JimLotFP

I need to put up some flyers around town for my HERO game... (last year's AD&D 1E flyer netted 9 players, but only two want to do HERO... ah well)... But I need a cool superhero picture that conveys ACTION and SUPERPOWERS! I don't want to use "real" characters because I don't want people joining up expecting to play Superman or Iron Man or something. My net searching skills aren't what they once were... So does anyone know of any good (preferably black-and-white) superhero action illustrations that might be good for this purpose? Thanks!

I won some 80s Champions stuff awhile back and I'm not sure how to tell the difference between first/second/third edition stuff... There's the box with a comic of Crusader and Starburst teaming up on a villain on the back, with the rulebook inside saying "Fourth Printing July 1983". There's the Champions II- The Super Supplement! book with a 1982 date on it. A Viper's Nest booklet with no color cover like everything else, 1982 date. Escape From Stronghold from 1981. Thanks!

Re: [Character] RAD This is exactly why I'm making these threads... to see what I'm overlooking when executing concepts. This adds 18 points to the power, so the Overall Skill Levels go bye-bye... fair enough.

Re: Character: RAD Odd! What is bizarre is that the "does not protect against damage" limitation doesn't mitigate the need for the "usable against physical world" advantage on his own attacks. I'm stating right now in my game if you choose "does not protect against damage" AND "can not pass through solid objects" on your desolidification, you don't need to buy anything special to attack physical things. Anyway... as for this "affects Desolids" attack, maybe taking some of those excess throwaway points and buying up some armor with the limitation "only vs. attacks that affect Desolid"...

So here's a non-heavy metal themed character. I tackled something that the HERO system has a rep for not being able to do: pure invulnerability in a concept that I'd dare GMs to accept into their game. Filling out the details after the initial design was a bit rough as I had too many points to work with. I could have just not used as many disadvantages, but instead I made him a quite competent physical specimen and put a couple of Overall Levels in there. Those things are super useful! [b]RAD - Barry Jankowski[/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 15 STR 5 15 12- HTH Damage 3d6 END [1] 15 DEX 15 15 12- OCV 5 DCV 5 20 CON 20 20 13- 20 BODY 20 20 13- 15 INT 5 15 12- PER Roll 12- 10 EGO 0 10 11- ECV: 3 15 PRE 5 15 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 20 COM 5 20 13- 3 PD 0 3 3 PD (0 rPD) 4 ED 0 4 4 ED (0 rED) 4 SPD 15 4 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 7 REC 0 7 40 END 0 40 38 STUN 0 38 9 RUN 6 9" END [2] 5 SWIM 3 5" END [1] 5 LEAP 2 5" 5" forward, 2 1/2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 101[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 35 [b][i]Invulnerability[/i][/b]: Desolidification (affected by NND/Drain/any attack which does not cause bodily damage), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (80 Active Points); Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2), Always On (-1/2), Limited Power Still affected by knockback (-1/4) - END=0 36 Drain END 2d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Damage Shield (+1/2), Affects Physical World (+2) (90 Active Points); Limited Power Only effective against living beings attacking RAD in hand-to-hand combat, can not be used offensively and ineffective against those wielding weapons (-1), Always On (-1/2) - END=0 48 [b][i]Knock-Out Punch![/i][/b]: Hand-To-Hand Attack +6d6, No Normal Defense (Defense is having one or more END; +1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Affects Physical World (+2) (120 Active Points); Limited Power Only effective against living beings (-1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2) - END=0 45 [b][i]Strength Modifer[/i][/b]: Affects Physical World (+2) for up to 15 Active Points of STR, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (45 Active Points) - END=0 [b]POWERS Cost: 164[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 9 Acting 15- 3 Climbing 12- 6 +3 with any single attack 8 Computer Programming (Computer Networks, Hacking and Computer Security, Personal Computers, Mainframes and Supercomputers) 12- 3 Concealment 12- 3 Contortionist 12- 7 Criminology 14- 3 Deduction 12- 3 Disguise 12- 3 Lockpicking 12- 3 Persuasion 12- 3 Shadowing 12- 3 Stealth 12- 3 Streetwise 12- 5 PS: Comedian 14- 20 +2 Overall [b]SKILLS Cost: 85[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 20 Normal Characteristic Maxima 15 Social Limitation: Secret ID (Frequently, Major) 15 Enraged: When the helpless are attacked (Uncommon), go 11-, recover 11- 15 Psychological Limitation: Distrustful of Government Agencies (Common, Strong) 10 Psychological Limitation: Keeps Up On All the Latest Fads and Fashions (Common, Moderate) 10 Reputation (in hero ID): Wimp, 14- (Known Only To A Small Group) 20 Psychological Limitation: Code Versus Killing (Common, Total) 10 Rivalry: Professional (TV Variety Show Host Kevin Burman; Rival is More Powerful; Seek to Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival; Rival Aware of Rivalry) 15 Dependent NPC: Daniel "Morty" Mortenstein - Manager 8- (Normal; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID) 5 Hunted: Family and Decency Watchdog Groups and Politicians - Denouncing His "Vulgar and Offensive" Stand-Up 8- (As Pow, NCI, Watching) 15 Social Limitation: Public ID: Famous Comedian (Frequently, Major) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 150[/b] Base Pts: 200 Exp Required: 0 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 350 Background/History: As a child, Barry Jankowski was the worst stereotype of a geek. He'd nearly piss himself in the presence of girls (or when attention was focused on him in any way whatsoever), was terrible at sports, had the worst fashion sense in the school, a high, whiny voice, horrible acne, the thickest, most unattractive eyeglasses in the history of mankind, an interest in odd and gross things (insects, the physical properties of phlegm), but wasn't even particularly bright. He really had no redeeming qualities for anyone else trying to interact with him. This led to Barry being beat up in school. Frequently. Constantly, even. His parents weren't any better, and