The Hero System is bland and over complicated

[Guest Celt]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Well' date=' if you didn't scream and twist around so much, we'd been able to get the knife in on the first try![/quote']

 

[obligatory Python quote]Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed![/obligatory Python quote]

[Greywind]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Especially in a room full of cheeto-munching' date=' soda-swilling couch potatoes who don't try to add to the atmosphere. "I wade through the pool of writhing zombie arms". Achieving the atmosphere for a horror game really requires buy-in, including appropriate role play, by all the players. One wisecracking player wrecks the mood for everyone.[/quote']If you are going for a cinematic feeling, such a character is mandatory.

 

try having the main light off with only the gaming table lit up' date=' maybe have mood music at the GMs fingertips[/quote']Until you have a player with hearing problems.

[Susano]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

If you are going for a cinematic feeling' date=' such a character is mandatory.[/quote']

 

Not character -- player.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

We usually only use CoC as filler games, mostly because there is one specific player who is literally incapable of playing it. He's the damage monster type with some munchkin tendancies and simply cannot not play horror.

[RPMiller]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

This would be the player who's character dies in every CoC game right?

 

"I attack the monster!"

"Um... okay, you just got eaten."

[Netzilla]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

At university, I knew a player who's primary tactic in CoC was:

 

1. Get shotgun.

2. Kick open door but don't look in.

3. Shoot whatever is on the other side.

4. Repeat until campaign is over.

 

This is the same guy that was an utterly vicious D&D DM.

[teh bunneh]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

That tactic probably works great... until the first time you kick open the door and blast Mrs. Johanssen's 3rd grade social studies class on a field trip.

[Susano]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

That tactic probably works great... until the first time you kick open the door and blast Mrs. Johanssen's 3rd grade social studies class on a field trip.

 

Or something that ignores guns... even shotguns.

[megaplayboy]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Or something that ignores guns... even shotguns.

 

Well, yeah, there's that.

 

"I attack it."

"Okay, let's just go down the checklist here...are you using a phaser rifle?"

"Uh..no."

"Ok, no prob...lightsaber?"

"No."

"Torc grenades?"

"Nope."

"+5 Vorpal Sword of Abomination-slaying?"

"Huh? ...no."

"Staff of Solomon?"

"Uh, no."

"Nano-rippers? a monomolecular blade? a metavirus?"

"never heard of all that stuff. No."

"okay, then, what are you using?"

"Well, I've got a shotgun, a tommy gun, and some grenades."

"Huh...okay, let me see your character sheet."

"Ok."

(GM writes "DECEASED" in big letters across the top and hands back to player)--"So, who's next?"

[RPMiller]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Or something that ignores guns... even shotguns.

 

Or the door is actually a portal activated by physical contact.

[Greywind]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Or something that'll eat you as you attempt to kick it open...

[Ternaugh]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

My superhero campaign has a therapeutic drug called detromazine' date=' a neurochemical which isolates the portion of the brain where recent trauma registers, and effectively "mutes" the effects of such trauma by about 70-80%. Hyperdetromazine is even more effective(up to 95%), but is indicated only for extreme trauma (such as witnessing the suicide of a spouse, being sexually assaulted by a tentacle beast, encountering one of the many-angled ones, etc.), because it can cause mild brain damage and permanent memory loss. The existence of such drugs does of course have secondary effects on society as well.[/quote']

 

Interestingly enough, there are encouraging results using Ecstasy to combat PTSD. No mention if flashing lights and crappy techno music is also required.

 

JoeG

[Netzilla]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Hey, I never said it worked. I just said that what his preferred tactic. The thinking was more along the lines of, "If I'm going to die or go crazy anyway..."

[RPMiller]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Ah yea, the "kill them all, and lot God sort them out" strategy of problem solving...

[megaplayboy]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Ah yea' date=' the "kill them all, and lot God sort them out" strategy of problem solving...[/quote']

 

Which, ironically enough, is the strategy of the many-angled ones..."Aaah! More of those symmetrical bipedal creatures! Kill them all, and let Azathoth sort them out!"

