Hero Central: Advice

[jtelson]

Hello all,

I'm considering starting a campaign on Hero Central. I'm an experienced GM having run games for over a quarter of a century including Champions/Hero for the last two decades (suddenly feeling very very old) but this would be a new medium for me and I'm looking for some advice.

First and least important, how important is Hero Designer for running through Hero Central?

Second, I have several former, now scattered, players that I'd like to invite to play, for a first effort should I open the doors up for other applicants?

Next (tired of numbering them) What do people consider a good/manageble number of players for this medium?

Finally and most importantly, what is it that I don't know enough to ask about? In other words what pitfalls have you experienced, methods have you happened across that have worked well, or just things that you wish you had known before you started.

I'd appreciate anything that you can throw my way. Thank you

[Hermit]

Hero Designer is a goodsend in a lot of ways, but it isn't essential. Perhaps the neatest part is if you have the v3 of it, you can fill the Character section up almost automatically with easy sheets ready to display. Without it, it takes a bit more work, but still isn't essential.

I would see how many of your former players would want to give this a try first before deciding to open it up to other ones. That might determine whether you even want to open it up beyond that. I prefer small groups myself, but man, if you get a good idea going, there are some people ready to jump on it so you may end up with more than you wanted. There are good players on there, bad players, and those in between, and some that seem good won't mesh as well as you liked, and some that you were worried about might surprise you so good luck with that.

I'd keep the max of players at 6 myself if you have a choice. I've broken that rule before, more than once, but it seems to help flow

[Hermit]

By the way, love your sig line

[teh bunneh]

Make sure you let people know how often you intend to post/want responses from them. There's a difference between "You need to post every day" and "Posting once a week is fine" games.

[robertep]

Let me throw in a Link from a sight I use to run PbP games a lot on, that might help

Guide to Play By Post Games (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46074)

[Psybolt]

Does anyone post the NPCs on the Hero Central? Villains? I haven't seen anything yet, but perhaps I haven't seen it.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

I've started to give some information on notable NPCs; not game information, naturally, but 'interesting tidbits'. A lot of it actually goes into the OOC section -- I have an entire 'who's who' listing in my game's campaign info, built off the NPCs I've created, and the ones the PCs have referred to in their past stories. You can find that information in After the End (http://www.herocentral.net/readCampaignMessage.htm?messageId=595394&campaignId=595390).


I'm considering starting a campaign ...

And, uh ... what game?

[Psybolt]

Thanks Wyrm, I'll take a look at After the End.

[jtelson]

And, uh ... what game?

I generally have a handful of ideas rattling around and since I have a few players in mind I will probably poll them about what to try once I get a feel for what might or might not work in the format. We've all had at least 15 years of Hero/Champions experience so it's as good a system as any to start with. I'm leaning towards a superheroic/police/conspiracy game.

Generally my campaigns revolve around the theme that the struggle is more important than the victory and reinforce that the ends never justify the means.

[Savinien]

I've added NPC stuff, but HC3.0 wiped a lot of it away and I'm too lazy to put it back.

I like four PCs personally, though I've gamed successfully with more and unsuccessfully with less.

[Savinien]

Hero Designer is a goodsend in a lot of ways, but it isn't essential. Perhaps the neatest part is if you have the v3 of it, you can fill the Character section up almost automatically with easy sheets ready to display. Without it, it takes a bit more work, but still isn't essential.

I would see how many of your former players would want to give this a try first before deciding to open it up to other ones. That might determine whether you even want to open it up beyond that. I prefer small groups myself, but man, if you get a good idea going, there are some people ready to jump on it so you may end up with more than you wanted. There are good players on there, bad players, and those in between, and some that seem good won't mesh as well as you liked, and some that you were worried about might surprise you so good luck with that.

I'd keep the max of players at 6 myself if you have a choice. I've broken that rule before, more than once, but it seems to help flow

I would love to talk to you more about the bolded section of your post sometime...

Let me know the best way to go about that.

[jtelson]

I want to thank people for your advice and comments. I've decided to start with competent normals to get a better feel for how it works before running something with super powers. So I've started The 13th Step on Hero Central.