Non-combatant campaigns?

[Michael Hopcroft]

I wonder if it is possible to create a HERO campaign in which all combat was social and interpersonal rather than physical. In other words, you're in a society where you're not likely to use physical violence against your enemies, but the warfare of society can be just as dangerous -- destroying a person's reputation or professional standing will ruin their lives in much the same way a bullet will.

 

Although I haven't seen it, the recent theatreical film Mean Girls describes exactly such a setting. Nobody is going to carry a sword or a blaster into a high school, but the social warfare among the various cliques can be just as burtal as any superbrawl -- you might even drive an opponent to suicide if you push them hard enough.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

This would be quite possible. One might need special rules for such things, such as the repartee rules published in a late issue of The Adventurers Club, but certainly it could be done.

 

I'm in the midst of pulling together a personal guidebook for another kind of non-combatant campaign: the police procedural. Actually I'd set this aside for a while and just got back on it... but the possibilities for applying realistic interviewing and interrogation techniques, forensic sciences, legal maneuvers, and other skills seem to me like a very ripe area for the HERO System.

[austenandrews]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

I once ran a romance game which had no combat. It wasn't the kind of cutthroat social warfare you're describing, but it did get plenty dramatic.

 

-AA

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

I wonder if it is possible to create a HERO campaign in which all combat was social and interpersonal rather than physical. In other words, you're in a society where you're not likely to use physical violence against your enemies, but the warfare of society can be just as dangerous -- destroying a person's reputation or professional standing will ruin their lives in much the same way a bullet will.

 

I've played games with that as a side rather than the focus. If you are looking for game mechanics to cover that you might check out the Reparte rules in Broken Kingdoms, a Fantas Hero E-book. (The setting itself is also very nice).

[tkdguy]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

I had originally intended to make court intrigue a major part of my Fantasy Hero campaign, but nobody wanted to roleplay that. I think it's possible to have a campaign with minimal combat (I was thinking of a Law & Order Hero campaign just a few minutes ago), but I know certain players who would not enjoy that type of campaign.

[UltraRob]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

As a general thought, HERO is and was simply not made for that kind of campaign....I am not saying a good bunch of players and a smart GM can't make it happen (they can make anything happen, no matter what system they are playing), but I really think HERO was made for heroic combat, and that's what it's set up for. Without a lot of extra rules, there just isn't the support structure inside the game to run social interation on a game mechanics level.

 

Actually, offhand, I can't think of many games that do have that sort of thing in mind...GURPS is a little better than HERO in this area....And, if I were going to do what you are doing I would probably run GURPS. (Sorry to Herodom, but GURPS is better at human-level stuff in my opinion.) But, even GURPS doesn't quite have the social rules to handle a "Mean Girls" scenario. I'm not sure what would, really. :-/

 

As I said above, it all comes down to the players and GM in the end, regardless of system...I once ran a campign for RIFTS where all the PCs were 0-level farmers and townsfolk who had to go on a mission to find someone to save their town. Only one of them even had a gun, and god help them if they fought anything. But, they made their way through some super-bad RIFTS nastiness and actually saved the day with only a few shots fired. (My Players still talk about it to this day....when someone tells a story of how they have the most massive character in RIFTS...my group members always respond with..."Well I played a campaign as a FARMER!")

 

Rob

[tkdguy]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Of all the games I've played, I think only Castle Falkenstein would be better in a noncombative campaign than in a combative one.

[tkdguy]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Here's a ... um... er... different sort of rpg

 

BBSW

[Snarf]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Here's a ... um... er... different sort of rpg

 

BBSW

Uhhh ... well, it's better than FATAL ...

[tkdguy]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Uhhh ... well' date=' it's better than FATAL ...[/quote']

 

What's FATAL?

[Snarf]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

What's FATAL?

Much more than ever wanted to know about the worst RPG ever made:

 

http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/fatal.html

[lemming]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

What's FATAL?

Much much worse. This is from a guy that worked with cornorers

[megaplayboy]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Go rent the movie Ridicule sometime...

[Just Joe]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

I think this kind of game could be fun, and I doubt the system you use matters much. HERO has some basic skills and stats that are relevent (e.g., conversation, persuasion, PRE, maybe EGO and COM) and a few more fine-grained additional skills and game mechanics could help. But mainly it's a matter of role-playing and GM judgment (which has its good side and its bad side).