for the first fifteen years of his life Jankowski lived a dreary, unloved existence. Then everything changed. Maybe it was the (quite late) onset of puberty. Maybe he unknowingly played in a puddle of radioactive slime one day. Maybe some powerful metahuman saw him one day and took pity on him. His parents say he just got good at being beat up. Whatever it was, Barry's life turned around. Getting hit no longer hurt. What's more, the people hitting him, if they were using their fists (or feet, or elbows, or...) quickly wore themselves out trying to hurt him. And when that happened, Barry was able to finish them off in short order. No longer abused at home or at school, he gained more confidence and started listening to the advice of kinder souls who tried to get him to fit in a bit more. It wasn't totally successful, being odd seems to be genetic for Barry, but he at least learned basic human interaction skills. He got a girlfriend. His studies improved. He still didn't go for any sports or things like that though. One evening after a movie, Barry stumbled across a mugging in progress... three men attacking an old woman. Jankowski was never the brave or self-sacrificing type, but this was too much for him. He stepped in, and found that he was even immune to knives and gunfire... and he was quickly able to incapacitate the hoods once it went to fisticuffs. Barry felt good after this, better than he ever did before. He thought he could make a career out of this being invincible business. Taking his name from Muhammad Ali's famous boxing strategy (but in a way that wouldn't alert his opponents to what's going on), he designed a costume for himself and started taking to the streets to defend the city from crime! Personality/Motivation: Jankowski is in many ways a normal person that has been through some tough times but is still trying to make his mark in the world. He's unsure about his chosen path, wondering if perhaps the military or law enforcement wouldn't be a better use of his peculiar talent, but he's scared of what The Authorities would do if they found out he was "special." Quote: "Is that all you got?" Powers/Tactics: RAD's powers manifest themselves three ways: First, he can not be harmed by physical trauma. Fire, guns, knives, fists, cosmic bolts, falls, whatever. Doesn't phase him. He is not protected against gas, asphyxiation, radiation, entanglement, or any sort of non-trauma injury or attack. It looks like he's hurt, as he flinches, recoils, doubles over, gets scraped and cut and bloody lips and nose, but he's never hurt. Bones never break, teeth never come loose. All damage is purely cosmetic. Second, anyone striking him directly gets tired out as they strike him. Third, he has a punch that is devastating to those that are tired out. Obviously when it comes to super-fights, RAD has limited options. He has to goad his opponents into entering hand-to-hand combat, get knocked around a bit, and then turn the tables with his knock-out punch. He has practiced faking being hurt though, so attackers think they're really hurting him. He's even taken a nod from professional wrestling and gotten flamboyant about getting knocked around so vain villains will enjoy beating up on him even more. He's gone so far as to stage incidents where seemlingly unassuming thugs "defeat" him in public to further his image of helplessness in a standup fight. Sometimes just his interference ruins a criminal's plans and if there are witnesses (and approaching police to apprehend the criminal anyway), he'll take a dive for criminals that have been prevented from harming people already. To encourage bad guys to use bad tactics (brute force!), Jankowski has developed the art of the insult. He studies what he can about a villain (even if it's just their mannerisms in combat) and insults them as personally and viciously as he can. It helps. He's even becoming a name on the stand-up circuit where he takes the Don Rickles approach into the edgy 21st century. He's drawn attention from parent groups, media watchdog organizations, politicians, and even civil rights groups for his "vulgar, abusive, offensive" brand of comedy. He's certainly caused a stir as more than one of his routines has been interrupted by an audience member trying to punch his lights out... (and one national TV talk show host has vowed to end his career after being humilated by Jankowski on live television...) His various other skills have been developed specifically to not be a useless, one-trick crimefighter, although even he knows that a few investigation skills don't make him Batman or anything. Campaign Use: "Jim still can't make a normal super-hero." Fate is decided by the narrowest of margins when it comes to a new super powered individual deciding whether to become a hero or villain. RAD could have easily stayed bitter and used his new ability to aid him in crime, taking the good life he could never seem to earn by living straight. GMs could have a fine time describing how badly RAD's getting his butt kicked, while he never seems to go down, and the players wonder exactly how much STUN this guy has. As a hero, again it will be the stories and not the action that makes or breaks the gameability of this character. An unimaginative GM will turn RAD adventures into reprints of early Hulk ("Hulk can not fight gas!" every issue...) but presenting challenges should not be difficult... RAD isn't very powerful at all, he just tends to negate the power of others is all. My priority in playing this character would be for a GM to have a villain tie him up, stick him in the trunk of a car, have the car driven into a gasoline tanker and have the whole thing blow up, just so RAD can stagger out of the fiery wreckage, face the goons who did it, and utter his catchphrase. Or throw him off a skyscraper. Or out of a plane. You know, the flashy stuff. Jankowski's comedy career can keep him on the road a lot, bringing variety to what at least seems to be a genre that often bases the action around one region. Appearance: Jankowski trains very hard to keep a runner's physique. He wants to be in tip-top shape but he does not want to look impressive in spandex or give an impression of toughness at all. In his civilian ID, he stays sharply attired in the latest cool fashions. In his RAD ID, he has developed an obnoxious costume that's as much the visual equivalent of "kick me" as possible. Lots of little subtle crosshairs and such.

