UbiquitousRat

Thanks, guys, for the thoughts on Complications. Been fiddling with the export format for HD sheets, but none of them really improve on the basic .PDF (excepting the .HTML ones, which I can't print properly). In lieu of the skills and time to make "easy for beginners" sheets, I think it's safest to use the standard one. My guys are all experienced RPGers, so I am sure we'll manage.

Question: Complications, can they be bought off? If so, do they need to be replaced, or does the character take a points hit, or do they just get bought off?

Ok, so changes made to Umbar's invocations and tweaked Jacob's sense of smell. The party is created... phew! Gerhad.pdf Jacob.pdf Jon.pdf Karl.pdf Umbar.pdf Now it's time to create some opposition encounters so we can learn to play this puppy. First up, Goblin warband. Also, rival Elf GM character. Oh, and I am considering some Wood Golems...

Chaos and Law. Yes, very much inspired by Moorcock, RuneQuest, and such stuff. In the setting all folk are "aligned" to one of Chaos, Law, or Neutrality (animals and worshippers of The Weaver). Chaos is the force of change, dynamism, and destruction... inspiring freewill and the desire for self-indulgence. Law is the force of order, structure, and protection... inspiring service and the virtues of self-sacrifice. Law and Chaos are in conflict, with cultures and peoples leaning towards one or the other. The Lightbringer is a Law-aligned deity, so his followers oppose Chaos. I tend to think of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality like a tag that all characters / creatures carry one of. I also see these forces as active, not a moral code but a pervasive "something" that ebbs and flows throughout the lands and history. Hope that makes some sense.

I stole the Ward Against Chaos from the HERO Grimoire. Very happy to redesign it. The original invocation prevented Chaotic beings from entering a radius around the invoker unless they overcame it with willpower. I just couldn't work out how to do that, so nicked the Grimoire power. Would it be worth 0 END -ing these invocations, so save the player from worrying about it? Would it be worth -1 per 20 Active Points -ing the Faith rolls? Would be more expensive... but better for the player, probably.

Thanks for your comments, Lucius (which I just saw after posting Umbar). The Rank thing works for me because the Religious Rank is something that opens political doors within the setting - for example, the Priest would probably get an audience with people of power, just as a Perk for being a Priest. The Criminal Rank on the indentured guy is to represent the ability to interact and get access to Brotherhood resources, despite being in servitude. It kinda works for my way of thinking, at least.

And here is Umber the Disavowed, Priest of Helles... Umbar.pdf

Here's a build for the Uruk Warrior, Jacob. The idea is that he's an Uruk captured and made to work for the Brotherhood, a criminal gang in the local big city, who's out on a mission... and is tagging along with the party. The player has made a roleplaying rod for his own back, but that's up to him. Jacob: Jacob.pdf The build emphasises the player's desire to smash and hit things with an axe. I've tried to give him some other skills and utilise the background given to create some roleplaying opportunities via Complications. Next comes the Priest...

Thanks, Spence, for the advice. I have partially followed that strategy thus far. To recap, my group is playing an ongoing but still early days fantasy campaign but they are unhappy with the existing game (a home brew they helped build but which has problems). After hearing their feedback, I have got their agreement to switch to HERO. One player also owns 6e (I discovered) but hasn't played it, just got it cause it sounded cool. The most influential player is also keen, having played a one-off of HERO years ago with fond memories. Three other guys are new to it, only one is dubious. They want me to port their existing heroes, which I am working on at present. Two to go: Uruk Warrior and Human Priest. We'll play the story but I'm going to do the tweaking you suggested. We're using HD, do that makes managing characters easy enough. As we play, over two or three sessions (we meet fortnightly, so this will be slow), I can both teach them the rules and build up my own confidence with the system. I'm going to keep an open door on any player who wants to re-design their character to fit their own vision of things, but I expect that they will just tweak their pre-gen. They are pretty attached to their characters, so as long as they can tweak to fit, things will be ok. The best tip is not to allow a TPK or character death to derail things. I'm going to put them through a traditional style adventure, part of the world but not really part of the campaign per-se, just more of a test-run dungeon. Whatever happens, this will be their chance to get into playing HERO. As for character sheets, my guys are ok with the standard sheet this far. If I could work out how to use the export functions produce a sheet I could .PDF and that actually fit onto A4 pages, I'd be delighted to use it... but the cool sheet I tried earlier in the week only exports to .HTML and the printout screws up the pagination, so it ends up looking crappy. Anyone with tips on that? Otherwise, this weekend is "get the characters finished" weekend, and then I can focus on building a couple of encounters. I probably need a fight or two, plus some standard adventure encounters for a 4-hour session next Friday. Then it's game on... And hope they don't freak out. Down the line, I am going to set up a game for the teenage group I have at the school where I work. But one thing at a time.

