mhd

Didn't the Greeks actually do that, with alternating left-to right and right-to-left lines (and with mirrored letterforms)? It's really just a matter of familiarity. I mean, what's your normal roll for "reading something fast"? What if it's written without punctuation and spaces (like classical Latin was)? Or in some weird handwriting (like basically everything)? If that would matter, I'd probably let my players roll INT+SPD, with additional bonuses if they can tell me that they're used to something similar or generally quick readers. Now, if we'd have a "Literacy" skill in the game...

I recently posted a similar idea in the FH forum. -0 RSR/regular side effect is my current solution, too.

One issue you'll get with a less invasive point buy system is that you won't cover all the necessary abilities. Which is rather intrinsic to the GUMSHOE way of handling things. To get an "automatic success" to guarantee that the plot continues, you need two things: Not having chance mess up your skill, and actually having the skill in the first place. I'd say that this would have to be included into a GUMSHERO campaign as a ground rule, at least. Also, a pool size of 3 for a 13-? That seems way too high.

Against player stupidity even the gods contend in vain...

Well, that's certainly not peculiar to this construction, but a general issue with RSR. Power skills tend to be maximized... Apart from the skill level, the applicability is also a balancing matter. Just going by the rules, there'd be no difference between requiring a "Magic", a "Necromancy" or a "Create Zombie" skill roll.

One important factor for me is that in HERO you've got other options. Subterranean races having Infravision wasn't an Act of God, it was an Act of Gygax. Every additional sense would've required other rules, and that would just have distracted him from adding another entry to the polearms table. In HERO, we're not so limited, just create any sense and with the proper modifiers and bonuses, you've got a majority of the specifics done already. Although, as I wrote in another thread a while ago, it's harder picturing things as a player. We've all seen thermographic imaging and/or black and white movies, so we know what infra-/darkvision would be about. If Llollthll would've cursed the <product identity> elves with spider eyes, well, that would be harder to immerse yourself into. Never mind that it would just ruin the cheesecake.

Really? I always thought that FH armor weights were on the high end, as carrying capacity isn't exactly a problem with HERO's default strength table. Just adding up some HM3 plate armor parts, I arrive at 52 lbs for what amounts to a full suit. FH has that as 40kg (88 lbs). Although one would probably need to build a proper suit piecemeal to really compare things. No such thing as "plate armor". The HERO weights never quite sat right for me, being rather formulaic (weight based directly on DR).

Which also means that Drow no longer have to light candles to read magic scrolls. Which I kinda miss, I always thought that the new kind of Darkvision was a bit bland. So I'm more inclined to use infra-/ultravision in my campaigns, although I think that generally too many creatures have nightvision capabilities in D&D.

I don't see why RSR(only for Side Effect; -0) wouldn't be sufficient here. In this scenario, the SR is used for two things: Seeing if the power works and checking whether the Side Effect is triggered. You get your cost benefit for both separately anyway... A Naked Buyoff with Charges seems like a good idea for someone who wouldn't want to mess with components in detail, something like a "mage's guild component bag", probably with a expensive recharge.

That really depends on their scarcity and power, and is rather independent from "costs" as a rule term. Never mind that I'd strongly advice against an actual "magic item economy" unless you're campaign is either a bit silly, completely disregarding economics anyway (with vaults full of gold) or that's an actual focus of the setting, with a very well-grounded "magic as tech" feature.

Well, trying to hit folk, to be specific. Misses ain't a free lunch.

Most equipment doesn't need stats, or even bonuses. It's simply the background dressing required for some skills (climbing equipment, lockpicks) or falls outside of the granularity and focus that the HERO rules provide (you don't really want to build pickaxes and shovels with Powers). Actually, I'd think twice about any item that provides a bonus. The HERO granularity isn't too high, and a +1 bonus or +1 DC is a lot. We all know that the quality of most tools vary wildly, but is it enough to provide a bonus to a roll? I'd say that most professionals spend a rather large amount of time and money on stuff that wouldn't be reflected in HERO terms. And it often means that magical bonuses have to be even higher, leading to bonus inflation.

Isn't that differentiation a bit useless? A bit like a "free Ipad!" offer, as long as you sign an expensive contract. There might be some theological fine points in the game, but regarding the rule system, the ordainment is the power. This also gets you a more solid foothold regarding balancing. At least I'd try to build it this way to see what cost range you'd need for the perk levels (I guess a few existing systems are built that way). Comparing spells with equipment seems appropriate (and I just recently started a thread about handling spellbooks this way), but especially in a fantasy campaign most spell powers clearly trump normal equipment. Weapons for example just improve your innate ability to hurt people. Horses get you there a bit faster. But a lot of spells transcend normal human abilities or provide extreme shortcuts. I'd be very wary about balancing this -- even beyond mere points, of course. You can build lots of stuff that's almost game-breaking in some campaigns for a few measly points, like flying or poison invulnerability (immortality is also a lot cheaper than most traditions of wizardry and alchemy would expect, but it doesn't really tend to ruin adventures).

