bluesguy

A long time ago I was playing a samurai in an AD&D campaign. Due to a strange circumstance his katana was broken while trying to save a member of the party. My character was so distraught that he committed seppuku . The other players were startled. They wanted to have my character resurrected or re-incarnated. But I told them that they knew him well enough to know he would not want to be resurrected or re-incarnated.

When you are dead, you are dead in my world.

So I think Pegasus40218 you have presented us with what not to do when introducing a new group to Hero. Thank you for sharing it with us. I also thinking learning from our mistakes is really powerful. Learning from others is a sign of wisdom. Back to the main point of the thread : How have you introduced new groups to Hero.

Well let them murder the wrong NPC. Said NPC should have some very powerful friends who capture the PCs at a later date (many sessions later). They should be tried, found guilty, and then executed. Then everyone can begin to create a new character.

In my Fantasy Hero games I always tell people to be prepared for 50% combat and 50% role playing (no combat - maybe no dice at all) when all the sessions are averaged out over a year. We have had sessions where we have spent then entire session in combat (or a series of combats); other sessions where it was all interactions; and some with a mix. By telling people this ahead of time everyone knows what is expected. There have been a few players that have been total skill monkeys with practically no combat skills (run away, dodge, use my sling) to almost pure combat monsters (ok so you want to haggle with the merchant about the price of that armor, do you have trading or any other helpful skill? No... Ok, the merchant makes his skill roll and you end up happily paying 2x the normal price... Opps).

These are all good conversations. Keep them coming.

There are easier ways to do this. For example in my past campaign: Lierin was a baron's daughter, who had been trained as a master with swords which was necessary because everyone who lived in the part of the country needed to be able to fight. Her father decided to make a very political marriage for her so she left. Later she aligned herself with the nobles of a free city - very far away. Leisel Courer is the niece of a very powerful Duke from the same country as Lierin. His duchy is right next to the free city and he wants to annex it. He wants his niece to work with the pesky Lierin to find out what is going on and try to disrupt her plans. By letting the players create interesting back stories, first player said I want to play a sword fighter who ran away from a bad marriage and the second player said I want to play a knight whose parents are dead and she was raised by her parents liege who is also her uncle, we ended up with some very fun plot lines.

Guilds in my game provide the following: Provide "legal" cover to practice a particular trade. For instance if you are a mage you have to belong to a guild. That way if you destroy a whole city block in green flame the authorities can come after you and the guild you belong to. Plus the guild might come after you as well. Provide special legal benefits. For instance, only guild members can use magic. Or have the right of shelter from other members. Provide "economic" protection for a particular trade. By setting prices for the services being provided by guild members the guild can insure the members will make a 'living' wage. By collecting dues the guild can cover when a member is sick or injured. Provide social outlet with people of a like mind. Be a resource for its members - training, mentors, research material, materials, help in negotiating bigger deals Members pay a monthly or year dues and have to be available to support the guild when the guild needs their help. Mage guilds in my campaign are few and far between. They have vast libraries, components and potentially mages of renown. Priests belong to a particular church. A priest that doesn't belong to the hierarchy will probably have fewer protections that a priest who does belong to a hierarchy. Thieves guilds make no sense at all. But what does make sense are criminal organizations or families. The best example I can think of in fiction is the one described in the Vlad Taltos series. Fighter's guilds also don't make sense but fighting schools do make sense.

Why did they object?

I could also see an 'off' switch for any corp. created supers. Maybe a specific chemical or blast of radiation cuts thru their defenses and puts them down. Game mechanics 30d6 NND with the defense being tailored for something the super does not have. So a super that doesn't have Life Support that would be the defense.

I used the Valdorian Age campaign setting for 3 years. It is an excellent setting. Monsters - very rare. Magic - rare & dangerous. It is an excellent product sold by Hero Games. Here would be my suggestions: If you can wait, get the Fantasy Hero Complete book. It is a Kickstarter project that is suppose to finish at the end of the year. The product will be sold here when it is done. If you can not wait, then get a copy of Fantasy Hero. It has what you need to start your game. Between Fantasy Hero and the Valdorian Age you would be set. Bestiary + Grimore I or Chris Taylors Fantasy Codex for spells. Again all items you can buy from Hero Games.

