Interesting Superhero Concepts - Hexmaster

This is the Hexmaster M.A.D. Mk I from Adventurer's Club #3. I think he's supposed to be the Hero Games mascot from the early years. I don't think he's anything special to look at. In fact he looks kind of like the Nest Leader from Viper's Nest.

Even his stats aren't all that impressive - note that at full strength his Force Field won't stop an average roll from one of his own attack powers from stunning him on a halfway decent roll. Oh and yes, the hex on his chest gives him some of his powers and so does the one he is standing on.

What is interesting is the concept: M.A.D. stands for "Man Android Decoy". They are robots who don't know they are robots who are released into the world to carry out grand schemes to provide cover for what their creator is really planning. They monologue, recruit agents and supervillains, and generally carry on all of the classic master villain activities. Then when they are knocked unconscious or brought to zero body they explode! Knowing the background take a look at that statblock again - a wide variety of attacks, charges on everything, some odd weaknesses - he can blast away for a while and then BAM!

Of course with some gentle leading the players will probably assume it was a robotic decoy and the real villain somehow got away - which is partially true. Then he shows up again a few months or years later, they think "ah-ha we have him this time" and he explodes again - how does he keep doing that?

Then of course to double-fake them you spring the real villain on them, or maybe a non-robotic wannabe, who doesn't explode but who clearly has no firsthand knowledge of their earlier encounters - he read about them and was inspired. It's a work of such subversive genius that it deserves a home in every supers campaign, regardless of system!

Old School Champions - Adventurers Club #3

"Hi, I'm the Slug, and I'm called that because I wear a s50's space helmet and carry an ankh (Which makes about as much sense as a lot of actual comic book characters if you think about it)

Another Tuesday, another review of an Adventurer's Club - this time it's #3 from the spring of 1984.

• Up front we have some news type articles - Champions III and Justice Inc. are the main topics
• Foxbat's letters column is still somewhat entertaining even decades later
• First big article: The Art of the DNPC - this is a nice 4-page article on handling DNPC's in a campaign covering Types, Disadvantages, Skills, and Powers. There's an interesting point of view here that DNPC disads should be viewed from their impact on the player character, not the DNPC itself, and it did have some wheels turning in my head. Another funny thing is that nowadays this article is probably as long as a typical blog post, but 4 pages out of a 50 page magazine had to have been a pretty big deal back then. 
• Covert Action this month is about mission panning, DNPC's, and the Private Investigator package deal. 
• Teamwork is a 2-page article on how to get heroes to work more as a team than a collection of individuals and has notes on two approaches: the near-invincible supermenace that forces a team-up and the villain team that uses code words and coordinated attacks to beat down the heroes. This is another Aaron Allston article and some specific maneuvers and code words show up in the Strike Force supplement that came along a few years later.

I believe that's "The Monster" and a DNPC...

• The middle 12 pages of the book is "Terror in the Treasures" which is a lot like some of the Action Scenes adventures for ICONS by Vigilance Press in that it's an adventure situation rather than a full-blown adventure with clues and a plot. Basically a group of villains from the Enemies books is going to try and steal some artifacts from a museum and presumably the heroes will try to stop them. Where it shines is not so much in the plot (simple) or characters (off the shelf) but in the details on the museum itself. Freed of the need to describe the opposition the writer spends a couple of pages detailing the layout and the physical stats of the museum and the objects inside, and you get nice hexmaps of both the main building and the surrounding area. The other innovation here is that museum artifacts are not especially sturdy, and given the amount of collateral damage that super battles tend to inflict, there's is opportunity here to reign in some of the reckless abandon of combat, forcing the players to think a little more about what they are doing. The main object of the robbery could be interesting too, so there is enough difference from a generic "stop the robbery" evening here to keep it fun.

As much map as any DM really needs for this kind of thing

• There is an article on some different types of agents, from ninjas to zombies, along with stats - useful
• Rules Questions are answered - this was always a popular feature in gaming magazines and appears to be so here as well.
• The villain-of-the-quarter is the "Hexmaster M.A.D. Mk I" - it's interesting enough for a separate post, look for that later.
• Another multi-page article is the Combat Rating System, which attempts to measure offensive, defensive, and mobility powers with a series of calculations to help GM's better balance their combat encounters. Look it's CR and EL 16 years before 3rd Edition D&D! Part of me thinks this is either somewhat redundant in a point-based system or it's an indication that balance remains elusive, even in the most comprehensive point-based system of all. It' written by George Mac Donald so it probably works and at the time it might have been a big deal but looking back I think "It's Supers" and just want to move on.
• Finally there are reviews of Stormhaven for MS&PE (it's good!) and something called Supergame which sounds like an early attempt at a universal system (it's not!).

