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fdw3773

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  1. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Korgoth in Character Sheet for Hero 5 (Rev)   
    I don't have a Form Fillable PDF, but here's a fillable 5th Edition Character Template in Microsoft Word where you type in the data and print out.
    CharacterTemplate5E.docx
  2. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot   
    Updated versions of the characters for Hero System 6th Edition can be found here: Legends of Camelot
  3. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot   
    Hi, everyone! I just posted Hero Designer files and PDF writeups for King Arthur Pendragon, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot of the Lake in the downloads section from British legends. If there's sufficient interest, I may come up with writeups for some of the Knights of the Round Table and assorted villain knights they faced such as Mordred, Turquine, etc.
     
    https://www.herogames.com/files/file/526-king-arthur-queen-guinevere-and-sir-lancelot/
     
  4. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Pattern Ghost in City of Heroes is BACK!   
    There aren't a ton of servers, but they're pretty busy. The busiest is very active.  It seems more lively than Champions Online was the last time I peaked in there, around Halloween-ish. The game seems to be run well. There aren't a lot of glitches. It'd be cool if they got a cash infusion big enough to do a graphics and UI update, since it hasn't aged well in that regard, but they rely on donations, so unless a fan hits the lottery that seems unlikely. The gameplay is pretty much the same as it was when I played live. It has its quirks, and in most ways WoW is the better tab targeting combat system, but once I got back in the groove, it's been decent. The tremendous variety of builds and character costume designs are intact, and  in fact more robust. They've both unlocked all of the VIP stuff for free, but have updated and added several power sets. It's been a good experience so far.
     
     
  5. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Rich McGee in City of Heroes is BACK!   
    Oh, it's just a pipe dream - Freedom Force has a much smaller fan base than CoH - but one can always hope.  Just the fact that the big-ish supers MMOs are still going in 2024 is heartening even if the populations are small, and there's always the chance that someone will risk developing a supers tactical game that isn't tied to a Big Two IP.  There's one much like FF based on the Sentinels of the Multiverse setting, which benefits from decades of tech advances but isn't as ambitious in scope.
  6. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Rich McGee in City of Heroes is BACK!   
    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.😀
  7. Like
    fdw3773 reacted to Rich McGee in City of Heroes is BACK!   
    Interesting.  What's next, another sequel to Freedom Force? 
  8. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to assault in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    If you want to see what the BRP system can do, check out Stormbringer and its spinoffs. The earlier versions weren't balanced, but that was intentional. In a word: Elric.
     
    For SF, check out Ringworld. Unfortunately it's focused on those specific books, but you could probably run a Known Space game with it. It's a bit more complex than I prefer though.
     
    And of course there is Call of Cthulhu. There have been various supplements that could form the basis of an interesting Pulp fantasy game. Clark Ashton Smith? Even Lord Dunsany if you try. C L Moore"s Jirel of Joiry stories would probably work too.
     
    To me the main interest of Superworld is its half developed point system. I'd use it as spare parts rather than trying to play it.
  9. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Sketchpad in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    I snagged the new BRP book when it came out and have enjoyed the read. It does have a "powers" section that covers a few types of magic, psychic abilities, mutations, and super powers. I always thought Superworld, as a concept, had a lot of potential. BRP is a fairly simple system to pick up, with most rolls being d% (with crits being 1/2 and 1/5 of the original roll IIRC). For me, the original Superworld was trying to reinvent the wheel a bit, and seemed a bit incomplete even with the SW Companion. The art was fun, the layout was easy to read, but there just seemed to be something missing. The section in the new BRP books is just a smattering of rules which lays a basic foundation. Like Hero, there's possibilities to build a score of super abilities based on the powers given, but it could use more. I know Steve Perrin had been working on a new Superworld before his passing, which I hope Chaosium manages to eventually publish.
  10. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Duke Bushido in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    I really want to answer, but I don't remember!
     
    Though honestly....
     
    I _still_ play it's original contemporary (2e Champions), and I remember having played both Worlds of Wonder (meh) and Paladium's (Remember that video with the guy who said "pi-LAH-dyum"?  That was what?  A year ago?  _Still_ bugs me....) Fantasy Role playing, and their BRP--
     
    And I don't remeber anything at all except percentile dice.....
     
    Though I guess all that in itself actually says quite a lot....
     
    Hey, @Scott Ruggels:  did George and company have a clue back in the day the staying power rhis game would have?     
     
  11. Haha
    fdw3773 reacted to Rich McGee in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    Wow, it was 2nd, wasn't it?  SW didn't drop till 1983 and Hero 3rd was 1984.  Now I feel old.  Would've sworn it was 3rd, or very early 4th when I played SW.
  12. Like
    fdw3773 reacted to Rich McGee in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    That is true, although I think I'd give V&V first place for artwork back in the day.  Really hard to beat Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham when you're illustrating a supers RPG. 
     
    DC had some lovely Perez work, but I don't think it was commissioned specifically for the game beyond maybe the box cover.
  13. Like
    fdw3773 reacted to Christopher R Taylor in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    I was never impressed with SuperWorld, but it had great Steranko art
  14. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Rich McGee in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    I haven't picked up the latest edition of BRP, but it uses the same fundamentally skill-driven percentile-based engine Chaosium has been known for since the company formed.  BRP effectively competes with its relative Mythras as well (which is why I've put off buying NuBRP), both of which are aiming to be "do anything" rule sets like Hero and GURPS (to name just a few).  I know from a flip-through that modern BRP has sections on using it for various genres, one of which is supers, but I'm not sure how detailed or useful they are.
     
