Hilarious rpg.net thread!

[Yamo]

I don't know how many of you have see this one yet, but boy is it a doozy. Enjoy!

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33827

[Mutant for Hire]

His arguments are not completely without merit. There is a valid case to be made under the current rules that COM is a waste of character sheet space.

Amusingly enough, he actually missed a point: non-combat skills are for the most part scaled to DEX/5 while combat skills are scaled to DEX/3 and I have yet to figure out a reason as to why.

And then there is the question of why so many attributes only manifest in CHAR/5 levels, making one wonder why one should not just divide the attributes by five in the first place.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire
And then there is the question of why so many attributes only manifest in CHAR/5 levels, making one wonder why one should not just divide the attributes by five in the first place.

Because if you did that, then you would be playing Fuzion; his favorite game.

[Monolith]

And Yamo, curse you for making me go over there and read all those flames. You know I have a low threshold for negativity.

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Monolith
You know I have a low threshold for negativity.

Me too... let's kill him.

Edit: Just to clarify, NOT Yamo, the Troll...

[Yamo]

And then there is the question of why so many attributes only manifest in CHAR/5 levels, making one wonder why one should not just divide the attributes by five in the first place.

This has been covered. Two reasons, though.

1. Adjustment Powers.

So many Powers alter Characteristics in play (Absorption, Aid, Drain, Suppress, Transfer, etc) that being closer to a positive "breakpoint" or farther from a negative one is a bonus in and of itself.

2. Incremental improvement.

I prefer to improve stats over time when possible rather than all at once in a big, unwieldly "clump" of effectiveness. If STR 3 in the "new HERO" was equal to STR 10-15 in the old, for example, any increase in the stat whatsoever would instantly provide colossal benefits. I don't like that. The result is too vague and unrealistic for my tastes. Too "Fuziony", if you will.

[Fuzzy Gnome]

I found it mostly amusing, but it was just annoying enough to keep me from wasting everyone's time with an ill mannered rant about "roll-playing" vs. "role-playing." Some of the people on the temporary boards were really hitting my psych lims by saying "rules-light" games mean good roleplaying. But I would have degenerated into "Vampire suXXors Hero r0xx0rs" and just annoyed everybody, I suspect.

So if you want a rant follow Yamo's link, or if you don't, thank Yamo.

[schir1964]

Hmmm, interesting... (8^D)

- Christopher Mullins

[Keneton]

I hate when non heroes make fun of hero saying its complicated. If it was so complicated why could Dan make Hero Designer "understand" the rules, but e-tools totally sucks!

I play multiple games, and everyone knows that 3rd edition stole everything good from Hero. Even Monte Cook would admit this. DR, Resistance, Full Defense Action, Item Hardness, Breaking Things = Champions!

I love d20, play it once every other week 2 campaigns, but Hero is my choice. Why do we get flamed by retards. They should just play Toon and Amber and role play themselves to hillbilly heaven all while feeling superior. This is just a disquise for being tactically incompotent.

Years ago they used to say that a bi#$% was a girl that would date anyone but you and a slut was a girl that slept with anyone but you. People criticize Hero because they CAN'T READ! They make fun of what they can't do or what they can't have.

Last in my rant, what is all this hoopla about tacticle movement. What good game doesn't have it. For God's sake spend 20 bucks on a battlemat and a few vis a vis. If you dont have it, your not really playing the game!

[Jerry A!]

Well, since everyone is jumping on this bandwagon.

First, let me say that having played MnM I have to say that I honestly like it. It is a tight system. And I think it speaks to it's economy of design that it does rather well in 192 pages what most games can't do in twice that much space.

Keep in mind, this isn't D20 Champions. It's streamlined to a different degree.

Now, having said that, I'll say that I still prefer the uber-flexibility of Hero. In my opinion, this is both it's strength and it's weakness to the average game player.

Comparing the two, I think that I've boiled down a list of where I believe Hero could improve.

First, a better set of pre-built powers complete with optional extras that can be tacked on. I've noticed that people enjoy just picking a power and doing a general tweak, as opposed to building it from scratch. And it makes character generation so much quicker. Yeah, I know some of you out there aren't fans of the spoonfed method. But apparently, there is a market of uncaptured players that are a fan of said method.

