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bluesguy

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Posts posted by bluesguy

  4. FH Characters More Powerful then Superheroes

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    I have campaign limits on the most critical combat characteristics and skills.  Also magic items are rare and tend to be pretty pragmatic (a shield with a light spell on it that works like a search light).  The players spend their points on things like skills, perks, and broadening the combat skills (where allowed).  A knightly character should have +4 w/ HtoH combat but they can't afford that at the beginning so maybe they have +1 HtoH and +3 with blades.  The likelihood of hitting doesn't change but the variety of weapons does.  Or buy an appropriate martial art with their weapons.

  15. What do long term FH Characters look like

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    In my current campaign the PCs combat skills improved a bit.  I have imposed specific maximums and I don't let the PC go past those.  Typically they would:

    • Melee types would improve their characteristics to reach a max campaign level
    • Ranged attackers would buy penalty skill levels vs. range mod.
    • Everyone would buy +3 PSL vs hit locations for they most favored attack/weapon of choice (speeds up combat because they always aim at the chest 😉)
    • Spell casters would improve INT, EGO, REC, and END
    • Either get martial arts or add additional maneuvers to existing martial arts
    • If appropriate turn specific combat skill levels into more general ones (i.e. +2 with swords to +2 with hand to hand)

    The other area PCs change is skills.  They tend to get more of them.  Maybe get skill levels with groups/classes of skills.  Possibly buy contacts or a follower.

     

    Magic items in my world tend to lean away from special weapons and armor.  A more common type of 'magic weapon' is a finely crafted steel sword that has +1 or +2 DC increase and maybe adds an addition +1 or +2 to OCV.  Also on rare occasions armor piercing or penetrating as modifiers are added.  Armor is kind of the same thing - an additional +1 to +3 PD/ED over normal armor.  Might have hardening.  Definitely lower mass.  More likely they will find potions, magic items that help with shelter, food, and light.

  17. Villain Campaign?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    On 11/12/2019 at 6:48 PM, Skyriter1 said:

    Hey guys and gals!

    As my friends and I learn more about the game, they have shown interest in being the villains as opposed to heroes. With that being said, are there any campaigns out there that have this in mind? I think I came across one about aliens killing all the heroes so the villains have to step up in order to save earth, but cannot find it anymore.

    Any and all help is much appreciated, thanks!

     

    I would recommend that you and your friends play a little card game called Illuminati - the game of conspiracy.  This game is specifically designed to let you (actually encourage you) to cheat and back stab other players to win.  A supervillain game would have to turn into a game in which no one trusts anyone else.  I played in a game where the GM let us play evil characters.  It lasted 4 sessions.  One player ended up backstabbing and killing about 1/2 the party before we realized what was going on.  By that point it became every player for themselves.

     

    Allowing people to play evil characters (supervillains are evil) only allows them to exercise the worst parts of themselves (murder, robbery, rape and pillage will follow).

  21. What is Hero Combat Manager?

    in HERO Combat Manager

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    I am the developer of Hero Combat Manager.  The purpose of the program is to help a GM manage combat.  Here are the specific things you can do with it:

     

    • Using Hero Designer (HD) - you can export characters you have created using HD into a format that Hero Combat Manager (HCM) can use
    • HCM will track when each character can act depending on their Speed and Dex
    • With HCM the GM can:
      • Handle all dice rolling and damage management for NPCs.  This includes Normal, Killing, Mental, Presence, Flash, Entangle, etc. and apply the damage to the player character information.  You will always know how injured your player's characters .  The players still have to keep track of the damage which the GM will provide
      • Handle all damage that the NPCs receive when the player character's hit an NPC
      • Handle held actions
      • Buff/Debuff per Aid/Drain or the GM can adjust.  Be prepared this part of the application has always been a bit flaky (sorry)
    • What can't be done with HCM:
      • You can't create a character on the fly in HCM.  You have to use HD and then export the character
      • It doesn't interface with the Hero System Mobile (we have talked about it but I am too busy and technically not savvy enough to figure it out how to do that - yet)
    • Quirks and issues
      • When I was a full time paid developer I worked on embedded software systems.  A UI was the raw data being dumped out an RS-232 port to a dumb terminal.  We didn't need no stickin' UI.  So that means HCM's UI is primitive
      • I haven't done an update in a while.  Too busy.  I will answer questions and I am going to set aside time in 2020 to do some major bug fixing.

    This project grew out of my need for a tool to help me track combat.  I have done it with pencil and paper and real dice in the past.  That worked but in a big fight someone would get missed.  I tried doing this with a spreadsheet and a fancy VB macro but that failed pretty quickly.  The program grew out of my own needs.

  22. New GM - Help!

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Something I did for a game day event at a local gaming store was to create a hero 'team' (they meet as part of the game) that fit our location (Minnesota).  We had a Paul Bunyan avatar (his truck was nicknamed Blue). A union guy who fell into a vat of iron ore dust, which happened to be full of an 'experimental chemical' that turned him into living steel.  A DJ who is a mutant that can mind control and ego blast people thru sound, and she only plays Prince music and all her powers are named after Prince's songs.  And a highly skilled bio-mechanical engineer who created a power suit and can shrink down to the size of a mosquito.  I made the powers as simple as I could.  I didn't worry about the points balancing.

     

    I had the player characters in Northern MN near a casino at night when an alien space ship crash lands near by.  One of the small surviving ships from attack on NYC at the end of the Avengers 1 movie.

  24. What does a Champion campaign really looks like ?

    in Champions

    Posted

    Always great advice on these boards.  And the best answers come with someone new to Hero asks a great question.

     

    In my own case when I run Champions I treat it like episodic TV shows.  Think of it as bad-guy episode #52 "Mole men attack the university" and next week "Mind controlled senior citizens robbing grocery stores and banks."  The campaign always takes place in the city I live in and I insist that all the characters be themed around something connected with the current location. This gives the characters a nice common theme and background.  Usually they have a few adventures before the local or national authorities show up and let them know they need to either get registered or be prepared to pay for property damage.

     

    I run my Champions games as something in between my Fantasy campaign sessions when we know someone isn't going to be available for a session or two.

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