bluesguy

Hi all.  I've just updated my primer designed to introduce players (especially D&D players) to Fantasy Hero.  You can find it here:
 
https://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/367-fantasy-hero-primer/
 
I would have just bumped the old thread where we originally hashed it out, but the fabulous archive feature prevents this.  I don't intend to keep updating it on any sort of schedule, but if anyone finds any errors or has any suggestions that don't require too much page count / rewriting I'd be happy to consider them (for instance, I was going through the previous thread and saw someone talking about shield bashing, and added that in).

The intention is for the pruning that's already been done to be all that is needed. Should that not prove to be the case (e.g. the 4.5GB database requires too high of a RAM load for reasonable hosting plans), the order of operations for additional pruning would be:
Prune all posts started over a year ago in the NGD - this would remove the long-running (and space-hog) threads and get rid of the bulk of the posts that can/should be pruned back.
  Prune posts in the gaming forums (HERO System Discussion, Champions, etc.). This will remove a decent amount, but not as much as the NGD.
  Prune any remaining forums (this is the only point at which the rules questions forum would come into play)  
Again, the intent is to have the pruning that has already been performed be all that is needed.

I agree 100%.  My son wanted to run a campaign when he was in High School after playing in my campaign for a while.  I got him a copy of TA and it worked very well.  There was enough detail that the world felt real, plus a ton of space so he could make it his own.

GURPS.....

I will bet there is a third edition rule I am using that I have never noticed changing.  I play HERO, editions are irrelevant and ephemeral except to give everyone a base to start from. It is us to blame for paragraph long powers, we love to tinker and argue about the minutia - Steve simply tried to make it all clear. That took a LOT of words. Doesn't mean you have to use them.
 
I don't have a favourite edition, I play HERO and I think arguing about details is pointless, especially as you can now download and play any edition you want. 

I do the multi-colored dice thing, exactly as you propose. Red for damage, black for hit location, and green for attack rolls. Didn’t roll knock ack, as it’s not common in FH games, but does come up when fighting against a Giant, Dragon, or some other large scale monster. 

Hero does have a bias towards the defender, but there are a lot of ways to adjust the system to any desired level of danger. I've mentioned it before on these forums, but I wrote up some coverage of what I called "Lethality Options" a long time ago and they are still relevant.
 
http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/shrikeLethalityOptions.aspx

Or you don't play those "old school" RPG campaigns.  My recollection of those kinds of games from the late 70's and early 80's were dungeon crawls in a place that pretty much made no sense at all.  Often Fighter A, killed in session 18, was the same as Fighter B, killed in session 23, played by the same player.  The 'characters' were more like chess pieces rather than actual characters like you might read in a novel or see in film/TV.  So pretty much what does it matter if Fighter A dies due to dumb luck, roll up a new one and you are ready to go once the party finds you in room 32 all tied up and few hit points down and your stuff in room 38 (he/she is ready to go).
 
 
The people I have gamed with over the years invest time into a backstory and actually role play a character for 20 or 30 sessions are not going to be happy if they die because of a bad die roll.  Maybe the people you game with don't mind that happening and just roll with it (pun intended).
 
 
Who says Fantasy or Sci-Fi are grittier genres than comics.  How many main characters died in:
In any Star Trek show?  None in TOS.  One in TNG (but they recycled the actress to play an alternate timeline daughter). DS9 had one death which was Jadzia Dax.  VOY, I believe the only main character who dies is Kes. LoTR:  Lots of deaths and I would argue that at least 75% were to move the story along vs. 'bad luck (dice roll)' If you want a grittier game then Hero can give you all the grit you can possible stand.  I can easily see a Hero game where characters (PC & NPC) are regularly mamed (temporarily or permanently) or killed (every few sessions).

Sorry it took so long for me to respond back to your answers, but I'd really like to say it really helped a lot. I understand it more and I'll try to create the base. I hope I can show you the base when I'm done, and you can give me some feedback if you're willing.