One of the things I have done in my campaign world is to define active points for different 'classes' of spells and for different cultures. Here is a link to the Magic Power Levels in my new campaign. As each culture and race have specific spells it gives a nice variety to mages as well. Also I have defined the spell options for each culture and race. Finally no one can learn another culture or racial magic - bad things happen ("Don't cross the streams").

That is most certainly true as well.

That can be a problem. It really depends on how you want magic to work in your campaign. If you want the magic to be really big and flashy then more active points will be necessary. Also remember that if someone is using a 2 handed sword, they won't be using a shield so their DCV will be lower than an opponent with a shield. And if they Haymaker then they are engaging in an attack an extra segment (I think) and their DCV drops quite a bit. There are a lot of disadvantages in that scenario.

Depends on the situation. For instance my knight is surround by opponents and decides to take one of them out by taking going for a placed head shot on one of his target, hits the opponent and does 9 Body and 45 Stun which is enough to just about kill and/or at least knock out the opponent. I think a presence attack where he points with his sword at those who surround him and says "Run and live or stay and die!" is going to impress the remaining folks and it probably doesn't matter how many people are around him.

I really like this approach! Still looking for more approaches.

So in my years of RPG and specifically playing Hero, I have taught three different groups to play Hero. The first time was after college when I formed a gaming group. The people who wanted to play either knew AD&D, participated in the SCA, or were just your everyday nerds ... I taught all of them how to play Hero. After a while a few players were able to create their own characters without much help from me. Other people in the group started running games and they used Hero because they liked it. The second time was when we moved and we formed a new group. A few of us knew how to play Hero and the rest were all AD&D players. That was a short lived group because we moved again. The third time is with my current group. First I taught my teenagers how to play the game. My son has taken to the system and has turned into a rule-lawyer (which can be very frustrating at times ). He has also started running his own game and is doing a really good job. Then we had two other people start playing with us - D&D/variants. And our newest member had never played a single RPG but wanted to do a group thing with us. My son and I do most of the 'heavy lifting' when it comes to character creation. Everyone has gotten very good at character concepts & back stories - which makes the actual character creation pretty easy. So here is the approach I take with new people: Think about who the character is. What makes the character 'tick'? What do they do when they aren't being a "hero"? How did they become a "hero"? Do they have goals? If we are playing a superhero game I will ask them about what kind of powers they want (which may have come out of how they became a "hero")? This is absolutely a critical step for people who play Pathfinder/D&D variants, because in Hero the character concept comes first and then the game mechanics starts. In Pathfinder/D&D variants you roll dice and try to figure out kind of viable character you have based on the random rolls ... Then I sit down and explain exactly what each characteristic is. When we get to Stun and Body I use some examples like "Body damage is like having a bruise, cut, broken bone. Stun is more the 'shock' of the injury." Explaining normal vs. killing goes something like "Bruce Lee punches you that is a normal attack. If he hits you hard enough he will break bones. Dirty Harry shoots with his gun it will put a physical hole in you." And then with Stunned I just tell them to think "Punch drunk boxer - still standing but definitely not thinking straight". We talk about how to build the powers/talents/perks/skills they need to make the character work in the beginning. Along the way we might map out how to use future XP to meet the original idea. Complications grow out of the first step. Combat: I got off the forum or download a one page explanation of how combat works. Everyone gets that sheet. Then I have a few mock combats with new players so we can step generic combat and combat for their character. We will talk about what will most likely be effective for them in combat. When we play I will have the following dialog: GM: Ok you are going to hit the bandit in front of you Player: Yep GM: Do you know what to roll? Player: No GM: Ok. You start with an 11 and then add your OCV to that. Then add any skill levels you want to use in the attack to the previous number. Then add any pluses/minuses for the maneuver you are using. What is that number? Player: 11 + 5 + 2 = 18. GM: Now roll 3d6 and subtract it from the number you just calculated. And tell me that number. Player: Rolls a 10. So 10 from 18 is 8. GM: Excellent that means you hit a DCV of 8. Next time do the math ahead of time and roll the dice. You can then just tell me "I hit a DCV of 7." Usually people learn how to do combat within a session or two. I have one person who has not learned how in 8+ months. So we all help her out. I also sit new people next to experienced folks so they can get some help. What do the rest of you do?

