Durzan Malakim

I actually knew that...I looked it up long ago when Panpiper offered the character because until then I had only heard it said by a cartoon character and didn't realize it was a name. It is amazing the things gamers learn in pursuit of our hobby 
 
 
He can fill that role, if he chooses to. But he doesn't have to.
 
 
Yes.
 
 
I would prefer that spells be worked out in advance when possible as well. Particularly given we only get to play twice a month, I keenly feel the loss of minutes to rules grubbing at the table.
 
On the other hand, given some people play w/ a laptop running HD at the table, whipping up a spell when absolutely necessary isn't necessarily a show stopper in extremis.
 
 
Ya, spells he casts during play should definitely be kept track of. For instance WilyQ's last HtbM character Miles was a wizard, and he built up a pretty decent spell list of go-to effects over time. 
 
My preference is that you might come up with a handful of spells up front (there's already I think 4 spells that Murg has cast or had on a printed sheet thus far, so that plus 3-6 more), and then grow that one or two spells a session until you have a comfortable repertoire.
 
 
Absolutely. If you're piloting the character, you get to drive his character arc / growth. You could also swap out 5 points of complication for a different 5 points of complication if you don't want to spend XP on it. Just describe how his recent life experience has changed his situation, outlook, hang ups etc to justify it, and no big deal. Given the literally reality bending adventure he just went on, there's all kinds of fodder for change. The main sticking point is to not make the core character unrecognizable. 
 
 
Ezra would have been AMAZING in the Cthonic dimension, but that was more or less the optimal conditions for him. In the "real" world, running around with a glowing sword is a serious drawback / impediment. Keeping the supernatural a secret is literally half the job of Monster Hunters. The whole point is, if you do your jobs right, the normies have no idea that anything out of the ordinary was going on and remain unaware of the supernatural.
 
Part of the strategic considerations for players piloting characters who have abilities that shouldn't be used in front of witnesses, is figuring out how to shape scenes and control initiation of engagements to keep / move the action away from normies. This is similar to some versions of some White Wolf games, early editions of Vampire and Mage particularly, where maintaining the Masquerade or avoiding Paradox were a thing.

Moments after KIllroy killed the monstrous Q'gthik lurking in the dead still waters of the black lake beneath the Stone Door and then dragged his teammates out of the drink and gotten them breathing again, the eerie green mist occluding the sky split, dark clouds opened up, and one of the enormous tentacles encircling the world distended downward through the vast distance and into the lake, the waters retracting from the visible aura of corruption surrounding it.
 
Merely looking upon the inconceivably vast rubbery ichor-oozing appendage of an actual no-fooling Elder Thing ate at the sanity of the Hunters, tendrils of alien whispers clawing at the corners of their minds. With the waters pushed aside, the grotesquely deformed head of the kraken-like Q'gthik was clearly visible at the bottom of the lake, one plate-sized eye exploded and a 50 caliber hole in the center of it's "face". The tip of the sky tentacle touched the corpse's head, green energy flowing from it...the creature's wounds began to heal and its remaining eye began to open...
 
The ambient sense of oppression and mental pressure that had assaulted the Hunters since entering this tainted dimension intensified, and they each knew without words that they had become...noticed...and marked. Joey's heightened senses also informed him that the giant space tentacle's alarming behavior had not gone unnoticed by the creatures inhabiting the region...he could hear the kips and keenings of otherworldly critters upon the wind...it would only be a matter of moments before things began to descend upon their position.
 
The Hunters wisely decided to high tail it out of there...advancing along the trail higher up the mountain, Joey running ahead, Drew protecting Murgatroyd, and Killroy bringing up the rear.  Murgatroyd decided to help himself by helping his allies, and risked some of his own sanity to cast a spell on each of their firearms to temporarily increase the effectiveness of bullets fired from them. This had the side effect of causing the weapons to glow, both visibly and supernaturally, but given the circumstances and the locality that consideration was correctly deemed to be irrelevant. 
 
Pressing up the trail well in advance of his allies, Joey smelled a wave of putrid air blown down the trail from further up the mountain...a pack of something was surely coming down the trail. He ran back down and notified his allies. With few options on the narrow incline, Killroy quickly assembled a makeshift snipers blind a bit down the trail using branches and dead leaves, and Drew luckily somehow managed to conceal his bulk surprisingly well behind a dead tree, but Murgatroyd's attempt at self concealment was laughable, and Joey may as well have not bothered. 
 
After a few minutes of tense stillness with no monsters putting in an appearance, Drew finally lost patience and assumed the kid was wrong. Moving out of position he was in the process of ordering the group to resume their journey when a long worm like creature with tentacles and blade-like protrusions burst from the rocky earth beneath Drew's feet, twisting around his legs and squeezing hard. 
 
Murgatroyd ran forward to cast his Hermetic protective circle in the middle of the trail to offer some magical protection to his allies, and only thanks to a timely lucky stumble that propelled the spindly wizard forward faster than expected he narrowly avoided being snatched up by another of the burrowing worm things exploding from the ground at his feet. Joey sprang into the fight and similarly only narrowly avoided being snatched from below. A pitched battle unfolded, Killroy's big rifle doing some talking, and Drew taking carefully aimed headshots at close range with his glowing pistol, while Joey punched and kicked with his superhuman strength. The creatures repeatedly attempted to pull the Hunters beneath the surface, burrowing away and returning only when a Hunter moved along the ground, as if they could sense the tremors of their steps. Murgatroyd recognized the creatures as things called Bryr'thept in the briefing they had read before taking the mission and tried to caution his teammates against walking, but it was easier said than done.
 
