Homebrewing a HERO System 2e

[Joe Walsh]

Another writing exercise. I only gave it my lunch hour, so I'm not as happy with this one. But I think my writing skills are finally starting to break up the accumulated rust.

 

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How Your Character Does Things

 

You will roll dice when the outcome of an action is both uncertain and meaningful. To find out if your character is successful, you’ll usually roll three six-sided dice (3D6), add them up, and compare the result to a target number based on the situation. If the roll is less than or equal to the target number, your character succeeded. This is the type of roll you’ll make when your character uses their Skills in a nontrivial way or attempts to strike someone in combat, for example.

 

Figuring out exactly what happens when you succeed will sometimes require an additional roll. For example, you’ll determine the damaging effect of your character’s successful attack by rolling either normal damage dice or killing damage dice. Each is handled differently:

 

For normal damage (the type done by blunt objects like fists or clubs, or from hitting the ground after a fall), you’ll roll the number of dice warranted by the attack. The sum (minus the value of any protection the target has) will be subtracted from the target’s Stun Pips Characteristic. If your attack total exceeds their Constitution Characteristic, then your opponent will be momentarily stunned. If you reduce their Stun Pips to 0 or less, they will fall unconscious.

 

But normal damage attacks don’t just do Stun damage, they also do longer-term damage. To determine that, you’ll take a second look at each die rolled and evaluate it in a different way: each 1 rolled counts as a 0, each 2 through 5 rolled counts as a 1, and each 6 rolled counts as a 2. The target subtracts the total (again, less any protection they have) from their Body Pips characteristic. If their Body Pips drop to 0, they must receive first aid or they could die.

 

For killing damage (the type of damage done by objects likely to penetrate the skin, such as knives and bullets), roll the attack’s damage dice. The target will have to apply the sum to their BODY, with results following as above. Then you’ll roll ½D6 (that is, roll one six-sided die, with the result of 1-2 being considered a 1, a 3-4 equaling 2, and a 5 or 6 resulting in a 3) then multiply that by the earlier sum and subtract the total from the target’s Stun Pips, with effects as described above. One other key difference from normal damage is that only special protective gear like armor will work against killing attacks.

 

When your character tries to have an immediate emotional impact on someone (by making an appeal to their decency, trying to frighten them, or when rallying allies, for example), you’ll roll based on your character’s Presence Characteristic. To make such a Presence Attack, your character will do and/or say something in an attempt to bring about an emotional response. You’ll then roll 1D6 for each 5 points of Presence your character has (plus any bonus dice your speech and actions may earn) and compare the total to the target’s Presence Characteristic. The effect of a Presence Attack is greater for each multiple of the target’s Presence Characteristic that the Presence Attack roll achieves.

 

There are other possible effects rolls for specific situations, but generally they involve rolling 1 die per 5 points of an indicated trait, then summing the dice and comparing the result with another value.

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by GM Joe

[Cloppy Clip]

I'm not going to be any help on older mechanics, but it is interesting reading about how the game's evolved over the years, so thank you for the reading material!

 

On a more productive note, the excerpts you've written look solid to me. I'm not an expert on technical writing, but they seem laid out well enough to teach a new player the rules as they come up, without wasting too much word count. One suggestion I might make, if you have the space, is to provide examples of some of the procedures, particularly for things like BODY damage where, even with totally unambiguous text and all the will in the world, I feel people can still get tripped up by the different ways of calculating it in different scenarios. But examples can be a pain to write, and you don't want to get bogged down in minutiae to the point you lose steam, so it'd make sense if it's not a priority for you.

 

But what you have now is a good introduction to the rules, and I think it could definitely meet the standards of a professional rulebook.

[Joe Walsh]

Thanks, Cloppy! The older editions of the rules sure weren't generous with the examples. I'll add that to my list.

 

[Cloppy Clip]

Gamers were clearly made of sterner stuff back in the day, because the examples in the 6E rulebooks were instrumental for getting these rules into my thick head.

 

If you do ever get around to adding examples, I will say that one of my pet peeves is designers who always pick the nice simple examples and end up missing out key information. The number of games I've seen where there's no rounding rule specified, and where every example that could demonstrate one conveniently picks values that end in whole numbers, is truly perplexing something...

[Joe Walsh]

56 minutes ago, Cloppy Clip said:

The number of games I've seen where there's no rounding rule specified, and where every example that could demonstrate one conveniently picks values that end in whole numbers, is truly perplexing something...

 

So true! I can understand keeping page counts lower back in the day with shoestring operations and having to print everything up front and hope sell them fast enough to stay afloat, but these days it's a little harder to understand.

 

On the subject of rounding, I'd love to go with dropping all fractions like D&D 5e. It'd break tradition, but would it break anything else? Hmm.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by GM Joe

[Cloppy Clip]

I get the impression that the current rounding rules are in place to minimise 'feel bad' situations by always rounding in the player's favour, but there's no reason if you were starting from the beginning that it'd have to be that way. And something like always dropping fractions would probably eliminate situations where somebody learning the rules has to figure out to buy 3 INT instead of 5, which can be a bit confusing for newbies.

 

Things might go a bit askew if you drop fractions at each step, though, so I might make it a rule that you keep all fractions until the very end and then drop them. I don't know how they do it in D&D 5e, but in HERO there are enough stages to some calculations that it could make a difference.

