Scott Ruggels

Since this is a legacy hero with influence in the lands of the dead.  How about an NPC advisor in the form of the spirit of his deceased grandfather? Someone only he can hear or see that he can go to for guidance.  Think Obi-Wan or the Patrick McGoohan character in the Phantom movie. Kind of a see-through version of Alfred the Butler.
   Just as a bit of flavor to separate El Spectro from being just another crime fighter.

Another oddity regarding current events in Kintargo - there were a number of mercenaries in town when Thrune took over. But instead of hiring them, which is kind of what mercenaries are for, they’re all being held prisoner at Kintargo’s salt works. Finding out why is probably worthwhile, and hey, maybe they’ll give us a discount rate if we rescue them. It’s possible that the leader of the mercs, one Forvian Crowe, has a personal animosity towards Thrune (and hey, who could blame him) but Laria thinks they could make good recruits to the rebellion regardless of their personal opinions about the Dogf***er.

The Sallix Salt Works are built on the shoreline underneath the eastern wall of Kintargo, near the now mostly irrelevant Salt Gate in the aforementioned wall. Brine is shipped in, and boiled dry on the premises.

Terzo: That seems wildly inefficient. The fuel requirements alone are ridiculous.
Civilla: That's why they use slave labour. Like the mercenaries we’re rescuing.

The market adjacent to the salt works is mostly dedicated to building supplies and related products, but Civilla and Ayva do have a good reason to be hanging around, which is convenient - maybe we can arrange a good deal on rebuilding the Livery prior to filling the basement with armed mercenaries.

Civilla casts Ears of the City on Terzo, in order to divine details about the salt works and the prisoners. Terzo isn’t entirely happy about gathering information with magic.

Terzo: The problem with doing it this way is that I don’t get to go around a dozen different pubs and ask a few innocent questions between drinks.
Civilla: You think that’s a problem, do you? I think it’s a bonus.

Although using Ears of the City DOES ensure that nobody notices, for example, an increasingly drunk Terzo going from bar to bar asking questions.

Ayva: Or an increasingly annoyed party member with a wheelbarrow taking Terzo from bar to bar.

Apparently the previous owner of the salt works was arrested for tax evasion, and killed when he resisted. Barzillai has now seized the premises as a money-earner for the government.

Civilla: Well, at least Barzillai is honest about the nationalisation process.
Terzo: How so?
Civilla: For ‘nationalised’ read ‘stole’.

We also learn, via the spell, that Crowe and his soldiers are being worked to death because of their faith in Sarenrae, the goddess of healing. That’s the kind of thing that can get you in huge trouble should any Asmodeans find out, and that’s exactly what happened.

Civilla gets quite thoughtful about the Salt Gate - they haven’t been closed in years, since the internal mechanism has rusted stiff, but that suggests a few ideas to Civilla.

Civilla: A plaaaaaan is forming in my miiiind.

Civilla wants Terzo to Grease the gate mechanism when we leave, so we can stop pursuit. Doing anything more permanent would probably annoy Thrune and provoke another Proclamation.

Terzo OoC: So basically we need a bucket of WD-40.

Civilla: In case we are chased.
Rajira: *snickers*
Civilla: Grease doesn’t last very long either.
Rajira: *snickers louder*
Civilla: CHASED, not CHASTE. CHASED as in PURSUED.

Civilla also has to keep her footmen loyal - otherwise they’ll eventually figure out she’s up to something and might inform on her. Telling them to wait with the carriage outside the salt works and suddenly running up with a troop of mercenaries and expecting them all to fit in like it was some kind of clown car would be a bit suspicious. Instead we sneak up to the door of the salt works late at night, get the door open, and knock Thrune’s blackshirts out with Lullaby and Sleep spells.

Civilla: See? I’m perfectly good at Stealth, as long as everybody is asleep.

We silently tie the unconscious guards up, release the prisoners, and tiptoe out again without the rest of the guards in the building hearing a thing.

Civilla: And give a short prayer to Noctiluca.
Terzo: … isn’t that the demon goddess of darkness and lust?
Civilla: … I can see we’re going to have to have a conversation later.

Rajira: And nobody even saw us.
Terzo: All that effort into disguises, hoods and Oaths of Anonymity wasted.
Civilla: Not wasted, reserved for future endeavours.

GM: … well then.
Civilla OoC: That’s this party’s warcry - ‘Sorry, Not Sorry’

Civilla: I mean, it won’t be hard for the authorities to figure out what happened - all the guards fall asleep at once and wake up bound. Unless they leap to some wrong conclusions. I can picture the Inquisitor asking “So WHY were you enjoying a BDSM orgy?”
Rajira OoC: ‘And why were you letting the prisoners top you?’

It WILL make an amusing rumour to spread once we get the underground press running. Something to keep in mind for the future.

That rescue cost us one first-level spell and a cantrip. We might have time for another mission this evening, after leading Crowe and his men to the Livery basement, before the curfew even comes down. Going via the Tiefling ghetto is also convenient, given how many friends we have there after dealing with the tooth fairy problem - that makes the residents less likely to comment on the large group of half naked prisoners sneaking through the alleyways. But instead of another mission tonight, we decide instead to make sure the mercs have food, clothes, and bedding.

Civilla: It shows that we consider them important enough to put off other important tasks.

Civilla: Liria told us about your predicament.
Crowe: Ah, so that’s why you came to our aid.
Ayva: She bribed us with scones.
Crowe: Damn, we owe that curvy little vixen our lives.

At least we temporarily disrupted the salt works, but it won’t take long to replace the unfortunate workers.

Terzo: Probably with Tieflings
GM: To be honest, right now, it’s going to be those thugs.

Permanently disrupting the salt works is also a goal for the future.

Civilla: Any way to reduce Thrune’s ability to punish the populace.

And, of course, effortlessly ghosting our way in and out of the salt works will increase our Notoriety, and rescuing the Black Feather Mercenaries will make us more friends among Kintargo’s population.

But we still need to investigate the ruins of Raxus’ family home, the Thrashing Badger pub, and the Silver Star music shop, for any clues the Dogf***er’s arsonists may have left intact. There isn’t much left at the latter, and not being able to see in the dark doesn’t help. On the other hand, accidentally falling through a hidden trapdoor is quite helpful, at least in that it unearths some useful potions and scrolls.

On the other hand, having our carriage pulled over by one of the Kintargo guardsmen, especially since he’s backed up by three of Thrune’s blackshirts.

Civilla: How can we be of assistance to you fine civic-minded individuals?
Thug: I’m sure you good folk are unaware, since it only happened ten minutes ago, but this road is now a tollway. The toll is a mere five gold. Per passenger.
Civilla: Five gold? How interesting. I assume you have your Writ?
Terzo: And a receipt book?
Civilla: That too.
Thug: I have my Writ right here *hefts mace*
Terzo: *casts Lullaby* Go to sleep, little A**hole, do not cry.

All three drop to Civilla’s Sleep spell, and she orders her drivers to move the carriage on.

Civilla: We do not want to cut their throats in front of my drivers.
Ayva: So we’ll leave them there to be inevitably pickpocketed?
Civilla: Or killed by any number of Kintargo’s other residents.

Unfortunately most of the Thrashing Badger washed out to sea when the boardwalk burnt through, and it wasn’t Terzo’s local drinking hole.

Ayva: Terzo has been kicked out of most of the pubs in Kintargo.
Terzo: Rolled out of, possibly.

The Badger used to be the rowdiest alcohol dispensary in the city, but any of its regulars have moved on to other establishments. It seems likely one of the more notable regulars, the fairy dragon Vendalfek, will have moved to one of them too. Perhaps Clenchjaw’s, although the name does not inspire images of fun and harmless hooliganism.

