Legendsmiths

Re: What's your favorite Hero Designer Export format? I thought RPMiller's WG formats were solid. Where do they drift from the communicated standard?

Re: What's your favorite Hero Designer Export format? That's awesome to hear, Xavier. I wrote Simple Heroic for my convention games as well. I have recently updated the format with a couple of improvements. I haven't posted it to the vault yet, but you can see it in this thread. Here's Captain America using the new format (no hand editing of the file).

Re: Hero System Books Have Way to many Typos Putting aside the criticism for a minute, what are you talking about? The creatures in the bestiary have Resistant applied as a Naked Advantage (+1/2) on their PD/ED Characteristics, which is exactly correct. This is the 6E version of the Damage Resistance power from 5E, which was the method of making your PD/ED resistant without buying extra defenses. This seems to be the crux of your argument, and it is unfounded.

Re: Avengers & X-Men Okay. I've got the format done. I'll post a write-up over in the HD forum. Here's a direct output (no hand modifications at all) for Cap: http://www.legendsmiths.com/adventures/champions/characters/CaptainAmerica.RTF?attredirects=0&d=1

Re: Avengers & X-Men Thanks. I really like his ability to grant CSLs or PRE or Teamwork bonuses. In several encounters that has proved to make a huge difference.

Re: Anyone working on a Fallout 3 conversion? Haha! Ressurection is Mine! http://www.legendsmiths.com/adventures/fallout specifically: http://www.legendsmiths.com/adventures/fallout/conversion-notes My conversion is now in full swing. With 2 adventures under my belt I think I'm getting the handle on it. I started, but haven't completed, a Hero conversion of equipment. I've got a good first pass on armor and weapons, and I completed drugs (including StimPaks) and food.

Re: GMing a Post Apocalypse campaign Hey, Corpse. http://www.legendsmiths.com/adventures/fallout My conversion is now in full swing. With 2 adventures under my belt I think I'm getting the handle on it.

Re: Avengers & X-Men Yes. I've got a few bugs to clean up, but I will definitely share.

I worked up these guys for my Ultimate Nightmare adventure (Avengers vs. X-Men) and thought I would share. I am very interested in feedback to try and get these guys to a good state. For some of them I even set a goal of only using Hero Basic (and was more or less successful). I think Jean Grey might need some work, and Colossus as well (seems really flat). After playing the event, Luke Cage I think has too much movement (can you say freight train?). I really like how Cap, Iron Man, and Wolverine ended up. Dr. Druid is, well Dr. Druid so take that for what it is. Black Widow has more points than most of the others, but is more skill heavy and it didn't seem too unbalancing. http://www.legendsmiths.com/adventures/champions/characters

Re: Spike Spiegel's Multi-Kick Or, Sacrifice Strike +1 OCV, -2 DCV, Strike +4d6 (5 pts) Or, Autofire (3-5) on his kick (depending on how cinematic you're looking for). AF3 on 40 Active Points is 10 points, but more flexible than a single martial maneuver.

Re: Real Life into Hero. So, you had a 9- to hit. Size Mod (12"/30cm): -6 Target DCV: 0 Range (25m): -4 Braced: +2 vs Range Set: +1 OCV Unfamiliarity Penalty: -3 This is what we know. Whether the pistol grants an OCV bonus is debatable. I would argue that the Size Mod is halved. Size and Hit Location penalties are basically the same thing, and a stationary target is 1/2 Hit Location penalties, so I would modify that to -3. This gives us an overall combat modifier total of -7 = -6/2 + -4 + 2 + 1 + -3 9- - -7 = 16- 16- - 11- = OCV 5 Now, whether that OCV 5 is purely you or +1 comes from the weapon is up to you. I think the system has plenty of modifiers for working under ideal conditions and characters should receive bonuses for optimal conditions beyond the modifiers available. An example of this is all of the STR Lifting modifiers: the system assumes a maximum optimal lift and all modifiers reduce this. I say this after making a subjective call on interpreting Size Modifiers in the same manner as Hit Location modifiers, a call that seems consistent to me (and has worked in my games) and seems to map to the character experience in this case. In fact, is was my own real world evaluation of my own marksmanship performance that led me to that solution. Could a +3 for optimal conditions achieve the same effect? Potentially. However, my evaluation was based on not just shooting at stationary targets, but pop-ups and timed firing exercises. Having to change magazines during a timed firing exercise is hardly optimal. Am I being shot at? No, but I don't have all the time in the world, especially on a pop-up range. If I make my PER roll, I got just enough time to Set (maybe). I generally don't grant pistols OCV bonuses unless they are features like extra long barrels and such (so in this case +1 OCV is probably a good go... I'd be more inclined to give an additional +1 vs. Range - I don't like OCV bonuses from equipment). For rifles, I do include OCV and/or range modifiers, only if the shooter Sets - you have to take aim to take advantage of the rifle, otherwise the things which make it accurate contribute to its inaccuracy when not aimed (i.e. off by 1-2mm in the site picture generally means you miss).

