Anaximander

Basically, what I am saying is that I don't necessarily need a in-story explanation as to why death rates are amazingly low, I am looking for game mechanical explanations to stop rule lawyers in their tracks. I think maybe the best way to deal with the issue is to not using bleeding damage and disregard killing blows except for when it fits game and story purposes by GM fiat. I do thank everyone who participated in the discussion and appreciate all of the advice, and I hope any lurkers might have picked up useful tidbits also.

I like those ideas, but the main reason I am going with the "Death is Seldom Fatal" ploy is that I am trying to capture the feel of various shticks from old comic books, classic sci-fi, and a few other sources, and one of the sticks from old comics books is that all main characters and a surprising number of nameless characters seem to escape death even. As an example, it's only through suspension of belief that we believe that Lois Lane might actually be killed by the Radioactive Beast from Nerius Prime while knowing that in the end Superman will save her, and if she is eaten, there will probably be some crazy plot hook to explain why she is alive, and we know if Green Arrow shoots a real arrow at an escaping thug that it will miss any major organs and bones. We also know that Batman will always dodge out of the way when deadly Joker Venom is being sprayed at him. Unnamed evil soldiers always managed to escape death in spite of their tank being tossed over tall buildings by the Hulk. All of this works great in comic books, cartoons, and movies because all elements are controlled by the writer or writers, including the main character. In RPGs, the main character might have a bad dice roll or they misinterpret what you think are obvious clues and bob instead of weave or are having a bad day in RL and are just making bad game choices. I want my games to be fun for myself and my players go through a life altering event for the sake of practically nothing isn't something I want to do; however, I do want to maintain a character being seriously injured as a real threat. I do want to maintain some grittiness, and I would like for Protected Resistances and Killing Attacks to have usefulness to those who buy them.

That looks convenient, but part of my reasoning for fully stating out my characters is to give myself more practice at character building using the Hero System. After I get more confident of my abilities, I will start doing that with most characters. Besides, as someone who also plays around with short story writing, I like keeping the facts about background characters fairly vague in case I have ideas of expanding them later.

I absolutely loved the Wonder Woman TV show when I was a kid, but you people must have perfect memories to remember so much detail from them.

I promised I would post examples. I have a few written up on Hero Designer. I am still new to the program, but I will attempt to post using that. By the way, Freedomsburg is the name of my primary campaign city. Jason Harden was a star wrestler in high school and college. He now works as a sporting equipment marketing specialist for a sports equipment wholesaler. He likes his job and has relative success, but he misses his glory days as a star athlete. One day, he got the notion to dress up in a blue bear-headed costume and named himself Bruin after his high school mascot and went out on patrol as a real life hero. His first night out he managed to scare off a would be purse snatcher. The exhilaration left him hooked, and he started patrolling on a regular basis. He eventually hooked up with a group of like-minded individuals who called themselves the Regulators. Bruin Val Char Cost Roll Notes 18 STR 8 13- Lift 303.1kg; 3 ½d6 [2] 13 DEX 6 12- OCV: 4/DCV: 4 15 CON 5 12- 8 INT -2 11- PER Roll 11- 9 EGO -1 11- ECV: 3 - 3 10 PRE 0 11- PRE Attack: 2d6 4 OCV 5 4 DCV 5 3 OMCV 0 3 DMCV 0 2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12 8 PD 6 Total: 8 PD (0 rPD) 7 ED 5 Total: 7 ED (0 rED) 4 REC 0 20 END 0 15 BODY 5 40 STUN 10 Total Characteristic Cost: 52 Movement: Running: 12m/24m Leaping: 4m/8m Swimming: 4m/8m Cost Powers END Wrestling Maneuver OCV DCV Notes 4 Choke -2 +0 Grab One Limb; 2d6 NND 4 Escape +0 +0 33 STR vs. Grabs 3 Hold -1 -1 Grab Two Limbs, 28 STR for holding on 4 Reversal -1 -2 33 STR to Escape; Grab Two Limbs 3 Slam +0 +1 Weapon +v/10, Target Falls 3 Take Down +2 +1 3 ½d6 Strike; You Fall, Target Falls Perks 2 Positive Reputation: Benevolence (Freedomsburg) 11-, +1/+1d6 Skills 3 Concealment 11- 3 Deduction 11- 3 Stealth 12- 3 Streetwise 11- 3 Paramedics 11- 2 AK: Freedomsburg 11- 3 Shadowing 11- 3 Breakfall 12- 2 KS: Wrestling 11- 0 Everyman Skills 0 1) Acting 8- 0 2) Climbing 8- 0 3) Language: English (completely fluent; literate) (4 Active Points) 0 4) Persuasion 8- 0 5) PS: Sports Wholesaler 11- 0 6) TF: Everyman Skill, Small Motorized Ground Vehicles 0 7) AK: Harrington Heights 8- Total Powers & Skill Cost: 48 Total Cost: 100 100+ Matching Complications 15 PsyC: Overconfident (Very Common; Moderate) 15 PsyC: Needs to Prove Self (Very Common; Moderate) Total Complications Points: 100