Although given the fact that we walk in on a mass bar fight, that pauses only long to look at us come in, it might be a more enthusiastic clientele than the name suggests.

Terzo: Don’t mind us, carry on as you were.

Terzo: Well, at least if they're all so busy with their fistfight, they’re less likely to remember what we look like.
Civilla: I fear they’re going to remember us anyway. Two of us anyway.
Rajira: I’m wearing my hood over my head. But I am over 6ft and attractive.
Civilla: That’s what I meant. But Terzo is going to attract attention anyway, as they see him accompanied by the three of us and try to figure out ‘How?!’

Ayva: So we set up at the bar, wait for information to come to us, and maim anybody that assumes we’re call girls.

We claim a table that doesn’t leave our backs to the door, and order refreshments.

Terzo: A bottle of your most enjoyable wine, dear.
Barmaid: We’ve got wine, water, watered wine, or if you want something spicy, wined water.

Ayva just gets a small beer, and Rajira some hard mead.

Civilla: It’s not like we can get mint liqueur anymore.

Unfortunately Ayva also complains about not being able to get night tea, and we get told off by a neighbouring sailor.

Old Salt: Word to the wise - I know you’re new here but one of the house rules is No Politics. *to Terzo* And you, you - how’d you’d end up in the company of three buxom lasses like these? Care to share the love?
Terzo: It’s my irresistible charm, dear man - I can’t beat them off with a stick.
Civilla: Buxom? Buxom?
Ayva: I don’t recall being buxom.
Rajira: *puts an arm around Ayva* Don’t worry, you’re buxom enough for me.

GM: You settle down to enjoy your drinks. Make a Perception check.
Ayva OoC: Ah, it’s one of those bars where adventures happen.
Terzo OoC: Well we already have a hooded stranger, but they’re a member of the party.
Terzo: *fails the check miserably* This is a very enjoyable wine.

Rajira’s resistance to poison probably means she could have drunk anything behind the bar, but she's not going to get the chance. Ayva spots the lizard with butterfly wings in the rafters, laughing at the barfight. This is presumably Vendalfek. When he realises he’s been spotted, he goes invisible. Ayva Messages the fairy dragon.

Ayva: Vendalfek We Know You’re There
Civilla: FFS can you be more ominous? At least indicate we’re friendly first.

The doors of the pub swing open all by themselves.

Rajira: And there goes our informant.
Terzo: What was he doing in the rafters?
Ayva: Everybody enjoys a good bar fight.
Terzo: He probably started it.

Ayva tries a more diplomatic Message, and the dragon pokes its head back in and indicates we should follow.

Civilla: It’s nearly curfew - we should head home. Come along Terzo.
Terzo: But I’m still enjoying this wine!
Civilla:
.
Terzo: Can I get this in a doggy bag?
Ayva: Damn. First good mead I’ve had in years.
Civilla: We’re far too far south for good mead.

Vendalfek 

Vendalfek: What do you humans want, anyway? I’ve only just found a new bar to live in after your lot burned the last one down.
Rajira: Not ‘my’ humans.
Civilla: *Diplomatically remains silent, specifically about her own ancestry*

We do determine why Thrune’s agents burned the place to the ground - it probably has something to do with the Roses Vendalfek kept overhearing about.

Vendalfek: Did I live in a bar that was a secret meeting place for a society of florists?

More like Milani’s Rose of Kintargo, a rebellious cult. They were arrested by Thrune’s personal enforcers, one of whom has an ominous magic sword.

Rajira OoC: Oh great, we have an Edgelord.

Civilla: These Roses they took - fun people?
Vendalfek: Oh yes.
Civilla: And the Dottari - not fun?
Vendalfek: Definitely not.
Civilla: So, what do you think about playing a few pranks on the dotteri?

Vendalfek is agreeable, and the rebellion has a new ally. Just as well, since Vendalfek also overheard that they were planning to Doghouse one of the Roses.

Terzo: Oh dear.
Vendalfek: I’d like a doghouse - cosy.
Civilla: Doghousing involves feeding a prisoner to one of Thrune’s feral mastiffs. And they starve the dog first.

Terzo: Out of curiosity, Mr Dragon - why was the barman unconscious in the corner in there?
Civilla: He was no fun.
Vendalfek: Such a stickler for the rules.

And then there is more quiet recruiting of partisans, and smuggling funds into the Rebellion’s pockets. And dealing with the fact that the Dottari are taking an alarming interest in Liria’s coffeehouse...

Liria: *communicates by frantic eyebrow-waggling* *DISTRACT THEM!*
Civilla: Um, ah, what? *grabs Rajira and kisses her*
Rajira: *briefly startled then grabs Civilla and kisses back*
Civilla: Eep.
Terzo: *looks briefly surprised and annoyed, and mutters something about ‘alright for some’ before returning his attention to his drink*

Of course the fact that Rajira might LOOK human, but doesn’t TASTE human, and has fangs and forked tongue, might be even more distracting, if Civilla hadn’t already figured out what Rajira actually was. It distracts the male Dottari though, until their female superior officer slaps them upside the head.

Rajira: Thankyou, m’dear, but I believe it’s my set. *casts Fascinate, which fails*
GM: I’m sorry, but the slap worked and they’re concentrating on their job again.

Instead we order a pot of coffee, which will give Liria an excuse to go into the pantry and move a few sacks over the hidden door in the floor.

Civilla: Wait, no, it’s tea that Thrune has a problem with, isn’t it.
Terzo: We can always ask these nice Dottari if coffee and tea are the same thing.
Civilla: Better not - we don’t want to give the authorities an opportunity to decide they are.

Apparently somebody sent the Dottari an anonymous letter alleging unsavoury practises at the coffeehouse.

Liria: The only unsavoury things here are the muffins.
Civilla: Unsavoury practises? I’ve kept my clothes on this time.
Rajira: We’ll see if that lasts the night.

Civilla manages to convince them that somebody is wasting their time, barely - sometimes you roll low but the bad guys still roll lower. The Dottari leave.

Terzo: I trust Liria offered them a complimentary muffin.

Rajira grabs Civilla and drags her over to the bar.

Rajira: Something strong - 120 proof at least. Swill this around in your mouth before you swallow. My saliva can be toxic and I’d rather you didn’t become ill.
Civilla: I’d rather not.
Rajira: … OK.
Civilla: I mean I’d rather not smell like I’ve been swilling the kind of alcohol I usually use for cleaning purposes.

GM: Oh god, somebody gave Vendalfek coffee.
Civilla: actually we shouldn’t shut down the Salt Works - that way if anybody else gets imprisoned there we can rescue them, too.
Rajira: And some of the prisoners they send there have actually been arrested for good reasons. There’s always actual criminals around.
Civilla: True, but Thrune is employing those.

Civilla decides to take the air, with her compatriots and supposed paramour, to scout out the ruins of Rexus’ family home that we have to investigate. After all, since Terzo is her tutor and Ayva is her business partner, we actually have a good reason to be strolling around the expensive part of town. Rexus doubts we’ll find anything, but Civilla thinks it will still be worth a look. It’s certainly suspicious that the ruins of the Victocora estate are under permanent armed guard, even this many weeks after the fire. Perhaps we can stay at Civilla’s family home, so we can come back after dark without having to sneak back into the Kintargo equivalent of a Gated Community?

Civilla: Eh, it would attract attention to them and they’d ask questions. Trust me, they’d ask questions, it’s what Alazarios do. It’s one reason we’re not very popular with House Thrune.

We decide to wait until after curfew, and sneak along the alley between the city walls and the noble estates, and climb over the estate wall into the ruins. Which is a good plan, if we didn’t run into a Dottari guard patrolling the other way.

Rajira: *drunkenly slurs* Hey there, handsome.
GM: Roll to Seduce.

