Vanguard

Nevermind. . . 

Read through the thread and there's a crap ton more useful stuff than I can contribute.

Hope everything works out for ya. 

Hero Designer is character generation software.  And that's it.  It has all the core rules for character generation but that's it. (See GB(i)'s post for clarification.  This statement could've been really, really confusing and I didn't notice that until just now)

The Downloads/Store section should give you some screenshots of the HD interface and some of the user uploaded export templates usually have the preview screen shots as well.

Again, I believe Hero Designer is worth the investment if you're planning on running a game.

You don't have to buy any of the Packs if you don't want to.

While they are immensely helpful in that you'll already have them readily accessible in Hero Designer format and can easily load and modify them,  you can also forego that convience and just as easily enter what you need when you need it.  But that is a bit time consuming.

If you DO decide to purchase the Packs. I'd recommend purchasing what you need as you need them.  Same monetary expenditure in the long run but less of an upfront ouchie.

The printed output of Hero Designer is a bit complicated as HD doesn't have its own native print feature.  It relies on various export templates for page layout/setup and then prints from there.  The good thing about that is, I believe, those export formats are created in XML so you can, pretty much, get any output format you want.   There's tons of export formats in the Download section and if none of those strike your fancy, there's a several people on the forums that might be willing to whip something up for you.

All in all, Hero Designer itself is definitely worth the money.

Why am I not surprised?

Everyone else is bowing and scraping to the SJW and PC Police (which are, apparently, the only police that are allowed to exist now).

Well as mentioned, at least there's still the older material for those of us that don't actively seek "injustice" in everything we look at.

Just now, Steve said:

 

Because it can't be overcome with an Ego Roll, like a psychological one can.

Caught me while I was editing my previous post.

That is a REALLY good reason for making it a Physical limitation.  I'd just never seen that particular "type" of lim built that way.  I've used it a few times and it never once occurred to me that the way I'd built it meant a simple, relatively speaking, Ego roll would "fix" it for that moment.

Learn something new every day . . . 

Thanks Steve!

On 6/18/2020 at 6:54 PM, pawsplay said:

Phys: Didn't grow up on Earth, has some holes in knowledge (infrequently, barely) (5)

Why is this a physical lim and not a psychological one?

On 6/13/2020 at 3:36 PM, Duke Bushido said:

 

Fear is all in your mind anyway.

 

 

Seriously, though:

 

Here's the thing with HERO:

 

There is no rule for fear.  None.  Absolutely _none_.  Even Presence Attacks are about cowing others with-- well, the force of your presence, your personality, your sure and certain confidence.  Over the years, a F*k ton of people have decided to interpret that as fear and being scary, especially since the charts are relatable to fear and being scary.  They are also relatable to being inspirational, but we didn't move that way, in spite of this being a game ostensibly modeling _heroes_.

 

There are also some rules for fear.  That is to say, there are rules for using PRE as part of your fear mechanism from the old 4e Horror HERO supplement, as well as rules (more of them there than anywhere else) for "Custom characteristics," custom mechanics, etc, and rules that say any rule you come up with is a completely valid rule.

 

There is also the relatively poor definition of a couple of different characteristics, but the one I like to focus on is EGO (unless I'm using a custom characteristic for a particular game).  I like this because while it is poorly-defined with regard to the other characteristics, most people agree that EGO represents your will power and strength / presence of mind.

 

Frankly, I think that's the best definition for fear and being scared / cowed through fear:  you can be scared, yet have enough will power, enough presence of mind, to keep going, to set it aside.  Right up until the scanners come and the heads start bursting.  Or whatever.

 

Look at it this way:  you can use a Presence Attack and declare that it's based entirely on your ability to inspire a desire to be better, a desire to tackle a challenge, a desire to act with discipline...   Absolute same game-effects, but _no one_ you are using it on is being swayed by fear.  No one.  You're Captain Mother America Theresa or something, but are in no way terrifying anyone.   (Remember the idea that mechanics and special effects are _separate_, and the way your Presence Attacks are made- the source of their influence-- that's a SPECIAL EFFECT.  You get to pick those.  Somewhere along the way, the vocal majority decided it meant "scariness," but let's be completely honest here:  you can't defend from someone else's scariness with your own scariness.  You just end up scaring each other, realistically.  Yes, you can pick it as your special effect because the rules let you, but realistically, scariness is the _least_ logical definition of the Presence Characteristic.

