bluesguy

48 minutes ago, Gandalf970 said:

Like the Death Adder poison in the Bestiary.  It does 1d6, NND damage over time, 5 increments, one every minute for 5 minutes.  There is no save you take 1d6 killing damage every minute for 5 minutes.

Hero doesn't have a concept like 'saving throws'.  If you have the defense against the attack it will apply and if you don't then you take it full on. 

For instance if PC hit bad guy with their sword and the bad guy has no resistant defense the bad guy will take all the body AND all the stun.  Their natural PD won't block any of the stun from a killing attack.  The same applies for the Death Adder's poison.  If the defense is LS:  Poison and Arrogant the Ranger has LS: Poison then he will take no damage.  But poor Frito the Hobbit has no LS: Poison and so he is slowly dying.  (I had to use those names since your user ID is Gandolf970 😁 )

First of all thank you for purchasing the Hero Combat Manager.

I apologize that the documentation isn't clear on how to accomplish.

You should use Autofire for characters that are intending to use multiple attacks against a single target.  I will work on something that makes this more clear on the initial attack tab.

The rule in any campaign is the GM has the final decision on whether or not a character will work in the campaign setting.  If someone came to me and said I want to play an elf (blah blah blah) I would say no because there aren't any elves in my campaign world.  Any counter argument from them about being the one elf in the whole wide world and they were accidentally dropped into the world would end with no you can't play an elf.

I have provided my players with a set of parameters for building characters in my campaign (see here).  It covers races, min/max characteristics, OCV/DCV, overall combat abilities, magic, etc.  Over the years we (players and myself) have had to tweak certain aspects because my initial concepts didn't work.

Using guitar playing as an analogy:

Horse with no name is a very simple song to learn how to play.  It is two chords that are in the same position on the neck and are easy to switch between.  The strumming pattern isn't hard to learn.  I think it took me about a day or so to learn it.  See this Youtube lesson I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2OCGN6AspY

And then you have Flamenco guitar playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2Fyjk0GGM which takes years of constant practice to learn how to do.

On 3/17/2020 at 10:12 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

With my local game convention postponed and the gathering limit almost certainly shutting down on-side gaming at Guardian, I would be interested in learning how to do this. And where can I get the mod?

You will need to purchase a license (or set of them) for Tabletop Simulator.  Steam often has sales on multi-pack licenses.  Here is a link to TTS on Steam

Once you have installed TTS on your computer you will need to get the Hero System mod for TTS.  This is in the Steam Workshop.

If you have a copy of Hero Designer and characters that were built in HD, you can use an export that Brennall created.  He has those on GitHub here.  This part is not 100% necessary - it makes playing easier.  The table comes with good dice rollers that are Hero specific.

As for creating terrain/scenes you have many options:

• Something like the marker maps and you just quickly sketch something up
• Pre generated digital map that you put on the table
• Take a pre generated digital map and make it look 3d.  I would recommend subscribing to the Murder Hobo Show on YouTube
• Poke around on the TTS Steam Workshop and find scenes other people have built and take them - they are free. 
• Build your own scene using models that are available via the Steam Workshop.  You will literally find hundreds of figures (90% are for fantasy characters).  There are hundreds of models of everything from rocks, trees, hills, torches, castle parts, buildings, towns, ships, etc.

Does this all take time to do?  Yes.  I was building 2.5d terrain for my face-to-face game and that took more time/money to do than TTS has taken.

My group has 2 active GMs right now and two more getting ready to run.  When we finish the current season, we will return to my campaign.  I have spent the time building up the overall plot for the middle part of the epic story they are in.  Which helped me put together an appropriate set of scenes.  Along the way I have 'overbuilt' scenes because I know my players will go wandering a direction I didn't consider.

Here are a set of instructions that I found when doing a search on the net.  I tried this with a sample character that Hero Forge lets anyone download and it seems to work.  Still need to learn how to paint the mini 😉.  As a reminder these are not my instructions.

Quote

 

So for context a friend was making an original game and he tested his own minis from hero forge before making his own personal ones and when I introduced him in TTS for easier play testing we tried using those files he had but it was honestly very difficult to get them in but after some time and research I found a way. Because I could not find it easily online and I imagine that other newer players may want to use Hero Forge for their own personal games I figured I would share how you can upload into TTS and make them easier to use from what I learned. And if anyone has better suggestions for minis or a easier way of doing this please feel free to share I just know that some people may be looking for help.

So the first thing after getting the .STL from Hero Forge I recommend then downloading Blender its free and make the minis usable. The main problem with Hero Forge is that the minis come with an extremely high poly count and the size of the minis are also very large so I will leave the steps for you to fix this.

1. Import the STL file into Blender and make sure that there is no other objects inside. (Blender normally starts new project with a basic cube you can delete this to make it a clear space.)

2. Blender allows you to do a lot of crazy things so the controls and layout may look intimating but do not worry we will only use two features for this to work. Object and Modifiers.

