Taffy war book.

[The Artist Formerly]

When GMing, and sometimes when building a badguy or PC to play, I run tests in specific environs to test either characters or builds. These bit's let me know before game time how a badguy or character will work out. These bits and pieces I've loaded together into my Heroes War book.

First up, I present...

The house on fourth street!

This large old two story house is set just a few blocks off a main through fare. I first used it as a fill in during a game when the PC's zagged when I had planned on them zigging. I had planned on the PCs following one of the badguys back to the warehouse were the weapons were being kept. Instead they decided to try and catch the lawyer of the badguy selling the weapons, then forcing him to give up the big boss. A group well heeled gang bangers were looking for super weapons to wipe out several rival gangs. The Lawyer wasn't a key to big boss, he was the big boss, using a fake proxy (think the usual suspects). Problem. I hadn't defined the buy, the lawyer or the buyers.

So the house is patterned on the Johnson house from Grand theft auto San Andreas. I used that as a starting point because I knew the map well and easily define the space, no matter how the PCs attacked it. I expanded the house, adding another two rooms to the top level and one more to the ground floor.

Next I put together the gang, at the time the Mexican cartel was a big deal in the news, so I used them. Century Station Punks and color punks, 70/30 mix I believe (it was a while ago). Four PCs, so 7 punks and 3 color punks. 7 pistols (9mm) 12 rounds, 3 SMGs 21 rounds.

The lawyer. I had nothing. So when I first dropped the name, two sessions back, I hadn't fully defined the plot. The PCs we chasing super weapons. I had a list of suspect lawyers. One was Eric Reddin. They it took a few days to run down the list. I just picked Eric off my list, just because.

So that night, I needed a super villain. So I stole from Daniel Stoker. He had posted earlier in the day about a alien character he was building. I ripped him off. Because it was a good idea. Alien, robotic life form, APS mercury and some other Stoker stuff. I didn't care, basic idea awesome.

The PCs beat the hell out of the bangers, screwed up the sale, but Eric, a fake name, real name Stanley Doker, put up a good fight, then escaped, but he now knew who was out to get him. Would go on to pin the entire ring on one of his rivals, and through his intermediaries, took over the turf.

This was the genesis of the house on fourth street. Two tests are ideal for this location. One is the brawl. Good for testing a character's damage out put or ability to deal with enemy attacks. The second is the sneak test, how good is a character at moving through a contested area a either plant a spy device or recover something, and get out without being detected.

The actual description of the house can vary, and I used it in a number of games when I need such a thing on the fly. A new upper middle class, or a older house, some what run down. No basement. At ground level we have four entrances. One front door, a back door, a garage door that leads to the garage, and door off the den/family room. All of the windows are through out the house are three by four. The front of the building faces east, with fourth street running north to south. The house has electricity and running water, and is usually served by Dish network or the like for TV. I usually assume all of the lights work as do most if not all of the streetlights on third street, fourth street and fifth street. The alleyway between fourth and fifth does catch some light from the homes and the street lights, but not a lot, it is fairly dark at night. The house is reasonably insulated for it's climate, which means in colder climates, it should be reasonably more sound resistant. It won't muffle gunshots, or a body hitting the floor, but a good thwack across the bonce might not be heard by people in another room...

There is a two car garage attached to the building, with space for a small work area at the west end of the garage. Usually two work benches, four feet long by two and a half feet deep about three feet high. They are flush against the back wall, but are separate from each other by about two feet, and are two feet off the corners. Cars and tools as appropriate can be found here, along with any other items that would fit the circumstances.

The backyard is a open area with a low wooden fence about four feet tall dividing it off from the alley way. There is a single door in the fence that leads to the alley way, center to the fence line. Neighboring houses have raised wooden fences on both sides, both are six feet tall. Two trees occupy the backyard, one just in from the fence on the north side, big enough to support a tree house. A character can climb up to the tree house (if it is present) or with a good jump could reach a large branch from the neighbor's yard and climb over using the tree (though why not hop the fence, it's unlikely to have traps, right?). The other tree, only ten or so years old, provides shade to a deck that was never built near the house on the south side. There is a gas BBQ and a small fire pit just beyond the tree. It's too small for a normal man to climb.

Ground floor, the front door opens into a living room. An open arch allows easy movement (and line of sight into most of the kitchen). A stairway on the north wall leads up to the second floor. A small storage space can be found under the staircase. In a gangland effort, I often use that as the weapons/drug lock up. A bookcase or the like could easily conceal the door, depending on the needs of the GM or character test. The TV/entertainment center sits in the south east corner of the house near a window. Watching TV when the sun is coming up can be problematic, even with the curtains drawn. A door on the north, just past the stairs and stairway storage area leads to the garage, while a door to the south leads to the study/den/family room/whatever.

The kitchen has a small table, stove, microwave and refrigerator along with a double sink affair. Sometimes there is a dishwasher there, sometimes not. One drawer along the counter, just under the microwave is where the knives can be found, it has one of those old school child safety locks on it, but that's been broken for years. Immediately next to the sinks is where the forks knives, and spoons can be found. The fridge is newer and doesn't match the décor of the kitchen, it stands out for not matching, as would a dishwasher when present. A single door leads to the backyard.

The den/family room/library/bed room or whatever is off the south side of the living room. Fill it as needed. It can be one large area about the size of the living room or it could be two moderately sized bed rooms. Either way there is a bathroom here, to service the entire floor just to the east side, just after coming into the room, a washer and dryer can also be found in this room. The washer matches the house's original décor, the dryer does not, as it is much newer. The furnace is also here. The entire house is heated by the furnace, which usually natural gas (if it is, then the new dryer is too). And the hot water heater, one of those big monster ones from back in the day. When it goes out, if the house is heated by natural gas, then the new water heater will be converted to that instead of electric.

Up stairs there are four rooms, three originally intended as bed rooms, all off on central hallway. At the top of the stairs you make a right turn, now facing south. Two bathrooms on this level as well. Two of the rooms share a bathroom in a Jack and Jill format. Both of those rooms and the jointly held bathroom sit above the kitchen area along the west wall. One of these bedrooms has a window that might be reached by someone in the big tree, but that could be tricky, how's your sense of balance? The Jack and Jill bathroom has three doors in, one from the hall and one from each bathroom. It has a toilet and a shower, but no bath. A small open rack is used for towel storage.

The large master bed room sits above the living room. A king size bed dominates the north wall, with an entrance to the master bath on the south wall. A small closet can be found at the south west corner (door on the south wall near the door tot the bathroom). A full closet, but not a true walk in closet can be found on other side of the door to the master bath (south east side), with one of those sliding door affairs. It no longer rolls well and could fall off the roller track if someone put too much stress on it. Or a body stashed in the closet fell against it. Two windows open on the east wall and can be used to cool the house during the summer. In some cases, an air-conditioner might be found in one of these windows. A TV usually sits on a chest at the foot of the bed. In the chest you can find extra blankets, but you have to move the TV first. The chest isn't air tight, but it doesn't breath well, you'd probably run out of air in ten or fifteen minutes if you were panicked. A bit longer if not, but...

The master bath is just that, with a large mirror, hard to sneak up on someone using that, a raised cast iron tub that would be valuable to someone who could restore it and added to a high end home looking for that retro feel to it. A good sized full linen closet can be found on the east wall.

And there you go, the house on fourth street.

[The Artist Formerly]

And now, O'Malley's bar and grill!

So the name changes as needed, as does the location, what's important is that you keep the internal layout. This is my classic bar-brawl site. I've used as a biker bar, a NYC Irish pub, an Italian mob owned diner club and bar, a strip club and a punk rock club. I've used it so much my pcs know the location and tease me about it.

