Scott Ruggels

The economics of stores in the current period, aren't conducive to static  inventory.   After the rise of CCG's sucked most of the disposable cash out of the Game store patron's pockets, the tabletop RPG commensurately shrank, and the rise of consoles and capable  computers, started to take over mind share.  Before hardbacks can be on store shelves, there needs to be a demand for them that will satisfy the store owner's that his order will sell. Before there are hardbacks on store shelves, a demand must be created.

More!
 
Immediately!
 
Remember.....
 
remember how much more fun you had, back in those simpler times.....
 
Early editions for the win!
 
 

Oh I expect some package deals to cost something, depending, but some may be nearly zero points and paid for by disads and stat modifications, I am defiantly breaking out anatomical packages, from cultural and professional packages. In my opinion, of being a human is free, then beings something else is mostly free as well, but I have to get into actually constructing the packages to see what the costs actually are. Unlike drawing, character building in Hero was never my strong suit. (And if 6ed is a requirement, I will definitely need outside assistance, as I do not Know it. )

This weapon was the height of technological progress, Bach when Espionage, and Danger International were things. I knew about the weapon, but my assumptions about its eventual non adoption in1989, were wrong. I had assumed it was propellant difficulties, like the Hughes Caseless riflemof 1969. Though propellant issues were a factor in the delay of this weapon, they were solved by the formal acceptance of the weapon into Bundeswehr service, acceptance, but not adoption. 
 

I will have to find a copy of Mythic Raced, your get a feeling it’s n how they write thing up. As for the package bonus,I disagree. For me, they serve as a template, giving members of that race a common baseline, and the bonus works well for a mathtarded GM like me.  
 
 
 

This weapon was the height of technological progress, Bach when Espionage, and Danger International were things. I knew about the weapon, but my assumptions about its eventual non adoption in1989, were wrong. I had assumed it was propellant difficulties, like the Hughes Caseless riflemof 1969. Though propellant issues were a factor in the delay of this weapon, they were solved by the formal acceptance of the weapon into Bundeswehr service, acceptance, but not adoption. 
 

When adapting IHA to different campaigns, it may be useful also to the role of mutants. As mentioned, Marvel uses mutants as a metaphor for socially disfavored minorities. (I would debate the appropriateness of Marvel’s execution, but that’s not relevant here.) Or as LL mentions, mutants can represent the fear of hidden Otherness, especially in one’s own children. (From what I’ve seen of very early X-Men, I actually think this “atomic horror” aspect was more the original intended meaning.) But those are not the only possibilities, and what you choose can influence how you treat IHA – including the very important matter of who funds it. Maybe it’s my own prejudice, but I think that whatever their prejudices, people with big money tend to be rather calculating in the causes they support.
 
Let’s start by looking at the big-name mutant villains of the CU. Three of them (Graviton, Holocaust, Menton) are white people from privileged backgrounds. Not exactly great stand-ins for oppressed minorities. (Okay, I’m guessing about Holocaust’s race. His 5e and 6e write-ups don’t say. Geoffrey Haganstone, son of a Pennsylvania senator and his socialite wife, is not provably white. But that seems most likely.)
 
But they are excellent characters for a theme of “Born To Power.” In this treatment, mutants are not as new as people think. Past mutants used their powers to become rich and socially prominent, and their descendents inherited that social status as well as a chance of developing super-powers. The model for mutant villainy is less Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and more Hellfire Club: Many of the world’s mutants act covertly to protect and increase their wealth and power, as their ancestors have done for generations.
 
(See also the classic Champions module, The Blood and Dr. McQuark. The Blood are exactly the sort of super-powered lineage I’m talking about, albeit of different origin.)
 
The rate of superhuman mutation is greater now; increasing numbers of mutants appear outside the old families and knowing nothing about them. For the general public, the paradigm for “mutant” is the teen whose suddenly-activated mutant powers cause havoc. But some people know differently. And some of those people fund IHA.
 
