bluesguy

In my game mooks never have a PRE higher than 13.  When my players build their characters they are encouraged to buy up PRE and consider getting Oratory (when appropriate) or striking appearance.

I am currently playing (yeah I am not the GM for a while) a Draconian bodyguard (steampunk world).  He is big, strong, tough as nails and has a high PRE + Striking appearance (only usable to intimidate humans).  Once when he was being shadowed by two folks he lured them into an abandoned church, was able to sneak up on one of them and put his double barreled shotgun in his back.  Afterwards he told him "I don't want to cut you in half with my shotgun, so just give up."  He did and he convinced his partner to give up and then I got the info I needed and left them with no boots, pants or guns ...

If there are lots of goons encourage your players to use a good PRE attack to scare the goons into surrendering/retreating.  My players love making a big attack/show of their abilities and then give a command to the remaining goons that it is a good time to leave the field or surrender.  A good PRE roll is sometimes way more effective than an attack/damage roll.

14 hours ago, sentry0 said:

My money is on ninjas.

And my money is on Steve winning!

On 10/27/2019 at 10:51 AM, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Dude, I have just sat here for two hours, typing, and eventually deleted it all

....

 

Let me try one more time, keeping in mind that this time I'm not even going to bother trying details:

 

Nine Clans of the arid plains is just what it sounds like: it's a collection of 9 nomadic clans that used to fight constantly, and steal and raid from each other all the time-- little more than barbarians.  

 

....

 

 

In short:  the king and feudal system doesn't work unless you're willing to let it.   A world filled with kingdoms is a world filled with cowards.  I have no doubts about the reality of a world full of cowards; I really don't.  However, I adventure so that I may _leave_ it once in a while.

 

 

Duke

 

Thank you that was helpful.  Sorry you invested so much time.   I really like the whole Nine Clans story and impact on its culture. 

As for the last statement, there are things IMRL that I don't want intruding on my gaming life, so I totally understand "reality of a world full of cowards" is something I get.

On 10/25/2019 at 5:53 PM, zslane said:

Well bluesguy is, in my experience, a rare example of a GM who takes the time to work out a reasonably plausible legal framework for his medieval fantasy RPG world. .... It was pretty cringeworthy, and I'd like to encourage all GMs to do as bluesguy does.

After 30 years of off and on playing and running RPGs I have learned a bit ... Thank you for the compliment.  I did take about a year to build a framework for the world and the cultures before I ran a single adventure.

14 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Constantly.

 

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not a big fan of "yet another" type of "vaguely feudal Europe" fantasy.

 

I won't go into great detail, as each campaign is different, but I work like a madman to avoid feudalism in any but the most remote and rural places, and "kingdoms" are few and far between, with other forms of government-- ranging from church-derived "moral law" all the way to elected officials or bands of smaller tribes rotating rulership-- anything to not be yet another.

 

 

Could you provide a little detail, I really would like to know.

About 1/2 of the countries in my campaign world have a "Roman-culture" so for those countries they have a kind of Roman civil law.  I tried to read up as much as I could about how Roman's dealt with legal matters.  A couple of my players really are into stuff like that so I have some help there.

A couple of countries are kind of Nordic/Viking in nature so I tried to match what we know about them.

I have one country that is unique because that country is primarily made up of bipedal felines (think Vincent from the 80/90's Beauty & the Beast).  In that case the first two players who played characters from their helped with formulating the society/laws.  I had some basics.  Smallest societal unit was a pride (like a lion pride).  One alpha male and potentially multiple partners.  Seems patriarchal except the females in the society controlled all the wealth and really made most of the economic decisions.  The males made decisions about fighting/warfare/exploring.  There was a complex honor/vengeance/vendetta system. Females who didn't want to be tied to a pride would often pack up and leave for other lands to start out on there own.

I am so impressed with the work you have been doing.  This is going to be awesome.

On 10/16/2019 at 3:42 PM, sentry0 said:

I maintain one, check my sig for links.

I am finally getting to play (many years of GMing) and I have been using version one of your Android tool for a couple of months now.  I have found it very helpful during our games.

What I have seen so far is awesome.

As you know I use One World and a table already setup.  Will it be possible to 'import' pieces/parts I want (i.e. everything except for the table)?

In Nyonia (my campaign world) magic is accessible by almost anyone. 

There are two basic people who can use magic (cast spells), people with a natural talent (born that way) and those who learn how to cast magic later in life.

In game terms:

• Naturally born/talented mages need to pay for a custom magic talent (10 pt talent) which allows them to buy a VPP for their spells
• People who learn magic later in life, don't pay for the custom magic talent, can not have a VPP or MP

Both kinds of casters have the access to the same power levels of magic but mages with the custom talent don't need to worry about what happens if they don't make  a spell roll.  Those mages without a natural affinity to magic will have bad things happen to them if they miss a spell roll (sometimes fatal).

