levi

Great idea Proditor....play this one right and maybe next time you won't be relegated to "Brick" status...

Re: Marvel-Style Psionics I think a VPP is an easy way out...you could put everything the Ultimate Psis do in HERO terms with no more than ten powers each. Do yourself a service and try to avoid the VPP.

Re: Marvel-Style Psionics Charles Xavier has lots of Megascale AE Psionics, he is limited in an actual fight but when sitting in a wheelchair being ignored, he can pull off the things you mention here.

Re: Marvel-Style Psionics This effect can be simultaed by buying extra 4D6 to Telepathy / Mind Control / Mental Illusions with Standard Effect (-0) and Only to make Telepathy / Mind Control / Mental Illusions undetectable to non-psionics (-1 1/2?) Cost: 8 points each. Since making these powers undetectable is only a +10 effect modifier this part is handled nicely.

That is a sweet idea Nato...I will have to try it sometime soon!

and the next one

Well thanks to Ben Seeman, here are the .pdf files one at a time

From this very website... Galactic Champions: Superheroes in space! Galactic Champions is your portal to superheroic adventure in the Galaxy of 3000 AD, when the fate of not just Earth, but the entire Universe, may lie in the hands of your heroes. In addition to describing the “galactic heroes†subgenre, Galactic Champions also tells you about the Champions Universe in the year 3000. Discover what the new Champions are like, who their greatest enemies are, and whether VIPER has survived the passage of a millennium! Author: Darren Watts Tentative Release Date: March 2004 Tentative Size: 176 pages

This is not from a currently running campaign, but I have 2 .pdf files I can eMail you if you'd like.

The HoJ may make it into the supplement but as we have seen in all of the 5th Ed books, he may be drastically different than previously published.

It seems that this thread has taken two paths... Path 1) The new VIPER Sourcebook has made Viper agents too tough with weapons dealing 10-12D6 of damage and defenses in the 10-25DEF range. Is this too good? The fact that VIPER has agents with weapons and defenses in this range is balanced by two things, firstly these agents are elite of the elite and should not be encountered en masse without prior setup by the GM. Secondly none of these agents has more than a 20 CON or 30 STUN so most supers should STUN them with a solid hit and knock them out cold in two or three shots. The same cannot be said for most supervillains. My conclusion is that the VIPER agents as printed are not too good. Path 2) My GM uses agents to humble my super or as a way to show the players who's boss. Champions should never be a game of Player v. GM. The Players can NEVER win in that situation unless they leave the group entirely. If you are a GM remember that you are the storyteller not a competitor. So don't get upset when the players dice are hot, nor should you cheer when your dice are hot. Think of what you are doing as a writing novel or directing a movie, the good guys are the central characters and as such should win out as long as they don't do something stupid or self-destructive. As players sometimes you just have to "Go to the f*ing farmhouse!" even if it doesn't make the most sense or doesn't seem central to your character. YOUR character is not the center of the Universe and if the adventure requires the group to follow the Stronghold van back to Stronghold, then do it without making such a headache for your GM. I have seen several people on these boards say something "The GM should have fun too" and I agree with this sentiment. Just make sure that your idea of fun as a GM is crafting an interesting story, not competing against the players.

My group has an iconic Captain America-esque character named Anthem that has a different origin than Cap's. In an alternate universe (think Nazi-World) It is the modern day and Nazis rule with High Tech, Super Sorcery and an iron fist. One of the Scientists, Gerald Reinhardt develops a super-soldier genetic code and realizes how much more misery and grief his invention will make in his world. A colleague of his has developed a "Time Machine", of course this machine allows travel between dimensions. Reinhardt takes his genetic serum prototype, destroys all other records and flees through the "Time Machine" to a before the second World War. He surrenders himself to the American authorities and tells them what the "future" holds and his proto-type super soldier who could turn the tide. The Americans allow Reinhardt to create the child using scientific knowledge from the future. Unfortunately Reinhardt dies from massive organ failure (a flaw from the "Time Machine") the day after the child is born. The boy is flawless and in a few days time is sitting up on his own and recognizing familir faces. Retired Secretary of War Marvin Jackson and his wife (who never had children) adopt the child and name him John. John Jackson grows up in the wilds of Montana and is home schooled by professors from West Point. By age 12 John is flight rated on military aircraft and sparring with professional boxers. John is sent to England and France to learn tactics and strategy in the field of battle in the early days of WWII. By the time of the Pearl Habor bombing John has become the most capable small unit commander in modern military history. He is unveiled to the public as part of their war strategy and given the codename Anthem. After WWII John continues to serve and fight at the pleasure of the Secretary of War/Defense until being discharged during Vietnam when he was photographed punching a child and it made the cover of Time. The fact that the child was an armed combatant never found its way to the public. John resurfaced as an indepedent costumed hero in the early 80's retaining the name Anthem and evidently unwavered in his loyalty to a country that had dismissed him from service. He founds the Guardians in NYC and puts his mastery of small unit tactics to work in the super-human arena for the first time. This Thread has a little more info on this character and what role he plays in my current campaign... http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=243614#post243614

