bigdamnhero

The name Bigdamnhero comes from Firefly. (Y'all probably guessed that.)
 
First RPG I played was Original D&D back in 1976 (Junior High).
 
I can't remember if I started GMing with OD&D or just after AD&D came out?
 
I discovered Hero with 1st Edition Fantasy Hero in 1985 and never looked back. Ironically, I mostly played heroic genres for years, and didn't really get into Champions itself until about 10 years ago.
 
I run Hero almost exclusively; currently wrapping up a Champions game adapted from Savage World's Necessary Evil setting; probably going to run low-fantasy next. I play in a Star Wars Edge Of Empire game. I also run a lot of convention games, almost all with Hero in a wide variety of genres.

I am not the most experienced GM when it comes to introducing players, but I found Heroic Talents to be easier than trying to make powers by scratch.  I run a heroic level Pulp/steampunk  game and even when I design the Heroic talents myself it decreases the amount of frustration for the first time player.  Pulp Hero , Dark Champions and the Widening Gyre have lists of pre-generated abilities.  I use 5th edition and have designed a few extra Heroic Talents myself.  Use the lists or talk to your players and write up powers for them. Then let them work out the skills and other abilities. It is the creation of unique powers that complicates matters more than any other part of the character generation system.  When the player is ready to write up something more difficult you can teach them how.
 
I am also working on an easier to understand character sheet, with combat necessitates on one side and noncombat on the other.  I'm also looking for ways to cut out the character generation artifacts from the  descriptions.  I'll keep the Hero Designer files for reference.

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

So I probably go a tad overboard with this, but I'm convinced that good GM prep is the key to running Hero combat without it getting bogged down.
I have a one-page printout for that scenario's NPCs, with all their stats, attacks, damage tracks, etc. So rather than shuffling multiple papers, everything's on one page. (Of course this was easier to read before Physical Complication: Middle-Aged Eyes kicked in.) I have a corresponding page for the PCs. On my laptop, I have Hero Designer open, in case I need to look up some more detailed information about exactly how I built this power of that defense. Also on my laptop, I keep an Excel spreadsheet of the Speed Chart, with each character's actions plotted out by SPD & DEX. You'd be amazed how much it speeds up combat if you don't have to do the "OK, who goes on Phase 4? What's your DEX?" dance every Phase. I've also started having my iPad available for passing around maps, pictures, documents to the PCs, tho that's not really a combat thing. Lots of soda. Obviously.

Having a baseline is so, so important. "Cool, 20 strength - what does that even mean?" Context is massive.
 
Hope it goes well with your wife, BDH!

Why have I never thought of doing that? Your wife is a genius.

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

http://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/268-%7B%3F%7D/
 
Not the greatest, but for somebody who hasn't touched foamcore in over a decade? One could do worse. I'm pretty pleased thus far.

So I probably go a tad overboard with this, but I'm convinced that good GM prep is the key to running Hero combat without it getting bogged down.
I have a one-page printout for that scenario's NPCs, with all their stats, attacks, damage tracks, etc. So rather than shuffling multiple papers, everything's on one page. (Of course this was easier to read before Physical Complication: Middle-Aged Eyes kicked in.) I have a corresponding page for the PCs. On my laptop, I have Hero Designer open, in case I need to look up some more detailed information about exactly how I built this power of that defense. Also on my laptop, I keep an Excel spreadsheet of the Speed Chart, with each character's actions plotted out by SPD & DEX. You'd be amazed how much it speeds up combat if you don't have to do the "OK, who goes on Phase 4? What's your DEX?" dance every Phase. I've also started having my iPad available for passing around maps, pictures, documents to the PCs, tho that's not really a combat thing. Lots of soda. Obviously.

Agreed.
 
It can be, but it doesn't have to be, especially for newbies. Use a flat xSTUN multiplier instead of a 2nd roll; or better yet, don't use Killing Attacks for the first game or two. Skip all the optional damage rules - except Knockback if playing a supers game, and even then the GM can do all the KB rolling. Have a good character sheet that leaves off all the character creation math, but lists OCV+11 for each attack along with relevant skill levels. Don't pile on a ton of Damage Reduction/Negation, and keep your builds simple. Once mooks go down, they stay down. Ecetera. Pare it down, and Hero plays as quickly or quicker than most D&D/PF games I've been in.

<mumbles something about being far more related to personality types, mindset, and misinformation than IQ score>

In Savage Worlds' defense, it's been around for 12+ years at this point, and they've been pretty good about avoiding complexity-creep. They recognize that's their main selling point.

Yeah, sort of.  It was exclusively a weird west game for quite a while but you're right they have been careful about not adding too much complexity.  Of course, that's a drawback too; it can't do some things very well.

Fair enough. But I don't think "simple and fast-playing" is necessarily a deal-breaker with Hero either. As we've all discussed numerous times, 90% of the complexity is in the character generation phase. If the GM is willing to do the bulk of the heavy-lifting in chargen, and limits the number of optional rules to a manageable handful, once you have everything on the character sheet Hero plays fairly quickly. Maybe not Fate-fast, but certainly no slower than D&D.

