1st time GM seeks immediate help :3

[Daenerys Stormborn]

Ok so everyone i live with has convinced me to run a Hero system 6th edition campaign. Its based off x-men and a few other things i like all rolled into one.

 

My biggest issue is i really am bad at math, rolling dice, an have NO freaking clue what i should be reading, or doing from the book perspective.

 

Can someone simplify things out for this first time GM? I need a dummies book on this but i dont think those exist... i really want to get this going Dec 3rd an have been writing dialogue and ideas and havin gthem create their characters for over a month now.

 

Ive got the 5th ed resource kit, and a bunch of other 6th ed books but... theres SO much in there i know i dont actually need an its overwhelming to the point of im close to backing out less someone can help me.

 

please email me @ Anailaigh@gmail.com or post here...

 

Thanks,

 

Daenerys

 

EDIT: No one? over 35 views an no assist? =\ im drowning here guys...

 

EDIT 2: i dont need ideas on scenarios, i need actual GM how to. Math stuff, dice rolls.. im going in completely blind x.x

 

Edit 3: Thank you Ghost-Angel (im still on post restriction for being new...) this helps, my issue is everyone else knows how to play it.. and if i asked them itd ruin the game for them. :3 everything im using except the resource kit is 6e

 

Edit 4: lol Hyper i appreciate it, i have a pretty good x-men/pandoras box+ scenario planned just needed to not be lost in all the GM stuff. links helped

 

Edit 5: Christopher - thank you :3

 

Edit 6: bigdamnhero - im running a heros system, not champions system o.O last i checked they werent one in the same. But some of your points have been taken into consideration ty

 

Edit 7: Blues - ty but i already have that

 

Edit 8: Steve - thank you =3
 

Edit 9: big damn hero =3 yea i wasnt aware of that thank you

Edited November 25, 2014 by Daenerys Stormborn

[Lucius]

Okay, I'll venture some advice. But I'm not a major comics fan and I run Fantasy, not Supers.

 

My first two words of advice: Danger Room.

 

if you have a powerful mentor figure like Professor X who has access to the resources and technology to provide an interactive training area, you can make the first few sessions low stakes, simplified training encounters. A chance for you and the players to learn the rules, learn how to read the dice, and begin to get a feel for the game.

 

Maybe divide the characters into teams to slug it out with one another, then divide them differently and do it again. Then create a small team of robots and a couple of fragile robots clearly marked as "hostages" or "bystanders" and challenge them, "get the hostages from one end of the training area to the other, undestroyed."

 

Locate a "bomb" (simulation, no actual explosion) with a timer in a maze, a few robot guards patrolling, and some of the heroes assigned to try to stop the others from reaching the "bomb" and deactivating it within a given time.  Then switch sides again. If someone is super-strong like Hulk or able to cut through walls like Wolverine, see how long it takes them to realize they can just go THROUGH the walls instead of backtracking! Roleplay the mentor, who is watching all and can communicate via loudspeaker or telepathy.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary posts a sign on the inside of an agoraphobic's front door: Danger - Room

[Daenerys Stormborn]

Well thats all an good, i already have the scenario an such planned out. Its everything else that i need to know.

 

as i said:

 

"My biggest issue is i really am bad at math, rolling dice, an have NO freaking clue what i should be reading, or doing from the book perspective.

 

Can someone simplify things out for this first time GM?"

 

Issues are the books i NEED to read, the math, an such not the scenes/theme or such. appreciate the assist.

[Lucius]

Another word of advice: Gobble.

 

Gobble is a giant turkey. No, I'm not making this up because it happens to be almost Thanksgiving, but Gobble hasn't been mentioned in official Hero books since before 4th edition. Just build  a character using an appropriate Size Template, and describe it as an enormous turkey (or call it Godzilla if you think a giant turkey is too silly) and announce that it's going on a rampage and give the players a chance to stop it before it reaches the city limits and starts doing serious property damage and causing the deaths of innocents. This might be a "flashback" scene, you can say the players met when they all responded to this emergency, or that responding to this is how the mentor figure found them.

 

It is also, in an of itself, an open ended plot hook. However you describe the monster - giant turkey, dinosaur, animated redwood tree, etc. - there are obvious questions the players may ask, such as, where did it come from? Will there be more? You don't even have to know the answers yourself yet - but if you do have some good ideas where such a monster might come from, you can weave it into the ongoing game.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks where to find a pan to cook a ten meter tall turkey

[ghost-angel]

Getting past the Cool Idea part and into the crunch of Hero can be daunting... so the first bit of advice, unless there's an experienced Hero Gamer in the group who knows the systems basic mechanics, make sure everyone is on board with the idea that Character and Power Builds may need some adjusting and tweaks over the first few sessions.

