mallet

For sure.

I like the idea of Hero Action Points in theory, but I don't like the players automatically getting them (especially 2d6 of them at the beginning of every session). In the one campaign I've used them in I doled them out very carefully with players getting one point if they did something especially heroic, selfless, made an amazing roll at just the right time, or basically anything that improved the game or the enjoyment of the other players. These point carried over between session, and could be spent in future dire circumstances if the player wished. Any points spent were gone and would have to be earned back (and you couldn't earn new HAPs in situations you spent HAPs to succeed). In a sense they were a form of xp that the players earned and spent to improve the story, not their characters. Star Wars: Edge of Empire RPG has an interesting take on HAPs. They have Destiny points, little tokens with a Light Side and a Dark Side. The players role at the beginning of the session and have a "pool" of Destiny points (both Dark Side and Light Side). If a player wants to spend a Light Side Destiny point to effect a situation in the game he flips the token over and something good happens, but then it becomes a dark side point. Then if the GM wants to effect an event he can flips a dark side token over, making something unfortunate happen to the players, and now the players once again have a light side token they can use. So it kind of moves back and forth during the session. If the players "spend" all of their light side Destiny points right at the start, then the GM has a large pool of Dark Side points he can use to mess with the players later on.

I would put it as a custom disadvantage at a pretty good amount (-2 or more) because you end up losing almost all of the combat effects that the Replay power provides (you can't just go back 45 seconds and not walk into that ambush, etc... you always have to go back 24 hours and relive the whole day, even if you wanted to just change one small decision). Given at how expensive the Replay power is to get up to 24 hours, I think a very hefty disadvantage is well in order for the lack of control over how far back you can go.

100% agree with Hyper-Man. The 6th Ed rules are great as a tool kit. No need to change them. What is needed are complete games/settings built using the tool kit. In video game terminology the 6th ed rules are a gaming engine, like The Creation Engine or Unreal, but 90% of people don't want to buy the engine and program their own games, they want to buy Skyrim or Halo and just play. Sure, having access to the "code" is great if you want to hack the system and build your own mods, but you need to provide the actual game first.

If Cybernetics is considered equipment, but biowear is counted as as powers, you might run into some issues. Especially if money is not based on some sort of resource system based on character points or is not heavily and strictly controlled by the gm. If the cybernetics can be easily disabled and/or taken away, and I do mean as easy as any gun, car, or pair of shoes that the character has could be stolen or ruined, then things might be fine. Otherwise you could quickly have a power level gap between characters that have to spend character points (and money as I assume they will have to pay to have the work done to them) for biowear compared to characters that just spend money for equal power from cybernetics and who will then still have their character points left over to spend on stats, skills, skill levels, other powers and abilities, etc...

In modern day terms I'd equate: Ninja = Special Forces Soldiers Rogues = CIA Agents

Hmmm... A sandstorm maybe? Or maybe all the cats in the city either flee town or head towards Amon-ho-tep's lair? Or technology slowly stops working, radiating out from the location where he placed the curse? All the other mummies in the local museum come to life and begin slowly wrecking havoc? Or everyone begins speaking Ancient Egyptian, but not understanding it? The city begins slowly transforming into an Egyptian type climate/setting? Rivers flood, sand begins creeping out of the ground, the temperature rises, etc... Citizens begin to feel compelled to build as giant pyramid in Amon-ho-tep's honour in a central park? And, of course, everyone begins to "Walk like an Egyptian"?

A VPP and a very expensive one at that. It would have to be used to "grant" abilities and powers to the target. If you fill a gun with bullets you are giving it Charges. If you fill a stomach with food you are giving Life Support: Diminished Eating. A car with gasoline would be Charges or END Reserve. A bank account is giving Resources. Giving a bleeding person blood would be Healing only to counter the Bleeding rules. And so on. I would make it very specific that it can only fill something that the target would specifically have in normal, optimal, circumstances. For example, if you allow him to "fill a targets bloodstream with alcohol", the next thing he is going to do is fill their lungs with CO2 and suffocate them or put nuclear tipped bullets into a regular gun or mud in a gas tank, etc... Or if it is specifically only to "refill" something, that implies it already had to be filled once before and that can be your baseline. So if you do allow him to "refill" a target's bloodstream with alcohol then it could only refill it to the most it has ever been in the past. So if the target has never had a drink in their life then it wouldn't work at all. Or if they have only ever had one drink in the past, then that is the powers limit. If their bank account has only ever had a max of $1800 in it at one time, then "refilling it" would technically only take it back up to that amount, otherwise they are creating something out of nothing.

