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Gauntlet

HERO Member
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  1. Thanks
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Pariah in Merry XMAS!   
    Hope Everyone had a Great Christmas and will have a Great Upcoming New Year.
  2. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Healing with Knockback   
    Plus, any character can decide what their mind type if based on their character. A character who is a Werebear may state that even though they may act like a human their mind type is animal. I have a character like that, when in human form he has a human brain and when in Bear form, he has an animal brain. Plus, the type of brain has nothing to do with how smart you are or how well you think, it just is a listing of your type of mind.
  3. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Doc Democracy in Healing with Knockback   
    The reason we ask whether HERO is too complicated is because we have more detail to argue about.  I would bet @Duke Bushido would be more than happy delivering this power in his 2ns Edition game. 
     
    As players we have pushed the game designers to give us more and more "official" rule options.  Those options already existed but we think, if they are written in a rule book, we can use them without too much thought or discussion, just punch the numbers in. We then wanted more guidance on those options, it is no wonder the core rulebook got so big.
     
    I don't think HERO is any more complicated, I worry we make it too complicated.  We begin to obsess over the detail and fret more about getting the numbers right than getting the feel right and delivering a decent game.
     
    There is something about us that loves the detail and makes us question the minds of other folk that bounce off this beautifully detailed system that "can do anything" but in the process we insist on showing all the detail, ensuring that every micro-point is audited and processed.
     
    I love the availability of the derail, I appreciate others who know it far better than me, pointing out when I stumble and permit things that could be exploited in unanticipated ways.
     
    What I appreciate most however, is not a complex build but an elegant one, one that achieves a game effect that would awesome to see in play, that HERO can put together from its parts that would be a total black box everywhere else.
     
    The detail for me is about helping adjudicate the effect in game, being able to explain to the player how this would work and how it might be changed to deliver different game outcomes.
     
    It is not the system, it is us that gets too complicated.
     
    Doc
  4. Thanks
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Scott Ruggels in Combat initiative and the Speed Chart   
    This is Very Very Very Very True and the way it should be. I hate it in D&D where if you hold your action it changes you in the list of when you go, making it so that if you hold your action you are penalized for it.
  5. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from DentArthurDent in "Neat" Pictures   
    I will have to steal this for my FH Game!!!!!
  6. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Doc Democracy in Healing with Knockback   
    First, I have never seen a party in any Fantasy game that didn't have a healer, so yes it definitely can be frequent. Of could, if you run a game where you do not have healers, then reduce it.
     
    Second, knockdown on average is three hexes per dice after the first two dice. This is going with the 2d6 that is taken away from the knockback. So if the player spent 30 points or more for his base healing, it will probably due knockback on an average roll.
     
    Third, as for Defense, it is a disadvantage, there is none.
     
    Fourth, how is building a complication harder to do then a power. In truth, it is extremely easier.
  7. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Combat initiative and the Speed Chart   
    This is Very Very Very Very True and the way it should be. I hate it in D&D where if you hold your action it changes you in the list of when you go, making it so that if you hold your action you are penalized for it.
  8. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Healing with Knockback   
    Which is a Very Good Thing!!!
  9. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Christopher R Taylor in Combat initiative and the Speed Chart   
    There seems to be some confusion here.
     
    I never said you shouldn't be on the internet, or shouldn't use the internet, or that it has no value or use.  I just said you would be surprised how easy it is to do without if, for example, you ever had a chance or reason to.  Like a power outage, or a vacation, camping in the mountains etc.  Its surprisingly easy to break off and not be plugged in.  Peaceful, even.
  10. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to LoneWolf in Combat initiative and the Speed Chart   
    This can be summed up as “having a higher DEX does not mean you act first; it means you get to choose when you act”.   
  11. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Ermenegildo in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Usually, when we set up a campaign in a game without narrative mechanics (We have used this method for different games) we first choose a theme, a short statement that guides the events in the story. Then each character is created with a fatal flow that suits the theme, the player chooses the fatal flow based on the challenge he wants to face while playing.
    This helps to reduce the "arms race" feeling around the table while also easing the creation of good transformation arcs that help the story development.
     
    If you want to play the best swordsman of all time by a huge margin, that’s fine, but you also have to answer the following question:
    1) What is your goal (taking into account the campaign theme)?
    2) How can you fail?
    3) How will your temperament be tested?
    4) What is the price of failure?
     
     
    Obviously, this method is not a silver bullet that solves all the problems, it doesn't cover any possible kind of story and it isn't the only way to create a good story. Nevertheless, I think that is a small trick to help players communicate their desires for the game and to reflect on their character from a different point of view.
     
  12. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    For me personally it might have been a bit dismissive but I realize that just because I feel something is dismissive it doesn't mean that it actually is. For a Video Game player, they like tactics and combat. They aren't as into the general roleplay in between combats.
     
     
    In addition to what you stated, if they are not going to be able to make it, please let me know so I can run the game appropriately. 
  13. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Rich McGee in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    I'd call that a wargamer myself.  I suppose the term's a bit dated these days, given how few people have ever even seen one of the old hex-and-counter games from SPI or AvHill or GDW these days (to name just a few).
     
    Although I suspect many video gamers would quite enjoy some of the smaller offerings from that era.  Metagaming and Task Force's microgames, for ex.  They were a nice alternative to the big multi-hour (or -day) behemoths.
  14. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    Of course, a ton of it depends on your players. Do you have Storyline Players or Video Game Players?
  15. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christougher in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    You may love a STUPID Campaign, otherwise known as...
    Super
    Twirps
    Undertaking
    Personally 
    Injurious
    Duties
    It is a Superhero based game but is like The Tick. One of the major rule changes in it is that characters do not have a BODY Characteristic, so yes, they cannot die. And of course getting the GM and other Players to laugh is how you gain XP.
  16. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Rich McGee in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    Strange, I love to put comedy, intrigue, suspense, and even sometimes horror into my Champions games. Having them just some superheroes fighting some supervillains gets pretty boring rather fast.
  17. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Hugh Neilson in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Transitioning things between media always carries issues that "some things" don't work as well.  Weekly TV is much better at supporting an ensemble cast than a movie franchise.  The printed page and the screen support different elements (Supers can keep those full-face masks on; actors need to convey facial expressions - plus we did not pay for a Big Name to hide their faces constantly).
     
    The first example I always think of is "splitting the party".  Having each member of the team go off to do something different works great in print and on screen. Not so much when the GM and 1 player at a time are playing and the rest of the group is just watching.
     
     
    While there needs to be some chance of losing in a game, there's not much drama or tension in a book, comic, TV show or movie if there is no chance of the protagonist losing either.  Especially in serialized fiction, where we pretty much know that the Hero will survive and likely come out on top, efforts to create suspense over the success or failure take a lot of work.
     
    When we narrowly define "success" and "failure", it becomes that much harder.  Death is not the only way to lose.  Combat is not the only resolution to conflicts.
     
    If the expectation of the game is that the heroes will largely resolve conflicts in combat - the combat encounters will define success and failure, we can't have Unhittable Flash and Unhurtable Superman.
     
    But if their opponent is Lex Luthor, non-combat corporate kingpin investing massive resources in an aura of legitimacy and seeking the Presidency, Flash can't speed him away and Supes can't punch him out of office. 
     
    Well, they COULD, I suppose. Either could knock him out, or even snuff out his life, with no effort at all.  But that would not be a "win" in the game, because "beat Luthor in combat" is not the "victory condition", to coin a phrase.
     
    If we are going to run a game of Silver Age Supers, so powerful that no opponent can hope to prevail in combat, then we need to design our game around challenges that are not resolved by combat. Flipping that around, if we are expecting to run a game where the primary source of tension and drama is conflict resolution by combat, then the PCs cannot be Silver Age Supers for whom combat results are a foregone conclusion.
  18. Thanks
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Market Research: Creatures of the Night, Revised?   
    I just feel that all villains (man, woman, alien, lower plainer, whatever) should have real wants and needs of their own. Even when I use Grond, he has wants and needs. He hates what he has become and the fact that he no longer has the mental capacity to understand much of which is going on around him. He deals with this via violence, if he can't understand it his only option is to destroy it. Villains that have no wants/needs, such as The Monster, I just won't use, or will just use him as an automation for another villain.
  19. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    On thing I do think that Hero does well, is allowing all of their earlier versions be available and even supported. If you do have a group of new players, you could even have your game utilize an earlier version that may be a bit simpler. Then in the future, go to a newer version if you feel it is necessary, or stay with the older one, who cares as long as you and your players are having fun. 
     
    And to add, the problem I see with invisibility is what to be invisible to. So does it mean that if you have invisibility to sight, does that mean that someone who can attack with hearing can hit you? Also, just because you are fast should it mean that you are also immune to mental attacks?
  20. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Rich McGee in Market Research: Creatures of the Night, Revised?   
    Mysterious origins can definitely be a good thing, but not putting down what makes a hero or villain tick is definitely not a good thing.
  21. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Ninja-Bear in Best Ways To Start A New Campaign   
    Not sure if a conversation like this has been done before but I thought it would be a good idea to have a discussion as to what are the best ways to start a new campaign. It of course does not matter what type of campaign, Superheroes, Fantasy, Horror, Spy, Space, whatever, but what should the creator of the campaign look into so that his game has a good start.
     
    My first thought is that the GM should make sure that the players he has available are interested in the type of game he is looking to start. And if not, could it still go on with some minor changes or is he/she completely off the mark.
  22. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    On thing I do think that Hero does well, is allowing all of their earlier versions be available and even supported. If you do have a group of new players, you could even have your game utilize an earlier version that may be a bit simpler. Then in the future, go to a newer version if you feel it is necessary, or stay with the older one, who cares as long as you and your players are having fun. 
     
    And to add, the problem I see with invisibility is what to be invisible to. So does it mean that if you have invisibility to sight, does that mean that someone who can attack with hearing can hit you? Also, just because you are fast should it mean that you are also immune to mental attacks?
  23. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to Hugh Neilson in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Affects Solid World is also pretty pricy.
     
    At standard power levels, "most attacks can't touch me" is likely overpowered. In a game at 800 points, perhaps we should be pulling out the APG for 100% Damage Reduction for our Speedster who reacts so rapidly that most attacks can never connect.
  24. Like
    Gauntlet reacted to unclevlad in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    One trick I've seen for speedsters is a lot cheaper:  Invis.  They're simply moving too fast to be targeted.  Desolid is just too much of a PITA.  (And your suggestion wouldn't be legal.)
  25. Like
    Gauntlet got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Well if you want to state that your speedster has no way of being hit by a bullet (even with a 3 with games that consider 3 to always hit and 18 always miss), then give him Desolification (0 END, Continuous, Always On, Not Through Barriers, not when unconscious, and possible not when stunned) with the special effect that he always dodges the attack. That way there is no chance at all for the attack to hit him.
     
    Now you might mention what about Effects Desolid. I usually will not allow that advantage while at the same time making Desolification have a realistic effect that can affect it. In the case of a speedster's Desolification the way to affect him/her would be Area Effect or Mental Attacks.
     
    But all in all, it depends on the power level of your characters. Should they be WORLD OR EVEN GALAXY PROTECTING HEROES, their power level will probably make it rather easy for them to have such things as they most likely will be over 800 points. But should you have your characters be kids just learning their power, then definitely not as they will probably be only 300 points and many times even lower.
     
    All in All I believe that Desolification will be less expensive then buying up their DCV to an overwhelming level.
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