Hero System Primer: I think

[Sveta8]

This is as much for me to check my understanding as it is to try and boil down concepts into a concise enough whole to be offered to others. In other words, I think this is the basics of the system rules, and tries to address each portion of the system in at least a minor way. Criticism is more than welcome, as is corrections and addendum. Not much mechanically though.

ahem


Hero System Beginnings:

 

Hello! And welcome to a fairly fun and peculiar system. Whether you intend to go out and fight the villain of the week, follow a dynamic continuous story-line to face off an arch rival, explore an unknown planet and mystic ruins, or travel between the stars with the cosmos in your hand, Hero system supports the lot of it. Some better than others, but that is beside the point! If you can think it, the system can nearly always support it. It just may look a little different than you expect!

Now, as per conventions in tabletops and theater of mind style games, the core concept is usually pretty simple. There exists evil out there, or perhaps just shades of grey and gray. You, the player, must interact in this world where evil or very strange shades of grey exist! Be it beating down bad guys, exploring new territories, schmoozing the social elite, sneaking through haunted mansions, or what have you! But in the end, regardless of what you are doing, you must be (somewhat) effective! This doesn't mean powerful, just good at what you are doing! However, Hero faces some very strange limits in regards to what it takes to be (somewhat) effective! Let's explore that, shall we?
 

Campaign Benchmarks

 

Wh-wha? We aren't talking about Character Concept first? Why aren't we-
Nope! Benchmarks my dear potential reader! Concepts for characters are in this portion, yes, but Benchmarks are what help you refine that! Characters in isolation are lovely yes, but they are like snow-globes. Pretty, good for capturing an image of a concept, but not very practical!

And what do I mean by practical now? Why that's quite simple! A Testing Character, which is what a Character is in isolation, is built with a specific sort of world, setting, or power level in mind. This, potential reader, is what is meant by benchmarks! They are broad, overarching rules usually imposed by the GM to determine how they want the characters to feel and play. Most often they are discussing the level of powers, defensive abilities, and how many points you will be building a character to!

 

These are the presiding laws for characters. Hero allows very very nearly anything to be built, but not all games can handle absolutely anything in the world. Or perhaps there is a specific level of power or theme that the GM is more comfortable with. Benchmarks are how they define and refine the experience. But most importantly, they tell you what are the limits to build to.

Build Principle: Stay Close

 

Still aren't talking about Character Concept? Come on! I've got a neat Idea and I want to see if it will work!

Why of course you do! And honestly, that's not my call! That's between you and the GM. Tell them about your concept, and then they can give you a thumbs up or down! The concept is you and the GM's court! I'm here to tell you how to try and follow within relatively normal guidelines in mechanics.

Speaking of, the Build Principle above, Stay Close! I can't seem to find where it was written, but it seems to be apt. Namely, that you want to stay close to what you can expect and what the party has! If the Party is sitting at Speed 6 and 7, you don't want something sitting somewhere at Speed 3. You're going to be out of the loop most of the time! And that's no fun for anyone, least of all you! So you, as much as the rest of the party, need to figure out what you are looking at for Speed more than anything else. Some will be faster, some slower, but everyone should try to stay within 1-2 Speed of each other.

 

Attack Type and Damage Class

 

Okay! My GM just approved my Electric Blaster! He's gonna fly, and shoot lightning, and save the day, and be all cool and awesome!

Most excellent! Now keep in mind that there shall be Villainous forces that oppose you! It's not just a rag-tag team of heroes standing in front of a back-splash! Villainous Evildoers, or Perilous Pitfalls, Ballroom Dancing, and other nefarious ills! But a fair portion of the time, you shall fight the evil! So, how do you do that?

You wanted to shoot Lightning right? Well, that is most likely an Energy Attack of some sort! Attacks and Defense are split between two, er, three forms. Physical, Energy, and Mental! The first two you will... probably be dealing with a fair bit I would say! Whether it is a man with a gun, a laser pistol, or someone coming to rough you up with fisticuffs, most of the threats you will face will probably be a Physical or Energy based Attack! Mental attacks are rarer, at least most of the time! A GM can choose to change this proportionality as they so choose! Remember that.

