Let's read Games Workshop's "Golden Heroes: The Role-Playing Game of Super-Heroes"

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Dumarest

Vaquero de Alta California
Joined
Jan 20, 2018
Messages
15,721
Reaction score
34,438
Well, my work has decided that investigators are doing too much overtime and is forcing us to take one-hour lunches off the clock and get overtime authorized in advance, so I find myself with time on my hands since I usually take only the state-mandated 30 minutes (and wouldn't even take that if the state didn't force me to). So...what to do? I finished the novel I brought with me this morning and the only other reading material I have at hand is Frederick Forysth's The Dogs of War (which I quit reading about 45% of the way through because the build-up was taking too long and I just wasn't that interested in seeing how it played out from there as there were no characters I cared about either), 2nd edition Boot Hill, and Golden Heroes. So let's read Golden Heroes: The Role-Playing Game of Super-Heroes.
pic529489.jpg
The "Players Book," which is designed to look like a Bronze Age Marvel comic book complete with a banner across the top and a fake UPC in the bottom left corner box, starts with the Introduction, wherein it is explained that the players will be controlling the actions and developing the personality of a comic book Superhero (capitalized in the book, unclear why). We also learn that there is no game master or referee, but rather we have a Scenario Supervisor (hereafter abbreviated "SS"), running the game for the players. Too bad they didn't come up with a nifty abbreviation for players as well. Missed opportunity. It's spelled out very clearly that the SS will have a hand in helping the players create their superheroes, and that the players "should become familiar with the dice" because they'll need to be rolled several times in creating a superhero. The Dice: this paragraph just lays out how the various dice are abbreviated and which dice are needed. You'll need to become familiar with the d6, the d10, and the d20. "You are now ready to embark on issue number 1 of Golden Heroes: The Origins of a Superhero."

The Basic Character explains there are four Attributes: Ego, Strength, Dexterity, and Vigour, for which you will roll 3d6 to generate a score from 3 to 18. Ego is the measure of your character's "will power." It also determines how powerful your mental and/or magical powers are and how resistant you are to "such things as brain-washing and hypnosis." I really like that there is no Intelligence attribute, much like Pendragon or Boot Hill; it's up to the player to determine how smart his hero is. (Later we'll see a section on Advantageous Backgrounds that will let you become a Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, or Reed Richards type if you like.) Strength measures strength and helps you cause or resist damage. Dexterity measures manual dexterity, unlike many games that include agility or alacrity under the term, and a high Dexterity will help you hit your opponents. A low Dexterity does the opposite. Vigour "is a measure of how fit and healthy your character is." This will determine your Hits to Coma (HTC), Hits to Kill (HTK), and Recovery Rate Modifier. Basically when you take damage of various fractions of your HTC or HTK, you may be staggered, stunned, knocked out, hospitalized, or dead. A character's Movement is based on adding up your Strength, Dexterity, and Vigour and dividing by 6 (rounding to nearest whole number). A character can swim at 1/5 his normal Movement rate. All this stuff should be written in pencil, by the way, as it may be affected by your superpowers or the "Previous Training" Advantageous Background.

Now we come to the part where we roll up some random powers: Creating Your Superhero. The SS will allocate a number of Power Rolls or allow you to generate a random number (from 5 to 10, so not a huge range). I kind of prefer each player generating a random number. Some of the powers on the random table are actually increases to your attributes like Strength and Vigour. Also, they haven't said so yet, but skills and Advantageous Backgrounds are essentially powers as well. Before you roll your random powers, you can decide to discard any number of your rolls and instead choose an Advantageous Background in place of each roll you're giving up. However, you don't select your Advantageous Background until after you've rolled up your random assortment of powers, the idea being you will therefore avoid incompatibility. Some superpowers have "grades," which is basically a rank or a level. A higher grade means it's more powerful. If you roll the same superpower more than one time, you increase it by a grade; if there are no grades for that power, you just roll again instead. If you roll a superpower that has grades, you can forgo a roll and upgrade it by one. If you want to upgrade it by two, you have to give up two more rolls. Upgrading a third grade will cost three more rolls. And so on. So if you rolled Strength as a power and wanted to be really, really strong, you could for instance take Strength Grade 4 but it would cost you a total of seven power rolls (including the initial roll that got you the power). Personally I like this because it makes the higher levels of a power rare at the start of a campaign. In the "Supervisors Book," the game will cover how you can increase powers during a campaign.

If you saved any power rolls because you want to choose one of the Advantageous Backgrounds, your SS will tell you whether you get to select one or have to roll randomly from a list of such things as "Rich - Industrialist," "Brilliant Scientist - Mechanical," "Contacts - Criminal," and "Previous Training." There are five other options as well. Your character may get special resources, contacts, increased attributes, or even be immortal depending on what you choose or roll.

Next up is one of the best parts of Golden Heroes: Background & Rationale. After you've rolled up your motley assortment of powers (and Advantageous Background, if any), you have to figure out a rationale for your superhero that explains how and why these powers all make sense together. Essentially you're explaining your origin story. For any power you can't rationalize, you give it up. Now, players are usually pretty slick at coming up with rationales in my experience, so it's no big deal, but now and then a player has a neat concept where a power just makes no sense and in my experience mature players haven't made a fuss over giving up "Weather Control," for instance, if they had an aim of playing a masked vigilante Batman type of character. The rulebook gives eight examples of rationales for very different heroes created from the same seven randomly rolled powers. This part of the book is really cool because it shows how far you can stretch the same set of powers into utterly different concepts, from a space cop to an armored hero to a bug-man to magic-sword-wielding barbarian and four more for good measure. Your rationale/origin story works best if it provides some plot hooks and possible rivals, enemies, and complications for your superhero. The SS judges whether your rationale is acceptable.

(...more to come...)
 
Last edited:
We left off at page 13 of the "Players Book." The following page tells you it's now time to complete your Final Calculations, that is, consult the superpowers and what changes, if any, they make to your original Attributes, HTC, HTK, etc. As you will recall, I told you to write those in pencil. Your superhero may start with up to three items of Equipment. If you rolled a superpower that entails equipment (such as Armour, Weapon Skill, or Cybernetic Device), that counts as one of your items. If that still leaves you with less than three items, you can choose some freebies like a rope and grapple à la Batman, a tracer to attach to getaway cars or runaway crooks à la Spider-Man, a two-way micro-radio à la Dick Tracy, or even a padded suit or ultra-light chainmail for extra protection à la the Black Knight.
bat.png wSU9sb0.jpg dt.jpg bk.jpg
Standard superhero costumes do not count as one of your three items unless they are made of Unstable Molecules so as to allow them to shrink or stretch or turn invisible with you, in which case you can take an Unstable Molecule costume as one of your three items. Once you have rounded out your superhero with a wise set of accoutrements, you can determine your sex, handedness, costume design, secret identity, et cetera and "your Golden Hero is ready to go out into the game-world and battle the forces of evil."