 

Help with the math is a bit vague, so unless you have a more specific question here's some basic ideas to run with that are a good starting place;

 

Keep everything in an easily containable number of dice, which is usually in the 50-60 Active Point Range (60 is a nice standard number most people go with, and a lot of published material assumes);

 

The first thing is to familiarize yourself, and the group, with the Active Point and Real Point differences. What a Power costs and how powerful a Power are can be two different things.

 

The basic math behind what a Power costs is:

 

Base Points (this is the Points Per Dice Of Effect and Adders) * (1 + All Advantages Added together)

 

This total is your Active Points. e.g. : 10 Meters of Flight (1 point per Meter = 10 Points) + x2 Non Combat Movement (5 Points as an Adder) = 15 Base Points.

The player wants the Flight to cost 0 Endurance, which is a +1/2, and they want to turn on a dime and also get No Turn Mode for +1/4.

15 Base Points * (1 + 1/2 + 1/4) = 15 * 1 3/4 = 26.25; you round normally to the nearest whole number, so that power is 26 Active Points.

 

Now, the character also wants the special effect of that power to be "Ion Propulsion System" build into their power armor, which is being defined as a "Obvious Inaccessible Focus (OIF)", a Limitation worth -1/2. Which brings us to Real Point calculation:

Active Points / (1 + All Limitations Added together). The thing to remember is that this step is the absolute value of the Limitations, they're printed as -1/2, -1, etc.. but you use the positive value here for the math:

26 Active Points / (1 + 1/2) = 26 / 1 1/2 = 17.333... - again round to the nearest whole number and you get 17 Real Points for the following:

 

15 Meters Flight, x2 Non-Combat Speed, 0 Endurance, No Turn Mode (26 Active Points); OIF: Power Armor (17 Real Points).

 

Dice Rolls:

First bit of advice is to turn the Attack Roll in to an Attack Skill like any other skill, it uses 11 + OCV = Attack Roll. If you have a 5 OCV your Attack Roll is 16- and then you add any modifiers directly onto the result (+2 With Hand Combat, -3 for Target Cover is an overall -1 you subtract from the success). If you roll a 10 you made your Attack Roll by 6, this directly equates to a targets DCV: if they're DCV is 6 or Lower you Hit; with a -1 your Success becomes a 5, lowering the DCV you hit to a 5 or less.

 

Effect/Damage Rolls:

Normal Damage: roll all the dice, count the total, this is your Stun Damage. for Body Damage: 1s = 0, 2-5s = 1, 6s = 2 Body. The fast way to do this is group your dice into piles of 1s, 6s, and everything else rolled. subtract the number of 1s Rolled from the number of 6s Rolled, add this number to the number of dice you rolls, that's your Body Damage.

frex: I roll 10D6 for my Eye Beams and roll: 1,4,5,6,4,2,4,1,1,5.

I have three 1s, and one 6. 1 - 3 = -2. I rolled ten dice. 10 + -2 = 8; I did 8 Body.

 

Effect Rolls: just like Normal Damage only you just count the total.

 

Breakout/Breaking Inanimate Objects: When a roll calls for the Body of a Dice, it's just the Body Damage of a Normal Damage Roll. Inanimate objects don't take Stun, so the total means nothing. If you're breaking out from a Grab or Entangle with your Raw Strength, you just need the Body Damage of the dice.

 

Killing Damage: the total on the dice is the Body Damage. Multiply that number by the Stun Multiplier you're using (There are choices here: we usually use a straight x2 in our games as it's simpler and reduces dice rolling).

 

 

Which book are you using as your primary Rule Book? the Sixth Edition Books, the 5th Edition Books, or something like Champions Complete? That will help us get more helpful knowing exactly which rulebook you're holding to look at (we can cite page numbers along with explanations).

