What have you used Hero for?

[Nolgroth]

Yeah you can make Hero very lethal and dangerous for characters, but somehow the rules don't lend themselves well to hopeless fear and that sense that you're overmatched and in danger of your life at all times.

 

Actually that is a role playing issue. I have yet to meet a single player who was willing to give up the power fantasy in favor of playing a character who is vulnerable and afraid. Nobody wants to play Wilber Wimberly, the Doomed Heir to the Wimberly House. They want to run Ser Perfectius the Shining Paladin of Holy Baddassery or Nightblade Shadowstep, who is so stealthy that he can sneak through a castle of guards during broad daylight to pick the supposedly unpickable lock to the impenetrable vault; while twenty guards stand around it. I could name a couple of other over the top examples, but I believe you get my drift. I've tried to run horror games and it just hasn't worked.

 

When I add the trappings of horror to another genre, however, I have had a lot more success. Ravenloft is a good example of combining Gothic Horror with D&D fantasy. Even then though, you have to be careful. All of the advice from the early horror products talk about robbing characters of the things that make them powerful in order to instill fear. All it ever did for my players was create resentment. Nobody likes to build themselves up, only to have all that hard work mean nothing. In video game parlance, it is the cutscene that robs you of all the powerups you've spent all game accumulating. It doesn't create dramatic tension, it fosters a sense of frustration. If you can find a balance in there, much fun can be had.

 

I probably took that response way too far. What can I say, horror is a tricky role playing subject.

[zslane]

How then does one explain the apparent success and longevity of the Call of Cthulhu RPG? If played correctly, player characters don't last very long, and players must learn to extract satisfaction from something other than long-term character progression (it is perhaps a good thing that the Chaosium BRP system doesn't have levels for characters to become fixated upon). One would think that fans of horror, understanding and enjoying the genre as they do, would join a horror campaign with appropriate expectations.

[Tasha]

It's more of a question of what haven't I used the system for.
High Fantasy
Medium Fantasy
Low Fantasy
Harn Hero
Super Heroes (Powerlevels from Low to Cosmic)
Super Agents
Mecha Pilots in Mecha
Pulp High Adventure
Steampunk
Modern High Adventure (Hollow World)
Cyberpunk
Wild West
Super Agent Villains
Sci Fi
Traveller
Star Wars
StarGate SG-1 (We were that universe's SG-1)
Urban Fantasy
Others I have forgotten


I want to run
Star Trek
Star Hero (Homebrew Universe/Galaxy)
Glorantha (I think)
Fantasy Cyberpunk (Shadowrun, but different world and background)
Urban Fantasy.

[Nolgroth]

How then does one explain the apparent success and longevity of the Call of Cthulhu RPG? If played correctly, player characters don't last very long, and players must learn to extract satisfaction from something other than long-term character progression (it is perhaps a good thing that the Chaosium BRP system doesn't have levels for characters to become fixated upon). One would think that fans of horror, understanding and enjoying the genre as they do, would join a horror campaign with appropriate expectations.

 

I love Call of Cthulhu. It is a great reference book tacked onto a workable game mechanic. I even like aspects of the game mechanic a lot. The one game I ran with it was actually one of my better games, but it wasn't horror. It was weird fiction in the vein of pulp x-files (which is sort of what Weird Tales was really) but it was not played with the intent of creating horror or scares. It was a mystery and a ghost story and it went over great with my group. It just wasn't horror.

 

Perhaps your statement about extracting something other than long-term progression has merit in my case. Every player that I've played with is in it for the long haul. Ironically, they could play Paranoia (with its morbidly high death count) but anything "serious" was going to end up being a campaign. And maybe there are fans of horror who are so into genre simulation that they get a kick out of their characters being victims. I personally haven't met any. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

When we play Call of Cthulhu we only play short bursts of games, just a few sessions.  It doesn't seem like a long campaign sort of game heh

[tiger]

Lets see

 

1) Champions

2) Fantasy Hero

3) Traveller Style Sci-Fi

4) Spies

5) Cops

6) Wild West

7 Star Trek STNG

8) Gamma Hero (Gamma World Theme)

9) Super Villain camapign

10) Warhammer 40k (Imperial Guard Squad)

11) Teen Heroes

12) justice Inc/Pulp Hero

 

I think that's all of them

[bigdamnhero]

I've only ever played Call of Cthulu for short bursts, and don't think I'd enjoy playing it as a longterm campaign. But I know a ton of people who love it for that. Different strokes and all that.

[drunkonduty]

I've used HERO for:

 

Super Heroes - A lot. All about the standard recommended power level.