The following two pages have a character sheet on the right-hand side and a shrunken version of the same sheet filled out with the sample character the authors rolled up while guiding you through the process ("The Skipper," a truly awful superhero name) along with section-by-section instructions. It reminds me a bit of the double-page character creation spread Call of Cthulhu had (and may still have). I really like it when a character takes up only one side of a page and there are nice wide, blank spaces to use. On the character sheet you'll notice a section for Campaign Ratings, which the rules have not yet addressed. It is explained here that unless predetermined by an Advantageous Background, the SS will tell you your character's ratings. You are instructed to write these down in pencil as they may change from scenario to scenario. More information is to be found in the chapter on Campaigns, which comes in about ten more pages as it is assumed that for now you will be creating a superhero, learning how combat and powers work, and then playing out a few simple scenarios like bank robberies before you are ready to engage in a full-fledged campaign.

(...up next: Combat!)
 
Last edited:
"The struggle between Good and Evil is symbolized in the world of comics by what is commonly known as a slugfest." So sayeth the first sentence of the section on Combat. Combat is split into Rounds that represent a few seconds of action. Rounds are made up of Frames, which essentially mean comic book panels. Superheroes and major supervillains get four Frames to act per Round, minor supervillains and thugs and animals get three Frames, and your Jimmy Olsen and Aunt May types only get two. This is a nice representation of the comic book world where superheroes just seem so much more capable than ordinary crooks or workaday Joes, even the non-superpowered types like Batman. The way the book explains how Frames and Actions work was a little confusing to me the first couple of times around, but I'll try to make it clearer. Any significant activity is considered an Action and takes two consecutive frames to perform. Initiative is important: each side rolls a ten-sider and the higher roll wins Initiative. Where it gets interesting is that the winners of Initiative gets from one to four Frames (depending on how much they won the roll by) where that side can act before the losers gets an opportunity to respond by using their frames, and then the winners gets to use the remainder of their Frames after that. So winning Initiative by a lot can mean your side could have up to eight Frames in which to take Actions while the other side only gets four Frames in between. And then you roll Initiative again for the next Round. There are some relatively simple rules for the effects of surprise and delaying Actions for a later Frame in the Round.

This next section I believe should have been presented before the Initiative rules because sometimes you'll get an odd number of Frames when you win Initiative: what can you do in a Frame or set of Frames? In one Frame a superhero can move up to their total Movement value, make most ordinary melee attacks, smash open a door, lift an object, or use any power that is described as taking one Frame. Other superpowers or missile attacks take two consecutive Frames to execute, or you could move up to twice your Movement value. (There are special rules for using a ½-Frame, but they only come into play for characters with the Speed power.)

Important note: the combat sequence applies for any type of combat, be it physical, mental, or magic. Everything is still played out in the same Frames representing comic book panels. Physical Combat gets a lot of detail now, which makes sense since that's likely going to be 90% or more of your fights if your games are anything like the comic books that inspired them.

Characters have a Defence Class which makes it easier or harder to be hurt. Much like old-time D&D's Armor Class, a lower Defence Class is better than a higher one. One interesting item to note is that superheroes with the lowest Defence Classes cannot dodge. I presume the inspiration is the classic big lumbering muscleman types like the Thing or the Hulk. Wearing the usual Spandex costume gives you a small bonus to dodging, I suppose because you're dressed to be flexible and athletic. Your Defence Class also gives you a Damage Divider, which reduces how much damage you take if someone manages to hit you in a vulnerable spot. Defence Classes are ranked from one to twelve, where eleven and twelve are normal people and thugs. Interestingly there is a bit of an early precursor to what is commonly called "mook" rules nowaways, as ordinary folk and thugs cannot dodge either.

Characters also have a Weapon Class which is a measure of how efficient and accurate their various attacks are. This includes various superpowers, actual physical weapons, special martial arts skills, or just using your fists to pound someone into submission. Weapon Classes are ranked from zero to five, with five being best. Zero is essentially J. Jonah Jameson throwing a punch or Lois Lane hitting you with her purse.

(...more Combat to come...)
 
I have a mint copy of this on my shelf.A great game from the days when GW were about all kinds of different games and not just Warhammer.

I'd love to get a copy of Chainsaw Warrior. Or Rogue Trooper, two of the board games they did back then.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
I have a mint copy of this on my shelf.A great game from the days when GW were about all kinds of different games and not just Warhammer.

I'd love to get a copy of Chainsaw Warrior. Or Rogue Trooper, two of the board games they did back then.

I have Golden Heroes, Judge Dredd, RuneQuest, and Call of Cthulhu from GW. They used to make a lot of things I was interested in. I've never had any interest in the miniatures stuff, though.
 
I have Golden Heroes, Judge Dredd, RuneQuest, and Call of Cthulhu from GW. They used to make a lot of things I was interested in. I've never had any interest in the miniatures stuff, though.
I have the RuneQuest hardbacks they did, plus Stormbringer 3rd ed and some WHFRP 1e stuff. Dredd sadly vanished long ago and the box set they did of CoC was the first not-D&D game I ever played. They were a force in the 80s. It's a shame they made Citadel the primary company in that merger.
 

I've always been more interested in super heroes and sci fi and historical fiction than fantasy and for a while as a kid there was a really good comic book store my brother and I used to visit that also had a pretty good array of roleplaying games on the side opposite all the comic book shelves and spinner racks. The boxed set of Golden Heroes jumped right out at me and captured my imagination. I was probably ten years old at the time. Pretty sure I forwent buying comic books for a while in order to buy this instead.
pic529482.jpg
It's really cool and evocative cover art. And the back of the box is fun as well because it catalogues the contents and shows pictures of what's inside the box. I wish more games did that!
pic529483.jpg
Making the books look like Bronze Age Marvel comic book covers was a stroke of genius.
 
Last edited:
I randomly picked this up for $10 at a used book store. Nice surprise to find the two modules inside. The only thing I'm missing is the Supervisors Kit.
 
I randomly picked this up for $10 at a used book store. Nice surprise to find the two modules inside. The only thing I'm missing is the Supervisors Kit.
That was a heck of a deal. Just the game books go for way more than that each, leaving aside the box, and good luck even finding the adventure modules. I do happen to have the Supervisors Kit and both modules so I have the whole game line aside from the miniatures. :dice:
 
That was a heck of a deal. Just the game books go for way more than that each, leaving aside the box, and good luck even finding the adventure modules. I do happen to have the Supervisors Kit and both modules so I have the whole game line aside from the miniatures. :dice:
We used to have an awesome game store nearby that did a brisk trade in used RPGs. Store closed and I died a little inside.
 
Love GH. You can get an updated version of the game by the name of Squadron UK.

We used to almost have more fun coming up with our rationales than playing the game!
 
Love GH. You can get an updated version of the game by the name of Squadron UK.

We used to almost have more fun coming up with our rationales than playing the game!

I keep reading that online, but having both games I would say the resemblance is minor. I got Squadron UK based on blurbs about it basically being Golden Heroes under another name, as I thought I'd use it at the table and keep my GH box and books from suffering additional wear and tear.

