Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

[Duane From RI]

I have visited the forums of another game system and in the three-or-four days I've been cruising this one, I find Hero Games forum far superior.

Rules Questions - They are posted and everyone gets to see it. That helps people think.

Which leads to this - Hero System is a thinking man's game. IMHO, the most important rules are "Reasoning from Effect", "Bending A Cheaper Power Into An Effect Is Less Valid Than Using A More Appropriate Albeit More Expensive Power" and "If The GM allows or disallows". These three rules require thinking. But 1,000 heads are better than 1 so bring a construct here and we all can think.

The other forum spends more time figuring out how to break rules, nerf rule breaks, nerf rules that are being abused, so on and so on. Here at Hero System, the three aforementioned rules aren't something that need to be broken or fixed. They are more akin to heuristics that play into one Metarule - "THINK!"

This forum is therefore far superior. I prefer to live by the Metarule "THINK!" rather than live by the Metarule implied by the other forum "OBEY!"

[Escafarc]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Ah, young Grasshopper, you have passed the 1st test of HEROism. Now you must install the rocket on the Badger to pass the 2nd.

[aylwin13]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Ah' date=' young Grasshopper, you have passed the 1st test of HEROism. Now you must install the rocket on the Badger to pass the 2nd.[/quote']

I thought the second test was to build a flashlight using HERO.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Ah' date=' young Grasshopper, you have passed the 1st test of HEROism. Now you must install the rocket on the Badger to pass the 2nd.[/quote']

 

Yes! (with profound hope that this becomes a long-lived meme)

[Fearghus]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

You have hit on not only what is great about this forum but what is great about the HERO system in general. Because the Hero System "rules" aren't so much rules as a tool kit. building a character feels less like "What am I getting for my points" and more like putting something together with an erector set. If you are a min-maxer you will quickly become bored with Hero because there are so many ways to Min-max you don't even have to look for them. On the other hand if you want a framework to tell a STORY... Hero is AWESOME.

[Cancer]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

And a real attraction of HERO is the lack of the "nerf" phenomenon. GMs are encouraged to house-rule things that seem abusive. The endless wailing and gnashing of teeth over rules changes -- which aren't needed in a more free-form character construction and advancement system -- just doesn't happen here. (Edition changes, yes. But within an edition, no.)

[Steve]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I thought the second test was to build a flashlight using HERO.

 

I thought it was how to build a spoon.

[Escafarc]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I thought the second test was to build a flashlight using HERO.

 

I thought it was how to build a spoon.

 

Those are the final Tests when you get the Flashlight and Spoon branded on your butt cheaks

[StGrimblefig]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I thought it was how to build a spoon.

 

The key is to realize that it is not the spoon that you build, it is yourself. In fact, there is no spoon.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

The key is to realize that it is not the spoon that you build' date=' it is yourself. In fact, there is no spoon.[/quote']

 

Whoa!

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

The key is to realize that it is not the spoon that you build' date=' it is yourself. In fact, there is no spoon.[/quote']

 

So, if we "report this post", do you lose rep?

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Hero's rapid forum responses are one of the best things about the game. You can actually ask the game designer a rules question, and he will answer it quickly. And if he doesn't he probably shoots it over here because it's about game design theory, where you get lots of people commenting.

[rjcurrie]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Ah' date=' young Grasshopper, you have passed the 1st test of HEROism. Now you must install the rocket on the Badger to pass the 2nd.[/quote']

 

Actually, Grasshopper, when you can build a Hero Power to snatch a pebble from my hand, you will be ready.

[Escafarc]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Actually' date=' Grasshopper, when you can build a Hero Power to snatch a pebble from my hand, you will be ready. [/quote']

 

That's for after enduring the Night of the Naked Mimes.

[Patriot]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Those are the final Tests when you get the Flashlight and Spoon branded on your butt cheaks

 

I thought it was a Swiss army knife with both of those options....

[Escafarc]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I thought it was a Swiss army knife with both of those options....

That's just mis-information put out on the internet to weed out the Posers.

[Steve]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

That's just mis-information put out on the internet to weed out the Posers.

 

I don't think I've ever met a Hero System Poser. How do you identify one?