Well, if you are going for realism you could make the character take damage from attacking inanimate objects with a fist or foot if he doesn't destroy it in his first attack. So if a a guy punches a safe to try and open it and he only does 5 BODY damage and needed 9 to destroy it, then he takes 5 BODY damage to his hand (minus any resistant protection). Harsh, but a bit more realistic. If you want to get really realistic then the character should take equal damage to his hand/foot (minus his own PD & rPD) to what he does against the object during his attack. I remember back in high school this giant football meathead got angry one time after losing a game and punched a locker. He put a big dent in it, but he also broke a few bones in his hand and had to miss the next two months of games.

Well, then you have the issue of who is casting the spell, and can the spellcaster manipulate the results (or pretend to cast one spell, while really casting different one?) For example, is it a truth spell, or a lying spell? Or a form of mind control and the person just says what ever the mage tells them to. Can a non-mage ever tell the difference? Is that really you Great-Grandfather Bob, or a different entity pretending to be him? is there any real way to tell if it is one or the other? If there is a spell that has been proven to force people to tell the truth would you even need trials anymore? Or would you end up with a "Judge Dredd" situation, where the cops can cast a spell and see if someone is guilty and punish them right there on the spot?

It can also depend on how easy it is to "trace" magic spells after they have been cast. Do spells leave "residue" that can be detected? If so, how much can you learn from the residue? Just that a spell was cast, or can you learn what the exact spell was? Or can you even learn who cast it? Also, how subtle are spells in the game? Can you cast a spell and almost no one know? Or is it a big, flash event and everyone around for a city block can tell? If spells are subtle and almost impossible to detect, then I'd bet the laws would be very harsh on people that do use them if they get caught, and there might be a group dedicated to tracking/keeping tabs on spell casters and/or spell casters might need to be registered and let everyone no what they can do in public. Because if a "mage" can mind control someone into robbing a bank or murder, and the spells leave no trace and can't be tracked back to the spell caster then law and order would fall apart. Any criminal could claim he was mind controlled to do it, and how could the police prove otherwise? Or what is the penalty for mind controlling a man/woman to have a one night stand with you? How can they prove it was a spell and not the caster's good looks and witty banter that attracted the victim? And, even if they can prove a mage committed a crime how to you imprison someone who can mind control guards, or teleport or walk through walls? It can quickly become a very problematic situation to try and work out for a campaign. If you have access to some of the Shadowrun books they get into magic law and policing in a few of their sourcebooks that might be of some help to you and give you some ideas, but in Shadowrun they can trace spells back to the caster (magic has "fingerprints") but they also have enough magic in that setting that they can magically imprison sell casters and limit their powers, and/or in extreme cases surgically reduce their "essence" so they can no longer work magic at all.

Just out of curiosity, how would one quantify on a character sheet the ability to always keep stumbling upon mysterious murders wherever one goes? I guess it could be called "Murder She Wrote" syndrome. Just a campaign ground rule? Yeah, I think that would just count as regular role-playing adventures if you are playing a mystery/detective campaign. Just like in a superhero game the hero don't need an "ability" to always be around when a super villain hatches out a master plan. But, if you did want to solidify something like that I don't think it would be an ability, but more of a Complication. Maybe as a twist on Social Complication like "Always in the wrong place at the wrong time" or as a twist on the Hunted Complication, but rather then being Hunted by someone or a group, if the frequency roll is made, the character stumbles across a murder that session. Something like that. Although, as always, I would be up to what the GM wants or would allow in his/her game.

Well Dark Champions has the "Deductive Observation" super skill which is quite close to what you are looking for, but only works against people. Another way to build it, that would cover people and locations (crime scenes) would be with Clairsentience with the "retrocognition only" limitation and tied to a Deduction roll. If you didn't want (or the GM won't allow actual powers for the ability), then I would think taking Rapid and Analyse adders on normal sight with Requires a Deduction roll, would get you close (maybe with an extra limitation on the analyse keeping it to "personal details" or something similar that the GM will allow.) I like the "Rapid" on this, because Sherlock (and other detectives that do this trick) are always shown as processing the data they see much quicker then everyone else. So, while someone else, if they spent the time (hours) studying someone could reach the same conclusions as the master detective, the master detective does it in mere seconds and the Rapid adder allows this to happen (as it really is just Penalty Skill Levels vs. the time chart for perception/reading/studying, etc...