Dottari: What are you DOING here, woman, it’s almost after curfew! Come with me!
Rajira: Oh, I’m sure we can find something much more fun to do…
GM: You were unlucky enough to get the nice guard, and he’s actually insisting on escorting you back to your home.
Rajira: S***.

Rajira: *signals the rest of the party* Should I take him out?
Civilla: *summons a monster frog out of the ground*
Dottari: What the Hells is that! GET BEHIND ME!
Rajira: *clonks him on the head*
Civilla: Can somebody cut him in half?
Rajira: … not without getting blood all over my clothes, no.
Ayva: … Why?
Civilla: My frog can’t eat something that large. Unless we fold him double, maybe.

Terzo is rather perturbed by the murder, and reminds so during the wall-clambering and ruins search. It’s Ayva that finds the remains of a recent preparatory ritual next to the ornamental lake on the property. Apparently a witch did something here, more recently than the fire. Civilla cautiously wades into the lake and promptly vanishes with a splash, into a lake that’s supposed to be thigh deep at best. It’s now way more than 60 feet deep, and there’s something glowing blue in the depths.

Terzo OoC: So the Victocoras had a secret nuclear reactor in their pond.

Civilla: Just as well I can summon Celestial Dolphins.

Civilla and Rajira descend, and are soon spotted by somebody else swimming down here, who hurriedly swims into a side tunnel. Unfortunately there’s also a grate, which Civilla can Dimensional Slide through at least, in a search for some kind of opening mechanism. The tunnel on this slide slopes upwards.

Civilla: I’ll return to the others and get high.
All: LOL.

Sending Rajira back to the surface when they do may have been a mistake, since some kind of magical pulse boils up the shaft and engulfs Rajira while she’s on her way up. She’s turned to stone, which doesn’t make things any easier for the dolphin.

Terzo OoC: Do I need to throw some waterwings in there?

Still, Terzo and Ayva are rather alarmed by the petrification, at least until Ayva determines it will only be temporary - apparently that was a wild magic surge. So all we know is that somebody, probably a witch, was messing around at the bottom of an unexpectedly deep lake, and we have no idea who or why. Civilla has followed the zig-zagging tunnel to another grate, with a room on the other side.

GM: This is clearly a Spellcasters Only route.
Civilla OoC: And this is me. *casts Dimensional Slide again*. Was this really supposed to stop low level characters? One Halfling wizard with Reduce Person would go right through it.
GM: …. Excuse me a moment while I consult the next book of the campaign.

She’s apparently somewhere underneath the Hall of Records. She casts Pass Without Trace and Disguise Self to reduce the chance the Dottari wandering about don’t find her. Disguising herself as that Dottari officer from last night gets her out of the building without too much attention, and she dispatches one of the Silver Raven devices to let us know she’s heading to the Alazario estate. This is a relief to the rest of us, although Rajira has already seen the disguised Civilla on the road.

Terzo: Well, I must say we’re glad to see you alive - when Rajira came back up turned to stone and wrapped around a dolphin, and no sign of you, we were a bit concerned.
Civilla: Turned to stone? What did I miss?

Civilla excuses herself to write some letters to her family, suggesting they buy the Victocora estate and hinting that they should keep the lake as is but not investigate too closely.

Civilla: ‘There’s a secret back entrance to the Hall of Records? That’ll be useful when it reopens’

Civilla: There are currently two cults of Noctiluca - the ones who are wrong and the ones that are right.
Ayva OoC: I can see her followers inquiring about what happened, and when they find out, go ‘wait, she did WHAT to WHO and then WHAT????’.

GM: I just looked up what Night Tea actually is, and it’s nothing about ‘disturbing the balance of the slumbering mind’ - it’s a prophylactic.

Civilla gets a delivery while she’s writing at Laria’s coffeehouse - less a package than a bouquet. Of very beautiful roses, with a slip of paper concealed down among the stems.

Rajira: And there was me thinking I had a rival for your affections.

Perhaps predictably, it’s from the Rose of Kintargo, the Milani cult that is also planning a rebellion against Barzillai Thrune. They warn us not to act rashly, and promise to contact us soon. We recruit a team of street performers, who we call Nobody’s Fools, and put the finishing touches on the former Livery. In fact we’re just getting ready to open up when a small child runs in screaming for help.

Rajira: What’s wrong with the spawnling?
Tiefling Kid: She’s been taken!
Civilla: Who?
Tiefling Kid: Zea! The bad people! They said they're going to put her in a doghouse!

If we’re quick we might be able to intercept them before they reach Aria Park - it’s fortunate that the Livery is practically next door to the ghetto. We all pile into the carriage.

Civilla: Come along child - you get to ride in a carriage!

Unfortunately they get to the park first - the pagoda in the middle of the lily pond in Aria Park has been converted into a kennel for any of the dogs the citizens of Kintargo have been handing in for the reward. It’s also Thrune’s thug's choice of destination for anybody they decide has insulted the throne. Civilla gets her disposable cloak ready - if necessary she’ll swap costumes with Zea so the blackshirts chase the wrong person. She’ll also Summon a Celestial Dog, tell it to play Keep Away over to the east of the pond, and use that to distract the thugs. After all, they’ll certainly try and catch it for the reward, and the mortal mastiffs will probably go mental. Then the rest of us can sneak up and overwhelm the other thugs, under the cover of the borking.

Dottari on far side of pond: Hey, there’s a dog!
Celestial Dog and Mastiffs: Play? Play! Play! Play!
Dottari on our side of the Pond: What the **** is happening over there/
Rajira: *kukris them in the back*

GM: The surviving thugs all need to make Handle Animal checks.
Ayva’s player: I’ve had to walk a Saint Bernard before - these thugs might be going for A Walk.
GM: Aaaand they all failed their check.

One of the thugs invents water-skiing as his mastiff drags him into the pond, and the rest all chase off after the dogs that are supposedly in their charge. Zea can basically stroll off while they’re busy.

GM: … Good work. I basically doubled the number of NPCs that were supposed to be here, too.
Terzo: With only two spells again.
Ayva OoC: If we were playing rogues we wouldn’t even have needed that.
Rajira OoC: If we were all playing rogues we’d have Stealth Synergy and have ghosted through the entire scenario. I rolled a 1 and they STILL didn’t see me.

Ayva: And we’re home in time for curfew.
Rajira: At this rate the Dottari are going to start talking about The Ghosts.

Although trying to squeeze Zea and the kid into the carriage with the rest of us is a bit tricky - fortunately the rest of us are a lot skinnier than Terzo.

Civilla: In this group are one and a half humans.

Zea is suitably grateful for the rescue, and doesn’t know why she was targeted - it may have been a random sweep. Civilla casts Ears of the City to find out. It looks like the Asmodeans came after Zea because she’s trying to hold the ghetto together now their actual leader has gone missing. And Thrune’s troops are making concerted efforts to solve the Tiefling Problem for good.

Rajira: The Asmodeans boink devils like it’s going out of style, then try to eliminate the results.
Civilla: Welcome to Cheliax - they’re wonderfully hypocritical.
Rajira: So the next sweep team that goes into the ghetto doesn’t come back.
Civilla: I’d rather they come back - but without pants.

It doesn’t appear that Thrune actually ordered this - he doesn’t seem to care either way. The blackshirts are acting on their own initiative.

Civilla: Oh, it’s blackshirts doing the sweeps? In that case we go with Rajira’s suggestion - any sweep teams that come in, don’t come out.
Terzo: *hopefully* So we’re going to be keeping them tied up in a basement somewhere?
Rajira: No, we’re going to cut their throats and dump the bodies in a cesspit.
Terzo: …. oh.

Civilla: Perfect! We render them down as soaps and fertilizers for the rich.
Terzo: I’m going to assume you’re joking.
Rajira: No.
Civilla: Have you ever heard me joke about anything alchemical?
Ayva: You should hear the one about the alembic.

