A little advice for a new Hero GM

[Pseudo Nymh]

I am preparing to run my first campaign that uses Hero 5 and am requesting a few pointers.

 

The game is going to be superheroes, set in the civil war. The heroes will have to figure out what side they fight for, try to fight prejudice against them (it's sort of X-Menish) and deal with other issues from that era.

 

My question is this: I don't want the heroes to be so powerful that the weaponry of that age (muskets and sabers, primarily) doesn't threaten them. I was thinking of a 100/100 point game...do you suppose that's enough to make a low-powered superhero who is functionable yet not invincible?

 

Any other guidelines I should use (max stats, etc.) to aid in this endeavor?

 

Thanks again for any and all opinions.

[Tom McCarthy]

If the weapons of the day are sabres and flintlocks, that sounds like 4 DCs of KA. For most of the heroes to be vulnerable, I'd allow only bricks to have resistant defences and I'd use hit locations.

 

I think 75+75 might be sufficient. You won't need very powerful attacks to outstrip the weapons of the day, and you won't want very high characteristics and defences.

[Alibear]

You are typing about the US civil war, right?

 

I would say Tom has it pegged, but I would also insist on single power/special effect characters. No Multipowers or Elemental controls without express GM permission.

[fauxgemini]

Well, I'd allow them, but put a lock on how many points can go into a mulit. A VPP sounds just about right for "magic" etc.

[Pseudo Nymh]

Oh yeah...United States civil war. Please forgive my obvious oversight.

[Vondy]

Originally posted by Tom McCarthy

If the weapons of the day are sabres and flintlocks, that sounds like 4 DCs of KA. For most of the heroes to be vulnerable, I'd allow only bricks to have resistant defences and I'd use hit locations.

 

I think 75+75 might be sufficient. You won't need very powerful attacks to outstrip the weapons of the day, and you won't want very high characteristics and defences.

 

Some of the muskets being used were throwing balls between .57 and .75 caliber, with wads of poweder that rivaled, and in some cases, exceeded a .50 BMG round.

 

A black powder weapon isn't inferior (damage wise) to modern firearms with conventional ammunition, they were just remarkably slower, which is why the springfield rifle was such an improvement.

 

Modern rifles have an advantage in rate of fire, and ballistics, which allows greater range and accuracy, but damage wise the black powder musket of the civil war was a MONSTER.

[Pseudo Nymh]

Along the lines of muskets...

 

I was guessing 1d6 for a typical musket, more in some cases, up to 2d6. It takes a full round to reload them, possibly a skill roll as well.

 

Does this sound about right?

[Tom Carman]

Paraphrasing from Western HERO: Around the middle of the 19th Century, a new way of firing bullets was conceived: cap and ball. A paper envelope containing the bullet and powder was inserted into the chamber, and an exploding precussion cap was placed between the charge and the hammer.

 

Typical army rifles were loaded through the muzzle. In revolvers, the cylinders were loaded with powder and bullet from the front and cap on the back. The fastest way to "reload" a cylinder was to pop it out and put in a loaded replacement. Occasionally, a cap will ignite more than one chamber, blowing up the gun.

 

The metallic cartridge was invented around 1850, but early models were unreliable and sometimes dangerous. Rifles and revolvers using cartridges came out after the Civil War.

 

.38 Revolver: 1d6+1K, +1 OCV, STR Min 8

.45 Revolver: 1d6+1K, +1 OCV, +1 Stun, STR Min 12

.45 Army Carbine: 1.5d6K, +1 OCV, +2 R Rmd, +1 Stun, STR Min 10

.45 Army Rifle: 2d6K, +1 OCV, +2 R Mod, +1 Stun, STR Min 14

 

Reloading a Cannon: 8 Person-Phases, max of 4 people per gun.

 

1/2 Phase to do each of the following on a Cap & Ball Revolver: remove cylinder, replace cylinder, reload one chamber in cylinder.

 

1/2 Phase to load one round in a long arm (carbine or rifle).

 

I suspect that these times are all for highly trained weapon users.

[Redmenace]

How many points are the average soldiers built on? A 200 point chr. is going to be very good against even 50 point soldiers.

