Toxxus

If the goal was to provide professionally finished adventures and campaigns, then I absolutely agree with you. However, what I’m envisioning here is something to go on the downloads page, which is all unprofessional (for the most part), and offered up by players for use by other players. One of the most frequent complaints about 6e and HERO in general is that there aren’t any adventures available which are ready to run. Everyone on the forums has probably created adventures and larger campaigns, so if we all simply offered up our notes and character write-ups we’d have a huge pool of ready-to-go adventures. No art would be needed, nor any finished editing, just the plot points, conflicts, villains, etc. it would be an almost instant archive of adventures that people have run (and presumably enjoyed). 
 
This is is obviously a makeshift idea at first, and completely an amateur effort, but it could become a very real and valuable resource to keep the community going. It’s just a thought. . . .

Only because of wildly bad writing and power level inconsistency.
 
The same spider man who can lift 5-10 tons and is fast enough to dodge bullets.  In one write-up part of spiderman's bullet dodging prowess was attributed to the fact he was so quick that he could actually see the bullets coming.
 
Some normal judoka is going to give him any trouble at all?  Complete BS.  I have a brown belt in judo and a black belt in TKD and some other training and someone with spiderman's strength and speed would have me mutilated by the end of the first Segment 12.
 
Rope tricks?  Against someone who can dodge bullets?  Not sure if anyone has compared the muzzle velocity of a lasso recently, but I'm betting it's 50-100x slower than a bullet.
 
I HATED those comics.

I found Dark Sun to be far more suited to Hero than to D&D.  Psionics, unarmored fighters, toxins, and magic were all better defined and balanced in Hero.  The only mechanically difficult part was the herbicidal nature of Preserver/Defiler magic, but we mostly just handwaved it since it had little effect on gameplay.
 
Never read Al-Qadim I'm afraid.

Only because of wildly bad writing and power level inconsistency.
 
The same spider man who can lift 5-10 tons and is fast enough to dodge bullets.  In one write-up part of spiderman's bullet dodging prowess was attributed to the fact he was so quick that he could actually see the bullets coming.
 
Some normal judoka is going to give him any trouble at all?  Complete BS.  I have a brown belt in judo and a black belt in TKD and some other training and someone with spiderman's strength and speed would have me mutilated by the end of the first Segment 12.
 
Rope tricks?  Against someone who can dodge bullets?  Not sure if anyone has compared the muzzle velocity of a lasso recently, but I'm betting it's 50-100x slower than a bullet.
 
I HATED those comics.

It's my opinion that rulebook\sourcebook art is the secret sauce\silver bullet of RPGs.
To the point I think they might matter more than the rules.
 
 

Presence attacks are powerful enough without letting you bypass initiative and speed.  Not in my game.

There can be tremendous value in going first.
 
One of the real benefits of going first is the ability to hold your action, let your opponent do a thing and then go twice back to back (after enemy in current phase, before enemy in next phase).
 
DEX rolls also tend to be called into play during dangerous situations.  Would you like to leap away from the fireball?  DEX roll.  Would you like to try to grab the edge of the pit before you fall 30 feet onto poisoned spikes?  DEX roll.
 
Haven't had anyone I've ever played with balk at the price of DEX.
 
Quoting the legendary Kung Fu Hustle:  In the world of kung fu, speed (DEX) defines the winner.

Holy balls!  And I thought CNN was bad.
 
That article pulls so hard left it makes AOC seem like a bitter 90 year old ultra-conservative.
 
"Cory Booker, who seems like an obvious addition to the “moderate” bucket"  - I literally laughed out loud - at work - like a crazy person at this.
"Warren is, of course, correct. Fox News is a poisonous influence on our society, a propaganda organ that irresponsibly foments racial hate" - Alternately, it's just a right-leaning news site - like the only one remaining.
 
It's one thing if I think CNN is pandering to its liberal viewer base and another thing completely if I think it is secretly part of Russia's attempt to undermine our democracy and turn us communist.
 
One fun thing is to watch CNN and then Fox News and then realize those two news stations cannot be operating in the same reality.  They're not difference of opinion distances from each other.  They are alternate universe distances from each other.
 
I just assume they're both full of crap and the truth lies not in-between, but somewhere else completely.
 
Anyway, great article, read the whole thing.  Enjoyed it for entirely the wrong reason.

Every time I play 6e I feel like I'm cheating on 4e. 
 
She was the worthiest of the HERO editions.  Really felt like the right balance between rules exposition and playability.

HERO takes longer to digest, but recently my Wednesday night table - that I had kind of written off in terms of really getting to understand the game has finally turned the corner and they are buying HERO Designer and trying to build their own power frameworks.
 
Which has lead to a level 2 conversation - Why you need DM approval on warning/stop sign powers.

Every time I play 6e I feel like I'm cheating on 4e. 
 
She was the worthiest of the HERO editions.  Really felt like the right balance between rules exposition and playability.