Civilla: I don’t think Terzo has quite figured out the situation he’s in. He’s definitely the softest of us.
Ayva: Every ‘smore needs a marshmallow.

Thrune: They might just be Tieflings, but taking a prominent member of their community was going to anger them. At least they left my dogs alone.

There is one possible problem looming - a Tiefling gang, the Red Jills, who would happily escalate the violence beyond any sane limit. So we have to persuade them to limit their mayhem to a level that won’t invite reprisals from Thrune.

Terzo: Oh, I know where they hang out.
Ayva: Terzo knows everyone. Sorry, every pub.

Their current lair is an old temple of Aroden, an immortal human who was the focus of a whole bunch of prophecies, but who then died mysteriously and threw all those prophecies out the window. His temples have closed up shop. So now the building is occupied by the Red Jills, who hate humans, and their leader a winged Strix, one Scarplume, who hates humans even more.

Civilla: Anybody have any ideas how we can use this? It’s sounding suspiciously like we’re walking into a fair fight. I’d rather not fight at all, obviously, but this is sounding more and more like a fair one, and that I do not like.

Civilla: I don’t think these are our kind of people - do we really want to recruit them?
Terzo: Well, the last thing we want is a circular firing squad among the partisans.
Rajira: The Revolution is for everyone.
Civilla: But these Jills are already attacking the general citizenry - we want them to focus on the actual threat.

Civilla: The Strix have a reputation as baby-snatching monsters. And I can say that because I can speak Strix….. I’m going to have to do all the talking, aren’t I.

At least our smuggling contact has done some work for the Red Jills. The Jills might also be desperate for a new fence, too. And the Strix has something in common with the tengu, too - they have wings, at least. We can organise a meet on Red Jill turf without being instantly murdered.

definitely quotable, that
Champions : Return To Edge City : The Right To Bear Arms
GM: You’ve actually been a stabilising influence on Edge City.
Hero Shrew OoC: Well that’s good to know. If somewhat horrifying considering I’m one of the people involved.

Hero Shrew: I really should let Sally down lightly.
GM: What????
Hero Shrew’s player: You know, my co-worker that I’ve been romantically interested in since the start of the campaign.
GM: Yes, I know who she is, but as a player are you delusional enough to think you had a chance?
Hero Shrew’s player: As a player, no, but Scooter sure is.

GM: The aliens are still a bit confused by Earth’s technology level - at least two groups have anti-grav technology but it’s not in wide usage anywhere else.
Hero Shrew OoC: While other groups still have horse-drawn vehicles.
The Magus OoC: And UNTIL even has anti-antigrav tech.

Fireflash OoC: I need to change my Psychological Limitation from ‘Show-off’ to “Only Sane Woman’
GM: Fair.

Meanwhile, Hardlight is examining the cybernetic technology released by one of his business rivals. It’s a bit puzzling, especially because he can’t find any processors in it. He’s going to need help.

GM: ‘Hey Flux, I’ve got this guy’s arm, come look at it.’
Flux: Um.

It turns out the processors are distributed throughout the entire device. And it’s trying to find connections to Hardlight’s local systems.

Hardlight: This is getting more and more like a ‘kill it with fire’ situation.
GM: It doesn’t look like Mechanon or Destroyer-tech.
Hardlight OoC: So? I don't want them getting a hold of it either!

Between Hardlight, Flux, Fireflash, the Magus, they decide to experiment and investigate by leaving it on a laptop in an air-gapped Faraday cage and see what happens. If this thing can teach itself to interface with any systems from nervous systems to laptops, it’s a pretty shocking advance in technology. Eventually they hook it up themselves, and it promptly fuses with the laptop.

Hardlight: Does it at least show up as a USB drive?

Flux recognises some of the code running as resembling the kind of thing that happens at a cyberbrain interface.

Hardlight: This isn’t hardware - it’s wetware. Dampware?

GM: The Tyrell corp have developed a cybernetic device that doesn’t count as a machine, and is therefore functionally immune to cyberpathy.
The Magus OoC: They've got a bunch of captured Cybertronians in the basement and they’re hacking limbs off them.

It’s also partially opaque to The Magus’ Magesight.

Hardlight: So, who wants to go raid Tyrell?
Flux: Raid is such a harsh word.

Magus uses his powers of Scrying to find whatever this arm may have originally been connected to. Various parts seem to be attached to citizens across the city, but one particularly large fraction of it is found in a parts bin, about to be melted down for scrap. It’s the Head and Torso of an extremely humanoid robotic creature. Poking around inside reveals Tyrell tech, but nothing known in official databases. This is likely some kind of prototype for internal use only.

Hardlight: So the question is: How the hell did a hideously advanced, damn-near-human cybernetic creature get out of an internal Tyrell lab, die, and instead of being thrown into a Tyrell furnace, end up in a recycling bin?
The Magus: Hmm - so this robot is actually dead. I wonder if it left a ghost?

Hardlight: OK, I’m going to do something very stupid.
Hero Shrew OoC: I thought that was my job.

Hardlight looks inside the robot’s head - it’s not actually organic, but the organisation has some similarity. The foam-lattice design isn’t wholly original, but it’s very very complex compared to previous examples. It certainly looks like a Tyrell design - the hardwired Laws seem to be part of it.

The Magus sits Flux down to run through the basics of Necromancy.

GM: Which the Magus seems disturbingly familiar with.

Flux also learns more about why magic-users usually work in teams. In this case, it’s to wait behind the Magus with a baseball bat, just in case anything untoward happens while the Magus is in his trance state.

The Magus: Can You Hear Me?
Hero Shrew: Yes?
Hardlight: I think he’s talking to the ghost, Scooter.

Hero Shrew: So he’s trying to summon a robot ghost. If it was a ghost robot pirate we’d have the whole trifecta.

Robot Ghost: Hello? Yes, I can hear you. Who are you?
The Magus: Hello - I’m Damien, but most people call me the Magus.
Robot Ghost: Hello. I’m Seth.
The Magus: Do you know where you are?
Robot Ghost: I think I’m dead - how weird is that?

Seth: I think I remember dying now… and it’s not easy to kill us.
The Magus: Us?
Seth: Er… can you forget I said that?

Seth seems quite concerned that his being killed will expose his friends, or possibly get somebody into trouble, since they’re not ready to be revealed. He’s initially fine that the rest of his parts got installed into various people, but then gets quite upset that it’s into biological people, especially if they have other cyberwear.

Seth: That could be bad. We’re Nexus Series. Tyrell Corp could get in trouble. We’re Nexus Series! We have an important job! We’re Nexus Series! It’s an Important Job! People could get hurt! We’ve run the projections, the city needs us!

Seth saw and recognised whoever decapitated him while he was on his mission, but they were more powerful than he expected.

Seth: Tell Dr Madox I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to die.
The Magus: Is there anybody else?
Seth: Tell my brothers and sisters. But Dr Madox can tell them.

Seth is also confused that his 55 siblings didn’t collect his remains, especially if they completed whatever their Important Job was. On the other hand, if they were killed surely their ghosts would be floating around in whatever digital afterlife Seth currently resides in.

Seth: It’s quiet here. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now. Huh. Azura was right. You people have it easy.

It’s probably highly relevant that Seth and Azura are two of the 56 children of Adam and Eve. It’s also probably relevant that Seth considers the Moreaus, created by Genesys, cousins.

Hardlight: *sigh* Why is it that Edge City has such a hard-on for creating new sentient lifeforms?
GM: Part of that is Hardlight. You have Weirdness Magnet.

One of the players is late getting to the game.

GM: It’s Saturday evening, it’s either the game he’s GMing or the one where he wears underpants inappropriately.
Fireflash OoC: At least he wears underpants.
Hero Shrew OoC: And I’m freeballing all the time.
GM: *sigh* you have no idea how hard The Rep works. Suffice to say, he earns his commission.