He looks good. One thing that caught my eye was that he has the Survival skill twice. Once for "hills" and once for "temperate/subtropical". "Hills" isn't technically a subsection of any of the survival skill categories, so maybe keep Survival "Temperate/Subtropical" and then buy +2 skill levels in Survival with the limitation "Hills only" or something like that (if the GM is okay with limitations on skills), that would give your guy a Survival "Temperate/Subtropical" roll of 12- and if he is in the hills then it would be 14- with no extra cost (assuming the GM allows the limitation "hills only" to be worth -1). Another option (again if GM allows limitations on skills) would be to keep Survival "Temperate/Subtropical" at 12- then take +1 skill level in Survival with the "requires a roll" limitation with the roll being AK: Northern Hills. This would give you a 13- in Survival when trying to survive in the area around your home village (if you make the AK roll) and also save you 1 character point.

I did something sort of like this once before. I've attached some of the files I used to this reply just in case they might be of some help or inspiration for what you are working on. When I did the "leveling" style of character development in my fantasy campaign it worked out quite well and my players seemed to enjoy it (they were all big time D&D fans and this was my way of bringing them into the Hero System fold). The one thing I did with experience points (that might work better for you) is that I separated "xp" from character points. I gave out "xp" in a way similar to D&D (a certain amount for each monster defeated, each trap beaten, each session finished, etc...) and then once the players had received enough "xp" they advanced a level and were given "x number of character points" to spend on their characters and their character maximums would raise a certain amount. This isn't really any different from what you have planned, but psychologically I found that the players were happier and more excited to get "1800 xp" for finishing an adventure, rather then "5 cp" to spend on their character. It also allowed for more granularity in giving xp, since it wasn't directly linked to a certain amount of character points. Anyways, I've attached the first few levels worth of "levels" in a pdf below, so take a look if you are interested. Edit: As an aside, I also noticed that by strongly controlling the cp give and stat and active point maximums "by level" the characters ended up developing very well rounded characters and remained quite balanced for the length of the campaign, which made it quite fun for everyone and prevented the "spellcasters" from out stripping the other characters in power later on on the campaign which can sometimes happen without very strict supervision. FH Character Sheet - Blank.pdf Level Progression List (1-6).pdf FH - Spell book - blank.pdf

Sweet! I'm glad this is almost ready to be released! I'd love to playtest it, but my current tabletop campaign is on hold for the rest of summer as too many players in my group are busy with holidays and the like, and I'd imagine playtesting will be over (or well under way) by mid-September when we plan on starting up again. I hope it works well and gets released fairly soon!

Just finishing listening to the interview. Very nice. I hope it serves to bring in some new players and GM's to the Hero System.

Obviously every campaign is different, but usually both Deduction and Acting are listed as being "Everyman Skills", meaning that usually everyone has at least a chance of doing both innately.

I think lying and, by extension, trying to detect a lie should be handled as a Skill vs Skill contest. Just like someone if trying to sneak past a guard there would be a Stealth vs PER skill vs skill contest, the same thing should apply with tell and detecting lies. The person telling the lie uses whatever social skill is involved in their communication (Conversation, Intimidation, Oratory, etc...) vs the listeners Perception (with some possible strong negative modifiers, to represent how hard it can be to tell if someone is lying). Someone wanting to be great at knowing if someone is lying to them should by Perception Skill Levels in "Detecting lies".

Oh, and also address your original question. Licensing is usually government regulated for the public's piece of mind, ​not the government's. It says that this person has the necessary training and education to do that job. Just like getting a Driver's License says you've past the tests and are considered safe to operate a vehicle on the road. A license to practice medicine exists so not just anyone can go around saying their a doctor and screwing over sick people. It basically means that some governing body has approved the doctors qualifications and believe that he/she is at least marginally capable of carrying out the duties of a doctor. Same goes for P.I.'s (although with generally a lots less layers of red tape), I'm sure it varies greatly State to State, but there would at least be a criminal check, background check, and possibly ex-police, military or security training and experience. Or for Lawyers (Passing the Bar exam gives them the License to practice law in a certain area). An example from fiction would be James Bond's License to Kill. Basically it means that the British Government trusts him enough that they won't arrest or charge him for killing anyone. If he kills anyone they believe in him enough to except his word that it was justified or necessary (and probably won't ask many questions). Obviously it is only good on British soil (If he pulls that License out after killing the President of Russia and shows it to the Moscow police I'm sure he will still spend the rest of his life in a Gulag.) And if he just starts walking around killing people for the heck of it, or just because they annoy him, they would also take the License away. Same as if you get too many traffic violations and they take your driver's license away, or kill too many patients and thry take your medical license away. Following that logic, then it your setting it might be that any super powered person who wants to fight crime or use their powers in public might have to take some courses and pass a test before being licensed. Any character using super powers in public to fight crime might be fined or arrested if caught and they don't have a license. Just like if you get pulled over by the police for driving without a drivers license. Maybe then the superheroes would also need to buy insurance? Just like you need to buy insurance for your car or a doctor needs to have malpractice insurance. Super Hero malpractice insurance? Man, I'd hate to see what some superhero's insurance premiums would be...

