Wardsman

Fuzion, Fate, Fudge, Savage Worlds and many more.

 

It is not a right/way wrong way type of thing. It is a preference thing. Honestly if it makes it accessible for my little girl then I will do it.

All systems I have not played. Fate is modified form of fudge I'm told. 

Riseus may be a rollup system. I'd have to look it up.

One system I have seen a lot of people use that is so easy my daughter could do it when she was 6 (last year) is to invert the numbers so rolling high is needed.

 

To hit a character you need to roll higher than the targets DCV+10, example Solomon has a DCV of 7 so all attacks of 17 or less miss.

Then the attacks OCV is simply added to the die roll. This makes the system a roll high system which seamed easier for my daughter.

A roll of 18 always succeeds

A roll of 3 always fails

 

The formula looks something like the following

If Roll+OCV > Target DCV+10 = Success

Honestly I never had anyone complain about rolling low. 

Hell Chaosium rolls low!

Storyteling and Storyteller systems you roll under.

What other RPG system besides D20 and its rip offs rolls high for success?

.

Agents of Shield Inhuman

 

X-Man Multiple Man

 

Multi-Paul

Firestorm: The Nuclear man is duplication in reverse.

My suggestion is to try restricting certain game elements to certain classes.

 

Spellcasters: Have exclusive access to Multipowers. (I'm assuming you do NOT want to recreate D&D's "Vancian" magic system, which I can't imagine anyone wanting to recreate if they have a choice.) 

You would be surprised. And yes there are Vancian rebuilds in Hero.

I disagree about giving multipowers only to mages. I tend not to use frameworks for magic. But if I do I believe you should let the other "classes" take advantage of that construct as well if they are allowed.

I know 6th Edition did away with EC's but I could see a ranger EC or MP for a higher power level campaign.

Or just fighter moves in general.

In D&D, the Alignment system serves a similar function to Complications (especially Psychological Complications); except that in HERO, the GM actually has a mechanical framework within which to require players roleplay their alignment.

That is an interesting way of looking at it.

From a AD&D perspective I find that people either read too much or not enough in alignment.

We actually forbade you to tell other players your alignment. You had to roleplay it in character.

We had to cut the paladin some slack when hanging with possible neutrals because of that rule.

Alignment was one of those game balance things I felt didn't really work well in D&D.

I have no problems with religious based Limitations on powers like (require deity's favor) but I would not worry too much other than that.

One possibility is having clerics and paladin powers tied to either a END reserve  or charges that only recharge when the character performs rituals to his god or only on holy ground. Say when party rests the cleric may need sanctify an area to his god and pray so he can recharge.

So you are going to be blinded too?  Or are you going to need to hit the target to blind it? Also the burning is going to get stopped by just a bit of armor.

Take anything I say about 6th edition with a grain of salt as I am a 5th edition guy.

But Change environment is an area effect power (unless they changed that) that does not require you to hit the target normally neither does flash attack. Question why not use flash attack Cantriped?

... it does, doesn't it. Except that is cheaper and allows more ...

 

Sigh. There is nothing new under the sun.

so it is a refinement. nothing wrong with that. WERE IS AT AGAIN. YOU MIGHT YET GET ME TO BY A 6TH EDITION BOOK.

I found this. It just barely failed its kickstarter. Maybe the guy can be convinced to do a Fantasy Hero Source book.

"The Nine Worlds have fallen and a single world, the Nine Realms, has risen. The Gods are dead, Giants, Spirits, Dwarfs, Elfs, and the Dead of legends now share the lands of Men. "

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hithrael/helheim-rpg-yggdrasil-burning

Hello. First time poster here and utter newbie to the Hero system and FH. I will try not to ask too many questions I could find out just by doing a search though!