[Hyper-Man]

Here are links to a couple of fan made 6e GM screens:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6083133/Hero6eGMScreen.pdf

https://9db5d55d-a-bf34763c-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/legendsmiths.com/legendsmiths/downloads/HeroReferenceSheet-Landscape.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cplUSILTH5k5QbGHqCcO0iPDswtIXfaSbjPJh6joG2Jok0QJdC0Q-J3s0JtlcBSbJtPL_W_DeFOMamM-DprGcI7tY1F2qqUqSrUCJl_k-qNfBkhuFpu26bgVWlvxireJ540SzxYwFhO6qoL2B5gzRy7VnClSKmxR-BS3z5-7WdG-iR3EPV7m7kg1BvBjDkMahJ6lltN2_qgesoT7Y8kBEWvV5zv0Kw_6cl1slGUty4BpOTBDbyhL5of92LBDnV42vFlwa9E&attredirects=1

 

and here is a link to the free Hero in 2 Pages document:

http://www.herocentral.net/herocentral/get/files/premium/Hero2Page.pdf

[Hyper-Man]

I understand that you aren't looking for story ideas but the Danger Room idea from Lucius is still a good one as it would allow you a controlled situation to better learn the rules and the PC's capabilities.  Heck, it's a good idea just using pre-gens from the the books at first to help you get up to speed.

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK the bare bones of hero work like this:

 

If you want to hit a target you are trying to roll 11 or lower on 3d6.  So a roll of 10 hits, but a roll of 12 does not.

You add your OCV to that 11, so it gets easier to hit.  If your OCV is 7 that makes the roll 18, so any roll on 3d6 hits. 

However your target lowers that 11 by their DCV.  So if they have a 5 DCV, that makes the number 6.

 

SO:

OCV adds to your chance to hit your opponent

DCV lowers from your opponent's chance to hit you

 

The easy way to do this (so you don't have to mess with any of the math or figuring stuff out) that I've found this is to use this little formula (wait!  Don't run away!  Its easy!)

 

OCV+11 - 3d6 roll

 

Its not algebra, honest, there are no x's!  Check it out.  Take the example with the 8 OCV above, let's call her Maelstrom.  Meet Maelstrom:

 

 

Maelstrom has an OCV of 8, so you take her OCV and add it to 11 for a total of 19.

Then when she rolls to hit, she rolls 3d6.  That result of the 3 dice added together is subtracted from her 19.

So she rolls 3d6 and gets 10:

 

 

not bad!  So you subtract the dice roll (10) from her number (19) and get a result of 9 (19-10 = 9).  That's the DCV she hit.

The lower you roll, the higher the DCV Maelstrom hits.  The higher you roll, the lower the DCV you hit, until Maelstrom just misses entirely and hides behind a dumpster hoping nobody noticed.

 

That's your basic combat roll for everything, mental combat, or whatever.  OCV vs DCV.  This can be modified by all kinds of stuff like coverage, dodging, skill levels, size, and so on but at first, just stick with the super easy basics.  Your OCV vs the target's DCV.

 

OK so let's say Maelstrom was shooting at a Viper Agent:

 

 

He's got a DCV of 5, our example at the top.  So Maelstrom hit a 9, which is significantly better than 5, so she hits easily.  Blammo.  What happens next?

 

Damage.

 

In Hero, once you've hit a target, damage is reduced by defenses.  So lets say Maelstrom has a nice crackly Blast power of Zybartic Energy©!  Its got extra Kirby Dots!  This is a "normal" attack, just a plain old blast of energy, we'll get to "killing" attacks in just a bit.  So Maelstrom's Zybartic blast does 8d6 of damage let's say.  Since she already hit, all that's left is to damage the Viper Agent.

Looking at his Character Sheet, we find that the Viper Agent has 3 ED (Energy Defense) and Resistant Protection of 3 ED.  Maelstrom's blast is energy, so it goes against this.  If it was physical it would go against his PD, which is higher, but no matter how much he tries to bribe you (the GM) with skittles, its still energy.  This combines for a total of 6 ED (and 3 resistant ED but we'll worry about that later).

 

Now, damage comes in two flavors: delicious Stun and crunchy Body.

Stun is how much damage a character can sustain before they are knocked unconscious.  If you look at character sheets, they have a "Stun" characteristic: that's how much Stun damage they can take; at 0 they are knocked out.

Body is how much damage a character can sustain before they start to die.  Again, characters have a "Body" characteristic.  At 0 body, they start to bleed each turn until they die.  A character dies when they reach an equal to their starting Body score in negative numbers (so if Viper Agent starts with 10 body, at -10 body, he is bleeding demised).

 

So how does this play out?

