Theron

When I was playing actively, I either made cardboard heroes using online tools like Hero Machine and DTP software, or made counters using headshots from the internet or online tools, punched out of label stock and stuck to 1" wooden craft disks.

4e remains my favorite, with a few house rules.

Well, I don't see ANYTHING in the way of Skills. None. Given his complications, I would be tempted to make the "power armor" mystical in nature and not entirely understood by the wearer. So, some familiarity with the occult, some basic social skills, maybe some CSLs.

I'm playing with mine right now that I went ahead and updated my Hero Designer (it was waaaaaaay old) so I can plug in the Prefabs. I agree that the card numbers (not the numbering on the cards, but their numbers in the set) can be hard to read, depending on the background color (yellow is particularly challenging). Will let you know how it goes.

I saw the announcement over on Facebook and was just gobsmacked. Such a great guy. I'll miss him.

I'm a big fan of the Wearing the Cape series. And the new one is sort of time travel, sort of a "What if?" story. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's pretty satisfying in most ways. Folks already mentioned "Devil's Cape," it's a good one. "Black and White" and "Shades of Grey" by Caitlin Kittredge and Jackie Kessler were among my intros to superhero fiction. Actually, I just remembered I wrote this a couple of years ago. Needless to say, some books have been added to the genre since, but it's a decent overview, if I say so myself. https://theron.dreamwidth.org/31654.html

Another bit of Hero history for your enjoyment: I found four issues of the Hero Games Newsletter I got back when I had a subscription to AC. I got Jason Walters' permission to scan and make them available, so enjoy. https://myolddice.blogspot.com/2017/11/another-blast-from-past.html

Coolness. On the iPhone feed (not the iTunes), it only goes back to episode 3. As I recall, there's a setting somewhere on your end that allows people to access older material. I'd love hear this from the beginning.

Re: Delaying and Interrupting - How Do You Play It? And, for what it's worth, all of this discussion reminds me of a conversation I once saw back on Red October. Wayne Shaw had posted a lengthy set of rules questions for 4e. As was his style, he thoroughly discussed each issue, so it was a monumental string of posts. In one of them, he mentioned that there was a rule that a Martial Art had to have at least ten points of maneuvers (or something like that). Said question brought out a whole flock of folks, including Aaron Allston (who'd written Ninja Hero) expressing complete and utter ignorance of that particular rule. That was the point when I came to the conclusion that no one can completely know the Hero System. Not even Steve. It is vast. It contains multitudes. Well, maybe Steve.

Re: Delaying and Interrupting - How Do You Play It? Yes. As noted above, he did in fact win the DEX roll. Our GM has decided thusly for our table: "Your Phase starts as soon as your DEX comes up in the Segment, and at that point, your CSLs go unset and your maneuver mods disappear, regardless of whether you delay your action. However, you cannot be interrupted on your phase until you've had a chance to set your levels." So, in my case, knowing that Green Dragon was going to take a whack at me, before I could get off my intended Nerve Strike, I would have been able to put some extra CSLs into Defense before he tried to boot me in the head, but I would lose the +5 from Martial Dodge (unless I aborted to another one). Whether or not this fits the rules as written, I think it will suit our group just dandy.

Re: Delaying and Interrupting - How Do You Play It? Given what ghost-angel pointed out (which my GM also mentioned via email), this seems to put us back at square one. My DCV is stratospheric, so the bad guy delays. On my action, he uses his delay, but I haven't actually taken my action yet. So, I guess I lose the benefit of the Martial Dodge, but what about the CSLs? It just feels weird.

Re: Delaying and Interrupting - How Do You Play It? Useful and good to know. Thanks!

So, last week, I played Champions for the first time in several years (it's been even longer since I've GMed). I was playing a Martial Artist who, between Martial Dodge, base DCV, and Levels could reach an obscenely high DCV. All well and good. I was engaged with another martial artist who had a higher DEX, so I aborted to a Dodge as soon as he attacked me in the first phase (we were the same speed) and he couldn't hit me. When the next phase came up, the GM declared he was going to delay. When my action came up, we rolled off and he won the DEX roll, thus interrupting my action. But this brought up a bit of controversy at the table, namely, since he was acting before my next action, was my DCV from the Martial Dodge and levels still in place? At the time, I knew what my next move was going to be, but I hadn't actually declared it yet. The GM seemed to feel my DCV should reset before I execute my next action but this seems hinky. As it was, he rolled a 17 and missed me, but it just feels wrong. My question is, how do you (the Hero Collective) think should this have played out? To my mind, if you delay, then act before I've declared my action, then the Martial Dodge is still in play. It doesn't just go away at the beginning of my Phase, it stays in place until I execute my next action, at which point my OCV and DCV values get modified. At the very least, I should have had the opportunity to declare my action, set my skill levels before his attack goes off (or declare an abort to another Martial Dodge or a Block to keep him from doing anything useful). As my character is bound to attract more Martial Artist attention in the future, I'd appreciate any input on this.

