Darren Watts

Re: Champions Live Action coming down to the wire! Right! I wanted to do this now specifically to avoid the "well, I didn't hear about it in time" replies, as well as the "I thought it was something different than it was" answers. There's still six days, guys! dw

Okay guys, six days left and still a decent size chunk of money needed to make this project happen! Obviously, I'm a believer in the book- it's a new version of the Hero System rules designed for simpler and faster play, it potentially appeals to a completely new market segment that doesn't usually play much tabletop gaming and might help expand both audiences, and it's a completely new-to-Hero cheaper and smaller physical format. So, rather than wait until it's over, I'd really appreciate it if people who have looked it over and decided not to support us would chime in and let us know why, so I can try to address concerns or misapprehensions about the book. I know there's a lot of you out there- what's keeping you away? Thanks in advance! dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! Hey guys! Just ten+ days left and still about $3700 short of the goal! Please consider pledging something to help support third-party publishers continuing to do Hero-related projects going forward! dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! Alas, since the people involved are all in different states, doing the signed copies involves several more shipments. Let me see if there's a way I can lower that category a bit... dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! Hey everybody! We're over $4k- help us get this project to the finish line! Thanks! dw

Re: Darren's Golden Age Sneak Preview #3: Ghost Cabbie! That's our girl, all right. Now picture it full of superheroes, with Bulletproof on the outside hanging on to the running board. dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! Thanks Dread! I understand that the $25 is everywhere outside the US, and includes sufficient packaging to pretty much guarantee undamaged arrival. And I'm not an admin on the site any more, so I can't stickify things myself any more. Can any admin-types reading this do a guy a solid? dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! I greatly appreciate this early show of support! It looks pretty good so far, so thanks to all who've pledged already! dw

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press!

Hey all! I'm pleased as punch to announce that my very first Kickstarter project, Champions Live Action, is up and running! Woot! It's a brand new rules set, derived from the Hero System we all know and love but modified for speed and ease of use away from the table. Instead of using dice it uses a "Power Check Device", our fancy name for a stopwatch or any other gadget that can keep time to the hundredths of a second. Turning it on and off rapidly results in a basically random number for the hundredths digit, which is added to a combat value and compared to that of an opponent. It's amazingly fast and easy in use- I've seen it handle combats involving dozens of players simultaneously in only a few minutes. It was originally designed by the talented kids at Echoes of Empires: David Christoph, Ben Walker, Jocelyn Fulljames and Steve Tasker. There's only a small amount of new setting material inside- mostly it's new versions of the tried and true sample heroes and villains of the Champs Universe and a basic guide to the high points of the setting, like Millennium City. If it's a hit, we hope to put out both supplemental adventure books for Champions as well as additional genre books using the Powercheck rules set, for fantasy, horror, pulp, or sci-fi as LARPs as well. With any luck, this title will introduce both a bunch of new LARP players to the world of Champions, and conversely some tabletop players to the wide world of LARP as well. Those of you who've been asking for an alternative form of introducing new players to Hero might want to check this out as well- we think the simplified rules we're using here, while obviously nowhere near as complete and all-encompassing as the real Hero System, will hopefully make a nice introduction to the basic concepts. The rules are complete, and the actual manuscript partly so already. We're asking for pledges totaling $9,000, which will cover hiring our own Ebil Bunneh Man to handle the layout, several of our Heroic stable of awesome artists to add some new illustrations, and then printing and shipping the actual books. At the $10 level we'll thank you in the book and on site as a contributor; at $20 you get a PDF of the book; at $45 you get the book, PDF and a Powercheck stopwatch of your very own! In addition, for $200 we'll put a character you can name and (briefly!) describe in the book as an example build (only 5 of these available), and hey, for $2500 the design team will come out to your location and put on a game for you. Whatta bahgain! Any questions? Put 'em here and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks again for your support, gang! dw http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1832603818/champions-live-action

Re: Darren's Golden Age Sneak Preview #3: Ghost Cabbie! Most of my games begin well before the war and spend a fair amount of time dealing with mobsters and low-level theme villains before scaling up, so I've found that 300 points in 6th (I used 250 in 5th) is a good beginner level, with fairly generous xp given out in the early days as players figure out who their characters are. 60 in Complications is usually about right too. dw

