gojira

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Other then one Store around here I haven't really been that impressed with a FLGS in this area. They all pretty much turned into the Fine Local We Can Order That For You Store instead of putting a bit of effort into moving the product and stocking what folks want.

Just thinking out loud here: If you put the name and address (and phone number) of these game stores in the Retailers We Love thread (under Company Questions), you'll give Jason a chance to contact the stores directly and work-out any issues those stores might have with Hero Games or its products.

I'm not saying it's a guaranteed win for Hero Games, just that it gives them a chance to market directly to stores that might be on the fence about Hero products. Every little bit helps, I think.

Re: World building resources

Then there's just doing a Google search for "medieval demographics".

https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+demographics

But a lot of research for gaming comes from fiction books, frankly. It's more often that folks want to play as Conan, or Galadriel, or Elric of Melnibone, or The Grey Mouser, or Gyro Gearloose rather than a historically accurate character medieval world. Most stuff about weather and plate tectonics and crops I can just make up. If there's too much detail about those latter things in your game, you may be doing it wrong.

Re: Advocacy on other sites...

Bumpage and pointing out that there's a new thread asking about Champions on RPG.net:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?647224-Champions-What-s-the-current-edition-like

While I don't advocate us going over there en-mass and trying to stage some sort of occupy movement, it also probably wouldn't hurt to read their forums so that questions about Champions specifically can be answered.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

I don't know much about Dawkins, although based on that article I certainly couldn't dispute you. Got any other links about that guy?

Re: Familiar group, wanna teach 'em Basic 6th first, for a Girl Genius campaign

For the bits your mention, sparks might have:

• High Invention skill
  
• Access to a VPP for their inventions. The stronger the spark, the higher the VPP. Agatha's is kinda off the charts here
  
• High PRE to command those around them, and high Persuasion skill to make sure they stay that way. Also, Reputation: Dangerous Spark to give folks incentive not double cross the spark or anything.
  

For weaker sparks (i.e., the circus), you want to give them a Multipower instead of a VPP, because they have much more limited skill sets. They should still have Invention skill, but not very high; a weak spark should fail often when attempting to invent something. A weak spark should have close to something like a "radiation accident" to add another slot to their multipower. Probably multiple "good" rolls on their Invention skill to "perfect" their invention, and more than a bit of roleplay. PRE and persuasion seems completely option for weak sparks.

Aside from that, not much else I can think of. Sparks seam to have "themes" or modes they operate in. The Baron seems best at perfecting others' works. Von Rin worked in clanks. Gil seems to have a lot of medical knowledge, and likes aeronautics. Etc. These might make good templates if you could come up with some interesting ones.

About all I've got for now. Hmm, The Widening Gyre, eh? I'll have to pick that up with Champs Complete and Kensai 5.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Hey' date=' the Champions Complete cover has two supers fighting on the cover, like the original Champions did way back in 1981! Bringing back the classic vibe, baby! [/quote']

 

Ah, nice, I get it now. It is well done, I love the water effect. Can't wait to see it full size.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

I think this one looks a little more like The Champions

Re: Character Creation Cheat Sheet

Send a PM here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/member.php/23463-Jason-S-Walters

If not:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswalters

I don't know if the linked-in profile is current, but I believe that is the correct one.

Re: Magic and END cost?

I kind of like the idea of both Magic and physical activity depleting the same pool. It adds a bit of balance that isn't just character creation points or earned XP.

Does anyone limit recoveries for regular End in a fantasy game? It mentions limiting Recoveries in combat in Fantasy Hero. Does anyone use that rule? I don't see much discussion other than using LTE, which seems a bit complicated to me.

One thought I had was to limit recoveries completely: allow one after a fight to recover up to Rec lost end ("catch your breath"), allow one more after a "long rest." Allow up to two at night. If you keep Rec to 25% of the End stat, this allows a full days rest to recover fully, but if you're constantly being harassed it's hard to settle down and recover more than one Rec of Endurance.

Re: Character Creation Cheat Sheet

My guess would be that you should definitely contact Jason before posting such a thing. I doubt the mods have any standing guidelines here (it's not like they're employes of DOJ, let alone legal counsel).

