Spence

Monsters, Minions, And Marauders  pp. 119-25 has character sheets for a dozen different "generic" human NPCs. The City Guard sheet is on p. 120. There are also ten template "Package Deals" for humanoids of various backgrounds and professions.
 
There is a Hero Designer Character Pack for MMM in the Hero website store. I don't use HD so I can't assert whether or not those sheets are included. https://www.herogames.com/store/product/300-monsters-minions-marauders-character-pack/
 
In case you weren't aware, all the characters, equipment, and Package Deals from The Turakian Age are also in HD, and quite inexpensive. I'm sure there's quite a bit there you could use. https://www.herogames.com/store/product/419-turakian-age-character-pack/
 
May I assume you knew that all the NPCs in Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers are also in HD? Well, your signature argues that I shouldn't.   https://www.herogames.com/store/product/365-nobles-knights-and-necromancers-character-pac/
 

Perhaps I am not giving you the answer you like?  Which is perfectly fine.  But words have meanings.
 
MinMax'ing is pretty apparent.  Spending points to squeeze the maximum value out of them. 
But MinMax'ing is not always the most "efficient" use of the points and I have seen a efficiency builds that far out perform ones where the player simply tried to get the biggest bonus from the points. 
 
But then Power Gaming is self apparent in the name, a power gamer does not care about character builds or points or anything, they only care about dominating the game.  By running rough shod over less forceful players at the table.  By deliberately misunderstanding intent.  And many other things.
 
But the words do have very easy and discernable definitions. 
If you ever have the misfortune to have a game destroyed by one you will know instantly what they are.
 
But I'm out. 
Have fun and enjoy your games.  

As the title indicates, I am a 5th Edition Revised player.
 
When I started playing Hero back in the Champions 1st ed era, End cost was 1 End per 5 points.  This was later changed to 1 End per 10 points. 
 
For me I always go back to the 1 to 5 ratio for my games.  I  personally find it easier to use and easier to teach the game.  I don't know if there is any actual difference in the end, but it seems so to me.
 
Anyone else with similar experiences?
 

Well there are a few in depth campaign settings.   But they are too in-depth for easy entry.
 
From a players perspective on character generation, if an item is included as a selection then it is significant.
 
If a game includes 8 "races", 8 "cultures", 4 "archetypes", 10 "vocations" and 32 "backgrounds", then they will all need to be read and understood before a player can start to build a character.
 
If you use "cool names" for things instead of just calling a dwarf a dwarf if increases the difficulty and time required. 
 
Narosia is a cool setting, but it didn't double down on cryptic, it bazillioned down.  Every reference to "race" uses the new name rather than the common name plus new.  Making it difficult for anyone to identify the race with out STUDY.  And STUDY is the enemy of a game.  In Narosia a dwarf is a Tsverg, but the game does not actually say that.  I think they believe that using anything that even looks like a traditional RPG convention is evil so they deliberately obfuscated things.  So instead of making the entry Dwarf [Tsverg] or Tsverg [Dwarf] so the reader could easily understand and locate what they wanted.  We have 62 build elements (templates), with 16 of them deliberately obfuscated, that the players have to understand before they can begin building a PC. 
 
The initial book of a settings character design part, or initial part if you can break the book into Basic and Advanced sections, has to present an very short list of character options (race/class/archetype/etc) that will allow new players to read and make informed choices during ONE session. 
 
I have over 40 RPG books similar to Narosia in my collection.  Beautiful, well thought out and highly detailed games that you never see anyone actually play because in the time needed to actually learn all the options and then teach them to the players in order to reach the point where you can start, you could have bought, learned and completed a campaign in one of the dozens of other games. 
 
D&D and other similar games learned this years ago.  They start with a short list of options in the first book.  And then add more in later OPTIONAL books. 
 
While I am a big fan of Hero books, I love the Pulp Hero book, Hero and people that write material for Hero tend to go too far overboard in to the realm of unplayable due to far too much information.  And games powered by Hero tend to spend so much energy trying to make their settings not include anything that might be recognizable that they make the entire game unplayable. 

Just finished it this morning on the my morning commute.
 
My only issue is that I can finish them at a faster rate that you are making them
 
Another great show and keep them coming.