Well, going off of the Fringe Benefit list I'd say a: Licence to Practice a Profession (1pt) would be that you have "registered" with the local authorities. Meaning, they know your superhero name, costume, etc... And won't start a manhunt to track you down if suddenly you start flying around the city or leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Local Police Powers (2pts) would be the next step up, meaning that you are allowed to make arrests, investigate crimes, etc... with out worry that the police will try and stop you. It also means that they probably know more about your real identity or that you have saved enough people and/or stopped enough crimes that the police and citizens of the city consider you a hero and look up to your character. Then after that it just depends on how many points the character wants to spend on additional fringe benefits like Federal Police Powers (3pts) or Computer Link (varies) for access to the police database, Contacts, etc... But still remember, even if you have local or federal police powers, you are still not a cop or agent (that's a different fringe benefit) so they still might not give you full access or help any time you want it (that is why contacts and favours are important). Also, just because a hero has local or federal police powers doesn't mean that they are above the law, in fact they are probably being held to a higher standard then non-licensed heroes. if your hero creates too much damage, hurts too many criminals, etc... he/she might find their powers revoked, being sued for brutality (cops get sued for excessive force all the time and they don't even have super strength or fire bolts, etc... so shooting a fire bolt at a human bank robber or picking up the getaway car and throwing it into a wall will probably get the police and lawyers out looking for you.) or worse. If you use super human strength or powers on a normal human (like a bank robber or mugger) I'd bet that they would press charges against your hero and/or have the case against them dismissed and be back out on the streets by dinner (or when they get out of the hospital).

I'm not sure if this is cheaper or simpler then other ways, but another option might be to just buy X amount of Blast and then add some advantages and disadvantages to it to get the effect you want. Something like this: Blast Xd6, Variable Special Effects (Any SFX (Only to mimic effect already effecting target); +1/2) (X Active Points); Conditional Power Power does not work in Common Circumstances (Power only works on a target already taking damage from an attack that (s)he is Susceptible to) (-1/2) Then just add more limitations or advantages to flavour. In this version of the power you are not "technically" boosting the damage already being done to the target, but rather doing more damage of the same type that is already effecting the target. So if a target takes extra damage from Fire, hitting them with this power will also do more fire damage to them. Different build, but same result. The target takes more damage of a similar sort to what he is taking already.

With only draining 1 point on END & STUN a phase the odds are you will never drop someone down to zero because at the end of every turn the target will get their recovery back. So assuming that the character has a SPD of 4 and will drain 4 points on END & STUN every 12 phases, the target will then get their REC in END & STUN back at the end of phase 12, and if they have a REC of 4 or more, then they will be back up to full END & STUN and it will all start over again. I think the power should drain REC & END right off the bat, then move on to STUN & BODY. First it tires the target out and weakens them so they can't recover, then it starts to kill them.

