Darren Watts

Hero will of course be there, at booth #1926 (A double-wide endcap this time- we be *stylin'*!) Steve, Allen, Tina and I will be there, with part-time aid from Dave M when he isn't off GM-ing somewhere. We also will have the odd guest in our booth at different times: so far we've confirmed Storn Cook and Lisa Hartjes to drop by and sign, sketch and/or shmooze, and we're not done signing people up yet, so be sure to check the schedule in the booth itself for the latest. At last count there were 80-something Hero games being run over the four days, an outstanding turnout. GMs like Dave, Joe Linehan, Rod Currie, Leah Watts, Bob Pennington and Sue Grau and the entire Triple-I gang, among many others, will be working overtime to provide countless hours of Hero goodness. So be sure to drop by the booth, say hi and pick up your copy of Fantasy Hero still warm from the oven. dw

Watership Down. One of the greatest hero-quests ever told, gorgeous old-fashioned animation, and one of the greatest villains ever. "For generations to come, mothers would tell their young to behave, or the General would get them. Such was Woundwort's monument; and in truth, it might not have displeased him." dw

I've played a Mexican wrestler hero off and on for years (El Espectro). He's built with gobs of maneuvers, low defenses but high damage reduction, a "Detect Supernatural" sense built into his mask (which he inherited from his father and allows him to track down the various werewolves, zombies and mummies that are constantly plaguing Mexico), and a "Heat" mechanic- he has an Aid to various stats that only kicks in when people are rooting hard for him. dw

Austen's right- everybody has their own boundaries. For me, the Golden Age begins with Action #1, even though superheroes like Dr. Occult predate Superman. It ends with the conversion of All-Star Comics from a superhero title to a Western in 1951. There's a brief interregnum, then the Silver Age begins with Showcase #4 (featuring the first appearance of Barry Allen as the Flash, first of DC revamped hero lineup) in 1956, and runs to either Speedy taking heroin in 1971 or Gwen Stacy dying in 1973, depending on my mood that day. The Bronze Age picks up immediately after that and runs until the releases of Dark Knight and Watchmen in 1985-86. That heralds the Iron Age, which we're still in. I'm sure almost nobody will agree with me on each specific, but when I use those terms that's what I'm referring to. Everybody draws their own lines. dw

Well, in that both are drawing more or less on the same source material, they have some similarities. Both Viper and Hydra draw from such literary sources as SPECTRE, and before them the Si Fan and the Black Arrow Society, and the exagerrated exploits of historical organizations like SMERSH, the KGB, NKVD and GRU, and the Ku Klux Klan. Likewise, UNTIL and SHIELD draw from MI-6, UNCLE, UNIT, the popular perception of Interpol, and any number of other literary predecessors. (There. That should give you young-un's an afternoon of entertaining Google-ing.) dw

Guilty as charged. I love ol' Lettuce Lips, especially the '70s Defenders version. dw

Several excellent quotes from Derek's traditional "Challenge of the Superfriends" at Kubla Con last Saturday night (and if you weren't there, you must be a commie pinko subversive or something.) 1) The nefarious Legion of Doom developed a ray to steal the Superfriends' powers. This was symbolized in Batman's case by his utility belt unlatching and flying away by itself, which led to several belt-related gags. My personal favorite was, "Perhaps you could develop some utility suspenders?" 2) Mighty Dan Reiley, as usual playing Gorilla Grodd, was watching his teammates in the LoD take a beating. When Derek asked what he was doing next, he replied, "Thinking about quitting and forming my own villain team." A discussion of him recruiting various other super-powered monkeys (like Titano, Mallah, and maybe even Mojo Jojo) into a fiendish team ensued, with various suggestions for names ("How about the Gorilla League of Wickedness? Or P.R.I.M.A.T.E.?") Derek himself topped everybody, though, when he smirked and said, "No, I've got it- the Apes of Wrath!" Said team was immediately voted into the Champions Universe and will probably be appearing in a Digital Hero article soon. dw

Hee hee! That's one of my favorite issues ever. "It's Tenzil For The Defense! " "This tastes like week-old crank-case oil. Is it too much to ask for some *fresh* crank-case oil?" And the archaeologists digging up the Batcave? "This giant playing card only proves my theory that Twentieth Century humans must have been enormous!" Sigh. That series reboot had such potential, frittered away in confusion and editorial infighting. What a waste. dw

Ladies and gentlemen, our new champion: Chris:"Wait a minute. We only need to return one of these creatures (note: horrible venomous alien land-squids that the party's been knocking itself out to capture, at great risk) alive to get paid, right? So we could keep the other, as a pet?" Terry: "I want to name it... Milo." Runner-up: Chris: "Wait. Is this a *fighting* conversation?" Though the actual funniest thing in the game last night was probably Terry silently turning off his comm link while I was in mid-rant. dw

Pretty close, SCUBA me boy, but not quite. The date we give is release *from* the printers; in other words, the day the book comes off the final presses (which are the ones that put the covers on, actually), gets boxed up, and leaves either Ohio or Berkeley depending on which of our main printers we're talking about. That in fact is the last day we have any control over, or frankly any information about. After that it's on a truck from printer to distributor, then sitting in a distro warehouse waiting to be processed, then repacked along with a bunch of other books, then on a truck from distro to store, where it hopefully finds its way to a shelf quickly. That process can take a week to ten days, and that's even if your store remembered to put in an order in advance. If they don't order until somebody bugs them about it, they may have to wait even longer, especially if the distro ran out and needs to get more from us... dw