GM: Which of you has experience talking to dead artificial minds?
Hero Shrew: I could say me but I’d be lying.
Fireflash: I have some experience talking to college bros.

Anyway, now we have one Dr Elly Madox to investigate. Some years back she helped develop the groundwork for the modern Biochip Interface, before moving to pure robotics, and jumping ship to Tyrell. ‘Coincidentally’ the company has developed a lot of fancy tech since then. At least if we show up in our superheroic identities, the Tyrell functionaries will probably kick the problem upstairs until we’re talking to somebody that actually knows what happened. Whether those people are actually willing to tell us is another problem, of course. Happily, Dr. Madox seems willing to meet Hardlight, although for some reason he decides to take Scooter along despite the risk to property.

Dr. Madox: So, why did you want to see me?
Hardlight: I’m not sure how to say this…
Hero Shrew: ooh! Ooh! I can!
All: SCOOTER, NO.
Hardlight: We found Seth.
Dr. Madox: *goes pale* w...what?
Hardlight: One of your projects?
Dr. Madox: *through gritted teeth* Not how I would phrase it.
Hardlight: Sons?
Dr. Madox: Still not how I would phrase it. We can’t talk here.
Hero Shrew: I have to say I’m impressed - you were almost as blunt as I would have been.

Gareth explains how we found Seth’s bits, but Dr. Madox is more interested to know how we talked to him if he was nonfunctional when we did.

The Magus: This is more my area of expertise. I did a little necromancy and communicated with his spirit.
Dr. Madox: *slightly hysterical laughter* You talked to his ghost.
The Magus: Congratulations - you created life.
Dr. Madox: I don’t deserve your congratulations - we created nothing.
Hardlight: Um.

Dr. Madox explains that something degenerative infected some of her coworkers after the Genesys incident, and her cyberoid creations are their attempt to salvage something of their minds. There were dozens of Nexus series created, before their husband-and-wife templates were too far gone to be copied for more. The biblical names they somehow acquired didn’t help matters - Cain, for example, was quite upset about his namesake, and gets on quite well with Abel. Nonetheless, there are now dozens of cyberoids, immune to cyberpathy, that can easily pass for human. And that can grow and adapt.

Dr. Madox: I’ll ask you a question - how many times has Mechanon been an active threat to this city?
Fireflash: Given the implications of the question, I’ll have to guess more than we’ve heard about.
Dr. Madox: Eight. And each time it was the Nexus series that stopped him.
Hardlight: So you think Seth was killed by an agent of Mechanon?
Dr. Madox: No, Mechanon wasn’t the target of that operation - he was dealing with VIPER.

Apparently Seth’s killer was one of VIPER’s enhanced Draysha agents in a combat suit.

GM: I can’t remember how many sentient machines there are in the Champions universe. Not many.
Hero Shrew (and ROVER’s) player: You certainly couldn’t describe ROVER as sentient, given his brain ran on AmigaOS.

The GM’s adopted stray cat is being a bit demanding.

GM: This f***ing cat - she wasn’t this loud before.
Hardlight’s player: Yes she was - she was just outside.

Dr. Madox is extremely concerned that some of Seth’s parts were being used as human bionics - the Nexus series could quite easily create its own interfaces with implanted cyberbrains and interfaces, and is strongly inclined to do so. And there’s no technology Dr. Madox is aware of that would stop it growing its connections.

Dr. Madox: So these parts were effectively black market cybernetics - which begs the question why they didn’t activate during the salvage process.
The Magus: Would the damage to his brain have temporarily shut down the activity in the rest of his parts?
Dr. Madox: Hmm. Maybe. *sigh* Seth was always the gentlest of them. Was. I'm already talking about him in the past tense. You have to understand I’ve worked with these people for over a decade.
Fireflash: And you care for them. Perfectly understandable.

We agree to keep the problem quiet for now, and offer to approach the people that have had Seth’s bodyparts transplanted into them, on the condition TyrellCorp foots the bill for safer cybernetic replacements.

Hardlight OoC: Somebody is going to turn into roboAkira, but in character I’m all for this plan.
Flux: Using the Batman Solution of ‘My Superpower is Money’
The Magus: Especially since he’s getting another corporation to pay for it.

It IS a little surprising to learn that there’s been entire teams of other superheroes active in Edge City, fighting a Secret War against Mechanon, that we had no idea about.

GM: Not everybody is as flashy as you. You’re also a bit surprised that there’s a black market for repurposed robot parts as implants in Edge City.
The Magus (and Allana’s) player: Allana probably knows all about it but she’s retired.

That said, it’s rather weird that Mechanon has made 8 different covert attacks against Edge City - it’s possible he’s being excessively cautious against cybernetic enemies that he can’t control. Although an obsessive Mechanon that’s trying to figure out why he keeps failing, and why he can’t adapt against it, is not a good thing.

The Magus: He did once decide that his weakness was ‘I’m not 50ft tall’.

The Magus arranges something that will hopefully be funeral rites for a cyberoid. We’re approached by a guy that looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts - it’s the ‘Tyrell security’ guy that Scooter wanted to punch, months back, when we were dealing with a raid on one of their warehouses.

‘Security Muscle’: Ah, I hear you found my brother.
Hero Shrew: Hey, I remember you!
‘Security Muscle’: You do? I’m surprised - we only met once and we didn’t really meet.
Hero Shrew: Eh, I was itching to punch somebody and you looked like you could take it.
The Magus: He never forgets a potential target.
‘Security Muscle’: … OK. Anyway, thanks. I’m Cain.

Cain doesn’t want to tell us about exactly what he does, but does complain about the fact that when they shift to their combat form, they have to wait for their ion cannon to cool down before they can regrow their skin.

The Magus: I can see why that would be a problem - melting skin is not a good look.
Cain: Oh, I dunno - it’s useful when you’re interrogating somebody who doesn’t know you can’t do it to them.

Cain also warns us not to teleport into Tyrell Labs - the security systems are a bit proactive about anything they assume is a threat. Tyrell’s cover story to the recipients of the cyberoid parts is that they had supply chain problems and the implanted parts have components that Tyrell can’t guarantee.

GM: ‘Here take this, sign this air-tight NDA’

The guy with the eye is a problem - more work on his eye would affect his health insurance, and he doesn’t have enough medical leave left.

Flux: … theoretically, would you be averse to having the cybernetic eye removed and your real one grown back?
GM: Hardlight, you know corporate law - that would completely F*** up his insurance, since he’s on record as having a cybernetic eye, and Flux is the very definition of an unlicensed practitioner.

Of course, we can always put the eye removal down to an ‘ongoing investigation’ which would satisfy his insurance, technically, and ensure he can’t be fired for missing work. So we don’t have to arrange a court order.

Judge: I'm sorry, you want what??
Flux: I’m sorry, a raccoon made me do it.

The Magus: I presume one of us will have to inform PRIMUS about all this.
Hardlight: Bags not me.

They’re not going to be pleased that Tyrell invented a synthetic race with aggressively invasive cyberwear, and saw fit not to inform them. There’s four cyberoids waiting with Dr Madox when we come back - Cain, another man of similar build, and two women of athletic build.

GM: Oh - ‘build’. Unintentional pun.

We do need to track down and close down the parts black market, too. It’s a bit of a concern that somebody out there is running a bodymod shop without knowing if the recycled robot parts are even biocompatible. Certainly the paper trail on the eye was all faked, using pre-issued certification on eyes that failed quality assurance. We can probably guess where along the supply chain that happened.

GM: I imagine Flux is going ‘Well I’m not getting my cyberbrain installed THERE’
Flux: I’m adding them to The List.

