Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

[pinecone]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Ok guys, I'm not a new GM by any strech, but I've never had the pleasure of running a HERO game myself. I'm starting a group where many have never played HERO before (though none of them are new to gaming in general) and I want to make sure nothing slips by me when I set the game in motion.

My major concern is character creation... assuming a 400 point campaign:

What's an "average" AP cap on powers?

Is there a mathematical guideline for determining defensive power limits? Does it differ from other AP caps?

Other considerations:

What bookkeeping (i.e. notes) should I have done prior to a game session?

Should I start with a whole copy of each persons character sheet in front of me until I get an idea of what I'm looking for?

What questions should I be askingthat are popping into your head that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance guys, I don't want the game system (which I love) to interfere with my plot, so I want to be prepared for at least the predictable administrative speed bumps.

 

I'll try to skip stuff already covered...I try to have basic notes...a flow chart of the plots that are running, "Cool ssyings" and char sheets, partial or full.

I'd suggest a copy of each players sheet, mostly for lims and figuring matchups...

The main question not asked is....well a list.

Why are you a Hero?

Why are you going to team up with these weirdos?

What would you want your character to do/acheive more than anything?

What would you least want to do?

Which is more fun: Beating up a thug, or solving a basic puzzle/mystery?

 

Those will be more helpfull, in my opinion. Than Any degree of organization and prep.

 

Also I purchased an extra big D12 that I use to track "What phase?" It's worth twice what I paid at the minimum!

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I consider 100/100 to be 'very powerful,' and I'm doing that for my wild west campaign; my sci fi campaign was built on 150/75,which also worked and gives the PCs plenty of cool powers, but those are both highly thematic, dark-champions/punk style campaigns.

[Spence]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I consider 100/100 to be 'very powerful' date='' and I'm doing that for my wild west campaign; my sci fi campaign was built on 150/75,which also worked and gives the PCs plenty of cool powers, but those are both highly thematic, dark-champions/punk style campaigns.[/quote']

 

That's the whole thing, Mestopheles. It is hard to help out with "appropriate" until we get an idea of where you are driving the bus.

 

As Thia points out, 100/100 is considered powerful. But I have seen games where the GM thought it was on the low side.

 

Maybe a brief description, no game mechanics, of what you envision will draw the suggestion closer to the target.

 

Or maybe you already have what you need and I be quite now.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I'm quite on a regular basis , but I think you nailed my point here clearly. You can create compelling characters on 25/25 for a true 'normals' horror campaign, where they have 100% average stats, a handful of skills, and anyone brandishing a hand gun is a legitimate threat.

 

In my Wild West campaign, everyone and their mother purchased Combat Luck, or my variant thereupon (3 rPD/3 rED, Must be Aware of Attack (-1/2), Does Not Stack with Standard Defenses, (-1/2). So the cost is the same, but the effect is different. And you do this with all sorts of things.

 

Bullet in a Bible; Armor (10 rPD), 1 Charge (Charge is a Bible, Marshals Badge, or similar object, not easily replacable, object is consumed upon being shot), NCC (-1, PC can only use BiaB during dramatically appropriate moments, and no more than once per session).

 

These are just good examples of dramatically appropriate powers that are low-cost, thematic, and don't go outside the boundaries of 'lower end' point builds. So if you want to do 400 (250/150 most likely) by all means. But I can't begin to know what advice to give until/unless I know where those points are going.

 

Galactic Champions? High end Dark Champions? Powerful Fantasy HERO characters who have to pay for all their own equipment and spells? What?

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

My biggest piece of advice for running the game is hide the nuts and bolts. The players do not really need to know point values for anything at all (until they are messing about with VPPs).

 

Hero is great at allowing you to sweat the small stuff and get things working the way you want them to. Neither the system or the character sheets (as provided) do anything to add character or feel to the game.

 

As a new GM, I would suggest you pick out those things you think the players need to play the game and then design a character sheet that is full of the detail necessary to evoke the themes and tropes you want in your game - Hero leaves that entirely up to you.

 

 

Doc

[Mestopheles]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Thanks again for the continuing input guys, I appreciate all the advice and will give everyone's opinions the attention and consideration they are due.

I'll answer a recurring question in this thread since a few of you asked; to wit: "What is the concpet of your campaign? I can't advise you if you don't give me a point of reference."