Methodically the Hunters carefully wore the enemy down, the soil of the trail in that area becoming hopelessly churned into an ichorous mess in the process. But with a final ringing echo of a perfect shot, Killroy exploded the "head" area of what appeared to be the last of the vicious worm like creatures. It seemed as if the Hunters had won another victory. But seconds later another handful of the things burst from the ground, screeching and apparently very angry. The Hunters prepared for a deadly struggle, but a large red skinned loin-cloth wearing humanoid ran down the trail and joined the battle...apparently on their side, ripping and punching the worm like creatures with great force and effectiveness. With their newfound ally's help, the second wave of burrowers was dispatched more easily than the first. 
 
The Hunters were initially wary of their new ally, put off by his monstrous appearance, but he politely introduced himself as Aaron Fitzgibbons, a native of this realm and a bitter enemy of Nikolai...the sorcerer to blame for this dimensions fall to Cthonic entities. In need of allies to press his own vengeance quest to make Nikolai pay for his crimes, Aaron offered to help the Hunters. After a short pow wow, the Hunters agreed, and the larger by one group pressed on up the winding incline. They next came to a broken gatehouse, the site of both a long ago battle and a more recent one in which massive amounts of magic were discharged to take down Cthonic creatures. Remains littered the area. Murgatroyd correlated this location to a major encounter described in the Hendricks report.
 
Killroy used his rope launcher to winch himself and Joey up onto a 30m tall rock outcrop, hoping to get a clear line of sight on Nikolai's manor house. Arriving at the top, the footing was poor, and in the very act of warning young Joey to watch his footing and not fall off, Killroy slipped and fell off. Luckily Joey was able to latch on to Killroy's ammo harness and pull him back to safety using supernatural strength. Killroy grunted his thanks, and wasted no time scoping in. He could just see the corner of the manor house's roof over another rise, maybe three quarters of a mile further up the mountain. However down and to the right, in a sort of rising valley between outcroppings, he could make out what seemed to be a battle between two tribes of tentacle-faced Krythoths. 
 
Joey and Killroy slid down the rope to rejoin the other Hunters, and they proceeded further up the trail, but within a few yards rounded a bend and found a continuation of old battle remains surrounding a destroyed summoning stone. Investigating the refuse of the conflict, Drew noticed something in a pile of remains...reaching his hand in almost without thought, his grip wrapped itself around the hilt of an old dull-bladed dagger. Murgatroyd and Joey both recognized the item as being powerfully dangerous magic; Murgatroyd's discerning eye revealed that it had been made to kill Cthonic things by turning their own nature against them. Aaron confirmed that, recognizing it as a weapon made long ago by an old ally of his, the adventuring magicker Bainbriar Thost. Drew was "disinclined" to put the weapon down or hand it over to others. Sensing a potential problem yet was not in a position to do anything about it currently, Murgatroyd held his tongue but silently resolved to keep an eye on the situation.
 
Joey and Aaron ran on up the trail to resume scouting the path, leaving the slower Hunters behind. Eventually they emerged into the rising valley Killroy had scoped, and were able to make out that the struggle between the two tribes of  Krythoths continued about a hundred meters off the trail, though many of the monsters had killed each other. Joey proceeded to attempt to sneak past, but Aaron became enraged and ran off to fight the Krythoths. Unsure what to do, Joey decided his duty was to help his new ally fight so he ran after him. The two proceeded to tear into the monsters. 
 
In the meantime, the other Hunters reached the part of the trail where their scouts had deviated from the mission, and failing to perceive what had occurred, pressed on up the trail secure in the idea that their allies had scouted the path. Thus they were somewhat surprised to emerge into a clearing about the same time a lumbering eight foot tall chitinous nightmare of a creature burst from the other side of the tree line and charged them. Killroy snapped off a shot, but the powerful sniper round ricocheted off the creature's thick bug like armor.  Murgatroyd managed to retain control of his bowels and cast a protective circle, Drew strafed right for a better angle, snapped in, and put a lucky bullet into the monster's brainpan...which amazingly knocked the thing down and staggered it! Killroy chambered one of his nine remaining rounds of sanctified bullets, focused on being one with the target, and finished it off with a shot between the legs into the vitals. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, Drew ran forward with his newly recovered dagger, still clutched in his grip, and chopped the thing's head off for good measure. The dagger slid through the thick chitinous armor like a katana through rice paper.
 
Joey and Aaron caught up with the other Hunters shortly thereafter, and when pressed by Drew on why he had gone off mission, Joey tried to fend him off with a bs story very much like the teenager he is. Drew registered his disappointment in Joey. Aaron was unconcerned and bemused by what the fuss was about. Finally the group pressed on, and soon made it to Nikolai's manor house. Murgatroyd was insistent that the Hunters needed to find a bag of bones talked about in detail in the debriefing of Miles Hendricks, which Miles claimed were necessary to weaken Nikolai enough to defeat him. Drew was trying to organize some kind of sneaky plan to approach the  manor while looking for the bones without getting spotted, but while the planning was going on Aaron just walked up and through the wrought iron gate around the house's front entrance, the rusty iron making a horrible screeching noise upon being opened. He looked over and saw an old leather satchel full of bones off to the side of the path inside the enclosed area, stepped over, and pilfered the skull of Nikolai's dead wife out of it. He called out that he'd found the bones, loudly.
 
Three stories up in his study, hearing the racket of all this, Nikolai peered out through lace curtained windows to see what kind of damn kids were on his lawn...and caught a sanctified bullet between the eyes from Killroy, who had quietly set up a snipers roost while his allies dithered. The bullet shattered the window but then exploded into fragments, doing absolutely nothing to Nikolai whatsoever...not even pushing him back. Nikolai squinted to make Killroy out down below and 'tsk tsk'd' him, waving a finger at him as if at a naughty boy. The curtains twitched closed and presumably Nikolai was heading down the stairs. 
 
