Guidelines for converting to HERO

[rjd59]

Was wondering if anyone has or knows where to find guidelines for converting "ICONS" and "M&M" to HERO. 

[Sketchpad]

I've found that converting by concept works better than a formulaic conversion.  

[Rhino]

Buy Champions Universe 6e and Champions Villains, Vols. 1-3. I find these books have more incredible characters than any other superhero setting.

[rjd59]

My problem is, I don't have any idea on the levels for either "ICONS" or "M&M", so don't have a base reference of power levels to work from.  Without a reference on the level of power, such as stregnth, or how much damage a blast would do, it's hard to conceptulize with characters from those other games. Figuring out the powers and how to create them in HERO isn't a problem.  

 

I do own those books Rhino.  However, I like to use characters from various sources, call me crazy! 

[bluesguy]

I have used a few ICONS adventures in my game.  As a general rule I look at the scenario and then look for villains in the Champions Villains, Vols. 1-3 books for villains that match the concept of the villains in the ICONS material.

[Doc Democracy]

There is always a problem with conversion but the basic principles should remain the same.  The steps that you go through should think about that.

 

Things like STR are easy - how much can you lift etc.

 

Things like movement powers are similarly easy.

 

What you need are the benchmarks for everything else.  In ICONS or M&M you look at the damage a character does - is it higher or lower than the campaign average - does the character hit more easily than average or not - is he harder to damage?

 

In HERO, the campaign averages are more readily movable than other games and so you then need to take direction from the originals to make the conversions.

 

If you bring one or two examples to this thread then folk will be more than happy to help make the conversion (and offer more than one way to do it) but many of their questions will come back to those principles.  I find that once you have done a few conversions then the others are so much easier to eyeball...

 

Doc

[rjd59]

Thanks for the input all, believe it or not, I found your answers very useful, and gave me a direction to move in.

 

So I broke down and got the rulebook pdf's for "ICONS" and "M and M". Now I can determine how their stats could translate in HERO.  It will make it easier to decipher what their power levels should be HERO-wise. Just knowing what the respective systems stats are used for will make the direction clearer in converting a character. 

 

As a "Strike Force" backer, I also have access to their ICONS write-ups. Between these and the pdf's, I believe I can get a grasp on what makes sense in the conversions. 

[Tasha]

I agree with the others. Use the other game writeups as an outline of the character. Then build the character to fit the powerlevels of your Champions World. If you do a 'precise' Conversion you will invariably have to rewrite what you get from the conversion anyways. IMHO cut out the middleman and just build them how you like them from the start.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Tasha

[rjd59]

I agree with the others. Use the other game writeups as an outline of the character. Then build the character to fit the powerlevels of your Champions World. If you do a 'precise' Conversion you will invariably have to do that with what you get from the conversion anyways. IMHO cut out the middleman and just build them how you like them from the start.

 

You have a point! I like it too!   I believe the way you describe would be alot less of a headache and more fun to boot! 

[Armitage]

When converting from other game systems, I generally just establish what the "Normal", "Extraordinary", and "Superhuman" benchmarks are, and then convert within that range.  I also establish a break-point between having superhuman strength and being strong enough to qualify as a Brick.

 

For example, Fallout from the 3e Mutants & Masterminds book Threat Reports is an Energy Projector and a Brick with superhuman stamina and everything else above average but within normal human range.

 

Once upon a time, I attempted to create line-by-line conversion rules for various game systems, so the characters could be imported into my campaign as needed.  Then I realized that I would likely be adjusting their power level to fit the game anyway, so it would just be a lot of work for too little return.

[Tjack]

To do system to system damage match-ups I like to check the weapon lists in both books. If one says that a sawed off shotgun does two D4 damage and the other says it does "Remarkable" damage then you have a baseline for comparison.

Matching up a number of weapons that you have a basic idea of how much force have in the real world will give you an idea of what that means in both systems.