Re: [Character] No-One

Re: Character: The Witchfinder General (and lots of character theme design talk)

Re: Character: No-One *ggrrooaannn* Although your comment did make me realize these characters I'm making are all related to heavy metal subgenres. No One is blatantly black metal, but Witchfinder General is quite doom metal (... and I just bought Reverend Bizarre's Teutonic Witch single yesterday... no obvious connection there, haha!). Obviously the next step is to continue to do this, but also make a more blatantly superheroey concept out of the next guy. So... hmmm... which genre?

Here is my latest creation. It's weird, when creating "Player Character/hero" types, I'm not really drawn to concepts that look to play well when the fists start flying, but more to characters that I'd have an interesting time role-playing in out of combat situations. A character that a comic book might be able to actually be written about instead of a set of combat statistics with some backstory added, if I can be a bit arrogant. My experience with superhero gamers is that the BASH POW style of flashy fights is a lot of the fun so my goals and other players' goals for superhero fun might be very different. It also occurs to me that a player making his PC more well-rounded might put him at a disadvantage against a time-pressed or maybe inexperienced GM... if a PC is concerned about how well-rounded he is, and a GM makes villains more geared towards how they will interact with PCs (crime and fighting, I'd guess), villains are going to be far more effective face-to-face on a point-to-point basis. Not a problem if you do "Hero team versus big bad villain" but that puts the heroes in the position of always being the weakness superhuman they find. ("It always takes four of us to take one of the bad guys down!") But making well-rounded, "what if the campaign was all about this guy?" villains isn't going to go well either. They'll either get all mulched up by a combat-ready hero or they'll end up stealing time away from who the game is about - the Player Characters. Which is why villains are more one-dimensional in the first place, as nobody wants to go into the full history, motivations, and inner thoughts of every single goon in spandex they stop from committing nefarious deeds. Just introducing this stuff makes a big chunk of the game about THEM, so it's best to stay away from doing it... and then it's back to the original cardboard cutout villain problem. Must balance! Another thought is that these characters I'm making here might be more suited to Dark Champions style than Champions... but that's not my intention. If I were to play these characters (and I will be GMing the upcoming HERO game being put together...) I would want them thrust into superheroic situations, but of course related to the character concept. I think it's just a mental block of realizing that any quality story/session is going to involve real challenge to the characters... so creating a wildly powerful individual would be an exercise in frustration because for the game to work, he's got to be challenged as much as the more power-limited guy. So why not work on a smaller scale to begin with, make a flawed character, and at least be able to hand to a GM a bunch of ways that you want your character to be challenged. I'm probably just rambling. These are just some impressions after diving back into HERO after a 15 year absence and I'm just doing some pre-campaign thinking out loud about pitfalls I need to avoid for my game. Anyway, to the Witchfinder himself. I'm fairly happy with how he turned out, except perhaps the Darkness Descending power. Change Environment has a fairly specific method of calculating costs for effect, but a flat OCV penalty for everyone within the darkness/fog isn't exactly what I had in mind... more of a haze, increasing range penalties significantly is more what I had in mind, so hand to hand combat would be unaffected but everything else would be a problem. How would I model that? And with that thought: [b]Witchfinder General - Jebediah Brightmore[/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 20 STR 10 20 13- HTH Damage 4d6 END [2] 23 DEX 39 23 14- OCV 8 DCV 8 23 CON 26 23 14- 23 BODY 26 23 14- 13 INT 3 13 12- PER Roll 12- 21 EGO 22 21 13- ECV: 7 35 PRE 25 35 16- PRE Attack: 7d6 10 COM 0 10 11- 7 PD 3 7 7 PD (0 rPD) 5 ED 0 5 5 ED (0 rED) 5 SPD 17 5 Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 9 REC 0 9 46 END 0 46 45 STUN 0 45 9 RUN 6 9" END [2] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 7 LEAP 3 7" 7" forward, 3 1/2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 180[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 33 [b][i]Darkness Descending[/i][/b]: Change Environment 64" radius, -3 to Normal Sight PER Rolls, -2 OCV, Multiple Combat Effects, Personal Immunity (+1/4) (67 Active Points); No effect indoors (-1/2), No Range (-1/2) - END=7 14 [b][i]Terrifying Majesty[/i][/b]: +40 PRE (40 Active Points); Limited Power Only to Make Fear/Intimidation Based Presence Attacks (-1), Linked (Darkness Descending; -1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) - END=4 20 Find Weakness 13- with With Musket - END=0 3 Life Support (Sleeping: Character does not sleep) - END=0 5 Life Support (Longevity: Immortal) - END=0 7 [b][i]Sabre[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6 (2d6 w/STR) (15 Active Points); OAF (-1) - END=1 10 [b][i]Musket[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Ranged 1 1/2d6, Armor Piercing (+1/2) (37 Active Points); OAF (-1), 6 Charges (-3/4), Side Effects: -3 OCV Range Modifier, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2) - END=[6] 7 [b][i]Whip[/i][/b]: Multipower, 15-point reserve, (15 Active Points); all slots OAF (-1) - END= 1u 1) [b][i]Whip Grab[/i][/b]: Stretching 3" (15 Active Points); OAF (-1), Cannot Do Damage (-1/2), Always Direct (-1/4), no Noncombat Stretching (-1/4) - END=1 1u 2) [b][i]Whip Slash[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Ranged 1/2d6 (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Reduced Penetration (-1/4), Limited Range 3" (-1/4) - END=1 [b]POWERS Cost: 101[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]MARTIAL ARTS[/u][/b] 0 Weapon Element: Default Element 4 Froissement: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, Disarm, +10 STR 4 Parry: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort 5 Slash: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, +2DC Weapon Strike 12 +3 HTH Damage Class(es) 5 Thrust: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +3 DCV, Weapon Strike [b]MARTIAL ARTS Cost: 30[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 Fast Draw 14- 3 Interrogation 16- 3 Riding 14- 2 KS: Biblical Law 11- 3 KS: History 12- 2 PS: Carpenter 11- [b]SKILLS Cost: 16[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]PERKS[/u][/b] 23 Follower [b]PERKS Cost: 23[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 5 Distinctive Features: Dresses in 17th Century Clothes (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 10 Distinctive Features: Great Big Hairy Sideburns (Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 20 Psychological Limitation: Absolutely Humorless (Common, Total) 15 Psychological Limitation: Will Not Suffer a Witch to Live (Uncommon, Total) 15 Social Limitation: Off the Grid (Frequently, Major) 15 Psychological Limitation: Religious Fanatic (Common, Strong) 20 Psychological Limitation: Judgemental (Common, Total) 20 Psychological Limitation: Will Not Use Modern Technology (Very Common, Strong) 20 Psychological Limitation: Does Not Recognize Civil Authority (Common, Total) 10 Social Limitation: Vow of Poverty: Donates Any Excess Wealth to the Church (Occasionally, Major) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 150[/b] Base Pts: 200 Exp Required: 0 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 350 Background/History: Jebediah Brightmore