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bpmasher

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Everything posted by bpmasher

  1. Got some brainstorming to do still but I'm pretty fired up about running this sort of game. Throw in some Weird War 2 figures and you've got a whole another survivor faction to go with your zombie apocalypse, maybe even revert the year back to 1940s and include everything else (Nazis, mechas) and the kitchen sink too, but still keep the survival aspect of the game. I'm starting to get all sorts of crazy ideas I like to be able to run a simulationist game with features stolen from pulp gaming and other cool things. I've still got to find ways to include Possible Enemy Forces on the game map (directly stolen from All Things Zombie) and how to run the campaign aspect of a game, but I think I'm steadily getting into a mental space where I can manage to hammer out a workable solution for this project. Timed objectives would be another thing that would add a lot of tension to a gaming session, if it's done right. That's just one more thing to work out...phew. Ideally the whole thing would work just as an fluid add-on to the Hero system, so it uses the same familiar dice mechanics to get the results in the game, but still being a unique and fun way to play the game without needing a GM to make the calls all the time.
  2. I think Hero has the flexibility to run like a light wargame (basic to-hit and damage rolls) and a more zoomed-in detailed skirmish game. I like the idea of needing food and needing to count bullets, so I can add those in, no problem. If you want a superhero slugmatch, just let them pound away, no need to use endurance rules even. Perfect mod-ability. I like the idea of dungeon tiles or even city-block tiles, I'll have to see if I can find those somewhere (especially dungeon tiles!). Looks like D&D have their own line of dungeon tiles they put out
  3. Some ideas for Skirmish Hero: For normal skirmish battles, just note the total amount of character points a group can have. The group could have a powerful leader character (capped at chosen level) and the rest of the troops will divide the remaining CPs between them (ex. Total force points 600: one 300 point leader and a handful of grunts). Campaign characters would be created like normal Hero characters, with skills and all, and they will adventure through a set of scenarios preplanned before sitting down to play. Campaigns need some ideas, since the scenarios will not work like normal RPG adventures. There is no GM to dictate what happens, so a set of guidelines will give the basis for creating scenarios. Say we have a couple of zombie apocalypse survivors, and I need to create a scenario. I will need triggers for events before the scenario can unfold. Let's use a scene with a couple of houses and two survivor player characters. The PCs are looking for supplies and people to increase their fighting power against the Zeds. Every house entered might trigger a different event. The events are randomly generated (no GM, remember!) as characters approach and enter each house. Lets choose a couple of things that could happen: 1. The PCs run into a mob of zeds, combat ensues. 2. The PCs run into other survivors hiding out in the building, use social skills and determine survivor type to figure out what happens (join, part ways, trade supplies etc.) 3. The PCs run into raiders, social skills might help, making a deal might work (losing supplies) or combat might ensue. 4. The PCs run into a supply stash, fun will be had listing new stuff in inventories 5. Nothing specific happens. If the scenario has goals, one of the locations will contain the objective, or a clue towards the objective, thus leading to another scenario. That's the basics of it for now. Different triggers can be determined at the start of a scenario, like firing guns would lead to a random number of zombies to be generated, or driving a car would trigger more zombies, fumbling a skill roll would lead to something else (most likely a new problem). If the players like it, giving some requirements for keeping the characters alive would be an option, like needing a certain amount of food after each scenario, counting bullets, or having enough gas for a car to keep it running between scenarios. Of course, a different set of guidelines would be needed for another genre, but the above might work equally well for post-apocalyptic adventures or a dark fantasy game. The point is that Hero has flexibility to run this sort of game, without GM help for generating a story. The story pretty much generates itself when we use a set of guidelines for each scenario, and keep creating new situations for characters to get involved in. Every building, encounter and fumble can work as a basis for another scenario, thus the story keeps going as long as there are characters in the group still alive and kicking. When the story ends, happily or not, just roll another set of characters and off you go again