Hero Shrew: I asked around if there was anybody who could give me a chainsaw arm, but nobody knew.
All: …
Fireflash: … why do you think you need a chainsaw arm?
Hero Shrew: It’d be cool.
Fireflash: No. No. Again I say no.
Flux: I think what happened there is that you asked them, they thought about your reputation, and pretended they didn’t know.
The Magus: There’s one person in the city who could implant a chainsaw arm in a Brick, and she’ld flick your nose for asking
GM: Two - Allana AND Dr Soma could do it, but she’s flick you too.

Hero Shrew DOES hear that the Daughters of Lilith, who have been tangling with chromer gangs lately, have been flashing extra cash around lately - they could certainly forge the paperwork.

GM: Hence my favourite Cyberpunk quote
Fireflash’s player: ‘Dead Guys Is Parts’
GM: ‘Dead is Dead, Parts is Parts, Dead Guys is Parts.’

Flux: So what’s the plan of action?
Hero Shrew: I go in and ask them if they can get me a chainsaw arm?
Fireflash: No.

Instead we get a warrant for surveillance, and Flux goes and has a cyberpathic poke around the computers of the suspect bodyshops. We learn that the brokers supplying the clinics all use the same courier service to deliver the parts. The same couriers occasionally pick up packages from the city morgue. And there are discrepancies between orders and deliveries in the form of manila envelopes. It seems almost certain that that’s the point that shenanigans are happening. Especially when The Magus’s Magesight reveals that one of the security guards still has the traces of a VIPER tattoo.

GM: He had it right up until his boss said ‘Get rid of that! We’re not in a Nest now! F***ing moron! There’s a whole range of approved snake themed tattoos that won’t raise alarm bells.’
The Magus: That said, anybody with a ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ tattoo is alarming for entirely different reasons.

Hero Shrew: Well, that’s a link to Seth’s death, at least.
Fireflash: … so it is.

We can even set up surveillance from office space overlooking the VIPER courier building. Handy.

GM: You’ll have to rotate the static surveillance since all have day jobs or other commitments - even Scooter has appearances he has to make. Although The Rep is this close to getting a shock collar that Scooter will actually feel and pay attention to.

We soon confirm that they have contacts with the Daughter of Lilith, too, and can at least pretend to share some of their rather extreme sexual politics.

GM: Which is basically ‘F*** Men - It’s all they’re good for.’ But you also learn that the Daughters have had upgrades lately.
The Magus: *sigh* Of COURSE VIPER provided them with venomous fangs. I give VIPER a lot of crap, but they know how to stay on brand.

Our GM used a random name generator to come up with the company name. One of the first it produced was Viper Delivery.

The Magus OoC: We need to outsource more of our investigations to random name generators, that was much quicker.

Instead he goes with Basilisk Ltd.

The Magus: I can picture the cell leader complaining over drinks one night “It wasn’t even ABOUT snakes until that f***ing Harry Potter book come out.”
Flux: “And now it’ll just look suspicious if we deregister the name!”

We also record a mention of something called The Old Seam, which Fireflash recognises as a reference to a local cemetery some two centuries old.

The Magus: Making it new and hip compared to many of the world’s cemeteries.
GM: True, but it’s one of the rare remnants of Old Monterey.

Especially after that weather machine malfunction decades ago that turned Monterey into a disaster area ripe for complete redevelopment, long before later disasters left Edge City crippled. At least the vampire problem isn’t as bad as it could be.

The Magus: Shooting fire from your eyes is a surprisingly common ability, these days.

Having their meeting at the Old Seam is actually pretty clever.

GM: No-one is going to notice a bunch of goth chicks in a graveyard. In the early evening, anyway, before it gets so late that someone asks ‘Why are you in this graveyard’?
The Magus: Nothing good happens in graveyards at 4 in the morning.

Hardlight’s player: Sundog suggested I get a "Skill levels>With a group of similar skills" thing. Now, while I'm sure I could just get an "All Int Skills" booster for 5 points, I should probably like, make it slightly more Lore-friendly, and turn it into a cyberbrain chip...At which point I realise... I don't actually have a cyberbrain! XD
Flux’s player: You also already have hard-to-explain 'cyberware'
Hardlight’s player: This is very true. Just trying to figure out how to make something like that fit with character lore, is all. I'd rather not just have Gareth wake up one day mysteriously being able to just ‘think slightly better’...Unless it's a plot hook…. brain wooooorms
The Magus’ player: Removing the lodged crayon has worked for other patients.
Hardlight’s player: Touché!

Sorry it took so long. I tried various CSS tools to see what worked best.
It doesn't look exactly like your screenshot but it is close.
Also, if you set the character image in Hero Designer it will display it under the Hero System logo.
If you don't then it doesn't take up any space on the character sheet (basically it doesn't have place a holder for it).
You can download the ExportTemplateThreeColumnHtml5ezip file.
 
One gotcha about this export is that there are three CSS files that must reside wherever the HTML file is located.
You can edit the Export file to have the CSS within the HTML itself if you want and I can help you with that if needed.
 
Several things that pleases me about this export:
Uses a normalize.css file so that the character sheet should display the same way on different browsers. Customizing this export should be much easier due to how the HTML is sectioned off and tagged. Changing the styling (alignment, bolding, and so forth) should be fairly easy once you get used to how things are tagged and you only need to update the one CSS file not the HTML. I used Flex Box (HTML 5 CSS Standard) to handle the columns and as a side benefit it looks like the printing no longer splits the text in half. At least with the tests I ran. Has a separate Printer.css file that contains a page break so that new pages do in fact start on a new page when printing.  
This is my first attempt so feel free to point out improvements or ask questions. My goal was to make modifying this Template as easy as possible.
 
- Christopher Mullins

I was doing 150 points  for FH, plus disads, but my games were combat and skill heavy.  

If I'm being honest, I'm not even sure what "feels like magic" even means.  "Sense of wonder," maybe?  
 
A lot of "old school" D&D play consisted of things like... 
 
Player:  "I climb the wall to get around the pit trap."  

DM:  "How exactly are you trying to climb the wall?"  
 
Then they go back and forth, with the player flailing around with something they may or may not know anything about (rigging ropes, pounding in pitons, ???) until the DM is satisfied, and the PC either makes it across or falls into the pit.  
 
This is the closest I can get to something "feeling like magic".  The GM should ask, "How exactly are you trying to cast ___ spell?"  and there's back and forth until the DM is satisfied, and the spell either works or it doesn't.  
 
The divide between "old school" and ... "not old school" is whether you can decide your character knows how to do something.  You don't have to say how you climb the wall, or cast the spell, or defuse the bomb, or whatever, because your character has a skill of some kind that you can roll.  
 
I can't see that there's much difference between a first edition AD&D spell writeup, with name, school, casting time, range, area, components, save, etc., and a HERO System spell writeup, with its name, effect, base cost, Advantages, active cost, Limitations, real cost.  In both cases, the GM and player need to know what's going to happen when the spell is cast -- the player so they can choose the right spell, get into position, make sure it's going to have the effect they want it to have, and the GM so they can adjudicate it and tell the player what happens.  
 
Where's the feel of magic in that?  
 
I'm not sure there's ever going to be a sufficient definition of feel of magic, any more than there is a sufficient definition of hard-core pornography beyond "I know it when I see it."  
 
Magic has to be systematized in some way if we're going to use it in games, in such a way that people who are using it don't feel like they're missing out by not wearing armor and swing swords, and in such a way that the fighty types don't feel like they're missing out.  
 
As far as what people prefer, or like, or don't like, de gustibus non disputandum.  If you like something, you like it; if you prefer something, you prefer it; if you don't like something, you don't like it.  Justifying why you do or don't like something is wasted energy, and gives people a chance to argue your definitions, your facts, whatever.  Yes, the thing is very orange; no, it is not a cube, it is egg-shaped.  I prefer zorbles to greemli because zorbles are orange cubes.  No, not all zorbles are cubes; some are egg-shaped and some are pyramidal.  
 