The rationales can be a fun challenge, particularly when you've got a set of powers that make no sense at first glance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
I keep reading that online, but having both games I would say the resemblance is minor. I got Squadron UK based on blurbs about it basically being Golden Heroes under another name, as I thought I'd use it at the table and keep my GH box and books from suffering additional wear and tear.

The rationales can be a fun challenge, particularly when you've got a set of powers that make no sense at first glance.
Thanks crazy powers combo was always one of the best parts of V&V for me.
 
Thanks crazy powers combo was always one of the best parts of V&V for me.
"Crustacean powers" was a favorite roll. Had a hero once called King Crab.
 
Got ridiculously busy at work taking witness statements today...will try to continue tomorrow!
 
(Running short on time due to another busy day. Hmm, refer back to my original post about overtime...sure could use some! On a state-mandated break now...)

The next section is Physical Combat Options and has the beautifully named the Pushing, Lifting, Throwing, and Tearing Apart Table, which tells you what your Strength will let you do in those terms against objects, buildings, and vehicles of various sizes and types. Pretty nifty, and something any SS should probably have ready for reference because superheroes are known to tear apart the town in order to save it. There is also a brief section called The Coup-de-Grace for the SS and player who lacks common sense about these things. But it's all sorted out for you in three sentences basically stating you can use one Action to administer a coup-de-grace to an unconscious or stunned opponent to put them out of action for several hours. There follows a list of common moves your superhero might use in a fight: charging, grappling, grabbing, and hitting someone. Rather than a "to-hit" roll, you'll be making The Strike Roll, which is a d20 roll that the SS will cross-index using your Weapon Class against your target's Defence Class to determine whether you've made a successful attack. Any unamended Strike Roll of one is a Critical Miss. Any unamended Strike Roll of 20 is a Critical Hit. I don't remember ever using these, but there they are. Funny what you learn when reading a text closely. I assume I used them but just forgot about it as it's been years. Anyway, if you get a Critical Miss or Hit, the SS rolls 1d10 to find out the effect on your character or your opponent. A nice touch is that anytime a nonsuperpowered opponent is truck by a Critical Hit, he is automatically rendered unconscious or killed depending on whether the damage is HTC or HTK. What they now call "mook rules," I understand, and act as if it is a new concept or breakthrough in gaming. Well, this is 1984. Pretty sure now I did use those rules and just forgot about it, but fairly certain I used it for knockouts only as I prefer superheroes not to be killing people by accident.

(Coming up next: Combat Responses!)
 
Picking up on page 22...

Combat Responses are something only superpowered characters can do, but not if they were surprised by an attack. You can make a Combat Response by using up your future Frames in a Round. There are several different types of Combat Responses that you might want to use under varying conditions, such as Dodge, Parry or Catch, Judo Throw, and Using Superpowers, among other. Using Superpowers requires your character to have practiced it as a Superpower Refinement during your campaign. An exampled is given wherein a hero uses his Teleport power to momentarily disappear to avoid incoming bullets. The next paragraph is a section many RPGs need to shout from the rooftops: Common Sense. "Various other Combat Responses will occur to you depending on the circumstances. It is up to the SS to determine how likely your character is to succeed." The example given is a superhero catching hold of the edge of a building after being knocked off the top by a "Superstrong" punch. Essentially the game is giving you permission to be creative as bound by your Scenario Supervisor's judgment. Not that I ever felt the need to ask permission, but from what I have seen and read there does seem to be a subset of gamers who feel that anything the rules don't explicitly permit is therefore forbidden.

Next up is Determining Damage. When a successful strike (or hit) is made, damage is done to and deducted from the target's HTK and HTC. Defence Classes will reduce or eliminate damage from various Weapons Classes. All Damage Modifiers are cumulative, but you can decline to add any Bonus to your damage as a way of pulling your punch. Damage Dividers resulting from some powers and Defence Classes are just what they sound like; you divide the damage by that amount and round fractions down; the only exception would be if the damage is 1 or 0, in which case it remains 1 or 0, although if the damage is zero I'm not sure why you'd bother reducing it anyway. Energy Attacks inflict more damage because they reduce your Damage Divider by 2.

Push-Back is what Golden Heroes calls knockback, but what’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The Push-Back Threshold for most characters is 20 HTC; some characters will have a higher threshold due to certain powers like Growth. For every 5 HTC (or fraction thereof) over your threshold, you're driven back 2 meters. Of course, if you are pushed back into a solid object you may incur additional damage.

Losing HTC is less serious than losing HTK, and it is recovered faster as well. HTC is recovered at a rate of 1d6 per Round of inaction, plus your Recovery Rate Modifier derived from your Vigour attribute. Having your HTC reduced to 20% of your total Staggers you, which halves your Movement rate and give you a -2 penalty to strike until you recover. Having your HTC reduced to 10% of your total Stuns you, which means you cannot move at all and have a -5 penalty to strike, as well as only getting 2/4 of your usual Frames per Round until you recover. Being reduced to zero HTC means you're unconscious and will remain so until you've recovered 5% of your HTC. There are also rules for negative HTC and doing damage that will become HTK instead, but I don't think I have ever used them as I like my superhero games to be four-color Bronze Age action, so nobody is going to be knocked out and then beaten to death by my villains. Placed in an "inescapable" death trap, sure. A nice note here is that you can aid recovery (adding 2d6 HTC immediately) with smelling salts, immersion in cold water, "a tot of brandy," etc., but only once per recovery. I can just see Batman carrying a bottle of brandy and collapsible snifters in his utility belt.

HTK is recovered at a rate of 1d6 per hour of inaction, again plus your Recovery Rate Modifier. If your HTK is reduced to 10% of your normal total, you must be hospitalized in order to recover. This can put a real crimp in your crime-fighting, as you only recover 1 HTK per day until you're above 10% again, at which point you resume normal recovery. If your superhero is reduced to exactly zero HTK, you are Technically Dead but may be revived by rapid administration of "a kiss of life" (better known as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation where I come from), electric shock treatment, etc. Immediate first aid to an injured, hospitalized, or technically dead character will cure 1d6 of HTK damage, but it has to be done by someone familiar with first aid, for instance a doctor, nurse, or paramedic. If your superhero is reduced to less than zero HTK, you are dead.
 
Only characters whose powers (for instance, Weapon Skill or Cybernetic Weapon) specified a weapon may have Weapons. But it is helpfully noted that anyone can hurl an object in combat provided he has sufficient Strength. There follow sections on Shields (gee, I wonder why?), Special Weapons that have a range but are not missile weapons (bullwhips, for instance), Light Projectile Weapons (bow and arrow, for example), and Hand-Hurled Missiles (billy clubs get touched on in particular). I'm kind of surprised boomerangs aren't mentioned.
cap!.jpg View attachment 1822 09dadbb71a8d6f2e0f84234117bcbdcd.jpg dd.jpg
Then there is section on Extreme Range: you can try a missile or projectile attack at up to twice normal range by taking a -1 Strike Modifier for every 20% of increased range, up to a total of -5 for 200% your normal range, which is not a bad way to emulate those last-ditch shots a hero might take at a fleeing villain, especially dramatic if your hero is already Staggered or Stunned as mentioned in the last post. Damage Modifiers for Strength only apply to hand-hurled missiles weighing a kilogram or more.

