Acts of Heroism Day: Big Time

Acts of Heroism #3 is LIVE! Former police officer and security guard, Monolith is the big hero on the scene! Have him work with your heroes against the forces of evil or use him as a villain with the included villain option. Monolith, only in Acts of Heroism: Solo #3 and only 99¢! Includes villain option!

Recruit Monolith to your team today!

Midnight Legionnaires: James Taylor

Beginning this week, I'll be posting interviews with the various members of my gaming group (who also serve as my playtest group). I've sent all of my current players a few questions that they were nice enough to answer, along with a brief background on who they are.

First up is James Taylor. 

James serves as my back-up GM in the Midnight Legion and often the occasional sounding board for some of the ideas that have seen light within the Acts of Villainy series. In total, I've known him for twenty years or so, with some of that being in our youth and finding one another through a friend as adults. To this date, he's one of the finest GMs that I've had the pleasure of being at the table with and is a damn good player as well. 

 

Years Gaming: I think I was 11 when I rolled my first d20.  So that would be… holychit, almost 28 years!  Like most, it was D&D first.  I still remember my first crit.  I nailed a Harpy, "nat 20", with a crossbow bolt, which passed through that one and into the one behind it.  Thank you D-Bos for that bit of flavor text that sealed the deal.

Midnight Legion Years: Sketch and I hooked up again, after a HUGE break, about 17 years ago.

Favorite RPG: My favorite RPG world is probably the Palladium stuff.  After D&D, I enjoyed Rifts, TMNT, Palladium Fantasy, Nightspawnbane and Robotech for many years, before the Midnight Legion opened my eyes to all of the other great games out there.

Favorite Superhero RPG: Mutants and Masterminds.  I also very much enjoy HERO, and the Marvel SAGA RPG.

Past Superhero RPG Characters:  OMG… I’ve had NEARLY as much fun making characters as playing them.  I think my first hero character with M&M1e was Goth, a teenage mage, followed by Umbral, Façade, Dr. Killroy (AKA Dr. Slot-Machine), Psicho, Spinderella, Redzone, Kid Vanguard, Comet Girl, Agent Perfect, Animalia, and quite a few others.

Favorite Superhero RPG Character: IMO, the opportunity to play a character long enough to create some history and development makes a favorite for me.  I’ve had two characters in particular that I’ve been able to do that with, those being Façade, and Psycho.  Please don’t make me pick a favorite!  Uhm… okay.  I would have to go with Psicho.  I am playing him still, and I’ve been able to experiment a lot with the character and create a lot of development with him.

Favorite Comic Book Character: Absolutely Cable.  I waited until the early 90’s before catching the comic book bug, and Cable was the best!  I was pretty invested in Spawn as well.

Favorite Comic Book:  Currently GI-Joe or the Walking Dead.  Budget and time constraints have caused me to fall out of synch with current superhero books, but I’ve kept up with TWD, and am finally catching up to the current GI-Joe series.

Tell the readers a bit about yourself.  

Well... I’m 38 years old.  In the past, I’ve also been 32, 28, 21, 14, 5, and many others.  I’ve worked in retail for the majority of my life now, and currently work in a membership warehouse store.  I enjoy RPG’s, video games, movies, TV, books, music, board games, doggies, camping, traveling and other random stuff.  I’m a child of the 80’s; I love 80’s music and pop-culture.  I’ve been married to my husband Ralph for over 12 years in two States.

How did you get into role playing games? How old were you?  

 I was 11, I think.  Some of my friends had discovered what their older brothers were playing, so they would grab the books whenever they could, and we’d play.  It blended well with the other things we enjoyed at the time, like fort-construction, GI-Joe-style war-games, other imaginative stuff.  We didn’t just play tag and hide ‘n seek.  When we played tag, you could earn a shield which protected you for one tag, there were safe zones, and you could “tag-back” the tagger under certain situations.  We created mazes out of leaves and pine needles.  Hide ‘n seek was a battle of stealth skills, and if the hider could tag the seeker first, he was the winner.  Imagination was our greatest toy, and table-top RPG’s became an extension of that.

What do you like about superhero RPGs? 

 I guess I love building a super-hero, from the ground-up, and giving him/her a story that plays out over time.  The Super-hero genre has allowed me to play SO many different kinds of characters with different personalities and backgrounds.

You listed Psicho as your favorite superhero RPG character. What makes them your favorite?  