Here goes:

I'm basing the campaign world loosely on the world of "Shadowrun", a dystopian society around 100 years in the future. There will be Cyberware, high tech gadgets and information technology, and corporations run virtually everything. In Shadowrun, there was magic and D&D-esque “metahuman” races that appeared due to the reappearance of magic in the “real world”. I will not have orcs, elves, or dwarves, etc. in my campaign, nor will there be magic, but I’m adding in Supers, explaining them as mutants as they are described in X-men… mutants just started appearing and now folks in power are trying to decide what to make of them and how to treat the incidence of these new human abilities.

The backdrop for the campaign will be a large city (I haven’t decided which yet, but I’ll select a big one and remap it as I wish to support the “future” feel. Corporations have basically taken over much of what is in today’s society the purview of the Federal government, and virtually all of the State government and below. If you see a police officer, he’s not going to have an L.A.P.D. badge, he’ll be wearing one that says FORGE, Inc. or what have you. Megacorps have purchased large segments of urban areas in toto and turned them into private sector residential and commercial areas. If you’re not a FORGE employee, you don’t get tot live there. If you disturb the peace, little, or break any of the ordinances the Corp instated for their area, you are subject to their laws because you’re on their property.

80% of the population of the country work for one of about 3-5 megacorps or their subsidiaries, it’s just expected that any “normal” job will come from a huge corp. (Imagine Bruce Willis in “The 5th Element driving a taxi for a corporation with hundreds of millions of employees). If you don’t work for a megacorp, odds are you’re a vagrant, homeless, with no social security number, living on some kind of welfare program (maybe provided by a megacorp, to improve their image and give them unobtrusive access to a pool of test subjects for pharmaceuticals, etc.) Huge shanty towns and tent cities exist on the outskirts and underdeveloped areas of the urban sprawl, with masses of people existing at or below the poverty line.

In this environment, the corporations have free reign (ceded by the government under pressure from past eventsI haven’t completely decided on) to pursue profit by any means they can, including the hiring of private contractors to conduct black ops-style raids on competing companies to steal plans, high-talent engineers, access information, or anything else that could provide a competitive edge. These contracts would be shelled to conceal which corp was actually doing the hiring (plausible deniability) and to reassure the contractors their identities are being protected (whether this is true or not). The appearance of cybertechnology and supers add an additional wrinkle to this chaotic system, as people can now exceed human norms in varied and unpredictable ways… Corps are battling to hire the best supers and keep them on retainer to further their own agendas, providing mind-numbing pay and benefits and if necessary forcing loyalty with threats.

The characters will be supers, and will have (at creation) at least some experience doing runs for corps as private contractors. They will all be strongly encouraged to play supers whose powers are unobtrusive (at least while walking down the sidewalk) and have some sort of character concept that allows them to conceal their status as supers for their own protection. I’m not going to make them feel powerless in their ability to affect their lives, but they will constantly be aware of the influence of the enormous corps vying for power. Paranoia will be the norm, and it will rapidly be evident that almost everyone you meet is looking out for themselves first due to the extreme social Darwinism. Corp assignments will pay well and be exciting, challenging, and allow access to comforts and services usually only available to the rich (or indentured). The private contracts are one of the only ways a person can have a comfortable lifestyle without signing their life away to a corp for 25+ years.

Once the group have done a few missions together and begun to become interested, I will initiate the main plot, where they find themselves with an opportunity to actually have an impact on (at a minimum) the entire city. They will see a chance to make a positive change in the state of humanity where they live, and then have a chance to decide whether that is meaningful to them (morally). If not, I’ll gently prod them through their backstories to make them see that if they don’t step in, noone will and society will continue to decay. If that fails, I’ll improvise.

Basically my overall concept is to present a dystopian backdrop and then provide the characters a chance to bring up the standards of existence meaningfully. I get to have a rough, gritty, and oppressive world where anything goes and everything’s for sale and give the players a chance to bring humanity back to humanity. Based on the rough character concepts I’ve listened to already, I should have a chance to bring in some themes of redemption, atonement, and personal growth in the setting I imagine, which I think will make for a strong, appealing, and visceral theme for all of my players (based on their personalities).

[incrdbil]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Nice set up. I Think there are a few old shadowrun moldules you could get used that would actually adapt well to a supers setting. Queen Euphoria comes to mind, withthe bug spirits being replaced by some crazy bug-cult and a genetic modification process.

