mrinku

As far as that sourcebook goes, it'd plug right into 5e or 6e just fine. Maybe even better with 6e, since it really doesn't need hexes, and doing away with figured characteristics seems to work particularly well for Heroic level. I browsed mine a little yesterday after the conversation. I think the reason I may have mentally grouped it with the 3e self contained books is that it almost is. If it had been released two years earlier all they would have had to have done would be replace the sections that discuss particulars of character creation and combat with rewritten sections on character creation and combat. Might have needed to lose a page or two from another section to do so, but that'd be it. Unlike Robot Hero, 3e Star Hero and Fantasy Hero there's no need to include anything about powers (including how stuff like flight is handled in combat). You could also very happily pair it with Justice Inc. Westerns were one of the biggest Pulp genres, and the main one that survived the decline of them (To this day. Cheap western paperback yarns are still fairly popular).

This sort of thing has been a bit of a bugbear with Invisible Power Effects all along. 3e was fairly loose on the matter of visibility and 4e tried to nail it down with rigid rules, which just caused different problems. At the end of the day I guess it comes down to "are you getting what you paid for"?

I'd argue that a non-IPE poison dart would be visible. There's a dart sticking out of them that can be seen or touched, and probably a distictive smell. It would likely have an audible component when fired, too (certainly a gun firing tranquilizer darts does). And the target would certainly feel where the dart was. But if you pay for IPE you can have one that fully enters the body and uses Iocaine powder, I guess.

Same here. But I'd still use GURPS The GURPS Lite rules would more than suffice for that one, too.

Bloody good question! Some special effects would make this obvious, others not. The example "Madder I Get the Stronger I Get" power in CC isn't bought with any visibility modifiers, but I guess you'd notice the effect indirectly. Certainly, once Big Girl starts frothing at the mouth and punching four times as hard you could work it out, especially if it's a known thing she does. On the other hand, if Doctor Weird makes arcane gestures and purple light streams from his hands to surround The Square with an eerie glow, there's no normal way of telling that that was a DMCV Aid until The Square is actually attacked in Mental combat. Analyze Magic or Discriminatory Mental Sense might have a chance, of course. So I'd look at what you're actually doing for this effect to happen and buy it accordingly. By default, the effect is visible at some level, so there'd be no need to pay more points. Invisible Power Effects can be used to hide the results of the power (With a warning sign. Invisible Blast damage may not be appropriate even if invisible Barriers are fine) but can't be bought on its own to do so. CC p.108

Nah, it's Mister Flexible that swings both ways. Dunno about Luck for old Spidey. He pretty much always gets himself out of a hopeless situation through skill, grit and smarts. What happens with Peter Parker is that he has normal fortunate things happen, or things that are actually quite likely, like girls noticing him (he's clever and witty and not bad looking after he loses the glasses) BUT then he catches a bad break (spots a mugging on the way to the date and ruins his clothes). Classic Unluck. Of course with his powers he can survive quite a lot of punishment without needing a lucky break. Indy needs to land in a haybale to break his 4 storey fall, while Spiderman can take the hit, even if it knocks him out.

Looks pretty good. I'd probably rework the "doesn't do ships" into "fear of losing another loved one", which is what's REALLY going on with that. Dunno if he was seeking justice much, either. "Gloryhound" might fit better.

Nicely used in Sherlock (and Elementary as well, I think) where they could still have Watson be a veteran of Afghanistan, despite the modern setting Comics have a built in problem that they're generally limited to about 30 pages a month (especially if you want the same writing/art team). British weekly comics with 8 page chapters and rotating artists (i.e. 2000AD) have a different dynamic to US comics, which helps characters like Judge Dredd be allowed to age in real time despite being published for forty years. But our own RPGs aren't limited by that. We can potentially pump out an issue a week, or even more. I'm coming back after a 15 year or so layoff from Champions and doing what amounts to a generational update of my old NPC rosters. Some of those were revised in 1990 for 4th, but many haven't been touched or used since. It's an interesting process. One of my players is going to do the new version of his second ever character, who's the biological son of the hero's arch enemy (same powers) but mentored by his old character.

Hmmm... I could have sworn it was a self-contained genre book like Robot Hero and the original Star Hero and thus pre-dated the BBB. But there you go - 1991. My apologies.

BAH! Rassel frassen fancy new gimmicks! Nuthin' wrong with ma thirty year old collection of bones, ya hear?! Get offa ma lawn! (Nice summary by the way, Cris G!)

By "4e", do you mean "in the lead up to 4e"? Western Hero was a (late) 3e product. Great Wild West sourcebook. But it was the product that clued me in to HERO probably not being the best system for regular folks with guns. It works, don't get me wrong, but without any hint of powers (not even through tech, really) you'd likely be better off with GURPS, which started with such crunch as cocking a single action revolver being an action.