Well, an 8d6 blast means you roll 8 dice.  Maelstrom rolls her 8d6 and gets a total of 22.  I don't have a cool picture of 8 dice so I'll just write them out (because it matters):

 

d6 #1 = 6

d6 #2 = 1

d6 #3 = 3

d6 #4 = 2

d6 #5 = 3

d6 #6 = 2

d6 #7 = 2

d6 #8 = 3

 

Maelstrom rolled... poorly.  Still, its enough to ring Viper Agent's bell.

 

You add up the spots on the dice, the total, to determine the Stun damage, in this case 22.

Now you find out how much Body damage the dice did.  Zybartic blasts hurt!  To add up body damage, each die you roll deals one body, except 1's deal none and 6's deal 2.  Hold on, its not actually too crazy.

The easy shortcut way to add body is this:

add up the dice.  Subtract the number of ones and add the number of sixes.

 

So Maelstrom's roll there gives you 8 for the number of dice, minus 1 for the 1 she rolled on d6#2 (set that one in time out for being a bad die); now add 1 for the 6 she rolled on d6#1 (good d6).

In other words, she got 8 body.  Just count the dice, add the sixes and subtract the ones.  Quick and easy.

 

Now we have Maelstrom's full damage here.  22 Stun and 8 Body.  Just a bit under average stun and average body.

 

Then we turn to Viper Agent's Energy Defense of 6.  Any normal energy damage done to the Viper Agent is reduced by this total, so in this case, Maelstrom's blast is reduced to 16 Stun and 2 Body.  Ouch.  A lot of times, the body doesn't get through defenses (usually Hero players say it "bounces" when that happens).  Not for Mr Viper.  The blast burns his spray-tanned chest, and he just had it waxed!

 

Oh, but things get worse for the Viper Agent.  We look at his character sheet again and see that he has 13 Constitution.  This now comes into play, because if a character takes more than their CON score in Stun damage in a single attack, he's "stunned."  As we see in the rules, a "stunned" character is reduced to 1/2 DCV, cannot move, and can do nothing next phase they act except recover from being stunned.  Its like running into a cupboard door in the middle of the night, it just dazes and hurts so bad you do nothing but say "OW" and recover a moment.

 

Viper Agent is in bad shape, because he has a much lower Speed than Maelstrom, and can't do anything until he recovers from being stunned.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Now it gets more lethal.  Unseen by Maelstrom, another Viper Agent (2) is behind her, and he has a knife!  This is a killing attack.

 

Normal Attacks are things like baseball bats, cold blasts, fists, lightning bolts, etc.  Any attack not enormously lethal, instead tending to knock people out.

Killing Attacks are things like flame throwers, knives, bullets, arrows, and so on.  Any attack that tends to kill targets.

 

Viper Agent 2 swings at Maelstrom and he rolls a 5!  His OCV (looking at his character sheet) is not great, only a 5, but with that roll he hits a...

16-5 = 11

Eleven DCV!  Maelstrom doesn't have an 11 DCV.  When you get more comfortable with the system you can start modifying stuff like attacks from surprise halving DCV and so on, but either way... he pokes Maelstrom in the back.  How rude!

 

The knife is a 1d6+1 killing attack (physical).  It does physical "killing damage."

Maelstrom has a Physical Defense (PD) of 6, plus a force field that gives her Resistant Defense of 10 PD.  This adds up to 16 Physical Defense, but only 10 resistant physical defense.

 

The Physical Defense [PD] of a character is like Energy Defense above: it reduces the amount of stun a character suffers from physical attacks.

Resistant Physical Defense [also called rPD] (and resistant energy defense) reduces the amount of body a character suffers from killing attacks (either physical or energy).

 

So attacks like knives and bullets will tear right through a target unless they have some sort of resistant defenses - armor, scales, a force field, Captain America's shield, etc.

Characters get their ordinary PD and ED against the stun of physical and energy attacks of any kind, but they only get defenses against the body of killing attacks if its resistant.

 

Viper Agent 2 rolls really well with his knife too; a roll of 5 (+1), dealing 6 body!  He's on a roll!

Now he has to determine the stun damage.  According to the base rules the simplest and most straight forward way to do this is roll a d3 (or a d6 and then half the results).  Viper Agent 2 rubs his hands together in glee, and rolls.  He gets a 3!

Now he takes the Body damage the knife did (6) and multiplies it by 3.

 

In his attack, the Viper Agent beat the odds and did 6 body and 18 stun total.