A lot depends on how you want to run things determines how best to build this. If the player is genuinely clever at quips, you could just let him roleplay it. Presence Attacks can already be used to cause opponents to hesitate. You could buy a bunch of Presence limited to insults. You could buy various Drains, Mind Controls, and that only work when flinging insults. You could limit them further by tying them to some kind of skill roll like Oratory, Persuasion, PS: Insults, or something depending on how reliable you want them to be. I had to consider this for an NPC I created for my campaign. He is a low powered hero named Ass O' Nine who was a former carny jerk who uses insults to distract opponents in battle. I think I just went with the limited Presence idea for him though.

The Tambourine Man: Can emit a variety of attacks and mind control effects when he plays his magic tambourine.

Motor Man: Designer and driver of the team's groovy wheels, maybe a hopped up flying minivan with advanced shields. Other choices in need of a name. A computer hacker based on the movie Sneakers with Robert Redford. I also once made a kung fu fighting disc jockey who abducted by aliens and given metamorphic powers, but the file is stuck in computer harddrive that is no currently available to me. I don't remember the name I gave him, but it was like Captain Crazy or something like that.

For the record, I would never use rape within the context of a roleplaying game. I know some rape and child molestation survivors. There are a lot of them out there, and most of them would surprise you if you knew who they were, and the idea of triggering a real life traumatic episode for the sake of a mere game just isn't worth it to me, and if I were to run such a story, I would check with all participants on their comfort levels with the topic.

Maybe, doing nothing while a friend or loved one was being raped, or being manipulated to doing a horrific crime while under some sort of drug inducement.

Here's something I found. http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Government/Legal-system

Regarding the lack of gullibility of modern players, I think the adage "you get what you reward" has a lot of play in how paranoid players will be, and by reward, I don't mean just XP and in game resources, I also mean regards to what actually leads to success, and a lot of GMs that I have played under reward paranoia whether they mean to or not by running the games in such away that player characters always get trapped every time they show any trust. I think if you defined your reward system where gullibility pays off more than paranoia then you would have players that would be more willing to play along.

Since Hero has as many possible special effects as people have imagination, the possibilities of forces are practically infinite which means the counters to those forces is practically infinite. Let's say hypothetically that a player creates Cheddar Man who taps into the Cheese Force to emit Power of Cheese Blast. What is the logical opposite of cheese? I know the example is a bit out there, but even a serious look through science, science fiction, fantasy, and super heroic literature results an a vast variety of options and counter-options.

I didn't read through the whole thing, but I looked at a number of super hero systems before making Hero 6E my system of choice. I wanted to buy into 5E when it first came out, but I didn't have any money at the time, and I had either 2E or 3E sometime in the early to mid 1980s, but don't remember which one. I have tried the Palladium system, DC Heroes, Villains & Vigilantes, Marvel FASERIP, and GURPS. I have also looked at a few free systems that can be found on the net and some homebrew stuff. Besides Hero, I liked DC Heroes, GURPS, and Villains & Vigilantes, but of those three, I only am invested in Villains & Vigilantes.

I like a lot of those ideas. Some of the ideas I had already considered but rejected for various reasons, but I like the GM fiat approach the best. To me, it's gaming should be about writing and/or participating in a fun story, but unlike in short story writing, plots in RPGs aren't affected by bad dice rolls, and characters never bob when you expect them to weave.

They would also count equipment we take for granted as powers. You might have a hero whose primary power is piloting an airplane or using radio equipment. The also were more likely to involve super heroes using otherwise lame powers cleverly such as super-ventriloquism or using a trained attack bee. I think someone already mentioned that villains were often common street thugs and foreign spies. And, like in the pulps, a lot super heroes learned mysterious arts for secretive far off lands.

I am aware of those, but I am trying to figure out how to make the whole campaign less deadly. I would like there to be a low likelihood of death for Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Bruce's barber, and Unnamed Thug #3 unless it fits a story plot. Basically, I want it slightly four-color but with a little Bronze thrown in for fun.

I am designing a super heroic campaign and am running the shtick of death being seldom fatal approach and having been struggling on what to do with killing damage. I've considered converting all killing damage to normal damage. I've considered the idea of using a provisional protected resistance in certain situations as one of my books suggests and remain unsure of what I want. Basically, I like the idea of KD being a little scarier than normal damage. I like the idea of damage that just can't be walked off; so, I want it present, but I don't want every character under the sun having to buy protected resistance when it doesn't make sense for their background, and I want those who do buy protected resistance feel justified in doing so. Does anyone have suggestions on how best to achieve these ends?