The backers of IHA are very rich, but they have seen some avenues of social power closed to them. They found there’s more than old money behind the business and political dynasties that balk them: Those dynasties have powers that these nouveau-riche entrepreneurs, financiers and politicians can never gain. And they hate it. IHA is their weapon against the mutant dynasties. Attacking some shmoe who used his pyrokinesis to rescue someone is only a means to an end. The battles against mutants who go public, whether hero or villain, are just practice for the real battle when the soldiers and Minuteman robots descend on the Hamptons, the artificial islands of Dubai, and other haunts of the super-rich and the hidden mutant aristocracy.
 
There's one different spin on the IHA. Let's see some more.
 
Dean Shomshak
 

A round up of 2018’s Space News: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/year-space-falcon-heavys-first-flight-solar-systems-farthest-frontier/

this was the Humans are Great! post on Tumblr and Imgur.

He’s just a misunderstood radical environmentalist. 

A good idea! But remember that the trade off is armor thickness—weight — horsepower. The Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go, is a sprightly little scout tank, but it’s high top speed is because that engine is not over burdened be its thin armor. The King Tiger at the opposite end, has a 12 cylinder Maybach engine, but it’s superb armor limits it’s speed and hill climb ability. But it can push over a building, whereas theType 95 can’t. I think the base attribute would be the base weight of the vehicle, with the horsepower calculated to get ground speed in the right ball park. Armor thickness is back calculated from what it can always bounce. Can it shrug off .50 caps but not 20mm? That can give you a pretty good indicator of its defenses. 

it would be dangerous to reach in past all the explosives, firearms and climbing spikes, so, yeah it’s rarely used and in the bottom of the bag, next to a half eaten roll of Tums, and the tiny sunglasses repair kit. 

Will you please knock it off with the Trump bashing?  Take it to the political thread, not here, Okay?

Well yeah. I suppose I was spoiled by LDG's Danger International, and FH games, in that we DID have to plan and war game out the various encounters, and were thick tactical puzzles that did allow for a high level of role play.

But I think, is that I really dislike (and feel ripped off by) a high level of abstraction. This is why I avoid Low crunch RPGs.

As an aside, I feel your pain. The Albedo 1st edition game tried for the simulationist space combat approach. I also played in Paul Gazis' modified Traveller campaign. Pauls is a NASA Engineer, though I think he retired lat year. In his game he worked things out, to the Nth degree, but Space Combat was supremely unsatisfying if you weren't in the cockpit. In both systems the ships would plan their moves (like an old style Play by mail), and feed those plans into the ships computer,  then the Missiles would be launched.  days latter, when the enemy missiles were inbound, people would put their matresses on the walls, and strap into chairs in their vacc suits,. depressurize the inside to conserve air in case of hull breech, and You sat, sweating as the die rolls were made against the ships defensive array, and then hit locations on the ship, hoping the damage result wasnt "crew" (instant fine red mist), or the "Station" you were sitting at, (shrapnel damage. roll hit location, and hope it's not the head). Then sometime later, the results of your missiles against the enemy were picked up by optical sensors and radar returns and if you both survived, lather, rise, repeat. Not the most fun. Mustangs & Messerschmitts made WW2 air combat  with miniatures, fun. Star Wars ran with that paradigm.  Unless space combat was a hourly turn, and chit on a hex grid map, or on paper like Harpoon, I dont see how space combat could be a fun pass time, and then it would only be fun for those who have active crew stations. (Hmmm using old Harpoon Mechanics might actually work..?) It may not work as an RPG. I would love to run a "The Expanse" style Hero SF game, but to solve the space combat problem, I would have to make sure the PC's were passengers, and travel between systems would be on commercial flight, and never never ever give them an armed space ship.

Well played, sir but I would argue that Superman was a moral Ideal, more so than a working class hero. He was a defender, rather than a spearhead. 
 
Actually, Superman is a comfort. Good Superman stories emphasize his intelligence and moral fortitude, rather than his myriad powers. The best ones have not been the silver age stories, but those where writers go into what he believes and does, and his relationships are out the normals. There were several good Superman  stories in his DCAU series, but for me the best have been Superman for AllSeasoj, and Red Son. 
 