Re: Frustration Yes, what are your specific frustrations? I can't imagine anything in HALO being difficult to model.

Re: Setting a real point limit, instead of AP limit The guidelines in APG wrt Effect Caps have been successful for me. This allows some advantages and some limitations to play into the evaluation of the effectiveness of a power. Even so, the GM still has to judge the utility of a power. Example: A 40 AP cap is fine for most attacks, but 40 AP of Entangle effectively will 1-shot most heroic targets.

Re: What value to limit additional Strength only for lifting and determining Encumbra Those values don't necessarily correlate. Also, what do you define as damage? Anything covered by the exert element? I can't use an HA attack to break out of a grab, and that is a primary use of STR. Is that grouped with lifting by extension of your example? My point is, and this is where you and I agree, is that it is a relative assessment based on how STR is used in the campaign. -2 is limiting almost all of its usefulness, and that is just not the case, especially in a Heroic game. As with any limited power, there are situations that we can create that make the limitation almost useless, whether out of creativity or bad design. I'll give a different example: PRE, only for fear/intimidation (-1). Published examples of this exist. Take it to the next step: Only to RESIST fear/intimidation... -2. Or PRE, only to turn undead -2. Only for lifting is not nearly as limiting as either of those 2 conditions. You may disagree, and in your campaign a -2 may be appropriate, but I think -1 is a pretty fair guideline. Hopefully our discussion will give Ryhope something to think about.

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice Wierd. Works on mine.

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice It's a button, and not in the list of modifiers.

Re: What value to limit additional Strength only for lifting and determining Encumbra I would think closer to -1. Lift is a big part of STR, about half of its utility I would think. I don't know as making it consistent with GURPS, especially since the strength scales are so different, is really all that meaningful. Using the standard Encumbrance rules, most characters usually have enough STR. What problem are you trying to solve?

