Genma

So, I have finally conquered my procrastination! I have uploaded templates for creating classic World of Darkness vampires, werewolves, and wraiths, and only 30 years past when such templates would be relevant!
 
In all seriousness, I'm pretty sure I'd uploaded them previously, but I went through the Downloads section looking for my old stuff and the only thing in there was an HDC file for a cWoD Wraith, so they must have been deleted. I've now uploaded correct HDT files for all three. Please note that I haven't done any of the myriad, multiple supernatural powers from the various games -- no Vampire disciplines, Werewolf charms, and Wraith arcanoi -- since that would have taken ages and ages, and I didn't need them for my game; these templates are just based on the basic supernatural descriptions in the core books.
 
 
 
Enjoy!

Took me hours to find this video from “The Master.” I’m pretty sure most of us in this forum are familiar with this 80’s TV series:
 
Mark 2:09
 
 

I don't know how many folks out there are familiar with SCP (Secure, Contain, Protect) fandom out there.  starting first as creepypasta on Reddit, it has grown into all sorts of activities.  Recently they released a near professional fan film called Overlord, and i feel this could be an inspiration for a horror based, or X-Files flavored Dark Champions game.  Take a look.
 
 

Long ago I wrote an article about a fictitious Italian sports car. The car had 3 dice of unluck. Every time the driver had to make a driving roll, they had to make an unluck roll. The car itself had good stats and would grant pluses to driving skill, but missed rolls spawned unluck rolls, with one level causing minor irritation, two levels ending your trip, and three being life threatening. I’ll see if I can dig up the article. 

I do very much enjoy building characters, and I like for them to be well fleshed out with sufficient detail in their backgrounds to give them both adequate personality and various ways they could work within a game. I also like to make characters that are usable both as player characters and NPCs as the case may be. Finally I do like to share.
 
I intend to use this thread to post any fully developed Hero System characters I have built or will build in the future. Anything posted here will have full writeups and have appropriate background skills. I tend to create both fantasy and superhero characters, so these will be a mix of both. Anyone is free to use any of these characters either as PCs or as NPCs. Many of them will work well for both, while a few are likely best suited for NPCs only.
 
Point totals of course will vary. I will usually stick to standards, but sometimes characters get created based on an individual GM's campaign settings, and they may have differing point totals than standard. Do with them as you will.
 
Feel free to comment and critique, but please refrain from posting your own characters to this thread unless you are posting it as an example of a point you make in a comment.

Well said, sentry0. 
 
Personally, if invited to a table of Hero System, I wouldn’t mind which edition I would be playing at all as long as I’m playing it. 

Well said, sentry0. 
 
Personally, if invited to a table of Hero System, I wouldn’t mind which edition I would be playing at all as long as I’m playing it. 

People on these boards love to rip on edition x because, reasons.  Truthfully, it usually just boils down to personal preference... at the risk of sounding like a hippy I will say live and let live.
 
Or to put it another way, it's highly unlikely that you ripping on an edition because you personally don't like feature x or y will change someone's opinion.  In fact it's more likely to have the opposite effect.  By all means though tells us all again about how hideous the damage shield rules are because that's going to be the critical flaw in 6th edition that will send those users into a book burning frenzy 🙄

I don't see why we need to cede the "lower end" to GURPS.  I'm telling you, with the right set of options -- all of which already exist in the 4e, 5e, and 6e core rulebooks  -- we can handle gritty, non-cinematic stuff just fine.  I've played in many a campaign that did.  

Sorry, Duke
 
The Wal Martian comment got me good.🤣

Samo Hung?
 
That fella could do _insane_ things, even when morbidly obese, and well into his golden years.
 
Again, choreography, but the fact that he was doing all that stuff with the body of an elderly Wal Martian is mind-numbing.
 
 

Actually, Piercing is in the Advanced Player's Guide (pg. 113) except that it is a Power not an Advantage.  Although, by the description, it seems like more of an Adder than a Power.  Although, I do think it is a bit overpriced when compared to Armor Piercing, at least as a +1/4 Advantage.