Pulp Adventures - worked great, had lots of fun the one short campaign I ran. Want to do it again.

Jane Austen's Cthulhu - was working pretty well for a couple of the players but the other 3 just weren't getting it.

Fantasy - mid-level starting power doing the murder hobo thing.

 

I've considered using it for:

 

Legend of the Five Rings. Most of the L5R schtick can be done pretty easily in HERO but I've been unable to come up with a good mechanic to replace the L5R dueling mechanic. (and yes, suggestions are welcome.    )

[carmachu]

How then does one explain the apparent success and longevity of the Call of Cthulhu RPG? If played correctly, player characters don't last very long, and players must learn to extract satisfaction from something other than long-term character progression (it is perhaps a good thing that the Chaosium BRP system doesn't have levels for characters to become fixated upon). One would think that fans of horror, understanding and enjoying the genre as they do, would join a horror campaign with appropriate expectations.

 

because you go into the game knowing that you are the weakling vs the all powerful beings from beyond. No matter what you become, they are beyond you. its about surviving, not winning.

[Christopher R Taylor]

The Japanese Fantasy Hero game I played in long ago at a place called the Game Alliance of Salem (ha, ha, GAS... yeah) had a duelling system for shukenja to use.  Each character would split off into their astral forms, and would use their Ego roll to battle.  Each round of combat was a skill vs skill battle, but as you described what you were doing and how, the GM would assign modifiers and tell you what your opponent was doing.  In practice it ended up being very much like the magic duel in Disney's Sword In The Stone cartoon.  The winner applied the amount they won by in damage to the opponent's stun total, until one or the other was knocked out.  

 

There were no defenses and the battle took place in seconds; basically one turn of astral combat was 1 segment real time.  It played out pretty well but when I tried to implement it, a clever player came up with a spell that granted him +10 ego roll only for astral combat.

[Chris Goodwin]

The Japanese Fantasy Hero game I played in long ago at a place called the Game Alliance of Salem (ha, ha, GAS... yeah)

I miss that place, so bad. Do you ever see anyone from there?

 

There were no defenses and the battle took place in seconds; basically one turn of astral combat was 1 segment real time.  It played out pretty well but when I tried to implement it, a clever player came up with a spell that granted him +10 ego roll only for astral combat.

 

I think part of how the original GM handled that was that all of the spells had to be based on the ones in the original Bushido game.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I heard Cam died, but other than that I have no contact with anyone but you.

 

The GAS was the ultimate gaming club, and set the template for what I have always wanted to set up again.  A dedicated place that's open every day, games running almost all day, every day, and tons of friendly folks.  Yeah some were sort of... socially awkward, to put it mildly, but the games were ready and fun.

[Chris Goodwin]

I heard Cam died, but other than that I have no contact with anyone but you.

 

Yeah, I'm friends with Mike S. on Facebook, but can't seen to find anyone else.  

 

The GAS was the ultimate gaming club, and set the template for what I have always wanted to set up again.  A dedicated place that's open every day, games running almost all day, every day, and tons of friendly folks.  Yeah some were sort of... socially awkward, to put it mildly, but the games were ready and fun.

 

There absolutely does need to be something like it.  I too had the idea when I still lived in Salem, but never had any way to make it happen.  I've thought about it since then, but... same thing.

[Christopher R Taylor]

If I was able to earn enough writing I'd do it with some of my money.  There are enough gamers around here to keep it going and a very small dues would help keep it open.  I'd work on setting up some vending machines too, and wifi.  There's not really much else you need besides lights, tables, and chairs.  Some shelves and gaming books handy would be nice too.

There are some really nice gaming spaces in town now, but a club would be quite welcome, I expect.  If I had a lot of money I'd set up other stuff too like a mini golf course, old school arcade, a computer gaming room, etc

[drunkonduty]

Ego vs. Ego roll...

 

That could be a good base for it. I admit I'm more keen on the iaijutsu duel than the shukenja duel. But if I want to GM this eventually I really need to think about the shukenja too.

 

Thanks, I shall ponder how to use it in my copious spare time.

[bigdamnhero]

because you go into the game knowing that you are the weakling vs the all powerful beings from beyond. No matter what you become, they are beyond you. its about surviving, not winning.

I thought it was less about surviving and more about who can die/go insane the most spectacularly. But I've only ever played CoC in one-shots.

