Pathfinder to HERO

[bpmasher]

Allright. So I chose a pretty big project for myself: to convert Pathfinder/D&D 3.5 material for campaign use in with miniatures. I've got pawns in PDF -form, so the PF bestiary is pretty much covered, going to get more of course when the time comes, but monsters are covered pretty much.

 

I've been studying Killershrikes D&D conversion site for the past couple of days, stuff seems tightly put together and takes every facet of characters into account. I won't be converting any existing characters, so there is a lot more wiggle room for when choosing what the PCs can do in this campaign.

 

I have a couple of issues though:

1. I'd be playing with tabletop newbies, who have no knowledge of Hero or similar games at all

2. I will probably use my own version of Hero combat system, to make it more random and a bit gamier, to create the feel of board games that are easier to pick up and play for newbies

3. Choosing miniatures for hero -types. Should I go class -specific or just pick the coolest looking minis there are? The selection of fantasy miniatures is vast and the only thing that has to match the pawns is that the scale has to be 28mm. The current heroes of literature and movies always look more and more similar (take Geralt of Rivia/Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings) despite their abilites, so you could make any type of character on top of a mini at this point, which is great (!) but takes a bit away from the classical D&D feel.

4. Choice of campaign world. Golarion vs. Forgotten Realms vs. YOUR FAVORITE. I'd like some feedback on this too, whether it's a setting book or just general pointers when running stuff like this.

 

It's a relief that the pawn boxes contain most of the bestiary monsters, and that there were availabe documents for conversions to Hero. I find the freeform nature of Hero character creation to work with my gaming sensibilites best, and counting dozens of modifiers seems a bit offputting when considering running Pathfinder combat in its raw form, while trying to keep the game flowing. There's my own conversion of Hero combat which (supposedly) runs a lot faster than the standard counting of hit points, but there's the danger of total party kill when facing tougher monsters later on in the campaign. But I suppose it's a feature, not a flaw.

 

 

[drunkonduty]

Good luck! I've been thinking about Pathfinder/HERO conversions a lot lately, since I'm stuck in Pathfinder Hell at the moment. (I haven't complained about Pathfinder on these forums this week, so thanks for the excuse!)

 

As to your actual concerns.

 

1) I don't see this as a problem. I've found HERO much easier to teach than DnD or its equivalents. The only problem I've ever had where a player had trouble with grasping the nuances of the system was with one specific player who couldn't wrap their head around decreasing OCV to do a higher damage attack. The player wanted to use the low attack/high damage attack the whole time, despite the fact that it had a much lower chance of hitting. It was -2 OCV, a significant reduction against similar powered opponents. A fact I explained repeatedly but that they couldn't come to terms with. They fixated on "High Damage Good." They grew frustrated with the game and dropped out. But that is literally the only player  I've ever had who struggled with the system. It was the bell curve for probability that threw them.

 

2) Without knowing more about your own particular version of the combat system I can't comment.

 

3) I love minis. I have many, many minis. Mostly unpainted. And Reaper has just started another Kickstarter (Bones V) to sell me more at a bargain price. Yay! Sorry. What was the question again? Oh right, generic or specific. Look, character specific minis can be hard to come by. Unless you use HERO Forge or similar to custom make your own. That gets expensive fast. Near enough is good enough. If players get into it enough they can buy their own custom made ones or go to the effort of hunting down close matches.

 

4) Well, I really dislike Forgotten Realms. For the usual reasons: Too many super high level NPCs floating about. So detailed there's no room for your own stuff to fit in. World changing events based on meta game rules changes. It's all a bit twee. The maps are good though.

 

I don't love Golarion. It's too kitchen sink for my liking. I don't want Sci-fi AND Low Fantasy AND High Fantasy AND Epic Fantasy AND Russian Folklore AND Dinosaur Riders of the Lost World AND Gothic Horror... You see where I'm coming from. It's very difficult to mix some of these elements together. Mostly it's the sci-fi vs. Fantasy thing. I also see major problems mixing High Fantasy and Low Fantasy. But I'm in danger of digressing into a whole philosophy of world building thing. (Maybe I'll start another thread for that.)

 

Of the 2 choices - Golarion. HERO will at least help make equivalencies between the various stylistic threads of the world a little less jarring. And many of the individual bits are actually quite cool. They only get weird (for me!) when juxtaposed against all the other bits.

 

Best of luck, let us know how it's going. 🙂

[bpmasher]

Yeah. It's going, but not the way I thought it would.

I bought the Pathfinder Beginner Box, to dodge extra work and to just get playing. I've been tinkering with rules for too long, I gotta play something once in a while. I got two newbies on board, and I'll probably enjoy reading the books and running the game.

Conversion work is time-consuming, and with my current energy levels, too demanding. I need a break from my usual routine.

[drunkonduty]

There are  setting books and bestiaries you can buy from the store. They will take out a lot of work. It's easy enough to re-skin the HERO stat blocks with Pathfinder art...

