drunkonduty

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Well, if you aren't shy about using actual Disney IP, to me the answer is obvious: Brangomar vs Maleficent, for the right to the title of "Mistress of All Evil." Manipulating pawns to do their dirty work like all good villainous masterminds, in a contest of Champions (literally) vs the like of Prince Charming, the Beast, Hercules, Mulan, Captain Hook (or Peter Pan), Shere Khan, etc.

For a home game I have no problems using Disney characters. I'd never be mad enough to publish something with Disney IP. That'd be crazy.

Brangomar vs. Maleficent requires Maleficent to be real in the CU. Hmmm. That's not a "no." That's a "need to think about that."

I do like the idea that she starts giving life to the various animated characters and sets them on the heroes.

Good suggestions, LL.

Now I want to have  Brangomar get involved with actual Disney IP somehow. I mean, she is a villain after all, she wouldn't respect IP even if she can  understand the concept of "owning ideas." Maybe she goes around renaming the dwarfs. Or steals the songs from all the Disney movies. Literally, no one can sing them any more.

Or maybe she uses some her dragon gold to buy herself a place on the board of directors at Disney. Then... something, something, evil plan.

Gonna have to workshop this one a bit more.

I like Brangomar. Now I want to run a game where I can work her in. Complete with all the classic Disney motifs.

Hmmm. The question is, where in the Disney oeuvre do I draw the line? Do I include the Disney renaissance? Are Lion King and Aladdin too radically different from the classic tropes, or perhaps just too recent, for them to be something that effects Brangomar?

Also, does Brangomar break out into spontaneous song? Or is it just the princes and princesses who do that?

Namor is also an arrogant  douche bag.

Don't get me wrong, I consider this a plus. He's definitely  in my top 10 favourite supers types.

I like it.

I like that it's generic.

I like that page 3 is basically a combat cheat sheet.

I'll happily use it.

Personally I'd take off the space you've allowed for costs to be recorded. I consider that all part of character design and I don't see a need for it on a play sheet. But I suspect I'm in a minority on this point.

@Trechiron10

Thanks! That was very informative.  Some very useful ideas.

5 hours ago, Trechriron10 said:

 

1. Mutant's & Masterminds conditions (d20, True20, et al). I would tune them to be more HERO-like, but I really dig the idea of them.
2. Create a new power similar to GURPS Affliction that utilizes conditions. MM3e has a similar power.
3. For Heroic level games I would tune up Stun/Body loss with Conditions. Probably steal some ideas from LTE tied into certain Conditions to emulate injuries.
4. Passions from Mythras setup like Familiarities. When focused on something related to a Passion you get a complimentary skill bonus.
5. I always use the GM Principles from the various Powered by the Apocalypse games because they are brilliant. Tuned by genre, but there is a theme... Also, focus on the conversation, the description (this is suggested in HERO anyways...).
6. Mysteries are always handled with a combination of GURPS Mysteries and GumShoe GM advice. Clues are obvious, deduction is based on clues, don't make it too complicated, etc. I would probably never use the Deduction skill in HERO.

I don't know what any of these things are. Is it possible to have a quick, explanatory guide for newbie? 🙂

I love Blazing Saddles.

The food was cold, the drinks were few, and the people were many. It was everything I expected and less.

Oooh. Evidence based argument; I like it.

On 7/14/2019 at 12:20 AM, Hamshrew said:

I'm still gathering players, too, so I'll probably also adjust things due to their actions and preferences anyway. I have plenty interested people, but you know how schedules work in the horrifying realm of adulthood, yeah?

Adulthood sucks.

Wow. That is ambitious.

Well, you will have to make sure that each adventure arc in each "generation" is short and focused or else you will never finish this.

If you're going with the single enemy be careful not to make things too same-y.  If you go with a single BBEG make some adventures against their minions. You can always "retcon" that a seemingly unattached scenario was actually a front for a BBEG plot. (Although if you plan for it, is it a retcon?) Options for BBEG include: Elder Worm. Istvatha Vhan (immortal time traveler, she can appear anywhere.) Takofanes. (I hate the character but YMMV.) Erm... Oh the fallen Eternal... mentioned in Hidden Places? Or the Atlantean guy who is basically exactly the same character. And the guy from Champions Beyond who is basically Darkseid. The Galaxars (also in Champions Beyond.)

The glue could be some sort of continuity between the characters. The obvious option being PCs being descendants of previous PCs. But you could have the PCs working for an era spanning organisation (The Star*Guard?)  that is facing off against a similar bad guy organisation. You could have the same character(s) being re-incarnated into each generation. Maybe the PCs Quantum Leap into new hosts. Maybe they're all incarnations of the Eternal Champion. Time travelers in a strange blue box. Unaging immortals.