Re: Making Characters For Fun and Practice Hyperman: just use a Custom Modifier at -3/4. It makes the charactersheet cleaner since you don't have the additional "Limited Power" text printing out. Sentru: I think you have done a good job putting these characters together. It's obvious you have given it a lot of thought. I'll echo Hyperman's statement about using Combat Luck as a power - build it using the base powers otherwise the costs will get wonky. Also, consider standard Heroic Guidelines (6E1 35): Standard CV 3-7 DC 3-8 Active: 15-50 Defense 6-10/3-5 Emthadi destroys these guidelines. 6 rPD/rED plus 9 Combat Luck makes him unstoppable. 20 Power Defense makes that even worse. At that power level more than 10 Power Defense is too much and 5 is really more appropriate. With his Bracers, you have given him +10 STR for free - you have to be very careful how you balance items that cost no points in a fantasy campaign. There are ways to do it, so just as long as you've thought about how that is done. His axe, with his base STR does 8 DC (2 1/2d6K) which is already at the top of the guidelines. Remember, if you are running this in a balanced fashion an orc with a spear is going to be delivering 5-6 DC. Add to that 2 more DC from his belt, plus 2 DC from his Barbarian rage, plus 3 DC from Weapon Master +2 DC from Martial Strike... OVERKILL. Any creature that is tough enough to pose a challenge to him will destroy the rest of the party. He can cut down a 470pt War Demon (HSB89) in 2 strikes, with the first one stunning the demon. If that demon gets a strike in, he will be unable to do significant damage to the rPD 15 Emthadi. OCV/DCV: actually spot on. I think those are just right and with axes puts him right at the top of the guidelines. Emthadi Suggestions: 1. Drop 2 levels of Combat Luck and go from Plate to Hide (rPD 3). This makes the minotaur look cooler and gives him 6 rPD in combat (top of the range). If you want to be tougher than that, go with extra normal PD. 2. Get rid of Weapon Master 3. Martial Arts: unless you are making an exception, you need at least 10pts of maneuvers to buy martial arts. That said, I don't think he needs Martial Arts. Focus on skill levels. 4. Barbarian Rage: if it is just for yourself, buy it as a Characteristic. It's cleaner and less confusing +10 STR, 3 Charges lasting 1 Minute (-1/2) = 7 points 4a. Barbarian Rage: reduce it to +5 STR and +5 CON if you keep it at all. See, with 3 charges you will be able to use it pretty much all the time. I have seen this many times before - that many uses really doesn't limit you in this case... you don't spend your whole day fighting. The rest of the party really can't keep up. So, unless you are going to add side effects, I would reduce it to 1 charge to make it actually a choice about using it. If you add side effects (e.g. -5 STR and -1 to all actions for 5 minutes or something), then I wouldn't put charges on it at all - the side effects are enough of a deterrant to question its use. 5. Unless you have some system for balancing items amongst the party, the belt is too much. At most it should be +5 STR. Keep in mind that in Hero +5 means x2, so that is very significant on many levels. As an OAF, his Bracers can be stolen in combat, which is good as a limitation, but they are not Expendable. Expendable means that when you use them, they are gone. If that's what you meant then I say keep them - they effectively give him 1 use of +10 STR and are then more like a potion. Expendable is not appropriate for most of your items. The amulet it works though, and if you added Trigger to it (+1/4) it would work once at 20 Power Defense and then shatter if you left Expendable on it, which would be cool. 6. Foot Stomp: not sure how useful this is. 2 1/2d6N is not that significant, even against goblins, and as a personal power STR min is also really not that necessary. If you want to do damage not based on STR, use Blast vs. PD. I'd build this as a naked advantage (AE on STR using the advantages you have listed): on 20 STR this becomes a 10 pt Power and does 4d6N damage. 7. General Equipment: This is most easily entered as a Custom Power for what it is. Just rename the Custom Power entry to "Week's worth of rations" and be done with it. In heroic level games not every piece of equipment needs to be built as a power (e.g. waterskin, backpack, rope, etc.). As an example, when I see your right up for Cloak, I think of that as a magic item. As written, Emthadi could be walking across the ice in Antarctica in the middle of winter and be perfectly comfortable. If you just put Cloak on there as a basic custom power with no actual power definition, then it is clearly just a cloak. 8. Minor issues: CON & STUN are kind of low for a Barbarian. As tough as this guy is, I would expect more. PRE is a little high for a Minotaur Barbarian. If you meant him to be intimidating, leave his PRE at 10 or make it even 5, but then buy a power: Intimidating +20 PRE (Fear/Intimidation Only -1). If you reduce his PRE to 5, this would give him 25 PRE for fear/intimidation for the same points you speant, make him fearless to boot, but very gullible. I hope this helps. You have a great character concept and have put a lot of thought into it. Consider keeping your powers and abilities within the guidelines, at least to start your campaign, perhaps allowing for character schticks (i.e. Emthadi maybe can do 10 DC damage to start if he is the strongest character). The guidelines, especially when working with published materials (like the Bestiary) will help ensure that things are an appropriate challenge.