Aaron went up onto the stoop and used the large metal doorknocker to knock upon the door. Drew, Joey, and against his better judgement Murgatroyd advanced up to the fence line. Joey went around and retrieved the bag of bones, handing it over the railing to Drew, who holstered his pistol to carry it...unable to bring himself to let go of the dagger. Nikolai finally made it to the door, and after having a shouted conversation through the door, opened it to converse with Aaron, inviting him and the Hunters in for vodka and conversation. Aaron was having none of it, became enraged mid sentence, kicked the door all the way open, and smashed Nikolai with his dead wife's skull. The skull shattered and Nikolai was knocked down, but he did not seem to be harmed by the blow. 
 
Fortunately long years of breaching doors had trained Drew well for exactly this situation...without hesitation he ran up the stoop and past Aaron, diving through the door and burying the magical dagger directly into Nikolai's forehead, satchel of Nikolai's dead wife's bones still in his other hand...breaking the protective magics preventing Nikolai from dying and finally killing the traitorous sorcerer once and for all in a display of unbelievable luck.
 
With his mortal enemy of many centuries finally dead, Aaron recovered his wits, said "good showing, old chap" to Drew, then pushed on into the manor house, "...I seem to recall the blighter said something about having vodka in here..."

We had a full house for this session; Steve couldn't make it to play due to a commitment, but King Red showed up and took over piloting Killroy for the session. Steve showed up later in the evening and observed / helped track combat encounters. Thuddgunn also showed up after an absence from the group, and took on playing significant NPC Aaron Fitzgibbons. WilyQuixote continued to play lucky ex-SWAT Lieutenant Drew Altman, Durzan continued to play the bookish wizard Murgatroyd, and Scything continued to play Joey Manegarm...of the Get of Fenrir.
 

 
We had a jam packed session and finished on time. Each of the Hunters got to do their thing and had at least one moment of glory or impact upon the emerging story. Particularly memorable, the final encounter saw Drew use up nearly all of his remaining luck for the session on one mad gambit that paid off in spades. 
 
It remains to be seen what lies ahead for our intrepid Hunters...

Those making new characters to join the campaign will start at the 125/50 point norm for a new Here There Be Monsters character, following the guidelines described on the Starting Characters page, and then may add 75 XP* to their character.
 
Players may also just pick one of the Iconics and then add 75 XP* to them. I actually prefer this approach for people new to the setting, but it is not a requirement. 
 
*As the campaign progresses, the # of XP to catch up with the group will go up. I'll update this post accordingly.
 
I would encourage players to at least skim the docs linked to from here: http://www.killershrike.com/HereThereBeMonsters/Paradigm.aspx, particularly Assumptions. There are also a number of Talents particular to the setting that are worth glancing at. Players should also read the page for whichever Origin they choose for their character. If you don't want to do all that reading just to make a character...maybe pick an iconic instead; they're all good at something and are all within the campaign guidelines so no fuss no muss.
 
Hero Designer support files are available on the web site (prefabs, export templates, campaign rules).
 
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SELLING BACK OMCV:
 
Guidance on selling back OMCV: players are free to sell their OMCV down to 0 if they like. 
 
Be advised, some supernatural attacks in the setting work by targeting OMCV. Yes, this is a metagame hack to make OMCV matter. No, I don't feel bad about it. You're (mostly) grown adults...make a decision about getting 9 free points or not and live with the consequences... 😀
 
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SKILLS
 
Here There Be Monsters is a cinematic action setting which is primarily Heroic in nature, though with allowance for some Superheroic elements. Thus, it is a skill heavy game, and skills get used a lot during actual game play to navigate and interact with the setting.
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SKILL MAXIMA:
 
A Skill Maxima of 14- is in effect for the HtbM setting. This means that characters can buy skills up to 14- normally, 15- and higher costs double.
 
Overall Levels and All Skill Levels can be applied to take a skill roll over maxima. Other types of less expensive Skill Levels can only be used to offset penalties once maxima is reached. This nuance allows the more expensive skill levels (which many feel are a bit on the overpriced side in 6e) to be more `worth it` as they are the most economical way to go over the Skill Maxima for most characters.
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CUSTOM SKILLS:
 
There are a numerous custom setting specific skills in use in the Here There Be Monsters setting and nearly every character in the setting will end up with at least one of them; they are described here:
 
Here There Be Monsters Skills
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UPGRADED SKILLS:
 
While for the most part we are running Here There Be Monsters using the core Volume 1 rulebook for character creation (plus some specific Advanced Player Guide options that suit the setting such as Possession) and the Hero System Basic rules at the actual table, there are some specific skills that we opt to use the full Ultimate Skills version for which generally speaking is an upgrade or at least a `sidegrade` on the core version of these skills. The current list of skills we have agreed to do this for is:
All of the Interaction skills Bureaucratics Criminology High Society / Streetwise (and all similar variants) Paramedics Teamwork Weaponsmith ____________________
ALTERED SKILLS:
 
Computer Programming aka Computers: a base purchase of Computers is sufficient to cover "normal" mainstream operation of Computers and it is an Everyman skill for characters with a normal "modern" background. A character doing anything beyond just using prepackaged software, surfing the internet, etc suffers from a flat "Too Technical" penalty ranging from mild to severe depending on what they are attempting to do. Buying 1 point Adders to the skill for specific things beyond such basic usage (such as Hacking or Cell Phones) allows a character to apply their Computers skill to problems within that domain without suffering from the "Too Technical" penalty. Other penalties may still apply. A character paying full price for Computers (vs using it as a Fam or a Proficiency) gets one such Adder for free.
 
Fastdraw: I don't require players to purchase Fastdraw for each type of weapon; buying the skill once is sufficient. On the other hand, I reserve the right to apply penalties to circumstantial usages of Fastdraw where I think it would be more difficult than usual due to any complicating factors, the same as any other skill. So trying to Fastdraw a sniper rifle might be more difficult than Fastdrawing a pistol...for instance. 

