assault

Re: Shamrock- Scorpia... Ever Connect These Two? You are correct that they are likely to know each other, whatever their current relationship. It seems fair enough that Scorpia went off the rails in stages. There is plenty of trauma around in that kind of conflict. And escalation of her behaviour seems like enough. Sooner or later she is likely to wind up dead. Now, here's a thought: how old are they? Remember, the IRA has been on ceasefire for about a decade now. Scorpia and Shamrock can't be under thirty. Thirty-five or so seems more likely. They've been on the run a looong time. Presumably they couldn't go for an amnesty even if they wanted one. Both would have lots of non-political warrants out for them that wouldn't go away when their political ones did. That suggests that Shamrock will probably eventually have to find a nice safe bolthole to retire in, like the Federation of Atlantia in the Strike Force campaign. I've already mentioned what I think will happen to Scorpia.

Re: We're Gonna Need Guns I'd like to see some older weapons. For example, the kind of gear that was floating around between, say 1946-1966. That would allow for some classic Cold War espionage games, (and provide some support for Silver Age Champions!). It would also help fill in a gap between Pulp Hero & Golden Age Champions, on the one hand, and the modern period on the other. I'm not talking about much - say a few rifles, a few SMGs, and maybe a few other weapons. You might throw in a few vehicles - how fast do fifties era vehicles go, compared to present ones? - plus, perhaps, a few other odds and ends (radios?). Much of this stuff could be used in present day games too. Incidentally, this is not unreasonable, if you have a look at the history of the Hero System. Espionage was written in the early 1980's, and it's technology was essentially that of the 1970's. Pushing back a bit further shouldn't be too difficult. On guns in general: generally speaking, I only ever use a few common designs. Pages and pages of weapons is usually dead space as far as I am concerned. But it's of interest to some people, so I can deal with it. And if my own silly prejudices are covered, I'm happy.

Re: Shamrock- Scorpia... Ever Connect These Two? Scorpia is a psychopath. Shamrock, whether or not you agree with his cause, was essentially a freedom fighter, who went underground for his own safety. On the other hand, he also became a common criminal, that is, a renegade. Your choices with Shamrock basically stem from whether or not he is still associated with the Cause. If he is, he won't touch Scorpia with a stick (unless it adds to his Strength damage). If he isn't, he may or may not. In my CU, he is an occasional associate of Assault, who has allies on both sides of the law. Neither are exactly friends with Scorpia. Just thinking about things, though... If you want to go with the current CU, it's conceivable that Shamrock might begin to associate with Eurostar. They don't have _quite_ the same image problem Terror, Inc. had. Of course, we also don't know exactly what bees Fiacho has in his bonnet.

Re: Your Dark Champions Campaigns Oddly enough, I would count this as Dark Champions. The original DC was about street-level vigilante crimefighters. That is, it includes Batman types, as well as Punisher-style psycho-killers. So, your game is DC, by this definition. On the other hand, the upcoming version of DC is apparentally going to be more like the old Danger International - a generic modern action/adventure thing. By that definition, your game would be Champions! Obviously most Champions players will have to buy DC anyway, simply as a sourcebook. I'm going to have to buy Pulp Hero too, because of my fondness for the Golden Age.

Re: Dark Champions You clearly aren't familiar with the Shadow. Let's just say that very few of his opponents faced him more than once... Doc Savage was less keen about killing. He preferred to lobotomise his opponents. It worked, too. Only one of his enemies came back for a second round. You might be correct in a way, though. I suspect that most pulp characters only killed when they had too. Very few went out with murder in mind. But there certainly were a few. If you ever heard the Shadow laughing, the next thing you were likely to hear were his guns... Oh, yeah. Amongst the early superheroes published in Australia were blatant ripoffs of the Shadow. But then, Batman was heavily influenced by the Shadow too. The whole Commissioner Gordon thing was based on the Shadow's relationship with his pet police commissioner.

Re: Interesting team idea Oh yeah. Matt Groening's Radioactive Man ("Bart Simpson's favourite comic book") has encountered his Iron Age counterpart. He slapped a lawsuit on him. He has also been transformed into his Gold Age counterpart, Radio Man. Also, when Radioactive Ape was going through a sequence of strange transformations, he went through a Really Big Shoulders And A Big Gun stage, which was commented on as the most horrifying of them all.

