Scott Ruggels

Speaking of St. Louis. were any of the villains members of an aggrieved group? Can their attorneys/ families/political activists, gin up some protests against the hero group? Might be inconvenient to have the their headquarters surrounded by hostile pickets every morning. If they have any secrets, this might be where the Campaign analogue to 4chan starts to investigate them. If they are perceived as operating outside of the public interest, or above the law, will that attract the attention to them from the higher levels of Government? It might summon agents to give them a stern talking to, or some "wall to wall counselling", depending on how the agents are received.

I was/am the Killer character. I was playing a former military flying energy projector, that was quite an effective member of a St. Louis based hero team. I was a bit free with the energy blasts, but usually showed some restraint, but honestly wasn't concerned for the welfare of my targets. However, during one engagement, My character had been aggravated by the situation in combat, and I think blew a psych lim roll, and dropped a large AOE attack on a villain, who was behind cover of a car. The AOE did a number on the villain, and the car detonated, killing him. The other villains were captured or fled. However the District attorney wanted to prosecute, and convened a grand jury to investigate it. Thankfully it was out of the press, however, the GM seemed to have some experience with court matters and gave the whole situation a rather weighty and threateneing air. The Character had to spend a week "off duty", and was unavailable for the rest of the team except on phone calls. The Jury interviews were pointed, and only because the character had been through ROE violation investigations in the past, that he was able to talk his way through the situation. For me, it was the most effective demonstration of the weight of law I have ever played in a superhero game, and it effectively cowed some more of the character's blood thirsty instincts (for a time), and kept the character on the straight and narrow.

as a Californian, I would be wary to go near that thing.

I would rule that this character would not be able to negate any AOE attacks.

Sideshow is impressive, But other than the Depth of Field issue (The usual dead giveaway for anything in miniature), in the image, it looks like a still from the movie. Very lifelike face. Stunning is probably the right word for it.

Those are some seriously sexy Polyhedral dice.

I thought it was Department of Energy? The folks that glassed a portion of Southern Nevada for fun and profit?

Oh man.... Adventurer's Club. Oh how I loved that Magazine back in the day. Looking forward to seeing these scanned and PDF-ed.

Almost any, yes. The problem for HERO, is that it is, at it's heart, a supremely tuned Combat system building kit. Conflict does not necessarily mean combat, but the system can be "tuned" to things like a sports competition, or something a bit more abstracted. What is necessary is to find characters and relationships (Romance seems to be very important to the younger generations) that will motivate the new players to stick with this crunchy system. That's where the background comes in. Those adventures seeds are very good for describing the turmoil of a series of strong and weak kingdoms around. The senatorial intrigue seeds may be a little closer to the direction, in some ways, but it comes across more "House of Cards, than Game of Thrones. Also I think what many of the younger crowd is looking for is "softer" than GoT, or House of Cards. They want more "ship". and less stabbings, but not the elimination there of. Palace Intrigues may interest them, as long as the palace is full of pretty pretty people. More soap opera, and less warfare.

As long as it's isn't "World of Darkenss Hero" That could work. Rather than WOTC's insular racial segregation, have the groups more or less mixed by race, but lined up by mission or ideology. Also Maybe no Vampires? Okay, maybe one offs, but no Vampire society. But yeah making it more urban Fantasy into that Harry Dresden area might work.

Okay, then what new setting, or perhaps license would attract new players to Hero? Currently hot shows on Netflix might work, like The Dragon Prince, or the new She-Ra reboot might be good examples, if not candidates. I have a fair amount of online interaction with younger generations, in the circles Intravel (artist mostly), and while many are gamers, not all that many of the folks I know are asninto the “Murder Hobo 4 Life” game style that I am so fond of. Most of them are heavily influenced by anime, and for the readers, YA novels. Both influences are heavy with character inter-relationships, and rivalry and romance. Many individuals are very experienced with chat, or text based role play. As such they are far more narrative focused than I (usually) am. These are just my observations but they might be useful for figuring out what might be a setting to help HERO along.

It would be poison to anyone under 40. We kind of want to attract new players to HERO, don’t we?

Been there, last week. Took photos.

We were unfortunately, too late to save Ptemenib, and he had bled out after the silver chain had cut him and thrown him down a well. The bird was disconsolate. Our error was being too cautious, and going through the underground area over two days game time, with a rest in the middle.

Anything after the 1950’s, early 60’s. After that, the cynicism, loss of innocence, optimism,’and the reduction of moral contrast in the culture have left pulp looking, perhaps trite? I would say that the Original Star Trek May have been the last gasp of the pulp sensibility.

I used to use a CD boom box for my soundtracks. I collect motion picture soundtracks and rather than matching by a specific movie ( which only gives one between a half hour to 90 minutes of music) , pick by composer and genre instead. For instance, Jerry Goldsmith, as a composer, had a broad career, spanning from the 1960’s to his death in 2012. He did movies in genres from Horror, to comedy to action. Honestly, Inprefer his work to that of His contemporary, John Williams. An example, would be if one was running a campaign set in Ancient China. Two recommendations would be The Sand Pebbles, and Disney’s Mulan (minus the musical numbers), both by Jerry Goldsmith, andnthey blend together fairly well. Another suggestion, would be to split the playlists into Introductions, Ambience, and Combat. It takes a little work, but adds so much. Another source of music is from Video games, like Baldur’s Gate, or composer Kevin Riepl’s music from the Unreal Tournament series. The advantage of the game music is that it loops fairly seamlessly, so you can get away with a shorter playlist. Hope this helps!

Two words: "Band Saw".

Kind of defeats the feeling of Pulp, doesn't it? Pulp doesn't survive Post Modernist attitudes and more's.

I'd love an "Expanse" style setting, myself, Hoowever a remake of the proper Marvel Style universe and background to support the flagships, yes, is probably necessary.

Ohh! good article. Good explanation. Thanks!

Soteria Suppressors is actually doing a lot of research into patterns for hard baffle suppressors, so, no wipes. Here's a video showing how their suppressors work, in sloooooowwww motion. In slow motion, as Destin explains, you can see the engineering challenges.

Except it may be backwards and far worse. http://electroverse.net/professor-valentina-zharkova-breaks-her-silence-and-confirms-super-grand-solar-minimum/?fbclid=IwAR0UrPm-Jkg0TBzdi3oyTbmRHfpEiyv9_uL8aVzHk-2CpZFVLHD2fXC9mDo Fallen Angels scenario?

Are you kidding? Once that footage is on YouTube, drone hackers are going to attempt every combination of battery and material to get something FPV capable within 6 years.

Membership cards are on the side of Glucophage bottles, and 6mm syringe box tops. The decoder ring, isn’t a ring but a pamphlet deciphering what nutrition labels on food mean.