 

When it comes to damage caps, well, it works like this. Decide on a average damage class for a staright out normal attack. multiply that DC by 3.5. Ok, pick out a defense range wherr below average superhuman defenses would be hurt bad, average defenses would take some damage, but probably not enought o stun anyone, and coudl take severale more shots liek that, and a max defense where such an attack does very little stun at all.

 

In the 'traditiona set up, where your attacks are capped at 12 DC it often goes like this: low end defenses are 1.5 times the average damage class--18 points average is about 2 times this, or 24, and the high end defenses, 2.5, or 30. Usuall a characters maximum DCV is inverse to their total defenses--the higher DCV's going to those with lower defenses. However, this need not be enforced and rump concept. It can make characters a bit too formulaic, but you have to worry about balance issues and how other PC's will feel in comparison if they are outshined in combat by an unhittabel and unstoppabel teammate.

 

My say if 12 DC's is more of an average than a max limit, (after all, haymakers, pushing, move-by's and move throughs and a lot of other things can influence those so called maximum attacks) you can be a little more flexible, and increase those amounts, maybe multiplying each range by 1.75, 2.25, and 2.75 respectively.

 

You also have to look at each character--do they have any absorbtion, damage reduction that can affect defenses? Sometimes defense limits have to be adjusted character by character--simply saying 30 is the max wont work if one character takes 30, and another takes 30..with absorbtion as a defense (that goes to Stun) or levels of damage reduction. Someone with those powers and a lower PD/ED could still be considered as having 'maximum defenses'.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

OK then, one piece of advice: if you are going to 'do' cyberspace, for the sake of pity, don't emulate it with some bizarre combination of desolidification and FTL. Hopefully then new edition of Cyber Hero doesn't do that any more, but the 4th edition one did.

 

EDM ports on computers to get there and multiform* (leaves body behind) for the programme that actually creates your avatar.

 

 

 

* arguably duplication, but I don't think so.

[Mestopheles]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

OK then, one piece of advice: if you are going to 'do' cyberspace, for the sake of pity, don't emulate it with some bizarre combination of desolidification and FTL. Hopefully then new edition of Cyber Hero doesn't do that any more, but the 4th edition one did.

 

EDM ports on computers to get there and multiform* (leaves body behind) for the programme that actually creates your avatar.

 

 

 

* arguably duplication, but I don't think so.

If I'm backed into a corner I may "do" cyberspace, but it will be as narrative as I can get away with, possibly supported by a few skill rolls with KS: cyberdeck or PS: annoying character concept.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

If I'm backed into a corner I may "do" cyberspace' date=' but it will be as narrative as I can get away with, possibly supported by a few skill rolls with KS: cyberdeck or PS: annoying character concept.[/quote']

 

Wise.

 

[Spence]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

If I'm backed into a corner I may "do" cyberspace' date=' but it will be as narrative as I can get away with, possibly supported by a few skill rolls with KS: cyberdeck or PS: annoying character concept.[/quote']

 

A friend of mine did a cyber game once, but he limited the people in "cyberspace" to real world spds based on Ego. I think the upper limit for superhuman Physical Spd was 5 and CyberSpd (Ego) was 6.

 

His reasoning was even in cyberspace a human can only think so fast. Plus it made the game manageable for the GM and kept all the players active at the same time.

 

One thing I hated in many games with cyber types was the assumption that things happen so much faster inside which made the non-cyber types have to just hang out for long periods.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Mestopheles, you are in great luck! There happen to already be very substantial, cheap-to-free HERO resources available for just the kind of campaign setting you describe.

 

First and foremost, I recommend Michael "Susano" Surbrook's excellent sourcebook for anime style cyberpunk gaming, Kazei Five. It incorporates the cyberpunk conventions of dystopian setting, evil omni-corporations, cyberware, netrunning (although a very simplified skill-based version which won't make your non-netrunning PCs wait around), but also adds formidable physical and psionic mutations to allow for true superpowered characters. It features prewritten gadgets, powers and NPCs, and some maps of the city the campaign is based in, "Neo-York." You can download a PDF of the book from Hero Games's online store for a very reasonable $9.95 US, from here: https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=73101 . You can also view substantial samples from it on Susano's personal website, at http://surbrook.devermore.net/worldbooks/kazei5/kazei5.html . Although Kazei Five is written for Fourth Edition HERO, the differences between editions for this genre are pretty small and easy to figure out. (Susano is working on an eventual Fifth Edition update to the book.)

