Scott Ruggels

I try to do my best, as I am not a superhero guy anymore.  I have two FH campaigns ready to go, and a desire to run Traveller Hero, and I used to rumbmodern Mercenaries or Fantady Hero at cons.  

Now Shadmar, Cleric of Themis, Goddess of Law, Protection, Vengeance and Honour!
 
 

Judging by Iron Man 3 he spent his xps on ten thousand autonomous copies of his armor and wealth to pay for it all.  But not one thin dime on defenses for his house.

If you look over various Champions forums and Discords, the strict adherence to 70s-80s Silver Age, Comics Code, era tropes, and their antipathy to 90s era comics tropes, would be a good argument against a maturing world, or that Champions is an escape from a maturing world?
 
Even the propensity for people to play and run Teen Hero campaigns is perhaps a stronger argument against it.  🙃

Torch ships possibly in my lifetime? 
 
 

I have had to retool my near future Solar System background to Cyberpunk Red. The group was unreceptive to Hero. However, I had a lot of the Orbital laborers using ASL as a language for when Solar flares blank the radios. You can say a lot with a gesture.  
 
 

I think you need to take a step back and evaluate what the cleric does in society, in a fantasy world. The cleric serves two masters, the deity and doctrine, as well as protecting the health and well-being of the people.  I would advise looking at the spell lists, and think of them not as healer bots, but as territorial defenders, either philosophical territory or physical territory. This will give them a far different flavor than they D&D combat mages. 
 
Think  of spells and limitations in this mode. Structures, or Circles are defined areas. Spells occur only within the defined area. If there are worshippers are within the defined area END or other sources of “energy” can be drawn from them, to be redirected by the cleric to another purpose. Spells can be cast upon worshippers inside the defined area, or power conferred upon them.  This can be inclusive or exclusive.  Same mechanics, but the Cleric can be inside or outside the defined area. This works for summoning circles, the knave of a church, a warded area, ect.  Healing might be a function done within the defined area. This would also work for magical traps. Defined area works for Change Environment, trigger, summoning, various aids and drains and other effects. 
 
Non area defined spells depending on the theology, would be primarily defensive. Self defensive, Or group defensive. 
 
Clerics tend to be a support role, rather than a  line fighter, or ranged combat, artillery. They can be, especially war clerics, but the greater power or effect may be within the defined area. 
 
Maybe they can work in groups. Like apprentices assisting the senior cleric to cast more difficult spells or spells with larger END requirements than a single caster could manage? 
 
Last point, please try to steer away from D&D tropes. To me, D&D has become the McDonalds of RPGs. The toolkit approach of Fantasy Hero allows you to make fine dining. The above sections are offered to provide alternatives to give clerics a different flavor from D&D clerics, or even standard casters. 
 
 

I think you need to take a step back and evaluate what the cleric does in society, in a fantasy world. The cleric serves two masters, the deity and doctrine, as well as protecting the health and well-being of the people.  I would advise looking at the spell lists, and think of them not as healer bots, but as territorial defenders, either philosophical territory or physical territory. This will give them a far different flavor than they D&D combat mages. 
 
Think  of spells and limitations in this mode. Structures, or Circles are defined areas. Spells occur only within the defined area. If there are worshippers are within the defined area END or other sources of “energy” can be drawn from them, to be redirected by the cleric to another purpose. Spells can be cast upon worshippers inside the defined area, or power conferred upon them.  This can be inclusive or exclusive.  Same mechanics, but the Cleric can be inside or outside the defined area. This works for summoning circles, the knave of a church, a warded area, ect.  Healing might be a function done within the defined area. This would also work for magical traps. Defined area works for Change Environment, trigger, summoning, various aids and drains and other effects. 
 
Non area defined spells depending on the theology, would be primarily defensive. Self defensive, Or group defensive. 
 
Clerics tend to be a support role, rather than a  line fighter, or ranged combat, artillery. They can be, especially war clerics, but the greater power or effect may be within the defined area. 
 
Maybe they can work in groups. Like apprentices assisting the senior cleric to cast more difficult spells or spells with larger END requirements than a single caster could manage? 
 
Last point, please try to steer away from D&D tropes. To me, D&D has become the McDonalds of RPGs. The toolkit approach of Fantasy Hero allows you to make fine dining. The above sections are offered to provide alternatives to give clerics a different flavor from D&D clerics, or even standard casters. 
 
 

My near-future campaign doesn't have any aliens, so the players speak whatever languages are native to them. In a far-future spacefaring campaign, I would assume some kind of trade language would be used to allow communication between different species. If English still exists at the time, it will have evolved to something different from the English we speak today.

It's definitely a custom job and based on the type of cover and embossed font, it looks like that it was done by Capitol Bindery Inc. here in Omaha, NE where I live. Years ago I had a similar job done for a 3rd Edition Champions book that was refurbished/hardcover bound that I later gave to a friend.
 
If you found it in a used bookstore and you live in Omaha, NE, was the store Half Price Books? It is the only used bookstore that I am aware of in the metro area that sells old games. 🙂

Being 72, I'm definitely an old timer.  I think I started with second edition.

58, and started with first edition, day one, and have the flyer from Pacific Origins to prove it.  😁

I am planning on running this on a friend’s v server around Christmas time.  We shall see if it takes. C

You mean like this?