Every time I play 6e I feel like I'm cheating on 4e. 
 
She was the worthiest of the HERO editions.  Really felt like the right balance between rules exposition and playability.

Most folks here are already aware of this, but my "solution" for the complexity problem was to not advance.  My group and I lived 2e, and we stayed there.  When FH came out under 3e, I bought that and used it to bring our already extant non-supers game more or less (which is  to say, as far as we wanted to go) in line with the new rules for "heroic" level games, but even then, we just cribbed the bits we wanted and totally ignored the rest. 
 
And we've done it for every version since: crib what we like, and ignore the rest.  And hon---
 
Stop.
 
Let me say this:
 
NO!  THIS NEXT COMMENT IS NOT AN INSULT, IS NOT SLANDER, AND IS NOT HATE-DRIVEN, NOR IS IT THE LUDDITE RANTINGS OF A DERANGED OLD MAN PINING FOR IMAGINARY GOOD OLD DAYS!   IT IS SIMPLE FACT, AND OFFERED ONLY AS SIMPLE FACT IN REPLY TO QUESTION AT HAND. 
 
Sorry for yelling, but this next comment has the tendency infuriate the faithful fans, even to the point of forgetting that I am actually one of them. 
 
As I was saying:
 
Each subsequent edition brings less and less for us to crib, because there is less and less within that appeals to us.  For this conversation, that's really all that matters:  we use the 72-page (not counting character sheets) page rule book I bought in.... '83?  I think it was' 83--  and occasionally pull a modifier or ruling or new ability from a later edition. 
 
It doesn't affect our enjoyment of newer material at all, because as noted all over this board, as the system changes very little, there is built-in compatibility in either direction.  As a bonus: tiny rule book.   at this point in time, I have about seven copies of that book I can lay hands on, and four others on loan to other people, which is great for new players, because after an intro session or two, I can offer them a copy to study at home when it's convenient, and they can show up to the next session with a list of questions.  It really helps them pick it up quickly.  Doesn't hurt that that the first three editions were nowhere near as dry as the last three. 
 
I can't imagine even trying to buy a dozen copies of the current rules.... 
 
When 5e came out, I picked up three copies (still have 2), but we never did a lot with it.  I did run a couple of 5e games, but we ran it via "Sidekick," which is a very-pared-down version of the 5e rules.  We used Sidekick so much I bought a second one, but by that time there had been a revision, so my Sidekicks don't quite match up. 
 
I have never run a 6e game, and judging from the looks on my players' faces when I finally got print copies and plopped them down on the table, I seriously doubt I ever will.  I know I'm not really interested in it at all, but on the off-chance that I give it a whirl, I picked up Hero System Basic, which like Sidekick, is a seriously pared-down version of the rules. 
 
If I were to consider using 6e, it would be from Basic. 
 
There.  That _almost_ answers the question, at least as far as how we do it.  One bit of universal and universally-ignored advice:
 
You have to be familiar..  No; that's wrong.  You have to _know_ the rules before you even show it to your players.  Why?  When you're confident, they become confident.  When you can recite- or at least flip directly to- an answer for the current conundrum, they are going to be more comfortable.  Think of yourself as a tour guide.  You want them to have a good time, and part of that is answering their questions with ease and confidence. 
 
And of course, you need to decide ahead of time which rules you are going to use, and which you are not going to use, and present the rules in that fashion: they only have to (at first) learn the rules that apply to the game they are in, period. 
 
And of course, have fun.  Have lots and lots of fun. 
 
 
Duke
 
 
 
 

HERO takes longer to digest, but recently my Wednesday night table - that I had kind of written off in terms of really getting to understand the game has finally turned the corner and they are buying HERO Designer and trying to build their own power frameworks.
 
Which has lead to a level 2 conversation - Why you need DM approval on warning/stop sign powers.

HERO takes longer to digest, but recently my Wednesday night table - that I had kind of written off in terms of really getting to understand the game has finally turned the corner and they are buying HERO Designer and trying to build their own power frameworks.
 
Which has lead to a level 2 conversation - Why you need DM approval on warning/stop sign powers.

Excellent summary.
 
For my Fantasy HERO campaigns I would agree with everything above and add:
1-  Armor mechanics are more intuitive:  adds to safety, but makes you slower, clumsier and easier to hit.
2-  Hit Locations:  Add a lot of variety to combat and differentiate from systems that don't use it.
 
 

Ya. I've been doing narrative and rules lite games for the last six to seven years (Fate Accelerated is a favorite; if you haven't checked out my Pathfinder Fate Accelerated stuff you might find it interesting), and only just came back to the Hero System by request of @WilyQuixote (who is a Hero System diehard player) and @Scything who became Hero System curious after years of hearing about past Hero System campaigns and from looking at stuff on my website. 
 