 

If you want a little more direct Shadowrun inspiration, there's a very thorough and high-quality free fan-created 5E HERO conversion of the setting in PDF, which would be pretty easy to crib from for your purposes. You can download that from here: http://www.starherofandom.com/h_shadowrun/index.php

 

Then there are lots of fan conversions of elements from the classic Cyberpunk 2020 game:

 

HERO stats for all the cyberware/bioware, weapons and armor from the CP2020 core rulebook:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29816

 

PDF files with more cyberware/bioware, weapons and equipment from other CP2020 sourcebooks, plus conversion guidelines:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=778378

[Descriptive text in Italian, but game stats in English.]

 

General discussion of conversion issues:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18555

 

Building a Cyborg Assault weapon (starting with post #1); a custom "Cyberware" Limitation (starting with post #9); plus a sample cyborg character writeup (post #14):

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33482

 

How to handle "humanity loss":

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33660

 

A simple Skill-based approach to netrunning:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/worldbooks/kazei5/k5netrunning.html

 

The following threads discuss converting specific items from various CP2020 books.

 

Connection plugs:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33780

 

Cerebral hard disk:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33777

 

Chipware sockets:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33833

 

Building a "Live Wire"/"Cybersnake":

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34288

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34305

[Mestopheles]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Mestopheles' date=' you are in great luck! There happen to already be very substantial, cheap-to-free HERO resources available for just the kind of campaign setting you describe...[/quote']

Repped. Thanks so much for your time and effort. I'm sure not all will be applicable to my game, but you just did ~85% of the research I eventually intended failed to do on this board. I really appriciate you finding all that material that addresses my game world concept and points me to so much quality work by other gifted members.

[Checkmate]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Killer Shrike also has some stuff on his website (http://www.killershrike.com) very similar to what you are describing called MetaCyber. Super's in a Cyber-Punk world.

[incrdbil]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

 

One thing I hated in many games with cyber types was the assumption that things happen so much faster inside which made the non-cyber types have to just hang out for long periods.

 

the best change they made with Shadowrun was the switch to the 'wireless' style of decking, with most of the declers stuff now doen on the ground with the team, decking in realtime with the others, while retaining a system and the option to do the traditional full virtual reality decking which is a part of the genre, though it has transition problems to gaming.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Ok guys, I'm not a new GM by any strech, but I've never had the pleasure of running a HERO game myself. I'm starting a group where many have never played HERO before (though none of them are new to gaming in general) and I want to make sure nothing slips by me when I set the game in motion.

My major concern is character creation... assuming a 400 point campaign:

What's an "average" AP cap on powers?

 

You don't have to use caps -- they arent part of the game per se, they are just a practice that some use to try and keep peoples characters on an even keel. Others use a "Rule of X". Others use common sense and looking at the characters in question. It's really up to you.

 

However, there is one side effect of using caps, and that is it's human nature to push boundaries, so its very common to see caps become a defacto standard -- if the cap is 12 DC's in attacks and 30 PD / ED then pretty much EVERY character tends to be right up against those caps.

 

Such caps also only accurately measure direct attacks and defenses; they don't do a very good job measuring less high-impact or direct powers...like Regeneration, or Invisibility, or Desolid, or unusual abilities such as Summon and so forth.

 

Personally, I use a different measure that I call Relevance & Reliability. However, it does require a more nuanced understanding of how the game works and how particular abilities combine and interact.

 

Is there a mathematical guideline for determining defensive power limits? Does it differ from other AP caps?

 

It's all a matter of averages. Average the attack DC's in terms of Damage. People w/ that much PD take no damage on average but are hurt by above average attacks, people below that are hurt by average attacks, and people above it take damage only on notably above average attacks.

 

So if the campaign cap is 12 DC then the average damage is 42 STUN / 12 BODY or 14 BODY killing. Characters with 45 PD / ED and 15 rDef are very tough, and are seldom staggered. People with 30 PD/ED and 10 rDef don't want to get hit, but don't go splat if they do get hit from time to time. People with 15 PD/ED and 5 rDef are very fragile. People w/ 8 PD or less and no rDef are very squishy. Normals tend to have around 2 PD, 8 BODY, 20 STUN and no rDef, so even a "below average" 10d6 EB in a 12d6 capped game is going to really hurt a normal on average.