No, not anti-neckmuncher. 
Just anti-Player-versus-Player.
 
Yes they did some good things, publishing wise but they are hardly a powerhouse.  They skirted dissolving by going all electronic (no print) and now they are dependent on Modiphious to put out their books.   After their initial run, most of their books are re-writes for the next rule version.
So not a powerhouse.
 
But they do put out some good looking books and like Duke Bushido noted, the system mechanics are actually pretty nifty. 
Now all they need to do is put out a setting that does not involve mind numbingly boring POLITICS firmly entwined with PvP murdering. 
 
I could get behind that.
 
 

We are in a different world.  Hero and WW put out about the same number of books over the same years. And many of those were reprints of the same book with a edition update (as were a lot of Hero's). 
 
White Wolf retreated to limbo with eBooks only for about a decade and their comeback was completely reliant on a another company to bring them back into the world of publications.  
 
Hero hasn't returned. 
 
Both WW and Hero were in the upper middle of RPG companies at their best, which isn't the same as saying they were Powerhouses.  But there are many companies that put out far more publications than WW or Hero. 

Sorry, Spence;
 
That wasn't for any one person.  It was a reference to the rotational cycle of this topic.

So, what did you do, how did it go etc.?
In the words of the late Ted Knight....”Well....we’re waiting!”

So, how did it go?

Keep it coming
 
My experience has been a lot like Duke Bushido's. 
 
While I have never seen anything like Grailknight or unclevlad described.
Or any issues problems with the balance derived from more END or raising REC, but I have noticed a very big difference in play. 
Combats in supers or fantasy always seemed to drag on forever with 1/10, but had a built in sense of urgency and a faster pace at 1/5.
 
I'm not saying anyone is wrong. 
I am liking the inputs on peoples thoughts.

We are both using the same language but we are definitely not talking about the same thing.
I am taking about a normal playable game, not an mini anything.  I am advocating a Hero product that avoids the chronic insanely hyper-detailed completely unplayable messes that are the past. 
 
If a experienced RPG player cannot read and generate a complete PC in one day of receiving the book, it is a dead on arrival game.  
If a experienced RPG GM cannot read and run a basic included adventure in one day of receiving the book, it is a dead on arrival game.
 
If you include 5 types with 10 options then the players will read all 15 items before making the character because they want to make the best choices.
If you include 10 types with 30 options they will take as much time as possible to understand them all.
The more you add, the less of a chance people will actually play it.
 
And I am not talking just Hero here, a game does not to try an pack in everything in the first book.  If it catches on it can expand. 
 
And stop with all the cultures, no one actually uses any of them.  All they are is a selector for a free skill or something, but no one actually role plays any of them.  Even D&D's backgrounds are pretty much ignored after the player scarfs the freebee.  An RPG is a game for people to play out adventures, not  a method for game designers to try and build in depth realistic economies and social structures.  There are many of them out there and yet they are not the games that are actually being played. 
 
A good RPG book has information that will actually be used, not tons of information that only serves to confuse and obfuscate the game.  Extra information is what follow on books are for. 
 
Now it is true that I believe that Hero needs short intro books that use pre-generated material to teach how to play a game powered by Hero.  But full powered by Hero games will need to take in consideration the same need cut back on excessive volume that all RPG's need.  The point is to give players the ability to play, not try to impress people with page count of minutia. 
 
All just an opinion of course, but the more time goes on the more it seems to be borne out.

I agree that Hero needs adventures and even campaigns, but they are a different subject from Hero Powered games. 
At least I think they are. 
 
I have several adventures I'd love to put in the Hall of Champions if I could.  But all the ones I have (superheroic type) made use of many existing Champions villains.  My initial plans was to use stripped villain sheets that just have the needed stats with zero build information and very abbreviated backgrounds with a referral to the source book, in this case Conquerors, Killers, And Crooks.  But in order to bring them now I have to completely redesign the villains and perform full playtests.  It is hard enough to create viable pre-gens.  Redesign the villains and you have to redesign the pre-gens too. 
 
I have a fantasy project in the works with two possible directions.  Once I get far enough along for it to be viable I will need to run it by the powers that be to see which direction is best. 