Killroy saved the day vs a huge tentacular monstrosity known as a Q'gthik hiding in a still lake to waylay unwary passerby's (a blatant Watcher in the Water rip off). The other three Hunters had been rendered unconscious and had been pulled under the waters to either drown or be devoured...take your pick. Having smartly set himself up as a sniper should, Killroy shot out one of the thing's eyes (and rolled one off max damage in the process), and finally finished it off with a head shot. 
 
Murgatroyd really earned his keep as well, between timely use of his Hermetic Circle, ring of blasting, and general arcane knowledge. His Supernatural Resistance also paid for itself protecting him from suffering the tainted consequences of learning dark secrets of a Cthonic nature, forbidden knowledge that let him give smart counsel to his teammates.

The first two sessions were detailed in this thread in the Dark Champions forum: The Tears of Tierrasola.
 
The third session was played last Saturday, face to face at a local game store. We buddy'd up with a couple of players from another group of players...@Steve and @Durzan Malakim who played Killroy and Murgatroyd respectively. 
 
After the modern equivalent of "the king has a quest for you" to move past the usual awkwardness of getting a new group of PC's together, the Hunters agreed to take on the contract and were teleported to a suburban house in Las Vegas where the rift to the other dimension was being contained. 
 
As soon as the arcanists keeping the rift sealed let it open, the Hunters were immediately plunged into the $#!^ as three monstrous tentacles plunged through the tear in reality. Adapting to the danger with admirable aplomb, the four ad hoc allies managed to destroy the Cthonic tendrils, and then bravely crossed over.
 
Finding themselves in a dismal otherworld, the Hunters proceeded to push onward in an attempt to find the Heartstone, steal or ruin it, and then GTFO back to base to collect their fat stacks of cash.
 
Fun was had, tentacle faced monsters were killed, and TPK was narrowly avoided. A good night of gaming. Hopefully part 2 will be as engaging.

The Hunters:
   
 
The Story:
 
We're three sessions in to what I hope will prove to be a recurring episodic campaign (a collection of one to three session adventures, in between other campaigns in different settings run by revolving GM's). 
 
In sessions 1 and 2, the salty ex-SWAT Lt. turned Monster Hunter Drew Altman and the wet-behind-the-ears teenager Joey Manegarm who's adolescent inexperience is belied by his supernatural nature as a descendant of the Get of Fenrir (which also makes him Loki-spawn, but whose counting?), unexpectedly met and had to rise to the challenge when a swarm of Revenants overran the coffee shop in idyllic Tierrasola where they both happened to be partaking of caffeinated beverages. Combining forces to discover and defeat a powerful Black Wizard, the unlikely duo proved to be an effective team.
 
In session 3, Drew and Joey were invited by Section M along with lone gunman and surly vengeance seeker James Killroy, as well as the aloof ritualist Wizard known as Murgatroyd, to be sent through a tear in the dimensional fabric separating their own reality from a darker one corrupted by Cthonic forces, apparently caused by the misadventures of the infamous Mysterian and Arcanist Miles Hendricks.
 
Something on the other side is trying to come through, prevented only by the actions of a beleaguered and tiring team of specialist arcanists, and Section M wants the Hunters to go thru the rift to put a stop to it. An artifact described by Miles from his time on the other side, the Heartstone, is believed to be the key to the endeavor, and the Hunters' mission is simple...capture or destroy it and then if possible survive long enough to be extracted. 
 
The danger is immense. But so is the bounty...$1,000,000 for each surviving Hunter upon success...a nearly unheard of amount for a single contract.

Okay, I figured I'd try something new.  I have decided to start going through various movies and plot out their fight scenes in Hero.  Who knows how long this will hold my interest, but I thought it would be fun.  I'll pick some fairly well known films and well-known fights, watch the videos several times, and try to represent what we're seeing on the screen in the Hero system.  There will be some judgment calls, of course, and people are free to disagree with how they interpret the action on the screen. When available, I'll try to link to a video of the fight and include some time stamps for the action.
 
I'm not going to try to directly match the speed chart to the time of the film, especially when you've got dramatic pauses, dialogue, or switching the camera to bystanders, but I'll make an effort where I can.  I will try and note whatever assumptions I make so that people can better determine if they agree or disagree, and why.  Generally in cinematic action movies, I tend to give higher stats than a lot of people are comfortable with, so don't get too upset if I give a guy a higher Dex than you would.  This is all just for fun.  Oh, and obviously spoilers if you haven't seen it.
 
First scene -- the elevator fight in Captain America: Winter Soldier
 
 
 
Okay, so here are my starting assumptions.  By my count there are 10 Hydra guys in here with Captain America.  Brock Rumlow is a named character who gets his own stats, and the really big guy probably has higher stats as well.  All of these guys are going to have at least the same stats as a Viper agent, probably melee combat specialists.  In 5th edition that would mean they've got 20 Str, 18 Dex, and 4 Speeds, plus 2 levels in hand to hand.  Looks good for a starting point.  Cap would of course be stronger and faster, how much so is sort of part of the discussion.
 
