tunglashr

I appreciate all of the discussion on this. I would like to say that for me, this is one of those 'know your players' things. The woman who I designed this for I have played with for over 15 years, and in that time she has never once even attempted to game the system. In fact, when we play Hero she just tells me narratively what she wants to do, and I figure out the rules for her and say what she needs to roll. She would absolutely not take extra advantage of this. As I mentioned before we dont use the SPD chart at all. We use cards. To abort you just discard your next card. This power just means if she wants to try and use her TK to protect an innocent, she can do it without throwing away a card. If I were to guess this is a power she would probably use 1-2 times per arc, but when she does use it, she will LOVE it. The point of this power was mostly to give a player something I know she will really enjoy, and just find a way to give it a reasonable cost.

That was my question. This is one of the times where the system (in this case the SPD chart) holds us back. There is no logical reason why its ok to buy 3 extra SPD (if you have 3 SPD) so you can get more attacks, but you are not allowed to just buy 1. It exposes the inherent clunkiness the SPD chart itself brings to the table. The SPD chart already causes excessive 'gaming' anyway - holding a phase now because the enemy has some SPD that makes it advantageous to do so, etc. This is one of the reasons my group hasnt used the SPD chart in 10+ years. The reason I wanted to do this power was so the character in question (I am the GM and making this for one of the players) can use her Deflection to save innocents when it isnt her turn. This is the kind of thing she likes to do. This character has no ongoing powers to pay END on, so many of the issues previously mentioned are unimportant. The one that does make a difference is using block and dodge, rather than just Deflection. So I was considering +5 SPD (the character has 7 SPD) only for Deflection (-2), only activates once per turn maximum (-2). This way every phase she does not have an action, she has a deflect available, until she uses it.

What is the current version of the Hero Designer software? I have version 6, build 20120316. I just wanted to know if I need to get a new version.

I had this same problem and I unistalled Java, and reinstalled, then deleted Hero Designer and copied it over again. Then I ran runHD.bat from an elevated command line, and after that the jar worked properly. This was on a machine that had Hero Designer working just a couple of months ago.

Can a character buy some number of points of SPD, usable only to perform maneuvers with the Abort key word? In a sense this is wonky because if your SPD is x, and suddenly becomes x+1 when you want to use a defensive power, it is not guaranteed that the extra phase you gain will still be available later in the round. So strictly speaking, it may not even be useful. However, if we can just assume the character can use an Abort maneuver this many times before losing an action (still limited to only on phases they have not acted, obviously) Can this work? If so, what kind of limitation is it? I was thinking something like -1 1/2 or something. EDIT: I think I figured out how to make it work. If the SPD is bought all the way to 12 the issues become irrelevant. For example, the character I was considering buying this for has 7 SPD, so if I buy 5 points of SPD only for Abort maneuvers, then every phase where she doesnt act, she has an abort available.

I am the owner of Wizard's Keep Games in Kent and I am interested in getting a new RPG group started on Thursday nights. My goal would be to find 2-3 more players, preferably one who is willing to alternate GMing duties. Game is flexible, including potentially non-Hero system games. However, I am considering a Space Opera type of game (basically Indiana Jones in Space) if we play Hero. Other games possible depending on player interest.

We are looking for 1-2 players for an X-Com game held bi-weekly, in person, in Federal Way WA. We are using 6th edition at 175 points. Our group is moderately experienced with Hero and we are story focused, though we have our share of tactical combats. This group rotates games every 3-4 sessions or at the end of an arc. We have two games we play, X-Com and Warhammer 3rd edition. We havent started WH yet, so this is a good time to get in on the ground floor.

We arent doing any games now anyway. Hopefully we can get back toward some semblance of normalcy in the next few months.

My store is called Wizards Keep Games, its in Renton. We do have a website, but not a store online for anything other than Magic. I can order product and ship it, but we would have to do it through email or something like that. Its cool that you mentioned Down Darker Trails, the game I am working on is called The West That Wasnt, and it is basically old west X-Files. Im always up for some one-shots. My friends often try to do things every other Sunday, though lately it has been super sparse, obviously.