 

Maelstrom reduces this by her 16 PD and 10 rPD.

 

The knife's 6 body vs Maelstrom's 10 rPD means that the body Bounces.  It could not penetrate her crackling Zybartic Force Field!

However, the knife attack's 18 stun goes against Maelstrom's 16 PD, so 2 stun gets through.  It hurt a little.

 

Just enough to make Maelstrom turn with a grin and try a presence attack.

[Christopher R Taylor]

What's a Presence Attack?  Why its one of the coolest things the Hero System has!

 

Basically its the ability to use your charisma, force of will, and impressiveness to overwhelm the courage and morale of a target (or, to help embolden and encourage others).

Looking at Maelstrom's character sheet, she has a Presence (PRE) of 20.  She's impressive like a body builder is strong.

If someone does a presence attack, the divide their PRE stat by 5 and they get that number in dice - in Maelstrom's case, 4d6 (20/5=4).

And we see under her Talents that Maelstrom has the Striking Appearance talent, which gives her +2d6 to presence attacks.  She's really impressive.  So her base presence attack is 6d6!

 

Now, if you want to explore this more you can see that there are various modifiers to presence attacks in the rules; situational things like making a really impressive speech, demonstrating great power, outnumbering the opponent, and so on all affect that roll.  It can be amazingly effective in the right circumstances.

 

You can stun or awe foes so badly they lose actions, are reduced in DCV, can't move as far, and even might just surrender on the spot.  They're good to do when making a really impressive entrance or amazingly effective attack, because they make you feel cool and can really turn the tide of battle.

[bigdamnhero]

The keys to GMing Champions successfully IMO are:

 

1) Detailed GM notes. The more you have to look up, the more things slow down and the more likely you are to make mistakes. In particular, have everyone's SPD & DEX at hand; I do a simple matrix of Phase 1-12 across the top, and DEX descending down. Seems simple, but it's amazing how much time you can save if you don't have to do the "Okay, Phase 4, who goes on 4?...Anyone...okay, what's your DEX?"

 

2) The opposite of #1: most of the "math" on the character sheets are only needed for character creation, but not during play. So if possible, delete all the +1/4, -1/2 stuff from the actual sheets your going to play with. Yes, that may mean you'll wind up with 2 character sheets, one for points and one for playing, but it's MUCH simpler.

 

3) I create an Attacks Table for every PC & NPC that lists all of their major attack options, with their Attack Roll (OCV +11 +any specific modifers, as per Ghost Angel's post above), how many skill levels they have with that attack, their DCV while they're doing it, how much much Damage they do, how much END they burn of [Charges] they use, and any notes. Here's an example, for a Hawkeye-type archer with decent martial arts:

 

Hawk Guy Atk Skill DCV Damage END Notes Base Attack 19- +0 7 2½d6 1   Bow & Arrow 19- +5 7 3d6 K, AP [12]  or 12d6 Blast, or 6d6 NND Boxing Cross 19- +2 9 4½d6 1   Karate Chop 17- +2 7 1d6+1 K 1   Throw 19- +2 8 2½d6 +v/10 1 Hold @ 23 STR Hold 18- +2 6 2½d6 1 23 STR to Hold 2 Limbs Choke Hold 17- +2 7 2d6 NND 1 13 STR to Hold 1 Limb Judo Disarm 18- +2 8 --- 1 23 STR to Disarm Escape 19- +2 8 --- 1 28 STR vs. Holds Block 21- +2 9 --- 1 or Dodge @ DCV 10

 

 

4) Keep things moving and don't sweat the rules too much; Champions plays best (IMO) when you don't let it get bogged down into a tactical miniatures game.

 

5) For starting out, ignore all Optional Maneuvers, skip most of the Optional Rules, etc. (Except Knockback - gotta use Knockback for a supers fight!) Agree with your players that you'll keep character builds very simple at first - give everyone one or two decent attacks with minimal Advantages & Limitations. You can also ignore END initially; one less thing to keep track of. Once you've got that down, you can add more variations & cool options. So that table I posted above with a dozen different attacks is probably too much for a newbies game.

 

6) The first combat you run will be slow, confusing, and probably frustrating for everyone. Accept that. Talk to your players and seriously consider running a playtest game with characters that no one is too attached to. Maybe even use pre-gens from the book. Maybe even everyone gets one PC (including you) and you just knock each other around for an hour or two until you've got the hang of things. Then move onto an actual scenario with actual characters and such - your 2nd combat will be miles easier!