Sounds like a VPP setup to me. Your church rank is directly related to the maximum pool size, and the number of active points a particular power can have is limited by the spheres of influence of the deity. Either rather exclusively, or using something like the old "domains" setup that AD&D had (where "major access" would be limitless or the total campaign limit, whereas "partial access" would be e.g. 20 Active Points). For some deities that would be a bigger limitation than for others, so maybe a -1/4 or -1/2 limitation on the pool. Okay, then it might be easier to build it with a Multipower. Eight fixed per deity or per miracle-worker? For some rather wide-"sphered" deity, a total number of eight spells across all the possible domains seems a bit low. Requires Skill Roll + Side Effects seems to encompass that al. That's the usual "Only When Serving the God's Purposes" limitation (-1/2). I'd vote for a END Reserve based system here. Much easier to use than other systems and less artificially constrained. "Cool-downs" require too much bookkeeping or are tied to narrative concepts ("per scene"). And "per day" is just lazy, IMHO.

Quick question: How would you price a limitation, where the power itself always is activated, but there's a required skill roll that's only used for avoiding a nasty side effect and there's a specific component that can totally remedy the need for this roll (the component is destroyed by this). Major Side Effect tied to a RSR is -1/2. OAF Expendable, difficult is -1 1/4 Variable Side Effects doesn't seem necessary, as there's no real wide choice between options and the pricing for either varies quite a lot. Due to the much higher price for the OAF, I would probably stick to the -1/2 instead of weakening it further. Anyone who vehemently disagrees?

Well, I've been there (and rather recently), and it can go both ways: For one, leaving things out obviously doesn't waste time. And there are lots of tropes that might not fit perfectly well but just are in there for tradition, whether it's races or magic systems. The worst thing is when you don't have a proper idea and all awash in the glory of HERO Then it's a deadly spiral of "hmm, I wonder what I can do" and "do I actually want this?". Fiddling with mechanical details and concepts and the same time is where evenings get wasted... This hit me harder when it came to the magic system(s). My racial templates tend to be rather minimal. Maybe a point or two in attributes here and there, and a bit defining the senses. The rest is mostly a character choice. No need to give every elf basic magical ability, if the player wants that, he can put his points where he wants them. Where I did put a few items (and wanted to do more) was about really special abilities, even if only optional. Items on the templates that are mostly for inspiration. If gnomes can create extradimensional storage spaces in their beards, that's saying something, even if the player won't take it. Although I'd restrict that to two or three items, you don't want to end up in deep "My Elves Are Different" territory.

I'd be wary about too straight-forward conversions. Sure, you can probably use HERO to do that, it's not a very opinionated system and mostly concerned about the effects. But especially when it comes to "traditional" fantasy rules (who am I kidding: D&D variants), it might be better to review your assumptions and maybe adapt a bit. HERO is a bit more skill-based and modular, and I'd try to revise a few "innate" bonuses that way. There's no way to pick and choose racial abilities in most D&D editions, but it's no problem in a point-buy system. So don't make everything mandatory. Not every dwarf had extensive giant-fighting training, not every elf handled longswords enough. Put in the "essential" mods in one template and then present others as optional abilities. Some of which might even be added after the game starts... Also, I personally try to model a few things with a more "realistic" bent. If one gets a bonus or special ability, then I ask myself why and how. This often has an influence on how its built, as with HERO There's More Than One Way To Do It. Take "keen elven senses" for example. In some other game, this is a "+2 bonus" to some perception skill. In older games it was "can only surprised on a 6 on a d6". Now, what it's going to be in HERO? You could go with a +2 PER, sure. But you could also give a bonus vs. the range modifier (Telescopic), for the "elven farsight" bit. Or make it partially penetrative, so that elves can see through mist (measly point or two, but certainly evocative). Same goes for dwarven resistance. A lot of that is covered by attributes already. As opposed to e.g. AD&D, you get bonuses early enough and don't need to be near the peak for them to matter. So racial bonuses beyond that might not be necessary and it saves you from including yet another ability. But if your dwarves go beyond that, you might ask yourself whether it's really just because they're that darn tough or maybe because they're a bit different. Their metabolism might not just be a bit more efficient, it might be quite odd in places -- that "partially made from stone" adage could be true. You could build both with "Life Support(Immunity from all poisons): Requires a Roll". But in once place it might be a CON roll, in the other a random activation roll -- which you don't repeat for the same poison ever. As for the "racial fighting" bonuses that dwarves and gnomes get, apart from making them optional (not every dwarf is the bearded clan warrior archetype), I'd pay double attention at the qualifiers. In AD&D, you couldn't just give a general bonus to either AC or to-hit, as that's the totality of your whole combat system. HERO is a bit more fine-grained. So why couldn't Defense Maneuver apply to everyone? Sure, you learn it because some racial enemies tend to swarm you, but after going out from your burrow one might find out that others do it in pretty much the same way. Or if it is more specific, is just because of the height? In which case I'd much rather write "humanoid opponents > 3m". Thinking about more specific combat tactics, "not being grabbed" or "outmaneuvering reach" could qualify as more specific tactics. (And if it's really that important and people are trained specifically for this, well, that's called a "Martial Art") Finally, if it's really just about simulating something that's easily done in one system but rather hard in HERO, then that's most likely an artifact of the other system, not the racial/professional/background narrative. And thus probably should be dropped. Before you spend too much time and several Powers just to make the equivalent of a "saving throw bonus", better go by the spirit of those rules, not the laws themselves.

