Fresh Meat

[Muawijhe]

I'm pretty new to HERO. Read through the book kinda hodge-podge so far, but I really like what I see. Unlike most games where the "possibilities are endless", I feel it's true for HERO.

The book is rather daunting, though, with all the rules and special cases, even for someone who reads through new RPG books each week. I was wondering what helpful hints and tips you more experienced HERO gamers and Narrators can give for running the first few games.

Also, I was wondering if there were any gamers in the Ann Arbor/Adrian area that wouldn't mind either 1) a new player or 2) someone that'd sit in just to watch and get a feel for the game. If so, drop me a mail at muawijhe2000@yahoo.com

Thanks in advance and game on.

[Alibear]

Helpful hints for a new fellar?

First off welcome aboard.

Well, my advice would be to keep it simple to start with. Don't try to do too much too soon. Get a grip of the basics before going crazy with more exotic concepts. I would add any optional rules that you plan on using one by one and explain them before you intend to introduce them.

Another thing would be to use us. This very Discussion board is a handy resource, you can fire off a question and we'll try to help and are usually friendly enough.

[Tom McCarthy]

You can try running a few simple adventures with no advantages, no limitations, no END, no knockback, etc. Just the simplest rules.

Once you've got the basics, start adding juicy bits.

If you don't know how to build a power, ask here. Almost always, several good suggestions will follow.

[Pattern Ghost]

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3304

[Muawijhe]

Thanks for the information, guys. Read through the other topic and found it pretty useful.

Got anything more HERO specific?

[Pattern Ghost]

Just keep things simple at first. What genre do you plan to run? If you just want to run something to get a feel for the system, and genre doesn't matter, go with something heroic level, say 50 + 50 or 75 + 75 pts.

Build some characters.

Run some trial combats.

Don't use all the combat rules. Ignore everything marked "Optional."

Don't use the Powers rules at first.

Once you get a feel for the basics of the character creation and combat systems, start playing with the powers rules. Keep those simple at first, no frameworks, no complicated constructs. Do some trial runs with these new characters.

Once you get a good idea of how the basic mechanics work, you'll start to see how the different subsystems are pretty internally consistant. Then you can add in optional rules, and more complicated power constructs a few at a time, until you feel comfortable with them.

After a few test runs, things should fall into place. And you can always ask specific questions on the board if looking them up in the books or the FAQ doesn't clarify things. Heck, you can even ask Steve Long on the Hero System Questions board.

[Pattern Ghost]

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3210

[Muawijhe]

Thanks again. I might do a heroic fantasy (low-magic) or heroic modern-era (team of people, some guns, kinda hi-profile SWAT to foil bank robberies and the such) one.

The Powers section is starting to come to picture the more I read through it. Doesn't seem all that hard, with a few notable exceptions that are already given extra care.

Combat's still got me a bit fuddled, but I'm sure that'll clear up to. Just seems to be a lot of book keeping that slows things down (I like the look of it so far).

[Muawijhe]

Well, one question does come to mind off the top of my head. Combat skill levels. I know how they work regarding combat, just not entirely clear on which groups they apply to, what they can be bought for (again, which groups), and how they're recorded on character sheets.

Also, anyone know where I can find a good listing of pre-made characters (complete with points cost)? I think seeing some finished products will help me through a lot of things.

[Pattern Ghost]

http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/freedocs.htm

Download the Genre by Genre document for some sample characters.

[Al_Beddow]

Originally posted by Muawijhe
Well, one question does come to mind off the top of my head. Combat skill levels. I know how they work regarding combat, just not entirely clear on which groups they apply to, what they can be bought for (again, which groups), and how they're recorded on character sheets.

Also, anyone know where I can find a good listing of pre-made characters (complete with points cost)? I think seeing some finished products will help me through a lot of things.

Go to the freebie section and download the "genre-by-genre" pdf.

For CSL's

The 8-point are a +1 that applies to everything. You can switch each of the 8-point CSL's between DCV and OCV when your dex comes up in each of your phases.

The 5-point CSL's are a +1 that applies to a large group, like all Hand-to-Hand attacks, or to DCV.

[Haerandir]

There's some good discussion of CSL's on the FAQ page:

http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/rules/SKILLS.htm

Scroll down a bit, the Combat Skill Levels section is right after the General Skills section.

As for how they're recorded on a character sheet, just make a note of them along with the rest of your skills. The official character sheet in the back of the Hero rulebook also has a space in the 'Combat Information' section in the upper right to summarize your CSL's, so you don't have to go wading through your 35-entry skills 'n' powers list every time you want to find out what levels you have.

So, for instance, a character might have a Skill list that looked like this:

3 Acrobatics, 14-
3 Breakfall, 14-
3 Deduction, 12-
5 +1 w/Hand-to-Hand
3 +1 w/Karate

As you can see, they're recorded in much the same way as other skills. I like to keep all of my CSL's together at the end of my skill list, just so they're easy to find.

If the character above were attempting to use his Karate skills to hit someone with a Snap Kick maneuver, he could use both of his levels to increase his OCV and/or DCV. He could apply both levels to damage, also. If he was flailing away at his opponent with a bar stool, he could still use his Hand-to-Hand level, but not his Karate level. If he's shooting someone with a gun, he couldn't use either level with that attack, though he could still set them to defense, in case someone tried to punch him.

An important note: The only ways to increase your DCV against ranged attacks are:

5-point 'DCV' skill levels, which apply to all attacks, all the time, but can't be used for anything but DCV.
Tactical modifiers (range penalties, cover, darkness)
Dexterity (DEX does everything)