Mr. R

Well it has been two weeks.  School is back in session and we are hoping to help to a return to normalcy.  Smoke varies from day to day.  Some days it is very minor, and then we get like today, where it is almost like a fog (I literally can't see to the end of my street).  For once I am cheering the oncoming winter and hope the snow will totally dampen the remaining fires.  To quote the series "Winter is coming!"

So I have been told buy my Principal that I need to be back in YK by next Monday as we are starting classes that week.  (For those who don't know, my occupation is teacher High School).  Word is that the fire is being held and people are being asked to come back starting Sept 8.  So I will comment after I get back to YK and further update you people one the apparent situation!

Killer Shrike has the following archetype I'd love to play:
 
Savant
4Quick Study: WF: Common Melee, Common Missile
20Puissant: +2 with Overall
6Talented: Pick any 2 Skill Enhancers: (Jack of All Trades, Linguist, Traveler, Scholar)
8Athletic: Combat Luck (6 PD/6 ED) (12 Active Points); Not While Wearing Armor (-1/2)
17Danger Sense (Function as a Sense, Intuitional, Sensitivity: Out of Combat) 11-
 
 
 
Keep the stats low like Dex 12 and Spd 2, Con 13, PD/ED 4.  And pack it with skills
 
The package cost 55 +6 - 2 +6 +2 +1 = 68.  Even in a 125 pt game, that is a lot of skills!

Killer Shrike has the following archetype I'd love to play:
 
Savant
4Quick Study: WF: Common Melee, Common Missile
20Puissant: +2 with Overall
6Talented: Pick any 2 Skill Enhancers: (Jack of All Trades, Linguist, Traveler, Scholar)
8Athletic: Combat Luck (6 PD/6 ED) (12 Active Points); Not While Wearing Armor (-1/2)
17Danger Sense (Function as a Sense, Intuitional, Sensitivity: Out of Combat) 11-
 
 
 
Keep the stats low like Dex 12 and Spd 2, Con 13, PD/ED 4.  And pack it with skills
 
The package cost 55 +6 - 2 +6 +2 +1 = 68.  Even in a 125 pt game, that is a lot of skills!

Frankly, I don't consider that a writing trope, but an example of a writer loving their creation so much that they can't bear to have them lose. Like Jim Starlin turning his Thanos into the perfect villain, without flaw, able to out-fight or out-think any opponent.
 
Villains may have the upper hand temporarily, especially if they're being presented as a major threat to the hero(es). But ultimately, the reason supervillains were invented is for superheroes to defeat them.

In my last group where I GMed, I was explicitly told that if I set up a scenario where the fight was pointless as there were measurable benefits to it they would voice their displeasure!  Example I has a big fight with a Viper Mech Pilot that they LOVED, because it resulted in the shutting down of a weapon lab selling defective energy weapons to street gangs.  But if I had set it up as this fight was just a red herring and the weapons were still being sold... yeah table flips!
 
Seriously, if I GMed this battle and then DD shows up later big a life and twice as mean, they would have walked out on me!

IMO Nebula does not work as a recurring villain. Her attitudes are too extreme and inflexible, explicitly hardwired into her brain; she's incapable of character growth. Her Duress Gauntlets are a plot device that doesn't bear repeating, lest your players turn on you. She's best used for a single story line culminating in escaping/rescuing someone from Duress. Nebula should probably end her role in a campaign either captured and imprisoned, or somehow sent back to her home galaxy.
 
Hero Games has traditionally done better than the comics at creating villainesses who are "master" level or can readily become so, and the current Champions Universe continues that tradition. Besides Istvatha V'han and Gravitar, we have the Shadow Queen, the Duchess, the Engineer, Demoiselle Nocturne, Chantal, Hecate... that's not counting the unsubtle raw powerhouses like Viperia, Galaxia and Eclipsar.
 
But the official Champions master villain I dislike the most is Dr. Destroyer, mainly for one reason: he's boring. You can sum up his character in three words: Power, Intellect, Arrogance. There's nothing more to him, no depth, no shadings. Nothing to make role playing him interesting. I was hoping Book Of The Destroyer would put some role playing meat on those megalomaniacal bones, show us what led to him becoming the man he is. Instead his megalomania seemed full-blown from childhood, like Athena from the brow of Zeus. BOTD mentions or cites many details from Albert Zerstoiten's past with great potential if they'd been followed up, but Steve Long almost never did.
 
