C.R.Ryan

Simple one. This has bugged me for awhile. If your KA is 3d6, 9 dcs. How do you split that? Just curious. I did a search and it didn't bring up a previous thread. Sorry if this is redundant.

Noticed something Van Helsing and Tarzan share stats. I'm supposing that's a mistake.

You did a great job. Thanks for looking into that.

Got it, it's great. Any chance that there's an export template in the style of those character sheets in the back? Edit: I use the publishable .RTF export template but I edit out a lot of the superfluous info like costs and adders. Those sheets are clean, I like them a lot.

Just curious if anyone else here is using Talespire as a VTT? Just curious. It's a rule agnostic 3D VTT that I have been loving since 2020. I can't remember if I have already posted this question here. If I Have I will understand if the Mod delete this.

Well they have 3PO for most languages other wise the common languages seems to be common (I call the Galactic Trade Tongue, in my game) and Hutt. Wookie and Binary is a bit rarer. I've had a lot of fun with my recent group and the Jawa PC. Jawas have sort of a pigeon trade language they speak to non-Jawas. The occasional translation problem (especially when the Jawa player drops an 18, not on the language skill just him panicking after blowing a skill check badly, he is prone to that in this game) is always hilarious.

@GM Joe I don't really track what skills have been used in the past. We are an old group, I've been playing for 35 years and two of the members have been with me for 30 of those years. A lot of trust. Which of course means I can under design a bit and me and the players can work things out in game. Would definitely need a bit more tooling to realize to people outside my group. I think I drew more inspiration from the old Skills in Shadowrun where you might buy Firearms, and then specialize in rifles or something. I think it hues close to 5e backgrounds though. I hadn't really thought of that, some design space to think about. Thanks.

As much as I can enjoy a 5e D&D game, I do begin chaffing against the system eventually. Then someone busts out Gestalt or some other variant, and I am willing cause it's their game, but let's just play something else that does what we want out of the box. As much as I like a steal mechanics from Narrative games I usually find the games as a whole less satisfying than a more robust rules environment. At least in Hero, I know what I'm ignoring.

There is something to be said for granularity in certain campaigns. The ability to have skills granularity on a slider is I think more useful then a whole sale change. I do think in general though I do tend toward the broader skill motif. Navigation just lets you navigate, Survival lets you survive unless your are WAY afield of your home terrain. Unless it's baked into the game that various characters all have different science background the SCIENCE!!! PC get SCIENCE!!! This is why I think in spite of our current RAW feeling more restrictive to some people, I'm happy with it, cause I like most of what Steve has done and if I don't like something, f*#& it, I'll do it myself.

I don't know. Sometimes I deal with it by simply having broader skills. I'm not the biggest fan of Science Skills, when every other profession just has KS and PS. In pulpy or superhero games I often just give the scientist "PS: and KS: SCIENCE!!!", or "SS: SCIENCE!!!" I only concern myself with more granular Sciences if multiple characters are scientists and need their own expertise. I literally uses skill enhancers too. In an earlier post I described the "Skill Sets" (Spacer, Smuggler, Doctor, Bounty Hunter, Jedi, ect) I use in Star Wars, 10, 15, 20 point professions that give a PC access to a broad scope of skills based on the situation they're in. Any time during the game when they think their PC should have a skill under a Set they have they can ask to use that skill and I decide if it's appropriate and at what level (8-, 11-, full skill). They can also specialize in skills that are clearly in the skill set (Spacer: Combat Piloting) by paying 2 (+1). In that case they actually write the skill down (full skill roll+1) and we never need to have the dramatic justification of them using the skill. Also for years I've been giving characters like 10pts in background skills for free (not including their native language). In a lot of games this gives a PC a profession, and a little bit of Knowledge to fill out their back story with out costing the a skill level or cooler skill (I like that Shadowing is separate from Stealth now they can have both for example). So I think if someone of someone has an EC idea for Skills then probably I'm into it. I like hero as a gaming code, that we can create systems and interfaces over. The game is running underneath giving any of these these systems a bit of sense and consistency. Sorry if I'm beginning to repeat myself. I love talking through this stuff. It reenforces my understanding of the game and the way I build. This really is my favorite system.

I actually like the system the skills work on. Unfortunately for certain campaigns I do find the costs to really flesh out a character a bit exorbitant. So I create other cost structure to lay over what I think is a nicely robust skill system that can be as broad or granular as you like, in terms of the actual skills themselves. I do really like how the skills play in game, though. I'm one of those guys too who tries not to make PCs roll for everything either. Especially when the fail case doesn't effect the game at all.

I just bash together rules systems from hero as I like. For instance in my 6th Ed star wars game to kinda imitate the way star wars characters have vague skill set defined more by drama then we'll defined skill trees I just have each player spend 10, 15, or 20 pts on one or two "professions" or skill sets that covers the skills they could have. Examples A Doctor is 10 pts, a Spacer is 15 pts, and Jedi is 20 pts, based on how broad I think the profession will be. I usually allow 2 skill sets. From there the character can use any skill that seems appropriate at the time for their character. This cover everything besides skill levels most skills are obvious some take a brief back and forth and then if I agree with the player I decide if it's an 8-, 11-, or a full skill with levels. There are some other granularity here but that less important right now. I have a player wanting to use sixth but wants to use ECs again, and I showed him how to fake it in Hero Designer even though I don't miss Elemental Controla. "Balance" doesn't mean much to me. The points give me a rough idea of how Powerful something will be, and that's all. I stopped capping active points in champions games at the tale end of 4th edition because I didn't like how samey everything always felt. I use a variety of magic systems that go way off the rails in terms of what players are actually "paying for". But the powers (spells/abilities) beneath those systems are built out of the various 6th edition tools. I enjoy using Hero as a means of building fun systems that lay over the underlying game rules. Especially since I don't run much champions anymore. I'd still probably run that mostly RAW. I have never felt terribly compelled to "buy everything" in any addition out side of champions, and even then only the core ideas of the character needed to be ironed out. I love for players to use powers creatively, I will get players to buy powers they clearly are trying to emulate but the one or two times, yeah use your swing line to tie people up, neat. If you want for that to be actually effective in a fight let's buy an entangle for you. I also still call Complications Disads, and the PCs have inches on their sheets not meters. Those feel sort of arbitrary to me. I feel less inhibited by hero's RAW then many others systems, which may be counter intuitive, but I think it's just decades of playing it through multiple editions. PS crap now I'm writing essays on the topic.

I'm with you, here.

I tend to doost of the writing of characters in my games. I love building and writing up characters, so it's all pretty collaborative. Some of my most experienced players come to me with starts and I tend to finish. Also I love to build system on Hero, I use variations on the skill system and a full Jedi Arts/Force Powers system built with hero. So sometimes I have to have a heavy hand I. Character creation since it's new(ish). Years with my group though really helps this feel less laborious for me me. I even help other GMs on our group since it can feel encumbering for them. They just decide if they like my writeup or if they'd like to go a different direction. All that to say, luckily my group has decades since shed the urge to take advantage of rules and loop holes.

I have played in a 5e campaign a few years back. We had a blast. Most games can be great if you like the players around the table with you.