Darren Watts

Re: Origins Award Voting Now Open! Battlegrounds is nominated for "Best Role-Playing Adventure," which alas is not one of the categories open to the voting public. dw

Hey all! Thought I'd throw this out to the combined brainpower of Herodom Assembled. I'm working on a villain who can change the size of inanimate objects as her primary power. She primarily uses it to shrink down a bunch of useful items (like rocket launchers and jetcars) to carry in her pockets, but I'm looking for other cool incidental applications of the same concept she can whip out to surprise the PCs. (The base power is a pretty sizable Transform, which heals back rapidly.) I've already got an Entangle based on shrinking a target's clothes or uniform, binding them up, and a couple of other similar nuisance attacks. What can you guys give me? Many thanks in advance- if I use your power you'll be credited, of course. dw

Re: Campaign idea: Kirby's Fourth World homage The forthcoming Champions: Hidden Lands supplement, due in early '05, will feature the Empyreans and Lemurians (among others), who are our little tribute to the New Gods and the Eternals. Last year I ran a few preliminary sessions of it with our group, a pre-Galactic Champions intro to playing 1,000-point characters, and a ball was apparently had by all. dw

Re: CU: Atlantis Stingray's a very tough Atlantean. Typical Atlanteans have a STR of 20-25. However, with so much magic in their veins, individuals vary widely and there are certainly at least a couple even stronger than her. dw

Re: Why does Nighthawk always get depicted getting the crap kicked out of him? Actually, the character was playtested by a wonderful player and good friend of mine, Chris Galatti, who despite his many skills as a player could never quite get his head around playing a dark vigilante of the night. Just wasn't in his nature, I guess. So Nighthawk in playtest tended to be very straightforward and not at all sneaky. We did an early adventure where a reporter had disappeared, and the heroes knew he had some evidence in his apartment. We expected Nighthawk to sneak over, break into his apartment and take the relevant computer disks, etc. That never occurred to Chris, so he marched up to the front door of the apartment building, in the middle of the night, and demanded to be let in. The angry, cigar-smoking superintendent in his stained t-shirt of course refused, and the two had an argument through the closed door, with Nighthawk getting more and more outraged. Finally, Chris snaps, and shouts at the super, "You're going on my list!" When we stopped laughing, we decreed that from then on Nighthawk carried his "Enemies List" in his utility belt and added to it whenever somebody ticked him off. We used that list as a joke for weeks, and it never got less funny. Bad guys stole the list. Somebody (in a nod to the Simpsons) replaced it with Nixon's list ("Ginsburg, Dean, Fonda... what the hell?") One time, when Nighthawk was sneaking around inside a Viper nest, he tried to knock down a door and utterly blew his roll- all ones for damage. He hit the door hard, stopped, said "Oww!" and crumpled to the ground. When he got up, he reached for his list and wrote, "Door." Put the list away, stopped, took it out again and added, "Guy who built door." We didn't stop laughing for twenty minutes. On the other hand, I don't recall Nighthawk ever losing a fight in playtest. He's really heinously good with that baton. He also beat a couple of Viper agents with a fish at one point, IIRC, but that's a different story. dw

We're happy to announce that Champions Battlegrounds has been nominated for an Origins Award for "Best RPG Adventure." Congrats to all involved, especially Allen, Jason, Derek, Andy, Keith, Chris, Nate, Storn, Bob, Scott, Eric and Greg. Hopefully this is only the first of many for us. Alas, Fantasy Hero, Digital Hero and Hero Designer did not make it to the final round in their respective categories. All wuz in fact robbed. dw

Hey gang! Just making official what a few of you have already heard- 5th Edition Revised has been moved up in the schedule from early '05 to October '04. The main reason for the move is this- we're out of 5th Editions yet again (hurray for us!) We looked at ordering up yet another reprint of the original 5th, but we were concerned that getting the minimum order size from the printer might leave distributors (and us) with a lot of extra stock on hand when 5ER did come out, especially if sales of the current book slowed as expected once the marketing push for the new book began. So instead, we've decided not to reprint the "old 5th" again, and moved the "new 5th" up as far as we could reasonably manage it. Now, just because we're out of copies in the office (actually, we've still got a few damaged copies left for you bargain-hunters) doesn't mean there are none to be found anywhere. Most of our regular distributors have plenty on hand to carry them into the summer, so if we've planned this correctly it should start getting scarce right around the time the 5ER push starts in July and August. As for 5ER itself, hopefully most of you have heard what it is and isn't by now, but here's the quick and dirty version: it's *not* a new edition, there are no rules changes or compatibility issues, and we're not just trotting out another version because we're heartless money-grubbers. What it *is* is the 5th Edition you know and love, minus the annoying typos and errata, with a few cleanups on layout, charts, tables, and art to make it generally more attractive and easy-to-use. It will also include some additional information, most notably the "Hero System Genre-By-Genre" essay found elsewhere on this site and probably a few more items that we'll decide on once Steve gets through Dark Champions and can really concentrate on this one. As of today, we've removed the undamaged 5th Edition from the store. Hope that answers everybody's questions! dw

