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1 hour ago, Brian Stanfield said:

 

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?]

I'm wondering if there is not an opportunity here for the community to step up and fill that gap.  

I'm working on a quick one shot Fantasy HERO adventure right now complete with pre-gens.  I would never claim to be the best GM  and the thought of putting myself out there in that way is intimidating for sure.  However, I would consider it if there was an actual demand for this type of thing.

When you look at the 800lbs Gorilla (D&D) you can find plenty if paid and free fan made adventures.  I would submit that HERO is so tiny these days that the paid option would not be feasible but free would work.  We even have a delivery mechanism available to us via this site and the download section.

If we're feeling really ambitious and there's real interest maybe a peer review forum could be requested.  That way aspiring authors could get feedback on their work before it's put up for download.

Probably a PS: Detective roll or something like it

On 1/18/2019 at 12:15 PM, Lord Liaden said:

One would expect the larger kingdoms at the ends of the Shaanda to vie for control over the strategic central river. One of those kingdoms, Valicia, is ruled by a powerful wizard with ambitions of conquering the whole region (and who makes for a fine "big bad" for a campaign). But the cities of the Shaanda are described as too independent and clever to be ruled. To me this implies that they probably cooperate to defend themselves and play the kingdoms against each other; but that doesn't preclude rivalry among the cities themselves. Otherwise the Shaanda cities are given little further definition -- nothing about city layout, population, society, government, or the like.

That's a very tempting location I must admit.  I'm currently planning a 1-shot set in Aarn for a group of D&D players but if that goes well and there's interest I would totally look at that region for a campaign

1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Not familiar with it. I assume it is available in the store?

It is - https://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/417-turakian-age-bookpdf/

There's a PDF only available for $10 too ?

I love the setting and was curious if there's anyone else on these boards who do too?

Steve did and amazing job with the book and I think it deserves more supplements.  Although the base book is very detailed in terms of races, geography, theology, etc, I think there's tons of room to expand on.  The setting has such good bones that it feels criminal to not expand on it.

Also, an update to 6th edition would be fantastic although strictly not necessary.

I once co-ran a game where everyone had a common origin much like the Fantastic Four (accident gave them powers).

It was a lot of fun but everyone bought into the idea from the start...I think it's the only way to get a common origin story going.  Also, we had a player join us later in the campaign and he was kind of the odd man out unfortunately...he broke the vibe of the story through no fault of his own.

Champions: New Millennium

...I'll show myself out.

Interesting, I personally don't bother with hard Maxima in my games but I do impose a soft cap at the normal levels (ie: 20 for characteristics, 8 for PD/ED, etc).  I allow players to exceed Maxima based on race out of the gate and also over time as the game evolves without penalty so long as it conceptually makes sense.  I'm also super lazy when comes to things like prefabs and editing templates to have different Maxima although I have done it in the past.

I like the idea of characters being able to attain Legendary status given enough time and experience.  I'm not a low fantasy junkie by any stretch of the imagination though so YMMV

If I understand the question correctly I think the system already balances packages by virtue of assigning them a cost.  HERO costs are already balanced around combat, that's why things like LS: Immortality is so cheap compared to a 12d6 Blast.

Sounds like an HKA to me.

This thread is very similar to your question: 

Shameless self plug but the HERO System Mobile app handles all these use cases and more and it's free.  I use it to speed up combat on the GM side when I'm running...for more powerful tools for GMing check out HERO Combat Manager.

I know that dice are an important part of the role-playing experience for some but the app helps take away some of the ponderous nature of HERO with a lot of options turned on.  If you're a player you can load in your character into the app and long press on an attack power to pre-populate the die roller.

6 minutes ago, Stelknecht said:

Ah, I see, I found the rule. 1 hit per 2 points of success on the attack roll, but a very minimal bonus to hit, so at even OCV/DCV, you'd hit with maybe 1-2 projectiles per burst. Good balancer. Even with a dozen skill levels in Autofire, you'd still only hit a half a dozen times. 

 

 Also, that END cost is per shot.  360 END would likely put the user straight into a coma ?

It's a really good intro for anyone coming from D&D, not just high schoolers.

There's a possibility that I will be introducing a bunch of older D&D players to Champions in the new year.  I'm totally lifting this ?

I'll just leave this here and run away...

3 hours ago, Amorkca said:

Out of curiosity, is there a way to make this work on an iPad?

Unfortunately, no there appears to be no way to get it to work on an iPad.  I actually bought the Android app and could not get it to work for me.

Their Windows app does work if you run it.