    I played but never owned SuperWorld (the stand alone version, not the abbreviated Worlds of Wonder one- that I had) back in the day, and can't say I loved it.  It seemed prone to a higher lethality rate than I like in supers games, and compared to contemporary Hero (which I want to say was 3rd?  Maybe 4th?) it didn't feel like it was very well balanced - iIRC the point-buy budget for super-stuff was based on how well you'd rolled on your basic stats.  Presumably the new BRP has addressed that but I can't guarantee it.  The game also has a pretty bad rep for extremely poor editing, something that Steve Perrin (who also authored Robot Warriors for Hero in 1986, as well as an adventure or two) was reportedly pretty steamed about - there was supposedly some sort of botch job when assembling it for print and several iterations of playtest docs got muddled together instead of the finished doc by itself.  If wiki is to be believed Perrin blamed/credited the game's mediocre sales partly on that and partly on it being too similar to Champions.
     
    If I sound critical of SW, you might take that with a grain of salt.  I had a bad experience with it for a few months in 1984, but the period reviews were solid enough and it did have its fans (not least of whom being my long-ago college GM).  It's the only one of the Worlds of Wonder bare-bones settings to get an independent, expanded publication, and at one point there were adventures being published with dual stats for both SW and Champions.  The pdf is still available if you're just curious about it.
     
    It also wins my personal award for Best Supers Adventure Title Ever, mostly because it takes some serious stones to publish something called Bad Medicine For Doctor Drugs even in the mid-Eighties.    Then again, I may be a bit biased since I homaged the title character with Professor Pusher over here.   Hmmm.  I should do a Masks port the next time our "Eighties Kids" group gets together to run the game in an era with no smart phones and only the vaguest hint of an internet. 
  15. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Rich McGee in How is Chaosium Basic Role Playing compared to Hero System?   
    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.
  16. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Pariah in What Are You Listening To Right Now?   
  17. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Hugh Neilson in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    That was my initial thought as well - that it looked like END may simply not be in use, so it's not being tracked.  But it was on the sheet, so I assumed that it was in use.
     
    I'm a bit confused that END was not a big factor, just something tracked for no real purpose unless an END drain was used.  If one is used, or a  character is KOd and recovers also adds an END element. A sudden need to introduce a brand-new mechanic in mid-combat seems like an issue.  Not having END costs readily available at that point seems even more problematic.
     
    Also, it looks like it would be a factor if it were not assumed away.
     
    As well, both of Wasp's blasts are annotated "Autofire (Up to 3 shots). I questioned earlier whether it was intended that both the 10d6 attack and the 8d6 Stun Only attack be Autofire, as there seemed to be little reason to use the slightly smaller attack.
     
    With a 6 SPD and 42 END, I'm not sure how autofire attacks that cost 12 or 15 END per use was "not a big deal", even before factoring in shrinking and flight.  With a 7 SPD, Supergirl would run through END pretty quickly too, although having 100 END gives her a bit of staying power. 
     
    Maybe the builds behind the scenes build in some reduced/0 END to offset this, though.
     
    More broadly, END is really an "old school RPG" resource management element.  It does balance out some elements, like lower-cost exhausting powers, and some costs (like autofire) might need reconsideration if it were eliminated, but when many builds are designed around enough reduced END to remove its impact, the possibility of replacing it with something less fiddly seems to merit consideration, at least.
     
     
     
     
    To some extent, I think this can be a question of the game constructed using the Hero system.  All of that stuff can be included as character sheet detail, but be left off for a one-off where it will not come into play - maybe we have a bunch of minutia skills and perks offset by a few complications.  Maybe the game style is more streamlined, so a lot of background issues (skill/perks, etc. and complications) are not used in the game, or are simply non-costed background elements with minimal or no in-game effect.  This is a dial setting that really merits more discussion in the rulebooks.
  18. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Doc Democracy in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    I am all for this in one-off and con games.  But I would take END away completely then - and anything that would otherwise tire people out would simply be doing STUN damage. 
    In the past I have abstracted END to some "energy tokens" - I used glass beads.  When the narrative of the story was about pushing things on, I would take tokens away and some attacks (that I knew were END drains etc) would take away tokens.  It made it more physical and less abstract, and the tokens came back when they delayed or rested.
     
     
  19. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Sketchpad in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    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.
  20. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Doc Democracy in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    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.
  21. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Hugh Neilson in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    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.
  22. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Doc Democracy in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    I can join the chorus of appreciating simpler sheets for play, divorced from build sheets or hero designer files.
     
    Watch your players, if they can't find numbers they are not obvious enough.  One place the game mechanics drive a bit of confusion is conflating ability stats with game stats.  By that I mean things like STR, DEX, INT etc sitting beside SPD, REC, END and STUN. 
     
    I would have a combat box where all these useful numbers sit together.
     
    In the Supergirl sheet, I would probably remove the detail from the Enhanced physiology, just note that asterisked features are enhanced, then add some asterisks through the sheet. The GM needs the detail, the player's playing sheet just needs to know what is linked in this way.
     
    I might also push it out to two sides.  I would put the picture, the background and the complications on one side, possibly bulking them out with some strategy hints and tips.  I would then add a bit of text "colour" to the powers to encourage players to play the power and not the numbers.
     
     
    Yeah, when I was younger that was no problem, today it is becoming more of a challenge. 🙂
     
    Doc
  23. Like
    fdw3773 got a reaction from Doc Democracy in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    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!
     


  24. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Scott Ruggels in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    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.
  25. Thanks
    fdw3773 reacted to Christopher R Taylor in "Simplified" Sixth Edition...feedback requested   
    Yeah I think that's the direction to go with character sheets: strip out all the stuff nobody needs during the game.  Nobody needs the values of modifiers on their character sheet.  Nobody needs the cost of stats, nobody needs base stats.  Just give the character's abilities without the background gamer stuff.  Somewhere (usually in Hero Designer) you need all that stuff, but not in the sheet.
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