assault

I doubt either his editors or Howard himself expected people to still be reading his work a hundred years later, let alone discussing it. They were just trying to make a buck doing what they enjoyed.

I was always intrigued by the contrast between Conan and Howard's other barbarian-turned-king, Kull. They both come from similar backgrounds, with comparable physical stature and prowess. But Conan is resolutely focused on the practical concerns of survival and profit. He wants to enjoy life to the fullest, and rarely gave thought to life's meaning. But Kull was the opposite. He thought about and discussed deep questions of philosophy and theology. As a king Kull would sometimes agonize over the morality of his decisions, over the "right" thing to do for his subjects. He was also less of a loner than Conan, having a small circle of trusted comrades and advisors.
 
Conan may be the archetype of the fantasy barbarian, but Kull shows that Howard didn't consider depth and complexity to be antithetical to that archetype. Then again, Howard wrote more about Conan than Kull, and the former is the more popular character. I guess there's a strong appeal to the straightforward, easy to understand protagonist, with an attitude of (as Roy Thomas once wrote for comic-book Conan), "Gird my loins, draw my sword, and roll the dice!"

"...crackpot in the growing pool of cringe politicians."
 
I'll put that up with the "half partisan, half courtesan" line about the House Republicans for Line of the Month.

Writing that last post reminded me: In many RL magical traditions, the powers are also persons. The magician isn't a scientist or engineer, confident that if they use the right tools on the right materials in the right way, the desired result must inevitably happen. Magicians deal with forces that have wills of their own. They negotiate, cajole, bribe, browbeat, bully, grovel, or outright lie to get their way. This is most explicit in dealing with spirits, of course, but may be implied in other cases.
 
In HERO terms, this might supply alternate Skill Rolls for magic. Like, the Chinese sorcerer needs a Bureaucratics roll to make his magic work. (Or Bribery -- spells often involve burning an offering of gold-paper. As with mortal bureaucrats, the spirits are supposed to do their duty to you when appealed "according to the statutes and the protocols," but act with greater alacrity when you grease their palms.) A Hermetic summoning a demon to extort a service threatens dire consequences for failure to appear and obey, delivered not merely by himself but by Almighty God -- Interrogation, perhaps (if seen as intimidation or outright torture rather than shrewd questioning). Shamanic negotiations might suggest Trading. If not a Magic Roll itself, such Skills might be complementary; or perhaps be called upon when the Magic Roll fails, in hopes of mitigating or redirecting the Side Effect of an angry spirit's appearance.
 
Dean Shomshak

Unnecessarily redundant at that level of wealth.

With Superboy, you could go back to the 1945 version, where leaping over a barn or outrunning a deer were amazing feats. He was weaker than the 1938 version of his adult self. Even the world's greatest superhero has to begin somewhere...

The Smallville TV version is a more modern (and powerful) take.

I thought about the Marvel family, but omitted them to keep things short. Still, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jnr and Mary Marvel are all potential teen heroes.

I skipped the Legion, because they are such radical outliers. Still, there were enough stories where individual members came back in time and did things, that they could be used as a source. In the first appearance of Ultra Boy, he only had (used?) his vision powers. His full power set wasn't mentioned until his second(?) appearance. The result was Cyclops with X-ray and telescopic vision. (And a flight gizmo, because the Legion.) Perfectly fine.

Just as it says in the title.
 
Take the concept of Pointless Champions (As per the Article: Pointless Champions.  )  And apply it to you game.  
 
How would you make it work?

I also thought of the original Captain Marvel, as Billy Batson was a teenager. But he's a bit of an outlier, as well, given that his alter-ego was physically an adult and had the Wisdom of Solomon, making it hard to tell whether he still qualifies as a 'teen superhero'. 
 
Superboy is an interesting wrinkle I hadn't thought of.  IMO, he makes a better candidate as a template for the Teen Champions genre than Spider-man. He's explicitly a less powerful, less experienced version of a 'standard' superhero. One who, at least initially, deals with smaller-scale issues in a relatively restrictive environment. 
 
I might also reference the original Wonder Girl stories, but I don't need the continuity headache that would result right now. 

Some of the derivative characters that we think of as sidekicks appeared more often in solo stories than teamed up with their supposed mentor. Kid Flash is a good example. Supergirl is another.

The biggest of the independent, although derivative, teen heroes was, of course, Superboy.

