Idea for supplemental Hero System introduction

[torchwolf]

Important Note: Narf's Hero System 2-Page Intro already handles the mechanics, so this is just a general thought on some other points.

 

This is how I personally would probably introduce the Hero System to a potential player who've heard about the system but is not yet convinced, for any number of reasons (for mechanics-related issues I might just hand out an intro listing those, like Narf's 2-Page Intro):

 

 

 

Q: Why the Hero System?

A: Because it is the best system I know for simulating anything you can think of in a roleplaying game, in a cinematic and dramatic manner.

 

 

Q: So how much math do you need to know to play the Hero System?

A: To build a character from the basics up, you need multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. This is no different from most other game systems. To use the Hero System, you need no experience with equations, percentage, statistics or anything else.

Some Characteristics cost 1 Character Point each to increase over the Base (starting point for average characters), some cost more, and some gives you more than 1 point of a Characteristic for 1 Character Point. You can also sell some back if you want to have lower Characteristics, giving you more Character Points available to purchase other things.

This is about the level of complication you might expect: say if you want to increase your Defensive Mental Combat Value up to 7, that would cost 3 Character Points per step from the Base value of 3. That means you increase it by 4 points, each costing 3 Character Points, costing a total of (4 x 3 =12) 12 Character Points.

 

Characteristic Rolls: This is where you need division. A Characteristic-based Roll (such as most Skills) is calculated from 9+(Characteristic/5). You don't actually need to calculate this if you feel lazy or don't have a calculator, cell phone or computer handy – there is a table listing what the Roll becomes for any Characteristic value from 1 to 57 in 6th Edition Volume 1, p56, or Basic Rulebook, p23.

 

Perks, Powers, Talents are all purchased with a given number of points determined by the guidelines in the rules, just involving adding or subtracting modifiers.

 

Powers: This is where you need multiplication and division, and is the only really complex portion of the game system. Advantages are added to 1 and multiplied by the Power's Base Points (like 40 x1.25=50), which gives the Active Points (an indication of the Powers effectiveness), then Limitations are added to 1 and the Active Points are divided by this value (such as 50 / 2 = 25). This final value is usually called the Real Cost (because that's what it costs to buy it in Character Points).

Advantages and Limitations come in values of even quarters (+1/4, +1/2, +3/4, +1 and so on) so the multiplications and divisions are not all that complicated. Again, if you don't want to calculate this, you can just look the most common values up in the books.

Advantages and Limitations Calculations Tables in 6th Edition Volume 1, p, or Basic Rulebook, p66, lists the most common results resulting from Base Points of 5 to 100 (more than you'll be likely to need in almost any campaign but the most cosmically powered Galactic Champions games).

Why is this complicated? Because it's designed to allow you to do pretty much everything you want to, and simultaneously give you a value representing how powerful that ability becomes in comparison to every other ability.

You don't have to start out with designing Powers – there are lots of pre-calculated examples in the rules that you can use.

 

Martial Arts: This is very simply handled in the Hero System by purchasing separate Combat Maneuvers. Want a Muay Thai or Kung Fu-style Flying Kick? Buy it. Want a Jujutsu Throw? Buy it. The Maneuvers are described as their likelihood of hitting, how vulnerable to counterattacks you become while performing it, and the improved damage or other effect you can achieve by using it, listed on you character with all that info summarized in a single line. You can be a barroom brawler, a kickboxer, a ninja, a wrestler or anything else you wish.

 

Complications: This term means that these are factors that will complicate your character's life, and are later used as guidelines by the GM to base plots elements in the game on. This is an interesting part of the Hero System rules. If you want to play a certain type of plots, you pick Complications that you find interesting; Hunted (by the Mob?); Accidental Change (into a werewolf?); Vulnerability (to Glowing Green Rocks?); Psychological Complications (being Vengeful or Overconfident, or following a Code of Honor?); Social Complications (being a mistrusted foreigner in an unknown land, being famous, or having a Secret Identity?); maybe a Dependent NPC (your wife or sickly aunt who needs your help or support once in a while – or gets captured by your enemies so you have to rescue them?). Playing a heroic character without personally important plot elements is also possible, but then you usually get less points to build your character with, and why miss out on plot elements tailored for your character? It's all in personal taste though, and the GM might want to run a brief, action-oriented game where such things doesn't really matter - the Complications rules are not absolutely required for running a game with the Hero System.

In fact, the Hero System is built so that you can just use the rules you like and ignore the ones you don't need.

 

Skill Rolls, Combat and everything else usually only require you to add or subtract modifiers, depending on the situation, with one notable exception: in certain combat situations, the rules will call on you to use half of a given value. That's it.

 

You roll 3d6 for Success, the lower the better, and a number of d6 for damage and other effects, the higher the better.

 

 

Q: So if this is all, why does the Hero System have such a reputation for being math-heavy?

A: Because that's the rumor going around.

 

 

Q: Next question: If it's all so easy, why the 800+ pages of the 6th Edition?

A: Because the philosophy of the game system is that if you bring your imagination, the Hero System brings you the rules, whatever you want to play. In effect, what it means that the Hero System is a toolkit is that it allows the GM to design the exact game he wants to play. The rules are also full of guidelines on how to use them, or how to alter them to other preferences if desired. You use what you want, the way you want to. The rules themselves are a work of reference, and not at all necessary to read all the way through in order to play.

 

Just make the character you want, looking up the sections where you find what you need to make maximum use of the character's abilities, grab your six-sided dice, and play.

 

 

 

 

How would you do this discussion-style intro? This post is now officially open to criticism, comments, and ridicule.