Superhero Name List

Hmm…

I seem to be running out of steam with regards to thinking of new villains for the HERO game I’m running.  As such I turn to you, dear readers to help me with coming up with opposing forces.  The objective is simple, give a name, and suggest a power.  And possibly categorize your villain as according to the following types:

• Brick
• Speedster
• Mentalist
• Metamorph
• Energy Projector
• Mastermind
• Weapons Master
• Other

Additional details like signature weapons, an alternate ID are not necessary but deeply appreciated.  I’ll be adding to this entry with a few names and basic concepts I’ve got floating on top of my head and I’ll update accordingly based on what other sources I draw from.

The Secret Language of Character Sheets by Drivingblind

I found a very good article on how to tailor games in order for the GM to cater to his players interests.  It’s supremely simple, but terribly effective.  I’m reposting it here along with a link to the source for both my own reference and also for other GMs who might find it as fantastic advice:

File this under “the secret language of character sheets”.

Make a spreadsheet.

Give each character their own column, starting with the second one.

In the first column, list all of the skills in your implementation.

Under each character’s name, put the ratings they have next to their skills.

Now analyze:

Highlight their Superb and Great skills, use a color that says “yes, use me!”. These are what they’re best at and where most of their shticks live. You’ll want to lob them multiple opportunities to show off how cool they are at this sort of thing.

Highlight any skill that only one character took, that no one else did. Even if these aren’t the character’s Great or Superb skills, they have a leg up on everyone else, and thus are people of distinction in that field relative to the rest of the assembled. These can be good skills to let someone shine and be useful to everyone else. For example, in the game I’m running tomorrow, only one character took Investigation — at Fair. That’s a hook. (Also look for sub-Great skills that folks still took a stunt for — that’s another flag to give them a chance to shine.)

If there’s a skill that everybody took, highlight that skill with a color that says “yes, use me!”. Your adventures should probably give folks challenges of this sort that everyone will have a chance to try their hand at. Did everyone take stealth? Time for some sneaky-sneak! (You may also want to look for some odd-man-out ones, where everyone but one guy took the skill, but what you do with that info is up for discussion.)

If there’s a skill that nobody took, highlight that skill in a different color than the rest, something that says “avoid” to your eyes. These are skills you may want to avoid testing — nobody was interested in them.

Note that this may ultimately tell you that you should hit all the skills on the skill list at some point. That’s fine. In my case, I know to avoid Might, Performance, and Survival for sure, and definitely to hit another 10 skills with some regularity (leaving 8 which can come up, but don’t need to as often). Pretty useful for encounter design, and a good way to get to know the PCs that will be coming to the table.

-taken from Driving Blind

System Studies

Despite the fact that I tend to be very big on Story as a GM and a Player, I have to admit that I do take a guilty pleasure from the simple act of studying a new game system.  I might not have the same amount of free time that I used to but it is still a relaxing activity for me.

Systems fascinate me because rules paint a picture of the game designer’s intent.  In much the same way that a game’s setting helps frame the theme and mood of the games run in it (and any subversion thereof,) the rules are also part and parcel of the things that I appreciate in the game.

Here’s my character, take good care of it, okay?

Well, the games running are chugging along at a decent pace, with L5R taking a good lead right now.  I’m having a lot of fun playing in the L5R game, as I’m trying my hand with a different kind of character with very strong motivations and a concept that I don’t usually trust to just any GM.

I’ve been thinking about it, and it comes as a surprise to me that I’d actually have that kind of statement.  Once I believed that characters are the domain of the players and players alone.  Of course, now that I’ve been GMing for quite some time, it’s become clear to me that GMs have as much responsibility when it comes to the care and feeding of character concepts.

Studying the Savage World for Deadlands

Hey guys,

Now that things have sort of panned out work-wise, I’ve found myself reading up on Savage Worlds and Deadlands: Reloaded.  I’ve always been a big fan of the classic Deadlands, even if I’ve never played the game, if only because the writing was entertaining and the setting was unique.

Deadlands scores major points due to the setting elements, including the idea of a Wild West era different from the history books by a massive supernatural event that unmade the world as we know it into the Weird West.  Strange magics, the walking dead, and monsters that lurk the darkness of the frontier all combine to make a fascinating canvas of adventuring potential.

Character creation is an interesting hybrid of an open ended one and a class based system.  While anyone can distribute skills any way they want, and then add edges and hindrances to taste, all of those who have access to other more exotic character options have to buy into a template.  The Blessed, Hucksters, Shamans, Martial Artists, Mad Scientists and other concepts all have a template to make them different, including individual rules on how they pull off the stunts and magic that make them unique.

Savage Worlds is a generic rules system that evolved from the Classic Deadlands, that finally comes around full circle to power the latest edition of Deadlands, called Deadlands: Reloaded.  There’s a lot of things that have changed with regards to the rules, reducing the amount of gimmicky things involving cards, dice and poker chips from the first game, but retaining just enough so that you still need them.

The Gun Dueling rules for example, utilize cards, and so does initiative, and Hexslingin’.  I suspect that these subsystems might slow the game down a small amount, but not enough to detract from overall play.  I haven’t had a chance to actually run a game of deadlands before, so I’m not certain about how feels in practice, but maybe in a few weeks I might get my chance.