There’s been a lot of great story development with that character.  I think I’ve been playing him for like, 12 years?  He is a mutant mentalist with Dark-blue skin color.  He’s gone through a lot of neat stuff over the years.  He has a tragic background.  He started out filled with teen angst and distaste for the authority.  He was a temporary criminal.  He managed a split-personality disorder.  He’s definitely a bit of an outcast.  He’s fiercely protective of mutants, having experienced that alienation and prejudice.  He died once and was brought back through magic (thanks to Morra), his appearance very normal and without a connection to the psionic plane, having only telekinetic abilities.  He’s regained his mutant appearance and full abilities.  Now he’s a hero and respected Psychologist, and has grown in the ranks of W.A.R.D.  Lots of fun stuff.  On a deeper level I think, he’s gone through some of the things I personally have in life in regards to sexuality and feeling like an outcast.  Fortunately, we’ve both made good on it.

What do you like about The Tribute Universe?   

I think I like the size of it.  Our characters are charges of a large city in a world that feels much larger than we are, filled with other heroes and villains.  A world our actions have had an impact on. 

Do you have any villains that you particularly like to hate? Why?   

The Mustang/Magnum combo is ALWAYS entertaining and challenging.  When you go through a tussle with those two, you really feel it.  S.I.N. and H.A.D.E.S. is turning out to be a lot of fun too.  Their goals always seem equally odd and “left-field” and just downright scary threatening.  “Uh-oh, we failed to keep the tiny plastic “techno-whats-it” out of their hands.  What’s the worst that can happen?”

Can you recall a favorite moment in a TU campaign?   

Oh my.  One of the very first sessions (the first?) of The Watch campaign, the interview/selection process of some NPC characters and staff members of the team Base.  We got to really see some of the character personalities.  “If you could be any animal, what animal would you be?” became the go-to question for any new player-character or NPC recruit.  Fun times.  Also, the death of Phaedra, a player character.  The death of NPC legacy hero Vanguard, mentor of my character Kid Vanguard is another.  There are many, many others.

Do you find it hard or easy to think of characters?  

I find it easy for the most part, given a bit of time and thought.  Generally, I’ll start with a character name or power set, and expand from there. 

What’s your favorite non-superhero RPG character? Why?   

Alamaya Dune, Half-elf 9^th Level Desert Druid in our Pathfinder campaign.  She’s another character that I’ve been playing for several years, and has seen quite a lot of story.  She’s the daughter of a chieftain of a nomadic, slave trading desert tribe.  Over time she became instrumental in freeing many of those slaves, was always at odds with a former-slave player-character, and soon became an ambassador to other nations of the world.  I really enjoy her personality and playing her alignment (True Neutral) is always a fun challenge.

Do you have a favorite superhero comic storyline?  

Being a (mostly) Marvel fan, I particularly liked Marvel’s Age of Apocalypse and Phalanx Covenant storylines.  

Besides RPGs, what other games do you like to play?  

I enjoy a lot of board games and video games.  I’m a big fan of Horror video games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil.  Sadly, I have a bad habit of not finishing games that I’ve started.  I can’t sit in front of a game for hours on end like I used to, so I never seem to get anywhere with a lot of them. 

How many dice do you own? Which ones are your favorites?   

I’m sure I have close to a hundred dice of many different colors and styles.  My favorite color is purple and I tend to like the bi-colored ones with the granite/marble look.  

Thanks, James, for being a part of the interview. Stay tuned, folks, as another player will be featured soon.

 

Acts of Heroism Day: This One's a Scream!

Acts of Heroism #2 is now LIVE! Hero. Agent. Icon. Decibelle is a sonic superstar that fights as a costumed hero and as operative of A.C.T.I.O.N. A founding member of The Homeguard, she now works in their Reserve while continuing her adventures. Decibelle, only in Acts of Heroism: Solo #1 and only 99¢!

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HERO MONTH IS LIVE! Put a little Hex on your enemies...

HERO MONTH IS LIVE! Once a costumed criminal, Hex is now an agent for good as a member of the Homeguard Reserves! Using her Gen+ abilities to control misfortune and mastery of magic, she's ready to take on any villain that comes her way. Hex, only in Acts of Heroism: Solo #1 and only 99¢!

Have Hex Join Your Heroes Today!

HAPPY FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

Happy Free Comic Book Day! Can six heroes plucked from the mulitverse save their worlds from the terror of a dimensional despot? Or will they fall to his cosmic might?! Available for Mutants & Masterminds 3e. Icons or Supers! Revised! Grab a copy for your favorite system, or collect all three! This product is FREE and made available with heroes from Sketchpad Studio , Xion Studios, Fainting Goat Games, September17 Productions, Hazard Studio and DWR Game Studio . Grab your copy today and celebrate FCBD by battling cosmic villainy!

Grab your copy for Supers today! Grab your copy for M&M3e today! Grab your copy for Icons today!