 

A gatling gun or cannon would probably give them some real problems but average soldiers have what, 1d6 pistols, 2d6 rifles and possibly a sabre or knife, or are they gonna be facing Steampunk/Victorian era machinery? They'll have to be tough or hard to hit to go against them.

 

OK, back to the point, if you want them to face big threats but still be vulnerable to the common soldiery I'd guess you'd have to have a set of pre decided limits on powers and point totals you could spend.

 

 

Some thoughts-

Damage reduction only diminishes a percentage of incoming attacks, if the pcs can't buy up PD/ED then they can be whittled down by even conventional arms. That way you can simulate guys who can stand up to some single attacks but not forever or without cost.

 

Mental control or illusian powers might be far worse when used in battlefield circumstances. Fog of war can all ready turn a charge into a catastrophe, with a little boost, a mentalist could really get out of control.

If your campaign is likely to include such maybe you might draw up some basic guidelines such as the prescence of a commanding officer with a decent prescence or oratory increases the effect multiple on mental powers by 5 or more points to control the soldiers.

 

As a thought you might set a limit of say 50 points for a pc's main power and 25-30 for secondary ones. It reflects the early days of superheroics where a single super humanability was enough, certainly a superfast character that does a conventional move by with a sabre is going to get noticed. That may not be what you have in mind of course.

[Pseudo Nymh]

Wow. Lots of great information!

 

75+75 seems right for the PCs.

 

An average soldier would be a normal, although a competant one (I haven't figured out exact points yet).

 

Thanks for the great pointers, all. Although further wisdom is still appreciated.

[Smoot]

Not much to add on the defense question, that hasn't been said already, but I'm intrigued by your campaign idea:

 

Where is it set, specifically? What characters have you got, so far? Are the powers single-source, and if so, what is it? (Magic/Links to folklore? Mutants?)

 

There is just so much that would kick ass, as background detail. (Ex: I was just reading a book on the Chinese in America. One early Asian 'immigration' was Cheng & Eng, the 'original' Siamese Twins, who settled in the south, owned a plantation, and had sons who fought in the Civil War. They made their fortune(s) touring, as some more-unusual 'mutant' types might.)

[Pseudo Nymh]

Right now, this is all in the planning phase and nothing has been decided for sure (although I'm getting close...).

 

I think it will probably be set in Virginia. That will be right in the action, but not so deep as to be nothing but war.

 

I'm planning on using tried-and-true X-men as the premise. The PCs will be mutants (not called that, at that point in history. Probably 'aberrations'), and have all the social conflict that comes with that.

 

I've only got one character so far. Nathaniel Eyrie, or The Spectre. He is a spy for the Union...his only power is his ghost form (Desolidification, 4 charges), although he sometimes enters it unintentionally (Accidental Change, at the sight of horses. He has a fear of horses, which I think is an entertaining feature ).

 

I'm waist deep in literature and webpages about life during the civil war, and I hope to make this a memorable campaign for myself and my players.

 

Edit: I know my character disads:rolleyes:

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Pseudo Nymh

Along the lines of muskets...

 

I was guessing 1d6 for a typical musket, more in some cases, up to 2d6. It takes a full round to reload them, possibly a skill roll as well.

 

Does this sound about right?

Uhh... no. As D-Man pointed out the muskets weren't less powerful, they just took longer to load. They also blew up in the face more often, and were less accurate. When it comes to firearms, I add one die killing to all the guns listed in the book. For muskets, I'd put them at about a 4D6 RKA. Now, if you use standard stun mods (x1D6-1) that means a super-hero being shot at by a platoon of musket-men is dealing with an average of 14 body and 42 Stun -- 20 times a turn. Throw in a super-villain and they have plenty to worry about. They may not take a lot of body, but they'll take enough STUN. Also, pregenerate those 4D6 attacks. It'll save you a lot of time.

 

You also might want to consider limits more specific than mere points. What I've done is lay down what is considered average in the four major categories: CV, SPD, defenses, and AP. The averages are 7, 5, 20ea, and 50 respectively. Go above average in one category, and you have to go down by a similar amount in another. Naturally, you'll have to fudge things for stuff like damage reduction, and what-not.

[Redmenace]

I agree with Smoot, this sounds like a very interesting campaign. As an aside, I was thinking that the 1860s were a more religious time and that a super human ability might reflect that. So maybe they'd be called Blessings, Charms, Hexes or Gifts (ie from God).