Re: while we're talking about them... One of my regular PCs is the Princess of Atlantis- Mara, the Sea Hawk. You'll probably see more of her in an upcoming Hero product someday (and at least a small part of her story will be tied to the founding of UNTIL.) She was the heir apparent to the crown when her dad the King was assassinated by the general of his army, who opposed his plans to make peace with the surface world, and she fled rather than become his concubine. She eventually made her way to the Eastern Seaboard of the US, where she wound up helping some of the local superheroes fend off the Martian Invasion of 1939 and became a founding member of the Defenders of Justice. She re-took the throne in 1944 (and broke Atlantis' ties with the Axis, making the Atlantic safe for shipping again), married and divorced a surface dweller, married another prince (who died tragically) and had two kids, Marus of the Sentinels and the villainous Stingray, and still rules Atlantis to this day. Out of the water she was basically a minor-league brick with limited flight and a trident forged from pure oricalchum.

Actually, we're proud to announce that USPD left the printers on its way to stores *today*, and as a matter of fact I'm holding one in my hand right now. This is a gorgeous book, gang, and it will really open your eyes about the true power of the Hero System, even if you're an old grognard like me. dw

We used to joke that the battle-cry of the Defenders of Justice was, "Bulletproof, wait!!!" 'Cause, y'know, Jason had "Impulsive" and "Overconfident" as Psych Lims. Well, we thought it was funny. Many other adventures and encounters began, "Bulletproof, don't touch that!" The other running gag he had was that if the scenario involved any sort of unusual vehicle or mode of transportation, Bulletproof would end up driving/riding/flying it and crashing it before the adventure was through. Didn't matter what it was; zeppelin, submarine, spacecraft, camel- he crashed them all and almost always walked away unscathed. They'd usually burst into flames, too, like vehicles on the Simpsons. We were never sure why the camel blew up... dw

Well, after some debate, the winner of last night's Quote of the Week was actually me: "I don't know if this is going to be a deal breaker, but we *are* going to require that you wear pants." (Said to Jason's Mondabi character, who for various reasons had been running around naked for quite some time.) This narrowly beat out Chris's entry: Upon being asked for an opinion on what we should name our spaceship, he replied, "Something historical. How about 'Bismarck?' " dw

We'll do something with these pictures. As yet, we haven't figured out what. We'll let you know, we promise. dw

This week's award goes to Chris, for: "In my experience, Neanderthals *always* attack aliens." This replaces the previous title-holder, from Jason: "I made my INT roll, and I've decided to do it anyway." dw

Well, just the two. The core members were listed in CKC, but since their HQ is in Millennium City, some additional members are listed there, as well as expanded plot devices and a handful of rivals and supporting characters. dw

I remember an LoC from a Marvel comic of my youth to this day : "I have a no-prize-worthy explanation for [whatever the continuity error under discussion was], but it involves a town full of Dire Wraiths and probably more subtle continuity than can be reasonably expected." So that's my answer for every error you might find. dw

Well, looking back at my notes, the cosmic being involved was called Entropy. However, the time screwups were not his direct fault, since it was all part of a plan by the Master (of Dr. Who fame) to steal both his powers and those of the Gallifreyan Time Lords (especially from the Tomb of Rassilon.) Like I said, far too many copyright infractions to carry over into an official Hero product. Maybe someday I'll rewrite it. dw

Yay Steve Englehart Justice Leagues! Not to date myself or anything, but those were the first comics I actually enjoyed and kept as a kid. The first Manhunters storyline was one of DC's all-time high points. dw

If any of you guys owned a game company, you'd put your own PCs in the official universe too. dw

Yeah, it's just a gag. I stuck it in primarily as a tribute to my own home campaign, which ran a multi-session epic we called the "Secret Crisis" and allowed the players to bring in as temporary PCs a large number of their favorite characters from TV, movies and books for a session or two. The actual list of characters who appeared in the adventure that we would have no prayer of actually including in a book anywhere included Kwai Chang Caine, the Lone Ranger, Dr. Who, Godzilla, El Santo, a Vampire Slayer, and the various superpowered members of KISS. As you can see, it's pretty unlikely any such scenario will ever get written up in an official Hero publication. So feel free to define it for yourselves! dw

One of our longest-running epics in my home campaign involved an alternate Earth that had developed interdimensional travel and used it to conquer eight other earths (each with different histories; one was ruled by an Aztec Empire, another by a Communist US, etc.) and was now aiming at our own. The bad guys began by infiltrating our earth and learning all they could about how our history came out ("John Kennedy was President here, but Joe and Bobby weren't, hmm? Fascinating...") After visiting several of the alternate earths, our heroes eventually smashed the only functional transport device on Earth-Alpha, and their own government collapsed. Not before a villain from our Earth had gotten a look at how it worked, of course... dw

Origins is actually run by GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association., and the Origins awards by the Academy of Adventure Games Arts and Design (AAGAD.) WOTC is not involved with either. dw

One of my personal characters (and now a member of the Sentinels in the Champions Universe) is Beowulf, the actual monster-slayer and King of the Geats, who shares his existence with a somewhat nerdy college student who read the wrong mystical runes one day. He has a nasty sword, "the hand-grip of forty men" and gobs of combat maneuvers and general toughness. I usually play him somewhat for laughs, and took much of his personality from the Thor that appeared in the Incredible Hulk movie. He's fascinated by things like showers ("Hot water that pours down from an opening in the wall! Truly this is an age of miracles!"), and uses his knife to slice the tops off entire six-packs of "this weak ale you call Coors." dw