 

 

So consider fear as being a special _type_ of Presence attack, but target EGO instead.  Target the thing that actually _does_ decide if you can muster the courage and fortitude to continue on.  Perhaps model a continuing barrage of horrific elements as a Drain versus EGO, sapping your resistance, making it so much more likely that you'll succumb to your fears.  Use an EGO roll to muster courage and continue.

 

The Commander has a Presence Attack based on his air of command and his forceful personality and his iron-will and his strict attention to fairness and discipline and his ability to inspire those same things in other people.  He's _not_ terrifying you into rallying and making that final charge.  That doesn't make sense.  In fact, using the Versus EGO model, he can _still_ inspire you in that very same way, make you rally, take up arms, and that terrifying thing from the shadows of oblivion strikes enough fear into your heart that in spite of your inspired courage, you drop your weapon and scream, because there is something so horrifying, so _primal_ and disturbing in that onerous palpable evil that your own force of personality is not just insufficient, but utterly useless against it.

 

At any rate, it's how I prefer to model fear-based attacks against the psyche.  There's no reason you can't model it with a straight-up EGO attack, really.  None what-so-ever.  Find something that works for you from all angles, or tweak something that's close, or create something new whole-cloth.

 

 

Just have fun with it.

 

 

👍

That's pretty much all i got.

On 6/9/2020 at 1:26 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

Ninja Hero the original (at least that’s where I found it.) Had a suggestion that even though you don’t pay for weapon, you were only allowed to carry x points depending on where you were set for war or out on town not expecting combat.

Don't recall seeing that in Ninja Hero.  

I do recall it being used/mentioned in Dark Champions as "Resource Points".  You had double your Resource Points as your "Armory" which was all your stuff you had access too.  But it was at your base of operations.  Then you had your "kit" which was the stuff you had on you. (Which totaled your Resource Points).

On 5/20/2020 at 2:34 PM, Panpiper said:

Strength/characteristics based characters have been massively neutered relative to powers and such, whose points costs remained unchanged.

They haven't been "neutered".  They just have to to actually pay for the power that they go for free before.

And while point costs of most POWERS have remained the same, the actual point cost for characteristics have changed to reflect the decoupling.  Not all of them mind you but a good portion of them.

The problem that has arisen is that HERO games likes to copy and paste.  So while the decoupling was done to level the playing field a bit, all published characters are just copy/pasted from previous editions instead of actually being rewritten to take advantage of the new rules.

On 6/11/2020 at 2:40 PM, Tjack said:

  To go “real world” for a second.  How would current protesters react seeing Captain America?  

The protesters would probably handle it just fine and keep on protesting.

The rioters, on the other hand, would see him as an even bigger symbol of their "oppression" and continue to escalate things.

6 hours ago, Spence said:

1) Players completely dislike and will not play in a game where Player Characters are captured.

 

2) Players completely dislike and will not play in a game where enemies and villains return after the players thought they were dead.

 

3) Players completely dislike and will not play in a game where captured villains escape or get released from prison.

 

4) Players completely dislike and will not play in a game where the villain will threaten innocents with death or dismemberment to force the PC to allow them to escape or capture the PC’s.

 

5) Players completely dislike and will not play in a game where an NPC friend/subordinate will turn out to be a betrayer or enemy.

1) There was a point where, while I wouldn't say I wouldn't play in a game where the characters were captured, I'd fight like made to keep it from happening.  Mainly due to the fact that the villains capturing the characters, if played correctly, would just kill them.  If the player characters survived, it would have to some kind of contrived and convoluted thing that just wouldn't make sense.  Howerver, after playing with Wildcat, I came to realize that having my character (or the characters in general) captured could, and probably would, lead to more adventure and storytelling.

2) I've only had a problem with this if it was outside the genre or if, there was just no way, the villain could return.  And even then, I'd (after a bit to be honest, sometimes I can be a bit . . . over-reactive).  If, for an example, we're playing in a heroic game and the Villain gets a high caliber sniper round through the melon, I'm gonna need a good reason to accept the fact that he didn't die.  On the other hand, if we're playing Supers and "no one could have survived that", well, it's supers. it happens all the time.

