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New to Hero


Al_Beddow

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I played Champions back in 1983, but am now vigously reading over the Hero 5th Ed. I like what I am reading (way better than GURPS... more complete characters, more options to customize, etc.)

 

Unfortunately, even though I have about 20 years of gaming experiance (on both sides of the GM's screen), I am having a little trouble digesting all of the information for character creation.

 

One of the nice things that is in the GURPS:Basic book is they take one of the pregenerated characters (supplied in the back of the book) and use its creation as an example of how to use the system.

 

Might there be a tutorial out there, say creating a sample character?

Thanks

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Re: New to Hero

 

Welcome back to HERO!

Originally posted by Al_Beddow

Might there be a tutorial out there, say creating a sample character?

Thanks

I wish there was. FREd has loads of example, but nothing coming even close to a start to finish character creation example. Not even the genre books have this. Sounds like a good idea though, something worthy of a free download on the Herogames website.
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Welcome back, comrade!

 

Regarding your concerns, my understanding is that the HERO System Resource Kit (you can read more about that via the "Our Products" link to the left of this page) contains a 48-page booklet with a summary of the Character Creation rules. I haven't picked up that product, so perhaps someone who has could speak to how useful it is as a guideline to character creation?

 

You might also get some use out of the "HERO System Genre by Genre" PDF which you can download; it contains guidelines for playing most of the major genres, including game conventions and the type of characters that are appropriate, plus two sample characters for each genre. You can reach that by clicking on the "Free Stuff" link up at the top, then going to "HERO System Documents".

 

Hope that helps.

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Thanks

 

Thanks for the help everyone. Yesterday I bought the Hero Resourse kit (way cool), still going over the booklet.

 

I also downloaded the genre-by-genre PDF and will be going over that.

 

I am looking forward to using these resources to teach all my gaming friends how to play Hero.

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Please Al do not destroy HERO the way you destroyed Kingdoms of Kalimar and Hack master.

 

Hero has enough of a stigma already with out your rules lawyer “player killing†attitude.

 

I have played with you here at Merlin’s a couple of times and herd plenty from all the other players. Please leave this one alone.

 

You have already driven players from role-playing in general. Please rest and take a break or at least learn to relax before you start running this game.

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Re: hey there Edsel

 

Originally posted by Al_Beddow

Yep, it's nice to be the newbie again, and on a discussion board where getting to a "title" isn't the main reason for being there.

 

So Edsel, you play Hero? Drop me an e-mail sometime.

 

I say you kill 'em al!!!

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I say you kill 'em al!!!

 

Y'know D-Man, HackMaster has a great deal of humor in it. Those who have been long time readers of the comic "Knights of the Dinner Table" (KoDT) know that Hard 8 Enterprises (the company which produces HM in the comic) has this real attitude about the "mindless spineless players." It's a hoot to read about GM vs Player vs GM anamosity with such humor.

 

Those who have played in my games know I make a point of providing a balanced adventure & encounters, I am always willing for the players to ask a question before they do something (and I even give them a good answer or make one up if I don't have one). :D

 

One of the things I do make sure of is that I know the rules, but if the player is sure I am wrong than I will gladly look them up just to give them credit since I don't know it all. I make sure I have the current errata and that the players know about it too.

 

The funniest session I've ever had was with this one guy who, after discovering a fighter who had specialized in darts could throw 4 of them a round. First he wanted to cover his body in darts so he wouldn't run out of them. Then he tried to play HM like it was 3rd ed. His "target" had closed with him in between the throws of the dart and so the player wanted to take a 5 foot step back then throw the dart. I told him that you can do that in 3rd ed, but in HM it says (and then READ him what the GMG said). He simply closed up his books and left, tossing the character to me and saying "I can't handle this, you just keep throwing roadblocks in my way and won't let me play my character." The entire time all 7 of my regular

players were telling this guy he's nuts, that's not how HackMaster works. (See, I've trained them well).

 

Anyway, enough of all that. Maybe once I am qualified to run a session of Hero I'll set up a special "PC Killing Spree" game just to get it all "out of my system."

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Re: New to Hero

 

Originally posted by Al_Beddow

I played Champions back in 1983, but am now vigously reading over the Hero 5th Ed. I like what I am reading (way better than GURPS... more complete characters, more options to customize, etc.)