When playing Champions I always use the city I am living in (or cities - since I am in the Twin Cities). I do this because it makes it easy to describe a certain location or look up a location. My players have had a fight in the Mall of America, local Science Museum, one of the big parks in town, University of Minnesota, the Governor's Fishing Opener, and the West End. Their headquarters happens to be in a building right next to where my family and I go on Sat. mornings for a Sat. morning coffee jam. If I want to twist things around it isn't a problem. I just create 'fake' officials. Also since I am running a Silver Age Style game (not time period but flavor/tone), corrupt city officials are few and far between.

In my last few games I have liberally used HAP. I am thinking that was a mistake on my part. I had the players roll 2d6 at the beginning of the session and the problem was that people used their HAP for trivial things. In my new campaign I want to have HAP be something that characters get for doing something heroic/selfless which can then be used to during a heroic moment. I would like to hear other folks ideas on how they have implemented HAP in their campaigns or how it was used in campaigns they played in. To this end: Provide a description of how HAP was awarded and how it could be used Give some examples of how players used HAP. Please do not use this thread to argue why you don't like HAP. Thank you

IMO the last thing needed is a new edition of Hero Game system. And yes I am partially hijacking this thread. IMO what is needed: Settings - for example for a fantasy setting World building informationWorld map Detailed regional map High level time line Detailed recent history Races, Cultures, Nations, etc Magic Deities/Religion Current major players Game mechanicsHuge list of equipment - combat, non-combat, vehicles (ships, etc) Package deals for all the races One defined magic system with advice about how to include additional magic systems if desired. A bunch spells based on the defined magic system Magic items - how common, how powerful, and if they exist some examples Bestiary (or a list of monsters from already published material) Common 'human' opponents (bandits, guards, thieves, mages, clerics, etc) Adventures for 'official settings'Setting material will stay canon to races, cultures, nations, magic and deities, unless pre-approved by Hero Include short adventures, 1 to 3 sessions, and epic ones that are something like the 'pathfinder' approach "Kingdom modules" for the official settingSetting material will stay canon to races, cultures, nations, magic and deities, unless pre-approved by Hero Flesh out a kingdom - politics, government, economic system, races, cities and towns, etc. Adventures Stand alone adventures, short or long, which have everything that is needed to run them. They may even include pre-generated player characters so the adventure could be run at a gaming convention or a game night at the local gaming/comic book shop. Equipment/Spells Playing in a heroic game often means the GM is left creating a bunch of commonly understood but not Hero defined equipment/spells. Having a book or even one to five page PDF files with a number of these items by genre & power level (normal, heroic, low powered super, super, galactic superhero) would be great. Magic Systems I would love to see http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/shrikeMagicSystemAdvisor.aspx turned into a 'book'. And everything published should include the Hero Designer files so the material can be used with HD right out of the box. I know some of you don't like HD. And yes I have slipped on my +10 ED flame protective suit of armor :-)

And if you put together a interesting world you might also consider publishing in a form that can be used with Realm Works.

Complications: My players love complications. They love the psychological ones. Hunted & DNPCs they are not as fond of because their GM loves them :-).... IMO: Complications help define the role playing part of the game. Without them characters don't have a clear definition. Plus playing complications that are different than your dominate personal complications can help a person grow

Very interesting. I would consider supporting a campaign setting based on this idea. Can you say Kickstarter Steve ;-)

I know the feeling. This is also an excellent product.

I bought this product when it came out. Chris has come up with a wide variety of interesting, unique (at least to me), and creative spells. I will be going through the Fantasy Codex to identify which spells to plug into my campaign.