Anybody Ever Get THIS?

[Jkeown]

"I've never heard of the Hero System"

 

I was at my soon to be brother in law's 30th birthday party last night, and someone said they'd never heard of HERO... I was stunned. As big a geek as I know this guy to be, he's still playing RIFTS... and has never heard of hero... Nearly started a tirade right there at the table. Dawn (my fiance) kinda rolled her eyes in a HEREWEGOAGAIN look... she knew what was coming, so I shut up...

 

I offered to run a game for this group of his, and they said they'd get back to me...

 

Now, how do I convert these guys... these... savages! to HERO?

[MikeyMitchell]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

"I've never heard of the Hero System" I was at my soon to be brother in law's 30th birthday party last night' date=' and someone said they'd never heard of HERO... I was stunned. As big a geek as I know this guy to be, he's still playing RIFTS... and has never heard of hero... Nearly started a tirade right there at the table. Dawn (my fiance) kinda rolled her eyes in a HEREWEGOAGAIN look... she knew what was coming, so I shut up... I offered to run a game for this group of his, and they said they'd get back to me... Now, how do I convert these guys... these... savages! to HERO?[/quote']My first suggestion would be to put the excess enthusiasm on the back burner. Tirades are counterproductive. (Even if they are fun.) Yeah, it's a great system, but potential new players don't know that, and they'll need more than just the fact that you love it to convince them (especially if they already have systems they like).What I would try to do first is give a general overview of the system. It's point-based, it's universal (any genre), and so forth. Then, try to found out what they don't like about any system they're currently using and point out how HERO can solve that problem.What I would not do is hand them the 5ER rulebook. At least not until they're interested. Even if you explain that most of the size of the book is due to FAQs, examples, and the like, it's still intimidating.Good luck!

[lemming]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

Fire ants.

 

The more serious answer would be for you to use Sidekick. Much less intimidating.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

I agree with the suggestions by MikeyMitchell and lemming (well, except for the fire ants).

 

If you check my sig below, you might find more resources to help you; maybe a HERO version of a setting this group likes, but with a system they're not fond of, would help bring them around.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

I'd go with the "What kind of character have you always wanted to play?" They reply... then say, "Cool. Hero can do that."

 

Then build the SIMPLEST possible form. Don't get all crunchy with advantages and limitations. Just build 'em as clean as possible.

 

Then run a game, making sure each of the players gets a chance to use the main "schtick" of their character. Make the description of their powers in the game really colorful. Make the PCs really sound larger than life. Have the players have a good fight, but ultimately succeed in a pretty straight forward plot. Afterwards... THEN start answering quetions about "how" and "what" of the system.

 

You'll have 'em hooked for life.

 

It's the Hero System version of Fight Club's "Go out and pick a fight... and lose!" rule.

[casualplayer]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

Have you asked him if he knows Champions? Most folk still call it that, even if they are playing a different genre.

 

The way I have won over many a non-HERO player is by having their character take a massively bloody wound and still be standing. And returning fire. Lots o' BODY, not enough STUN to stun or KO them. It makes for a cool mental image as they spit in the face of death, and no other system represents it as well as HERO. Fudge the STUN results if you have to. Encouraging hefty CONs for the characters helps also, because being stunned feels like losing to a neophyte.

[nexus]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

I get that allot in when people answer my PBEM ads. "Your game sounds interesting, but what's Hero System?"

 

I just tell them its not that important since I'll be handling the mechanics and we talk about their character. Those that are interested in the mechanics at al ususally get pretty impressed that pretty much anything they come up with I can get them a character sheet in my next email.

[Old Man]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

Yeah do all the front end work for them, do not start with character generation.

 

Ask what genre they would like to play, then make up a bunch of characters for that ype of game. Then go at it. A few skill rolls and then a simple fight gets the ball ball rolling quickly.

 

Asking what type of characters they want to play might help as well as they will discover they are not limited to class types like in RIFTS.

 

Afterwards you can do more in depth explanation of how things work. Have a copy of Sidekick on hand to lend out.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

"I've never heard of the Hero System"

 

I was at my soon to be brother in law's 30th birthday party last night, and someone said they'd never heard of HERO... I was stunned. As big a geek as I know this guy to be, he's still playing RIFTS... and has never heard of hero... Nearly started a tirade right there at the table. Dawn (my fiance) kinda rolled her eyes in a HEREWEGOAGAIN look... she knew what was coming, so I shut up...

 

I offered to run a game for this group of his, and they said they'd get back to me...

 

Now, how do I convert these guys... these... savages! to HERO?

 

So far, I've only ever got asked that by one person. That person was an employee of Atomic Comics. I don't shop at Atomic Comics anymore.

 

About "converting" anybody, most of the suggestions so far sound pretty good (the ants should be a last resort though, but you could always just present them with a write-up for how to eat a man alive with ants using Hero ). What I've done with players new to the system is have them ignore the character creation mechancs for the first few sessions. They tell me what they want, I write their character and hand them a sheet listing their abilities (with as little as possible game mechanics if I can help it), and let them get into the habbit of describing their character's actions rather than stating the mechanics they're using. After a few games I'll go over the mechanics they've used and re-write their character with them so the mechanics are a better match with what they expected (almost always necessary to some degree) and by then they're hooked.

[incrdbil]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

well, since they play Rifts, go heavy on the 'can do anything, any character' approach--but unlike palladium, the rules actually work.

 

Stress they could still play a RIFTS universe game, just with a more character friendly system.

[That Masked Man]

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS?

 

As someone who has done this twice already and will soon be doing it a third time, I like the suggestions. However, since character creation is such an important aspect of the system, I think new players should be introduced to it right off the bat. To avoid overwhelming the players, what I am planning to do is get a general idea of the character they want to play from them before ever opening a book. Then I will create the character with them, walking them through the steps and explaining why I am choosing the skills/powers/etc that I am. While I do this, they will have a copy of Sidekick to help them understand what we are doing, although I still expect to do a lot of explaining at this stage. Finally, I will let them look through Sidekick and make any changes to the character that they want (subject to approval of course). After a few game sessions, I will have a meeting with each player to modify the characters now that they understand the system a little better through experience. This time they will also have access to the full 5ER. I would not normally allow a player to change the character once the game has started, but in the case of new players, I think the opportunity to modify their character to match their concept after they have learned the system enough to know how to model what they want is essential. I might do this differently if they were new to RPGs generally but these are experienced players who are just new to HERO.