Chris-M

So Mighty God King's blog entry today [warning: work-safe graphics but does include prominent use of the f-word] cracked me up (plus, I love the slogan on his blog logo -- ninja dogs, heh!), but it also made me realize why I love superhero comics so much. This is turn caused me to reflect on past gaming experiences where I tried to bring hardcore D&D players over to Champions. One of the puzzling common experiences has been D&D players who don't seem to get what the whole four-color superhero thing is about and staunchly hold to a "risk adverse unless there's something in it to me" philosophy. Now that I'm luring people away from 4e, I'm encountering some of this again. My approach in the past has been to basically plead with them to just accept the genre conventions and act like heroes, dammit, but I always feel a bit cheezy doing this. I love the genre and I love its conventions, but there must be a better way to get players who don't seem to get them to buy in. Sure, by running a solid campaign and rewarding the attitude and play-style you're looking for you can eventually win them over, but is there a way to get that buy-in sooner, preferably from day one? Other than sending them to MGK's blog to read all the Rex the Wonder Dog entries and hoping they get it, what else might work?

Re: Fantasy Hero 101 The only thing I can think of to suggest is taking the experienced Hero gamers aside when you set up to play next time and say, "Look guys, it's awesome the way you're all trying to help bring the newb(s) up to speed and explain the system, but I feel like we're overwhelming 'em -- we're throwing out a lot of info and it's coming from three different directions at once. Please let me handle the system explanations, just to try to keep it more manageable. If you think of something you think would help that I'm missing, please just slide me a note or take me aside during our next break." I've actually used this approach in the past with good results. Maybe it can work for you (obviously it depends on the personalities involved). Thanks for the update, btw. Sounds fun, and you're doing a great job of brining new gamers into the fold.

I want to build some grunt/minion types. I want them to actually be a bit tougher than normal grunts/minions, except that I want to model the idea that if they take a particularly good pop they will be stunned at the very least and quite probably knocked unconscious. One way I might approach this is to give these guys a Vulnerability disad, something like "2X Stun from Normal Attacks that hit the Head Location." (That would be above the normal extra Stun from a head shot.) While I think that's doable, it actually won't work for me because I generally only use hit location for called shots (I try to run a little bit faster and looser combat to keep the pace quicker), and it's probably a bit too much anyway. What I'd like to try is something like: "2X Stun from Normal Attacks if the attacker rolls a 6 or less and would normally hit" or "2X Stun from Normal Attacks if the attacker rolls less than half the number needed to hit" (I prefer the first idea, the 6 or less one, just because that way nothing has to be calculated each attack). I realize this is probably a bit "gamey" for some folks' taste, but assuming one doesn't mind that, what do you think? How else could the desired effect (a particularly good shot does double Stun) be built?

Re: Do you see? I would have thought that having a tiny brain is a disadvantage.

Re: Ideas for combat runes

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy They're not 100% certain that it was a quake that caused the massive release (although that seems quite likely to me), but yeah, that's the one.

Re: Ideas for combat runes How come there's never a rune of "Getting Along Peacefully" or "Abundant Crop-Growing?" You'd think those would be more useful to actual pre-modern peoples. (I'd opt for the rune of "Tasty, Frothy Beer" myself...)

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Lake Nyos in Cameroon would be a nice addition to this list as well. Not only is it a beautiful/interesting place unto itself, but it's deadly -- having once killed every living creature within a 15-mile radius through completely natural processes.

Re: dark champions from each of the 50 states I suppose for Texas you could do some sort of "Texan," "Lone Star," or "Outlaw" character -- a Harbinger-type with a duster, cowboy hat, bandanna mask, and a pair of six-shooters (classic or hi-tech) that he is expert with. Or you could go with "The Oil Man" -- he wears a $6,000 suit and uses his Wealth and insane Non-Combat Influence to just have the police or state troopers go after whomever he wants. I think either approach would work.

