Brian Stanfield

For me, I decided to use Pulp HERO to teach new players for the following reasons:
Heroic level games don’t require an understanding of powers at all, which is the most intimidating part of learning the game. There is a level of realism that everyone is familiar with, but also enough naïveté to make weird things possible without requiring arguments over their reasonableness. There’s science, but it’s weird science. There’s world traveling, but the destinations are weird enough that we don’t have to question their reality. I’m using the HERO System Basic Rulebook for 6e to minimize the special and complex rules. There are plenty of maneuvers and skills available in the basic rules to make for a fun game without adding too much confusion. We created characters at a “session zero” where everyone came up with character ideas that fit well together, then I designed the full characters for them. I’ll let them learn the rules first before I expect them to build characters. This is a really big deal to me, since effective character design really depends on some sense of how the rules work, especially in HERO. There are lots of debates over whether figured characteristics give new players a baseline to build from, etc. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a fan of the 6e rules and don’t find any real problem with internal consistency of the Characteristics. The bigger problem, to me, is not what the proper levels of CV are, since a new player doesn’t really know what that means anyway. I’ll make their characters, let them learn the rules by throwing them in a whole array of representative encounters, and then give them soft rebuilds after a few sessions once they get a feel for how it all fits together. The most basic encounters I cover in the first session or two are perception rolls, basic skill resolution, PRE attacks (a truly unique aspect of HERO that new players under-utilize), and a simple combat. Because it’s a heroic level game, the combat is pretty quick and straightforward with small modifiers and fewer dice of damage. 

As you noted, this has been discussed many times before in many different ways. I certainly have strong opinions on this. There are certain old school RPG expectations built into HERO that do not work with most modern gaming expectations.  That said, keeping this to strictly "Actual play" examples:
 
Got rid of the Speed Chart and went to an initiative system... works amazingly well and I'd never go back. It removes a lot of the 'turn based war gaming' aspect, removes a level of high SPD character abuse, and generally works to keep all players "leaning in" to the game instead of tuning out when it isn't their phase. Got rid of END. Flat out, just ignored it and removed the old school, resource management through bookkeeping nightmare. It wasn't missed at all, until we wanted to play around with pushing rules and found a new use for it, but this was an advanced modification, and not something needed for basic play. Implemented a bennie system, called "Luck Chits" that changed Luck as written to be a "director stance resource" that players bought on the characters that would provide narrative control and ability to re-roll, take defensive actions, do power stunts, etc. in the hands of players. Fundamentally transformed the game and probably the most important development in making "actual play' more dramatic, fun, thematically consistent, narratively whole and just avoid the 'ugh' moments that random dice can generate. Implemented structured play group dynamics around character creation. No more individual players bringing their pet creation and trying to shoe-horn it into a game, let alone then trying to make any kind of team out of those characters. Now, every character from concept through build is vetted by the play group, and built with a shared history... often using a shared story telling session to build that shared history... before the actual play begins, or as part of the very first actual play session. I'd say those four are the big ones in terms of changes, though there are a lot of details in the subsequent downstream effects of these.

Also, these changes were made in the context of actually keeping the core HERO functionality... using Stats and Powers and Costs as listed... just sometimes re-interpreting them. 
 
Core things that I feel really do define HERO in actual play...
Paying attention to Active Points being used in any particular action, in increments of 5 for 1d6. So many quick rulings can be made if you just keep this in mind. The 3d6 Bell Curve for task resolution (simply the best mechanic ever) and the "rolling under" for success. This provides such a stable and flexible way to resolve just about anything, and to reflect levels of expertise a PC may have. OCV vs. DCV and all the combat maneuvers that drive the most unique, visceral, fun and interesting combats. Killing vs. Normal damage and resistant vs. normal defenses. (EDIT: Oh... and Stun vs. Body of course) Combat can become very nuanced with slight shifts on these axis.  What I do realize, and this frustrates me, is that #3 and 4 are both crunchy, and counter to my general desire to simplify character build and speed up play. I was joking with my old friends at Origins that I'm 75% in the camp of "give me Nar mechanics that just help guide shared story telling!" but this conflicts with the 25% of me that wants the complex interplay of a great HERO martial arts fight that no other game can do.
 
