etherio
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Posts posted by etherio
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
Does anyone have a copy of or know what the Bell Curve percentages for 3D6 actually are?I seem to remember that rolls between 8 and 14 add up to something like 50-75%, which would imply that odds of getting either 11, 12 or 13 probably end up being about 20-30% on the curve. So referring back to my original example below: 1 in 4 swings to the head (that hit on the initial non-adjusted attack roll) will hit with NO minus to OCV! as opposed to standard rules which just give the targeted shot a -8 OCV penalty.
Corrections to my math and/or logic are welcome!
Remember, modified rolls that are off the hit location chart become misses. That's a strong control on that sort of abuse. It acts in a way that's similar to, but in my opinion more logical than, the OCV modifier for placed shots in the standard rules.
I personally feel that this system is slightly more lethal (which I like) than the standard rules, but not greatly so.
By the way, here a link to a spreadsheet that you can use to find out the percentages. http://herogames.com/FreeStuff/charactersheets/d6%20probabilities.xls
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
...From what I've seen in the movies and series' date=' they fight until one is between 0 and -10 (crouched on the ground at 0 DCV and the attacker can take that full phase to hit the neck automatically) or stunned so the penalties are only 1/2 to hit the neck.[/quote']I see what you mean about the way that battles play themselves out in Highlander. True, they tend to first disable each other before going for the neck.
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
Etherio' date=' thanks for posting this. I am curious - what genre(s) and power-level(s) have you applied this to? I run Champions, fairly high-powered, and I don't use hit locations at all. While this is interesitng and thoughtful, I don't really see applying it to superheroics as I prefer the "fuzziness" within that genre...[/quote']I'm right now running a supers campaign, and I I don't use hit locations at all in this campaign. I agree, hit location rolls have no place in a typical four-color supers game. However, when our group plays HERO scale stuff (fantasy, usually) we do use them. We play-tested it in a game where I had the pleasure of experiencing the system from a player's perspective (a rare and wondrous occasion). I feel it really made both HTH and ranged combat more fun.
It fixes what I've always felt is a weakness in most games. When you launch an attack as a PC, you imagine it as an uppercut for the jaw or a sword lunge for the midsection...not as a wild swing for any old part of the body. In the official rules, PCs just don't have a reasonable chance for aiming at locations, unless they're super-aces with their OCV. This alternate system puts them more into combat.
Imagine how much this system would improve a HERO Highlander game, and you'll see what I mean. Simulating Immortals in HERO would mean each combatant taking shots and hoping wildly for a neck hit, or taking shots at -8 and hitting either the neck or nothing.
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
...I don't see the ability to target other locations as an opportunity to turn a 'hit' into a 'miss' as much as making it too easy to hit otherwise hard targets...When aiming at a location, remember that an attacker applies a modifier to the hit location roll...that centers the bell curve around the point aimed at. However, if the modified roll is off the chart, it's a miss.
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Re: Minor player problem ...
...Or he conjures up "ghost guns" out of whatever energy he wields' date=' because he needs that visual focus (not focus as in game terms)...[/quote']Love that idea, Magmarock...That inspires me for a villain idea. Awesome visual effect, there...
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Re: Golden Heroes...
Standing too close to the tail end of a Fireball...
Heh...yeah...nothing like getting incinerated by your own buddy while thousands of vege-pygmies are swarming all over you. What were they thinking anyway, in some of those old D&D modules?
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
The first criticism that many point out about this hit location system is that an attack that was initially a hit could become a miss.
Remember:
1) Players don't have to aim at wild locations, like the head or hands. Aiming at the default locations (Upper Chest for the standard attack) means that a successful hit cannot become a miss through modifiers on the hit location chart. That's why cops are trained to aim at the torso...not the head.
2) By aiming at a location, the bell chart is centered over that location, making it more likely to be hit. The potential for the shot being modified to a miss is a control on player abuse.
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
...I have a few questions concerning "high" and "low" shots though. Exactly how does this work with your system?...Thanks.No problem...
First, it's important to remember that, unlike in the official HERO method, there is no such thing as choosing a "high shot" or "low shot" maneuver in this system. An attacker always aims at a particular location. What the system does is make attacks that are not-quite-dead-on tend to cluster around the location aimed for.
That said, the "High Mod" and "Low Mod" columns on our chart are only used for situations like punching, stabbing with a dagger, kicking, or attacking a mounted opponent, where the attack should not be able to potentially hit all locations.
When a punching-type hit spread is called for, roll 2d6 and add the "High Mod" column modifier for the targeted location (Upper Arms is the default if none is called). That is, of course, if the attacker did not automatically hit his intended location by making his roll by the "Auto Hit" margin for that location.
For kicking-type spreads, roll 2d6 divided by 2 and use the "Low Mod" (with Calves being the default location). This is just as simple to use, but maybe not as intuitive to understand. One might ask, "Why not just roll 1d6?" The answer is that we need a bell curve for the system to operate as intended. One might also observe, "2d6/2 has a result of 1 to 6...how will that hit locations 13 through 18?" The answer is that a target location is always chosen, so there will always be a "Low Mod" number to bring it to that range.
As with a general 3 to 18 hit location attack, a "high" or "low" shot is considered a miss when the modified hit location roll is off the chart. For these kinds of attacks, "off the chart" includes those locations where a double dash appears in the respective "Mod" column.
EXAMPLE:
My hands tied behind my back and desperate, I try for a kick at the brigand holding me at swordpoint...
Since my attack is a non-martial kick, I am restricted to hitting locations 13 through 18.
I (being the typical RPG gamer) go for it and aim for the Vitals.