The very first Hero campaign I ever played in was Fantasy Hero (3ed). In fact, I played almost exclusively heroic-level Hero for more than a decade before I got into my first Champions campaign. I think Hero works really well for fantasy, but it depends on what type of fantasy game you want to play. If your players want to play a standard-issue D&D-style game, then yeah the D&D rules are probably better suited for that. But if you want to create your own original magic system(s), or you have a character concept that doesn't fit neatly into clearly-defined classes, or if you generally you want to play a different style of fantasy, then Hero allows you to do that far better than trying to force D&D into something it wasn't made for.*
 
The best way to hook D&D gamers into trying Fantasy Hero is to ask them "Have you ever had a character concept you couldn't make work in D&D? Maybe something from a book/movie that didn't seem to fit in a D&D world? Let's try building that."
 
The "other best" way to hook them in is: "Hey, I have this really cool idea for a fantasy game, where magic works a little differently, but I can't make it work using D&D rules. Are you guys willing to try this other system?"
 
Also note that Fantasy Hero requires much more up front work on the GM's part, particularly in terms of designing magic systems, world building, etc. In general I find the more work you expect new players to do, the more frustrated they're likely to get. Depends on your players, of course. Some will enjoy creating their own spells, so you can hand them the rule book and let them go nuts. (Subject to GM approval, natch.) Others will have a concept in their heads, but would prefer to let you handle the mechanics of building it. Other just want you to hand them a list of spells they can choose from.
 
The other things that drew me to FH immediately were the rules mechanics "fixed" several things that had always annoyed me about the D&D system (armor making you harder to hit; whittling away Hit Points by death from a thousand cuts; etc). And lastly - and this is entirely subjective - D&D characters always felt more like a 2-dimensional framework to hang magic items off; whereas Hero characters felt much more 3D, with magic items enhancing character abilities rather than supplanting them. YMMV on the last part. (On all of it, really.)
 
* BTW, this was my chief complaint with most of the published settings for Fantasy Hero. Turakian Age in particular felt like it was trying too hard to be "How to run a D&D game using Hero," as opposed to Tuala Morn and Atlantean Age which gave you something different and original that you couldn't do in D&D.

...Use sparingly. If the players get the idea that no matter how much ass they kick, you're going to just "cheat" and throw something heavier at them, the conclusion they're likely to draw is "Wow, this guy is a dick!" and find a new GM.  
To a point, yes. Letting the players know they can earn as many (or more) XP by avoiding a fight is great - and is something that D&D/Pathfinder-school gamers may need to be reminded of. But giving out 0 XP because the players didn't do things the way you wanted them to? I'd be looking for another GM.  
Sorry to be so blunt; maybe that's not what you meant. But this comes across as exactly the sort of heavy-handed, adversarial "It's MY game and the players are my chess pieces" style of GMing that I freakin HATE. Roleplaying is supposed to be a collaborate experience.

Absolutely. Here's an example of the character sheet I use for con/demo games, which I had also posted to FB discussion mentioned above. It does take a little time to create, since you have to cut & paste from the HD export format of your choice into a custom Word document. But it's time well spent IMO to simplify the new player's experience.
Pebbles.doc

I worked up this little sheet to help people just starting to play.  Its based on a Savage Worlds sheet someone did and I got handed when I learned that system and it was useful.  Just a quick reference for some options in combat and combat maneuvers.  I tried to strip it down to the simplest language, leaving details to the GM to handle.
Hero Combat Sheet.pdf

...Use sparingly. If the players get the idea that no matter how much ass they kick, you're going to just "cheat" and throw something heavier at them, the conclusion they're likely to draw is "Wow, this guy is a dick!" and find a new GM.  
To a point, yes. Letting the players know they can earn as many (or more) XP by avoiding a fight is great - and is something that D&D/Pathfinder-school gamers may need to be reminded of. But giving out 0 XP because the players didn't do things the way you wanted them to? I'd be looking for another GM.  
Sorry to be so blunt; maybe that's not what you meant. But this comes across as exactly the sort of heavy-handed, adversarial "It's MY game and the players are my chess pieces" style of GMing that I freakin HATE. Roleplaying is supposed to be a collaborate experience.

Amen! I always use simplified character sheets that focus on playability and leave out most of the math. (You need to know AP cost for Adjustment Powers, but most of the other numbers are irrelevant once play starts.) If I need to reference the mechanics in mid-session, I can always pull up the HD file for reference.
 
