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I'm a new player with some previous RPG experience, so I'm going to ask some questions both system wise and general: 

 

How do skills work in this game. Like I'm confused as to what purchasing a skill actually does. 

 

Is there a default difficulty for anything or do I have to modify the base difficulty of 9+Stat/5? 

 

Is there a point to having Core stats that are not a multiple of 5? 

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Your first two questions really aren't rules questions so much as they are topics for general discussion, and the third is a rules design/philosophy question (which I don't answer). So I've moved this to the "Discussion" board where anyone can answer (here only I can).

 

Welcome to HERO! We hope you enjoy it. Snacks are on the table over in the corner. ;)

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Welcome to Hero.

 

Skills

  • If a character has a skill they can use that skill.  So say I have a character with a 15 Intelligence and he also has Computer Programming and Security Systems as skills, which are both INT based skills.  His skill roll for either will be 12-.  During an adventure my character needs to write a program to hack into a defense computer network.  The GM says, well this is going to be hard so it is a -3 to your rolls.  That means I need to roll 9 or less to succeed.   The character decides to take some extra time, lets say the normal time to hack a system would be 20 minutes.  I am going to take at least 1 hour to write the code, that would get a +1 modifier.  Also lets say the character has the latest greatest laptop + software designed for hacking systems and the GM has already stated that because of that the character gets an extra +3.  So now the roll is a 13-.  If I succeed in both rolls then I have successfully hacked into the system without being detected.
  • Stats should reflect what the character is really able to do.  There is a tendency to mini-max on characteristics.  In Hero, rounding at .5 favors the player.  So a INT between 13 to 17 will result in a 12- skill roll associated with INT based skills.  And an INT of 18 to 22 would result in a 13- roll.  I fall into the trap myself and so do most of the people I have played with.  As long as everyone is doing it at the table (including NPCs) it doesn't really impact the game that much.
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I think all that Bluesguy has missed is that if you do not have a skill and the GM has not classed it as an everyman skill (one everyone has without paying for it) then your base chance of success is 8 or less.  Obviously you can do the things that might help - use the super laptop and hacking software, take extra time, get someone to give you advice to improve on that but it does not get better due to your characteristics.

 

Doc

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I think all that Bluesguy has missed is that if you do not have a skill and the GM has not classed it as an everyman skill (one everyone has without paying for it) then your base chance of success is 8 or less.  Obviously you can do the things that might help - use the super laptop and hacking software, take extra time, get someone to give you advice to improve on that but it does not get better due to your characteristics.

 

Doc

 

Doc, I think that "not" I bolded does not belong in there.  If it is an everyman skill, you get an automatic 8- (no char adjustment) chance of success.  If not, you can't "use it untrained" - you must buy the skill to have any chance of success.  So your example would assume that computer programming is an everyman skill in the game in question (reasonable for 21st century games).  If it's not an everyman skill (say, we're playing a WWII behind enemy lines espionage game, or Pulp Hero in the '30s), you can't even boot the computer up without the skill.

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Certain skills are what are called "Everyman skills".  This means (logically enough) that just about every man has those abilities to some degree or another.  In some other RPGs, they might call these skills ones that you can use "untrained".  An Everyman skill is one that the GM decides you get for free at 8 or less on 3D6.

 

Normal Everyman skills are things like:

Professional Skill: your job

Knowledge skill: a few hobbies you might have

Your language

Area knowledge: your hometown

Stealth (you played hide and seek as a kid, right?)

Transport familiarity: car

 

Basically these are normal things that any man on the street should have some degree of knowledge about.  Exactly which skills classify as "Everyman" is up to the GM and it will depend on the campaign.  Every character in Star Trek seems to know how to pilot a shuttlecraft and use a computer.  But that's probably not the case in a medieval fantasy game.

 

 

Buying a skill at base level gives you an 11- in it.  This is considered good enough to be a professional.  A lawyer who has KS: the Law, and PS: Lawyer is good enough that he's not going to screw your case up too badly.  He may not be the greatest lawyer in the world, but he's successful enough to pay his bills and has a nice little office.  He knows where and when to file the paperwork, he's not going to miss any deadlines, he's not going to go in front of the judge and say something stupid.  11- means that you're competent.  Particularly difficult things may get a penalty to the roll.

 

As far as how long things take?  That depends on the skill roll.  Breakfall can be done pretty much instantly.  It doesn't seem to take any time.  Something like KS: Medicine could be used to do anything from answering a quick question ("That rash?  You have chicken pox") where the roll takes no time, to performing lots of tests and doing an in depth analysis of a patient's history.  That might take several hours before you even get to make a roll.  These are all up to the GM.

