greypaladin_01

I would need to dig out my storage boxes, but pretty sure the couterstrike hero mechanic was from the Ninja Hero 4th edition stuff. So any marital arts focused book from 4-6th should cover it.

I have never seen anything like this before. I *think* I can see how the official info translates to the picture sheet. I do think there is some definite potential as a tool to help people learn. Was there an article or something talking about how to utilize these... or just something you made? Very much this is an issue for me. I am aware of it and trying to flex my brain more, but I have 30+ years of Pulp Fantasy/D&D style power progression in my brain. It feels that for FH to work you need the GM to be thinking different, but also the players. If they are trying for D&D it will have difficulties as well

These are all very good points, and much of what I was looking for assistance in. The mentality for Fantasy Hero is very different from D&D or Champions... perhaps more than I even realized. I am not familiar with "Bespoke Character Sheets" can you clarify? This is very true and there is nothing to stop a GM from changing them for races, or across the board. However, doing away with them completely feels like it leads to Fantasy Champions more than Fantasy Hero. Fun..but not what I am looking for. Has anyone had experience with changing the maxima in play? How did that work?

I do understand the bell curve for skill checks. I know that all skill checks get a dizzying set of positive and negative modifiers, especially in the Heroic level, but that is a whole different set of issues. What it sounds like you are saying though is to not worry so much about the statistics themselves because all the difference between characters will be focused more on Skills and Skill level purchases. I can wrap my brain around that... although from a balancing standpoint, I question where the limits of this should normally end up. It feels that it could very easily get out of control quickly.

Ok... very basic and likely silly question but something that I run into whenever I try to work with HERO in a non-supers capacity. I am hoping that you all might have some insights to help me re-align my thinking. With Champions, the statistics spread for characters tends to be a bit broader as well as having powers that help differentiate characters from each other fairly easily. However, whenever I sit down to work at the Heroic level (specifically trying to work on a fantasy hero game for a friend) I am finding that the characters tend to really look similar due to Normal Characteristics Maxima. For example Stats in Heroic level HERO tend to fall into the 10-20 range...but mechanically there is very little difference between those. (we are talking 11- vs 13- rolls and the like. There is a math difference but not HUGE.) Compared to something like D&D where between 10-20 in a stat gives between +0 to +5 modifiers. In my mind, this keeps feeling like a flaw... making the warrior, mage, archer and rogue tend to look VERY similar to each other. I am hoping that there is something I am missing here.... a different perspective that will help make this feel more open than it currently does. I have been trying on and off to get something FH going since the 4th edition days...specifically because I want something NOT D&D but still fantasy. However my brain gets a bit stuck here and on not getting caught in D&D-think. Sorry for the ranting question... hopefully people here can help break my Train of Thought out of this loop.

For the longest time I only had the pack that came with the 4th Edition DM screen. But those were SO helpful with my champions games... I used them for years. Once HeroClix started to appear I transitioned over to a mix of Cardboard and Clix for use at the table. Since then I found the full Modern Heroes pack but I have not cut them apart yet. Sadly my Table gaming days are in decline for a long while now, most of what i do being online with things like discord chat. But still have very found memories of these figures.

I appreciate the suggestion but no social medias for me sadly. But still good to know there are ways to reach him.

I have always done something similar in my games and when teaching others to play. (11+OCV) - 3d6 = DCV hit People can adjust their math as needed and speeds things up a great deal.

Along with all my other projects, I am going to be doing a 1 player Kazei 5 game from time to time. While the supplement and website have a great deal of info for major NPCs/Player examples there is not as much in the way of generic enemies. Smalltime gang members, corpo security and the like. I was hoping to avoid having to create all of that and so wanted to see if anyone had resources I could tap into for help.

Firefist was just the POV character in the comic portions of NM. As far as I know he never got stats.. unless they were in one of the supplements. Don't recall that.

Yes Code of the Hero is very much a 'classic' almost Silver Age concept that can adapt but comes from that era. - Respect the Law and Legal Figures - Do not hit women (at least silver age) - Tell the truth - Do not hit someone when down Stuff like that.

