WWII Dark Reich Hero

[UbiquitousRat]

Hello!

 

I received my copy of the Hero System 6th Edition today, and have begun reading it. My intention is to develop my own alternate WWII setting using this set of rules to power the actual gaming. Reviewing my 5th edition setting books, I figured that WWII probably has more in common with Dark Champions than it does Pulp Hero.

 

I have to admit that, whilst I have read and wanted to play Hero since the 5th Edition, I have never taken the plunge. There is a lot of work to do, it seems to me, before I even try to engage the players in a game. And then I have to overcome the fear of complex, detailed game rules... not that Hero strikes me as all that complex, once you get over the scale of the options.

 

 

I was wondering if anyone else has done WWII Hero, and if there is any general advice for getting my game up and running?

 

"Dark Reich" is a dark and fantastic-yet-gritty setting. The central idea is to play in an alternate historical setting based on the action of World War Two. This alternate history significantly changes the “real” outcomes of key events and also introduces magickal elements.

 

If anyone is willing to help me, I would appreciate comment and advice from those who have GM'ed and played Hero.

 

Game on!

[kahuna's bro]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Hello!

 

I received my copy of the Hero System 6th Edition today, and have begun reading it. My intention is to develop my own alternate WWII setting using this set of rules to power the actual gaming. Reviewing my 5th edition setting books, I figured that WWII probably has more in common with Dark Champions than it does Pulp Hero.

 

I have to admit that, whilst I have read and wanted to play Hero since the 5th Edition, I have never taken the plunge. There is a lot of work to do, it seems to me, before I even try to engage the players in a game. And then I have to overcome the fear of complex, detailed game rules... not that Hero strikes me as all that complex, once you get over the scale of the options.

 

 

I was wondering if anyone else has done WWII Hero, and if there is any general advice for getting my game up and running?

 

"Dark Reich" is a dark and fantastic-yet-gritty setting. The central idea is to play in an alternate historical setting based on the action of World War Two. This alternate history significantly changes the “real” outcomes of key events and also introduces magickal elements.

 

If anyone is willing to help me, I would appreciate comment and advice from those who have GM'ed and played Hero.

 

Game on!

offhand i'd say its a combination of dark champs and pulp hero [ more puldgadgeteers than actual super-beings] good luck on your campaign

[Shaft]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

If you'rte looking for good ideas, GURPS has written an Alternate Earths supplement that includes a detailed timeline in which the Axis won WWII.

[Peregrine]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

If you'rte looking for good ideas' date=' GURPS has written an Alternate Earths supplement that includes a detailed timeline in which the Axis won WWII.[/quote']

 

They also have an entire supplement for WWII weirdness called, appropriately enough, Weird War II.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Hello!

 

I received my copy of the Hero System 6th Edition today, and have begun reading it. My intention is to develop my own alternate WWII setting using this set of rules to power the actual gaming. Reviewing my 5th edition setting books, I figured that WWII probably has more in common with Dark Champions than it does Pulp Hero.

 

I have to admit that, whilst I have read and wanted to play Hero since the 5th Edition, I have never taken the plunge. There is a lot of work to do, it seems to me, before I even try to engage the players in a game. And then I have to overcome the fear of complex, detailed game rules... not that Hero strikes me as all that complex, once you get over the scale of the options.

 

 

I was wondering if anyone else has done WWII Hero, and if there is any general advice for getting my game up and running?

 

"Dark Reich" is a dark and fantastic-yet-gritty setting. The central idea is to play in an alternate historical setting based on the action of World War Two. This alternate history significantly changes the “real” outcomes of key events and also introduces magickal elements.

 

If anyone is willing to help me, I would appreciate comment and advice from those who have GM'ed and played Hero.

 

Game on!

 

have you seen the ww2 based supers game called GODLIKE?

[RexMundi]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

My campaign setting is extensively built, (many times since I make a new setting each edition of HERO ), and I develop each genre and time frame, with as much detail as possible. Granted, the notes tend to read and run in a similar format to the Wold Newton project, but I've done many the Adventure, in Alternate WWII.

