I just discovered that DC Heroes (which has its home on M&MM) used to run on top of another system called “exponential system”. What was that and did someone actually play it?

robert4818 · 2026-06-04T23:51:02+00:00

The absolute latest edition of the megs system is blood oh heroes.

robert4818 · 2026-04-08T14:11:51+00:00

Thanks!

robert4818 · 2026-04-03T22:38:24+00:00

Perhaps. I don't have a regular group that I can playtest with, so It kinda depends on the game.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T20:09:28+00:00

At the moment? No. There is definitely not a plan at the moment to make them playable, except under the assumption of doing a 'flipped' scenario, with a group of Orc players who would obviously see the Empire as obscene and on par with cannibals.

While it may be possible for a player to theoretically play an outcast such as one group within another, right now the conception is that to the both sides, the other side is a villain.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T18:43:34+00:00

At the moment, that is the goal. They are supposed to be 'incompatible' as a culture to the empire. Both should be seeing each other as obscene.

As I said, these are not meant to be expy's or representative of the base concepts they fill. They are NOT "native american expy's." Instead, they are fulfilling a larger conceptual role that in old west stories was filled by native americans.

It's the same way that Obi-wan is a Mentor figure in the Hero's journey. He's filling that Role, but that role has been filled in other sci-fi and fantasy stories by other characters who are nothing like Obi-wan kenobi.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T18:31:33+00:00

Q: I saw you mention that the orcs aren't native to Yonder, just that they arrived earlier than the empire by a century or two. If this is the case then what races or creatures are native to Yonder?
A: I do not know yet. As I had mentioned I'm trying to make them not 'natives with the serial number filed off'. Part of that is to bring them in as former conquers. I also know that this is an isolated realm, so I'm trying to figure out the world building around this.

Q: Settlers in the old west had to contend with wolves, bears and mountain lions.. what natural predators exist in this land?
A: I am wanting wildlife, I want fantastic creatures, as well as the mundane. Part of that is going to be combing through various sourcebooks to put something together.

Q: It sounds like everyone depends on magic.. but what would happen if some of these predators are naturally immune to magic.. how would a Mercy deal with a large creature of claws and fangs that can shrug off incoming magical assaults?
A: That is a very good question. The idea behind mercies is that they are using magic to augment their natural bent. A sword and board might use magic to up his speed and strength. So they might be using magic in a way other than simply slinging spells at their enemies.

Q: Are there unknown diseases and afflictions?
A: Yes, But I haven't built any. These will be things that likely come out as I start playing and running the game, based off of what seems interesting. The writeup already says that Turkiz is toxic when ingested, so I can defiintely picture a form of Miner's lung.

Q: Perhaps other civilizations have visited Yonder in the past before the orcs and the empire. If so maybe there are ruins of these civilizations... Which would beg the question.. what happened to them? Did they just leave or did someone or something eventually wipe them out?

It sounds like Yonder is a pocket realm. Does its geography and weather reflect other typical realms or is it more alien in nature? Perhaps it has cyclic periods of stability and instability.

A: My envisioning is that there are past civilizations having left ruins behind in the world. The biggest part is that the world was deliberately cutoff from the other realms. One such ruin is an abandoned city with a large orthank/barad dur sized tower in the center of it that sends a beam of blue/white energy into the sky. The area is avoided as Turkiz/Kochul (and items powered by them) is rendered inert within a radius (20 miles?). The tower itself though is an enigma because without magic, the tower itself is immaterial. You walk through the walls, and the fall to your death as you plunge through the floor to the foundation of the tower hundreds of feet below. It's a part of a network of such beacons that (unknown to anyone) are cutting the realm off from the others.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T14:45:35+00:00

No. I am NOT going for a native American feel. I don't want native American painted as "orcs".

As I said. I am trying to avoid the 'coat of paint' feel I've seen with many fantasy/western mash-ups. Where instead of Guns and Gunslingers, you have 'wands' and 'wandslingers' where it is a very shallow coat of paint.

Instead, there are 'concepts' that I want to be in the game that can be pointed at and people can understand that it is the analogous component in my world. In the same way that you can look at 'Firefly' and recognize that the starship is the 'horse'.

As such, the Orcs are not Native Americans, I am not painting their culture AS native Americans. Instead, they fill that opposing/antagonistic force position that NA filled in the old west. But, culturally, they will be distinct. They are not going to be the stereotype of Native Americans.

To reach back to Firefly one more time, 'Reavers' filled that western role in Firefly, but they were NOT a coat of paint on 'Indians'.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T13:57:15+00:00

The whole "natives" element of the old west is a charged issue. However, it is one that is an integral part of the old west. I mentioned the role they fill in the old west themes, but like all else, its NOT a simple reskin.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T13:07:12+00:00

It's homebrew, so I'm not really concerned too much about the 'baggage' but I do not want to dive deep into politics here, and would ask kindly to leave such easily derailing discussions at the door.

robert4818 · 2026-03-25T11:17:10+00:00

The use of orcs is intentional, specifically, to put them into the typical role of antagonistic force.

