From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

[abomination5]

Hello, currently I run my games using 4E D&D. I play solitaire which means that I am the GM and only player, sometimes controlling multiple heroes.

 

For my games I custom build classes based on the official classes. This is very time consuming as there are no guidelines for creating classes in the D&D system. This is one of my primary attractions to the Hero system. It is essential a balanced (to a certain degree) system for creating custom characters. I believe this would greatly reduce the time it takes to create a class compared to 4E D&D. I'm also looking for a more complex combat system with more options (martial arts, disarm, special maneuvers, etc.) that encourages more roleplay in combat.

 

However, I am intimidated by the amount of time required to prepare an encounter and run combat in Heroes. I run my D&D campaign using Mythic's Game Master Emulator. Basically, I don't have to prepare anything before hand because the adventure is determined by my imagination and a few random dice rolls. When an encounter comes up I look at WOTC's online compendium to find a few suitable monsters. All I need to do to get combat started is copy and paste the stat block to a free 4E combat tracker app and I'm good to go. This usually takes 5 minutes or less.

I appreciate the added enjoyment that can come with custom built enemies but I'm worried how long it will take to design and balance them. Furthermore, as far as I know there is no combat tracking software for Heroes. This is very important in a solitaire game where I may be controlling several players and enemies on my own.

 

I'm wondering how much extra prep time this would cost once I learn the system? How easy/quick is it to manage combat? Do you think Heroes is the right system for me?

 

As I said I'm very attracted to the system but I'm worried about the time commitment.

 

Thanks

[Doc Democracy]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

No-one can tell you whether the system is for you.

 

However, you seem to want to tailor your characters and world to the extent that HERO must be a consideration for you. The prep time you save in world and class building may be partially taken up by game preparation. However that should become less as you become more familiar with the system.

 

It is possible for you to run encounters with bog standard opponents with small stat blocks - there is little need to have hugely detailed opponents for the run of the mill encounters. The bestiary would give you an immediate leg up with that and you would learn the relation between the character abilities and those of the opponents pretty quickly to eyeball an encounter.

 

One thing, you do realise that the system as written does not 'do' character classes but if you wanted to build your game to accommodate classes and that kind of advancement, then it would be completely possible.

 

Doc

[Christopher]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Unfortunately you are mostly right:

There is no complete combat trackign software and building monster can really be a hassle. Point limits/point amount are a small help, but just the points is a bad way to measure ability. There are a few resource you might be able to use (but few of them free of charge):

Hero System Bestiary. If you need a monster, it's propably in this book. If you need rules for special monsters (swarms; swallow whole) it's also in there.

Hero Designer. Programm for creating heroes and saving them in the .hdc format. The wrteups of almost every book are availible as standalone archives of .hdc files. So if you only need the values, not thier description, you can easily load them into the designer.

 

There are at least a few fan-made "SPD tracking helps" out there. They are nowhere near a computer coordinated battle, but tracking SPD and phases (especially if aborting is in there) is one of the major difficulties with Hero Combat. I hope somebody who knows them a little better can give you a link.

[Sean Waters]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Bah, humbug. What Hero is good at is not just building the character you can imagine, but it is also good at emulation of other game systems. The advantage of emulation is that you can use the balancing nature of Hero, which I think is what you are after.

 

The problem you will have converting from DnD is that you will find that things that are considered balanced in DnD (like different abilities available at a given level) are NOT necessarily the same points in Hero.

 

First off you need to look at how DnD and Hero are the same and how they differ.

 

The combat system (at least in terms of 'can you hit') is practically identical to DnD: In Hero you have DCV+10 and you have to beat that on OCV+3d6, which (apart from using d20 in DnD, which coincidentally has the same average roll as 3d6 but more spread) is EXACTLY how DnD works. you could substitute a d20 for the 3d6 roll and you are golden.

 

Damage works differently BUT it does not have to. Buy all defences down to zero, unless you have resistances. Buy BODY up to whatever your CON is. Buy STUN up to whatever it would be in DnD. Buy all attacks so that they do not do Body damage unless the target is at 0 or less STUN, at which point all damage is considered Body.

 

Armour is bought as persistent DCV.

 

Weapon damage is slightly problematic in that DnD uses different die types and different methods for adding damage. No worries. First off do not buy weapons with a STR min. There was a recent discussion over converting other die types to Hero. Do this:

 

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63, width: 64]die type[/TD]

[TD=class: xl64, width: 64]average roll[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63, width: 64]modifier[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d2[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]1.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]-1.5[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d3[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]2[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]-0.75[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d4[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]2.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]-0.5[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d6[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]3.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]0[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d8[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]4.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]0.25[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d10[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]5.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]0.5[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d12[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]6.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]1[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl63]1d20[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]10.5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl63]2[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

The previous discussion stumbled over what to do with Body, but if nothing is doing Body until you are down to zero Stun then that problem goes away.