Archetypes...or the lack thereof in HERO games is one of this system's virtues. Archetypes and Classes are the curse of all RPGs that came after D&D (which is all of them). I have struggled to build characters against type over the years I have played this game. Most notable was Masked Marvel...40-ish STR, 30-ish DEX, 20+ INT, 7+ SPD, Danger Sense, Damage Resistance, Movement Powers, Clinging, Teleportation tons of skills. Not strong enough or tough enough to be a brick, no Martial Arts maneuvers, not fast enough to be a Speedster. Just an all around mutant athelete with some oddball powers. Great concept, very Spidey/Nightcrawler/Beast-like... TERIBLE in a fight. He had no focus and was kind of good at so many things that he was never good enough to tip the scales at anything. As a behind-the-scenes character he worked well and became an integral part of the team's non-battle functions (doing the science others couldn't for example). The fact is that few characters can spread their given points out evenly enough to be as effective as a character that has focused points into being really good at one thing (Brick, Speedster, Martial Artist, etc...). Now let me play Devil's Advocate here and explain why some of the people in your groups may want to pigeonhole your character. There is a tendency in Hero Games characters to tend toward being able to handle anything. Some people, once freed from the constraints of Classes or Archetypes will build characters that can do anything and thus do not seem to need the other characters. If I am playing a dedicated Brick and you play a character with 5 less STR, but a higher DEX & SPD...my Brick starts to look less appealing. The whole reason for having Classes or Archetypes is to promote teamwork. Think of it this way...the A-Team is a perfect example of Archetypes in action. There was the Tacician/Leader (Hannibal), the Strongarm/Mechanic (B.A. Barrackus), the Charming/Handsome guy (Faceman) and the eccentric Pilot ("Mad" Murdoch). If Face was a pilot, there would be no need for Murdoch. Everybody needs a niche to fill and Classes or Archetypes are the best way to help make sure that no one is stepping on anyone else's toes.

Glad to hear you liked it Beowulf!

Very playable version Edsel...I personally wouldn't give Colossus any Martial Arts just because he always seemed like a reluctant combatant...the artist who would rely on his invulnerability and strength to carry him. I do like the levels with throwing however.

With ten (or I like Crimson Arrow's idea of 13) members the most important thing is that they cannot be too powerful individually. At least they all can't be. In this case it is perfectly ok for each member to have a single power at higher than normal active points, this will force your players to work together to overcome the foes outnumbering them. Great ideas all around, here are my contributions... Murder - Crow themed Blood Poison - NND Does Body Slasher - Regenerating Knife wielder Channeller - DCV Levels usable by others Linked to Clairvoyance or Telepathy with spirits Blood Moon - Light / Darkness manipulator Carrion - makes living things rot Urn - Much like Crimson Arrow's Pallbearer idea Cool premise for a team, I may steal it...lol