OK, well, Sneak Preview #2 didn't get much in the way of attention or feedback, so maybe we need something a little... different. Ghost Cabbie was originally the creation of Riley McLaughlin, one of my favorite people to roleplay with ever, and who is also responsible for characters like Proteus of the Sentinels and Optimus, whose post-costume life was detailed in UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom. I quickly co-opted him as a NPC in the long-running DOJ GA campaign in San Francisco, and he's turned up in a number of my games since then. [cs] GHOST CAB Val Char Cost Roll Notes 35 STR 25 16- Lift 3200 kg; 7d6 HTH damage [3] 16 DEX 12 12- 10 CON 0 11- 10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 11- 10 EGO 0 11- 10 PRE 0 11- PRE Attack: 2d6 5 OCV 10 5 DCV 30 3 OMCV 0 3 DMCV 0 4 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 7 PD 18 Total: 7 PD (7 rPD) 7 ED 18 Total: 7 ED (7 rED) 4 REC 0 60 END 8 15 BODY 5 - STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 146 Movement: Running: 60m/240m Swimming: 12m/24m Cost Powers END 53 Eight Cylinders: Running +48m, x4 Noncombat [3] 10 Drive Up Walls: Clinging 67 Ghost Form: Desolidification (not vs. Magic), UBN (Only Those Inside It, +1), Reduced END (Half END cost, +1/4); Takes Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2) [4] 20 Sealed Up Tight: Life Support: Self-Contained Breathing, UBN (Only Those Inside It, +1) 45 Car Body: Takes No Stun 15 Car Body: Does Not Bleed 4 Car Body: Knockback Resistance -4m 25 Car Body: Life Support: Does Not Eat, Does Not Sleep, All Safe Enviros, Immune to Disease and Poison 10 Radio: Radio Perception/Transmission 4 Submarine Mode: Swimming +8m 30 Car Powers: Multipower (30 pts.) 3f 1) Cloud Of Smoke: Change Environment (-5 to all Sight PER rolls, Area Of Effect (32m Radius +1)) 3 3f 2) Oil Slick: Change Environment (-5 to DEX Rolls to move on, Area Of Effect (Surface 16m radius +1) 3 1f 3) Oil Spray: Sight Group Flash 6d6; No Range (-1/2), Not Vs. Desolid (-1/4), 8 charges (-1/2) 3 Perks 35 Follower: Ghost Cabbie (175 pts.) Talents 3 Absolute Time Sense 3 Bump Of Direction 41 Danger Sense 15- (Sense, Any Type, General Area) 25 Universal Translator 16- Skills 3 Acrobatics 12- 3 Concealment 11- 5 CK: New York City 14- 5 Navigation (Land) 12- 3 Shadowing 11- 3 Stealth 12- Total Powers & Skills Cost: 419 Total Cost: 565 400 Matching Complications (75) 15 Distinctive Features (NY Cab, Not Concealable, Noticed) 10 Hunted: General Blut (As Pow, Infreq.) 30 Physical Complication: Is A Car (Oversized, No Hands, Etc.) (All The Time, Greatly) 20 Psychological Complication: Loves Ghost Cabbie (VC, Tot) Total Complications Points: 75 Experience Points: 90 [cs]GHOST CABBIE Val Char Cost Roll Notes 13 STR 3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2-1/2d6 HTH damage [1] 13 DEX 6 12- 15 CON 5 12- 10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 11- 15 EGO 5 12- 10 PRE 0 11- PRE Attack: 2d6 5 OCV 10 4 DCV 5 3 OMCV 0 5 DMCV 6 4 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 7 PD 5 Total: 10 PD (3 rPD) 4 ED 2 Total: 7 ED (3 rED) 6 REC 2 30 END 2 10 BODY 0 28 STUN 4 Total Characteristics Cost: 75 Movement: Running: 12m/24m Cost Powers END 5 Unfazeable: +10 PRE, Only to defend against PRE Attacks (-1) 10 Right Place At The Right Time: 2d6 Luck Perks 10 Contact: Various Useful in Streets of New York City Talents 6 Combat Luck (3 PD/ 3 ED) 3 Lightsleep Skills 8 +1 Level with All HTH Combat 3 Bribery 11- 3 Bureaucratics 11- 7 CK: New York City 16- 11 Combat Driving 16- 3 Concealment 11- 3 Conversation 11- 6 Gambling (Cards, Dice, Sports) 11- 2 KS: New York Underworld 11- 2 KS: New York Politics 11- 5 Mechanics 12- 2 Navigation (Land) 12- (-1/2 Only When Driving) 3 Paramedics 11- 3 PS: Cabbie 12- 2 Shadowing 11- (-1/2 Only When Driving) 3 Streetwise 11- 0 TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles Total Powers & Skills Cost: 100 Total Cost: 175 175 Matching Complications (50) 10 Hunted: General Blut (As Pow, Infreq.) 