Hero GUI

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Hero GUI

 

As someone who is a new player and trying to learn the system' date=' my biggest problem is linking the right combination of characteristics and powers to the desired advantages and limitations. Consequently, a single table that indicates what advantages and limitations work with which powers would be wonderful. It would greatly reduce the amount of time I spend flipping back and forth between pages. For that matter, having all of the character creation tables relatively close together would be great.[/quote']

 

The best suggestion is to start with a plain english description of the character's abilities first. That way the choices for best mechanics to model those abilities will reveal themselves more easily. That said, the Hero Designer software is configured to only show legal/appropriate advantages and limitations when attempting to add them to a power build.

[Susano]

Re: Hero GUI

 

As someone who is a new player and trying to learn the system' date=' my biggest problem is linking the right combination of characteristics and powers to the desired advantages and limitations. Consequently, a single table that indicates what advantages and limitations work with which powers would be wonderful. It would greatly reduce the amount of time I spend flipping back and forth between pages. For that matter, having all of the character creation tables relatively close together would be great.[/quote']

 

These three links may help in creating characters from scratch of from other sources.

 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/other/adaptions.html

http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/other/eightsteps.html

http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/other/creating_hero_characters.html

[Ninja-Bear]

Re: Hero GUI

 

As someone who is a new player and trying to learn the system' date=' my biggest problem is linking the right combination of characteristics and powers to the desired advantages and limitations. Consequently, a single table that indicates what advantages and limitations work with which powers would be wonderful. It would greatly reduce the amount of time I spend flipping back and forth between pages. For that matter, having all of the character creation tables relatively close together would be great.[/quote']

 

Another hint and it goes along with Hyper-man is have a piece of scratch paper with you for notes. During play if the power doesn't work the way you think it should, then write it down and then you have a reference to go back to and see if the build is what you want.

 

Also I've been putting down book names and page numbers by stuff I'm not overly familiar with so if I have a question during play, I can easily check it out. Hero designer lets you put that in under the create notes.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Hero GUI

 

I have a confession. I was playing Hero with a group new to the game and I said, "OK, let's try something: describe your characters, and I'll build them, but so you don't get hung up on the mechanics, I'll keep the character sheets and just tell you what to roll and when based on your described actions."

 

The game was great...but I did not actually build the characters until it was nearly over and I knew what everyone thought they could do. I mean, it was a Hero game: I kept notes to keep it consistent, we used Hero game mechanics, yady yada yada, we just did not actually have character sheets. Pictures. Descriptions, just not actual builds. No one missed them at all. mind you it only worked because no one was familiar with Hero, and no one knew what I was doing, and because I was at university and had a shed-load of spare time to actually make it work.

 

It is for this reason that I often champion (pun intended) the cause of sidestepping Hero character creation in favour of actually playing the game. it is a great game.

[DreadDomain]

Re: Hero GUI

 

In my convention games' date=' I use simplified and graphically attractive character sheets that reflect what the game is all about...[/quote']

 

I'll say it again, I really like these sheets. They do show that HERO can be very simple when we choose it that way. Any chance you can share your other sheets (you already shared Raven if I recall right).

[teh bunneh]

Re: Hero GUI

 

I have a confession. I was playing Hero with a group new to the game and I said' date=' "OK, let's try something: describe your characters, and I'll build them, but so you don't get hung up on the mechanics, I'll keep the character sheets and just tell you what to roll and when based on your described actions."[/quote']

 

I ran a game like that many years ago. I called it my "Blind" Fantasy Hero game. Went over pretty well with my players. The campaign lasted the better part of a year, and spawned two spin-offs.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Hero GUI

 

[ATTACH]43212[/ATTACH]

I'll say it again' date=' I really like these sheets. They do show that HERO can be very simple when we choose it that way. Any chance you can share your other sheets (you already shared Raven if I recall right).[/quote']

 

Sure, happy to!

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43211[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43213[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43214[/ATTACH]

[DreadDomain]

Re: Hero GUI

 

[ATTACH]43212[/ATTACH]

 

Sure, happy to!

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43211[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43213[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43214[/ATTACH]

 

Good stuff!

 

Oh, Susano, thanks for sharing your files as well. Both yours and Teh Bunneh sheets show that HERO doesn't have to look complicated. With sheets like these, it feels pretty rule light!

[Susano]

Re: Hero GUI

 

Here's an example of one of my sheets:

[Bodkins Odds]

Re: Hero GUI

 

The character sheets are beautiful. I only have one question: what phases do these guys go on?

[Susano]

Re: Hero GUI

 

The character sheets are beautiful. I only have one question: what phases do these guys go on?

 

If I recall, teh bunneh doesn't use Phases, presuming everyone is the same SPD. I honestly can't recall if I was using Phases or not. (checks) Nope, I was presuming the same thing. I also don't use END.

[Bodkins Odds]

Re: Hero GUI

 

Okay, that makes sense.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Hero GUI

 

If I recall' date=' teh bunneh doesn't use Phases, presuming everyone is the same SPD. I honestly can't recall if I was using Phases or not. (checks) Nope, I was presuming the same thing. I also don't use END.[/quote']

 

Correct. Everyone has the same SPD, so Phases don't matter. And I don't use END in my convention games.

[Susano]

Re: Hero GUI

 

Correct. Everyone has the same SPD' date=' so Phases don't matter. And I don't use END in my convention games.[/quote']

 

While Phases and END can be very important for a regular game, IMO convention games don't really need it. The action runs smoother without it. Unless you're running for a very small group of people.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Re: Hero GUI

 

Thanks for contributing to this thread guys! Two quick thoughts. First, I'm hoping people can see these threads as a little more "how-to," so talk about how you made the choices you made, how you made the sheets, etc., so that there's some insight into why these more concise convention-style sheets look the way they do. Second, convention-style games are kind of a different animal from the normal game group whose regularly attending GMs and players I'm trying to help with this thread. So, let's stipulate that we're using at least all of the basic rules (optional rules optionally), and that the problem we're trying to address is how to make that as easy to manage during character creation and play as possible.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Re: Hero GUI

 

Because it occurred to me a second after posting the last: it seems to me that removing character sheets and having players just tell you what they want to do, while a legitimate option to create an interesting game, is kind of running in the opposite direction from what I was suggesting we explore in this thread. I'm assuming the players want to manage their own information, so the idea is to give it to them in ways that are clear and well-structured.

 

Just borrowing from a cursory glance at Wikipedia's article on interface design, there are lots of helpful ideas that I'm trying to apply in the context of Hero.

 

A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

The visibility principle: The design should make all needed options and materials for a given task visible without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information. Good designs don't overwhelm users with alternatives or confuse with unneeded information.

The simplicity principle: The design should make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly and simply in the user's own language, and providing good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures.

 

(One could go on, but let's let the above gesture at the ideas I'm suggesting we apply to Hero.)