[bpmasher]

Yeah I think te bestiaries would help, BUT I'll run Pathfinder as is for now (Beginner Box), so I can judge whether I want to convert stuff or not.

 

The big idea was to use materials from AD&D (Night Below campaign) D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder to expand the "class options" for players, but with newbies I think the point is moot. They don't care about class options or character building, they want to push miniatures around and participate in group activity.

 

Once I gain the motivation for big projects by starting small, I can look at the huge project again with new energy.

[bpmasher]

Did some conversion work for Hero.

 

Catfolk and Ninja class converted for Fantasy Hero gaming. Gonna buy some minis: Ninjas, samurai, weretiger and human form (probably monk/barbarian -type, and tabaxi rogue minis to start with.

They will either be player characters or additional party members who I get to run alongside the heroes.

 

The initial adventure will be the Black Fang adventure from Pathfinder Beginner Box, just a character conversion and one extra character short. I will be running the iconic Barbarian chick from the PF lore alongside the PC adventurers. I forget her name, but she was in the Pathfinder PC game too. Will be a good bunch of adventurers with her rounding them out.

[HeroGM]

For world's I normally go with Mystara/The Known World. Fun to see my players squirm because they haven't memorized every little thing like they did for Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/Etc...Greyhawk is the same way. Old enough and out of print enough to make it fun.

[Gandalf970]

43 minutes ago, ChaosDrgn said:

For world's I normally go with Mystara/The Known World. Fun to see my players squirm because they haven't memorized every little thing like they did for Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/Etc...Greyhawk is the same way. Old enough and out of print enough to make it fun.

I usually default to Greyhawk as well, keeps me boyz on edge.  ChaosDrgn wow 30+ yrs as a Hero Gamer!  Wish I had stuck with it when I grabbed 1st Edition Fantasy Hero when it was tied to Rolemaster, damn that Rolemaster was great.

[bpmasher]

1 hour ago, ChaosDrgn said:

For world's I normally go with Mystara/The Known World. Fun to see my players squirm because they haven't memorized every little thing like they did for Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/Etc...Greyhawk is the same way. Old enough and out of print enough to make it fun.

 

I don't have the problem of player knowledge. They're very new to RPing in general. We've only played miniatures games so far. Roleplaying will be a new thing for them.

I can use Golarion or Forgotten Realms as I wish.

 

[archer]

2 hours ago, ChaosDrgn said:

For world's I normally go with Mystara/The Known World. Fun to see my players squirm because they haven't memorized every little thing like they did for Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/Etc...Greyhawk is the same way. Old enough and out of print enough to make it fun.

 

Dragonlance would seem  much more fun if you re-wrote the map and swapped a lot of place names because no character took Area Knowledge.

 

Why spend the points when the players know the map?

 

Why indeed....

[pawsplay]

I was thinking the other day P2 has a lot in common with Fantasy Hero. You have action-oriented characters who are capable of cool maneuvers. You have flexible background choices. You have relatively grounded combat magic. P1 is different; I think that's a longer bridge to cross.

I honestly don't know if I'd bother with a Golarion conversion unless I had something really unusual in mind for a campaign.

 

I remember back in the 1990s I participated in a Fantasy Hero game that was a mash-up of AD&D and Palladium materials. Although it was fun to have an escaped gladiator who used the martial arts rules and a warpriest who followed classic Fantasy Hero casting pretty closely, I don't know if it was worth the effort. The GM and one of the players even devised "level" charts to silo how experience was spent and I found that a little peculiar.

[HeroGM]

5 hours ago, Gandalf970 said:

I usually default to Greyhawk as well, keeps me boyz on edge.  ChaosDrgn wow 30+ yrs as a Hero Gamer!  Wish I had stuck with it when I grabbed 1st Edition Fantasy Hero when it was tied to Rolemaster, damn that Rolemaster was great.

 

I started with TSR games along with Traveller in 1981, moved to Hero/Champions in 1983. Still played other games though Hero has been my go to standard.

[Ninja-Bear]

Bpmasher good luck on finding the minis. As popular as ninjas are finding them can be hard it seems.

[Tom Cowan]

4 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Bpmasher good luck on finding the minis. As popular as ninjas are finding them can be hard it seems.

maybe

https://www.heroforge.com/

 

 

[pawsplay]

I have a few D&D ninja minis. Also Reaper carries some "assassin" and thug minis that wear masks, if that's what you're looking for.

[bpmasher]

I found some cool ninja minis:

 

http://titan-forge.com/dragon-empire/245-ninjas

 

Also, catfolk rogue:

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/763803648/tabaxi-rouges-male-and-female-resin?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=catfolk+miniatures&ref=sr_gallery-1-2

 

RPG minis are much more economical, and I can use pawns for monsters and the rest of the cast.

[pawsplay]

Reaper

https://www.reapermini.com/search/ninja

 

It looks like the Dragonblade ninja from Death Knell D&D Miniatures can be had for about $10.