But there is a strength here. Because this location is so often used, a variety of encounters happen here and PCs can relax and have some fun with it. They feel like this is their house, and I work to maintain that. This leads to the those neat player called special moves and tricks.

To simplify things, I'm going to note the building's lay out as the front door facing north. But that's arbitrary, unlike house on fourth street, it doesn't make a wit of difference.

Because I change the outside and location of the bar, it changes as needed. You might have a row of bikes parked outside along a highway, or it might be a narrow NYC side street. There are no windows on the ground floor of this solidly built brick building. The interior is poorly lit and will be smokey. Three doors provide access to building's interiors. A single fire door acts as the building's front door, it's an older door that has had it's swing tampered with to make it hard to open if a pin is pulled. The door is still functional, but it takes a full action to open and a regular human will have to spend an action to keep it open. This is to prevent a rush on the bar by the authorities, but is only a delaying action. This could be a fire hazard, by the by, for someone who is unfamiliar with the door or in a panic. The second door is a side door on the west wall, with a suspiciously placed wait station that runs floor to ceiling, providing a block for line of sight from the front door. It too is a heavy fire door, but only opens from the inside. The door to the men's room is adjacent to this area, and is easy to sneak from the bathroom to the side door. Where this door opens to depends on the placement. The final door can be found in the kitchen. It opens to either an alleyway that can service deliveries and delivery trucks, or a parking lot.

Coming in from the front door, the bar sits on the east wall. The bar curves around at the south end, back by the doors to the kitchen, and has a access to behind the bar there as well. The space behind the bar is small an somewhat restrictive, making any contested actions (like a fight) tough going. The bar itself is solidly built, and will provide significant cover during a fight. A shotgun behind the bar would not go amiss, just in case.

A stage is set at the west end, slightly closer to the north end. The stage does not have a back stage area, if it doesn't fit your game needs, just toss if for more seating. Four stairs on either side lead up to the stage area. The stage should feel like what it is, a refit. The ladies' room sits to the east side of building. Mixing booths and tables, as needed for the event. A door set beyond the men's room door gives access to the office, which is noticeably roomy and sports a desk, a couch and love seat, perfect for making out with your mistress, counting your take, or holding a small meeting of your lieutenants. Plenty of spaces here to hide loot, contra-ban or guns. A secret door to the kitchen is often here, but a couple of times I've deleted it.

The kitchen is another compressed space but is capable of producing some excellent diners if the GM instills some talent in the kitchen. A long narrow space running east to west, with the ovens, deep fryer and cook surfaces along the south wall. The kitchen sports a small walk in freezer on the east end. Prep space/finishing space divides the kitchen along the east/west access, with space for salad and soup service as well as the equipment needed for cleaning diner ware awkwardly tucked near the door on west end. A double door divides the kitchen from the dining area, the doors are light weight and well maintained. They will provide almost no protection in a fight.

[The Artist Formerly]

Wrong footed

I use this scenario for when the PCs either take the wrong path in an investigation or I want to wrong foot them. This works best when the PCs are searching for something that would logically be found in a warehouse. Shipment of drugs, guns, Lab equipment for super human manufacturing or loot items like art or the like. Whatever the real MacGuffin is, it's not here, but some criminal activity is about and the PCs have stumbled on to it.

Research: The PCs have come to this spot by running some kind investigation. This slots in when they don't have sufficient evidence to lock it down (either from a missed roll or just not enough data). In your best GM voice, tell the PCs that this seems like their best bet. This needs to be a reasonable call.

The target: So first, go back up to list of stuff above and pick something, as our alternate criminal activity. If possible, you'll want something that is closely related to the real target of the operation. If the PCs are chasing drugs, then a load of guns would work great. If it's art, then replace with blood diamonds or the like. In all cases, what's actually there should be illegal. The bad guys need a reason to want to fight the PCs over this.

Location: Next we need a location. Warehouse. Easy.

Who: Ideally the baddies are connected to the organization that the PCs are fighting. Another set of the gang, another operation by the same mob, or another division of the company. The PCs opponents aren't likely to be heavy hitters. But a few thugs with pipes, or even a few guns is a good fight scene. These guys are warehouse workers, connected to a criminal activity enough to want to fight people in spandex, so remember to under score that to the PCs at some point. These are reasonably fit workers, figure 10 to 20 hit points and 30 to 40 SDC. WP Blunt, WP pistol, WP shotgun. Pilot: truck (forklift). Hand to Hand: None, basic. Levels 1 to 3. or All attributes would be average. A PS bump into damage bonus range would be okay.

The Fight: Depending on the number and power levels of PCs, 1 PC to 1.5 (round up) to 1 to 2 bad guys. Depending on your group of PCs, this might be a pointless fight. You can change that appearance with a forklift. I used this very fight set up on a party containing a character with APS Metal. He snickered at the guy with the shot gun. Then he got blindsided by the forklift and knocked into the bay. So he grabbed on to the forklift, as it was more buoyant then he was, considering the tires, seat cushion, and any potential empty space in the fuel tank. I gave him 25 xp for that. Additionally you might have some sort of loading dock crane that the PCs might have to spar with. Doesn't make much sense in a real life set up, they build safeties in such things, but given the advanced technology of HU earth, some sort of robot loader thing could programmed to attack people by criminal organizations. Such impacts would be the same as a low speed hit from a small car in both terms of damage and ability to inflict damage vs Natural Armor Rating, plus knock back would be very likely. Low speed impact with great weight behind it.

Once the PCs have beaten the tar out of the NPCs. They have to find the contra-ban, then determine that the contra-ban they're looking for isn't here, and then possibly escape the cops or private security (mob/more gang bangers/ superhumans for hire). As an aside, you can leave a few bread crumbs for a future adventure here. A worker getting a barrel of hypertane dumped on him by a PC becoming a new villain, a cartel pissed off at the PCs for screwing up a shipment they were expecting, or a disruption to the city's drug supply creating a new opening for a rival to bring their new super addictive drug into town.

[NMI]

I have to say, I do miss your tips, hints and ideas!

[The Artist Formerly]

Here comes the rain again!

Just beating the snot out of the bad guys over and over again gets dull. Especially if the PCs are rolling from three or four sessions unraveling the super-criminal's plot. Going from crime busting to crime busting becomes dull. And we aren't playing Super cops, we're playing super heroes.

One of the easiest ways to off set this is a series of physical challenges in the form of disaster relief. Super human abilities allow player characters to move faster and more ably then most emergency vehicles. Letting them get in and save lives while disaster is happening allows for straight up power challenges. These type events happen in comic books all the time, in fact the name of this article come from Iron Man 224. The story is Tony is throwing a house party and needs to get from Stark Enterprises HQ back to his home. However California bad weather in the form of rain forces him to divert to save lives. And the fridge is a jerk to him. We've all seen the super friends episode where Superman hugs a volcano into not erupting.

And that's the thing, while combat tends to be a key dimension for our builds, the character's powers can do more. And that can be a lot of fun. Plus it's something different and helps get the players outside of their comfort zones. Beyond that it reinforces the idea of Heroes, unlimited.

Disaster wanted: So first you need a disaster which tends to be location specific, but not always. As a sub-plot, you might leave hints that the bad guys have some kind of weather control device and their city happened to be the first test. Hurricanes, blizzards, tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, earth slides (avalanche, falling rocks or mudslides), flash flooding are all easy possibilities. Or better yet, pick two or three and use them in phases. For extra fun, add sharks. Massive fire or a true firestorm is another one, but takes more set up. In any case, do a little research on what these kinds of disasters do to cities, real events from real disasters, and some spit ball numbers for damage values in dollars and lives. Make notes so when running your game, you can drop some knowledge on the PCs and sound like you know what you're talking about.

