Durzan Malakim

All very good entries, there @King Red. I can just see making business cards with "Lionheart LLC, monster management and magic consulting."

"Oh please don't let us be Murg and the Troyds. Oh please don't let us be Murg and the Troyds. Oh please..." There are several interesting possibilities involving "Six": The Serious Six The Surviving Six The Quick Six Taking some letters from our names doesn't produce any phrases that particularly grab me, but there may be better combinations: BaD JaM JoK DJ Jo KiBaM Dr Jo JaM BaK BaJa Jo MurDr Kil Jo BaD MuJaK BJ JaM KiDr

Everywhere we go, we make new immortal evil enemies. I think our new group tagline should be, "If we can kill it, it wasn't really immortal." Or perhaps, "We find the 'I'm mortal' lurking inside every immortal." Assuming we survive this arc, I suspect our group will earn itself an official or unofficial name such as "Suicide Squad" or "The Dirty Dozen." Anyone have any suggestions for what our name should be? Let's not leave it up to other Hunters to give us a lame name like, "The Motley Crew" or "Harker's Hubris."

It's nice having our character sheets online so we can always call one up if we need to. I forget, but are we allowed to spend XP mid-fight? I'd guess no, but thought I'd ask. In your ample free time (insert laugh tracks sound effects here), can you reconcile my 159 point Murgatroyd with yours? I'd like to have the most current version available by the next time we play.

We've finally made web site prime time, boys! Presumably, once we give you character updates, you can post them there for our benefit. Good luck in Toronto and don't overdose on maple syrup.

I'm available this Saturday. Murgatroyd looks forward to more monster hunting, manly panic, and magic making.

Here are some out-of-context teasers: Jack didn't bring enough to share with the rest of us "I'll leave my rifle in the car." "Reverse Malibu and Venice." "Killroy mentioned something about a gunfight." "Roll to see what would have happened." "90 miles an hour!" "I think I made him angry, Drew." "Why did he even bother with a shotgun?"

Here's the latest version I have for Murgatroyd with the spells he's cast. Feel free to review and update as needed. I know my version of Arcane Armaments differs from your as I built it as an Aid. I'm not sure how you built the original version of 2 DCs. Was it a ranged martial maneuver usable by others? Murgatroyd_159_ks.hdc

Thanks to @Scything for being nigh indestructible so we get to fight more vampires rather than roll up new characters. We have our very own Tick defending the City. Does that make me Arthur?

Karl Urban's Kirill in the Bourne Supremacy makes for a good Jack Maywood.

I'll see y'all tomorrow at the friendly local gaming store. I look forward to facing more blood-sucking fiends, and even some vampires too.

I would avoid potentially bad party mixes such as: Characters built for a different type of game such as combat-monkeys for a role-playing-heavy game or a role-playing-heavy character for a combat-focused game. Provide players some build guidelines so they know whether they'll be playing in Superhero Fight Club or Ang Lee's Superhero Art Film. Players who unintentionally build rivalrous characters with the same power set, party role, or schtick. For example, two players build scrappers, but one consistently outshines the other and makes that player feel useless or underpowered. While Champions is "classless" you still may want to encourage players to build toward a desired party role. However, there is fun to be had for groups who intentionally build rivals. Just make sure your players want that fun. Players who unintentionally build characters who are antagonistic toward other characters in party. This is usually some poor mix of Complications like player one has a hatred of aliens and player two makes an alien. It's fine when intra-party conflict is a dynamic your players want, but such interactions should not come as a surprise. Again, build guidelines such as, "no brooding loners or murder hobos" can prevent these issues. Groups where one or more players have attacks against alternate defenses or attacks with no normal defense that make other players feel useless or underpowered. These attacks should have diminishing returns over time as foes adapt to them. "This time the Malta agents have come prepared for Internet Troll's NND mental attacks." Essentially, everyone should have a time to shine. Don't consistently reward or punish one power build over another.

The Game Basics section on page 8 of Champions Complete explains the four icons you can see for certain rules. Rules with exclamation points and stop signs are the ones I suggest you pay the most attention to. It's possible to build some "I win" power combinations where there is little to no defense against it. For example, making a teleport power usable as an attack that you use to port enemies away or into harm's way. Or an attack with no normal defense that does body damage. Players may think it's great to use such a power on others, but they generally don't like it used on them. In general, every attack should have a defense. I suggest violating that rule sparingly so that when it occurs it has dramatic consequences. There are already plenty of power mechanics and interactions for you and your players to learn, and you can always add in more complex builds as you become more comfortable with the rules. There is a recent thread about Cheesy-munchkiny builds you've seen that will give you an idea of the kind of powers you may want to avoid.

Character points are just a starting point. Things like campaign limits, decisions about which "stop sign" powers you want to allow, and just talking with your group about the type of game they want to play also factor into a fun game. I would suggest adding in rules and powers as you feel comfortable rather than starting with all the bling, but your mileage may vary. Welcome the boards, and I look forward to hearing about your games.

I suggest starting around the Very Powerful (mystery men) 275 point to Low-Powered (youthful superheroes) 300 point level to make Alpha and Beta level villains a credible threat. Player teamwork and skillful use of game mechanics make straight character point comparisons an unreliable mechanism for determining whether something is a challenge. If you start smaller, you can always be generous with experience points to grow quickly if you don't like the scale. Having played Champions from 400 point characters to almost 800 point world-shapers, I have found that more points does not always lead to more fun. While I could do more stuff with 800 points, I didn't have twice the fun I had when I started off with 400 points. Since I know you've played City of heroes, ask yourself was it fun for a level 50 toon to smash those level 1 to 10 Skulls? Probably not. You enjoy struggling against a comparable threat. You want to work your way up to those Gunslinger Malta agents. At the moment, I'm playing in a low powered 150 point supernatural hunter campaign and loving how well HERO scales down: all the flavor for half the calories. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you check out Killer Shrike's website for HERO resources.