Damage is done in DC in this game. DC, standing for Damage Class! Simple enough, no? Without Adders, Limitations, or Advantages, nearly every Attacking Power is built to have one Damage Class per 5 Points put into it. Your GM probably has a Benchmark of what the maximum Damage Class they are comfortable running is! You'll want to stay within that limit. If you aren't certain on what Damage Class  you are doing though, there is a handy chart for figuring that out on pg 97 on the 2nd Core Rulebook

 

Health and Defense 

 

Alright then! My GM says to keep DC to 10 or less. And he said that PD/ED Should be under 40?
Well, That would make a fair bit of sense! PD and ED, standing for Physical Defense and Energy Defense respectively, are the two most basic forms of Defense. There is also Technically Mental Defense, to protect against Mental Powers, and Power Defense, that protects against other forms of attack! But, PD and ED are the two most common forms of Defense.

 

Now, before going on, you should know there is two types of health, that then require two types of Defense! STUN, which is the amount of damage you can take till you fall unconscious. And BODY, the amount of damage before you start to die! Both of these are normally bought as regular Characteristics. Unless you buy them for an alternate form or so on, they are usually pretty stable for their cap!

But back to Defense, PD and ED both work to protect against STUN damage. They are how you can stay up in a fight, and keep going! Generally speaking, you will want to have between 2 and 4 PD and ED per Damage Class you can inflict. So for example, since your GM is keeping Damage Class at a max of 10, you likely want to have 20 PD and ED, and up to a maximum as they put it, of 40. Each point of PD and ED take away 1 point of STUN damage, barring some special circumstances. So a 20 STUN attack will be ignored by 20 PD/ED.

However, the nefarious forces of evil are fond of Killing Attacks! These attacks ignore your STUN and go straight for your BODY! The Fiends! Your Normal PD and ED are no match for these attacks! To stand up to this type of assault, you need Resistant Defense! Each point of Resistant Defense, of either Energy or Physical type mind, takes off 1 point of BODY damage! 

 

Advantages

 

Resistant Defense? But... I thought you said there were only like... 5 forms of defense? That wasn't one of them!

Correct you are astute little theoretical reader stand in! Resistant Defense is secretly just PD and ED wearing a fancy coat! This coat's name? Advantage!

 

Advantages are, in short, special perks for Powers. Think of them like Power Upgrades! In this case, the Resistant Advantage! It lets whatever sort of Defense you apply it to resist BODY type damage! There are a fair few types of Advantages! Everything from being able to effect an Area, having your powers last longer than they would otherwise, taking no energy to use, and more! They, along with Limitations, let you customize your power set! Unfortunately, they are quite expensive! Each Advantage costs a multiplier of your Powers cost! So Say you have a 30pt power? If you want a +1/2 Advantage, you're gonna have to pay an extra 15 points!

 

Limitations

 

Wait, Limitations? I don't like the sound of that.

Oh come now! Limitations are nothing to be afraid of! They make your character dynamic, movable, and interesting! They give your GM toys and workarounds to provide interesting encounters! They make your character more human! They-
Electric Blaster is are an alien though

-More Alien then! They give you tools in your toolbelt to create interesting and unique powers and people! They-

No.
... They refund you points.

... Continue...

 

Alright, now that fussy is on board, Limitations! They limit your powers yes, but they also grant a refund on some of the power's cost. And this is applied after Advantages. You can have your power cost more endurance, fail to work on certain people, last a shorter amount of time, not do as much BODY damage, and more! You can even link up powers to work in tandem with them! They are tools for you and the GM. Just remember, if  you include it? It will come up.

 

Skills, Everyman and Otherwise

 

 

But, I feel you didn't like that portion. So tell me! What exactly does Electric Blaster do when he's not Heroing?
... Not heroing?

Yes, when he isn't out there, flying and shooting lightning and so on! What's his job, and his hobbies?
He... I... uh... Elect-tri... Electrician? Maybe... Likes Rock music? 

There we go! We can work with that!

 

So Both of those are types of Skills! Skills represent capabilities of your character beyond just their superhuman powers! Everything from Acting to Science to Giving Speeches to Making Gadgets to Climbing mountains to Conversational Skills to-

WAIT. I have to pay points to TALK to people? That's dumb.