I see youre Gene Autry, and raise you The Waitresses. 
 

Hi, Sam.
 
I've been wanting to wade into this since it started, but haven't had the time.
 
I'm not going to tell you that "this is the way" or anything like that, but we did the same thing several years ago for a short-lived (but thoroughly enjoyed) "Pit Fighter" campaign, inspired by several popular fighting games.
 
Here are some things that worked for us:
 
"Ring outs."
 Establish a maximum combat range.  You don't have to establish an actual arena (though you certainly can, and we often did.  Hence the title of the campaign), but you do need a range that any player moving beyond that range loses by default.  This does most of the work of avoiding the "safe" player.
 
Martial maneuvers.  
 
Build all powers as if they were martial maneuvers.  That is to say analyze them closely and assign bonuses and penalties to OCV and DCV that apply each time that power is used.  Don't be afraid to add "Open" on the really big ones.  "Open" simply means that you are at a default 0 CV until your next Phase.  This works best with an AOE: Cone" or "Line" type attack (and generally, you shouldn't allow other AOEs, as for a tight pit fight, they are really, really ugly) behind which the player can "hide" until his next action.
 
Generally, all ranged attacks should be assumed to land at the start of the attacking character's next Phase.  This provides the best simulation of something like launching Terry's Power Wave (Dude, Terry is my _dude_!  Excellent choice for an example if you wanted to goad me into joining. ).  Technically, he's wide open while the animation scrolls (up to the halfway point of the screen, anyway), but he is still "protected" by hiding behind his ranged attack.  To hit him, you have to get _around_ his attack, either over it or by moving to the side (which is why we found that "AOE: Narrow Cone" works as the idea model, power-wise, for most ranged attacks.)  However, do _not_ use the "Oh, it's AOE, you have to target the hex at DCV 3" rule.  Just ignore that, and target the player as if it were any other ranged attack.
 
Why?
 
For one, the CV adjustments for your opponent's (or your own) previous move are meaningless if you're both shooting hexes.  And frankly, I never liked that part of the rule anyway.   Seriously, though, you just won't get that mix-it-up frantic action feel if you're both knocking down DCV3 hexes.
 
More on ranged attacks:
 
As stated, they should be assumed by default to land 0-phase at the start of the attacker's next Phase, before anything else occurs.  This is a 0-pt Limitation all ranged attacks are assumed to have.  For an Advantage (we did +1, but you have to fit your group), you can build a ranged power that hits "normally."  This works well for characters like Stryker from Ultimate MK3 (also called "spray cheese") who's attack is pretty much unavoidable unless you happen to already _be_ blocking.  When you do allow this, however, I caution you to require at least an OCV penalty that lasts through the character's next Phase.
 
When purchased, all attacks-- ranged in particular-- should be defined as "Low / Sweep", "Mid / Torso," or "High / Head."  For an additional Advantage (we did +1/2, but again-- you have to suit your group), an attack could _also_ be used as "anti-air."  That is, it worked against leaping characters.  Looking back, this might not be important; it depends on the flavor you want your game to have.  Ranged Attacks, however, should be defined, as one of the most critical parts of the source-material feel is sliding under or leaping over a ranged attack.
 
Blocking:
 
We ended up using cards for this.  Players who wanted to block turned over either their  High Block card or their Low Block.  They were Blocking until their next Phase.  The cards were to discourage "oops; I meant..."  sort of situations.  However, if a player had not yet failed a Block, he could switch from High to Low or vice-versa on any Segment, even if he did not have a Phase (it kept him from being a complete sitting duck, and more closely modeled the source material).  However, he could not stop Blocking until his next action Phase.
 