Re: Combat with all the switches turned on Nearly all of my games, because I run Heroic games, use all of these optional rules. Hit Location, Critical Hits, Bleeding, Impairing/Disabling, Knockdown, etc. I run games that tend to have gritty combat, whether swords, sorcery, or guns, and this brings a deadlier element to the game. We even consider hits to anything but the head or torso to be flesh wounds (contributes to bleeding but not death directly). While the detail does require extra time, it isn't much if everyone gets it. It's far more dramatic to have an impaired arm and be suffering 2d6 Bleeding every turn while trying to hold off a horde of badlands raiders in Fallout, but you have to like that kind of game. That's the beauty of Hero - if you want the crunch, it's there. If you want to take your 6 BODY and move along, you can do that too, and the game works great either way. Time overall? In a 4-5 hour convention game I will have 1 big fight, 1-2 smaller fights, and 1 climactic fight. At GenCon in my Fallout game I actually had the party split up and we had a 1 vs 5 robot fight (player favored), a 2 vs 1 robot fight (robot favored), a 1 vs 1 robot "encounter", and a player (the best gunslinger in the group and NOT the hacker) attempting to hack a security terminal (all at the same time). We had crits, and all sorts of craziness going on and that sequence took about 45 min to resolve.

Re: Video game genres I typically run multiple games every convention season based on video games. I have run Stalker (4 adventures thus far), Fallout (2 adventures thus far), and Left4Dead. All have been well received and fun to run as well as play. My secret is to focus on things that you can't do in the video game to highlight even more how cool the story/setting are. I take it based on your new status (welcome to the boards!) and your comment implies that you are using a combat system that while entertaining (I luvs me some Iron Crown crits!), might not be the best system suited, depending on your objectives. I typically have 1 light combat, 1-3 optional combats (things that can be resolved, possibly, without combat), and 1 climactic fight. If people are going to play in a game based on a video game, it has to match what they would expect out of that game. That said, unless you are going to play a board game (like Space Hulk), the RPG session should be more about roleplaying in that setting and less about Rocket Propelled Grenades (see what I did there?). I make sure that if there is signature tech, it is in the game. If there are signature challenges (e.g. Zombie Hordes in Left4Dead) that they are present. A literal translation can be fun, but I think loses sight of what you can accomplish in a fully realized engine, whether it be Savage Worlds, d20, or *ahem* Hero System. All of the games above I did using Hero and they were tons of fun, especially for me as a GM. Fallout had some comedy, VATS, and gritty survival. Stalker had environmental dangers, freaky monsters, limited resources, and deadly combat. Left4Dead was a creep fest of suspense and crazy action. They were all made better by the flexibility of Hero. Example: Players had to retake Little Lamplight in Fallout. It had become a raider base of operations. In the little shack outside the main entrance were a number of guards (4 to be exact) and 1 down in front of the main cave entrance. The players timed their execution to allow for their brick, who is practically a super mutant, get up to full running speed. They then sniped the guard in front of the main entrance as the stealth guy kicked the door into the guard shack. While the guards in the shack were reacting, the brick runs straight into the clapboard wall of the shack in a classic Kool-Aid Man maneuver. He executes perfectly, and I challenge him further (since he just barely overcame the toughness of the wall) with a DEX roll to see how smooth his entrance/footing was - and he nails it. His Presence attack (mass intimidation) was rolled as successful and all 4 guards were stunned with fear. Epic, and something you can't do in the video game yet something that feels very much like Fallout.

Re: New STUNx Column for Hit Location Table (Help w/ Math) It is my understanding that was by design. The hit location chart was left alone for various reasons.