The biggest difference between the 1st and 2nd edition covers is that the rear cover of 1st edition is a continuation of the scene on the front, with Gargoyle, Flare, and armor-suit-guy (sorry, don't know his name...), whereas the rear cover of 2nd edition has the Speed Chart and the Combat Modifier table.  Of course, 1st edition was in color, while many 2nd edition covers were gray scale - although I believe that some color versions of 2nd were also printed.  A more subtle tell-tale is that, since the 1st edition rear cover art was removed with 2nd edition, the fingers of armor-suit-guy which can be seen wrapping around from the left side of the 1st edition front cover are missing on the 2nd edition cover.
 
There are also (that I've seen) two different 1st edition cover versions.  What I presume is the older, original version lacks the authors' names, and in the lower right corner simply shows "A HERO GAME" instead of the "HERO GAMES" logo with the Mark Williams, uh... Hero Games Dude between those two words (which is the same company logo found on the later 1st edition as well as the 2nd edition covers).
 
Of the two copies I have of 1st edition, one has no character sheets, and the other has only 4 out of the original 8... so if anyone scans 300-dpi versions of the original 8 character silhouettes, I'd join my voice to the choir of welcoming, appreciative cries ;-)

So here is a side-by-side comparison of 1e (on the left) and 2e (on the right) character sheets. As you can see, they differ noticeably in layout, typeface, and the style of the figure illustration.
 

That's an interesting idea...if you use HAPs a critical hit could reward one.  Gives the player a chance to decide on how to use their extra success. 

I included a section on Critical Hits in my "Lethality Guidelines" 
 
http://www.killershrike.com/fantasyHero/HighFantasyHERO/shrikeLethalityOptions_Unofficial.aspx
 
CRITICAL HITS Some other games have a concept of "critical hits"; strikes that randomly do more damage than normal. The HERO System tends to shy away from "random" and lacks such an option natively. However different variations of critical hits have been suggested at or described as possible options in some supplements over the years, and some play groups have versions that they use. Described below is my version of "critical hits", which I call the "Rule of Three", that I've used successfully for years. I also describe a Critical Hit concept based on a "lucky die" mechanic, and a mechanic based on degree of success. NOTE: You should probably only implement one kind of Critical Hit rules in a given campaign; two or more can get severely out of hand. RULE OF THREE If a character (PC or NPC) rolls a natural three on a 3d6 roll under type of check then they have the option of either taking "max effect" or an "epiphany". MAX EFFECT If the three was made for an Attack Roll max effect is the maximum possible damage or effect with that attack (treat all effect dice as having rolled 6's). If the three was made for a non attack roll, not only does the character win any opposed roll (even if the opponent made their roll by more) or succeed at their task, but they do so in a stylish looked-cool-doing-it fashion which is also justification for gaining a "Display of Power" bonus to a Presense Attack made sometime within the next few actions against anyone that observed them. EPIPHANY The character has a flash of insight regarding the skill or ability that they rolled a three for and their competency with that ability is expanded. The character gains +2 character points to allocate towards a bonus with that skill or attack. For attacks this translates into a +1 OCV Combat Skill Level with that attack. If a skill this translates into either a +1 or +2 with that skill depending on whether the skill is on the 3/2 or 2/1 costing model. If the three was rolled for a familiarity, the familiarity becomes a full skill instead. This can not be used to upgrade existing levels; for example a character could not opt to bump an All Combat level to an Overall Level with the 2 free points gained in this fashion -- the 2 pts must be spent specifically for the task they were gained from. However, levels gained in this fashion can themselves be upgraded later with experience. For example a 2 pt +1 OCV level with a specific kind of pistol could be upgraded to a 3 pt "Pistols" tight group level later on. LUCKY DAMAGE DICE Some other games have the idea of a "lucky die" which is rerolled and cumulatively added if its max value comes up. In other words, if the lucky die is a d6, then if it rolls a 6 it is rerolled and the result adds to the original 6; if another 6 comes up it is rolled and added in again and so forth until it stops rolling 6's. The HERO System already grants more damage to a 6 when doing Normal damage in the form of +1 BODY inflicted but Killing damage gets no such consideration. In the interests of increasing lethality you as the GM can decide to up the ante further by implementing a "Lucky Damage Dice" House Rule for Killing damage. You can specify that this rule applies to all Killing damage dice, which is a powerful / dangerous kind of critical hit that will occur often and can result in one-hit kills vs. even protected targets, or you can specify that only one die (represented by a physically different die) is "lucky" which is much less extreme. DOVETAIL WITH LUCK POWER Alternately, you can converge this with the Luck Power and allow characters to buy Luck dice defined as "Lucky Damage Dice" instead of the normal function of Luck dice, and a character can roll as many Lucky Damage Dice on a given attack as they have purchased up to the limit of the attack (a character with 3d6 Lucky Damage Dice using a 2d6 Killing Attack would only roll 2 dice but both would be "lucky"; if they later picked up a weapon that does 4d6 Killing they would roll 4d6 and 3 dice would be "lucky"). CRITICAL SKILL / DEGREE OF SUCCESS Some games feature a mechanic whereby more skilled attackers inflict more damage due to their increased skill. The HERO System allows this to some extent if Hit Locations are being used since a more skilled attacker can overcome to hit penalties for choicer hit locations, but using Called Shots can result in a total miss which can seem very odd in practice. An alternative to relying on Called Shots (and even Hit Locations in general) is a mechanic whereby characters that hit by more than they needed inflict more damage. The base mechanic is +1 Damage Class per 1 point a character made their Attack Roll by; thus in a 3 OCV vs 3 DCV scenario, an Attack Roll of 10 is made by 1, which grants the attacker +1 Damage Class. This is easy to remember and scales evenly, but doesn't overly reward characters that make truly impressive to hit differentials. BASIC EXTRA DAMAGE SEQUENCE Hit by: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extra DC: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 This can be scaled up or down by the GM to suit their campaign by varying the ratio of extra success to extra damage; for instance a GM could set the ratio at +1 Damage Class per 2 points a character makes their Attack Roll by. LESS EXTREME EXTRA DAMAGE SEQUENCE Hit by: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extra DC: 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 A GM could also make hitting by a little not make much differenct but hitting by a lot being extremely lethal by basing the to hit vs DC ratio on a Fibonacci sequence instead as displayed in the following table. Basically using this kind of progression hitting by 5 or less is not much different than the basic progression (and is in fact more moderate overall), but an Attack Roll that hits by 6 is more comparatively deadly, and anything that hits by 7 or more is almost absolutely fatal. FIBONACCI EXTRA DAMAGE SEQUENCE Hit by: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extra DC: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 Any other progression of this sort is equally valid based on the GM's preferences, of course. The following displays the same concept on an exponential progression which is easier to remember and more consistent with HERO System doubling rules but would result in excessively higher damage if on the same scale as the Fibonacci sequence; thus this chart is based on a progression of hitting by 2 more than needed per step. EXPONENTIAL EXTRA DAMAGE SEQUENCE Hit by: 0 2 4 8 10 Extra DC: 0 1 2 4 8 And so on; it's just a numbers game. Any approach that is easy to remember and apply at the table that rewards hitting with a margin of succes at a rate acceptable to the GM and players is equally valid for that group.