I think the essence of the HS is the SPD chart, the 3d6 bell curve for resolution, a pool of D6 for effect, separate STUN and BODY stats, maneuvers have CV modifiers built into them,  sandboxy point buy vs class / level / tree. More limited things cost less than less limited things. Mechanically similar things use the same rules vs being arbitrarily redefined. 
 
The rest of it is largely embellishment, for me.
 

1. One of the freaks: Rumpelstiltskin, the Beast, Tom Thumb.
 
2. Kids.  Resourceful peasants.  Cursed/blessed people.
 
3. The best way I can think of is to make it a relative low point total campaign so that even non-combat normals can compete using skills, talents, a freakishly high characteristic, a magic item, or even a power.  Examples of the latter might be prehensile hair or multiform.
 
Tropes that distinguish fairy tales from heroic fantasy:
 
- Curses.
- Talking animals.
- Noncombat protagonists. 
- An emphasis on wit and moral character rather than combat proficiency.
- Weak magic (as wielded by protagonists).
- Antagonists with strong magic and a specific weakness.
- Magic items and magic terrain features.
 
Magic deserves particular attention.  Fairy tale magic can be powerful but is rarely spectacular or direct.  I'd seriously consider banning direct attacks like RKAs and Blast.  Fairy tale spellcasters are far more likely to use subtler effects like Transform, Aid, Mind Control, or Shapeshift.  In direct combat you might see Flash, Entangle, or TK*.  What you won't see is fireball and lightning bolt.  Plot-driving curses and geases might not even need statting out.
 
* There's a fairy tale specific version of TK called "animate", which turns inanimate objects into automatons.  IIRC it was a +1/2 advantage in the 1st ed. FH Spell Book supplement, which also had guidance for statting out various objects based on shape, size, and articulation.  Now that I think about it, though, Summon might be more appropriate...
 

Someone needs a couple more levels in Axes.
 

Since Sunday was Father's Day, and Monday was my birthday, we pretty much celebrated both at once (on Saturday, because that''s when both kids were available).  Had a nice dinner at Red Lobster, ice cream afterward, and played a game of Discworld (a board / card game I picked up at GenCon) that I won.  (I don't think they just let me win, but maybe they were being very subtle.) 
 
On Monday I got Into the Spiderverse as a gift from my youngest, which we watched Tuesday night.  Lots of fun.

If you've been playing D&D 5th Ed for several years (especially the dumbed-down Adventurer's League version) then here are some things you'll get from Fantasy HERO:
1-  Hit locations - These really spice up the randomness of combat.
2-  Realistic Armor Interactions - Armor makes you safer at the cost of being slower, clumsier and easier to hit.
3-  Monsters and Enemies are scary - The unlimited build potential for villains means players can't rely on their innate knowledge of the Monster Manual to know what is happening.  Each creature can be a terrifying and unique thing with custom powers.
4-  Character Creation is INCREDIBLY open-ended.  There are endless character concepts you just can't do in D&D.  In HERO - You can do them.  My Current saturday group:  Fire sorceress (pretty straight forward), a witcher built on the Witcher 3 model, Udyr from League of Legends, an Air Bender, a dwarven explosives expert and a dragon born priest with powers based on cold
5-  Combat overall feels more engaging with a larger number of moves and a limited number of hit points.  Did you take an arrow - in the eye?  You're down and dying.  Weapons are actually scary.
 
The only REAL drawback about HERO that my players continue to gripe about is that character creation is painfully open-ended.  They know what they want, but not how to model it.
 
My two tables alone have resulted in at least 3-4 additional sales of Hero Designer.  Players love being able to make their character the way they imagine it and not being constrained by classes.
 

In a frozen wasteland in the north of America, but I saw this movie and it melted our collective minds.
 
Eventually I had a whole collection of action miniatures.
 
Really wish I had saved those.

1, I would say that EITHER PS: Physician or Sci: Medical Science would be necessary. You can of course pile on a ton more skills, but that's all that is truly "necessary."
2. Paramedics. Again, you can and probably should pile on a lot more, but Paramedics on top of the above is all you need to be a general practitioner.
3. Basically you have to ask, what in game terms does this stuff do? I would probably build something like this:
MD Black Bag:  (Total: 12 Active Cost, 4 Real Cost) +3 with all Medical (12 Active Points); OAF (Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness; -3/4), Gestures (Requires both hands; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4) (Real Cost: 4)
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The  palindromedary suggests a Diagnosis power built as "Detect medical condition."
 
 
 

Today I Learned... There are such things as vulture bees. They feed on rotting meat rather than pollen. They still make honey. 

Corpse honey. 

 😲
 

Libel has been against the law since 130 AD.  No precedents scary or otherwise were set by this case.  All that happened was that the courts enforced laws that have been part of American jurisprudence since the very founding of the republic.  They did not enforce the law in any new or novel way.  If anything at all is new here, it is the brazenness of disregard for truth by publishers that really should know better.