was born in rural England in 1632 but his family moved to Massachussetts in 1636. It was there that he first came into contact with the occult, and as a ten year old child his family was murdered and he was kidnapped by a coven of witches and was to participate in a ritual of human sacrifice with the intention of bestowing immortality on the head of the coven. The ritual was interrupted by the authorities, but not before things had gone horribly wrong: young Brightmore was drenched in goat's blood in the confusion, and several desperate witches completed their incantations. Brightmore was taken in by the Church at this point, and because of his unique experiences was trained to be a "modern-day" inquisitor... a Witchfinder. His activities in the Colonies brought him into constant contact with Indian mysticism, Carribean Voodoo, and European Satanism, and like other Witchfinders, he was changed. Unlike most, he lived to tell about it. As the years wore on, he lost the need to sleep. Around age forty, he stopped aging. He eventually began to serve under Increase Mather, where he began to be disillusioned with the growing political concerns in witchhunting. His break with the church and colony hierarchy came in 1692 when he acted as an observer at the Salem Witch Trials, where he saw innocent people executed and imprisoned, and no one would listen when he told them that there was no supernatural power at work. He made his way to the western frontier to be away from the increasingly decadent lifestyle of New England, and spent most of his time protecting colonists from Indian shamanism. He had trouble keeping up with the changing world. He fought for the Colonies during the American Revolution, but ended up as an officer of one of Daniel Shays' Regulators in 1786-7. Eventually pardoned by Massachussetts governor John Hancock for his part in the rebellion, he once again headed west, this time to California, where he spent decades practicing his profession. The 1860s brought many changes. First was the Civil War (he served on a Confederate militia, as he believed that America was becoming too much like old England in its quest for power, but never saw combat), then the completion of the first transcontinental railroad made Brightmore's world even smaller. His brand of justice was well out of favor by then, and even then was forced to live in the shadows, outside of society. After the schism in the Amish community that decade, he decided perhaps he had found a place that he can live. His willingness to work hard in the community and protect their interests (and his willingness to intimidate those who spoke out against him) allowed both he and they to overlook their religious differences and give him a sanctuary from the outside world. He has stayed hidden from the world since then, keeping himself out of sight from those that would notice that he is over four hundred years old. Still, some records persist, and he was drafted for both World War II and Vietnam, with locals covering for him ("He died years ago...) when officials came knocking when he didn't serve. He has never registered with any government (or private) office since 1865, and lives entirely off the grid. He does not keep his identity secret, but because he is effectively untraceable (and keeps no close friends), his identity isn't exactly public either. And so he has lived for the past 120+ years, content to live a simple life away from the world. But the the evil of this world and the next will not leave him be... and it is time for the world to tremble before the visage of Jebediah Brightmore once again. Personality/Motivation: Brightmore has seen evil and dedicates his life to fighting it. Whether this evil really is of the Devil or not is for the GM to decide but Brightmore knows what he believes in. He tries to have as little contact with the modern world as possible. He is distressed at the abandonment of traditional values in society, angered by the hypocritical religious figures that garner media attention (oh how he loathed the 80s...), and deepy hurt by the tolerance and acceptance of "alternate" religions. (He does not consider Wicca or modern forms of Paganism to be "witchcraft" as he defines it, but any true sorceror, whether they use magic for show, for heroism, or what have you, falls under his definition - he does not differentiate between "white" and "black" magic) Brightmore is unwavering in his mission. He has seen the evil. he has been touched by the evil. And he will conquer it. Quote: "I am Jebediah Brightmore, Witchfinder. Confess!" Powers/Tactics: While the Witchfinder General is an expert in the use of his sabre and a deadly shot with his rifle, it is his voice that his enemies need fear most. He is a grim, imposing man in the best of times, but when he is angry, the shadows of hell seek to escape his presence and in their panic they blot out the sun, and the universal human fears of hellfire and damnation carry through his voice. Few indeed are the foes that can keep their wits and courage about them when his fury is directed at them. Brightmore keeps his activities limited to rural areas as much as possible to maximize his freedom of movement and to stay out of sight, but he will pursue evil wherever he finds it on the back of his monstrous black stallion - and only friend - Inquisitor (a light warhorse with increased running and "animal intelligence" disadvantages removed). Campaign Use: The Witchfinder General's status in a campaign will be defined by the kinds of stories the GM presents. If faced with Evil, then he will be a hero in the stories told as he does have a strong drive to defeat such evil for the glory of God and the safety of man. If confronted with too much moral ambiguity, mundane "stop the bank-robbers" capers, or scenarios designed for feel-good endings, he will come across more as a villain as he has no interest in promoting or participating in modern society or upholding normal standards of law and order. Appearance: Jebediah dresses in the manner of a 17th century Puritan... mostly black clothing with kneesocks, stovepipe hat, cloak, and gloves. And his horse, Inquisitor: [b]Inquisitor - [/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 25 STR 15 25 14- HTH Damage 5d6 END [2] 18 DEX 24 18 13- OCV 6 DCV 6 20 CON 20 20 13- 16 BODY 12 16 12- 13 INT 3 13 12- PER Roll 12-/13- 5 EGO -10 5 10- ECV: 2 22 PRE 9 22 13- PRE Attack: 4d6 10 COM 0 10 11- 7 PD 2 7 7 PD (1 rPD) 4 ED 0 4 4 ED (1 rED) 3 SPD 2 3 Phases: 4, 8, 12 9 REC 0 9 40 END 0 40 39 STUN 0 39 16 RUN 20 16" END [3] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 7 LEAP 2 7" 7" forward, 3 1/2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 99[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 6 Knockback Resistance -3" - END=0 1 [b][i]Acclimated[/i][/b]: +3 PRE (3 Active Points); Limited Power Only to Defend Against PRE Attacks (-1) - END= 1 Damage Resistance (1 PD/1 ED) - END=0 10 [b][i]Kick/Rear[/i][/b]: Hand-To-Hand Attack +3d6 (15 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2) - END=1 5 [b][i]Bite[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 point (1/2d6 w/STR) - END=1 4 [b][i]Sharp-Eared and Keen-Nosed[/i][/b]: +1 PER with Hearing Group and Smell/Taste Group - END=0 [b]POWERS Cost: 27[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 +1 Bite, Kick, Rear 1 Language: English (Understanding Only, No Speaking) 1 Riding 13- (3 Active Points); Complementary to Rider's Skill Only Power loses about half of its effectiveness (-1) 2 PS: Attack 11- 2 PS: Stop Attacking 11- [b]SKILLS Cost: 9[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 5 Physical Limitation: Large (4m, -2DCV, +2 to PER rolls to perceive) (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Very Limited Manipulation (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 20[/b] Base Pts: 115 Exp Required: 0 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 135