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What I would say is that when you look at the skill list it is large and has the potential to get even larger as many of the skill categories (like Knowledge Skill or Professional Skill) are essentially infinite - it all depends on what you want to know about or be professional about.

 

When Champions was young all a character needed to do anything that a cop could do was buy PS: Cop 12-.  In its current iteration the default is to have lots and lots of skills to fully detail what a cop can do.  Neither of these is a bad thing but you need to decide early on in your game how big a role you want skills to play.

 

If you are playing a superhero game then you might decide that skills are a minor distraction and that it will all be about the powers.  Tell the players that - tell them to pick one or two archetypal skills alongside a couple of knowledge skills and a professional skill (if appropriate).

 

If you are playing a superagent or CSI style game then it might be very important to have just the right skill set and it would be worth players investing a chunk of points in having lots of knowledge and practical skills to draw on in game.

 

neither is wrong but HERO is a toolkit - it is for you to decide how much of the presented resource you want to use and exploit in your game.  The important thing is for you and your players to be on the same page...

 

 

Doc

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Some more minor comments to append:

 

  1. There are things you can buy that are all lumped as skills.  Things like defense maneuver, languages, and autofire skills.  These skills do not need a roll unless the GM has toolboxed something different than the norm (like languages using a 9+INT/5 option).  These skills generally have a minimum cost to be effective.
  2. Some skills may be banned or altered depending on the GM/genre (no computer programming in a fantasy world, no magic skills in a scifi world).  Furthermore, the usefulness of a skill (profession, science, knowledge, etc) is usually dependent on the GM.  Most GMs being fallible and forgetful generally don't remember what skills you have.  Players should usually ask the GM when the situation comes up "I have X skill, will that help?"
  3. Many GMs will increase the difficulty if you don't have the skill.  Thus if you have computer programming, the GM might say make your computer programming roll by 2 to succeed.  Without computer programming, he might say make your roll by 7.
  4. You can get some skills with one point as familiarity (8-) or 2 points as proficiency (10-).  These are not stat based but a flat roll.  An 8- is considered "hobbyist" level but I know many hobbyists who can be experts in the field.  Its more like a person who started training in the subject.  10- is usually denoted as just getting your credentials in the subject with no actual experience.
  5. If you only have familiarity with a skill, generally you aren't allowed to increase the roll.  If you have an 8-, you aren't allowed to add skill levels to make it a 11- though the GM might allow circumstantial modifiers (like being in a dedicated library to the subject).
  6. Players can help each other (work as a team!) on skill rolls using the same skill or related skills.  Generally, they make rolls themselves and for every 2 they make it by, they aid the main skill roller by 1.  The GM may put a limit on how much help another player(s) may give.
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As for stats, the thread about Characteristics has several valuable posts regarding what each stat does in detail, but I'll repeat here for your convenience.  There are reasons to buy stats other than by sets of 5's (usually built to 3's and 8's by minmaxers):

 

Aside from characteristic rolls (the base 9+Stat/5 roll) and skill rolls based on each characteristic, this is what each stat does:

Strength: each point increases your lift ability, and that can get pretty dramatic as you get higher in strength.  Also, your unarmed damage is based on strength.

Dexterity: decides who goes first if two people have the same speed rating.  So if you and Critical Bob both act on segment 4, then the one with the higher Dexterity acts first.

Constitution: if you suffer damage through your defenses, then you are stunned and lose a phase of action if the Stun damage exceeds your Constitution.

Intelligence: perception rolls are based on Intelligence, and also if people have a DEX and Speed tie, then INT is often used as the tiebreaker.  If the character is an Automaton, their INT determines how many programs they can learn and run.
Ego: Ego is what mental attacks generally target, comparing the roll to your Ego score, plus multiples of 10.  So every point of Ego gives more resistance to mental attacks.  Some GMs also give free mental defense based on Ego/5.

Presence: You can do a "presence attack" which is an attempt to use your charisma and force of personality to influence and even intimidate targets.  That is compared to your PRE score, like mental attacks against Ego.  In addition, usually GMs will allow a character to use their Ego to defend against presence attacks if it higher; your willpower vs their personality.

 

The remaining stats usually are not assigned a roll, although some GMs will use a Body roll for some effects such as poisons.

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Each Skill has a set amount that increasing it will cost.  Most of the Pre-Defined skills will generally cost 3 points and 2 points to increase the skill roll by +1.  Background skills such as Knowledge Skills, Professional Skills or Science Skills cost  2 points for a base 11- (or 3 Points for a 9+Characteristic/5 roll) and 1 point to increase the skill roll by +1.  Check the descriptions on the skills for specifics.  I hope that answers your question.

 

Welcome aboard,

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What I want to specify to ask (Sorry about the wrong spot), is can I repeatedly take a skill to raise my skill thing?