The bottom half of the same page has a nice list of weapons sorted by categories and noting their damage and any special features. Various firearms are listed here, including lasers and "blasters." I would recommend a SS keep this table handy if any of the PCs or villains or henchmen habitually use weapons. It's fairly comprehensive as it even has entries for icepicks and broken bottles. Anything it doesn't catalogue should be easy for you to extrapolate in relation to what is on the list.

The next section is a sort of miscellaneous hodgepodge of things that are likely to come up in the course of fights. Vehicles are managed by the SS, who will assign their rates of Acceleration and Maximum Speeds. Other Damage, such as falls, falling objects, and vehicles driving into characters "will be determined by the SS according to circumstances." Buildings have HTK dependent on the type and structure of the building. Smashing through doors and walls is a simple matter of reducing the HTK to zero. The Pushing, Lifting, Throwing, and Tearing Apart Table, which I mentioned earlier is on page 20 at the start of the Combat chapter, also tells you how much HTK needs to be inflicted to destroy an object or tear off a certain-sized piece of an object. Your character can only make a Magic Attack if he has the superpower Magic, and only when the particular Spell requires it. Magic Attacks differ from Physical Combat as the attacker adds his Ego value to his d20 roll, the defender also rolls a d20 and adds his Ego value; the attack is successful if the attacker's total is higher. Mental Attacks work exactly the same way as Magic Attacks, except that sometimes a conscious target wants to actively resist. If so, it must be stated before rolling the dice and the target forfeits his next two Frames in exchange for +5 to his die roll.

(Coming up: Campaigns!)
 
Last edited:
Keep it coming. You/re making me want to play this game!
 
At last, the section you've all been awaiting with bated breath...Campaigns! We being with an explanation that, while playing a series on unlinked scenarios is all well and good, eventually you're going to want to play a Campaign wherein the scenarios are connected, the principal (not "principle" as the game has it) links being playing the same character from one scenario to the next. Thus you will want to think about how your superheroine spends her time between scenarios, what is her job, her secret identity, and so on. In a Campaign, you may be able to improve your character's powers and how the public reacts to her. The Players Book notes that the SS has systems for adjudicating these things in the Supervisors Book, but that it's not necessary for players to know how the systems work as they depend almost entirely on how you roleplay your character. Good advice for players in any game: don't worry about the rules, play your character, let the referee worry about how the rules apply to your choices.

The Character Development section boldly proclaims, "The most important thing when playing in a Campaign is the development of your character." This portion discusses playing your character as you feel he would react to various situations, and to remember there are NPCs (your elderly aunt, your abusive publisher, your kindly editor, your foxy coworker, your crazy ex-girlfriend, your friendly rival, your current girlfriend) attached to your character who should also be developed over the course of the game.
aunt may.jpg jjj.jpg robbie.jpg glory.jpg betty.jpg flash.jpg mj.jpg
The method Golden Heroes uses to describe your character's status in the Campaign is Campaign Ratings, which is a clever set of descriptors of various rankings that may fluctuate over time depending on how you play your character and what happens during the Campaign. To represent time a character spends doing things other than fighting crime and beating on bad guys, players receive a number of Daily Utility Phases (hereafter DUPs) that can be "devoted to other pursuits such as training, improving powers, developing scientific gadgets, anything that might improve Campaign Ratings, etc." At the end of a scenario, or at the end of a series of closely connected scenarios, the SS will tell you how many DUPs your character has, and you will tell the SS how you want to spend them and how your character intends to go about it. They function more or less as experience points in other games, but I like that last bit about explaining how your character is doing it. So rather than a character receiving a number of points and suddenly improving, a player will need to devote over a period of time some DUPs to the area in which he wants his character to improve and explain what the character is doing that will result in the improvement. You'll work out with the SS what benefits and improvements are gained, and when they are gained.

Campaign Ratings are initially assigned by the SS based on your rationale for your character. I really like this as it means starting superheroes are not all cookie cutters with the same degree of public trust, finances, cooperation from or mistrust by law enforcement, and so on. Right out of the starting gate you'll have a bit of an idea of who your character is and what you might want to change about his methods or public image or what have you. The various Campaign Ratings are Financial Resource Level (income, lifestyle, "Can I afford to...?"), Material Resource Level (facilities available to your hero, like do you have a completely equipped laboratory or just a screwdriver and a hammer to work with?), Public Status (how do you get on with the community and police? are you looked upon as a suspect vigilante or a Dudley Do-Right hero? do you sneer at the public or turn up to perform acrobatics at charity events? are you obviously inhuman or do you pass for the girl next door?), Detective Points (do you even other trying to find clues and speak to witnesses like Batman or do you just blunder in like the Thing and knock heads together? does the local paper treat you more like The Daily Planet or The Daily Bugle? are you shunned like Spider-Man or do you have a hero hotline for the public to call you with tips like Captain America? do you have contacts in law enforcement or the underworld?), and Personal Status (do you have guilty secrets or a clear conscience? are you a recluse or out and about with plenty of friends and relatives who support you? are you spat upon and vilified or cheered wildly? are you a paranoid fatalist or always looking on the bright side of life?).

(Next...Character Improvement!)
 
Character Improvement explains how to improve your various Campaign Ratings, attributes, and powers. Your heroism and roleplaying will improve Campaign Ratings such as your Public Status or Personal Status. You can spend DUPs to improve, for instance, your Strength via weight-training.(Note that attributes cannot be increased beyond the highest possible natural score of 18.) One example in the rules has the horribly-named superhero Skipper seeking to improve his Ego score by regularly visiting a psychotherapist. Another example is Firefly wishing to increase his Financial Resource Level and using his DUPs to set up a series of dummy companies to buy stock and gain majority holding of Swanlake Industries, where he is on the board of directors, while simultaneously wooing the daughter of a major stockholder in order to gain her father's support for his takeover. Once you gain a new rating or attribute score, you'll have to continue investing DUPs in it for a while to maintain and stabilize the new rating or score.

Characters can also invent and build new gadgets if they have the appropriate skills, or can pay someone to do it for them. However, anything truly innovative requires the character to have a scientific Advantageous Background. The player specifies the details of the device and the SS assesses how much it will cost and how long it will take to develop and build it. As long as your character has the Material Resource Level and/or Financial Resource Level, you can then go ahead with the project. You may need to spend DUPs as well, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

A character may acquire new superpowers and skills through training and practice, as long as they make sense. For instance, "a character with Agility, Martial Arts, and Animal Senses could feasibly develop Precision." The SS will assess how likely the development of the new power or skill is (if it's even possible), how long it will take to develop, and the cost of any special equipment, and investment in DUPs you'll need to make.