'allo... just futzing around a bit preparing for my HERO campaign to finally get started, figured I should make some characters for practice before making them "for real"... here's my first attempt... he's a bit combat-light and has a really implausible origin (I had the idea for who I wanted him to be but not a clue about how to get him there...), and just a touch of exaggerated autobiographical content. So is it "legal" to participate in WWYCD threads with characters you've never actually played? heh. Anyway, suggestions on how to toughen this guy up while keeping true to the character conception would be most appreciated. [b]No-One - Richard Hardinson[/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 20 STR 10 20 13- HTH Damage 4d6 END [2] 23 DEX 39 23 14- OCV 8 DCV 8 23 CON 26 23 14- 19 BODY 18 19 13- 18 INT 8 18 13- PER Roll 13- 13 EGO 6 13 12- ECV: 4 13 PRE 3 13 12- PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6 10 COM 0 10 11- 4 PD 0 4/10 4/10 PD (0/6 rPD) 5 ED 0 5/26 5/26 ED (0/21 rED) 3 SPD 0 3 Phases: 4, 8, 12 9 REC 0 9 46 END 0 46 41 STUN 0 41 6 RUN 0 6" END [1] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 4 LEAP 0 4" 4" forward, 2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 110[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 13 Mental Defense (23 points total) (20 Active Points); Limited Power (No Defense vs Ego Attack; -1/2) - END=0 29 [b][i]Taser[/i][/b]: Energy Blast 8d6, No Normal Defense ([standard]; Defense is Insulated ED; +1) (80 Active Points); OAF (-1), No Range (-1/2), 12 Charges (-1/4) - END=[12] 12 Kevlar Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) - END=0 15 Armor (0 PD/15 ED) (23 Active Points); Only Works Against Radiation Limited Type of Attack (-1/2) - END=0 28 Invisibility to Sight and Hearing Groups , No Fringe, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (70 Active Points); Limited Power (Only vs. Machines; -1), Always On (-1/2) - END=0 7 Power Defense (10 points) (10 Active Points); Only Works Against Radiation Limited Type of Attack (-1/2) - END=0 2 Life Support (Safe in High Radiation) - END=0 [b]POWERS Cost: 106[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]MARTIAL ARTS[/u][/b] 4 Martial Block: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort 4 Martial Dodge: 1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort 3 Martial Throw: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +1 DCV, 4d6 +v/5, Target Falls 4 Martial Strike: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, 6d6 Strike [b]MARTIAL ARTS Cost: 15[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 Bureaucratics 12- 3 Climbing 14- 3 Combat Driving 14- 3 Demolitions 13- 2 CuK: Music Scene 11- 0 Language: English (idiomatic) (4 Active Points) 2 Language: Latin (fluent conversation) 3 Lockpicking 14- 3 Mechanics 13- 3 Oratory 12- 2 PS: Musician 11- 2 SS: Anthropology 11- 2 SS: Archeology 11- 3 Shadowing 13- 50 +5 Overall 3 Stealth 14- 3 Streetwise 12- 3 Tracking 13- 4 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Tracked Military Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Wheeled Military Vehicles 2 SS: Sociology 11- 2 AK: Atlanta 11- [b]SKILLS Cost: 101[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]PERKS[/u][/b] 13 Vehicles & Bases [b]PERKS Cost: 13[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]TALENTS[/u][/b] 5 Eidetic Memory [b]TALENTS Cost: 5[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 25 Dependent NPC: The Band 8- (Normal; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID; Group DNPC: x4 DNPCs) 10 Distinctive Features: Emits (harmless) unusual radiation (Not Concealable; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses) 15 Hunted: Police 8- (As Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish) [Notes: The character is known as a vigilante, so only "by the book" cops will want to bring him in. The Hunted frequency indicates that most interactions with police will be with "average" officers who see a non-killing masked man as an aid to their efforts.] 10 Social Limitation: Secret ID (Occasionally, Major) 15 Psychological Limitation: Speaks with the royal "we" (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Talks to Self (Common, Strong) 20 Psychological Limitation: Code of the Comic Book Hero (Common, Total) 10 Reputation: Insane Vigilante, 14- (Only in Hero ID) 20 Psychological Limitation: Disdainful of the Common Person as Lazy and Ignorant (Very Common, Strong) 10 Social Limitation: Poor (Frequently, Minor) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 150[/b] Base Pts: 200 Exp Required: 0 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 350 Background/History: Richard Hardinson has always had a rough life. Born to a single mother (nobody can say exactly who his father is) in Atlanta public housing, Hardinson never had a positive role-model growing up. Instead of falling prey to the more insidious temptations of the street, the rather bright boy threw himself into music and comic books (both quite cheap forms of entertainment when you become skilled in shoplifting...). Enthralled by the comic book stories of people with power over their lives (Firestorm and The Question were his favorites), and impressed by the ability of bands like Sodom, Kreator, and Celtic Frost to express the way he felt, he aspired to be a creative person to separate himself from those around him, whom he increasingly considered inferior because of their lack of ambition. However, this focus did not include schoolwork, and his dislike for being told what to do, and his desire to pursue his music, led him to drop out of high school at the age of 16. Working various labor jobs enabled him to rent his own meager apartment and buy his own guitar, and after some practice he joined the local band Mass Graves as guitar player and vocalist. His vision and attitude impressed the band, and within a year they had cut a demo and were signed. Now they are enjoying some small popularity in their scene, but the band is not a money-generating entity and the band doesn't even play out much. Richard is more than happy with this arrangement though, and the band intentionally takes steps to not attract wider press or record label attention. At the age of 22, still eking out a living doing what jobs he can during the day and exorcising his frustrations and fantasies in the rehearsal room at night, everything changed. He was on a mid-afternoon bus out to the suburbs where his band was playing a gig later that night. A local terrorist cell had chosen the bus as a test target for a new type of low-yield dirty bomb. The bomb exploded, but the blast and the radiation had a most unusual effect. While the force of the blast tore the bus apart, all of the radiation had been absorbed by Hardinson, who had been sitting above the tire well where the bomb had been planted. The driver and four other passengers were killed instantly, but Hardinson had not a scratch on him. He decided to flee the scene rather than deal with rescue personnel... but he soon realized the explosion had changed him somehow. The consciousness of his four fellow bus passengers had somehow invaded his mind, and he had access to their memories and talents. Or rather, they could tell him about what they knew. When he showed up for his gig that night, he first discovered the next strange thing to happen to him. Machines and electronic devices could not detect his presence. His microphone couldn't pick up his voice, his friend's videocamera didn't pick him up on stage. He (and his four new mental friends) were quite puzzled at the situation. The new personalities (they were an ex-Marine mercenary, a career criminal, an archeology professor, and a man running for a seat on the city council) all had different ideas of what to do. Richard had a better idea. He had already followed in the footsteps of his idols for one of his passions, now he would follow in the footsteps of his idols from another passion: He would become a comic book-style superhero! Personality/Motivation: Hardinson is not a pleasant person to be around. He believes that most of humanity is following the wrong path and in particular that his fellow Americans are a willfully shallow, ignorant people. He has become a costumed crimefighter not for their sake, but because Richard believes the only way to validate his worldview is to be better than the people around him. He comes across as arrogant and unlikeable, and this is entirely intentional on his part to avoid having to deal with the people around him. As part of his hero persona, he has sworn himself to a strict code of heroic ethics, based on what he believes is the only "real" era of comic books, the 1970s. He will not kill, he always keeps his word, and he will sacrifice himself and his personal life to protect the innocent... not because he is a good person, but because this is the way that people with special powers are supposed to act. It's the proper, true way and he believes that overly violent, morally troubled heroes of the modern comics age suck and he refuses to be one of them. If he encounters heroes that match this description, he'd probably be more enthusiastic about kicking the crap out of them for "doing it wrong" than fighting villains. Besides, being a goody-goody superhero really ticks off the other personalities in his head, and that's the least he can do to repay them for invading his private headspace. Quote: "So you say no one can stop you?" Powers/Tactics: No One is a low powered hero and he knows he can't take on the heavy hitters in a fight. He was always in good shape, but the added combat knowledge of the mercenary (and the fitness regimen he encourages) has turned No One into a fighter that can easily deal with non-powered criminals. His defensive abilities are the most impressive. Machines can not detect him, which does give him problems if he tries to go through airport security or renew his driver's license, but more importantly it allows him to infiltrate secure areas without fear of detection. The multiple personalities inhabiting his brain make any sort of mind control, manipulation, or mind scanning very difficult as the "signal" is very confused. Mental attacks are unhindered, however, as there is no need for the attacker to interpret the mess in there in these cases. No One is also resistant to radiation, and he wonders if this is a result of the bombing or what saved his life in the first place... His main assett is the combined knowledge of all the consciousnesseseseseses in his brain and this is represented by the impressive Overall Skill Levels he has. He depends on combining that with his Martial Dodge for an incredible 18 DCV to keep him out of danger when things get violent. Using a stash known to the mercenary, he has outfitted himself with a taser gun, kevlar jacket, and a fancy foreign motorcycle to fight crime. He can't afford new crime fighting equipment himself, so he is hoping to raid the underworld to be able to get some heavier hitting equipment in the future as well as continuing physical training so his body can use all of the combat knowledge he has in his head. Campaign Use: No One seeks to join a superhero team. As far as power level, he would definitely be a support player in such a team... he won't be a frontline fighter, but his unique personality will keep him from being overshadowed and his non-combat abilities will certainly be useful to any team. No One would hope that he could learn from the example of great heroes, but nobody would be able to live up to his standards. He would set himself as the "moral compass" of the team, and always be attempting to give the rousing speeches a la The Shoveler from Mystery Men (his favorite character from that movie), but would usually come across as a self-righteous ass instead. On his own, he's definitely a street-level hero. He'd go after the types that make life miserable for the lower classes such as drug dealers, ethnic street gangs (including white power types), and especially corrupt policemen and politicians. Appearance: In his normal identity, Hardinson looks like a typical heavy metal musician... very long unstyled hair, dresses in denim and leather and various band T-shirts. In his No One identity, he takes a nod from one of his favorite heroes, The Question, and wears a suit (nobody familiar with his regular identity would ever suspect he would wear a suit!) complete with fedora (into which his hair is all tucked) and face mask, all grey.