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product I'm a big fan of Fantasy Hero, in fact it is the most played genre by far that I have ever used the hero system for. One of the main reasons for that is that most of my friends that I role-play with a mainly Fantasy RPG fans. I am sure it is not crazy to state that fantasy is by far the most popular and best selling genre in the role-playing world. So the fact that Hero wants to focus on it with a new complete book is fantastic. I am strongly in the opinion that the book should be an all-in-one, pick up and play resource. If that means losing some of flexibility or reprinting rules, so be it. The hardest thing I have ever had to do was get players invested in custom created Hero Game. The rules were to big. there was too much to read. Too many options. It was too much work for the players to learn how to make characters so I usually ended up making the characters for them based on what they would tell me they wanted (a statement I've read from other GM's posting on these boards numerous times) which is fine, except it always prevents the players from fully feeling like they "owned" the character. Once we started playing though, they love the Hero System and enjoy playing it, but it is the initial investment of time and learning that is killer. The new book should be geared to solving that problem. Players should be able to buy a copy, read through nice, clean, easy to understand character creation rules and create a character that will work and be balanced for the game. yes, that means including a "base" setting/power level for the system built into the rules. This puts everyone, Gm and players, on the same page right off the bat. If a particular GM wants to tinker with the rules they have tons of resources available to do so from other books and they will know their own players better then Hero does so it will be easier for them to make those changes, then it would be to just release another generic "here is a ton of fantasy stuff with infinite possible levels of powers and options so go for it" mentality. GM's want thing to be easy for them as well. Have a solid balanced, based "power level" for the game would make things 1000% easier to draw players and GMs into the game. As for how to fit it all in 240 pages, I am actually not seeing how it could be too too hard. Look at the Hero System Basic Rulebook. I'm flipping through it right now. 136 pages. Nice, clean, concise. perfect. (and it still have pictures). With just a quick look I can see about 6 pages worth of stuff that could be cut because it doesn't apply to a fantasy game. Things like the full page of modern and sci-fi ranged weapons. Powers like FTL. Skills like Combat piloting, bugging, electronics, science skills, computer programming, etc... (yes, I know some of these skills/powers could be made to work in a Fantasy Setting, but those would be rare enough settings the the GM could add them in himself if needed. They would not be needed in most traditional fantasy games.). That brings the page count down to 130. Rewrite those 130 pages to be fantasy specific in tone and examples (including changing all the sample characters to fantasy ones). Then add in 40 pages of other important rules from the vast hero collection of books that specifically pertain to Fantasy games. Thing from the current fantasy hero 6th ed. book, like expanded fantasy armour charts, equipments lists, other skills, powers and advantages & limitations not included in the Basic Rulebook, but that might be useful. Add in hit locations, and other things like that. Expand on important skills. Imagine, 40 pages (that's almost 1/3 of the existing Basic Rulebook) added in with a specific focus on what is needed for fantasy game. That would fantastic, and still only bring the page count up to 170 pages. That still leave another 70 pages worth free before we reach the 240 page limit. With those 70 pages, you could: add 15 pages as an expanded character creation section with racial & professional packages, how-to guides, etc... Add 10 pages of sample spells. Add 5 pages of sample magic items. Add a 5 page "how to build" monsters guide. Add 10 pages of sample monsters. All of that and that is still only about 215 pages. Assuming a bigger Index (about 4 pages) and 6 pages of charts, lists, etc... That brings us to 225 pages. 15 pages left to fill. Well, how about a 10 page cool mini/starting adventure and 5 pages of sample bad guys for that adventure? There, thats 240 pages. It includes the entire 6th Basic Rulebook so it has everything needed to play the game, it has tons of extra stuff added from Fantasy Hero 6th, plus spells and spell building, monsters and monster building, an expanded character creation guide and more. it would be perfect for starting players and GM's a like (and still have some art work). It would give them everything they need to easily pick-up and play and get invested in the game and adventure, and that's always the hardest part. Once they get into the game everything else will follow, but the most important thing is getting them to the table and able to play and a nice, clean, easy to read book with a specific and built in balance and starting "level" is the best way to do that. In D&D any player with the players guide can make a character at home and show up at any game and start to play with a group of other players who did the same thing. In the current Hero system that isn't true. A GM has to look at every character and spend time seeing if they will all "work" and nothing is too crazy of a build or too unbalancing, etc... This book should strive to avoid all (or most) of that problem. Plus, it leaves room to grow with expansion books, etc... rather then trying to fit everything into one (and then never needed to sell another book again). That's my opinion on it.

Re: Rules You Didn't Know Until Champions Complete Maybe the reason not to use cars, buses, lampposts as weapons is more story based then rule based. If you start pick up cars and destroying them, the owners and insurance companies will hate you and maybe even try and bill you for the damages. The same with the city. if every time your character gets in a fight he is destroying a $100,000+ city bus just to smack around a villain rather then just punching him then the city might come after the hero. There is "understandable" collateral damage from fight a super villain, and in a "super hero setting" citizen and city officials probably understand that, but unnecessary vehicle and city property damage would be frowned upon and should only be used as a last resort by the heroes.