A secondary element of my dislike for DD is that he has no redeeming qualities. Destroyer was originally inspired by Dr. Doom, but has none of Doom's nobility or grandeur. Destroyer pretends to be honorable, but will betray and backstab anyone the moment it's to his advantage. The Doctor is monumentally petty and spiteful, devising horrible torments in retribution for the smallest slights. He's like the worst Internet troll imaginable, but with the power and intellect to back up his ravings.

So I have been told buy my Principal that I need to be back in YK by next Monday as we are starting classes that week.  (For those who don't know, my occupation is teacher High School).  Word is that the fire is being held and people are being asked to come back starting Sept 8.  So I will comment after I get back to YK and further update you people one the apparent situation!

So I have been told buy my Principal that I need to be back in YK by next Monday as we are starting classes that week.  (For those who don't know, my occupation is teacher High School).  Word is that the fire is being held and people are being asked to come back starting Sept 8.  So I will comment after I get back to YK and further update you people one the apparent situation!

Someone, somewhere on these boards (maybe Hermit?) had (IMO) a great idea for revising CLOWN.  IIRC, their pranks were changed to be more socially / environmentally conscious.  So if a bank was using unfair practices in signing customers up for loans / credit cards / etc., CLOWN might decide to paper the town with loan / credit card applications featuring the actual financial info for the bank's CEO and executive officers.  A company guilty of dumping toxic waste might have such waste sprayed throughout their offices (at night, after first removing from the building the night watchmen and any employees working after hours).  Remove any potential lethality (and IIRC, they were supposed to be non-lethal anyway) as well as remove the likelihood that they might target the player character heroes, and give them a goal that's fairly laudable (even if their execution is not to the players liking).  I'd think most players would then have less of an issue with them.

Don't beat around the bush, Duke, tell us how you really feel.
 
I believe one or even two members of CLOWN would make for a humorous change-of-pace scenario without becoming onerous. Merry Andrew, for example, makes a fine analogue for Silver Age Joker. Silly without being lethal, annoying in a fun way.
 
You put a dozen of the CLOWNs together? That's like achieving the critical mass of annoying. 😖
 
I've never been a fan of silly supers, but I do appreciate inserting them once in a while to keep a campaign's tone from getting too heavy. But what I strongly object to is a character whose only purpose is to annoy PCs. For me the worst offender in that category is The Champ, from Alien Enemies. He's not actually a villain, he has the best of intentions. But as written, he exists solely to get in the heroes' faces, and to be impenetrably oblivious to how insufferable he is. Even his write-up asserts that with the way it recommends using him, "Soon a visit from the Champ will be as welcome as a battle with Dr. Destroyer."
 
What makes it even worse, if that's possible, is that the Champ's background and history have so much potential for a much deeper, more compelling character. But that's just thrown away in favor of a one-note parody of a socially-conscious superhero.
 

On the move again.  No it isn't that bad.  I am just flying to Toronto to visit a stay with Family.  I was planning to visit at Christmas....  Looks like Christmas is in August!

On the move again.  No it isn't that bad.  I am just flying to Toronto to visit a stay with Family.  I was planning to visit at Christmas....  Looks like Christmas is in August!

I'm going to weigh in here with maximum dudgeon. What is technology but our practice? We look for a miracle technology, apart from ourselves, a thing, a black box that will do what we need. The Wright brothers fly a few yards in a box, and boom, we're off to a Club Med on the other side of the world in a magic aeroplane. But in reality that plane flies from a runway that is a miracle of civil engineering, from an airport that is a social construct on part with an instant city, burning fuel from refineries that all but build custom molecules. 
 
And so it is with fires. We do have an "all-encompassing rapid-response fire suppression technology." It's society, in its firefighting mode If the fires are approaching Yellowknife and they abate for a day, the city works mananger of the city and their crew, and all the support elements brought in to help them, build a firewall and water barrier right across the west end of the city; if the fires come down the sidehill too fast to stop, the Kelowna Fire Department gets in there and attacks and evacuates while the international airport is closed so that fleets of water bombers can rain Okanagan Lake down on the advancing fires. Those who lose homes get evacuated to shelters, where they receive hotel vouchers. The good people at the Alpine Motel in Keremeos, BC (to name a little old roadside motel of which I have fond memories) take care of them until there is a  new home ready for them.
 
Technology only gives us miracles when we abstract if from its human context. 

I live in the north of Canada and now with out really hot and dry summer we have had more than our share of wildfires.  
 
