I just bought Hero 5th Edition Revised instead of GURPS 4th Edition.

[Melkor]

...I walked into my local game store to buy the 4th Edition Gurps Character & Campaign books, and ended up walking out with Hero 5th Edition Revised.

A little background about my "gaming career" - I bought Champions back in the mid-eighties, and made up several characters (probably not entirely correct characters according to the rules), but never actually played the game. I bought the 4th Edition of Champions/Hero, but never actually played the game.

When 5th Edition came out, I bought it, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero, and the Bestiary, but never played the game - or finished reading the rules. Then I took a hiatus from gaming for about a year or so.

So here I am, back to gaming (weekly D&D 3.5, and a couple of online games), and thinking about trying to convert Warhammer 40K over to an RPG system....and I go into my game store with the full intention of picking up Gurps....when I see "THE PHONEBOOK"....I look through it, then through Ninja Hero, The Viper sourcebook, and Star Hero (which again, I own, but haven't read) - and it just seems like it would be FUN to convert 40K to Hero.

I am a little scared at the prospect...the system seems like it will DO ANYTHING, but it also seems like there are so many options that it will be hard to know where to start a conversion.

We'll see how it goes. I'm just fore-warning you folks that I might have a lot of questions over the next few weeks.

[Trebuchet]

Welcome to the Dark Side... :eg:

[Corven_Ren]

Welcome to the Dark Side... :eg:

Yes welcome, but if I remeber rightly we do have cookies :rockon:

[GaryB]

Cake or Death!
You chose cake of course =)

[Hugh Neilson]

I am a little scared at the prospect...the system seems like it will DO ANYTHING, but it also seems like there are so many options that it will be hard to know where to start a conversion.

We'll see how it goes. I'm just fore-warning you folks that I might have a lot of questions over the next few weeks.

Welcome to the game and the Boards. There are lots of people here eager to help with conversions. Just don't expect many questions to have a "one true right answer" and you'll be fine.

[Seenar]

...I walked into my local game store to buy the 4th Edition Gurps Character & Campaign books, and ended up walking out with Hero 5th Edition Revised.

A little background about my "gaming career" - I bought Champions back in the mid-eighties, and made up several characters (probably not entirely correct characters according to the rules), but never actually played the game. I bought the 4th Edition of Champions/Hero, but never actually played the game.

When 5th Edition came out, I bought it, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero, and the Bestiary, but never played the game - or finished reading the rules. Then I took a hiatus from gaming for about a year or so.

So here I am, back to gaming (weekly D&D 3.5, and a couple of online games), and thinking about trying to convert Warhammer 40K over to an RPG system....and I go into my game store with the full intention of picking up Gurps....when I see "THE PHONEBOOK"....I look through it, then through Ninja Hero, The Viper sourcebook, and Star Hero (which again, I own, but haven't read) - and it just seems like it would be FUN to convert 40K to Hero.

I am a little scared at the prospect...the system seems like it will DO ANYTHING, but it also seems like there are so many options that it will be hard to know where to start a conversion.

We'll see how it goes. I'm just fore-warning you folks that I might have a lot of questions over the next few weeks.


Welcome to the most flexible system ever

[MisterBaldy]

I to am finally back to the HERO System...and couldn't be happier!!! :winkgrin:

[CourtFool]

We'll see how it goes. I'm just fore-warning you folks that I might have a lot of questions over the next few weeks.

If there is one thing the people on this board enjoy it is answering questions. We should just fore-warn you that it is not uncommon for Steve Long himself to offer answers too.

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, Melkor, welcome! It's nice to see you over in this neck of the cyberwoods. :)

I know how you feel... when you really begin to see all the possibilities in HERO, the desire to start exercising your creativity is seductive. :eg:

As my predecessors have said, this is a great place to ask HERO-related questions. Folks here are eager to show off how much we know. ;)

BTW regarding you Warhammer 40K conversion aspirations: If you follow the link in my signature below, and scroll down to the appropriate entry, I believe you'll find a few items which may help you with that. I also have it on good authority that more material will be added to that section in the near future, so stay tuned.