Underground City was used in the Beauty and the Beast TV series that Linda Hamilton was in.
It would also depend on how occupied the city was. It may be unoccupied.

Is this base for players or NPC?
 
If it is an NPC base then the answer is very easy - hand wave everything the players are unlikely to engage (especially non-combat stuff).  So say it is a super villain base (city) and there are security cameras everywhere constantly watching things.  You could build it as some kind of clairvoyance or you could just hand wave the answer.  If there are traps and/or minions then I would write them up.  But I wouldn't care about how much the base and followers cost for an NPC.  For instance a local leader of Viper is not going to have an underground city for a base.  To many resources tied up to one place - goes against good Viper doctrine.  But Dr. Destroyer would have such a base.
 
If it is a PC (or group of PCs), then I would work up a few of the items and then detail out the cost to the players in character or experience points.  Once the players realize they are going to be tying up a significant amount of the character's character or experience points.  Also I would make sure equipment fails on occasion (wear and tear) and those items require more XP to get it back up and running.  I would only do this for mega bases like the one you asked about.

I think it is harder (not impossible) to kill PCs in Hero because the original source material was designed around comic books.  Death of a comic book hero was extremely rare.  Comic book heroes that were knocked out and came back into the fight a bit later happens all the time.  Hero by using PD/ED/DCV/Stun and Body lowers the likelihood of a character being one shot killed and still includes the likelihood of being stunned and/or knocked out in a single shot.
 
I think Matt's video has something much more important to communicate than the value/history/purpose of hit points.  PC death, how lethal is the campaign, how dangerous are the villains, and how as a GM you can help make sure that PC deaths are meaningful (if/when they happen).  When he talks about his friend tracking all the hit points, I thought about my tool, Hero Combat Manager (shameless plug) because that is one of the things you can see at a glance to know how bad off characters are.  I also like the whole magnet idea.  We used the plastic colored rings that are on soda bottles, milk bottles, etc to do the same thing when we played at the table.

I remember a conversation with a hobby store employee back in the late 1980s or early 90s, where he proclaimed that GURPS was better than Hero specifically because "it's too hard to kill a player character in Hero."  My own opinion was that this was actually a good thing, not a bad thing.  (I later learned that this person was a very adversarial GM -- you know, the guy with a Mary Sue GM-PC to show up the PCs -- along with other obnoxiousness.)
 
That said, as GM I've accidentally killed a superhero PC (due to a design flaw in the PC's defenses and other powers), and had to go out of my way to keep other PCs (trained normals, not supers) from getting slaughtered.
 
I'll admit that way back in my early days of D&D gaming, my characters were all cookie-cutter 2D cutouts who existed mainly for churning through dungeon crawls to pick up cool magic items.  If one died, another was quickly rolled up and took his place without blinking an eye.

There isn't anything like D&D Beyond for Hero as an all inclusive tool.  There isn't a viable market for it for Hero.  However the following are some options you might try.
 
Online Character Sheets could be done with:
Hero Designer - By using HD you can create characters and export them in a number of very useful formats, including HTML. Hero System Mobile - By using a special export format provided by the developer, it is possible to export a character from HD and then upload that character Dropbox.  At that point a player can use the Hero System Mobile app (available for iOS & Android) for a dynamic character sheet plus some simple combat help.  And it is free. Campaign Notes - There are a myriad of options to accomplish this.
Obsidian Portal Wordpress Epic Words Tavern Keeper Realm Works Roll your own using a set of tools like Joomla.  See my campaign world, Nyonia, which runs off of my domain as a subdomain site. Rules lookup - I have nothing for you there. How is that done in D&D Beyond?
 

Thanks for the tips.  I guess im not very interested in playing a full brick.  Except throwing cars is really cool.
 
I had thought about move through attacks.  Thought having high strength and run speed to bull rush people would be kinda fun, sort of juggernaut like.