I think the worst that could happen would be that a mod would delete your post. However to avoid getting on Jason's sore side, it's probably best to ask first, as I'm guessing you'll have to sign a license agreement.

Re: The "parasite" or "symbiote" alien race

If the parasite can readily hop between hosts, then you have to write up the mind control aspect of it. For this kind of thing I would probably go with a Mind Link and a Major Transform to make the host slavishly loyal so that the parasite doesn't have to make regular Mind Control rolls to keep the host dominated.

Thinking about this, if the parasite just can randomly have a new body once in a while, that might be just Multiform. For example if Joe-the-Parasite has three or four bodies back in the base he can choose to inhabit, he's got a Multiform (or maybe VPP) with a "only switch powers at base" limitation.

If Joe-the-Parasite can mind jack bodies on the fly, especially enemy NPCs, then I think you get into Mind Control. I might try to link Multiform to the Mind Control, so the Multiform only works if the Mind Control does.

If Joe-the-Parasite has BOTH of the abilities above, I think that's two separate Multiforms. One that always works and require a lim "only switch in base," and one that's linked to Mind Control. Whether the GM allows the player to buy those powers in a Multi-power or VPP or requires two separate powers not part of any framework would probably depend on the style and power levels of the campaign.

Re: Hero-D&D system merge?

I never understood where AoO concept came from. Basically your saying' date=' if im fighting a certain opponent, i can attack x times per time segment (round, turn, phase, second, whatever). But if people move past me, i can SUDDENLY attack faster, because they are moving past me,[/quote']

 

 

I can. In fact it's been in the rules since first edition (the only edition of ADnD, sorry, "DnD", I've played). In first edition, if you tried to flee an encounter, your opponent got a free swing at you. It's based on the idea that you're no longer defending, you're instead focused on moving away, that is running away rather than fighting. It's reasonable imo, given that the threat of offense, including feints, is a part of defense, and if you're just making tracks you can't engage in that activity any more.

 

That's a distinct idea from say just moving backwards while remaining engaged with an opponent. One is still fighting, the other is high-tailing it.

 

Not that I agree with any sort of AoO rule. (Now that I write that, I can see issues. AoO's seems to prevent movement altogether, and disallow "moving backwards while remaining engaged with a foe," something I personally see as valid). And the concept of "an infinite number of free attacks" is obviously stupid. But still I think the rule does have its foundation in ADnD... sorry, DnD, history.

Re: The "parasite" or "symbiote" alien race

I would just buy the symbiote and the host as a single character.

For example, you mention trills from Star Trek. Dax is an example of a trill with a host, and I'd buy her as a single character. The trill is just a special effect of "she has a lot of knowledge skills." It's pretty much that easy to me. All the rest -- the relationship with the host, the telepathy, the mechanics of the control -- those are all just background story and flavor. If it's possible for you to lose control, pick a disadvantage like Berserk or Enraged or maybe make something up that causes the character to slump in a heap or try to run away or something.

Re: Magic and END cost?

I think I'd consider #1 first, with some limits on recovery. (E.g. use Long Term End or just plain limit recoveries even out of combat.) #2 would also work similarly and I'd use that too. #3? Hmm, never truly thought about doing it that way.

Re: Advice for new campaign using home-brewed setting

Sounds interesting. I think you are off to a great start. There's a bunch of other threads in this forum on "how do I fix this problem;" reading through those might give you some clues as to how to proceed.

You also might want to consider picking up Fantasy Hero too, I believe that is out for 6e. You also might want to pick up a fantasy product from 5th, like The Valdorian Age or Tuala Morn. The Valdorian Age is a swords and sorcery campaign; it might be helpful to you setting up your own world. Tuala Morn is a Celtic themed game. It's main spell casters are Druids (there are also wizards, witches, sorcerers and necromancers). It's got a really neat spell casting system, and there's a lot of ideas to be gleaned about how to set up a campaign just by reading through it.

There's also Narosia, which just had a successful kickstarter. That also might be something to serve as an example to set up a game world. It's not out yet so it's hard for me to say for sure, but the kickstarter updates made it seem really complete and interesting.