There is a point that I'm not sure has been covered that Luck and Unluck (NEVER overlook Unluck in this discussion!) also help define the general fortune of a character, aside from the rolls. This is part of the overall character's background and conception; If Panther (3d6 Luck) goes to the casino, he's probably walking away with some money in pocket. If Mechno Marauder (3d6 Unluck) does the same, he may find his Mechno Suit in hock to the Mob. No rolls need be made. Wealth is sometimes matched with this - Spiderman is the classic Unluck hero, and he struggles to make ends meet. Indiana Jones is the classic character with both Luck and Unluck - things often derail when he's ahead, but he catches the most unlikely breaks when things are genuinely dire. Were rolls made? Possibly, but in game terms the character was built so that the player expected that kind of roller coaster. Whether the dice rolled it, or if the GM set it up that way from the start because of the Luck and Unluck doesn't matter. So... I tend to see Luck and Unluck more along the lines of Hunteds and Allies, or other opposed background elements. Things you build into your character conception that the GM controls. I'm not sure moving Luck from a Talent to a Power was a good idea, though.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the 6e tomes are at best 20% actual rules and 80% examples, clarifications and general discussion. In this day and age, isn't a lot of that best handled by an online resource? Doesn't have to be a website or wiki per se - Triple Ace Games gets a lot of mileage out of free dowloadable .pdfs to support their products. Forget HERO Lite... HERO Complete could be crunched down into a book the same size as CC, replacing all the genre discussion with more general stuff. It's been done before. Although to be honest, it's arguable that CC already fills that role.

Triple Ace Games has a Musketeer swashbuckler using their Ubiquity system called All For One. By default it includes (historically appropriate) monsters, but those are easily left out or relegated to superstition if you want a straight Musketeer game. But yeah, swashing your buckle is one of those genres that pops up now and then, with long stretches of nothing. GDW's En Garde! Waaaaaay back in 1975 was one of the earliest RPGs of them all, but it's never been a common RPG genre for some reason.

Thanks! There really seems very little reason for it, aside from Tradition, and it does conflict with the rule for hitting an unconscious body even at point blank range. I would advise that if the GM thinks it should be DCV 0 in line with p.158 for an unconscious character instead of the rule on p142, to use the former. The DCV 3 for targeting a point for AoE attacks at range is really a different situation and I'd leave that as is.

Thing is, he is talking 4e where minimum costs aren't a GM decision (aside from everything technically being a GM decision). But I'm good either way any GM wants to call it for the situation in front of them. Some circumstances may make it more sensible to go one way or the other, especially if the minimum cost has been imposed for a campaign specific reason.

Other way around. Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos debuted in 1963. Stan recycled him from a 1940's soldier hero into an older 1960's spy craze guy. As with Ben Grimm being a Korean War veteran, the time difference wasn't so great in the mid-60's that this needed any real excuse (Fury later got retconned into having special treatments that kept him younger. And Ben's war moved from Korea to Vietnam to the Gulf War etc).

I guess I was mostly pushing how well it stood up against the opposition in 1985 or so (and cover aside, I think it pips 4e, too) And directly comparing it to its most current successor (though I forgot to mention that). I love the product to bits, but the interior art in Champions Complete is really second rate (cover is good) and they didn't even work in the very basic superhero layout rule of a character illustration for each example character on the page they're presented. This really annoyed me in the 6e Enemies books, too. It should be NAME at the top, picture underneath, then the rest of the stuff. Not "sometimes over the page" or "anywhere we think it fits". Seriously. I'm glad to hear that art standards for 5e products were better, but that's not really so modern now. However, regardless of our respective assessments of 3e's design and art, I think we are on the same page as far as Champions needing a better look. Other genres can skate by with so-so art, but you REALLY have to present decent visuals for superheroes.

Yeah, but were those womp rats shooting back at you with blasters? +1 to Chris' thought about the area effect DCV3. But thinking about it and checking CC p 145, that rule relates specifically to area effect attacks against a target point, which can scatter and tend to be less precise than normal single target attacks in the first place. If a 10m radius AoE scatters 4m, you still affect your intended target point. It's NOT the rule for trying to hit a stationary object with a single target attack. I've had a good look through CC and have not found any rule about targeting stationary objects as such, just the rule that a knocked out character is DCV 0. So it works for me that non AoE attacks against any normal stationary object should be vs DCV 0, modified for size and range.