15 Psychological Complication: Cabbie’s Code Of Honor (Com, Str) 15 Psychological Complication: Loves the Streets and Inhabitants of New York City (Com, Str) 10 Unluck 2d6 Total Complications Points: 50 Experience Points: 0 Background/History: Bennie Meyer was a cabbie on the streets of New York City, a genuine “character” who knew everybody, every street, and every out-of-the-way dive from the Bronx to the Battery. He called his cab “Comet,” and he lavished care on it every day, washing it regularly and tinkering with the engine well into the night. One day in the summer of 1938, Bennie accidentally witnessed a mob hit by Vincent “Mad Dog” Fratianno of the Buoniconte family, and was called to testify in the ensuing trial. Fratianno decided to rid himself of the troublesome cabbie, and had a bomb wired to Comet’s ignition one night while it sat in Bennie’s garage. What happened next is a matter of some considerable speculation. According to Bennie, Comet was such a good car and their love for each other so strong, that when Bennie was approaching the cab unawares the next morning Comet somehow set off the bomb itself early, exploding into a fireball before his eyes. Bennie, heartbroken, took the wreckage to a junkyard and testified against Fratianno that very day while choking back tears. Fratianno was sentenced to the chair. After a sleepless night, a bleary-eyed Bennie walked all the way down to his garage the next morning before remembering that Comet wouldn’t be there. To his astonishment, he saw his beloved car sitting right there, good as new! Apparently, the relationship between car and driver was so strong that Comet had returned to “life,” except now with some new features and abilities it had never shown before, including a rather forceful “personality” and a devotion to doing good and helping the unfortunate. Of course, Bennie insists Comet (now considerably better known as “Ghost Cab”) always had personality- “she just couldn’t show it so well before.” Of course, some of the more rational members of the Defenders (who have come to know Bennie and Ghost Cab quite well) insist that Bennie’s story is absolutely ridiculous; as Meteor Man says, “I refuse to believe in an afterlife for inanimate objects!” Perhaps Bennie himself is the superpowered one, with psychic abilities that have simply manifested in an unusual way. Whatever the real story might be, no one can deny that the streets are much safer with Ghost Cabbie out on patrol. And plenty of people, superheroes and normal Janes and Joes alike, have discovered that when they really need to get somewhere, somehow a dark green cab with a smiling, portly driver appears on the corner ready to pick up a fare, no matter the destination. Personality/Motivation: Bennie, himself now better known as “Ghost Cabbie,” has always had a pretty open mind about the supernatural, and now that he has a chance to help people out he’s thrown himself into the job with gusto. He’s not a superhero by any stretch, but he considers his knack for helping to get the right people to the right place at the right time to be an almost sacred calling. Though Ghost Cab does not itself speak, it clearly understands pretty much all spoken languages, answering questions with horn honks and blinking headlights that Bennie at least has no difficulty interpreting. Quote: “Hang on a minnit- this story is giving me a pain in the head-bone.” Powers/Tactics: Bennie Meyer is just a typical two-fisted New York cabbie, perfectly capable of mixing it up with the odd mobster once his dander is up. Ghost Cab, who’s been built as a character instead of a vehicle because of its undeniable intelligence and drive, has the typical powers of a 1932 Ford Model B as well as some unusual abilities, such as being able to drive up walls or straight through them with no harm to its passengers, seal itself off for underwater trips (once even keeping several heroes alive after being shot into space!), or help out in a fight with well-placed oilsprays and suddenly-opening doors. Campaign Use: Ghost Cabbie is a fun bit of comic relief when a campaign has gotten too serious, as well as a plot device par excellence when a GM finds herself stumped for a way to get heroes from scene to scene. Despite regularly being played for incredulous laughs, Ghost Cabbie’s a genuine hero through and through and always should be played with a straight face. After The War: Ghost Cabbie continued to protect the streets of New York into the early 1950s, when both Bennie and the cab mysteriously disappeared. They returned briefly in 1992 strangely changed, as Bennie now had a Mohawk, dark sunglasses and a trenchcoat with an unreasonable number of pouches, and Comet was a Corvette with a hood-mounted flamethrower. They never explained what had happened to them in the preceding decades, and everybody was quite relieved when they disappeared again shortly thereafter. Appearance: Ghost Cabbie is a dark green 1932 Ford Model B four-door sedan with black fenders and a spare tire mounted on the driver’s side of the chassis. Bennie Meyer is a slightly overweight male in his forties, balding, and frequently wears a black vest over a white shirt and dark slacks and a tweed flat cap.