 

I've a lot of experience as a GM but mainly with newer systems like World of Darkness (the newer stuff), FFG's Star Wars system, Shadowrun 4e. My group recently expressed a desire to do some old school fantasy and it being the big name in the genre, I went out and got D&D 5e. It was premature - honestly I'm finding it a little loose and woolly and not very well balanced. Hard to put my finger on it exactly and listing any one thing by itself just sounds like not a big deal but for example, the way everything seems very focused around four people having six encounters per day. I would think I could just drop things down to fewer and have a tougher monster but there seem to be a lot of abilities that are very nova and the game seems to expect challenge to come from PCs not being able to do this more than once per day so if you don't throw in enough attrition, it gets sticky.

 

Bleh! Unnecessary pre-amble. Short version is we're very early in the campaign and I have this nagging feeling that there's probably something better out there for what I want. Someone suggested the Hero system. I said: "That one with the eight-inch rule-book?" and they said "no, no, well yes, but trust me - it's not how it seems!"

 

So I'm looking at Hero and FH. I don't yet have FH to be clear. I want to ask a couple of things before I click buy on the books based on somebody's recommendation. So, particular things I'm curious on and haven't been able to get a feel for:

 

1. My vague awareness of Hero is as a super-heroes game system. I do believe that it can work for a generic fantasy game, swapping in spells for super-powers, etc. But how does it work for the non-magic or low-magic classes? Archers and Fighters and Paladins, etc. Does it / can it balance say some spell-casting wizard and a burly fighter all in the same party? And if so, does it do it in the same sort of way D&D 5e would do it where a fighter improves in core solid attributes like having extra hit points, harder to hit / damage, etc.? Or does it do it in a more D&D 4e way where the wizard has a room clearing ability called Fireball and the Fighter has a room clearing ability called "Barrage of Blows" but it all boils down to different flavours on the same thing. This is probably my biggest concern - I want to preserve differentiation between character types. E.g. fighter's progression is to become ever tougher and to hit people harder, magician gets more and more powerful spells and ability to control the environment, rogue gets faster and gets special ways to strike people, or dodge out of combat, etc. There was a game called Iron Heroes which I loved the class design of - you had barbarians, harriers, armigers - all of which played very differently. What I've read about Hero is that it is endlessly flexible in character development. I'm worried that this means I'll get fighters and wizards who play the same and are just described differently whereas I want very different character types. How does FH handle "classes", basically?

 

2. In rough terms, how does magic work in FH? Is it learn spells from a set list that are prepared? Is it "This round I will apply a fire effect to this area effect and that many damage dice" style of round-to-round flexibility? You'll notice that my questions are all of a theme here - how can I do D&D but better!

 

3. Is there a good source of cliché monsters I can find / buy somewhere? Orcs, goblins, dragons, etc? It will take me a while I imagine before I become comfortable designing my own monsters if I get this. Must have a ready source of goblins!

 

4. How "high-level" does this get? I know it can scale up very well and doesn't have levels as such (I think?) but what does a game look like at a very high level compared to starting out? The same but bigger numbers on both sides or does it start to play differently? And can it keep balance between "fighters" and "wizards" at high levels of play when one is focused mainly on physical power and the other is developing magical powers the whole time?

 

Sorry - I know that's a long post. Maybe I should just buy the books and trust, but I think even if I did it would take me a lot of reading and time to really get a feel for it. My D&D 5e campaign is still very new so if I want to swap to a new system, now is probably the time to do something so drastic.

 

ALL replies are appreciated!

 

K.

Hero is a tool kit system kinda of like NWoD but more point based.

Hero's strength is it's weakness. It possible to replicate several styles magic from D&D vancian to Runequest. Including very original styles. And we all here have differing versions of using the power system to build spells and magic systems.

Yes other classes can have powers if you wish. As an example Deadly Blow with differing limitations can represent a rogue's backstabbing, a rangers extra damage, or a paladin's blow.

Here is the thing is you can choose powers levels for your setting  (low, mid or High) and you don't have leveling up like D&D. 

You can have a very rich fantasy game using Hero. But it requires a lot more work for the Game Master

Some of us  have gotten good at mimicking D&D. Some of us despise its quirks and use Hero as an excuse and not use D&Disms.