Hmm... IIRC the last time Steve mentioned the APGs, he indicated he'd pretty much used up his best ideas for optional rules with APG II, and didn't feel he had enough valuable stuff left to fill another book.

Doc, I would support a presentation of Sixth Edition rules as you suggest; but have utterly no interest in a Seventh. The Hero System rules have been refined to a microscopic degree by this point. IMO there are no more pressing issues that need to be addressed. Any changes to the game sufficient to warrant a Seventh Edition would merely reflect the author's individual preferences. All of us Game Masters already tweak the RAW to suit our own preferences anyway.

Jb,
 
Character creation examples:
 
1. 
 
2. 
 
 
Combat example:
 
 
I hope these help you somehow. 
 
Good luck.
 
 
 
 
 
 

A classic for an adventuring group is working as agents of an organisation.
Knightly order; temple (3 in one: clerics, monk, and paladins), thieves' guild, mages' guild, ordinary craft guild (why not?) These also have built in quest givers. Quest givers is easier for new players who will, probably, have trouble working out what they want to do, or even knowing what they can do.
 
There's escaped prisoners. Naked and on the run is always good for a laugh.
 
The game I'm about to kick off has the PCs as survivors of a destroyed army.
 
As for character design. Keep it simple. Limit the player choices. Try and have a bunch of templates ready to use. One thing I found when I first started with HERO, and everyone else I know who plays HERO had the same initial feeling, is that the freedom of choice is so great that one doesn't know where to start. Templates give players a springboard for their own ideas.
 
But also inspire player choices. Give them a little world background. Cloud castles and dragon dogfights. Or an ancient city that has long been the centre of a world wide trade network whose basements and catacombs stretch down into the depths of the earth. Something to get the creative juices flowing.
 