Well, of course not! You can pay points to be better at talking with people, but you don't have to! Most campaigns have Everyman Skills! Skills you get at a basic level just for existing! No points needed to pay for them. Conversation is usually one of those! The exact number and type of Everyman Skills varies though.

 

But, there are more skills than just those! There's Profession Skills! Skills that your character has from working their job! Say for example, Mister Electric Man's being an Electrician! That's a Profession Skill! You don't have to worry to heavily about these most of the time though.

 

More than Profession Skills, there are Knowledge Skills! Skills you have about knowing particular things! There is a basic level of understanding that is presumed, that you don't have to pay points for, but sometimes, a Super Human needs to know a little more about the average gang, or the new Super Drug going around!

 

Complications

 

Don't worry there, we are almost done. Tell me more about Electric Blaster! Does he have any problems? 
Well... You aren't going to stop badgering me for these until you get some will you?

Nope!

Fine. He... has problems with... uh... Work? And.... he shorts out in water? That work?

Works enough for me!

 

Both of those would be what the game treats as Complications! They are problems the character has broadly speaking, that allow you to spend some extra points. Your GM likely has an amount they want you to spend on complications, just to give them some good tools. And you get points out of it! Lovely stuff. This can be everything from Villians who are hunting you, to a weakness to an element, to a romantic rival, to just not standing the sight of people being hurt!

 

Summary

In the end, where you spend your points is up to you. Some put it in powers, some put it in skills, others put it in martial arts, and some just put it into characteristics. As long as you are following what the benchmarks your GM provided are, you should be in the clear.

 

 

 

[dialNforNinja]

SAVED.

[Thia Halmades]

This is going to take me a while to go through, but let me jump ahead to this:

 

@Sveta8 said: “Damage is done in DC in this game. DC, standing for Damage Class! Simple enough, no? Without Adders, Limitations, or Advantages, nearly every Attacking Power is built to have one Damage Class per 5 Points put into it. Your GM probably has a Benchmark of what the maximum Damage Class they are comfortable running is! You'll want to stay within that limit. If you aren't certain on what Damage Class  you are doing though, there is a handy chart for figuring that out on pg 97 on the 2nd Core Rulebook.”

 

In terms of campaign structure, most experienced GMs use an Active Point cap, rather than a DC cap. If I’m holding a cap of 12d6 EB/4d6 KA, both of those are 60 point caps; if I start applying advantages, however, my Active can jump from 60 to 120 almost instantly. It’s why we divide costs in Active Point (before limitations) and Real Cost (points paid). Bringing the Real Cost down to the cap doesn’t work either, because an experienced player can do all kinds of crazy nonsense that a newer player cannot.

 

In Persona, I built out spell levels with each one going up (I believe) 15-30 points per spell level; that was rarely for more damage, although it came into play, but more for building Compound powers, adding advantages, etc. Holding myself to that AP cap was the equivalent of drawing inside the lines; some powers had to get toned down, moved, or adjusted so that rule stayed in place and ensured that regardless of which spell you selected, you were getting a fairly built power that would play properly with the rest..

[Sveta8]

While that is both true, I feel that trying to establish to someone the understanding and differences between DC was a bit more critical at that point in time, rather than the distinction between Active Points and Real Points.

@Thia HalmadesGiven that I am presuming people are new to the system, I felt it more apt to describe it in a more uniform system such as DC rather than Active and Real. In addition to that, the Active Points per DC do change, but that is based both on power and Advantages. People can easily build a Blast that will cost 15 Active Points per die, but given that it is 15 Active points, people can still grasp that at being 3 DC given it's cost. However, I can see your point. I will work to append a portion when speaking after Damage Class about Active points verses Real Points, in addition to that. It will take some work to get it to seaway into Defenses, but I should be able to handle it.

[Thia Halmades]

The reason I take issue so specifically here is because it is a defining difference between how HERO “works” and how most other games, certainly games where you can’t build your own stuff from the toolbox, work. So whether you’re brand new and watching in fascination as your GM snaps together pieces from a jumble of LEGO into a fully functional set of wrist-mounted lightning blasters, or you have just enough knowledge of the system to tinker successfully, our primary means of defining “power level” is Active Cost. Every system has a means of dealing damage, but very few systems have a means of measuring the cost to build/wield that.