I hear what you are saying, but 10 races/cultures, 12 vocations and 15 backgrounds is far too many for an entry to to a setting.
Initially you only really need  a few.  For example 4 vocations (Fighter Type, Rogue Type, Mage Type, Healer/Support Type), 4 races/cultures (human, elf, dwarf and other but something known and common), 4 basic backgrounds (maybe city, wilderness, frontier and sea/coastal). 
 
Remember that if you have a Mage you must then include complete and rounded spell lists through at least the 4th Level**. 
All the rest of the "classes" have to have complete playable everything lists up through 4th level.
 
D&D 5ed only has Fighter/Wizard/Rogue/Cleric and Human/Elf/Halfling/Dwarf for the basic rules.  Not the PHB, but the basic rules.  
This allows an entry point for brand new players to the game to actually get to play without getting shellshocked or option-frozen.
Those players that get the basic game then move on to the full game via the PHB, DMG and MM.  Experienced players just go straight to the PHB etc. 
 
The point is that new to the hobby players have a smaller bite sized entry point instead of choking on the full 15 course meal. 
 
And this only touches on an actual playable Hero powered game without the needed appendices showing the full build details and referring them to the Hero books so they can customize. 
 
**I know that Hero does not use "levels" but I am going to use the term to help describe what I mean.
 

Well there are a few in depth campaign settings.   But they are too in-depth for easy entry.
 
From a players perspective on character generation, if an item is included as a selection then it is significant.
 
If a game includes 8 "races", 8 "cultures", 4 "archetypes", 10 "vocations" and 32 "backgrounds", then they will all need to be read and understood before a player can start to build a character.
 
If you use "cool names" for things instead of just calling a dwarf a dwarf if increases the difficulty and time required. 
 
Narosia is a cool setting, but it didn't double down on cryptic, it bazillioned down.  Every reference to "race" uses the new name rather than the common name plus new.  Making it difficult for anyone to identify the race with out STUDY.  And STUDY is the enemy of a game.  In Narosia a dwarf is a Tsverg, but the game does not actually say that.  I think they believe that using anything that even looks like a traditional RPG convention is evil so they deliberately obfuscated things.  So instead of making the entry Dwarf [Tsverg] or Tsverg [Dwarf] so the reader could easily understand and locate what they wanted.  We have 62 build elements (templates), with 16 of them deliberately obfuscated, that the players have to understand before they can begin building a PC. 
 
The initial book of a settings character design part, or initial part if you can break the book into Basic and Advanced sections, has to present an very short list of character options (race/class/archetype/etc) that will allow new players to read and make informed choices during ONE session. 
 
I have over 40 RPG books similar to Narosia in my collection.  Beautiful, well thought out and highly detailed games that you never see anyone actually play because in the time needed to actually learn all the options and then teach them to the players in order to reach the point where you can start, you could have bought, learned and completed a campaign in one of the dozens of other games. 
 
D&D and other similar games learned this years ago.  They start with a short list of options in the first book.  And then add more in later OPTIONAL books. 
 
While I am a big fan of Hero books, I love the Pulp Hero book, Hero and people that write material for Hero tend to go too far overboard in to the realm of unplayable due to far too much information.  And games powered by Hero tend to spend so much energy trying to make their settings not include anything that might be recognizable that they make the entire game unplayable. 

Maybe this will help? 6e1, 199
Using those rules, the Trolls strength (after reducing to 64 for Strength Minimum) would double the damage to 4 1/2 d6, leaving 25 remaining strength beyond the maximum. If the GM allows, the Troll could decide he cares not for the weapon and go ahead and do 6d6+1 killing damage to the poor Saxon (creating a red Saxon shaped splotch on the ground). The weapon at that point would take up to 20 body (assuming the Saxon has 10 body), exceeding it's 8 Body and 4 Def, likely breaking it to multiple pieces. 

Hey......
 
I think I may resemble that remark

We watched Enola Holmes over the weekend. It was a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

I do not use any of the remote style virtual applications so I will not comment on them.
 
But for  a general game I have a few points.
 
1) Character builds.  Go over their concepts (or characters if converting) and then go home and build them yourself.  Alone.  They do not know the rules and trying to build the character while also trying to explain the why's will only make things take longer and frustrate you.  Just do the build yourself.
 