I understand that Steve is working on such a book. It can't get here fast enough.

Second, combat, combat, combat. I've seen both rule sets have combat suck and drag. Part of it is due to complexity, part of it is due to inexperience. For instance, my one friend (I have two ) can run the combat as fast as any system I've seen. Then again, he's been playing for almost 15 years.

I would love to see a FAQ annotates a medium-sized combat (5-10) people put up on the web site. Something that can walk someone through actions, the speed chart, END, REC, where some optional rules might come into play, etc. And like I said, annotate it. Put in some design notes, why some choices were made, and page references in FREd.

Well, maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I know that it would help the morons that I play with.

To end on a positive note, here are the things that Hero does extremely well. Out of the box, it's great for multi-genre play. As we all always point out, it's infinitely customizable. Limitations work in a much more balanced way. It's more internally consistent.

Though, it's a lot easier to carry around the MnM rulebook.

[MuscaDomestica]

I thought the humor in the thread was the fact that he was using the 4th ed book and most of the things he mentioned were fixed in 5th ed...

[Thirdbase]

That was interesting, glad I wore my "Asbestos Undies"

I thinking of finding a nice D20 board and reviewing AD&D 1st Edition. (I need different size dice, why?)

[Syberdwarf2]

First off, thank you Yamo for that amusing link. I DID find it amusing, but I could take it only so much. The responses to our not-so-favorite troll were funny, but repetetive.
But, again, thank you.
That being said, I'd like to take a few moments to inject a few positive comments about why I like HERO. There are always going to be complaints about any system, and HERO is no exception. Common complaints, many of which I've maintained myself at some point, until FREd;
Combat is too clunky (complex,irritating,........)
Not anymore. the explanation of what happens when is made much more concise. It now takes no longer to learn the combat sequence than, say d20.
Combat takes too long.
There are suggestions (not present in 4th) that help make things go by a lot quicker. My personal favorite, which I'm ashamed to say I didn't already think of, is pre-rolling dice before game play. Just take a spreadsheet program, insert the proper random number function, copy, paste, and voila.
The Experience point system sucks.
Matter of opinon, purely I think. I for one am glad that there's an Experience system in there that rewards roleplaying. I prefer it over a system that gives you points for killing things, stealing their gold,...... wait, doesn't that happen in video games???
There's not enough premade/ prewritten material on subject XYZ.....
Again, I prefer to use my imagination. Heaven forbid THAT should happen in a Roleplaying Game.

Anyway, I don't want to eat up bandwidth anymore than I have to. And I don't want to seem like a troll. Just wanted to point out that HERO has been, for the most part fixed. Thank you Herogames/DOJ for making my favorite system MUCH easier to use. If you hadn't fixed and/or clarified all those problems from 4th, I'd have never gotten back into gaming after an almost 7 year hiatus.

Make mine HERO!!

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Syberdwarf2
There's not enough premade/ prewritten material on subject XYZ.....
Again, I prefer to use my imagination. Heaven forbid THAT should happen in a Roleplaying Game.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. This is the complaint that I hear most often about LOTS of game systems. I blame White Wolf... That's not a Flame, just a statement of fact. Prior to the WOD, I had rarely seem a game system (a popular one anyway) that was so deeply entrenched in a setting. The point of RPing games (even the earliest ones) was that they were tools for the imagination. Who among us did not create their own world/setting for their first game of D&D? Now such ideas are 'Homebrewed' and viewed as some sort of oddity.

[Chaosliege]

Funny link. I could only read 1 page though as it was getting repititios(sp). I happen to like several role-playing games, but Hero at least lets me do whatever I want. If I cant make an existing power do what I want, I create one, witch is easy to do in Hero. I admit that combat takes a long time and if that's a problem for someone, non't play Hero. I love that combat takes forever, because I know when it's over, it was done effectively. As far as Stats costing different points, I like that too. At least with Hero it doesn't matter how strong I am when determining whether I hit something or not(shameless D20 flame), just how much damage I do.