  4. As a skirmish ruleset, Hero holds a lot of promise. I could pick up whatever miniatures look cool to me, stat them, and start running a game based on almost anything. That is why I like this idea. For most fun though, I'd like the game to run in a co-op mindset, so that's why I'm trying to come up with ways to run NPCs on their own. I got a suggestion where I'd just port All Things Zombie reaction system to Hero, and that's probably what I'll try to do. Ideally, the game would play out like a traditional RPG campaign, but with two or more players on the same side, without the need for a GM. I think that's a goal worth pursuing. I'll have to start today or it'll never get done though
  5. Good ideas guys. I was thinking of writing a set of tables that takes some concepts like "force quality" into account, familiar stuff from war games. Basically, we've got elite NPCs who might fight to the death, and then we have some gnarly goblins who might just run away after their big ogre support falls down dead. EGO or PRE would work as a basis for morale rolls. The Battlegroup war game series has a force morale feature, where the battle is lost after having to rally enough men or taking too much losses. This is a somewhat realistic feature that would work well in almost any setting. Then I'd steal some ideas from other games (ASL), like having the NPC mob be immobile and unaware until an INT roll succeeds or a character fails a stealth check. A mob leader could only activate if he notices they're being stalked or picked off one by one. You'd get sneaking around as a feature in a skirmish game with this tweak. Different types of units, like ranged and melee, would always act by their simple parameter of always using their main attack as a priority, like archers and berserkers acting by their own guidelines. Special attacks would be used as soon as possible to inflict maximum damage, or on the strongest PC, or the most heavily armed PC. Random rolls for who gets attacked is a good idea, should work out fine. Assigning priority to figures or groups of figures before the game could prevent rolling for every reaction, like saying that ranged units always attack the most heavily armed member of a group, or always attack the closest figure and such. If a character is "famous" enough, let's say that his character point total is a lot more than other PCs, he would be a priority target in some cases, like a big monster always attacking him, or every monster would be attacking him etc. All these tactics would depend on the monster group, and how "smart" in combat they are, all setup before playing a scenario. Just switching these parameters from game to game would allow for a lot of variety in battles and keep things fresh. Then we've got objectives. This adds another level to NPC reactions. Say the NPCs are robbing a bank, so getting the cash and getting out fast would be their priority. A couple of figures in the group are given overwatch priority, where they try to keep the PCs at bay, while the other characters would rush for the cars with their bags of money. You could add combat parameters to the overwatch figures, like always attacking the PC with the biggest weapon, or who has the highest "level", or just using suppressing fire to prevent the PCs from maneuvering. Give each figure his guidelines and play the scenario out. Should be simple enough, like plotting an RPG adventure, but with some more detail. I like the idea of morale checks. These would be the thing that could prevent any character from acting in a turn. Depending on the level of failure (need to look this up in Hero), a PC or NPC could lose a number of segments in which they couldn't act, leave cover or work toward their objectives. Basically failing a morale check temporarily takes you out of the fight, leaving the opposition free to achieve their objectives or organize their attack or do anything else that their guidelines dictate. This would also take some control away for the player characters in true war gaming fashion.