Don't worry, I'm still here. Still feeling the love from those passionate HERO fans who want my group to switch. I'm 60% through character builds, with two to go this weekend. Thanks to all who are showing me the way to go. So much to read, so much to learn... It's exciting, actually. (Oh, sorry... You weren't worried I'd gone?) :-)

Good feedback, looking like final tweaks territory. Thanks, bluesguy! On the Great Axe, I don't really understand. I pulled the item from the HD files for the Great Axe in HSEG. I was trusting it was accurate. What needs to change? On Gerhad vs. Jon, that's good to consider. In the present game, Gerhad is slower and easier to hit, but he hits so hard that people don't generally last long. He put an Ogre down in three hits, and most Goblins last one. I guess I need to up Gerhad's damage potential? EDIT: Found and fixed the Axe error in HD.

And, in Heroic, it's 1 END per 5 STR... so, 18 STR costs 4 END? I know this sounds dim, but I want to be sure.

So... "Yes", then.

Revised Gerhad: Gerhad.pdf Revised Karl: Karl.pdf And Jon, the Witch-hunter: Jon.pdf Cracking on...

That reminds me of another (simple) rules clarification: when fighting, do you pay END for hitting folk?

Thanks, bluesguy, will change Garhad as suggested a bit later tonight. I'll take a look at your magic stuff too. As for the Mental Defense power, I took that from the FH Talent of the same name in the HD package for FH. It wouldn't let me add the prefab to the Talents, so I ported it under Powers. But if it doesn't work, then I can change it. Seemed odd to me, but I was tired and in a hurry to finish at least ONE of the five heroes. More to do...

So, in simple terms, bluesguy, you are suggesting that the Priest is granted miracles that he pays for on his sheet. He would also have the Clerical investment Perk to represent Rank. When he gets to go to a higher rank, a combo of XP and roleplayed circumstances, he'd be able to buy the next set of powers. I guess I would pick some spells from the Grimoire and offer choices to the player - "here's eight possible Miracles, pick the ones you want to buy." Is that what you are thinking?

In the current system, the Miracles don't cost anything to know. They are a free gift, so I suspect it'll be best to de-couple Miracles (and Spells) and make them like equipment. These powers are, however, unusual and come with Priestly Ordainment, (inspired by beliefs like the Christian one that believers receive the Holy Spirit when they are Chrismated) so the cost is in obtaining that Ordainment. As for Lucius' questions: broadly that's how it works right now (I can send a rules extract if you want more info), but I don't know if that's exactly how I want it to work in the HERO version because I am not very aware of alternatives. EXTENSIVE EDIT: Actually, now that I'm awake and think about it, I rather like the idea of the deity as a Contact you call upon for help. Would it work to give the Priest some "divinely imbued" powers, like Lay on Hands (healing), Turn Undead, Bless... and then for anything external, make him call upon Divine Intervention (Contact roll) for the god's own miraculous powers? Perhaps the Priestly Ordainment comes with knowledge of "Favours" which the god will do (each built as a Power, but in GM hands) and he needs to name the Favour and roll, perhaps with a penalty per active points? Or even, variable effect based on his roll? Ooo, is that getting complex? I dunno if that makes sense. I am jamming here.

Thanks for all the comments on the Priest so far. I am still trying to get my head around those. In the meantime, I had another stab at Gerhad: Gerhad.pdf Basically, I've upped the starting CP to 175 (50). I've also modified some elements to match extra comments from the player. I stole the Martial Arts for Halfreda (FH p444) and modelled some of the numbers on her example character sheet. Finally, I tried the .html export format suggested, which I really like but which will not print properly... still, the .PDF is easier to read. He feels more rounded to me... but I bet I screwed something up.