 

Note that in some settings (e.g., Spanish Inquisition, Stalin's Soviet Union) individual combat prowess might have little significance while social and political intrigue can easily have fatal consequences. And, incidentally, that kind of game would have more appeal to me (as might the police procedural) -- where the PC's cannot be sure of safety from physical violence but will be unwise to employ it themselves except in the most desperate circumstances, and where words and their consequences are the primary threats.

[Blue]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

"I'm going to belittle him."

 

"I have a 14- activation on my ego def, called 'Indifference to peer pressure'. I made it."

 

"Then I'd like to use Rapier Wit to poke fun at the most notable thing about him."

 

"Alright, his tie is ugly. It seems it was a present from his late wife. Everyone scowls at you."

 

"I'm going to use Mind Control 'Distraction' power to make everyone else think about something else. Make them all think about how big their butts are getting."

 

"Two of the women have vulnerabiity 2x to that."

[Rene]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Yes, I know 99.99% of HERO gamers think the Storyteller systems sucks green apples, but it's a system that seems to try to give equal opportunity to physical, mental, and social actions (Does it suceed in that? Probably not). Aberrant was the only superhero game to make a big deal of social superpowers, as far as I can remember.

 

I also agree that GURPS probably would be a better choice than HERO for games like these. HERO is still too much of a combat-oriented game.

[Snarf]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

The Tri-Stat system also tries to give equal emphasis to mental and social abilities. It actually suggested Romantic Comedy and Soap Opera as genres to play in.

[Just Joe]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Well done, Blue, though I'm left uncertain whether you're making a point or just being entertaining. I think you're mock-example suggests that a game of this sort could be hard to do and certainly shouldn't be too game-mechanics-heavy, but others might draw different conclusions.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

On the other hand, I've run non-combat oriented games in Hero to great success. Combat occured once every two or three sessions, wasn't the focus of the session and lasted less than an hour real time.

 

I was running a cyberpunk game to boot. Of course my cyberpunk games do not follow the shadowrun or CP2020 genre types.

 

So it's entirely possible, with the disclaimer that it has to be with the right players. But then, that's true for any genre or type of game.

[Blue]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

Well done' date=' Blue, though I'm left uncertain whether you're making a point or just being entertaining. I think you're mock-example suggests that a game of this sort could be hard to do and certainly shouldn't be too game-mechanics-heavy, but others might draw different conclusions.[/quote']

When yer not sure if I'm kidding, it's likely that I am.

 

I think my only point was: "Hey Lookit me!"

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Non-combatant campaigns?

 

I think this kind of game could be fun, and I doubt the system you use matters much. HERO has some basic skills and stats that are relevent (e.g., conversation, persuasion, PRE, maybe EGO and COM) and a few more fine-grained additional skills and game mechanics could help. But mainly it's a matter of role-playing and GM judgment (which has its good side and its bad side).

 

Note that in some settings (e.g., Spanish Inquisition, Stalin's Soviet Union) individual combat prowess might have little significance while social and political intrigue can easily have fatal consequences. And, incidentally, that kind of game would have more appeal to me (as might the police procedural) -- where the PC's cannot be sure of safety from physical violence but will be unwise to employ it themselves except in the most desperate circumstances, and where words and their consequences are the primary threats.

 

This is a great idea. If the Inquisition is running loose and you have PCs who are indpednetn thinkers, then you could be in a world of hurt depending on who you teach what, what you publish, etc. You have the chouices of "do you mouth loyalty while secretly writing and speaking sedition, or do you challenge the system directly and hope to be spared the conesuqneces?"

 

I was wondering what I would do if I were a player and my character was in the Pit of Edgar Allen poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

 

By the way, Adult Swim has started to show Case Closed, the series better known to anime fans as Detective Conan. They had to change the title nbecause Conan is such a recpognizable trademark in the United States, but the first episode I saw of it this week 9the second episode, hwre the hero discovers his age has been reduced from 17 to about 8) was dubbed and done pretty well. This is a different kind of campaign of this variety, which would rely of the player's ability not only to solve incredbily comp[licated puzzles but also his character's abiloity get his solutions into the open. Conan's solutions to the latter problem are quite -- interesting....