Scott Ruggels

one book shelf
aka Drive throu RPG

That would be most useful.  Just be sure to index the examples to the appropriate rule book pages. 

And here they are.
 
Mechanics of Rage. A brilliant but embittered engineer builds a powerful vehicle and uses it to attack the company that wronged him. [The vehicle-based gadgeteer is a character type you occasionally saw in the Silver Age but I don’t recall seeing in the CU.]
 
Mars Needs Beanie Babies. [Okay, the name shows how long ago I ran this one.] Everyone wants the hot new fad toy. They sell for 5 or even 10 times retail price on eBay and other secondary markets. A group of second-string techno-villains concoct a Master Plan to exploit the situation. First they drive the price up even further by hijacking shipments of the toy, courtesy of a vehicle-based villain. [When I ran this, one of the villains was Invader, whose schtick is that she built a flying saucer. So, planes carrying shipments of Beanie Babies appeared to be hijacked in flight by aliens.] But they don’t just sell the stolen toys on black markets and online. One of the villains can build Hypnno-Ray widgets. They plant Hypno-Ray devices in the toys so the buyers can be hypnotized into sending all their money to the villains’ Cayman Islands bank account! Can the heroes track the villains to their lair, stop the evil scheme and save Christmas for America’s retailers?
 
Autocracy. A powerful new techno-villain called the Autocrat is giving second- or third-string villains a power boost by giving them battlesuits. Maybe the Autocrat gathers them into a new villain team; maybe he’s just a power vendor, selling the suits for a share of the villains’ ill-gotten gains. Either way, the villains are considerably more powerful and dangerous.
 
Ah, but there’s more. The battlesuits slowly take over the wearer’s minds. The Autocrat is building an army of super-villains!
 
And a further twist: The climactic battle against the Autocrat and his enslaved villains reveals that the Autocrat isn’t a person in a battlesuit; he’s an android in a battlesuit. Who did not know he’s an android. The Autocrat himself is just a front for someone else. But who?
 
Telethon of Terror. A super-scientist villain creates a big, powerful monster. (Kaiju or giant killer robot, as you prefer.) The villain posts a video showing the monster’s destructive power and nigh-indestructibility and issues a demand: One billion dollars sent to his offshore bank account within a certain span of time, or he sets the monster to rampage in a major city of the targeted country. Anyone can contribute.
 
For a variation, the villain holds an auction. Governments (or other people) can submit bids either to have their country spared, or for the monster to be released on another country.
 
Skyfall. Every few years, a comet or asteroid passes relatively near the Earth. Space is very big, though, so there’s little chance of a major impact; and once astronomers know a body exists, they can forecast its orbit decades in advance. So, not much chance of dino-killer-scale impacts taking humanity by surprise.
 
Except one such object has changed course. It’s going to hit in a month. A technological Master Villain takes credit, saying he built a Gravitron powerful enough to shift the body’s orbit. [When I ran the adventure, the object was comet ISON-Something.] The villain has decided that if he can’t rule the world, he’ll destroy it, or at least destroy humanity. Or the human race can save itself by surrendering to him. But people had better make up their minds quickly, because soon the impactor will be too close even for the Gravitron to push it back on a safe path.
 
As a further complication, once the heroes find the villain’s base a techno-hero can see that they must defeat the villain without ever striking the Gravitron. The core of the machine is a neutronium torus spinning at near the speed of light, with the mass of a mountain. If the machine is disturbed, the neutronium core either decompresses and explodes, destroying everything in hundreds of kilometers, or it collapses into a black hole that sinks into the Earth’s core and starts eating. Important safety tip, yes?
 
Kludge. Governments, and a few other people and organizations, salvage wrecked super-tech and try to repair or reverse-engineer it. This does not always go well. At a facility for such research, a damaged super-robot reactivates and tries to repair itself with all the other super-tech on hand… including the battlesuit worn by a super-agent guard… without taking the guard out of it first. The result is a powerful, crazed cyborg on a rampage. The heroes want to stop the rampage; other people might get involved for other reasons.
 