My quick notes of the important aspects (basically the "actions" of the characters) of the video::
1:49    guy attacks with baton thing
1:51    cap dodges, throws guy into other people, other guy grabs cap from behind
    one of them kicks emergency stop
1:54    thrown guy blocks off two other guys, other guys start grabbing for cap
1:56    three guys have hold of Cap, one of them shocking him with baton thing
    two guys trying to clamp his arms with magnetic things
1:58    attempt to clamp his arm
2:01    Cap struggles to break out and keep it from clamping
2:04    cap yanks arm free and kicks dude in leg
2:05    cap punches guy in face
2:06    cap elboys other guy in face
2:07    cap kicks other other guy
2:08    cap palm strikes another dude, elbows another
2:09    cap backwards head-butts guy holding him, throws him over his shoulder
2:11    rumlow kicks cap's arm with mag clamp so it latches onto wall
2:14    rumlow attacks cap with baton thing, cap blocks
2:15    rumlow swings with fist and misses
2:16    rumlow hits cap in back with baton
2:19    cap elbows rumlow
2:20    cap grabs and flings dude into security camera
2:20    cut away to people in security room
2:23    guy attacks cap with baton, cap redirects into other guy
2:24    cap hits guy with baton
2:26    cap kicks two guys
2:28    cap blocks other guy then kicks him in the face
2:30    cap yanks clamped arm free from wall and does backflip
2:34    cap elbows one guy then ducks under another's punch
2:35    cap uppercuts the other one, then flings first one through the air
2:37    rumlow talks to cap (breathing heavy -- taking recovery?)
2:43    rumlow swings at cap with baton and misses, swings again and cap catches his hand
2:44    rumlow hits cap with second baton
2:45    cap knocks rumlow's hand free, swings and misses
2:47    rumlow hits cap in stomach again with baton
2:49    cap punches rumlow then throws him up into the ceiling
2:51    fight over
 
Coming soon... a breakdown of what the fight means in Champions terms.

I set up sections on the Equipment tab for things like Contacts, since Resource Point-bought Contacts are not actually part of the main sheet's accounting.

One of the recent RPG purchases I have been reading is a superhero one called Eschaton, which proposes a world quite different from your usual superhero settings. While I would not use the game system it uses instead of Hero, it is an intriguing look at a world where superhumans suddenly appear all over the world all at once. And then one year later the campaign begins...
 
Here is an excerpt from it:
 
Eschaton is a superhero game, and almost but not quite a post-ruin game, different than many superhero games in a few very important ways. First, there are no tie-ins to any established comic universe. Eschaton can of course make heroes similar to any number of popular or established heroic figures, but that is either coincidence or a conscious choice by the wielder of an Eschaton-supplied power.
 
Second, it imagines what the ‘real’ world would be like with superpowered beings. How do you mesh a government’s need for regulation and control into a world where people can interrupt television broadcasts with their thoughts, shoot anti-tank beams from their fingertips, or pry into the mental secrets of presidents and prime ministers? The short answer as to how they handle it? Poorly.
 
Third, there is no established history of superheroes, no gradual incorporation of superpowered beings into culture and politics and law and military thought. It happens overnight, the world going from mundane to super with no warning. There is no subset of the law that deals with X-ray vision, no military planning guide for countering an attack by bulletproof mole men, no Secret Service doctrine for the best way to protect the President from invisible, psychic brain bolts. And hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are going to come into a myriad of powers more or less simultaneously, ranging from the very minor power of Sports to the extraordinarily powerful Ultras. Sane people will be driven mad, the insane will be shocked back to sanity. Good people will do the wrong things for the right reasons and bad people will do the right things for the wrong reasons.
 
It will be utter chaos on a global scale. And that’s how and when the campaign will start. Things will stabilize, eventually. But the new equilibrium will only be superficially like the old world. A casual observer might not see a lot of difference, but government, politics, religion and the notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ will be forever altered. And underneath it all is the Revelation.
 
Everyone of significant paranormal power will have their own version of the vignette. Some will dream it, others will be awake. Some will rationalize what they see as angels, others will believe they have made a deal with the Devil. Some will see a figure straight out of a comic book or movie, others will merely mumble to themselves. But everyone who gains power will have a conversation, insight or revelation that the powers they are given are part of a larger process, by beings far beyond our limited understanding. Beings of unknown but not immediately hostile intent, for they could clearly overcome any puny resistance of Earth had they an inclination to destroy us. How we use the power we are given and what we ultimately become by using these powers are what we will be judged on. But the Eschaton give no indication of what they consider worthy of a positive judgement or negative judgment. All they imply is that in the end, one ethos will prevail, and all humanity, if not all of reality, will be judged by that outcome.
 
Whether couched in terms of space aliens or angels or devils, everyone granted great power knows that something is happening, and that someone or something is watching to see how humanity deals with their new-found power, and the implied judgement at an indeterminate time in the future. Do we have a year? A generation? A century? No one knows. This knowledge of something is known among the powered as the Revelation.
 
And then things go blank, and when a person awakes, they have power. The adventurer merely wakes with the power, though in their own mind, the type of power and way in which it manifests is based on their personality. The hard work of actually designing the powers is the job of the player. The hero merely blanks out thinking something vague like “I could be the world’s coolest ninja...” and wakes up with superlative amounts of stealth, invisibility and mastery of dozens of unusual weapons.
The key and absolute feature of the Revelation is that no one with powers can talk about it. Not with friends, family, anyone. It is a mental block that the hero or villain can barely even think about, yet is always in the back of their thoughts. It can only be referred to as “the Revelation” or “a matter of Revelation”. Among the superpowered, everyone knows what is meant, but the general public is left guessing. For their part, heroes simply have to say things like “someday you’ll understand”.
 
The Revelation is not a matter for player rulebending. It simply cannot be revealed, written, spoken, sung, danced, mentally transferred, sculpted, painted or broken into itty-bitty pieces and later assembled into a coherent whole. Heroes and villains know it, and that’s it. More than their powers, this is what separates them from mundane humanity, the knowledge and surety that they must act to mold the world according to their beliefs, even if they can never explain why.
 
And that is a key feature of an Eschaton campaign. You were given powers because you are the sort of person who feels compelled to try and make a difference with them. The Eschaton does not compel you to use your powers to try and change society. You do that all on your own. You as a player have to want your hero make a difference. Whether you choose make this difference one person, one neighborhood or one city at a time is up to you.

Off the top of my head...
 