Re: New Book: The Algernon Files Where's our freebies, dammit?!? dw

Re: GMB Hard to find in my area. Ah, well. The problem here is Barnes & Noble, which does not in fact carry any Hero product. Primarily this is because, as discussed elsewhere, they insist on buying product on a returnable basis without giving up any of their discount rate, sales terms which we and pretty much every other medium-sized and smaller game company finds unmanageable. Most B&N or Borders stores will special order from us if you're lucky enough to find a clerk willing to take the time. Otherwise, if there's no actual game/comic/hobby shop near you, you're probably better off ordering directly from us or one of the many fine online retailers, or Amazon.

Re: GMB Hard to find in my area. A quick note- 5th Edition is not in fact out of print or even out of stock. We've still got a few left ourselves, and pretty much every distributor in the country carries it. If anybody is having difficulty finding it, please direct them to us. Thanks! dw

Re: RPG.net The irony here beggars the imagination.

Printer's finishing it up right now (there was a little tangle in the bluelines which Andy caught and fixed but cost us a couple of days), so it should ship to distribution early next week- Monday or Tuesday. dw

Not sure why you're collecting these, Jm, but I feel I should point out that the Champs Universe does have a modern archer as well (Straight Arrow) who will probably get a writeup somewhere, and two Scarlet Archers (the one in DH #17 is from the Silver Age, and he has a GA counterpart with the same name but less shtick (considerably fewer trick arrows.) dw

Derek and I are apparently on the same GURPS wavelength here, which isn't really much of a surprise. I'd replace Religion, which is good, with Cliffhangers, which is better. Anybody interested in the art and science of GM-ing should own these ten books. Each will do a part in making you better. dw

Have to admit, I kind of like "ReFred." dw

Yikes, more questions! OK, lessee: 1) The final decision will be up to Steve, but I'm pretty sure there will be a playtest posting, and I'm also pretty sure the period will be fairly short. My home group's already had a whack at much of it. 2) Chapter Breakdown should go something like this once it's done. Chapter One will be a comparitively brisk discussion about high-powered characters from a player and GM viewpoint, as well as an overview of types of cosmic-level and super-scifi campaigns (including options for modern-day versions, a la Green Lantern.) Chapter Two is the basic setting, catching up non-Star Hero fans on the history of the universe from 2020 to 3000, and summarizing the aliens and tech available in the setting. Chapter Three is the Champions (eight 600-point supers) and their allies. Chapter Four is the Bad Guys, also including neutrals like the Sword of Ackal (a rival hero team) and a handful of familiar faces as well as a pile of nasty new baddies. Chapter Five is the GM Vault, with secret info, plot seeds and mini-campaigns and discussions of using the book in other settings. Chapter Six is a master glossary for those unfamiliar with the Hero Universe setting so they can keep all the aliens straight. 3)Bob, you got one on the nose. Good reading. 4) Malvan Ultradreadnaughts, you say? dw

Have you seen the Mayfair DC-RPG adventure module featuring Ambush Bug called "Don't Ask", in which he figures out he's in a game and "escapes" into the real world by possessing the GM? There's a "special encounter" that can only be gotten to by leaving the game and re-entering, as well as a trip to Limbo (and a comic book shop run by relatives of the Spectre and Deadman), and a trap that can only be escaped by successfully figuring out how to build a time-travel device using the game's own insanely-complicated gadget rules. Bar none, the single funniest gaming product I've ever read. I've run it twice myself to great effect. dw

