Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

[Samaritan]

Hey all- just curious to see if anybody's done a HERO game in the vein of He-Man, Blackstarr, etc? I'm toying with the idea of pitching such a game to my group once my MBA classes ease off a bit. Any pointers (aside from watching the cartoons in question) would be helpful.

[OddHat]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

I've done a few Chinese Wuxia-Fantasy games at the 350 point level (which is actually not enough for the full range of the genre). It can be great fun. Ignoring the Wuxia-specific tips, I'd say the most important things are:

 

Emphasize non-combat time. Think about the economy and politics espesially. This is your best chance to get the Fantasy genre out front, and keep the game from becoming pure superheroics.

 

Don't power up mooks. It's no fun being a 350 point Hero if all of the city guards and bandits you run into have CVs of 10 and 12DC attacks. High powered bandit leaders and evil lords are a must, but the mooks shouldn't be any tougher than they would be in a 150 point fantasy game. Epic Monsters and bosses should be the threat to your PCs, not the town bully and his drunk friends.

 

I kept rPD and rED from worn armor or "Iron Shirt Technique" at 6 or lower (and used Hit location), but allowed plenty of Damage Reduction, Combat Luck, "Perfect Block" self only Force Walls, etc. The flavor you go for may be different, but I wanted knives and arrows to be a real threat if characters were surprised, while still allowing Heroes to fight through armies of lesser foes. It worked well, and should adapt well to a Thundar the Barbarian setting. Speaing of which, I think Force Wall and Missile Deflection generally work better than Force Field in fantasy campaigns, including Saturday Morning Fantasy. The Magician can be invulnerable to mortal weapons when not attacking, but has to risk death by sword or dagger to go on the offensive. It's a nice in-genre touch.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

Hey all- just curious to see if anybody's done a HERO game in the vein of He-Man' date=' Blackstarr, etc? I'm toying with the idea of pitching such a game to my group once my MBA classes ease off a bit. Any pointers (aside from watching the cartoons in question) would be helpful. [/quote']

 

I ran a game based on the Science/Fantasy manga: The Five Star Stories.

 

I ran it at 200pts (back in the 4th edition days) but I realise that's not powerful enough. 250-300pts is closer.

 

It would be similar in power-level to He-Man, esp the new version that ran on Cartoon Network a couple of years back (VERY good). Each one of the "Masters" had special powers and abilities and cool super-moves. Perfect for simulating with Hero.

 

My suggestion: Throw in a bit of Ninja Hero with super-moves and stuff like that. Those kinds of things fit very will with the chaotic nature of most Science/Fantasy settings.

 

Good luck with that. Let us know the details and how it turns out.

[tkdguy]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

I thought about doing something like that. The campaign would have knights wielding light sabers just like the Jedi, except they also ride cyborg or android horses. Martial artists would be able to fly and shoot balls of chi energy. Airships that look like galleons would fly to floating cities.

 

The question is, how would you model ranged weapons? My solution was to use Hank the Ranger's (D&D cartoon) bow and Chewbacca's bowcaster as models.

 

Melee weapons also presented a problem. I decided to make a lance version of the light saber. Maces could cause extra damage by sending sound waves when they hit something. I don't have a good model for axes, though.

[Markdoc]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

I ran a game where each of the players was an immortal (you could kill them, but they just popped up again in a new body) with 200 -250 points to play with on top of the immortality power

 

I deliberately left the power level where it was for my normal 50/50 point start games and the players pretty quickly got the idea that dungeon-bashing and dealing with bandits was waste of time - it was a game about politics and magic.

 

And everyone had a blast

 

cheers, Mark

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

I thought about doing something like that. The campaign would have knights wielding light sabers just like the Jedi, except they also ride cyborg or android horses. Martial artists would be able to fly and shoot balls of chi energy. Airships that look like galleons would fly to floating cities.

 

The question is, how would you model ranged weapons? My solution was to use Hank the Ranger's (D&D cartoon) bow and Chewbacca's bowcaster as models.

 

Melee weapons also presented a problem. I decided to make a lance version of the light saber. Maces could cause extra damage by sending sound waves when they hit something. I don't have a good model for axes, though.

 

hmmmm...

*ripping brain off the Hawkmoon track and into Thundarr the Barrbarian mode*

 

howabout scepter like weapons that create a crescent shaped energy arc (or arcs) at the bulbous end. Perhaps with the ability to "throw" the arcs off the haft like a boomerang.