Have disaster, seeking victims: Next up you'll need the events. Further, these events can broken into three stages. Pre-disaster, the disaster, post-disaster. Depending on the style of the game, the specifics of the game and the ability of the player characters, you might not use some of the events but keep in mind what happened during them when the PCs weren't there.

Back in the time before: Depending on how much time the news media has had to ramp up the local population of the impending disaster, the pre-disaster could be busy for super heroes. Events like hurricanes and other predictable bad weather can lead into panic, hoarding and theft, occasionally murder too. Ideally, you want a short lead up, maybe 24 to 36 hours, enough time for people to make plans and follow them through, but not enough time for government to really get in front of the problem. I'd point to the hurricane that hit New York City a few years back. The city had enough time to realize what was happening but not enough time to get a handle on the problem. Evacuation allows for an opening for looters to get involved. In this set up, however, looters could take on a very different appearance then normal. Imagine an older woman who needs extra heart medication for her husband because the disaster will be in full swing when he runs out and the insurance won't pick up the cost until then (that's actually happened). People could fear that they won't have sufficient resources to make it through until normal services return, and could start stealing food and water. A full on run on those same resources could lead to violence as someone feels their need outweighs their neighbor's needs. What you want in this portion is the players to be in an uncomfortable position, doing things they find distasteful. Standard looters and robbers are no trouble, at least ethically, but old people or poor people who are just afraid and feeling unable to help themselves, and panic is setting in. Or have regular looters attacking poor/old people for resources, that works too.

SURGE!: Now it's on. The disaster is here and the event is direct contest. Some powers will just straight up cancel a storm or an earthquake or even a meltdown, so be aware of that, amp up the event so much that their powers only off-set the event. With that said, build the disaster events directly into the player's strengths. Make it easy for them to save the day and show off how awesome they are. Underline that idea. Get the PC to invest in the idea of being heroic, better then they are. This will pay off when you're running a game later that forces the PC to choose between easy (evil) and the tough decision (good). They have a rep to protect after all. You're going to want multiple events for this run, houses being washed away, fires breaking out, downed power lines, emergency vehicles that can't get back to the hospital with their injured citizens, or pregnant women trapped on a bridge in a broken down car while going into labor. Any skill test, have a back up roll for, so if someone chokes, they can make a second check to recover. And maybe another back for that, just in case. We're shooting for making the heroes feel overwhelmed, but not out classed. More then they have is asked for, and more is given. That sentiment is what defines a hero.

In days after: Once the storm or whatever has passed, safety needs to be addressed and clean up needs to happen. We could be talking about more fire, restoring power, helping the police minimize more looting and rioting, stopping villains who are using the event as cover, helping storm damaged aircraft land by filling in as an engine, dealing with damage to the nuclear plant's cooling tower, holding up a bridge support while they get the cars off it, rescuing a boat full of people trying to escape the event, moving an elevator with a trapped person having a heart attack down to ground level, getting water to the superdome. Whatever, just keep the PCs hopping.

Over the course of this entire three stage event, you want to keep the PCs feeling like there is more going on then they can manage. Push them into triaging, deciding who to help and in what order. Write up lots and lots and lots of small encounters rather then a few big ones. Keep them jumping. Get them to split up, and defuse their strengths and problem solving abilities. This entire adventure idea is a filler adventure. A change of pace. Just to shift from what they were doing to this. Let them win, and win big! Bump their on line profiles afterwards. Spin up fan worship. Have the online rating system that measures hero power levels give them a step or two up the ladder. This is pure feel good fun! Even if you use some of the drama stuff I suggested, make sure to end the night on a high note.

[The Artist Formerly]

You may have noticed a theme in my war book posts. They are full of filler and stop gap adventures. The point of all of this, and why you should build your own note book with these kinds of things. So when you run short or the PCs go off script, you have something to work with. This gives you the ability to shift with the PCs rather then having to railroad them from plot point to plot point.

Sometimes you won't have anything set, or you'll blow through game notes too quickly. And you'll need something to fill time. Rather then blathering on about the latest episode of the Flash or Agents of S.H.I.E.D. , you have a few cards, so to speak, tucked away. And that's what the war book is for.

Needs.
1) Generic bad guys. Anything between generic thugs to generic super powered henchmen. Street punks are easy to come by and several books have covered their basic stats, you shouldn't need my help. Light weight super humans, however, are another thing entirely. I often use SHOCK troopers as generic bad guys. Their armor and weapons make then reasonable opponents for super humans. Here's a tip, replace their weapons with "energy beams" and add their SDC to their bodies, disregard the tech aspet and you have low level supers to beat on. I also keep some Chimera rebuilds as generic packages for improved henchmen. A few robots is a good idea too, and you can always use Maxamillion suits from Century Station and KLS built equalizers from Villains Unlimited to round out your baddies. Remember, power sets can be easily converted from mechanical to magical to super human by simply changing the description of the bad guy. Light weight combat robots armed with lasers and vibro-swords, built by Orion to kill PCs or Demonic monsters throwing lightning and armed with mystic blades sent by Gary Pender to kill PCs? It doesn't matter.

2) Weapon category notes. Car category notes. Explosive types notes. I have a single sheet of paper that defines the assorted weapons used and how available they are. Street punks with full auto guns test plausibility. As such I've noted access levels and who has what. Since dorks with guns don't last long against most PCs, this rather simply helps set the stage for the players and improves immersion. If you need to dig something up quickly, having this handy will save you an bunch of digging in the books. Being quick on the fly with this kind of data will help keep things flowing. Cars are important because they further help define not only the target, but high light when things are a foot (why's a street dealer driving a brand new $200,000 sports car/ why is a security expert for a fortune 500 company driving a Dodge dart?). And you should be able to articulate what kind the bomb the PC just defused. It's a great source of clues and if you need one on the fly for a fill in game, you need to be able to talk about it.

3)Names. Names for characters, names for streets, names for businesses, names for ships and names for secret projects. Example. Senator Smith, Junior Senator from New York State, and New York City in specific. 70 Pine Street. A real world location, set in New York City, finical district, home to the Iona Building (replacing the real world AIG building). Kroner and Blankenborgh, a shadowy business that seems to be providing financing for a variety of criminal activities in ways that are JUST legal. The Cyclops (hehehe, that's funny), a old ship that runs 'cargo' and 'passengers' from south America to Miami. Sometimes with stop overs in the islands. Project Shadow watch, a government/industrial project to create super soldiers using super criminal genes and confiscated technology.

So I spit ball these names and put them on a list. When I deploy them, I add a few notes about context and then later wrap them into the story. And remember to cross their name off the list when you use it. Heh, take it from me, that can be confusing to PCs when you screw that up.

4) Time and distance notes for key locations the PCs will frequent. Standish Island (formerly welfare Island/governor Island, New York City) to the Iona building 19 minutes by car on a average day, 7 minutes if you don't give a **** and don't fail a drive check or four minutes by flight system on the power armor. Flight time from NYC to Washington DC, 50 minutes, in the air. Three and a half hours by train. Five hours or so by car, and six or seven by bus (even the express lines have limits). You can take subway trains around NYC, for example, but as a group we usually use subway terminals as locations for fight scenes.

