sentry0

How many points would the equipment that the warrior has access to through coin cost?  Armor, weapons, horse, etc.  Is it equivalent?  Because he's not paying one single character point for that suit of plate armor.

Both parts of your divided mind are correct.
Casting spells at will is OP, If and only IF the spell effects are above what non-casters have access to.  For example, if a missile weapon that can be purchased at a shop does 1d6 RKA, then spells that do similar damage should be available at a fairly low cost.  However, if spells are doing more damage than what other characters have access to, then full cost is appropriate.
 
I hope this helps.
 
 

My money is on ninjas.

Is it?  
 
I play in a weekly D&D 5e game and it's anything but fast playing and easy to learn.  There are many, many rules, dice, and exceptions to rules just to make it appear to work.
 
Where D&D shines is the ease of making a level 1 character.  Once you get a few levels and archetypes, features, and spell slots come into play it frankly becomes a mess of horribly balanced spells, feats, and exercises in accounting.  I play a simple Fighter (Cavalier) without spells or flashy abilities and I'm super underpowered compared to everyone in the group.  My choice, but someone needs to take the hit.
 
HERO, in comparison, has a painful character creation process rife with math.  It's so time consuming and error prone that we've been using computer programs to do it for decades.  Once you're in game, things are pretty straightforward I would argue.  At the very least I would assert it's no worse than modern D&D.

Given that reality, I give Jason props for looking for inexpensive but innovative ways to build momentum for the Hero brand: Hall of Champions, Champions Now, Character Creation Cards, PDFing older materials... he definitely hasn't been sitting on his hands.

Agreed.  We are also definitely not talking about the same thing 😁. I sincerely hope the Hall of Champions program helps alleviate some of the pain of setting up a campaign by providing interesting settings and canned adventures.  Honestly, we have no one but ourselves to blame now that the gates are open to us.
 
I also am a member of a Meetup group that runs weekly mini-cons and I've noticed that the 5e tables always fill up first.  The non-5e tables?  Good luck with that.  That's sort of the problem with the hobby, the vast majority of people are only interested in playing D&D.   Critical Roll is a big factor I think... people think that playing D&D is like that.
 
Unpopular Opinion: the hobby is currently in a bubble that will burst.  All the hipsters will run with their hands above their heads back to their craft breweries as they await the next trend.  Calling it now 😝
 
 

Agreed.  We are also definitely not talking about the same thing 😁. I sincerely hope the Hall of Champions program helps alleviate some of the pain of setting up a campaign by providing interesting settings and canned adventures.  Honestly, we have no one but ourselves to blame now that the gates are open to us.
 
I also am a member of a Meetup group that runs weekly mini-cons and I've noticed that the 5e tables always fill up first.  The non-5e tables?  Good luck with that.  That's sort of the problem with the hobby, the vast majority of people are only interested in playing D&D.   Critical Roll is a big factor I think... people think that playing D&D is like that.
 
Unpopular Opinion: the hobby is currently in a bubble that will burst.  All the hipsters will run with their hands above their heads back to their craft breweries as they await the next trend.  Calling it now 😝
 
 

You can do a lot with just a word processor... I created this PDF by writing a document in LibreOffice Writer (a free take on MS Word) and using their built in PDF converter.
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y5hufEqzSfmn5OfIU6QNsj1WW-spQJx8

I was going through my old collection of GURPS Traveller starship sourcebooks and I noticed they included hex-based deckplans in addition to the square-grid ones.
 
Given the lack of existing deckplans for Star Hero, these could be a valuable resource and an excellent companion to Traveller HERO.  Here is a sample Free Trader deckplan:

I've been mulling over a major change to the app; I want to do away with the export template and read directly from the .hdc files HERODesigner uses.  Far and away, the most common support question I get is from people trying to read from their .hdc file directly.  My rationale for using a custom XML export template was originally to provide the app insulation from upstream XML changes Dan Simon may introduce... after having seen it in action for the last year and a bit, I don't think it's worth the trouble.  This would be a breaking change once it goes live, so a major point increase makes sense
 
Below is a collection of random thoughts going through my head right now.  Please feel free to chime in with any comments and suggestions.
 
