Scott Ruggels

What you are looking for to me seems to be Toll30.net for Msp, Token, Fog-of-War, Character sheets as simple PDF, or JPEG display, handouts and yes, maybe there is a Hero Dice roller, but for voice , video(in necessary), and also a dice rolling bot, you use Discord. The native Roll20.net voice is suboptimal. That being said, the TTS Hero mod has been radically simplified, and will be entering beta in a week or two.

I’ll just leave this here.

I would avoid fictitious cities. Google maps exists, and there are tutorials on how to turn them into scaled game maps, fairly easily. On the otherhand, I would not put much specificity in locations so it's easy to place things in any major city without too much trouble (Unless the city is landlocked?).

YoungRippa59 is a YouTuber I occasionally watch, who does gaming live streams of Various console games. He made some interesting points about a fully customizable super hero game, essentially re-creating what we have once seen as Champions Online, except with better graphics. Incidentally the graphics are excellent, but are much more MCU that comic book page. which dovetails to a point that I made earlier about how Superhero visuals should be slanted towards the movie appearance rather than ink lines on a page. He analyzes the game and compares it to some other games, But he thinks that Crystal Dynamics may have a winner.

No death during character creation. Skill resolution is 2D6 plus one’s skill level. Skills can be linked to different stats due to situations. (Mechanics plus Dex to fix something. Mechanics plus Education to figure out what parts are needed to buy. ). Combat is pretty lethal but no instantly so. Same “range bands” as classic Traveller, and it’s hard to hit anything moving.

The current Mongoose Second Edition of Traveller uses 2D6. Play it every Saturday. Uses the same published material as classic Traveller, just a lot smoother mechanics.

Your state is clear? Awesome! Looking forward to the resumption.

They tend to.

Well the thing is, is I legitimately had fun using Pathfinder First Edition. I played through most of "The Mummy's Mask", and a good chunk of "The Emerald Spire", with radically different characters. Mostly I think, because of the quality of the writing of The Adventure paths, and judging by the differences between our adventures in The mummy's Mask, and the game detailed in the "Quotes from This Week's game" thread. We met different NPC's, had different outcomes. In the systems itself, i was able to build VERY different characters. A Carefree Recent college Graduate Sorcerer from a well to do political family from Absalom, and a Timid Lupine Barbarian Female from the wilds. (Her "rage" only triggered if she took any HP of Damage, or was startled.) She was usually quiet, observant but pointed out the obvious frequently, Tries to be polite and diplomatic. Really a non standard barbarian, and the system supported both really well. Where the system fell apart, was above 10th level, where either the party was too powerful, or the opposition was entirely too lethal, as the system swung wildly back and forth. Pathfinder 2, I have just read through the Free Playtest Rules PDF, but it seemed more complex. It looked great on paper, but seeing how the combat worked in practice was eye opening. Basically the combat rules , and the 48 conditions, that were not all mutually exclusive with each other, so many stacked up, increased the complexity to the point of 15mm Napoleonic Miniatures rules. Now this is not a bad thing in my eyes as I still war game, but it's probably going to drive off FLGS table players that have to pay table rent, and don't have a lot of patience. (It may also increase the amount of "looking at one's phone" for the folks who don't have a turn.) The increase in feats, and character customization is almost into the HERO) level of customization, or more like R. Talsorian's Life Path system from the various editions of Cyberpunk. I believe this may be a departure from the MMORPG emulation that D&D 4th Edition went whole hog into, and other have followed ever since. But, the observation that one might need computer assistance (that Hero seems to need as well for many people), does seem to indicate that accountancy was a factor in the design. The fact that Puffin had to make a combat Matrix on a cheat sheet, shows that gamer aids are kind of required for Pathfinder 2nd.

I would almost say, that Duke Elliot's "Dome City" would fit the bill as it's a self contained Superhero origin Story, and that if it had Pregens in it, then problems with picking inappropriate superpowers for the Heroes would vanish, as they could be tailored. I could see this being somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 pages total and it's already completely self contained, as the whole thing takes place in an impenetrable dome.