5) Key locations and the people who populate them. Example; Donna Notelli, owner of Extreme Caffeine franchise, Iona Building New York City. The only person all of New York City trusted with the favorite coffee drinks of the New York Arch Angels. Also a spy for the mob until the PCs caught her. Alexander Belle (no relation), chief of staff for Senator Smith. Ark's Pizza, and Simon the assistant manager/college student and recipient of the most valuable homework help on planet earth (when you're an astronomy student and you have a space alien helping nudge you in the right direction...).

6) Mini-games. Sometimes the PCs are just screwing around a we need a mini-games. A speedy gambling game I like is a dice game called portholes. Player(s) role a d10, I roll 2d6. Highest roll wins. Sometimes I roll 3d6 behind the GMs screen, just to be an ass. Craps works out pretty well as is. Manipulating the fictional stock market is always fun. Less ethical characters might bring a fight down in the building that houses the rivals of the company they are invested it (totally done it). Using botany to cross bred alien and earth flowers, or using electrical skills to sup up remote control cars. A number of GMs have written their own mini-games, have some ready so PCs sitting on the side lines have game related activities rather then talking about movies or how awesome I am as GM or player.

[BookWyrm]

Taffy, you certifiably malevolent genius.

[The Artist Formerly]

Taffy, you certifiably malevolent genius.

Thanks.

My first war book was for Robotech (why I call them war books), and was the inspiration for Taffy's School of Armored Warfare threads. I've developed something similar for most of the other games I run, D&D 3.5 most notably.

The goal of a war book is to deal with the troubles I've run into as a DM or GM. Occasionally, the PCs will take the clues I've put together for a story, and come up with something neat. Or they chase the wrong lead and I need to improvise on the fly. So I tucked away my favorite tricks and playing cards for just such events.

[The Artist Formerly]

Super heroes and the lime light!

Okay, so one of the tougher bits for a GM to manage is ego. It's not a problem for me, you know, because I'm just that awesome. But I could see how others might have that problem. Specifically what I'm talking about is the media. Comic fiction is full of differing ideas but Spider-man and Supercheese have the set standards.

In Spider-man comics, the daily bugle does hit piece after hit piece on the web-head which anywhere between most to all of New York believes (depending on era and writers). This concept runs contrary to what we've seen in relation to media fed personas in which the concept of the anti-hero and the straight up villain garner their own popularity and sometimes cult like following. For example, consider Charles Manson. His 'music' and books still sell (I think you can buy his 'work' on I-tunes, I'm not going to check, he's a monster). Other, artists have adopted his thoughts and concepts to influence their work, and he's still well regarded in intellectual circles. Even though he's a mass murder who was able to get other people to join him, and who tried to start a race war, wants to kill my best frienemy Daniel Stoker and has a el-douche nazi swastika carved into his forehead. The guy is evil and people still hang off his every gibbering utterance. Spidey on the other hand, has saved millions of lives in just small acts alone (pulling people out of burning buildings, on coming traffic, stopping bombs and preventing buildings or all of New York from collapsing), is an Avenger, and has saved the entire world, more then once. Odds are, most bars in NYC have a tell us your best "I was saved by Spider-man" story and get free drink based on brute force math of Spidey actions over the last 50 years alone.

On the opposite end of things we have Super-cheese and the Daily Planet. First up, I hate this character. Everything about him annoys me. I will not be kind to him. As he has unlimited powers, which he sucks at using, one of the old gems they reuse for comic story telling is he turns evil. That's was the plot of Superman III, injustice, a ton of comics and cartoons stories, and one of the underlying bits of pretty much every single crisis on infinites (I'm sure you DC fans might disagree with some aspect, but don't post about it here, I DON'T CARE, he's a turd of a character). But when he turns evil, we're talking about someone who can destabilize the entire world. He's a living breathing Weapon of Mass destruction. People won't forgive him in a couple of comics after he undoes the Dorkside spawned Lex Luthor implemented Red Kryptonite whatever that made him fat. Err, Evil. Yet despite how ever bad it was while he was evil, 12 comics or so (roughly one year later) everyone in Metropolis is back to wanking off to his photos in the Planet.

So how do we deal with these concepts? Well, first let's break them down into smaller bites.

The first group are the "love with the concepts' types. These types are less fans of a single character (though they will have their favorites), and more into the sport of Character vs Character. Ranking power levels, strengths, weaknesses and over all experience against other characters. Internet websites with probably with a 'wiki' somewhere in the title, offering rankings on characters and bonus video footage and discounts on tee-shirts for members. Membership will form around their favorites and merge into groupings around larger groups (Sentinels of Liberty and Justice, Euro-force, Centurions, ect) who then relentlessly flame bait people from other groups (example, go over to the RIFTs board and post about how much you think Atlantis sucks and couldn't win a fight, then sit back and watch, just try not to be so bad it that NMI has to send you one of those PMs). These boards may have some serious science behind them or just be fan wank. Probably a fair bit of both and in equal measure. As super brawls happen and people display their powers, these rankings will change.

For Taffy-lands Britannia, Obelisk, Constitution, Pestilence and Earthmover, tend to populate our top five. All are very public with the use of their powers and lend themselves to the camera well. There are other, more powerful characters, out there, but few are as public with it. We also have a "fantasy football" style system running as a story note, but none of us GMs have a clue how one would implement such a thing, I just mentioned off hand one night, and it became a background thing.

Hero groups will maintain their own websites, and a webmaster would be hard pressed not to include a ranking system, which is going to feed the above systems, or might just be a straight up cut and paste rip off. Profiles on members, and all the information they are willing to make public should be seen here. If they have a publicly known base, virtual walk-through is a possibility. A page on activities, charities, public events, legal charters, and jobs postings. Similarly, someone on the net is going to post one for their favorite villain group, just with less real content and more made up stuff (probably more made up, right?).

Next up is how different news media cover super human activities. This also relates to how different political groups view super humans as well. Some of this has to do with happenstance, some of it has to do with events and some of this has to do with the views of the players and GMs. For example, as the Grey Fox, my character was this mysterious guy who used his fists to settle problems with gun wielding thugs in the greater Miami area. Drawing from Century Station's set up, the GM said I had a vaguely positive note, but people didn't really know for sure. Basically indifference. But then on the way to see a informant about a drug shipment I wanted to screw up, I spied a young women behind a night club being assaulted by a dude. I said stop, he threatened me with a knife, I beat him up. Rolled two critical strikes while knocking him cold. I tied him up and hung him from a light pole. The young woman I saved was a journalism major, she told her story well, she was pretty, so she was photo-genic. Suddenly the Grey Fox was this unstoppable bad ass who fought the good fight to save the fair maiden... blah-blah-blah. But what we have here is instance (the bit with the girl was scripted, and she was always going to be a pretty girl who was a journalism major, with the happenstance being how I performed and how I behaved as a hero) where my two natural 20s and restraint in not tooling that tool up underlined the concept of the character and earned good spin. I avoided using my throwing knives because I didn't want to use any on a punk when I knew I might have big fight coming. My actions dictated what happened.

On the other hand, the same character was a villain to the Hispanic media groups. They made up the bulk of the underclasses, and so were the most likely to be involved in the kind of criminal activity that would earn you a beating from me. As I tended to send people to the hospital and often used fear and non-lethal chemical weapons as tools in my conflicts, I was painted in only slightly better terms then Adolf Hitler is in Israel press. But the African groups, Haitians especially, loved the me and the other PCs because we hunted Papa Zombie and beat him to a pulp. Three times.