Blocking cost END.  It cost the blocker 1/2 the END the attacker spent on his attack.  This was a late addition, to encourage "mixing it up" and dodging around attacks.  Honestly, you can make it cost whatever END you want; just make sure it costs something.   The player could block as many attacks as his END could afford.  As a side-effect of blocking, each successful attack that was blocked (yeah; you had to go ahead and roll to hit, just for this next part), forced 1/2" Knockback.  (I guess under 6e, it would just be 1".  Remember that Combos gave multiple hits.  (more on combos in a bit).  Additionally, a Blocking character _could_ Set and, depending on the situation, possibly even Brace (though rare) to get a bonus on a counter-attack when he came out of Block.  However, he could not Brace if he had swapped from one Block position to another between Phases).  A character who was Blocking gained +1 OCV per segment he was blocking-- _not_ to be used towards his Block (against which he was taking a penalty, but to launch a counter-attack immediately upon leaving Block.  However, he had to be blocking for more than one of his consecutive Phases to get this bonus.  Hard to do, and risky, but there was a pretty nice pay-off for managing.  This also applied for Charge moves (more below).
 
 
 
Guard Crush:
 
So, to discourage too much "playing it safe," we implemented Ring Out, Block costs END, and Block moves you backwards.  Every successful Block forced a -1 Penalty (in addition to the rulebook penalties) on the next Block Roll.  Any Blocking Character who succeeded and then failed (had to be both.  Starting with a fail meant you didn't block fast enough) had been Guard Crushed.  Any Character who had been Guard Crushed was _not_ Stunned, but was immediately out of Block and was a zero CV until his next Phase.  Any Set, Brace, or "Charge" (more in a moment) he had accumulated were gone.  
 
Charge:
 
One of the popular and genre-appropriate limitations for attacks was "Charge."  Essentially, this is simply the Limitation "Extra Time," bought by Segment.  The move was "charged" by blocking (and you know-- Ford Focusing his Kia or something like that. )  a certain number of Phases before being able to use the attack.  The Player would first define if it was simply a "Charge" move (any blocking would work.  Think Blanka's Roll or Balrog's Turn-around punch or Honda's Hairpedo) or if it had to be a _specific_ charge: High Or Low, like Terry Bogard's Rising Tackle (Charge: Low Charge) or half the original line-up from Eternal Champions.  The more Segment's required, the better the bonus.  If it was a _specific_ charge, the bonus was a little bit higher.  Once "fully charged," the Character had to either use the Power immediately or continue to Charge it.  He could not take other actions and then use a previously-charged attack.
 
 
Countermoves:
 
As mentioned under Block, a Character could at any time come directly out of block with an OCV bonus on any counter-attack he wished to launch.  Further, he could build a specific Countermove.  The primary element in a Counter move was a 15-point Phase.  Yes: He can raise his speed for 10 (oh, sorry; I use a much older edition than most people on this board; you may have to translate forward to apply this to 6e) and get an additional Phase every single Turn, that he can just hold.  And you're right.  And to be honest, I don't remember why we charged 15, but there was a good reason.  (Forgive me; it's been like twenty years ago)  At any rate, this power was available immediately, like any Held Action-- oh yeah; I remember-- because you could launch it in the middle of someone else's action.  Very handy for Combo Breaking, and for Combos.  Define the specific "countermove" attack or a tightly-grouped two-or-three attack multipower.  Treat "countermove" as a 15-pt element to that power or multipower (control cost only).  Add Skill levels as additional elements, if desired.  Countermoves got expensive _really_ fast, and were quite popular with the "Charge" limitation (for obvious reasons) Using a Countermove did not affect any Held Action you may have accumulated over the course of the Turn.
 
To use a countermove, treat as a Block-- that is, it's an OCV-OCV contest.  If you win, you successfully hit with your counter; enjoy.
 