Smash the Machine. A villain attacks a research facility that tries to reverse-engineer alien or other super-tech. Only, the villain isn’t trying to steal super-tech; he’s trying to destroy a specific bit of tech. It isn’t even an obvious weapon or power boost; it’s a bit of general-purpose technology that could create whole new industries. Think room-temperature superconductors, antigravity or <insert technobabble>. So why is the villain trying to destroy it?
 
Variation: The New Luddites. There’s a whole team of villains dedicated to obstructing technological progress. Maybe each of them was harmed by advanced tech in some way… or maybe there’s a deeper agenda such as industrial espionage (a government or megacorporation is trying to hold back competitors in hopes of gaining a technological edge), or the leader is a time traveler from a country that loses out in the super-tech future.
 
Dean Shomshak

This is exactly what FANTASY HERO PRIMER was. which was "How to Play Hero" in 28 pages. It had a good layout, a few pieces of B/W art, and a few  sample characters. If this was printed with a Cardstock cover , with some  reasonable art. and sold for "Magazine prices" ($5.00 or less) I think it would server the purposes for Fantasy Hero or FHC.  Now while this is maybe recreating the old AD&D paradigm, of FHC being the GM's  guide, and FHP being the player's handbook, but this might work.  Following that format, You could do 28 page for each of the Heroic level campaigns (Superheroes get really complicated, quickly). 
 
Just make sure the original author is credited and given a cut.

This is exactly what FANTASY HERO PRIMER was. which was "How to Play Hero" in 28 pages. It had a good layout, a few pieces of B/W art, and a few  sample characters. If this was printed with a Cardstock cover , with some  reasonable art. and sold for "Magazine prices" ($5.00 or less) I think it would server the purposes for Fantasy Hero or FHC.  Now while this is maybe recreating the old AD&D paradigm, of FHC being the GM's  guide, and FHP being the player's handbook, but this might work.  Following that format, You could do 28 page for each of the Heroic level campaigns (Superheroes get really complicated, quickly). 
 
Just make sure the original author is credited and given a cut.

I'd switch states with you, if I could.

Creative, but we did that in California, and the non-partisan redistributing committee, were simply Democrats. Thus we have a one party state for the most part. 

For a while Los Angeles had a scattering of LED style billboards, made areas of the city look more futuristic, especially at night. However public outcry forced the city council to prohibit all but a few. The problem was they were bright enough for a crisp image in daylight. So at night, especially in The mostly residential Valley, having a pulsing shimmering panel of light a few blocks away shining into your bedroom window... I think in the future, the most critical invention would be blackout curtains. 
 
Incidentally, those lights on the Shenzhen business district are externally mounted and in fixtures that aim outward. There is nothing inside to disturb the residents. They have a building like that here in SoCal. One of the Indian Casinos on the I-10 on the way to Palm Springs. Weird seeing an entire building pulsing and glowing as more ion graphics swirl and spiral advertising 19.99 prime rib. 

I played  neutral good Sorceror/Dragon disciple from Absolom, named Basileides Evreiapteryga. Generally a polite and friendly guy. Having a dwarf paladin (Kazmak)in our party cramped our rogue’s (Kaliek) style somewhat, until he found his second talent was seduction. He put the rogue into rogue. XD. The other patty members were a sarcastic cleric of Cardin Calen (Dalishter), who was always hitting us with the “Stick of Love”, and kept us on our feet, and a half elven local (Sionna) and her exceptionally beefy cheetah ( Nuru). 
 
The Mummy’s Mask is very well thought out, and has a great adventurous feel to it, and there are plenty of interesting situations.  Looking forward to more. 

The Dragon Prince was incredibly enjoyable, with likable characters and good dialogue  all around. It's clearly aimed at the youthful crowd but if one isn't snobbish about that, it's a very nicely delivered season of classic High Fantasy.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) -- I have a soft spot for the 1974 Albert Finney version, but this one's serviceable, if a bit slow in places. (Netflix Blu-Ray)

Quite probably true. I've hashed out things in some heated arguments with friends at the game table, and we were still friends afterwards,
 
 
I concede the point. It's a difference of style preference.
 