Here's my take on a bare bones super soldier that fills most of your criteria...I left out some stuff but there are plenty of points left over for you to do stuff with.
 
Sorry for the format, and I've attached the hdc file to this doc as well 
 
Generic Super Soldier
 
Val Char Cost Roll Notes
40 STR 30 17- Lift 6400.0kg; 8d6 [8]
26 DEX 32 14- OCV: 9/DCV: 9
25 CON 15 14-
18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13-
18 EGO 8 13- ECV: 1 - 3
18 PRE 8 13- PRE Attack: 3 ½d6
 
9 OCV 30
9 DCV 30
1 OMCV -6
3 DMCV 0
6 SPD 40 Phases: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12
 
9+15 PD 7 Total: 9/24 PD (0/15 rPD)
9+15 ED 7 Total: 9/24 ED (0/15 rED)
12 REC 8
50 END 6
15 BODY 5
45 STUN 13
 
Total Characteristic Cost: 241
 
Movement:
Running: 30m/60m
Leaping: 20m/40m
Swimming: 4m/8m
 
Cost Powers END
8 Leaping +16m (20m forward, 10m upward) 1
18 Running +18m (30m total) 2
45 Resistant Protection (15 PD/15 ED) 0
 
Martial Arts
8 +2 HTH Damage Class(es)
4 Killing Strike -2 +0 HKA 4d6
4 Martial Block +2 +2 Block, Abort
4 Martial Dodge -- +5 Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort
4 Martial Strike +0 +2 12d6 Strike
5 Offensive Strike -2 +1 14d6 Strike
 
Skills
3 Acrobatics 14-
3 Breakfall 14-
3 Climbing 14-
3 Analyze: Fighting Style 13-
3 Conversation 13-
3 Persuasion 13-
 
 
Total Powers & Skill Cost: 119
Total Cost: 359
 
325+ Matching Complications
 
Total Complications Points: 359
 
Generic Super Soldier.hdc

Welcome to the boards!!
 
Are you attempting to create a new character? Click file New Character and then you are given 4 options, the second option is for a 6th Edition character.
 
Is this what you are wondering about?  If not, just continue posting here and some helpful gamers will assist you!
 
Also, have you read the documentation that comes with the program?

Nice job. 

I would highly recommend looking at the NBOS Software tool Inspiration Pad Pro which is specifically designed to let you create complicated tables that generate complicated results.  You can create tables that can be 'called' by other tables.

I've come to believe that all powers are pretty much the same and the only difference between the characters is archetype, skills, and psychological limits.

Here's how I created an HD Character using the CCC Cards:
 
To start the Character build, I chose Open Character and picked the Characteristic Card I wanted to use.  In this case #4 - Dexterous.
 
To add the other cards, I just chose Load Prefabs and chose the card file I wanted to use, then went to the appropriate tab, clicked on Prefab sub-tab, chose the now-loaded prefab and selected it to add it to the build.
 
It wasn't exactly intuitive, but it seems to work, and I had a rough build of my desired character in just a few minutes.
I hope this helps everyone who is as confused as I was.

I put all the powers into the suit so the cost is 369pts
I swapped well off for filthy rich and lowered the vehicle/base to 50 pts
Post what you think the last 31 points should go for

also this was a random draw only tossing card that did not fit well with the Strong archtype
 
 
 
 
 
Powered armor suit
 
Val Char Cost Roll Notes
65 STR 20 22- Lift 204.8tons; 13d6 [6]
15 DEX 10 12- OCV: 5/DCV: 5
30 CON 10 15-
10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 11-
10 EGO 0 11- ECV: 3 - 3
15 PRE 5 12- PRE Attack: 3d6
 
5 OCV 10
5 DCV 10
3 OMCV 0
3 DMCV 0
4 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12
 
23+15 PD 18 Total: 23/38 PD (0/15 rPD)
17+15 ED 13 Total: 17/32 ED (0/15 rED)
15 REC 11
60 END 8
15 BODY 5
40 STUN 10 Total Characteristic Cost: 150
 
