Ninja-Bear

The closest conversion I can think of was in the back of Fantasy Hero 4th appendix. And that was for AD&D 2e, I think. 

Well not exploding dice per se but the “If you roll a 20 on a d20 then you do something neat”.  I’ve used that a couple of times in Basic Fantasy to the enjoyment of the kids.  My youngest suggested that if he rolls a 20 then the dagger he throws at the retreating Kobold M-U hits him before he closes the door. And he got it! So the next game I was telling him his brother and cousin the story and his brother was like “pfffts riddiculous!”. But then he goes if I get a 20 I get to pull a dagger and hit the retreating Bullywug! And lo, and behold, he got it! The excitement in the boy’s eyes when someone pulls out a lucky roll is great!

Ultimately, there is no "point" to any specific fantasy race.  We can have tall, slender humans living in nature, who excel in wizardry and archery.  We can have short, stocky, hirsute humans who live underground, mine, place little stock in social niceties and excel in stonework, whose preferred weaponry is the axe and crossbow. We can have even shorter, nimble humans (halflings are, though, smaller than pygmies) whose feet get hairy, who disdain footwear, live in a rural, agricultural society. They can be stealthy, and prefer weapons like slings.
 
But a bunch of different types of humans doesn't put the "fantastic" in "fantasy", so we lean to fantasy races from legend, and from the works of writers of fantasy.

Well their timing couldn’t be worse. As inflation is on the rise, who can afford $30 a month? When eggs are now a real world loot, gaming is even more a luxury. I think you have a valid point of where Hasboro would like to go but I think they over estimated the brand. 
 
I did change the Halfling from Stout to Lightfoot since Lightfoot is the “original” Halfling from Basic. I know, its the Hairfoot but then they were replaced by lightfoot. So the Dwarves I’ll make are Hill Dwarves. And I think Wood Elf is the original elf.

Well not exploding dice per se but the “If you roll a 20 on a d20 then you do something neat”.  I’ve used that a couple of times in Basic Fantasy to the enjoyment of the kids.  My youngest suggested that if he rolls a 20 then the dagger he throws at the retreating Kobold M-U hits him before he closes the door. And he got it! So the next game I was telling him his brother and cousin the story and his brother was like “pfffts riddiculous!”. But then he goes if I get a 20 I get to pull a dagger and hit the retreating Bullywug! And lo, and behold, he got it! The excitement in the boy’s eyes when someone pulls out a lucky roll is great!

When I herd of Exploding Dice (or, basically read it here), the title made me think of a gambler themed Champions villain who chuck dice at superheroes. 
 
Anyone else think that?

Thanks @Scott Ruggels for the suggestion. So far I just am enjoying flipping through the book and picking up rules as I look up things. Like Two Weapon fighting. 

@Duke Bushido, your house rule about limiting how much explosion reminds me that I’ve seen over on Savage Worlds that some people do the same thing. They like the explosion but limit how much it can wxplode.

Ugh, look at statistics. A single die roll doesn’t mean you have equal chance. To roll any specific number on a D20 is 5%. If you’re attacking (and using Ascending AC) then to hit AC 11 is 50%. To hit AC 16 is 25%. Since 20’s hit then even a lowly level 1 has a 1 in 20 chance to hit. In Hero? That’s a 1 in 216 chance. That could be a bug or a feature depending on how you look at it. 

That is what I’m looking for to base decisions on mechanics with. 
 
Now I just played Art of Wuxia that uses the Bare Bones system. Thar uses 2D10 for percentages. The quirk of the system is that its roll under and if you roll over and get doubles, its a Critical Failure. If you roll under and its double then its a Critical Success.  And quite frankly it has given me the best over the top Kung Fu gaming experience to date. So my point as always been is if the mechanics support the type of game then its “good”. If not then its “bad”.  I wouldn’t recommend this game if that not you like. My long time friend says “I like my Bell Curve”. He had a run of bad rolls. However whenever we play Hero he brags at times that he never misses, my brother and his brother took delight and gave him some ribbing (good naturally). 
 

