Scott Ruggels

If we can revisit the minis / tokens thing for just a moment, I would love to share this absolutely delightful thing I stumbled across this evening:
 
 
 

Oh, we can blame those. However they do fit for D.I. and F.H. I think it was the Amalgamation into Champions that was possibly the problem. Too much Realism into the Superhero Genre? Maybe?
 

Almost all, if not all, of the Skills that are in 4th, 5th and 6th editions existed in 3rd edition.  I know this for a fact because I compiled a spreadsheet about it.  Granted, they existed across multiple books, but in the games I was in back then, we assumed that any skills that were appropriate to the setting would be available in whichever game we were playing.  One major exception to that was Martial Arts in Fantasy Hero; we didn't seem to want to go there except in the Bushido Hero game.  

It's an imbalance in the system that did simulate a trope of the superhero genre. That being that high STR characters are inherently tougher than those who rely on other powers.
 
10 Points spent on STR(or CON) gave back 11 Points  in value spread across PD, REC and STUN(or ED, REC, END and STUN in the case of CON) so rather than directly purchasing these characteristics, you'd buy enough STR or Con to reach your target value.. Everyone needed CON but concepts with high STR tended to have much more STUN and REC.
 
As as Ninja-Bear states this worked fine in the context of Supers. But there are issues when we are speaking of Heroic genre games. The system is universal but there should be slight adjustments to better fit some games.  These adjustments are best done on the campaign level so that everyone knows all the differences from RAW for that campaign at character creation. House rules are fine, but they need to be known from the start and special one-offs that come up are easier to deal with.

The STR bug was the only way to easily bdimulate Silver Age, car tossing heroes and villains and still be unber 250 points. It also kept all the defenses in line. To me it’s not a big but a feature. 

The STR bug was the only way to easily bdimulate Silver Age, car tossing heroes and villains and still be unber 250 points. It also kept all the defenses in line. To me it’s not a big but a feature. 

The STR bug was the only way to easily bdimulate Silver Age, car tossing heroes and villains and still be unber 250 points. It also kept all the defenses in line. To me it’s not a big but a feature. 

Felt kind of blah last night, and caught "Never Surrender" on Amazon, last night, which was a documentary on the making of "Galaxy Quest'.  Now I want to watch "Galaxy Quest" again.
 
 After that I watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".  I enjoyed the film, due to the clever and quick editing, and the peculiar take on the Remnants of the Austro Hungarian Empire, visually.  Great, if stylized performances, and it a nice story within a story. However, watching it on Amazon, "with commercials",  was an unfortunately unpleasant  experience, and reminded me why I ditched broadcast Television, and regular cable, and never bothered to subscribe to Hulu.  The movie I would reccomend, but "with Commercials", I would most definitely, not. ( I would rather pay for the movies, than watch commercials).

The STR bug was the only way to easily bdimulate Silver Age, car tossing heroes and villains and still be unber 250 points. It also kept all the defenses in line. To me it’s not a big but a feature. 

I would say that this is accurate, as at the time Champions was  a large percentage of the games being run at Gencon through the 90's. It was ubiquitous at the time. BBBs were in tall stacks at the Hero booth that sold out over those weekends, and there was "The Hero Auxiliary", running the organized convention games at Gencon.  Those were the days.

I know a couple of HERO GMs have dropped because of the omicron variant and infection rates.  Here are the games I know are scheduled that are still so far going on.  If there is no game number, it hasn't been formally scheduled yet (reasons unknown probably due to website lack of update).  I hope I'll not be the only one running.
 
Opening Day
GM: Walter Manbeck
Type: RPG
System: Hero 6th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 8 SPD, CV 14, power ? 80 pts, 25-35 def
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
The Society of the Seven and BASTION have invited you to the grand opening of their new orbital space station. Please RSVP with your coordinates for spatial displacement, orbital shuttle pickup, or expected arrival time at the docking bay.
 
P01 Atlantis Rising
Only available via On-line Pre-registration
Friday noon in 133 for 8 hours
GM: Jim Puder
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th (Champions)
Edition: Some 4th
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 12-14 DC, 5-7 Speed, 9-13 CV on sliding scale
Variations: Only 2 find weakness per target, no speed-affecting powers
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
As the tides rise inexorably, and the storms continue unabated, a dark omen is revealed. Atlantis is rising, and with it will come a flood of proportions not seen since the Old Testament. Will you answer the call to oppose this massive cataclysm? Can you resist the power of the Mad King of Atlantis and his minions?
 
