Blue

I'll probably be stoned by the throngs of Herophiles present, but I used Mechanon as a throwaway. When I first started I had a thing for using my own villains and the ones in the books were pretty much there to get squashed for dramatic effect. So I had a tendancy to set up a situatin where the heroes had moral judgments to make, and if they failed, the villain might be destroyed. So hot on the heels of an incident in which the shrinking character from 1e was killed (Shrinker?), I gave the characters a chance to redeem themselves. Unfortunately, I chose mechanon for this. Keep in mind there was no internet, or at least not as we knew it. So I made up an idea that Mechanon could control electronic devices all over the world using a machine (whose mechanics I didn't bother to build for game purposes). So here he is threatening entire city power grids, nuclear reactors, etc. Then the twist is that the machine becomes too big for mechanon. It becomes too intelligent and the heroes need to join with Mechanon against it. So there's a scene where the thing finally turns on him, and it decides to try and crush him beneath the massive door that sealed it's room. Mechanon is in this thing, pinned down, and promising to assist the heroes, when they decide that he is a bigger problem than the machine and begin to blast the 0DCV mechanon to smithereens, pushing their blasts and KAs. So I had to rewrite the ending. Fact was, there was no way in HELL they were going to defeat it now. I'd just made it that tough. So for plot purposes, the machine became omniscient and disperesed across the powergrids of the world, to live on in everything electronic. Sounds like I was being too nice, but it was either that or destroy the heroes, which was certain if they got through that door (that mechanon was crushed beneath). So to this day my old game group happily tell the tale of how they defeated mechanon, when if I'd kept to the script, they'd be telling about the time they were boneheads and ignored all the plot threads and were killed as a result. And I've never told that story until now. Hope none of them are reading

Well, that's kind of funny, Star, because the original line was someone's campaign world. You're just used to it by now. Personally, I like evolution. I'd be less likely to buy if every version had the same characters reworked and the same setting.

Actually, it's CLOWN technology that might save the day. They have been secretly devloping the HUMOR BOMB for decacdes (Bomb as in "explosion", not bomb as in "Boo, you aren't funny!"). The heroes may be required to infiltrate CLOWN headquarters and get the technology. They can strongarm and risk losing the info in the ensuing melee of cream pies and squirting flowers, or they can disguise themselves and infiltrate the organization wearing big floppy shoes. They can escape using the CLOWN car (Which holds 4 normal people or 164 Clowns). With the HUMOR BOMB they can reverse the effects of Foxbat's Unfunny Technology, and put the FOXbat broadcast system out of business. Of course, I'm sure there are other angles to pursue... And Don't forget the aftermath of the HUMOR BOMB and what the heroes will have to contend with. Namely, billions of people rolling on the ground and laughing in agony until they fall unconscious. That, and the unfortunate few who laugh so hard they wet themselves; Eww. The whole world could end up smelling like New York City.

"And now it's time for Foxbat and Fandom!" The chirpy opening music starts and everyone begins to roll their eyes, yet still there's something strangely compelling about the hypnotic theme song and so all turn to face the television. From the screen, Pauly Shore, Carrot Top and Martin Laurence play three crazy mismatched half-brothers forced to live in the same mansion in order to inherit millions from their dead grandfather, played by the reanimated corpse of George Burns. It's the most un-funny thing ever put on television and instantly robs the sense of humor from anyone drawn in by the hypnotic song. Seventeen hours later, unable to laugh at anything, people are becoming uptight, even angry! Plus they've got that horrible theme song in their head. ("Hey We're Brothers/Wacky like no others"). What's more, because of dreaded theme song it keeps drawing in new viewers. FOX picks it up for the full season and begins to air it seven nights a week, like "who wants to be a millionaire". Soon the world is trapped in a humorless void. The world is nearing a state of rage. Foxbat makes his demands: He wants a house made out of pure gold, the execution of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, an shrubbery, the actors from Gilligan's island to act out each episode in his living room (live), and one trillion packets of mustard (which appear to be for another plot he is hatching). While the authorities have no problem with executing Lopez/Afflec, they cannot deplete the world's mustard supply down to dangerously low levels. So they put out the call: Responding to the cause is the only team that could escape the diabolical plan, The Special Olympians! Six of the ten members are clinically deaf and therefore resistant to the lure of the TV theme song and the shows humor robbing capabilities. Now aren't you sorry you asked?