 
 

You can easily do magic like other games do it.
 
Fireball (6d6, 6" radius, 1 time per day)
 
Done. 
 
Or
 
Feather Fall (Reduce falling creature's rate of descent to 10 feet per segment, 1 time per day).
 
I can do this all day. 
 
The only reason Hero looks so difficult or not fitting a specific genre is everyone keeps burying the game under unnecessary annotation.  When my Fantasy Hero buys a sword I have yet to write down the lengthy stat block on how it was built.  I just write sword and xd6KA.
 
Spells and magic are easy if you model them like pretty much every other RPG out there. 
 
Unless of course none of the games out there can do magic right
 

As the guy experiencing it and as the guy saying it, and as the guy it was being said about, I am going to have to pause a moment and say "Yes.  Yes, it exactly is about magic feeling magical"-- that is, it was it's own different and unique thing, and while effects were scalable from level to level, there wasn't any sort of comparison of "one fireball equals nine swords"-- it was unique to itself, and HERO can't do it because in the end, X fireballs in HERO will always equal Y swords because there is, ultimately, _one_ "I hurt you" mechanic.
 
We can dress it up with SFX and decide if it's PD, ED, or EGO, but it's one mechanic, and by HERO's nature, will always be expressible in terms of something else built in HERO.
 
I'm not knocking HERO-- it's one of the two games I still play forty years later, but I am not going to sycophantically gloss over its shortcomings and faults, either, and the biggest one is, ironically, the most appealing part of the system: the ability to build and unbuild things.  
 
You can _model_ anything.  I've got some pretty cool Car Wars minis, and they are ideal models of the cars they are--, well, modeled after.   But they will never actually feel like the cars themselves.  I suppose the end results are the same: neither will survive a hundred-mile-per-hour impact, and both will suffer horribly if set on fire-- but the feeling of using one is not the feeling of using the other.  HERO fans have a tendency to downplay any criticism about the "feel" of a game, and the typical reply (nothing personal: I have hashed this out with many of the fine people that have come and gone here over the years, and the replies are almost always one of these two) either "you can model X with the system" or "the end result is the same."  
 
Neither of those has anything to do with how it feels while playing.  Why is feel important?  It's an entire session of co-operative make-believe!  There is nothing here _but_ "how it feels."  If it felt bad, you and your friends wouldn't do it.  You do it because you like how it feels when you do it.  I play HERO and Traveller because those two systems consistently deliver high-quality feels.  It is simply that there is this one thing-- magic feeling magical-- that HERO can't deliver on, at least not the way that something else _does_.  Perhaps D&D (at least early D&D; I haven't played it since the early 90s, really) delivers a more unique feeling of magic specifically because it _is_ a disjointed mess: it has never had any real need within itself to make something rational, thus it has never attempted to make magic feel anything less than uniquely bizarre.  I don't know; I'm not a game designer.  I am a game player, though, and I know if I like how a part of game feels or if I would rather it felt some other way.
 
Each subsequent edition caters to the cries of "math must be even" and "numbers must be equal" and the mythical "perfect balance."  It gets so deeply into this minutia that each edition makes magic feel less and less magical and-- well, more like you used the powers from a superhero game to cobble a nifty ability and call it magic.   Does it stop me from playing?  No; not really. Outside the way magic felt, I have a dislike for D&D that boarders on passion.  I make do with HERO, and it serves well enough-- there are far too many "good feels" from other parts of the game to want to throw them all aside in favor of one singular and unique good feel.  As I said: Role Master did magic very well, but it didn't really provide any of the other good feels that HERO does, and so I still do HERO, but I am not going to suddenly not wish it could make magic feel more magic-y.
 
 
 
See?  This is how you _feel_ about it.  I am willing to bet that nothing I can say will change the way you _feel_ about this.
 
For the record though, it is _specifically_ the "non-arbitrary" nature of HERO that removes the bulk of the whimsy from pretend magic.
 
 
 
 
 

A bit like sausages. Nice, but you don't want to watch them being made.

The Justice Inc Weird Talents and Psychic Powers were presented without much game mumbo jumbo. Maybe they could be a model for a "feels like magic" system. It just means that someone else has to make the sausages for you.

---
Having looked at them while writing this post, they would be really ugly if you did Steve Long-style writeups of them. So many modifiers... eww. The points would be right off, too.

But if you only saw the end result they wouldn't be too bad.

Honestly, I think it is the existence of Skills Mechanics in games that draws me as well.  Traveller had them; at the time, D&D didn't.  A bit later, and Star Frontiers _sort of_ had them, and while I enjoyed SF for out-there space opera stuff (until I found Space Opera, which I liked a lot better), it had this periodic whiff of D&D as you played through-- it's been decades; I can't really give you any specifics anymore.  Still, I enjoyed it.  Hated Metamorphosis Alpha, yet enjoyed Gamma World (Dungeons and Mutants).
 
Looking back, I think it was the evolution of the Skills as an important part of game play that made me prefer certain games (though Traveller was always my favorite, mostly because there was a clear and concise "system" in place that could be scaled up or down if so desired, or even removed and put somewhere else:  Jim bought Boot Hill once, and we played it a few times.  Ultimately, we ended up just playing Traveller as a western.    Weird thing?  It completely _worked_.  There wasn't anything that really had to be "overlooked" or shoehorned; it just worked.  I didn't really think about it at the time, but I suspect this was because there was a functioning system at the heart of Traveller, whereas D&D really felt more like "and what can we do to include _this_ polyhedral?"
 
Love RollMaster (pun intended; I an't skeered!) and SpaceMaster, but found the endless charts and dicing to be a bit tedious.  Workable, but tedious.  _Thought_ I like Aftermath until I realized that we had spent three five-hour sessions resolving one group combat-- combat was fast and fatal in Aftermath, of course, but only in number of shots fired.   The tasks that went into the resolution itself where monumental (I am told Phoenix Command makes Aftermath look like Candy Land, which is why I have _never_ had any interest in trying to prove it for myself    ).
 
There is _one_ accolade that I can (and generally do) give to D&D, and that is that Vancian or not, D&D made magic feel like magic in a way that very, _very_ few games _ever_ did, and in a way that is absolutely impossible to do with HERO.  It was pretty simple, really:  It does this, period.  No; there is no explanation, no breakdown, and costs or averaging or value-matching: you learn it, you use it; it does this.  Enjoy.
 
RoleMaster and MERP (RoleMaster, now in color!) were decent at that, and Talistlanta was pretty good at it (Talislanta suffered an entirely different problem:  Want to make a new race?  Pick two Characteristics and add two points to each of them.  Viola!  Entirely new race.  Culture?  Society?  Eehhh... Sorry; we have too many races for that....)   Ultimately, a solid workout routine, under the Talislanta model, might accidentally change your DNA. Who'd'a thunk?    )
 
HERO can't make magic feel like magic; it just can't do it.  We can model all kinds of different ways of making it work, all kinds of ways of learning and using and wielding it.  At the end of the day, though, we have to break it down, balance it, and specify it's exact elements.  While the end results are the same, it's never going to _feel_ like anything but super powers with a laundry list of Advantages and Limitations, because that's precisely how we have to build them, buy them, and write them up.
 

 

That reminds me 'high power' and 'large point totals' can be quite different things.  A character built with 200 more points might have a much bigger attack, or a high-point power with fewer limitations.  A character with 200 exp could have the same point total, but might have a greater variety of powers and skills rather than throw around more dice.
 
