bluesguy

@BadTodd- Hey long time no speak
@Jeffrywith1e- Highland park area
 

I remember reading somewhere that DMs (yes that is right D&D) will run new players through a village fair with various contests, like archery for example, so as to introduce new players on the mechanics and where to find it on the sheet. 

Providing pre-built characters with only the essential information can work very well for beginners. 

Inver Grove Heights/West St Paul here!
 

You had to go there......

Providing pre-built characters with only the essential information can work very well for beginners. 

Players must PRE-define the powers and have them approved BEFORE play starts. No creation when your phase is up.

So a 45 AP attack on a normal will most likely leave a normal bleeding to death and knocked out (maybe long enough that they can recover).  Then ask how lethal do I want that attack to be fore the player characters.  For a really lethal campaign then 2 rPD/rED + 5 PD/ED will result in some seriously wounded characters within a phase or three (vs. 45 AP attacks).  And just work back from there.
 

Simply join the Discord for hero games ... and ask the people in the Tabletop Simulator channel. I know a number of people more than willing to help you
 
https://discord.gg/HcUJvJH
 
Click the link above to join.
 

Yeah I thought about doing something like that, set in the Skyrim universe (TES...anyway) where I roll premade characters and the players get to choose.

It depends on the game; a game that focuses largely on firearms and using cover intelligently, I tend to not care about it. Games that utilize powers heavily (where everyone is a spell caster in one way or another) then I tend to use 2d10 or similar handy counter.
 
And I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: I only speak two languages. English, and bad English.

Yeah we did the same thing, I have a back of the character sheet type sheet with slots for SPD (indicate stun, END use, etc) and BOD/STUN areas to keep track, as well as gear, etc.

When we played face-to-face for my new players I would use Word/Excel to make a bunch of square boxes to represent END, Stun & Body.  Then I would give the players that sheet + a plastic protector sheet.  They could use an erasable marker on the sheet to track everything.
 
Since we are playing VTT these days I just trust them to keep track of those things.

Nope, her bare toned midriff and thigh high boots had a BIG and lasting effect on me as a young lad.  Thank you Nichelle Nichols,  where ever you are.

That actually sounds like a pretty cool crossover campaign.    
Jim Kirk as a cocky smuggler,  Spock as a Zen-like Jedi Master of the Force, Sulu as Commander of Rogue Squadron and of course.....Emperor Kahn!

If you're wanting realism in the campaign for a savannah in an Earth-like world and it's near the equator, there's a rainy season and a dry season.
 
During the dry season, you treat travel as if you're in the desert: from watering hole to watering hole. All but the biggest rivers dry up and become a series of puddles which shrink day by day. The wildlife in the area restrict their travel and gravitate closer and closer to water sources. Predator and prey are practically shoulder to shoulder in areas which are close to water. In places which aren't close to water, there's not much of anything in the way of wildlife. If you run into a predator there, it'll be highly aggressive and desperate for food.
 
High calorie grain crops don't grow in such areas so life is hard for both man and beast.
 
In the real world, there are fish which burrow into the mud then virtually hibernate as the river dries around them into solid ground. It might be interesting to have something like giant catfish come up out of the ground to swallow a horse whole or anything else weird which you might think would freak players out. Blood sucking animals might be appropriate. 
 
Magic which can create food and water or rain would be particularly prized as would magics which could ward away aggressive predators or lure prey to hunters.
 
Oh, and if the players run into a group of homosexual lions, be sure to point out to them that it's a gay pride.

Hello again, denizens of the Fantasy Hero forums. Like many others I am sure, I have gotten quite restless during the events related to COVID and have undertaken a number of projects to assuage my boredom. This sent me down an odd path that eventually led to me finding a Creative Commons adventure that was written in Spanish and I decided to give a shot at translating it. I am not a Spanish speaker (aside from polite phrases and the ability to order basic beer and food) so I used a variety of online translations along with context from within the adventure itself to accomplish this. 
 
Anyway, I wanted to share the result with you all. It is somewhat tongue in cheek but could easily prove to be a challenge for even intermediate adventurers depending on how the monsters are written up or if the rolls go sideways. I still have a final editing pass to do, so if you find phrasing errors or the like, please let me know. I will be including some blank maps and maybe a map with hexes in a zip file with the PDF when I am done.
The Well of Brunnenburg.pdf

I find baby name dictionaries and websites to be useful, especially for non-European cultures.  I will usually modify European names slightly to keep them from being too prosaic, but most names from other cultures sound exotic enough on their own that I can keep them as is.

It works very well indeed.
 

 
Salamander Boy says .. Flame on!
 

I have a skewed response, living in the south, where "vitals" means "guts," so I tend to interpret it as intestine, kidneys, bladder, etc-- anything below the ribcage and between the hips, really.

There is a way but it’s a LOT of work for the GM. Have the training sequences involve interesting NPC’s.  A player wants to learn Martial Arts...give them Chuin from the Remo Williams movie (“You move like a baboon with two club feet!” “The seasons move faster!”) or Ping Hai from Kill Bill. If they want to learn “thief” skills give them either a Cary Grant ex-cat burglar or a Baldrick from Blackadder looking second story man. 
   You get the idea, make the introduction of the teacher and the training of the student part of the tapestry of the game. Perhaps the mad scientist obsessed with the power of Steam who ends up instructing a player in the sciences also tells them of other scientists who have mysteriously disappeared.  These NPC’s can become great storytelling devices.
  Have episodes open on a teaching sequence with one of the players just to set the mood “ You’re all in the gymnasium watching Bertrand spar with Master Chuin...
    This will be a lot more fun in the long run than just them endlessly repeating “My character trains for three weeks and I spend my points.”

As for the training, my world has a wicked monsoon season and there is a separate month in the year when all kinds of crazy/random things can happen.  These points in time on the calender make natural places for training.
 
Also sometimes if one player has a set of skills that another player wants to learn they will tell me about it and over a period of time the 2nd player can buy those skills.

I am in, thank you for this.  It will be a great addition to my Grimoire, haha get it!😝

Here's the Table of Contents for the book

Hey All
 
Just wanted to announce that work on Tiger Paw Press second Print On Demand title has started. Grimoire Arcanium will hold all schools of magic from our spellbook titles. Spells from The Lost Grimoire, Grimoire Arcana I, II, II, The Elemental Grimoire, Necromancy & Time Magic will be included in the title. The 262 page PDF will be bookmarked and Hero Designer files will be included in the non-print title. The POD title is expected to be 29.99 and the PDF and files can be included in the purchase for $5.00. Grimoire Arcanium will be available for purchase in early 2021