In addition to acquiring new superpowers, there is also Refinement of Current Powers. This covers things such as engaging multiple opponents simultaneously with your Energy Attack power, using your Speed to improve your Defence Class, and so on. The rules mention that this is probably the best way to improve your character rather than trying to gain new abilities. This, again, requires the player to explain how her character is going about it and devoting DUPs to it. Power refinements cost no money and require no special equipment as it deals with a power you already have and it is assumed you would already have what you need to train yourself. The first example has the Protector deciding he wants to use his shield to bowl people over rather than just hit them; as he already has the Weapon Skill with his shield and the Agility power, this might be a relatively easy refinement to achieve. The second example has Windlord wanting to use his wings to develop a powerful wind equivalent to an aspect of the Weather Control power; as this is almost an entirely new power, it will likely take some time to develop it.

Of course, there is also the possibility of powers and side-effects resulting from the machinations of a supervillain!

Over the course of a Campaign, you may also be awarded some Hero Points by the SS. Hero Points can be added to any roll you've just made or subtracted from an opponent's roll, at your discretion. Each Hero Point can be used once per scenario, and then again in each subsequent scenario unless the SS tells you otherwise. Hero Points are intended to reflect the ability of comic book superheroes to perform heroically under desperate circumstances.

(Coming up: Superpowers!)
 
The Superpowers chapter begins with General Notes explaining that the powers are arranged alphabetically and usually will have a general description followed by details of the available Grades of the power. "Some powers have been left vague in places to allow you and the SS to place your own interpretations on them during the rationalization of your character." One thing Golden Heroes has going for it is that the authors knew when to leave things up to your common sense and good judgment rather than try to write a rule for every contingency.*

The actual list of powers provided in the game strikes me as a little bit oddball in a few of its choices, but on the whole it does a pretty good job of covering a broad range of abilities. None of the powers will allow you to create a character of cosmic proportions, instead falling more in the range of the early '80s X-Men and New Teen Titans or Spider-Man and Batman. If you're looking to play borderline omnipotent heroes such as Green Lantern, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, or Superman, you'll probably be frustrated and should choose a different superhero RPG. Personally I like this level of power better than the really over-the-top characters, so it does what I need it to do. I'm not going to catalogue the powers here as they are all pretty much standard superhero fare. They sometimes have their own fun little subsystems that players should probably take note of it they apply to one of their powers, but after a while of using the powers they become second nature. One interesting thing I mentioned earlier in this thread is that some items you might not think of as superpowers are included on the list: Agility, Martial Arts (either Oriental Martial Arts or Pugilism), Precision, Sidekick, Skills (randomly acquired by way of a 1d10 roll, 1-9 giving you a particular skill and 10 giving you a choice), Vehicle, and Weapon Skill are all superpowers, which works for me as "superpowers" are essentially just a variety of crime-fighting tools your character may employ. The last alphabetical entry on the list is Weather Control, after which follows a very good three-page index of the Players Book wherein the superpowers and "subpowers" are differentiated by being printed in italics.

*Apparently this wasn't enough for some players and referees, as co-creator Simon Burley later wrote an article in White Dwarf entitled "A Web in the Dark," wherein he explained why he didn't try to come up with an exhaustive list of superpowers and why certain fairly obvious powers were omitted from the list. In particular he discusses "Web-shooters," which were not included because he considered them to be a unique property of one character; however, he then goes on to demonstrate how you can use the Golden Heroes rules to simulate superpowers that were not included in the game by tweaking the Energy Attack power to become "Web-Slinging" and transmogrifying Cybernetics (Hologram Projector) into "Darkness Control."
 
Before I start reading the Supervisors Book, I was thinking about randomly rolling up a superhero and rationalizing his powers, or maybe having folks post their rationalizations here to show the different ways the same set of powers could make sense.

I don't know how well you can read these, but here are the rationales from the Players Book:
20180412_153422.jpg 20180412_153430.jpg 20180412_153439.jpg 20180412_153446.jpg
 
Last edited:
Screw it, I'm gonna roll up a Golden Hero.

3d6 for Ego, Strength, Dexterity, and Vigour gets me:
Ego: 3+3+4 = 10 (just average)
Strength: 6+6+3 = 15 (good but no Damage Modifier or Damage Divider Modifier)
Dexterity: 6+6+6 = 18 (best you can roll, +3 Strike Modifier, excellent bonus to hit or parry an opponent's attack!)
Vigour: 5+4+1 = 10 (just average)

The first 18 I've rolled on 3d6 in years and I'm wasting it on a sample character! :brokenheart: But already you can start to see what kind of hero this might be, as he is strong and will probably be pretty good in a fight.


1d6 for each point of Vigour to determine Hits to Coma (HTC) and Hits to Kill (HTK):

HTC = 5+5+4+6+6+4+5+5+4+5 = 49 (I rolled so many fives and sixes!)
Staggered = 1/5 (rounded down) of normal HTC = 9 (i.e., I'm Staggered when reduced to 9 HTC)
Stunned = 1/10 (rounded down) of normal HTC = 4
Unconscious = 0 HTC

HTK = 3+3+4+5+5+4+1+1+1+3 = 28
"Hospitalised" = 1/10 (rounded down) of normal HTK = 2 (i.e., I must go to a hospital to recover when reduced to 2)
Dead = 0 HTK (exactly 0 HTK can still be revived, under 0 HTK mean D-E-A-D, dead)

Oops, running out of time...will probably resume later tonight or tomorrow!
 
Last edited:
Love it if I could find a CS for the Game and a rolling list for powers
 
20180413_095417.jpg 20180413_095315.jpg
These are online as well as the rules if you search really hard for pirated PDFs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
Picking up from yesterday's random character creation...

Movement = (Strength + Dexterity + Vigour)/6 rounded to nearest whole number = 43/6 = 7 meters per Frame.
Swimming Movement = 1/5 normal Movement rounded to nearest whole number = 1 meter per Frame.

Using the random method to generate my number of Power Rolls, I roll 2d6, halve the total (rounding halves up), and add 4, thereby generating a number from 5 to 10. (5 + 4)/2 = 5 + 4 = 9. That's a lot of Power Rolls. Since I have so many, I will allocate two rolls to Advantageous Background rolls rather than superpowers. Remember, Advantageous Background rolls come after Power Rolls in order to avoid incompatibility. Now let's make seven Power Rolls and see what we get.

Roll #1 on 1d100 = 43 = Magic. Magic has 2 additional Grades available so I could increase my Magic by one or two Grades and forgo 1 or 3 of my Power Rolls, respectively. In order to make an informed decision, I'll turn to the Superpowers chapter and see what Magic can do for me. Hmm...higher Grades give me more Magic Points to use on Spells, and a greater number of random rolls for Spells and more Specialty Spells (which cost half the normal cost for that spell because you're so good at it). I don't usually play or even enjoy wizard types, but you get what you get and you don't get upset. I'll forgo 3 of my remaining 6 Power Rolls and take Magic Grade 3. At Grade 3 I have 15 + 1d10 Magic Points = 15 + 9 = 24. That's how many Magic Points I can use over five Rounds; after five Rounds I recharge back up to normal. At Grade 3 I get four Spells rolled on a random Spell Determination Table and the first one rolled is my Specialty. (For Grade 1 and 2, no more than 10 Magic Points can be spent in any one Action; Grade 3 has a choice to make: see the following sentence). I also have the choice at Grade 3 to (1) take a second Specialty Spell, (2) take 1d10 more Magic Points, (3) use a blast of more than 10 Magic Points in one Action, or (4) devise a new Spell with effects agreed upon by the SS. I'll take a second Specialty so I'll have two Spells I can cast at half their usual cost in Magic Points.

