tikiman

I don't understand...if this was going to be a problem why did you let a PC like this into the campaign at all? Did I miss something?

How about super heroes just being a new thing altogether?

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A lot of this talk seems to assume a PC or group of PCs should be able to defeat the big-deal villain in combat. It seems to me that a major trope of comic books is heroes who have to outwit the more-powerful villain rather than beat him in a fair fight.

Can't imagine a new Star Wars will be any good. They should have just left it at three and moved on. Guess too much money to be made.

A lyre made from a human skull sounds like a pretty cool artifact for some evil cult to use. Maybe the melodies summon their dark lords or some such. Neat.

You'll need a magic system, if you're going to have any magic, and I humbly suggest my Fantasy Codex for that

Is that a book or something online? I see there's something called Fantasy Hero Compendium, anybody know what that is?

Are you looking for non-gaming related stuff? if so I recommend the Gentlemen Bastards, and Mistborn that will allow you to see the two most extreme forms of fantasy.

No idea what those are. Novels? Only seeking game materials/aids.

Do you want ubiquitous magic?

No. Magic is rare, seldom understood, wonderful and frightening.

Are PC's allowed access to magic?

Yes. But only one would be allowed to be an actual wizard. Anyone else might learn a trick or two given time and experience.

Do you have a setting in mind?

Harryhausen Sinbad mixed with Conan, no elves/dwarves/hobbits, vaguely Middle Eastern locale, human-centric and occasional monsters. Most enemies are your fellow man. GURPS Arabian Nights is on hand for some of the background/setting.

What level of challenge are you thinking for the players, fighting bandits on the road or fighting evil wizards bent on world destruction?

All of the above as they gain in influence and power and if they are interested in it.

Does character growth matter? If you plan to run 10 sessions then growth will be very limited in any game, but if you plan to run for a year then it may be a good idea to start low and go up.

PCs start just a cut or two above the man in the street and progress from there. No "super heroes" like Aragorn and Legolas in the LOTR movies. A beginning party of four should think twice before taking on a dozen bandits.

Hello, I have played Hero for a few genres but have never played/owned/used Fantasy Hero. I do not like D&D and class/level straitjackets and am thinking Hero may be a good alternative as many players enjoy the fantasy genre. I don't own 6th ed. Hero but have every other version, but prefer 4th and could probably do 5th if need be. Any ideas what material would be good for someone new to fantasy via Hero? Note: not interested in any published settings, just basic stuff to help get into the game, as I make my own from scratch with a pinch of whole cloth.

That's an interesting perspective. I have found that one can translate plots from any genre in to LLH as luchador movies run the gamut from horror to Bondesque spies to sci-fi to mafia/crime to mystery to super hero to pulp (Raiders of the Lost Ark style), etc. I think you may be selling it short based on the scenario presented in the book, as if you ever get to see the movies there's a lot more than that.

I don't even think it matters if all PCs are built on the same number of points as long as everyone has something to do and is satisfied. I stopped doing the math long ago and just eyeball character sheets for abuses. Of course, this requires mature players who aren't just trying to min-max and a game that isn't just punch-ups. This works just fine if everyone is mature enough for it. Character points really don't matter.

Western Hero was a sourcebook/ genrebook for HERO 4th edition. It provides Deadwood as a setting (around 1876) and does it very decently - especially the description of the town itself was very well done IMO (only the map of Deadwood could be a little bit better, but does the job).

 

There are some short adventures and one longer once faeturing a train-robbery with GREAT MAPS !!! of the train and plays out nicely. My group enjoyed it.

In the back you have an asortment of critters, some of them unfortunately a little faulty on the stats (the scorpion has DEX 25 and no Shrinking - so it is basically the size of a pony ...), but the generic stats for Outlaw, Brace, Soldier, Lawman etc are very goood and the character write-ups of Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Will Bill etc. even better.

 

All in all very nicely done. And even if you just play the scenarios in the book and sandbox in Deadwood you have a nice little campaign.

Was well worth my time!

Thanks for the information. As 4th is my go-to edition, this may be worth getting.

The old westdont get no respect in the gaming world.

 

Deadlanda was ok!

 

QM

And what little product we get is nearly always "Weird West." Apparently the genre is unpopular in the RPG world; or else no one has come up with the formula to bring in the fans. Aces & Eights was too rules-heavy for me and the alternate history default setting was a turnoff. I still resort to Boot Hill as GURPS Old West I didn't find to be very good.

Any opinions on Western Hero? I saw a used copy I am thinking about getting.

I sometimes like to stir the pot; I'm not advocating for one over the other.