I think I looked at the application a year or two ago. I think you had to meet a publishing requirement (Something like two items published in gaming products, to prove you are an industry pro or semi-pro). Alas, I remain an enthusiastic amature.

I hear ya. There's a snowball's chance of my players ever wanting to play FH, yet I have such fond memories of my old campaign that I'm dying to see the new version. With any luck I can push them that direction and away from D20 for a while. But I want the latest tools before I make my case.

Even at that, the problem with things like this is that in most cases folks haven't played ALL of the games. I looked at the list and wound up voting in only the suggested HERO related categories because those were the only ones for which I had any frame of reference. For example, I don't play CCGs and didn't recognize most of the ones listed. I think most people voting tend to pick something in each category that "sounds good", same way that people at home watching the oscars have typically only seen one or two out of the five nominees so they vote for the one they know and like. Solution: GAMA should give us copies of everything. To review of course

Sears Catalog Anyone mention the Sears Catalogs yet? Okay, most of the ones in re-production are from the turn of the century (1901). I bought one for the heck of it, and it was indeed a reproduction, from a used bookstore. The thing this is useful for really is finding out what products were actually for sale that early on. There were things for sale in 1901 that I figured weren't available until much later. Also gives you a median price which you can then inflate a tad for 1920's period and considerably for the 1940's.

That's interesting because the Utopian nature is what makes the sites easy to steal for my campaign, the home city being a utopia in retrograde to crime and dark forces. Am I alone in almost always disregarding iconic heroes in campaign products? I mean, I know they are the pride and joy of the designers, who likely played them for many, many years, but I almost never use them in a campaign unless because the heroes want some kind of heroic rivals (which never happened). Generally I use the villains, but the heroes I ignore much the way that most people ignore the tournament characters that were always included in the back of the D&D modules.

Ouch...head...hurting...Gonna go look at the pretty pictures in the book.

Yeh, exactly. That thing about subtracting for gravity threw me for a second ("Did they change something in the rules I hadn't noticed?"). Generally the only time you MAY have to consider subtracting inches of movement from your flight is when you have been falling. I say "May" because GMs for simplicity will sometimes say if you have flight you can come to an immediate stop. I tend to do it the hard way: Say, you're uncoscious and falling near terminal velocity (Can't remember if it's 30" or 32", so I'll say 30"). You wake up and have 20" of movement, you could slow yourself to 10", then on the next turn reverse yourself and come up (assuming your GM doesn't consider this NCM. If he rules it non-combat movement then you could actually stop and reverse yourself 10" in the same phase). But if you're just lifiting off the ground, like the man said, 1" and all of the life support you can get, is all you need to reach the stars.

LoL, yeh those Nordic chicks didn't care much about the elements I guess. And if they all looked like that, what viking man would find time to go pillage?

I know I'd fear lions with guns. But then Jack Handy once said...Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. But the problem is, bigotry is fun! (I don't see an emote on the list that says 'sarcasm' to me. Oh well.)

I'd like a lot of what people have suggested so far. The big things for me are... Armor Suits and Partial Coverage Cost of equipment--A big list of monetary costs for things would be nice. I hate guessing how much something should cost. Personal equipment Destruction and Decay. Swords do break during fights. Also, how many years can you use a shield before you have to buy another? That last one could be an optional rule, since it requires more upkeep. Magic Item destruction--since it would not likely decay. How hard is it to destroy the Staff of Hurtin-Stuff? Critical and Fumble rules for weapons and spells. If I remember correctly there were already optional rules for this sort of thing in FH. But I guess I'm a freak for those goofy critical charts (Remember Dragonquest? "Congratulations, it's a bleeder!"). Though that's my own sick personal taste. I'll be back if I think of more. You've been warned!

