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Files posted by Lord Liaden
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The Master List Of Limitations - A Resource For Hero System
By Lord Liaden in HERO System 5th Edition Documents
Years ago, Jack "Worldmaker" Butler maintained an online database resource for Hero gamers of Fourth and Fifth Edition, "The Master List of Limitations," with a huge number of original "Limitations," which under Sixth Edition are called "Complications," contributed to by many Herophiles. Mechanically and point-cost-wise those Limitations are practically identical to Complications. They're broken down into lists of Physical, Psychological, Social, and Distinctive Features.
IIRC Worldmaker sadly passed away, and his original Master List website passed on as well. Other attempts to host it online also appear to have disappeared. But I saved the last version of the list in fully searchable HTML format, and am offering it here as a resource for Hero players who have difficulty coming up with different and interesting Complications for their characters.
112 downloads
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Hero Fourth Edition Conversion and Errata - Mythic Greece
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
I recently noticed that the late great Aaron Allston's classic Hero campaign source book, Mythic Greece: The Age of Heroes, is now for sale in PDF form from the Hero Games website store. That book was written for first-edition Fantasy Hero, before all the different iterations of Hero System were unified in Fourth Edition. However, Aaron himself created a document covering not only errata for the book, but Fourth Edition updates to a great many elements from the book: character templates (including the "basic god"), combat maneuvers, weapon and equipment game stats, and Powers as magic spells (but not the specific spells from the book). These conversions would make using Mythic Greece with any later edition of Hero much easier.
Aaron provided this file for free, both on the classic Red October BBS and on his personal website. Hence I have no hesitation to post it again here.
42 downloads
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The Full Scope of ARGENT
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
As I read over my Champions official setting source books (for the "Champions Universe"), I was struck by the range of activities the criminal high-tech corporation ARGENT is involved in around the world -- how many pies it has its fingers in, and how viciously it digs into them. But from comments I've heard over the years, most Champions players who don't have those books don't fully appreciate what ARGENT is capable of, nor the range of uses it can be put to for villainous plots, as well as character origins and backstory. In part this is due to there being no source book dedicated to that malevolent corporation. Hero Games did plan to publish one, but the severe downsizing the company went through several years ago curtailed that plan for the foreseeable future. There's actually substantial information extant, but it's dispersed over more than a dozen books.
A couple of years ago I thought it might be interesting and helpful to the community to pull that info together and organize it for easy consumption in a thread on the Champions discussion forums. Whether or not one games in the Champions Universe, the corporation could easily be inserted into most superhero worlds, providing opportunities for many game sessions of villainy to oppose. It can also be an inspirational model for whatever original evil corporate foe a Game Master would like to create. That forum thread has since been archived, but recurrent interest in the subject prompted me to transcribe my compilation to PDF form and offer it here.
What follows in this document is a brief history of ARGENT; a summary of ARGENT's motivations, goals, and methods of operation; a rundown of its known organizing structure, with a little logical extrapolation based on relevant precedents; ARGENT front companies described in the books; an overview of ARGENT's extensive activities around the globe; its interactions with various superhumans and supercrime groups -- those it works with, is interested in, and its rivals and enemies; a list of official supervillains (and superheroes) who owe their superhuman abilities to ARGENT science, and how they came to be; a collection of devices commonly used by ARGENT's operatives; and a brief listing of the source books for this information. The text also frequently mentions what books specific characters and references may be found in.
EDIT: For those who'd like to view the original thread, including subsequent discussion of the ARGENT material, it can be found here.
42 downloads
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Broken Kingdoms Maps
By Lord Liaden in Maps
A ZIP folder of half a dozen JPEG color maps for the Broken Kingdoms setting for 4E Fantasy Hero, now on sale, by BK author Lisa Hartjes. Originally freely downloadable from this website, the maps are basic, but show where major areas are.
26 downloads
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Champions Powers Index
By Lord Liaden in HERO System 6th Edition Documents
The PDF index for the Sixth Edition super-powers compendium book for Champions. Formerly offered for free on the Hero Games website.
264 downloads
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Hero in 2 Pages
By Lord Liaden in HERO System 6th Edition Documents
Created by Bill Keyes, Narf T. Mouse, and Steven S. Long, this PDF summarizes all the Sixth Edition rule mechanics players need to run their characters in a game, on only two pages. It makes an excellent handout to newcomers to Hero System.
367 downloads
- hero system
- sixth edition
- (and 1 more)
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Hero System Rules FAQ
By Lord Liaden in HERO System 5th Edition Documents
One of the great perks of being a Hero System gamer and member of this forum community, is that we're able to ask rules questions of the guy who wrote the rules, Steven S. Long, and get a prompt reply. In the past Hero Games has compiled these very exhaustive rules questions into a FAQ, viewable on the website as a webpage, and later as a downloadable PDF. Several years ago Hero Games management redesigned the website, and according to Jason Walters, decided at that time not to include the FAQ. But since I still frequently see Hero fans asking rules questions on these forums, there's obviously still a demand for info like this. So I decided to upload my own copies of the rules FAQ. Jason has approved of this.
