Tasha

Re: What is your plans for your first 6th Edition game? I plan on running a Champions game. Called Awakened Promethians, it stars characters from the Victorian Era - end of WWII. The Heroes are from this earlier simplier period. They were put into suspended animation for many reasons, for most of them it was to save their lives. The Heroes have awakened to the present day (2009), to find a world with no experienced Heroes, and plenty of Villains to cause trouble. To make matters worse, all of the Heroes Nemesis' have reappeared and they are more powerful than ever. There will be secret societies and other such fun. This is my version of The Twelve or at least a bit of a homage to it. Tasha

Re: 6th Edition is nearly 200 more pages...why? From what I have seen from the sample pages. 6E is set in a larger font size (thank goodness!) this also inflates pagesize. 5er was set pretty small and on a paper that was kind of dark, which in a room that was dimly lit made it harder to read than previous volumes that were printed on a brighter paper. Tasha

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers?

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers? TK is the same. My guess is as long as you can directly damage stuff with it (ie Punch and Squeeze). It will have that particular cost. Complications don't seem to be that different besides losing the limitation name in favor of being a Complication. ie Physical Complication, Psyc Complication etc. The big change here is that at least for supers they are recommending less points in complications with a greater amount of base points ie 325 base +75 Complications (400pts total) is a Standard Superheroic character level). Which I find to be a strangely compelling change.

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers?

Re: District 9 LOL that would be a different way to write a script. Create it as a RPG adventure first, get some good players, and see what happens. At the end run a Bull session where everyone talks about the adventure and what could have been better and what they liked. Of course have the whole thing on tape and write the script based on that. The DVD extras could have an extra track with the game dialog in sync with the scenes (with boring stuff like dice rolling edited out) With writing like this we might be able to prevent travesties like the Dungeons and Dragons movie! ROFL Tasha

Re: District 9 Moreover the reason that the aliens were stuck here were glossed over. Why certain things that happened the way they did wasn't really explained well either. Basically my GF spent the whole ride home picking apart the plotholes. She still liked the movie, but she would have liked it if someone had explained stuff better. Aside rant: Does it ever strike any of you, that most Action/Scifi/Fantasy movies should have a hard core RPG gamer on board as a consultant? There are too many movies where the script needs a bit of a reality check. Sometimes I see scenes where the Characters could be using their enviroment better (or even their weapons more intelligently). I see things like this and think that if the movie were a game that I was running, that my players would run roughshod over huge parts of the script.

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers?

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers? Yep end 5:1 Stun is 2:1 and perhaps I will gain some reading comprehension someday

Re: 6th Edition Question: New Powers? Str 1, Dex 2, Con 1, Int 1, Ego 1, Pre 1 OCV 5, DCV 5, OMCV 3, DMCV 3, SPD 10 PD 1, ED 1, REC 1, End .2 (ie 5 End = 1pt), BODY 1, Stun 1 I think that the only reason that Dex is 2pts each is because it determines who goes first in a Segment. With END being so cheap, many Characters that are using END Reserves can now afford to use normal end. What I really want to know is the recommended point level for a "Standard Superhero game" ie base points and max Disads Also the same for the teir above Standard Superheros. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far A good way to get hack and slayers to play is to have pre generated characters ready for a combat heavy Champions game. I ran a Robot Warriors (Giant Robot Hero) game one convention using that recipe and had almost all of the players looking for Robot Warriors books after my game. Show them the fun of combat (which most players can get into), then give them the chance to RP between combats. Make sure you use their character's unique skills/talents. The one thing that most d20 folk will notice is that they make their rolls more often and when the do miss the roll it's only by a couple of points on the die. This is far different from a d20 game where the flat probabilities make wide variations in the rolls more common.

Re: Slowing down Character advancement LOL Yeah, I have never played in a game where the GM trusted us enough to give us enough points to build the characters we want (I have run such a game and had a ton of fun). Like Vondy, I believe in horizontal advancement. ie getting better at my skills etc. I was talking about buying Disads off because sometimes in a game, you get to the point where the government trusts you to not watch you anymore, or you have defeated your nemesis in such a way that it really doesn't make sense for them to hunt you any more. Perhaps my character has been working on better shielding on her armor so she isn't succeptable to purple argonite anymore. I may have learned that I am not completely unbeatable and need to buy down my Overconfidence. Yes some of those could be morphed into other disads, but sometimes it just makes sense to buy them off. Also, I have yet to have a character writeup that completely fits the campaign. Some skill or power just doesn't work or I plain forgot to include something. Now I usually do a complete rewrite after the 2nd game or so if I have to. Sometimes it becomes clear that you just plain forgot certain skills ie my Brownshirt forgot to purchase CK Brownshirt Armed forces and PS Soldier. I plan on using my precious XP on filling in the gap on something that I forgot to purchase. If I didn't have any Xp or it was fairly rare, I would feel like I would have to save those XP for something more important. CourtFool, my post wasn't completly directed at you. it was more about rebutting Sean's post. Sorry about my tone, I'll keep it more civil Tasha

Re: Defying Gravity TV Series BTW it's also on Hulu http://www.hulu.com/defying-gravity I am enjoying it. The Soap Opera stuff makes it interesting. It makes the show about people who happen to be in a space craft. The "big secret" is somewhat interesting. It gives them something to do during sweeps. I'll keep watching. BTW I keep wincing when they insist that people explode in vacuum. I hate when shows don't do basic research... Tasha