  6. I was thinking of Hero and my newly-found infatuation with miniatures games. I've got the books I bought, but no roleplaying group or any signs of getting back into RPGs. No need to sell them though if I can find a use for the ruleset: Why not run a co-op game of skirmishing through campaign scenarios with a set of miniatures and some terrain? I've got the idea from Two Hour Wargames All Things Zombie game, and the way the ruleset allows people to play linked scenarios with miniatures in a campaign. Couldn't Hero manage the same thing, and with multiple genres as a bonus? Could I bend the rules enough to allow two players to play in a cooperative manner, so the "mooks" or enemies are run by a set of guidelines that could be formed before starting a campaign? It's easier with zombies, where the reactions vary between "hear sound, go towards it" or "see human, eat it", but how could I run a Hero game so the bad guys are controlled by an "AI" to allow for cooperative playing of the game. Traditional skirmish where two teams are battling or competing for a goal would work fine I think. I'd need an AI system in place for co-op to work. We've got a basis for running miniatures in Hero: inch equals two meters (IIRC). Fifth edition books would work fine as a basis, and I've got a couple of source books already. Skirmish -level games have only a handful of miniatures per side, so the costs would be reasonable. Unbalanced "forces" in a battle is possible too, with the use of weaker hordes of npcs, so the game can be as realistic or cinematic as I'd want it to be. Smaller scale minis allow for more terrain on the table, but I'd like the detail of 28mm minis because of their usually excellent sculpts. Hero has a skill-system in place, so it offers some depth in addition to miniatures skirmishing, maybe allow the use of skills to setup for the next battle, using social skills to gain some help, contacts to acquire new weapons and supplies, and ways to proceed in a scenario like using stealth or climbing skills to gain a tactical advantage. Characters gain experience points after battles, this allows for a rpg-like approach to the game. Depending on the scenario objectives, the players could "lose" a scenario and as such, gain less experience and have to find a new approach to a situation, but the game would still go on and basically run like a RPG, albeit with miniatures and pre-made terrain. Including "down-time" and "go-time" as a part of the campaign would allow different characters to get the spotlight in a given scenario, and would lessen the blow of a PC getting shot up badly and having to recuperate. All that can be included and taken care of in a down-time phase of a campaign, in addition to creating new characters and figuring out what the PCs want to do next and what kind of a scenario to prepare for the next sessions of gaming. In addition to being "realistic" it allows for a sense of continuity and depth to the running campaign, where all the RPG -stuff can be included in the game as just another option for the players (counting bullets, learning skills, resupply, healing times etc.). The narrative created in this way would be deeper than what you get in a "standard" skirmish war game. About the "AI", which is the difficult part. All Things Zombie uses a reaction -system, where a given miniature activates and moves, until it comes across another miniature, which again gets to react to the first miniature. I've yet to study the rules in-depth (been busy buying miniatures), but it all works out in a way that allows the game to run itself basically. How to use the standard initiative sequence in Hero to run a game without a GM? Does it need a rework? Would one player take over the "enemy" characters, or would each player run a mob of different NPCs so two players would be playing against each other as well as on the same side, so to speak. Don't know yet, this is just my initial spark of interest towards the idea of Hero+miniatures, but I've yet to work out the details. Any ideas?
  7. Gaming the era might takes some tricks to run longer than that One could steal from Godlike RPG and allow players to create multiple characters, Troupe -style, or allow "some" superpowers that would keep the PCs alive longer. In a special forces commando -type game the focus could be on stealth and getting behind enemy lines and getting out quietly. The adventures might be more roleplaying oriented, with the threat of sudden violence looming in the background. If one wanted to just run Godlike with Champions ruleset, other stuff could be stolen too, like the Will bidding wars between superpowered characters, where using more END to cancel out another characters power was an option, so supers would be toned down a bit when fighting each other.
  8. I was thinking about the game balance, depending on the types of characters that PCs have. A "realistic" heroic campaign would have characters that consistently get chewed up by machine guns. That, and also the fact that I was thinking about german defensive tactics they used in bocage country, where they set up a point for the machine gun, shot up as many allied soldiers they could and quickly retreat to another position. Using suppression fire in game terms would be a good way to simulate those kinds of tactics, since the allies were trying to advance towards the german positions (taking hits as they moved, or remaining pinned in position).
  9. I got the 4th edition version, and it doesn't have many weapons, and the tanks have lower-damage guns with the armor piercing advantage. Tank combat would be greatly simplified from just looking at the stats in Hero 5th edition, since they have killing attacks and a single DEF -stat. I would like to tinker with these stats so that tanks have armor piercing rounds as well as high explosive rounds, and several armor ratings for different sides of the tank. The armor ratings could be bumped up a bit, then apply a percentage of it to different sides of the tank for greater verisimilitude. Crew damage and hit locations would be worked out too. Another solution would be to use lower damage armor piercing rounds, and use the DEF stats as they are...
  10. Yeah of course, I was uncertain about that one. Hopefully I'll get the hankering to stat more weapons soon, maybe try an armored vehicle or two.