I think that the impact supers would have on pop culture would warrant their own television channel.  The CU has SNN, and its sister station Sidekick.  To continue with the wrestling analogy, WWE and may other promotions have their own online network.  I think someone would do something akin to that realizing the $$ potential.
 
I think highly secure places would have to deal with supers.  The White House, Capital Hill and other key government locations would have Stronghold level power dampeners.  The Secret Service would either be supers or be trained and equipped enough to qualify as supers.  I ran a campaign set in Las Vegas and the casinos were equipped with power dampeners to prevent supers from cheating.
 
 

Only Blooded magic can cause a breach on a failure and only then is it a % chance to cause a breach.  It's a side effect for how their magic works, they're literally tapping into a mythic force via their blood to summon forth magical effects...when it goes bad, it can go real bad.  Here's the breakdown of how Mythic Breaches work for reference:
 
Mythic Breach Probability
Spell
AP*
Breach
Activation
Segments
Limitation
Value
1-10
N/A
N/A
-¼
11-30
6-
2d6
-½
31-50
8-
4d6
-¾
51-70
11-
5d6
-1
71-90
14-
7d6
-1¼
91+
Breach
8d6
-1½
*Spell roll failures of 5 or more are moved one row down the chart
 
I like your idea about the government being part of a conspiracy, in fact I have written up a defense contractor that I already implicated in something just like you suggest.  Maybe what I should do is write up the larger government conspiracy...honestly, I was just throwing down breadcrumbs for future me to use and to flesh things out a bit  
 
I keep coming back to Blooded magic being a choice...I don't see them casting Darksight when they go into the cold cellar for example.  I actually imagine that many Blooded would live lives that are quite banal that wouldn't require them to cast magic on a daily basis.  Peasants would be trained in Blood magic and know some simple incantations but wouldn't be living the life of a 21st century adventurer and not ripping holes in reality every other day. 

The Lost Legion is a nice idea, an enemy group of the Blooded's own making.
 
Since the Blooded do not breed on their own, I had a thought about how their numbers are sustained. Perhaps the spirits of individual Blooded get reincarnated into new bodies after they are beheaded, which I think is what you call the Final Death. So, if there was a maximum of, say, 10,000 Blooded in the world and 200 of them died in one year, then 200 new Blooded would very soon be born to replace them. Some centuries might have even had more reincarnations than others, which could cause Blooded society to evolve if some centuries had vast numbers of new Blooded replacing the fallen. Perhaps they could have past life memories crop up now and then. Also, if they know that death allows them to reincarnate, those who have grown tired of life could embrace Final Death as a means of clearing their memories and starting over as a new being.
 
One of the reasons I think the use of Blood abilities should be a bit more reliable (using 1/20 as the skill roll modifier on all abilities instead of 1/10 on most) is because of Breaches. Once a Breach occurs, unless they carry high-powered weaponry around with them all the time, Blood abilities would likely be needed to fight against whatever emerges, which increases the chances of causing more Breaches. This could end up in a cascade failure effect that would likely overwhelm the Blooded on scene since they are always the primary targets.
 
Regarding the Side Effect, if a Breach is a type of uncontrolled antagonistic Summon, less powerful Breaches would be less Active Points, so they would be a smaller Limitation value. Since all the abilities are built with a -1 Limitation value, they can all cause the maximum effect, even the most minor ones risking the summoning of a dragon or something equally powerful.

So....I’m an egregious lurker. I lurked for 6 months before I made an account. And, this is my second post in two months since creation.  I’m honestly mostly here browsing as I learn the game and try to find a group. 
 
How did you come up with your handle?
It’s a very old email ID that I use for all gaming web sites, forums, meetups, etc. 
 
First tabletop RPG?
Red box D&D circa 1985.
 
First tabletop RPG to GM?
Talislanta, circa 1992. Early college. I was tired of DND franchise, and even the alternatives we explored were thematically similar like Earthdawn, Rolemaster, and Runequest. Both Rolemaster and Runequest did that genre very well, but still elves and dwarves. Very lucky at this point to have a big group that explored dozens of systems, with 6+ GMs. 
 
What at are you currently playing or GMing?
I GM a Deadlands Reloaded game in Savage Worlds. I play a regular DND 5e game and some sporadic Call of Cthulhu and Dungeon Crawl Classics. I move often (military), and often end up with what I can find rather than what I want to play. 
 
When end did you start to play Hero?
My college group used Champions for our superhero games and GURPS as our generic engine for our home brew that didn’t work with an existing system. I re-discovered Hero a few years ago when I was yet again frustrated with the limits and lack of crunch from other games. I haven’t played it since ‘96 or so, but I’ve a 1/2 dozen 6e books I read when I daydream about playing a real game again.
 
My next move to the greater Seattle area this summer, 2019, is my last. I don’t want to settle again and would like to find a good group to play with. 

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
Back in the days of IRC I got frustrated because my nicknames were always taken so I decided to pick something more exotic. Back then I was teased with sun-related names because of my bright red hair... so I ended up with Dazhbog, old Slavic sun god.
 
What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
RuneQuest, 3rd edition I think
 
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
RQ as well.
 
What are you currently playing/GMing?
I've been playing Shadowrun 5th ed and started to GM a Savage Worlds Deadlands game but it died off because I grew to dislike the SW system.. and my players didn't love it either. So, I began the long hunt for a good generic system.. and ended up here
 
When did you start to play Hero?
I have yet to play/GM it but I've been reading furiously and will start to flesh out a fantasy hero campaign soon. Hope to start GMing within a month or so

I could see a newly awakened Malvan wanting to tour the lost empire to remind themselves of earlier days. Or perhaps they would want to see for themselves these strange Terrans who bear traces of the Elder Worm and yet ended their curse. 

