Christopher R Taylor

It seems like a mix of flint and bronze was in use, suggesting either one side was richer/more advanced or the transition was going on between the two.  Flint actually  probably makes a better arrowhead than bronze but its darn hard to mass produce.

You could actually have just a smoke blast or two as well (multipower)

PTS   POWER/SKILL

 60    Smoke Manipulation: Multipower (60 pts)

 2v    Smoke Cloud: Change Environment (-3 to sight perception), Area Effect Radius 6m

 3v    Dark Smoke: Darkness vs sight  6m

 6f     Flames: Blast 12d6 (vs ED, fire)

 6f     Choking Smoke: Blast 6d6 AVAD (need not breathe)

etc

The reason we have Physical and Energy Defense, costing exactly the same but separate, is because of Hero's roots in Champions.

 

If you're running a fantasy game where people get hit with energy as much as physical, I think that's unusual.

 

Most fantasy games, you're right, PD would be the most commonly encountered attack.  And that means few people are going to build up their ED (in fact, much armor would have lower ED than PD, such as plate).  For me, that's not a bug, that's a feature, because it lets magical attacks bypass people's best defenses and target lower defenses without even needing to pay a lot of points for it.  Sure, your axe does good damage, but Mhyrddn uses lightning, and your ED is half your PD!  It also makes special creature attacks more significant without needing to buy any special attacks.

I remember Fantasy Hero 1e had a Defense effect, which covered Power Defense, Flash Defense

 

First edition Fantasy Hero was really interesting the way the powers were set up, with alternate names and groupings.  If it weren't for the effort to make characters transfer directly between settings as a generic system, it would be worth it to have a different set of powers and names like that.

I do like the idea of an alternate "Magic" defense, covering mystical attacks (as well as perhaps defenses against supernatural attacks) though.  Maybe Power Defense would cover that in a fantasy setting.

I do have ideas for shorter products that I would be inspired to write.

I would also pay for the art.

 

I do as well, although the art I can't cover.  What could be done is a kickstarter to pay for the costs along those lines.  I do really want to move forward on Astro City Hero, but that would require significant assistance from Hero Games and someone handling stuff like the publicity and crowdfunding.

How much would it cost to bring a 128 page 6x9 glossy book to print?

 

Depends on the print lot, but if you go Print on Demand, which is a better model anyway, it costs you... zero.  They just take a large chunk of the cover price.  The more you print, the less they charge.

Just out of curiosity, how tough was the kickstarter to run?  Who did the video and ran it, was that your effort or did Hero set it up?

It is surprising to me that so many were gathered in that one area.  I have to guess that it was a huge coalition of kings and warlords on either side meeting up for some catastrophic final clash that lasted for days if not weeks given the info in the article.

I don't expect Civil War to end well, either. I don't think the MCU will be the same afterward. And I'm down for that.

 

 

The problem is, what's the same?  The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had no time to set up any sort of equilibrium whatsoever.  Cap showed up briefly, then is lost.  Iron man shows up and all hell breaks loose, with Manhattan being flattened by an alien invasion.  Then SHIELD is wiped out.  The only time "never be the same" really works is if there's ever been a reasonable time period where things were a certain way.

Civil War is one of those ideas that people think is a terrific idea because they haven't thought through what it means to basic tropes and themes of comic book superheroes.  MCU has done enough damage to that with basically nobody having a secret identity or code name, let alone really any sort of costume except Iron Man and Captain America.  This deconstruction really undermines the wonder and fun of comics until all that's left are burly men and women beating the crap out of each other in a preview of Kingdom Come.

Actually, in fantasy (and a few other genres like Superheroes or Sci Fi) PD and ED make a lot of sense.  You're going to face fire breathing dragons and lightning bolt hurling Wizards.  in a spy game or a street level cop game?  Not so much.

You don't see Arabs often as bad guys any longer but yeah Germans are the go-to bad guy.  Its the accent I think.  British sounds cultured and educated, but German sounds scary and mean to American ears.  Like Southern US accents sound dumb to Hollywood types.

In American TV, the go to bad guy is a white male over the age of 40, as Vondy noted though.  Most advertising has the white guy as the cloddish idiot (although any adult male will do).  Its just the way simple, limited minds with no creativity work: this is what I know and I don't have to think hard to figure it out!  Besides, if I bash the white guy, nobody is going to boycott me or accuse me of terrible intentions.

THe idea of a modern city with a subway, sewers, old shut down unused subway, then ruins of previous cities beneath it in layers, that fascinates me.  Imagine what could be down there?

Similarly, with PS: private investigator, charge 15 points for it and allow the player to make some generic PI rolls until he needs something specific and then start filling out some of the space below the main heading with more specific stuff, as it becomes important to the story.

 

All of this could begin to make HERO feel like a new game even i the core mechanics and engine was untouched.  The players might never NEED to see the core if they can be led through it by an intuitive (and in my dreams) interactive character sheet.