[Lord Liaden]

If there is one thing the people on this board enjoy it is answering questions. We should just fore-warn you that it is not uncommon for Steve Long himself to offer answers too.

If you have a rules question that's not in the rulebook or FAQ, you can always go to the "HERO Fifth Edition Rules Questions" forum and pose it to Steve Long directly. He usually answers within hours.

[Steve Long]

Wow, I haven't had anyone warn other people about me since I was practicing law. I feel so special! ;)

[Melkor]

Thanks for the welcome folks!

Lord Liaden - Great link! I've pulled down info on the 40K Weapons Conversions (that will save me A LOT of time), the Tyranids, and the Space Marines.

From looking at Star Hero, and the 5th PHONE...I mean RULEbook tonight, I've already found a tone of 'pre packaged' info (Packages - cultural, racial, and professional, and Equipment) that is going to make life easy for someone who is new to the system like I am.

It also seems like there are SEVERAL ways to tackle the same issues using HERO, and a lot of it comes down to personal interpretation.

Now on to a couple of questions (none specific to rules):

1) Military Rank - How would this be handled (purchased) using HERO ?

2) The 40K game I am working on is going to be a Play-by-Post message board game. Has anyone here used HERO for an email, or Play-by-Post game in the past ? If so, how did it work out for you ? I won't be using physical representation (a hex map) for combat, but I don't think that will be a huge problem, as I remember asking Mr. Long via email at one point about using HERO without miniatures and a hex map, and he explained that in all of his years of playing, he didn't use the maps often.

Thanks again.

[CourtFool]

Wow, I haven't had anyone warn other people about me since I was practicing law. I feel so special!

Yeah, but it is the short bus special.

[CourtFool]

1) Military Rank - How would this be handled (purchased) using HERO ?

Generally it is handled as a Perk, specifically a Fringe Benefit with a cost ranging between 1pt - 5pts. In a military extensive campaign you could use a wider scale, say 1pt - 10pts and maybe even include medals and special training as their own Fringe Benefits or in Reputation.

Of course, Hero being what it is, you could also build it with PRE Skill Levels or additional PRE and Limited to military personel only.

[Hugh Neilson]

Generally it is handled as a Perk, specifically a Fringe Benefit with a cost ranging between 1pt - 5pts. In a military extensive campaign you could use a wider scale, say 1pt - 10pts and maybe even include medals and special training as their own Fringe Benefits or in Reputation.

Of course, Hero being what it is, you could also build it with PRE Skill Levels or additional PRE and Limited to military personel only.

One thing you could consider, for a military-intensive campaign, is set a rank table as a perk, but prohibit characters from spoending points on it. They would only get increases in rank as an XP bonus specifically awarded by the GM. You could also have other perks and/or talents restricted to certain ranks or higher, so the players can buy these, but only after having achieved a certain rank.

Alternatively, you can let them spend points as they choose - it depends what structure you want for your game.

[JmOz]

Wow, I haven't had anyone warn other people about me since I was practicing law. I feel so special! ;)


:snicker:That's only because you are a rules lawyer :winkgrin:

[Hugh Neilson]

:snicker:That's only because you are a rules lawyer :winkgrin:

Incorrect. He has been appointed to the Judiciary. [Say, aren't there laws agaiunst buying a judicial position, Steve? :) ]

[JmOz]

Incorrect. He has been appointed to the Judiciary. [Say, aren't there laws agaiunst buying a judicial position, Steve? :) ]

lol...good one, you get some rep for it...

[Steve Long]

Say, aren't there laws agaiunst buying a judicial position, Steve?

After buying the position, I retroactively changed the rules using my HERO System Line Developer power. ;)

[Hugh Neilson]

After buying the position, I retroactively changed the rules using my HERO System Line Developer power. ;)

Shouldn't have cheaped out - that "no one remembers old rule" adder is subtle, but extremely powerful.