 

It's definitely, a Pulp setting, if a touch dark (though not as Dark as let's say, The Spider, whom is a Pulp Archetype). There are tons of examples to draw from from things like Golden Age Comics, the current re-surge of Golden Age character (like Project Super Powers for example from Dynamite comics), to fairly unique game settings like Godlike (as mentioned above), and Weird War 2 (also mentioned above). You could as well take a look at a little known Poul Anderson novel called Operation Chaos (And it's sequel Operation Luna), since that is an excellent source of info for tossing in magical stuff, very unique track on that sort of thing. I'd also highly recommend any of Harry Turtledoves Alternate History novels as well (all fun reads). Such things will give you the info you are looking for without necessarily constraining your build by trying to match up something to another systems presentation.

 

~Rex

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions - I am familiar with all the GURPS stuff, although I appreciate the references. Good reminders, one and all.

 

For me the challenge is how to build my setting using the Hero 6th rules. I almost went with GURPS, actually, but on receipt of these rules decided that now is the time to overcome my nervousness about Hero and give it a go.

 

What do I need to focus on creating? It seems to me that I will need:

 

- Character templates for soldiers.

- Weapons, armour and other kit.

- Some idea of how I want magick to work developed into some example powers / spells.

- A big decision on how many character points to give everyone (currently, I am leaning to 75 points).

 

What else is essential? What else is desirable?

Can anyone help a Hero-virgin?

 

Game on!

[RexMundi]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Just define your limits. The nice thing really about 6e, is that it gives you fantastic scaled examples. So, define it simply, by limits. How big a hole, do I want my players to be able to put in something. Then, How REAL do you want it. Low End makes for very realistic. 75, is Really Low. You might want to give them a touch more.

 

Once you have your limits firmly in mind, then work on things like templates. Look over the character examples in the 6e books as well. Randall Irons for example would fit your basic concept, very well.

 

~Rex

[kahuna's bro]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

since your new to HERO youmight try using the basic rules first

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Reflecting on the game I want to run, I am shy of Pulp Hero because my players and myself will want the game to be grittier and more dangerous. We want to begin by running a group of German Infantrymen caught up in weird goings-on during the Polish Offensive of 1939.

 

As the campaign progresses, the heroes will unlock their hidden talents which are made accessable by the rising Dark Tide of Etheric Energy in the world. Perhaps one will start to channel the Ether for magick, but maybe another will simply find themselves getting faster and better with their combat skills. Maybe a character will become infected by lycanthropy, or vampirism, or something more exotic.

 

My GMing instincts tell me that it might be best for us to start with low-powered characters, say around 100 points, and then allow them to grow as we game. I want competent normal soldiers who steadily become major, war-influencing heroes. I don't really feel that 175 points is going to deliver that sense of danger and limitation.

 

Yet, I could be wrong and I am willing to listen to experienced GMs...

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

The book I would advise you to buy for HERO type advice (other than Dark Champions which is the one for doing street HERO) would be Urban Fantasy HERO. This would give the ideas and constructs of how to introduce the fantastical to the day to day gritty warfare environment. Not a perfect fit but, I think, closer than Pulp HERO.

 

As to setting up your game, the more effort you put into defining the game right now, the more reward and fewer problems you'll face later. That is a common mistake new HERO GMs will make. HERO rewards effort made pre-campaign more than any other game I know. That is because HERO allows you to set the game rules that you are going to make.

 

For example. If you want there to be an effective anti-magic spell (that impacts on all magic) then it is worth designing all spells with the limitation that they will not work in an anti-magic zone or against someone protected by anti-magic preparations. That way you do not have to later twist things to make an anti-magic zone work against everything. The cost of that limitation can be set to zero (it is a feature of the game world and affects everyone equally rather than providing spell-casters with a default +1/4 limitation on everything they buy).

 

It is worth sitting down and deciding all of the things you think that you would like to include in your world. Supernatural creatures? Magic? Monsters? Weird Technology? And then deciding on how those things work. Will vampires be scared or crosses, avoid crosses or laugh at them? Can undead be turned? Does that require a power or will any priest of any religion and enough faith be able to do it? It may feel like a lot of work but by the end of it you will KNOW how the gameworld works and how things should be built. That ensures consistency between NPCs and allows you to enforce consistency of approach among PC builds and the game world.

 

Personally, I like to custom build character sheets to reflect the game I want to play. Feel free to call the core characteristics by other names (the numbers will still work), to change the format and layout and even to leave things out that you aren't interested in the players changing.