All spells have magic skill rolls, components, gestures and invocations/

The second thing with magic in my world is that the kind of magic you can use depends on your character's race or cultural background.  So some races use magic to protect themselves and their communities; and improve and preserve food stuffs.  One culture might be all about fire so they can forge and make unique metal objects.  Another culture might use magic to enhance their abilities to buy and sell.  Characters can pick on and only one type of magic and that is 'permanent'.  Nyonian history is littered with mages who tried to learn more than one kind of magic.  The best result is the mage only kills himself and nearby inhabitants (dozens of yards from where she is casting the combined spell).  Worse case results have resulted in world changing events.

I did both of these things so that magic would be unique between cultures.  Every culture/race has a set of spells to start with.  Players have 'researched' new spells.  And I also wanted someone to have the ability to buy one or two important but not necessarily overwhelming spells.

Love the weekend's work!

On 9/21/2019 at 2:02 AM, kukuli said:

John Lammers is updating Epic table and is working on making it Hero System friendly.  He is working on  it by himself  so Epic table 2 may take a little time.  The current version is clunky, but not as technical as some others. I am not technically minded so I like it.

Well that is also good news.  Epic Table's big strength is that it is rule system neutral and it is very easy to use.

Yesterday Brennall and I spent time on Discord & TTS to see all the work he has done.  I have to say I am very impressed.  He is very close to creating an extremely usable/viable way of playing Champions (any Hero genre really) using TTS that really could pave the way to bringing new players into the game.  They would only need a good GM, who knows the Hero System pretty well.

12 hours ago, Brennall said:

I am close to having the hero system supported and ready to release for TTS.

 

Have most probably 2-3 things to finish.

 

 

Where do I send the tip for when you get done ;-)?

Thank you very much for doing this.

If you are looking for an out of the box Hero System supported VTT you will not find it.  IMO the best thing is to find a VTT that is game system agnostic.

I would recommend Epic Table as the fastest way to get going with a VTT.  I spent a lot of time doing research.  I looked at all of the big names.

Cons: 

• Windows only
• Clunky interface
• Top down perspective
• You can't add any 'game system mechanics' (no adding macros or modules)
• One man shop - updates are few and far between.  He is working on a newer version which will improve the UI quite a bit.

Pros:

• Very very stable software
• Simple to setup dice rolls and save them
• Fog of War is workable
• Importing maps and tokens is easy
• Hex grids 🙂
• No game system mechanics are built into the system
• Windows App - less likely to be unavailable (i.e. all the web based VTT)
• Cheap - only the GM needs to pay for a license (~$60)

Now that we have an established group and I have been learning about how to use Tabletop Simulator we will be transitioning to TTS in the future

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Parts of the interface are a pain to get use to
• Everyone has to buy a license ($15/$20).  Sometimes there are sales on Steam for 4 packs

Pros:

• Stable software
• Updates are put out on a regular basis
• Hex grids
• No game system mechanics are built into the system
• I believe it runs on Windows, Mac & SteamOS boxes
• Huge community of people who are adding assets for people to use
• Scripting language is available (Lua)
• It is possible to model an entire board game with the tools that TTS provides.
• Importing simple maps and tokens is easy

Building encounter maps can be as easy or hard as you want them to be.  Last night I imported a couple of One World compatible maps that other people had built.  One of them needed to have two 'texture skins' fixed (15 minutes).  Total time - 30 minutes.  I have also built custom maps based on a 'flat map' that I already owned.  I made it into a 3D map, added some additional rocks/trees (models other people built), and it probably took 2 to 3 hours.  When I build maps or buy them (both for VTT and IRL tabletop games) I get maps that are generic and I can use over and over.

Of course opinions may vary 😉

For building scenes I use the One World module which is an amazing add on for TTS. 

Building a scene can take a few minutes or a few hours.  It depends on how much effort you want to put into it.  The nice thing is with the One World Module you can pre build what you need (generic locations).  I learned how to build a complicated scene by watching this video.

WOW.  Where can we find this in the workshop?

On 7/30/2019 at 4:18 PM, Legendsmiths said:

I'm sorry to hear that. The intent was very much to make a stand-alone product that used the Hero System as its engine but did not require the core books to play. Part of that was to attempt to create a magic system that didn't feel like super powers. I had also hoped that the structure of the book was instructive to non-Hero players (but maybe because of that it was confusing to Hero vets).

At the time when I bought it I was exploring possibilities for a new campaign setting.  Something that I could use with many gaming groups, taking place in different locations and spanning many different time periods.  As I studied the material in Narosia setting I was impressed with the detail and balance that was provided.  It gave me ideas.  I came to the conclusion about 1/3 of the way thru the material that I could spend a lot of time organizing the material in a way that I could use for a campaign world or I could create my own campaign world.  For me the second choice became a good option.

