John Desmarais

Re: Sell me the FH line

I am primarily a Champions Player. HOWEVER I do like the multi genre nature of the game, and have picked up all the genre books. However I find I like to tinker and make my own stuff.

 

Now why should I buy the extra books for this line? Convince me.

 

Especialy books like the FHG, MM&M, TA & FHB

Grimoire: As much as I enjoy writing stuff up, having a large number of pre-gen spells is very handy. I used FMG to "bulk up" my spell system. Each spell in the book is written up with a set of standard variant versions. I found that of the variant version (the Master version) slid very nicely into the magic system I was using for my current game. Instantly, I had dozens dozens and dozens of extra spells to add into my system.

Beastiary: My standard source for "normal" animals. Special creatures I may want to create myself, but thing like horse, bear, lion, wolf, etc, etc, etc should be standardized (and thus predictable to the players).

MM&M: Harder than HB to justify if your plan is to write-up all of your own monsters, but that hardly makes it worthless. I use it a lot when I'm feeling lazy.

Turakian Age: I don't use TA as the setting for my current game (it started before TA was available) and I doubt that I ever will use it as a setting; but it is a well designed world, and serves as a good example and a source of ideas to steal.

Re: Trek Hero PDF available

I take it then' date=' that after my next update, I should stop updating the PDFs for a while ?[/quote']

 

If you do, you'll make them cry.

Re: Trek Hero PDF available

I've posted an update to the FASATrek pdf. My TNGHero is messed up (file size problems) after adding some of the writeups from Deciphers' Aliens book, and with my various Honey-Do projects, not sure how long the redo is going to take. And since a new PC is not in our budget right now, I'll have to spend time to break some of the larger chapters into smaller multiple chapters. (Sorry, Imperial One...)

 

Anyway, enjoy the FASATrek update.

Just in case no one has mentioned it in the past few hours - this stuff is just too cool.

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

Has anyone ever run a gameworld in which the only available magic has only one effect? Specifically, I was pondering medieval Europe with the addition only of gate magic. Certain talented individuals who have been trained in the art of gate magic can set up teleportation gates to allow individuals or large groups to instantly jump hundreds or even thousands of miles. Other than that, there is absolutely no magic or other fantastic elements. How would this one aspect affect medieval Europe politically, militarily, culturally, and religiously?

 

Any comments about either Europe or any other setting in which you've used a single-aspect magic system would be most appreciated.

I would probably not refer to it as magic. Instead, I would call the gates a naturally occuring phenomenon that certain people has an ability to control. Once you start calling magic, some players can get into a certain rpg mind-set: If one type of magic exists, so must others. Which at best can be a nuisance, and at worst can constantly side-track your campaign.

As for the impact on society, I would think that the biggest change would scale. Expansionist cultures will expand farther, colonial cultures will colonize further from their center, exploratory cultures will explorer farther from home, etc, etc.

Also, on the economic front, unless opening gates is hard and the talent is rare, for the most part there will be no "expensive because it's exotic and from far way" type of items. (England will have spices )

No doubt, there will be at least one religion that will claim the gates are a way to heaven, and another that will proclaim them to be doorways to hell.

Re: Setting up a new game (general questions)

I'm thinking about going Golden Age' date=' but that brings up my first problem -- getting everyone up to speed on what Golden Age Champs is. I have 5 of the DC hardcover reprints of their golden age comics, but there's some players I just don't feel comfortable loaning those books to. [/quote']

 

As some who has read a lot of comics from that time period (and has a shelf full of the DC Archive books) I'm not really sure that they are the best tool for getting the players familiar with the genre. A lot of what we think of as "typical golden age superhero" behavior comes more from recently written stories set in that period that the actual comics written then.

 

Now for the good news. You can probably find a bunch of Invaders (Marvel), All-Star Squadron (DC), and Young All-Stars (DC) comics in the quarter-box at your friendly neighborhood comic shop. In both cases you'll find stories written by Roy Thomas - a writer with a well know love of the golden-age. At 25 cents a piece, do you really even care if your players ever get a around to giving them back?

Re: Bringing new players to HERO System.