 
I have. I was in theater in High school for my Senior year, and some of them played D&D. The games were a bit political and "The Duke's Grand Ball" focused, rather than my more combat oriented preferences.  A bit frustrating.
 
 
Somewhat, in that it became a struggle for the spotlight between some players.  I begged their leave, and went back to my Champions group. ( I never really left, just  swapped the Wednesday night game. 
 
 
 Was a strict simulationist in the old  discussions, in that to me Roleplay was about  creating a distinct and consistent personality for a character, and then subjecting that character to the unknown, whether it be a discussion with team mates, Reacting to the description of the GM, or what ever the dice decided, "story" was to me, something that would be  the product of that interaction, rather than the guideline to the goal. It generated very entertaining, "No shit! There I was...  ... thought I was gonna die". type stories. In LDG's long running Fantasy Hero campaign interesting die rolls produced interesting results.  Sure there were unfortunate character deaths, but that kept things  exciting for th rest of us, sort of like being a character in the early "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels. 
 
 
 Everyone is wrong! Only I am the true arbiter of truth and Excellence!!! (J/k)
 
 
Quite true.
 
 
True, to some extent, yes.  But how do you get the hobby to grow, with newcomers?  Now we have had our share of turnover in recent Roll20 games, but we gave them a chance, and our core players have been very stable.
 
 
It's a product of our times.    But yes, I will concede the point, and just advocate for my position, that Hero is one of the best, tactically flexible, and creative gaming systems out there, provided you learn the tools.
 
 
A classic bit, but as I write this on Election Day 2018, it's kind of a Life Imitates Art sort of thing.  

I apologize if I have disturbed the Comity and harmony of this board. I come here, because it's NOT Facebook, and I can engage my brain with things that are divorced from the real world. I don't want to mess that up.
 
Scott

We loved combats a lot and had a high number of bricks and brick hybrids. So 24-30PD sounds about right, except for the high DCV types. I had a character with 30RPD, but that was a military armored suit. Yes those slug tests took a long time, but it allowed for people to revive unconscious team mates, set up maneuvers, and actually put villains in Stronghold. Real time concerns were irrelevant in high school as we would start gaming after school Friday; and wrap up about lunch time on Sunday. Good times. Later when I played in later Champions games at Planet 10 Comics and Games, it had a 4 hour limit before 6pm, but could go longer after 6. 

I love the Aaron Alston cameo , ringside in "the Great Supervillain Contest,

As someone about 2-4sessions from wrapping up The Mummy’s Mask, I am loving watching this party navigating the same encounters that we did last year. You guys are a lot nicer than we were. 

Gonna be honest with both of you:
 
Until I saw Ninja-Bear's post, I thought that's how everyone took it, and all these home-brew alternatives were for people who either didn't want to use the HLC or simply wanted something akin to what is in use in "that other game."
 
 

I ended up despising those "Low mechanics" systems like  Fudge, Fate, and the rest.  Even with a GM I liked running them, I was supremely unsatisfied.   When Killer Shrike popped up with GNS Theory, My ears perked as I was on rec.arts.frp.advocacy and watched and participated in the philosophical brawl in those old USENET days. As i said before, I came out of war gaming into RPG's, and  haven't left it entirely behind (WW2 Re-enacting leads to Postscriptum, and dabbling in Arma). I came to love role playing, and making up the characters personalities. However, I did not leave my love of tactics and mechanics behind.
For me Hero was/is the perfect system for what I want, because the tactics make sense, within the mechanics, and Role play gave context for the fights.
 
My disagreement above is the Role play snobbery, in that enforcing  personalities to be equal to the players. I do not know about you, but I did not game with theater majors.  Games like FATE prioritize that thinking, often at the expense of plausibility, and the Theater Majors tend to dominate the session. (Now I like role playing with theater majors and actors, but in the circles I gamed it, they were not common, except at conventions, also high crunch systems tended to curb their excesses.) Also those games did not have tactical problems to solve. Solutions tended to be what is seen in movies and TV, rather than reflecting the situation on the ground.
 