Hmm... I clearly explained that badly. Yes, it's an evolution from D&D. Here's what I think I want, combined with what the players will expect: - a system that reflects the hierarchical flavour of the Church of the Lightbringer, and limits knowledge to Priestly Ordainment; in other words, the higher up the Priesthood you climb, the more power you get invested in you. There are political opportunities in there. - a set of Miraculous powers which are flavoured to fit the deity in question: light, fire, sun, healing, detect and destroy Chaos, promote Law, and command. - a definite list of powers which is limited, in this case to eight, per level of Ordainment. - a need to invoke, requiring a combination of skill and willpower, and a risk of failure when under pressure or in unsanctified places; greater power should be harder to access. - an element of "if you do what the god disapproves of, you'll not get his miracles". - powers, such and healing, to be repeatable but require devotion and prayer to recharge. Does that help clarify things?

Are you suggesting I actually spend some time reading? :-p Actually, the 175+50 thing was what I was aiming to do. My problem has been that, thus far, I realise just how low-powered our existing game is, really. I'll be seriously pumping up those characters in this port-over process. But thanks, I'll take another look later is evening. The Priest of the Lightbringer (the one I need to port) is a follower of one of a pantheon of deities, the Sun God. He has access to Miracles, which are distinct from "Magick" because the branch of the Church of The Lightbringer that this character comes from is anti-Magick. (Another member of the party is a Witch-Hunter, a kind of Holy Assassin mixed with Inquisitor.) Miracles are divided into Paths. Umbar, the character in question, follows the "Path of Helles Illuminated". Each Path is divided into Ranks (Rank 1, Rank 2, etc), each of which contains exactly 8 Miracles. The Priest must pray daily to access his Miracles. He can invoke any Miracle from those he has access to on the Paths he knows. He has an Ordainment Level (different from his character level) which is essentially bought as a Perk might in HERO. As Umbar is Rank 2 he can invoke Rank 2 Miracles from his Path. There is a limit to how many Miracles he can pray for per day, determined by the strength of his Faith attribute. It's like "memorisation points" for Magi, but this character is essentially Faithful enough to do all of them anyway. I feel it's maybe one thing I'm tempted to drop. Miracles must be Invoked. This is a skill roll versus the difficulty of the Miracle, something determined by how powerful it is. Miracles of the same Rank might have different Invocation difficulties. They are, however, reliable once invoked and the only real penalty to Invocation is "disfavour" accrued from "sins" perpetrated against the deities' wishes. (One of the things I like about Umbar is that the player made him quite a sinner, on a path towards redemption.) The invocation skill is modified by the character's Will attribute. It's also easier to invoke on "holy" ground, such as at a Shrine of Your Deity, and harder away amount the "heathen". Once prayed for, Miracles are only lost if you fumble the Invocation, or at Sunrise the next day. Prayer begins again (at least for Lightbringer Priests) at daybreak. It occurs to me that it'd be cool for different religious groups to have varying refreshment points in the day - the Moon Queen might be at Moonrise, for example. One extra element is that Umbar, our hero, has acquired a talisman that requires him to protect a particular Shrine... but acts as a bonus modifier to Invocation tests, especially when in that Shrine. Does that makes sense? HELP!

I don't feel the topic is exhausted, per se. I do agree that it has been side-tracked. One issue that I feel needs addressing is the handling of what I will term "basic equipment". I wondered how stuff like (for fantasy) backpacks, sacks, iron pitons, rope, et al got handled by most GMs. Do you really stat it all out? Or do you just stat the stuff that is weird or combat-orientated, and fudge the rest? This relates to my fears over sinking time into HERO prep that other games do for you. Thoughts?

Have altered the sheet as you suggested, adding the Racial List. I've also taken out the second STR power and just bought it as extra STR. I added the notes to the Defense Maneuver skill, but the .PDF template doesn't let it show. I may need to find a better template for printing these out. Gerhad.pdf Your example sheets exports for Flash et al were pretty cool, Hyper-Man - is that format something I can grab from somewhere?

Hey, guys - I've decided to shift to HERO 6e for the next session of our ongoing Fantasy campaign. That gives me 12 days (well, evenings, really) to pull stuff together. I've posted two of the characters I am converting over to HERO here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/88195-helping-build-tikhon/?p=2332935 Feedback welcome. Also need help in porting over "+1 magickal items". Advice welcome!

Second hero is Karl, the Human Ranger-type character. He is mostly built, but... Karl.pdf ...I need help with converting two of his weapons into D&D style "+1 magickal weapons". Any ideas? Feedback welcome.