Hey all! This is a blatant attempt to start getting the word out about my new company, Silverback Press, and our first new product: Champions Live, the superheroic LARP! Using a new rule system called Powercheck that leans heavily on the original Hero System but modifies it for quick and easy LARP play and away-from-the-table resolutions, Champions Live presents a brand new way to play the characters you've known and loved from either the tabletop or MMO videogame. The book will be complete in one volume with rules, LARPing advice and a basic overview of the Champions setting, probably six by nine and retailing at about $25. The Kickstarter for this should go live in a couple of weeks, with an eye to having the book out in time for Gencon - I'm guessing to pay for editing, layout, art and printing we'll be looking to raise about $9k. More details will come out over the next ten days or so, but I hope you'll all let your friends know this is on the way and help me build up some excitement in the Hero family! Also, look for Silverback Press' website going live shortly as well! Thanks as always for your support, guys! dw

Re: Congrats to Star Hero for making the Origins Award short list! Annnd we didn't make the final five. Oh well- the retailer portion of nomination is always toughest. Still, congrats to all for making the short list! dw

Pretty much that, yeah. Doesn't mean we're nominated yet, but we made the "top ten or so" list submitted at GTS for the retailer panel to pick nominees from. Fingers crossed! dw

Re: Darren's GAC Sneak Peeks #2: The Brawler Two of my three long-term GA games started in 1938 (since that's when Superman debuts.) I like have plenty of time before I really have to worry about the war interfering in my early heroics. dw

Re: Darren's GAC Sneak Peeks #2: The Brawler Brawler certainly could have enlisted, except that he got involved with the JS and instead was defending the homefront from Lemurians. The age thing was only the explanation for why he wasn't drafted, not why he didn't serve. And yeah, my maternal grandfather was also kept out of the draft because of his essential job status (he was a civil engineer building the interstate highways in New England.) dw