One community called Enterprise was completely wiped out and the surrounding forests are black, soot covered and desolate.
 
My community called Yellowknife underwent a forced evacuation.  Twenty thousand people (yes 20000) were ordered to vacate the city within 48 hours.  (cut off was Friday August 18 noon).
Reason: a wildfire fifteen (15)  outside city limits.  Oh and the only road going OUT of town heads right through that fire.  (I wish I were making this up as a hollywood screen writer would be laughed at if he came up with this story)
 
So packing the barest essentials (cell phone + charger, camera + charger, External Hard Drive for my desk top I had to leave behind, Work related lap top, clothing for 5 days, three books, and essential ID material) I managed to hitch a ride with a friend and we left on Thursday. 
 
Finally as of 5 pm my time, I arrived safely in Calgary.  For now I am going to stay with my friend's family until I get an idea of how long we will be out for.
 
I will say it has been an interesting experience, but once in a lifetime is more than enough!

My eyes and brain are playing tricks on me. Some times I am reading the title of the thread as Excavation Fun ! and wondering what digging is going on.

If it cheers you up any, I read the thread title with a medical-field perspective and was absolutely horrified that nine people wanted to discuss that with you....   
 
I hope fate is with you and your community, Sir.  As a guy who spent thirty years living in hurricane country, you have my empathy on the misery of evacuation. 
 
 

I live in the north of Canada and now with out really hot and dry summer we have had more than our share of wildfires.  
 
One community called Enterprise was completely wiped out and the surrounding forests are black, soot covered and desolate.
 
My community called Yellowknife underwent a forced evacuation.  Twenty thousand people (yes 20000) were ordered to vacate the city within 48 hours.  (cut off was Friday August 18 noon).
Reason: a wildfire fifteen (15)  outside city limits.  Oh and the only road going OUT of town heads right through that fire.  (I wish I were making this up as a hollywood screen writer would be laughed at if he came up with this story)
 
So packing the barest essentials (cell phone + charger, camera + charger, External Hard Drive for my desk top I had to leave behind, Work related lap top, clothing for 5 days, three books, and essential ID material) I managed to hitch a ride with a friend and we left on Thursday. 
 
Finally as of 5 pm my time, I arrived safely in Calgary.  For now I am going to stay with my friend's family until I get an idea of how long we will be out for.
 
I will say it has been an interesting experience, but once in a lifetime is more than enough!

I live in the north of Canada and now with out really hot and dry summer we have had more than our share of wildfires.  
 
One community called Enterprise was completely wiped out and the surrounding forests are black, soot covered and desolate.
 
My community called Yellowknife underwent a forced evacuation.  Twenty thousand people (yes 20000) were ordered to vacate the city within 48 hours.  (cut off was Friday August 18 noon).
Reason: a wildfire fifteen (15)  outside city limits.  Oh and the only road going OUT of town heads right through that fire.  (I wish I were making this up as a hollywood screen writer would be laughed at if he came up with this story)
 
So packing the barest essentials (cell phone + charger, camera + charger, External Hard Drive for my desk top I had to leave behind, Work related lap top, clothing for 5 days, three books, and essential ID material) I managed to hitch a ride with a friend and we left on Thursday. 
 
Finally as of 5 pm my time, I arrived safely in Calgary.  For now I am going to stay with my friend's family until I get an idea of how long we will be out for.
 
I will say it has been an interesting experience, but once in a lifetime is more than enough!

I live in the north of Canada and now with out really hot and dry summer we have had more than our share of wildfires.  
 
One community called Enterprise was completely wiped out and the surrounding forests are black, soot covered and desolate.
 
My community called Yellowknife underwent a forced evacuation.  Twenty thousand people (yes 20000) were ordered to vacate the city within 48 hours.  (cut off was Friday August 18 noon).
Reason: a wildfire fifteen (15)  outside city limits.  Oh and the only road going OUT of town heads right through that fire.  (I wish I were making this up as a hollywood screen writer would be laughed at if he came up with this story)
 
So packing the barest essentials (cell phone + charger, camera + charger, External Hard Drive for my desk top I had to leave behind, Work related lap top, clothing for 5 days, three books, and essential ID material) I managed to hitch a ride with a friend and we left on Thursday. 
 
Finally as of 5 pm my time, I arrived safely in Calgary.  For now I am going to stay with my friend's family until I get an idea of how long we will be out for.
 
I will say it has been an interesting experience, but once in a lifetime is more than enough!

I live in the north of Canada and now with out really hot and dry summer we have had more than our share of wildfires.  
 