Finally, there is the quotables. Again drawing on the Fox, an adventure happened, with Dr. Fright at the core. The adventure started in Miami, but we ended up on a Island in Bermuda. Dimensional crap happened. Arsenal and Tigress both took the MacGuffin to a wizard who had a black vault in Europe, which left me and a small row boat to take a beaten and amnesiac Dr. Fright to the authorities. From the island in astral plane, but boardering on the real world, I could see a US Navy destroyer looking for us (they might have thought that Dr. Fright had a nuke, hehehe) and our micro-sub was anchored just beyond it. So I rowed to the edge of the mist that defined the boundary, then as we drifted up to the destroyer, I used my last two sleep knives on Fright as marines were demanding we identify our selves. I line slid past the marines towards the stern of the ship while the marines shot at me, poorly, and then disappeared into the dark waters, leaving them a Dr. Fright package. Win. But four months later, the two marines told a hero fan at a con in San Diego, that I had told Dr. Fright to "Row the boat mother ****er, row the boat." Unlicensed Tee-shirts followed. Dr.Fright was not pleased.

I have yet to have met the Player who didn't want their character to be the center of attention. So some ups and some downs in the media really makes your game have an attraction to the PCs. Having some kind of concept before hand for the GM makes this a lot easier to use in game with a wiff of plausibility. Not everyone will love or hate a character, so the goal is to have a range of options. Things to help you deal with these issues, and color the background of the world around the PCs.

[The Artist Formerly]

TIME TRAVEL

It's all a bunch of wibbly wombly timey wimey stuff. -David Tennant as Dr. Who.

So one of the core mechanics of a comic book, and by extrapolation, a RPG about comic books, is time travel. Why? Because.

We gotta go back in time, Huey Lewis once told me. Actually one the big benefits you (as a GM) can have is to crisis on infinite Heroes Unlimited like events. Shake up the time stream, shake up the world's status quo. Bring good villains back from the dead. Bring bad heroes back from the dead. Rebuild the hows and whys of the game world. Retool enemy organizations so they are a better fit to battle the PCs who's power level and influence had out grown them. This is a great tool for you to fix the inelegancies of your game, add new or just tinker with the stuff you don't like. And you get to pull it out of nowhere and can blame the PCs for it directly. Sucks to be them. And it sucks to be a mage in Heroes Unlimited (just thought I'd throw that in there).

So first you need your time travel plot device. Now Palladium books has such a thing built in, in the form of Rifts. Simple, easy, and at this stage, boring. Ley lines, nexus points, rifts, they lost all the luster. At their core, using a Rift requires only a spell caster to do the shifting and a location to make the leap. I have trouble with both of these issues. Mages in the Palladium system suck, and despite a number of players from my group, myself included, trying to get a good build going, we find them to be uninteresting. Compared to super humans, they are just dull and under powered. So that means that your rift source is a NPC. After that, the only trouble you have is king of the mountain. That is to say, a take and hold mission. You need a nexus location, the baddies will try and take it from you. Or the baddies have a nexus location, you will need to take it from them and hold it... YAWN. Rifts suck.

More awesome is a weather dominator style effect. That is to say, you need to get a machine, either build one or steal someone else's. That's an adventure right there. High tech firm, a third party, the PCs have to break in, steal the machine and get out without hurting anyone. And since the company has a high tech time travel devices, then they may have combat robots to beat the hell out of player characters... just saying. Once the PCs have the machine, now they need some weird power source. A rock from the heart of a Volcano, a special ice crystal from the Antarctic, handwavium from the wreck of the SDF-1, whatever. Finally, you need to gather some item that you can verify that was when you are going (read that sentence out loud). You know, for time jumpy coordinates and stuff,

Now, how does your time machine work? What are the rules for time travel? Does the machine go with you or does just open a hole in time space and you jump through? Which rules bend and which rules break? A lot of thought from both Palladium books and real scientists have gone into this. The excellent Transdimensional Turtles is a great source book with tips and even a outright rules set to use can be found or just wiki the concept for different schools of thought from real science. OR ... skip all that and just make it up as you go. Timey Wimey stuff. We have used in the past TMNT rules, then we switched to a you don't know what you're going to get timey wimey thing. This keeps the players guessing, treading on egg shells, while the bad guys are running around wild.

Once you have your Deus Ex machina all assembled, then it's time to make a hop, skip and a jump. But when to? Ask your players. Before hand, ask them about when they'd like to play. Do that. Run to Wiki, and read over the decade or so. Even if you lived through it, you might not remember it as it was, but as you saw it. Maybe watch a few period movies, and try and get your head into that space. We play games set in the way back because we want to recapture the feelings of that time and make fun of the fashions and a hair. So do that, make sure you have those bits on lock down.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN! PCs will scheme to make money by buying apple stock back when it wasn't worth anything or the like. Let them, little something something isn't a bad thing, and, hehehe, it gives you a way to screw them over. Increased taxes, and leaves a paper trail to their secret identity. That's exploitable. Get creative!

[The Artist Formerly]

It's super Combat, advanced Ultra-Maroon Operations Limited Edition!

Technology of sufficient advancement is indistinguishable from magic. -Arthur Clarke.

Yep, time for some house rules and tweaks to make combat more entertaining in Heroes Unlimited, high tech edition. For this, I'll enlist the aid of some of our luminary posters, or a close proximities of them generated from the stygian abyss that is my imagination, as my test victim to demonstrate how this works. Some elements of the powers and spells will be expanded on, or actually limited, but it's all for a better game, so dig it.

For our first lesson, I'm going to demonstrate a variant Armor Rating rule that Knightgoblin suggested to me. I've play tested this one extensively and it works great.

The core problem was that body armor, the basic AR rule, was built for swords and clubs, not super humans in mind. Between good hand to hand combat and a few tech or super upgrades, my parry and dodge bonuses would mean that at the end of a fight, my armor would be almost spotless, and my character would be beat to hell. Knightgoblin's idea was that we use the AR as a damage soak. A roll to strike below your AR, resolve as normal. A roll above the AR, and the AR value is taken off the damage inflicted to the target, and any remaining damage is inflicted to the target.

So an officer wearing a armored vest is shot by a street thug. AR 10, 50 SDC. Our thug has a 9mm pistol. One shot fired, he roles a 9 to strike, no proficiency. He roles a four, a three and a four, eleven points total, or the high end of average. 50 SDC-11, 29 remaining. In accordance with the latest polices governing police officers, our police officer can't return fire this, round, he has to spend the round identifying himself, just in case there is any confusion. Our thug shoots again, this time he rolls a 12. Single bullet fired, a three, a four and a three for damage. Ten points, the low end of average. 29 -10, 19 SDC remaining (no damage to the officer because the damage didn't exceed the vest's AR, 10). The officer, having gone through all of the steps necessary, draws his weapon. The thug shoots a third time. A fifteen to strike. He rolls a five, a six and a three. 14 points. Ten comes off the vest, 9 remaining, and four SDC to the officer. The officer shoots back, he's got a .357 revolver, 5d6 damage, six rounds, but only five rounds loaded. Proficient, he rolls a 9, +4 to strike, 13. Our thug doesn't dodge. 3 threes, and 2 fours, low average, 17 points. Thug bleeds, he doesn't matter but figure he's got a combined total of 35 SDC and hit points (35-17=18 remaining). Desperate, our thugs opens fire yet again (also this is round four and he's out after this). He rolls a nine to strike. He rolls a three, a four and a five, 12 points. The officer's body armor has nine points of damage soak remaining, 9-12=-3, the officer eats the remaining 3 points off his SDC (now he's down a total of seven points).