2) Create a player character sheet that is stripped, stripped I say, of ALL BUILD ANNOTATION.  Just leave the info needed in actual play.  For variable items, for example a Flame Blast spell that is actually an energy blast, do not say energy blast.  Just say Flame Blast 4d6.  If it uses end add "1 End per 1d6" for example.  Add descriptions of how anything works geared to flavor and in game while avoiding build speak.   Have an full hero build style character sheet on hand for any after session explanations on Hero's build rules.
 
3) Gratuitous Preaching to the Choir    
Once you get past building and build annotation and just have the actual final needed to play info, Hero is one of the easiest systems to play out there.  That is unless you load it down with each and every possible optional rule.  But if you don't it is easy.  I would recommend not using any maneuvers and ht location for session 1.  Just the basics.  Then add in something each session until you have the full meal.

American Kaiju?
I don't remember, but I don't think we ever even saw the monster in Cloverfield.  For me the interest in a Kaiju movie was the cool monsters.  If the Kaiju is never actually shown, can it really be considered a Kaiju movie?

American Kaiju?
I don't remember, but I don't think we ever even saw the monster in Cloverfield.  For me the interest in a Kaiju movie was the cool monsters.  If the Kaiju is never actually shown, can it really be considered a Kaiju movie?

Couole of things to follow up with: I typed biweekly when I meant twice-weekly.  Sorry about that; I was in a hurry to get headed home.
 
The rise and fall of our vampire game:
 
My brother D picked it up, loved it, pushed it at me.  I read it, liked the simplicity of the system and the consistent use of flavor throughout the book, and the extremely high production values, so I pitched it to my group and he pitched it to some of his friends, and within two weeks, we had a game group going.
 
The new-to-RPG folks got into PVP stuff right away; those from the regular group who wanted to give this game a try helped us guide them away from that: it was pretty rare for my regular players to not have characters with a noble or heroic bent to them, but even when they chose to be the villains, they were always a team.  We got the new people to understand that PVP wasnt cool, and we played on.
 
After a month, someone pointed out that there was a sign up at the game store in Savannah with a couple of GMs who wanted to start V:TM groups, and one was on Saturday (we played Wed and Friday).
 
We opted To drop our game to just Friday and all seven of us slipped into the Saturday game.
 
That rocked on for maybe four months, and one of my co-GMs stated that he was having "creative burn out" from trying to come up with constant political machinations that could be subtle, powerful, well-concealed, and still somehow discoverable by our plucky band of would-be-Princes.
 
We understood, and he bowed out of collaboration and running.  About a month after that, at the Savannah game, we lost a couple of players and gained a couple.  Without trying to add any insult, they were a strange style combination of Goth and Punk and generally just irritating people (like going-out-of-your-way to be irritating, as opposed to personality clash).
 
After three sessions, they had a fair hand on the game, and the PVP started.  After a few sessions of that, we brought up pregame that we were fine with the murdering and backstabbing and double-dealing and all that, but not with the PVP.
 
The PVP continued another couple of sessions until my brother D and his friend J had gotten a belly full of it, and proceeded to demonstrate how skilled RPG players can abuse the Hell out of the meta if they want, and showed these two just what PVP could look like.  I didn't approve (still don't: unless it's something we've discussed before hand related to your character and everyone involved agrees, I do not condone PVP in my games, even as a player.)
 
So these two get huffy and drop the usual "bunch of geeks anyway" nonsense, and we inherit three new players from the other Savannah game, which had concluded a couple weeks before.
 
All were new to RPGs, but had just loved trying this game and wanted to play again.  
 
And the PVP started within _minutes_, and when they weren't backstabbing the party (but never each other), they were talking about all the fun they had in the previous game, running around and forming teams and offing each other and breaking alliances-  it was like Survivor, but with murder.
 
Two more of our people dropped out before too long, and just stuck with the Friday game at my place.
 
D and I agreed after six or seven months that we, too, were getting hard pressed to keep the intrigue fun and interesting:  there are only so many ways to wrap the same mcguffin, after all.
 
One of the players who had dropped out of the Savannah game during the second round of drops mentioned a sign up at the Statesboro game shop, and one more dropped out of Savannah into Statesboro (we had one who also joined and was now in three games a week).
 
Eventually reports filtered back that there were _four_ games going on in Statesboro, and people got hyped.  D and I even talked about just wrapping up the current arc and ending this campaign to let somwone else invent the politics for a while.
 