^{A guy ranting and raving about how an auto accident wasn't his fault despite the fact that both his version and the other driver's version would be his fault.}

That new Musketeers show on BBC America. Not great, but not awful. Waiting to see if the 2nd installment is better than the 1st.

And I've still got it in my collection! It's called Doc Savage:His Apocalyptic Life

 

I always thought this "surgery" was a rather creepy part of the stories. Carving the evil out a man's brain may have seemed like a noble thing in Robeson's time, but to the modern mind, it's still butchery.

Yes, it's far better to leave the evil mind undiagnosed and untreated and let it go on a shooting rampage at an elementary school. Modern morality is a noble thing.

Compared to what else was coming out at the time? F.Scott Fitzgerald was writing his pieces from the 1920's to the late '30s. Asimov and Clarke started out in the end of the pulp era. Edgar Rice Burroughs started in the pulps, but soon enough was publishing his own books under his own imprint. I'm not a big fan of "literary merit" or snobbish assumptions of "important works" (which, frankly, mostly seem to have been simply those the self-important liked), but there is a pyramid of quality, ranging from master of the art , to novelist, all the way down to hack. And whatever good ideas and fun plots the pulp writers managed, their actual skill as writers tended towards the latter, not the former.

Having read every novel and short story Fitzgerald ever wrote, I still disagree. Asimov and Clarke were too busy trying to impress the sci-fi community with their high concepts to bother with exciting stories. I think your statement reflects the accepted wisdom that adventure stories are inherently less worthy than "serious" literature. It's the same nonsense that means a comedy cannot win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Seems as though that trend is softening, because quite a few RPGs now come with Action Points as standard, or as a suggested optional rule.

That actually means the opposite: it is mainstream and an indicator of cultural shift away from traditional RPGs and toward "storytelling games."

The jump to 350 can be explained by reading the first entry in CKC.

CKC = ?

Some don't find it fun to die on a Critical Failure relating to an action that isn't as wholly heroic, as, say, fighting the villain head on.

 

Thank the RPG designers that came up with the prototypes for Action Points.

Yes, many people have difficulty with things not always going their way. They probably shouldn't get involved too deeply in a game of chance.

And yes, I'm well aware that Hero didn't invent "Action Points."

I don't think that the core rules of HERO are really the issue. It has always had the best toolkitting rules on the market. What it has NOT had is the best finished game settings with actual examples of what optional rules were turned on and off and WHY. When folks are comparing M&M to Champions I think that's what's happening. HERO has always left that final 10-20% of fiddly choices to the GM. This is especially frustrating with Fantasy Hero as that final piece (a fully fleshed out magic system) is really THE biggest hurdle to letting the game actually have a chance of competing with other systems. Right now the perception is that HERO's support is something like "here's the toolkit and here are some example spells" but there isn't an actual list of spells for a specific world (this might not actually be the case but that's the perception). Instead of putting the toolkit front and center (which is not as big a deal these days with far more games and gamers doing system 'hacks' than in years past) HERO needs to produce a POLISHED setting with EVERY game time decision already made as a default (Strike Force did this). Then at the very end explain how to tweak stuff (like Hit Location, END use, Bleeding Rules, etc..). HERO is currently has numerous examples of how to make a COMPLETE CHARACTER for whatever setting but has very few if any good examples of a COMPLETE GAME. Improve the latter and the accessibility of the system to new players will increase.

 

my 2 sheckles

HM

This is part of why I love Lucha Libre Hero and think it' s the best book Hero has ever done. It has all the rules you need and shows you how to play in the genre and also has some adventure material to get you going. If Hero would publish more books that put it all together, it would be more appealing. It would help if the "core" book(s) weren't so dry and textbook-like as well.

Hero's Heroic Action Points are a bit overly complex IMHO. They do have an important role to play in the game. For one, it allows for players who are having a streak of bad luck to actually be able to Mitigate that somewhat. So the player can still feel like their character was fun to play and was effective.

That's exactly why I would never use them. Let the dice fall as they may, says I.

The first three Captain Alatriste books by Arturo Perez-Reverte. All very entertaining and darkly comic, full of swashbuckling-era fun.

Lucha Libre Hero is by far my all-time favorite Hero product. Is anyone else out there bursting with love for Lucha Libre Hero and the genre it was made for? I have a hard time getting anyone to play Hero, let alone Lucha Libre Hero, so I'd love to hear tales from your games or information about resources you've used for the game. I have some toy masked wrestlers I bought in Tijuana that I think would be handy for a tabletop game, plus some books about the films and real-life luchadores.