Hey all! It's Tuesday, so time for another sneak peek at Golden Age Champions! This week, the battling Brawler! He's a co-founder of the illustrious Justice Squadron, who are the sample beginning heroes in the book, all built on approximately 300 points with just a few experience. (The shtick of the JS is that they're homefront defenders who are all variously draft-ineligible; Brawler's too old, Tomahawk's too young, Skygirl's too, umm, female, Vita-Man is 4-F in his secret ID, and Drifter's, well, legally dead.) Let me know what you think, and if you have requests for future installments! dw [cs] BRAWLER I Val Char Cost Roll Notes 20 STR 10 13- Lift 400 kg; 4d6 HTH damage [2] 18 DEX 16 13- 20 CON 10 13- 16 INT 6 12- PER Roll 14- 15 EGO 5 12- 20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4d6 8 OCV 25 8 DCV 25 3 OMCV 0 4 DMCV 3 5 SPD 30 Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 11 PD 9 Total: 17 PD (6 rPD) 8 ED 6 Total: 14 ED (6 rED) 10 REC 6 50 END 6 14 BODY 4 40 STUN 10 Total Characteristics Cost: 181 Movement: Running: 16m/32m Cost Powers END 6 Padded Costume: Resistant Protection (3 PD/ 3 ED); OIF (-1/2) 4 Meaty Fists: HA +1d6; Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/4) 4 Light On His Feet: Running +4m [1] 6 Coming Through: Area of Effect (16m Line) on 20 STR+ 1d6 HA (+1/4) [3] 6 Pays Attention: +2 PER with all Sense Groups Perks 6 Contact: Los Angeles Police Department (Access to major institutions, useful Skills and resources, limited by identity; Organization Contact) 8- Talents 6 Combat Luck (3 PD/ 3 ED) Skills 24 +3 With All HTH Combat 3 Acting 13- 3 Breakfall 13- 5 Climbing 14- 3 Combat Driving 13- 3 Gambling 12- 3 Knowledge (City): Los Angeles 12- 2 Knowledge: Los Angeles Underworld 11- 2 Knowledge: The Sports World 11- 2 Languages: French (Basic), German (Basic) 3 Mechanics 12- 3 Stealth 13- 3 Streetwise 13- 1 Tactics 8- 3 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Wheeled Military Vehicles 2 WF: Small Arms Martial Art: Brawling Maneuver OCV DCV Damage/Effect 4 Chin Block +2 +2 Block/Abort 4 Punch +0 +2 9d6 Strike 3 Tackle +2 +1 8.5d6 Strike, You Fall, Target Falls 5 Saturday Night Special-2 +1 11d6 Strike 4 Windpipe Crush -2 +0 Grab One Limb (Head), 3d6 NND 3 Wrestle -1 -1 Grab Two Limbs, 40 STR Grab 8 +2 Damage Classes Total Powers & Skills Cost: 134 Total Cost: 315 300 Matching Complications (60) 10 Hunted: The Los Angeles Mobs (Less Pow, NCI) 10 Physical Complication: Losing His Hearing (Infrequent, Slight) 20 Psychological Complication: Defends The Poor and Helpless (VC, Strong) 10 Psychological Complication: Hides His Intelligence And Acts Tough (Com, Mod) 10 Social Complication: Secret ID (Walter Ashmore, Infrequent, Major) Total Complications Points: 60 Experience Points: 15 Background/History: Walter Ashmore was born in 1905 in a small oil town near Los Angeles. Escaping the boring life of farming, he did odd jobs in Los Angeles, where a strong back guaranteed steady if not lucrative employ. Several of his childhood friends fell in among the mob, and a few tried very hard to recruit “Big Wally” to their various criminal organizations. But he had seen how poor workers and shopkeepers had struggled to make their protection payments, seen families suffer when their fathers turned to booze or gambling. The mob didn’t need any more enforcers. The poor needed an enforcer of their own, something to make the people a little less scared. Inspired by the legends of the Black Mask and other costumed vigilantes of the “pulp era,” Wally put on a simple wrestling-style hood and began battling gangsters. A crime reporter for the Times gave him his sobriquet in an article in 1923, describing the exploits of a “Masked Brawler” who delivered some beaten thugs to the local precinct house, and the name stuck, though the “Masked” portion was dropped over the next couple of years to make for easier fit in headlines. From 1923 until 1938, Brawler kept the streets of Los Angeles safe. In October of 1938, his life changed again when he encountered a strange Edomic monster in Exposition Park, which he was able to defeat with the aid of the mysterious Drifter. The Drifter, impressed by his strength of character, would call on him for aid several more times over the succeeding year, and a strange sort of friendship developed between the two. In 1940 the pair rescued the Chippewa teen who would be known as Tomahawk from the nefarious criminal gang run by Mr. Brimstone, and Brawler agreed to train the boy (the first of several costumed heroes he would mentor.) During that same year, he finally settled down and married his long-time girlfriend, actress Lily Durham, and the two had a son named Ronald in early 1941. In 1942 the Drifter assembled several draft-ineligible superheroes to protect the West Coast from assaults by first the Japanese sorcerer known only as the Iron Dragon, and then against invasion by opportunistic Lemurians. This team became known as the Justice Squadron, and Brawler reluctantly became their leader by dint of his experience despite feeling “out of his depth” against superhumans. Though never as famous as the Defenders of Justice, the Squadron bravely defended the American homefront throughout the war. Personality/Motivation: “Big Wally” fights crime and injustice for the very simple reason that it’s the right thing to do. He can’t abide bullies or anyone who’d force their will on others simply by being more powerful. Though he always concentrates first on the welfare of “the little guy,” he’s perfectly aware that little guys also can suffer at the hands of monsters, demons and armies, and if that’s where he’s needed most that’s where he’ll be. He’s darkly amused by the idea that younger heroes turn to him as the voice of experience; as he puts it, “with problems like these, nobody’s got experience. Do the best you can!” Quote: “Listen, dopes, I ain’t here for exercise! What goes?” Powers/Tactics: Brawler is a straightforward bruiser. He’s surprisingly crafty when he needs to be, but he’s not long on sneakiness- when in doubt, he prefers to settle things with his fists. He’s notable even among superheroes for his never-say-die courage and determination. He’s fond of using the environment to his advantage, such as knocking over large objects like shelves to take out several thugs at once. He’s also very fond of the “Coming Through” maneuver, where he smashes into an entire line of thugs and scatters them like tenpins. Campaign Use: Brawler is a sterling example of the “former pulp hero” archetype, an older mentor to the flashy young heroes with powers and bright costumes. He’s older, with a bit more perspective on life and a family back home. After The War: Brawler retired from active heroing shortly after the war, settling down with his wife and son. When Vanguard reorganized the Justice Squadron with Drifter in 1962, Ronald joined as the new Brawler, and Walter served as a sort of “senior adviser” to the team until his death in 1972 from a heart attack. Appearance: Brawler wears a wrestler-style cowl that’s black with red highlights around the eyes and jaw, a black bodysuit with a deep “v” cut to show off his impressive chest, and a red cape with matching gloves and boots.