Understand this in a Fantasy Hero campaign everyone can use Magic or spells if you want. Just like Runequest. Or you can limit it to certain "classes". You can make magic skill based or not.

Magic could cost endurance or not. Magic could be based ley lines or essence flows like Role Master.

It is up to you.

There have been several D&D conversions. Each slightly different.

Assuming you are willing to take this challenge as DM, you need to gauge your players on several issues.

• Hero rolls low for success on 3D6.
• Hero has Body , Stun , and Endurance which works different than hitpoints
• Hero as a default does not have spell resistance or saving throws, it is a different paradigm
• Hero does not have a default random character generation system
• No aligments

I have long argued when you start converting D&D classes to Hero some of them begin to blur together,

Paladins and Clerics are two such classes. You will find that there are some D&Disms that only make sense in the D&D system.

If you are willing to take the plunge it can be rewarding. But it is not for everyone.

Sounds like the Gift system in 5th edition

I have been here - you might even find a thread about it way back when.

 

I am not sure that creating a pool where you add a die for every +4 is more of a reward than converting all 1s into 2s.  You would be adding another bit of calculation to the process - whereas my current thinking means that if you have 2 bonus dice for the damage pool - you simply remove two of the lowest rolls prior to counting up the 12D6 damage.

 

Both systems increase the damage done if the roll is good, both put an additional premium on OCV (and conversely on DCV).  Mine lets you roll more dice, yours gets you to do a little bit extra calculation.  I know what my players prefer!  :-)  

 

Let us know how you get on, my lot hated the additional bureaucracy of converting 1s to 2s or 3s depending on the roll.  Not yet tried the dice pool idea.

 

 

Doc

Like I said before Ultimate Skill has a few ideas on this.

 

For example, the first one -- Excalibur -- is pretty recent, but legends go back to the late Roman period and the name isn't settled until just a few hundred years ago.  Modern re-tellings of the story have quite a bit of variation as well with Bernard Cornwell stripping the magic out entirely, for example.

 

This is a pretty long topic, and if people want to throw their ideas out there, feel free.  There are some weapons i'll be building even if someone else does; just consider them alternates not my insistence that your version is wrong, somehow.

Which version? Arturus the saxon trying rebuild roman culture sword would be different the high medieval or renaissance fantasy that most people see Arthur as .

How would you model damage that cannot be healed with Healing? The target would have to rely on his REC instead of drugs, spells or paladin Good Touch effects.

 

A simple +1 seems too expensive. I was thinking about something like Penetrating, where 1 pip per die couldn't be Healed.

 

Maybe model it on Difficult to Dispel, requiring extra healing to be used against it? Arrgh!

Build with suppress effect.

It's been stated a few times that in the Marvel Universe, mutants possess a unique telepathic signature, and that's what devices like Cerebro detect.  Of course, telepathy-based technology is a whole other can of worms.

In our mutant campaign the 80's I categorically rejected that nonsense! Why would a mutant brick have different psi signature?

I suppose a sensor could detect bio-electricity, the way some marine animals are able to. That'd work at least for all life that has a nervous system. But probably not for microorganisms or plant life, so you'd also need to cover unique signs that those types of life would create.

How is that different from an electrical field from mechanical or geophysical sources?

An auroa generates a stronger electric current than your body.

Bio thermal signatures are comparatively weak when compared to other sources.

My favorite is when they encounter something very alien that shouldn't be alive, but exhibits "life signs".

Is this the time to bring up how unscientific "Captain, I'm reading life signs" is?

I'm going to run something using these damned Hero rules I love so much, and while Fantasy is still on the table, as well as Traveller Hero, I'm also considering a supers game set in the Champions universe.

 

That said, I'm not sure I'd have anything but a riot if I suggested the players read the player section of Champions Universe to get up to speed.

 

So, does anyone have any recommendations for how to introduce them to the world and how it differs from our own, easily or on the installment plan?