This conflict drives me!

 

Ya. I've been doing narrative and rules lite games for the last six to seven years (Fate Accelerated is a favorite; if you haven't checked out my Pathfinder Fate Accelerated stuff you might find it interesting), and only just came back to the Hero System by request of @WilyQuixote (who is a Hero System diehard player) and @Scything who became Hero System curious after years of hearing about past Hero System campaigns and from looking at stuff on my website. 
 
I think the essence of the HS is the SPD chart, the 3d6 bell curve for resolution, a pool of D6 for effect, separate STUN and BODY stats, maneuvers have CV modifiers built into them,  sandboxy point buy vs class / level / tree. More limited things cost less than less limited things. Mechanically similar things use the same rules vs being arbitrarily redefined. 
 
The rest of it is largely embellishment, for me.
 

These...exist?

Yes... team chits, a player can request to use one, group has to agree to what is suggested.  Usually, "oooh... ooh... I have an idea..." and people agree or make suggestions... go...

Just for clarity's sake on my part (I may have read right past your explanation), are the luck chits gained for the whole team based on the single "Plan" roll, or individually for each of their pre-plan rolls? In other words, is the ninja using a chit that belongs to the whole team based on their "Plan" roll, or his own chit based on how well he succeeded at inserting himself into the infiltration site?
 
By the way, thanks for reaching out to me at Origins! I love finally putting faces to names!

IIRC Mayfair's Underground game presented a mechanism for the PCs to change the various social aspects of the society itself in the campaign.  That is, ways for them to alter the political situation, social attitudes, and so forth, through their actions.  Interesting concept.  You might be able to adapt the Kingdom rules or Social combat optional rules from APG to achieve something similar.

This was my problem with Deadlands in the past. When I created my Luck Chits, I specifically made them "use 'em or lose 'em" for each adventure, because I wanted them played for dramatic story shifts, and not hoarded for EXP or whatever. 

And while I, the GM, do have access to some Luck Chits as well... one of the things my players like, is that they can see my pool. When I spend to give the villain a free recovery, or whatever, they see this as a victory... they are wearning down my resources as well. If I didn't save a big bennie for the villain at the end, then he doesn't have his "automatic getaway" or whatever. Yes, the GM can say anything they want, but a bennie system can help moderate (in the eyes of the players) when the GM clearly is swinging the narrative against them. In fact, it kind of frees up the GM to be open about "yep, I'm deciding this in favor of the bad guys... here I'm spending a chit to have things go their way" and the players seem much more ok with that.

I actually included something similar (after reading Blades in the Dark)... calling it "The Plan" in my game. I already have a bennie system with "Luck Chits" and I've been experimenting with a relatively simple process.
 
1. When a scenario calls for it, players come up with a general "plan of attack"... like "We want the infiltrate the club in disguise, after having hacked the security cameras, and gotten a decent floorplan. The goal is to narrow down where the hostage might be kept, and so our assault is fast and quick, with a planned getaway."

That's it... no long involved arguing about how many grenades you are packing, or what language your hacking program is written in, or whatever... quick, general, covers the basic idea.
 
2. Each player/PC gets to role a "Prep" roll based on their skill/expertise/contacts, to contribute to  "The Plan". (i.e. the hacker rolls to say "I'm gaining access to the security network through cables running through tunnels under the club." and the faceman says "I'm organizing our local support to have watchers on the street and around the building and a getaway driver." and the ninja says, "I'm going to infiltrate and get in position way ahead of time, before things go down."   whatever...)  Based on how well they roll, they get contribute plusses or minuses to "The Plan" roll. for example... hacker rolls well, that says he is in, with full view of all cameras, give a +2 to "The Plan" roll... but ninja rolled badly, he was able to get inside, but unable to get far due to unexpected employees showing up and can't break cover"... -1 to The Plan roll.   The rolls help narrate the "set up montage"
 
3. Then, based on the total plusses or minuses... a player with Tactics or Teamwork... rolls. Based on how well they roll... the players gain Luck Chits for the group as a whole, that can be utilzed when necessary to say "I planned for this!" when they run into some obstacle in the actual op. For example, the PCs could only infiltrate with light weapons... but once inside, realized they were likely heavily out gunned. The ninja spent a chit saying, "I planned for this, and on my way in, I left a duffle bag of guns on the roof of the elevator off the kitchen." The PCs are then able to pick up a couple assault rifles and a shotgun before heading for the penthouse.

