The Horror

Re: How Long to Learn Hero System? Ha ha ha. I once ran a Shadowrun game without knowing any of the mechanics other than the basic task resolution system. Luckily, one of the players knew the system inside out. I just told him he was in charge of the rules, and concentrated on telling a good story. Whenever I asked for a skill roll he took over explaining it to the other players. Whenever combat started up or magic needed to be used I asked him to help the other players figure out the modifiers involved. The game went great, and by the end of the third session we all had learned the system. The only thing you have to watch out for in Hero is the balance issue. Having experienced players should be a good thing during the game, though in character creation they may end up designing rather unbalanced characters for your game. That's all ok though, as long as you make sure to tell them all that characters will be subject to change for balance purposes later on in the campaign, or that these characters will only be used until everyone (including you) is confortable enough with the system to start up a long term game. I think you are going to have a blast of a time. The Horror

Re: How Long to Learn Hero System? I started off by plowing right into it. Read the book, get a group of friends together and design some characters. Don't worry about screwing things up and just concentrate on getting down to playing. Once the characters are made run them through a one off game. Essentially you should be aiming to teach them the basics of using skills, rolling to hit in combat, using different maneuvers, using the speed chart, and rolling for/applying damage. Everything else is not important at the outset. If you are still not too confident with the system, keep running one off sessions for a while. Slowly introduce the optional rules you want to use as you go. Probably at a rate of 2-3 rules per combat. Within 2-3 sessions you and your players will be ready to start a long term campaign, and you can all sit down and make up new characters for that one, using your new experience with the system to get you exactly what you want. And it pays off for me to reiterate the single best piece of advice I ever received before I started running HERO. "Remember that everything in the game can be boiled down to rolling 3d6 and scoring under a target number." If in doubt, tell the players to roll the dice and make up on the spot whether they succeed or fail. The game will keep moving, and everyone will have a good time. The Horror

Re: What's the most useless supplement you'd actually like to see? And it would appeal to all superhero genre players, not just HERO people.

Re: What's the most useless supplement you'd actually like to see? 10,000 Ways To Be Cool - a book with thousands upon thousands of one liners, ready to be delivered by your favourite character or villain. All perfectly indexed by situation and superpower. "Let off some steam, Bennet."

Re: What should be DROPPED from HERO? Characteristics and skills I haven't forgotten about that thread. It was a brilliant idea that deserves some hardcore implementation. When I finish my PhD I'll see about giving it a good looking over. The Horror

Re: Newbies, All Well, if you guys are keen on playing a supers game I say you just go for it. Get everyone to design 350 pt characters and learn the system. After a couple of sessions let everyone go back and completely redesign their characters. You'll probably need to do this since there will be a lot of things that you'll all have missed. If the players are interested then you've already won half the battle. And I do recommend Sidekick. Probably a better investment to start off with than Star Hero or Dark Champions. The Horror

Re: Newbies, All I found that HERO is really easy during actual play. Remember: most of the time HERO can be boiled down to rolling 3d6 and scoring an 11 or less to succeed. If you don't remember a rule just fudge it and keep going. The players won't know any better anyway, so really as long as you run an entertaining game most of them probably won't care that the system is not being run exactly as written to start off with. Leave off END for the first few games. Don't introduce knockback/knockdown until later on either. You probably just want to concentrate on skill rolls, the Speed chart, odds to hit and damage rolls to start off with. Don't bother with multipowers, ECs or VPPs. I probably complicated things a fair bit by starting off with superheroes too, so I'd suggest starting off with a Heroic level one off session. If you want to go straight for the supers though just dive right in with your players. Explain to them the basics behind the power design of HERO. Explain to them the concept of advantages and disadvantages, then get them to allocate some points on stats and skills. Follow this up by getting them to tell you what sort of powers they would like. Once they describe the effect they are trying to achieve you should be able to very easily design the power for them, making sure to explain what you are doing. And remember: fudge everything you are not sure about. Not sure what disadvantage to apply or how much it costs? Well just make it all up. As you and your group design more and more characters you'll get the hang of things, and the entire thing will go smoother and smoother. Avoid the crunchy bits during actual game play. If you hit your players with too much crunch they might get turned off from the entire thing. Instead emphasise that the power of HERO comes in being able to design anything you want and express it in game terms. Then follow it up by playing through a session that is very fast and relatively rules light. They'll hopefully love it and be hooked thereafter. The Horror