That was when we also both admitted that we were starting to get a little worn out on political intrigue as a whole.
 
Maybe Two months later, we did just that, even as reports from the 'Boro came back detailing PVP being the norm, poor grasp of RPG conventions, and games devolving into massive brooding and fashion talk, makeup sessions, etc.
 
And, as Spence mentioned, there was talk of palpable funk.  You can only wear a long coat so long in Georgia before your skin will tear from the sheer force of the sweat pressure, and caked white make up doesn't really help the pores.
 
Still, we were really just _done_ trying to re-spin "major vampire power move behind zoning ordinance 146!" And such.  Besides, we had found a place to wind down and end on a high note, and we took it.
 
Our gang of players hadn't become Princes; there wasn't a ruler among them.  They had, however, become a force to be reckoned with, and there were nervous rumors about them--  anyway. We ended the campaign.
 
The Savannah game was devolving each week: S and I were the only two of our group still remaining, and the replacement players were-  the only way to phrase it nicely is to say that they made sure everyone saw them playing Vampire and brooding about having to be here with "normals"(though there was some other, presumably goth-specific word that clearly meant "unhip").
 
The PVP had pretty much taken over the game at that point, and the only reason I still showed up was because I was vested in the story and wanted to make it to the conclusion or die trying.  S had given up.  She still played, but it was mostly because she had now become curious to see if any of the other players would be successful at killing her.  Again, this was just a matter of an experienced gamer having a leg-up over someone following just the Rool of Cule.  She had, by the time she just gave in to get out of the game-and if I remember correctly; it has been a while- sixteen PC kills under belt.  She never went looking for them, but she found herself targeted quite regularly (it took a while for either of us to figure out that these guys thought this was somehow "flirting" with her).  Eventually, when she became aware of being stalked (yet again, and ehy), she simply announced "why sneak up on me?  Beg for it, and my blood is yours."  (I only remember that because it was so damned weird until I realized that she was talking player-to-player).
 
I did join the Statesboro game the week after we wrapped our game (thr one I was running in Hinesville).  Three weeks after S left the Savannah game, I played my second (and next-to-next-to-last) Statesboro game, and dropped out of the Savannah game when-
 
Okay, non-smokers who live in cold weather country:  have you ever noticed just how freakin' grotesque the air is around smokers in the winter because it doesn't occur to them to wash the jacket that they have been smoking in for the last two months?
 
I realize that most people will never have any reason to learn this, but sweat works the same way!  If you wear a greatcoat in sweat weather, for weeks on end, you will attain a level of fetid that can only be described as "gagnificent."  They seated a new player who was _truly_ gagnificent, and I didn't last another thirty minutes before I decided I would instigate some PVP of my own just to discourage him from coming back.
 
As I said, I don't do PVP.  As soon as I realized I was considering it as a means of nasal (and throat, really.  Just like a smoker's winter coat, you could _taste_ the stench just by being too close), I announced that the death of his closest friend (S's character) had been to much, and he leapt into a blast furnace at the foundry below which the party was currently building fortifications.
 
Two more nights in Statesboro, and I quit that game, too.
 
Like I said: it wasnt the game.  I enjoyed the game.  It wasn't the vampire schtick.  I mean-- they're a staple of Fantasy anyway; I was familiar with them.  It was the bulk of that game's players that pushed me off of it.
 
 
 
Touch screen phone, an autocorrect that studied English as a third language, and I am not quite in the habit of carrying my reading glasses everywhere I go.  Hell, I am barely in the habit of remembering they exist!  It's a very recent addition to my collection of afflictions, and I haven't gotten the swing of it yet.
 

 
 

And like the monsters in the 2014 Godzilla, it seemed to be constantly following the main characters around the setting despite them being too small for it to take any notice of most of the time!

But...the American Kaiju is only seen as a Lens Flare! Million dollars please!😁

J.J. Abrams has stated in interviews that his movie Cloverfield was motivated by a desire to create the kind of iconic monster for American audiences that Godzilla is for Japanese. Setting aside the implied hubris of that , Clover is of course part of a different franchise and different universe. OTOH given the premise they've set up for that universe, a crossover is theoretically possible.