A few more tweaks (like I set a number based on how difficult the target it... from Easy to Hyper Secure (infiltrating a night club owned by gangsters is easier than infiltrating an NSA black site)... but generally that's it.

Players/PCs contribute to "The Plan"... a single roll is then made to determine how effectively the plan was up to the point of "Go" when the actual, moment to moment play begins... and a good roll provides "I planned for that..." bennies... or not if the plan wasn't so good.

Have just recently begun trying it, but it works alright and I'm committed to using basic HERO skills and contacts, etc.... just using them in a different light.

Man, the developer must be old.

My son, @Scything, has started playing the Hero System. Yesterday he asked me for a Hero Designer license so that he can make characters on his own.
 
Hero Designer: the multi-generational Hero System character creation software

So here are a couple of observation from Origins this week, where I was in a couple of sessions with complete beginners:
They can’t understand the character sheets. Don’t try to sell them on HERO with the character sheets! I actually liked the layout of a couple of the HD templates, but I knew what I was looking at. What really helped was a separate page that explained, in plain language, what their powers could do. Emphasize this kind of simplicity. Sell them on the ease of the skill system. It’s wide open, and one set of skills is not dependent on another set of skills, so none of those meta-gamey skill trees are needed, thank you very much. Totally emphasize he flexibility of combat! It’s way cool, as long as you help them understand the core concepts (OCV, DCV, and the effects of maneuvers to these). One dice roll resolves most of it. But please, Please, PLEASE do not teach them this: 11 + OCV - dice roll= DCV you can hit. NOBODY understood what the hell this means! Seriously. I watched it happen in real time. They were able to calculate stuff and make the dice roll, but they didn’t intuitively understand why they were doing it. Teach them the pre-6th way: 11 + OCV - DCV = the roll you need to make. People get it when you are subtracting the opponent’s DCV from your OCV. It makes intuitive sense. Who cares if they know the opponent’s DCV while they are learning the game. That sort of meta-game knowledge may actually help them understand the interaction of the parts better. You can always unload the 6e formula on hem later if you want to hide the DCV. I can’t emphasize this enough. It was a deal breaker for a couple of the new folks, who never quite got the math. When players simply sit back while you calculate everything for their roll, it’s a good indicator that they’ve pretty much tuned out. While it may take getting used to, it’s exciting to roll a handful of dice for damage! People often cheer at a good die roll, but they go nuts for a good 10d6 roll! Just a few observations from the field. God bless all you GMs who run these convention games! I couldn’t do it. 

This of course brings the conversation back around to how we could better teach HERO games to new players and GMs. I’ve brought this up so many times in other forums that I’ve stopped writing about it much, because I just end up banging my head against the stubborn wall of inertia with DOJ. But really, there needs to be a ”beginners box” of some sort that:
Provides a nice looking, eye catching, self-explanatory product on the flgs shelf. Gives just enough of the rules to make the game playable. But with plenty of references to the other products and the larger toolbox that makes it tick. Don’t make them drink from the firehouse out of the box; but pique their curiosity and they’ll be hooked. Make pre-gen characters and villains, again with just enough information to make them usable, but not the full write up of a 6e character sheet. Make it clear that character generation will come later once basic familiarity is built up (his could be a great way to integrate the new character creation cards . . .). Give a new GM just enough of the 6e2 rules to lead a game. Don’t worry about all the options. Again, not a fire hose, but a drinking straw. Make plenty of references to all of the resources available to a GM once he gets his feet under him. Provide more than one adventure. Not a whole campaign, not a whole setting, just several adventures. They could even be designed to cover different aspects of game play in a progressive way.  
I know this won’t happen, but seriously, I’d be at my flgs every week running games for newbies if I had this sort of support to work with. Conventions would be a great setting for this approach too. Those “learn to play”sessions are always popular.
 