Quite a lot of other posts I remember reading have suggested the former is hard. I was interested in hearing about what approaches people had tried and why they think they failed (or succeeded).

 

Good luck with the latter.

Actually, to give a more meaningful answer, my expereince with gamers over the past 20-odd years (Oh my, am I really that old?) is that most gamers are willing to try almost any game system - so long as someone else is willing to GM.

The only common exception to this that I have encountered has been a sub-set of the White Wolf WOD gamers who ONLY play WOD games (but the old curmudgeon simply chooses to not consider them to be "true gamers").

Re: Bringing new players to HERO System.

I'm curious because the difficulty of bring new players to HERO System has been much discussed on this board (and on RPG.net). I'm just about to begin two HERO campaings (Ninja HERO and Fantasy HERO) and have six players signed up for each. Some of these players have heard negative things about HERO system (the usual - overly complicated, difficult math, yadda yadda) but still it took very little persausion on my part to convince them to give it a try. I've just told the players that I'll make it as easy for them to get into the system as I can, that I think most of the criticisms are greatly exaggerated at best, and that if they have a desire to learn more about the system than they will need to play then Sidekick provides an excellent (and cheap) introduction.

 

What are the main difficulties that other people find in trying to persuade new players to give it a chance?

Getting gamers to try Hero: that's easy.

Finding gamers in North Carolina: that's hard.

Re: A question for those who have purchased turakian age

I am thinking about purchasing the TA book along with MM&M for my upcoming fantasy hero game. I'm probably going to buy it regardless of the answers I get, but I like to pretend i'm a picky buyer, even though I buy every hero book that comes my way Anyway, for those of you who own it, I got a couple questions for you:

 

1. What do you think of the magic system? Is it well balanced? Cumbersome? Easy? This will be my first Fantasy game as before we played champions (though I am a d&d vet) and for a few of my players this will be their first hero game period. So, my main concern is how simple yet good is the magic system?

Have you read the Fantasy Hero Grimoire? The TA magic system is decribed (briefly) in it. You will need this book as the TA book does not a large number of spells in it (it has spells that are very tied to the setting, but it release on the FHG for all of the "standard" stuff).

I have been using the magic system is a non-TA game, and it's been working out well for me. The party mage has a fairly versatile set of spells without being noticable more powerful than the non-spellcasters.

2. I have heard different things about the story/background/world, one is that it is just another vanilla fantasy setting, another is that it is easily the best vanilla fantasy setting. I'm guessing its probably somewhere in between. Thoughts?

It's vanilla in the same way that Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms is vanilla. It's just that type of setting. Many cultures that are vaguely psuedo-medieval-european in feel. Mid to high magic. Most of your typical fantasy races (with a few non-typical ones thrown in).

It's also got a lot of detail and is well written, so if this is the type of setting you, this is a good one to use.

3. What other books will I need if I am going to run TA? I don't have a lot of time these days to come up with my own stats for monsters, systems, etc., so I plan to buy MM&M and I already own FH (duh) and the Grimoire. Is TA "plug and play", or will I be doing a lot of research? (I plan on writing my own modules/adventures but I don't want to spend my extra time researching/writing up some monster, magic item, etc. that should be included but wasn't)

The Hero Beastiary is a good one to have as it has lots of "real" animals in it (in addition to the large number of fantasy critters). Even if I write up my own monsters, I like to have a standard source for normal animals.

The Ultimate Martial Artists is handy, depending on the type of game you run. Lots of extra options for martial styles (or sword fighting styles).

4. Is this a good setting for folks who are veteran fantasy gamers but who are new to the Hero system? Is it a good setting for folks who are veteran hero gamers but are new to the fantasy genre?

Because of the type of setting it is, experienced fantasy gamers will find a lot of things that are familiar to them (it's very similiar in flavor to what D&D players are used to). Experienced Hero gamers with no fantasy experience will find no special challenges in getting familiar with this setting versus any other.

Thanks for all your help.

 

Tom

Re: Not Again!

Hi Lord Liaden,

I was probably too optimistic. I have reactivated my site but

i have always the same response: There was a problem activating the site.

