New GM for a new game need new tools

[acide_bob]

TO make a long story short:

It came to my attention that the Hero system existed about 1 month ago and starting a game next week. Didn't even know there was a system like this around.

 

Anyway, i jsut need a bit of help here and there.

First I'm doing a super-heroic game in the current Marvel setting. Wihch means that my players gonna go through the Dark Reign of Norman Osborn.

 

And i was wondering if there was a kind of quick system to create npc. The Marvel Universe is quite vaste and i don't want to go through all the major characters and create a sheet for each. So is there some quick guide to do NPC? Or even better, a kind of Marvel Resource for 5th edition? Cause everything i've found so far seems for 4th edition (and lower) and since i don't know the previous editions, i don't know how accurate it is.

 

Can someone tell me if there is any mine i don't see in this system. Not jsut powers and advantage with the "Stop" slap, but actual rules or strange exceptions to rules that a player might found to exploit and that most GM don't see at first?

 

HEre's the lsit of my players' characters so far (using 200 Creation Point and 150 disadvantage):

- Shade: Basically Control Elemental( SFX: Shadow) He used it to get an Entangle, Shadow Form(Desolidification: Can't go through solid objects), Shadow Step(Teleportation, must have acces to shadow to use), and a Drain Body that he uses to keep himself alive, must be intangible to use

- Crusader: Undead, Skeletal entity, Immune to aging, Immune to disease, Immune to poison, Don't sleep, Don't eat, DOn't breath, Damage REduction 75% physical AND Energy. Armor. The point of the character is actually to be almost impossible to kill. He can't hit back or almost can't. But he can sustain an almost impossible threshold of physical damage.

- Mimic: Young man that have for power to mimic power of people around him. This one scare me just a bit honestly. I made the built with VPP. He have an area of effect, copy powers, always take the highest, must use a skill roll(12-) to use the power but not to take it, the more points the power have the bigger it is for him to use. If the powered character leaves is Area of effect, he have a concentration to be able to use the power after but as long as he concentrate he can use it. But i'm not sure of the built.

-Vesper: The regular Kitty Pride male version. Desolidification and mostly POwer Char: STR (Linked to desolidification) and all the stuff useful to move around. But we have a ahrd time to go around the rules to make it possible to force people to enter wall and let them solid in them without incurring "teleportation rule of damage" The only way i thought was to link an Entangle to desolidification that would necessate a "hard surface" to entangle the guy in, and take a limitation for making no dmg with it.

 

and one of my player looked throught the Suppress power. And we kinda stalled on the end cost of it. It says every Phase you use it (or keep it on).

Nad at the moment i thought that it wasn'T right. Cause a character with a Speed 1 using it would have to pay, for example, 5 END every phase he keeps it on. so five for a full segment. A character with speed 12 would pay 5 END every phase.. so 5 END 12times in a segment? so 60 END for the exact same effect of using it only once?

Or is it for every phase the character getting suppressed take.

Or did i misread and is instead you pay once every segment?

 

 

So that's what i have right now. Sorry for the first long post,

 

Wish me luck with the headache after the first session.

[jtelson]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

Wish I had resources to point you to; rest assured there should be plenty of people who are able to help you with the nuts and bolts of recreating the Marvelverse.

 

A bit of advice about the advice you get though - Treat it like a buffet, take what you want and leave the rest, people here can be pasionate about, well, pretty much everything but we mean well.

 

So take a deep breath, hold on, and enjoy the ride - The Hero System's one worth taking

 

Oh and Good Luck.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

Great net book of real heroes is a great resource:

http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/index.html

 

You might want to look at Question Man's response to a similar question:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=793443&postcount=2

 

Doc

[ghost-angel]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

RE: Suppress.

 

You pay Endurance for every Phase your Character has that the target Power is Suppressed. Yes, the END cost can get up there, but you have effectively reduce or turned off someone's Power and it doesn't return to full strength until you stop Supressing.

 

 

As for loopholes... you can abuse any Power in the book, what are and aren't "broken loopholes or pitfalls" will vary widely from GM to GM.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

You pay Endurance for every Phase your Character has that the target Power is Suppressed. Yes, the END cost can get up there, but you have effectively reduce or turned off someone's Power and it doesn't return to full strength until you stop Supressing.

 

There could easily be a case made for the END cost for this being based on the victim's SPD - the more often you have to suppress the power, the more often you have to pay END.

 

 

Doc

[ghost-angel]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

There could. You'd run into the same problem ultimately. It's the same issue of Flash working against Segment or Phase, either way someone gets "screwed" over by having low or high Speed.

 

 

No, I think basing Supress off the Users Speed is fair enough. You don't have to use all your Speed after all. If all you're doing is Supressing you can lower your Speed to 2 if you need.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

There could. You'd run into the same problem ultimately. It's the same issue of Flash working against Segment or Phase, either way someone gets "screwed" over by having low or high Speed.

 

 

No, I think basing Supress off the Users Speed is fair enough. You don't have to use all your Speed after all. If all you're doing is Supressing you can lower your Speed to 2 if you need.

 

I didn't think it would remove the END spend. I was thinking in terms of how useful lowering your speed (or even having a low speed) would be in terms of a suppress based character.

 

If you suppress the DEX of several opponents then lower your speed to 2 you pay very little END (relatively to maintain this) if it is based on victims SPDs then you pay END relative to the effect you have.

 

Hmm. worth considering I think.

 

Doc

[ghost-angel]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

IT gets tricky - what if you have an Area Of Effect Suppress catching a SPD 2 Normal, SPD 5 Superhero and a SPD 12 Superhero? Do you pay the highest Speed? now you're paying 6x the amount of END to get the SPD 2 guy just because one of the targets is fast?

 

One of the reasons I see to base if off the Attackers END is that it leaves control in the Attackers hands, not the Targets.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

IT gets tricky - what if you have an Area Of Effect Suppress catching a SPD 2 Normal, SPD 5 Superhero and a SPD 12 Superhero? Do you pay the highest Speed? now you're paying 6x the amount of END to get the SPD 2 guy just because one of the targets is fast?

 

One of the reasons I see to base if off the Attackers END is that it leaves control in the Attackers hands, not the Targets.

 

Hmmm. I had thought of the area effect - it costs more END to throw anyway - I would charge it each time the field is challenged - so 12 phases in this instance - he would get the others for free!

 

I can see the problems but it seems to make more logical sense. With autofire you can get to the point of maintaining multiple fields which will possibly be more tiring as you'd pay for each field each time they are challenged.

 

This is kinda interesting. I would allow the player to decide whether to maintain the field knowing the END cost coming up rather than simply charge it. That allows the power wielder to exercise control over whether he maintains it.

 

Doc

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: New GM for a new game need new tools

 

Three bits of advice:

 

1. Keep it simple. When running combats, try to keep all those optional rules off the table. This will help simplify things.

 

2. Keep the SPDs low. I think the Marvel Universe is pretty low SPD anyway. A 4-6 range should work for most anyone you encounter, even Spidey and Quicksilver. A tighter SPD range will help keep things flowing faster in combat, and keep people from feeling left out when they're waiting for their turn. This is especially true if everyone is new to the system, and each individual's actions take longer to resolve while they consider their options.

 

3. Allow the players a chance to adjust their characters after they've had a few sessions to see the system in use.