Zephrosyne

Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #8: APG Goodies Yeah, I've had some players come up with the most ridiculous things. I'm not sure which angered me the most. The fact they tried it or the fact they thought I was stupid enough to let them get away with it. My best friend once tried to come up with something called "Mending Shadows" to justify Healing in a darkness-based multipower slot. By the time I was done with him he almost needed his shadows mended!

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers? I'm rather curious about this one myself.

Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #8: APG Goodies Ya think!

Re: Cost of new books WOW!!! That's a lot of content. I may have no trouble selling my friends on the price tag after all. And, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Re: Cost of new books Does anyone know the page count of the 6th edition book?

Re: Cost of new books Cool, thanks.

Hi, I've been looking around but I have not been able to find the price of the new books anywhere. Does anyone know how much 6th edition is going to cost? How much is the pdf? I plan to get both. Also, how much is the Advanced Player's Guide? Thanks.

Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #8: APG Goodies What is the page count on this book (Advanced Player's Guide)?

Re: Confused about 6th edition Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

I've been reading a bit here and there about 6th Edition and it sounds pretty cool. However, I am a bit confused about something and I am hoping that someone can clarify it for me. Can someone tell me what are the Basic Rulebook and the Advanced Player's Guide that are mentioned on the front page (the updates) of the website? Are they additional supplements to the 6th Edition Core Rulebook? What is the deal? Thanks.

Re: The Coolest Superhero Costumes I think the coolest superhero costume I can think of is Lorna Dane's (Polaris) second costume. It was a green and purple ensemble. It was nice.

Re: Adding a few more books to my resource pool: Questions Looking forward to that review. I am personally curious as to how much content is taken from the Ultimate Series.

Re: Character Creation Handbook Ah, anyone?

I am seriously considering picking up this book but I want to be sure if it is what I am looking for. I do have roleplaying budget considerations. I have pdfs of all of the Ultimate Series books and I am wondering if any of the information from these books made it into the Character Creation Handbook. The things that I am most interested are additional Advantages and Limitations such as the variants for using other Characteristics to break out of Entangles (as per the Ultimate Mentalist), the extra description and detail given to some of the powers in the Ultimate books (e.g. mental transforms). Basically, was the extra crunch and detail that was added to powers in the Ultimate Series put into the Character Creation Handbook? Thanks

Re: The artwork drives me nuts Put me in the category of someone who doesn't really care that much about the art. I prefer substance over style and I feel that you get a lot from Hero products for what they charge. If I want art, I'll go to a museum. I've seen a good number of "pretty" books with lousy substance. The only roleplaying game that I have seen where the art truly disturbed me was Blood of Heroes (the first edition). That actually scared the living hell out of me!

Re: Hulk vs Superman This is almost laughable, Superman should win rather routinely. The Hulk is totally outclassed!

Re: WHY is combat so slow and what have you done about it? Well, I ran a Hero System campaign early 2006 and it actually went well for the most part. The one thing that did get to me was the length of combat. There was also a lot of number crunching in terms of keeping up with various modifiers for this and that. The number crunching didn't bother me as much as the book keeping (particularly with adjustment powers). I found myself having to make notations during combat just to be sure I remembered things. After the game was over, I would review the session (both mechanically and story wise) and I was frustrated by the number of things that I did wrong or forgot. I am a meticulous gm by nature so this was a hard pill to swallow. Anyway, after the campaign was over, I decided to run fantasy and I used D&D 3.5 thinking that it would be much faster and easier. Frankly, I found combat to take just as long as it did in Hero System (characters started at 4th level and advanced to 8th). Furthermore, while Hero System fights were long, I wouldn't characterize them as particularly slow. I found D&D to be long and slow. While the rules aren't particularly hard with either game, in D&D I found myself having to stop and look up spell descriptions fairly often. At least with Hero System, every "effect" is built with the same few powers and modifiers. Once you have them committed to memory, you know how they work regardless of how they are being applied. With D&D, the sheer number of spells is impossible to keep up with, especially when you add splat books. You also have feats and special abilities on top of that and I won't even go into prestige classes, which I had the good sense to not allow. I did not use a map in Hero System although I did in D&D (you pretty much have to). This did not help matters. I have players (and myself) counting squares and finding ways to make that fireball hit every possible target without hitting their allies, maneuvering back and forth to flank opponents for a bonus to hit/sneak attack, negotiating around threatened squares/attacks of opportunity, and other things of that nature. D&D felt more like a tactical wargame than a roleplaying game. I am not faulting the players (or myself) for doing it that is how the game is played. However, counting squares forwards, backwards, and diagonally, did slow thing down a lot in my opinion. Now, I am not saying that one game is better than the other. I think that both are fine games in very different ways. My point was that Hero System wasn't quite as daunting as it seemed and was more rewarding for my effort once I experienced something else. I just think that it takes more time to get used to. Also, I will say that it is not a game that I would recommend for a lazy gm because I do believe that there is a bit of heavy lifting that isn't required with most other rule sets. Sorry for the bit of thread deviation but I was rather germane to my point.