The other problem, is that you have to play with the people that brung ya.  The hobby, I will say, does attract it's share of the socially inept. In a number of cases also the handicapped. What I want to see if the game, is not so much great acting, but engagement. If that engagement is because someone who is not  a good fit for a hard Boiled detective, has that as one of his fantasies, then YES I will let him roll what is on the sheet,  even if it's  "I roll my intimidation". Now there may not be any bonuses unless they elaborate, but I am willing to allow a roll to determine the  outcome. But engagement, and not reading, or checking their phone, is what I am after for good players at the table.  Role play can be learned, tactics can be learned, but to learn takes basic engagement. Enforcing a table house rule of only allowing characters who's personality matches the players, sounds limiting, and , well kinda mean. 

I am thinking about t giving it a test. I just need to find a Hero usable VTT solution, for non programmers. 28 pages is A good length for bathroom reading; and as a reference to flip through when during the game. 

I played a lot of DI as well. Loved the system. With a savvy; knowledgeable GM ( who was also a veteran), the experience was sublime. 

There was a PDF discussed in the Fantasy Hero forum, "The Fantasy Hero Primer" which was 28 pages that presented a reasonably good introduction to the rules with  three sample characters.. it was slim and the players I sent it to, expressed interest. Something like that with a simple card stock cover  would be easier to do. (I would volunteer to do some of the cover art for a small fee, so we DON"T have the generic cover, like generic beans at the store.

As to DOJ, I think the biggest problem is distribution. Assume there is NO WAY a modern hobby shop will allow anything but D&D and pathfinder, or expensive German board games to grace their shelves any more. The distribution of table top games has collapsed outside of major publishers.  DOJ needs to work out more online marketing.

A little depressing, but yeah, I can see.  Do it as art, not a business. (at least what I am attempting to do.)

I ended up despising those "Low mechanics" systems like  Fudge, Fate, and the rest.  Even with a GM I liked running them, I was supremely unsatisfied.   When Killer Shrike popped up with GNS Theory, My ears perked as I was on rec.arts.frp.advocacy and watched and participated in the philosophical brawl in those old USENET days. As i said before, I came out of war gaming into RPG's, and  haven't left it entirely behind (WW2 Re-enacting leads to Postscriptum, and dabbling in Arma). I came to love role playing, and making up the characters personalities. However, I did not leave my love of tactics and mechanics behind.
For me Hero was/is the perfect system for what I want, because the tactics make sense, within the mechanics, and Role play gave context for the fights.
 
My disagreement above is the Role play snobbery, in that enforcing  personalities to be equal to the players. I do not know about you, but I did not game with theater majors.  Games like FATE prioritize that thinking, often at the expense of plausibility, and the Theater Majors tend to dominate the session. (Now I like role playing with theater majors and actors, but in the circles I gamed it, they were not common, except at conventions, also high crunch systems tended to curb their excesses.) Also those games did not have tactical problems to solve. Solutions tended to be what is seen in movies and TV, rather than reflecting the situation on the ground.
 
The other problem, is that you have to play with the people that brung ya.  The hobby, I will say, does attract it's share of the socially inept. In a number of cases also the handicapped. What I want to see if the game, is not so much great acting, but engagement. If that engagement is because someone who is not  a good fit for a hard Boiled detective, has that as one of his fantasies, then YES I will let him roll what is on the sheet,  even if it's  "I roll my intimidation". Now there may not be any bonuses unless they elaborate, but I am willing to allow a roll to determine the  outcome. But engagement, and not reading, or checking their phone, is what I am after for good players at the table.  Role play can be learned, tactics can be learned, but to learn takes basic engagement. Enforcing a table house rule of only allowing characters who's personality matches the players, sounds limiting, and , well kinda mean. 