Re: Power build help... player wants a player that can make "wormholes"...

Re: Power build help... player wants a player that can make "wormholes"...

My players for my upcoming HERO game have no experience with the system... so I'm having them just write out their powers freeform to start with, and I'll see if I can gracefully port them into HERO terms for them. First power description came back more detailed than I'd bargained for, but hey, that makes it easier to model. This will now be the first power I actually try to make myself since I last played HERO 4th in 92 or 93 or so, so I need some guidance in getting things right (we're the nearsighted leading the blind here!). Direct from the player's email: Looking through the 5ER book, I was pleased to find the "gate" option already covered under Teleportation. So let's see if I can get this close to what he wants... Teleportation Version 1 20" (40pts) NCM x 32 (+20pts) Extra Mass 1600kg (+20, 80 base points) Area of Effect: 1 hex (+1/2) Usable on Others (+1) Continuous (+1) Gate (book says -1/2, but I say -0 to allow it to be a one-way, can't-see-it-from-the-other-side thing) This would be 280 points just for the basic power. Woof! I chose NCM x 32 because that would run this power basically to the edge where a second Megascale power would pick up. Not sure how much extra mass is really needed but a substantial amount of stuff has to be able to go through there or else it's not going to feel like a wormhole. However, his specifically mentioning 10m = 1 second gave me another idea: Teleportation Version 2 5" (10pts) Extra Mass 1600kg (+20, 30 base points) Area of Effect: 1 hex (+1/2) Usable on Others (+1) Continuous (+1) Gate (-0) Still 105 (!) active points. But probably can be gotten down with some limitations but that is still to be hashed out. Let's give the player what he wants before telling him he can't pay for it yet. Add on top of that: Teleportation Version 2.5 +5" (10pts) Extra Mass 1600kg (+20, 30 base points) Area of Effect: 1 hex (+1/2) Usable on Others (+1) Continuous (+1) Gate (-0) Extra Time Full Phase (-1/2) Another 90 pts. Would it be legal to add a x128 NCM (30pts) to the first part of that with the limitation extra time full turn just when using noncombat movement? (so adding the NCM is just 13 points? Now he obviously wants to go very far as well. So... Teleportation Megascale 10" (20pts) Extra Weight 1600kg (+20pts, 40 base points total) Megascale 1"=1000km (+1 so he can go anywhere on the planet, basically) Scaleable to 1"=1km (+1/4) 2x END cost (-1/2) Extra time full turn (-1 1/4) 33 points here. Then there's the whole "he can see what goes through even if he's not looking at the wormhole." Clairsentience Part 1: Seeing the wormhole Sight Group (20 points) 8x range (+15pts, should be enough, how far is he going to go while burning END keeping one of these things open? 35 base pts) 0 END (+1/2) Linked to Teleportation (-1/2) See wormhole entrance only (-1/2) 26 points. That seems a bit... high. And then his whole spying idea... Clairsentience Part 2: Spying I'll take this almost straight out of the USPD: Multipower, 45 point reserve (visible power effect with the wormhole, -1/4, 36 real point cost) 3u 1) Local 16x range 3u 2) Distant Megascale 1"=1000km, scalable to 1"=1km) 42 points for this. As for how he gets to select his destinations, I'm not sure how to handle that. He needs to know what it looks like, but not necessarily where it is. And I'll leave the dimension travel thing for now, that's pretty straightforward I think. (and will likely get left off if I have my way, ha ha ha) So, please, tell me how inefficient this is and how else I could take his description and squeeze more game system details out of it.

Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! Ah, clarification needed. The government doesn't know about the remaining PCs. Of course they know that there it isn't likely that there is just ONE superpowered person in the world, but the official stance is to deny that there were ever any real ones. So real superpowers becomes the domain of "conspiracy theorists" and such, like UFOs. Because the first public experience (until it was denied) of superpowers was part of a "terrorist" action, of course they don't like it. And of course as the campaign moves along, there are going to be a ton more bad guys than good guys, so even after their existence becomes irrefutable, good luck getting the public to be OK with it. Government control and regulation and experimentation etc etc etc. The "mutant menace" of 80s X-Men and the attitudes in Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns would be my inspiration for public and official attitudes once things are exposed, although if the PCs are smart they'll get more of a Spider-Man reaction (grassroots support and recognition even if all the publicity is bad). The public admiration of the good guys found in the comics (not that I've read any new superhero stories in the past decade or so aside from Rising Stars) wouldn't happen in this world because there is no history of good guys fighting normal criminals (like early Superman, Batman, etc) or patriotic sentiment behind them (like the early Marvel heroes like Captain America) nor respected public figures who are transformed (like the Fantastic Four) in this world. I think silver-age Marvel was in some ways brilliant with this, as groups like the FF and Avengers were obviously good guys and seen as such, but from an official standpoint Spider-Man and X-Men were not so obviously different from the menaces they fought... and thus was their public image.

Re: Need help setting up my HERO campaign! I don't want to restrict any of their powers or ideas. I want them to define their powers freeform from their imagination. If somebody wants to make something beyond the pale, well, HERO is good for answering challenges. And they'll still only get the 200 + 150 to start with, hehe. Hopefully they'll get the hint that BIG AND FLASHY might be problematic, and subtle and mysterious might work better. I'll spell that out for them. But I haven't played or run HERO in over ten years and I also don't want to set arbitrary limitations... we'll all jump off the cliff of bad ideas together. As far as dealing with the capture of the "real culprit"... I want the "team" to be established before play begins (so we can get right into a real plot instead of going through the motions of "how they got together" when we already know they are together)... and by having this be a background event, their answers can indicate what tone they want to campaign to have before I plan anything so their wishes can be taken into account. If they all answer the same thing as far as how they dealt with him, that's easy. If not, well, they need to work that out amongst themselves first and then I will proceed based on the game they want and expect to be playing. I can do Mystery Men, I can do Cannibal Holocaust in tights... and anything in between. That's good.

'allo! The idea of my upcoming HERO game is that it will be a dark, perhaps a bit dreary, mix of urban fantasy and horror and four-color superheroics. The PCs will be the first people with superpowers on Earth (... not for long, obviously...), driven to act but needing to operate in secrecy because the world at large will not accept super-beings. The game will not have a nihilistic or fatalistic tone, as frequent and total success will always be possible in any given scenario. I just like the ideas of heroes being largely on their own and I got a lot of inspiration from reading ideas intended for the Unknown Armies game, hehe. But anyway, none of the players have played HERO before. I don't think there is a problem playing the system, but character creation is indeed a complicated mess with all the options. My idea is to send a questionnaire to all the players to fill out about their character... and then I'll do the actual writeup, then we'll hash out details. Players will be able to borrow my Sidekicks (I bought four, still waiting on one more, plus I have the Big Bulletproof Book). And after a few sessions of play to see how everything really works, they'll of course be allowed to retool their characters. What I want is advice on the questionnaire. All the campaign premises should be addressed within, so I want some feedback as to how good you think the questions are, if the premise behind the campaign is clearly communicated through the questions, and especially what questions should be added! Thanks in advance... THE QUESTIONS All of the characters are going to be 17-18 year olds from outside North America who are going to study at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. These questions are to be answered from the point of view of your character before he leaves home. What country is your character from? Why does your character decide to study in the United States? What is your character going to be studying at Georgia Tech? What does your character want to do after he graduates? How is your character paying for school? What kinds of hobbies or interests does your character have? What is the most remarkable achievement in your character's life so far? What is the most traumatic experience your character's life so far? What would be the first impression a stranger has when meeting your character? What is your character's name? These questions from the point of view your character had after beginning studies but before gaining super powers - about two months' time. What does your character do when not studying? What people has your character made friends with? What is the biggest problem your character has with the American culture? These questions deal with your character discovering his super powers - out of nowhere!- and how he's adapted to them in the two months after discovering them. Why do you think your character has gained super powers? How does your character feel about being one of the first half-dozen people on Earth to ever get super powers? Describe, in one or two sentences, what your character's super powers are in general terms. Describe, in as much detail as you can stand, all the things your character has already tried with his super powers. Describe what your character's powers can't do, that one might assume they would do from the basic description you gave. Come up with a reason why it would be unthinkable for your character to tell his family about what has happened to him. How has having powers changed your character's personality or day-to-day habits? Ever since gaining powers, your character has noticed that many more "odd" things happen in his life. It might be related to gaining superpowers, or it might just be coincidences that are noticed just because your character is a bit sensitive to "unusual" happenings. They're not supernatural happenings, they're just a bit weird. Describe what some of these odd coincidences might be, and what your character thinks about them. Besides all your characters, there was one other person in "your group" who gained super powers... and he decided to act like a classic comic book super-hero, and was shot dead by frightened agents as he tried to stop a plot happening during the Governor's speech and his "abilities" became a target of public anxiety as police authorities called them new "terrorist tactics" until "official sources" "proved" the incident was simply a distraction away from the terrorist plot against the governor. Your first action as a "super team" was finding and capturing the real culprit, who had gotten away after his plan had been ruined by your friend. What did your character want to do with this criminal after he was captured? How does your character feel about the authorities assuming that super powers are a threat? What does your character do to hide the fact that he has super powers? The weird coincidences continue - your character knows he won't have the option to just ignore his super powers. How does your character feel about being forced to be "important" in the world now? What changes has he made in his daily life because of this realization? What is your character's "code name"?