What's the current default Setup for "Berserk Powers"? Probably Trigger/No Conscious Control, but at what costs? (+0/-2?) Aid STR would be great, and if you're really going for the "naked dwarf" archetype, possibly even a 50% Damage Reduction. Otherwise, Aid BODY. I'd build racial fighting bonuses (as per D&D) as CSLs. After all, most of the time you don't just learn how to hurt them, but also how to attack and evade them, i.e. how they fight. HTH CSL with a -1 limitation.

Now we're obviously getting into matters of taste, but I would prefer seeing players with more situation-dependent combat skills and abilities instead of just sticking everything into OCV/DCV. Especially for a berserker. Also, soaking more damage instead of just being incredibly hard to hit would be more suitable (honestly, 9 effective DCV?). Never mind that I don't think being slightly below 5 foot should cound as Small, and give you any stealth or defense bonuses. Speaking of damage, he's got no way to increase it. Even with STR 18 and a huge weapon, that's easily beaten. In-rage HTH bonuses or full-fledged CSLs might be a good idea, if you're not going for some kind of "berserker martial art".

Urban Fantasy encompasses a lot of styles. There's a world of difference between something almost romantic as e.g. Gaiman's Neverwhere, Dresden Files/World of Darkness in the middle, and large caliber monster hunting on the other end. I guess you get more gunswers in the MHI/DC forum, whereas for magic systems and spells FH would be a good choice. Monsters/races in all fora, including the generic one.

If you'd add Dave Eddings to that, you'd get my list of "cliché fantasy authors". I'm okay with hidden bosses and "éminence grise" villains. I just don't like to add them all willy-nilly because the party surprisingly managed to kill my main NPC and I'm struggling to end the pre-planned plot at any cost. If the Big Bad didn't follow the requisite items of the Evil Overlord list then good riddance. I have to cope with that. Present entirely new parties, or let the existing, known ones adapt to this power vacuum. If their encounter in the Temple of the Ruby Eyed Idol will result into an encounter with yet another bad guy, no matter what, that's totally disregarding the actions of the players. Which is anathema to me. It's not different from presenting them two corridors to pick, left and right, but no matter what they'll choose, they'll end up in the same area. The narrative doesn't warp the space time continuum in my campaigns. I'm aware that other game masters see this differently. Which is why this is somewhat pertinent to the discussion: Either you have to play it this way some times, or you'll have to be able to fly by the seat of your pants. HERO is a harsh mistress at times.

One short comment on PaycheckHero's "GM cheating" comment: Even if GM's sometimes are able to save the poor characters lives from unfortunate deaths or other unopportune events, this will happen more often than in some other games. On the outside it might be all superheros, but once you get down to killing damage, well, it's fairly deadly. Introduce hit locations and some savvy combatants, and it'll get even worse. This will be less a shock for people who tended to play RuneQuest, GURPS, Traveller or even old-school D&D campaigns, but for some players it'll be one of the more deadly and unpredictable experiences. So if that looks like table flipping just waiting to happen, maybe introducing some "A** Saver Points" might be better. (and/or generous uses of Combat Luck and the like) And notice that this is even more true for us poor GMs. If you've seen "The Gamers" you know the scene: There you are, your evil overlord gloating and making his speech -- and whoops, Weapon Master arrow to the forehead. Being prepared for this is good. I'm not the biggest fan of lots of magical/lucky protection for the baddies -- what's good when the players have it, just begets groans when it's coming from the other side of the screen. For me it works best when I have more options open, a more "sandbox" style of gaming. Don't be too dependent on one NPC. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of cheating illusionism like "Well, he wasn't the true boss anyway". At least when it's applied post facto. I was playing like that anyways, so I could easily cope with this. Otherwise, my first HERO campaign would've really gotten me mad.