One community called Enterprise was completely wiped out and the surrounding forests are black, soot covered and desolate.
 
My community called Yellowknife underwent a forced evacuation.  Twenty thousand people (yes 20000) were ordered to vacate the city within 48 hours.  (cut off was Friday August 18 noon).
Reason: a wildfire fifteen (15)  outside city limits.  Oh and the only road going OUT of town heads right through that fire.  (I wish I were making this up as a hollywood screen writer would be laughed at if he came up with this story)
 
So packing the barest essentials (cell phone + charger, camera + charger, External Hard Drive for my desk top I had to leave behind, Work related lap top, clothing for 5 days, three books, and essential ID material) I managed to hitch a ride with a friend and we left on Thursday. 
 
Finally as of 5 pm my time, I arrived safely in Calgary.  For now I am going to stay with my friend's family until I get an idea of how long we will be out for.
 
I will say it has been an interesting experience, but once in a lifetime is more than enough!

Have you considered using attuned (or innate) items in attending a new item.  So you might have a+1 sword and a +2 dagger.  You want attune thus +4 plate armour with some additional abilities.  It is just out of reach but by using these items, attunement is attainable but those items are drained of magic whether or not the roll is successful...
 
That might help explain why there are not mountains of minor items, they have all been cannibalised to attune more powerful items.

One of the things I have wanted to do for a couple decades with Fantasy Hero is to bring Wisdom into the game somehow.  I miss it as a stat even though I haven't played D&D since the mid 80s.  Its a very important concept for life, brings a bunch of story options and character possibilities.  For a while I tried to think of a way to make it a stat with a roll: make your Wisdom roll!  But that didn't really work out because I didn't want to go that far in changing the base rules.
 
So I think I've come up with something that works.  Not only does it work Wisdom into the game, but it actually works as compensation for players when something goes wrong.  It works like this:
 
WISDOM
Every time a character experiences something really bad, like a heartbreak or serious traumatic injury, or fails in a quest, loses a lot of money or something like that... they gain a wisdom point.  Now, this cannot be a deliberate screwup, just to get a point, and it has to be more than a complication activating, it really has to suck.  Say a player chooses to go left down a maze hallway and that leads to days of wandering around lost.  Wisdom point.  Or you fail to save the princess.  Wisdom point.
 
The Wisdom points turn into a roll, sort of a hidden stat the GM has and controls.  1 point gives an 8- roll, 2 gives a 10-, 3 gives an 11- and then on one point at a time.  The character is, through hardship, challenge, and experience, gaining wisdom.
 
The next time the character makes a really stupid choice, proposes something foolish, attempts to do something only a bonehead would do -- genuinely, not trolling the group -- the GM makes a Wisdom roll.  If it succeeds the GM can inform the character that this seems really foolish to them.  What they do with this information is up to the player, of course.  But their wisdom tells them "eh, this isn't a good idea."  If their psychological complication compels them to do something really unwise, well that's worth a HAP but that's another discussion.
 
Also Wisdom Rolls can be used for world events, for interactions with locations and items.  This sword gains 1 DC for each wisdom point a character has!  This font will heal you if you are wise enough to use it properly!
 
I like this mechanic a lot, and I think it will add a lot to a game if well played.  To the best of my knowledge its not in any other game, but maybe I'm just reinventing the wheel.

I’ve just found this thread and I am amazed at the levels of creativity and detail.
 
Absolutely amazed!
 
I am particularly enamored with the Object Creation rules. We did something similar in a campaign and it worked well. But only because the players were extremely understanding when I limited certain uses. I’ll be working over this the next couple of weeks. (Inbetween work, family, patching a leaking roof, clearing brush, baby-sitting grandson, and all the other things that make life wonderful but really cut into role-playing time.)
 

Glorious Lotus is a Martial Art that uses no weapons (I have a second called Splendid Fist).  It is big on defensive movements (Defensive Strike, Defensive Block, Martial Disarm, Martial Dodge etc)  Some mages like it as to use their art they can't wear armour, so this gives them an option outside of magic. 
 
Yes, there are some abilities that I will allow if you have GL, like Combat Luck (-1/2 Not usable in armour).  But a dedicated GL practitioner will be able to get more that a dilatant mage.
 
Leiria is just what she says she is.  She makes locks.  Yes her skill at picking them is impressive, but she just wants to practice her craft.  Whether others will leave her in peace .....
 
 
Shamans and Runemasters