Features I want to implement:
Character portraits Opening multiple characters at once tablet support This doesn't mean writing separate UI for iPads/Tablets, this is only to scale the app properly  
Things possibly on the chopping block:
The H.E.R.O. tool (remove or upgrade to 6th edition) People get confused and think the app is only for 5th edition because of this tool The "Library" docs They bloat the app size The overall look and feel of the app Anyone interested in helping is welcome  
Stuff for nerds:
I'm contemplating open sourcing the code, any interest? The app is written using the React-Native framework (JavaScript based, non-negotiable) There's some messy corners that could need some love I am in bad need of unit tests, note to self...stop slacking Need to switch the storage system to use a proper DB in order to house all the data for images/characters Should probably look for a good image scaling lib for portraits Switching to reading a .hdc file directly would be a huge impact We would gain better granularity than we have now in terms of powers, skills, etc Would open up more possibilities for the app in the long run   
At any rate, I'm soliciting feedback, so have it.

I am finally getting to play (many years of GMing) and I have been using version one of your Android tool for a couple of months now.  I have found it very helpful during our games.

I maintain one, check my sig for links.

I'm posting this here, my latest blog post on Champions (and the Hero System), because I though that it might help some of the folks currently planning to work on Community Content for Hero. None of it is really mechanics or even anything new for long-time aficionados -- and I'm sure some of you might have other takes.
 
But in light of many of the gaming trends these days, I think it's important to celebrate the confluence of factors that keep Champions & Hero relevant and -- dare I say it -- unique in the game-o-sphere.
 
 

I totally ❤️ your app....

So far so good... most of the feedback has been around how having an image attached to your character makes the character un-loadable.
 
I need to get back to this project but I've been busy with other IRL stuff.  Work has stopped but I intend on picking it back up soon.

I maintain one, check my sig for links.

Hero Games will be launching a fan-driven community content program on DriveThruRPG in about a month, similar to Dungeon Masters Guild and Storytellers Vault. It’s going to be called Hall of Champions, and it will allow you to publish your own work on DriveThru for profit under the banner of being a Hero Games product. (Though solely for commercial purposes on DriveThruRPG.) You’ll be allowed to publish using any version of the Hero System you like from 1st to 6th, including Champions Now. You will also be allowed to use both intellectual property that belongs to Hero Games, as well as the Champions Universe, which belongs to Cryptic Studios. The program will supply artwork and templates to work from to make the entire process as easy as possible.
 
To being with, what I’m looking for are some initial fan contributions from you guys so that we have a certain number of products ready to go at launch. I’ve already received commitments from two of our third party publishers, but could use a bunch more from fans. There are (of course) significant rules governing the community content program, which I will share with you should you contact me. If you have work you would like to contribute, it needs only be in PDF form and have a JPEG cover image available. (This can simply be a copy of the front page.)
 
Thank you as always for playing the Hero System, and I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Jason Walters, Publisher
jason@herogames.com

I think it's a fair question although somewhat hyperbolically stated.  There has to be a cutoff point between what makes sense (which is highly open to interpretation) and what doesn't and what costs points.  The Power skill seems like a good fit as designed for one-off power stunts with the caveat that if a character continues to use the same stunt over and over they should really buy the power.

I think it's a fair question although somewhat hyperbolically stated.  There has to be a cutoff point between what makes sense (which is highly open to interpretation) and what doesn't and what costs points.  The Power skill seems like a good fit as designed for one-off power stunts with the caveat that if a character continues to use the same stunt over and over they should really buy the power.

Having wrapped up our Pathfinder campaign I convinced the players to try a Pen and Paper play through of Pillars of Eternity I using HERO system and the Pillars of Eternity 2 class advancement schemes.
 