[Joe Walsh]

Over the weekend I took a look at the Talents in JI, DI, 4e, 5e, and 6e. Considering the base I'm starting from is Espionage!, coupled with the fact that at this point I expect to keep Superheroic as a separate base, the Talents that seem to make sense to include are in the following table.

I decided not to include Talents like Height Manipulation and Hypnosis that seemed a bit too genre-specific. For Talents that had a Stop or Caution symbol, I plan to either use a less-powerful version (like going with the JI & 6e Missile Deflection rather than the more powerful Missile Deflection & Reflection combined Talent) or set it aside for later consideration if I don't feel like it fits in well (like Universal Translator). Also, existing 2e/3e Other Skills that became Talents in 4e and beyond (like Ambidexterity and Luck) will remain Other Skills.

This is just a first take on it. Let me know if I'm missing something important.

		JI	DI	4e	5e	6e
Absolute Range Sense	(Useful enough?) Accurately determine distance w/o external aid.				X	X
Absolute Time Sense	(Useful enough?) Accurately determine the passage of time w/o external aid	X		X	X	X
Animal Friendship	+3 to PRE roll only to gain animal's trust, etc. (use 6e version)	X				X
Bump of Direction	(Useful enough?) Accurately determine compass direction w/o external aid.	X		X	X	X
Combat Luck	+3 rPD and +3 rED for 6 CP, only vs. perceived attacks you try to avoid.				X	X
Combat Sense	INT Roll each round for no darkness penalty to OCV and DCV. (use 6e version)		X	X	X	X
Danger Sense	Just the “cannot be surprised in combat” level.	X		X	X	X
Defense Maneuver	Combat Maneuver, ½ Phase, attacks from behind don’t halve the character’s DCV.		X	X
Eidetic Memory	Perfect memory for images studied (photos, written pages).		X	X	X	X
Extra Push	+1 to EGO roll, only for purposes of Pushing.		X
Immunity	Immunity to one specific toxic substance or disease.	X		X
Lightning Calculator	(Useful enough?) Accurately and quickly add numbers w/o external aid.	X		X	X	X
Lightning Reflexes	DEX bonus only for purposes of acting first.			X	X	X
Lightsleep	Automatically wake up on nearby activity. If activity is performed with a successful Stealth roll, then awake on a successful PER roll (roll skill vs. skill). Roll EGO to feign sleep if desired.			X	X	X
Missile Deflection	Use JI version. Later versions included Reflection (a mistake 6e corrected).	X				X
Perfect Pitch	(Useful enough?) Accurately determine any note you hear.	X		X	X	X
Resistance	1 CP per +1 to roll for resisting one of: Interrogation & Wounding, Persuasion, Bribery, Seduction, etc. (6e)			X	X	X
Self Healing	10 CP; for 10 END, stop Bleeding (from Bleeding rule or when BODY <1, so it also includes internal bleeding from blunt trauma). +3 to REC for healing.	X
Simulate Death	EGO roll to slow metabolism to the point character appears dead.	X		X	X	X
Speed Reading	Learn new Knowledge Skills in 1/2 the time. Combine with Eidetic Memory to memorize as fast as you can turn the page.		X	X	X	X

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Joe Walsh

[Joe Walsh]

We all know the value of everything in the game is dependent on the campaign, but some of these Talents seem like extreme cases of that. It makes me want to just leave them to a generic category like 3e has for Perks. Absolute Range Sense, Absolute Time Sense, Bump of Direction, Lightning Calculator, and Perfect Pitch are good examples. What're the chances they'll be valuable in a given campaign? Are they worth having specific Talents? Maybe an Other Talent category or some such would be more appropriate (like Limited Power or the various Knowledge/Professional/Science Skills, where you can put any miscellaneous thing)? Or are they more commonly useful than they've been in my campaigns over the years?

 

Here are the Talents I set aside but about which I'm most on the fence:

JI

DI

4e

5e

6e

Body Toughness	Full PD vs. BODY damage done by Killing Blow. Too hyper-specific w/o extended Martial Arts' KA?		X
Double Jointed	Bonus to contortionist rolls. Increase Contortionist skill instead.	X		X	X	X
Enhanced Senses	Bonuses to PER roll for specific senses. Use Perception Skill’s rules instead.	X
Environmental Movement	2 CP per -1 CV/DC of Environmental Conditions penalty removed. (6e)				X	X
Pain Resistance	Use PD to reduce STUN damage of killing attacks.		X
Universal Translator	Not useful enough?			X	X	X

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Joe Walsh

[Cloppy Clip]

Not having the older books available, were Talents still set up as pre-set power builds in earlier editions? Because if not, could you take some of the more niche Talents and just reprice them based on how likely it is to affect a campaign? For example, I had to look it up, but apparently Universal Translator is indeed worth 20 points based on how its built in 6E, but I wouldn't consider the roleplaying utility of that ability to be worth 20 points.

 

I think the Other Talent category is a good solution, since it lets you tweak the pricing and, if a GM wants players to personalise their characters with these little quirks that give them some colour, they can give out free points that can only be spent on Other Talents. So, not much to add, but I like what I'm seeing here!

[Joe Walsh]

Although Talents weren't explicitly pre-built powers in earlier editions, you're right that there should be a strong message to GMs about changing not only the availability of particular Talents based on campaign requirements, but also their pricing. It does make for a more diverse list of Talents, and it's not a bad idea to have more examples for GMs to draw from. So it makes sense to leave the seemingly less-useful but otherwise benign Talents in there.

 

Thank you!