[Dino]

I am currently running a Fading Suns game on the Hero System. I have run just about anything on Hero in the past. The only things I feel Hero's not good for are games that are heavily tied to their game mechanics, such as Shadowrun's use of essence/force, or if it make a distinction between mental and physical characteristics like in Eclipse Phase or In Nomine. If it requires that I add characteristics or game mechanics to Hero then I'm not inclined to run it on Hero at all. I guess I'm a purist that way.

[bigdamnhero]

The only things I feel Hero's not good for are games that are heavily tied to their game mechanics, such as Shadowrun's use of essence/force, or if it make a distinction between mental and physical characteristics like in Eclipse Phase or In Nomine. If it requires that I add characteristics or game mechanics to Hero then I'm not inclined to run it on Hero at all. I guess I'm a purist that way.

Yeah I've played/run games where we added on Characteristics, like a Force stat for a Star Wars game, but it always feels kindof tacked on as an afterthought.

 

Other thoughts on why Call Of Cthulu-esque games don't work well in Hero IMX. Many of Hero's core assumptions are based on the premise that the PCs are...well, heroic; so CoC does a better job of capturing the "normal Joe in an abnormal situation" vibe that's key to that sub-genre. Also Hero has a bit less granularity at that level, and it gets boring when all the PCs' characteristics fall in the 8-13 range. Plus playing Hero at that level can feel like driving a Ferrari around in 1st gear.

[Christopher R Taylor]

The only time adding a stat has worked for me is the use of "Mana" as a stat; it feels right in fantasy games.

[ghost-angel]

Let's see...

 

Cyberpunk

Sword & Sorcery Fantasy

Low Magic Fantasy

High Fantasy

High Powered Fantasy (like Atlantean Age, only we were playing Greek Demi-Gods)

Superheroic (silver, bronze, & iron age styles, never really had a chance to play a Golden age style game)

High Powered Superheroic (700+ points)

Teen Superheroes

Deadlands

Western (no weirdness like Deadlands)

Time Travel

Dimension Hopping

Post-Apocalyptic

Horror (short lived, online game, fell apart before it got appropriately horror-esque though)

Urban Fantasy (it lasted 8 sessions before a GM switch turned it from Spooky Monsters to Get Bigger Guns and immediately fell apart)

Science Fiction (both a very straight Space Opera and a more Star Trekish setting, and a few other 'Star Hero' styles)

War Hero (specifically WW2 Hero)

Modern Spy Hero (well, it was pitched as James Bond, it ended up as A-Team... because Players)

 

Edit: forgot one short (6 session) Steampunk game.

[bigdamnhero]

Urban Fantasy (it lasted 8 sessions before a GM switch turned it from Spooky Monsters to Get Bigger Guns and immediately fell apart)

That perfectly describes my first-last-and-probably-only attempt to run a Horror campaign, except it wasn't a GM switch so much as "GM switched subgenres when he saw it wasn't working." Oh, and in my case it ran for 7 years, cuz everyone liked Get Bigger Guns!

[ghost-angel]

Sadly ours was a case of the players wanting a Spooky Monster game, and we were supposed to rotate GMs, the second GM up can only run a Get Bigger Guns campaign (in any genre): which he does extremely well, but that players wanted a non-gun-fight game for a change. To be fair, it wasn't entirely him - real life got in the way, but we kind of let it do so instead of trying to work around it, or even say "we'll pick this up in a few months", the group just sort of stopped talking about it.

[Old Man]

 

Westerns (mostly mundane)

Special Forces (Danger Int) (very briefly)

Star Hero, on an approximately Alien Legion power level--somewhere between Traveller and full space opera, with many aliens

Cyberpunk

Dark Sun

Generic AD&D

Extremely low powered fantasy (converted players to Hero stats...when I say "low powered" I mean it)

High-powered Kung Fu/Wu Xia

Low-powered Kung Fu/Oriental Adventures

Martial dueling tournaments cf. Mortal Kombat

Low-powered Supers (Dark Champions)

"Mystery" Supers (Players don't see character sheets)

Typical 250-275 pt. Champions Supers

[culhwch]

I am currently running a Fading Suns game on the Hero System. I have run just about anything on Hero in the past. The only things I feel Hero's not good for are games that are heavily tied to their game mechanics, such as Shadowrun's use of essence/force, or if it make a distinction between mental and physical characteristics like in Eclipse Phase or In Nomine. If it requires that I add characteristics or game mechanics to Hero then I'm not inclined to run it on Hero at all. I guess I'm a purist that way.

This is why I gave up on my In Nomine-to-Hero conversion years ago..although I've recently pulled out the books again to see how I would do it.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I'm hearing rumors that a Traveler Hero conversion for 6th edition might be on the horizon