 

7) Don't forget: Rule Of Fun trumps every other rule in the book!

 

8) As far as books go, if you haven't picked up Champions Complete, that's much simpler to make sense of than going through the full 6e1&2 textbooks.

 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[Lucius]

"Champions" is what they call it when you're running a superhero type game with Hero System. so if you're running X-men inspired scenarios and using Hero System rules, what you're doing is going to get called "Champions" by most people here online, even if you and your players don't call it that.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary prefers the Safe Room to the Danger Room 

[Christopher R Taylor]

I agree about knockback.  In superhero fights, its just extra fun and feels more like the comics.  After all, when the Hulk punches Thor, he doesn't go "ow," he goes flying through several things and crashes into a wall.

 

So, knockback works like this:

 

Count up the body damage the attack did, the total as I showed above, for either killing or normal damage.  It doesn't matter if the attack is energy or physical.  This is before defenses: its the raw energy of the attack that matters not how much it hurts.

So Maelstrom's Zybartic blast of 8 body gives you 8.

 

Then you roll dice to see if the target goes anywhere.  For a normal attack, roll 2d6 and subtract what you roll from the body total.  Lets say you roll six:

So 8- the die roll of 6=2!  Double this for the number of meters you knock your target.

Bang, back flies Viper Agent 4 meters.  Eventually you can get into rules like what happens when hits a wall, how to stay standing, and so on, but just knock things around for now.

If you knock a target back, then the target is also knocked prone.  They're 1/2 DCV and have to take a half phase to stand up if they want to.

So Viper Agent is stunned, prone, and 4m back from Maelstrom.  He's seriously reconsidering his career choices.

 

With a killing attack (KA), you do the same thing, but use 3d6 (because the damage in a KA is more body and less impact).

So Viper Agent 2 stabs for 6 body with his dagger.  He wants to knock Maelstrom down in solidarity with his fallen comrade.  He rolls, but because the knife is a KA, he rolls 3d6:

 

Viper Agent 2 is en fuego!  You cannot stop Viper Agent 2, you can only hope to contain him!

So with a roll of 3, that's 6-3 or 3!  Multiply this times 2 for the number of meters they go flying and Maelstrom is slammed staggering to the ground for 6 meters!  That was some hit!

 

There are all kinds of variants to this, in the air you subtract a die, underwater you add a die, and so on.  Some advantages affect this (there's a double knockback attack) and with enough power and advantages you can get an effect like Binary when she first met Rogue in the X-Men:

 

 

To the moon, Marie!

[Steve]

I agree about simple builds at first to get the hang of how the system flows, and I would suggest buying a few powers straight up and avoiding power frameworks like Multipowers, if possible.

 

Once you understand how phases work, how to hit, calculate damage and such, start adding in more options.

 

One suggestion I have on calculating body damage quickly is to compare the number of ones and sixes that come up on a roll for normal damage. Add one to the number of dice for each six and subtract one for each one rolled. That is your body damage.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Some quick notes I posted in another thread, just in case!

 

RECOVERING

You can get back stun (and endurance, but lets not worry about that until you're more familiar with the system) with your Recovery stat.  Each phase you spend doing nothing except recovering, you gain a number of Stun equal to your Recovery stat.  At the end of each turn right after segment 12, everyone gets a free recovery, gaining back Stun and END equal to their recovery score.  You recover Body back from the same stat, but at a much slower rate.  Note: if you are stunned, you must spend a phase recovering from being stunned before you can begin getting any Endurance or Stun back.  Sometimes you can be both knocked unconscious and stunned by an attack; that was a really, really hard hit.

 

SPEED

Speed is how often you move.  Each "turn" of combat is made up of 12 seconds, called 'segments.'

 

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

 

Your speed is divided as evenly as possible along this 12-second turn, showing which 'phase' you move on.  The higher your speed, the more you move in a turn.

The normal untrained person has a speed of 2.  This mean he moves on phase 6 and 12:

 

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

 

If you're faster, you move more often.  Most superheroes are 4-6 speed for example:

SPEED FOUR

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

 

SPEED FIVE

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

 

SPEED SIX

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12

 

Everyone always moves on segment 12.  The faster you are, the more dangerous and effective you are in combat, but speed is very expensive, so you give up other things to get that fast.  If someone moves on segment 7... be afraid.  Be very afraid.

