|
We're here with Mathew R. Ignash, the prolific author behind Matt's Champions Page, with Hero conversions of virtually every super-hero you can think of. Matt is an avid participant in the 250 Point Project.
RPGNet: Do you have any superpowers? If so, what are they?
Mathew Ignash: 1. A superhumanly sized brain with an amazing knack for trivia about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. By amazing knack, I mean I can be watching Special Unit 2 and notice the guy playing Cupid is the security guard Cordelia flirted with in the Buffy season 2 episode Killed By Death. I frighten myself with this power, and probably many other people.
2. I have mental powers which make women want to be "just friends" with me. This could possibly be a side effect of having power #1. When I find the woman who finds power #1 sexy, I'll be a happy man.
3. I have the mutant power of wisdom teeth that are turned forward at right angles. I'm still trying to figure out how to use that power in combat, but the roots growing the way they do into my skull might be how I absorb the knowledge in power #1.
RPGNet: Do you have a secret identity? If so, what is it?
Mathew Ignash: Yes, but it's a secret! I suppose the sidewise wisdom tooth on chest of my costume does give me away.
RPGNet: Why did you decide to start your website?
Mathew Ignash: My web site started because I had all this information on my computer, and by posting it on the web I could print it at the library (they having that nice laser printer!). So it was all a ploy to make nice printouts. Any use other people get out of my site is strictly coincidental. I do it for myself.
RPGNet: I notice you're a very active participant in the 250 Point Project. Any comments on that?
Mathew Ignash: When the author of the 250 Point Project contacted me, I already had a dozen or so characters who happened to fall inside his guidelines. Once I realized that another dozen or so almost fit in if I tweeked them, I decided to do it. Then it kinda became a challange to fit them inside 250 points. I've always been a games mechanic for Champions, so those skills came in handy. It's easy to write a 999 point Wolverine or a 3000 point Superman, but staying in 250 points, that's a challange. Some of the harder ones I've written over the years include 250 point Hulk, 250 point Supergirl (from the film), and 250 point Piper Halliwell (that freezing power is a doozy!)
RPGNet: How long will you continue working on the site? Is there a line or a goal
you've set?
Mathew Ignash: I started working on the Matt-Cave (my main page) when a friend at work
about 5 years ago asked me if I knew anything about HTML. I said no, but
I'd go home and learn it this weekend and get back to him. On Monday I had
a web page. I started reading web site source code and figured most of it
out from there.
I started by making a news archive for Amiga computer articles called
"Honorable Mention", which got acclaim in several computer magazines. Then
I moved to Rifts RPG, Wildcards, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and
Champions pages.
The Angel page I wrote will be featured in an upcoming book called Hollywood
Vampire, which is an unoffical guide to the television show Angel.
There is a lot of crossover between the Angel page and the RPG pages, since
I have converted several Angel and Buffy characters to Champions and
Nightspawn rules. Strangely not a lot of people seem to be into both. A lot
of Angel fans don't know a thing about RPGs, and RPG fans don't watch a lot
of Angel.
As long as I have the time and interest, I'll keep it up. I have several web
sites. When the urge hits me I work on one for a while. My whole site in
written on my Amiga computer. Until recently I was still authoring on my
old 50mhz Amiga, but I recently upgraded - to a 1ghz Amiga!
RPGNet: There have been dark times recently for devotees of the Hero System. But
things seem to be brightening up, with Hero 5th finally coming out. As a
fan of Hero, do you have any comments about recent events with the
company?
Mathew Ignash: Well, I do wish it were more feasable to get a license with some comic book
for a module. Marbe Hero can't get Marvel or DC, but how about Dark Horse
comics or Image? After all, I already started the work of converting the
characters.
I have yet to see 5th edition, and I'm wary of switching over until I see
both it and some good authoring software. My site wouldn't be possible
without Heromaker running under my MS-DOS emulation. I don't have Windows,
and I'm not looking forward to installing it just to run 5th edition
software.
RPGNet: What other RPGs do you enjoy?
Mathew Ignash: My first RPG was Robotech by Palladium Books, which I bought mostly because
I was a fan of the show and wanted to read about the mecha. This was in my
early years of High School. Then I met someone who had a copy of Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangness, and we realized that the rules
were very similar (both being made by Palladium). From there I started to
read Cyberpunk, Marvel Super Heroes, Dungeons and Dragons, Rolemaster and
Gamma World after leaving high school. I also got into some of the material
from Games Workshop for a while. I came upon Champions about the time 4th
edition hit the streets. I bought the BBB at a going out of business sale
at the Antique Paper store, and I loved it. I then upgraded to the
hardcover edition of the BBB and got Heromaker software.
RPGNet: I notice you're a big devotee of the Amiga. As a former Amiga owner myself,
I'm curious if you'd like to digress a bit and talk about the "state of the
nation" with that wonderful old machine. Is there anything going on in the
Amiga world you'd like to talk about?
Mathew Ignash: Well, as I mentioned before, I have my new system. It's an AmigaXL. There
are several different lines of development for the modern Amiga. Some
people have moved it over to the PowerPC CPU, which offers much
compatability with older software and much more power under the hood. I
have an AmigaXL, which is an Amiga running on top of a light software
emulation layer on standard PC-AT hardware. This means Amiga software runs
on X86 hardware with only a little speed lost in the translation. Since
PC-AT hardware is just so cheap these days, I can get by very easily on a
low cost machine without having to buy Windows. I really despise M$.
I'm running a very peppy Amiga with Amiga OS 3.9 on a 1ghz Amithlon CPU,
256mb of RAM, 64mb GeForce video card, 44gb hard drive and CD-ROM. I
recently connected to a cable modem, and the internet is just so fast now!
Here is a picture of my system running a Quicktime movie trailer Funkytown
while browsing the hard drive.
I run an MS-DOS emulator called PC-Task for playing with Heromaker of
course.
The only problems I have with using it are when I run into media that is in
a format that isn't ported to the Amiga. For instance the latest Quicktime
codecs and Windows Media files just don't like my machine because certain
companies own the rights. I can play a very zippy MPEG animation though,
being an open format. I'de like to see more support for Amiga floppy drives
and some CD writers on the AmigaXL, but maybe we'll see those soon. AmigaXL
has only recently been developed, and do some software testing for
compatability and I'm a pain in the sides of tech support, but it all works
out.
As for what I can do on my computer, I chat on AIM, I print my resume, I
write web pages, I upload files, I watch the trailer to Spider-Man, I view
Adobe Acrobat files, I download off Napster, I make MP3 music, just like
everyone else.
All the sound files and scans from video tapes on my sites were done on my
Amigas.
RPGNet: If I were to decide to create a fan site, what advice would you give me?
Mathew Ignash: Learn HTML (don't rely on authoring software, which makes bulky horrible
code), make your site friendly to all browsers. Don't rely on Javascript or
Flash for simple links, and link the hell out of a page! I like a lot of
hyper in my hyper-text. Put your media files in open formats, like MPEG
video.
RPGNet: Final thoughts?
Mathew Ignash: If you read this whole interview, you are now required to write a 250 Point Project submission. It can be any character you know. Gumby, The Blue
Falcon and Dynamutt, McGuyver, the Six-Million Dollar Man. Just write it up
and send it to me and I'll post it!
| 