Cheers. I'm in Australia so the last few posts happened while I was asleep ...the figure was a stunning blonde with a knockout figure dressed in an impeccably cut costume. Linda Van Hoorn was a bored rich girl. Too smart to be satisfied with marrying some drone within her social class, too vain to keep her light under a bushel and too selfish to care about philanthropy. Her Eureka moment came one night when a party she was tolerating was raided by a bunch of crooks. The leader of the thugs figured to get some high class action and tried to molest her, but unluckily for him Linda used martial arts and gymnastics to keep her knockout body in shape and dull the ennui. The thug was on the floor with multiple fractures before he knew what hit him. The rest of the crooks took one look at what had happened to their boss and fled. The party guests showered Linda with gratitude. Another woman would have been inspired to fight crime and protect the innocent. Another woman would have gained quiet satisfaction from a good job well done. Not Linda. Taking the thug with her, Linda confined him to a spare basement room and pumped him for information about the underworld and crime. When she was satisfied he could help her no more, he was disposed of. Time to go shopping! During the daytime Linda Van Hoorn remains a bored rich girl. At night she lives a daring life of crime, robbing, raiding and doing whatever she damn well pleases as The Socialite. Activating her rocket heels, the Socialite swooped down to a decorative archway and drew a bead on that bitch Marilyn Zyron. Three rounds rapid should be enough to take care of THAT particular fashion rival... As she was about to squeeze the trigger on her custom made, silver plated pistol, Linda's attention was diverted by a shadowy figure lurking in the bushes below. No! It couldn't be...

I feel this team needs a female member but I'm really struggling to come up with one that won't get me shot, or really exceed the bounds of good taste. Failing that, let's try this guy: Leroy Williams (43) was always a slob. His day was split between his bed, the couch and his computer. Mother always yelled at him, but picked up after him and fed him anyways. Daddy was long gone. Then came that fateful day when the Mob came looking for all that money of theirs that Daddy had lit out with. Leroy barely noticed the door being smashed in. He ignored his mother's screams, pleading and that final, merciful gunshot. He didn't even look up from his porn when they forced open his bedroom door, pushing aside a day's worth of filthy clothes, candy wrappers, soft drink cans and pizza boxes, or threatened him with their guns. But when they started smashing his Action Figure collection looking for the loot, something snapped!!! Leroy exploded in white hot fury. Some of those were mint in the box!!!!! To no avail, the gangsters shot at Leroy, their bullets somehow failing to pierce his flabby bulk. With sickening crunches Leroy's massive fists crushed skulls and shattered limbs until all the crooks were silent. Leroy would have gone back to his computer, except it was shot up in the fight. He watched TV for a bit, but it wasn't long before he'd eaten all the food he could find (which wasn't much. Leroy's experience in cooking, or even such exotic concepts as "Pantry Cupboard" or "Deep Freezer" was zilch. Starving (man, it'd easily been an hour since his last meal), Leroy ventured into the outside world and thus started the one-man food theft crime wave the papers would dub Pigsty. "Pizza or your kneecaps, man. Your choice."

I think so, Brian. I do think so. Hey, relevant to something I talked about a few posts back about Champions setting the standard, in the Champions Compete text, when talking about Special Effects (p6-7) and how in Champions you choose what that is for a power, it still goes on to claim "Most roleplaying games don't work this way." That's a bit out of date, at least in regards to its own genre. Thanks to Champions itself, pretty much EVERY modern superhero game does it the HERO way.

Champions Complete has it nice and clear (p.46). Basically if there's just a minimum cost (which is optional in 6e and set by the GM anyway) it turns off the power as soon as it drops below the minimum. If it's a fixed cost (i.e. Desolidification) you need to get rid of all of the points to turn it off. I'd be wary about applying 6e rules to 4e. ED isn't even a power anymore, it's an advantage on some other movement style (often the gate version of Teleport, but you could apply it to running, flight or even swimming). However in this case I think the fixed cost principle would be the way to go, and your thought about it eliminating adders first feels right too. The main thing is to game it out appropriately. A GM might let the player Push the drained power to keep that gate open for three more seconds so that at least Mary can escape! or similar.

It was also deconstructed in Rick Vietch's Brat Pack back in 1990-1. Be warned, there's some nasty stuff in that one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratpack_(comics) Earlier covered a bit in Pat Mills and Kev O'Neil's Marshal Law (1987 onwards), although sidekicks aren't the focus of that one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal_Law_(comics) After reading those you'll probably find the answer to "who would be the worst type to mentor a sidekick?" is "every damn one of them". I'm a hero hunter. I hunt heroes. Haven't found any yet. - Marshal Law. WARNING: READING LATE EIGHTIES DECONSTRUCTED SUPER HERO STORIES CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR FOUR COLOUR CAMPAIGN. GO AND READ SOME SILVER AGE STUFF BEFORE PROCEEDING! EXCELSIOR!!!

Another thought I had this morning might be to use Computer Programming as a Power and add Ranged (maybe improved to LOS), to represent a superpower to access and reprogram normal computer systems. Unrealistic for a radio hacker (i.e. buy high range radio hearing instead and start guessing passwords), but might suit a 25th Century Quantum AI or a technomage. (Note this would not confer Mind Control or Telekinesis effects. Just allow reprogramming using the existing rules for when a character has gained access to a computer).