Trying to dive back in ...

[L. Marcus]

It was clearer on another read-through. I blame mental exhaustion.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I guess I'd be lacking in marketing fu if I didn't promote my two fantasy adventures as some lower/middle range adventures The Lost Castle and Elenthal's Tower, both downloadable in the Hero store.

[Markdoc]

Just a couple of points.

First off if you want to play sword and sorcery, dashing-derring-do type games, then yes, the comments that the suggested points totals are too high ... way too high ... are spot on. I have no idea why people think a 175 point fantasy hero character is equivalent to a 1st level DnD character. A first level D&D mage (4E excepted) is a decent match for 3-4 shopkeepers armed with improvised weapons. A mighty barbarian is better off - he can probably take 5-6 shopkeepers ... if he's lucky.

 

A first level D&D wizard can cast 3 spells a day (plus 3 cantrips, or very minor magics as often as he likes). These spells give him - at their most powerful - a better than even chance of taking down a shopkeeper. He might be able to turn invisible ... for 6 seconds a day. He's likely barely competent with 3 or 4 skills and incompetent at everything else. In contrast, a fantasy Hero mage starting at 175 points is sleeping on the job if he can't fly, turn invisible at will, erect forcefields to keep out any mundane weapon, or alter his shape ... and very likely several of these things ... in addition to having competence in multiple skills. The same is true of more martial types.

 

Of course, Hero isn't D&D, and you don't need to start everyone off with 25 points (though we did that once, and it was hiilarious: people still talk about that game). The sweet spot seems to be about 75-100 points. That gives people enough to build decent physical stat.s, a decent (for starting heroes) number of skills and some proficiency in their preferred method of murder - be it sharp steel or altered physics.

 

As for the game, to try to run small, think crime. Almost all RPGs thrive on conflict, and to have conflict, you have to have a foil for your heroes. There are plenty of potential hooks, but crime is easy. If your villian - even your behind the scenes villian - is Ba'ad el-Guuy master of a thousand afrits, then your plots are going to skew epic, no matter what you intend initially. If he's the minor son of a local noble family who wants to kills his brother and his Dad to gain the fortified mansion and ravish the daughter of the local miller, then the scope almost naturally will be smaller. I ran a very successful game (also fondly remembered) which started with an argument over ownership of a sheep meadow.

 

But it could, just as easily be something like the discovery of a treasure map. There's a fantastic comic (not - inexplicably - available in English) called De Cape et des Crocs, which starts off like that. It's set in a fantasy Renaissance Europe, and despite the fact that it's swashbuckling fantasy with two (or three, or 4, if you count the rabbit) swordsman heroes and pirates and evil money-lenders, it also has sea monsters, wizardry and mad (Renaissance) science. It'd make an awesome campaign.

 

cheers, Mark