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren

Re: 6th ED - play or not to play (and what I need to do it) What?!?!?! No Comeliness? I quit! dw

Re: Essentials For me the most useful would be Bestiary and Powers, though I'd really make it three and throw in Equipment Guide too. dw

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren My current GA group is in February 1945 right now, simultaneously protecting the Big Three at Yalta and fighting Japanese monsters at Iwo Jima. The next big plot I'm throwing at them is the mission to have the mystery men half of the team steal the Spear back from Germany and destroy the anti-powers field in Europe, letting their powered allies race the Soviet supers to Berlin. We're only a few months away from converting that game to Silver Age, probably this summer sometime. I've got a second group warming up a shorter GA mini-campaign where I get to play instead of GM and the GMs will be using material from the book to playtest, starting in a couple of weeks. (I get to play Black Mask VIII for the first time as a PC, totally psyched!) dw

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren GAC addresses that problem in one way by having the plot device of the "anti-powers" field in Axis territory, meaning that adventures abroad are largely limited to mystery men while the powered heroes stay home and defend the home front against saboteurs and ubermenschen. There's no requirement that GMs follow this, of course, but we've found in years of playtests it handles the disconnect very well. dw

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren I think you have to separate out "character is mind controlled because that's what the bad guy does" incidents from "character is mind controlled because that's what the plot demands." The first situation is usually best handled with the standard mind control rules, while the second borders on being a plot device and perhaps a Transform is the best way to build it if building is necessary at all. If somebody's been mind controlled simply as an excuse for a hero fight, the details of mental combat rules can be superfluous. But they work pretty well RAW I think for most situations. dw

Re: Golden Age Characters by Darren Tuesday is now my day of the week to work on GA, so look for more characters and other highlights every Tuesday! dw