 

Adding damage is slightly awkward BUT if you use standard damage for added damage (and assume all weapons take 10 STR to wield), you get:

 

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Added STR[/TD]

[TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Added damage

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl65]1[/TD]

[TD=class: xl65]1[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl65]2[/TD]

[TD=class: xl65]1[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl65]3[/TD]

[TD=class: xl65]2[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl65]4[/TD]

[TD=class: xl65]2

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: xl65]5[/TD]

[TD=class: xl65]3

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

And that is pretty close (or you could assume that 'Standard damage' is 1 point per +2 STR, which then becomes identical to DnD, if slightly less than standard Hero damage.)

 

Buy Recovery down to zero then back up in lumps equivalent to your healing surges and with a number of charges per day equal to the number of healing surges you get.

 

You are not far off your basic character right there.

 

It will not balance exactly but it does not need to. It will give you a good idea for comparison purposes.

[Christopher]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

I disagree that Hero and D&D combat work anywhere equal, because of the one elemental Flaw in D&D:

Armor does not negates damage.

If they hadn't made the decision to let Armor provide To-Hit modifier, they would never have need a lot of other "fixes". Pratically no other RPG System I player ever had this flaw and I see it as one of the major problems.

The fact that D&D has no active defense (at least nothing similar to hero) is also a big flaw.

 

Both togehter are the reason behind such constructs as "Saving Throw" and "Evasion".

 

Another difference is that "there are no absolutes". D&D has a lot of them: Evasion, Instant Death Spells, Auto-hit Spells (to name only a few). They don't translate that well to hero.

 

Anohter difference is that hero does not seeks balance through exclusive paths. For example Mages can't wear armor (similar to how shadowrun limits magic users with cyberimplants). Certain types of bonusses do not stack.

Hero does not needs this, because it has balance in the points and in the "Campaign/Powerlevel guidelines". You can as easily play a mage that has a permant spell of Str on his Cyberarms (+20 STR) as somewith just high STR (+20 STR, bought normally). As long as you can pay the points and doesn't break campaign limits, everything is fine.

[Lucius]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

I think in this case it's safe to ignore Sean Waters. He's telling you how to emulate D&D, but you've already GOT D&D. If you want to play D&D you can. I don't think you asked how to make Hero as much like D&D as possible.

 

 

As far as I know there is no "combat tracker" but a very sound investment would be the Hero Designer program. It will make designing characters and enemies easier.

 

Prebuilt beasts and monsters can be found in the Hero System Bestiary. There are other compilations such as Monsters, Minions, and Mauraders too. And a number of websites such as Surbrook's Stuff full of sample characters and monsters.

 

There is some value to what Mr. Waters says about the way combat works BUT he is overlooking an important difference between using 3d6 and 1d20. 3d6 follows a "bell curve" meaning that, for example, a roll of 10 or 11 is very common, but rolls of 3 are vanishingly rare. On a d20, your chance of rolling a 10 is exactly the same as your chance or rolling a 1 or a 20. This means that even a couple of points of difference in combat value can make a major difference in combat. An enemy with a 3 point advantage can seem frustratingly unhittable.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

House of the Palindromedary

[Sean Waters]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

I'm not overlooking it - as I said, d20 has more spread, BUT combat will feel very different if you use a 3d6 roll as you need to be much closer in ability to have any chance at all, so if you use 3d6 you will need to far more heavily modify the conversions to give a similar feel, which sounds like a lot more work than simply using a d20 instead. Apart from that, the 'hitting' bit of combat is effectively already identical between d20 and Hero.

 

I'm also not ignoring defences: my 'conversion notes' has all defences set at zero (except in special cases) and the ability to withstand damage modeled with STUN.

 

There is a point to building DnD in Hero, and it is the point that abomination5 is after, unless, as usual, I am horribly mistaken, is that when you have it converted, it is easy to build balanced character classes to the same plan. We always think of Hero being massively flexible on character creation but we often forget that even the character creation can be subject to creative interpretation. Hero is like a gaming programming language, not just a character concept meta-language. You could actually build a DnD character class in Hero, modify it in Hero to retain balance then convert it back into DnD. DnD feels differnt to Hero, but you can do DnD in Hero (just not the other way around, despite MnM )

 

*sigh* This is probably a discussion for another thread...

