Scott Ruggels

Kinda my hope.  I'd rather Hero grew because people liked it than D&D stabbing its player base in the eyeball but I'll take it either way

I just got the book and skimmed through it. Nice work. I love that Genocide existed, as did IMAGE. The history section tells the fall of both organizations (with Genocide mostly killed by it's own hand by revealing themselves too soon, and a very well played plot by the IHA to assassinate Murdock, the leader of IMAGE). They took advantage of The Battle of Detroit to assassinate Apostle, Flamboyant, and Mustang. 
And of course, tons more history. We got bases, tons of leaders (many of them normal, but Archer Samuels is a cyborg), agents (all named via military lnes, as opposed to Genocide's chest mosfet), Minuteman MARK 7 and Minuteman Tracker MARK 3 robots, and there own "supervillains" Hunter (well trained and equipped normal), Shi No Te (demon possessed martial artist who works for IHA only to kill challenging foes), and MTU846 (a mutant killing robot ah la Terminator from Kinematik's earth).
 
Also included are the villain groups Revenge Evolution (Vengeance [Murdock's son], Eterno, Spector, and La Bete), and Sons of the Father (a mutant and mutant liking normal biker gang lead by Jason "Father" Todd, and includes Speedy, Eric "Punch" Todd, Zapper, Tess "The Doctor" Madrikan, Melissa "[nickname withheld for reasons]" Tolgaharna, and various unnamed normal bikers).
 
And a few important individual mutants, like Cat's Eye (ex hero turned assassin by IHA actions), Popper (teleporting kid who needs your help), Shadow Fire (mutant teacher who generates black colored fire), and Death (homeless mutant man who has a powerful death touch).
 
Also included is an adventure "What A Goddess Will Do For Her Child". Elaine Debone wants her son back. And Black Rose, the escaped Stronghold resident, is willing to help. And...well...the secret between them is something. I'll just leave it at that.
 
All in all, it is well written. It doesn't ignore Genocide at all (they existed, they were destroyed, IHA picked up what was left). I recommend it.
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In addition to vanquishing the Christmas Treant with the youth group, I managed to get in a few hours of Classic Traveller during the shutdown at Job 1.
 
Briefly: simple scenario: hey, the guys workinf on the beanstalk (it is still under construction; not being repaired) are striking! Some of the more radical have taken hostages!  They threaten to shoot on site any law enfircement or any corporate negotiator they don't recognize!  hey!  You scruffy-looking out-of-town guys can blend in and rescue the suits and the two nobles they have captured!"
 
Skipping ahead:
 
We have found the hostages after lots of stealth, helping a few strikers who know this is out of hand sneak out to safety, and minimal firefighting.
 
We manage to override the  door to the dormitory the hostages are being kept in and start to slip inside, identifying ourselves.
 
Our off-world attire, accents, and illegal-on-this-world weaponry, along with the fact that the weapons also look well-used and not-ideally maintained combine to give us away instantly to one of the nobles, who, before we have managed to close rhe door behind us and start discussing the situation and making plans, blurts in obnoxious contempt (and loudly)  "well!  I see they have had to lower themselves to hiring troublemakers to rescue us!"
 
Unbeknownst to us, rhe outburst has piqued rhe curiosity of a striker roaming the halls, who starts stealthing  his way towards us.
 
The engineer, who is wound tight and nervous (three war zones in his background; the player has decided he is jittery under stress and wrestles with PTSD.  He is wearing a backpack for a plasma welder, which actually powers his laser rifle, which he has slightly tweaked before mission to look like a heavy plasma cutter.  It is currently tipped up and resting on his shoulder.
 
"Oh, thank the Emporer! " exclaims a corporate underling who got nabbed with her boss.  "Please tell me you guys are the good guys!"
 
Just then "what the Hell-?!" And we all turn to the open door (the steward had the best computer skills; he has stopped working on closing the door to 'shush' the hostages).  We all spin towaed the door and see a metalworker with an armband (all the steickees were wearing one in solidarity) fumbling with the safety on his unfamiliar-to-him automatic.
 
Reflexively, the engineer snaps his weapon down and fires his laser rifle.  Referee looks at the map, the minis, makes a few judgement calls and rolls dice twice.  The engineer has delivered 4d directly to the unarmored face of the striker, literally burning his head completely off (and nicely cauterizinging the neck. Win / win...?)
 
My character (yo, Chris!  I got to give Sheyen a try!  Very happy!) Turns back to the young Secretary / gopher / low functionary and without missing a beat:  "let's just settle on "protagonists" for right now, shall we?"
 
 
 
 

I wonder if there is enough money in D&D (read mass market RPGs) for a viable competitor to Hasbro to move into the market.
 
Of course that would require suits who understood and cared about the market, so forget that idea.

Fire damage shield seems like something to keep the "50 STR is too low for a brick" guy quite. I like it.
 
Sure your only doing 10d6 physical damage, but add whatever the damage the damage shield is doing...
 
Sounds like a flaming brickquet to me. As in charcoal. 

Half-breed son of a Kitsune and the Monkey King..?
 