I would encourage anyone looking for something outside the box of a typical Fantasy Hero setting to get a copy of Narosia and use it as their own.

On 8/9/2019 at 8:08 PM, Trechriron10 said:

Not to rain too much on the parade here...

 

Those last two posts are SUPER sexist. The easily parsed message from between those lines is a) wives should provide more snacks for their husbands and b) hot women are something to snack on. It's like everything you were afraid of seeing in the Man-Cave RPG Den on full display.

 

Do we really want HERO Games (and this community... and the RPG...) construed as the misogynist haven of RPG-land?

 

Here in the 21st century we also don't put naked pin-ups in the locker-room or slap our female co-workers on the hiney as a form of "good morning". I suggest we update our perspective.

 

Sincerely.

Thank you for this post.  Many of my past gaming groups have had a number of women in them.  They would be turned off by such posts.  +50% of the population is women and many of them don't game ... Yet... The above two posts are not helpful to the community or the industry as a whole.

Hero Designer is used to create characters that meet the rules as outlined for both the 5e and 6e versions of the Hero Games Rulesets.  You can build Superheroes and more normal heroes (fantasy characters, space travelers, etc).  You have to know how to build a character, which you get from the books.  HD handles rules checking and does all the math for you.

3 hours ago, heruca said:

TTS was designed for boardgaming, and it shows, particularly in light of the fact that it doesn't afford a GM the ability to improvise and bring in needed assets on-the-fly. So if you haven't prepped for a particular event (RPG players rarely do exactly what you'd expect), you're screwed.

 

Why not simply use a VTT expressly made for playing RPGs, preferably one with built-in support for Hero System mechanics?

Actually I have to improvise with the group I game with now (and we are using a VTT).  I have a wealth of maps that I can throw onto any VTT I want.  In the last 3 months my players have said at the end of one session, we are going to do X when we play again.  We get together the next week and they decide to do Y.  I look through my library of maps, 'toss one' onto the VTT add few additional items if necessary and away we go.

I don't need one with Hero System mechanics, I have HCM to help me with managing combat.  I only want to provide to my players some tools to make the dice rolling and calculating a bit easier.

I have looked at Battlegrounds RPG Edition.  I did seriously consider it as an option.

Currently I am running a game online and we are using Epic Table which has mostly meet our needs.  It is a bit clunky and has a single developer maintaining it.  I have been looking at a wide variety of other VTTs to use.  I have looked at all the big names - Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Maptools, etc.

A while ago I found Tabletop Simulator on Steam.  I was fascinated with the possibility of 3D rendered terrain and figures, shared sound (effects and music), and what seemed to be a big community working on free assets.  I didn't buy it because I didn't want to spend the $20 on an experiment.  Now it is on sale and I picked up a license.

A quick list of pros and cons:

Pro:

• Supports Windows, MacOS (don't know what version), and Steam Linux
• Not subscription based payment system
• Appears that when I run a game I host on my computer (i.e. not on a shared host managed by the Berserk Games)
• Mind boggling amount of terrain, miniatures, and tools
• Video tutorials from both Berserk Games and the community at large
• Powerful scripting language

Con:

• Written documentation is weak (IMO).  Video tutorials are nice but I learn by reading and doing not really watching a video.  Plus I read pretty fast. 
• Overwhelming amount of community assets - LOL too much of a good thing
• Organizing assets is one of the things that could be improved.  You can grab a bunch of assets on the table and put them into a bag.  Bags can be labeled.  Dropping assets into the bag is not easy.  Moving bags without taking assets out of the bag is a pain in the butt.
• Each person using the tool has to buy their own license.  It is possible to buy a discounted 4 pack of licenses but I have already purchased a single license so I would have to buy the 4 pack and gift it to someone in my group and they would have to distribute it to everyone else (minor pain)
• Setting up a table the way you might like it takes time.

My next step is to see if I can set up some scripts that will handle the roll to hit (11+OCV - roll = DCV hit).  I have no idea how to do that yet but considering other things I have seen people do it must be possible.  After that I will try and figure out how to do killing attacks and normal attacks.  My hope is to create a set of assets that the players have at their play station and can just use as they want.

If you are playing face-to-face, you can also make buildings (skyscrapers, etc) to populate your table.

From a Champions game, the cardboard box is actually the trailer part of a semi-truck on its side (yes you can buy vehicle paper models).  I can't find a photo from when we had the skyscrapers up.  We were using Heroclix figures and when a character was flying we used the little 'pizza tables' that come with delivery pizzas.

A different session, which I ran at a game day event at a local store.  Aliens crash in Northern MN.  The heroes were pre-generated and had a MN theme to them (literal man of steal - fell into a vat of molten steel, Paul Bunyan avatar, DJ who used Prince music to create sound effects, etc.)  Trees and logs...

Bump ... Old topic.  Looks like it might be useful again.