4 Legacies
Saturday 6 PM in 133 for 6 hours
GM: Jim Puder
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Edition: 4th/5th blend
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 12-14 DC, 5-7 speed, 9-13 CV sliding scale
Variations: Max 2 lvls find weakness; no speed affecting powers
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Ursus, a long-time Superhero, has reached a point where he feels too old to stay in the game. But as he looks around, he realizes he has left no legacy for his children. Now, a rash of robberies in which the lead perpetrator appears to have his exact powers is plaguing San Francisco. Can you stop him before he destroys what's left of his good name?
 
Sentinels, Evil Mutants & X-Men!!
GM: Matthew Laycock
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 5
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Power Level: 75 active 300-350
Variations: pre-generated characters
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Family
In true 1970?s Chris Claremont style I present to you the Uncanny X-Men!! Have you ever wanted to play your childhood favorite characters? Now is the time! Ever dream of tanging with Juggernaught? Or seeing if you really had a better idea of how to challenge Magneto?!!!
 
The Black Glove Gambit
GM: David Rakonitz
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th Ed. (Champions)
Edition: 4th w/some 5th
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: Max 60 point attacks, Max PD 33/ ED 33
Variations: minor
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Storm the Knight of Freedom's secret base before the forces of villainy seize the prize. Meanwhile, the mysterious Black Glove makes her move in a deadly game.
 
210 Space Nazis Strike Back
Saturday 8 AM in 143 for 8 hours
GM: Don Satow
Type: RPG
System: Hero 6th Ed. (Champions)
Edition: some 5th
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 12DC, 8CVs 5 Spd
Variations: No find weakness/lack of weakness
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
With their defeat in 2020 by a rag tag team of superheroes, one lone Space Nazi carrier ship carries on its mission to return to the motherland (Earth).
 
Trenchcoat Brigade: When memories outnumber dreams
Sunday 10 AM in for 8 hours
GM: Joe Di Lellio
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Power Level: 8-12DC; Appropriate CVs & defenses
Variations: some 4th Ed mods
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mature Themes
You awaken and remember your success in hell. The memory has an odd, dreamlike quality... and now that you ponder, which was it?
 
 

My wife is currently sitting behind me charting (she's a home healthcare nurse).  When she works (I have recently discovered, as she didn't used to work from home) she has the unbelievably irritating habit of _loudly_ playing books on tape  (Yea; I like them, too, but not at death metal concert volumes, and our taste in books is criminally polar).
 
Making it far, far worse is that, for whatever reason, she prefers books that are read by a speaker with a british accent.  I know that like any other nation, there is more than one accent.  I don't know how many british accents there are, but I know it's more than two simply because I am aware of the one that "sounds rather pleasant" and the one that is "get this man to a speech therapist and seriously, check his teeth and upper pallet for horrible deformities" severe speech impediment, and I have heard several other speakers sound "british, but neither  especially pleasant nor obviously impaired" (John Cleese is a great example of this: it's not the 'well that sounds cultured' or the 'those noises are an absolute war crime;' it is not unpleasant, and is still distinctly british), so I figure the total is "more than two."  They probably have names for the accents; I don't know, and it's not the point.
 
The point is that my wife seems to be completely incapable of knowing that there are differences in these accents, and while one is pleasant and the other (or others) are inoffensive, there is one that, for humanitarian reasons, absolutely demands a mercy killing.  (it's the one with all the "oi" sounds and where "th" is pronounced "f."  Actually, damned near _everything_ is pronounced 'f' on the rare occasion that it isn't just omitted from the word completely).
 
It boggles my mind that she really cannot hear the difference in these accents.
 
At any rate, she's currently listening to a murder mystery (scratch that: she is damned near _always_ listening to a murder mystery.  I have tried to explain to here that other genres exist, but.... ).  The reader is clearly extremely comfortable switching accents to represent different character (and, unfortunately, is also completely comfortable with multiple voice-cracking falsettos for female characters).
 
The short version is that I have never before heard anyone with the "bad accent" say "Madame Tousard's" before (forgive the highly-likely spelling errors) before.
 
I am now trying to work up a likely reason that the fantasy campaign-- if corona ever ends-- needs an injection of the NPC "Madame Two-Swords."
 