Diamond Distribution. Seriously, it messed up the comic industry. 

I have more issues with many con committees. but that's way off topic.

This.  This is, as Lucius has already pointed out, most likely where we _all_ are, to one degree or another. 
 
Now we make mountains out of perceived extremes when the differences are very small: someone mentions something for the sake of discussion, and someone else takes it as an extreme.  Pointing out "here is something important to me" just isn't the same as stating "this is the most important thing there is, period.". In truth, to some degree or other, it's most likely important to all of us (except Comeliness.  Evidently there's a good chunk of us who think good looks can only exist as a problem. I have a joke hypothesis as to why this might be, but this isnt the time or the place) 
 
What I don't understand is why we can't see that we are all not only pretty close to each other, but act as though there is some way to make us all agree on not just the order of importance, but on some unattainable mathematical absolute value of importance for each detail. 
 
It's not going to happen.  We can't even agree on which assigned values of the mathematically-derived game system elements are correct or more important. 
 
We can't even agree on which version of the game is most ideal! 
 
I'm still using a rulebook published almost forty years ago.  Cassandra is using one of the two prior to the current book.  Joe is using the one from the ICE age.   We all have our reasons, and debate, discussion, or outright browbeating isn't going to alter in any way the reasons behind our decision.  Fine: it's nice to know you think I'm a backwards fool or a hipster God or just a little odd or cool or whatever. 
 
But the fact that someone thinks a certain thing a out my decision isn't going to change the facts that lead me to that decision. 
 
And that's where we are here: we are quibbling over what, when this thread is read objectively, seem to be differences more minor than our style of dress.
 
Here's one:
 
In one of my wedding photos, my pocket knife can be clearly seen hanging off of my pocket. 
 
What sort of abject pagan freak does that make me? 
 
It doesn't.  It makes me a guy who has had a pocket knife on him every single day since his grandfather gave him his first one for his eight birthday, and after spending the 50-idd hours before his wedding wide-awake making final preparations didn't notice that life-long habit made him grab his pocket knife on the way out the door. 
 
Now the picture where my tape measure is evident, that might mean something.  Have fun with it. 
 
 
This needs to stop.  I mean like universally, all over the board.  Maybe it's because there has been a special book for martial arts over half the generations of the game.  Maybe it's because MA has always had a special bit tossed in, what with "access to the special maneuvers table" and some firm of supplemental damage and extra not-getting-hittedness; I don't know. 
 
Maybe it's the wild and exciting movies; who knows. 
 
Martial Arts does not mean some secret ancient technique of physical mastery and blending soul and spirit and universe into the art of inhaling up one nostril and down the other. 
 
Martial Arts is a mechanic.  It is one of many, many options that the system offers to the player that can be used to simulate "really good at fighting."  For my money, it's not even the best method of saying that, but it had one Hell of a following.
 
You don't need a mystic master and a secret school and forty years of training.  How can I say that?! 
 
Well there are boxers in their teens down at the local gym that I am pretty sure could kick my butt all up and down US1 if they wanted to.  There are nine year olds at all three of the local MA schools that I suspect could do the same. 
 
Did Viper agents go to ancient Asian fighting schools?  Are the capoeiristas giving lessons after door-smashing-down class?  If course not. 
 
It's quite possible-- likely even, that agent-level villains grew up fighting, and got good at it. 
 
I am not saying anything we don't all already agree to.  We've all said it ourselves at some point or other.  But every single time a discussion about learning it in-game or having it appear in "inappropriate" places comes up, we devolve straight back to Ninja legends and Tibetan monasteries. 
 
Ordinarily amusing, it's downright disgusting when it happens amongst people who all know better.  Is that harsh?  No.  It is not harsh, because when it happens amongst people who know better, it is straight-up evidence that it is being done _solely_ to create or continue a non-productive argument, and that is reprehensible. 
 
For the most part, I have very much enjoyed this conversation; i sincerely have.  But I think I'm going to drop out and go follow the wise sage on the double-barrelled camel for a while.