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Shared Origins: The Dynatron PDF

(1 review)
$5
Power For Sale
 
A billion dollars, legal immunity, and a Nobel Prize. That’s the supervillain Red Giant’s price to reveal the secret of the Dynatron — his miracle machine that can give anyone super-powers. Nobody’s met his price… yet.
 
For a mere half-million, you can step into the Dynatron and receive super-powers yourself. Lots of people take this offer: Gangs and governments who want super-thugs and super-soldiers; would-be villains in search of origins; established supervillains hoping for power-ups. Won’t you join the list of satisfied customers?
 
Here’s what you get in the 47-page supplement Shared Origins: The Dynatron:
 
* Background and game mechanics for the Dynatron — the Instant Origin Machine!
 
* Nine sample villains who gained their powers from the Dynatron, from the out-of-his-depth Mob enforcer Orb to the city-freezing Fimbulwinter. Each character comes with a complete character sheet, background, story seeds, and a full-color illustration.
 
* One sample hero, ready to play or use as an NPC.
 
* The story of how Red Giant invented the Dynatron, and the consequences for him and his first supervillain team, the Rainbow Cartel.
 
* A brief discussion of “Power Vendors” as reusable sources of super-powered characters, with four additional examples of this origin story.
 
* A look at the practical difficulties of selling super-powers and owning the most valuable machine in the world.
 
Uses HERO System 6th Edition or CHAMPIONS Complete.
 
THE SHARED ORIGINS SERIES
 
This series of mini-supplements for CHAMPIONS provides "Origin Stories" that players and GMs can use for many different characters. Coming up with character origins is work; reusable origin gimmicks help you spend more time on character backgrounds and motivations and less time explaining why heroes and villains have super-powers in the first place. Shared origins can also tie characters together and create story hooks.
 
Each supplement supplies background information and game mechanics for one shared origin story, a ready-to-play sample hero, and a selection of sample villains. Supplements stand alone to make it easier to plug the sample characters and origin story into your own superhero setting.

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About Shared Origins: The Dynatron PDF

Power For Sale

 

A billion dollars, legal immunity, and a Nobel Prize. That’s the supervillain Red Giant’s price to reveal the secret of the Dynatron — his miracle machine that can give anyone super-powers. Nobody’s met his price… yet.

 

For a mere half-million, you can step into the Dynatron and receive super-powers yourself. Lots of people take this offer: Gangs and governments who want super-thugs and super-soldiers; would-be villains in search of origins; established supervillains hoping for power-ups. Won’t you join the list of satisfied customers?

 

Here’s what you get in the 47-page supplement Shared Origins: The Dynatron:

 

* Background and game mechanics for the Dynatron — the Instant Origin Machine!

 

* Nine sample villains who gained their powers from the Dynatron, from the out-of-his-depth Mob enforcer Orb to the city-freezing Fimbulwinter. Each character comes with a complete character sheet, background, story seeds, and a full-color illustration.

 

* One sample hero, ready to play or use as an NPC.

 

* The story of how Red Giant invented the Dynatron, and the consequences for him and his first supervillain team, the Rainbow Cartel.

 

* A brief discussion of “Power Vendors” as reusable sources of super-powered characters, with four additional examples of this origin story.

 

* A look at the practical difficulties of selling super-powers and owning the most valuable machine in the world.

 

Uses HERO System 6th Edition or CHAMPIONS Complete.

 

THE SHARED ORIGINS SERIES

 

This series of mini-supplements for CHAMPIONS provides "Origin Stories" that players and GMs can use for many different characters. Coming up with character origins is work; reusable origin gimmicks help you spend more time on character backgrounds and motivations and less time explaining why heroes and villains have super-powers in the first place. Shared origins can also tie characters together and create story hooks.

 

Each supplement supplies background information and game mechanics for one shared origin story, a ready-to-play sample hero, and a selection of sample villains. Supplements stand alone to make it easier to plug the sample characters and origin story into your own superhero setting.


BoloOfEarth

   2 of 2 members found this review helpful 2 / 2 members

Full disclosure:  I proofread for this author on a different product, but purchased this product myself well afterward without any hand in its creation.

 

I enjoyed The Dynatron a lot, and have used it in my Champions campaign to quite good effect.  The PDF provided plenty of details on the Dynatron (both its Hero writeup and history) as well as the difficulties / dangers of learning to operate it, and the ramifications of such a device.  The result is something that has its own distinct "flavor" rather than just being a "MacGuffin of the Week."  I found everything well thought-out enough that I didn't need to expend a lot of effort to tie it into my game, while still being able to add my own tweaks where I needed with little difficulty.

 

The sample characters were an eclectic bunch, running the gamut from the low-powered (the Rainbow Cartel, with all four members clocking in at 300 points) to moderately high-powered (Red Giant at 538).  I kinda wish more were at the 400-500 point level, but understood the reasoning for some (particularly the Rainbow Cartel) to be lower powered.  All characters had PC-learnable facts (availability based on appropriate skill rolls) and story seeds.

 

I especially liked the inclusion of short side pieces, such as "Super-Pets?" and "Names, Names, Names..."  I've found that things like this, brief (but related) side trips from the main thrust of a gaming product -- be it adventure, character collection, or as in this case a general game supplement --  give depth and enjoyability to that product.

 

On a technical aspect, I found this well written.  (I get very irritated when I find myself tripping over bad spelling or pitiful grammar - things like that can spoil an otherwise good piece of work for me.) The only glaring error I recall was the heading for Purple Haze's facts said "Yellow Fever Facts" instead.  Layout was similarly well done, with character artwork and the aforementioned side pieces interspersed throughout to keep it from looking like endless boring blocks of text.

 

Overall, I recommend this product.

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