Campaign limits or guidelines can have a lot to do with that, too.  In a high-power campaign, you might want high active point totals on powers, so higher DC and defense caps, dramatic powers that do a lot.  But you may or may not want to have similarly greater stats, like SPD or large numbers of skills or 10 overall skill levels, those guidelines might stay closer to the norm, especially if the idea is, y'know, the alien only just gave you that Power Ring last week.... 

Then you could pull out “Justice Inc.” and Aaron Allston’s supplement. Lots of period details in both. 

The Eternals looks gray and depressing.  No Kirby energy.  I’ll pass. I’ll water for Spiderman this Christmas. 

The Eternals looks gray and depressing.  No Kirby energy.  I’ll pass. I’ll water for Spiderman this Christmas. 

The puppeteers had a hand in that.

Turning the evil villains into "misunderstood quasi-Heroes" has been an ongoing theme of both Hollywood as well as US comics for years so this isn't a stretch. 
 
They make a "Good HEROES" movie and do block busters, then they do a sequel that is still "Good HEROES" and the trend continues.
They do "not heroes" and the first movie does fantastic because it was a "Superhero Movie", but the sequel under performs and things slide after that.
 
The overall effect is obvious to real people but seems to escape the twit/social media 'verse.
 
People flock to entertaining movies with HEROES that are on the side of doing good.
While the audience will enjoy a monster/bad guy movie that portrays a bad guy as bad and will be ultimately defeated.  But they tend to avoid sermonizing movies or movies that glorify evil as good.  Or arrogance as virtue. 
 
Like when they falsely compare Captain Marvel to Top Gun. 
 
In Top Gun Cruise played an a$$ that literally everyone except his backseater hated.  The movie portrayed (that portrayal being good or bad depending on the viewer) the journey of pilot from arrogant idiot to humbled self-aware professional.  What some would call the Heroes Journey with the lessons painfully beaten into him including being the reason his arguably only real friend died due to his arrogance.   
 
Captain Marvel has none of than, she is simply perfect at all times.  Captain Marvel was just a arrogant a$$ that discovered they were overpowered and became an overpowered arrogant a$$.  Nothing in her personality or actions changed from start to finish.  I guess the only difference in personality and behavior after breaking free from their control was who she decided to target as "bad guys".  Every time she appears in any show it is as a arrogant and self important B.  Not even trying to use basic courtesies because all should kowtow to perfection.  Such a great character destroyed by poor writers and political agenda.

There haven't been very many good scripts since 2005, and even less so since 2018, so The only thing to look at is the visuals.  Enjoy!

Stat them up

That's where I went for a year or two myself.  It isnt that I have any animosity towards the new editions; it's just that I have no interest in them.
 

Unless it's a Soviet/ Russian Gun. I've had an SKS for decades that just has steel cased ammo through it.

A sad thought: you can design a decent Superman type for around 600-800 points using 1-3 edition  That's using the benchmarks implied in the text and apparently used in George Mac Donald's game.
 
You would need ten times that many points these days.

Player 1: I put 2 skill levels in OCV and 3 in DCV; I'll attack the rock-guy with an Uppercut.  That makes my OCV 11, and I roll a 13 - hits DCV 9.
 
GM: That easily hits...roll damage.
 
[several actions later]
 
GM: The rock-man lashes out trying to Grab PC 1 - good roll, he his DCV 12!
 
Player 1:  Good thing I stayed on the the defensive - he misses my 14 DCV.
 
I don't see this slowing the game.  If Player 1 sucks at math, it seems like another player can easily help him determine his OCV, add 11 and subtract 3d6 without knowing the opponent's DCV and jot down his DCV for him at his action.
 
 
"The two normal-looking bystanders are panicking, weaving wildly in the street.  One is shrieking like a little girl.  Five security guards, their smoking guns indicating they have recently been fired, appear to be maintaining their composure, and are bobbing and weaving.  They look pretty skilled, comparable to VIPER agents or a SWAT team.  You rounded the corner just in time to see PC 2 blast one thug, who is reeling from the blow.  A second thug levels his gun at you -he's bobbing and weaving much like the guards. Pulsar (someone has to be the boss..."the guy in the yellow and orange costume" will do if he has not been identified) is scampering about wildly - seems like he's more focused on not being hit than counterattacking - seems pretty average agility for a Super."
 
If he wasn't looking for a sniper on the rooftops and didn't luckily roll a 3 PER roll walking around the corner, forget it!   If he did, the best he might do is the glint of a possible weapon on that rooftop WAY over there.  The distance and positioning make the difficulty hitting him quite obvious.
 
Now, if the PC had been there all along, he would have seen what each person or group did on their action, and would not need the whole paragraph at once, if the player is actually engaged in the game.
 
In any case, I'd rather have a slower combat with good descriptions and role playing than "he attacks; take 34 STUN, 8 BOD, 4 meters knockback".  If the goal is to make combat fast, just roll an opposed "Supers Combat Skill" and describe the aftermath.  What I find slows combat is poor OCV/DCV matchips (so people rarely hit) or too high a defense to DC ratio so too many hits are needed to KO.  Bumping the opponents' OCVs  up 2, and DCs up 3, offset by reducing their DCVs by 2 and their Defenses by 10 speeds those combats up quite nicely.

To be fair, there is one minor advantage to the inverted Attack Roll:
 
As the GM, one is responsible for a broad selection of actions on behalf of a large number of Characters, and the bulk of those actions (thanks to combat) are directed at the Player Characters.  No one is perfect; no one is going to remember _all_ the numbers in play at any given moment.  When I am GM'ing, I put the bulk of responsibility for tracking a Player Character's numbers on the Player of that Character.  It seems fair: I've got to keep up with thirty of them; you can keep up with the one, I think.
 
Every now and again, Villain #7 will roll his attack at Hero #4, and I will completely blank out on Hero #4's current DCV-- what was that last maneuver he declared?  Where'd he put those Skill Levels....?   Instead of stopping and asking "What's your current DCV?" and then doing a (very trivial) bit of mental math, rolling the dice, etc, I can roll the dice anyway, glance at the result and ask "what was your current DCV?  Okay, he missed."
 
Again, it's a _trivial_ bit of math, so the "advantage" of this method is extremely minor, but I cannot in good conscience say that it doesn't exist at all.
 
It works the other way around, as well, what with Players announcing things such as "I got a four..." and all I need to remember is the current DCV for the villains in play.  Again: it's still pretty minor, but it's present.
 
Now all that being said, I don't do it-- use the inverted attack roll.  No; I can't tell you why, except that we learned it one way, and we have always played it that way, and there is also an advantage in having a table full of Players of who can help the new guy because we have always done it one particular way.  This, too, is a very minor advantage, and probably only applies to those groups who habitualized the original To-Hit formula, but as above, it's slightly advantageous when the planets are aligned just so.

I don't think either method has too many obvious advantages or disadvantages.  And I do not think any version of Hero is inherently faster or slower than other RPG's.
 
Hero can actually be faster than most other RPG's if you factor in no time of initiative determination and no need for external references if the character sheet is actually complete.
In Hero I never had to constantly refer back to the rule book about my characters abilities.  In many games the players are constantly having to reference the "spell book" or other rule book to re-read just what an ability does.  With Hero that has always been on the character sheet.
 
For me the biggest issues with Hero is not the system or how it does combats, but in player attention and experience. 
 
If the players are invested in the game and paying attention so that when their tun arrives they can immediately indicate their action, the game moves forward.
If the player has to prompted to put down their device and then takes time to plan, the game will drag.
 
If the players are new to the system they will be uncertain and constantly be pulling out the rulebook to verify 2+2. 
Experienced players will have confidence and just play.
 
Now those two main concepts, attention and experience, apply to any RPG. 
 
To hide or not hide critical items like OCV or DCV and so on is just preference and really doesn't impact the overall game much.  Players will simply adjust their play style.