I still live. I still have this blog. Though, honestly, I sometimes wonder why at this point.
Lately, I've been playing around with Champions. And by "Champions," I mean the 4th edition "Big Blue Book," the one with the George Perez cover. It's still my favorite version of the game, the one that I got the most mileage out of over the years and, to me, the edition that firmly occupies the sweet spot between complexity and ease of use.
The other night, just for grins, I dug out my copy of Creation Workshop, a late 90s Windows-based character generation tool that had a module for 4th Edition Hero. It's a terrific little program that works a heck of a lot better than Hero Designer, the program for 5th and 6th edition.
Anyway, I fired up the program and knocked out a complete starting character (an adaptation of my ICONS/M&M favorite, Immaterial Girl) in about twenty minutes. I was shocked: I'd honestly forgotten how quickly I could turn out a character when I didn't feel like the rules were working against me.
Is anything going to come of this? Answer hazy, ask again later.