Martyn Webster

@Pattern Ghost, of course the roleplaying is the entertainment for most - no point streaming a boring game of technical stuff, but Hero can facilitate that better than D&D as long as the players go with the GM's lead and the GM lets things slide a bit if it sounds fun (and says when he is giving some slack). It's a matter of how it's presented for sure. Just saying that a well presented campaign could lead people to look at the system. There are quite a few system-less or custom system shows out there too - so I agree that the system is not what people watch these for and you would need some good players and GM to make it work. I was thinking that a super hero campaign would have a bit of a point of difference and get an audience that may not have looked at this yet. Definitely a low-power hero campaign though to keep the characters well grounded and sympathetic at the start - struggling with everyday issues and quickly finding their powers but struggling with the social (and legal) consequences.

For the benefit if anyone living under a rock, D&D has had a massive reboot in the past few years based on Critical Role and a host of other groups (Realmsmith, Role 20, Dungeon Dudes among many others) filming their D&D campaigns on YouTube and other streaming platforms. Those top professional outfits are now making money out of it and there is a massive revival of D&D going on (and product sales). Is anyone aware of anyone doing the same for a Hero system campaign? It seems to me that a superhero campaign based on Hero System could capture a niche audience, or a Fantasy campaign based on Hero system could grab some attention. It seems like a huge opportunity is right there for the taking. Am I dreaming here?

Currently binging Vikings on Netflix - The Viking hero works out how to navigate to England and initiates "first contact" in a very un-vulcan like way! A great mix of history and low-magic adventure, with a bit of politics (GoT style, but with axes). Also got hooked by accident on a South Korean (subtitled) series called Hellbound. Getting some great ideas for a fantasy campaign from this modern/near future horror story. A trio of demons come to fetch sinners after giving them a few days (or longer) warning. The difference is that they are not lurking in the shadows but begin very public about it... and social media goes wild!!! I am at the stage where it starts to look like it's not just sinners - and maybe it's not about being naughty at all and is just random - which really sucks for those chosen as the rest of society thinks they did something to deserve infernal damnation! Finally, a pair of movies, Army of Thieves and the sequel Army of the Dead. Strangely the stories are hardly related at all, with the first being a clever heist movie with a zombie apocalypse "gag" in the background, and the latter being a violent raid into a zombie apocalypse hot zone movie (more action than crime). The connection is tentative at best - I mean there is an argument that most sequels are just a way to milk some more money out of a successful movie, but the idea is that they are meant to be sort of similar in style at least!

If it's going to be a long term item in the campaign, I would be customising it anyway. A few variations to stats compared to the standard as every individual is different anyway. Maybe some distinctive features, likes, fears or hates certain species or phenomenon (smells, sounds, shapes, etc) or some odd quirky behaviour. Being an animal, it can't tell it's back-story, but maybe it can if the shaman can talk to it, or the history could be revealed later. Perhaps it will never be known and remain a mystery. In any case, each animal and monster is an individual history (well most do anyway) and if it's not just one of a crowd of kill-once enemies, it's worth adding a bit of flavour to them.

Personally, I prefer to have fantasy character start off with as few points as possible and allow circumstances and need drive development - say 50 to 75 pts plus 50 complications. Otherwise, you get power-designed characters who have a backstory just to explain how they got so perfect. This way, they have almost no back-story as they have no heroic history, just a pretty normal upbringing with perhaps some personal struggles, advantages and achievements. You can be generous with experience points at the start and make skills learning not too difficult (e.g. friendly mentors are available) and they can decide how to develop their characters in response. I would also expect a minimum points spend on background skills and talents since you can't logically develop these quickly later. 50 pts of complications can seem a lot at that early stage, but you can go soft on those at first until they get more powerful (eg their hunters are rumored to be near, but they never actually show up in force until much later). If they start off weak and grow fast, they will develop according to what you throw at them and in ways that fit the campaign setting. If there are lots of combat tasks, they will naturally spend point on combat. If there is more talking, sneaking, travelling or mysteries, they will naturally spend points on skills to be better at those things. They will then work out that they don't need everyone to be good at everything, so strategic decisions about who specialises in each area of ability naturally occur and everyone feels they have an important individual role in the party. This is particularly useful for starting players, but it's also an interesting challenge for experienced players who may have a "road map / master plan" in place but can then adapt their concept to fit the campaign and work with other party members more effectively.

