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Newbie Looking for an Introduction & Possibly First Campaign


Frosty_Thorn_

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Hello everyone, as previously stated, I'm new here. I've played a lot of D&D 5e, but have been searching for a fresh system with certain elements for a few weeks now. After doing some research and asking an RPG-centered forum, I was directed to HERO System and found the official site shortly after. I'm hoping to get an introduction/tutorial to the system and, if everything goes well, possibly find my first game. Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Welcome, Frosty_Thorn_! (Hopefully the frost didn't kill your petals.) ;)  I hope you enjoy your visits to our little corner of the Internet. We're a generally friendly and helpful bunch, especially to newcomers. :)

 

Several members of our community have contributed free downloadable documents to this website designed to introduce Hero to newbies to the system. I'll provide links to some of them below, beginning with the simplest and working up toward more involved (although none of them go into the level of detail of the main rules). They should give you a good general idea of what's involved in playing Hero and whether this game would be what you're looking for. If you have subsequent questions you should feel free to post them to the appropriate sub-forum. This place is full of Hero system gearheads and very experienced Game Masters who can and will offer you tons of good advice.

 

Hero in 2 Pages

 

Intro to the HERO System

 

Champions Complete - Examples of Characters from Other Genres

 

Champions Complete - Example of Combat

 

Fantasy Hero Primer

 

Fantasy Hero Basic

 

 

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Hey and welcome Frosty one, 

   I’d thought I’d start you off with the question and advice I give every new player. (And have said here numerous times)  Who’s your favorite comic book character?  Because that’s who I find is the easiest to understand and figure out the ways the powers/rules work. As an experienced Role Player you’ll already understand the dramatics of it all but the game mechanics are easier to picture if you’re already familiar with how they work in the books.

   Understanding the differences between accessible and inaccessible foci is easier if your thinking about Batarangs vs. Utility Belts.

     Come up with a few of your favorites and we can help you with the choices that are best for starting players to learn the system with.

          Good luck and have fun!

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Wow, thanks everyone so much for the warm welcome, I'm looking forward to learning the ins and outs of the HERO System.

 

Lord Liaden: Haha, glad to hear it! Thank you for all the links, I'll start studying right away!

 

Tjack: Ooh, I can see what you mean. Through the little research I've done, it seems like HERO System can practically do anything as long as you spend the time and effort, so starting with an example character and seeing how they translate into the game itself sounds like a great to see how everything works. That's actually quite a tough question for me, although if I had to pick a few, they'd be Iron Fist, Human Torch, Iron Man, and the Spider-Man symbiotes like Venom.

 

Christopher: Sounds fun! Hopefully I'll be able to find someone soon, and I'll let you know when I do.

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On 5/4/2021 at 6:40 PM, Tjack said:

Hey and welcome Frosty one, 

   I’d thought I’d start you off with the question and advice I give every new player. (And have said here numerous times)  Who’s your favorite comic book character?  Because that’s who I find is the easiest to understand and figure out the ways the powers/rules work. As an experienced Role Player you’ll already understand the dramatics of it all but the game mechanics are easier to picture if you’re already familiar with how they work in the books.

   Understanding the differences between accessible and inaccessible foci is easier if your thinking about Batarangs vs. Utility Belts.

     Come up with a few of your favorites and we can help you with the choices that are best for starting players to learn the system with.

          Good luck and have fun!

Always the best advice for newcomers. The variety and choice in Champions can be overwhelming. I'd definitely say base your first character on an existing one, just to get used to building the various powers. 

 

Alternatively, think of your own concept and use the Powers Book to build one. That can be a great help just to give inspiration on building powers, if you don't want to use the pre-built one. 

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On 5/5/2021 at 6:58 AM, Frosty_Thorn_ said:

Wow, thanks everyone so much for the warm welcome, I'm looking forward to learning the ins and outs of the HERO System.

 

Lord Liaden: Haha, glad to hear it! Thank you for all the links, I'll start studying right away!

 

Tjack: Ooh, I can see what you mean. Through the little research I've done, it seems like HERO System can practically do anything as long as you spend the time and effort, so starting with an example character and seeing how they translate into the game itself sounds like a great to see how everything works. That's actually quite a tough question for me, although if I had to pick a few, they'd be Iron Fist, Human Torch, Iron Man, and the Spider-Man symbiotes like Venom.

 

Christopher: Sounds fun! Hopefully I'll be able to find someone soon, and I'll let you know when I do.


        You’re absolutely right about the best and worst thing about the system....you can do ANYTHING.  But some stuff shouldn’t be done and others are too difficult for a beginner to try.   Think of somebody learning to drive being plopped down at the wheel of a 18 wheeled tractor trailer with a 12 speed standard transmission double clutch and overdrive.

        Take Iron Fist for example.  It’s a pretty standard Martial Arts package with Energy Blast w/ limited charges.  Or I once knew a madman player who did Chuin the Master of Sinanju  without ever taking an MA maneuver.  ie; Instead of Dodge he had Desolid,  “You missed.”  etc, etc,etc.

        A blast of a character, but a write-up to make a GM’s eyes bleed.

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20 hours ago, Tjack said:

A blast of a character, but a write-up to make a GM’s eyes bleed.

I admit to doing this exact thing, but rather than subject my GM to it I saved it to use for a villain in my campaign.  Due to skilled use of held actions and triggered defensive powers I had the pc's convinced he had 12 SPD (really it was 7 when the average PC was 5), and that was one of the villains that convinced me that villains must be built on significantly less points than the pc's to avoid overwhelming them.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Nekkidcarpenter said:

I admit to doing this exact thing, but rather than subject my GM to it I saved it to use for a villain in my campaign.  Due to skilled use of held actions and triggered defensive powers I had the pc's convinced he had 12 SPD (really it was 7 when the average PC was 5), and that was one of the villains that convinced me that villains must be built on significantly less points than the pc's to avoid overwhelming them.

 

 

   I don’t know about that....I think that a villain or team of villains should roughly equal the heroes their up against.  Either  by individual output (like a supervillain) or by numbers (like a crew of henchmen).  Heroes and players both get more out of achieving a hard fought win or even a stalemate over an tough obstacle than by breezing thru somebody built just to be defeated.

   I’ve sometimes had to put together villain teams just to show my players a lesson they wouldn’t learn any other way. Like how effective even a little teamwork or strategy can be.  Or how even the most powerful Haymakers and Energy Blasts in the campaign can be countered by even a moderate DCV if you don’t also put some points into being able to hit the broad side of a barn.  All done with roughly equal points to the PC’s and only basic write-ups.

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