Do Villain (Protagonists) Need to be Designed like PCs?

[levi]

And in Hero, after your short cut method is applied, I build my monster PC how?

The same way you would build a power from a concept. You would look at the ability and model it with the HERO Rules.

I don't see these as essential. The GM can always take short cuts. I see a value to suggesting such short cuts in the rulebooks.

I find templates quite useful - writing up "generic thugs 1-5" creates a pool to reuse at my discretion. And I rarely see NPC's whose base points + disad's balance without a bonus/penalty in there, already a difference in PC vs NPC development.

Now, putting myself in Steve's shoes for a moment, would I rather:

(a) Have you buy all the books of adversaries pre-built for you?

(b) Give you a bunch of short cuts so you do it yourself and don't buy those books.

So, what is YOUR proposed Hero Character Short Form? What stays and what goes?

When I get home, (cause it's on my laptop) I'll post the template I use currently to shorthand Villains. I have to admit that there is porbably a better way to do this and my template does not address the larger issue of encounter balance. Of course the freestyle nature of HERO may make this difficult in any event.

Here's a pic of my file, since I can't attach an excel file.

[Jagged]

I feel quite strongly that villains should use the same rules. But it is perfectly acceptable for refs to use "short-cuts" as appropriate.

But those short-cuts should remain short-cuts and not dignified as a mechanic of the system.

[Kdansky]

I'm thinking along these lines: If you redo a system, you might as well look at the shortcuts too. So I'm not proposing to design the system in a way that makes shortcuts the "better" way, but if for example CON, BODY and STR all cost 1cp, that certainly helps for shortcuts.

And yeah, split up dex into Dex and CV, as in heroglyphs proposed. DH 40 or such.

[Balabanto]

I think they definitely do. Whenever I published an adventure, in Digital Hero or when I send something to Dave Mattingly for publication, I always sent him a full slew of sheets, not because it would have been easier to write "Plot, just fudge this," but because character design=philosophy of the game.

If you don't agree with the philosophy of the sheet designer, you can always change it, but the counterargument is that if you don't see a philosophy of character design, you won't understand the idea behind the character.

Characters need character sheets. It's part of the game. And in Hero, especially in a superhero game, it pays to be thorough.

[rjcurrie]

I think they definitely do. Whenever I published an adventure, in Digital Hero or when I send something to Dave Mattingly for publication, I always sent him a full slew of sheets, not because it would have been easier to write "Plot, just fudge this," but because character design=philosophy of the game.

If you don't agree with the philosophy of the sheet designer, you can always change it, but the counterargument is that if you don't see a philosophy of character design, you won't understand the idea behind the character.

Characters need character sheets. It's part of the game. And in Hero, especially in a superhero game, it pays to be thorough.

In my mind, there's a big difference between villains designed for your own use and villains designed for others to use. Villains designed for others require full character sheets. Villains designed for your own use only require what you need to play the villain (possibly just a few basic numbers and a general overview of their powers). If I'm the only one who is ever going to be playing the villain, I don't need to have anyone else understand the philosophy behind the design.