Now let's see what four Spells I can cast:
(1) 1d10 roll = 5 = Hallucinations, and this is my first Specialty. More complicated and powerful Hallucinations, as you might deduce, cost more Magic Points to create. And here is a good place to mention a very cool rule in Golden Heroes: "No Spell works unless the sorcerer gives it a name and says that name whenever the spell is cast." Very flavorful and also imposes a vulnerability: what if I am gagged or otherwise rendered speechless? I will call this spell "Variegated Visions of Valtorr" as that sounds like something Doctor Strange might say.
(2) 1d10 roll = 6 = Hypnosis, my second Specialty. This requires eye-to-eye contact with the target. This one shall be called "Formidable Fascinations of Fendrill."
(3) 1d10 roll = 5 = roll again = 9 = Restraint. A victim's % chance to break free = 100 + victim's Strength - (10 x Restraint Spell strength). A victim can also get a bonus if she has a Superpower that might be logically applied such as Flight or Leaping. I'm calling this Spell "Boundless Binding of Barathon."
(4) 1d10 roll = 2 = Conjuring. This is a good one. I can conjure creatures whose Attributes and HTC/HTK depend on how many Magic Points I spend on the Spell, and I can spend additional Magic Points to give it claws or fangs or the ability to fly, etc. This spell is called "Confounding Conjurations of Candicar." Why not?

Roll #2 = 02 = Armour. Armour also has 2 additional Grades available. I supposed I could be some sort of wizard in chainmail or power suit...kind of an unusual combination. Checking over the power description, it actually states "protective equipment of some kind"..."which is usually made from a strong or resilient material." As a player my first thought is rather than actual armor, can I push the definition a wee bit and convince the Scenario Supervisor to let this be an enchanted cloak or cape? Fortunately I'm my own SS for this exercise and I decide to be lenient with myself and agree on the condition that it cannot be upgraded from Grade 1. So I get Armour Grade 1, which means my Defence Class is 4. This gives me a nice Damage Divider of HTK/3 and HTC/2, and has no effect on my ability to dodge. I still have 2 more Power Rolls but I already have a hero with potential.

Roll #3 = 24 = Flight. Nice. Flight has 3 or more additional Grades available. The power description states, "The character can fly by some means that should be chosen to be compatible with the character's other powers." Well, given that I am a wizard, that's easy enough to justify: I fly by way of magic. Additional Grades allow me greater speed and mobility when flying, but I'll leave it at Flight Grade 1 because (1) I see this character sort of floating around more than zipping through the sky and (2) I'd like to see what I get with the last Power Roll and see how easily it can be rationalized into the character.

Roll #4 = 53 = Precision. In Golden Heroes, this is the ability to choose the right spot to strike in combat and "instinctively grasp the geometry of any objects around." That geometry bit includes instinctively grasping the likely layout of rooms just by looking at a building. Precision has 2 Grades. At Grade 1, which is the only Grade I can take, it applies to one attack form that the character has, which should be noted on my Character Sheet. The effect in combat is that for every -1 I take from my Strike roll (decided before I roll), my opponent gets a -1 to her attempt to dodge, parry, or any other Combat Response roll. Also, if using a ranged attack I can try to strike more than one opponent by bouncing my attack off walls and what have you. Finally, I score Critical Hits on rolls of 19 and 20, not just 20. Since I don't have any direct physical attack powers (although I can hypnotize you or conjure a creature to fight at my behest), I'll just apply this to my fist-fighting or else give it up when rationalizing my character if I can't find a good way to justify it.

Now to make my two Advantageous Background rolls on 1d10.

Roll #1 = 7 = Previous Training. I can add 2 to any one or 1 to any two of my Attributes. This can be rolled multiple times for cumulative increases. I'll say I studied intense meditation under a reclusive Hindu yogi in the Himalayan mountains of northern India, the same one who taught me my magical abilities, and increase by Ego from 10 to 12 as a higher Ego score will be beneficial to my magic attacks and defense against same.

Roll #2 = Position of Power. My non-super identity is in a position of power, for instance a high-up official or ruler of a small kingdom. This provides an initial Financial Resource Level of 6, meaning he is "well-to-do." Consulting with my SS (myself), we agree that I am the leader of a secret society of yogi do-gooders who fight a furtive battle against unimaginable evils that are trying to invade our world.

Just from ideas that occurred to me while making my random rolls, I already have a darn good rationale and background for my character. Unless I think of a better name, I'm going to call him Doctor Chakra. Due to the powerful shakti he radiated even as a child, he was chosen to be trained by the greatest and wisest yogis of the Secret Society of Shiva so that he might one day lead them in their battle against dark forces from another dimension. He was intensively schooled in meditation and magic, to the detriment of his socialization with the mundane world, and given, upon the fruition of his tutelage, a magical cloak embroidered with Sanskrit words of wisdom. Thus trained in his divine mission, he was sent to New York City, along with his amanuensis and cultural facilitator Priya Akhouri. As Professor Sanchit Chopra, he is a renowned translator and interpreter of ancient Sanskrit texts; but as Doctor Chakra he is humanity's first line of defense against occult horrors!

If we were playing a Campaign with this character, the player would then consult the SS to get his Campaign Ratings aside from his Financial Resources Level, which we already know is 6 on account of his Advantageous Background: Position of Power.

(Next: the Supervisors Book!)
 
Last edited:
The Supervisors Book pic529487.jpg begins with an introduction explaining that you are about to enter a world where some individuals "have mighty powers, can leap tall buildings in a single bound, fly faster than a speeding bullet, pick up and throw oil rigs, and run around in fancy costumes saving the world." It goes on to the usual "What Is A Roleplaying Game?" bit and explains the Scenario Supervisor's (hereafter SS) role in the context of Golden Heroes. It does a pretty good job explicating RPGs if you're new to them, but also takes up less than a third of page so it's not too intrusive for old hands at this sort of thing. What to Read First is a nice section that prioritizes for you which sections you really need to be familiar with: Character Generation, Combat, Superpowers, Scenarios, Campaigns, and Other Sections. I'll skip over the Dice section as it was already covered in the Players Book. Following Dice is an Outline of Play, featuring some really nice artwork and the sample characters Firefly ("a rather hot-headed youth who can fly and has a flame attack"), Madam Mind ("a cool aristocratic lady who can emit a psionic blast, take psychic control of another by touch, and can sense life"), Taurus ("a lumbering, rather unintelligent man who has enormous strength, pugilistic skills and a tough skin"), and Prismo ("an incredibly athletic fellow who can create images of himself, and generate an invisible force field").
20180413_151954.jpg
They actually seem like a pretty good team with a nice variety of abilities. The example of play is a bit brief for my taste, but it'll do as I know there are more examples later in the book, particularly in the Combat chapter.