Combos:
 
one of the things we had to do to really get the feel was get rid of that "an attack action ends your Phase" rule.  This allowed for Combos.  Any successful attack granted the attacker a +1 OCV his next attack against that opponent, so long as it was immediate-- i.e., chained as in a combo.  Your Countermove "extra Phase" could be used to start a Combo, but you couldn't add it after a regular Phase (we allowed that at first, but it became too war-gamey with meticulous planning slowing things down).  Held actions could also be used.  It could get pretty ugly pretty fast: open with a half-phase countermove, use the second half for a strike, then two more on a held-action then two more on your actual Phase.....  And of course, _no one_ wanted to commit simply because being successfully countermoved, or Blocked, or simply missing with any attack in the Combo left you Open (DCV 0 until your next Phase).  If you had a Held Action, you could Abort it to Block, or lose it all together.  Unless the countermove had a Juggle Element (expensive!  Think Mortal Kombat Uppercut).  If it had a Juggle Element, you just didn't have a Held Action anymore.
 
One thing to remember:   Each successful attack in a combo suffered reduced damage.  Each strike after the first lost 1/2 a DC, cumulative.  This was to both keep players from dumping two hundred points into the Flawless Combo, and to more accurately simulate the source material.  
 
Partly as balm for the reducing damage, and partly to make Combos viable, all Combo strikes after the second are 1/2 END for that Combo.
 
Now I have to move aside to say this:
 
Countermove vs combo:
 
One of the nastiest things in the Pit Fighter campaign (glorious though it was! ) was counter moving near the end of a long combo.
 
As noted, each successful attack in a combo granted a _cumulative_ +1 to the next attack, in addition to whatever OCV bonuses might be built into the individual maneuvers themselves (which were _not_ cumulative, but applied at the time of that strike).  Let's just say that you're executing a ten-strike combo on an opponent and your on move 9, which means you're at +8 for your combo bonus and you're going into the Finisher, which you've built with a +4 OCV, giving you a total of +12 right now--
 
and you get countered.  Somehow, you lose (as noted, Countermoves are usually pretty pricey, as most folks dump a lot of Skill Levels into them.  They tend to have a lot of Limitations, too).  You are now at the _lower_ of 0 DCV _or_ your current DCV minus your current OCV Bonus.  Yes; a really long combo can really bite you if it gets screwed up.
 
This wasn't even so much about the source material as-- again-- a deterrent against building a twenty-six-hit Flawless Combo.
 
 
More on Combos:
 
To keep things interesting and cinematic, require that all successful hits automatically do 1/2" Knockback.  Thus, you can get a 2-hit combo without too much trouble.  You will need to add an element-- a movement element or a range element-- to get the next couple of hits.   Remember that adding a movement element means that maneuver takes the full segment.  Adding a Range element (like a weapon or an inch of Stretching) does not: you can still get two hits in the next segment (if you have one).  However, your opponent will again be an inch away.  With a movement Element, you're still adjacent.  With a staff, you can't reach him any longer.  
 
Elements for maneuvers: 
 
Juggle: converts knock back or knock down into knock _up_.  Great for keeping combos going, as the target _sort_ of moves away from you, but he's coming right back.
Opponent still moves back, but at 1/2 the distance the dice indicate, and will not land until the end of the next segment (keeping him closer to you, and at a disadvantage.
 
Combo: implies that this maneuver can be begun from a wide number of positions or stances, and thus can be flowed into from a previous maneuver.  Short version: Any maneuver can start a combo.  Any maneuver with this 1-point element can be used to keep the combo going.
 
Finisher: This maneuver can be used whenever you want, of course, but it works as the Combo Element above, _and_ does double-Knockback based on the full damage dice of the attack (in spite of the mandatory damage reduction).
 
 
There were a few more, but it's your game; spice it how you like.
 
Once thing that we _very_ quickly realized was important:
 
Have your players pre-map all their combos.  ALL OF THEM!  Put them on cards.  When they are ready to play a combo, they must first drop that card, that play it as it reads.
 
We learned this by noticing just how quickly combos went to a pick-and-choose numbers-crunching, okay, I hit that time so I'm going to combo in another move.  Oh; I hit again.  Well I'll combo in another move-----"
 
You know: the "play it safe" thing that just flies all in the face of the feel of the source material.
 
There was so much more stuff....    We had talked once about possibly writing up an actual  "Pit Figher" genre book, but that kind of energy just doesn't stay with you at my age....
 