Re: Interesting team idea My initial response to all this was: it would all depend on which one was Batman. If the Golden Age character was Batman: halfway through their first case, he would take the Iron Ager into a dark alley and school him. The Iron Ager would enjoy it so much that he would give up killing and change his name to Ace the Bat-Hound. If the Silver Age character was Batman: Batman would turn camp, and teach the Iron Ager the Batusi. Then he would take him to all the gay supervillain bars. The Iron Ager would enjoy it so much that he would give up killing and change his name to Ace the Bat-Hound. If the Bronze Age character was Batman: halfway through their first case, he would mutter "This is a Crisis. The Dark Knight must Return!" He would then take the Iron Ager into a dark alley and school him. The Iron Ager would enjoy it so much that he would give up killing and change his name to Ace the Bat-Hound. If the Iron Age character was Batman: Batman: (tearfully) A puppy! After all these years, someone has finally given me a puppy! Oh thank you thank you thank you! I'll call him Ace! Robin: (aside) Thanks, Superman. Maybe now he'll lighten up a bit. Superman: (aside) Don't worry about it, kid. It was either that or let him beat me in a fight.

Re: My House Rules. Comments Welcome

Re: Campaign Concept RFC This is a big one, in a superhero game. Are the PCs supposed to be Heroes, or shades-of-grey types, or what? Is the game going to be a killfest, or do four-colour conventions apply? Do any of your players read comics? If so, which ones? What other relevant source material (tv shows, movies) are they familiar with? Make sure that everyone has the same expectations. Ensure that you are happy with the game the players want you to run.

Re: My House Rules. Comments Welcome

Re: What would your heroes do about this...? Assault is Australian, not American, but his response would be the same. Basically, he is more concerned with what "his own" government does than what others do. This extends to closely allied governments like those of the USA and the UK. This, incidentally, is why he would fight against any heroes that decided to pull an Authority.

Re: Super Powers in Hudson City Hudson City is big. It's entirely possible that there are high-profile supers based there. They just don't spend much time working the streets. After all, Card Shark is a minor problem, compared to DEMON or Dr Destroyer. In other words, there is room in Gotham City for both Batman and Green Lantern. Similarly, there is room in New York City for Daredevil and Spiderman, as well as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. In addition, the kind of crime that is associated with economic depression and official corruption isn't necessarily able to be dealt with by "fly in and punch someone" techniques. I was thinking today about the kind of supers that would be appropriate to Hudson City. The (original) JSA or Infinity Inc would be perfect. Both these teams have lots of non-powered or minimally powered characters who would be just perfect for this setting. And some of the powerful ones would be appropriate too. Just imagine the Spectre hitting the streets during one of his lower-powered periods... Actually it would be a perfect setting for games with a Golden Age feel, with heroes fighting gangsters and mad scientists rather than supervillain teams. I've considered using it like that in the past.

Re: Superhero High School 1. I would go with low points totals. You can play a lot of games with how you design your characters. For example, you can build characters with full adult power sets, but spend very few points on characteristics and skills. Or, you can spend a lot on skills and chars, but very little on powers. Or balance the two... Each of these gives characters that aren't as "complete" as adult equivalents. Alternatively, characters can be built on full points, and made "young and inexperienced" by use of appropriate disadvantages. Which ever you prefer. In any case, NPCs can be built on as many points as you need. Rogue is a good example of a character who needs to be built on more points than most other characters in the campaign. 2. There are plenty of people who would like to recruit young supers for various purposes. There are also people who would like to eliminate young supers for various reasons. Frankly, the presence of _any_ young super is likely to make a school a target. 3. See question 2. A lot depends on the particular group. 4. Uhh... yeah, sure, OK. Clearly there is something going on behind the scenes at the school. 5. Only if question 4 applies. Otherwise, "there are no superbeings at this school". 6. Yes. See Buffy for further details.