3. After you import your file it will most likely take up most of the screen because of how large it is. What you want to do is scale it down using the object tool found to the right of the screen.(It'll look like a cube among the other tools) I use the scale of 0.25 from the original 1.0 on all axis and I found this was the best result. Also you may want to rotate the mini for the base to match the grid in Blender this will make it have the correct orientation when playing. I found rotating it to 62 degrees on the Z axis gave the best result.

4. Now once that is done you mini will look much better on screen. Now you will go to the Modifiers tool. (It will look like a wrench) and you will add the modifier "Decimate" under the "Generate" column. You will then change the ratio from 1.0 to a lower amount to fix the poly count or "faces" of the mini. I found using 0.25 gave the best results.

5. After that is done export the project as a .OBJ and name it, You should then be able to upload it as a custom model into TTS and use it for your games. (If any errors display on screen try using the decimate tool again because the number of faces may still be too high and this will normally cause the mini to not upload to TTS)

That is they way I found out how to use Hero Forge. If you use any other website to use for minis and may have similar issue with uploads this might work for you too but I only ever used the one. If anyone has any other suggestions that might help please feel free to comment and leave them for players it might make it easier for them in the future.

 

10 hours ago, Brennall said:

Oh it is possible to learn. Depending on your time and budget.

 

Simple answer .. use hero forge (pay the £8 for each figure) .. make a model you want .. and then "colour" it yourself and import to game. That simplifies it somewhat but is basically the procedure.

 

More complex answer, learn to sculpt yourself .. blender is free, with a zillion tutorials. But it takes a lot of time and skill to sculpt characters.

 

Here are a couple of examples of my work.

 

Nice work.

So when you buy the figure and download the model does it come in a format (.obj) that TTS wants?  Or do you have to convert the file?  And last but not least what kind of program do you use to 'color' the figure?  Gimp?

To answer the question initially asked, in my campaign world of Nyonia - "How dare you?  Take that off right now and I will give you a quick death.  Don't take it off right now and you will wish I had killed you quickly."

Dragons in Nyonia were created by one of the gods.  They are intelligent and live family groups.  They have servants - lizard people who serve them.  Dragons trade with other races for things they can't make.  There use to be more dragons but there was a great war between dragons and all other intelligent species on Nyonia.  Although the dragons caused great destruction and the fall of some nations, all other intelligent races reproduce and mature at a significantly higher rate than dragons that in the end the dragons lost because they lost enough of their 'mature' (prime time for being fertile) members that it is going to take a long time for them to come back.

7 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

I think Aragorn had his chest full...   ...of arrows.

I think you mean Boromir had a chest full of arrows 😉

I would definitely upgrade to the current version of Hero Designer.  But that wasn't the issue.  I am 99% sure you picked the HeroCombatManager-6e-XML.hcr file instead of the HeroCombatManager-6e-XML.hcr .  I was able to reproduce your error by using the HDC file you provided, my current version of HD and use the 6e export file.

Hi,

For upcoming tutorials here are a couple of things that would be good:

• Your last tutorial showed how to set up the NPCs (at least I think that was only for NPCs), how do we do the same for the players (or did I miss something)
• I am pretty sure I have seen that the mod will let use associate a specific HUD to a specific figure on the board.  How do we do that?
• Is there a way to add or remove players from the table?  I may have 7 players in a game, right now I think the table is set up for 6 PC + GM.

Thank you

Hi I am the developer of HCM.  Thank you for purchasing the software.

So I loaded the HDC file into the most current version of Hero Designer.  I noticed the character is a 5e character (COM was the dead giveaway 😉) so I exported the character using the 5e combat record export which comes with Hero Combat Manager.  I then loaded the new XML file and it loaded up just fine.

Is it possible you exported the character using the 6e combat record export?  If you did then the resulting file will fail to load into HCM.

Hi the Martial Arts abilities only show up as a reference.  One of the things on my long list of things to eventually do is to be able to pick a martial art maneuver and physical attack (STR or weapon) and calculate the damage for the GM.  Sorry that isn't there at this time.

13 hours ago, Tywyll said:

I mean the default demon only has a CV of like 6 I think, with a single Combat level. 

The thing that makes demons so damn scary is how tough they should be.  High Body, Stun, rPD/rED + Damage Resistance except vs. holy items and high recovery.  You can hit them all day long and it should mostly bounce off.  On the other hand they hit the PC then nasty things should happen to them.  This is where a demon should have the ability to use PRE to basically scare the crap out of PCs. 

13 hours ago, Tywyll said:

 

Thanks for that! So when you use the stats of, say, an Orc from the Bestiary do you add levels and MA to their build? Otherwise they seem far from those levels on their own!

 

Ok I am going to use my favorite project manager answer ... It depends 😀

For instance if the players are going to have big fight with a bunch of orcs (think 3 or 4 to 1 type odds) then the vast majority of the orcs are going to be pretty much like what is in the Bestiary.  I will treat them as one or two hit wonders.  I will probably throw in a few tougher orcs that will have a level or two and won't be one/two hit wonders and then I will probably toss in a leader plus a few lieutenants to make things interesting.  The leader will be very tough and skilled and the lieutenants will be almost as tough and skilled.