  11. For quickly resolving automatic fire hits, just use the average damage per die (3.5 for d6 or 1.5 for ½d), and apply armor to the results before applying damage to characters, by multiplying with the number of hits acquired with autofire. Additionally, when using hit locations chart, just apply the average damage and multiply by hit location and number of rounds that hit. Additionally, one could round the average damage up to 4 or down to 3 per die, possibly depending on the shooter, to the player characters favor, or even against them. Rapid-firing weapons should almost always be used to provide covering fire for advancing or assaulting troops (per the covering fire rules), to not overwhelm a single player character with a highly damaging full-auto burst if hit. A crew of 2 men with a MG42 will be able to cover a large area with a volume of fire, and with a skilled loader (fast draw skill) the fire can be almost continuous.
  12. I've been toying around with the idea of running some Commando comics -influenced World War 2 game with pulpy heroes boosted with abilities from Dark Champions and Pulp Hero. The players would participate in a number of imagined and real world operations in various World War 2 theaters in their adventures. I've looked at writeups for weapons of the era in Hero and I wanted to make some changes. Hopefully this thread will contain many "realistic" weapons for greater verisimilitude in WW2 era combats. I mainly focused on assigning correct autofire ratings for these weapons, but damage might change too in some cases, and some notes regarding crews manning the weapons. I will not include point costs or anything since the genre would be mainly Heroic instead of Superheroic. Weapons for WW2 Hero: MG34, 800-900 rounds per minute, 7,9x57mm Mauser bullet, 50 round drum magazine or 250 round belt Damage: 2½d6 (Dark Champions pg. 203 listing), increased stun multiplier +1 Capacity: 50/250 or more with linked belts Crew: 1 or 2 men according to role in the battlefield, one gunner, one loader Notes: AF15 (900rpm), Bulky, (Crew 2), can be used by single soldier as a light machine gun MG42, 1200-1800 rounds per minute, 7,9x57mm Mauser, 50 round belts, 75 round drum, or linked belts (250+ rounds) Damage: 2½d6, increased stun multiplier +1 Capacity: 50/75/250+ Crew: 1 to 2 men Notes: AF20 (1200rpm), Bulky, (Crew 2), can be used by single soldier as a light machine gun Type 99 Light Machine Gun, 700 rounds per minute, 7,7x58mm Arisaka, 30 round box magazine Damage: 2½d6, increased stun multiplier +1 Capacity: 30 Crew: 1 to 2 men Notes: AF10 (700rpm rounded), Bulky, (Crew 2) M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle, 500-650 rounds per minute,.30-06 caliber, 20 round box magazine Damage: 2d6+1, increased stun multiplier +1 Crew: 1 Notes: AF10 (650rpm), Bulky
  13. Besides looking into buying Monster Hunter International, another type of game I want to run is something in the vein of Stormwatch/The Authority (Wildstorm universe). There are lots of cool elements in that universe that would warrant an awesome roleplaying environment. - the invisible Council that that keeps an eye on Stormwatch, and probably everyone else too. - a world full of all kinds of metahumans and powerful psychopaths - lots of action and violence - Stormwatch -members (player characters) dying and taking revenge There's a lot more but that's some of what I remember off the top of my head (buying the comics to read them again). A Champions game run in the style of Stormwatch would be a bit different, probably with really powerful characters (or heroic characters, depending on the campaign), lots of killing attacks, moral ambivalence, a lot more folks getting killed, and I'd probably use hit locations in addition to blowback and more traditional superhero combat. All kinds of characters can be made within the universe with various kinds of powers. (Time's running short), but anyways, what kinds of elements would you have in a Stomwatch Champions game, and what kind of characters would you create in addition to the ones in the comic series?
  14. I'm a newbie to the Hero system, haven't bought other books than Dark Champions years ago, but I'm planning to get into the game seriously. Monster Hunter International seems like a good starting point, but how complete is it in terms of rules and character options and such? Is it really a stand-alone book for a new GM to pick up for example?
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