The setting of my current campaign (Agents of PRIMUS) is mostly based upon the Champions Universe as presented using the 5th and 6th Editions of the Hero System rules with several caveats:
Every superhuman that existed in the world from 1938 up through the present has utilized some form of magic as their power source, either by gaining inherent abilities or through using a magical artifact or relic of some sort. While some individuals such as Doctor Destroyer and Mechanon appear to be utilizing advanced technology in their activities, their technology cannot be replicated or even explained by modern science. An example of this is where several components recovered from a very early version of Mechanon were later dismantled and analyzed, and microscopic runes were found etched throughout their interiors, runes originating from no known language, leading experts to speculate that Mechanon is some sort of mechanized golem rather than a product of advanced technology. Superhumans have emerged in cycles that last roughly twelve years each with only a few continuing in their activities past the time their original cycle ended (1938-1949, 1950-1961, 1962-1973, 1974-1985, 1986-1997, 1998-2009 and the current one that began in 2010). In the past, “waves” of heightened activity were followed by “troughs” that produced notably less superhuman goings-on, so the time periods of 1938-1949 and 1962-1973 were wave cycles and the years 1950-1961 and 1974-1985 were trough cycles. Although there are a few noteworthy exceptions such as the lengthy career of Doctor Destroyer, most Champions Universe heroes and villains should be considered as having appeared during the current cycle mixed with a few legacies remaining from the previous one, despite their published histories going back much further. Due to the PCs traveling back in time to 1908 after their visit to 1938, they warned the Archmage of that time, Bohdan Stanislavski, about the circumstances of his upcoming death and thus prevented it from ever happening. His ongoing presence in the world somehow altered the mystical energies which Erich Hessler and his Nazi cohorts tapped into with their working on May 1st, 1938, ushering in the Superhuman Age. The Archmage’s presence changed that event, altering future destinies by eliminating from existence those superhumans without a magical/mystical origin, and revising others into more magical origins. As a direct result of the PCs time traveling to 1938 and destroying Luther Black at that time, DEMON dwindled and effectively vanished. While a few scattered remnants of it still cling to existence, it is not a significant threat to the world today. At the beginning of the 1962-1973 cycle, a rare planetary conjunction occurred from February 4th-6th 1962, and the so-called Aquarian Age began on Earth. Denizens of Faerie began arriving by the thousands as part of an Earth-conquering scheme by the Shadow Queen, Brangomar. After the conjunction was over and the Shadow Queen defeated and driven back to her dark kingdom in Faerie, a horde of Fae beings were left behind, unable to return home. The members of this vast melange composed of pawns of the Shadow Queen’s machinations were eventually settled into various enclaves on Earth, one of the largest of them located in North Las Vegas, now known as Neverland. The Shadow Queen remains an ever-present threat and has returned numerous times since then. UNTIL never came into being in the 1960s to provide a worldwide answer to the many facets of superhuman crime. In its place, PRIMUS and other elite national police forces were formed, maintaining treaties with each other outside the purview of the UN, and these agreements eventually coalesced into an arm of INTERPOL specializing in the Superhuman World. The VIPER organization announced its existence in late 1962 with a series of attacks and assassinations, then went quiet for several years. It emerged again in 1968 and has been fairly active ever since, eventually becoming the primary enemy of PRIMUS and its peers in other nations. Pulson Crystals, which makes up the cores of modern-day blasters, were first utilized in the 1960s by the forces of VIPER. Thanks to the efforts of Cortez Heavy Industries (a business belonging to one PCs family), the blasters now being wielded by elite law enforcement agencies such as PRIMUS were reverse-engineered from captured VIPER weaponry, making C.H.I. the pre-eminent high-tech weapons manufacturer of the 20th Century. During the aftermath of the worldwide war against Istvatha V’han, Empress of a Billion Dimensions, Doctor Destroyer emerged from obscurity and, with his chief henchman Menton’s aid, took over the island nation of Cuba following the leveling of Havana when one of the Empress’s warships exploded in a nuclear fireball right overhead (due to PC actions). Thanks to Menton’s psychic abilities, Doctor Destroyer has since purged Cuba’s remaining leadership of anyone who would dare oppose him. He then put the mentalist to work ruthlessly rooting out corruption from all levels of government. Since their takeover, a truly astonishing transformation of Cuba (now renamed to Destruga) has taken place; its standard of living rising with amazing rapidity to rival some of the most advanced nations. Part of this is due to Destruga welcoming any superhumans willing to accept Doctor Destroyer's leadership, which has other nations and groups like Eurostar concerned. Stories have also begun leaking out that Menton is utilizing the former membership of PSI as the core of his secret police as he continues his pogrom versus the rapidly dwindling number of dissidents against Doctor Destroyer’s rule. The U.S. Presidential election in 2016 elevated David Sutherland (once known as Invictus in the Superhuman World) to that office, causing a major upset to the political order. He later added Mason Cortez (Valiant, the former leader of the PCs team) to his cabinet as his Secretary of Superhuman Affairs, Mason's nomination sailing through the Senate due to his popularity as a hero of V'han War among other things. The two maintain a cordial working relationship, although it seems that life as a bureaucrat is stifling Mason’s spirit due to his love of action. There are persistent rumors that he is satisfying such needs as best he can by living vicariously through his mind link with a duplicate of his, a vigilante battling against the forces of Hudson City’s underworld.  After the events of the last campaign, the galaxy at large is now aware of Earth, which had previously been kept hidden from them by Tateklys, the Malvan entrepreneur who still runs his superhuman gladiatorial arena on the Moon. It is unknown at this time how he accomplished this feat or what deals he has made in order to remain unmolested. At the conclusion of the last campaign, the PC team (now effectively disbanded as the team’s members each went their separate ways) won possession of a Malvan Worldship that is currently in orbit roughly 32 AUs from the Sun within the outer Solar System, leaving Valiant and his permanently separated duplicate Dread as the only ones to speak for the team. The Worldship’s tactical systems remain intact but are under the sole dominion of its AI, who remains ever-vigilant against any efforts to suborn it. While the UN is currently engaged in a quite spirited, ongoing debate concerning how best to administer such a treasure trove, the AI has been allowing a few individuals and some small groups from Earth as well as various alien civilizations to take up residence there for its own, enigmatic reasons, forming the core of a new society within the bowels of the Worldship and its plentiful wonders.