 

For example. In a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style game that I ran recently I decided that all the players would have a speed of 3. That way I didn't have to deal with the speed chart or anything else. I took SPD off the character sheet and they were not able to spend points on that. i simply ran the combat by saying they had three actions a turn (after which they got a free recovery). When a player came with a concept that demanded more actions a round, I simply said that he had a Burst of Speed power that allowed him, once a turn, to gain an extra action. It worked. it wasn't canon but the players were happy enough with it and the burst of speed power then featured in a couple of fantastical opponents.

 

Do not feel constrained by the rules as written. They were written for you to design your game and get the feel you want.

 

Use the forums. If you put stuff up here for people to comment on, they will. If you want genre style advice, then use the relevant genre forum - the people there are playing similar style games and will have encountered similar style problems. They will give you lots of advice (some of it contradictory depending on tastes). If you want to know how to build stuff then the HERO System discussion forum is the place to engage the system geeks. :-)

 

Keep posting, get your game going and your questions allow us to be entertained vicariously by thinking HERO style thoughts. :-)

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

@Doc Democracy: Many thanks for those words - it's really helpful stuff.

 

I am the kind of person who has a tendancy to put off doing in favour of thinking. In other words, I like to think about stuff that I often find I never get around to doing. That said, I think your advice on thinking out the setting in more detail is a valid one. If nothing else, it will get me nailing down the elements I want in the game.

 

To counter-balance my natural tendancies, I think I will opt for creating a single scenario in the setting. By focusing on one specific set of setting elements that need to be created I will, undoubtedly, start to build something we can get playing quite soon. I think, for instance, that I might park the question of magick until I build a scenario introducing the Magi. My first story could, instead, focus on (say) werewolves and give the players an introduction to soldiering in Poland... perhaps something like the more modern film "Dog Soldiers".

 

Doing this, I can see that my first questions are all about the skills and abilities that the average Wehrmacht soldier needs. In there also goes the weapon stats for the Mauser Kar98k rifle, Luger P08 and Walther PP pistols, MP34 and MP38 SMGs, and the Model 24 Stielhandgranate... and that's just the German side...

 

It seems a big task. Yet, I guess once you begin it quickly builds up into a solid set of resources.

Game on!

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Never hurts to start simple. have you thought about the character sheet. i have found that the basic one intimidates the hell out of players who have never seen one before. Mostly because it has ALL of the numbers on it. It will not help get the feel of the game to anyone using it either - it screams HERO instead of screaming Superheroes! or Pulp Adventures! or World War II!!

 

Have a think about how you want to present your game to the players. Some people have working sheets and playing sheets for their characters, the playing sheets are the stuff you need to hand and full of genre evocation. Have a look at the character sheet designed by teh bunneh for his lucha libre game...

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

I like the example sheet you refer to and I do agree that it's a lot less intimidating to new players. Actually, it's a lot less intimidating to me!

 

My problem is that I don't really have a sense of what I will or won't need on a sheet just yet. I am, however, drawn to the idea of pre-generating a Wehrmacht section's worth of characters to offer the 2-3 players I'll have some choice. I could easily custom-design some character sheets and use them for starters. I guess it'll be the attributes, skills and kit that will be the numbers focus. I can then add flavour and perhaps photos for extra yummy setting goodness.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

One of the things to remember is that presenting a weapon to a player they need to know that it is a rifle, how much damage it does and how range affects it - they do not need to see any detailed game mechanics beyond that, nor do they need to know how many character points it costs...

 

Be ruthless in removing numbers from the sheet that are not needed during gameplay.

 

Doc

[Tom Carman]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

There was a 4th edition source book called "Golden Age Champions". I haven't read it in quite a while (and it would probably hard to get hold of), but I recall that it had a timeline for WWII, suggestions on altered events, basic write-ups on gear and vehicles, and sample supers for both sides.

[Black Ops]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

blackfalcon what books do you have ?

Do you use 5th Edition or the new 6 th Edition. (ok the difference seems minimal), there is a lot of stuff lying around that you can use.

In the 5th edition pulp is a lot of the Weapon Data you were asking for and also a lot of NPCs you could use as examples.

 

Edit: I see you have sixth Edition.

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

@Black Ops: Books I have... well, Hero 6th Edition for starters - which I intend to use. I have the two printed Core books, plus the Basic Rulebook .PDF.