Hey Spence, long time, no see! Too bad you are so far north, we down in south Seattle still play Hero and some of the other games you list. Love that you made mention of FLGS, for I have one myself. And I do mean that in the literal sense, in that I am the owner. I left tech behind for the wonderful world of retail, and just in time for a giant global crisis, no less! Anyway, if you are ever going to be in Seattle, or if you wanted to game once a month or something like that, where it might be worthwhile, I would love to host/run/play in a game with you. Its been forever.

If you are still putting together a group, let me know. I am in south Seattle, and would like to find something. Very interested in Hero, must less so in Savage Worlds, but do have a ton of other games I like. If interested we should meet and see what we can do.

Thanks guys, I got the PDFs now. I am planning on running a test one shot of it next week.

I am not able to get the PDF files to work. I am clicking 'save target as'. If someone else has downloaded them, can they save at an alternate location?

Re: Campaign Input Requested In scene 5 the players will believe they are purchasing nuclear arms making pieces. Actually, what might be better is if they are actually trading the Elder sign to the Ukrainian for some Plutonium or something like that. Then we have 3 factions interested in this situation. In terms of research, I welcome that. Hopefully they get into it quickly. And yes, nuclear armed doomsday from the stars cultists are pretty much the epitome of horror. What could be scarier?

Re: Campaign Input Requested The players may know, but the characters will not. At the end of scene 7 the characters will be completely clueless about this stuff, and that will be the beginning of the horror campaign. If the players are still interested, they can be contacted by other researches, be thwarted by cultists etc. What do you think of the plot?