I would never want to discourage you from making your own world with Hero. However, for a first time player and GM it can be kind of daunting. You may want to pick up one of the above campaigns just to have something to fool around with while your own world is in progress. "I am making the greatest RPG game world ever. However, until it's done we will play this." and toss the book at them. This gives you a chance to see how Hero really functions (i.e., how well it survives contact with your players) and should allow you to make some practical considerations and adjustments to your own world.

Some thought in no real order.

1. Be sure to limit some powers carefully. Combat Luck is a big problem in fantasy worlds. It's pretty cheap to buy, and everyone can just buy it up to the max, making any kind of armor moot. A good variation is to make Combat Luck take an additional limitation: Only while not wearing armor (or only while wearing light armor). Now your lightly armor folks are much better at surviving combat. But you still need to limit it, period, to 3 or 4 levels total, or you will obviate armor completely.

2. Similarly, consider attacks total dice, and spells total dice/effects. Those need to be limited too because it's easy to blow past expectations in a point system. Figure out about where your defense for enemies are and make sure your players can still damage enemies with their attacks. Usually around 1d6 to 2d6 Killing Attack is good for weapons. Keep defenses for enemies in the 6 rPD to 12 rPD range (or less) and you'll be able to count on PCs being able to wittle them down. Don't be afraid to make minimum limits too, so players don't gimp themselves.

3. If you don't buy Fantasy Hero, you'll have to come up with an equipment list and prices. Fantasy Hero also has some neat ideas for making weapons a little more unique and flavorful.

4. Talents! DnD has feats, Hero has Talents. Fantasy Hero a large selection of Talents for your players to choose, and often a campaign book like Valdorian Age or Tuala Morn will add a few more. Make sure the non-spell caster types have a large selection of talents so they have a wider selection of options in and out of combat. (Mages dominate less this way.)

5. Don't be afraid to modify the system in weird ways. Valdorian Age, for example, is an urban medieval swords and sorcery milieu. It places a lot of emphasis on using PRE attacks to "defeat" enemies. With citizens and guards around, this provides a way for players to get past obstacles without leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. It also seems like it would be a lot of fun coming up with a ton of insults to hurl at foes in order to defeat them.

6. Besides Gestures, Incantations, etc. it's normal to disallow Spreading for spells, and often Bouncing too (might depend on the spell). Use a -1/2 limitation and say you can't use those. Also add "in all other respects, it works like a Spell should" just to cya in case you forget something. Personally, I don't allow spells to be Haymakered or to use Set or Brace. I do allow spells to be Pushed however, using the heroic rules for doing so. All that together is about -1/2.

7. Also in general you want to work carefully to make sure the campaign limits (usually for fantasy it's the Heroic campaign limits) work for you and your players. Consider setting up a mock combat with some random character and critters to see how they run. A quick "gladiator fight" with different characters against different monsters will give you a feel for the system and the limits.

OK that's all I can think of for now, good luck in your gaming with Hero!

Re: Advocacy on other sites...

I tagged 'im for ya.

Re: Experience with Narosia

First, congrats on the successful kickstarter to all of the creators of Narosia.

Second, rather then just lurk, why not post any relevant details about the production as they happen? Should be fun to keep folks informed of the progress.

Re: Yay My Books Are Here!

My 6ed Hardback books finally came into today! YAY! Now i just need a forklift to move them around LOL! I swear the PDF's really dont prepare you for the size of these things' date=' they are MASSIVE![/quote']

 

 

That's were they get ya. Jason has a tidy business going in the forklift market. It's always the add-ons that really raise the price, I tell ya.

 

 

I even got a cool Champions Silver Age Sentinels When Worlds Collide Reality Storm Supplement as a free gift! Yes, sorry to say it guys but I am officially Re-sold on the HERO System so yall are just going to have to put up with me from now on! You have my sympathies!

 

 

I got one of those for free too. It's fun.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy

That said' date=' you could provide prewritten scenarios in "relative scale" format. Instead of writing "[i']The players enter a 10x10 room with 14 Hobgoblins[/i]" and providing the hobgoblin stat.s, you could write "The players enter a 10x10 room with X number of Hobgoblins" and then write up a basic hobgoblin stat. package, with notes like "2 Hobgoblins per PC, base OCV is equal to highest PC OCV -2, PD/ED is equal to DC of highest PC attack, DCV is equal to average PC DCV, weapons are of a DC equal to 1/2 highest PC's PD", for example. You'd also need to make notes on what to do about various potentially game-breaking powers.