In our last campaign I hadn't restricted spells to per/day or per/long-rest casting and as a result - over time - the characters felt very much like Fantasy super-heroes instead of classic D&D characters.
 
This time we're using a House Rule of all spells and class special abilities being restricted with per-fight charges.  We've tossed Multipower to the wind as it was universally agreed (at our table of 5) that the discounting was too good and lead to characters having a host of spells since they could add new ones for just 2-3 points.
 
Each ability is bought separately, but we used the Hero Designer customer cost multiplier of 0.4.  Each major ability is now 5-6 points and everyone is pretty happy with that.
Spell caster abilities are build on 2 recoverable charges - per spell level - per combat and cast times from the game.  A spell that takes 3 seconds to cast leaves the caster immobile and vulnerable until 3 segments (on their DEX) after they started casting.
Martial types use class resources (Fury, Discipline, etc.) that are also recoverable charges - per combat - but have slightly larger numbers since they are not broken into ranks / levels.
 
Session 1 was largely character creation and then the Prologue Encampment.
 
Dropping from 350 point end-game heroes back to 125 point beginners took a few minutes to get used to.  No magic weapons, no invincible golden plate armor, no Staff of the Element Lords, etc.  Back to good old settlers looking for a free land deal in Gilded Vale to help repopulate the area after a recent civil war had decimated the population.
 
So far - so good!

Many years ago a friend (Luis) and I went to a small gaming convention on the other side of the state.  Luis had found out there was going to be a Car Wars game there, so he and I created a few cars, hoping the GM would okay one of them.  No dice (not really surprising, in retrospect -- I'd imagine some players would bring pretty abusive builds to try to slip past someone), and we had to choose from among the GM's selection of vehicles.  Not a problem, really, though IIRC they were pretty weak / dull creations.
 
Anyway, one of the players had never played Car Wars before, so Luis and I decided to take him under our wings - help him understand what he could and couldn't do, give him some advice, and generally avoided shooting at him so he's have a chance to have some fun.
 
The scenario was basically an arena battle, and was going okay... until the GM decided to roll out his *own* car.  A gas-powered high-speed rammer, that he proceeded to use to one-shot take out players' cars.  It was an extreme example of "GM-I-Wanna-Play".
 
As the GM smashed through car after car, Luis was jotting down numbers.  And then the GM finally got to the newbie's car - smashing right through it with an instant kill, like all the rest.  That's when Luis asked, rather innocently, "How much front armor does that thing have?"  The GM gleefully told him, so proud of his creation.  And Luis said, "Well, even with a ram plate on the front, by my calculation he should have take X points of damage, so this last ramming would have breached his front armor and damaged his engine pretty badly.  His gas-powered engine.  Isn't there a chance for it to explode?"  He pretty much forced the issue, and as luck (or karma) would have it, the GM's car did explode. 
 
All of the players decided that the newbie had effectively killed the big bad and was the winner of the event.  Lots of slapping him on the back and congratulations all around.  Luis managed to turn a potentially crappy experience into a good one for that player. 

May I recommend:
I  ran a game for two high school kids for a few sessions. I had them create two main characters and two sidekicks. Sidekicks where 50% power of the main characters. It worked well .

I think it's a fair question although somewhat hyperbolically stated.  There has to be a cutoff point between what makes sense (which is highly open to interpretation) and what doesn't and what costs points.  The Power skill seems like a good fit as designed for one-off power stunts with the caveat that if a character continues to use the same stunt over and over they should really buy the power.

I think it's a fair question although somewhat hyperbolically stated.  There has to be a cutoff point between what makes sense (which is highly open to interpretation) and what doesn't and what costs points.  The Power skill seems like a good fit as designed for one-off power stunts with the caveat that if a character continues to use the same stunt over and over they should really buy the power.

It's probably looked at as free advertising for the company I would suspect.  I'm sure if they were to send a take down notice Wikipedia would comply, not sure how many companies would be interested in doing that though.