjoy. Do you get enough work or commissions to go full-time? And, do you ever work at conventions? (If so, which ones?) Thanks! ;-) Franklin

Looks nice! ;-) Based on the skin color and the eyes, I presume this ex-trooper is of the same alien race as Grand Admiral Thrawn? Franklin

No offense, but I've never really liked the write-up for the "Mega-Scale" Advantage -- to me, it never really meshed well with the Hero System's method of binary rounding. Therefore, I came up with my own (campaign-specific) replacement: http://fcain.tripod.com/hero5/increased_scale.html Basically, for every +1/4 in "Increased Scale", you multiply _ALL_ distance-related aspects of the Power by 32 (i.e.: 2^5). And since the Hero System rounds binary, my house rule allows for a dramatic increase in range (plus are effect, etc.) that still allows for cosmic-scale distances relatively fast. This also allowed me to "fix" the "Increased Range" Advantage similarly (at least, for my own use). I didn't like how using this Advantage more than once did not mesh into the binary sequence. So, being the math nerd that I am, when I played around with some numbers, I noticed that the square root of 32 (i.e.: 2^2.5) was 5.6, which is very close to the "x5" factor given to the first level of "Increased Range". So, I modified "Inc. Range" to fit into my own sequence (as documented in my web page, above). Just wanted to share this, in case anyone else might want to use this. Also, I welcome your feedback on this idea. Thanks, Franklin

Yup. ;-) And thanks! :-)

This is my own creation, and not an "official" (i.e. published) HERO Games character, but he does have both magic and tech, so he might be of use to you. http://fcain.tripod.com/hero5/npc/overlord.html (Edit: Write-up is for 5th Edition.) Hope this helps. ;-) Franklin

What is the current URL for the tool (*) you are using, please? Thanks! ;-) Franklin * -- English-friendly version, I'm hoping. The URL on the first page points to some site using a non-English language.

(First of all, I'm using Fifth Edition rules.) OK, so for a own variation of a "Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist" having a super-armor with zillions of different sensors built into it, I listed almost a dozen different specific Detects _JUST_ in the Radio Group. (Ref): http://fcain.tripod.com/hero5/npc/vanguard.html#radio Now, I'm wondering how "legal" would it be if I were to instead boil them all down into just these two: * Detect Every Plausible Type of EMF Data (large class; Radio Group; passive) * Detect Every Implausible/Ridiculous Type of EMF Data (large class; Radio Group; passive) (Please note that I've already accounted for various Adders for Radio Group separately. I'm talking about _JUST_ the Detects.) Would these two be enough? Our should I stick with the more complicated, more exhaustive list? What's your take on this quandary? Thanks! ;-) Franklin

Re: Duct tape in the hands of a speedster... I find it odd that no one has yet mentioned the example of Quicksilver using duct tape as an improvised Entangle, in "Days of Future Past", when they are breaking Magneto out of the prison underneath the Pentagon. (If someone did, I apologize; I must have missed that post.) Getting back onto the original topic... * Power Skill: Duct Tape, INT roll +5 (or more) * Variable Power Pool: Duct Tape (however many points reserve you like) Franklin

1) Yes, either Power would need to have a really huge boost to cover the needed extra +20 effect. ;-) 2) Using (true) Invisibility in this case would also require an additional Limitation of "Not vs. Cameras and Other Tech" (-1/2?). Thanks for the suggestion! ;-)

I'm soliciting help from the hive mind, as to which Power (in 5th Edition) would work better for this effect. I've got a hypothetical mage or telepath who wants everyone to ignore him. Basically, the power has a Set Effect of "Ignore Me; I Belong Here". Which Power from 5th Edition do you think works better -- Mental Illusions (w/ Self Only), or Mind Control (telepathic), and why? Since both Powers are Instant, it looks like I'll need to use Trigger, regardless of whichever Power I wind up selecting. The preset condition would be "when you see me", should be instantaneous (i.e. takes no time), and should not be overridable (i.e. user does not control activation). (Tally): +1/4 for "Set condition" 1/4 less, for "takes no time" 1/4 more, for "does not control activation" Looks like a total of +1/4 for this advantage. Also, since I don't want the caster to pass out (from spending too much END) just be entering a crowded room (one attack per person, all at once!), he's gonna need to have 0 END (+1/2) on this, as well. Now, I'm wondering if I need to account for being able to use this power on many persons at once... Thanks! ;-) Franklin 1) "SEP" = "Someone Else's Problem", as documented elsewhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_else's_problem http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BystanderSyndrome?from=Main.SomebodyElsesProblem 2) Douglas Adams deserves credit for the term "SEP field": http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem_field 3) I specifically do -not- want to use Invisibility, as I want for people around this caster to subconsciously avoid him and move around him as necessary. With true Invisibility, they'd just bump into him, giving away the fact that he's there. Also, I -want- for this effect to be useless against cameras and the like; in this latter case, true Invisibility would be too powerful.