3) Again, this is genre dependant.  Supervillains escape from Super Prison all the time.  Heck, even in a Heroic game, villains do escape.  I'd just expect it to happen a bit less in a heroic game than a supers one.

4) This ties into #1.  If it feels like the capture of the hero will result in the hero's death, then I'm against it.  If the GM has proven that the characters can get captured and it's not a death sentence, will then it's what the villains do.  That's why they're the bad guys. Of course, if this happens constantly, it can get annoying so should be used sparingly.

5) Again this can be a fun as long as it's not something that is done all the time.  If a friend/subordinate is constantly turning out to be a bad guy, you're just going to start having serious trust issues.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

6 hours ago, Spence said:

I read through and mostly ignored the dice values listed since that is pretty much up to the GM and their personal decision on point caps.  By saying 12d6 you ensure that new PC's will have 12d6 attacks.  If you said 10d6, they would build to 10d6.

Exactly.

That's been what I've seen in the games I've played in.  If the GM sets a point/dc/stat cap.  THAT is what the players build too.

Even if the GM gives a stat range of say, 20-35 . . . the players, or certain players, will build to 35.  Same with attacks.  12D6 attack, character has 12D6 attack.  X active point limit?  Powers are at X active points.

1 hour ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

I can't speak for all campaigns, but ED tends to be equal to PD at my table. 

Usually the same in the games I've played in.  Unless there's a conceptual reason as to why one or the other should be lower, they're always bought to the same levels.

18 hours ago, Greywind said:

 

Urban combat. Hidden deployment.

And walking around the corner of tight street and meeting an AC/10 was always a surprise.

Those little murder cans are can be highly effective, if used where they were designed to be used.

On 5/2/2020 at 7:16 AM, Hugh Neilson said:

 

Yup - rowboat, rather than sandbox. 

And we didn't even have paddles. . .

On 4/29/2020 at 1:44 PM, massey said:

Putting a limitation on Speed brings up a lot of arguments about exactly how it works, so I figured this way was easier to handle.

Agreed.

Dealing with limited speed is a hassle.

@Hugh Neilson

If that had been the case, the plot threads and hooks, then I don't think there would have been any problems getting the game moving.  The thing was that there wasn't.  We had literally 2 sessions of just sitting around while the GM read a book/futzed around on the PC.

Giving the players hooks/ideas/hints of goings on out in the world and then letting them pursue whatever interests them instead of having a more traditional campaign set-up is good and, like I said, probably would have worked.  But just plunked the group down "in the world" and then letting them flounder around isn't the way to start the game. 

On 4/18/2020 at 4:06 PM, massey said:

That's also why I don't like mysteries in RPGs.  Just because it makes sense in the GM's head doesn't mean it makes sense to the players.

Dear gods this the truth.

I don't know HOW many times I've been in a game where there's been this "Grand Mystery" that the GM has set up yet,  the only "clues" that could/would have been available are those that exist in his/her own head or things that the characters would understand but the *players* have no concept of.

Then having to sit there and listen to the rant and rave about how no one appreciates the time and effort they go through to prepare things like "this" is infuriating.

Even more infuriating is when they try and tell you that they explained and/or dangled clues in front of you and the general response from the gathered players is "No, you didn't".

It's really easy to pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how much of a genius you are when you're the one with all the clues . . . 

@Spence

Very nicely written.

I agree with you on the Sandbox campaign.  I've been in one or two and they don't last long.  I mean, not more than one or two sessions because there's absolutely nothing for the characters to do.  There's no focus or drive to move the characters forward.  Those type of campaigns may sound like they're going to be good because "no ones' tied down!" but i've yet to play in one, or hear of one that amounted to anything.

On 4/22/2020 at 10:12 PM, Amorkca said:

 

How would you do "Invulnerable"?

Late to the game but:

APG 1 pg 87 - Damage Reduction 100%.

Note: APG rules are subject to GM allowance as they aren't "normal" rules but they do have some really neat ideas in there.  Also, just like in the main books it has a Stop Sign.

