Adventuring group essential tropes?

[Ninja-Bear]

Why? Especially on the last Three?

When I think D&D thats what I think, right or wrong. By the way I also mix and confuse DnD and ADnD.

[Old Man]

As GM I discovered that I was the player in our group that wanted to be leader and wanted to make decisions about what we did as a group.

Thank goodness it's not just me. Not that I really want to be the one making decisions, but like you, I found myself in a group of players that just refused to make decisions. That player just wants to hit things, and that player doesn't want the responsibility (?), and that player... I guess just wants to be railroaded. So frontal assault it is!

[Old Man]

Poor GM was almost in tears because he had things planned out for the crossing not for the end of the journey.  That was the one adventure we played with him as a GM.

Which is why improv skill is so important to GMing.

 

Back on topic--because FH doesn't have classes, I'd really be more inclined to find out what the players want to play and try to tailor the campaign to that, rather than hold to some sort of team-makeup trope. Perhaps all the players will want to run thieves, and you could run a Thieves' World campaign. The only thing you really need to watch out for is making sure each character gets time in the spotlight.

 

Oh, and healing. If there's no party healer then healing potions need to grow on trees.

[Nolgroth]

Or the players really need to pick their battles. Natural healing rates in Hero most RPG games suck and is certainly a deterrent towards randomly attacking people. 

 

But you are absolutely correct about the importance of GMing and the ability to improv.

[eepjr24]

Or the players really need to pick their battles. Natural healing rates in Hero most RPG games suck and is certainly a deterrent towards randomly attacking people. 

Except for the new D&D 5e. Sleep overnight? All damage gone.

 

- E

[Nolgroth]

Except for the new D&D 5e. Sleep overnight? All damage gone.

 

- E

 

Yeah, but D&D is to roleplaying games like Macdonalds is to cuisine. It's quick and sometimes even satisfying but there is often far better fare just down the street.

[Ndreare]

Yeah, but D&D is to roleplaying games like Macdonalds is to cuisine. It's quick and sometimes even satisfying but there is often far better fare just down the street.

I believe I will edit this a bit and steal it.

 

"D&D is to roleplaying games what McDonalds is to cuisine. It's quick, rarely satisfying and there is often far better fare just down the street."

 

Can I still attribute it to you?

[Old Man]

Man, what did McDonald's do to you guys?  D&D is more like vending machine burritos, or that 7-11 hot dog that you know has been there since yesterday.

[Nolgroth]

I believe I will edit this a bit and steal it.

 

"D&D is to roleplaying games what McDonalds is to cuisine. It's quick, rarely satisfying and there is often far better fare just down the street."

 

Can I still attribute it to you?

 

Sure. Why not.

[Nolgroth]

Man, what did McDonald's do to you guys?  D&D is more like vending machine burritos, or that 7-11 hot dog that you know has been there since yesterday.

 

I thought Hybrid filled that niche? Or is that the leftovers that have been mixed up in the dumpster out back?

[Amorkca]

Of course its the classic Warrior, Cleric, Thief, Dwarf and Elf!

 

Can they be one character??

[Rails]

One very confused character.

[Old Man]

Sounds like a middle school campaign to me.

[Wardsman]

Man, what did McDonald's do to you guys?  D&D is more like vending machine burritos, or that 7-11 hot dog that you know has been there since yesterday.

Someone dubbed it the game where you learn to become murder hobos. 

I would add racists murder hobos. After all you go into someone else's home, kill them and take their shit. And why did you kill the kobolds? Because they are kobolds!

At least RQ gave reasons the elves disliked humans or why everyone disliked the trolls.

[Wardsman]

Hi, 

 

I am finally starting a Fantasy Hero game. As I've posted here before, I have been playing Champions since the early 80's but have never played Fantasy Hero. I've had the Fantasy Hero books but could never convince my group (even with D&D'ers among them) to play. I've got Fantasy Hero Complete, Turakian Age and I just ordered Fantasy Hero Battlegrounds and Monsters etc. As we begin to make our characters for the big game, I find myself falling back on the genre I know best. In a successful Superhero group, it is always good practice to have a brick, a mentalist, perhaps a speedster and a martial artist or similar nimble melee combatant. 