At the risk of pointing to another game (ick!) All of D&D 4th edition is based off the PoL concept and the DMG1 would be a good starter resource to look over. There have also been alot of DMGuild type products on it. That being said my understanding of PoL (which I do like) is this: 1: PCs are the stars of the show. For the most part almost no one else is strong/brave/stupid enough to leave the safetly of the lights (towns/cities) and go out into the wilds. 2: Usually there was a large kingdom that fell and the PoL pockets of civilization are all that remains and travel between them is not easy or safe. Usually far apart and monster filled between. 3: Lots of ruins and other adventure sights are all over the place but are avoided by general populace, but having rumors and legends about them would not be uncommon. 4: as I said, PCs are the stars. The few NPCs of power that exist do not leave their homes and venture out much. You might have a power mage or captain of the guard, but they will not leave the city or tower to deal with the goblin raiders... even if you think they theoretically should. That is why PCs exisit. This is hardly complete but just some random thoughts based off what I think of right off when PoL comes up. Hopefully it helps you get started.

As a tangential note to this, what if you just House-Ruled and changed what RSR does for the purposes of Magic? Something I have been toying with (but not tested) is basically setting up a Pass/Pass with Consequence setup for RSR magic rolls. This way players don't have the double fail threat (passing RSR only to miss DCV and then watch Warrior just shoot a bow and only have 1 chance of failure with almost no points spent). Roughly the idea would be if you make your check spell works as intended and move forward, if you fail the spell STILL works but would be at Half AP or perhaps x2 END or some other side effect. It still keeps magic feeling reliable but if you don't harness it properly then you will not have as good effect as you wanted.

Thank you everyone for you input! I am glad to see I am not alone in thinking on this, and appreciate the shared brainpower to get me started!

Nice to know it is not just my neighbors that do the illegal fireworks. Its been illegal for something like 10+ years...but 4th and New Years will have HOURS of the stuff going on. At least with the 4th they only go between 9-11 at night. New Years goes till 2am or longer.

This is something I was already thinking on, but more in the perview of nobles, banks and merchant caravans, having it available for general travelers would not seem far fetched. Plus there could be tax or conversion fees as well for outsiders. Thank you! Based on what Spence is saying then I will have to pick up a copy of the Field guide, at the very least it should make for interesting reading. I appreciate the help from everyone. I know I can always count on this group for insight and direction!

Wow... you are right that is ALOT of front loading. Maybe a little more than I am able to do at this time, but I have a new pet project for that mythical 'free time' people talk about now There is a lot to unpack here but certainly some good nuggets to think about! But yes, as someone that works in a production industry... there is a definite value to finished materials that is more than just the cost of raw components. Really wish more customers could get that through their heads. I had not considered doing sub-copper coinage, not sure if I want to do that or not but you seem to be very much on the wavelength I am thinking about and going for. They players are going to be based in a Trade Hub town so I do want to have some price flux depending on if a caravan or ship has come through recently but focused on the base rates for now. Allowing you a shameless plug, I see you have done a lot of Fantasy Hero supplements but I admit to not have purchased any so far. Do any of the ones you have cover the pricing at all?

That is not something I had considered as an option but I like it! Definitily going to come up with some multi-value coins for use. Seems like it would help with lower and mid-level business transactions as well. I'll have to dig through my old Dragons, but I don't think I have that one. It would be a very simple system but still too coin intense for me. Part of what I am looking to do is try and cut down on the idea of people carrying huge bags of coins all over. But thank you!

I had considered doing something like this, but I also never really jived with pricing from D&D or Pathfider, they work ok enough for what they do but was not really the feel I was going for. However I appreciate the suggestion!

Thank you for your input! While I agree with you on the KISS philosophy, players have expressed as desire for a slightly more "simulation-ist" style game this time around. So for that sake I am trying to get some type of pricing for shopping and life expenses so things can be zoomed in or out on the timeline. If they have specific things they wish to do for a day then I need to have things covered for general life if they want to RP the night at the tavern or visiting the farmer market and the life. Or enough to extrapolate multiple days costs on the fly if we are doing a time jump before the next 'event'