 

Which also brings up a very strong point of consideration -- how "super" are your superheroes in your setting? If they are "HEROES" (the TV show) level, with generally low key powers, you might want to set your caps much lower, like in the 6-8 DC range. If your supers are awesomely powerful and routinely shatter buildings with errant blasts and shrug tank shells, 14-16 DC and corresponding defenses might be more your speed.

 

The important thing to realize is that the entire system is reciprocal and on a bell curve, so if the Heroes and Villains are all in the same point range and caps then _relative to each other_ what those power levels actually are don't really matter. Where it comes into play is in comparison to _the rest of the world_. The rules for breaking things, normals, animals, equipment, how fast things move etc are static (unless you laboriously go thru and change them specifically for your campaign). So, it really doesnt matter what level you scale your game at if the heroes just fight other similarly powered opponents; where it comes into play is as soon as something that is statted against a more "realistic" level enters the equation.

 

To put it into perspective, lets imagine two "bricks", Good Brick and Bad Brick. They fight. As long as they are basically equal in STR and DEF, it doesn't matter if they have 30 STR and 20 pd or 90 STR and 60 pd, etc etc. But they are in a bank vault. Or fighting in a maze with cement walls. Or being shot at by cops using normal sidearms. Suddenly their STR and defenses actually matter.

 

 

 

 

Other considerations:

What bookkeeping (i.e. notes) should I have done prior to a game session?

Should I start with a whole copy of each persons character sheet in front of me until I get an idea of what I'm looking for?

 

A DEX and SPD chart is your new best friend. I order mine in SPD then DEX order starting on segment 12.

 

What questions should I be asking that are popping into your head that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance guys, I don't want the game system (which I love) to interfere with my plot, so I want to be prepared for at least the predictable administrative speed bumps.

 

Well...the main advice I would have is to beware players that get too into the minutiae of the character design, particularly at first. There is a happy medium between designing your character poorly and well both in the axis of rules valid and concept valid. I've seen too many players get overwhelmed by the open-endedness of the system and not know where to start to realize their concept; and I've seen too many players get over eager and start slamming together some very over engineered constructs and favor taking advantage of the mechanics at the expense of their concept.

 

As a rule of thumb you should get involved in your players character design at some point in the process; whether towards the beginning or the end will vary by player. But don't allow any character into the game that you haven't had time to review and to veto or reach a compromise on anything that seems game-breaking.

 

When running the game remember that the mechanics are there to help, not hinder. If you run into a rule that hampers your game, make a ruling and move on.

 

Good luck!

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

Killer Shrike also has some stuff on his website (http://www.killershrike.com) very similar to what you are describing called MetaCyber. Super's in a Cyber-Punk world.

 

MetaCyber

[Spence]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

First and foremost, I recommend Michael "Susano" Surbrook's excellent sourcebook for anime style cyberpunk gaming, Kazei Five.

 

Although Kazei Five is written for Fourth Edition HERO, the differences between editions for this genre are pretty small and easy to figure out. (Susano is working on an eventual Fifth Edition update to the book.)

 

Wow, how could I have forgotten to mention Kazei Five??

 

And I am still patently waiting for that update.........

 

 

waiting.......

 

 

and still waiting.....

[Spence]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

the best change they made with Shadowrun was the switch to the 'wireless' style of decking' date=' with most of the declers stuff now doen on the ground with the team, decking in realtime with the others, while retaining a system and the option to do the traditional full virtual reality decking which is a part of the genre, though it has transition problems to gaming.[/quote']

 

I didn't know that. A definite and much needed improvement. Glad to hear it.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I also recommend this thread and embedded links to general GM advice, especially for HERO newbies: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9188

[CTaylor]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I'd treat Cyberspace as astral travel, that's basically what it is.

[pinecone]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

I'd treat Cyberspace as astral travel' date=' that's basically what it is.[/quote']

 

Yeah...once I saw "Enter the Speedzone" in Ulti-speedster I decided that the Astral zone, the "VR zone" and etc.. would all go that way...

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

 

think about how powerful you want the PCs to be relative to the world, and also if they should buy gear with points or money. In a cyber-world game sometimes the focus is to make money (Like in the beginning of Neuromancer) , and if your players think this, and then find they can't buy things with it, you'll have a problem. Decide Heroic or Superheroic and tell them up front. Also figure out if the average security guard should be a threat, or how many points he's on. I've found in shadowrun 4th Edition it's possible to make starting characters which are vastly overpowered to the world (as fluff), so be wary of how powerful a 350 point char might be if the security guards are 100pts and supposed to be a challenge.