Re: Speeding things up Pretty much yes. I figured something like this could save a lot of time when rolling for damage dealt by bad guys. Just use BODY dealt = # dice rolled, and roll a d10 on the chart for the stun damage. Players could use it as well of course. There is less than 5% chance that a roll will come up beyond the maximum or under the lowest value on that table. If players feel like speeding things up, the chart could be kind of handy. The Horror

Re: Speeding things up What do you guys think of this? The Horror

Re: Speeding things up Btw guys. I've started drafting up the table of results I mentioned. I know you guys won't need it, but it may help some people here and there if they are really sick of adding up 10-20 dice every time. I'll post it up here and at RPGnet (where most of the complaints about speed of play in HEROcome up) when it's done. Should be tonight or the next night. The Horror

Re: Speeding things up The general rule we played with was that the amount of Body inflicted would always be equal to the number of dice rolled, unless the player particularly wanted to count them. It would really speed things up when 10-15 dice were being rolled each time. What do you think of distribution charts though? You could list a roll of 1-10 on the top going across, and the number of dice rolled on the left going down. Then each one of the entries on the table would have the amount of damage dealt. It means that all damage could be boiled down to one d10 roll. The numbers 5 and 6 would be average damage, with less damage (as per the correct bell curve for the number of dice) with a lower roll and higher damage for a correspondingly higher roll on the d10. If the Body counting is standardised like I mentioned above, this would probably really speed things up. The Horror

Re: Best HERO Products for Military SF Campaigns Please do! The only reason I haven't purchased Alien Wars yet is because I know it will be mainly setting specific things as opposed to general military sf info. The Horror