Other tech ideas could be stolen from Hawkmoon with ease tho..Like Ornithopters (first seen in Dune, actually), flamelances, and weird seige weapons that do things like launch glass globes filled with a lighter than air iridescent gas.

[rstehwien]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

Hey all- just curious to see if anybody's done a HERO game in the vein of He-Man' date=' Blackstarr, etc? I'm toying with the idea of pitching such a game to my group once my MBA classes ease off a bit. Any pointers (aside from watching the cartoons in question) would be helpful. [/quote']

 

Once my MBA is finished (July), I was going to pitch a supers level sci-fantasy in the vein of:

 

Everstone

http://www.irongolemgames.com/

 

Dragonstar

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/dragonstar.html

 

He-Man and Blackstar had a combination of items and powers, so power frameworks might be the way to go. I've thought about having a champions style game in a fantasy universe - power frameworks and all. Which would allow you to recast the superhero villans.

 

Leave fantasy villians the same so whooping up on orcs and the like is trivial and save the real threats for dragons and supervillians.

 

One thing I've noticed is that players in fantasy games expect to keep the loot (at least at my table), so I probably won't go with the standard super-hero rules where you must pay for all items. Instead I'll use an Artifact Pool (see below) similar to "The Gift" from Fantasy Hero or the resource pool in Dark Champions.

 

Some of my rough ideas might be useful to you for He-Man or Blackstarr:

 

Magic will completly replace technology in my game (allows for less worry about the science part - some of my players have PhDs in physics and it gets annoying). I probably won't use power frameworks. Instead I'll use "The Gift" from Fantasy Hero for both spells, magic items, and approved racial abilities or ability packages. I might allow frameworks for some innate abilities.

 

There will be an Artifact Pool used to pay for items. All magic items require some will or power to activate, but characters can swap out magic items given enough time (immediately if you had enough unused points in your pool and probably about an hour of attuning if all of your points were used - charged items use up points for 24 hours).

 

Creation of magic items will usually be done by taking time and money (or special materials) instead of spending character points - since the users of the items provide the power. Truly independant items that can be used outside an artifact pool will cost character points or really special materials.

[swobeas]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

I think a He-Man kind of game would mean a lot of fun to run

 

I would try to include a lot of clichés and comedy for that one. (no one can take Skelletor for serious )

[Lethosos]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

Work this one in! He-Man is fun to mock. (Mumm-Ra is a better villan than Skeletor IMO, though. But each to their own. )

 

Regardless... we've all thought along this line. I recall that the Alantean Age will have plenty of this sort of action by the metric buttloads, so it's a matter of time that a sourcebook for it will pop up. But don't count on it--the crew have their own orlachium-powered airship to fill.

 

(gets back to scribbling some ideas for the Celestial court for his own FH world, The World of the Eight Sages...)

[Samaritan]

Re: Sci-Fantasy at the Super level..

 

Well, I've roughed out some bits of the world I'm going to pitch to the group...

 

 

Campaign Title: Heroes of Evermoon

 

Evermoon- a planet so named for the fact that at least one of its three moons are visible in the sky at any time. It has been the victim of a dimensional storm, yanked from its moorings in the normal universe, and is now trapped in an unknown location of the spacetime continuum. Even the most accomplished sages and scientists are not able to determine what exactly happened. Some whisper of Sigil involvement.

 

The Sigil are a race of beings, purported to be the original sentient race of Evermoon. They are noted for their technology (referred to as Sigilware) that uses magic as power sources. For the most part, the Sigil were uninvolved in the affairs of other civilizations; but they oddly disappeared altogether after the dimensional storm- their fortresses abandoned, Siglware littering the landscape.

 

From a GM standpoint, I'm having the Sigil act as the venue for "GM fiat" in some cases- space travel is theoretically possible, but the technology simply doesn't work for the inhabitants of Evermoon- all because the Sigil will it so. However, the Sigil (unknown to the PCs) are doing so in an attempt to save the inhabitants of Evermoon- the dimensional storm was of their making, so as to yank Evermoon from the path of some terrible threat to the region of space it originally inhabited. The problem is twofold now- 1) they have no idea how to get back, and 2) they have no idea what is 'out there' in their new location. As such, in order to fully commit to their studies as to how to correct the situation, they retreated to bases on the three moons.

 

In the meantime, local space is not taking kindly to the presence of a new planet. Dimensional rifts begin to open across the world; one warlord takes over part of the planet, and a war erupts between the Kingdom (as yet unnamed) and the Bane Army.

 

Thus enter the heroes, into the middle of a lost world caught in a war.

 

Ideas? Thoughts? Critiques?