[ghost-angel]

THE PHONEBOOK....

that's the greatest name for 5ER that I've seen to date. I'm using it.

And welcome to Hero .... we will answer every question you have at least three different ways. And then discuss it for a week.

[Lord Liaden]

1) Military Rank - How would this be handled (purchased) using HERO ?


As Courtfool and Hugh Neilson have already mentioned, this is generally run as a Perk for the character. As a example, on this page you'll find Rank Perks converted for a HERO Robotech campaign:

http://www.starherofandom.com/h_robotech/index.php

As you can see, there's a relationship between the rank and the equipment available. I've seen a number of HERO games take a similar approach; most commonly, the Rank of the character corresponds to the total Real Points of equipment commonly available to members of the organization he or she belongs to. It's one way to balance the scaling of the PC's power level as they gain Experience.

[Melkor]

Has anyone done up any stats (weapon, vehicle, character) for a World War II campaign using HERO ?

[Lord Liaden]

Well, for what's available on Internet websites, I can think of a couple of sources:

"Surbrook's Stuff" has well thought-out writeups for a number of WW II vintage German armored vehicles:
http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsvehicles/vehicle.html

Also, Dany St. Pierre's "Hero Pulp" website links to a sizeable selection of firearms and vehicles, with background notes and illos. Although embracing the pulp era generally, several of these continued into WW II as their descriptions indicate:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/6532/

I suspect that this summer's Pulp HERO genre book will have more of these. I'd also imagine there'll be more in-depth coverage in Golden Age Champions, but that's not scheduled until next year.

I hope that helps. :)

[prestidigitator]

Generally it is handled as a Perk, specifically a Fringe Benefit with a cost ranging between 1pt - 5pts. In a military extensive campaign you could use a wider scale, say 1pt - 10pts and maybe even include medals and special training as their own Fringe Benefits or in Reputation.

Of course, Hero being what it is, you could also build it with PRE Skill Levels or additional PRE and Limited to military personel only.
Considering how it may be used, you may want to add in some of the Followers, Money and/or Contacts Perks as well. With a combination of those and some of the Fringe Benefits like Poice Powers, Membership, etc., you can build a very well-varied array of backgrounds.


Wow, I haven't had anyone warn other people about me since I was practicing law. I feel so special! ;)
Ahhhh...it all makes sense now. ;)

[suziequzie]

Congratulations!

"One of us... One of us..."

[greymankle]

So here I am, back to gaming (weekly D&D 3.5, and a couple of online games),

Woo Hoo another 3.5ed convert. I don't feel so alone anymore.

-Peace

[starblaze]

I to am finally back to the HERO System...and couldn't be happier!!! :winkgrin:

I hear you man. After about a year of not running anything Hero because my last Champions got way out of hand, I went back to Hero when some of the younger college age kids from my wife's D&D store showed up on Labor excited about playing Hero after my wife told them about it. I played some Demo adventures with the Champions from the source book of the same name. Now three of them as well as my wife and another older player have all made characters and I am running a game for them in San Angelo.

I AM BACK BABY!!!! YEHAWWWW!!!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::D:D:D:roc kon::rockon:

[bluegodjanus]

1) Military Rank - How would this be handled (purchased) using HERO?

I agree with the Perk suggestions. It's also worth mentioning in concordance with that is Social Limitation: Subject to Orders, as pretty much everybody with military rank is going to be.

[lapsedgamer]

I hear you man. After about a year of not running anything Hero because my last Champions got way out of hand, I went back to Hero when some of the younger college age kids from my wife's D&D store showed up on Labor excited about playing Hero after my wife told them about it. I played some Demo adventures with the Champions from the source book of the same name. Now three of them as well as my wife and another older player have all made characters and I am running a game for them in San Angelo.

I AM BACK BABY!!!! YEHAWWWW!!!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::D:D:D:roc kon::rockon:

Glad to have you in the fold, but what's up with the threadomancy?