Ehreval

Re: FYI: why more people aren't playing HERO (rpg.net) Here's the two objections I've seen to Hero amongst my player base, both involving character generation: 1) Arduous/Tedious Character Creation -- Hero system requires a lot more math just to *make* a character, let alone what you have to do on the fly in play. If you don't have a love of making characters *and* a strong grasp of arithmetic, Hero character gen can be a real chore. 2) Old Timers -- Newbie players are at a great disadvantage when making their characters, as the old hands in the group make much more efficient use of their points, and come up with a constant stream of novel power constructions that newbies can't even begin to grasp, let alone enact. This can be solved by the gm applying a lot of work to character generation to with a newer hero player, however that also takes a lot of fun out of making up a character for some people and, frankly, the gm's got enough work to do as it is. Both of these problems can be solved with pre-generated characters, however my players -- and, I suspect, many others -- would rebell at this. I, personally, have never played a pre-made character in anything longer than a one-shot and hope never to do so. -- Ehreval

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever? Bouncing Boy. His powers were that he could pump himself up into a ball and bounce real good. Or how about These from the Legion of *Substitute* Heroes: Stone Boy, who can turn himself to stone. Or Chlorophyll Kid, who can accelerate the growth of plants. Ah, the good old days. -- Ehreval

Re: The Champions Do they suck? "(I've picked up a few GURPS sourcebooks even though the system is ass.)." I've recently entered my third decade of game-mastering, and I've found that for most purposes, GURPS is the best gaming system out there. I even suspect that if mortal man could parse their Supers books, that I'd be using them rather than Hero System, but they're so poorly written/edited that they might as well contain pictures of monkey feces rather than descriptions of superpowers. However, since it's not better written, I'm using Hero which, as it stands, is simply the best super-hero roleplaying system I've ever found, by far. It's also unsurprising that people from other systems would pick up GURPS books, as they're generally (and, yes, GURPS Supers is an important exception) the best-written gaming supplements on the planet, with scads of material that can be readily adapted to a large variety of other systems.

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? I have a few of questions about the character construction for Wolverine: 1) I know you're simulating two different powers here, but what's the sense of buying both Extended Lifespan: Life Support (Longevity 800 Years) and To Tough To Die: Life Support (Longevity Immortal)? The benefit of having both seems marginal, and along the same vein of "you can't get something for nothing" I don't think a character should get nothing for something. 2) What is your rationale for having Sabretooth both as a hunted and as a rival? They both boil down to the same thing: Wolverine and Sabretooth want each other dead and will periodically go gunning for each other in addition to pulling off the kid gloves any time they see each other around. Maybe it's just my newbishness, but it looks like the character's getting points twice for the same enemy without any additional effects. I also wonder at the definition of Sabretooth as a "rival" since the two aren't in competition for the same jobs, money, fans, etc. 3) I've seen Wolverine question subjects before, but I'm not sure I would define what he does as "interrogation". Am I misinterpreting the skill, or would threatening to cut someone's family jewels off with adamantium claws be better modelled as some sort of intimidation rather than the highly-honed skill of interrogation practiced by some police, military intelligence and reporters? (Yes, I understand that some sort of coersion is always involved in interrogation, otherwise there'd be no significant difference between interrogation and conversation, but in interrogation there are tactics and strategies employed beyond the "tell me where the secret laboratory is before I poke out your eyeballs".) Of course, having not read the entirety of Wolverine's appearances, I might have missed something. 4) Does Wolverine's secret identity really come into play that often? I can't remember a single time that it specifically mattered whether or not the discovery of his real name caused a problem, let alone such a high percentage of the time. If it did, he'd be spending significant time in well over half of his adventures protecting his secret id, perhaps more since he often doesn't bother wearing any sort of mask. -- Ehreval

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? I'm a newbie to the board, but I've been playing in Hero system on and off for a number of years now. I joined the boards because I've been running my first supers game in Hero, despite the fact that I'm a die-hard GURPS fan in general. Frankly, though, Hero is the only system I've ever found that adequately represents what I love about the genre. (GURPS Supers *might* represent it well, but if you can parse GURPS Supers, you're either a better man than I am or very, very bored. ) That being said, Synnibar is, perhaps, the best read I've ever had from an rpg book. My first exposure to it was sitting up late one night in the early 80's after a lengthy gaming session (I can't remember whether it was Star Fleet Battles or Magic the Gathering) with a friend who shall be known here only as Smileylich, who showed me all the "best" portions of the book, and mutated me forever in the process. Ah, the glories of logarithmic stats, and flies that rewrite your dna with each bite, and supersonic flying bears with laserbeam eyes... I cackled for hours. My personal theory is that the kind of brain damage Synnibar represents can only be caused by extreme cold digging its way into your gray matter. Good times. As for being the worst RPG ever, as some have charged, well, it's not any worse than any of the other completely unplayable rpg's I've seen, and there are many.

Re: Speeding things up It's easy for Champs combat to run on forever, though that's really more of a problem with most rpg's than Champs, itself. The real key, I think, is simply to keep the ball rolling. Here are a number of things I do and/or have seen other gm's do: 1) Don't stop. If a player wants to roll and count 20 dice, that's fine. Unless that roll has the potential to end the combat or drastically affect what happens next, go on to whatever character is going to act next and pick up the numbers when they're finally available. 2) Pre-rolled numbers are perfectly fine. So are programmable calculators that can get the results of hideously large die rolls quickly. I'm quite thankful that one of my players brings one of these to every session. 3) Have your NPC's come into play with a game plan, including contingencies for a variety of situations. It doesn't matter if the NPC's, themselves, know the game plan or not, so long as *you* keep it firmly in mind so that you don't have to stop and think too long about what they're doing next. 4) Get logistical details out of the way in advance. Prepare your battle maps, get your minis together and be ready to rock and roll. A great time to do this is either before the game begins or while people are getting something to drink/lining up for the rest room. 5) Take care of the real world first. Announce that a combat is about to happen and that anyone with something to take care of -- bathroom break, smoke break, refill on a drink, pizza order, whatever -- should do so immediately. 6) Expedite at all opportunities. When you see the writing on the wall -- i.e. the bad guys are going to eventually be beaten down and there's nothing that will stop it -- offer to concede the ending to the combat. If Muscle Man's been winding up for his huge hammer-hand-strike for ten minutes, let him have at it, if he wants, but if the gradual wearing down of a villain who can't stop it isn't boring, then let's go watch some paint dry. 7) Don't let players lolligag. If a player doesn't have enough time after one action to figure out what the next one is, remind him that the character in question has about a 10th of a second to make the decision, then demand one. If the player needs more time to think, then so does the character, so let him hold his action while he cogitates. 8) Crush all who oppose you! (Good advice for any situation. ) -- Mike