[Duane From RI]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

My last time I flirted with Hero Games was with the Big Blue Book. I loved it, but I had a player that was a real advantage stacker. Both he and I were caught up in a point shaving versus point shaving war. We were both "Missing The Point". I'm older now, wiser, fewer long held dogmas to hold me in a straight-jacket. I had a copy of FRED, never played it. Looking back I wish I had. 6ED has opened my mind. But if I had given FRED a chance I think I would have been better for it.

To me, the great additions to Hero System have been the Ultimate Series and now with 6ED the Advanced Players Guide and Martial Arts book. Once I bought 6ED I made it a point to buy all the Ultimate Books so that I could understand everything I had missed since the Big Blue Book. The cornerstone of the Ultimate Series is that it's not "Rules Wonkery" to come up with new concepts. If you keep it balanced and it fits the story, "It's The Point".

[brionl]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

The key is to realize that it is not the spoon that you build' date=' it is yourself. In fact, there is no spoon.[/quote']

 

Then how do you eat soup?

 

3 Life Support: Diminished Eating (there is no spoon)

[Escafarc]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I don't think I've ever met a Hero System Poser. How do you identify one?

 

Then the plan must be working.

[Steve Long]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Thanx for the kind words Duane! I've always said we have one of the most enthusiastic, friendly groups of fans in gaming, and I think the contents of these message boards are the proof.

 

I thought the second test was to build a flashlight using HERO.

 

LOL. Actually, when someone approaches me at a convention about writing for Hero Games, I have a couple simple tests to see if they're qualified (since what we primarily sell is rules, not "setting" or "feel," I want writers to know the rules really well -- otherwise it's way, waaaay too much editorial work for me). One is "How would you build a lycanthrope's ability to infect others with lycanthropy?; another is "How would you create a flashlight?". I don't want detailed write-ups; I just want them to pick the right Power. Many prospective authors fail the first test, and that's the end of that.

[Susano]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

I thought it was how to build a spoon.

 

There is no spoon.

[Susano]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

LOL. Actually' date=' when someone approaches me at a convention about writing for Hero Games, I have a couple simple tests to see if they're qualified (since what we primarily sell is [i']rules,[/i] not "setting" or "feel," I want writers to know the rules really well -- otherwise it's way, waaaay too much editorial work for me). One is "How would you build a lycanthrope's ability to infect others with lycanthropy?; another is "How would you create a flashlight?". I don't want detailed write-ups; I just want them to pick the right Power. Many prospective authors fail the first test, and that's the end of that.

 

1) Transform -- human into infected human (infection = lycanthropy)

 

2) Images, Only To Create Light

 

Did I win?

[Susano]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

Actually' date=' Grasshopper, when you can build a Hero Power to snatch a pebble from my hand, you will be ready. [/quote']

 

That's easy. I used Extra-dimensional Movement to shift to a dimension where I have the pebble and you don't.

[Duane From RI]

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is

 

 

LOL. Actually, when someone approaches me at a convention about writing for Hero Games, I have a couple simple tests to see if they're qualified (since what we primarily sell is rules, not "setting" or "feel," I want writers to know the rules really well -- otherwise it's way, waaaay too much editorial work for me). One is "How would you build a lycanthrope's ability to infect others with lycanthropy?; another is "How would you create a flashlight?". I don't want detailed write-ups; I just want them to pick the right Power. Many prospective authors fail the first test, and that's the end of that.

 

I'm fairly certain inflicting Lycanthropy requires a Severe Transform, both body and mind, maybe spirit. That way you give them a No Conscious Control Multiform power and Accidental Change. Probably need to do Damage Over Time, it takes at least one full lunar cycle. Then the Multiform has vulnerable to silver, enraged/beserk. As a GM I would encourage a Werewolf player character to work some beneficial aspects to the curse and would probably do the same if I were making a NPC Werewolf to bite a player. I think a common trope in todays Werewolf stories is the Werewolf tends to get the girl. One thing I'm thinking as I'm sitting here is that the body and mind Transforms can be healed through some sort of ritual, but the spirit transform is something that heals over time. Thus enraged/beserk may disappear.