I have always thought that the best way to do horror is when the players dont expect it. My idea for this campaign is to start the players in a 1970s espionage campaign, and then transition it to a horror game on the fly. I am testing out scripting scenes to help my prep, so what I am going to do here is post all my scripted scenes so you guys can see my plan. What I would like to hear from you is where you think the strong and weak points are, and any suggestions you have to make it better. These scripts are very general, but I would still appreciate having some details if you have good ideas. I still havent named the sinister cult, so it is just a placeholder for now. And so, without further ado... Setting: Eastern Europe, 1970s Scenario: A small group of agents is inserted in eastern bloc nations to prevent a radical underground group from getting the materials necessary to produce a nuclear weapon. While investigating the death of one of the enemy operatives, the players stumble on evidence of a supernatural conspiracy involving secret societies and the Vatican. When they attempt to rendezvous with their handlers, they find that they are all alone with the societies from all sides targeting them for death. Scene 1 Naples, Italy, May 1971. The agents are called together in a 3rd floor apartment overlooking the port. Each of them comes separately, but they recognize each other. An olive skinned man in a turtleneck comes in and gives each of them an envelope containing a passport, $2000 equivalent in Turkish Lira, a set of coded orders and a lapel pin. He tells them that the current mission has world security impact, as an underground organization calling itself is in danger of collecting the pieces necessary to assemble a nuclear device. Given their radical nature, the bureau fears they would look for the first opportunity to detonate it. The team is authorized to use deadly force where necessary, but discretion is in order because given the nature of the Turkish government it is unlikely they could be quickly extracted from their notorious prison system should they be apprehended. Players are given a day to prepare, as they will depart tomorrow evening from the port via commercial boat. They will be inserted into Turkey in such a way as to avoid customs. It is a 4 day journey. Objective: Inform players on goals and set the expectations for the operation. Scene 2 Port of Naples, the next evening. An operative meets them at the proposed location and escorts them onto the ship. Each of them are given rooms and introduced to the captain and first officer. The players will have an opportunity to socialize with the crew for a while, before retiring for bed. The trip is uneventful for 3 days. At least one of the players is awakened by commotion on the third day, and they have a confrontation with armed invaders attempting to hijack the boat. The insurgents are radical and seem unable to listen to anything the players say. Once the confrontation is over, a search of the ship reveals that everyone except the players is dead. They are within sight of the Turkish shore, and there is a speedboat aboard that can be berthed. The players know they must be careful to land under cover of darkness to preserve their identities. When they approach the coast the players spot a body face down in the water. The body is missing any identification, but is clearly not a local; he looks like a northern European. He has had this throat slit and his tongue removed. He has also had his eyes gouged out, as well as fingertips and ears removed. Objective: Get the players to Turkey. Place seed for further investigation. Indicate that something is amiss, possibly within the bureau. Scene 3 Iskendurun, Turkey, two days later. No mention has been made of the body floating in the harbor by any newspaper or police. The players have placed their newspaper ad to let the handler know they have arrived, but there has been no contact. Investigating the dead body leads to his hotel room, where the players can use their ingenuity to gain entrance. The room has been ransacked, but a thorough search uncovers some items that have been missed. First, credentials indicate he was a visiting archaeologist from Helsinki. They also describe an excavation site near Urfu where he found strange religious symbols, he goes on to indicate he believes it is more than just a burial ground like the leader insists and he was heading back to Finland to put together his own expedition. Objective: Reinforce the foreboding atmosphere. Foreshadowing for the players. Scene 4 Iskendurun, Turkey, later that day. The handler makes contact and sets up a meeting with the players. He provides them information about the and some suspected and confirmed members. If queried about the professor he dismisses it, but players can sense he is hiding something. He denies all knowledge of the incident. He also discusses a communication plan and sets up future meetings. Objective: Twist the plot and raise questions between the players. Set the McGuffin in motion. Scene 5 Iskendurun and environs, next few days. Finding and investigating the members is a simple task for the players. They can determine that they clearly are meeting and planning something, but without making further contact cannot know more. One player notices another European man who happens to be around a lot. If contacted, he claims to be an Italian tourist. In reality he is the operative sent by the Vatican to eradicate this menace. The players learn of a meeting between the and a mysterious Ukrainian man. Objective: Distract players into thinking that the nuclear issue is real. Provide flavor and depth to the setting and scenario. Scene 6 Near Urfu, Turkey, one week later. The players follow or otherwise find their way to the secret dig site near Urfu, that would later become Gobekli Tepe. Here the finally meet with the Ukrainian and his minions. The Ukrainian has a briefcase in his car which holds what the operatives want. They exchange a large amount of money for the briefcase, and while the players watch the Vatican agent intervenes, causing a huge shootout. This will go depending on the players actions, but the goal is for all of the NPCs to end up dead and the players escape with the briefcase. As long as the players end up with the briefcase the scene is a success. When the players get somewhere safe and open the briefcase they find it is an ancient, silver Elder Sign, along with photographs and film of it being excavated from Gobekli Tepe. Objective: Let players in on the real plot. This scene is a good one to end a session. Scene 7 Iskendurun, Turkey, a few days later. The players go to a scheduled meeting with their handler to update on the situation and plan their extraction, and they find their handler dead. In his place is another Vatican agent who is convinced the players killed his partner, whether they did or not. It is impossible to predict how the players will resolve this scene. Objective: All that matters is they learn that the Vatican is also in on this. Interlude Now the players are in a difficult situation. Their handler is dead, they have no contact with the outside world and they know at least 2 factions want them dead or to get the briefcase from them. The remaining scenes will need to be planned once I know more. Basically this scenario shows the players that there are Cthulhu cults that have existed since the bronze age, and also that the Vatican knows of them but is also participating in suppressing that knowledge.

Re: Handling Scrounging in Post-Apocalypse HERO (or any PA game) The discussion has begun! I am willing to share with everyone, so hopefully we can work together to create some great tools for all to use.

Re: Handling Scrounging in Post-Apocalypse HERO (or any PA game) The reason I asked this was actually so I could write an application to get data from an Access db. However, I am not a very good programmer. If you guys want to automate it, I would appreciate it much. I would be happy to provide my raw tables. It is still a work in progress. Where should I send them? If you prefer, you can email me at tunglashr@gmail.com.

