k1ll0tr0n

We've explored four systems for our Star Wars fix, and EotE was the last one we tried before I sold the boys on Hero. EotE is an extremely well-made product, with uniformly excellent art and writing. It's very imaginative in every respect. Our group did find that the mechanics had some issues. The powergamers among us drove giant Mad Max sized battle trucks through them, needing GM fiat every time, until running became what was in essence DM Storytime. "And now your characters run the blockade!" No one liked that, I made my pitch, and we're doing pretty good with 5th. 6th is probably better but I don't know it and the guys don't know any HERO whatsoever. It's a lot more work running HERO. I made a metric ton of prefabs and templates to essentially automate chargen through a list of choices, and each week have all the PC HDCs checked in a shared drive where I audit them for CER (Combat Effectivity Rating). Make sure no one's buying a dozen 2-pt levels. I make all the baddies, all that stuff. But the powergamers have an outlet now, and, more importantly, having an internally consistent simulation of physical reality makes it strangely easier to come up with scenarios. Like, 5 APs equals so much energy, in measurable terms, ft-lbs or newtons or paschals. That helps me out immensely, as a storyteller. That might just be me. This statement is not meant to be *in any way* critical of EotE. I think it's a great product, perfect for lots of people, and really fun even to just flip through. But in play we couldn't make it work for our group.

I would tier them. The story basis could be, well, they're clones. While the first few generations were supermen, subsequent generations become increasingly distorted. Stormtrooper quality assurance, however, screens the very best samples for elite units. This would keep the existence of flopsy stormtroopers, in keeping with the original movies, while allowing for some quality heavies.

Not at all! In fact, maybe we should make a GitHub for sharing work on this. One mechanic I use is that Darksiders use MPs instead of VPPs for their Force Powers. This reflects "the quick and easy path" while sacrificing flexibility. A Darksider will beat a Jedi with a similar point investment, but only if the Jedi is fighting dumb, and not using the flex of the VPP. "Dark Side" and "Light Side" points I personally handle with bonus disadvantages, handed out ad-hoc with XP. You might have a better way, though, especially if you have HERO-savvy players. I want to say that probably the biggest single challenge in-world is balancing the lightsaber. Depending on selection of source material, even a generic saber is starting at 60 APs or so. That's way too much for someone with higher CVs and SPD, and you'll find yourselves giving the opposition such high defenses in response that other players grow frustrated with their personal weapons. It's also *completely* lethal when turned against the PCs, and already one of my players has lost a limb. Luckily cybernetics are ubiquitous. Also it is a practical teaching exercise in Aborts. Ultimately, my final approach was to make tiered lightsabers that kept the sword swingers in the same general CER (Combat effectivity rating) as the rest of the PCs. Their starting sabers were thus underwhelming compared to the original films, but around 1/3 of the way through the campaign they will start encountering sabers that approach those of ESB. This week they will also be encountering some new types of saber mods (emitters, lenses, and power packs), beyond the generic ones. There's lots of other challenges- vehicle combat comes to mind- but since the lightsaber is so central it's the one that sticks out.

I've been running a Star Wars HERO game the last four months or so. 5th ed, because everyone is new to HERO and I didn't want to jump into a new edition with players who are also completely fresh. I made a giant bucket of prefabs so the players wouldn't be overloaded with HERO, but I have to say the guys are being AWESOME about the system. They generally prefer light systems, and I appreciate their enthusiasm every session. For my part, I don't think I've ever been this excited about GMing or have ever put this much work into it. Real hat tip to my players. Era is "Rise of the Empire" officially, and it's a Dark Side group. We're essentially doing an alternate version of the prequels, weaving an alternate story in between the major events of SW:TPM and SW:ROTS. I don't want to give too much away in case any of my players are lurking, but the story will reveal that the presence of the Force in the galaxy is not what it is portrayed to be. So-called "Dark Siders" are often just Jedi and academics frustrated with an increasingly corrupt and stagnating Jedi Order . . and other, darker forces are willing to take advantage of that frustration. I guess it's sort of a stereotypical "dark & gritty" reboot, but the players are loving it. Oh thanks for posting that BBstacker, I am always on the lookout for more Star Wars prefabs! I will post my race templates as payback. Templates for races.zip

First off, hat tip to Mr. Graphite for solving it elegantly with the exponential scaling. I consider my question answered. Eyeballing Mr. Graphite's solution, using 50 ft-lb as a baseline for 1d6 RKA, I get superior values to what is in the stock firearm tables. That would make small arms top out at 4d6 RKA for the special-built Steyr AMR, which sounds right to me. And without Excel! Mark, what amateur rail guns have you seen with high kinetic energy? That would be fascinating. I believe that energy combines mass and velocity, although the two become interrelated at relativistic velocities. There are many, many other factors in bullet trauma, but the rest of them I am comfortable leaving them to the dice (AKA "the STUN lottery"). I definitely don't want a lot of complexity, and definitely no added rules to what's already an admittedly thick ruleset- at least for newer players. As someone mentioned, yes, for human powered weaponry, trauma has much less to do with energy. Slashing in particular is quite hard to model. Speaking for myself, however, I feel HERO mechanics for hand-to-hand are quite solid, and haven't ever really had a "What the . .?" moment there. Thank you everyone! Good to be here.

Short version: a good simple way to get realistic active point totals for firearms is to take the 5 root of the muzzle energy (in ft/lbs), multiply by 6 and add 5. In excel, that's =PRODUCT(ME^(1/5),6)+5 where ME is the muzzle energy. If you want a curve that yields more powerful guns, do the same but with 4 root, i.e. =PRODUCT(ME^(1/4),5) Long version: Sorry for this wall of text I am a giant military nerd. Traditional HERO gun damage tables, based on caliber, have always left me a little flat. After fiddling with Excel and Wikipedia data I think I have a good curve based on energy: This curve follows the HERO chart range (MUZZLE ENERGY(ft-lbs)^(1/5))*5= ACTIVE POINTS But, if you'd like to see more variation in the common calibers: (MUZZLE ENERGY(ft-lbs)^(1/4))*5= ACTIVE POINTS Either way, the players can stat out any gun they fancy Both of these curves have points where they fall apart. The 5 root fail point is higher in the cannon range, 35mm and beyond. 4 root falls apart right after .50 BMG, which is usually at the top of a heroic-level firearm chart anyway. 4 root guns do well in grim game worlds, along with making combat much shorter (the two often go together). You'll notice this doesn't quite take into account things like overpenetration. Smarter people than I have taken a stab at that, and while it's a very clever implementation, it adds another layer to what is already considered a complex system. It's hard enough to sell my new group on HERO as it is. You also get into issues of what's important to you in game versus what's important to you in the real world. In the game, you'd probably prefer to take a few body than to be STUNNED. But in the real world, you would (I assume) vastly prefer to take a little break as opposed to losing a finger or a few cups of blood. Stopping penetration in the real world can easily lead to being knocked around a bit more, but any player is going to be annoyed if they pay points for a defense that gets them STUNNED more often. One more thing: it's important for the GM to take the barrel length into consideration. If a player shows up with a 20 × 110mm Hispano pistol and claims the full muzzle energy, it would be cool for the GM to call foul on that. Along these lines, STR MIN calculations should also be checked and common sense used. Even if a character has a 30 STR, they do not weigh enough to anchor an autocannon firing light antiaircraft rounds. It will literally pound them into the earth. Anyway, hope someone finds this interesting, and possibly useful. Next up for me: finding some Star Wars Hero prefabs. Older links in the forums appear to be broken. Unhappy face. CartridgeEnergy.txt