Converting Players to HERO

[Sean Waters]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

The other thing that really strikes me about the keyes_bill character sheets is that they are simple constructions anyway, and this really helps to concentrate the essence of the character to my mind.

 

I see a lot of complicated builds, especially ones that are designed to mirror comic book characters, and it is refreshing to see the build pared down to the basic essentials, whilst retaining the flavour.

 

One thing that really did strike me was the Disadvantages section; it seems much more of an integral part of the character sheet and, again, very easily understood.

 

I must admit to a feeling slightly like vertigo, looking at a Hero character sheet without construction numbers, but I'm sure it will pass

[teh bunneh]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Thanks for the compliments.

 

I built the characters in HD, exported them to a simple text file, and then copy/pasted the relevant data into a Publisher file that I designed. I'd be happy to post the Publisher files, though if you don't have MSPub then it won't be much use. Really, you could design something similar in any program that allowed you to do layouts (Publisher, InDesign, Quark, probably even MSWord). The real work is in copying/pasting the character from one format to another.

 

Any HD geniuses out there know how to do this automatically?

[teh bunneh]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

As a sidenote/follow-up, when I run Hero at cons and demo games, I only ever bring Sidekick (and sometimes one of the optional books, like the Bestiary). When people want to see the rule book, I show them that and then tell them there's an "advanced" version of the rules that contains a lot more options, plus hints for world-building and other cool things. No one is ever intimidated by Sidekick, and I'm pretty certain I sold a few copies of it at the last Con I went to (just this past weekend, in fact!).

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Yeah, Sidekick is WAY less intimidating. I would imagine that presenting that as the "starter" book would make the whole system a lot more approachable.

 

It's a lot of the reason why I ordered a copy, despite the fact that I have the PDF and a copy of 5ER.

[Spence]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Thanks for the compliments.

 

I built the characters in HD, exported them to a simple text file, and then copy/pasted the relevant data into a Publisher file that I designed. I'd be happy to post the Publisher files, though if you don't have MSPub then it won't be much use. Really, you could design something similar in any program that allowed you to do layouts (Publisher, InDesign, Quark, probably even MSWord). The real work is in copying/pasting the character from one format to another.

 

Any HD geniuses out there know how to do this automatically?

 

MSPub I have This will be the first item of constructive use it has ever seen

 

As for HD geniuses, I am NOT one of them. But since I just don't have enough free time to learn the whole HTML thing I have decided to pick up one of the web page builder programs. Since I have an old copy of the MSFrontpage I never used, I am going to load it and upgrade to the newest version (cheaper route for me) and see if it will do the "heavy lifting" for me.

 

As a sidenote/follow-up' date=' when I run Hero at cons and demo games, I only ever bring [i']Sidekick[/i] (and sometimes one of the optional books, like the Bestiary). When people want to see the rule book, I show them that and then tell them there's an "advanced" version of the rules that contains a lot more options, plus hints for world-building and other cool things. No one is ever intimidated by Sidekick, and I'm pretty certain I sold a few copies of it at the last Con I went to (just this past weekend, in fact!).

 

Yeah, Sidekick is WAY less intimidating. I would imagine that presenting that as the "starter" book would make the whole system a lot more approachable.

 

It's a lot of the reason why I ordered a copy, despite the fact that I have the PDF and a copy of 5ER.

 

I have five copies I use as handouts. You can't beat it for intro and quick reference.

[zornwil]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Actually, a primary thing I enjoyed a lot about Champions (2nd ed. era) was character creation. It really turned me on to the system more than anything else, now that I think about it, although only by a small margin as I liked the high rationality, too, and the clean design. And the body/stun thing. And....

 

Seriously, though, I did love character design a lot. I made a very complicated character, breaking all kinds of rules but following by example of those rules.

 

I found Champions much simpler than AD&D.