Re: Champions vs other systems I can comment on Godlike. It's been a while, so there may be some small errors which I'd welcome people to correct. On the surface the system seems fantastic. Roll a number of d10 equal to your stat + skill (but never more than 10). You aim to get matching numbers. So rolling up a double of any number will constitute a success. The more matches you get of a number, the faster you succeed. So someone who rolls a triple 2 will go faster than someone who rolls a double 2. The higher the actual number rolled the better you do at it. Now the entire basis behind this is that you can in theory compress every aspect of combat down to the one roll. In actual fact it is a horrible mess that leaves much to be desired. And it's time consuming. Allow me to explain. In combat, matches determine initiative. So if A gets a double 3, B gets a double 5, and C gets a triple 2, then C will act first followed by both A and B. Ok, this is good so far. The actual roll on the match will indicate hit location. So if you roll a double 10 you hit them in the head, whereas a double 2 will hit the legs. Ok so far as well. Now here is where it all screws up. Damage is determined by the weapon used and by the number of matches you get. So if you score a double 5, you will do 2+x damage to your enemy (x is the weapon modifier). If you score a triple 5 you will do 3+x damage to your enemy. The problem with this is that the number of matches also determine initiative, meaning that people acting first will always do more damage with their attacks. There is also a rule in place which states that when you hit someone, they lose a die from the matches rolled in their set. So in the example I get above, C acted first and shot A. Player A would lose one match from his action, reducing it to one die and thereby missing. Another advantage of going first. But it gets better. One of the ways to represent increased difficulty in a task is to increase the number they must roll matches in before succeeding. So for example, a guy running across an open field will be harder to hit than he was standing still. So when you try and hit him you must roll a match on your dice, but they won't count unless the match result is greater than 3. So a double 1 will miss, but a double 4 will hit. Remember how hit location is determined by that same number? Well, it means that in this example you can never hit someone in the legs if they are running! Then there are the armor complications. This is a bit complex so I'll just say that different types of armor behave very differently under this system, leading to absurdities in some specific situations of combat where it becomes better to rely on a thin wood wall for protection than a thick metal one. And I havent' even gone into wiggle and hard dice yet. Actually, hard dice is worth going over for the sheer absurdity. Essentially a hard die is a die you can buy for your super character that will always roll a 10, every single time. So if you buy two hard dice in coordination for example, and you fire a gun at someone, you will always get an automatic match of two dice to hit them in the head (remember, a 10 is a head hit location). But what if they are sticking their head into a sewer opening, and you have to shoot them elsewhere? Well, to get around simple dillemas like that the creators of the game made up a rule. They said that "you actually shoot them elsewhere, but you damage them exactly as if you'd hit them in the head". In other words, you kill them almost every time regardless of where you shoot them. All fine and all until your character dies because he got shot in the finger whilst climbing over a wall. Note that all this is not actually much faster than combat in any other game, Hero included. Everyone must roll their dice together, and check for matches. Then as people get hit they have to keep track of matches they still have left etc. The entire problem with the system is the one roll engine itself. Dennis Detwiller and Greg Stoltze did this in Unknown Armies as well, creating it's own host of problems there. Let me summarise their design philosophy for you: "Steal the best parts of the systems currently in existence that dominate this particular genre of game, then funk it up a little here and there and streamline all the rolls down to a minimum irrespective of how it may screw with common sense." Reading through Godlike I was amazed at how much like Hero it was. To design the powers you do the effect based thing and spend points to purchase up what you want. Only of course the system itself limits exactly what you can do, and a lot of fudging is required all over the place. There is in my eyes no contest between the two games. The only advantage of the Godlike/Wild Talents system is that it appeals to people who can't handle Hero's character creation. Otherwise Hero is better in every respect, including character design and actual play. The Horror

Re: Any Suggestions for a Hero Newbie?

Re: Perry Rhodan Hero That is very cool. At some stage I'll make some inquiries as to whether they hold the license for the English version as well. Regardless, I'm sure there will still be a place in plenty (or some) of people's hearts for my version as well, since it's set in the first cycle of the series. Damn. I wish I had the time to learn German. One day, when I finish studies, maybe... The Horror

Re: Perry Rhodan Hero That would definately have a lot of merit, but completely random PC generation including power selection would just take a lot of building a character IMO. With Ivan's power it's simple to rule that PC's cannot have it since they don't have two heads. Humans are on the whole easy to do. Just restrict them to one major power and at most one minor power on top of that. With Pucky it gets a bit messy, since anybody wanting to play that race should have strong psychic powers. It wouldn't be a problem in a HERO game where the characters are designed by the GM, but if you want to give players the full option of character design then guidelines most definately have to be in place. It took me a long time thinking about this to get what I feel was the best balance for my game, though I wouldn't even know where to start with HERO. The first thing you'd need to do is throw point balance out the window. Look at the cost difference between a teleport and a telepath or a telekinet. What might do the trick is generating some packages for completely arbitrary amounts of starting character points, and have the points within the package be completely variable. For example, make telepathy and teleportation worth say 15 character points each, though the actual points they get in the package are a lot higher. And what about hypnotic skill learning/power development? What a way to screw character generation if it's not regulated properly. The Horror

Re: Perry Rhodan Hero Cool. Thanks for the link. I was going through nightmarish processes to work out the exact vehicle specs. Even ordered some German technical manuals to get a better idea of what is currently considered to be canon, though not speaking German has made that process way too slow for me to do properly right now. I'll definately start asking some questions around there soon when I have more time to work on the document. If you end up statting up some PR gear in HERO feel free to post it here. I'll take a look through it to see if it looks ok. The main issue I had with HERO was the fact that mutant powers would cost a fair few points during character gen, and that people without mutant abilities would not be getting those points or anything close to even match up for it (some of the players could have possibly felt that to be a bit unfair). But the system is solid, and it can do PR very well. Let us know what you come up with. There should be some other people here with enough familiarity with the series to make some good comments on it as well. The Horror