First let me give you some background on the Campaign World… In 1922, a German scientist from another reality (essentially Nazi World) comes back in time to create a sentinel of Liberty to turn the tide in WWII. Thus Anthem is genetically engineered and becomes a staple in my group’s campaign world. In the Iron Age Anthem joins a hero group in NYC called the Guardians. One of the members is Pulsar (EP with alien power bands), Pulsar has twin sons who both are born mutants (due to exposure en utero to the alien power bands) and Anthem takes one of the boys under his wing. This boy grows to become the hero Flashburn, while the other twin grows to become the villain Betastar. Pulsar dies of cancer just after Flashburn takes up heroing. A major focus for several Campaigns (and GMs) in my group has been the Defenders a group that started in Chicago and eventually spawned a West Coast Defenders team as well. The field leader of the first Chicago team is a former CIA agent turned superhero named Slider (master of Magnetism). Slider has a history of friction with Anthem in that Slider is aware of the darker side of American military policy and thinks Anthem is naïve and lies to the American people. The other three members of the original Defenders were Brawl (regenerating brick with a huge Italian-American family), Masked Marvel (fourth generation mutant with a host of minor powers – think Spidey/Nightcrawler/Beast), and Syphon (low-grade brick with ranged Drains and an armor piercing EB). Masked Marvel and Syphon were graduate students at the prestigious (and fictional) Midwest University together. At some point later (a different GM), Masked Marvel strikes out and begins the West Coast Defenders. He recruits a blue-collar brick named Piledriver to the WCD team. In a more recent campaign, a team taking on the name Guardians once again battles evil from NYC. One of the members is G-Force a young law student / speedster. In this campaign, the Battle of Detroit is much more devastating…many more heroes are killed including the Earth’s Star Guard – Phoenix. Anthem is crippled in the battle by a thrown bus as he attempts to pull building debris off of an unconscious Witchcraft. The public outcry is tremendous as the countries of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia unanimously vote to outlaw the public use of Superhuman Abilities. UNTIL is given a broader role as the International Supercriminal Police, being forced to do so with technology and training alone. Primus is disbanded after a scandal involving a watered down version of the Cyberline drug hitting the streets and creating super-junkies (sorry Shelley). Five years after the Superpower Ban, John “Anthem†Jackson is elected Secretary General of the United Nations and recognizes the growing breakdown of UNTIL’s peacekeeping ability with so many super-villains still on the loose as well as many former heroes going vigilante due to the Superpower Ban. Jackson goes about garnering support from the Security Counsel to create a new UN Sanctioned team (Unity was all lost in the Battle of Detroit) called the Protectors. Game one began with the last paragraph given as backstory and a discussion about what the player characters had been doing since the Battle of Detroit. Flashburn had gone to work as a computer programmer for HP in Palo Alto. Slider had rejoined the CIA and was working in South America keeping Hernand Cortez from unifying the countries of S. Am. under his dictatorial heel. Syphon was working as the Dean of Biological Sciences at Midwest University. Piledriver had gone back to construction work in the ruins of Detroit (it was taking much longer to make Detroit into Millennium City without any Supers to help). G-Force had become an International Law attorney for the UN. A Vibora Bay rookie cop goes to see the destruction of Detroit in the aftermath of the Battle and falls into a sinkhole where he finds the Star Guard Bands that had belonged to Phoenix. He takes on the name of a mythical animal as well and becomes the newest Star Guard – Griffin. While Paul “Flashburn†Patterson was enjoying a lunchtime stroll down El Camino Blvd. In downtown Palo Alto he is suddenly aware of the lack of traffic and the inordinate number of men in black suits and sunglasses around him, when a familiar voice calls out ahead and he sees Sec. Gen. Jackson come around the next corner accompanied by the “click-whir†of his lower body exoskeleton. Jackson recruits Patterson and sends him to South America in an UNTIL helicopter to recruit Eric “Slider†Chambers. Jackson has a hunch that Eric will respond better to Paul asking than he would to Jackson asking. Paul cannot use his powers to fly to S.Am. because the team has not been unveiled to the public yet and as such would be violating the Superpowers Ban. Jackson then goes back to the UN NYC base, as James “G-Force†Spencer is about to celebrate a recent legal victory in Afghanistan with his colleges. James is asked to join the team by Jackson as he watches UNTIL agents cleaning out his office. James is recruited and asked to accompany the team’s Logistics Officer Dutch Armbruster on a road trip to Vibora Bay to recruit the young Star Guard, Lucas “Griffin†Wall. James finds Lucas teaching some young kids skating tricks at a Boys & Girls Club yard and talks him into leaving the VBPD to come join UNTIL’s new hero team. Paul finds Eric in a café in Bogota Columbia doing surveillance on Cortez’ men and the two have a conversation about fallen friends and the state of the world after the Ban and Eric agrees to join up. (This conversation happened between the players at the same time I was NPCing