Very interested in hearing more about this. How did things change for you?

This is why MUs have horses (Shadowfax), or donkeys. Or maybe even Tenser’s Floating Disk. They don’t want pack straps to muss their robes or collar.

It’s a tax on killing things too quickly. That’s all. I am sure there is some fear for removing attack penalties, or a Magic item. This IS Pathfinder after all. mai was under the same impression, until he ran under another GM, who ran Curse of Strahd 5e for their group. He played things straight, and had one silly player, and she paid dearly for it at the end. Convinced me never to play in that module.

Good recommendations all around. Thank you folks. Back to the previous topic, It’s becoming clear to me that character generation is the big stumbling block that new players balk at when new to Hero. Can it be possible to create something with judt pregens and combat rules, and a stack of either scenario ideas, or an Adventure Path sort of content? Something that a GM would need minimal prep for, and can be run F2F or a PDF on line for Virtual Tabletops online?

I have to admit, there is a certain elegance to how the action economy works in Pathfinder 2 though. Move, hit, move. Hit, move, hit(-5). Prep spell, launch spell, move, ect. The big numbers, though get unwieldy, quickly.

In most games, since Soldiers carry about 80 lbs of Sustainment gear, I figure that Adventurers carry about the same, more or less and hand wave the rest. Tracking weight and encumbrance ance, just reduces travel distance, not speed. I read a lot of military books going back a century Or more and a lot o GMs fell into this realism craze around 1978-80 that you can still see echoes of in any crunchy game from that time. Encumbrance was seen to be a balancing issue. Go backpacking sometime. It will give you a realistic appreciation of adventuring. I did it in various period military gear for about 10 years until 9-11 and I was not in great shape but at 80 lbs I could do it

Makes my a little nostalgic for FGU titles like Chivalry and Sorcery, or Bushido. I think Living Steel was similarly complex, but not as well designed as P2. Thankfully, it does not seem to have a narrative economy system. Puffin’s summation on character creation, and his ambivalence on the subject because of how long it takes, and character ownership in general, was fascinating, in that he is so different than I am, and that I believe he would be a poor fit for Hero. which leads my to my thoughts of trying to recruit new players from D&D 5e is a bad idea. We should probably recruit from PF2 players. 😁 but is also leads some strength to the idea that and FLGS introduction to Hero, should have pregens only, and avoid character generation entirely. Make things easy for the players and the shop referee to just put out the mat, tokens, dice and play.

Puffin Forest has posted and extensive review of the Second Edition of Paizo’s Pathfinder rules. In terms of crunch. It is a step away from the simplicity of D&D 5e, and that may have been a problem for him and his two game groups. I. Was mentally comparing his analysis to how gaming used to be, to how it is now. See what you think of this

Chargen, if there is one, would be an appendix item, rather than a core part of the game. The Chargen could use that Champions genre book, or at least that style, however the important thing is to teach the combat system and how skills are used. But full Chargen should not be a part of these products at all. Directions on where to find the full information shopuld be provided, and the index and appendix should lists costs, but other than that keep it hidden from the group. Don't want to scare them away.

Any Recommendations? I am probably going to order a physical copy of MHI. to see what a "powered By Hero " game looks like and compare it to some other games. But the "Model" is the first Champions book in terms of form factor.

Manga, you mean? Yes. Though, specifically, the one that would attract the most attention would be anything based on, or around typical Shonen (boy's) Manga, with it's main protagonist with deep reservoirs of perseverance, and a quirk that makes him different from most of the others, plus a cast of friends and rivals accompanying him to the completion of his journey. There are other genre's of Manga of course, Shojo, for girls. which is more plot, and relationships, and Genre's covering Sports, Fishing, Slice of life, Comedy, kind of like How American Comics were, before the 1960's. But Shonen Manga is the most popular, with Japanese, and Western audiences. Again specificity would be the key to make an attractive product. Specific setting, or near specific. Basically you want a slim volume with as small character sheet, with attractive art, that works for someone sitting at the table at the FLGS< either player or GM, without a lot of prep work. Everything necessary is covered, but only what's necessary.