Re: Perry Rhodan Hero I don't think you'll find anyone who's done that very easily. Perry Rhodan is just not as popular as it deserves to be. I know there has been a GURPS write up, but the links I found to it online were all broken. I've actually been writing a Perry Rhodan RPG of my own. I'll look at getting it licensed and published sometime next year after I finish my PhD. If the license costs too much I'm sure I'll still be able to give it out to fans for free. I have no expectations of it selling very well - it's rather more a labour of love than anything. It doesn't use the HERO system, but rather it's own system. Ask me again in 6-8 months time and I should be able to send you a digital copy of the manuscript for playtesting/reviewing. It's good to see another fan around these boards though. There are at least another couple of people registered here who do like the series, though I don't think they've done any HERO write ups for any of it. Shame that. The Horror

Re: hero vs rolemaster In RM sooner or later the enemy will roll a 66 on the critical tables and kill you (or with a high roll on a high level critical). Death is only a matter of time if your character engages in combat. Note that the bulk of experience in RM also comes from fighting. I hate the game. I've played it for way too many years. Hero is by far the superior game. The Horror

Re: So how do i do this? Don't worry if it takes ages to design characters at first. Hero/Champions is quite intense in the character creation side, but it gets much much easier with practise. The advantage the system has over most others out there is that for a little bit more effort on the outset, you get absolute freedom of design for your characters and games. Plus after having a play with Hero, everything else will seem easy! I'm sure you'll have a blast with it. Start off by designing characters, or even just using some premade ones from the books you have. Then sit the players down and go through the rules very briefly. If they don't get it at first then don't worry, it all becomes clear during play anyway. After that start playing. If you are running the game, then come up with some sort of classic comic book plot and let the players work their way through it. Keep it vague, and let the players help you build a story. If you want tips on how to run RPGs, there are plenty to be found online. My favourite hint is to use descriptions in lots of three. If you describe a police officer for example, describe three things about him using any and all physical senses you can. Eg: The police officer approaches you. His uniform looks like it hasn't been washed in a while, and the gel in his slick black hair glistens under the sun. He taps his chubby fingers on the hilt of his gun, and speaks: "So what do we have here then?" Really handy method to use for describing rooms and scenery, as well as important characters you want the players to remember. The Horror

Re: Do characteristics break the Hero way of doing things? Uhm. I might check it out. Thanks for the link. The Horror

Re: Do characteristics break the Hero way of doing things? Well, what would the abilities be used for? I picture them as being things like: lifting, looking cool, commander (or born leader), ace pilot, crack shot (and any other skills really), hardy (I'm thinking diseases here), or maybe even speedy. Most other things would be covered by the powers and use the system of balance for those. If you want an ability done at greater levels than the 5-6 levels provided, maybe a Megascaling or some sort... Oh yes, I can almost feel the power of looking cool at Megascale. The Horror Edit: added some stuff I forgot to put in.

Re: Do characteristics break the Hero way of doing things?

Re: Do characteristics break the Hero way of doing things? This is a fantastic idea. I am really impressed by this. The entire system would have to be rewritten, but it would still be Hero wouldn't it? Sure the points would change, and there would be a new mechanic to handle the characteristics instead, but the Hero basis would still be there. You would still be designing the powers based on the special effects, and you would still be able to design anything you wanted with the system. How about getting rid of skills as well? You could just set some basic general costs for 'abilities', and give a bunch of examples. In short, the players describe anything that they want their character to be able to do. They then pay some points for their chosen abilities based on how useful the ability is in the campaign, and how good they are at it. No need to be fancy, just some rough levels like "good, excellent, human max, superhuman, godlike being". Say if Joe wants to be able to run fast, and to lift up heavy things. He might buy Running as per the power, and buy Lift as an ability. The GM would look at the generic table provided with the abilities section, and decide that Lift is of moderate use in the campaign. This sets the base amount of points Lift will cost. Then the player decides how well he wants to be able to Lift (ie. good, excellent, human max, etc...).and applies the cost modifier for the rough level he wants the ability at. If a character who doesn't have Lift tries to lift something, he only does as well as a normal person might. Surely you could do the same thing with all the skills, and with the attributes as well. Keep PD, ED, REC, and END as powers. All the rest can be purchased as some sort of generic ability system. The ability to stun someone can be decided based on the amount of damage dealt compared to body/toughness/machismo ability level of the character (with a default number allocated if they don't buy the ability). Thoughts? The Horror