This is pretty much what I had in mind for any rating system for Hero. No system can be perfect of course, but if there's a rating system and it is at least consistent, then the GM approximately about how his PCs measure up, and has a clue how to start reading and adjusting the module.

Also the rating system would keep you away from challenges that are clearly too far advanced or too simple for your players. Those cases should be flags that the GM will have to do a lot more modification than usual to obtain a fun and balanced encounter.

Re: Popularity of Superhero Groups in a Shared Universe

I like Casandra's split for JLA and Avengers: JLA is a group that is seen as protecting the whole world, and the Avengers is seen as the U.S. team. They should work together often, but there should be separate command structures.

This contradicts some of the Avenger's canon, say vis-a-vis the recent animated story lines for Ms. Marvel, but I think it could still work to say the U.S. has an independent space command from the JLA. It would make sense, I think, for a government like the US to do that. Other governments should have their own super-augmented space commands too: probably the EU, China, and some old left-over Russian stuff.

Re: Advocacy on other sites...

A recent example of a supers discussion on RPG.net:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?643903-Supers-Recommend-a-system

I think it helps to be a regular participant on the forum. Folks get used to seeing you around and learn your opinions, and you get used to the opinions of other folks on the forum. It helps both parties. I'm still careful not to be a fan-boi, but expressing an opinion on a thread is fine, and participating in more than just advocacy is important too. Don't be afraid to have a bit of fun.

What other gaming fora do you frequent?

Good question. I don't read anything game related other than on Hero Games and RPG.net. Anyone else got fora they like?

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy

Yes, and that's because in DnD there's a straight-forward progression. Primarily of things (in Hero terms) like AP caps, OCV, DCV, Speed, skill levels, PD and ED. Hmm, I wonder if a rational scale could be invented using those parameters.

Re: LET'S HACK: The Turakian Age

Just had an idea: what would Turakian Age be like if certain genre elements were dialed up or down?

 

The Ambrethel we know is the "High Fantasy version." What could be changed to make it:

Sword & Sorcery?

 

Low Fantasy?

 

Epic Fantasy?

 

Crossworlds Fantasy?

 

Urban Fantasy?

If I were to start something like this, I'd probably cut down Fantasy Hero, then add a number of mini-settings covering each of the above. They might look like the mini-settings in Urban Fantasy and Post-Apocalypic Hero. Then full treatment books for any setting that seemed popular enough to warrant it.

Alternately, make a "Fantasy Hero Complete" book, with rules for Hero and one base fantasy setting. Then release shorter (140 pages or so) books for each of the alternate settings, each using FHC as a base.

For each idea, any popular setting should get 5 or so PDF adventures for newby players and GMs.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

I'm not convinced that superior mobility on an individual scale constitutes an unbeatable strategic advantage, but that's an argument for another thread.

 

I think you're right about the point values. I don't normally like to change parameters, especially chargen parameters, once given, but in this case I'll make an exception.

Christopher is not a native English speaker, I think, so his expression may be off a bit, but he's at least partially correct. You were specifying full comic superheroes, and then changing the rest of the game such that the whole concept of superheroes was kind of turned on its head.

I think I've mentioned supplements in this thread already, and I'll do it again. For your first game with a new system, get the Champions supplement, and use the characters and parameters therein. It's just the easiest way to start; really with Hero System, I think the only way to start. As you gain familiarity with the system, you'll be able to adjust parameters to get the exact game you want. But for now, especially as a diversion, I think you'd be happiest to just get going.

Of course, you *can* completely invent your own game world if you really want to, but expect a rocky start. You might enjoy doing it this way, I'm just trying to say that it's a major project to create a complete game world like this, even for someone who's familiar with the system already.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

For playing Heroic levels' date=' I'd definitely agree that a front line soldier's OCV would hard cap at 6, and probably expect it to be me around 5. Above 5 and you are looking at elites, top notch veterans, etc.[/quote']

 

 

Is that a base OCV of 6, or is that total offense (OCV base + skill levels)? Just trying to clarify for the OP and calibrate my own scale.