Re: AsSFXiate Well, first of all, when I ran a Hero System campaign earlier this year, I required my players have both a "source" and "effect" type special effect for their abilities. So, I totally agree with you there. I do believe that special effects are pretty much trivial in terms of how they affect game mechanics. However, I do take the special effects into consideration when deciding how a power is going to be designed. For example, a character who blinds a target by geokinetically hurling sand at them is going to be built differently from a character who blinds them with a brilliant flash of light. While both probably use the Power, Flash, they will have to be modified differently. For example, the sand isn't probably going to get through a Force Wall; whereas, the blinding light will, unless of course the wall is opaque. While I don't want to diverge too much from the original poster's topic, I have noticed a lot of problems can creep up from poorly thought out power design. Often times, the problem comes from the special effect. For example, I have seen builds where paralysis is built as an Entangle. This never made sense to me because an Entangle can be broken out of using physical strength. Unless I am totally missing something--no I am not a doctor--a person who is paralyzed will not become unparalyzed on the merits of his physical strength. I feel that such a thing is built better using either the appropriate Drain or Transform. Barring a blatant issue of common sense, the above points, as well as the impact of special effects on adjustment powers, are pretty much where special effects begin and end as far as I am concerned.

Re: Divide by 3 and Frameworks Did I mention that my three players are affectionately known as amoeba, paramecium, and euglena? In fact in my last campaign, amoeba tried to get me to accept "Hates Ham" as a Psychological Disadvantage. Just kidding about my players being that bad. I love em to death. However, the part about "Hates Ham" is the truth. LOL.

Re: Divide by 3 and Frameworks Actually, Killer Shrike, I have seen your website before and it is a first rate effort. The wealth of information that you provide is incredible. I will dive into it further but first, I was curious about something that you said. I can understand how Divide by 3 is better than Elemental Control. As you said, the math makes that a given, but how can you say that about Variable Power Pools and Multipowers? Can you elaborate?

I am working on a new campaign. Without boring everyone to death with the details (what few I have), I need a working magic system. I don't want spells built as Multipower and Elemental Controls and I don't like Variable Power Pools. Though I don't want Frameworks being used to create spells, I do want the spell system to be balanced against Frameworks so I was wondering if anyone has used the divide by 3 spell system in concert with Frameworks? If so, how did it work out? Thanks.

Re: Well, I finally gmed Hero System (long) Thanks, everyone, for all of the pointers. I am currently working on the background for my next campaign. The intentMy group had decided to use Hero System, so we'll see how things pan out. Thanks again.

Re: Power Defense Tesuji, I can understand where you are coming from. When I ran Hero System recently, Power Defense did strike me as rather odd. It seemed like the catch all defense that covered everything left over after Physical Defense, Energy Defense, Flash Defense, and Mental Defense. That being said, I kinda take an opposite point of view from yours. I would just encourage the character to take a Limitation based on the defense being "versus a limited special effect" as opposed to making it limited by default. Just my two cents.

Re: Well, I finally gmed Hero System (long) First of all, I would like to say thank you everyone for replying to this thread. Lord Liaden, thanks for the link. Believe it or not, I had designed something like that for myself. I actually created a check list for when each person acted. It really helped a good bit. This pdf will definitely will help move things along a bit. I did check out the Nine Ways To Speed Up Combat on page 380 during the campaign. Other than Be Prepared, which I already was to the best of my ability, the others didn't really appeal to me. The ones that I came the closest to allowing were Abolish The Speed Chart and Use Average Damage but I decided against both. I had also considered Standard Effect for damage/effect rolls. Truthfully, I seemed to have more problems with long fights than my players, so it wasn't as big an issue as it could have been. Like I said it was more noticeable when my players were separated, but they actually immersed themselves into what was going on with their fellow player(s). I will also have to look into the combat book; although, I must say that the new book Ultimate Skill has me really excited. I would love to have skills more detailed. That would be a true gem and a welcomed sourcebook. CourtFool, I think that you and I (and Alibear) have very similar ideologies as far as paying for everything is concerned. I also allow things like cellphones and regular guns as long as they as the character can afford it. However, I also reserve the right to subject the free object to real world standards (similar to the Limitation, Real Weapon). You know, stuff like no signal for cell phones, cars breaking down, etc. I wouldn't do stuff like that to things that characters paid for, barring any Limitations. Also, I wasn't clear about when I said the system was over-complex when it came to damage. I was actually referring to when adding Strength, weapons, and maneuvers to figure out the final damage a character can do. That is what I found unnecessarily complex. By the time I got done with how this adds with that for a Heroic or Superheroic campaign I had a migraine. I understood it (after a few re-reads); I just thought that it could have been simplified a lot more. One other thing that I liked that I forgot to mention earlier was that I only changed two rules in the entire book. That speaks volumes for the compatibility of my gming style and Hero System. One change involved Damage Shield and another involving Mental Powers. Now, there were things that I didn't allow (e.g. Variable Power Pools, Filthy Rich, and Multi-Power Attacks). Furthermore, I did use some of the optional rules (a dozen or so)given such as The Size, Mass, and Leaping option on page 35. I just didn't use any options that slowed down play (e.g. Bleeding). In my opinion, not allowing things and optional rules are not rule changes even though they maybe house rules. I just made a point to give the players a typed copy of these changes. All that being said, I am still trying to figure out a better way to do the Healing powers. Thanks again.