 

Like is every skill point just +1 in a skill? Or is it something weirdly needless about changing the DC around or something?

As stated above, the costs for raising a skill above it's default level are listed in that skill's description. You should also check out "Skill Levels"; which are a game element that allow the player to obtain a discount for purchasing bonuses to related skills in bulk. For example, a "3-point" Skill Level applies to three "related" Skills (such as Concealment, Shadowing, and Stealth), and only costs 3 CP per +1 to all three skills.

 

From a design conceit, the reason skills work the way they do is so that you are only ever adjusting one number (the threshold of success). In games such as D&D you can raise or lower a character's skill roll (their chance of success) or the Difficulty Class of the roll (the threshold of success), and the same number applied to either element has opposing effects on the player's actual chances of success (raising their roll makes success more likely, while raising the DC makes success less likely). As the GM in Hero system you are encouraged to apply bonuses or penalties to any given action undertaken by the player, although in most examples these modifiers will range between +/-1 and +/-6.

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I'm a new player with some previous RPG experience, so I'm going to ask some questions both system wise and general:

Dragon are welcome around here, and we hope to give you few reasons to scowl and more reasons to smile.

 

 

How do skills work in this game. Like I'm confused as to what purchasing a skill actually does. 

 

Is there a default difficulty for anything or do I have to modify the base difficulty of 9+Stat/5?

If you buy a Skill and get the base roll of 9+Stat/5, then in general at times when the Skill is relevant, you may roll 3d6 and if you roll under that number, the character succeeds. That's the "default difficulty"

 

So if you have a DEX of 13 and spend 3 pts on Lockpicking, you have "Lockpicking 12 or less." If the person running the game says "it's a cheap lock, you have a +2" and then you succeed if the dice come up with 14 or less. Or "This was made by a master locksmith, you have a -5" and that's when you might say "I want to take a lot of extra time to get a +4 to my roll" (this assumes you're not already under some kind of time pressure - if you know the guard comes around every 30 minutes you can't really take an extra hour to work the lock.)

 

Skill Levels have been mentioned as a good way to get a bonus to a number of related Skills. Just know that a Skill Level only applies to one Skill at one time: So you have bought a Skill Level with all your thief type Skills and are trying to climb a all without alerting the inhabitants of the house you're clambering up the outside of, you can get a +1 to your Climbing OR to your Stealth - you have to decide which is more important, getting up there or doing it quietly.

 

 

Is there a point to having Core stats that are not a multiple of 5?

I'm not sure how you define "Core Stats" but it is often good to have certain Characteristics at numbers ending in 3 or 8. Most of them will get you SOMETHING for each extra point, but the "Breakpoints" are popular and for good reason.

 

 

What I want to specify to ask (Sorry about the wrong spot), is can I repeatedly take a skill to raise my skill thing?

 

Like is every skill point just +1 in a skill? Or is it something weirdly needless about changing the DC around or something?

You will usually not buy a Skill a twice. It costs 3 pts for Climbing, and then each additional 2 pts spent on the Skill improves your roll by 1.

 

So if you have DEX 13 and buy Climbing for 3 pts you now have a 12 or less roll. Spend 5 pts on Climbing and your roll is 13 or less. Spend 7 pts on Climbing and your roll is 14 or less.

 

Now, if you come from a game where you roll 1d20, you may think that 14 or less is about a 70% chance to succeed. But it's closer to 90% if I recall, because of the way 3d6 rolls on a "bell curve." Something to keep in mind; your Skill is probably better than you think it is, if you're used to thinking in terms of 1d20.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Palindromedary tagline goes here

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I've written a document called How to Play HERO System, linked in my signature below.  It's written with page references for Champions Complete and Fantasy Hero Complete, but hopefully it will help you also.  If you need 6e corebook page references, hopefully other posters can help you out until I get my document updated.  :)

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So, just in case you're interested, we have a larger conversation going on over here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/94641-problems-with-fantasy-hero-complete-and-newbies/

 

I'm looking for some insight from new players just like yourself and what you find difficult to understand as a beginner, and how the rules can be translated better for you.

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The first one. 6th edition. The first book of the two.

 

Is there any way to ease into the system? Like....Its giving every option all the time, which is just intimidating and confusing. 

 

Okay, I think I know which one you mean - the Character Creation book. Before actually running a game you may want to get either the 2nd volume, Combat and Adventuring, or else get either Fnatasy Hero Complete or Champions Complete (depending on what you want to run.)

 

Some of us have been trying to figure out how to "ease into the system" but we do have some differences of opinion on how to do that. Your input as a new person trying to "ease in" would be invaluable.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Easing into a palindromedary tagline

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