 
Any way, I hope some of this helps, and I hope you have at least one-tenth as much fun with this as we did.  Man that was an awesome game.
 
 
 
 
Duke
 
 
 
 

In full agreement with Scott - the group needs to be on the same page as to the game they want to play.  From there, I think there are a variety of ways to go on the default complications.  Perhaps my game will be not so silver age in tone, but carries the expectation is that the PCs will be unwilling to kill.  This could be a game where their setting a shining example in a grim, grey world means that their refusal to kill will create serious problems for them.  In this case, I could mandate that CvK is required, or that CvK is expected,  but the occasional character could reduce that to "reluctant to kill".  They should get the CP for that limitation, and we should expect that part of the drama of the game will be the issues they face by virtue of their unwillingness to kill.  Or I could mandate that everyone has CvK as a campaign ground rule, and since everyone has it, no one gets any points for it, but if it really will limit them compared to NPCs, that seems unfair.
 
But maybe my game will be True Blue Silver Age, where the world is very friendly to those who will not kill.  How often was Adam West Batman disadvantaged by his refusal to kill?  As the limitation is rarely or never limiting, I feel much better about making it a campaign standard.  In fact, if those who are prepared to kill, or even use lethal force, are viewed negatively from society, and/or suffer other drawbacks in the game, any willingness to kill is limiting.  Killer PCs will find no government sponsorship, the police will hunt them, as will more legitimate Superheroes, so that willingness is a limitation.
 
A middle of the road approach would be the default Reluctance to Kill, where casual killers are not tolerated, but use of lethal force is accepted as sometimes necessary, at least, so PCs showing appropriate restraint will be accepted, and a full on refusal to kill/use lethal force will actually be limiting.  Arrow forms a good framework - he has faced significant negative repercussions for casual use of lethal force, from enemies finding it pretty easy to frame him and turn the population against him to police task forces hunting him to the FBI digging until they find the evidence needed to jail him.  Meanwhile, the Flash, who has used lethal force but has been far more restrained, is adored by the population and enjoys a positive relationship with law enforcement.
 
Which character is truly limited depends on the game world they inhabit.

I'd do it as something along the lines of
Paralyzing Stench:  Entangle 1d6, 1 DEF, Works Against CON, Not STR (+1/4), Takes No Damage From Attacks All Attacks (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Area Of Effect (4" Radius; +1), Continuous (+1) (47 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Always On (-1/2), Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4)
Adjust number of dice to fit tastes. 
 
Anyone who walks into the area has to make a Casual CON roll.  If they don't get enough NDB on the CON roll, they're paralyzed until they get a good enough roll to break out. 

Toxie wanted a pic with (mini-)me at Supercon last weekend.
 

That was a labor of community that served me well, I won't lie. LL and many others gave valuable input and it is my hope I'm not the only one who got use out of it.
 
 

Virgin Galactic's Starship 2 completed an 82km high suborbital flight.
 
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2018/12/bransons-virgin-reaches-edge-of-space?fbclid=IwAR3jA72_ysMo3GCki7-qFLSrrRxlZwzJ2IKAps2FKEjPhWdlcEiqEqOyK80

As for the overall Paladin thing. 1.) it has drifted away from the initial premise, on how to deal with killer characters, and has become no longer useful for that, and 2.) On the subject of Paladins, it's rather evident that a Paladin would conform to the precepts of what ever deity and  organization sponsored them.   Follow the theology, and you'll find the motivations. 3.) Why are we debating Paladins in a Champions forum thread? Shouldn't it be in Fantasy Hero?

Yes I am guilty of  aiding and abetting this with my earlier comments, but, boy has this drifted off.
 
 

Bernard Herrmann!  Wonderful score. the second track "Radar"  is a masterpiece of tension on just one piano.
 
 

This thing is going up behind the old May Co. Department store building at Fairfax & Wilshire Blvd.  Anyone for a re-enforced, concrete sphere?  The reactor for the headquarters in the old May Co.?