In my successful iterations of PA games, scrounging has been one of the key components of fun for the players. I tend toward 'gritty' types of games, and as a GM any genre is at least a little gritty in my hands (even Star Trek). One thing I have always done is give players equipment that is generated randomly, with some choices made by them, in essentially a character creation mini-game. Under special circumstances I might allow a player to purchase equipment, but I never allow advantages like Wealth so they can buy equipment with monetary assets. During actual game play I have also used these equipment generation tables for random loot. I use a custom Scrounging skill to determine when players are successful at getting something useful from wherever they happen to be searching. In a way it works like foraging or survival, except instead of a binary value of finds food/doesnt find food, specific items are generated. This is where I am now running into my headache. Currently my list of items has 15 sublists (each with even sub-er lists appended to them) and has many thousands of potential items on it. I also use a custom set of equipment condition variables and reliability numbers so that you might rather have a nicer condition machete than a rusty old sword. In previous games, the scrounging mini-game often took 15-20 minutes for the player/players involved. The other players didnt seem to mind much, and the scrounging players really loved the surprise treasure aspect of rolling on tables. Now as the list is getting larger and larger, what I want to know is what is the 'best' way to handle this mini-game? I am trying to develop ways to allow good rolls/high skills to not only allow players to be more likely to find items, but to find better stuff. In the past each successful roll generated a number of successes based on how much it beat the target by, and each table had a 'value' somewhat arbitrarily decided by me based on relative utility of the items in the table, and these successes could be used to buy rolls. The player made the first roll, and either chose to keep that item, or move on to their next roll. If they decline an item, they could not return to it. I am not convinced this old solution is good any longer. I dont mind having a mini-game, but I dont want it to be too involved. I am open to any ideas you guys may have as to other ways to implement scrounging. Any thoughts?

Re: Good resource for a pulp era breakdown of San Francisco's neighborhoods... Charles, I have two copies of that if you want one.

Re: Help with plot Yes, this is happening. But it has the unwanted side effect of making him hide constantly, so only the others ever leave the ship, which makes it even less likely for something interesting to happen.

Re: Help with plot I know what the dark secrets are, I just didnt post them because the other players might see them. The good thing about Alisons secrets is that they can be pretty much anything, so I can add them as necessary and introduce it. The problem so far has been I have introduced them twice into games and the only follow up has been a single conversation. I guess I am not used to being such a strong driver of the plot. Normally players take a more proactive approach, and I am having trouble adjusting and getting things to happen.

I am running a Star Hero game based in the Space Opera universe and I am having trouble providing plot hooks that the players actually investigate. Two new characters were just introduced in the last session, one of them with a questionable past. Here is a wiki with the basics of the game (please dont post anything there): http://benscondo.wiki-rpg.com/index.php?title=Serenity_Bebop The new characters are Ontiveros and Atat. Two of the previous characters (Peter and Alison) were previously acquainted with Ontiveros, during a prequel, and they know he used to have a ship. But he no longer does. They did ask what happened, and he mentioned that he let someone borrow it. He said it seemed like a good idea at the time, but after about a week he realized it was stupid and he would never get his ship back. They seemed uninterested in that, so I threw in a little tidbit during the last session. There was a news story that whoever owned his old ship was wanted in connection with an assault near Formalhaut. Still nothing. The crew then jumped to a new planet and did some trading. After a week in FTL things had changed in the news. But they didnt investigate. I had Peter make a hacking roll and gave him some info that indicated that old reported crime is now being buried. This piqued their curiosity, but they would not go after it at all because it had been a week and there was no way to know what had happened. In the past this group has liked games where the plot moves along and they participate. This worked well when I was running only published stuff. It is less viable when I am trying to have the players drive the plot. I guess this means I need something more active. I have considered pirates attacking the ship next time they jump, but even if I do that, what can they learn from that and where will that lead? I need something more tangible and long term. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks

Re: Blogging on my PA Game I have considered using this template for experience: http://benscondo.wiki-rpg.com/index.php?title=XP_Bingo What do you think of that?