Speaking of Smurfs I have to say that Hank Azaria in that live action movie was just about the most spot-on translation of a cartoon character to live action that I can recall

 The big attraction here is clearly the adventure, and that seems to be the theme with each issue, but there is other worthwhile material here, at least for the time. Even now it's interesting to read the thinking of the designers and writers in these early years of the system as they explore the possibilities of the game.

Motivational Monday

Old School Champions - Adventurers Club #2

Back with a retro-review of AC#2! This time we get a full-color cover and the promise of a Champions adventure.

• Things start with an editorial and the Foxbat-answers-letters column, then news-and-upcoming-stuff column, a page of rules questions for CHampions, and then the first big article: Covert Action.
• Covert Action is the column on espionage gaming and it looks like a fairly solid 6 pages of material and ends with a military package deal.
• Then we get stats and background for Boa Constrictor, who seems to be built around a 60 STR and 3 levels with Grab - I can see some potential (the 4th Edition D&D Brawling fighter powers could be an inspiration here) but that's about all that's covered here mechanically.
• Aaron Allston has an article on mystery powers and disadvantages that is a nice read that seemed familiar and ... yep: it turns up in Champions III almost word for word, and a similar section turns up in the 4th edition Big Blue Book. Presumably this is its first appearance.

Then we get to 15 pages in the center of the magazine that cover "What Rough Beast", the promised Champions scenario. After the fun here's-a-plot-go-wild open structure of the adventure in AC1 this one is a little disappointing. It's very detailed with notes on what's written on papers in various laboratories and many ways for the players to figure out what's going on, but ... it's a dungeon. Sure it's drawn on a hexmap but it's an underground base where something has gone wrong and the player characters are sent in to find out what has happened. Also, it's about 100' across and the only active opponent is one big nasty badguy. He's a 500 point combat monster but even given that I just don't think the place is big enough to promote much mystery or much spookiness, and within 5 minutes of exiting the elevator I'm pretty sure my players would be pounding on the thing with few questions asked. If the place was bigger, maybe multi-leveled like Stronghold there would be more opportunity for some tension to build. Also, for an Agent-level campaign this could be  a good evening's worth of fun but for speedy, sense-ey, combat-capable heroes it's not going to take long. At best, I could see it as a prologue to a longer (better) adventure, like the pre-credit sequence of a James Bond movie. It's a Genocide base, so if you wanted to set up a series of appearances by them this would be a good place to begin. Another reference point: It feels a lot like DNA/DOA from Shadowrun 1st edition, and if you remember the mixed reviews that got for being out of place in the genre, well, this has a similar problem. So I wasn't thrilled with it.

• Champions Plus this month looks at power advantages, particularly area effects, so there are a fair number of diagrams and notes on defenses and how things work in practice, like autofire explosions - always a good choice!
• The last article is a reviews column and in this issue they review Cardboard Heroes (from Steve Jackson) and vinyl battlemats from the Berkely Game Company, which, based on the look of the ads, may be a precursor or affiliate of Chessex.

Wow that's a heckuva beating that Marksman took at the hands of ... someone throwing oranges?

That's it for the Winter 1983 Adventurer's Club. I enjoy doing these so I plan to keep going, but if you like them feel free to let me know.

Motivational Monday

Old School Champions - Adventurers Club #1

Hero had its own house magazine for many years - Adventurers Club! This is the first issue dated Fall of 1983. It was allegedly a quarterly publication but it came and went at its own pace during the 80's and 90's. Issue 20 was published in 1993 so you can do the math there. It's a 32-page black and white booklet (other than the outside cover).

The content of this inaugural issue is pretty solid.

• We start with the editor's column explaining the purpose of the magazine. 
• We then get a designer's notes/rules question column for all of the hero system games. 
• Then we get stats for the Awesome Exo-Skeleton Man! I always liked the Foxbat stuff in the various Champions books and this just adds to the legend. 
• We get the police academy and police detective package deals for Espionage.
• There is a column on Champions power variants for Endurance Reserve and Multi-Form
• The letters column is "Foxbat and Fandom" where Foxbat answers the reader mail and it gets off to a fine start in this issue. Also, if you get the joke in the title YOU ARE OLD! Like me, apparently ...
• The middle of the magazine is a 16 page adventure called "The Mechanon Gambit" that I would be happy to run today. There's a secret base underneath the local airport and Pulsar wants what's in it. There's information on the airport including a full hexmap of the area in the center spread of the book. There's a tactical map of the main encounter area in the airport, a tactical map of the secret base, stats for participants like thugs and airport security, and a fairly solid plan for the villains. There are also notes on how to include some of the other back-of-the-book Champions villains in the adventure too - it's a good solid piece of work and it's better than some of the stuff I see now.