First, I am familiar with GURPS Supers. I was into that before I discovered Hero, and I have actually played in a game or two in GURPS rather than just daydreaming of the day as I do with Hero. You have really strong story, and even though, I don't like using the undead angle in super heroic settings, it seems like a game that I would enjoy anyway because of the strong story. Part 1: To add to the problem, putting innocent civilians in positions that could uncover the groups presence. Perhaps, creating situations where the heroes feel compelled to help the civilians without uncovering there presence, and depending on the group, you could even use the twist to create a feel good moment for the characters. Part 2: Throw in a couple of extra environment threats to add to the tension like escape doors that are jammed shut, the occasional exploding panel, and falling debris. Part 3: Adding an ARGENT like group causing troubles could fill in some spaces. If any of the characters have an archenemy that hadn't been seen in a while, bring him in to create extra problems, or there could be other parties interested in the station for some other reason good, bad, or indifferent who could oppose, annoy, or aid the group as needed. Part 4: Besides his powers over undead, if Casualty still maintains his military tactical training, read up on Vietnam era military tactics and see if any of them could be used against the heroes.

I use the "Requires a Roll" a lot for powers and bonuses a lot, especially when trying to model advantages that I don't want to be super powers or to model unusual advantages from real life. As an example, in real life, I lot martial arts and athletes take ballet dancing to enhance their performance. In order to create a character that uses dancing in order to enhance her martial arts, I bought some CSL with Requires PS: Dancing Roll. In order to create a conspiracy theorist who could connect the dots based on spurious clues, I designed a Clairvoyance that required a Deduction roll when 3 or more valid clues were present.

I've not used index card for Hero, but I have used them for other game systems. In particular, they were useful in DC Heroes since in most cases you could get a whole character sheet on one. I would be curious to learn more about the idea should I ever get a chance to run or play Hero.

Your response deserves a rebuttal, and you make some valid points, but as I said, I've been struggling with a bad cold for the past few days, and my mind is starting to get a little fluttery. I hope you don't interpret a temporary disengagement as an insult, but for now, I will withdraw with the possibility to re-commit after I have had a little rest.

The more I think of my last answer, the more I wonder about the solution to the overall problem of the health of RPGs in general. When RPGs were first introduced, they were marketed to a particular set. The first players were typically more imaginative, better read, and better educated than many of the gamers that game companies are trying to pander to. Early games were full of rule and story holes, but they were played by people who read books that didn't have pictures in them for fun. They were played by people who were used to filling in the gaps left out by authors. They didn't have movies and computer games with realistic FX, and they didn't have access to Internet gaming forums, and in many ways, I think gaming was more fun back then. Now, game companies are trying to please a market that is getting harder to please, and who want everything handed down to them, and it is making gaming less for the rest of us. Maybe, game companies should go back to aiming for the first crowd stop pandering to the latter. I'm just getting over a cold and am a little punchy; so, the phraseology is a little scattered, but I think the core logic of my post is worth considering.

Regardless of the title of Champions Complete, it is a single $20 book that is intended to replace three books that would add up to 3x that much if bought individually, and though the title might fool some newcomers, it would be unrealistic of the newcomers to expect 3x the value for that price, and there is nothing in the advertising for it to suggest anything else. Essentially, it would be like someone buying MS Works and being upset because they aren't getting the same support as if they bought MS Office. There is no unfairness to complain of. Certainly, as a consumer, if you don't think you are getting the value you expect for the price you pay, you have the right to take your money elsewhere, but I expect a lot of game producers will be looking at reducing the value they offer for the sake of making ends meet. Without some kind of revolution in how RPGs are done, I would not expect anything else, and a lot of what will have to change is what we as consumers will expect. We might have to expect game companies going back to less gloss as when games were first introduced and not expect high end artistic and production quality. I don't like the idea, but I see no other alternatives at this time.

On a related note, how would a guy that is relatively new to Hero get information on old NPCs? It seems to me that one of the advantages that Hero has over a lot of other super hero games is the richness of its campaign universe. Most campaign universes created by RPGs, unless they are built on Marvel, DC, or some other established super hero universe, feel like they were designed as a RPG universe and not actually like a something you would actually read in a comic book, but Champions feels like it could have been written as comic book. Most of that content was created before I got involved with the game, and I have only picked up bits of it in this forum, and I have downloaded some of the 6e conversions of those characters for Hero Designer. The conversions do not include much background information, and even though, I am creating my own campaign universe, I would like to mix in some stuff from Champions to fill it out. I personally would like to see the background information written out and made available some where. I'm sure I can find bit torrent sites I can download from, but I don't want to risk all of the computer viruses that go with them, and I prefer to be upfront and honest.