What would you use to demo, HERO?

[ParitySoul]

If I wanted to introduce a handful of players to the HERO mechanic a chunch at a time what genre and point totals would you use?

 

What works as a good 'teaching' set so I can show them they can move from SUPERS to PULP w/out having a headache?

[Doc Democracy]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I'd start heroic (Pulp preferably) and move to supers - the change is then a matter of "Wow - so many points" rather than "We only get HOW many?"

 

 

Doc

[Karmakaze]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I've managed rather smoothly at convention games with doing a superhero "origin" story. The players get 50/50 normals, and I familiarize them with the characters at that level. Skill checks take next to no time to get, so I have them start those just about immediately. As they get their superpowers, I start telling them how many dice to roll, and then what happens. Then I have them count the dice (and things like stun/body) themselves. And at the end of the module, I give them the 250/100 superhero character sheet.

[Barton]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I have used at GENCON, ROCKCON, and CODCON a superhero fight as a training aid. I use minitures (cheap Hero Clicks) and a Chessex map and Dragon Stamps to make the urban battle ground. I then take 1/2 hour to explain the combat system and skills use and have at it.

I have made 350 pt. characters of all 11 archtrypes and then let the players pick the character they want to play. I make sure that each side has a chance at each archtype. Of course, certian archtypes I will not let younger players play due to complexity (metamorphs for example).

I used the superhero random generator in Champions Universe (or was it in Champions) to help create the 350 pt. characters.

A lot of fun and worked well.

I allow the players to take the character sheets home, and of course promote 5ER, and Sidekick.

[Sean Waters]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

Can I suggest that a nice progression would be to have a Pulp Hero game followed by a Champions gamewhere the characters are descendants of the original heroes, possibly with similar powers but greatly enhanced?

[Dust Raven]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

For demos I stick with what's in Sidekick. Everything else can wait until they have their own book and have read it, or they want to play in a regular campaign.

 

For showing how one genre is similar to another, it's best to run two seperate demos, one for each genre, and invite the same people from the first to the second. Make your own characters for each demo, and make alternative versions of the same character for each demo. So you've effectively got the same characters with the same concepts, geared toward different genres. That way when the players show up for the second demo, they'll find familiar characters/personalities and see the similarities between them rules wise while noting the difference in genre and application of those rule.

[gamerz123]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

For demos I stick with what's in Sidekick. Everything else can wait until they have their own book and have read it, or they want to play in a regular campaign.

 

Ditto. I only reference the Big Book for the occasional detail (such as some of the autofire rules which stubbornly refuse to stick in my brain )

 

Stay clear of Power Frameworks and use Charges instead of Endurance whenever possible.

 

When I run multiple sessions, I like to run different power levels. That way, if anyone asks which game to try, I ask them what type of character they want to play.

 

For SoCal I ran an Alien Wars scenario (Standard Heroic), a UMA Scenario using the Hidden Lands settings (Low-Powered Superheroic), and a Galactic Champions (Very High Powered). Also substituted for the 3d6 Prey and Play (Standard Superheroic Characters).

 

Always have a battlemat/megamat with paper minis and, if I have the opportunity, I slap together some sort of rudimentary visual together.

[BNakagawa]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

use published and current characters so that players won't have to figure out motivations or tactics, they only have to figure out how to use the ruleset to express them.

 

I.E. if you hand them character sheets for the teen titans, they oughtta know that robin is good at martial arts and raven isn't.

 

You can also find cool figurines to use for such characters which is nice. Heroclix are also a good option, but you have to contend with people wondering about stuff you don't want to deal with like the little dials and numbers.

[ghost-angel]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

Pulp is good to get them into the game, I'd switch to Fantasy next - they get a taste for Powers but it's not the focus yet. After that I'd go into Supers for the full gamut of what Hero can do.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I would start heroic, and then move up. At least that way they don't have to figure out points for equipment, and powers would be minor at most.... Then they can focus on Play Mechanics rather than Creation Mechanics.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I'd suggest using whatever genre the players like best (unless perhaps it's one that Hero doesn't have any support coverage for yet). They'll be more into it if it's a genre they know and like. That's more important than picking a genre based on showing off the system.

 

I'd also suggest teaching "Playing The Game" and "Making Characters" as two different things. It doesn't matter too much which one you do first, but it might be easier for them to follow the "Making Characters" stuff once they've driven the system around the block at bit.

 

For the "Playing the Game" session(s), do a one-shot or two, and provide the characters. Ideally, they should be characters well-known from the genre. (Perhaps famous comic-book characters if you're doing Champions, or Star Trek characters if you're doing Star Hero, etc.) The goal is to give them characters whose abilities they already know from fiction, so it's easier for them to see how those abilities are translated into the system, and easier for them to understand what their character can do (since they don't understand all the numbers yet).

 

For the "Making Characters" session(s), walk through the creation of a character as a group exercise, before turning them loose to work on making their own characters. Again, this should be a famous character, whose abilities are well-known, so they can start seeing how abilities match up to game mechanics in the system. Best of all (if you're comfortable enough with your own Hero-Fu) is to pick a character who might be quite difficult to simulate in other game systems that the players are familiar with, so you can show them how easy it is to make the character in Hero...

[ParitySoul]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

I'll give WhiteWolf credit.

 

Their Adventure! to Aberrant setting would be perfect for your Pulp to Superheroic suggestions.

 

But a nice 50/50 Pulp game sounds just about right. Thanks!

[Erkenfresh]

Re: What would you use to demo, HERO?

 

Making characters for the players to play with for a few sessions is probably best. I'd recommend using Champions as a start but it seems I'm in the minority.