 
 

The Grand Budapest Hotel was a great movie. I would love to run a game in that type of setting, but my players wouldn't be too interested. I have the DVD; I should watch it again soon.

I have had a lot of characters like this.  The secret is to give them enough intelligence, and skills to make a roll or two when not fighting. But I have also underspent on characters just to reduce the number of disadvantages I would have to take. In fact my most favoritest character started at 241 points for a 250 point game.  Thanks again for the write up.
 

That People Magazine cover was inspired. Well done!

Felt kind of blah last night, and caught "Never Surrender" on Amazon, last night, which was a documentary on the making of "Galaxy Quest'.  Now I want to watch "Galaxy Quest" again.
 
 After that I watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".  I enjoyed the film, due to the clever and quick editing, and the peculiar take on the Remnants of the Austro Hungarian Empire, visually.  Great, if stylized performances, and it a nice story within a story. However, watching it on Amazon, "with commercials",  was an unfortunately unpleasant  experience, and reminded me why I ditched broadcast Television, and regular cable, and never bothered to subscribe to Hulu.  The movie I would reccomend, but "with Commercials", I would most definitely, not. ( I would rather pay for the movies, than watch commercials).

An excellent choice. I pretty much never don't want to watch Galaxy Quest again

Felt kind of blah last night, and caught "Never Surrender" on Amazon, last night, which was a documentary on the making of "Galaxy Quest'.  Now I want to watch "Galaxy Quest" again.
 
 After that I watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".  I enjoyed the film, due to the clever and quick editing, and the peculiar take on the Remnants of the Austro Hungarian Empire, visually.  Great, if stylized performances, and it a nice story within a story. However, watching it on Amazon, "with commercials",  was an unfortunately unpleasant  experience, and reminded me why I ditched broadcast Television, and regular cable, and never bothered to subscribe to Hulu.  The movie I would reccomend, but "with Commercials", I would most definitely, not. ( I would rather pay for the movies, than watch commercials).

Back when I was running an ongoing Champions campaign many years ago, I had 14 players with 10 or 11 showing up on any given weekend. 
One of the PCs had two Duplicates (with different DEX and SPDs), and another PC had 8 Multiforms* (with different DEX and SPDs), so my speed chart for the PCs alone was 22 characters!
 
 
* One was a detective that had been hired to find a missing nurse -- which was another of his forms.

I would say that this is accurate, as at the time Champions was  a large percentage of the games being run at Gencon through the 90's. It was ubiquitous at the time. BBBs were in tall stacks at the Hero booth that sold out over those weekends, and there was "The Hero Auxiliary", running the organized convention games at Gencon.  Those were the days.

I would say that this is accurate, as at the time Champions was  a large percentage of the games being run at Gencon through the 90's. It was ubiquitous at the time. BBBs were in tall stacks at the Hero booth that sold out over those weekends, and there was "The Hero Auxiliary", running the organized convention games at Gencon.  Those were the days.

Ah;  Sorry-  more specifically:
 
What changes in game and build,parameters when selecting one over the other.  What allowances should be made to character creation costs and budgeting if you pick one method over the other.  How selecting the structure od your skills affects the feel,and playability of the game; what are upside / downside of choosing one over the other, (and again, given the genre book format, I would be happy to see many these in genre books as "we have chosen this sort of skill structure as it helps to convey X about the setting, etc) and perhaps most importantly, why should or shouldnt I do both?  Let one guy have six skills related to electrical,engineering and,one guy have "genius gadget inventor?"
 
And like you, it is not some,sort,of,battle I want to,fight over, but it seems glaringly,absence in a rules,set with "when a power with advantage x meets a power with advantage Y, then this situation means Z."
 

 

I would say that this is accurate, as at the time Champions was  a large percentage of the games being run at Gencon through the 90's. It was ubiquitous at the time. BBBs were in tall stacks at the Hero booth that sold out over those weekends, and there was "The Hero Auxiliary", running the organized convention games at Gencon.  Those were the days.

The Current "No Magic" fantasy game, is centered on Barbarians. They are temperate herd following nomads, that do trade with the empires they interact with. The current group have been hired as caravan guards, and they have run up against hostile horse nomads.  That's the fight.  In the background, barbarians have integrated into the  the various empires after a couple of generations of worshipping the Imperial gods, and becoming sedentary.  It happens in waves.   The Caravanners are happy to have them as they have better skills for being out in the forests and grasslands they are traversing. They are also a talkative bunch.