Jackson's conversation with James, so I don’t know all the details) The pair then head to Chicago to recruit Eric’s old teammate Dr. Joseph “Syphon†Centers who is heading up a research project involving some odd biological matter found in a Wisconsin meteor crater. Eric knows that Joseph goes to the cemetery on Matt “Masked Marvel†Morris’ birthday each year to remember his friend whose life was prematurely taken in the Battle of Detroit. The two old friends / teammates have a private moment in the cemetery before Eric recruits Joseph to the new team. The trio then flies to the ruins of Detroit (via chopper) and finds Chuck “Piledriver†Armstrong working an Atlas 1650 Excavator on site. Chug gladly accepts the group’s offer stating that the other guys on the site have been avoiding him after he took that thirty story fall and just brushed it off. The recruits all meet up at the UN NYC base where they are genetically scanned and given team communicator pins to wear. Chuck is also given a Kendrium medical alert bracelet to wear ensuring that none of the UNTIL medical staff x-ray him (as he is Susceptible to x-rays). They are then introduced to Kevin Barret, their UNTIL Transportation Officer and experience the matter transporter to Gateway for the first time. There the team is met by their Communications / Public Relations Officer Rachel Garret (I used the pic from FREd pg. 357 for her). The boys have a hard time concentrating on the tour she gives them of Gateway. The highlights of the tour are the team’s quarters where they learn that they must share a room with one other team member and the Battle Simulation Room (BS Room). The roommates are chosen as such: Eric & Lucas, Joseph & James, Paul & Chuck. The team is given a chance to settle in as Rachel and her team prepares for the Gala Unveiling Event at Rockefeller Center. The following evening, the team is escorted by limousines in tuxedoes and enjoy the chance to mingle with everyone from Statesmen to Pop Stars in their private identities. As the guests are ushered into the screening room for the Unveiling Presentation, the team is escorted to an adjoining room to don their costumed identities in secret and get arranged on the stage behind the giant projection screen along with Sec. Gen. Jackson. As the presentation ends, the screen retracting into the vaulted ceiling and the harsh stage lights and thunderous applause hit our new heroes as they are announced to the world as the Protectors. The assembled guests are told that a press briefing will be held in another room after which the Protectors will be rejoining the festivities in the main ballroom. The Players all do a great job of answering interview questions in character, even the difficult ones, and Rachel only has to intercede once to protect them from themselves. The heroes return to the party, this time in costume and mingle as celebrities. After the party, Eric and his roommate Lucas return to Gateway for some late night training. Paul also returns to Gateway and begins watching recordings of all of his new teammates and analyzes their combat strengths and weaknesses. Chuck also returns to Gateway to get some sleep. James and Joseph however meet up with the Pop Starlet Fionna Shear (think Britney Spears) and she invites them to an after-party. After a short discussion the boys take a raincheck, concerned about potential negative press. Fionna gives them each a kiss on the cheek and her bodyguard gives them a card with her number on it. The following day every major newspaper in the world has a picture of Flashburn, Slider and Griffin flying away from Rockefeller Center with headlines like “Heroes Soar Again over NYC!†Training begins bright and early the next morning as Slider and Flashburn get into team co-captain mode. Sec. Gen. Jackson has set up their first Battle Sim and the players rename the BS Room, the War Room. The team enters and begins the Sim. They are in their quarters when an alarm sounds and they rush to the transportation room where they learn that members of VIPER’s Dragon branch (Ripper, Freon, Sidewinder, Draconis & Diamondback) are attacking the French embassy in Damascus Syria. The Sim rages on as the team realizes how much work they need. Most of the members have the Teamwork skill, but everyone except Slider & Syphon (having been on a team together in the past) suffer a –3 penalty to the skill rolls, since they are teaming up with guys they just met and have never fought beside. Despite being built on more points than the Dragon Branch and outnumbering them, the Protectors narrowly win out, dropping Ripper as Slider and Griffin recover from unconsciousness. The Sim abruptly ends and a real situation arises. Some type of gas has been released in Paris and the Protectors get their first team assignment. I awarded them each 8 XPs for some excellent role playing and in-character interaction, then told them not to expect as much every game. There was a lot of excitement from the players and a real buy-in on the Campaign Premise. My only observations about the team are that there seems to be a glut of energy projectors (Flashburn, Slider & Star Guard Griffin) and a total lack of female characters or characters from different nations. I would really have liked to see more of an internationally representative team and at least one woman. However I can hardly complain as even the players who usually can’t wait to get to the big fight were fully engaged in the role-playing. Game 2 will involve a mutating gas that turns French citizens into Ogre-like monsters, which will eventually lead the team to be introduced to Teleios. BTW, is that pronounced TEL ee ous?