From 5th Edition, I have the Revised Rulebook + Star Hero, Dark Champions, Fantasy Hero, ALien Wars, Post-Apocalyptic Hero, Fantasy Hero Grimoire, the Vehicle book, the Martial Arts book ... and I just ordered Pulp Hero and Urban Fantasy Hero (print + .PDF).

(I am also a major GURPS owner, so I am referencing WWII, Weird War II, and all the 4th Edition GURPS books.)

 

Hope that makes some sense and proves useful.

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

I spent some time last night working through the character creation rules to see how a 100-point competent rifleman might shape up. Although I managed to get what I thought looked fairly necessary and reasonable, I have to admit there was little room for customisation. I am therefore thinking that it might be best to offer 125-points to player characters, which would make them Competent Normals with a slight boost. Thanks Black Ops for pointing me to the Kar98 stats in Pulp Hero, along with several other useful weapons.

 

I think I need to create a few characters and then run them through some combat scenes to see how the rules function in actual play. Once I'm happy with the power-level of the PCs then I think a lot of other things become easily scalable and simpler to design with the rules. It is, after all, easier to scale (for instance) magickal attacks if you know both what a Kar98 rifle delivers PLUS what a character can reasonably take in a single hit. There is no substitute, I feel, for playing out scenes to give yourself a sense of how things work.

 

I am hoping that perhaps by the New Year I will be in a position to share some character sheets for Doc Democracy to enjoy too.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

I think that if you set your game to be pretty gritty and where people easily die then the players will see the benefit of defensive stuff first. If you are a German soldier can walk down a street not worrying about small arms fire then you are effectively invulnerable.

 

I gave one of my LoEG players a write up that told him he was effectively invulnerable to normal everyday damage and could walk away from car crashes with little more than scratches. The difference it made in his approach to the game was unbelievable and it was only 10rPD, 10rED. Amazing effects when no-one else has resistant defences.

 

When you have magic you can retain elements of the fantastical if you introduce it purely in text and narrative terms - the players do not know exactly what they have and so it is up to them to test it. You can get very good story effects from very small expenditures of character points.

 

I look forward to the character sheets and I will have a look through my books to see what a german soldier was statted up like in Golden Age Champions.

 

 

Doc

[UbiquitousRat]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

I envision one of the first magickal effects I'd "release" to be a form of personal defensive barrier. I quite liked the idea of my Brandenburg-X archeologist being largely able to bounce bullets off his "shield"... until his Endurance runs out, anyway. One of the larger questions for me has been how to balance the character points bought powers with free equipment. In short, making sure that Magi are not at a disadvantage through having to buy magickal effects. One possible solution would be to tie spells to a focus, which is equipment, to give players a means to discount their power costs.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

What you buy and what you pay points for is an eternal question in HERO. I think you should think about giving players the choice when they come across equipment and/or artefacts. if they buy stuff then they have it indefinitely and it works reliably. If they want to use it as equipment - booty, not paid for by points - then the GM can remove it as fits the story he wants to tell. If they have the choice upfront there is rarely disgruntlement when equipment fails to work or breaks or disappears.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

God, we do get so used to having things handed to us. I had a look at the original Firebird Golden Age Champions (1985) and the ICE Golden Age Champions (4th edition, 1994) and neither present you with German soldiers. The original gives us a 4pt boot camp package deal, some six point package deals for the four services and an 8 point officer package. The second printing gives an enlisted man deal (18 points), NCO deal (22 points), warrant officer (24 points) and a comissioned officer (26 points). They may be of some use in designing soldiers. What they both have is a huge amount of background on arms, vehicles, military structure (though from a US perspective). I suppose the background is something well covered by the GURPS stuff you have. The arms and vehicles might be very useful to you.

 

Where are you based in the UK?

 

Doc

[SuperPheemy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

German soldiers in the 1939 Blitzkrieg of Poland? That has so much potential for great storytelling! You can explore the disillusionment of your characters as the Nationalist fervor builds with early victories, then slowly fades away in the face of paranoia, defeat, and a seemingly endless war. The glory of victory in Paris can be stripped away with a tour in the horrors of Russia, only to return to fight a long, bitter defense in the face of the Western Offensives. All the while, the madness and evil that was so well concealed in Berlin during the 30s is slowly stripped bare until it affects everyone and everything the Reich touches. A campaign I would think that is definitely not for kids.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: WWII Dark Reich Hero

 

Or you could build it up to the Day after Ragnarok.