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Eberron Hero?


Altair

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(Crossposted from the Hero System forum, after the highly sensible recommendation to come here.)


 


So, my beloved S/O has decided that she, along with another dear friend of ours, wants to GM something in the Eberron setting. For a variety of reasons, they're considering Hero, probably Fantasy Hero Complete, as the system for this endeavor. I was wondering if anyone had taken a swing at this before, or if there are any recommendations?


 


A couple things to note:


 


  • This is not supposed to feel like standard D&D. Both GMs harbor a burning hatred for D&D in general, and are definitely not trying to replicate its feel
  • They want different kinds of magic to feel different. Wizards, Sorcerers, Dragonmark magic - all should feel distinct.
  • This is designed to be a political intrigue game, that branches out into the occasional expedition. But courtly intrigue first, monster-thwacking probably third at best.
  • Neither of the GMs has run Hero before, though one of them was a player in my brief wargamey Hero sessions, and enjoyed it quite a bit.
  • Both are very "Simulationist" from a GNS theory perspective - they like solid mechanical representation of things.

Anyway! I was wondering if the Herosphere had any thoughts on the matter?


 


Thanks, all!


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I know about that (holding forefinger against thumb) much about Eberron as a setting.

 

If the wizards and sorcerers are the D&D 3.x+ variation, then one would be the whole Vancian magic system thing with Delayed Effect and Charges. I think Killer Shrike did a pretty admirable job detailing that one. The other one would be more END based, almost like super-powers. Have no idea about Dragonmark magic, but it sounds like some sort of rune based magic. Maybe the Alchemy system from the Grimoire might be a good prototype for that. I could be completely mistaken about it, but marks lends itself to a certain idea.

 

Lots of detailed NPCs with a general idea of what each one is motivated by and towards. The GM(s) are going to be busy designing all of that. There should also be many potential sub-plots available. Intrigue is not hard to run. It can be hard to grasp what the purpose of all the intrigue is. A cold war, succession dispute or trade/guild empowerment are always good for some backroom dealing. I guess you can also go for some sort of boredom on the part of one or many nobles (Dangerous Liaisons). The important part is knowing what role each character plays on the overall political chessboard. Sounds like a fun time.

 

Hero is not hard to run. As said many times, the complexity is in the front loaded work of character creation. Solution; use less points. If it is mostly intrigue, then a lower point game might just fit the bill. If monster thunking is the least or your group's priorities, then you can focus on skills and perks that apply to nobles, courtiers, and high ranking guildsfolk. With intrigue though, I would consider any dice throwing for social skills a sort of extended test. Few people are persuaded immediately. It might take an introduction, a few visits (with gifts and bribes of course) and maybe some external events that shift points of view.  Just a suggestion though.

 

That's all for now.

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I am working on converting a lot of the 5e D&D stuff over to Hero 6e and hosting it on Killer Shrikes page as well if you are looking for content and how to model it in Hero 6. That said, I don't think you'ff find it very troubling to do at all given that you are just looking to use the setting.

 

- E

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For my D&D-like sorcerers, I use a themed Multipower; so a dragonborn sorcerer has say a breath weapon spell, a dragon-hide spell, etc. while a feyborn sorcerer has more glamour-like spells.  My D&D-like wizards have a VPP and a list of known spells; the VPP can only be configured with those spells.  To increase what's on their list required a Spell Inventor skill roll.  Neither one makes real use of Vancian magic.

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If the wizards and sorcerers are the D&D 3.x+ variation, then one would be the whole Vancian magic system thing with Delayed Effect and Charges. I think Killer Shrike did a pretty admirable job detailing that one. 

 

That's the conventional way of doing it, but I've been noodling around with the idea of using Delayed Effect with a Multipower (the DE cap is the size of the reserve). Each spell is a fixed slot. Spells take Extra Time to memorize, with more powerful spells taking longer. Spells can be memorized multiple times; each doubling of the number of memorizations adds 5 points to the amount of the reserve that it uses. (Memorizing a 30 AP spell four times uses 40 points of the reserve.)