Re: The Random Silver Age Character Generator Two draft scenario generators: one for Batman and one for a Generic World's Greatest Superteam. Both are incomplete and inadequate, but hopefully inspirational. --- Batman. Procedure. 1. Choose a Villain. (Table 1) 2. Select a Really Large Object (Typewriter, Piano or something of the sort...) 3. Select one or more plot complications. (Table 2) Table 1. Villain Roll 1D6 1. The Joker 2. Major Theme Villain (The Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, the Riddler, others to GM's taste) 3-4. Minor Theme Villain (Other theme villains, including one offs) 5-6. Non-Theme Villain Table 2. Plot Complications Roll 1D6 1-3. Roll on Subtable 2A 4-6. Roll on Subtable 2B Subtable 2A. Roll 1D6 1. Specific bit of Bat-Gear is important to plot. (Utility Belt, Batcave, Batmobile, etc...) 2. Other Bat-Person makes an appearance. (Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Batgirl, Bat-Mite, Ace the Bat-Hound, etc.) 3. Snoopy Romantic Interest. 4. Imaginary Story. 5. Time travel or historical theme. 6. Space travel or space related theme. Subtable 2B. Roll 1D6 1. Exotic Location (ie, not Gotham!) 2. Team member injured/held captive/absent. 3. Villain reforms. 4. Character framed or confronted by a rival. 5. Supporting character plays prominent role. 6. Prominent (usually rich) Gotham citizen involved. --- Team Plot Generator. While incomplete, this should hopefully provide at least some inspiration for JLA/Avengers type groups. It is less suitable for groups like the FF or the X-Men. Procedure. 1. (Optional) Select one or more characters as the "stars" of the scenario. See comment below. 2. Select mastermind/enemy leader. 3. Roll for major conflict. (Table 1) 4. Roll for one or more Plot Complications. (Table 2) Comment: The idea of selecting "stars" is to ensure that all characters get their turns in the spotlight. The idea is that their abilities are especially useful in defeating the Master Plan and/or Big Bad Guy. At the very least, the GM can use the choice as a guideline in chosing the Mastermind. Table 1. Major Conflict Roll 1D6 1. Enemy superteam (permanent) 2. Enemy superteam (temporary) 3. Really Big Monster 4. Really tough Supervillain 5. Internal conflict within Hero team 6. Honkin' Big Weapon Table 2. Plot Complications Roll 1D6 1-3. Roll on Subtable 2A 4-6. Roll on Subtable 2B Subtable 2A. Roll 1D6 1. NPC hero applies to join hero team or existing NPC hero leaves. 2. Guest star or Crossover. Normal crossover conventions apply! 3. Hero absent or mysteriously struck down. 4. A villain reforms. 5. A supporting cast member plays a prominent role. 6. A relic of a past case is involved. Subtable 2B. Roll 1D6 1. Scenario involves space travel. 2. Scenario involves time travel. 3. Scenario takes place in an exotic location. 4. A new supporting cast member is introduced or an existing one departs. 5. The Heroes are framed. 6. The Heroes come into conflict with The Powers That Be.

Re: Year One Batman Campaign Idea I suppose there's no real point in pointing out that a "Year One" character is rather unlikely to have all these contacts. This character looks very like one that is already well established. I definitely won't bother pointing out that this character bears about as much resemblance to DC's Batman as _I_ do. After all, there is nothing wrong with re-using names. In my universe, Superman is a pink-skinned dwarf with a big head who has the power to turn into a chicken.

Re: The Random Silver Age Character Generator A minor suggestion. Change the Powers table as follows: Roll 1d6. 1-2: Animal powers 3-4: Elemental powers 5: Possesses all the powers of a superhero team. 6: Useless power. The ability to eat anything for example. By "elemental powers" I mean fire, cold, sound, magnetism, lightning, weather... type powers. --- The funny thing is that this is actually very close to being a usable system! It probably needs a name generator. A Golden Age version wouldn't be too difficult. A plot generator might go well with it as well. I had a list of standard Silver Age Superman plots at one point. I might have to drag it out. It included things like: 1. imaginary stories 2. strange transformations 3. snoopy DNPC (Lois) 4. rival hero 5. "the Super-xyz from Krypton" 6. travels to another planet 7. travels to another time 8. recurring villain (not Luthor) 9. Luthor 10. supporting cast member (not Lois or Jimmy) shows up Generally the idea was that villains other than Luthor would be introduced as part of these plot lines. I will try and drag out the full version, or I might just recreate it. Either way, hopefully you get the general idea...