Yeah, that's always a challenge when introducing players that are used to D&D/Pathfinder/et.al.  A few thoughts:
One advantage of most class/level systems is that combat and noncombat abilities are segregated to an extent and don't really "compete" with each other: you go up a level and your combat stats go up by "x" and you have "y" points for skills, etc. But in Hero, every point you put into, say, languages is literally one less point you have for combat skills. That can really encourage min-maxing if the players get focused on that rather than on building three dimensional character. One way to counter that is to start with the "tell me about your character concept" discussion before anyone goes near actual mechanics; get them thinking about their character as a character first, rather than a collection of stats. Be absolutely clear that the maximums include skill levels & bonuses, not just the base, and that you will be very stingy about granting exceptions. In fact, you may want to call them "parameters" or something instead, since guidelines implies optional adherence. One trick I've seen is to ask each player "what is your character the best at?" and allow them to exceed the guidelines in that one area only. So if the character's concept is "strongest man in the room" then he's allowed a STR that maxes out or exceeds the guidelines, but he couldn't also buy his OCV or INT above the guidelines. Then if another player wants a STR above the guidelines (initially or with later XP) you can play the "I'm concerned you're going to step on Bob's Strongest Man schtick" card. I have sometimes required that PCs put a minimum number of points (typically 10) into Background Skills. I don't have to worry about this with my current group of players (Thanks guys!), but for some players it really forces them to think about their character as a person. And they don't have to worry about putting themselves at a disadvantage by "wasting" those points, because everyone has to do the same thing. Don't forget the "min" half of min-maxing: occasionally put the characters in situations where they're put at a disadvantage for having below-average abilities. You don't have to be a dick about it - in fact, you can sometimes play it for laughs to the players don't feel you're picking on them. And you don't want to overdo it, unless you really want all your PCs to trend toward the middle of the bell curve. But at least once in awhile, highlight the fact that choosing to minimize certain areas will put them at a disadvantage. Lastly, few things are more frustrating as a player than to have your combat monkey sitting on the sidelines for 2 hours watching the more well-rounded characters handle the interact-and-investigate phase. So when a player drafts an all combat PC, say "I see this game as including a fair amount of investigation and interacting with NPCs outside of combat. I'm not sure what this character will have to do during those scenes, and I don't want you to be bored. How do you see your character contributing in between fights?" The catch here is, are they playing that way because that's all they know? Or because that really is what they like to play? Part of the GM-Player contract is that you'll do your best to run a game that everyone will enjoy (including yourself of course). It may be they're used to games where points in noncombat skills are essentially wasted, in which case you need to reiterate that not all problems in your campaign will be solvable by fighting, and then reward them when they use those skills.
 
On the other hand, it may be that they really just want to play a series of combats and regard everything in between as filler. If that's the game they really want to play, trying to change their style of play can be an exercise in frustration for everyone! I point to the comic Full Frontal Nerdity, where the GM is always trying to run these thematic, role-play heavy games with lots of character interaction and drama...but his players just want to kill things and get more powerful. And after every game, he's surprised and disappointed that the players didn't play it the way he wanted them to. That's a fundamental disconnect that in real life will kill a game group quicker than anything. So have that conversation up front and find a middle ground that everyone can live with.

Absolutely. Here's an example of the character sheet I use for con/demo games, which I had also posted to FB discussion mentioned above. It does take a little time to create, since you have to cut & paste from the HD export format of your choice into a custom Word document. But it's time well spent IMO to simplify the new player's experience.
Pebbles.doc

Another thought I had based on some facebook discussions: the character sheets.
 
Character sheets for novice players can be very, very minimal.  They don't need to know the point cost of anything, that's irrelevant to their play at first.  They don't need to know the modifier totals either.  +1/4, etc totally irrelevant to them.  In fact, you can get away with stripping modifier notations down to little or nothing.  You can skip endurance costs at first as well, they can pick that up as they go along.  Defenses should be written out in long form with explanations, not a quick summary that suffices for experienced players.  Its confusing with all those 18/25 (3) in the sheet even if you know the system well.
 
Their sheet can have things like this instead:
 
Blast of Doom: 12d6 Blast
Hover: 15m flight, 30m out of combat (x mph)
Force Field: 10 Resistant PD, 12 resistant ED when turned on
 
Physical Defense: 8  With force field: 18
   Resistant Physical Defense: 3   With Force Field: 13
Energy Defense: 10  With force field: 22
   Resistant Energy Defense: 3   With Force Field: 15
 
Writing up OCV and DCV can include the formula to make it extra easy.
OCV: 15+3d6 = DCV hit
 
Modifiers can be added by the GM and done in their heads or privately; the players don't need to know all that yet.  Encourage them to try different things, and give them rewards for it, so they do so again.  If they ask "can I run up and hit him?" Say "sure, you just have a slightly lower chance to hit but you can do more damage!"  not "that will reduce your DCV by .... what is your running?" and so on.
 
Time enough later for players to learn more complex rules, all they need to know is the very basics, and have a character sheet with the basics to make it work.  The more colorful, interesting, and easy to read a sheet is, the better players will catch on.  If the character sheet looks like a spreadsheet from an accountant, their eyes will cross.