[Drohem]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

In all honesty, if you've made the time commitment and invested in mastering 4e D&D, then mastering HERO will be roughly the same. As far as instant monsters, others have already suggested the Bestiary. Each monster also has some packaged options that you can apply quickly to make them different and not so cookie-cutter, and, of course, once you get the hang of the HERO System then you'll be able to make a few tweaks in a couple of minutes.

[Ice9]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

In addition to the Bestiary, there are a fair number of fan-created monsters out there. Unfortunately, you won't get anything like a CR or Monster Level - Hero characters are divergent enough that a given monster could be a deadly match for one 400p character and a walk in the park for another. To get a quick idea of a monster's threat, look at its key characteristics:

* Offense Factor: Speed, Chance to hit the PCs, and Average damage past defenses.

* Defense Factor: Chance to dodge, Average damage taken, and STUN/BODY total. Speed also factors in, although not as much as for offense.

* Special Options: Anything game changing that the monster has and the PCs don't. May or may not include flight, incorporeality, special senses, mind control, lockdown attacks, and so forth.

 

 

On the plus side, when creating monsters, you don't have to follow a point budget like a character. Which means you don't actually have to fill in every stat and count every point. For example, you could just do something like this:

Scorpion Cultist

STR 10, DEX 13, CON 13, INT 10, EGO 12, PRE 10

STUN 30, BODY 8, DEF 12, rDEF 6, LS (poison)

OCV 6, DCV 4, DMCV 4

Scorpion Fist: 3d6 HA + 6d6 NND (LS: poison)

Spit Blinding Venom: Flash 6d6, NND (LS: poison), Limited Range 4m

 

Which took me about a minute or two. Fill in any remaining details if they become necessary. Since you're using the Mythic GME anyway, that would be a good way to decide whether they had a particular skill or ability.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

I think in this case it's safe to ignore Sean Waters.

 

That begs the question of when it is not safe!

 

I think that what Sean was saying was that there is no need to be intimidated, it would not be hard to begin by emulating D&D and then slowly begin expanding options and tweaking...there is no real need to be intimidated.

[Christopher]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

There is some value to what Mr. Waters says about the way combat works BUT he is overlooking an important difference between using 3d6 and 1d20. 3d6 follows a "bell curve" meaning that' date=' for example, a roll of 10 or 11 is very common, but rolls of 3 are vanishingly rare. On a d20, your chance of rolling a 10 is exactly the same as your chance or rolling a 1 or a 20. This means that even a couple of points of difference in combat value can make a major difference in combat. An enemy with a 3 point advantage can seem frustratingly unhittable.[/quote']

It's only a rough figure, but generally you can asume that every +1 in HERO is +10% chance of success (with anything at 4+ or more being a "penalty buffer" more than contributing to success chance).

I any d20 System +1 is +5% flat.

[Lucius]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Hello' date=' currently I run my games using 4E D&D. I play solitaire which means that I am the GM and only player, sometimes controlling multiple heroes.[/font']

 

For my games I custom build classes based on the official classes. This is very time consuming as there are no guidelines for creating classes in the D&D system. This is one of my primary attractions to the Hero system. It is essential a balanced (to a certain degree) system for creating custom characters. I believe this would greatly reduce the time it takes to create a class compared to 4E D&D.

 

It can reduce it to zero.

 

As I understand it, what you do now is this:

 

1. Create a class

2. Create a character

 

In Hero, you can shorten that process to

 

1. Create a character.

 

I'm also looking for a more complex combat system with more options (martial arts' date=' disarm, special [/font']maneuvers, etc.) that encourages more roleplay in combat.

 

You will probably want either the Hero System Martial Arts book (I think that's the 6th edition name) or the old Ultimate Martial Artist (5th edition, but still compatible.)

 

Do you think Heroes is the right system for me?

 

As I said I'm very attracted to the system but I'm worried about the time commitment.

 

Thanks

 

I can't make the call for you, but I think from what I understand of what you are looking for, that you will find Hero fulfilling in some ways and possibly problematic in others. Can you tell us more about what you are currently doing and what you are seeking?

 

For example, I admit that this is the first time I ever heard of a "GM Emulator" (that is what you said isn't it?) and I have no grasp of what it is or what it does.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

On the other hand, you probably never heard of a palindromedary, but then again you have no particular need to grasp what it is or what it does.

[Ice9]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Mythic GME is a tool for either running games solo, or to assist the GM in deciding things.

Primarily, it's a chart where you cross reference the likeliness of a given thing being true with the current "chaos factor", which goes up and down over time. That gives you a % chance for the thing to be true.