Re: Galactic Champions 1) Well, I'm not late yet. It's currently scheduled for April (I know, we need to update the listing here) and I don't see it missing that by much if it all. As always, we'll keep everybody informed. Alas, the only reason it would be delayed at all is the amount of administrative time I've had to spend over the last couple of months with one thing and another. I've been working nights and weekends to keep it on track, and it shouldn't be much longer now. 2) Nothing from Star Hero will be *required*, as there will be brief summaries of the history, tech and alien races in the book. However, Terran Empire and to a lesser extent Alien Wars will be recommended, so that GMs can get a handle on the full richness of the setting. 3) The Champions themselves are eight representative 600-point characters. There are supporting heroes of both higher and lower costs. Also, there are a couple dozen or so bad guys, between 500 and a godawful number of points. dw

Originally posted by Lord Liaden BTW Darren, have you and Steve decided when and where we're likely to get more information about the CU's other main gaggle of evil mystics, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon? The Ultimate Mystic, The Mystic World, Vibora Bay? Maybe Digital Hero? Dunno yet, though if I had to bet I'd guess Mystic World. While Vibora Bay has lots of magic in it, it's pretty site-specific and will actually have a fair amount of mundane information and characters, and Ultimate Mystic probably isn't the place for deep analysis of a CU-setting character. MW will probably reveal more about the CSM, the Trismegistus gang, and specific mystics like Eldritch and Dweomer. I'm also curious about the Ouroboros cult that Dean Shomshak introduced in The Ultimate Super Mage. Their resident supervillain team, the Chosen of Abraxas, were written up in DH - will Ouroboros be an official part of the Champions Universe? Also too soon to tell, as none of this has been written anywhere but notes yet. I'd guess yes, but that'll primarily be up to Dean and Steve. dw

$30 for 640 pages a year, plus playtest access is too expensive? We're sorry you feel that way- obviously, we disagree. We do plan to issue collections of material from DH, mixed in with new stuff, eventually, as printed books, but it will probably take another year or two before we have enough stuff. If people knew that books would eventually come out in reduced-price collections or be offered free, they probably wouldn't buy them up front, right? I'm not sure that would do much for our circulation, or justify an even-further-reduced price... dw

I think that'll be me, later this year. Sometime this spring I plan to start inflicting the group on my playtesters to try out some new twists. I'll probably start a "What You Want to See" thread around the same time. dw

As I remarked in my response to the review, I'm unconcerned with Almafeta's actual review, as his/her utter looniness has been an uncontested fact for several years. I *am* severely disappointed in RPG.Net's choice to print a review so full of personal attacks and factual errors, coming from somebody who's bias is worn so openly. The lack of any sort of editorial responsibility (combined with the utter disregard for threadcrapping and other violations of netiquette by the small handful of Hero-haters, which makes any sort of discussion of our games an ordeal, and the great difficulty we've had getting reviews of any sort of our products on RPG.Net despite all the free review copies we send them) has caused the site to cross over the line to complete valuelessness. Which is a disappointment, because for a while they provided a valuable service to the gaming community. dw

Good Nazi villains tend to come in two types- "good soldiers," who support the ideology and believe their leaders are in fact wiser and more suited to rule then they themselves (usually these guys make up the cores of Nazi teams, like Ubermensch or Grosshorn Eule from DC or Agent Axis from Marvel), and mastermind-types who may temporarily be working for Hitler but intend to overthrow him themselves eventually. (Red Skull, Baron Zemo, Captain Nazi and Baron Blitzkrieg all fall into the latter camp. ) Which is not to say there isn't room for other villain types- Sea Wolf was a murderous psychopath who would have worked for anyone who gave him freedom to raise havoc, and Gudra the Valkyrie was both a German patriot and under orders from Wotan. And yeah, there weren't many costumed villains on the Axis side in GA comics. Frankly, readers didn't want to see the enemy have a neat costume or remarkable powers, and they certainly didn't want to see them succeed at anything, so the enemies were rarely credible threats. Captain Nazi from Fawcett was a rare exception, being nearly as powerful as Captain Marvel himself, and the Red Skull was a crafty, sneaky assassin in his GA appearances who frequently escaped Cap's clutches (and always had recordings of Chopin playing while committing baffling murders, an effectively creepy touch out of the pulps.) dw

Our home GA campaign, which is serving in many ways as the basis for the CU setting, included dozens of Japanese characters with a wide range of motivations, from the irredeemably evil Iron Father, through the faithful but kind-of-dim Brothers Murasashi, to the noble but misguided Tasho. Most of those will show up in Golden Age Champions, soon to be seen on a publishing schedule near you! dw

I made a pretty thorough listing of Hero-related events at DDC in the Conventions board. Anybody planning to run stuff in Open Gaming should make a point of checking in with us at the booth, where we will keep a list of GMs and the times they're running over there. dw