Posted to Downloads under Misc. - https://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/471-champions-random-encounter-generator/

I found this list on Reddit of a suggested viewing order for all the Marvel movies to date and decided to take the plunge and watch the movies again.  It's a fun list because the author gives his/her rationale on the order that is basically a mix of chronological (as opposed to theatrical release) and over arching story elements.  The list starts with Captain America: The First Avenger for example because it is chronologically the first movie and it introduces things like a baby SHIELD (SSR) an Nick Fury.

I just finished Captain America: The First Avenger and am looking forward to revisiting the original Iron Man tomorrow

3 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

 

Sadly, this is true. But these days it is probably more important to have a strong internet presence. We need to find a way to get the word out online. DriveThruRPG has most of the books available these days, including the 6e1 and 6e2 volumes. It is a great resource to get the books to people affordably. But I think the days of the FLGS being our source for news and information about games is nearly gone.

Agreed, in a perfect world there would be both but if I had to choose I would say the interwebs is where it's at with the kids these days.

Not like I have a vote or anything but it's fun to dream of a day when HERO is a known and recognized player

When I was getting back into playing HERO after a good decade or so break I called some local games shops looking for 6th edition books.  Not a single store carried any products and one had never even heard if HERO/Champions.

I was frankly shocked that the game I love had so little mindshare anymore.  I would love to see some books on shelves...we live in the era of super hero movies and the best super hero RPG deserves to shine now more than ever.

Just now, Sam On Maui said:

 

Well, I think the ranged attacks like Hadokens/fireballs would be fine as normal, but that is an interesting idea. I was thinking stuff like Terry Bogard's Burn Knuckle, E Honda's sumo-torpedo thing, Blanka's rolling ball, etc. And certainly, one trick with projectiles if you do them too close it can open you up to retaliation if it doesn't stun/knock down, so that arguably reflects that.

Oh I see, I thought you were talking about projectiles exclusively...my bad.

Those moves are really just stylized move thrus/passing strikes IMO with maybe some extra dice from a HA thrown in.  I would just strictly enforce the acceleration/deceleration rules...that should address your needs.

Interesting idea, here's my take:

Hadoken:  Blast 12d6 (60 Active Points); Increased by Range (8d6 @ 1-20m, 10d6 @ 21-40m, 12d6 @ 41+m; -1/4)

It's debatable if it's a limitation or not but I imagine in a martial arts themed campaign there's going to be a lot of up close combat so I would let it ride as a limitation.

16 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Yeah, I'm getting that impression as well.  I'm not seeing a way to do so without it feeling excessively heavy-handed, however, and leaving noses bent out of shape.  I don't want to lose friendships over a game.  And I've been friends with most of these players since the mid 1980s. 

 

Most of my Champions campaigns have lasted 3-4 years, and this one is coming up on Year 4.  It seems easier just to end it, and then if I start a new Champions game (and that seems like a fairly large "if"), I'll leave out Healing.  And Multiform.  And UBO powers.  And VPPs that don't require long change times. And...  well, you get the picture.

As you correctly assert, no game is worth losing friends over.  

If you can let it go and not see this as a failure but rather a learning experience I think you'll be doing yourself a service.  Some of your players just sound like asshats in game and have a poor mentality for 4-color styles of games.  That's not your fault.

I would suggest that players like these would thrive in a Dark Champions game.  Maybe after some time you can take a run at that assuming you don't absolutely hate the genre.

At any rate, try to be kind to yourself over all this ?

33 minutes ago, Ninja said:

Oh, also as a curiosity, if I wanted to I could put my increased strength, speed, defenses etc into a unified power, and call it like enhanced mutant physiology, and get back 1/4 points?  

I would run that by your GM first and see what he says.

58 minutes ago, Ninja said:

Ok so I changed to include martial dodge.  I cannot take fast strike, it’s not in the champions complete book.  How is leg sweep?  It gives +2 ocv.  Can that fill that niche?  What are you opinions on the martial throw/escape/passing attack skills?

 

Can someone help me understand entangle?  It seems I can use it to represent a limb strike or like a pressure point attack.  Take the cannot be targeted advantage and it’s like being paralyzed.  But how would the other person remove it, I imagine they can’t attack it if their limbs are immobilized.  Then it says I have to list one common way to get out of it.  What would be a normal way to escape a dead limb?

Could be cleared with a KS: Chinese Healing or other medical type skills.

How many villainous organizations are floating around in the Champions universe?

Here are the major ones I can think of:

• Viper
• Argent
• Demon
• Genocide

What other major groups am I missing?

Phil