Ah! I've always had a tendancy to write the base OCV and DCV based on DEX into those spots (I'd add in any appropriate figures if I had a permanent size change). The "adjusted OCV and DCV" spaces that appear on some character sheets are for the more temporary modifications. If you always used the level you purchased for OCV then it might be ok to list it there, but generally I've always used those adjusted spots for temporary effects like shrinking, growth, and other OCV/DCV modifying effects. I think it used to be on the old-school sheets that they had spots for OCV/DCV, no "adjusted" figure, but a space to list your levels so you could do it at a glance. Now you have to refer to the SKILS portion of the sheet just before your attack. "I'm going to attack with my energy blast" (Checks character sheet, sees 2 levels specifically with the EB), "I'll put one level in OCV and one in DCV". I'm sure there are other things I can't think of off the top of my head that you might put into he "adj. OCV" and "adj. DCV" slots. If so, someone here will pipe in any second with them.

I'll only suggest you might want to look into WebRPG (at http://www.webrpg.com) as I played around with the original free version a few years ago when RPGNet recommended it. Also you might consider NetMeeting, since it would give you a shared whiteboard and chat. Don't ask me how either one works. I'm just the idea man

Just goes to show you that there's nothing new under the sun! It's all been done before by someone. Thanks. It's been a very long time since my one year of French class.

The French Resistance (forgive my inaccurate pigeon-french). These three might actually make a decent super-team: Le Chevalier (The Knight) - This guy would have a real struggle. He would be trying to adhere to a moral high ground and old-world standards of combat in the new age of tanks and murderous nazis. Madame Liberte' (Lady Liberty) - It can be said that she was long ago the model for the statue that was a gift to america. She's long been thought a legend, but in this time of war she has come back to embody the spirit of the land, with her torch of truth that burns away tyranny. L'Esprit (The Spirit) - A spirit that has served French kings for centuries, he has been summoned in the past to kill enemies and advise rulers. Now he has been called from the beyond to protect France. Charles DeGaulle, French Prime Minister, hears of the tale and summons the spirit, but in order to act in the physical world, it must possess the body of an heir to the long ago overthrown monarchy. And so a normal man whose family was hidden away during the French revolution to spare them the guillotine, and who doesn't even know of his lineage, suddenly finds himself possessed and with powers he never expected. Hey, that last one's pretty good. I'm gonna have to copy these down (I had to try so hard not to make characters like "surrender man" and his sidekick "cheese eatin' surrender monkey". Oops. So much for willpower.)

Likely they selected the one with the highest sales, and therefore the widest appeal, not to mention that "Champions" is the original flagship product of the company. I did my part! If only I had duplication, then I could vote many times. So when's the POSTY awards for the best and worst board posts of the year?

Alright, but you asked for it. And I quote: Cape wavers in the mid day breeze Your scent like fine, ripe cheese Bloodshod eyes the red of vibrant roses When you cough I can hear violins Conquer me o' caped rodent Bring me to your base of love Let me see your ping pong balls You're my fox and I'm your dove It was physically painful to retype that. I'd narrow down the author by saying that whichever of the team it was obviously has no taste, but it turns out that doesn't narrow anything down within that crew! Excuse me, I need to go take a cheese grater to my brain.

...besides, how many times have you seen a comic book that proclaimed the death of it's star on the cover, but inside something else took place. Of course it doesn't really say "death" on the cover now does it?

Dear QUARK, While cleaning out the recently confiscated base of the local group of evil-doers our team has run across some very interesting facts. I speak of the blow-up doll in the closet in the room of the team's leader (beneath a pile of stiff kleenex tissues), a past-due notice for electrolysis payments by the team's resident 'babe' villain, a collection of Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony paraphenalia in the room of the team's brick, and a series of badly written love poems to foxbat that belong to an unknown individual among the team. My question is... is it wrong of us to release all of this information? We're heroes.. But come on! Just how many scruples do we have to have! We can be good guys and still leak this info to the press, right?

Oooh! Build in a delayed effect, so people don't know they're infected and have time to pass it on to others before it takes effect! Hehe.

I'd suggest a nice death trap, followed by minutes of taunting, giving him the details of your plan, and then leaving before you actually see him dead. That's a surefire formula!

I'm nowhere near as precise. I was when I first started playing but after a time I realized it was all about making it a contest for the players. So I don't bother to count out points for the villians, I just make minor changes to cause problems for the heroes. Consider it a post-creation "Villain Bonus".