Ladikn Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Okay, right now I run an EXALTED game, and we were thinking of changing systems and I thought Fantasy HERO would be good. I've played Champions and love the hero system, but have no experience running it. My GM experience is mostly dnd and exalted(a white wolf product), and wanted to know if you have any suggestions for me. btw: I don't have fantasy hero yet, I'm getting it tomorrow. I only have HERO, STAR HERO, and the vehicle book(it was for galactic champions) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions I highly recommend having a look at the creature books - "Hero Bestiary"and "Monsters and Minions". It can give you good ideas and base line comparisons between what you already know, and how it compares to the Hero System. "So THAT's how you do venom in Hero" etc.. There are, unfortunately, very few generic adventures available online -but it is worth doing searches for characters and creatures that have been submitted to this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladikn Posted January 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions I was gona just get fantasy hero and try it out first, then get the bestiary and grimoir...I dont have much money... also, another thought. Idk if this is covered in fantasy hero, but how would you balence magic and swordsmanship, when a swordsman could just buy a sword while a wizard spends CPs on spells? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions The most reasonable answer to this is- Let the wizard buy a sword. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archon Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions Hi, Ladikin, welcome to Hero and the Boards. Thia is another new to Hero GM and a couple of the threads he's created have some very good advice in it. Check those out. I have a couple of thoughts also. 1) Decide on total character points, an active point cap, damage class cap, and OCV/DCV cap. This will pretty much set your power and effectiveness level. 2) Decide on the type of magic system that you are using. You can simulate just about any style of magic system that you want in Hero. All the way from spell that are just scaled down super powers with extra limitations to Exalted's Sorcerous mega spells. 3) Decide on your tech level. Will it be fantasy medieval, sailing ships with cannons and musketeers, horse barbarians on the plains? In Fantasy Hero, assuming using the Turakian setting, the final real point value of spells is divided by 3. Steve apparently thought that spell casters needed a power boost as compared to the sword swingers or wanted casters to have more spell versatility. My own experience contradicts that, but I think it really depends on if you're allowing spell casters to wear armor or not. I personally am against the divide by 3 rule. I could go on and on, but I think that's the basics. Also the FH book covers most of these options in the Campaign section. It really does help with that sort of construction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archon Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions As a side note, I play in an Exalted game also. I'm debating on trying to convert the game to Hero just the level out the power differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladikn Posted January 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions I was thinking about Exalted in HERO, but not the game I'm running now, since I'm running Fair Folk and they are all Nucking Futs. One char is Etro(http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2568&p=11 is his char), another is a giant golden statue that travels in a rainbow tunnel, and the other is "The Cliche Pretty-Boy Villain" with blond eyes, blue hair, and a sword made out of the dreams of Abyssals. But anyway, I like my idea for magic. My idea is that magic is too fluid and imcomprehensible to have one system for, so it can have many giving forms, including the druidic power of the fey (-3/4 only in forests), the scholarly approach of the Institution (charges, regained with study), the fluid approach of the Shapers (end reserve, recovers only when sleeping(-1)), the shifting powers of lycropanths, and many others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelDoom Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions The single most difficult thing about GMing HERO is keeping control of the relative power levels. Some times you just have to play it safe and say no purely to stop power level inflation running rampant. If you let one player become a combat killing machine with super high speed it will make for a boring game for the rest of the players... like any other system really but the lack of levels or predefined structure makes it even more tricky. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapier Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions Okay, right now I run an EXALTED game, and we were thinking of changing systems and I thought Fantasy HERO would be good. I've played Champions and love the hero system, but have no experience running it. My GM experience is mostly dnd and exalted(a white wolf product), and wanted to know if you have any suggestions for me. btw: I don't have fantasy hero yet, I'm getting it tomorrow. I only have HERO, STAR HERO, and the vehicle book(it was for galactic champions) Fantasy Hero is vital, of course. Its got the basic rules and equipment lists, along with races etc. However, it doesn't have much of any monsters or spells in it. It also has no setting material. You need to keep that in mind. Your best bet? Go and get Fantasy Hero and steal shamelessly from Surbrook or some of the others. Steal all the package deals, classes, races, spells, equipment that you need. Then design some real quick short term adventures (eg rescue a princess from a tower, invade an evil temple). Play around with these first. If you guys are really starting to get into it, then consider going with some of the books you need (eg Bestiary, Monsters Minions & Marauders, Grimoire I & II, Valdorian Age). This will allow you to get away with not spending all that money unless you really start getting