I have searched my archive (laser disc) i have only the PDF version of my web site. The HTML version was probably shattered by my old faulty computer dvd lecteur.

 

Sorry for the bad new!

 

Dany St Pierre

I have most of the html stuff (I'm missing a few of the images, but I have all of the text/html).

John D

Re: marvel conversions

My only gripe about that site is that most of the characters are done in 4th edition....and many are ridiculously overpowered...especially by 5th edition standards. For example, one writeup of Nightcrawler has him at DEX 44. Since almost all accounts by Marvel say he is agile but not at a superhuman level, that's WAY too high. I gave him a 23 DEX(my upper limit for regular folks) and gave him combat reflexes and DCV levels to give him the same comic book feel. Another example was a Thor with a 98 CON. Since the Hero conversion of the Hulk only has a 40 CON and Grond has a 50, I think a 98 is way too excessive. A large portion of the characters are done this way....too overpowered and lacking skills and perks. As an experiment, I tried to buils Nightcrawler myself. My version came in at about 477 points, which I think is about right. The site is excellent as a starting point, but I wouldn't use most of the characters as written.

 

Rob

All of the write-ups on this site are personal interpretations. You really can not expect to be able to compare a write up of Thor done by one person (Sam Bell) with a write-up of the Hulk done by another (Chad Riley) and draw any type of linear consistency. If you compare Sam Bells' Thor with his other write-ups, you'll find a reasonable level of consistency among them. The same is true for the write-ups done by Chad Riley. But comparing Sam's Thor to Chad's Hulk is going to be a bit like comparing characters in your Champions game to characters in mine - without taking into consideration the GM stated power level of the campaigns.

Personally, I find anyone's interpretation of published character's of interest - even if I don't always agree with the power levels given - just to see how different folks interpret the same source.

Re: Paging Dany St-Pierre

I am not in a position to get Dany to reactivate the (having never even met said individual) but I do have an archive of most of what was one the site that I could make available to anyone who's looking for it. (Being a long time Pulp adventure fan, I've used much of this stuff in my own games).

Re: Space: 1889, HERO-style!

Has anyone put any thought towards converting the extremely cool quasi-OOP game Space: 1889 for HERO? Space: 1889 was one of the THE best roleplaying game products ever produced, as far as I'm concerned, and it deserves more than a meager reprinting by Heliograph!

 

--has anyone done this yet? NB

I ran an 1889 game for while using Hero. Had much fun with it, but I'd never be able to find any of the game mechanic notes - they were sparse to being with (I found GDW's rules easy to convert to Hero on the fly) and I've moved three times since then.

Re: magic roll

if a spell got a magic roll... exemple a charm design with mind control... for hit my enemy i have to make my magic roll and my ecv attack ??? or just the magic roll and it ok

 

excuse again for my english

stef the french canadian

The magic skill roll is completely separate from any attack rool that might be required. If the spell is an attack (like Mind Control) than you would have to make the magic skill roll for the spell to work, and an (ECV based) attack roll to hit.

John D.

Re: Only in Hero ID

I'm kind of confused by this limitation. I have two players. One of whom wants to play a Shazam like character.....and the other a Colossus type character. Would this limitation be appropriate to either of them? I'm torn as to whether or not they qualify for this....

 

Rob

It is potentially appropriate for both of them. Some folks might also do the Shazam-type as a multform. I think buying all of his powers with the "only in hero form" lim is a little bit simpler, but I would allow either way.

John D

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept?

The "evil race" concept is really racist, but it is cliche'd. In some games this cliche' work, in others it doesn't. If you want a very "black and white with no shades of grey" view of good and evil in your campaign, than having a intrinsically evil race works well.

As for "real Earth" stuff, when I run pulp games Germans and Japanese are always mostly evil - because this was true in the literary works that I am basing my games on. In modern day adventures I have no such thing as an "evil race" - instead I lean towards evil organizations and governments.

John D

Re: New to HERO and looking for advice on some issues...

1. Attribute granularity.

How do you make 11 int meaningful as compared to a 10? Without talking in terms of possible drain? Its easy to quanitify it with str, but not so easy otherwise.