Re: Need some help with an upcoming Champions campaign! The lighthearted stuff is just a way of introducing some of my goofy ideas into the mix. The game world itself certainly isn't going to be fluffy - the comedic elements are going to be a "code" for "the stakes aren't all that great this time around." The dog certainly won't be played for laughs, for instance, and when the group has settled into whatever it is going to be, that's when I'll be pulling out villains like Dr. Suicide. There is no particular style of hero story that I will be emulating... that will depend entirely on the PCs. If they want to be heroic and make a difference, then they will certainly not be punished for doing so. If they want to be Punisher style shoot-em-up guys, well, they will certainly get that right back at them. These early scenarios will be how I'd gauge which direction to go in. I mean, I got into comics in the mid-80s with the Mutant Massacre, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and all that, I buy up the Marvel Essentials in bulk and love that 60s-70s style (minus the "but you're a female!" type dialogue), and I love stuff like Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns too. I'm adaptable and am ready to roll with whatever tone the players would want. I thought about this, but I think it really limits the potential stories that can be told. And telling a group of mostly twenty-somethings that "You're going to be playing kids!" is something I really don't want to do.

'allo! Some of my players are skeptical of HERO and a superhero game so I need to convince them that this will be interesting and not just a rehash of every comic book movie they've ever seen (only one is a comic reader as far as I know and he's into modern stuff only I think)... Here are the scenario ideas, any advice for sprucing them up and making them shiny and cooler are appreciated. My campaign idea: Superpowers never existed before... NOW. They are of course VERY RARE, and only young people are manifesting powers. The PCs are going to be foreign students coming to the US to study at Georgia Tech (just a few blocks from where I used to live in Atlanta). They will be 18-19 years old, and as far as they know, they are the first and only people to ever have superpowers. I want to come up with a few scenarios before character creation is even done. I want there to be a mix of light-heartedness (goofy kids making up goofy villain gimmicks for themselves, I want the players to groan when they hear what some of these villains are named!) and serious morality issues (the villains are KIDS, or sometimes not even aware that they have powers... so what to do with these people?), against a backdrop of a security-conscious America that suddenly learns that there are some people who have power... and the heroes still need to show up to class, earn their degrees, and not be discovered and deported (or worse!)... SCENARIO I: Eight year old kid is manifesting his powers: Anything he can imagine, he can create. But right now that only happens when he is sleeping and has nightmares, and his nightmares become real. His older brother is also trying to get him into sci-fi and horror movies... and some independent theater is running a weeklong film festival with the following movies: Alien, Terminator, Friday the 13th Part VI, Hulk, and finally the original Godzilla. Each night, the new heroes fight a movie menace, and they must figure out that this is related to the film festival, and find out who is causing it as Atlanta faces a rather large couple of green problems by the end of the week! The real problem isn't the movie monsters: It's a kid who doesn't know he's doing it, so how do you find him and once you do, how do you stop him? The kid has incredible potential as a recurring character, whose disposition will depend entirely on how the PCs treat him. As he learns to use his powers, he could be the nastiest villain that didn't have to be if the PCs just handled things more kindly... Purpose of this scenario will be to just have some basic fighting and investigation stuff going on and get the hang of the system as a group together. SCENARIO II: What happens when overprivileged early-teens (who have never been disciplined by their parents) find out they have superpowers? They form a clique (The International House of SLAMcakes!) and go on a "shopping spree"! There's Skater Boi (who has build a rocket-powered skateboard for himself complete with armored skate-pads), MySpace (emo kid who can force people to be his friend), Cheerleader (who can augment the powers of her friends), Linebacker (jock brick who has a fearsome Move-Through from a three-point stance), Da Gangsta Thug (white suburban wanna-be gangsta, mind you, who can reflect light off of his gold teeth to... interesting effect) and Dungeon Master (whose powers are "magic spells" curiously close to D&D spells)... they rob places like video game and electronics stores, kids stuff mainly... Purpose of this scenario is to impress the importance of teamwork on the group. I want to build all of these villains on significantly less points than the PCs but make them seem much more effective due to their cooperation. SCENARIO III: The Cat Burglar will be a recurring villain. He's an impressive looking guy who robs jewelry stores, rich folk, and banks wearing a really shoddily-made cat costume. He's not very good at what he does, and will easily be captured by someone not scared of what superpowers he might have. He has none. He'll show up every few sessions as a diversion... but there's a problem. Every time the Cat Burglar is captured, it's a different guy, with a different crappily made costume, with the same MO, same corny catchphrases. They don't know each other, and in fact only have ONE connection to each other: Their dog. A two year old doberman has developed intelligence and mind-control powers (but can't talk and is pretty much otherwise just a dog). He hates cats and loves comic books. So he mind-controls his owner to make a cat costume and rob banks, just like the villains in the comics do. The money is spent on pampering the dog. Diamond-encrusted doggy pillows, gourmet meals, everything. Since villains always get caught, the dog liked the idea of people associating cats with crime, thus Cat Burglar. When the owner is caught, the dog is brought to the pound... but a mind-controlling dog has no problems getting adopted, and he picks the best looking physical specimen to be his next "owner", and the cycle begins again. Since it's almost a random selection, the new guy isn't going to have sewing or burglary skills! The idea is that it will take many appearances of Cat Burglar for the PCs to end up finding out what's happening... so what do you do with this sort of villain? SCENARIO IV: Another slow-build-during-other-adventures... what would happen if a man with no morals discovered that anything he did on a computer was not logged, tracked, detected, or traceable in any way whatsoever? The ultimate computer hacker. What if he was a classmate of one of the PCs, and becomes suspicious of their secret identities? It could be a mess. Illegal album downloads today, nuclear launch codes tomorrow! And I have an idea for another comedy adventure with a teenager who is a flying energy-blasting brick (strong enough to take on a whole superteam in a stand-up fight!)... but who erroneously believes his powers come from his Atlanta Braves baseball cap. He even calls himself Captain Cap, and has a snazzy costume... with a backwards ball cap on it. But he so strongly believes that his cap is his power source that he will lose his powers when the cap is removed! I need ideas of what this guy should do to get in conflict with the PCs and how to spin a plot that's not simply a city-wide running battle.