Or, if you  haven't gotten as far as that, throw out a bunch of classic game types (thieves in the big city, knights on errantry, junior wizards at wizard school.)
 
Keep throwing out ideas and getting feedback until you have something that has the whole group excited. Obviously choosing a game style/setting also has the effect of limiting character choice, until it doesn't. Wizard school will have a lot of people playing wizards. Until someone wants to play a unionising house elf, or a groundskeeper who is a high school drop out. You get where I'm going.
 
For magic - I'm going to suggest that whatever you choose for a magic system, have the list of available magic spells already drawn up. If the choice of character archetype is daunting, the choice of what magic to choose is just overawing. (Actually this is an advantage of magic school - the players have a very limited set of spells to choose from at the start and you decide what new spells they get and when. Should let you  spread out the work over time.)
 
I like the idea of a magic END reserve with limited REC. For a high magic game it's a good way to put a limit on mages and thus allow non-mages to compete.
 
High fantasy magic is hard to do in HERO if you use the published grimoires. The spells are just too expensive. For a low fantasy feel they work fine.
 
General advice.
Everyone tells me that tracking END is hard. I don't see why. People have no trouble tracking hit points in DnD. This aint much different. To speed up play I suggest you get the players to do all the END tracking AFTER their turn.
 
eg:
GM: Character X is up.
Player X: I kick in the door with 15 STR, throw a fireball, and make a PRE attack. That's, erm, lemme see how much END...
GM: Worry about that later. Roll your STR damage to get the door open then make an attack roll. <things are resolved>
GM: Cool! Do your END now. Next character is Y.
 
I'd shy away from Multipowers and especially VPPs. The latter because they are literally power designing at the game table. MPS are conceptually  confusing to new players.
 
Fantasy Hero Basic.pdf
I can't help it, I'm going to upload my own fantasy hero homebrew. It's 6th ed. It's geared toward low fantasy. The most relevant parts for you are at the front in the character design section which has a bunch of mix and match templates for simple characters. The magic section could also be worth a read. None of it is yet play tested. I suspect that any spell that uses an adjustment power is too powerful as written and will probably need to be toned down a couple of Damage Classes. I also include some basic weapons and armour lists you might find useful. Otherwise it's a simplification of the main HERO rules.
 
 
 

I cannot recount the last time I fired up my HERO brain and counted body... since the 5er days...   Father, it's been 15 years since my last HERO session...
 
Tonight I introduced my regular Sunday group to HERO 6e! We are starting with the Fantasy Complete for a handful of sessions (using the pre-gens and adventure/setting from FHC). After a few sessions we will create new characters and adventure for a few more sessions!
 
Eventually, we are shifting to a sci-fi setting of my own creation for (what I intend/hope) will be a long-term campaign. I wanted us to get familiar before we jumped right in.
 
I was touching up the characters to give them some equipment using Hero Designer, and I wanted the Elf Bard to have some Elven Chainmail. I grabbed the regular chain in the prefabs, changed the weight from 'full mass' to 'half mass' and viola! Magic armor. In a couple clicks.
 
I like the Half-Elf Warrior Mage build! That is an ugly contender.  I picked out my favorite 8 characters that I want to use for some convention games this year. I decided the Lizard-Folk Shaman knows how to turn into a giant snake (of several varieties) or a velociraptor (as a revered animal of his clan! - yes, he has a skull from one...). I just copied out the pages from the Bestiary for quick reference. This group didn't pick the shaman... . They went with Human Barbarian, Elf Bard, Sprite Druid, the Half-Elf Warrior-Mage, and I tossed in the Human archer as an NPC.
 
I'm a little rusty...  but it was fun and I'm certain this group will pick it up fast.  I missed the speed chart. Seriously, I love how speed works. I also missed all the cool maneuvers and the in-play flexibility. One of the crew was looking through the book and exclaimed "you can use another character as a weapon"! I think he's sold. A couple of the GURPS people are still on the fence, but I'll win 'em over.

.

Found this article in a 1985 issue of "Daredevil Adventures", written by George MacDonald himself!  It is for converting old Daredevils adventures to Justice Inc., but should be useful for Pulp Hero, also.  There is a lot of DD material floating around the interwebs. Enjoy this bit of pulpy nostalgia!
 
Converting Daredevils Adventures To Justice Inc.pdf