I'd go for SPD 4 for most starting Bricks, but this guy seems to be a little more on the speedy side, so I'd go for 5.
 

For those more into the history of comics than me, feel free to correct, but...
 
I think the advent of common/stronger CVKs coincided with the (only semi-voluntary, I believe) adoption of the Comics Code Authority, at which point killing would've been anathema.  
 
For GA feel, think the positive interpretation of soldiers.  Doing their jobs, supporting their buddies and their country, doing the right thing.  That can include killing Bad Guys.  I believe the most common build style is the physically enhanced type.  There are exceptions, to be sure;  Green Lantern dates back to 1940.

Clearly it is time for players to move to a game system that's completely unrelated to anything OGL, d20, or OD&D.  Might I suggest a system that's been proven to scale to practically any power level while allowing almost total freedom for defining characters and powers?  And doesn't require weird polyhedral dice?

You must decide if you want a group of PCs with good relationships between them, or not. I usually give my players their PCs built with a group idea, like a mad doctor and his followers (an assistant, a bodyguard, and a fixer), so I would think of monsters in a pack. Or not, then I would give them a medieval version of the Universal Monsters and let them fight for the same goal. Or may be you want Kaijus.

For my part, I've gotten quite a few story and character ideas from the CU timeline; but I may be atypical in that my greatest pleasure isn't derived from creating everything myself, making it all original. I most enjoy looking at what's already there and finding connections, extrapolating from precedents, mining the material for untapped potential. Maybe my instincts are those of a researcher more than a creator, although I do enjoy creation; but I prefer to build upon an existing solid foundation.

Egafs! What a horrible table!  

Yep.
 
Iron Array predates AD&D, though I understand there are people that still use it, if pared down for the more modern versions.  Honestly, when I first bumped into it, it was with a bunch of GIs from the local (then) military base, and you had to pick class and race before rolling.
 
The rolls went to the characteristics in the order they were listed,on the sheet / on the book.
 
Even in later years, when class and race options became so numerous as to be pointless, if you were playing Iron Array and failed to qualify for your class, the GM either ruled that you got into your class by luck, when you generally sucked at everything in your class, since the more exotic the class, the more it required certain stats to get in, and the more of the the geatures of that class _relied_ on those requires stats, etc, etc, etc.
 
The other option was "well, you can always be a thief."
 
I have met two GMs (who I assume knew each other at some point, as they both had the same unique solution:
 
If you failed to get into your class. Roll 1d4 to determine if you were Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, or Thief.
 
No special classes, no special bonuses or stunts: just a bare-bones one-of-the-originals class.
 
Can't lie:  while I am not a D and D fan, I always kind of liked Iron Array; it made character creation feel more like Traveller:  didn't qualify for your dream job?  Well, there is always "Other."  No good?  You're in luck!  The Draft Boaed is calling right now!
 
 
Almost forgot:  I have seen a small handful of Iron Array DMs who played that  if your character disnt qualify for his chosen class, he defaulted to Barbarian.   I never did like that idea, and I  kind of like barbarians.
 
 

Wow - I thought of this reading Scott's post, and scrolling down it would tie in quite nicely.  Another option for Senses is Targeting on an existing sense, such as hearing or smell. If this is a cat-based or fox-based character, Smell seems fairly appropriate.
 
[We had a group some years back where independent character designs lead to a cat-based character with targeting smell and a Dr. Mid-Nite homage.  The combination was quite powerful.]

All right, here are 4E and 5E write-ups for VOICE, posted to the Hero forums in the past. These include updates and expansions for the various characters from the adventure, as well as one additional VOICE villain from Villainy Unbound; plus additional villains created by VOICE of Doom author Steve Perrin, which expand the potential resources of the group. Much of this material was written and posted by Steve, but other parties also contributed. Most of the original villains are given two or more interpretations.
VOICE.zip

Near as I can tell, the conceit is that only powergamers gravitate to point based systems, while OD&D players are more interested in roleplaying and story.  (Never mind that the very same forums are overrun with discussions of how to minimax multiclassing and feats, or complaints about inherent imbalances like the uselessness of sorcerers.) 
 
Alternatively, there are the players that want to play D&D and a point based system isn't D&D by definition.  It's hard to argue with that "logic".

We just make sure his family knows that Darren mattered to us. It's up to them to tell us if they want something more.

I like Scott's thinking: something unecpected for a brick:  how about  acrobatics and a pair of prehensile tails?
 
(I will be quite now)
 
 

Defense is good, but no one every thinks of senses for a Brick.  Every Ninja and Ghost on the Hero teams tend to take out Bricks easily, because they tend to be built with "normal" senses.  Some sort of either radar sense,  36- degree sonar, or "spatial awareness", or even "Danger sense" might work. But i'd rather make this character a challenge, rther than a simple Damage sponge.

While going through a box of old Champions stuff, I found I still have the Danger International book (not pdf). I've held onto that for a long time.

https://www.facebook.com/jodi.roma/posts/10229479545681340

My own interactions with Darren were infrequent, but always a pleasure. Many years ago I engaged in a defense of Hero System on the then-hostile RPGnet forums, by posting links to many of the diverse fan-created Hero websites, showing what Hero was capable of and what its players had done with it. Darren mailed me a coffee mug with Hero stats on it, as a thank-you.
 