And we'll end this here before we get into a debate about cops that should be on sound off. Now, using those ideas, we can extrapolate this concept to bigger guns. Burst firing that pistol, we'd have the armor providing a lot of resistance to the gun, but it wouldn't stand up to much of that for very long. It's a oh **** kind of thing, but not a depend on it for slugging matches and it matches the real world set up much better then the standard palladium rules. Far from perfect, but better.

When added to concepts like powered body armor, you have a system that allows groups like SHOCK and SCRET to engage super humans and stand a good chance of winning. SHOCK suits are just Class four hard armor suits, with some power assisted functions and built in weapons. To minor power characters like the class found in PU2 as the guys who have to fight SHOCK off stage, these guys are a real threat.

Next up, laser guns!

So why a laser gun? Let's look at the basic one in the GMs guide. Semi-automatic weapons (burst capable though), low damage curve(3d6, same as a 9mm pistol), crap ammo feed (10 rounds and you can't load a round in the chamber like a regular pistol) but superior range (500ft vs 165ft). The laser pistol costs $500,000.00 Why in NMI's name would one deploy such a thing? Well with a little tinkering, and by that I mean house rules, lasers can damage every thing, except those with specific laser immunity. Even if the laser shooter's roll to strike is below the targets Natural Armor Rating and/or Robotic Armor Rating, but inflicting only half damage. I also toss Invulnerability's laser immunity as well, but they always inflict half damage against such. It's a good balancing element for a power that's a bit broken. Well now, that's a thing.

Plus it would explain why Triton Industries would spend the time and money manufacturing the lasers we see in Century Station. SCRET, SECTOR or SHOCK dorks in heavy body armor or powered body armor, armed with lasers and the like, can now engage full on super humans. And making our PCs feel threatened by our hostiles, is kind of what we want. One other thing, why would KLS spend money on developing laser resistant armor if lasers are such a waste? Well, here you go. Every major SCRET agency on earth with any serious budget has lasers. Which means the army attached to the same nation will too. And why do we need lasers? Because Heinrich Vossen (the Freak maker, see villains unlimited) developed a super soldier formula/monster maker formula back in the late 30s, used it during the blitz, accidently created Britannia, and kicked off the super human arms race.

Particle beams. These are neat, they cut stuff. Use them. The basic rules are fine. No one is immune to them(as far as I know anyway). Spendy but awesome.

Ion Weapons. These are basically lighting guns. Use them, don't use them, whatever. I combined them with stun guns to expand their range of usefulness, and anything that is lightning (electricity) vulnerable suffers the same here, those that are lightning (electricity) resistant gain those benefits.

Jet packs... See Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas for suggestions on how to use them in a Heroes/villains game. Moving on before NMI has to write me one of those Private Mails again...

Laser Swords. Whiz Kid has one. Modulus has one. You should too. These are lasers, by definition. So hell yes, see the above rules suggestions. Note, if you have a lightning fetish, get your Ion grove on.

DIY body armor for characters who don't know how. In the core HU book we have a few rules on how, but it's kind of hard to get a real set up of what you're doing in the rules sense. So it is possible to buy body armor, over the internet. It doesn't appear that you need any special licenses, just poking around, but making your own might be a better option, just incase someone is keeping track. From the rules on motorcycle leathers in the core book under the mechanical genius, we have half damages from impacts. Meh. Too much extra book keeping. Instead, just run them as soft leather armor from the back of the book. While you poking around motorcycle gear, remember that you can buy modern body armor in your motorcycle gear. Some of that stuff compares to combat armor, but it's lighter, so reduce both the AR and SDC, based on the unit in question, check the net for ideas, and convert over.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

This stuff is sweet!

[The Artist Formerly]

This stuff is sweet!

Glad you like it. I want these articles to add playability to the game, rather then just more noise and X-men knock offs.

[The Artist Formerly]

Time for some HENCHMEN

So one of the problems GMs can have when s/he has serious powerhouse players is finding henchmen who can match them. So how does one deal with that? Up tick your henchies of course.

First up, for the high-tech villain group there is powered body armor. S.H.O.C.K. uses it, Archimedes II was selling some and in a round about way Fab Inc. of Villains Unlimited had one too. Sort of. Okay, that last one kind of lame, but you have three points on a line, should be easy to extrapolate (I'll come back to this in a sec). That's a start. Add in a few cybernetic upgrades, say the reinforced spine (+50 to SDC and +1 fall/roll). But that's really invasive and potentially time consuming for a Hench. So let's keep the rules (+50 SDC, and +1 to fall/roll) but change the flavor text to a series of cyber-nodules across the body that improve the basic trooper. And has a loyalty chip. Plus I want to pad all of the primary striking surfaces with the same effect as slap gloves.(+2 to damage). Now they can eat a few punches from commander cool and stuff without splattering, and they can do bit more damage. Plus the loyalty chip would explain why they would fight the guy who was mopping the floor their co-workers on the last go round. And why they never give away information under interrogation or torture (your "hero" tortures people? Really?). Use the Two-bit thug template from the GMs guide as your basis, then add the above up-grades and skill notes. Figure HTH Expert, 3rd level and PS of about 18. That's 1d6+5 to damage, which is not bad. And they can take a pretty good beating before going down.Of course, these are for higher level henchmen, unless you're villain is really, really rich. Or you just want to tool up your heroes. I'm fine with that. Hey, you guys don't think that one of those cyber components might have a bomb in it that would explode while the guy was being questioned at the police station, do you? Kills the henchman, inflicts 3d6 damage to everything in a six foot radius, no dodge unless you somehow know something is about to happen. That would be a truly villainous thing to do.

Where was I? Oh yeah how about some powered body armor?

Vanquish Suit. MKI MDL3 Hard Armored suit. AR: 16 260 SDC
Power Source: Lithium-Ion with a 6-8 hour power supply.
Adds +4 to wearer’s PS (extraordinary category) and +6 to wearer’s speed. Multi-optics helmet (Infrared, thermal and ultra-violet vision 1600ft, telescopic vision, +1 to strike). Filtered air with 30 minutes on-board air supply (supplemental, auto-engaging,). Acts as a class 2 chem suit. Vehicle Linking Headjack system (+15% pilot Jetpack, Read Sensory Equipment, and Navigation +1 to strike, +2 to dodge, +2 to initiative). Jet Pack (2000ft alt cap, 120 MPH, 60 mile range). Laser built into the suit (3d6 damage, 500ft range, 10 rounds).
Pilot requires Pilot Jet pack, Navigation, Read Sensory Equipment and WP Energy Pistol. Additionally spinal reinforcement (+50 to pilots SDC, +1 to fall/roll, +2 damage) and a vehicle headjack (total 1.25 million to 1.9 million).

I used the hard suit, not the class four armor, added a O2 supply for toxic environments and underwater action. The laser is an option you can cut out to reduce costs ($500,000 to be exact) and could be cheaply replaced with a SMG or a flame thrower(flamethrowers are fun!). Jet pack could be removed or replaced with jump jets if you want. I grabbed the stats for the jet pack from the super spy gadgets, and reduced the speed and range because of the extra weight the armor adds (mostly, I did it for 'reasons'). This armor would be for elites and would be great for chase scenes happening in the air. PCs in a helicopter trying to evacuate the doctor who knows how to turn the energy source into weapon or the young mutant who can make the villain's machine work or whatever. Flying heroes who can't just out run the baddies for reasons, so they have to escort and fight in the middle of their flight.

But what if your villain was all into the magic stuff and crap? Here are a few hench types for any occasion.

1) The mystic warrior cult.