You might also want to consider character advancement. Success in previous generations giving benefits to the new one. Maybe in the form of straight up XP. Maybe in the form of an artefact that re-appears and gives the heroes a much needed power bump when required. ("Hey guys, I just found Excalibur!" " What, again?") This latter cold also be a glue.

Phew. Just a few thoughts from my fevered brain.

Good luck and keep us informed.

On 7/11/2019 at 10:50 AM, Hugh Neilson said:

Bolding added.  Any character which pushes what are likely to be hot buttons should pretty much be avoided, unless one can be rock solid certain that the rest of the group are all OK with it.

Yes. That's my point. I should have opened communication with the other players before going on being all  "immersive."

Pathfinder 1.

Yeah, I've thought about converting things to Fantasy Hero. But I don't think my players would handle a system change mid-game.

Luckily this campaign is intended to be short lived (unlike most of the games I run which are usually no set end date/sandbox sorta things.) When it's over I'll suggest a change of system.

I like the beard, bridesmaid. It gives me something to hang on to! Woof!

28 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

"The Exterminators."

 

I won't swear I know it, but I _think_ that's the one you're thinking of.

 

 

That's the one I was thinking of! Ta. 🙂

They always did make a great team. Especially when Thor wound up in drag.

Session 7.
The tablet is a highly stylised map with a bunch of hieroglyphics on it.
It is clearly only half of the tablet. It has a jagged broken edge and LRB
clearly referred to it as "the other half of the Tablet of Enki."

Unable to translate it themselves they head for the capital city and a sage
to help them. With a letter of introduction the chief librarian is met and
very happy to help. She provides translations, and offers to introduce the
halfling sorcerer to her single daughter. We then leave the heroes on a small
cliffhanger: The Lord High Inquisitor shows up and wants to know who are these
people who are accessing proscribed texts?

As of this session the players have learned a little of the Kemeti attitude to
necromancy and the dead. They also learned that Kemeti believe the Akkadians
to be Tiamat worshippers. The Kemeti consider Tiamat the equivalent of Apep,

th serpent which tries to destroy the sun. The paladin (of the sun god) is most annoyed.

I learned that the only player to take notes in Session 6 heard me say "The Dunes of Ra."
Hmm. Okay. Much less portentous than the Dooms of Ra. But I see how it happened.
The paladin's player heard me say "The Dudes of Ra."

The GM is most annoyed.

Session 5.
The heroes decide to rest up in the town. They soon discover that the ogres
are still in town. The face-guy manages to convince the ogres that their being back
in town and making an inn their own is okay and very much in the spirit of the
agreement made in session 2. Flim-Flamboozled the ogres retreat.

Later, when the ogres realise they have been made to look stupid they come back and attack.

A fight ensues. The paladin kills the boss ogre and the rest break and run.

Session 6.
The heroes return to Sunwall to scout out the enemy army.
The party ranger is able to overhear a conversation between the villain who
led the assault on Sunwall, Lord Iniquitous, and his minion, Lady Syn.
I describe Lord Iniquitous in such a way that the players are now calling him
Lord Rasta Byron. I consider this a win.

They learn that LRB is looking for something called the Tablet of Enki
which will supposedly lead him to something called The Dooms of Ra. Also, LRB
doesn't want the Eternal Pharoah to know what he's up to. Ooooh, plot points.

They also learn that LRB considers Ferridoon to be "a complete arse." All the players love this.

By better knowledge of the fortress layout the heroes are able to find
the tablet of Enki before the bad guys do. They escape quietly into the night.

Session 3.
The PCs reach the next town along. Here they find the place packed
with refugees from town #1.  They warn the local temple of Utu
about the saboteur. They learn that he had tried to get access to the altar,
but with all the extra priests staying here he wasn't able to get any private
time in which to sabotage this altar. They also learn his name, Ferridoon.
Asking around they discover the inn where Ferridoon is staying. They decide they
want to interrogate him but are foiled by a locked door. They sleep in the
inn stable yard, along with many other refugees.

That night they are attacked by a bunch of thugs in the Ferridoon's employ. To add to
the fun the Ferridoon begins summoning undead right into the fight, amidst all the
civilians. In the ensuing panic the villain escapes.

Session 4.
The heroes are tasked with getting the traitor and then scouting out the Kemeti army;
where are they, what are they doing?

They track Ferridoon back to town #1. There is a big throw down in which the heroes
are once again foiled by locked doors. Long story short: the villain escaped. Only barely,
but near enough is good enough.

I just remembered - I promised updates.

So a little light thread necromancy. Appropos really.

We've played a total of 7 sessions now. The plot is actually moving along.
I think we are about to hit a major player-led change of direction,
but more of that in the correct order of events.

Recap - session 1. Mostly an intro session for players new to the game.
The heroes have just escaped the downfall of their
fortress, Sunwall. The actual Sunwall (a wall that shone with light that
kept the worst undead at bay) failed at a critical moment in the battle
and the undead swarmed through. The heroes escaped the rout and we begin
the game with them meeting up down the road a ways. They are attacked by
a pack of ghouls, whom they handily destroy.