Re: ARMED Acronym Advanced Response Metahuman Emergency Directive

Re: New Campaign Idea: "X-Men: First Class" As The Only Canon

Re: New Campaign Idea: "X-Men: First Class" As The Only Canon Yeah it does, sort of fit the movies, if you squint and don't think about it too hard. In the first movie, Magneto helped Charles build Cerebro and built his helmet to neutralize Charlie's telepathy. In First Class, the gubmint built Cerebro, based on Hank McCoy's design. But such inconsistencies are half the fun. I'll probably approach it as a monumental "What If?" exercise. Without the Avengers, Wanda and Pietro (assuming they were born) remain with their father, for instance. Colossus never leaves the USSR, which doesn't collapse due to reasons to be made up later.

So, I re-watched XMFC today. It's great fun. I love the Spy-Fi vibe to it, and the notion of mutants interacting with real-world events hits a sweet spot for me. Of course, the film has -all to do with with established X-Men continuity (comics or films), which got me thinking... A while back on RPGnet, someone proposed a Star Wars game that used only the first movie (the one released in 1977, whatever Lucas wants to call it this week) as canon. Everything else would be extrapolated or interpolated from it. Nothing from Empire or Return. Certainly nothing from the prequels or the novels. It was a neat idea and rather liberating. This afternoon, I started positing an Marvel Mutant setting wherein "First Class" is the sole canon. Anything said or implied in the movie is true. Anything else is speculation or requires additional justification to exist. At this point, it's a very raw and lumpy, undeveloped notion. But I already have some ideas to work with: 1. Mutants only. There's no mention of other types of superhuman in First Class (or any of the X-films, for that matter) and I like it that way. It's easier to play up the mutant menace when one isn't constantly trying to split hairs over what is and isn't a mutant. I could see a place for hyper-competent super-spies, but no more than one PC in the group. 2. The mutant intervention in the Cuban Missile Crisis could have some very interesting repercussions on the Cold War. 3. I would probably not set the game in the 60s. I'd rather have the Missile Crisis be the first time the public became aware of mutants and develop the history from there for a decade or so. That way, I can add in additional characters from X-history, but suitably modified to fit the new setting. 4. However, there's no reason a player couldn't pick a particular favorite X-Men character, write them up, and play them, provided their background was altered to fit the setting. Anyway, it's a nugget waiting to be refined, but I think there might be something worth polishing on. Ideas? Comments? Condemnation?

Re: Curse My Gamer ADD (aka, I Really Shouldn't Have Watched "X-Men: First Class") Lord Liaden is wise. I suspect there will be two pitches. And a vote. And beer.

Re: Curse My Gamer ADD (aka, I Really Shouldn't Have Watched "X-Men: First Class")

Re: Curse My Gamer ADD (aka, I Really Shouldn't Have Watched "X-Men: First Class")

So, I've been toying with the idea of running another Champions game, the first I've done in a couple of years. And up to last night, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing with it, taking an old city setting of my own creation that never got the use it deserved, and porting it into the existing CU. Then, I went to the movies last night and caught the new X-Men film. Which got me thinking about another one of my "orphans," a setting called "Agents of IMPACT," a somewhat grimmer, but no less fantastic world of superpowered spies and government operatives. Because "X-Men: First Class" was exactly the sort of story IMPACT was written to tell and man, that got my creative juices flowing. Problem is, I can really only choose one to pursue, due to time and my own attention span. Frustrating.

Re: How much do you customize the setting? It depends on how much time and effort I can put into planning the campaign in advance. These days, that usually amounts to "very little." As a result, for the game currently in the mulling over stages, I'm looking to largely use the CU as published for a starting point. But the great thing about the CU as published, I've realized, is that it's as much of a toolkit in its own right as the Hero System. It really didn't hit me until I started reading the new villain books and I realized that one could easily narrow the focus of a campaign to a single city or aspect (martial arts, high tech, mystical, street level) just with all the villains in those three volumes and have a thoroughly satisfying campaign. So, that's my plan. Throw out the default CU for starters, see what the players find interesting, and advance in that direction. I'll probably use my own campaign city, because a friend and I did a fair bit of work on one for an M&M game that died young, but that's pretty much the extent of my originality at the outset. EDIT: And have the campaign start in late 2008. Because there's some stuff in the timeline I'd like to inflict on my players.

Re: Idle Distraction: Super Webcomics Love and Capes

Re: Is There a Canonical List of Stronghold Escapees?

Re: Is There a Canonical List of Stronghold Escapees? This is exactly the sort of thing I'd hoped was out there. Thanks!