Where to Start recommends generating superhero or two while you read the rules and then staging a fight between them while reading the Combat chapter, as that way the SS will be familiar with how combat works and be in a position to help the players create their characters. It then suggests running a few simple scenarios with the players to familiarize them with how the game works so you can embark on a Campaign and "get down to the serious business of having some real fun."

The following pages repeat a good deal of material from the Players Book covering character creation, rationales, Campaign Ratings, and Combat. It suggests Using the Combat Sheet (found on page 37 of the Supervisors Book) to keep track of who has acted in each Frame. It's basically a grid broken up into sets of four Frames for each Round with a sidebar on the left to enter character names; you can enter Magic Points, Psi Points (for "Psi Powers," i.e. mental/psychic abilities), or Energy Points expended in each little square Frame and I will say that it's a handy sheet for the SS as I have found you cannot consistently rely on players to keep accurate records of their superheroes' expenditures, not necessarily because they're cheating but just forgetfulness and overexcitement and laziness and other factors come into play. Then the book discusses Supervising Combat, going over the same rules that were in the Players Book, only from the SS's perspective. The always enjoyable Pushing, Lifting, Throwing & Tearing Apart Table is in the Supervisors Book as well as the Players Book, so there's no need to flip back and forth; actually I should mention that I believe all the tables in the Players Book are repeated in the Supervisors Book, which is a smart and convenient idea that more games should do if they are breaking material up into multiple books.

Two items not included in the Players Book are the Critical Hit Table and the Critical Miss Table. When a players rolls one or the other during a fight, the SS makes a 1d10 roll on the appropriate table to determine which one of a variety of results occur. For instance, a critical hit might knock your opponent off balance, making him waste his next Frame recovering, or it might scramble your foe's power by hitting a vital spot, thereby depriving him of one of his powers for 1d6 Rounds. A critical miss might make your attack ricochet or backfire and hit you or a nearby object instead. There are a bunch of good combat examples to help you understand how the fight rules are meant to work.

Other Situations discusses what to do when the players decide to do something that is not covered by the rules, advising that it's your job to decide how to resolve the situation, sometimes by intermingling and interpreting the existing rules, but to be consistent in your rulings and stick to them if a the situation arises again, so that the players have an idea of where they stand and what their changes are. If you think of a better method or want to change, make sure you inform the players! "Most important of all, whatever you do in various situations, it should be kept in the spirit of comic-book action." The authors suggest considering how it would work in a superhero comic book and interpret the rules to produce a similar effect. But even though characters rarely die in the comic books (this was 1984, remember), "...you must not just save characters by your efforts. The players must try to save themselves in any situation." That's how I've always played pretty much every game anyway. There are then three examples of a SS interpreting rules and inventing judgments on the fly to resolve situations not specifically addressed in the rulebook.

(To be continued...)
 
Last edited:
Just rolled a character using stuff you posted here (my copy is in storage so i've just guessed on power grades).

Ego 8
Strength 9
Dex 12
Vigour 6 (oh dear)

HTC 19
HTK 18

Move 5m/frame 1m/frame swimming

Advantageous Backgrounds - Immortal, Brilliant Scientist (Chemical)

Powers - Larger 2, Precision, Weapon Skill, Wallcrawling.

If you could tell me what those powers do and if they change my stats, then i'll adjust it and try to come up with a Rationale!
 
Just rolled a character using stuff you posted here (my copy is in storage so i've just guessed on power grades).

Ego 8
Strength 9
Dex 12
Vigour 6 (oh dear)

HTC 19
HTK 18

Move 5m/frame 1m/frame swimming

Advantageous Backgrounds - Immortal, Brilliant Scientist (Chemical)

Powers - Larger 2, Precision, Weapon Skill, Wallcrawling.

If you could tell me what those powers do and if they change my stats, then i'll adjust it and try to come up with a Rationale!
I'm at a kid birthday party right now, but I'll take a look at the rules when I get home.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
Just rolled a character using stuff you posted here (my copy is in storage so i've just guessed on power grades).

Ego 8
Strength 9
Dex 12
Vigour 6 (oh dear)

HTC 19
HTK 18

Move 5m/frame 1m/frame swimming

Advantageous Backgrounds - Immortal, Brilliant Scientist (Chemical)

Powers - Larger 2, Precision, Weapon Skill, Wallcrawling.

If you could tell me what those powers do and if they change my stats, then i'll adjust it and try to come up with a Rationale!

(1) Larger Grade 2: you're permanently a giant.
(a) Choose whether this means you are taller or broader and heavier. If taller, add 100% to your original height and 30% to your original weight and 100% to your Movement due to your longer stride, +5 to your Push-back Threshold. If broader/heavier, increase original weight by 100% and +10 to your Push-back Threshold.
(b) Add 2d6+4 to Strength
(c) Add 2d6+4 to Vigour (you need it!)
(d) Add 1d6 HTC and HTK for each additional point of Vigour

(2) Precision Grade 1: see my notes on the sample hero I rolled up a couple of posts back!

(3) Weapon Skill Grade 1: choose a melee or missile weapon. Your attacks with this weapon are Weaon Class 4. If the weapon has more than one mode (for example, a shield can be used to parry, hit, or throw), choose which mode is Weapon Class 4. (At additional Grades you can get a Damage Modifier or Weapon Class 4 in two or all three modes.)

Wallcrawling: you can walk on walls and ceilings without hand-holds, in normal circumstances with no chance of falling. You choose the method: suction cups, adhesive secretions, manipulating local gravity field, static cling, whatever sense with your rationale.

Advantageous Background: Immortal: your character is emissary of a mythological deity, an android, a spirit, whatever makes sense, cannot die by natural causes.

Advantageous Background: Brilliant Scientist - Chemical: you're capable of conducting innovative chemical/biological research and developing products to possibly enhance superpowers or cute unwanted side-effects thereof, etc. Initial Material Resource Level 8 means you have available to you elaborate scientific facilities/labs/resources in several areas.

Now go to town and try to make sense of your enormous immortal gladiator scientist!
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
I have a fledgling idea that involves being the inspiration for a certain Robert Louis Stevenson character...

Back tomorrow with more.
 
Now that I have thought it over more, I'm going to give up Precision as one of Doctor Chakra's powers because (1) it doesn't really fit the rest of the concept and (2) he seems to have plenty of powers already and it's not needed.

As SS, I applaud myself for staying true to the character's underlying concept as developed by the rationale I came up with as a player and breathe a sigh of relief that I'm not dealing with a power gamer for a player. :dice:
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
Well, my stats have sudenly gone from wimpy to quite tough!

Due to my Jeckyl/Hyde idea, i'm going with width/girth growth rather than height.