into it. Oh, there is also this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=745317#post745317 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions Welcome aboard, Ladikn! I hope you enjoy your visits here. It's a fun community, and we're generally pretty friendly and helpful to newcomers. I can point you to a couple of threads from these forums filled with good GMing advice. Although a lot of it is general (which you may not need with your experience), there are many HERO-specific tips on them: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3304 http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34843 From your initial post I'm a little unclear as to whether you're switching from Exalted to a more traditional fantasy game and want to use Fantasy HERO for that; or whether you're thinking of converting the characters and conventions from Exalted into HERO. In case it's the latter, there have been some efforts at conversion made on these forums and elsewhere. There's no detailed matrix yet, but enough guidelines and examples to get you started. If you look to my signature, below, and follow the link in it, you can scroll down to the listing for Exalted to find them. Don't hesitate to post again if you have more questions - we all love to show off how much we know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions Wow. My reputation preceeds me. Never thought I'd see that day. Greets, peep. Have some rep. I've started numerous threads asking various questions about "how" and "why" - Steve Long is also helpful, you can reach him quickly with mechanics/rules questions about how a rule should work. He will also recommend bellying up to the bar here and saying "What if?" and we'll do what we can to guide you. I'm new to HERO, but I've been GMing for *cough* years, so there are things that I'll be happy to help you define within the confines of a story and balancing, whereas some of my cohorts here will give you stronger mechanical models than I can as of yet. You'll need: 5th Revised, Fantasy HERO, and if you can get a copy, the Grimoire and Combat Handbook are both very handy. Magic is amazing in HERO because you can define it for yourself; I'm using a VPP model, and I inspired Killer Shrike to build a variant that works with only Naked Power Advantages (I've been immortalized on his website, which I think is www.killershrike.com). Susano is another board lord who's done a ton of conversions, and I've linked his site to his name for easy and immediate reference. Much of what you do in HERO is dependent on (pardon the triteness) what you want to do. It's a world without borders or boundaries, to quote the Matrix for a moment, so I've tended to cause a few twists in people's knickers just by thinking well outside the conventional boundaries. Some of the ideas I have work, some of them go straight against the rules but I've chosen to handwave them anyway. I'm well versed in Fantasy and genre tropes, and I'm familiar with the pacing and construction of stories and making those stories fit within the confines of the game. If I can be of any assistance, by all means, post. Welcome aboard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions Here's my Fantasy HERO Site which is intended for people just like you. Read it all, let me know if you have any questions http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.htm Unless you are converting from D&D or WHFRPG you can cut straight to the content: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladikn Posted January 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions I'm not converting from Exalted to HERO, thats too much. I'm doing a custom world. I've actually seen that website! its on google. its very nice killer shrike! I think my 2 biggest problems will be getting used to GMing HERO, and something I failed to mention, teaching them how to play it, this is their first HERO game. I'm prob gona start small, pre-gen chars at 50/50 and some customization, then let them build their char with exp(a bit more then usual at first to get them up to hero status) as they get used to the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions A common misconception people have in my posts is that I'm still trying to convert d20 to HERO, something I've gotten further away from the more I'm invested in the HERO system. I much prefer to have my imagination unhinged, rather than attached to any preconceived, prewritten material. While I love using d20 as a point of reference, I'm in the process of constructing everything from the ground up now. Whee! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions In order to ensure your game properly follows genre tropes (as so many hero players are genre fanboys and purists), read the following: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/notthenet/fantasy.htm Or, do the exact opposite of what it says, which is what I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions I think my 2 biggest problems will be getting used to GMing HERO' date=' and something I failed to mention, [i']teaching them how to play it,[/i] this is their first HERO game. I'm prob gona start small, pre-gen chars at 50/50 and some customization, then let them build their char with exp(a bit more then usual at first to get them up to hero status) as they get used to the system. In that case, I think you'd benefit from the advice here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9188 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions There's also the speed handouts that cover the basics on the site. Those may help as well; the initial stuff is dirt easy; the complex bits get nastier over time, but are still fairly easy to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hancock.tom Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 Re: Thinking of GMing, any suggestions teaching them how to play it Look at sidekick. Its dirt cheap, less intimidating than FRED or FRED revised, easy to find things in, and paired up with 10-20 pages of your homebrew campaign information, will be all the noobs need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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