Re: Suggestions? Telepathic PCs just captured VIPER agent Wow. Thank you very much everyone for a fantastic exchange of ideas so far. I'm sure to use a lot of them. As for the situation at hand: I am actually running two semi-interlinked campaigns. A superhero game and a villains game. The heroes are the first superhero group to make a public appearance in the US. They were assembled by a mysterious entity that contacts the heroes only via the telepath, and their primary objective is to apprehend Sirius - the master villain of the campaign. The villain group are working for Sirius, and have as a job to organise the killing of every human being in North America. VIPER in my game has decided Sirius is a major threat, and has joined his organisation to ensure it's destruction from within. They form the European contingent of the Sirius organisation. VIPER is the main threat to the supervillain group, and at this stage nothing that the superheroes should be concerned with. This last friday I ran the second villains game. The villains are behind schedule in their plans thanks to VIPER, with Sirius about to come on site next game to witness first hand the trial of the Gold Ray prototype (the villains plan on turning all the people in North America into gold via an orbital satellite). They were mightily pissed, so after discovering the location of the Chicago nest in the McGregor building, they charged in there and levelled the place (I've only made them come across regular VIPER agents thus far). So I figured that the VIPER agent the heroes have captured can be from that same nest. Easy and simple. The nest is already destroyed and there is no need to worry about it. Then when they hand him over to the authorities I'll enwrap them in the legal mess they've created. As for further VIPER involvement - my plan is that the telepath of the hero group is actually a direct descendant of Nama, and that the mysterious entity who assembled the group is actually Nama itself who contacts the heroine via her dreams. She will be instructed to let the agent go, and hopefully other than minor engagements with VIPER here and there they will follow on to topple Sirius. Later on as the campaign escalates she will slowly discover her relationship to the organisation (and that her grandfather was a member of the Council) and have to face all of the usual turn-to-evil-or-turn-against-her-own-blood type of dilemmas. So I've settled the problem at this stage, but there is more coming. Next session the heroes will undoubtely capture one or more of the villain group's henchmen. All of the henchmen know exactly where the villains reside. It is too early for a direct confrontation. A rather better place for a first fight between a PC villain and the hero groups would be at the testing of the large scale gold ray into the upcoming G8 summit. So when the superheroine reads the minds of these capuptured henchmen, I can tell them anything I like as long as I don't reveal the location of the evil base. I think I'm going to have to accelerate a bit the introduction of superhuman registration laws, and the offering to the group for government sanctioning if they accept to abide by the set laws. I can actually use their unfair treatment of the VIPER agent as a little bit of added pressure to entice them to join the government forces. All depends on how they handle the situation though. Oh yes, somebody asked how many dice the PC has in telepathy. She has 13d6. When designing the character with the player I was under the distinct impression that it would be used mainly as a plot device (ie. find out where the secret detonator is when the villain tells them of his evil plans). Of course, once we got into the game none of the PCs actually seemed to want to behave like heroes. Eh. I guess I'll have to work with it. Worse comes to worse I'll have a chat to the player and decrease the number of dice in the power, freeing up some points for him to put elsewhere. Thanks again for all the help everyone. It's all given me a lot of material to work with for the next few sessions. The Horror