 

I haven't had the chance to playtest this, but it seems like it would feel like D&D magic with casters noting which spells they have memorized.

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  • 1 month later...

 

(Crossposted from the Hero System forum, after the highly sensible recommendation to come here.)

 

So, my beloved S/O has decided that she, along with another dear friend of ours, wants to GM something in the Eberron setting. For a variety of reasons, they're considering Hero, probably Fantasy Hero Complete, as the system for this endeavor. I was wondering if anyone had taken a swing at this before, or if there are any recommendations?

 

A couple things to note:

 

  • This is not supposed to feel like standard D&D. Both GMs harbor a burning hatred for D&D in general, and are definitely not trying to replicate its feel
  • They want different kinds of magic to feel different. Wizards, Sorcerers, Dragonmark magic - all should feel distinct.
  • This is designed to be a political intrigue game, that branches out into the occasional expedition. But courtly intrigue first, monster-thwacking probably third at best.
  • Neither of the GMs has run Hero before, though one of them was a player in my brief wargamey Hero sessions, and enjoyed it quite a bit.
  • Both are very "Simulationist" from a GNS theory perspective - they like solid mechanical representation of things.

Anyway! I was wondering if the Herosphere had any thoughts on the matter?

 

Thanks, all!

 

Let me bump this.

 

I'm an old AD&D Grognard. So a lot the newer stuff I won't understand. But you you have to understand that a lot of the old D&D conceits may not work in a classless system.

 

Example: The Differences between Clerics and Paladins. 

 

Are they really two different classes? They are both based on the same trope, the crusading holy knight. Both have some martial skill. Both have access to healing and divine magic. And both are quite effective against undead. 

 

From a hero system perspective they can both use the same basic package deal with slightly different advanced version of their respective package deals. One is better at combat while the other is better at divine magic.

 

Alignment is another. There are a lot of unspoken assumptions in that system and it affects a lot different things both magical and mundane.

This is important in the setting you are talking about. You may have to designate a Holy and Unholy SFX for certain types of magic.

Not sure how much Order and Chaos come into play in that setting.

 

Hero is a great system for differentiating magic schools or systems.  I noticed there was an artifice system in that setting Tula Morn had something similar. You could have Wayland Smith style characters who built items of power. These Characters used the Create effect to make weapons of power. They didn't have any other magic.

 

Dragon Marks seem to be similar to Tattoo magic which written up in 4th edition FH . 4th edition also had draconic magic but I don't know how much meshes with the draconic magic in your setting.

 

You can have ritualistic magic without the spell memorization if you like. Or you can replicate it it almost exactly it is up to you.

 

I'm building a setting with normal characteristic maxima and ritual magic casting so spell users will have to e able to hang spells for combat.

Since I assume normals are between 8-10 in primary stats I'm tweaking some  rules. Instead int/5 for spells hanged I'm using int/3. Skills in my world are CHA/3 not 5. But you can decide different.

 

Different schools of magic can draw their power from different things, ambient energy, personal energy, the Gods or what have you.

 

I'll have dive into the setting little more before I can comment.

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More thoughts.

 

Dragon shards could be bundles of XP used pay enchantment(if your enchantment system requires expenditure of XP) or activating (buying) new dragon marks. May also function as material components (Foci) for spells  or magic item creation. Possibly used as mana stones(End reserves) to power spells? That last one depends on how you build your arcane magic. Possible bonuses to magic skills as well.

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Here's an archived thread from a previous incarnation of the Hero Games forums, discussing converted PC races and prestige classes from the Eberron setting, and game stats for Dragonmarks (in 5E Hero System): http://web.archive.org/web/20100813154520/http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/24164-Eberron-Hero

 

Some bit rot.  Before tackling dragon marks you will have convert the general magic over first. Figure out how each of those effects will work under hero.

 

Example lesser mark of detection could be a detect (1/2 phase) or sense(0 phase). But Marks of detection could get danger sense as well.

 

Question does the bearer of a mark get only one effect or both?

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