I've finally managed to get the base line work done for my solo run of Heroes Unlimited. The initial world building stuff really helped to focus my energies, and I can't wait to take this game for a spin.
First thing I had to do was put together my "GM kit." Even with games I know pretty well, I find it's helpful to have some cheat sheets. Back when I did a solo run of Vampire (a game I'm pretty certain I could run without any of the books), I still ran into the need for enemy stats and the like. Oddly, this isn't as a big of a deal for me when I run a standard game. In a group situation, I feel much more comfortable fudging the dice rolls or making things up on the fly. In a Solo game, I feel a much more obligated to be "by the book." Not that it really matters, but I want to keep that dangerous feeling going.
So, my GM kit for HU is pretty basic. One of the Palladium forum user by the name of Glistam hooked me up with an excellent NPC sheet. I've already statted up the various "generic" bad guys, and that one sheet made it really easy to have these "normal" people ready to play. Of course, I can use the same stats for police officers, soldiers, security guards, etc. Adding various super powers to these baselines should be somewhat painless.
Should.
I also have a couple of sheets of simple rules--like ranged combat, the hand to hand charts, and stats for various guns. Palladium has an excellent sourcebook for contemporary weapons, but I really don't need to know the precise type of sub-machine guns the bad guys with precise range and ammo type. Well, most of the time I don't. Just a good generic SMG will be enough 80% of the time.
With the rules and setting figured out, I also finally got to make my character! I used a bit of random rolling (Palladium's use of tables is one of my favorite elements of their games) with a bit of choice. I'll be playing a Magic/Enchanted Weapon character. He's from a small town in northern California, and discovered a bizarre staff during a Boy Scout camping trip to Redwood State Park. He knew there was something odd about this staff, and he kept it with him, growing increasingly close to it and focused on it. He felt driven to master and understand it, and gradually came to unlock its abilities.
The staff itself I see as being tied to the Brotherhood Aliens. I'm not sure exactly HOW yet, but I know they're involved. It's Alien Mysticism, and its name, if it has one, is unpronounceable by humans. He dubbed it Shillelagh. Shillelagh packs a heck of a wallop, and has granted my character superhuman strength, extraordinary mental endurance (willpower), and an uncanny zen like sense of his surrounding (radar). To offset the combat powers, he lacks any kind of enhanced movement--no flying or running or the like. He's a grounded hero.
Currently, he's in college, attending University of California at Crescent City. His family isn't terribly well off, but it's a public school and he's on a wrestling scholarship. Otherwise, he's skills are pretty general/liberal arts--research and law and business and the like. His best friend is his roommate, Chris Jackson. they've bonded over their shared passion for fantasy and gaming, though Chris is far more into engineering and computers than running around and hitting people.
For the name, I go with Scott Walterson (derived from Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe). When dormant, his magic staff is roughly the size of his hand, and is easily concealed. When activated, it extends to the size of a quarterstaff, and generates a red and black costume, seemingly made of leather and chain mail. Scott has decided to dub himself YEOMAN. However, he's only recently become aware of the criminal element in town, when he was nearly the victim of a random mugging a few weeks ago. He's headed out a few times since then, though he doesn't have much of a reputation yet. On the street, he's known as "Yo! Man" or "guy with stick." A few of the more cinephile criminals think his name is "Bo-Man!"
This greatly annoys Scott.
In keeping with the rules and world presented in Heroes Unlimited, the game will take place in the mid 1990's. As the dulcet sounds of TLC, Bryan Adams, and Hootie & The Blowfish drift through the air, we open our first issue...
First thing I had to do was put together my "GM kit." Even with games I know pretty well, I find it's helpful to have some cheat sheets. Back when I did a solo run of Vampire (a game I'm pretty certain I could run without any of the books), I still ran into the need for enemy stats and the like. Oddly, this isn't as a big of a deal for me when I run a standard game. In a group situation, I feel much more comfortable fudging the dice rolls or making things up on the fly. In a Solo game, I feel a much more obligated to be "by the book." Not that it really matters, but I want to keep that dangerous feeling going.
So, my GM kit for HU is pretty basic. One of the Palladium forum user by the name of Glistam hooked me up with an excellent NPC sheet. I've already statted up the various "generic" bad guys, and that one sheet made it really easy to have these "normal" people ready to play. Of course, I can use the same stats for police officers, soldiers, security guards, etc. Adding various super powers to these baselines should be somewhat painless.
Should.
I also have a couple of sheets of simple rules--like ranged combat, the hand to hand charts, and stats for various guns. Palladium has an excellent sourcebook for contemporary weapons, but I really don't need to know the precise type of sub-machine guns the bad guys with precise range and ammo type. Well, most of the time I don't. Just a good generic SMG will be enough 80% of the time.
With the rules and setting figured out, I also finally got to make my character! I used a bit of random rolling (Palladium's use of tables is one of my favorite elements of their games) with a bit of choice. I'll be playing a Magic/Enchanted Weapon character. He's from a small town in northern California, and discovered a bizarre staff during a Boy Scout camping trip to Redwood State Park. He knew there was something odd about this staff, and he kept it with him, growing increasingly close to it and focused on it. He felt driven to master and understand it, and gradually came to unlock its abilities.
The staff itself I see as being tied to the Brotherhood Aliens. I'm not sure exactly HOW yet, but I know they're involved. It's Alien Mysticism, and its name, if it has one, is unpronounceable by humans. He dubbed it Shillelagh. Shillelagh packs a heck of a wallop, and has granted my character superhuman strength, extraordinary mental endurance (willpower), and an uncanny zen like sense of his surrounding (radar). To offset the combat powers, he lacks any kind of enhanced movement--no flying or running or the like. He's a grounded hero.
Currently, he's in college, attending University of California at Crescent City. His family isn't terribly well off, but it's a public school and he's on a wrestling scholarship. Otherwise, he's skills are pretty general/liberal arts--research and law and business and the like. His best friend is his roommate, Chris Jackson. they've bonded over their shared passion for fantasy and gaming, though Chris is far more into engineering and computers than running around and hitting people.
For the name, I go with Scott Walterson (derived from Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe). When dormant, his magic staff is roughly the size of his hand, and is easily concealed. When activated, it extends to the size of a quarterstaff, and generates a red and black costume, seemingly made of leather and chain mail. Scott has decided to dub himself YEOMAN. However, he's only recently become aware of the criminal element in town, when he was nearly the victim of a random mugging a few weeks ago. He's headed out a few times since then, though he doesn't have much of a reputation yet. On the street, he's known as "Yo! Man" or "guy with stick." A few of the more cinephile criminals think his name is "Bo-Man!"
This greatly annoys Scott.
In keeping with the rules and world presented in Heroes Unlimited, the game will take place in the mid 1990's. As the dulcet sounds of TLC, Bryan Adams, and Hootie & The Blowfish drift through the air, we open our first issue...
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