Take a look at Justice, Inc. Even the great Aaron Allston provided a quick “choose your own adventure” in the rules to run you through the use of the rules. And it was put in a box with a whole book of adventures and plot seeds. It’s a beautiful model that should have been reproduced with every single game. Of course, we can debate that this was only possible before the 4e rules, but I’m not convinced of this. If we boil down the 6e rules in the way I’m proposing, they’d look an awful lot like 3e in a box, with all the references needed to grow into a full 6e experience. 
 
If if I had a bit more time, and the blessing of DOJ in the way that Ron Edwards did to basically re-write the 3e rules, I’d run with it. But that darned inertia. Maybe I’d have a stronger argument to create a revised box set once he finishes his book. We’ll just have to wait and see. 
 
Ok, my head hurts from banging into this dang wall. 
 
[edit: why don’t the bullets ever work on the first try?]

The idea I want to bring in from FFG Edge of Empire is the fate pool. It took the idea of Force Points and evolved it. Essentially the group has a pool of Force points, usually around six for a party of four players.
 
The genius is that the tokens are light on one side, dark on the other.  One point can be used in any combat round. If the GM uses it, he turns black to white, improving the fate pool. If a player uses it, a white turns to black, degrading the fate pool.
 
When I ran a game, it was hugely useful. I allowed critical attacks to turn black to white rather than have immediate combat effects and suggested twists that challenged the players but turned black to white.
 
I also constantly tempted them. "Don't roll a dice on this task, turn a white to black and you will sneak up on the guard, I will even give you a bonus to hit.
 
It is amazing how much influence six tokens can have on the attitude of the players at the table! I think this would be perfect for replacing HERO Points in my game.
 
You can also set the tone of the game by opening with six blacks, or six whites rather than an even split...
 
Doc

Squad Leader used to have "programmed instruction".  That is, each new scenario introduced new rules and units to the game.  Thus the players could learn the rules as they went along.  

I while back I bought the starter box for the Star Trek game by Modiphius.  It came with a 5 pregenerated characters, a pregenerated ship, and a collection of simple adventures written to highlight how the rules were played.  The adventures basically function like the beginning of a computer game where many of the early missions are entirely based around system of play and exploring the game world.  At first, the old school gamer in me took a little umbrage at using ideas from a computer game in a tabletop game, but after I cooled down, I realize that the idea is actually quite genius.  From a gamemastering perspective, I tend to like less than common games, and I often tend overwrite my campaign worlds.  I want to give players as much information about the rules and my campaign world as I can before they invest time and energy in creating characters, but I don't want to sound like a college professor explaining rules of the game and the subtle nuances of my game world; so, what if I borrow the Modiphius model hand potential players some pregened characters representing the full scope of what my game is offering and run them through a series of simple scenarios to highlight elements of gameplay as well as familiarizing themselves with the campaign world before the put their heart and souls into creating their characters.  From a player's perspective, I don't know how many times I have been the introducee.  There have been many times when I started as a player under a new GM and wished I had done character creation a little differently after starting play.
 
Has anyone else considered doing or have considered starting a campaign this way?  If so, what are your thoughts?
 
And, while on the subject of taking concepts from one game system and applying them to another, what concepts from other games would you or have you implemented in Hero, and what concepts from Hero would you do likewise for other systems?

Related, I use a house rule where knockout levels are dependent on your CON.  Its a subtle change, but it helps make CON matter more and fits in my mind
 
So instead of 
 
0 to -10 stun = recover per phase
-11 to -20 stun = recover every post 12 phase
-21 to -30 stun = Recover per minute
etc
 
Its now
 
0 to -CON in stun = recover per phase
-CON+1 to -CONx2 = recover every post 12 phase
etc
 
Basically the hardier you are, the more abuse you can sustain before it puts you down long term.  This applies only for PCs, of course.

1) A Life Less Ordinary ended with the party breaking up after defeating the malevolent student council.  Magical Girl Callisto didn't care much for the bloodthirstiness of the other PCs and left them to fight the demon behind the student council.
 
2) Revelations 1001 ended with the PCs defeating the Anti-Christ and then speaking with the resurrected messiah that humanity deserved another millennia before the last judgement.  Their wish was granted and things returned back to normal 999 A.D.
 
3) Legacies ended with the new Freedom Legion defeating Baron Von Blackreich and his returned fascist supervillains (the old nemeses in the description), along with their New Reich and Murder Brigade allies.  
 