Re: Coming back to HERO... OK, I got a copy of Sidekick and my brand new set of 36 d6s... in a dice container! My wife thought I was so geeky, I took the dice out and rolled them until every die came up a 6 (had to properly prime them, you never know what kind of person with what kind of luck handled them at the factory!) and then put them back in the container all facing the same way. hehe. Hey, I haven't gotten a new set of dice in something like 15 or 16 years. Give me a break! The good news is at my last AD&D session I announced my intentions to the players about switching to HERO when the current campaign comes to an end. The bad news is none of them thought it was a bad idea. Eight people. Ayyyyy.... So I ordered four more Sidekicks. We're going to need them. Also got the HERO Designer v3 to help things along. I bought a pdf of the System Resource Kit and have made some awesome screens based on this. I'll post a picture once the player-side's has been fully completed. Also made a decision on maps and stuff. I have a bunch of large 1" hex-paper maps that I have NEVER USED, one of those ancient (1993 or thereabouts) "I didn't come all the way out to the game store to not buy anything" purchases. I thought they'd be perfect for the HERO setup, but... I have a better idea. Posterboard is cheap. If I just drew the maps on the posterboard and used a ruler for distances, then it could be cool. Making a game inch equal 1/2" on the map would mean I could fit some cool locations onto the posterboard... Because I'm using my old home of Atlanta as the campaign headquarters. The PCs will all be foreign students going to Georgia Tech. And Atlanta has some really cool locations to use as combat locations! Spaghetti Junction: http://www.holyducttape.com/ttr/spag-junct.jpg Five Points Station: http://www.itsmarta.com/getthere/stations/maps/North-South-level.gif (not that this really shows how cool the 3-level underground rail station really is) Not to mention places like Piedmont Park, the Georgia Dome, Lenox Mall, all the places I could sorta-kinda turn into combat maps for the game. Google Earth should at least make sure outdoor locations look reasonable on the map. So I've gone ahead and ordered some 1/2" counters for that. So, after looking over the Sidekick... While it's cool that it specifies which things are in the main rulebook but not in Sidekick, it is a shame they couldn't put at least some truncated "filler" explanation in with all that blank sidebar space available. I'll tell you right now I don't expect a single player to shell out the bucks for the big book (or even a Sidekick which is why I'm getting 5 to use!). It figures that my idea for the first "villain" needs to use a power (Summon) that isn't in here, haha. No early prep for me! Everything looks as simple, gameplay-wise, as I remember. Very straightforward. The issue that everyone talks about, combat taking awhile, only makes sense if you discount that in comic books, fights are rarely over that quickly. Getting in the habit of reading the rolls might take a bit, but I don't see how this combat system should take any longer than 8 mid-level PCs fighting a good challenge in AD&D. Character creation is going to be interesting though, and is why I really bought the Sidekicks. Nobody in the group has seen a HERO book before, and many of them had never played any RPG before joining my AD&D game. It will be... interesting. I think they will start with 150 starting points + 150 disads... and give them a bigger number of XP than normal for the first few sessions so they can customize their character as they learn the system, and when they hit 350 total give them the possibility of a "radiation accident" (GA Tech does have a reactor on campus...) if they want to do a character rewrite after playing with the system for a bit. Any experienced player see a problem with my "unhexed, with a ruler" combat map plan? Any advice for introducing the HERO character creation concept to them?

Re: Coming back to HERO... Thanks for the advice, everyone! Some followup: It will be a superhero genre game. Sorry, I still think of Hero in terms of "the latest edition of Champions"... I've ordered a copy of the Sidekick, plus a new set of 36 d6s. These are not coming slow-boat so hopefully I will have them by Christmas. System Resource Kit seems like a no-brainer but that has to wait a bit now with the way I'm able to order online... Considering the Combat Handbook, and the Hero Designer sounds like a must-purchase down the line. Is there any reason at all to buy the physical-CD instead of the download for Hero Designer? Still not sure about the number of players... I haven't run this whole HERO thing by my players yet so maybe a few will drop off once I utter the words "HERO System" and "superheroes." In the perfect world, the cool people will go "COOL!" and the less-cooler people will go "ack!", but with my luck it will be just the opposite. hehe. However many end up playing, I already have an idea for ease of play. The seating arrangement at the table will be based on their characters' Speed scores. As far as the game itself, maybe I was premature in asking for build help on the first "villain"... should wait for the books and give it a few goes myself and ask for advice based on stuff I've actually tinkered with. I am considering doing the whole "Teen Champions" thing since my villain ideas are all kids/early teens right now. How about the villainous vandal youth gang Myspace (Superpower: Can make anyone be his friend!), Skater Boi (rocket powered skateboard), Dungeon Master (powers emulate class abilities from AD&D!), and Kid Emo (shoots a force bolt whenever he flips his hair!). Been reading Rising Stars lately and the idea that superpowers are completely new and solely a youth phenomenon could make for an interesting game idea. No super-technology in the hands of the government, political pressure for law enforcement not to have special tactics for supers because the idea of "mobilizing against children" is cruel... And since all of the players are European and I'm not, I also have a background idea of having all of their characters also be Europeans while the campaign takes place in the US. (whether exchange students or whatever is to be decided) That would explain away all of the mistaken assumptions about "how things are and how they are done" without me having to go "oops you're right" all the time if we set it in Finland, and prevent me from having to tell them "no, you know that isn't the case here" constantly if they were playing Americans.

'allo! So I decided to get back into HERO. I'm a Champions player from the late 80s-early 90s (3rd and 4th editions), did not a lot of gaming at all for over ten years, and finally got back into things and I'm running an AD&D 1E game right now. That campaign should/will be wrapping up in April hopefully, and I want to do superheroes again! Treated myself for my 32nd birthday. Here's what I ordered yesterday (jumping in with both feet): HERO System 5th Ed Revised Bestiary Vehicle Sourcebook Gadgets and Gear UNTIL Superpowers Database I & II Ultimate Skill Equipment Guide Ultimate Vehicle It's being shipped to me here in Finland by M-Bag so it won't arrive until mid-March, probably. So no distractions from the current gaming activities. Now, I'm worried about a few things. Game play shouldn't be a problem. I know HERO is fiddly (I read through the current rules before leaving the States) with lots to keep track of, but I use the Weapon vs AC Value and make everyone keep strict records of encumbrance so that shouldn't be a problem. Character creation I'm expecting to be a nightmare, haha. Takes these people an hour each to make an AD&D character. A HERO character will be an all-day thing! That's kind of why I chose to buy the books I did... I was as much pre-built stuff for them to choose from as possible. I do have some questions though: I currently have 8 players in the D&D group (plus me as DM), most show up every week. I'm guessing that would be a real nightmare in HERO as far as lag during play. What do you guys find is the "sweet spot" for a number of players for smooth play? I plan to use hex maps for combat. Any good resources for generic location maps? Would investing in a Sidekick for use as a "Player reference" during actual play be a good idea? I'm already thinking of villains and plots. Most I already have general ideas for, but I have one great idea (that I fear I'm ripping something off but I can't think of what): A kid whose nightmares come alive. He doesn't know he's doing it, he doesn't control it at all, and the manifestations become real. The idea is that he's a sci-fi/horror nut, and there's a weeklong film festival happening at some tiny theater in town... Alien, Terminator, Night of the Living Dead, (some superhero movie here so the PCs can fight a "real" supervillain) with the idea that the movie to play at the end of the week is Godzilla so the PCs need to figure out what's going on fast or else there will be a rather large problem... what direction should I start looking rules-wise in to build such a character? ... and of course, any other general advice you may have for someone 15 years out of the HERO loop?