 

I have a hard time, personally, with not seeing under the hood, and when I see a character sheet without mechanics in any system it bugs me. But I understand entirely that's not the general player mentality, and between now and the next con I'm going to update to a format Karmakaze posted somewhere.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

I have a hard time' date=' personally, with not seeing under the hood, and when I see a character sheet without mechanics in any system it bugs me. But I understand entirely that's not the general player mentality, and between now and the next con I'm going to update to a format Karmakaze posted somewhere.[/quote']

 

Personally, I'm the same way. I want to know how a character was built, and why. But most new players at con games (in my experience) don't really care -- they just want to know how many dice they get to roll. For those who do care, I always print out a text version of the character sheet for my own reference, and they are welcome to look at that one.

[Silbeg]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Following up on what Sean was saying' date=' I agree that new players shouldn't have to see how clever their builds are and whatnot. In that light, here are the character sheets I use in my con/demo games. They give the players all the info they need, but without showing them all the math "under the hood". My players have always seemed to grok them pretty quickly. [/quote']

 

So, any chance of getting those character sheets, or are they hand-made?

 

I am hoping they start with a Hero Designer export template. Of course, I need to work on limiting the powers on my Con characters. :/

[Silbeg]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

The other thing that really strikes me about the keyes_bill character sheets is that they are simple constructions anyway, and this really helps to concentrate the essence of the character to my mind.

 

I see a lot of complicated builds, especially ones that are designed to mirror comic book characters, and it is refreshing to see the build pared down to the basic essentials, whilst retaining the flavour.

 

One thing that really did strike me was the Disadvantages section; it seems much more of an integral part of the character sheet and, again, very easily understood.

 

I must admit to a feeling slightly like vertigo, looking at a Hero character sheet without construction numbers, but I'm sure it will pass

 

I have to agree completely, Sean.

One of the biggest problems I have is making simple characters these days, especially for Cons.

 

The characters that I ran at the Con of the North can be seen at http://www.silbeg.com/cotn/peacekeepers.html. Note that some are reasonable, but I had a problem keeping all the skills on the printouts. Most of the characters cut off a bit... yeah, probably some more work on the template would help (I modified on by someone... can't recall right now).

 

One of these days I'll have to start from scratch.

 

Even if you don't display points, I have not found a way other than hand-editing to remove the active points, modifiers, etc., from the powers. It is probably worth it for a Con to clean those up, but I HD doesn't do it by itself (though, there may be a setting I am missing!)

[teh bunneh]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

So, any chance of getting those character sheets, or are they hand-made?

 

I am hoping they start with a Hero Designer export template. Of course, I need to work on limiting the powers on my Con characters. :/

 

Hand-made, as I mentioned in post #52. If some brilliant genius wants to make an HD file out of them, please do! (maybe I should post this request on the HD board...)

[Karmakaze]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Even if you don't display points' date=' I have not found a way other than hand-editing to remove the active points, modifiers, etc., from the powers. It is probably worth it for a Con to clean those up, but I HD doesn't do it by itself (though, there may be a setting I am missing!)[/quote']

 

I found myself hand-editing especially because some modifiers are more important than others, or can be more clearly worded on the sheet than the 'standard' wording is in the system.

[Silbeg]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

Hand-made' date=' as I mentioned in post #52. If some brilliant genius wants to make an HD file out of them, please do! (maybe I should post this request on the HD board...)[/quote']

 

d'oh! Missed that post. Heh.

 

Have to look into doing something with those. While I don't know RTF at all, maybe I can play something like create a MSWord doc, and then export an XSL-FO file (and XSD for it)... Creating an XML export shouldn't be rough...

 

Hey, and using XSLT... I may even be able to strip out all those nasty costs!!!

 

Wow... that'd be an "interesting" project... almost as exciting as this post!11!!1

[Lord Hobie]

Re: Converting Players to HERO

 

As anecdotal evidence, I can confirm that most people I introduce to Hero love the simplified sheets at first. The classic Hero sheet layout can be VERY intimidating to newbies, particularly so to RPG newbies in general.

 

Lord Hobie