4) The Temple of the 3 Valleys ended with Feng Wu administering the deadly Dim Mak to his nemesis Minister Mao (the tyrant mentioned in the description) and becoming the new master of the Temple of the 3 Valleys.  Sanzo Sakai made sure that only he had the secrets of martial arts though, as he didn't entirely trust the other PCs with them.
 
5) Juke Joint Jezebel ended with the Black Company and their police cyborg frenemy Obriareus defeating the rogue AI ALEX with the assistance of Jinsei Corporation.  They ended up getting paid their standard fee from Gunkoku and their standard fee+bonuses+medical care+new battlesuits from Jinsei.
 

Sadly I'm running my Muppet game Saturday morning, and from there I'm running over to enter the costume contest.
 
My costume is...

So here are a couple of observation from Origins this week, where I was in a couple of sessions with complete beginners:
They can’t understand the character sheets. Don’t try to sell them on HERO with the character sheets! I actually liked the layout of a couple of the HD templates, but I knew what I was looking at. What really helped was a separate page that explained, in plain language, what their powers could do. Emphasize this kind of simplicity. Sell them on the ease of the skill system. It’s wide open, and one set of skills is not dependent on another set of skills, so none of those meta-gamey skill trees are needed, thank you very much. Totally emphasize he flexibility of combat! It’s way cool, as long as you help them understand the core concepts (OCV, DCV, and the effects of maneuvers to these). One dice roll resolves most of it. But please, Please, PLEASE do not teach them this: 11 + OCV - dice roll= DCV you can hit. NOBODY understood what the hell this means! Seriously. I watched it happen in real time. They were able to calculate stuff and make the dice roll, but they didn’t intuitively understand why they were doing it. Teach them the pre-6th way: 11 + OCV - DCV = the roll you need to make. People get it when you are subtracting the opponent’s DCV from your OCV. It makes intuitive sense. Who cares if they know the opponent’s DCV while they are learning the game. That sort of meta-game knowledge may actually help them understand the interaction of the parts better. You can always unload the 6e formula on hem later if you want to hide the DCV. I can’t emphasize this enough. It was a deal breaker for a couple of the new folks, who never quite got the math. When players simply sit back while you calculate everything for their roll, it’s a good indicator that they’ve pretty much tuned out. While it may take getting used to, it’s exciting to roll a handful of dice for damage! People often cheer at a good die roll, but they go nuts for a good 10d6 roll! Just a few observations from the field. God bless all you GMs who run these convention games! I couldn’t do it. 

I wouldn't necessarily say that magic is more common in Ambrethel than many other fantasy locations, as far as when and how the average person interacts with it. However, magic does seem to be integrated into the social fabric of that world to a greater extent than in most other fantasy RPG settings. There are quite a few well-known and respected schools of magic across the known world, often focusing on distinctive styles of spell. There are also at least two mageocratic nations, Arutha and Kurum-Sathiri. Powerful individual wizards also seem to have had an unusually prominent role in shaping the (extensively detailed) history of the Turakian Age.
 
A particularly distinctive element of TA is how religion is handled. While most fantasy RPGs confine themselves to little more than lists of gods in pantheons, with their powers and "spheres of influence," and what abilities they grant to their priests; TA delves more into the theology of the major religions, what their doctrines are, their hierarchies, their politics, and the practices their adherents follow which shape how they live their lives.
 
If the main continent of Arduna adapts many of the familiar conventions of D&D and its imitators, the smaller continent of Mitharia is where those conventions are often subverted. There you can find surface-dwelling Dwarves, demon-worshiping Elves, civilized Orcs, rugged outdoorsy Halflings, a benevolent Lich. The Drakine (dragon-men), a people long in decline on Arduna, rule the most powerful realm of Mitharia. Mitharia also holds civilizations of Men not connected to and predating the oldest legends of the Men of Arduna; civilizations inspired by real ones from Earth which have rarely been adapted to games like these.
 