I had never read this issue until I picked it up earlier this year. I do own quite a few of the later issues as I always found it to be a source of creative use and interpretation of the mechanics and a rich source of the  Champions meta-verse with Foxbat and the rest. I wasn't sure how good this first issue would be but I really liked it. Stuff like this still makes me laugh:

 So, Adventurers Club: Issue 1 is good, and I will be walking thru the rest of them as I can work them in.

40K Frenzy

Well the bug has taken a strong hold here. Rules have been read, Codexes have been reviewed, online discussions have been had, glue and paint has been recovered and put to use, and dice have been rolled.

Apprentices Red and Blaster have been fired up and Apprentice Who has been asking about all the fuss so over the weekend we played our first home field game of 40K 6th Edition. I see this as more of a test game so the unlikely pairing of Chaos and Dark Angels took on an equally unlikely pairing of Space Wolves and Orks. Working through the setup rules and all meant that we only got a few turns in but we will be continuing the fight during the week as the boys are insistent that someone has to win. 

One thing I have discovered is that I am very rusty - Plague Marines are a lot less tough when you forget "Feel No Pain" - but that the "edition blurring" is not as bad as I had feared. This happens when you have multiple editions of the same game in your head and rules sometimes pop up that no longer apply. That wasn't too bad tis time so there is hope for me yet. Still seems like you can't just shoot freely through other squads though ... maybe it grants a cover save.

Even in a test game you get those memorable moments:

In the center there, right above the flamer template, the last survivor of the Dark Angel bike squad has charged the last survivor of an unfortunate Blood Claw squad. Both were reduced to one man, both passed their morale checks to stay put, then the biker charged and the blood claw (whose companions were all gunned down moments before) counter-charged  in most glorious fashion and engaged in single combat.  - so far the combatants have exchanged blows to no permanent effect! The first one to die gives up a victory point! Of course the survivor is likely to be shot down soon after for another point, but it's very cinematic at the moment and everyone is having a good time.

Anyway this battle will be wrapped up in a few days and some new ones will likely start soon. Army enhancements are on the way as well so it's a very active time for us on this. I've already dropped a 2 vs. 1 challenge on the two older boys for 2 weekends out. They have no idea ... More to come.

Motivational Monday

Dark Vengeance - Chaos

I finished up the Chaos half of the set:

These were a little more fiddly than the Marines and some had a harder time staying together. There are some bits not attached in the pics.

The cultists are simultaneously the most useful and least useful units in the set. Less useful because I don't particularly like basic human cultists cluttering up my spiky badace chaos marine army - just a preference. Most useful because they could be a gang from any cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic RPG or miniatures game out there. The shooter squad is carrying relatively normal looking assault rifles with a big machinegun and the leader has a long coat, sword, and shotgun. The assault squad is carrying pistols and various clubs and blades with a  flamethrower and the leader has a mutated-looking hand. They have a very Road Warrior punkish look to them and the next time I run something in that genre  (Maybe Deadlands HOE?) they will fit right in.

The chosen are supposed to point the way towards a new look for chaos marines - more ornate, warped, and less tied to current Imperial marine fashions. I like it. The only problem is that in the current codex they just aren't all that great at anything and the only advantage they have that I can use is Infiltrate. Plus they're competing against Chaos Terminators in the Elite slot and I have a pretty strong like of termies. We're supposed to see a new codex in early October so this won't be a problem for much longer. I saw someone comment that if the mechanics weren't spectacular he was going to use chosen to represent normal chaos marine just because they looked so good and I can certainly get on board with that.

 The big daddy of the set is the chaos Helbrute. This is effectively a chaos dreadnought renamed. I have to admit that I like the look - it's a much more menacing pose than that old static chunk of lead we've had for the past 15 years or so. With the fist and the multi-melta it's a pretty solid combatant, though we will have to see how that plays out with the new rules. At least there's no mention of the old fire frenzy rule, which single-handedly made Chaos Dreads vanish from the tabletop for much of the last 4 years.

I'm not sure how I'm going to paint these up. I may wait for the new army book and see how things work and what my options are.I have my preferences as far as color schemes but with chaos it's more appropriate in some ways to have units with completely different color schemes in the same army. I'm considering the challenge of making sure that every unit in my army has a unique paint scheme - at last I won't get tired of the colors.

Oh and I went ahead and did the bikes too:

You kind of need them to finish out the box set marines. I still don't like the standard Dark Angel colors but I think I've come up with a color scheme that I can live with. I still don't need another marine army, but Apprentice Who is asking about playing 40K and it would make a nice starter army for him, with some additions from my pile of  "uncommitted" space marine stuff.

Motivational Monday