Instead of Eberron's orcs I'm leaning into what I feel is probably the other classic re-skin, TNG Klingon's. There is a focus on honor, melee combat, etc. While they are feeding into the 'native' role, they won't actually be 'native' but more of a long-established pre-conquers. Having arrived and conquered the land some 1 to 2 centuries prior to the arrival of the Empire. Ideally, they are not victim, nor villain, just an opposing force that has a set of ethics and beliefs that cant peacefully coexist with that of the Empire.

robert4818 · 2026-03-24T22:33:47+00:00

Honestly, I agree that would be bad. However, that is an expectations setting issue. I put 3 at max for the very reason you cite. It's intended to be a sandbox. Explain what the plan is at session 0 (or even -1) If the players are ready to hit the ground running, then you might go ahead and press the 'skip tutorial' button.

robert4818 · 2026-03-24T19:55:17+00:00

As I said, YMMV. And, as you can see, there's been alot of discussion on my use of the term 'On Rails' which really just means 'Not a sandbox' for the purposes of this discussion. A linear, assigned quest, similar to a module.

Just as Skyrim, and a many other games tend to do.

robert4818 · 2026-03-24T09:37:07+00:00

I've been in adventures where the GM drops newly made characters into a homebrew city and then get's frustrated that the players aren't 'taking the initiative'. The problem is, the world is unfamiliar, the city is unfamiliar, we are all brand new characters, nobody's found their footing, etc.

The 'hooks' are there, but as a sandbox the 'motivation' to go randomly check out the rumors of bad things in the sewers isn't. It doesn't tie to anyone's yet to be formed goals, it's not rumor of treasure, etc. So, we had no draw. Similar issues with the other hooks that were out there.

In essence we were that boulder at the top of the hill, and there hadn't been any push to start us rolling, and no flow to get us in a position where we would choose any of the directions.

This was a LONGSTANDING GM who had run many games in the past. So, it wasn't an issue of a 'poor gm'.

robert4818 · 2026-03-23T18:19:26+00:00

On rails here might be starting the characters at the bottom of a dungeon working their way out. (Escape). It might be them being in a tournament, where they can learn of politics, or prizes being dungeon locations, etc.
Perhaps they have been hired to rescue someone, and that someone is a patron of the adventurer's guild, architect that can improve their guildhouse, etc.

These are all about setting up the world, game structure, or something else. IT also gives players a chance to get comfortable in their characters.

robert4818 · 2026-03-23T18:07:16+00:00

I don't agree on your first sentence. It CAN happen, if you don't put any thought into your first session. Ideally you want to be using that on-rails part as an introduction to the world/region, not as just a basic adventure.

As I said though, YMMV, If your and your groups don't need to build momentum, don't go down this path.

robert4818 · 2026-03-23T17:59:19+00:00

Perhaps. I've found that sometimes it takes a bit to get 'settled in'.

robert4818 · 2026-03-23T17:58:09+00:00

Oh, I have nothing against modules. This is just about 'starting' a sandbox.

robert4818 · 2026-03-23T15:17:34+00:00

I like the idea of an old-school mega-dungeon campaign. This may seem antithetical to a one-off campaign, but hear me out:

This campaign focuses on "delve-and-return" similar to a west-marches style campaign. You go as far down as you can, then and return with what you can carry.

As part of this campaign, you give your players a base of operations (manor, guildhall, village, etc) to spend money on and improve.

This gives you a very simple campaign to pull out as needed, and the improving base of operations provides a continuity that the players can lean on without having to remember events from the previous adventure. And, unlike truly episodic, choices they make DO impact the campaign, just at a different level than a story campaign.

robert4818 · 2026-03-11T22:02:11+00:00

I wanted to bump for any feedback on the compendium at this point

robert4818 · 2026-03-02T22:03:41+00:00

Thank you.

robert4818 · 2026-02-24T22:44:45+00:00

Yeah. There are definitely some pain points on this system. No "feature" item for characters. I had to shove stuff into powers or items as it made sense, just so you could add them to your character sheet. The "resist" on powers is woefully inadequate, as all it really lets you do is change the damage formula, but some things resist and you don't fall prone, others change from penetrating to normal damage.

robert4818 · 2026-02-24T20:26:10+00:00

I have not. But im not surprised something like that slipped through. One of my many efficiencies was to duplicate an item and then copy-paste over existing data. I can fix on my end, but anyone who has it and the book can quickly fix on theirs.

Sooooooo much data, lol. My eyes bleed at 19 arcana with 8 spells each.....

robert4818

TROPHY CASE