Here you'll find three separate PDFs, each with rules questions relevant to one edition of the Hero System: the original Fifth Edition (updated until 2004); Fifth Edition, Revised (updated 2005); and also a more abbreviated FAQ for Sixth Edition (as of 2010). I hope you find these helpful.
332 downloads
- Fifth Edition
- Sixth Edition
- (and 2 more)
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Encyclopedia Tuala 1.0
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
A clear and thorough PDF reference guide to the setting detailed in Hero Games' Tuala Morn fantasy world setting source book, combining the functions of index and glossary. Previously offered for free on the HG website.
85 downloads
- Tuala Morn
- Fantasy Hero
- (and 1 more)
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Gaia's Wrath for Champions
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
As I read the Champions Villains trilogy, I was struck by the strong similarities in background, motivation, and personality among several of the solo villains from Volume 3, and how bringing them together would create a formidable, versatile team with a strong unifying theme. Exploring all the ways I could use them in a game, I realized they could add a lot to almost any four-color-style superhero campaign, so I thought some of my fellow Champions gamers might also be able to use the concept.
Gaia's Wrath are a group of extreme eco-terrorists, all with a nature/elemental motif, who believe the Earth's biosphere is in a war for survival with the human race. The Wrath intend to stop mankind's despoiling of the planet, by so decimating the human population that they will never again be a threat.
This upload is a ZIP containing two files. One is a RTF writing up the Gaia's Wrath team in the format from Champions Villains Vol.2: Membership; Background/History; Group Relations; Tactics; Associates, Allies, And Adversaries. That last entry also briefly describes the team's support organization, "Gaia's Web." The references in the write-up are to the official Champions Universe as the default, but can easily be changed to fit many other settings. The write-ups and character sheets of the individual members of Gaia's Wrath, and all other characters referred to, are in the Champions Villains trilogy.
The second file is a JPG of a color illustration of the entire team, which I composited from the artwork for each of the individual villains from CV 3. (I'm no artist or master of computer graphics, but I think it gets the point across.) I received permission from Jason Walters to upload both files here.
I hope you find them interesting and useful.
EDIT: I reformatted the RTF to hopefully make it easier to read and more esthetically pleasing, as well as made a couple of cosmetic touch-ups to the JPG.
153 downloads
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Champions New Millennium - Hero System Character Sheets
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
In the 1990s Hero Games published three source books for an official setting for their Champions superhero game. Under the general heading of Champions New Millennium, these books describe a world history, campaign city, and a large number of NPC villains and heroes. Some of the latter resemble characters published under earlier or later editions of Champions, but with their own distinctive interpretations; while others were unique to the New Millennium line.
Those books weren't written for Hero System, but another game rule set called Fuzion. However, over the late Nineties and early in this millennium, the Hero Games website hosted Hero Fourth Edition character sheets for nearly all the characters from the New Millennium line, for people who wanted to use those rules to play in that setting. Recently Hero Games has started selling PDF versions of the New Millennium books, and I thought it might make them more desirable to Hero System fans if I uploaded those 4E character sheets, which I saved from the earlier website.
This download is a ZIP folder of over eighty 4E character sheets for characters from all three books, in HTM format. These are only the game-mechanic write-ups for the characters, not including their background text and illustrations from the original books. Those books -- Champions New Millennium, Alliances, and Bay City -- are available from the website store, under "HERO System Fourth Edition (and earlier) / Champions."
Thanks to Jason Walters for permission to upload these files.
192 downloads
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The Valley of Night
By Lord Liaden in Miscellaneous
The Fifth Edition version of Champions Universe first mentioned an intriguing-sounding location on CU Earth, called the Valley of Night. (The reference has since been reprinted in the 6E update to that book.) Few details about it were ever published, and there are no plans on the part of Hero Games to expand on them. However, I was inspired by that reference, and other elements from the official setting, to develop the Valley of Night for my own Champions campaign. Thinking that other gamers might find a use for them, I posted my (rather extensive) notes to the Hero Games discussion forums -- after first asking permission from Hero Games management -- where they seemed to be generally well received. The relevant discussion thread has long since passed into the obscurity of the forum archive; but this seemed to be an appropriate place to offer this material again for interested parties.
This download is a ZIP containing two files. The first is a PDF, a sort of "sourcebooklet," of most of the material I created for the Valley of Night. The second is a RTF document with additional info, mostly inspired by feedback from my fellow forumites. They describe the Valley's history, geography, unique environment and ecology, and society; more than a dozen NPCs and creatures; and numerous plots and plot seeds for using the Valley. Although inspired by official CU elements this material isn't closely tied to that setting; I designed it to be easily inserted into most superhero game campaigns. Although written with a supers game in mind, I also include notes on adapting the Valley to fantasy, pulp, modern adventure, or future sci-fi settings.
The material is somewhat bare-bones in format. It lacks character sheets for any of its original characters; instead I suggest modifications to the sheets of similar characters from Hero Games's Champions publications. The modifications are to the Fifth Edition write-ups for those characters, but should pose no significant problems to people using the 6E books they appear in. There are also no maps included -- map creation being a weakness of mine -- although all locations are described in substantial detail.
I hope you enjoy your exploration of the Valley of Night. Assuming you survive.
119 downloads
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