Viola! No eagles!
 
https://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=1878
 
 

After Gandalf's speech there was a brief silence, and then the King of Eagles spoke.
"Gandalf, I and my people hold you in high regard and greatly esteem your wisdom. But what you ask of me now seems the greatest folly. I am no wizard but I am not wholly without lore,  and I know something of this Ring you speak of. It I were to bear it aloft into the sky, it would blaze like a beacon to the Eye of Sauron; within three beats of my wings he would know where it is, and if he bent his powers to beguile me, I cannot say I would not bear you and your small friend and the Ring straight to his doorstep. If he chose to blast rather than to beguile, or set his own winged servants upon us, I would not expect to reach the borders of Mordor alive. Indeed, it would likely cost my life to try to pass that border even if I did so alone and without carrying that treasure he would stop at nothing to reclaim. One does not simply fly into Mordor!"
 
Lucius Alexander
 
One does not simply ride a palindromedary into Mordor either.

That's how I usually did it as well when I was building a new FH group. 
 

Okay, I have a couple of new characters to share: Quark and Red Giant.  Here's their story.
 
 
  

Sounds like he's burning through his Hero Points to me.
 
To explain: the old Mayfair DC Heroes game had something called "Hero Points".  In Champions terms, Hero Points allowed you to boost your attack power, OCV, DCV, or Defenses up to double their normal amount.  You could do a few other things with them as well, such as reducing damage, but boosting your stats was what people normally did with them.  Once you spent Hero Points, they were gone.  Instead of gaining XP, you gained Hero Points.  Get enough of them and you could permanently increase your powers.  Hero Points generally represent how important a character is, and how likely the whims of fate are to tilt in his direction (if anyone can survive that "one in a million" fall out of an airplane, it's Batman).  Certain characters are consistently lucky, almost like they had loaded dice.  So the general thinking among DC Heroes players is that when a villain makes an impressive first appearance, and then later they start sucking, is that they probably blew through all of their Hero Points in that first go, and then never got enough back to be a credible threat again.
 
So imagine if somebody like Pulsar could blow through his reserve in his first appearance, chucking 24D6 Energy Blasts at an 18 OCV, and could shrug off damage like it was nothing.  Of course, he can only do that once, because ultimately the heroes defeat him anyway, and then he never gets enough XP to offset everything he just spent.
 
It's a simulationist explanation for a common trope, that the villain is badass awesome at the beginning and then becomes less powerful as time goes on.  It's also a really long way of saying that you can't judge the villain on his first appearance.  Presumably we aren't spending every waking moment with our characters.  There are probably times when a new villain shows up to challenge the Flash and Flash beats him in a tenth of a second.  Those battles aren't worth paying attention to.  So we really only see the fights where the villain presents a credible threat, because they're either very powerful, or they got the drop on the hero, or they just got lucky.  And a "first appearance" power bonus could simulate that fairly well.

Well, I thnk the Hero Point explanation is really a justification for giving villains a boost in their first appearance.
 
Let's say you've got Captain Blastarr.  He's a fairly generic energy projector in early 90s Image armor.  And he first appears on the cover of Champions #287.  He's not an amazing character, but he's got to look cool in his first issue.  So he's standing there like a cheapo Dr Destroyer, with the entire team on the ground unconscious.  He's got his hand pointed at Defender's body, with a glowing aura surrounding him.  The cover says "AT THE MERCY... OF CAPTAIN BLASTARR!!!"
 
He looks pretty tough there, and if you read the issue you see that he slaps around the team pretty easily.  He's chucking huge energy blasts that drop two or three members per shot.  Their attacks harmlessly bounce off his force field.  It looks like nothing they can do can hurt him.  By the end, the Champions will pull out a win by the skin of their teeth, and Captain Blastarr is defeated.  But one day he will return...
 
Of course, when he does eventually return six months later, the Champions don't have near the problem with him that they did the first time.  They're ready for his moves, and they pound him into the dirt.  Five years later he's making an appearance in some second string comic, and the Kindergarten Kommandoes are pounding on him.  Eventually he only shows up in big group battles, where some giant team of 50 villains attacks the heroes all at once.  He's just a face in a big group shot, and then you see him unconscious in some two-page splash panel.
 
So... how tough is this guy anyway?  Is he the guy who kicked the crap out of the Champions?  Or is he the guy who got trounced by Wonder Tot's dog?  It's too hard to judge villains by their first appearance.  Presumably some villains roll really well the first time they show up.

Me too, and my daughter is excited to see it as well. She's 11.

I want to thank everyone for their posts.
 
My original thoughts were more related to overall world demographics -- kind of a universe building question.  The CU's published villains are all really powerful (and lots of them have gotten more powerful through editions; I just discovered Anubis received an enormous jump from 5E to 6E).  It calls into question some of the assumptions presented in the 6E Champions book and the 6E Champions Universe book (talking about the ratio of heroes to villains, and the over all power levels of characters).
 
I did understand from the start that you could adjust these characters as needed.  It would be tedious work if you didn't enter them in Hero Designer, but it can be done.  I just think that there isn't a good representation of average villains in the published materials.  Or the "average" villain according to published materials is too powerful to fit with the demographic information that we've been given.
 
We would need another thread, I think, to discuss opinions on the Master Villains' stat blocks.