After having 5th Edition since it first came out and then 5th Edition Revised, I finally got off my butt and gmed it. I have ran Hero System before when it was 4th Edition. Admittedly, I did a mediocre job to say the least so I really wanted to try again. The campaign wasn't particularly long, lasting only a few months. I just wanted to run one story arc to compare it to Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition to see which I preferred. The results were interesting. I won't go into the campaign itself because it isn't terribly relevant to the post and no one probably cares to hear it. I just wanted to comment on my observations from a mechanical point of view. As a reference, I'll say that it was a superhero campaign. Frankly, I ended up liking Hero System better than Mutants and Masterminds because I think the level of detail involved suits me better. That being said, I think that the level of detail in Hero System was a bit much at times (damage). When my players created characters, I gave them very few restrictions. That was no accident. I wanted to see what they came up with. In fact, I commented on some of it on another thread when the campaign began months ago. They were like kids in a candy store. I think without gm oversight, Hero System can bring out the very best in players and the very wost at the same time. It encourages them to stretch the limits of their creativity. Some, however, saw it as a way to get anything they wanted within the points they were allotted, common sense and concept be damned. Yes, I know that this can happen with any game but with a game this modular it seems more likely, at least from my experience. The least experienced player actually made the most sensible character while the most experienced, who has been gaming as long as I have, made the most munckiny character he could come up with. Fortunately, he didn't know the system well enough do any real damage. Don't take this as a criticism of the system; it isn't. After all, I did say, "here are your points, go to it." I was just emphasizing the greater need for gm oversight. I like how things were priced in the game. The creator definitely erred on the side of making things more expensive to be sure they were balanced (Damage Shield was a bit overkill). However, I thought being wealthy was really cheap but I guess it isn't really a big deal if one is expected to spend experience points to buy everything. It seems that wealth was meant to represent a person who can live a life of luxury as opposed to someone who could buy really good stuff (e.g. vehicles, bases, weapons, etc.). I just have a hard time telling someone that you can't use that gun that you can afford to buy at Walmart (or wherever) because you didn't spend points on it. I have come to despise the phrase "in genre" because a lot of people have used it as an excuse to totally throw common sense out of the window. I did work out a suitable solution, so that was an easy hurdle to jump. Two things that really stood out were the length of combat and adjustment powers (particularly healing). Combat was exhausting. While I did read the rule book from cover to cover and re-read some sections, it definitely takes lots of practice to get things down to a point where everything flows smoothly. Combat was slowed down by me occasionally having to looking something up more-so out of second guessing myself than actually not knowing the rule. At least I knew the book well enough to know where to look up the rule. That saves a lot of time. Counting damage or effect results also seemed to slow things down a bit. My players, two of whom were fairly new to roleplaying, counted a bit slow. In spite of the length, the fights were really fun, just mentally exhausting. The length of time was particularly noticeable when combat didn't involve everyone at the table (separated players). However, the others that weren't there got so involved in what the other player(s) was going through in terms of his die rolls and the action itself that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There were also times that I felt overwhelmed and forgot to do things like deduct the bad guy's Endurance, knockback, etc. As I got used to it, I made less mistakes. I also made a flowchart for myself. The system seems very consistent and logical which made it easier. I have gmed many systems over the years but this one is definitely the most time consuming and hardest (as in tedious) when it comes to combat. Still, I drew on my experience to find ways to make it a bit easier for myself. I think that it just takes time. I think that if the time is invested it will be well-rewarded in the long run. Adjustment powers were a bit of a bookkeeping pain. I really thought healing was annoying. I found myself having to keep up with how many points did the healer use on so and so at what time. It was just a nightmare. Does anyone have any house rules for healing? Overall, it was a positive experience. We all had a good time. I love the mechanics, the precision, and the detail. Most of the answers to questions are right there for you. You know exactly what can and cannot be done with a given build and I really like that. However, it is the most exhausting system to run that I have ever seen. There is a lot to keep up with. Still, I think that it is something that will get much easier and things will become second nature with practice.