Re: Evil Businessmen. Dick Cheney, of course. Plus anyone associated with this mob: http://www.chiquita.com Do the words "United Fruit Company" ring a bell? How about "Banana Republic"?

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? I like this. I was aware of the various Marvel/DC rules along these lines, but I had never considered applying them to Hero. It's so... obvious. "This is a rule. End of story." And Codes against Killing would still be worth points, because you would still have extra problems if you violated them, along the lines of Superman's big "I'm going to fly off into space and sulk". Between this, and various genre-physics simulation rules, superheroic settings are looking rather easy to set up...

Re: Authority, we just need a few good men. For Marvel, try Ghost Rider! For DC, Etrigan. Between him and the Spectre, you've got pretty much everyone you need. Green Arrow kills if it's necessary, or at least he did in the early '90s. But there is no way in the world that he would join a cowboy deathsquad like the Authority. In fact, he would be a likely suspect for leader of the heroes who oppose them.

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? Hmm... Yes, that is a problem. Well, one way of encouraging them towards the subgenre you want might be to encourage them to read some of the material you read! Leave some of it lying around to be read before a gaming session. (But remember - food, drinks and comics don't mix!) Pick good material, of course. Consider reprint collections. Remember, the X-Men were good once. The New Teen Titans were pretty cool in the 80s, too. A decent comic shop should have something along these lines, even if they don't have this actual material. And of course, you get to read it yourself.

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? Do they read comics? Are they familiar with the genre in the first place? If not, you might have to ask why are you playing the genre with them! Of course, you could always _introduce_ them to some of the source material if they aren't familiar with it. Unfortunately, even players that _are_ notionally familiar with the genre don't always roleplay it correctly.

Re: A question about the origin of the term "Ultra" slot Well, mechanically, you would launder the cost in his "5th" (unpowered) form, irrespective of his supposed default selection. In any case, his vision powers were his original power set, so you would be entirely justified in calling _them_ his "True" form. His invulnerable form is a problem - there's no real way of avoiding it costing a boatload of points. The real problem with the multipower build is that you end up putting things in multipowers that don't really belong in power frameworks. It also costs outrageous quantities of points. In my opinion the multiform build is cleaner. Of course, his original build, with just his vision powers, was cleaner still! I've actually considered playing it. Even without his high-tech Legion equipment, he's pretty viable. With it, he's just fine.

Re: A question about the origin of the term "Ultra" slot Jo works very nicely as a multiform. You give him four forms aside from his basic one. The latter is him as "a normal guy". The other four are: 1. Invulnerability. 2. Superstrength. 3. Superspeed. Includes his movement powers, because Superman's version of these powers were usually associated with his "superspeed" in the early days. 4. Vision Powers. This were his original powers in his first appearance. Superman's Heat Vision was originally an aspect of his "X-Ray" vision. Similarly, Jo's Penetra-Vision can be read as including both his enhanced vision powers and his "Heat Vision". Since I would be more likely to build a homage rather than an exact conversion, I would be inclined to ignore his other powers, which he doesn't use much anyway. If I was going to add them, I might stick them in some of the other slots either as power tricks (eg Super-breath is a strength related power trick), or just for convenience. It means that he can actually use a couple of his powers simultaneously, but only related ones.

Re: Galactic Champions, how will you use it? Oh, so that's what I'm doing wrong - I got these the wrong way around.

Re: Galactic Champions, how will you use it? Pretty much. Well, unless you are playing early Golden Age, when the characters are still really just pulp types. I might go with something along the lines of DCs' old L.E.G.I.O.N. series, which had something like a "present day" version of the LSH running around. Of course, I would probably make it more like the Silver Age LSH. Hmm. But then, we are living in "the future" now, aren't we? What if the LSH had come from the 21st century, and not from the 30th? They could still have travelled backwards in time to meet Superboy. Maybe it's time for me to finish off my Ultra Boy homage...