How is the it weakness? Unless (like my friend) bank on the Bell Curve. If you’re on the right side of the Bell curve then its good but if you’re on the wrong side? Its like saying the exploding dice mechanic of Savage Worlds is wrong. It gives a different different experience. Even the fans of SW will tell you that its whiff, whiff, and either death spiral or bam you’re dead. The thing is if you like that sort of approach then the mechanic is fine. If you don’t  then its not fine for you. That doesn’t mean the mechanic is broken unless you want a different experience.

Something on the order of the original Champions, Hero 5th Sidekick, or the current basic book...
...or, y'know, Fuzion?
 
(Oh, and you know what would really help? Ditch all those 3pt skills and open-ended skills and just use characteristic rolls.  Science Stuff? INT roll.  Want to be a great scientist? Levels with science INT rolls plus Reputation: Great Scientist)

And it gets worse!
 
 
 
The best thing about this thread is the News cycle prevents radical thread drift. 😁

@Old Man, I made a 5e D&D halfling rogue in about a half hour. All by myself. I did use the standard stat array to speed up things and I had to flip around the book a couple of times but still. I did have to make more choices than what I was used too. Using backgrounds and switching out a skill or tool that the class already gave you took some time. I almost felt I was Powergaming but when the book suggests you should put your best stat in what the class calls for, who am I to argue? Initially I put the 8 in Wisdom and 10 in Charisma but after picking my skills? Charisma became the dump stat. I think I could get character creation down to 15 mins. I think it also helps that I’m using miniatures as guidance on what to choose. 

It's in Dragon number 100, August 1985, in an article called CHAMPIONS™  Plus! New powers for CHAMPIONS™  heroes by Steven Maurer:
 

Yea, I’m with @Opal. I’ve seen where if the only chance to hit would be a crit then it isn’t a crit until you have a confirmation roll. Star Wars D6 is the first game that I saw that had the exploding and then they changed that that the wild die if a 1 or 6 had to he re-rolled to confirm if the 6 exploded of if the 1 meant something bad.

Ugh, look at statistics. A single die roll doesn’t mean you have equal chance. To roll any specific number on a D20 is 5%. If you’re attacking (and using Ascending AC) then to hit AC 11 is 50%. To hit AC 16 is 25%. Since 20’s hit then even a lowly level 1 has a 1 in 20 chance to hit. In Hero? That’s a 1 in 216 chance. That could be a bug or a feature depending on how you look at it. 

Well not quite Dune. I couldn’t think at the time but the Supervillain The Slug. He’s from the ancient past and I think his race is referred as Eldar Worms. But definitely a Conan type jungle feel.

I think a game set back when the Eldar Worms were on the Earth would be fun! I think it would be sword and sorcery but you could add fantastic creatures that aren’t D&D but more prehistorical.
My brother’s friend gave him books for D&D 5th. So I might he playing in a game soon. (Depending on real world of course).

Posted this on Facebook but I'll share it here too.
 
I knew Darren Watts for just over 20 years. I first met him in person in line for a burger at the convention center food court the night before Origins 2002. At the time, I was regularly GMing Hero System games at Gen Con (and sometimes Origins). That night, he invited me to join him and Steve Long at their table and from that point on, I felt like I was part of the HERO family.
 
But that was Darren. He had a knack for making people feel welcome, in a way that felt geniune not schmoozy. Hanging out with Darren (and the rest of the Hero folk) becam a cherished part of my convention-going experiences. When he and Diane moved from San Franccisco to New York and Darren got involved with the Double Exposure conventions in NJ, I started attending those cons regualrly. In fact, since I have an aunt who lives in Manhattan, it was not uncommon for me to fly in a couple of days before a Double Exposure con to spend time with my aunt, wander New York City, grab a Tuesday night dinner with Darren before guest starring his current campaign, and then meeting up with him to take the train out to Morristown for the con.
 