Great Sight Ghost Archer! Those versions are a bit overpowered for most campaigns I think. Danbuter, what are the limits in the campaign you wanna play Colossus in? Most 400 point campaigns are going to have limits in this range: 70 AP, 35 DEF, 10 CV. Of course those things are up to your GM to decide upon.

The Team was The Brave Battalion Changer - Adapter now Battalion Runner - Bolt (Speedster with Electricity Generation) Smasher - Bruiser (Former Pro Wrestler with a PD Drain Punch) Blazer - Phoenix (Flying Fire Projector) Fighter - Ace (Former PRIMUS Close Combat Training Officer)

My characters... Anthem (genetically engineered Super Soldier) would never lie (Has a Psych Lim Common, Total). Brawl (street tough brick) would never miss one of his mama's home cooked meals. Battlestar (alien gladiator EP) would never understand that Pro Wrestling is FAKE!

Here's that attachment...I still don't have the hang of posting the pic in the list.

The only thing I would change would be the hood.

I just saw an episode of Mythbusters on Discovery (Great show!). They de-bunked the Penny myth..."If you drop a penny from the top of the Empire State building and it landed on someone, it would pierce the poor sod's skull." They found a penny's terminal velocity to be 65mph, rigged an air-powered staple gun to fire a penny at this speed and not only did the penny not break the cadaver skull, they were able to take a shot in the hand without breaking the skin. They then rigged a rifle to fire the penny at 2kmph and that left an imprint of the penny on concrete. I began to wonder, how much velocity could Grond or Gargantua get with a Penny? How much damage would it do? Well a penny (made before 1982) weighs 3.1g, giving it a STR requirement of -65. With Gargantua's max STR of 100, he gets 165, which equals a standing throw velocity of 66" or 22D6 velocity damage! Of course no object can do more dice of damage than its combined DEF & BODY (3+1), for a total Max Damage of 4D6! Just thought I woud share...lol Thanks for the STR lifting correction Outsider, I edited for it.

I seem to remember a comic where Lex Luthor built this Deep Thought-esque super computer to deduce Superman's identity. After a while of computation, the computer returned a slip of papaer with the name Clark Kent on it. Luthor threw the paper away and deactivated the computer. His rationalle was something like...no one with that kind of power would pose as such a fop.

Let's see him CC!! My first character was made when I was 13 (1985) and heavily influenced by three things: He-Man, Thundercats & Martial Arts (girls came along the following year and all else faded away, except martial arts). Champions was actually the first RPG I had ever played. I had heard of D&D and the crazy stories about people who played them too much. I enjoyed cartoons about Superheroes and I had read a few comics, but I had never gotten into collecting them. Champions seemed harmless enough. So my first character was created in a sit-down with the GM. I had decided that I wanted to play an animal-based character (like Spidey and his Rogue's Gallery) with Martial Arts. Thus was born FE-LION!!! In the first game, just hours after making the character, the GM who had helped me make the guy killed him with his favorite villan (a hunter with a 30.06 full of phospherous rounds). I never played in that guy's game again, but I was hooked by the system and this new form of imaginative expression I had been introduced to. In 4th Edition, this character resurfaced as Scratch, revealing that he had only been /mostly/ dead after the sniper's cowardly attack and he was now training young heroes in the alleys and rooftops of Hudson City. Of course, he allowed no guns to be used during the training sessions and he was used as a justification for more than one Dark Champions hero in our campaigns to have Danger Sense or Enhanced PER. Sorry about the long post...