I personally like running a very cinematic game.  Let me use this scene from LOTR Fellowship of the Ring.  Up until the 1:15 or so point in this clip our heroes are killing everyone they hit with one shot.  When Aragorn fights the orc between 1:17 and 1:21 it take a few hits - that would be the orcs that are not one hit wonders.  Even when Pippin and Merry get into the fight they are killing orcs with one or two blows.  And at 2:55 to about 3:10 Aragorn seems to be fighting with what I would classify as a lieutenant.

And when it comes to fighting the leader of the orcs Aragorn has his hands full.

With or without levels & martial arts?

PC w/ levels - 9 to 12 (levels + martial arts usually make up 1/2 of the CV)

NPC w/ levels - 4 to 12 (again levels + martial arts usually make up 1/2 of the CV; except for the ones with a 4)

Bump since it the last post was almost a year ago.

19 minutes ago, pbemguy said:

 

I totally agree. This is *not* a rewrite of the rules, but mostly a reformatting of the the rules. (I originally suggested 5e but honestly most of my play hours are in 4e.)

 

QUESTION: Is 4e the most popular version? Is that when Hero reached its apex is what I'm asking.

 

What I would do, and others, is basically copy-and-paste 4e and then change a few examples, add new art, and make it look like the Savage Worlds books and/or the D&D 5e ones.

 

I would highly recommend that the PDF is free but the book is available to buy here on the forums and elsewhere.

 

The key to the whole thing is repackaging 4e in a modern style. Period.

Not interested in this at all.  Here are some questions:

• 4e:  Who owns the rights?
• Tooling? 
  • Hero Designer - I suspect that it will not be changed to support any versions other than 5e & 6e. 
  • Hero Combat Manager - Not happening unless there is a huge demand
  • TTS Hero System Mod (Beta) - No idea

Again my recommendation has always been teach people the current version.  If you want to invest time/effort into something then create adventures/'adventure paths' that can live inside one of the many campaign worlds that are available.

Instead of writing a whole bunch of new material, how about using the material that is already available (either 5e or 6e).  Also in this time of COVID-19 when people are going to only be able to game in a virtual environment, I would highly recommend using Tabletop Simulator with the Hero System Mod (Beta).  By doing this it will be possible to get new players up and playing faster.

Here is my ambitious plan.  A friend of mine is a coach for a high school robotics team.  They want a GM to run them in a game, they have been teaching themselves D&D.  My plan is to run them in my campaign world and if I can convince their parents to invest in TTS ($20 each) we will use that or we will use a different VTT which I have been using for a while now.  Either way I am going to teach them Hero 6e.  There are 7 teenagers that I will be doing this with.  If I can get 3 or 4 of them to be hooked on Hero I will be classify that as a success.  If one or two wants to learn how to GM a Hero 6e game then it will be a smokin' success.

18 hours ago, Brennall said:

select the text tool on the left hand side of the window. then click on the text and click the trashcan

 

<thump> <thump> <thump> My head on the desk.  Thank you for pointing that out.

I couldn't figure out how to delete the #2 items.  I could delete everything else though.

Hi Brennall,

I was able to combine Hero System Mod for TTS with my existing table in TTS.  I started with HSMT and then added my table and it work out pretty well.  Now I am going thru and cleaning up the table for my needs.  The right side table I want the space but not what is on it.  I can easily delete all the stuff pointed to by #1, but what about the labels pointed to by #2?

Just watched the latest tutorial and then I see this.  You are awesome!

Also I am hoping to find a way to merge Hero System Mod and the One World Mod so that I can get the best of both worlds.  I know why Brennall did what he did for mapping.  In my case I found and have been setting up maps using the One World mod, I have invested to much to give it up.  So even if all I take from the Hero System Mod is the dice roller that will be enough.

If you decide to use something like One World for maps then you should watch this video, because in 1 hour he shows you how to take a 2D map and turn it into a really usable 3D map.  All you need is jpg or png of a map and GIMP and a bit of patience and you can build some really amazing maps for TTS.  Also people will publish their own One World maps in the workshop and you can just import them onto your gaming table and One World setup.

To learn more about One World here are some videos

• From the creator
• How to import other One World maps into your own One World

20 hours ago, Tywyll said:

Don't get me wrong...if I had started the campaign with this in mind and Corvid hadn't been sprung on me like this, I'd love to use it. But I'd still need to convince them to pony up for it. I think it looks amazing and if I can figure out how to use it it would make playing the game a breeze (I think). Though a bit more of a hassle in that I need full sheets for all my npcs instead of my cribbed notes...

The cost is $20 per person unless there is a sale going on, then they sell 4 licenses for $40 usually.  People are asking on the TTS company forum if they are going to have a pandemic sale.  I think it makes a lot of sense because they would sell a ton of licenses (more than makeup the discount cost).

Also with the 'level 1' in Hero TTS you can keep all your crib notes because you can just use the dice rolling and skip the other parts of what Brennal has built.  The cool stuff will require creating characters in detail using HD and then do an export.