Marketing wise, being "Generic" is about as attractive as the store brand Macaroni & Cheese. Rather than Generic is has to be specific, and maybe even a bit trendy, hence Manga. Another YouTuber explained that going after a niche market, while still servicing your core market is a winning strategy. We aren't trying to toss the old fans and bring in new ones. We are trying to attract new players to the existing group. I suppose you could do a VERY abbreviated Turakian Age, centered in one geographic area, if there is a desire/requirement to use existing IP. Or any of the other ones, BUT the game must have pre-gens. simple explanations and no legalism in the base rules. Show slim stat bars in the books and extended , point costed stat bars in the Appendix.

The more I think about it, the more it seems, a manga sort of game, with pre-gens, no character creation, with an enclosed, but somewhat open ended adventure in three or four parts that covers an arc within a Manga might work. The goal is getting new players comfortable with the system. without overwhelming them with character generation. Because the system in combat is pretty elegant. Introduce character creation by having an index of how characters and powers are created. But keep it separate from the main book ( different, smaller type face for the index). The people who are motivated will seek out more materials and will want their own game backgrounds to build, but the rest, will be players comfortable with the system and stat bars, so they can pick up a pre-gen or GM-gen and sit down and play. For all the talk of how flexible the character generation is, the fact that 6e Hero comes in two volumes and looks like a tax law text book is not attractive to new young players. 5e D&D does not require a separate program like Hero Designer to create a character. Apparently, you just need the PHB, and an animated character to berate you, to create a Character.

This is exactly the situation. We aren't getting new players. If you judged by this forum alone the audience for Hero is the same Audience that was around in 199, minus deaths and gafiation. Fortunately, this is not entirely true, but the growth is limited. The Discord Server seems to be attracting new players, but their question seem to be of the same sort of questions that most new players are asking, or they are asking how to make (Popular D 20 Based system's) flavor into Hero. Sure it can be done, and that miiiiiight be a way to bring in new blood, but I am not so sure. But since newer players are just now discovering virtual table tops like Roll 20, Fantasy Grounds and TTS, because of the current plague, something simpler, and "complete" needs to be prapared, and available as a PDF or SRD for the online players. No telling when we can get back to face to face. This is a shame. But the reasons are completely understandable. However, Hero if they do want to attract more new players to the systems and products, they might consider offering a prize, or a contract to people submitting such products directly to them. Leave Villain and monster supplements to Hall of Champions, but a complete background with NPCs Monsters, Spells and equipment, and a nice explanation of how combat works, ala The Fantasy Hero Primer, could be made into a slim, attractive product, and then Hero could see through sales, what is attractive and serve their market accordingly. Grow the business back slowly, through metered support to the various games, or release a new one if there is no interest. The books should be thought of in the size and page count of Champions I. Complete, but flexible, and cover original background material, or a low page count distillation of one of our illustrious GM's Homebrew campaign (not Champions*). givi9ng a discussion of how to GM it, and what players need to know. Low page count, Nice but not expensive printing, and some nice art, that is relevant to the text, and not Public Domain art that is vaguely r3elated to the subject. *If it is Champions related it needs to be a set up for new heroes, and have something related. The problem with Champions is the Current slate of American Comic Books is unattractive, badly written, and that whole industry may go away. Manga might be more of a positive example, and would attract the current fan audience, however acquiring rights and permissions would be a bureaucratic mess, what with the language and legal barriers, but it would not be insurmountable. In fact, you may want to skip any sort of character creation within that Manga Based product, and just provide them the characters from the story. I think the licenses would be a little cheaper than anything American.

If you aren't going to Homebrew everything. The everyone else neds to step up and make "powered by Hero" types of books. And to "work" properly they need to be put together in an organized fashion for GMs, similar to how 5e D&D does it. I am an artist, not a writer, much, so I'll have to leave that to others. But I do believe in this modern age, there needs to be a bit more handholding.