 

SKILLS

You'll see almost all skill shave a roll, often abbreviated like 12-.  This means that, as a base use of the skill, you succeed on a roll of 3d6 on a result of 12 or lower.  All skill rolls and "to hit" rolls are done with "roll low:"  the lower you roll, the better.  Your GM will apply modifiers to this roll based on your circumstances, time allowed, the difficulty of the task, tools available, and so on.

[bluesguy]

Also to help with the 'number crunching' during character creation I would highly recommend getting Hero Designer.  Then you don't really have to worry about the math of creating a character.

[Steve]

Here is an article written by KillerShrike that could be helpful.

 

Tactical Principles For Hero

[bigdamnhero]

Edit 6: bigdamnhero - im running a heros system, not champions system o.O last i checked they werent one in the same.

Actually they are. Think of Hero System as the umbrella term, with Champions being specifically "superheroes using the Hero System." For the most part they can usually be used interchangeably, but because Champions came first (ie they made the superhero game first and then rolled out the generic system a few years later), and because of the MMO, Champions has a lot better name recognition than Hero.

[Deadman]

I think that Chris did a good job of giving you the information on how to handle the dice rolls and so forth.  Here is my suggestion on running combat set out in an example format of a quick combat of two heroes (Granite - a brick and Switch - a teleporting martial artist) and Lazer (an energy projecting villain with flight) and 4 henchmen.

 

Conduct everything that leads up to combat like any other RPG.  Keep in mind that skill rolls, Perception rolls and Characteristic rolls use the (Roll +/- Modifiers or less rule).

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So our heroes have received a trouble report about a Supervillain and his henchmen robbing a bank in their vicinity.  Since they are both somewhat overconfident they decide to teleport into the bank since Switch can see into the window.

 

GM: "You appear inside the bank, it is really a good thing that it is a slow day.  There are about 10 patrons lying on the floor, three henchmen equipped with some sort of energy rifles are at the teller windows where employees are stuffing money into bags.  Near the back of the lobby a garishly dressed man in a black and yellow costume is standing over a man dressed in a suit.  He is in mid sentence when you show up...and don't anyone move a muscle!  He isn't surprised by your entrance (GM rolled a Perception roll for Lazer) and says, Well what do we have here?  Looking to save the day heroes?  I don't think so!"

 

"Okay now that we are in combat let's use the Speed chart.  Everyone will act on Phase 12 in Dex order.  Switch your 27 Dex means you go first."

 

Switch: "I want to keep him from attacking the guy in the suit, how far is he away from me?"

 

GM: "He is about 20 meters away."

 

Switch: "Okay that is exactly half of my Teleport of 40 meters.  I will teleport next to Lazer and kick him.  I have a 9 OCV after the -2 for the maneuver and my levels (+2 with Martial Arts).  I rolled a 12 which hits an 8 DCV (11+9-12)"

 

GM: "You hit (Lazer had a DCV of 7 which hits by one), roll damage."

 

Switch: My Kick is 10d6 (20 STR + 4d6 Maneuver + 2 Damage Classes), I rolled 36 Stun and 11 Body.

 

GM: {subtracts Lazer's 15 PD force field and PD of 5 from the total resulting in 16 Stun and no Body - Next rolls 3d6 (+1d6 since it was a Martial Attack) which results in 12 and compares it with the Body of the attack to determine Knockback, there is none.}  "You hit him solidly but he manages to stay put and isn't stunned (Lazer has a Constitution of 18 so the attack didn't pass his CON)."

 

"Okay, Granite your Dex is 14 so Lazer attacks next.  He flies away from Switch toward the front of the bank and up to the ceiling (a half move) and fires back at Switch.  What is your DCV Switch?"

 

Switch: "I have a 9 DCV plus 1 for my maneuver, so 10."

 

GM: {rolls 3d6 for Lazer getting a 7, he adds 11 to Lazer's OCV of 9 (OCV 7 + 2 levels with his multipower) for 20, subtracts 3 for range and finally subtracts 7 for the roll resulting in 10}  "Lazer hits you with a bright red beam.  {Rolls 4d6 for Lazer's killing attack getting 14 then rolls 1d3 (half of 1d6) for a 2}  You take 14 Body and 28 Stun of energy killing damage."

 

Switch: "Can I dodge?"

 

GM: "You already acted this phase so no.  You also need to say that before I roll for him."