While skimming The Sword of the Dales, I stumbled upon this entry for a random encounter ->
 
 
 
This is part of an adventure for characters ranging from Levels 1 to 4, so, even though statistics are provided, the outcome is made plain for all to see. A nice bit of dark humor.

I thought this would be an Internet hoax, but evidently it isn't: the creator of the immensely popular Dragonball series of manga and anime, Akira Toriyama, has passed away at the age of 68.
 
Even if the name is not familiar, gamers would have to have been living under very large rocks to be completely ignorant of Dragonball. Starting as a comical riff on the classic novel Journey to the West, it featured a strong but naive boy named Son Goku who is enlisted by a girl scientist to track down seven magical orbs which, when brought together, would summon the godlike dragon Shenron to grant the user one unconditional wish. Along the way, they encounter a string of eccentric characters and powerful adversaries like the totalitarian Red Ribbon Army, as well as a lecherous martial arts instructor who teaches Goku devastating techniques, which had him growing unimaginably powerful.
 
Fats forward thirty years. Goku has grown up, married, and sired a son, all the while remaining a big, lovable oaf. But then he learns the secret of his own past -- not only is he not really human, but he was actually sent to Earth as an infant to destroy the planet on behalf of the might Saiyan Empire. This is something Goku unconditionally rejects, choosing to protect instead of destroy and love instead of hate. This puts him in conflict with many ever-more-powerful adversaries, including the Saiyan general Vegeta who would become his great rival. A riff on a novel about the rise of Buddhism in Eastern Asia switched into a riff on the Superman mythos, spawning some of the most spectacular super-brawls ever drawn and animated.
 
Ironically, Toriyama was asked to write Dragonball because his previous series, the wacky comedy Dr. Slump, had gotten too weird in the eyes of his publisher. 
 
But his influence did not stop with manga and anime. He also had a role in the creation of such significant video games as the Dragon Quest franchise, Blue Dragon, and more. But it is Dragonball, and its enormous impact on global popular culture, that was his crowning achievement.

I look forward to visiting this topic again in a year.

I run multiple PC groups in my solo campaign. I just ran a game, and it ended with the second TPK for characters on their maiden adventure. Maybe I should create a folder for dead characters.
 
I will use TSR's Elves of Alfheim Gazeteer and transplant it to my world. Wood Elves now inhabit Muir Woods. The High Elves are making wine in Napa.
 
Here's my lazy GM method for detailing the setting. It keeps things easy.
* What's the date of the adventure? Look at the calendar.
* What's the weather like? Look out the window.
* What time is it? Look at the clock.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Ian Lavender the last surviving member of the Dad's Army cast dies aged 77
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68204488

I reckon we should avoid a discussion of social justice here, the moderators might object.

Exactly these characters.

There's one in the adventure Atlas Unleashed called Recoil
 
I think the GAC character Assault has in mind is Long John Sliver.  There's also Origami Girl but she's more a shape shifter

Mine are 2.5 m tall the same long and I have 3, one of which is half full of war games. I once thought I would collect all of the different RPG's in existence, when I exceeded 100 games I ceased to do so. 

I, for one, would be sad to see social justice removed from D&D products. I happen to think social justice is a good thing.

The problem with alien cultures is that you need a degree of familiarity at the same time.

It's the difference between "yeah, I get it" and "no, I am not going to read forty pages of mediocre prose just to be able to play". Much of the skill in worldbuilding lies in that difference.

Iron had its advantages in a lot of areas even in its crudest form, just not for stuff like swords and armor.  Arrowheads, for example, could be harder and sharper, and thus better.  Armor was heavier and more brittle so not as good.  At least that is how I understand it.
 
One of the things that archaeologists are finding is that people were working better material earlier than previously understood.  Vikings were making damasked steel from lumps of rock found in swamps, for example.  Many of the assumptions of the "dark ages" etc from the 20th and earlier centuries are being undone.

Most people make assumptions like that. But until iron started being carbonized to make steel, it was not as hard as bronze, and more brittle. Its advantage is that it's far more abundant on this planet than copper and tin, so when the technology to smelt it became available, it was much cheaper to arm large numbers of fighters with iron weapons than with bronze. Steel remained expensive and uncommon until mass produced during the industrial age.

The problem with alien cultures is that you need a degree of familiarity at the same time.

It's the difference between "yeah, I get it" and "no, I am not going to read forty pages of mediocre prose just to be able to play". Much of the skill in worldbuilding lies in that difference.