The villain holds his power by being the chosen warrior/king/god and his elite are leveled martial artists with mystic abilities they've learned. Well, I like magic tattoos for that. Start with the thug Enforcer/body guard template. Background on these tools is they had to compete to become higher ranked hench-tools. Grueling martial arts competitions that see the elevation of one to four guys per year (depending on the size and strength of the organization). Then grab Rift's Atlantis and Chaing Six in Villains Unlimited for conversion thoughts, then add a few tattoos. Figure, up to six tattoos, each adding 10 PPE and SDC per tattoo, and all other rules as standard. More then six tats is for the sub-bosses, not the henchmen. Try and keep these tats simple, focus on things that make them a direct threat to PCs in a punch up. These guys exist to get beat up and to wear down the PCs a bit before something dramatic happens. Side note, you might change weapon dripping blood to some sort of fist motif tattoo, to double punch damage. You probably DON'T want to stack that with a Supernatural Strength bump tat.

Focus your hench build on martial technique and fighting styles, try to avoid modern weapons for the art of punching stuff. This build is kind of a quickie Ninja's and Superspies deal, without having to screw around with all of the weirdness of N&SS. Powers are much more useful to the HU setting. PPE would PE+2d6+10 per tattoo. Easy and you can manifest a flaming sword that chops PC heads off. Loyalty in the face of all hardship, even death is the basis for these types (though that doesn't mean they can't or won't be broken or convinced to change their minds....)

Also Rifts Dimensional Market had a bunch of archer related tattoos, if you've got it, that's a whole other group of warriors and a sub-type to build off of.

2)The mages most magnificent.

A coven of dorks bent on world domination. Or at least the tri-state area. We're going to use the Thug: Con man build (for the IQ bonus). We need just enough for a good summoning circle. They're going to cast a few lightning bolts at the PCs, then surrender the second their Armor of Ithan spells give out. Figure 1st or 2nd level, 50+PE for PPE and just enough spells to make the fight interesting. These guys are tools beholden to their master and without his Iron fist up their velvet gloves, they don't have much in the way of a fight going. Any summoned monsters or animated undead you feel you can reasonably swing would be great. If you have a serious tank in your PC group, consider adding a golem.

3) Followers of an elemental god.

The chosen warriors of a forgotten god. They represent her earthly power. These thugs can be from any category you wish. Helps you fit your story. First, we define the element, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, go plan... whoops, forget that last part. Even the more extreme variants elements could be used. Look at the alter physical structure/limb minor ability found in PU 1 and you're good to go. This is an awesome power, and it's great for making Henchies!

Now for the psychics.

Easy peasey. No super psionics. Six selections from all three categories or eight selections from a single category. ME plus 18 points for ISP (should be around 30 to 35). Add 1d4+1 pts per level of experience(or just add 3 as we're templating these guys into standardized baddies). We stack that on to which ever thug group you want, and done.

Chemically enhanced baddies.

Rifts Juicer Uprising introduced us to a bunch of drugs that had combat benefits. Crash tabs were ones that really stuck with me and I've used them a bunch in my games over the years. Great for conventional crime syndicates who need a little extra to get the job done. Juice, Mega and Rush are also great choices. Double the prices and convert credits to dollars.

Side note Mega is a great back ground drug for both the steroid scene AND for those people who so desperately want to be just like their favorite super-hero that they will ignore all of that stuff on the internet and Fox News to about how the drug is awful and will kill you. You get a bi-weekly saving throw (and you get a plus 2 to PE to start with), and even if you miss it you still have a 40 percent chance of having no real side effects. Fifty percent of having a side effect only manifest under the right circumstance, and they are reasonably survivable. Mathematically, that's the kind of thing you can deal with. Last time I used it, I replaced a school shooting with a school hulk rampage.

[The Artist Formerly]

As I have a nice break from School, time for you all to suffer some more! Remember, I only hurt you because I love you.

THE VAULT!

So the PCs have rounded up all of the super villains the city can reasonably support. They beat up the guys on Fourth Street, the owner of O'Malley's is in jail, the PCs got the wrong foot righted. Now what? Dorks with guns just aren't cutting it anymore and PCs need something...more to fight that doesn't have a major super villain's greasy thumb prints all over it. Ladies, gentlemen, I give the Vault. Two variations on this idea, one tech, one magic. You could do a psionics related one too, but eh...

Tech!
So a super genius type, say the original Archimedes (see Gramercy Island, no not the hottie, her father) built a bunch of tech-toys (use the super invention, PU2). But for reasons (that one is up to you) locked them away. A non-descript building owned by a holding company that is owned by a holding company that is owned by a holding company, has a vault in it's guts. Years ago the inventor of choice started locking stuff away here. For my story, I used a Picasso like effort, in which he worked on stuff and loaded them here until the place filled up and he had to move on. My Archimedes was kind of crazy.

A recent event opened the building up to a street thug level looter. I spun it like this, one thug got ahold of a heat gauntlet he scavenged from the outer vault. He used it to move up in his gang by killing a bunch of guys in another gang. His boss decided to go back and look for more stuff, they found the inner vault but had to bring in some heavy equipment because this is a serious vault. So the other gang found out about it. And then some of the guys from the rental place where the first gang got the digging gear figured it out too, cause they're mobbed up and they heard the rumor too. So everyone descends on the place, the second gang and the mob guys having a spy or two each in the first gang. The second gang and the mob wait until the first gang breaks into the vault (why would they do the heavy lifting when the other guys are willing to?). Then a shoot out happens.

The PCs are called in. They recover a bunch of the stuff and turn it over to the proper authorities (if the PCs aren't that type, then have ALL of the city's cops show up, then have SCRET step in just after that). Some of the stuff was saved from the hands of evil doers. But a bunch of it walked out. Some of it went with the two gangs, some of it went with the mob. City PD got some of it, and SCRET has some of it too. Figure that the PD won't want to give this stuff up to SCRET without a court order, and even that some of it might go home with either a well meaning officer, or someone along the lines of Detective Vic Macky takes one. SCRET is going to deploy some of this, and other gangs, mobs and cartels will stop at nothing to get their hands on these devices. Even as these things start to rotate out of circulation, the need for that level of power doesn't diminish, just access. So the bad guys will have to go searching for new edges. The guys who used to have such power will do almost anything to get it back.

Some examples: First, some of the mundane but cool tech from the assorted books. Things like laser guns, jet-packs and the like. Think of the super weapons and vehicles from Super Soldier table, and any of the hardware from the alien tables. A bunch of this crap all over the city will give your players fits.

Flame Gauntlets (3 sets built) Super-Invention 4th level power. Gauntlets.
Inventor Joachim Cayman "Archimedes 1"
NAR: 12 130 SDC each. Protects the hands, extends fire immunity to the wearer and his/her gear.
Two (sets) of them have two minor abilities, Impervious to fire and heat, Energy expulsion/fire. The third one is one major, Control elemental force/fire.
Sets 1 & 2: Energy Expulsion fire: 300ft range max, 5d6 damage. Can attack as a paired attack. +3 to strike.
Set 3: See Control Elemental Force/Fire for the details. Do note, that Fire Blast has a 4d6+6 hit, so it's a more consistent damage effect then EE Fire.
All three sets are equal to fourth level abilities. Difficulty to Repair: Simple.
Recommended skill set: None.
Give these to low level thugs. They don't add much to the character, but they do add a level of 'super' menace to an otherwise mundane fight. Without some kind of body armor these guys won't last long in a fight with real super-humans. So maybe using them with a number of other gang members and thugs to add a bit of 'super' to a gang land fight. I decided on simple repairs to help keep these things in play for as long as possible and further that idea.