This is pretty contrary to the very core concept of Hero and its precision, though.  You could certainly do it, but that's definitely a move away from the basic ideas of Hero Games.

I even love the names from those time periods, long lost civilizations like the Hittites and the Etruscans. The longest-settled location that anyone knows of on earth is in Bulgaria, just built on the ruins of past cities over and over from far, far back into the distant past.

If I knew why or how, I'd definitely try to get the licensing from Busiek and work on the product.  He's on Facebook and I could contact him there but that's probably not the ideal way to handle it.

I'm having zero success with Patreon, haven't cracked its secret yet

Astro City Hero

Champions Down Under

City of Heroes Hero

If there was any licensing to be done, I'd love to see Kurt Busiek's Astro City done in Champions.  Such a great world.

Hopefully soon Diamond will have assignments for people.  I'd like to see this ready for playtest by the end of next month and on the "shelf" before summer.

Incidentally, that build of Brick is good but has some basic problems.

Growth and Density Increase are temporary powers in 6th edition, they are not meant to represent bigger and denser.  You use various powers that give the effects and physical complications for the drawbacks.

I confess that a Bronze Age game is really fascinating to me because its so old and fantastical back then.  Egypt and Assyria and Akkadia, Sumeria, the old, old world lost in time where somehow magic seems more plausible.

Sad how wretched and cringing as a people we've become in such a short time.  You said a word!  A word!  It shatters my inner child!

More complex systems seem to be more engaging for audiences. Even the slightest bit of complexity to the D&D social rules have been widely approved as a step in the right direction. Are complex rules necssary? No, none of this is necessary beyond the absolute bare bones. Are they desired and good for the game to create more robust kinds of stories, interactions, and challenges, be it a fight, a diplomatic meeting, an investigation, or building something? That's a big fat yes.

 

I think this is a good argument.  Its like the difference between T ball and softball.  The rules are harder the play is harder, the challenge is greater, and the fun is much greater, allowing for a more sophisticated and complex gaming experience. 

so if you've noted a shortage of individuals doing the sort of 'marketing' 'work' of which you wrote, the business may wish to rectify it.

 

Well aside from how this takes money that Hero Games doesn't have, that's not how a hobby grows.  Hobbies grow by people loving it and spreading the word, pouring their passion into the world and bring new people into it.  If nobody is willing to do that any more, well I guess we know why RPGs are not as big as they once were and Hero is suffering eh?

Batman in Dark Knight didn't kill anyone; he could have saved one helicopter with a bomb and chose not too, but while he put guys in the hospital and tortured a few guys, he didn't kill.

Has batman killed a lot of people in the films?  Yeah. He blew up a factory with people in it.  I didn't like that, either, that one line he won't cross is very defining to the character, particularly given his past.

The entire premise of the film is reversed, it should have been older, wiser Batman with experience teaching crazed marauding murdering alien Superman to calm down, care about life, and stand for something besides self defense.

The golden age hero player team I was running a game for defeated an attempt by the Klockwerk King (ripped shamelessly off from City of Heroes) to build a huge rampaging robot out of the Perisphere and Trylon at the '39 World's Fair, stopped a bunch of triffids, and protected the British royal family from a diesel electric train demonstration that went off the rails.  Afterward I sent out emails with thank you cards by little kids, with hand-drawn pictures and carefully scrawled statements.  There's tons of clip art and kid's pictures out there and fonts that mimic childish writing, it was super easy.

That went over enormously well.  Just little stuff like that makes all the difference.

I know more than one Hero GM (Including myself) who will run other systems because the other systems are LESS WORK to run. If I run a Savage Worlds Plot point campaign, everything is included. I don't have to build anything. If I want to run anything with Hero, I have to make everything or nearly so. While that was fun 20 years ago, I just don't have the time to do that anymore

Sure, and that's not an unreasonable concern.  One that can only be answered with people putting out complete products like Manic Typist describes, above.  I'm working on it, others are (like Michael Surbrook).  That's what it takes; people who love the hobby and have the passion to make it happen.  Sitting back and complaining that nobody is dropping the goodies in your lap isn't gonna make anything better.  

I do about 1000 bucks worth of labor on each of my books, and I know the chances of me ever getting paid for that are slim to none.  That's fine, I'd be working on gaming stuff anyway, so I just write it off: its a labor of love.  When I put a book up on the catalog here and on RPGDriveThru and on my own site, its to further the hobby, have fun, and give people a chance to have fun, too.

If you're concerned about the health of this or any other game system, there are five solutions:

1) buy the company and run it better

2) Invest in the company to give them a cash infusion

3) Buy lots of product to help them out

4) Make your own product to add to the catalog and bookshelf

5) Sponsor someone else making product, like on kickstarter, etc.

And who here is at the local game store asking for Hero books, suggesting they be out there, putting on games to attract players, doing games at CONs?  That's how this stuff spreads.  That's how popularity builds.  Gamers with a passion and love for what they do, out pounding the pavement, not their smart phone's screen.