I might be in a good position to answer this. I did have the old Champions book, but must admit that I barely skimmed it. Then, after some trial and error with GURPS, I decided to pick up HERO 6E mainly because I wanted to fiddle with the basics, if need be. But there I was: No experience running the system, but familiar with the general style (generic, point-based, semi-realistic). No player had any experience with it, often not even with similar systems and some weren't too keen on reading lots of rules background in a foreign language. But it worked surprisingly well. We've had a few new players since then and everyone was integrated quickly. I would say that I had fewer problems than with D&D 3E. It's just easier to get an answer when they say "I want to do that" (either right now in combat or as a general ability/power). A few lessons I've learned: Powers are the hard stuff. Which means that starting with a Heroic game is much easier, and if you do so, either doing some prep work or picking a magic system out of Fantasy Hero will be worth it. Hero Designer is great. For most players I did some "guided" character creation, where I mainly asked them what they want to be good at, what they know, their wepons of choice etc. and just entered that in there. Sometimes they didn't even know what the values where all about before we started playing. Of course if you do it that way, make it possible for them to change things after the first one or two sessions. Humanoid opponents are really, really easy. You don't need full-fledged characters, you just need the basic combat values. If you want to make it harder, give em one or two martial arts maneuvers, or just add another dude. For my steampunk fantasy campaign, I ran lots of encounters fully by the seat of my pants. It's more about the choices you make in combat with them that gives them their own style, not what you prep for them. At least until you reach a certain power level. Having the combat maneuvers (both the basic ones and martial arts, if you got em) on the character sheet is a huuuge timesaver. As is the speed chart and the distance modifier table (and hit locations, if you use them). The default PDF export of Hero Designer is pretty swell. Two rules subsystems that you better read twice: Aborting actions, and how normal/killing damage is applied. Points aren't mainly there for balance. That means you don't really have to sweat it for opponents. Just pay attention to their combat levels, maximum damage and the total number of enemies. Whether they've got a few tricks more up their sleeves doesn't really matter. I thought I'll run into all kinds of confusion. Roll-under skills vs. combat resolution. Counting killing damage. Tracking Endurance. Worked out fine in the end. I've run a pretty monster-heavy game recently, but no problem with the bestiary and some quick modifiers on post-its. Right now, my main issue is that I skipped a bit on the magic prep work. I thought I give the PCs some free run on this ("you don't have to be limited by D&D tropes anymore, yay!"), but not everyone wants to design their own magic system, spells etc. So I would say that investing in some campaign prep is very useful. Either done by just picking and choosing the right pre-made stuff (Fantasy Hero, Grimoire etc.), or sitting down and doing it on your own. Session prep was easy enough for me. Still spend more time on the real background stuff than on the stats.

Oh, good questions. Right now recovering from stun is basically "derived" from SPD. Maybe basing it on EGO or CON would be an alternative. As I'm not proposing this as a universal system, I'm covering a much narrower range of attribute values, so X - (CON/Y) could work, whereas this would put me in negative numbers otherwise. Or for simplicity's sake, allow a recovery roll every X ticks. Or even simpler: Base "Strike Speed". Regarding multiple attacks, I'd say that some of them are just weapons or martial arts that have "fast" maneuvers available, and the rest is probably something like two-handed fighting. So they rarely would happen at the same tick. Hurrying, i.e. decreasing the time it takes you to act next, possibly foregoing some accuracy would have to be watched when designing this. If you set the base speed to low and then offer multiple ways to decrease it, all of a sudden you find yourself with people acting every tick. Not sure about blocking. In a FH setting, it's quite likely that people will act in the same segment and thus the "act first" nature of a melee block becomes important. I'll have to simulate a few combats to see if this happens often enough. If it isn't that important anymore, it would be one less rule to remember... But then I could easily imagine a dedicated "Bind" maneuver that delays the next action of the blockee.

One additional item I'm wondering how to implement would be the post-12 recovery. I could just do it every 12 ticks. On the other hand, I've never fully understood its justification and with a finer action granularity, just simply not doing anything for a few ticks would probably suffice. No free lunch anymore, but no 1/2 Def either.