 

Does a Fantasy Hero group of adventurers benefit from having a diverse group of character classes that line up with this roster? I remember watching Conan the Destroyer in 1984 thinking, "Ha, this could be my old D&D group!" They had the titular barbarian strongman, mage, thief, cleric and a kickass female warrior with a staff. 

 

In your games, do you often have such obvious archetypes fulfilling the various roles or do your players just bring their favorite characters even if that means a group of four stealthy thieves storming the castle?

Getting back BW questions, how well do you know your target group and what is their style of play and what do they want?

Again if they want something akin the D&D tropes it can be done. Even without being slavish in how D&D executes the trope. In other words yo replicate in hero without being exact copies.

 

Or replicate it down to vancian magic if you want.

 

Or you do something completely different. However you like.

 

I would poll your group about setting preferences and character types. They may not want magic at all except in NPC hands.  Sword and Sorcery does that alot.

Or they may all want to be mages. I'd lean toward everyone being a different magic college in that one.

 

Find out what tweaks their interest fantasy wise then build it. 

[bigdamnhero]

Or they may all want to be mages. I'd lean toward everyone being a different magic college in that one.

Right. RPGs can get boring if the PCs are too much alike, but the open-ended nature of Hero allows you to make very different characters that in other systems would all fall under the same class. Mages from different schools is one example. A cleric of Thor should have a very different set of powers than a priest of Dionysus, let alone a Christian priest. You can have one fighter who's a big slow brick, while the fighter next to him is a fast, skilled martial artist. Etc.

[eepjr24]

nods. I have two players with rogues in the works for my current FH campaign. One is a halfling urchin cat burglar who dabbles heavily in alchemy. The other looks more like an elven outcast assasin with warlock tendencies. They will probably have some skill overlaps, but the application is TOTALLY different.

 

- E

[Ninja-Bear]

Well to tweak what Bigdamnhero said is that RPG are biring if people dont try to the R-roleplaying. You can have two mechanically identical characters play completely different in game. Don't get me wrong, its nice to have variety in characters butbit is really the player that can make the difference. Also the player doesn't need to be a great actor either. As long as they put in the effort it gets contagious to other players and that makes a great game.

[Wardsman]

A lot depends on setting and its power level.

 

I used to play RQ3 and ran a dual initiate Orlanth /Trickster. One party members thought I was silly for going trickster and didn't understand why I didn't pick a thief god.

Thief gods were minor gods tied one city. Each major city(rare in Glorantha) had their own thief god. Logistically that was impossible for a rogue in a wandering party. 

 

Trickster was just about anywhere there was an Orlanth(Major God) Temple. Trickster had many aspects, Thief, Murderer, Liar, Shapeshifter, and more.

Plus Trickster has the Illusion rune. So I had choice of going one very limited thief god that wasn't easy to get to. Or a god that was thief/assassin, a shapeshifter and user of illusions. Which would you choose.

 

It all depends on your world. In polytheistic worlds all clerics are not the same no matter what D&D says.

Some worlds wizards can heal!

If healing herbal potions from hedge wizards are common do you need a cleric? 

If there is no undead do you need a cleric? What if not all clerics can turn undead? Only Humakt worshippers can in Glorantha as he is the God of True Death.

 

A lot depends on your world. If your magic system is based on true names it may hard to use magic against non-mages.

 

The Tropes of Sword & Sorcery are different than High Fantasy or Epic.

 

What kind of world were you thinking of OP?

[Il Dav]

Usually we play fantasy game with at least 1 heavy combat-oriented Character (often a brick of some kind), 1 sneak type (for exploration or stealth action) and 1 magic user. If the campaign is very gritty, add 1 healer, but I find more exciting if characters have hard times in dealing with Body Damage instead of simply waiting for the next time a "Healing Spell" can be used.

 

Additional characters try to be different from the base (for example, if the "main" Warrior is a heavy-armored Knight, a second combat-oriented may be a fast light-armored ranger with two-sword).