We always had our own world and just use whatever element we like.

Sometimes it is just now and supers start popping up. Sometimes they have been around for a while.

I know people who have mish mash of DC, Marvel , GURPS, and indie elements in their world.

Hmmm. Just got thinking supers begin showing up in a post 9-11 world. That is a lot different than 60's or 80's being the starting point.

Hell run a thunder agents game!.

Well, there are way more scary beings in the Champions Universe than Mechanon who could also be a stuffie.

It has gone back forth over the years who was Mechanon or Dr. D. Plus all the new stuff.

I've never used a Thieves' Cant in any Fantasy game. I even ignore it in D&D, where it's official. Local argots, sure; but no generalized Language of the Low-Lives.

 

"Common" is what people call the language everybody uses because it's the language of the dominant imperial and commercial power of the region. Common in the Azilian subcontinent is Low Zaavian. Common in the territories that used to be part of the Plenary Empire is Plenarite. The two Commons have little in common. But since PCs will not be going between the two regions, it doesn't matter.

 

For "racial" languages, I just roll my eyes and accept it as genre trope, because I am not willing to impose a greater burdern on players or greater complication on my games.

 

Maybe they exist because the humanoid races are all offshoots of humanity -- some of them provably of artificial creation, with languages genetically/mystically encoded into them.

 

Dean Shomshak

 If the city is a port city then the local lowlifes might use or have their own dialect/version of the trade pidgin used in the setting.

I was under the impression Lingua Franca was mostly pidgin Italian with a bunch of words added from other languages? Either way, my point was they didn't develop a completely new language like Esperanto or something.

Wasn't latin used as a linga franca ?

You know, call me crazy if you like, but anyone storing Mechanon's OS in RAM, whatever the technology, deserves what they get. As for ancient Chinese swords inspired by Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger, already got one, so I've been to that well.

I couldn't find the really beautiful bronze sword image I was looking for. That one is actually a little dull.

A well done Bronze(and that one looks reddish) glints like the sun. It got me wondering why Wonder Woman's is portrayed as steal. I mean really think about. At the time of the Greek Legends they were a bronze age culture.

The pros and cons of bronze swords

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qLhq5V2-o

A picture Pres. Jack Kennedy giving an award to both some Supers and Astronauts.

Oh and there is a photo or two of some supers with President Ted Kennedy and the Iranian Hostages.

More seriously, lots and lots of film footage, tape recorder reels and filing cabinets full of paper. Piles of computer printouts.

 

And yes, quite possibly a copy of Mechanon's source code. Or something comparably dangerous.

On punch Cards! Or 8 track tapes!

What is this Vacuum tube apparatus that takes up a 100 X 100 ft room?

Is that a platform? What are these strange symbols on the Nixie tubes?

Should we shut it down?

May be they find this?

or this?

And they are stronger and tougher than they should be.

And what about this  Copperish  necklace that has strange energy readings?

Natural which is another elemental force (think druids)

 

Divine which is basically granted by higher beings.

 

Infernal which is granted by not quite so higher beings if you catch my drift.

 

Psionic which is accessed thru meditation and harnessing the subconscious.

YMMV, but I would make the the middle three pact magic. While the source will change and shape the nature of the magic, there should be commonalities between the three as well differences.

Perhaps even competition and agendas.

As to the last one, don't assume those techniques don't work in all forms of magic.

In fact the techniques to focus concentration and power are present in all forms of magic.

Mantra, Mandala, and Mudra

If you don't want to make specific types of mages, but still want different kinds of magic, maybe try magical professions? That is, individuals who have magic simply infuse their normal efforts with magic.

 

For example:

Mercenaries who learn to make their fists hit like iron and their bodies heal faster.

 

Medical personnel who can heal injury and cure illness.

 

Animal trainers who can use the senses of their animals.

Wouldn't that create different mages  in effect?

Also how common is it.

If you allow babbage style magic, why can't any tinkerer use it?

Same with script kiddie magic?