 

It would infringe on the Wildcards terminology, but card terms like having an Ace (or maybe a Black Ace for a Rka/Hka might work), Deuce for minor 15 point or less abilites, Joker for powers with side effects, etc.

 

Stealing, I'm sorry I meant homaging, once again this time from X-Men, The really big players in the superhuman world might have Suit names like the Red Queen for a woman with lethal abilities or Queen of Hearts for an mind controller.

 

The Union and Confederates might have different phrases the same phenomina.

 

I think Orson Scott Card wrote a trilogy about Alvin the Maker, a pre civil war man with a "Knack" for manipulating materials and seeing the weak spots in things as a kind of low level super ability.

 

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Other resources:

It sounds like you have enough real history material so I'll list some game and fiction stuff.

 

Devil's Tower, by Mark Sumner, Random House, isbn 0-345-40209-x

An entertaining novel about the Civil War fought in an alternate universe with magic side by side with conventional weaponry. Magic and super heroics aren't too far from one another and it has some material that might be of interest too you or perhaps to "recharge your batteries" if you ever find your enthusiasm lagging. I believe it was only released in paperback, making it pretty afordable.

 

Western Hero, from a predecessor to DOJ, lots of Western Era technology and skills written up for Hero. There was also an accompanying Adventurer's Club magazine that had a variety of Native American magic spells, and maybe a martial based on lassoing. Sorry but I forget the details of that issue.

 

Micro tactix, a on the web company which has among other things a set of downloadable paper miniatures in PDF format. The set I'm suggesting is called Vulture Gulch,(I think), and is several Western style buildings, wagons, etc. It's a nice and cheap way to add some window dressing to a battle field. $5.00 last time I checked.

 

Good Luck and if you have the time and or interest, I for one would love to hear about your campaign once it gets going.

[Redmenace]

I agree with Smoot, this sounds like a very interesting campaign. As an aside, I was thinking that the 1860s were a more religious time and that a super human ability might reflect that. So maybe they'd be called Blessings, Charms, Hexes or Gifts (ie from God).

 

It would infringe on the Wildcards terminology, but card terms like having an Ace (or maybe a Black Ace for a Rka/Hka might work), Deuce for minor 15 point or less abilites, Joker for powers with side effects, etc.

 

Stealing, I'm sorry I meant homaging, once again this time from X-Men, The really big players in the superhuman world might have Suit names like the Red Queen for a woman with lethal abilities or Queen of Hearts for an mind controller.

 

The Union and Confederates might have different phrases the same phenomina.

 

I think Orson Scott Card wrote a trilogy about Alvin the Maker, a pre civil war man with a "Knack" for manipulating materials and seeing the weak spots in things as a kind of low level super ability.

 

SPOILER BEGIN There was a low level pyrokineticist in the second book, who couldn't do much more than make a continuos spark. He was bad news around gunpowder. END SPOILER

 

Other resources:

It sounds like you have enough real history material so I'll list some game and fiction stuff.

 

Devil's Tower, by Mark Sumner, Random House, isbn 0-345-40209-x

An entertaining novel about the Civil War fought in an alternate universe with magic side by side with conventional weaponry. Magic and super heroics aren't too far from one another and it has some material that might be of interest too you or perhaps to "recharge your batteries" if you ever find your enthusiasm lagging. I believe it was only released in paperback, making it pretty afordable.

 

Western Hero, from a predecessor to DOJ, lots of Western Era technology and skills written up for Hero. There was also an accompanying Adventurer's Club magazine that had a variety of Native American magic spells, and maybe a martial based on lassoing. Sorry but I forget the details of that issue.

 

Micro tactix, a on the web company which has among other things a set of downloadable paper miniatures in PDF format. The set I'm suggesting is called Vulture Gulch,(I think), and is several Western style buildings, wagons, etc. It's a nice and cheap way to add some window dressing to a battle field. $5.00 last time I checked.

 

Good Luck and if you have the time and or interest, I for one would love to hear about your campaign once it gets going.

[Redmenace]

PS. If you know anyone who subscribes to Pyramid, Steve Jackson Game's online magazine, there is an article in the archives called Psi, Psi West that could be of use to you.