Also, rolling certain numbers causes events to happen, related to one of the PCs, villains, or other plot threads.

 

I've found it useful for determining how "off screen" events go. My main gripe is that a higher chaos factor just makes everything more likely. IMO, it would be better if a low chaos factor was like a bell curve (unlikely events very unlikely, likely events almost guaranteed) and a high chaos factor was the opposite (even rare events have a decent chance, even sure things can definitely fail).

[Killer Shrike]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

I having a hard time conceiving of what a solitaire roleplaying session might look like? It seems like it would be similar to playing speed chess on 4 or 5 chess boards, against yourself, while spouting improvisational theater wherein you are portraying every character.

 

I mean...why? I ask that sincerely, not sarcastically.

 

I can see, and have done, a GM running combat simulations to quickly get a feel for power balancing or if a character is too weak or strong, but only in pursuit of ultimately improving group play.

 

 

If you are playing every character, why use a system at all? Rule systems exist to provide a framework wherein players and referees can interact fairly with some kind of arbitration or definitive resolution and not just play cowboys & indians ("I shot you, you're dead!"; "Nuh-uh! You missed! KA-POW!"). Or if you really feel the need for a system to add some structure to your elaborate solitary ritual why not use some system designed for more narrative play such as Amber Diceless or Fudge? Seems like it would be less work for more, uh, bang.

 

The HERO System is one of the heaviest of heavy weight systems there is...maybe the heaviest. I love it to death, but it just seems masochistic to me to set out to fully define everything in HERO terms just to sit around a table with myself and roll d6's in serial fashion for each virtual player character and each non player character. Why not play something more board-gamey like Warhammer Quest, Talisman, or even Munchkin Quest?

 

 

Anyway, that said, going from any game system to the HERO System should not be intimidating, IMO. The core resolution mechanic of the HERO System is pretty tiny and clean. It's a tight engine built on solid principles, with rational options and common sense allowances for various "natural" actions. The skills and talents concept is not any different that similar systems found in many other games. The characteristics are a bit hairy, but again nothing mind blowing, once you get past primary vs secondary, "cv", and so forth. Paying points for things isn't that alien; almost all games have some kind of finite resource management scheme in character creation; the Hero system just uses basic numbers rather than slots or arbitrary flat line items or unlock choices.

 

That leaves power constructs. Powers is somewhat mislabeled (superhero roots showing); it's just a way to build custom abilities. If you ever home brewed something in any other game system, you've created custom abilities. The HERO System just provides a by-the-book way to do that, with fixed point costs so that you don't do the equivalent of making a full strength usable at will Meteor Swarm ability as the level 1 class ability of some custom class you defined and call it "balanced". Each individual base power is pretty self explanatory; its just a matter of figuring out how you want to express a given custom ability given that there are usually multiple ways to accomplish the same basic idea differing in nuances and practicality.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Mythic GME is a tool for either running games solo, or to assist the GM in deciding things.

Primarily, it's a chart where you cross reference the likeliness of a given thing being true with the current "chaos factor", which goes up and down over time. That gives you a % chance for the thing to be true.

Also, rolling certain numbers causes events to happen, related to one of the PCs, villains, or other plot threads.

 

I've found it useful for determining how "off screen" events go. My main gripe is that a higher chaos factor just makes everything more likely. IMO, it would be better if a low chaos factor was like a bell curve (unlikely events very unlikely, likely events almost guaranteed) and a high chaos factor was the opposite (even rare events have a decent chance, even sure things can definitely fail).

 

That sounds interesting. As it is called an emulator, I assumed it was software but it looks like its a chunky pdf. Can you go into more detail on this?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

The Mythic GM Emulator is a system that adds curves to the logical plot you come up with, so you can get that feeling of surprise reveals that GMs love to spring on their players, even without a GM. Most of it logical, common sense, but each scene, there's a chance for something off-the-wall to happen, and tables to give you an idea of what the off-the-wall thing is.

 

I was playing with it the other week, messing around with Adamant Entertainment's Underworld setting. Without getting too sidelined with setting descriptions, the story I came up with involved the PCs witnessing a guy getting severely beaten. He's too badly injured to tell them why he was attacked, but there is a fort nearby, so they take him there for medical attention and possible clues to what exactly was going on. Turns out, the soldiers' leader was behind the attack, so the characters are on the run. They evade them and get to another pocket of civilization, get the guy some medical help, and start checking around for rumors about the attack and the soldiers' involvement. They find the guy had been partnered with the soldiers' leader in a treasure hunt...they had found clues about some legendary treasure and were working on it together, but the guy made a breakthrough on the location and unilaterally dissolved the partnership. So the PCs end up putting the clues together and going for the treasure themselves. They fit out an expedition and travel to where the hoard was hidden, only to find it guarded by a dragon. In return for not eating them, the dragon sends them on some errand.