I roll to hit...Vitals has an "Auto Hit" of -8. I made my to-hit roll, but not by 8...so I have to roll for hit location.
I roll 2d6/2...for a result of 2...apply the "Low Mod" for Vitals (+9)...for a total of 11.
That's a miss...and that's what I get for being greedy, I guess. It could, however have been very different.
I see how this might seem complicated, but it's really not. The system becomes second nature very quickly. I recommend it particularly for games with a lot of swordplay, but it'll work just as well for guns and the like.
Enjoy, and let me know how it goes.
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
did you used to play aftermath? iirc' date=' it used a similar system, with 30 hit locations.[/quote']Sorry...missed this question. No, I've never played Aftermath. The inspiration came from a supremely crappy old game called MERC that had a sort of cool template for determining hit-location while sniping.
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Re: House Rules for Hit Location
Anyone give the system a try yet? If so, let me know what your impressions were...
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Re: Game Maps and Counters Exchange
Excellent...downloading the tilesets now. I'll surely be using them for something soon...want to give my players a little fun, in-the-streets combat for a change. They've been spending a little too much time underground, inthe countryside, on the moon, and the like. I think they'd enjoy a little down-and-dirty, car-tossing, lightpole swingin' action. -
Re: Game Maps and Counters Exchange
Counters for the Protectors and a few figs from various Champions supplements...enjoy...they might be useful.
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Re: Golden Heroes...
...I thought one of the best features was the random power generation' date=' b/c you had to rationalize any powers you wanted to keep. That idea always seemed fun to me, though I never did play the game, so I'm not sure how it'd work out in practice. Could cause some player/GM conflict, I suppose.[/quote']No more so than in any decent Champions campaign, I s'pose.
BTW...I had that boxed set, too...before I discovered Champions. We were playing Justice Inc. for a while before we found out there was a supers version. I can still clearly picture that GH cover...blue and yellow costume with the pointy collar on that dude.
(Sigh)...makes me wanna be a teen again. My greatest worry at the time was stalling my mom long enough till she fell asleep, so I could game all night...slaying fire giants, hacking our way through the Barrier Peaks, charging a Killbeast with a gyrojet pistol in each of my Dralasite's four hands, spending fourteen hours playing out fourteen seconds of Car Wars time, endlessly debating conversions of the X-Men into V&V, and all the while imagining how my favorite PCs would look if illustrated by the great Jeff Dee.
Those were the days...
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Re: DCV penalty to dodge?
I second Caris' assessment.
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Re: Golden Heroes...
Awesome, guys...
I'm stoked that there's an existing, generally-unaltered version of this innovative game still circulating about. Of course, it doesn't even pretend to compare to the universal flexibility of HERO, but there are some very interesting, comic-style mechanics to the game that reflect supers very well...especially in character improvement, Advantageous Backgrounds, public standing, and detective ratings.
Many thanks for the help.
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Re: Quick question on the forums...
Awesome, lemming...graci.
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Re: Golden Heroes...
Sure...please post.
Actually, my buds and I preferred a sort of negotiating process to the random rolling. What I loved about the system were the "comic-panel-based" timetable and the rules for character improvement. (I think they were called 'DPUs' or something like that.)
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Can anyone tell me how I can find out how many downloads have been made off of a particular thread/post? Sorry if this seems like a newbie question, but that's exactly what I am.
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Hey...I've been sort of nostalgic for a while about the old supers game "Golden Heroes." I thought it was great for comic-book-style gaming. As far as I can tell, it's been totally out of circulation for years. Anybody have a copy?
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Re: Can I have some suggestions on this character? Uncle Samurai
Crazy, kooky character...might be inpired to make a pic for you, if you don't mind.
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Re: More boast than post!
I have a couple of copies of the first edition, and a copy of Lands of Mystery...bought 'em when I was in high school. It was my introduction to Champions, and I was hooked ever since. I $^%&*ing love the Pulp genre, but I just can't seem to be able to find players who share my appreciation for it.
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I figure this might be more interesting to guys who do more HERO-scale gaming, so I'll post a link here. My group has been using this alternate hit-location system for a while, and it's just plain fun. Give it a try for a session...it'll add spice to your combats, and your players will like it.
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I figure this might be more interesting to guys who do more HERO-scale gaming, so I'll post a link here. My group has been using this alternate hit-location system for a while, and it's just plain fun. Give it a try for a session...it'll add spice to your sci-fi battles, and your players will like it.
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I figure this might be more interesting to guys who do more HERO-scale gaming, so I'll post a link here. My group has been using this alternate hit-location system for a while, and it's just plain fun. Give it a try for a session...it'll add spice to your fantasy combats, and your players will like it.
Excellent...downloading the tilesets now. I'll surely be using them for something soon...want to give my players a little fun, in-the-streets combat for a change. They've been spending a little too much time underground, inthe countryside, on the moon, and the like. I think they'd enjoy a little down-and-dirty, car-tossing, lightpole swingin' action.
House Rules for Hit Location
in HERO System Discussion
Posted
Re: House Rules for Hit Location
Here's how it actually breaks down:
If you aim at the Neck (location 4), and hit, then the bell curve centers on the 3 "head" locations (3-5)...
That means (with the -7 Mod for aiming at the Neck) that a natural roll of 10-12 will hit one of those "head" locations...
The chances of rolling 10-12 (and thereby hitting one of those 3 head locations) are roughly 37%...
That leaves an approximate 31.5% chance to miss (hit locations "above" the head), and 31.5% chance to hit locations other than the head...
The chances of hitting the Neck exactly (rolling an unmodified 11) are 12.5%.