I haven't run a fantasy genre campaign for some time now, although I play in several and follow some online DnD campaigns to get ideas. The things I am looking forward to doing is that the healing magic of healers has a superficial impact on the target, and that provides for some interesting roleplay and makes sure that the "cleric" (or any other type of healer) is noticed by the party and not just taken for granted as a source of healing. Some ideas: - Good cleric healing which only works if the target says prayers to that god, or at least says or does something that the God likes ("Say your prayers if you want your BODY back!"). - A druids healing where the target has to touch a natural plant or the ground and wines/roots reach out and touch the target. There is a residual effect such as a leaf found in a pocket or a green tinge to the healed area. - An evil cleric/warlock whose healing looks just nasty (but works as normal). Afterwards, the target has an mild uneasy feeling of guilt, paranoia or anger, etc (based on the god). - A necromancer who can heal but you need to find something alive to drain the life force of - he insists that the target provides the life source for their own healing. If cheap and "clean" healing is freely available including in the form of potions bought at a shop, the cleric is not valued... but if every source of magical healing in the world comes with such minor effects, those needing healing will be more interested in finding a source they can live with and value a cleric/deity who is relatively less demanding or more compatible with their character's ethos.

Some ideas to spice up generic adventures: -Hostage rescue situation - either in a hot "just happened" chase situation, or a longer negotiation/investigation/infiltration type scenario -Friendly/neutral NPCs are turning bad in some non-too-obvious way and the party has to find and "cure" them (whatever you decide that means) -A rival group has been assigned to the same task, so it's a race to achieve the objective first and get the credit/reward -The main mission turns out to be a trick by a rival person to get the party to do the hard work and steal the reward/credit at the end - they find out about it at some stage if they find the right clues so need to deal with that afterwards -Collapsing building/caves put a frantic and random time factor to the mission

I have been running a home-grown zombie apocalypse campaign for over a year now. I didn't make the zombies particularly dangerous, just regular people with extra resilience (damage reduction 50% but not in the head, and some extra STR, BODY, PD and STUN). Infection is airborne however so there is a change of catching the disease which turns them into "zombies" just from being near them (random change 8-, 11- or 14- to catch it depending on the level of contact, a CON roll after 2 days of symptoms to survive it, and every time you survive you get a +1 next time). I am using a custom "hero point" system to make sure players don't usually die on a bad roll. Technically the "infected" in my campaign are not actually zombies since they never died - just got sick and got tougher and dumber. As others have said, and the various long-running TV series demonstrate, the main enemies in this genre are actually other survivors. As modern society descends into a feudal (or barbaric) system. Some local groups of hardy, well equipped or just lucky people organise themselves to survive the harsh dangerous environment, the zombies become less of a danger and more of an environmental hazard. These groups are not constrained by the pressure of broad cultural standards, and instead organise themselves around a wide variety of power structures, from brutal warlords, to ideology-driven cult, to the superstitious idol-worshipping zealots, there are so many ways people can get weird. This also lends itself nicely to episodic campaigns, as the party encounters each new group or society and need to work out what sort of people they are, what capabilities/resources they have, and whether they can trust them. They party is approaching the 12 months anniversary of the apocalypse (it was a "there from the start" beginning) and there is now the question of what do the zombies eat? I am assuming they start with pets and then wildlife, maybe plants, etc, but I wanted it to be at least somewhat realistic with no mysterious magic force resurrecting the dead and keeping them alive. There is a significant logistical difference between cities and country areas to consider. In the country there will be plenty of passive wildlife and vegetation to find, but in the city it is unlikely that the entire population could possibly get enough energy from that to survive. In the country areas, greater separation means that "soft" populations might organise themselves into survivable positions ,lead by a few capable fighters (law enforcement, ex-military, martial arts practitioners, etc). In the cities however, the population density would mean that few citizens will avoid succumbing to the cascading effect of infection, violent contact, and resulting transmission. Only those lucky to develop a miraculous resistance as well as having fair pre-existing combat skills are likely to survive to form hardened gangs of survivors. In any case, the party is now moving on to deal with the real threat - the human "Dark Army" which masterminded the apocalypse to take over the world, in collaboration with their AI partners which took over the great-power global defence (and attack) systems. It is not yet clear whether the Machines and the Dark Army will remain tight or whether one will betray the other eventually. Sowing dissent among the Dark Army leadership is going to become part of the next phase which will have a "Matrix-like" cyberspace element to it. In any case, I think you need to have a significant non-zombie element in a "zombie apocalypse" campaign, whether it is a big conspiracy or large social structure formed after the world changes to provide a recurrent enemy, as well as the isolated "pocket societies". There are only so many warehouses and sports stadiums full of zombies to lay to waste and after a few gaming sessions, when the party works out their vulnerabilities (doesn't need to be headshots, of course) that gets pretty repetitive. There is also the variety of interesting settings - take any modern place and imagine how it might be changed to provide a defense against the zombies. Using real-world landmarks familiar to the players is a lot of fun!