Kinetic Combat Suit. Super-Invention, 6th level power. Battle Suit.
Inventor: Joachim Cayman “Archimedes 1”
NAR: 13 440 SDC. Protects the pilot.
45 minute On-board air supply. Up to minus 45 degrees F to plus 350 degrees F thermal tolerance. Class 4 chemical suit. Multi-optics Helmet (1600ft target sight, infrared optics and thermos-imager, 2 miles telescopic) +1 to strike. Altimeter/depth display. Shoulder mounted 200 watt dimmable flashlight with Infrared setting. Water proof. Max depth tolerance 400ft without force Aura, 1 mile plus with force Aura. +2 points of damage to all melee attacks. On-board computer has the equivalent of a high end lap-top, with a GPS system and basic avionics.
Powers: One Major and two minor abilities (was two major abilities).
Force Aura NAR: 14 280 SDC, +4 Fall/Roll, +10 to wearer’s PS and it becomes super-human +4 to P.E. Regenerates 15 SDC per 10 minutes.
Flight Wingless: Flight speed 280 miles an hour. +40 to Force Aura’s SDC bump, +1 Attack, +2 Strike (melee), +2 to parry, +4 to dodge at less than 80 MPH, +6 to dodge at 81 to 280 MPH. +4 to damage for every 20 MPH of flight speed.
Energy Expulsion Force (Core HU version): Range: 600ft Damage: 6d6. Can divide attack into two shots per action.
Repairing notes: Colum 3. Repairs are time consuming, requiring 6d6+4 hours of work and require Electrical engineering AND either Armorer or Weapons Engineering. Can be a bit costly, normal costs for that table for anything more than simple SDC armor damage. Workshop required but not advanced lab required.
Recommended skills: SCUBA, Navigation (air/land/water), Read sensory equipment.
This one is a bit more tricky. I envisioned a college student with some tech skills or maybe a soldier with the same. Or combine the two concepts, a college student on the GI bill, with some tech skills left over from his time in.

Strike Collars (16 built). Super Invention. 3rd level in power. Collar worn around neck.
Inventor: Joachim Cayman “Archimedes 1”
Collar’s NAR 14 120 SDC (very small target).
Powers: 3 minor.
Lightning Reflexes: +3 to Initiative, +2 to fall/roll, +6 to speed, +1 Attack per melee, +3 to auto-dodge, paired weapons (all). See side effects.
Adhesion: Stick to walls and move on walls and ceilings at ½ speed. Max load of 10lbs per point of PS. Automatic climb skill of 90%. +10% to prowl skill when wall crawling. +15% to palming, pickpockets and Concealment. +5% to acrobatics and Gymnastics skills. +1 to Physical Prowess.
Increased Durability: Adds 120 to SDC and 24 hit points. +10 to save vs coma and death. Regenerates twice as fast as normal humans (8 pts per day while worn continuously).
Repair notes: Expensive. Repairs are time consuming (6d6+24 hours). Parts are hard to come by, and requires both Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. And advanced shop or tech lab is required.
Suggested skills: Designed for special-forces soldiers, recommended similar skill set.
Side effects: Consumes twice as many calories per day. Collar is addictive and once one starts wearing it, hates to take it off/remove it. Tends to be fidgety, has trouble sleeping and is often cocky or brash.

Steel-limb (4 created, two arms, one right one left, two legs, one right, one left). Super Invention. 4th level power.
Inventor: Joachim Cayman “Archimedes 1”
NAR: 13 (small targets) 215 SDC each when inactive. NAR: 17 120 SDC when active.
Each unit bonds to a missing human limb replacing it with a techno-organic replacement appendage. If someone wants to use the device, they must have the correct limb for the missing body part. If they have a body part where the unit would attach, then they must remove the body part (ouch!). It does not regrow any other missing limbs. Once applied, removing the limb requires amputation (while the limb is inactive, otherwise as normal for the APS: Limb power). All powers are continuously active when attached. Only one unit can be used at a time.
Powers: Four minor abilities.
Alter Physical structure of Limb/steel: When activated For either leg, replace the weapon hammer/blade ability with the minor power of Power stomp.
Harden skin: Body wide NAR 13 and adds 90 SDC to the wearer’s total.
Healing Factor: +6 to PE, +14 hit points, + 25 to SDC, +20% to save vs coma/death, +3 to save vs magic, poison and toxins.
Heightened sense of awareness: +2 on Initiative, +1 to Fall/roll, +2 vs horror factor, Auto-dodge.
Repair Notes: None. These units are self-repairing once connected to someone. If you want to end this, you'll have to chop it off to chop it up.
Recommended Skills: None.
Bending the rule by using an APS power, but I liked the way it worked out.



Those are just a few, take a wack at it yourself, it's kind of fun. Grab a goon out of the GMs guide and slap one of these on him or her, and bang, instant super villain or sub-boss or the like.

[wyrmraker]

I use similar 'filler' missions for my PCs when they either go completely off-book and off target (I call this the "Ooooh shiny! Effect"). I have ancient notes from old games (mostly D&D) that I can convert over for about any genre. Shadowy organizations, crazed cults, lone nutters, and even mass breaks of sanity are all noted down.

I also have Tier Levels of normal, unpowered villain NPCs. I originally designed this for a GURPS game, but it holds pretty true for Heroes Unlimited.

Tier 1: Mugger
This tier comprises the lone mugger, smash & grab, carjacker sort. Armed at most with a handgun, minimal skills, probably tired, starving, and desperate.

Tier 2: Hired Muscle
These fellows are general from the same group (mafia, cartel, local street gang) ordered by their boss to retrieve something (drugs, guns, and cash are the usual, but it might get into wierder objectives depending on who is hiring the leader to do the retrieval). Unskilled but numerous, they are mostly armed with handguns and a couple of low-end, cheap SMGs. They are also highly loyal to one another, and repercussions could spread against the PCs from other members of the organization. Interestingly, local street gangs are far less likely to shrug off the PCs interference than organized crime.

Tier 3: Low-End Professional
Usually found in groups of 2-4, these are the professional street crooks. They steal trucks full of goods, raid warehouses, break into and loot houses, that sort of thing. They are fairly good at what they do, fast and efficient, but not particularly skilled in technical details like alarms. Lightly armed with knives and handguns, fairly accurate with them. Perfectly willing to put forth a standup fight.

Tier 4: Lone Professional
Invariably running solo or with a single partner, these are the high-end professionals who score sizable, high-profile targets. Second-story men, con artists, yacht thieves, and the like. Highly skilled in technical areas, but tend not to be combat skilled, as their strengths are running and hiding until it all blows over. Unlikely to be armed with more than a small prybar, since that turns Breaking & Entering into something several degrees more felonious. In a fight, they are slippery buggers specializing in distractions so they can flee.

Tier 5: Professional Henchmen
In an area where spandex wearing criminals are common, you will invariably have the henchmen. These are not men dedicated to a single villain, but rather guys contracted for specific jobs. The Harley Quinn comic series went into this very well, and I have mined this heavily for ideas. They tend to be well armed with slightly customized weapons, lightly armored, and combat experienced (HtH Expert, high ME). Skills will vary, but will be fairly high for the kinds of jobs they're hired for (you won't have a second story man on a bank job, for example).
Occasionally, there will be what I call the Alpha Hench. This is a person who is very highly skilled, usually in charge of the henchmen, and can be found barking orders and tactics. No powers, instead a high MA, and likely to have specialized gear depending on who he's worked for in the past. He will also, upon the takedown of the spandexed villain they're working for, surrender when things look bleak. Interestingly, when the Alpha Hench surrenders, they will do so honestly; they're there to do a job, not commit suicide.

Just throwing out a few ideas that I tend to use in my Supers games.