Re: Do you see? I don't think that you need to do anything more than use the rules as they exist now and just apply some reasonable adjudication. PER isn't based merely on direct, knowing observation (I look, I see, I understand what I'm seeing) but, IMO at least, general awareness as well. That is, going back to the fly example, sometimes when you can't specifically see the fly in the "I now know exactly where it is" sense, you realize it's there via the "saw something out of the corner of my sense" even when it's not buzzing around. So now I know the fly is there somewhere and I can attempt to target it with a flyswatter on my next phase (the kitchen being a hotbed of Hero-style combat), but because it's small and hard to track, I will of course attack it at a hefty OCV penalty. Along the same lines, you can perceive something tiny without having to see it -- it might be making noise or not holding as still as it thinks it is, etc. Stealth would of course change those parameters. I would have no problem as a GM letting Minnie "hide in plain sight" by holding still and taking a -10 roll on the Everyman Stealth skill (if she doesn't have Stealth proper), although I might apply an even greater penalty if circumstances warrant it (e.g. she has a bright red costume and is clinging to a stark white curtain at roughly eye level). And if she uses a visible power other than Shrinking in combat, no PER roll is required to perceive her. As for when/how often others should roll to perceive her, I think it depends on the situation in the game session itself. Let's say Minnie wants to sneak into a security observation room where two guards are sitting, drinking coffee, and occasionally glancing at a bank of monitors. She wants to sneak past them and get to a computer to sabotage it, even though the manner of the sabotage is within their field of vision (i.e. she'll be in front of the computer and not behind it when she does this). If this isn't supposed to be a particularly important or dramatic sequence, you could give the guards one PER roll for the whole scene. If they blow it Minnie gets to the computer and then makes whatever rolls she needs to make there, and then gets out. No fuss, no muss, the action keeps moving. If you don't want to do it quite that off-handedly, you could give them separate PER rolls for when she sneaks in and moves to the computer, one for when she's working on the computer, and one for when she's trying to sneak back out of the room. If you want to really milk it for beat-by-beat drama, you could probably justify a couple more PER rolls in there somewhere, and make Minnie make a couple more Stealth checks -- whatever works for your dramatic sensibilities. The odds aren't great that they'll perceive her regardless, so it is almost like Invisibility with a fringe effect anyway, but that's fine with me if she's dumped a lot of points into Shrinking and that's her main thing. I have no idea if I came even remotely close to answering your question or not.

Re: brand new and trying to figure things out

Re: Fantasy Hero 101

Re: brand new and trying to figure things out Those are all really good points, especially Doc's -- if the immortals won't be PCs, you could just make a Perk, maybe 10, 20 points, call it "Cruetalen Immortality" and then just define it with descriptive text. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You could take a similar approach with the Side-Step power too (see below). For the toughness thing, it sounds like the way to go might just be to give them, as part of their racial package, reasonably high PDs and EDs and then make them resistant via Damage Resistance. At, say, 25 PD, 20 ED, resistant, they won't take Body from knives, most grenades, or all but the most powerful firearms. They'll take some Stun, but give them hefty CONs as part of their racial package and the Stun damage they take won't stun them. In other words, non-super weapons won't do much, if any, Body damage, and most of the time they won't feel it, but a powerful attack might sting a little. After that it's up to you whether or not you want to give them regeneration-style self-healing or not. So the Side-Step power could be handled the same way as the Immortality issue if the Cruetalens are NPCs -- make it a Perk, charge 'em 20 points for it or whatever, and describe it with text, since it's a fairly straightforward go-from-point-A-to-point-B sort of thing. If you need to define it mechanically, though, you'd probably want to make it a Transdimensional Teleport with some Megascale applied (they may be using fixed locations, but if you want them to, say, teleport from any location on Earth back to their fixed location in their home dimension, the horizontal distance, if you were to overlay a map of their world over a map of the Earth, still has to be covered -- again, unless you as GM just want to handwave that away). Give them each two Floating locations, one on Earth and one in their home dimension, and just give them a -0 Limitation that each Floating location can only be changed once per month. Hope this helps (and makes sense). Feel free to ask more questions if there's anything that doesn't make sense to you.

Re: Hero Dice and the Glory of Hero lol! Touche', Monsieur Long! "What you call home, Rambo calls Hell."

Re: brand new and trying to figure things out Well, that Damage Reduction will certainly make them very tough. It depends on what exactly you're trying to simulate (in Hero we often talk about starting with the special effect and then working back to the mechanics). Are these guys supposed to be bullets-bounce-off-them tough like Superman? Are they supposed to tough in the way that, say, Wolverine or Zelazny's Amberites are tough (in which case you might go with a sliver of non-resistant Damage Reduction and some Regeneration)? With the Side-Step, it sounds like you're on the right track then. Are distances between the two realms parallel? By that I mean, if one of your immortals side-steps back to his home dimension, and walks for half-a-mile in his world, and then side-steps back to our, will he have walked half-a-mile in our world? Also, are they able to see between dimensions? How do they know where they're going to end up when they Side-Step? Do they have just one spot each back in their world that they always return to, or is it some spot in their world roughly parallel to ours? Just trying to get a more exact sense of how you want the ability to work so we can figure out the best way to build it. Don't worry about jumping in with both feet -- I applaud your courage. Best place to learn to swim is the deep end (and the beauty of this is that you don't have to worry about drowning here ).

Re: brand new and trying to figure things out Hello and welcome aboard! We're glad to have you. It seems like you're on the right track. A couple questions/observations: Are these PCs? Potential allies/villains? Is this a heroic or superheroic campaign? That Damage Reduction -- holy cow, you're talking about some dudes that will be *really* hard to kill or seriously hurt, at least via conventional combat. That may be what you want, and it's not unworkable, I just want you to seriously think about it. What exactly is this side-step power (not at all a lame name, btw) for? Will adventuring be happening in both worlds? Is it just a way for them to move from Point A to Point B in our world without being detected? If the latter, I have a couple ways to build such a power that would work better. That Endurance Reserve is a whole lot of END, but of course that depends on if these guys are going to have other superpowers or not. Also, for what you're going for, I think, you may want to apply some Limitations to it like "Can only be used if Stun or Body is below 25%" and/or maybe add a "Based on Ego Roll" Limitation to reflect that they have to summon the focus of will to tap into it. But overall you're definitely on the right track and making good progress. Definitely tell us more.