Re: Running Hero at Gaming Conventions I run mostly heroic level games, but with fairly complex characters (lots of detail, many powers, improvised magic, martial artists, etc). I feel I deliver good pacing, lots of action, and roleplay. I do run action heavy games, and I like the detail and tactics of Hero, so my games tend to be crunchy. My supers events do take longer to resolve combats (most of my Heroic combats rarely last a single turn), but I think that has to do with the durability of supers. I try to structure my supers fights, therefore, so that the attack vs. defense ratios work out to resolve on the shorter side of 2 turns. This means that, for example, the brick may be able to take out the speedster in a single blow... if he can get his hands on him. If the players figure out the right combo (and its not always as obvious as the example above), the combat can be over quickly. But it certainly is possible that they play into the least ideal pairing and suddenly it's a game of rock'em sock'em. That's usually where I will go for the dramatic action and force the pairing, if possible (in the example above, the speedster might change tactics and go after the brick in a speedster appropriate fashion, thus exposing him to the brick's attacks). I also end fights early when it is clear the characters have things well in hand. There's no point spending 15 mins to wrap up a fight that is over - better to narrate the ending appropriately rather than wait for the dice to close it out. I also don't think you need to run simpler games just because its a con or there are noobs present. I prefer to believe that gamers are smart, and generally that works out for me. I don't spend a lot of time describing the system at the beginning (5 min overview), and then I highlight the key elements of reading the charactersheet. That is all usually over in about 15 min, so we can get started.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments? Only vs. Ranged Attacks would be fine at -1, don't disagree there. Must be aware of attack is an established limitation at -1/2. "Must attack each phase" - basically is saying that it uses your action, which is more or less equivalent to "Extra Time: Full Phase" at -1/2, so maybe something like: Only When Combined with an Attack against the affected targets -1/2 OIF: X of Opportunity -1/2 is an established convention as well. The idea is that while the gun is technically "A" for accessible, I can draw my backup pistol and still have the power. Thematically/dramatically you can't take the power away from me unless you can deny me access to all X in the area. While sometimes you may be able to control that situation, in general you won't be able to. Therefore, the focus is, in game effect terms, "I" for inaccessible. I might agree to -3/4 since you are restricting it to guns only, but it certainly wouldn't be more than that. So, to be clear, it's not that guns aren't OAF it's that the power isn't limited to a single focus - any gun will do. A "Gun of Opportunity" if you will. Thematically I would also expect some kind of limitation that not only forces an attack, but forces 2 charges or more per attack, or maybe: DCV bonus is limited by number of shots fired at the target; OCV penalty is the same -1/4 So, if I fire 1 shot at the target as covering fire, it's at -1 OCV and Recipient only gets +1 DCV. Fire 2 at -2 OCV, get +2 DCV etc. IMO, 1 bullet does not covering fire make. You might also consider associating the power with the Suppression Fire maneuver instead of an attack. As presented I could perform this power with that maneuver, but if you restricted it to that maneuver that would be an additional limitation.

Re: Running Hero at Gaming Conventions I don't think it's the Speed Chart that is what is causing your slow down. All it does it determine sequence, and if you go in order of Dex, from a pre-written list, it's going to be as fast as any other game. I'm curious to know why you think it's the speed chart that is making it slow. In general, dispensing with END is one way to speed play to a certain extent, but only if you have to explain/remind players to do it. The biggest factor in how much time it takes is the player knowing what they want to do. The second largest is reconciling damage. #1 can be solved by encouraging them to simply describe their actions and that you will tell them how it is resolved. #2 is a bigger challenge. One way is you track it all yourself - have on the combat record their defenses and such and you just track it. Another way is to make sure they are sitting next to a vet that will help out. I usually open my events with a light/easy combat that gives everyone a chance to do something and learn what needs to be done. You balance that by making the encounter thematically interesting and relevant to the story, without it being critical. That gets people into it, gives them context for combat/action resolution. Make sure you have some summary pages available (combat maneuver charts, etc.) so that when they are not in combat, or waiting their turn, they can review/think about what they want to do. UCon submissions aren't in - you want to tag team an event so we can compare notes? If I saw it in action, I might be able to lend more specific advice. The times I've been in your events I never thought the pace was slow at all - things seemed to move along just fine.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments? I think at best "Only works with a ranged weapon user is familiar with.; -2)," would be -1/2 as OIF: Guns of Opportunity. I think the Side Effect is fine. This has to be balanced with the good roleplaying of NPCs, that don't want to get hit anyway. Fundamentally, that's what Suppression Fire is for.