Hello all! I am hoping to pick your collective brains for something I am working on. I am sure much of what I need is out there or one of you amazing folks have already pondered. So I am hoping for tips or directions to where to look further. Finding treasure or at the very least "doing the job and getting paid" is pretty standard for most Fantasy Hero (and other) Campaigns, but I am looking for some help with trying to do something a little more Low Fantasy than D&D when it comes to pricing and payments. I am trying to step away from the D&D gold piece standard and go more with Silver and Copper as the primary coin of the realm and people. I figure Gold should be reserved for Guilds, Nobles and the like and not so much a barkeep or blacksmith. But I also don't want to try and create everything from scratch. I believe Fantasy Hero has a price sheet for weapons and some gear but I am hoping someone knows other places I can look for pre-made lists I can use as a baseline and adjust with minimal work. To this end I was also thinking some thing a little different from the normal 10 coins = next step up and go with something like 10 Copper to 1 Silver but 100 Silver to 1 Gold or the like. Goals: 1 - Most daily life purchase would be handled with copper or some silver. 2 - Trying for Low Fantasy so I don't plan for players to become insanely wealthy ( no dragon hoards or the like) But I do want them to earn payment that would be enough to live the high life for a week or so but then be getting low enough they need to find work again or risk going hungry. 3 - To this end I plan to track costs of food/lodging and the like as well. I am not worrying about rules lawyering the system exactly, I trust my players enough to use their coins as per character needs/wants. 4 - Still thinking through what else I will need to think about. I am open to suggestions

I will add support to secret IDs being very workable... with a caveat. Superman / Clark Kent was never an issue for the world at large to me... only for the Daily Planet crew or people the regularly interacted with both identities. In order for secret IDs to be compromised there has to be a causal link in peoples minds for the 'two' people. However, the concept that Lois Lane or Perry White can hang out with Clark and Superman and not "get it" is ridiculous, just as Spider-Man talking to Aunt May should have nearly instantly ended that whole mess. VERY close people to you will not be fooled by a disguise or mask for more than the SHORTEST of time. Within several minutes of extended contact or multiple short ones they will know. However random person that was saved by Superman and then passes by Clark Kent at a diner later, will not even blink twice. One more element on Secret IDs in comic books, the best defense for them is that most people wont even consider that the person might have another ID. No one REALLY thinks that Superman puts on a suit and does a 9 to 5... they think he is all over the world at all times... or maybe chilling far away from people to unwind. No one really thinks Batman is anything other than Batman... at least not as far as the general public or even general criminals would think. However if a character calls attention to their other idea existing then things might start to get more fuzzy. Lastly, Secret ID is a complication for champions, which means it WILL be an issue... that is why you get the points. Now is when we are talking genre tropes at play. If this was Retro-50s then Lois KNOWS Clark and Superman are the same...but can't manage to prove it... and that cat and mouse game is part of the points you are getting. But in 70s style gaming the problems are more having to break your 3rd date in a row because you see a bank robbery happening or Amazing Man needs to be in Chicago because of the investigation but Johnny Normal has a report due by the end of the day.... what do you do? Even by 70s secret IDs as we classically think of them were on the way out, especially in Marvel comics. You had Spider-man sure, but Fantastic Four, X-Men and even Avengers either had public IDs or the IDs were never really an issue. The 70s Avengers had people keeping IDs secret from each other even, but only might be an issue 1 comic out of every 20 at most... they were more focused on adventure and action. So again, with Retro Gaming you need to decide what the most important focus elements should be and build around it... go more for the Flavor than the exact Recipe.

I have have very few issues with genre police and if anything I am the biggest one in my own games. However over the years I got better at realizing that genre conventions are not a single set even for Bronze Age comics and even less so as you move to the 90s. Retro game sounds very fun and yes looking at the comics for a look and feel is a good start. But the look and feel varies more than just by decades. For examples.... look at the 70s Fantastic Four stories vs 70s Dr. Strange stuff..... same decade but VERY different if you were going to run them as games. I would suggest figuring out say... 3 examples of the era you like and then look what is common to create your own RetroGenre guide. (second example... 1981 X-Men game would be VERY different from 1992 x-men game)

If the concern is wanting things to be as 'current & cool' as possible then I suggest 4A or 5 based on tone of the adventures. Looking at modern superhero shows / films / games should be the benchmark and not comic books.

I remember a sheet like that from the Big Blue Book era... might have come in the GM Screen. Those were really helpful for group game for sure. For the people that are doing more digital files for their notes and reference. Have you found good ways of filing or sorting to make it quick to locate things later on?