Ego 8
Strength 19
Dexterity 12
Vigour 17

HTC 47 Staggered 9 Stunned 4 +10 pushback threshold
HTK 59 Hospitalised 5

Move 8m/frame 2m/frame swimming

Larger 2 - Weight rather than height
Precision 1
Weapon Skill 1
Wallcrawling 1

Immortal
Brillaint Scientist (Chemical) - Material Resource Level 8

Rationale later.
 
Here's my completed character. Dr. Tench!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Tench – Oversized War Decorated Super-Scientist

Ego 8
Strength 19 +4 Damage +1 HTK/HTC divider
Dexterity 12
Vigour 17

HTC 47 Staggered 9 Stunned 4 +10 pushback threshold
HTK 59 Hospitalised 5

3 HTK divider (ultra-light chainmail + strength)

Move 8m/frame 2m/frame swimming

Larger 2 - Weight rather than height
Precision 1
Weapon Skill 1
Wallcrawling 1

Immortal
Brillaint Scientist (Chemical) - Material Resource Level 8

Rationale

Born in 1860 in Prague to an academic family, Jakub Trenkar enrolled as a young man in the organic chemistry courses at Prague university. Graduating as one of the most brilliant young minds of his generation, one would think life was good for young Jakub. However, a degenerative disease meant that he was slowly withering away. Let down by the medicine of the age, young Jakub started experimenting with chemical compounds that might at least mitigate the pain of his slow decline. However, in 1884, he hit upon a formula that not only eased his pain, but rolled back the symptoms of his disease altogether! His constitution was improved, his racking cough gone. Unfortunately, a side-effect of his draught was an extreme increase in size (most of it muscle, but some of it fat). So Jakub had relief from his disease, but when he had said relief, he had to hide himself away from polite society. He took to the shadows and rumours spread of a a grotesque figure that would hyde in the shadows of the night (a young Robert Loius Stevenson would hear these rumours from the continent and base his seminal work of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde on them).

Jakub limped along with his secret – part sickly savant, and when able to drink his draught, fearsome machine of mayhem, until the end of the first world war. Deemed too sickly to join intelligence, and too old to enlist, he spent the war years trying to perfect his serum. He added regenerative aspects from starfish, and a gelling agent from the slime produced by the dr fish – otherwise known as the Tench, whose healing powers have been well known since the middle ages.

Now in his late 50's and his health failing more quickly, Jakub moved to London in 1917, changing his name to Jacob Tench. He trialled his new draught but was distraught when the effects of it were no better than his original serum. Brief relief from pain at the cost of mutation.

The war ended, but with it came an almost worse foe – Spanish Flu. The virulent disease wiped out millions, and Jacob, fearing for his already weak constitution, started to add bacterial components to his formula in order to make him resistant to the flu.

Well, it worked rather too well. Although he didn't know it, Jacob had already contracted Spanish Flu when he trialled the first dose of his new formula. It bonded with the pathogen in his system, changing him in ways that he would never be able to reverse.

Gone was his disease! In fact, Jacob seemed to be a man in early middle age rather than in his late 50's. In fact, Jacob never suffered from illness again and stopped ageing altogether – Immortality.

The serum still made him grow physically. In fact he was stuck with his alter-ego for evermore. His form stuck in 'hyde' mode. It was a price he was prepared to pay – Larger 2.

However, something new emerged from the mixture. The bacterial component of his serum had interacted with the flu infection creating a beneficial bacteria that Jacob could control, growing rapidly from his flesh to bind with material he was in contact with, allowing him to climb and cling to any surface. The bacterial adhesion vital to an infection attacking cells in the human body was now accelerated and externalised for Jacob's use – Wallcrawling.

Jacob had a potentially limitless life ahead of him – but a visage that whilst not grotesque, was certainly noteworthy. He decided to 'come out'. Just before WW II, after securing a lab to work in and a safe network of friends who knew he was a 'good chap', Jacob approached Whitehall and offered his services.

Recovering from their shock and seeing the advantages of his experience, he was seconded to special services, where he carried out many missions, being trained in the use of a rifle and sniping – Weapon Skill (Rifle) and Precision.

After serving with distinction, Jacob turned to commercial chemistry after the war, being involved in advances in anaesthesia. His lab meets all his needs.

When other heroes and villains started appearing, Jacob took up the fight once more to protect the innocent, having a specially designed tranquilliser rifle made to knock out criminals.

As he is always 'in uniform' Jacob does not have an alter ego any more. He is simply known as Dr. Tench.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dunno if there are any rules for tranquillisers or not. But I figured that having a hero shoot people dead with a rifle isn't a very good look! So maybe convert the HTK damage to HTC?

BTW, his climbing leaves behind bacterial blooms like you get around geysers in yellowstone.
 
Last edited:
Dunno if there are any rules for tranquillisers or not. But I figured that having a hero shoot people dead with a rifle isn't a very good look! So maybe convert the HTK damage to HTC?
Were I your SS, I would probably look up the Projectile Weapons category in the Weapon Types table and add that a regular rifle does 1d6+3 HTC and 2d6+3 HTK and rule that your rifle has been specially modified to fire your tranquilizer bullets and change the HTK damage to HTC. 2d6+3 HTC gives an average result of 10, so an average target with about 10 HTC would be knocked unconscious by an average damage roll.

By the way, with your improved Strength you are able to lift a speedboat or other object about that weight off the ground, so not crazy strong but definitely stronger than the average bear. You also have +4 Damage Modifier from your blows, and Damage Divider Modifiers of HTK/+1 and HTC/+1.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
Were I your SS, I would probably look up the Projectile Weapons category in the Weapon Types table and add that a regular rifle does 1d6+3 HTC and 2d6+3 HTK and rule that your rifle has been specially modified to fire your tranquilizer bullets and change the HTK damage to HTC. 2d6+3 HTC gives an average result of 10, so an average target with about 10 HTC would be knocked unconscious by an average damage roll.

By the way, with your improved Strength you are able to lift a speedboat or other object about that weight off the ground, so not crazy strong but definitely stronger than the average bear. You also have +4 Damage Modifier from your blows, and Damage Divider Modifiers of HTK/+1 and HTC/+1.

Its been a while so i'm rusty. Does the damage divider modifiers mean that the Defence class of my opponent is considered to be 1 point higher than it is or does it directly modify their divider?
 
Its been a while so i'm rusty. Does the damage divider modifiers mean that the Defence class of my opponent is considered to be 1 point higher than it is or does it directly modify their divider?

Neither. The Damage Divider Modifier from your Strength increases your resistance to damage taken when an enemy hits you. The way I understand/read the rules is that rather than the automatic HTK/HTC divider of 0, you'd instead be dividing by 1. However, dividing by one does nothing; for any real benefit you'd need to opt for a padded costume or ultra-light chainmail costume, as you'd then add that +1 to HTK/2 and be at HTK/3, which is darn good. There's no benefit mathematically at HTC/1 either way.
20180415_103943.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: OHT
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top