5 minutes ago, Chris Goodwin said:

 

Take a look at the Champions II supplement to see if the originals work any better for you.  The main difference is that vehicles don't have a DEX and SPD; they move every segment on the driver's DEX.  The vehicle combat rules in Autoduel Champions were based on those as well.  I'd also recommend trying the dogfighting rules, which have been in the game almost forever, including in TUV and one of the APG's.  The Ultimate Speedster also talks about how to handle segmented movement, in 5th edition but eminently usable with 6th.

At this point it's moot.  But if I ever do get into things again, I'll attempt to rummage up a copy of Champions II and take a look.

I did look at the segmented movement but thought it would make mapped combat a bit tedious but if that's the price I pay for something that "feels" right I'll take it.  I have the other resources you mentioned and like i said, if things change I'll take a look.

Thanks for the advice Chris!

On 4/10/2020 at 4:38 PM, unclevlad said:

His major power is bionics, so...not an implant per se.  Grown in place. 

Just a note here.  Bionics is just another name for cybernetics.   If you're looking for something that's "grown in place" you're looking for bioware or other type of genetically modified/enhanced items.

Due to that, I can see the advice for just making the skills/abilities intrinsic to the character.

That being said, I did something like this with one of my characters.   With the notable difference that the computer started out as a normal one but wound up gaining sentience as the game went on.

On 4/10/2020 at 6:06 PM, Duke Bushido said:

The computer tells Tony Stark "sensors indicate a structural defect near the load-bearing stanchions beyond the cargo door."

Would you be amused to know that I read that in JARVIS' voice?

On 4/1/2020 at 5:52 PM, zslane said:

The most straightforward way to represent Mecha in the HERO System is as huge vehicles. Unfortunately, the vehicle combat rules in HERO usually leave most players unsatisfied, particularly if they are looking for an experience akin to Battletech or Car Wars. Aside from the old Robot Warriors book that LL mentioned, I'm not aware of any official publication(s) that offer more detailed rules for Mecha-as-vehicles combat in HERO.

Couldn't agree more.

HERO really drops the ball when it comes to Vehicles and Vehicle combat. 

I've never liked the "vehicles are just characters" schtick but trying to actually run/play out a Viper vs Raider space battle with the HERO system rules is dang near impossible and, like you said. Very, very unsatisfying.

9 hours ago, DShomshak said:

 

Duke posted an extended rant on this a few pages back. To summarize: Players who think elves are so cool they only want to play elves. Even in games and genres that don't have elves. A few years of this can teach a man to hate. And he is apparently not the only gamer here who has endured this.

 

They have my sympathies.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

 

Ah. Gotha.  Thanks for the Cliff Notes version.

8 hours ago, Spence said:

 

Used to really enjoy SR. 

But the game moved on and left me behind.  There is a thing of too much world development and too much change. 

I don't really remember which version that left me behind, but I did pick up one of the version where they went wireless.  It was brutal and completely redefined how things work and basically nerf'd  years of built adventures and campaign frames. 

 

There are a lot of people that really like the new game and many these days that never saw the older versions.  And that is great for them.  But the game changes plus the way they established the world history made it too difficult use for me. 

 

My milestone for the end of my interest in the game was when it went wireless and completely redefined the game.  

 

 

Same thing happened to me.

Loved the game and the concept behind it but stopped playing at 2nd Edition.  Did pretty much what you did and picked up 5th Ed and thumbed through it and had a hard time recognizing it.

Anyway, I'll go on record as saying that I to like elves and like playing elves but don't have a problem NOT playing one either.  I do think they *are* cool but so are ninjas and cyborgs and lightsa . . er Beam Sabers.

Oh and trench coats.  Trench coats are cool to.

@tkdguy

You did/do good work!  (I don't have any more "reactions" today so 👍

@Lord Liaden

Thanks!!

Gave Highlander Hero a quick look over and it looks like we did some of the same things.  One of the few things we changed, off hand, was that Immortals in our game regenerated lost limbs and body parts.  Mainly because during the series, we only saw 1 Immortal that was missing a hand while none of the others were even missing fingers.  And we found it a bit hard to believe that after hundreds of years of fighting with edged weapons, no-one lost a finger.

4 minutes ago, Spence said:

 

Yea, I've read some of them too, and it is still is not an issue. 

There isn't anything in existence that won't be an issue for someone. 

I choose to reserve my outrage for the real world and not the fictitious one of fantasy RPGs .....

 

Yup.

Out of likes and such but 👍