Movement: Running: 12m/24m
Flight: 40m/80m
Leaping: 4m/8m
Swimming: 4m/8m
 
Cost Powers END
Powered Armor Suit, all slots OIF (-½)
30 1) Armor: Resistant Protection (15 PD/15 ED) (45 Active Points); OIF (-½) 0
13 2) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25%, Hardened (+¼) (19 Active Points) 0
13 3) Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25%, Hardened (+¼) (19 Active Points) 0
7 4) Mental Damage Reduction, 25% (10 Active Points) 0
27 5) Jet Boots: Flight 40m (40 Active Points); OIF (-½) 4
7 6) High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group) (12 Active Points); OIF (-½), Limited Power Effected as a sight and hearing group as well as Radio Group (-¼) 0
27 7) Blaster: Blast 8d6 (40 Active Points); OIF (-½) 4
36 ? Self Healer: Healing BODY 7d6+1 (73 Active Points); Limited Power Self Only (-½) 7
17 9) +25 STR (25 Active Points); OIF (-½) 2
7 10) +10 STR (10 Active Points) 1
7 11) +10 CON (10 Active Points)
2 12) +3 PD (3 Active Points)
1 13) +2 ED (2 Active Points)
 
Perks
10 Vehicles
15 Money: Filthy Rich
 
Total Powers & Skill Cost: 219
Total Cost: 369
 
400+ Matching Complications
20 Accidental Change: Powers Sometimes Come On Accidentally 14- (Common)
20 Physical Complication: Doesn't know his own strength. (Accidentally applies casual STR to delicate items unless he succeeds with a DEX roll) (All the Time; Barely Impairing)
25 Unluck: 5d6
 
Total Complications Points: 369
 

I am hoping to have more for you: 
 
A new fanon location in Tashal in January-February.
An officially published write-up of Caer Esenor in 2019.  The line-editor and I are editing/polishing the draft right now.

I would suggest reading this sacred space encyclopedia article because I think it does a good job describing what is traditionally considered a sacred/holy place.
 
About 20+ years ago I belonged to a church where the sanctuary was broken into and someone engaged in what we guessed was satanic rites (most likely teenagers thinking they were being cool).  We didn't have worship in that space until we re-sanctified the space.  Our pastor contacted some of the nearby Rabbis to see what the do when this happens to them (it happens in synagogues more often than you would believe).  In the end we had a large worship service with many denominations and faiths who came and prayed with us to re-sanctify our sanctuary space. It was a huge deal.  I would highly recommend that if you let a player have the power to create a holy place you make it a big deal because it should be.
 
In terms of Hero I would suggest Change Environment and depending on the deity being worshiped by the priest there could be various items of significant value (either they are destroyed in the casting or become permanent fixtures at the location), time required (nothing less than 1 hour), gestures and incantations, and generally it would include additional people (at least two or three).  I would also make it worth the effort to create such a space.  Maybe additional recovery (peace of mind/safety/tranquil spot to rest).  Triggers susceptibility to holy places.  An overall skill level that can be used as long as it is in the service of the deity the space is dedicated to.
 
I would also suggest that there are some 'natural' places that are going to be holy (or maybe unholy depending on the circumstances).  Typically well kept cemeteries and religious locations (temples/shrines/churches) are considered holy.

We loved combats a lot and had a high number of bricks and brick hybrids. So 24-30PD sounds about right, except for the high DCV types. I had a character with 30RPD, but that was a military armored suit. Yes those slug tests took a long time, but it allowed for people to revive unconscious team mates, set up maneuvers, and actually put villains in Stronghold. Real time concerns were irrelevant in high school as we would start gaming after school Friday; and wrap up about lunch time on Sunday. Good times. Later when I played in later Champions games at Planet 10 Comics and Games, it had a 4 hour limit before 6pm, but could go longer after 6.