Re: Slowing down Character advancement In my experience, I never get enough points to build the character that I want. So I look forward to getting exp so that I can grow the character into what I had in mind when I created her. Stagnant characters suck, sorry. I am sorry that you are too lazy to keep up with your PC's advancement. Special ceremonies and winning battles are satisfying, but XP is really nice too. It isn't about "leveling up". It's about selling off that hunted after all of these years, It's about buying off that activation roll now that the character knows her powers better, It's about that neat power that I envisioned the character manifesting "someday". It's about learning how to ride like an expert, after you have ridden thousands of miles. Those things aren't possible if you don't reward any exp. See If I don't get any exp I don't know when/if I would be able to do any of those things. As a GM I LOVE to see characters grow and do new/different things. It's part of playing the game. It's like the difference between watching Star Trek TNG, and Watching Babylon 5. On Star Trek, their GM never (or rarely) gave out exp. So their characters never grew. Hell Tasha Yar's player left the game out of boredom. On B5 their GM gave tons of exp. You had Delenn spend her exp on becoming a human (and buying down her "Distinctive features Minbarii). You had tons of characters grow and become different. That's why B5 was more interesting (at least to me). The characters grew, they were like real people that made real mistakes and lrearned from those mistakes (not always the right lesson) I know from experience (LOL), that I would be highly dissatisfied playing in any Hero System game that never gave exp. or that gave out minute amounts of exp. I wonder if players in games who are giving out minute exp are really as satisfied as their GM's think...

Re: 4th-5th edition differences? Cosmetic or dramatic? NP I hope to see you join in the discussions as we start to learn about and discuss 6e sometime after Wednesday. It looks like the new system will be a ton of fun, and bring a breath of fresh air into the community. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far For our groups Champions didn't really catch on till the summer of '83. I remember playing it after school and on the weekends during that time. I didn't start going to conventions till after '84, and went to Pacificon mostly till the 90s when we started to explore the other cons. Never really did the Dundracon thing till they moved it to the Mariott in San Ramon.

Re: Slowing down Character advancement I think you are worrying about really nothing. Been playing with generous amounts of XP given in Hero System games for a long time. As long as your are doing more than combats all of the time (ie letting the players use their non combat skills) you will almost never have a problem with combat ability bloat. By using the non combat skills a ton, you give the players a reason to purchase better rolls with those skills. If you don't use the player's non combat skills and are combat oriented, then the players will spend the points on Damage Classes, Skill levels, Dex and Speed. See balanced games are the best. What I am saying is that the recommended XP totals are there for a reason, and they really do work. Being stingy with XP is a great way to turn off players from wanting to play in the system. Tasha PS Don't fix what isn't broken.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: So many questions...

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: Your favorite character type Mechanic/Engineer, oh you mean Archetype... I like playing Bricks, though usually with some other archetype added in for fun. so the list Brick Energy Projector Martial Artist Egoist actually I like playing quirky characters. In combat they fit one archetype or the other. Out of combat, I like the weird ones. ie like the Telekinetic/Cyberkinetic Black house cat. Tasha

Re: Slowing down Character advancement I have been in games where the PCs get 2 exp every 3-4 adventures. That is really not enough. At that rate, all of those skills that I bought at minimum level will not have any chance to actually have high enough roll to fit my character conception. I really LOVE the Exp recommendation that is in the book. 2-3 exp per session. If used properly it gives the players recognition that they RPed well, and again allows the characters to grow at a decent rate. It is a reward that I expect as a player. When little to no exp is given out, I feel like the GM is telling me that I am not playing my character well. Since some of the bonus XP rewards(and penalties) are based on how well the player RPed, this is borne out by the rules. Good campaign limits will keep the PC's from becoming combat gods. Also keeping in touch with player goals for their characters will help as well. Character growth is a good thing. It keeps the characters and the campaign fresh.

Re: 4th-5th edition differences? Cosmetic or dramatic? IIRC the 5th edition Resource Kit, has a document that is similar to that 4e PDF you describe. Though I do remember that the 4e version of the powers/Skill/perk summary had around the same page count as the 5th edition one. BTW now that I have read your post a few times, I guess I haven't seen that particular summary of the Skills/Powers/Perks/Talents. Though it's probable that the 4e summary you talk about breaks copyright as well. Also, don't assume anything. I own 99% of everything that has ever been published by and for Hero games from 2nd Edition Champions onward. I am a game collector so I tend to buy anything that catches my eye. I am sorry that you are upset about purchasing the wrong version of the rules for yourself. The full rules do cost quite a bit more than Sidekick. It's like the old days of D&D, you could buy the boxed set of basic D&D for around $20 or you could get the 3 books of A-D&D for $20ea or $60 for the set. I guess if you want a lower priced version of 5er, you could try Ebay or a Gaming Convention's FleaMarket and get a used copy. To slightly complicate things, 6e Hero will be available shortly. It's in 2 volumes which go for $39 each (Character Design and the Combat and Adventuring), They will be offering the 2 as a set for a slightly discounted price. We will know more after everyone gets back from GenCon.

Re: District 9

Re: 4th-5th edition differences? Cosmetic or dramatic? To be fair, Sidekick wasn't really written with upgraders in mind. Folks upgrading from 4th edition were expected to buy the 5eRev Rule book. Sidekick was designed to be an easy to learn version of the Hero system rules, and to funnel those players into purchasing the full rules when they wanted more advanced rules. So bought Sidekick expecting advanced rules and power concepts that are kind of complex. Sidekick eliminates those to streamline character creation and the learning curve of the rules. I keep a copy of Sidekick around to give to new players who have little to no experience with the rules. In fact one of our current GM's learned the rules by reading Sidekick. His character that was created in those rules, played well with our characters created in the more advanced 5e rules. Now he uses the 5eRevised rules to run his games. Sorry you picked up the wrong version of the rules. Tasha