 

Unfortunately, even though I have about 20 years of gaming experiance (on both sides of the GM's screen), I am having a little trouble digesting all of the information for character creation.

 

One of the nice things that is in the GURPS:Basic book is they take one of the pregenerated characters (supplied in the back of the book) and use its creation as an example of how to use the system.

 

Might there be a tutorial out there, say creating a sample character?

Thanks

 

HERO character creation has always been and always will be an organic process not entirely unlike creating a character for a short story or a novel. If you've done something like that before, then you that of which I speak. If not...

 

Before getting bent outta shape on game mechanics, develop the concept first. FREd offers some suggestions on where to draw inspiration, but doesn't really detail the how of conception. (get your mind out of the gutter on that one.....;) )

 

Having written a few short stories myself, I've spent a lot of time reading writing books. One of the best ones that I've read was "Characters" form the Writer's Digest Writing Series by Orson Scott Card. It described an exercise he had performed with a group of grade school kids.

 

Basically, you start by asking questions. But it's nothing like "what is your character like?"

No, my friend, it is far easier than that. You remove all of the potential snags by making the questions as simple as possible.

Example;

 

Q: Is the character male or female?

A: Male

Q: How old is he?

A: 18

Q: Where does he live?

A:......

 

et cetera, ad naseum.

 

Write down the first answers that come to mind. If others appear, write those down too, leaving nothing out. Take what you like, and leave the rest.

Now, at some point, you'll probably ask what does the PC do? What abilities does he have? Write them down as you would if you were describing what your favorite comic book character. Then work backards from that. By this, I mean "reason from the abilities" (a phrase you'll see quite a bit if you spend any amount of time on this website).

Look at what the character does, what he's good at, and define the abilites, skills and powers based on the result. Try to avoid building characters from the ground up from a list of 'whatever'.

 

As always, I hope this helps. If not, then I apologize.

 

:)

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Re: Welcome back, comrade!

 

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Regarding your concerns, my understanding is that the HERO System Resource Kit (you can read more about that via the "Our Products" link to the left of this page) contains a 48-page booklet with a summary of the Character Creation rules. I haven't picked up that product, so perhaps someone who has could speak to how useful it is as a guideline to character creation?

It wouldn't help in this regard. Not much at least. The HSRK is just a condensed FREd, listing names and costs of everything in the book, along with minimal rules explination. It works great when making a character as long as you already know the rules, character creation process, and only need a quick reference guide to check the cost something.

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Thanks

 

Thanks to all, especially Syberdwarf2. His description of character creation is very similar to the method I've always told people to use, ESPECIALLY when making one in a classless system. Concept is everything in making the character.

 

I've been reading over FREd and things are coming together/starting to make sense. There is so much meat in this thing I feel like I'm at an "all you can eat bar-b-que"!

 

I encourage anyone who has any further suggestions and guidelines to please post them here, not only for myself but others who may be in the same situation.

 

Thanks.

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Al, just be sure to give the PCs some leeway on point totals, especially if this is the very first character(s) the group will be making. If you're running 350 point characters (200 base plus 150 in disads), and the player goes over by 4 points (or falls shy, or the character is just too good to re-do) let them get away with the extra couple of points.

If they really must worry about point balance that badly, have them pay for those points 'on credit', Just deduct say 1 character point from their experience when it's doled out at session's end. But I wouldn't reccommend anything past 5 points over, no matter how good the character was... Usually.

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Another resource I've found in the past to help new players, regardless of the system, is to use character generation guides. One of my players has some published books, but can't remember their names at the moment. You can also look at Fuzion System resources on the net for what they call the Lifepath. Since Fuzion is an offshoot of 4th Ed Hero, its very compatible. Feel free to email me off list - I can email you some expanded Lifepath PDF's.

 

Aroooo

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Al, one of the pages of the FAQ here on the website, "Working with the HERO System", answers quite a few basic questions about how to create certain types of characters with particular abilities, or create various common powers or artifacts you find in books and comics. It uses the "reasoning from effects" approach to designing these things that's basic to HERO: think of what you want the result to do and how you want it to look, then choose the Skills, Powers, Modifiers etc. that best fits what you want. The examples may or may not be obvious to you, but they would probably be useful to any new players you plan to "break in" to the system. Here's the link to the page:

http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/workingherosystem.htm

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