I was about to post that last video as a counterpoint, not to bash the upcoming product. You beat me to it.
 
For my part, I have no interest in this. I found long ago that the d20 system wasn't for me, and I never got into 3.5e or later editions. So I haven't been paying much attention to whatever WOTC produces. Of course, I have seen the hype about this product, and Baron de Ropp's video is the first negative response so far. But discussion is a good thing, so people can think about whether or not to buy into this thing.

Interesting analysis of the One D&D push for their VTT. 
 
 

Typically yes. Hero presents a language for detailed character design and once you have the hang of it, learning a new language every time you want to design a new character seems like a lot of wasted effort.
 
On the other hand, the number of people that have fluency in said language are diminishing...

I still “think” in Hero, and have ideas for science fiction and modern campaigns in my head.  I intensely dislike minimalist systems, and I leave the table rather than playing them. 
 
The problem I have with Hero is not having any players close by.  Online, the player base skews younger, and anyone born after 1991 is going to have an aversion to crunchy mechanics, as for them, the computer handles the crunch. The dark times of when MTG sucked all the money out of the TTRPG industry broke the habit. 
 
So I do GM, but these days it’s Cyberpunk Red maybe Traveller (Mongoose), but there is only tepid interest in doing anything Hero. As a player, it’s 5e D&D, as that seems to be the only thing other people GM.  At least my Sunday DM homebrew the politics. 
 
But I am still thinking in Hero. 

The chances of rolling 11 or less on 3d6 is about 57.87%, it is 48.15% for 10 or less.  So that means you have 9.72% less by reducing the target number to 10.   Many of the rolls in the Hero System are actually calculated.   Most skill rolls are based of the formula of 9 + STAT/5.   That works out to an 11 or less for a STAT within the 8-12 range.   You have a 25.47% chance to make an 8 or less roll.   Your chance to roll a 7 or less drops to 15.74% and quickly gets worse as you go down the chart.   When you get to the point you need a 3 to succeed you are down to a .046% chance of pulling it off. 
 
What is going to happen if you change the base to 10 is that you are going to see a lot more failures.  With the way things stand you succeed slightly more than half the time.  Dropping that to 10 is going to mean you fail more often than you succeed.     An 11 or less roll is supposed to be something that is not that hard to achieve.  Most people under normal circumstances should be able to make the roll.  When you reduce the base chance, you probably need to reduce all the rolls by the same amount.   That gives you very little leeway for having things that are moderately difficult.   Personally, I think this is a bad idea and will make the game a lot tougher and less enjoyable.  
 

is that not in the HERO store?  The PDF, I mean?
 
The Character sheet in that will work fine with 1, 2, and 3e.
 
 

Having worked for several RPG companies I have a fair amount of experience at con with trading rulebooks with other company reps.  
 
Also as a bit of background, I was involved in the arguments on rec.games.frp.advocacy on the old Usenet, and was firmly in the simulationist camp, having a dim view of the narrative side as squashing immersion.  So.  
 
Chivalry & Sorcery First Edition.  FGU’s overly complex almost tool kit of a game.  Beautiful publications, but combat was frustratingly long and complex.  Hero was smooth in comparison.  
 
Other Suns.  Another FGU offering, written by Nikolai Shapero. Mechanics were obscure, basically “Reversed Runequest. The second book was mostly background. Background played favorites so anything other than human was preferable. Patient zero for the furry fandom. 
 
Tri-Tac Systems  I met Richard Tucholka at Origins, and we hit it off, and I did illustrations for his games, Stalking The Night Fantastic, Fringeworthy, and FTL2448 (modern paranormal, multiverses, and Science fiction, respectively). All of the games were based off the same system. That system was another overly complex system, like early D&D, but a lot more lethal.  I could follow instructions, and do things when Richard would run games at cons, but I could not run them myself.  I ran Hero instead.  He and his Detroit friends revamped the system shortly before his death, but I had not the heart to crack the new books open when I received them after his death. 
 
Living Steel. Beautiful Art.  Absolutely unplayable. 
 
FATE, FUDGE, Savage Worlds. Any system with only three stats is not for me ( except Melee/ Wizard).  I’ve tried them, but the modern minimalism, to me feels like my character is on the set of a low budget film or TV production, improvising dialogue to the director-GMs plot outline.  The buildings are cardboard, the props are cheap, and the mountains in the distance are painted backdrops.  The escape, and occasional immersion I desire in a game, just isn’t there for me in these minimalist systems. Any game that does not give that living world feeling, be it because of railroading in a good system, or minimalist mechanics for me is a bad experience. Savage Worlds’ exploding dice mechanic was illogical to this gun nut, where a baby with a butter knife was the most lethal entity in the universe. I am also an anti-fan of fate points fate tokens or similar te-roll mechanics. The dice rule. I wish Sean Fannon well for his system, but I won’t return easily to his minimalist Superheroes.  Basically any system that favors a narrative structure or is plot driven, I walk away from. 
 
There are others, but this covers what I can remember off the top of my head in the early pre-dawn hours.  
 
 

 

 
 

Here's a thread winner: The Knife Throwing Machine.
 
 

An unserious Post, but someone put a Tacticool kit on a caplock carbine: