fdw3773

Updated versions of the characters for Hero System 6th Edition can be found here: Legends of Camelot

On 1/6/2024 at 7:19 PM, Rich McGee said:

Interesting.  What's next, another sequel to Freedom Force? 

Although unlikely, a relaunch/sequel to Freedom Force would be great. I loved the game and the Character Tool feature that allowed fan to create character modifications. Some fans did some amazing work creating DC and Marvel skins along with their own.😀

I noticed that in recent years Chaosium relaunched its classic role-playing games in conjunction with updated versions of others. Of note was Super World, which I heard a lot of good things about in reflecting the style and feel of the superhero genre. I also came across similar reviews for its fantasy themed RPGs. More recently, Chaosium has released Basic Role Playing, which is arguably the counterpart to the core system rule book published by Hero Games.

How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System? I haven't read Chaosium Basic Role Playing or games under that system like Super World yet, but previously ran Pendragon (1st Ed.) many years ago, so I have some familiarity with Chaosium products.

3 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

 

I think it is important, if you are going to have END in the fame, to list the cost for using the power.  It can be "power description [5]".  You can nake it stand out by listing END in green, and all the end costs in green, so that you link those things for players.

However, I don't. In the previous scenarios I ran during game conventions, END wasn't a big factor and tracking it slowed the game down significantly. The only time it mattered was when a player was hit with a Power Drain attack of some kind.

If I use the full rules while trying to replicate every minute detail of each character write-up, I'm back to square one: a game that no one wants to play and has no interest in being introduced to because of all of the excess information.

7 hours ago, Sketchpad said:

I'm a fan of leaving the build points off the sheet. I've been toying with the idea myself, tbh. 

 

As for the Wasp, if this is mainline Marvel, shouldn't she have PS: Fashion Designer and the Van Dyne fortune?

Yes, and in previous write-ups that was annotated. However, player feedback has been along the lines of, "Why is this listed when I'm not going to use it in the scenario?"

This goes back to the ongoing issue I've had in trying to introduce Champions to new players so they're not overwhelmed with information. If I listed every detail such as professional rivalries, access to S.H.I.E.L.D., bases, etc. that Wasp had, the players would have information overload while trying read the sheet.

Even if I listed it, someone is going to say, "Shouldn't Henry Pym be listed as a contact? Or Nick Fury? Or, since Janet Van Dyne and Henry Pym are divorced, shouldn't he be listed as a Rivalry now instead of a Social Complication?" At some point I have stop and have something that a player can use for a scenario that will hopefully generate future interest in Champions/Hero System.

1 hour ago, Mark Rand said:

I thought Wasp had a public ID, not a secret one.

It could go either way based on what I read in the comics over the years. 😉

After a little more modifying using a previous template I developed, here's the latest version. Some general design notes:

1) The Hero File has all of the rules-specific details such as Unified Power, OIF, etc.

2) I kept the Skills, Perks, and Talents to a bare minimum.

3) I added a box that listed the main attacks for the character.

4) I didn't list the END costs for powers. The END stat is listed when the player is hit with a Power Drain attack.

5) I went with 10 pt Arial font, which is much easier to read than Minion Pro.

I may run with this format at the next local game event down the road....wish me luck! 😀

19 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

I think my first step would be to assess whether the sheets could be customized for the specific Con game.  For example:

 

• If no characters have mental powers, and no villains will, do we need Mental Combat Value or Mental Defense?

   

• Do we need rDEF at all?  Only if the game will see killing attacks.  I guess Supergirl has one, so it needs to be explained.

   

• Will there be adjustment powers?  If not, noting “unified power” isn’t relevant to the player.  If they will, Unified Power  will make them extremely complicated to deal with.

 

I’m trying to look at this like I have never played Hero before.  Some thoughts:

 

• There is some extra space in the bottom right of the Characteristics box.  Stretching Defenses into that area would allow “Resistant Defenses” to be more clearly identified.

   

• So what’s this “Endurance” stat?  None of the abilities indicate their END cost, so this will be opaque to a new player.

   

• The various “+x Characteristics” risks confusion as a player looks at Supergirl (for example) and thinks “OK, she has an OCV of 12.  I’ll use her Enhanced Physiology and Battle Training to increase that to 20”.

   

• Flight could have a better explanation of Megascale (e.g. just “30 km out of combat”).

   

• The player needs to know what “Absorption” does.

   

• The player needs to know what “Damage Reduction” does.  This may be another unnecessary complication

   

• A lot of abilities “Requires INT Roll” – the player needs to know what to roll.

   

• A note that she can use only one Multipower ability at a time would help the player. 

   

• Having these and the UP powers numbered suggests they have some common mechanic – one group is all usable at the same time and the other only one at a time? This will not be intuitive to a player.

   

• Are all of the Complications necessary?  The player doesn’t need to know about Hunteds, and either the Danvers Family will be relevant or they won’t in the Con game.

   

• A summary of attack options (especially for Supergirl’s STR) could be helpful to a player.

   

Dropped to Wasp here

 

• An explanation of “Autofire” would also be useful. 

   

• Is there any reason the player would choose the 8d6 attack instead of the 10d6 attack?  Maybe the 10d6 was not intended to be autofire?

   

• Do any of her powers require that she shrink? 

   

• Is that +5 OCV over and above the 11 at the top of the sheet?

   

• Striking Appearance is unclear – does it add to the stats already presented?  Is it always applicable?  What does “+1 PRE” mean?

   

 

 

 

 

 

On the Builds

 

•  I assume the intent is not to run Supergirl and the Wasp together.

   

• If the goal is to introduce players to the game, I like the Wasp’s power level a lot more than Supergirl’s. 

   

• Neither have much investment in skills.

   

• As Doc D notes, having a two-sided sheet would open up more explanatory notes and more “how to run the character in a game” options.

   

• I would also consider “full build” sheets, but only for interested players after the game, perhaps with "campaign guidelines" like DC and defense ranges, an expected focus on superhuman powers over skills, etc.

   

Thanks for the feedback. Everyone has highlighted the joys and challenges of Hero System associated with providing enough detail for those who played it before while making it easy to introduce to new players. My intent of minimizing skills, perks, and talents was to focusing more on powers, but you're right in that the characteristic and skill bonuses already totaled need to be annotated with an asterisk or something similar so that the players doesn't misinterpret the stats.

Previously, I provided an overview of the character to the player and what everything on the character sheet means and once tried organizing the powers and abilities under "Offense" and "Defense" that outlined the main powers/attacks and main defenses with mixed results. Additionally, players have used Wasp and someone similar to Supergirl in terms of power level (e.g. Power Girl) during a game convention session. The scenarios I developed had crossovers built-in between the DC and Marvel Universe with humorous results (e.g. Iron Man hitting on Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk noting that everyone he meets from the DC Universe wears their underwear on the outside). 🙂

5 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

 Pregens with minimalist character sheets are the way to go.  THese are pretty good, though the text is a little bit small. These are good for convention sheets.

Thanks for the feedback! The images are screenshots, which is probably why they look so small. In the actual Microsoft Word document, it's Minion Pro size 10 font, which is standard.

Last month I enjoyed the fall game convention (Nuke Con) and am slowing building up the desire to revitalize Champions and run it at the next major game event. The challenge remains, though, is to take something that's very rules heavy (Hero System) and make it easy enough for brand new players to pick up and be interested in like the rules light superhero game ICONS that I typically run, while still providing the details (e.g. "crunch") that existing Hero Systems players enjoy.

I came up with what I call, "Simplified Sixth" where I combined powers, skills, talents, and perks under the generalized category of, "Skills & Attributes" (I got the idea from Silver Age Sentinels), spell out what I can, minimize acronyms (which really confused new players in the past), and make it fit on one page. Below are two examples and constructive feedback would be extremely helpful.

Thank you!

Simon & Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa (If I Could...")

Christopher Tin's Sogno di Volare ("The Dream of Flight") (Civilization VI Main Theme). Who knew that the theme of a video game could be so inspiring? 😃

Grantchester on Masterpiece Mystery. It's Season 8 and am pleasantly surprised since the Season 7 season finale had the feel of it being a series finale. 🙂

Trying to determine who sang it better...

On 7/1/2023 at 12:08 PM, AlHazred said:

I like them! Would be cool to see Sir Tristram, and sheets for Merlin and Morgan le Fay.

Based on what I read, Merlin and Morgan le Fay would be surprisingly tricky to adapt. The stories I read could be considered low or medieval fantasy due to the limited amount of magic depicted over high fantasy stories like Dragonlance. Merlin didn't cast spells to the same extent as other fantasy magic users do (e.g. his ability often involved seeing into the future or disguise others with glamour magic versus launching magic missiles), and when he did, he potentially slept for months to recover. Morgan le Fay was similar. I remember reading Chaosium's Pendragon 4th Edition that had a really good description of how magic worked in Arthurian romance that drew upon Celtic mythology. 🙂

On 7/1/2023 at 12:08 PM, AlHazred said:

I like them! Would be cool to see Sir Tristram, and sheets for Merlin and Morgan le Fay. However, I have to ask, what Arthurian romances are you using as a basis? Or is this based on film and television representations? Because, for example, Percival in Perlesvaus is basically a horrifying sociopath, as opposed to Percival in Perceval, the Story of the Grail.

I read a lot of Arthurian legends over the years and watched many related films (even the cringey Sword of the Valiant featuring Sean Connery and Miles O'Keefe 🫣), so I tried to blend Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, John Steinbeck's King Arthur and His Knights, John Boorman's Excalibur, and similar stories/films where the knights were generally depicted in a positive, heroic light. 

My write-ups are simply one fan's perspective on a topic I used to read a lot about when I was younger. 🙂

Hello again, everyone! I just posted a new update of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Lamorak, and Sir Percival. I used Fantasy Hero 3rd Edition rules for a much simpler character design. Enjoy! 🙂

Every once in a while I come across what could best be described as a hidden RPG gem that is well-written and a solid game but got overlooked for one reason or another. My most recent hidden gem is Chaosium's Prince Valiant Storytelling Game, an RPG based off of the long-running (and still going) comic strip inspired by the legend of King Arthur. In many ways, it's like a rules-light version of Pendragon that was also written by Greg Stafford, whose love the Arthurian mythology and storytelling came through in this game book that was enhanced even more with some great art designs by Hal Foster.

How about you? What hidden RPG gems have you come across?

On 8/25/2022 at 8:40 AM, Ninja-Bear said:

@fdw3773, If I understand correctly, ICONs is a derivative of the old Marvel System. Do you find that you need to house rule anything?

 

@oldmanthere is an article from Dragon Magazine which you can find under Classic Marvel RPG website on how to make it a point buy system inspired by Champions.  

The main house rule I used was that players rolled two dice instead of one and I took the higher of the two to determine success or failure and did the same for villains. My own internal rule was the villains I created did not have Determination points.

After a few months hiatus, I'm getting inspired again to revitalize a Fantasy Hero campaign that has been in my archives since the mid to late 1990s and was briefly updated for Palladium Fantasy and featured on a fan's website. My personal preference is 5th Edition over 6th, and I was wondering: which 5th Edition Sourcebook replicates TSR's Greyhawk Adventures or Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Saga the best? I have the digital version of Atlantean Age, which seems more along the lines of characters as mythic level heroes/avatars, demigods, and planeswalkers and a bit too high in power level for what I was to use.

Thanks for your help in advance. 🙂

On 9/1/2022 at 2:43 PM, Pariah said:

Thoughts? Suggestions? Recommendations? 

A couple ideas for your consideration when I adapted Hero System to be simpler in order to attract new players:

1) Spell out all of the acronyms when possible.

2) I organized the OCV and related offense powers/attacks under "Offense" and DCV and related defense under "Defense," followed by Skills & Abilities. For defenses, the number in parenthesis reflects resistant defense. The brackets indicate endurance cost that could be omitted as you had alluded to earlier.

Below is an example of the finished product for your consideration:

On 7/27/2022 at 11:22 AM, Laser T. Swift said:

Hi all,

 

I found a hard copy Fantasy Hero book many years ago in a used book store. (pic attached)  Its contents are identical to the other book in the attachments which is 2nd edition Fantasy Hero.  I have been running Fantasy Hero games for many, many years and through all the editions but I never heard of a hard copy of the 2nd edition book.  Can anyone tell me when this book came out and if it is a special release or something?  It doesn't have any numbered copy or special note like I got in my 25th Anniversary Champions book - Number 112 of 200, which I am very proud to own!

 

Much thanks.

 

Laser

 

It's definitely a custom job and based on the type of cover and embossed font, it looks like that it was done by Capitol Bindery Inc. here in Omaha, NE where I live. Years ago I had a similar job done for a 3rd Edition Champions book that was refurbished/hardcover bound that I later gave to a friend.

If you found it in a used bookstore and you live in Omaha, NE, was the store Half Price Books? It is the only used bookstore that I am aware of in the metro area that sells old games. 🙂