Re: Fantasy Hero 101 Very cool, and definitely good luck! I've considered doing something like that from time to time but never had the guts, so I can't wait to hear how it goes. Please keep us posted with a detailed account of the experience.

Re: Hero Dice and the Glory of Hero I'm glad that several of you were able to buy sets -- that makes me happy. I deliberately didn't buy out all their sets, although I was tempted, because I wanted other Herophiles to be able to get their Hero Dice fix too (and I'm not just saying that to fish for cheap praise, not that I'm above that sort of thing). And I'm glad to hear more sets will be made. Given the previous discussion, maybe Steve and the Gang oughtta have 'em make an official Hero Dice Tumbler in time for the Holiday season, too.

Re: Hero Dice and the Glory of Hero

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill Ahhh, okay. That makes a ton of sense. Confusion cleared. Like you guys, as long as the players don't use it to be deliberately exploitive, I like to play fast and loose with this sort of thing because I enjoy sessions where the players are trying to be creative while thinking on their feet.

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill As it happens, it appears to contain the same text from the Big Black Book and USPDB as pertains to my question(s), so no joy there. :-(

Re: Alignments

Re: Alignments

After not running (or playing, for that matter) any Hero for longer than I'd care to admit, I'm looking at running something, and in preparation for that endeavor I'm re-reading the rules (always helpful). Something that is not completely jibing with my memory is the use of the Power Skill to allow for creative and infrequent improvisational use of a power if one has the appropriate Power Skill. In the Appendix to the revised UNTIL Superpowers Database, it says: (Note: "Those powers" in this case refers to powers in the USPDB of the appropriate type -- i.e. fire powers for a fire character, and so forth.) The text continues: Now, this all seems perfectly reasonable and straightforward to me. Thirty percent on a successful roll, and if one wanted, say, to stretch for an improvised power using 40% of the Active Points of such a power, he'd be at a -1 to his Power Skill roll to get the extra 10%. But the two examples that follow (Firelord's improvised "rings of fire" and Hydro's Water Walkway) use 10% of the power's active points as the starting point for what you can utilize in using your Power Skill to improvise a power in this way, and then you get a -1 for every 10% above the original 10%. The Firelord example confuses matters even more by saying that Firelord asks for permission from the GM go to 40% and then takes a -4 penalty to his Power Skill for doing so. In effect, at this point, we appear to have three distinct interpretations within the same block of text: 40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -1 to the Power Skill roll (based on the idea that you can use your skill to create an effect of up to approximately 30% of the active points and then taking a minus one to push it to 40%). 40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -3 to the Power Skill roll (based on the idea that you can use your skill to create an effect of up to approximately 10% of the active points and then taking a minus three to push it to 40%). [Note: This is based on some text in the two Examples I have not quoted here.] 40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -4 to the Power Skill roll (based on...well, based on the later text of the Firelord example referred to above). Now, I could have sworn (sworn! sworn!) that somewhere in the 5ER book itself it said that Power Skill could, with GM permission, enable a character to spontaneously (albeit extremely infrequently) allow a character to attempt to produce an effect up to 30% of the active points for his power for which he has the Power Skill (and not a percentage of the power he is seeking to emulate, as suggested in the above-quoted text). That said, I cannot, for the life of me, find any reference to the Power Skill and a percentage of active points. Am I misremembering (always a possibility), remembering text from another book, like the Sidekick perhaps, or simply hallucinating? What is the "official" ruling on how to use the Power Skill for this sort of thing?

Re: Hero Dice and the Glory of Hero Yeah, I think I agree in general that I would have preferred standard-sized dice as well. The rolling thing is interesting -- I've never really thought about that before. In highly scientific [1] experiments conducted here at my desk, I find that your thesis is correct, although in general, most other types of d6 generally provide only one extra die rotation on their bounce -- most of the action you see on the table is the sort of "bouncing but not really changing their facing" motion you describe. Still, it's more than these bigger, heavier Hero dice generally do. But, are the Hero dice therefore less random? More highly scientific [1] experimentation with dice of several different scales suggests that, in fact, most of the randomization occurs during the "shaking of the dice in your hand(s)" phase of the dice rolling operation and not as much in the actual roll! That is, if one palms and doesn't actually shake d6 of any size before releasing them to the table, your odds are significantly higher that one of the pre-selected facings will in fact land face up (I find that the facings that are palm-down are easiest to get to land face-up when using this cheaty palming technique). The Hero dice certainly are more likely to produce the desired cheaty results, for sure (or, "fo shizzle," as the kids say). But, if the dice are properly shaken before release, results are just as random when rolling the Hero dice as any other d6es. That said, while I like and heartily endorse the Hero dice, I would prefer Hero dice of a standard size and weight as well. [1] The presence of any actual science in these experiments is purely coincidental.