Heroes Unlimited by Palladium Books

There were three big gaming systems that I played in college.  Dungeons & Dragons, which led to Windemere.  Vampire/White Wolf, which led to Clyde.  Heroes Unlimited, which led to Project Phoenix aka my white whale.  I’m going to explain my experiences with this system as a precursor to the Project Phoenix headache.  Many will find this entire endeavor amusing because I’m sure to lose my fragile, little mind along this trip.

Experience 1– High School Death Matches

A classmate created a bunch of characters to test out the system and had a death match scenario.  We all thought it would be fun, but we missed the warning sign.  If the guy running the game chooses the ‘weak’ psychic then you should check that character’s sheet immediately.  The guy mind controlled all of us into suicidal deaths within 5 minutes of the game starting.  My phasing crocodile man became solid again while a gate was passing through him.  It did not end well or cleanly.

Experience 2– Super Spy . . . Never Go Human

I was on a James Bond kick and decided to make a secret agent for my next attempt.  The other players created various mutants, aliens, and other beings of great power.  To say I was outclassed was an understatement, but the worst part was that the other players never did anything.  This only lasted one sessions because the guy running the game got pissed off.  The other players kept attacking everything while I was trying to move the plot along, but it just fell to pieces.  Learned that certain people should never be given a zippo lighter much less superpowers.

Sabretooth from Marvel Comics

Experience 3– I’m Still Strapped In!

I decided to simply randomly roll up a character using the random generator rules.  By pure chance, I got Sabretooth from Marvel comics.  We had a laugh, which was the last laugh to be had in this game.  I don’t know why the guy running the game though the other players would behave this time around.  They did the same thing they did last time, but with different characters.  Though, this round had a new wrinkle in it.  Each player was swearing that he could kill the other players.  I wasn’t doing this and the gamemaster got annoyed that I wasn’t trying to stop this.  Small problem with that: my guy started the game muzzled and strapped to a gurney because he was a violent ex-serial killer.  Nobody let me out of the gurney or unmuzzled me for the ENTIRE game session.  I pointed this out, which led to the game being disbanded with a slew of curses.  Honestly, how the hell am I supposed to control a game when my guy sounds as if the teacher from Peanuts was a chain smoker?

Experience 4– The Horsemen of the X-Men!  Until Professor X was booted from college.

This game as actually going pretty well.  I was playing an archaeologist who had the power to pass through solid objects and hurl anything with amazing speed and precision.  The characters had fun and the plot was interesting.  Then we got the news that the guy running the game was either flunking out or leaving by the end of the semester.  This began a race to the end where things just got messy.  It stopped being fun for a while because he wanted to show us the ending.  We finally got him to calm down and just let things play out, so it ended on a good note.  This is the ONLY good experience I’ve had with this system.

Experience 5– That’s It!  I’m Done!

I joined a big game that was supposed to run like the Avengers.  I was playing a demon-looking sewer dweller who had a severe fear of labs and doctors.  Experimented on for years will do that.  Unfortunately, one player decided that a plotline without him was not an option.  This player got involved in everything and took over.  He was supposed to be an ancient kung-fu master with no knowledge of technology, but that lack of knowledge disappeared mysteriously after two sessions.  I was getting annoyed because I had nothing to do and it finally ended when my story came up, I was basically blocked out of it, and then told that if I wanted to be involved, I should have fought harder.  This was actually the second time a favored player destroyed/stole my character’s storyline, so I was out and done with the system.

All of this whining and bad experiences has led to Project Phoenix, which might be why I’m having so much trouble with it.  The only good experience is another story entirely called Tribe of the Shield.  So, it could be that I’m still harboring some animosity toward the overall concept due to these disasters.  I developed a lot of great characters for this, but the problems continue to arise.  I’ll get into that during an afternoon post because I think I tortured everyone enough with this.