 

Switch: {Consults his sheet and sees that Switch has an ED of 8 and 8 Resistant Defense bought as Armor with an Activation roll of 14 or less.  He rolls 3d6 and gets a 12.}  "Well my armor activated so I take 6 Body (14 - 8) and 12 Stun (28 - 16).  I am not Stunned but I took some serious Body."

 

GM: "Ouch!  Okay Granite your 14 Dex can go now."

 

Granite: "Is there anything near me?"

 

GM: "There is a large Kiosk with deposit slips and literature very close to you.  It's pretty big and fills up about a hex but your 60 Strength should be able to lift it easily."

 

Granite: "I will grab it and throw it at the henchmen, are they in a line and can I hit all of them?"

 

GM: "Hmmm...Good move, they are in a line along the counter.  As long as you do some Knockback to each of them the Kiosk will keep going and do some damage to each of them if you hit.  Since it is so big it is an Area Effect attack so you only need to hit the hex."

 

Granite: "I rolled a 9 which hits a 7 DCV (5 OCV + 11 = 16 - 9 = 7)"

 

GM: "Okay, you take a minus two for Range but still hit the hex.  You will do your Strength Damage and as long as you continue to do knockback and hit you will roll damage for the next agent."

 

Granite: "I got 46 Stun and 12 Body"

 

GM: {rolls activation of 12- on Agent's Armor, which succeeds and subtracts Agents PD+Armor of 11 resulting in 35 Stun and 1 Body. Then rolls 2d6 for Knockback and gets a 4 so 8 Knockback} "That agent is down for the count and the kiosk keeps going.  Make another attack roll against the next guy's hex.

 

Granite: "I rolled a 10 which hits a 6 DCV."

 

GM: "You get an additional minus one for Range but you still hit (3+3=6 DCV). Roll 8d6 Damage against the second Agent."

 

Granite: "I got 33 Stun and 10 Body."

 

GM: "Nice Roll! {rolls activation on Agent's Armor which succeeds and subtracts Agent's PD+Armor of 11 resulting in 22 Stun and no Body. The Agent is stunned.  Rolls 2d6 for Knockback and gets a 5, so 5 Knockback}  "The kiosk hits him pretty hard and he looks dazed.  Make another attack roll against the next guy's hex, you're on a roll.

 

Granite: "I rolled a 6!  That hits a 10 DCV!"

 

GM: "Wow!  Go ahead and roll 5d6 for damage to the 3rd guy."

 

Granite: "I got 21 Stun and 6 Body."

 

GM: {rolls activation on Agent's Armor, which fails and subtracts Agent's PD resulting in 17 Stun and 2 Body. This Agent is Stunned as well. Rolls 2d6 for Knockback and gets an 8 so no more knockback.}  He gets thumped too and looks dazed, nice job!

 

Granite: "Granite yells out STEEERIKE!"

 

GM: "A fourth agents rounds the corner at the end of the hall and sees what happened to the others.  He immediately runs back around the corner out of sight.  That ends 12th Phase, everyone apply Recovery to Stun and Endurance."  {Adds Lazer's Recovery of 6 to his Stun total of 12 resulting in 18}

 

"Okay, no one has first phase, can anyone act on second?"

 

Switch: "I have a 6 Speed, I can act."

 

GM: "Go ahead"

 

Switch: "How far away is he?"

 

GM: "About 15 meters and he is 3 meters in the air."

 

Switch: "Okay, I will half move to him and hit him with my nunchuckus.  I am doing a Martial Strike with them and using my levels with DCV.  I have an 8 OCV and rolled a 12 hitting a 7 DCV (8+11-12=7).

 

GM: "You teleport into the air next to him and smack him, roll damage."

 

Switch: "My Martial Strike is 8d6 and I get 3d6 for my nunchuckus so 11d6.  I rolled 37 Stun and 10 Body.

 

GM: {subtracts Lazer's Force Field and PD of 20 from the total resulting in 17 Stun and no Body.} "Oh, so close.  Again he looks shaken but isn't Stunned or Unconscious.  You drop to the ground but it's only 3 meters so I won't make you roll Breakfall.  Okay, it is Phase 3.  Lazer and Granite in that order.  Lazer looks at the two of you and seems to decide that it isn't worth it.  He crashes through the window and flies off. The two Agents that aren't Unconscious just put their hands behind their heads and say, We know the drill."

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So while this doesn't take every situation into account it should give you an idea of how to transition from phase to phase and keep things moving along.  You said that your players are familiar with the system so have them help you out.  I hope that helps.