[Enforcer84]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

The biggest difference between Hero and, for example, D&D4E is that you cannot open up the Hero Book make a character and start playing. You can do this with D&D.

 

That makes D&D a Game, and Hero not a Game.

 

Saying Hero is a Bland System based solely on reading the rules is saying that cars make poor airplanes and therefore aren't any good. It's a fundamental error on how to use the two different sets of books.

 

I think peoples fundamental mistake is to compare Hero to a game like D&D in any way to begin with.

 

HERO system is a game. You're over-thinking.

[mkultra]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

being sexually assaulted by a tentacle beast

I need to stop going to that bar, that's the third time this month.

[prestidigitator]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

That tactic probably works great... until the first time you kick open the door and blast Mrs. Johanssen's 3rd grade social studies class on a field trip.

Bah! The not looking part fixes that too, doesn't it? What I don't know won't hurt me. It might hurt YOU, but....

[Burrito Boy]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

You must be able to use "squamous" in a complete and meaningful sentence before being allowed to run CoC. Your GM didn't get it. Desperately in need of reading some Lovecraft or at least some REH.

 

The 80's were very condusive to horror and horrible thoughts. Barely staving off the destruction of the world kinda resonated.

 

I learned about simple squamous epithelium in my high school anatomy class.

 

(Do I qualify?)

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

I'm not trusting SCUBAHero with an open flame!

I *never* get to have any fun!

 

:grumbles and stomps off:

 

:trips on the dog and falls, since there's not enough light:

 

 

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

(snip) Hyperdetromazine is even more effective(up to 95%)' date=' but is indicated only for extreme trauma (such as witnessing the suicide of a spouse, [b']being sexually assaulted by a tentacle beast[/b], encountering one of the many-angled ones, etc.), (snip)

[bad German accent]

 

We tried for three days, but we couldn't get the smile off his face...

 

[/accent]

[dmjalund]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

Reminds me of GalaxyQuest

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

My superhero campaign has a therapeutic drug called detromazine' date=' a neurochemical which isolates the portion of the brain where recent trauma registers, and effectively "mutes" the effects of such trauma by about 70-80%. Hyperdetromazine is even more effective(up to 95%), but is indicated only for extreme trauma (such as witnessing the suicide of a spouse, being sexually assaulted by a tentacle beast, encountering one of the many-angled ones, etc.), because it can cause mild brain damage and permanent memory loss. The existence of such drugs does of course have secondary effects on society as well.[/quote']

There's already a substance in the real world that does all that: it's called rum.

[Hrimhari]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

The other thing that helps with SAN in a CoC game featuring repeated encounters with mythos beasts are the optional rules for repeated exposures. I can't remember how these worked precisely, but I seem to remember they were as follows:

 

Short term: once you've lost SAN equal to the maximum that one creature can inflict in one hour, you're immune to SAN loss from that creature type for the rest of the hour. So once you lost 6 SAN from seeing Deep Ones (1d6 SAN loss), you don't lose any more from the other ones you meet for the short term.

 

Long term: once you succeed in a number of SAN rolls against a creature type equal to the maximum SAN loss potential, then you are treated as automatically succeednig in SAN rolls against that creature type forever. For example, a Deep One inflicts 1d6 SAN loss on a fail, 0 on a success... so once you succeed in 6 SAN rolls for seeing Deep Ones, you never lose any more SAN from seeing them, ever.

 

In both caes, you're not helped when seeing Cthulhu. Given that he causes 1d100/1d10 SAN loss, by the time either rule kicks in, you've lost 100 SAN and are now permanently insane... unless the encounters were over time and you have some VERY good counselling.

 

I think the rules made sense. They were printed as optional because they stood a chance of damaging the feel... but I think they're good and would probably use them.

[Susano]

Re: The Hero System is bland and over complicated

 

There's already a substance in the real world that does all that: it's called rum.

 

Which is now all gone

 

Why is the rum gone?