Western Hero 6th edition

[archer]

10 hours ago, MrAgdesh said:

If you've got people armed illegally over there with lawn darts then I can see why you'd need an ak-47 for safety. 

 

 

Lawn darts are silent death from above. Far superior to a mere AK-47 for stealth attacks.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Tascora is done and handed to Jason to look over for inclusion in the Hall of Champions program.

[Christopher R Taylor]

And The Taming of Tascora is live and up for sale!  I'll get a copy onto the Hero store too soon as possible

[HeroGM]

I have this strange desire to run a West World campaign...

[steriaca]

Reminds me...someone brought up the Weird Weird West as a sub-place within Faerie. Think old west combine with all the fantastic miscompentions of western fiction. 

[HeroGM]

4 hours ago, steriaca said:

Reminds me...someone brought up the Weird Weird West as a sub-place within Faerie. Think old west combine with all the fantastic miscompentions of western fiction. 

 

I recall Gygax mixing a few western characters in his DnD Greyhawk campaign. John Byrne did a few things in his comics.

[steriaca]

One of the things we talked about is that if anyone walks along the train tracks, you'll stumble across the damsel tied to the tracks alot. Each time there is a train threating to cut/crush her to death. The damsel is physical but is not a real person, as Faerie created her and the train and the tracks, because it is what the travelers from outside Faerie expect to see. Free her and she'll thank you and leave, only for the heroes to stumble across her again, when they were going in the opposite direction she left from. Let her be, and she'll get ruined over, but if you look back after the train leaves and their won't even be blood, let alone body parts.

 

The Weird Weird West will eventually reward heroes who free the damsel. Exactly how is up to the GM.

[Chris Goodwin]

Just arrived.

[Christopher R Taylor]

That does look good, but I wonder why they didn't put the Hero logo on the front? 😕

[Chris Goodwin]

No idea.  It is on the back and the spine.

[Duke Bushido]

Yep.  Got mine yesterday.  Trying to find time to read it so we can do a review.

 

Still havent found time to read the Field Guide, but it has been patiently waiting for me.

 

Christopher, if you are reading this: is there a softcover option for the field guide?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Christopher, if you are reading this: is there a softcover option for the field guide?

 

Not yet, I was having a lot of trouble getting it built on Amazon and gave up for awhile for other projects.  I have learned how to build stuff for Drivethru RPG so I'll see if I cannot get it done there.

[Duke Bushido]

Here is hoping!

 

The Lulu hardback looks great, but the quality of the bindery is.....  Not great.   

 

(no; I dont believe that's your doing, obviously)

 

 

[Derek Hiemforth]

8 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

That does look good, but I wonder why they didn't put the Hero logo on the front? 😕

 

Most books don't have the Hero logo on the front cover.  (CC and FHC don't, for example; nor do Ghosts, Ghouls, and Goblins, Golden Age Champions, Larger Than Life, Strike Force, etc.)

[Jkeown]

My copy is on the way. Should have it on the 8th. Aside from some hyphenation and minor editing issues, THIS IS FANTASTIC! Chris always delivers.

 

One thing holds me back from finishing my Weird West anthology (Titled For Whom The Bell Tolls) let alone run it. 

 

Guns vs plate armor in HERO. How do we enforce the "no armor" of the period (and many others from the late 1400s to WWI) where the vast majority of folks didn't wear armor. I know only a few people wore steel vests in the Civil War, but between those and some protection spells... I'm not sure I can scare the players out of going for their guns over someone bad-mouthing their horse. 

 

Sure, I've got a bit with the Angel of Judgement and a flaming holy sword... but a Peacemaker does 2d6-1. Full Plate Armor is DEF 8 (pardon my Fifth Edition Revised). This easily bounces most Peacemaker shots. 

 

This is not a weakness of Western HERO. WH is great... but this guns vs plate armor thing has bothered me for years. 

 

This has likely been discussed before... if someone has a link or reference to that thread... I'm all ears. 

[Chris Goodwin]

I don't know, but... the dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.  Let them pick a few fights with the wrong people... writing up new characters multiple times should curb them of the habit.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I gave the guns the ratings and stats that are in official Hero source material elsewhere, but I am of the opinion that most guns* should be 1 damage class higher or more.  Not that 1 point of Body is likely to solve the dilemma with armor that you mention, just an aside.

 

Armor's biggest drawback is misery, heat, and encumbrance.  There's a reason many guys in Vietnam just didn't wear their body armor even though it saved lives and they knew it.  Its miserable, even modern armor.  Enforce encumbrance and play up heat damage from high temperature etc as much as you can.  And have the bad guys get good at avoiding armored locations, is the best I can come up with.

 

*after watching multiple seasons of Forged in Fire I'm pretty sure most of the weapon damages as written are messed up as well for melee weapons.

[Jkeown]

Thanks for the advice. I think we'll probably be fine... my players are an ornery lot. 

[archer]

IRL German-style metal helmets with the "brim" down the back to protect the neck would probably save as many lives, or more lives, than a breastplate. (At least according to people I've read over the decades who've proclaimed themselves to be experts.) People can survive a lot of torso shots but head shots are very unpredictable and not very treatable without some very advanced medicine. 

 

Late WWII got around the helmet heat problem with a cloth covering over the helmet to keep it out of direct sunlight and interior straps to keep the helmet itself from touching the head. The US Civil War and post-war both had the technology level to accomplish that and the casualties would have been different.

[Spence]

7 hours ago, archer said:

IRL German-style metal helmets with the "brim" down the back to protect the neck would probably save as many lives, or more lives, than a breastplate. (At least according to people I've read over the decades who've proclaimed themselves to be experts.) People can survive a lot of torso shots but head shots are very unpredictable and not very treatable without some very advanced medicine. 

 

Late WWII got around the helmet heat problem with a cloth covering over the helmet to keep it out of direct sunlight and interior straps to keep the helmet itself from touching the head. The US Civil War and post-war both had the technology level to accomplish that and the casualties would have been different.

 

In my old infantry days, 1981ish, we still wore the old M-1.  It had two parts, the liner and the steel pot.  The liner had the head strap and padding inside a helmet shaped non-metal part over which the steel pot was settled.  A cover could be slid over the top of the steel pot and folded in and held in place when the liner was inserted into the steel part.  Here is a pic of a copy of an M-1 to give an idea.  The steel pot part was great as a bowl, a pot to boil water or even to dig with.  The new helmets are well, just helmets.....

 

[steriaca]

 

On 4/6/2021 at 8:40 PM, Jkeown said:

This has likely been discussed before... if someone has a link or reference to that thread... I'm all ears. 

The solution is to allow and enforce Combat Luck. Nobody wears an Iron Plate in the old west. The game is not called Cowboys And Dragons after all.

[archer]

1 hour ago, steriaca said:

 

The solution is to allow and enforce Combat Luck. Nobody wears an Iron Plate in the old west. The game is not called Cowboys And Dragons after all.

 

Marty McFly wore an iron breastplate in Back to the Future 3, didn't he?

[dmjalund]

1 hour ago, archer said:

 

Marty McFly wore an iron breastplate in Back to the Future 3, didn't he?

and that was literally inspired by a movie with Clint Eastwood

[steriaca]

4 hours ago, dmjalund said:

and that was literally inspired by a movie with Clint Eastwood

Two people out of uncountable number of gunfighters in western movies.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Western Hero is selling really well, thank you everyone who has picked up a copy!  I hope you have a great time with the game and run a wonderful campaign