 

I got kind of bored with the whole thing at that point, and dropped it. But I didn't do anything to add any of the twists...the system added the twist and gave a general form that the twist would take, and logic and common sense filled in the details. I didn't even set the initial scene myself, but used the system to give a sort of cryptic clue that I then interpreted into "a guy is getting the snot beaten out of him".

 

It's a pretty interesting little system. Worth the, what, five dollars it costs as a PDF. There's an expansion called Mythic Variations that changes up the basic system to make it work better for different genres, so your horror game takes different twists and turns than your court intrigue game, which is, IMO, also worth the cost.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Hrm....I created some plot randomizers for TableSmith long ago that served a similar purpose, though it was undirected.

 

It doesn't sound like my cup of tea, but I might just check it out. $5 is a cup of coffee...that's a pretty low risk investment.

[torchwolf]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

There is no _official_ combat management software for the HERO System... but there IS software.

 

Hero Designer lets you do several things that can speed up preparations immensely - it allows you to quickly design characters in 6th Edition (and 5th if you prefer), and you _can_ set up standard sets of abilities (as a character template, package deal or prefab) that you just add to a character or use as a basic character starting point - then tweak it to your heart's content. If preparation speed is a primary concern, there are a lot of prebuilt monsters and spells, as well as package deals, prefabs and characters available as HD Packs (though these are stats-only - you'll need the books/pdfs for detailed explanations). HD also lets you create combat charts for reference.

 

To manage combat in the HERO System, there are at least two programs that I know of that can be used - both are free:

Hero Combat Simulator (created by pruttm, a member of these boards) supposedly lets you run 5th Edition HERO System combat with all the bells and whistles.

NOTE: Personally I've never been able to get it working on my system for some reason but I've heard good things about it.

 

The MapTools program from RPTools is used a lot for virtual gaming, and there is a HERO System 6th Edition framework (by Nolgroth, another member of these boards) you can load into it.

NOTE: I have played online using this, which really speeds things up and lets you use almost all the options in the HERO System - I've used Martial Arts Maneuvers extensively, with very cool results.

 

This latter option might also be interesting to you if you'd like to do virtual desktop sessions with others.

 

 

As for the HERO System itself, it can be as complex or simple (well, as simple as high or low d6 rolls anyway) as you like depending on the options you decide to use.

It _does_ provide you with a lot of tactical options.

[Tasha]

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor

 

Hello' date=' currently I run my games using 4E D&D. I play solitaire which means that I am the GM and only player, sometimes controlling multiple heroes.[/font']

 

For my games I custom build classes based on the official classes. This is very time consuming as there are no guidelines for creating classes in the D&D system. This is one of my primary attractions to the Hero system. It is essential a balanced (to a certain degree) system for creating custom characters. I believe this would greatly reduce the time it takes to create a class compared to 4E D&D. I'm also looking for a more complex combat system with more options (martial arts, disarm, special maneuvers, etc.) that encourages more roleplay in combat.

 

However, I am intimidated by the amount of time required to prepare an encounter and run combat in Heroes. I run my D&D campaign using Mythic's Game Master Emulator. Basically, I don't have to prepare anything before hand because the adventure is determined by my imagination and a few random dice rolls. When an encounter comes up I look at WOTC's online compendium to find a few suitable monsters. All I need to do to get combat started is copy and paste the stat block to a free 4E combat tracker app and I'm good to go. This usually takes 5 minutes or less.

 

I appreciate the added enjoyment that can come with custom built enemies but I'm worried how long it will take to design and balance them. Furthermore, as far as I know there is no combat tracking software for Heroes. This is very important in a solitaire game where I may be controlling several players and enemies on my own.

 

I'm wondering how much extra prep time this would cost once I learn the system? How easy/quick is it to manage combat? Do you think Heroes is the right system for me?

 

As I said I'm very attracted to the system but I'm worried about the time commitment.

 

Thanks

 

Pick up Hero Designer it will accelerate your character gen by a huge amount.

 

Once you learn how to build characters and how to tweak the powerlevels it doesn't take long to actually create encounters. You can make this faster by buying the Hero System Bestiary and the Hero Designer Character pack for it. Also purchasing Fantasy Hero, and the Hero System Grimoire helps. I find that creating encounters for either system takes around the same amount of time, though at first Hero will feel like it takes longer due to how detailed characters can be.