I always enjoyed my chats with Darren.And we always seemed to find something to talk about: RPGs and HERO System in particular, the game industry, baseball, comic books, Jeopardy!, movies, musical theater, various TV shows, and more. And every once in a while, those chats would become deeper and more serious. He introduced me to Scoresheet Baseball, a sophisticated fantasy baseball simulation and to Learned League, an ongoing trivia league featuring many Jeopardy! champs and other top trivia players. And while I have never become a fan of Lucha wrestling or Lucha movies, I gained an appreciation for the genre, thanks to Darren.
 
Darren also played a role in getting my game Last Word Standing published. I was having trouble finding a publisher for the game and Darren was doing some consulting work for Chronicle Books' game division. He asked me if I wanted him to talk to Chronicle about the game, I said yes, and they ended up publishing it.
 
In short, Darren Watts had a large impact on my life and his passing has left a huge hole in it. It's hard to believe that there will be no great meals togetherat Chef Fredy's Table, no more drinking Rum Swizzles together at the Hyatt bar, no more texting Darren if I want more info on a player that the Jays have just acquired, no more listening to Darren expound on comic book history on the Explain This, Comics Guys podcast, and most disturbingly, no more Darren.
 
I don't think Darren believed in an afterlife and neither do I, but right now, I kind of hope that we are both wrong. Good-bye, Darren. My life was definitely better for having known you.
 
EDIT: Corrected Origins 2022 to Origins 2002.
 

Yup and that’s also true of Hero. Ideally there should be a way to be able to objectively able to compare games. I do know that D&D is easier to pick up if you all start at first level and you limit what is available. You can start the game and level as things progress. There is less analysis paralysis. The same with Hero if people would embrace for new players and GMs a “first level” and then introduce options would be the best. I find now, especially older, that on paper some of those options aren’t worth adding for my group. And that is another key point about Hero that seems to be lost in the shuffle. Your group. If hit locations work for you great use them. But if they don’t then don’t use them or tell other groups that they must be used if doing normals. 

The bell curve follows my understanding of real world statistics of probability whereas a d20 does not. So 3d6 and 2d6 yields a certain measure of predictability that a d20 does not, and I prefer 3d6 for this reason. As a GM, this helps me in tailoring campaigns and requires far more bad die rolls than a d20 setup does.
 
It’s rarer to see a TPK of heroes using 3d6 than I’ve ever seen using d20 resolution mechanics. This is not to say I’ve never seen them, but they seem to happen far more frequently with a d20 resolution mechanic in my experience, especially when dealing with the lower levels of power.
 
I just don’t find d20 to be statistically reasonable in its outcomes.

"Roll 1d20; high rolls succeed" is not all that different from "roll 3d6; low rolls succeed". Looking at 5e's "bounded accuracy" and with no actual game play, I get the sense that the d20 is the primary determinant of success at all levels, which makes a bell curve seem like a good feature.
 
 
As opposed to "you're fine, you're fine, you're fine, you're knocked out or dead"?  D&D has some conditions that impair the character. Hero has Stunned (but it doesn't have a "cut to one half-phase action" condition - maybe it should - "dazed"?).
 
 
There are miss chance situations, including incorporeal creatures. Damage reduction and energy resistances too, although these are more rare. Some players don't like "you hit...oh, but you may as well have missed since it just bounced off",and the lack of an "always hits; defended in another manner" option has been raised as a gap in Hero on various occasions.
 
All games have some core mechanics that have advantages and drawbacks.
 
Like it or not, the D&D mechanics have stood the test of time. We can crow about the huge marketing budget today, but the early editions had no such budget, and D&D somehow rose to the top of the industry and stayed there.
 
I always find the perceived brand loyalty odd.  For many years, D&D was D&D.  BECMI, OD&D, AD&D 1e and 2e were the same game with some tweaks.  But 3e, 4e and 5e were three completely different games even though they kept some of the same trappings.