As the common designation of this setting implies, Kal-Turak is the dominant figure of his era. His intentions are feared by all. The "GM's Vault" info in the TA source book describes his hidden machinations to weaken the world as prelude to his campaign of conquest. Yet it's surprisingly easy to run the setting completely excising Kal-Turak and his realm. Turakia is located far to the north of Arduna, well beyond the territories of any other peoples. It conducts no trade or diplomatic relations with other nations. While the Ravager of Men has covertly meddled in global affairs for centuries, many of his described schemes occurred long before the default start date for a Turakian Age campaign, and have had little to no lasting effect on the "present day" world. For other more recent events where Kal-Turak's involvement isn't suspected, the public frequently have their own explanations for them, which a GM can choose the make the "correct" explanations. The few that don't fall into either category are not hard to rationalize without the Ravager, or to just ignore.
 
Excluding Kal-Turak still leaves a number of major foes which could become the focus of a campaign, from such world-shaking menaces as Vashkoran holy war, the freeing of the gods of Thun, or the imperial expansion of Orumbar; to more regional threats like the Yellow King of Valicia, the Vampire Lord of Dragosani, or the Seven Sorcerers of Vuran.

Anyone at all?
 
 
I guess it's possible to buy temporary rights to a piece of art.
 
Who knew?
 
 

I'm glad someone mentioned that.  Yes, one of the big appeals of Champions (and later HERO), at least to me, was that you could be a skilled combatant (if you wished) without having to also be a mass-murderer or serial killer.  In other words, traveling the countryside thwarting villains and monsters did not automatically turn your party into yet another pack of murder-hobos, which greatly enhanced the odds of finding players who wanted to be-- well, something _more_ than just murderous hobos.
 
 

Switching to Champions (from AD&D back in the day) was a no-brainer for me because of two major aspects of the Hero System that I was immediately drawn to:
 
1. The character building system was logical and extremely flexible. I am a "builder" by nature, and so this system not only made sense to me logically and mathematically, it appealed to the engineer/designer in me. The notion that everything could be expressed in terms of Character Points was a total game changer. A further consequence of the point-build system was that the simplistic and rigid "level" system of D&D was replaced with a more user-directed and granular character progression paradigm, which was a welcome change to me.
 
2. The combat system, along with the separation of BODY and STUN (and the use of END to power, well, powers) was so much more logical to me than THAC0, hit points, and saving throws. The awkward way that AD&D tried to incorporate the concept of knocking an opponent out (rather than killing them) never really worked right with the concept of hit points, and the BODY/STUN paradigm solved this problem elegantly.
 
Basically, anyone who has played D&D for a while and has become frustrated by its over-simplifications, awkward combat mechanics, and rigid leveling system could do a lot worse than to look at the Hero System as a remedy for all those woes.

So here are a couple of observation from Origins this week, where I was in a couple of sessions with complete beginners:
They can’t understand the character sheets. Don’t try to sell them on HERO with the character sheets! I actually liked the layout of a couple of the HD templates, but I knew what I was looking at. What really helped was a separate page that explained, in plain language, what their powers could do. Emphasize this kind of simplicity. Sell them on the ease of the skill system. It’s wide open, and one set of skills is not dependent on another set of skills, so none of those meta-gamey skill trees are needed, thank you very much. Totally emphasize he flexibility of combat! It’s way cool, as long as you help them understand the core concepts (OCV, DCV, and the effects of maneuvers to these). One dice roll resolves most of it. But please, Please, PLEASE do not teach them this: 11 + OCV - dice roll= DCV you can hit. NOBODY understood what the hell this means! Seriously. I watched it happen in real time. They were able to calculate stuff and make the dice roll, but they didn’t intuitively understand why they were doing it. Teach them the pre-6th way: 11 + OCV - DCV = the roll you need to make. People get it when you are subtracting the opponent’s DCV from your OCV. It makes intuitive sense. Who cares if they know the opponent’s DCV while they are learning the game. That sort of meta-game knowledge may actually help them understand the interaction of the parts better. You can always unload the 6e formula on hem later if you want to hide the DCV. I can’t emphasize this enough. It was a deal breaker for a couple of the new folks, who never quite got the math. When players simply sit back while you calculate everything for their roll, it’s a good indicator that they’ve pretty much tuned out. While it may take getting used to, it’s exciting to roll a handful of dice for damage! People often cheer at a good die roll, but they go nuts for a good 10d6 roll! Just a few observations from the field. God bless all you GMs who run these convention games! I couldn’t do it.