Darren was younger than me, and should have had decades more to enjoy and to contribute to all of our enjoyment. But this game is one monument to his life, and we honor him every time we play it.
 
EDIT: BTW I posted news of Darren's passing on the forums for Champions Online. I thought they should know about one of the major creators of the world they play in.

That is my error.  I typed 5e, and the whole time I was thinking of 6e and the "Exp" rebranding.
 
Thanks for catching it.
 
All the confusion over and specific distaste for the pointless re-invention still stand, however.
 
 
 
 
I dont think I mentioned Foxbat.  Someone had mentioned finding write-ups for Leroy.  The First write up is possibly the least expensive to acquire and hadn't been mentioned.  I mentioned art because if they haven't seen a write-up, they haven't seen art either: the brief appearances in Champions II are rushed, poor, and not very helpful for presenting him to players who have no idea what he looks like.  Honestly, the art for EXO is smallish, crowded, and isn't terribly helpful, either.
 
 
 
I will have to re-read them, but I recall being disappointed that Leroy wasn't a big part of either of them. (For what it is worrh, "for president" takes nothing more that a single character  swap and possibly four on-the-fly minor tweaks to become the solid and more serious sort of adventure you might enjoy.  Still, ir's better if you swap in FB for another villain).  Sure, GMs and authors have their favorite characters, and their personal views of how certain characters would act, interact, and organize, etc, and they will use the characters that appeal to them the most.  For me, I can't see FB attracting a group of competent hangers-on, particularly not such a large one.   FB and Leroy are "Team Foxbat" for me, with Charlie as a periodic pop-up from the past with an "if I don't help this idiot this one time, he's going to get himself killed" type attitude.
 
 
 
 
I don"t use him often, and when I do, he isn't generally "silly," either.  He clearly has psychological problems and issues with reality (paranoia is a huge one), and suffers from  schizophrenia -- but that "thinks he is in a comic book" and fourth-wall nonsense?  No.  I can't stomach it, either.
 
I _am_, however, the biggest fan of Leroy I have ever encountered.  I treat Leroy as a low-intellect but highly-competent villain.  He can _almost_ see the big picture, but not enough to prepare for everything, or to realize that the flashes of brilliance he sees in the lunatic rantings of FB aren't the signs of a lunatic savant that he believes them be, but the dumb luck of the Simpsons predicting the future.  He stays with FB because he _is_ the former street tough gang kid his origin claimed, and again- he is _not_ stupid, but he isn't quite sharp enough to understand that the street mentality of loyalty without question only traps him in a cycle of failure.  Additionally, FB has unlocked in him- via his constant indulgences in his own delusions, a streak of carefree joy that has brought him the first real "fun" he has hs since childhood:  attackinf a group of agents?  He might wear a tux under his exoskeleton and refer to all the agents as "Mr. Bond" during the battle.  No; he is not crazy.  He is just having fun, and he finds that he is only comfortable enough to give in to these carefree moments when he is partnered up with FB.
 
Now I _did_ say he is competent.  As menrioned above, I don't,use FB a lot- usually when a need a quick takedown to give me time to reorganize something the players have taken _way_ off the rails, or I want to needle a player a bit (Captain Fortitude, FB has decided he likes your style, and wants to learn from you.  As you are on patrol, you notice he is following you, in costume, with a domino mask over his mask, and referring to himself as Valor Boy.  He's fresh out of prison, and has no warrants- yet.  It's going to be a long night....)
 
Leroy, however, gets used pretty regularly.  Sometimes,he's hired muscle (canonically, hanging out with Foxbat is a dead-end as a long-term investment, and he knows that; he stays for other reasons), ans sometimes he himself,is the mastermind of a smaller crime- breaking into a well-gaurded research facility and stealling the plans and prototype of the super-power removal device-  or, as he is no dummy (just not super-villain-level smart), finding it eaiser to steal,it from the guys who stole it last week....   Arranging a sale, etc, etc.  
 
Honestly, in my,own universe, if it wasnt for Leroy's loyalty, FB would have starved to death years ago.  In my game, Leroy is a competent villain with 2d6 of unlucky to represent an oversight or shortfall in his planning--  roll unlucky, results suggest an alarm that he did not notice when casing the place went off, etc, etc.
 
Sorry this drifted:  I am,simply saying that one does not have to like FB _at all_ to see that Leroy is one of the greatest entry-level / vs new Players villains ever written officially: he isn't just a brick, he dreams bigger than "knock off a liquor store," he is a competent fighter-- he is "big time,"  but he has an inherent flaw that prevents him from reaching the level of wiping out an entire super team of even novice heroes.  _That_ is what he hopes to gleen from FB (who, in my games, has pulled it off now and again, but almost exclusively via the dice) during one of his "flashes of brilliance."  (That being 2d6 Luck, which is played as "this was something he had planned for and put X in place just in case")
 
I will beg out for a bit and let you fine folks continue discussing all the myriad  other characters inferior to Leroy in every way.   (       )