They reach the nearest town and find it deserted. Investigating they meet
some bandits looting the town, an ogre and her children. They are
besieging the temple of Utu in which a few citizens are holding out.

Session 2.
The heroes negotiate with the ogre and her half ogres.
The ogres agree to leave the temple of Utu (God of Light) to the PCs
but they have the run of the rest of the abandoned town. Just to be
sure the PC face-guy convinces the ogres that there is a shitting curse on
the temple. "Go in there and you will shit yourself to death."

Everyone abides by the agreement.

While in the temple the heroes find signs that the temple has been defiled and it's magical
anti-undead wards have been destroyed. They citizens tell them that a
survivor from the rout of Sunwall arrived here about midnight to raise the warning.
BUT the heroes realise that Sunwall had only just fallen by that hour.
The "survivor" must have left Sunwall hours before that happened.
They pretty quickly jump to the correct conclusion - the survivor is a saboteur,
possibly even a traitor.

From the ogre incident the game has come to be referred to as The Shitting Curse.
<sigh>

I just want to say I really love the Hi-Tech enemies source book. It's one of the ones I left behind many moves ago (don't worry, it went to a good home with another HERO system nerd) and I do mean to get a pdf copy some time.

There is an anti-alien organisation from 4th ed. Alien Enemies. Maybe called the Exoplanetary Society? Or maybe not. Long time since I read that source book.

8 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

This stuff can be pretty simple.  My character is "Impetuous, Impulsive and Impatient".  He's played that way, and it means he often makes snap decisions that are sub-optimal.  Player 3 is all about min-max, optimization and perfect combat tactics.

 

We are headed for a blowup. 

 

My character blasts an Explosion at the Bad Guys, and it knocks Player 2's flyer 4 hexes back for a loop.  Player 3 goes off on a tirade on what a stupid move that was - we should ALWAYS take the exact best tactical move in combat and role playing be damned! 

 

We don't have a failure to communicate in tonight's game.  We have a failure to communicate game expectations, or a failure to abide by the game expectations we agreed to.

 

EDIT TO ADD:  Practically, just as I should know going in that your group plays with a very meta style, open-book character sheets and every action explained out of character.  If I am not OK with that, I should say so, and bow out of the game.  Just as, if you want that open book style and that's not the way my group operates, I should be clear on that up front, before we sit down at the table.

 

That "Communication 101" tagline is great.  The 101 course is introductory, and it should already be completed before we even design our characters, not need to be revisited in detail during "Advanced Role Playing in a Superhero World 412"

re. Communication at the start of a campaign; at the formation of a new gaming group. Yes. Absolutely vital. I agree with you completely.

But even if this is done, done well, with the best of intentions by all parties, agreements are reached and understandings made; down the track situations will arise in which breaches of these trusts will occur. They just will.

I referred to an incident in my previous post in which I had contributed to de-railing a game session. Allow me to expand.

Situation: Playing with people I have known and gamed with for years. But I only get to game with them occasionally as I moved away for work some time back. On a visit back we were playing a game in which I was "guest-starring." The GM asked me to play a character who was indicative of the darker world behind the Silver Age 1970's comic book style that the other characters represented/inhabited. He suggested  a former Nazi rocket scientist. I was uncomfortable but what the hell, I like to be a team player and give the GM support. I went to great lengths to inform people what my character was AND that he was never an ideological Nazi. Like many people he joined the party because that's just what you did if you wanted to get ahead. He had some wrong headed bullshit ideas, but wasn't an actual genocide defending s#!tbag. I did my Communication 101.

In play I made an IN CHARACTER remark that was racist but that I felt was appropriate to the character. One of the other players was very hurt by it. And rightly so as it spoke directly to her personal experience. Obviously I was an idiot. What I should have done was stop first and check with her and the other players if where I was going was okay with them. I didn't and it wasn't. Much more hurt was done than losing out on a bit of (lame) drama.

So for all that I like a good immersive experience something I need to remember and put into practice is:  Communication is an ongoing process. It isn't done once and then everyone is dandy. Ya gotta keep working at it.

4 hours ago, RDU Neil said:

 After a while, weird or out of character moments can give rise to nothing more than a raised eyebrow from one player and a "trust me" nod from the other... because communication is built up and trust has been EARNED not just expected.

I agree completely. And in fact I'd go one further - even when the trust is there miscommunication can still happen. It's always beneficial to stop now and then and let the other players know what it is that you're thinking. Can this de-rail a potentially good bit of drama? Yes. But so can not communicating. And not communicating has the potential to de-rail whole gaming sessions and friendships too. I've been a contributor to that in the past. And not even the distant past.

Communication is always good.