I frequently use INT as the next level of tie-breaker for determining initiative (with two characters moving on the same phase with the same Dex I will allow the character with teh higer Int to move first).

John D.

Re: Advice for a Pulp Hero campaign?

Typically, for pulp games I use 50 point or 75 point base plus 50 points in disads (I don't like a lot of disads for pulp heroes). Normal characterisic Max assumed. No points spent for equipment that could by normal purchased in the time perid - points are spent for unique "signature" devices. Standard attacks top out around 9 damage classes. Resistant defense is virtually unheard of and low when available (guns and knives are dangerous things and should scary). Any and all powers (and talents with stop signs) must be approved by the GM (and it's gonna take a whole lot of justification to get the approval).

John D

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero?

The Humanx Commonwealth novels by Alan Dean Foster. I've used this as a setting for several Star Hero campaigns over the years.

John D

Re: What the heck is BODY anyways?

In my games I always explained it as life force. How strongly your soul is attached to your physical body.

 

I also used it to make high BODY characters more difficult to keep down - so recovery intervals below zero were based on multiples of BODY rather than multiples of 10.

 

 

Doc

One of the supplements for 3rd Edition Champions (I can't remember if it was Champions II or Champions III) suggested this as an optional rule to make Body a more meaningful stat.

John D.

Re: What the heck is BODY anyways?

I understand what BODY is used for in the Hero system' date=' but what does it represent? It's not strength, it's not constitution, it's not ego/will, it's not size (is it?), it's not based on a combination of anything. I mean, you could have a guy who is 6'6" and weighs 300 lbs with a CON, STR and EGO of 20 and still have a BODY of 10 or something, so just what the heck is BODY anyways?[/quote']

 

Body is whatever you want it be. Seriously. You can (and many do) consider it to be physical mass. I have also seen an argument made for body equating to "will to live" (the argument was made by a player trying to explain why his brick had a body of 10 - "he's never actually been hurt before, if someone actually gets bady damage through his defense he's going to go into shock and fold like a house of cards").

 

John D.

Re: Movement benchmarks

I've searched several times...really! Does anyone know where I can get some kind of chart that equates flight/running inches to MPH or anything similar?? Please don't tell me it's in the 'big book'' date=' I only have the sidekick rules at the moment![/quote']

 

 

Inches of Movemement * SPD * .6 = KPH (Combat speed. Multiply by your Non-Combat Multiple for Non-Combat speed).

 

Inches of Movemement * SPD * .375= MPH (Combat speed. Multiply by your Non-Combat Multiple for Non-Combat speed).

 

John D.

Re: my new Starhero campaign

What are secure PDFs?

PDF files created with a Digitial Rights Management scheme involved. Your Adobe Acrobat reader must be "activated" as an eBook reader and a key for the PDF in question must be present to view the file - which becomes a minor nuisance if you want the PDF on a different computer. It just adds an extra layer of inconvienence that I would rather not deal with. I'm not overly keen on eBooks anyway, particularly if what I really wanted was an actual printed book.

John D.

Re: Ncm:15

With the limited points availabe for stats' date=' players have to be concerned about how they want to focus their character. So far this has worked for my campaigns YMMV. Unfortunately, I still haven't solved the problem of every stat being 8, 10, 13, 15, 18 or 20. @!#$ min-maxers! [/quote']

 

How to deal with the 8,10,13,15,18,20 thing. Show the players some advantage to having stats that don't hit the "sweet spots". Since DEX tends to be the biggest offender, start giving the villains DEX scores that are one point above the sweetspot, so that they always get to go before the PCs.

 

John D.

Re: my new Starhero campaign

DriveThru RPG has most (all?) of the old Space Opera books for sale as secure PDF's

Secure PDFs - bleah!

Re: my new Starhero campaign

serious cross genre game here

 

Star Hero for the rules, but set in the Merchantile League from the old Space Opera RPG.

Cool. I have been painstakingly saerching for and aquiring as many of the old Space Opera books as I can find with eye towards doing the same thing (who would have thought that things like this would be so hard to find 20 years later).

John D.